The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-11-10
MANY TO HEAR
N. Y. JOURNALIST
GOOD CROWD OUT TO HEAR LIN.
COLIN sTEFFENs LAST NIGHT
AT GRAND THEATRE-ToLD HIS
STORY o FTHE MCNAMARA AND
BARROW TRIALS.

h 1t is evident that Lincoln Steffens
set people to thinking last night at
i his lecture at the Grand theatre for
there were many who were heard to
\ express themselves as ~untavorable to
his views as they came away.
/ I Lincoln Steffens, the New York
journalist and magazine contributor,
told his audience the story Of the Nc
Namara dynamite murder trial which
! he, as a journalist covered. He be-
] gan by saying hat 1t was from his point
( Of view and of tho attempts he made
! to make it a trial for the masses oil
labor instead OF q couple OF men en-
3 gagged in the appalling business OF
{ dynamiting buildings n bridges n
killing people as was done in The Los
Angeles Times.
Mr.. StcffenS stated that he eCured
: the cooperation OF every public
spirited man in Los Angeles from the
jurist who tried the case and General
. Otis who owned The Times to the
prominent business men of the city
and ever the socialist candidate for
mayor to try the case as d case or
labor against apital and not against
the McNamaras as individuals or
Y dynamlters.
everybody that he says he finally in
{ duced J.. 3. Mcnamara to plead guilty.
p This was done for two reasons, Mr..
Stcffens declared. One was with the
hope of getting the Vounger brother
off and the other was the cause OF
labor. otherwise the case would have
becn fought to the end.
The speaker stated that at the last
moment the judge hardened, refused
to allow tho McNamaras' statement of
!. pleading guilty for the labor cause to
be given publication and that The
story was sent broadcast that they
had confessed which according to Mr..
Stcffens was just another blow against
labor to make it hate capital.
{ His audience was rather a~stounded
last night when he spoke so greatly
in favor of Bill Haywood Of the In
dustrial Workers of the World and
even Of the methods of hat organiza-
ton itself. Concerning the American
not much to say that was particularly
good. He said it was only q small
part of the laboring men Of the COun-
4try and was not only boss-ridden, but
eits leaders were subject to influence
from capital one way or another.
From all he said it was gathered his
sympathies were more with the rival
organization, the Industrial Workers
of the World.
He spoke rather in praise of the
recent Lawrence strike where seven
teen nat~ionalities of the old world
participated in that labor disturbance.
OF all these n~ationalities he said the
American workmen were the only
ones who would not serve the inter-
ests of the Industrial Workers of the
World and worked as sCabs.
Mr.. Steffens rather emphasized the
dominant idea of the l. w. w. being in
the Campact organization Of unskill-
ed labor to work, not for the advance
ment OF the Individual, but for the
elevation Of the class. Their creed, he
said is dynamite, force, determination.
anarchy, which Mr.. Steffens did not
particularly decry. He prophesied the
|. w. W., already making such ire
mendous Roadway in the eastern
states. would be the controlling labor
organization in the nation in the not
far distant future.
The controlling ambition Of the l.
w. w, hepointed out. was the eleva-
ton of everyone as a class. 1t does not
believe in he higher development OF
the individual above the crowd as Is
the idea Of the better classes. The
|. w. w. has no ambitious men he
says, none QeSlfOuS or becoming fore
men nor even people of means. They
are all striving for the uplift of their
own conditions. 1t is an organiza-
ton composed Of all the refuse of the
Latin countries of Europe, a virtual
tower OF Babel, but controlled by a
central committee.
About the MCNamaras Mr.. Steffens
felt their real story had not been told
and should have been given fairer
Ventilation. He felt the sentence
showed the class hatred Of the turist
who sat On the case. He depIored
that Clarence barrow could not have
entered their stories as evidence as in
France where each man is allowed to
tell his story. 1t was taken that Mr..
Stetfens was trying to kindle senti-
mcnt among the thinking people of
the country for two men sent to San
Quentin one for life and another for
fifteen years, for destroying property
AND finally :; great many lives.
Tonight Mr.. Steffens addresses the
Commons club at the Fargo CONNER
.clal Il OF the subject of Politics and
CftT Government. A large number of
men have been invited to the meet
ing.
: This morning he spoke at the North
Dakota Agricultural college armory to
the students of the big farm school,
The journalist is stopping at the
Gardner hotel.