The Gem worker and the Idaho labor herald. (Boise, Idaho) 1914-1917, 1916-06-15

the Foreigner" in the courts of Pitts
burg.
The judicial criminal process
against workers in the Pittsbrug in
dustrial district is so terribly per-
version of justice that it is almost
incredible. 1t saves itself from ex-
termination by being so bad that peo-
pie can hardly believe the true stories
told Of it. Some day the people gen
orally are going to believe and know
the facts concerning the politico-judi-
cial process as directed by the Steel
Trust against the workers in the dis
trict, and then
On June 3 jury in the Quarter
Sessions criminal court of Pittsburg
convicted eleven men of 'rioting and
melting to riot" on the day MAY y
before the fight at the Edgar Thorn
son plant of the Steel Trust when
the guards behind board fence fired
into the crowd of strikers and lockers
on and killed three of them outright,
fatally wounded two or three others
and seriously wounded about three
score more.
Right now a second trial of some
Of these same convicted men and ten
or twelve other men and women is
in progress on the same charge Of
"rioting and melting TO riot" on the
fatal day of May 2. When this sec
ond trial is concluded a third trial
of practically the same group will be
pushed, the charge then being one of
murder and of accessory to murder"
in addition to the "roting and melting
to riot" The sentence to which they
are already liable is two years in the
penitentiary a $500 fine.
The terrible perversion of justice in
this proceeding is that the men and
women convicted and put on trial
and thrown into Jail to await trial are
simply the victims of the Pittsburg
dragnet process of breaking up any
movement for the betterment of the
workers by arresting and prosecuting
any and every person at all prominent
or influential in strike leadership. For
nearly four weeks after the slaughter
and wounding of their associates by
the guards. men stayed in the Pitts
burg jail who were so absolutely in
uocent OF any connection with the
fighting that their names were not
| even mentioned in that Connection in
the first rial. When the case went
to the jury at that first trial, the jury
had to be reminded that these mer
| had been on trial and that they could
not be "turned loose" from jail until
the jury had formally acquitted them
And just as soon as they and few
other were acquitted in that first
trial they were indicted by the granC
Jury (Which had been kept in contin
uous session. without a shred of new
evidence-possibly to protect -thC
sheriff who had thrown them in jai
and who presumably was liable il
damages on his bond for deprivina
them of liberty.
Liberty! Liberty in Pittsburg foi
workers who wish their families to be
fed and who demand decent working
and living conditionsl
Anna Bell, young working wo'
man who had been strike leader
took the liberty of stepping from tht
sidewalk to the street to get better
view Of the marching workers She
was put in jail for that on the riot
ing and melting to riot charge and
on the charge of being accessory tc
the murder Of her friends, although
she was not near the fighting. She
is in Jail yet, although acquitted a
the first trial.
About 5000 to 5000 workingmen as
serted and exercised the liberty o
marching from a Westinghouse plan
| in East Pittsburg to Steel. Trus
plant in North Braddock and Their
to call on the other workers to com
and join the strike But that was tn
"crime" in the Pittsburg crimina
process. for which the active men VIII
were feared by the Steel Trust an
otler employers were arrested an
Jailed and prosecuted and eonvicte
and made subject now to penitentiar
sentence. "A 4ll. so
Bridget Kenney. a strike heroir