Brunner finished. "If you've ever talked with him when he was out of
sight of the old man, I know you have. What I've told you to-night is
what old man Henry could tell if he wanted to. But he never will. As I
said awhile ago, 'young Henry swells around and talks big; the old man
he says nothing and chaws tobacco.'"
EDITORIAL
THE TRUTH OF ORCHARD'S STORY
McClure's Magazine printed during last summer and fall the Autobiography
of Harry Orchard, with its confessions of wholesale assassinations
during the labor war in the mining districts of the West. There was, at
that time, repeated and angry denial of the truth of his story; and,
since the acquittal of W. D. Haywood, secretary and treasurer of the
Western Federation of Miners, and of George A. Pettibone, whom Orchard
charged with being the instigators of his crimes, their adherents have,
of course, maintained that Orchard's story has been entirely disproved.
Logically, this does not follow. The acquittal of these two men means
nothing more than that they were not proved guilty to the satisfaction
of the juries trying them. Before a final judgment as to the truth or
falsity of Orchard's statement is made, the last development in this
matter must be thoroughly considered. On March 18, Orchard, persisting
in his story to the last, pleaded guilty to the murder of Governor Frank
Steunenberg, at Caldwell, Idaho, and was sentenced to be hanged--with
the recommendation by the presiding judge that his sentence be commuted
to life imprisonment by the Prison Board of the State. In pronouncing
sentence upon Orchard, Judge Fremont Wood, who presided over the trials
of both Haywood and Pettibone, expressed his belief in Orchard's story
in a most convincing way. The parts of the Judge's statement dealing
with Orchard's testimony, which follow, are of peculiar value to those
desiring to arrive at a final conclusion regarding the responsibility
for the campaign of murders which took place during the labor wars of
the Western Federation of Miners; they are the summing up of the entire
matter by a mind whose judicial fairness has been recognized by both
parties in this great controversy.
"I am more than satisfied," said Judge Wood, "that the defendant
now at the bar of this court awaiting final sentence has not only
acted in good faith in making the disclosures that he did, but that
he also testified fully and fairly to the whole truth, withholding
nothing that was material and declaring nothing that had not
actually taken place.
"During the two trials the testimony of the defendant covered a
long series of transactions involving personal relations between
himself and many others. In the first trial he was subjected to the
most critical cross-examination by very able counsel for at least
six days, and I do not now recall that at any point he contradicted
himself in any material manner, but on the other hand disclosed his
connection with many crimes that were probably not known to the
attorneys for the State, at least not brought out by them on the
direct examination of the witness.
"Upon the second trial the same testimony underwent a most thorough
and critical examination and in no particular was there any
discrepancy in a material matter between the testimony given upon
the latter trial as compared with the testimony given by the same
witness at the former trial. I am of the opinion that no man living
could conceive the stories of crime told by the witness and
maintain himself under the merciless fire of the leading
cross-examining attorneys of the country unless upon the theory
that he was testifying to facts and to circumstances which had an
actual existence within his own experience.
"A child can testify truly and maintain itself on
cross-examination. A man may be able to frame his testimony and
testify falsely to a brief statement of facts involving a short and
single transaction and maintain himself on cross-examination.
"But I cannot conceive of a case where even the greatest intellect
can conceive a story of crime covering years of duration, with
constantly shifting scenes and changing characters, and maintain
that story with circumstantial detail as to times, places, persons,
and particular circumstances and under as merciless a
cross-examination as was ever given a witness in an American court
unless the witness thus testifying was speaking truthfully and
without any attempt either to misrepresent or conceal.... It is my
opinion, after a careful examination of this case in all its
details, that this defendant and the crimes which he committed were
only the natural product and outcome of the system which he
represented and the doctrines taught by its leaders, some of which
were boldly proclaimed and maintained, even upon the trial of the
defendant Haywood.
"This defendant had evidently become imbued with the idea
inculcated by those around him that the organized miners were
engaged in an industrial warfare upon one side of which his own
organization was alone represented, while on the other hand they
were confronted with the powers of organized capital, supported by
executive authority, and which counter organization included, or at
least controlled, the courts, which were the final arbiters upon
all legal questions involved.
"With the promulgation of such doctrines it is not a difficult
matter for some people to justify murder, arson, and other
outrages, and I am satisfied that it was that condition of mind
that sustained, bore up and nerved on this defendant and his
associates in the commission of the various crimes with which he
was connected."
FOOTNOTES:
[1]
_Copyright, 1908, by Ellen Terry (Mrs. Carew)_
_Copyright, 1908, by The S. S. McClure Co. All rights reserved_
[2] Mrs. Eddy also had copies of other Quimby manuscripts in her
possession.
[3] See MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE, May, 1907.
