The Gem worker and the Idaho labor herald. (Boise, Idaho) 1914-1917, 1916-06-15
JUSTICE IS PERVERTED
Methods Employed in Pitsbmg to Intimidate
LabOrers in Mines


a friends automobile to see the end
ing of the parade to North Brad
dock. She was arrested and tried
but acquitted. The two working men
who rode with her went on the stand
as witnesses to prove that Bridget
keney was not in the crowd that
day but was in the motor car-and
they were indicted and must stand
trial as rioters" and "inciters to
riot" They had simply disclosed
their identity as strike sympathizers,
and that was enough for the dragnet.
The ten policemen. constituting
the entire police force of North Brad
dock, exercised their liberty to re-
fuse to guard the Steel Trust plant
against their neighbor workmen who
are striking. Those ten policemen
were indicted and will be tried and, il
possible, branded as felons for "re-
fusing to perform their duty"
The Pittsburg politico-legal crimi-
nal process is a perfectly devised ma
chine for the perversion of justice.
The jury in Pittsburg is handpick-
ed thing-the pickers being the two
politicians who happen to be highest
in the Democratic and Republican
votes for jury commissioners, the
politician who happens to be elected
sheriff and the Judge who chanced to
be delegated from the Common Pleas
Court to sit and act with the jury
commissioners. Prominent" men,
bankers, lawyers, politicians and 9TH
ers, are asked by these jury control
lers to suggest names for the jury
wheel. 1t can be imagined what
fat chance men of real labor sympa-
thies have of getting their names in
the jury wheel. The commissioners
and their associates can reject any
names submitted. They pick where
to go for suggestions. From 5000
to 5000 names get into the wheel each
year, out of the 100000 or so of men
who live in Allegheny County.
The political machine which directs
the legal administration of injustice in
the Pittsburg industrial district is di-
rected, owned and controlled by the
Steel Trust and its associated fnan-
cial interests The of6cehofders in
this political machine, whose family
trees grew in London, Lin erick,
Bethlehem. Paris and Berlin, foster
and play upon a prejudice against
foreigner" whose family trees grew
in Croatia. Lithuania Sicily and Po-
land. They resort to this and every
other sort of political trick and intel
lectual fraud to cover both Tie meth
ods of their persecution and the ami
mating motives of their practices.
Out of this mess of legalized in-
justice one good extra-legal thing
is coming. That good thing is the
perception by all groups (and hither-
to factions) of the workers of their
mutual interests, their mutual neces-
stiles of standing, together. Represen-
tatives of organized and unorganized
workers in the Pittsburg district have
been victims together and kave re-
sented the injustices together. As
Union or non-union, Socialist and
other workers have been prosecuted
and tried together, so lawyers for the
local small federation called the
American Industrial Union, and law
yers individually employed or volun-
teering their services have worked to-
gether in court, throwing the fortunes
of all the defendants into a common
pot. The American Federation of
Labor (or its affiliated international
Association of Machinists) has sent
from Toledo its regular attorney,
Frank L. Muiholland. The Socialist
Party has sent from Chicago its at
toreny, Seymour Stedman. The To-
cal attorney Of the A. F. OF L.. John
w. Gloeckner, and William ]. Bren-
nan also Pittsburg labor lawyer,
have worked with the first two nation
al lawyers and with William H. Pratt
! for the American Industrial Union
? The defense work of the trial lawyer:
q reflects the union for defense that al
Q workers are beginning 10 feel the vi
tai need of, against such private own
y ership of public law and justice a
this Pittsburg persecution of worker
e has exampied.