_Toledo Socialist, April 21, 1906_
_Dear Mr. President:_
The address delivered by you yesterday at the cornerstone ceremony at
Washington has been carefully read and among other things I observe the
following:
“We can no more and no less afford to condone evil in a man of capital
than evil in a man of no capital. The wealthy man who exults because
there is a failure of justice in the effort to bring some trust magnate
to an account for his misdeeds is as bad, and no worse than, the
so-called labor leader who clamorously strives to excite a foul class
feeling on behalf of some other labor leader who is implicated in
murder.”
Obviously you have reference in this paragraph to the leaders of labor
in Colorado who were recently seized without warrant of law, forcibly
taken from the state of which they are citizens, and incarcerated in the
penitentiary of another state in which only convicted criminals are
confined. I know of no other labor leaders to whom these remarks could
apply, and it seems equally plain that I am one of the “so-called”
leaders, if not the particular one, who is “striving to excite a foul
class feeling in their behalf.”
Permit me to ask you, Mr. President, how you know that these men are
implicated in murder? Have they been tried and found guilty by due
process of law?
Since when, Mr. President, are men charged with crime presumed and
pronounced guilty until they are found innocent?
It is true that you do not name these men, but convict them by innuendo.
Is this fair? Is it just? A square deal? Is it not, in fact, Mr.
President, cowardly to take such an advantage of your high office to
pronounce the guilt of three of your fellow citizens, who have as yet
not been tried and against whom nothing has been proved?
These men, Mr. President, are workingmen; do you know of any capitalists
who have ever been treated in the same way?
Suppose a lot of thugs were to seize a number of capitalists at the hour
of midnight, put them in irons, hustle them aboard a special train, rush
them into another state and throw them into the penitentiary. Would you
take the same view of the case, coolly pronounce their guilt and proceed
to deliver your homily upon good citizenship, the “square deal,” and law
and order?
If instead of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone it had been Depew, Platt and
Paul Morton—that is to say, if instead of innocent workingmen they had
been criminal capitalists—would you have treated them in precisely the
same manner?
You have told us over and over again, Mr. President, that rich and poor
should be treated alike; that all are entitled to the equal protection
of the law. That is what you say in substance in the paragraph above
quoted. You have repeated this so often that it has become a stale
platitude. You have also repeatedly stated that profession without
practice is dishonest and hypocritical.
Very well, Mr. President, we will take you at your word; we will judge
you by your acts.
I shall not now address myself to you as a “so-called” labor leader, but
as your fellow-citizen of the United States.
You, Mr. President, are the chief executive of the nation. You are the
conservator of the constitution of the United States and you have
publicly sworn to support it.
Three citizens have been forcibly seized and deported from the state of
their residence into another state in flagrant violation of the
constitution of the United States. These men now languish in prison
cells.
Let me repeat the charge, Mr. President, without detail. Three citizens
of the republic have been deprived of the protection vouchsafed to them
under the constitution of the United States. This fact is known of all
men; denied by none, not even their accusers. There is not a shadow of
doubt about it. It is a clear-cut case. All the country knows it. You,
Mr. President, know it. Now, then what are you going to do about it?
Will you make your acts square with your words; your practice with your
profession?
It is up to you, Mr. President! You are reputed to have great moral
courage and you certainly have great power. Under the constitution, the
one that has been violated, the one you have sworn to support, you have
the power to redress the wrong that has been done. Will you do it?
All that I am asking is that you shall perform your sworn duty; you are
not expected to do more, and you cannot do less without violating your
oath of office and betraying your official trust.
If you do not believe, Mr. President, that the constitution has been
violated, or, if you have the least doubt about it, please call upon me
to prove it.
I am not now handling a “muck-rake”; not looking down, but up; up to you
and awaiting your answer.
You are perhaps aware, Mr. President, that some of us are accused of
advocating violence. It is not true. As a matter of fact we are
resisting violence. In your address yesterday you quoted the
commandment, “Thou shalt not steal!” Let me quote another, “Thou shalt
not kill.” This is precisely what we are trying to prevent, not lawful
punishment, but coldblooded murder.
In treating with Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone, our comrades, every law
and all decency have been trampled under foot. The state in which these
men have been stripped of their legal rights and treated as felons is
notoriously in control of corporations whose absolute sway has been
questioned by these leaders of the working class; and this, and this
alone, constitutes their crime, and for this they have been marked for
corporate vengeance.
These men, Mr. President, are our comrades, our brothers, and we propose
to stand by them and see that justice is done them.
A fair trial will free and vindicate them as certain as the sun shines.
Knowing them as we do to be men of pure character, of absolute integrity
and all other things of good report among men, we know that they are
wholly incapable of committing the crime with which they have been
charged.
It is not pretended that they were in the same state at the time the
crime was committed. Not a shadow of crime rests upon them other than
the alleged confession of a self-confessed criminal.
These are facts, Mr. President, and in view of these facts we would be
craven indeed if we allowed our brothers to be made the victims of such
an infamous conspiracy without doing all in our power to save them.
Every step thus far taken against these men has been in violation of
law, and the purpose of the whole proceeding is so apparent that any man
with eyes can see it.
In this connection, Mr. President, when the question of law and order is
raised, I beg of you to remember that we are dealing with corporations
that have usurped the powers of state governments; that defy the legally
expressed will of the people, as in Colorado, where a majority of
forty-six thousand votes was overridden and treated with contempt;
corporations whose crime-inciting shibboleths are: “To hell with the
constitution”; “To hell with habeas corpus.”
These corporations rule the states and we have had evidence enough to
know how they treat law when it interferes with their predatory program.
We are not in favor of violence, but seeking to avoid it. The facts
prove it.
We are not objecting to a fair trial, but to a packed jury and a
corporation court and the consummation of a criminal conspiracy.
“Thou shalt not kill!” This applies to capitalists as well as
workingmen.
If Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone were capitalists instead of workingmen
we should still do our utmost to see that they were given a “square
deal.”
Murder in any form is abhorrent, but most terribly so when committed
under the forms and in the names of law and justice.
Wendell Phillips said that John Brown would have had twice as good a
right to hang Governor Wise as Governor Wise had to hang John Brown.
All we are asking and insisting upon is that our accused brothers shall
have the protection of the law, a fair hearing and just verdict, and
upon that issue we are prepared to go before the American people.
Respectfully yours,
EUGENE V. DEBS.