The Nevada County picayune., 1923-04-12
The Controlling Spirit.

rison is as follows:
 The Controlling Spirit.
 Two highways which run parallel
 for half a mile and then turn in exact
 ly opposite directions to continue in- definitely can hardly be said to be par allel roads. The Herrin and Harrison
 ea ses have but little in common Ihey
 are alike in that they both resulted
 from strikes caused by labor disputes
 They are alike in that there was an apparent usurpation of authority ana
 loss of life in both instances. But here the analogy ends. The motives which prompted and the results achieved make them wholly different.
 The Herrin mob" was made up of strikers. selected, armed and sent out for no other purpose but to murder men who were working for living as they had a right to do. The Harrison mob was made up of lawyers, bankers, doc tors, merchants. preachers, and farmers the cream of the citizenship of this whole region. who came to Harrison to represent the long suffering public of 100. 900 people. and to enquire why three or four hundred organized men should be permitted to terrorize>and pauperlze this entire county indefinitely. The Her. rin mob was selected to avenge wrong, the Harrison mob met to correct a wrong. The motive behind an act sure ly determines the spirit of that act. If vengeance and correction are synony- nous. then the actions of the Arkansas mob are parallel in spirit if not in ex- tent to those of the Herrin murderers. In the one instance the mob neither gave quarter nor asked any. and as q result succeeded in cruelty, shamefully and savagely killing about twenty-five unarmed and helpless men. In the other instance. more than 250 strikers and strike sympathizers passed before the Investigating Committee" and no one was harmed save the two men who were whipped and the one who was hanged. And these acts of violence were both regretted and condemned publicly by the mm who were charged with this investigation.
 Had the citizens or Harrison been ac- tuated by spirit parallel to that or the Herrin murderers-there would have been one hundred people killed and half the town left in ashes. Should the strikers involved here ever carry out their threats of wreaking vengeance on this community, then you will have your case parallel to Herrin-with the possible exception that some resistence may be encountered here The citizens who participated in the Harrison af- fair were not ''lawless drunken mob as has been featured in headlines on many propagandist news sheets, but a cool. courageous and deliberate set of men, many of whom were deputized officers of the law And their findings which were submitted to the Grand Jury then in session. seem to have been of such a serious nature that all the local leaders of the strike have gone into hiding. Two strikers have confessed to burning bridge and are now in the penitentiary, and many in- dictments await others. Others are un- der arrest.
 You probably know that the immed- fate cause of the affair was that. eight bridges were set afire on this railroad during the first two weeks of January, 1923. Transportation was completely tied up on most of the line. This arson iag" was the prelude to the meeting Inf the Union Chiefs in Chicago. who came together Sunday, January 14 to decide whether or not this strike ought to continue. and on the strength of such Il splendid showing @ the vote was in favor of continuing the strike. Labor sheets say that that bridges were burned by defective fire boxes on the engines But if this is true, It IS singular that the same fire boxes have not fired a single bridge since the in more than a month ago. Defective fire boxes can't account for | oil and oil cans found on or near the | burned bridges. Neither does it furnish l