The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1913-06-26

10 faced the Roman eagle in thou
sands of slave revolts. II was the
inspiration of millions of slaves IN
der the unfeeling lash of the master
class of ancient days. II has back of Il
a world of history and world of
hope. Suppose that when the So
cialists capture the state, and that is
by no means an impossibility, SUPPOSE
that they were to pass a law requiring
that my children and your children
were to salute the red flag once a
month, how would you like that? l
think that you would join with me
in denouncing such law until it was
repealed and then some. As good
citizens we might obey, but all the
same out on the back porches and
over the back garden fence we would
make our kicks count. Some of us
might even venture into the columns
of the Commonwealth with our criti-
cism. We would hold that compul-
sorry respect is no respect at all. We
would regard the enforcement of such
a law as little short of degradation.
Not only does the law passed by the
last legislature require the periodical
salutation of an inanimate thing, but
1t also requires that the child make a
statement that l understand to mean
that there is liberty and justice for
all in this country. This is the part
of the salutation that I maintain is
a lie. 1t is no pledge of loyalty. 1t
is nothing but badge of ignorance.
You know, Editor Marsh, and you
know Mrs. Lizzie Jones, that there is
not liberty and justice for all" today.
You know that every time that the
working class rebels against unspeak-
able conditions with any degree of
success in sight, agents provocateur
are sent amongst them, a disturbance
is kicked up, and the guns of a CAPT
talist government are turned against
the unarmed toilers. Before the rage
of the owning class in these conflicts,
creeds, constitutions, and all the
legendary rights of legal lore are
swept aside and the brute man with
the dollar mark on his brow RACES
forth an engine of death and destruc-
ton.
The brutal suppression of the Pull
man strike in 1894, the uncomfortable
crimes committed during the Colo
RADIO strike in 1904, by the mine own
ers and their gun men, the torturing
of prisoners in the Hoquiam Jail last
year during the strike there, and the
terrible outrages committed by the
mine guards in West Virginia in the
name of law and order, should be
enough to silence forever those who
claim that there is Liberty and Jus.
tice for All" in this country today.
The men who commit these outrages
are never punished, or if punished
their sentences are translated into
fines and are borne by the boss. A
side last spring in Hoquiam. After a
struggle with the legal luminaries we
succeeded in getting a warrant out
for slugger. He was never arrested
and brought before his accusers. His
fine was paid by the millowners
through their attorney. This is a uni
versal procedure in such cases.
On the 18th of last February an
armored train under command of a
republican sheriff named Bonner HILL
steamed quietly into Holly Grove, in
the West Virginia strike zone in the
darkness of night and opened fire
with machine guns and high power
rifles on the tents and shacks where
the miners and their wives and chill.
dren were mostly sleeping. Sesco
Estop, who was sitting with the baby
in his arms, was shot dead A wo-
man was shot through both legs
Others were wounded and the lives OF
hundreds were measurable shortened
by this fearful experience. So brutal
have been their actions that after
months of protest by Socialists and
revolutionary unionists the country
over, the United States senate is now
investigating the strike conditions in
West Virginia. Watch for their re-
port. Write to your senator and get
it at all costs. 1t will not do the
slaughtered miners any good now, but
it will reveal the same mock patriotism
that you see in Arlington and in the
county superintendent office in Ev-
erett.
Was Bonner Hill punished? Was
justice done? l haven't seen it in the
Times yet, have you?
We could go on enumerating count
less cases just like this, only worse
and countless minor cases daily occur
ring. But it is needless. We know
that for the poor there is one law and
for the rich there is another law. A
poor boy in Georgia steals a fiye-cent
pop bottle and gets eleven years for
doing it. The Alton steal is put