The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1913-10-09
HUMPHREYS MAKES AN AsTouND.
ING STATEMENT.

Before the fire in the basement of
the limos building was under control
= While il was battling the efforts OF
the f.remen, in fact, and before any
possible opportunity had been offered
to investigate ii and trace its origin
Judge John T. HUMPHREYS took it upon
himself to call up the Post-lntelli-
gencer by telephone and charge The
fire upon the Socialists and so-called
REDS" who have been figuring in CON
tempt proceedings for some weeks
past.
His unsolicited statement over the
telephone was so extraordinary as to
be scarce credible when reduced to
writing and he was asked to verify 1t
later in the afternoon when the excite
ment was over. This he did in some
what modified, but still remarkable
language, as follows:
ut has happened just as l tried to
warn Seattle.
I'm my opinion those persons who
signed the petition of defiance to my
court are guilty of the fire in the
Times building, just as I warned them
they would be.
THE anarchists in Chicago were
held guilty of the murders at the Hay
market riots because they melted
these disorders. In the same way
those persons who have defied the
court are guilty of this fire.
IF the prosecuting attorney would
take the initiative and file information
against these people they can be con-
victed of arson. There is no doubt in
my mind of this.
This is the result of that conspir-
acy in Cowen park that l tried to
warn the people about. l warned Col.
Blethen, but he said, I've got three
armed men guarding the place and
they can't do it
1--WE tried to warn these Socialists
and Reds. 1 told them in court that
If buildings were burned or persons
lost their lives after their defiance of
the court they would be held respon-
sible in both civil and criminal action
for the fire, and for murder if lives
were lost.
81 can take no initiative in this mat
ter.
at is the duty of the prosecuting
attorney to file the informations, and
the cases would come before Judge
Ronald, not before me, unless they
we're referred to me; but l am an eX-
pert on conspiracy, and l say the sign
ers of that petition are guilty, and no
other evidence than the signing of
that petition is needed to convict them
Of arson
Such an astounding statement never
emanated from a court other than
Judge Humphries but is in keeping
with his talk from the bench which
has attracted wide attention and
which led to a severe arraignment of
him by the president of the Illinois
Lawyers association on Saturday.
The Cowen park conspiracy" of
which Judge HUMPHREYS says this fire
is a sequel, was a weird story of
plot which the police department in
vestigated fully and decided was
wholly visionary and mythical.
Chief Bannick said Monday that
repeated fires in the Times building
certainly called for thorough inVestl-
cation. and the detective department
was now actively searching for evil
dence of incendiarism. He knew Of
no facts, however, duplicating any Of
the defendants in the contempt pro-
ceedings in Judge HUMPHREYS court
The fire marshal believes the fire
was the result of a gas explosion.
A statement could not be obtained
from Prosecuting Attorney Murphy
whom HUMPHREYS calls upon to do his
duty.