Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-08-05
H i. w. w. TRIAL

Liz L1AdA VI S"e l.. W.. W.. 1SduSTS III chicago purSuoS
its lengthy course. Just now the defense has its Innings
and it is putting on the stand all SORTS of long-haired
men and short-haired women and anarchists and men
who make a living by agitation to testify that these men
are not to blame but are really prosecuted reformers,
harmless and mild as buttermik. But we know them
out west. We need no testimony from such persons as
to their character. We know them as criminals and
their ways as criminal ways. It is no excuse to our
minds that they really believe that they have a right to
prey on other mems industry and eat without giving any
service in return, from their grub. Ralph McEasley has
recently characterized them right when he says: The
most %idolatr6us defenders of the I. w. W. cannot deny
facts which stare them in the face-sabotage, the de-
struction of property and life, the ~contemptuous re-
pudiation of all morals and decencies of conduct" says
MI. Easley. What they do attempt is to Justify the
most revolving acts on the ground that the perpetrators
individually are not responsible. i. w. WIS may wreck
trains. dynamite factories. destroy supplies vitality essen
tial in the conduct Of the war, but, so these infatuated
zealots contend, a jury should not find them guilty, nor
hold them accountable, because social conditions inspire
their acts and are responsible for all their crimes. The
I. w. w. thus relieved Of the responsibility Of a free
exercise of will, is exonerated from every ofense against
society. This I. Wv. doctrine of vicarious responsible
Iiy is expressed with distinguished felicity, with char
acteristic literary hnality, by that. organ which cherisnes
the solemn, if somewhat green tradition of doing the
SHAAA~~A9 Va sN ANSAStAS .AAo "" IL e
bellious propaganda of the /. W. w, we have suggested
declares this organ, lis born not Of the perversity Of
malicious individuals, but of unhealthy social conditions
for which we, as a democratic people, are responsible,
This doctrine. relieving the individual OF all responsibility
by placing the blame for his acts upon society, had its
inception in the German-Marxian socialist philosophy.
To the ignorant, the weak, the UNIT, to soft sentiment
talists, and to the intellectually loose and vicious, it. has
had a powerful appeal, and that appeal is to the lowest
of all human qualities, moral cowardice. The I.w. w,
by the lawNof natural selection, took over this doctrine,
elaborated it., and carried it to the extreme, not only in
theory but in practice. It was intellectuals' of the same
kidney as those now engaged in defending the I. w. w,
who prepared the Russian, people for the advent Of
Lenine and Trotzky and brought Russia to her undoing.
And the same species have gone far toward undermining
England. One is inclined to ask to what limits they will
go in the United States before the indignation Of an
aroused citizenship, comprehending what American boil
shevisnn means, calls a halt"
The Chicago trial has developed nothing that the
west did not know we'll enough beforehand. They admit
that they have no patriotism. They claim in all their
literature to be law-breakers. IT is only necessary fop
the jury to read their official song book which used to be
sold openly on news stands in this city TO know that they
are seditiousNebels to the government and glory in the
fact.-Great Falls Tribune.
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