[4] Many typical instances of Christian Science logic may be found in
Mr. Alfred Farlow's answer to Dr. Churchman's article (_Christian
Science Journal_, 1904). Mr. Farlow takes up Dr. Churchman's statement,
"To deny that matter exists and assert that it is an illusion, is only
another way of asserting its existence." Says Mr. Farlow: "According to
this logic, when a defendant denies a charge brought against him in
court, he is only choosing a method of asserting its truth."
Mr. Farlow seems to think that Mrs. Eddy arrived at her discovery of the
non-existence of matter, not by any process of reasoning, but by
_personal experience_. He says:
"From doubting matter and learning by experience its utter
emptiness Mrs. Eddy began to search for the universal spiritual
cause, and having found it through actual demonstration in spirit,
she was obliged in consistence therewith to deny the material sense
of existence."
Mr. Farlow seems to consider the logic of this progression inevitable.
[5] Science and Health (1898), page 375.
[6] " " " " " 392.
[7] " " " " " 46.
[8] " " " " " 379.
[9] Mrs. Eddy and her followers believe that she possesses an
enlightened or spiritual understanding of the Bible and the universe,
not common to the rest of mankind.
[10] This account of the Creation is taken from the first edition of
"Science and Health." It remains practically the same in later editions
under the chapter called "Genesis."
[11] Miscellaneous Writings (1896), page 51.
[12] "Science and Health" (1906), pages 696, 697.
[13] _Christian Science Journal_, September. 1898.
[14] _Christian Science Journal_, October, 1904.
[15] For an exposition of the theory upon which this work at Emmanuel
Church is conducted, the reader is referred to a pamphlet, "The Healing
Ministry of the Church," by the Reverend Samuel McComb, issued by the
Emmanuel Church, Boston. For a detailed account of the method of healing
practised there and its results, see an article, "New Phases in the
Relation of the Church to Health," by Dr. Richard Cabot, in the
_Outlook_, February 29, 1908. The reader who is interested in the
principle and possibilities of psycho-therapeutics or "mental healing" is
again referred to Paul Dubois' remarkable book, "Psychical Treatment of
Nervous Disorders."
[16] The reader who is interested in Quimby's teaching and healing is
referred to "The True History of Mental Science," by Julius A. Dresser,
published by George H. Ellis, 272 Congress Street, Boston.
Dr. Warren F. Evans, in his book, "Mental Medicine," published three
years before the first edition of "Science and Health," said: "Disease
being in its root a _wrong belief_, change that belief and we cure the
disease. By faith we are thus made whole. There is a law here which the
world will sometime understand and use in the cure of the diseases that
afflict mankind. The late Dr. Quimby, of Portland, one of the most
successful healers of this or any age, embraced this view of the nature
of disease, and by a long succession of the most remarkable cures,
effected by psychopathic remedies, at the same time proved the truth of
the theory and the efficiency of that mode of treatment. Had he lived in
a remote age or country, the wonderful facts which occurred in his
practise would now have been deemed either mythical or miraculous. He
seemed to reproduce the wonders of Gospel history. But all this was only
an exhibition of the force of suggestion, or the action of the law of
faith, over a patient in the impressible condition."
[17] Distribution of every 1000 suicides by season:
_Country Summer Spring Fall Winter Total_
Denmark 312 284 227 177 1,000
Belgium 301 275 229 195 1,000
France 306 283 210 201 1,000
Saxony 307 281 217 195 1,000
Bavaria 308 282 218 192 1,000
Austria 315 281 219 185 1,000
Prussia 290 284 227 199 1,000
Durkheim, "Le Suicide," (Paris, 1897), p. 88.
[18] The figures are those of Dr. Forbes Winslow for the United States,
those of Dr. M. Gubski for Russia, those of Dr. Rehfisch (in _Der
Selbsmord_) for Europe, and those of the Government Statistical Bureau
for Japan.
[19] Durkheim, "Le Suicide" (Paris, 1897), p. 93.
[20] Five or six years ago, in a paper that I read before the Literary
Society of Washington, D. C., I suggested this explanation of the high
suicide rate in June. At the conclusion of the reading, a young Italian
student, who happened to be present as a guest, came to me and said: "If
I did not know it to be impossible, I should think that your explanation
of June suicides had been suggested by, if not copied from, a letter
left by a dear friend of mine who killed himself in Genoa, two years
ago, on a beautiful evening in June. You have expressed his thoughts
almost in the words that he used."
[21] For the suicide statistics embodied in this table I am largely
indebted to the cooeperation and assistance of Mr. M. L. Jacobson, of the
Bureau of Statistics in Washington. In the literature of the subject
there are no figures more recent than 1893 for most of the European
countries. In this table they are nearly all later than 1900.
[22] The figures for Europe are from the latest reports of government
statistical bureaus, and for America from the registration area covered
in the twelfth census.