Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-06-30
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
THE KILLINGS AT HERRIN


The past month has witnessed the
most violent assaults upon the rights
and liberties of working men and
women ever recorded in this country.
In a dozen states the military and
police are using experience gained In
handling alleged "Reds," and "Pro-
Germans" during the days of war
hysteria TO crush strikes and break
up labor unions. Reports from the
Colorado, Illinois, West Virginia, PEN
nsylvania, and other coal fields are
filled with the almost Incredible AFRO
gance and brutality displayed by
State police, mine owners Cossacks,
and mounted guards toward defense
less men and women who dare to or
ganize in order to secure a living
wage. The Colorado Rangers Col
onel' responsible for the terrible Lud-
low massacre during the last mine
trouble is using the same tactics to-
day. The constitutional rights of as
sembly, free speech, and free press
are denied as completely as in the
worst days of Russian Car or Otto
man Sultan. A peaceful crowd of
miners is rushed by bayonet-armed
soldiers. Editors of labor papers are
arrested, and union organizers are
denied the most elemental constitu-
tional rights. A miners wife is GRIM
inally assaulted by gunner protect
ing Pennsylvania mines, and the
Governor of that great state replies
that he can do nothing to bring such
brutes to justice. At the same time
State troops fire into crowd of strik-
ing textile workers in New England
without any justification whatever,
killing and wounding with impunity
workers whose sole offense is desire
to obtain an American standard of
living.
The most recent stain upon law and
order by the interests striving to
smash the unions" is the arrest in
Chicago of over 100 leaders of the
building trades council, the moving
picture operators, the gas workers,
the GLACIERS, the marble settlers, the
theater janitors, the Chicago Musi-
clans Club, and the porters' union
The raids upon these unions were
made by Chief of Police Fitzmorris
notorious labor hater, and the forces
of States Attorney Grove, allied with
the open shop fight of the so-called
"Citizens Committee" Those present
at these union meetings were indis-
criminately arrested without any pre-
tense of right or warrant. Most OF
them are still held in Jail without any
specific charge being proved against
them. Judges who are known to be
bitter opponents of labor have ever
denied them the constitutional right
of habeas corpus. Meanwhile the Pc.
lice Department floods the newspapers
with highly colored stories which men
! in position to know brand as distort.
ed if not wholly false.
We have no excuse for crime, nc
mater by whom committed. We dc
not believe that any cause, however
good, can be aided by violence OF
terrorism. If any union labor leader
whether in Chicago, Herrin, or else
where, betrays the lofty ideals and
honest purposes of organized labor by
using the methods of the thug, labor
unionists should be the first to de-
mand his condign punishment. But
entirely apart from the guilt or inno-
cence Of the Chicago unionists, the
manner of their arrest and their sub
sequent treatment is as brutal and
illegal as ever perpetrated by Malay
pirates or the Department of Justice
Not only were the constitutions
rights of these men violated by thes.