The Chicago Martyrs by John P. Altgeld

ADDRESS OF ALBER'!' R. PAHSONS.
ADDRESS OF ALBERT R
PARSONS.
111
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hirelings to enforce their man-made laws and maintain their" power" over
their fellowmen. Oh, consistency, indeed thou art a jewell These hypocrites,
always did, and do today, employ brute force to compel their fellowmen
to obey and serve them, while they whine and snivel behind their sanctimonious
masks about their "love of man and the power of God." I hope
@ome of them will preach in their pulpits next Suuday moming on this topic.
In the opinion of ail Anarchist, the sum total of human life is expressed
in one word-authority. The economic regulates and controls the social status
of man; the mode and manner of procuring our livelihood affects our whole
life; the all·pervading cause is economic, not political, moral, or religious,
and social institutions of every kind and degree result from, grow out of, and
are created by the economic OJ' industrial regulations of society. Every human
being, consciously or unconsciously, is affected and controlled by it in what
they think, or say or do. There is no escape; no evasion from its consequences.
It is logic. It is cause and effect. Evil exists on every hand; the
wen dispoEed, philanthropic; and generous, and the good seek relief from these
evil influences by moral suasion, by self·denial, by religion, by politics, eLc.
etc., hut in vain, in vain! The evils remain, and not only remain, but grow
worse and.. worse. Why, if the fountain 'is corrupt, can the stream be pure?
If the cause remains, must not the effects follow? Jails, judges, and executioners,
police, armies and navies, pestilence, misery and ignorance and
debauchery, and evils of all kinds of high and low degree, all flow from one
fountain; t, at flowing fountain of human woe is the economic or industrial
subjection and enslavement of man to man. Every human ill is produced by
the denial or the violation of man's natural rights or by the neglect or refusal
of man to conform his life to the requirements of nature. Wickedness,
wretchedness, ignorance, vke, crime, poverty are the penalties which nature
inflicts'upon her disobedient children. The natural man is a happy man. He
is virtuous and right; truly so. Whoever violates the right of another, sooner
or later punishe.s himself. Nature is inexorable. From her penalty there is no
escape. But in a court of law-of so-called" justice"-if you are a member
- of the Citizens' Association, or if you have a big bank account, in other words,
if you are a member of the propertied class, you crawl Qut of anything you
want to, for law is for sale; that is to say, whoever can purchase the lawyers,
stock the jury and bribe the court, can win..There is only one law for the
poor, to wit: Obey the rich.
The existing economic system has placed on the market for sale man's
natural rights. What are these rights? Well, among the many I will enumerate
one or two. The right to live, for instance, is an inalienable right.
So, too, is the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Now, how can I
possess these rights and enjoy them, when the very condition and the means
for their procurement are owned by and belong to another?
Shakespeare makes Shylock say at the bar of the Venetian court, "You
do take my life when you take the means whereby I live." Now, the means
of lif", are monopolized; the necessary means for the existence of all have been
appropriated and monopolized by a few. The land, the implements of production
and ,ommunication, the resources of life are now held as private
property, and its owners ,'xact tribute from the propertyless. In this way
the privileged class become millionaires. They deny the equal right of every
one to freely use our natural inheritance, the earl,h. The denial of that right
is death to 'whom it is denied. The right to live is made a privilege by law,
granted by law, which is granted or denied by the possessor to the dispossessed.
Human rights are for sale. "If thou wilt not work, neither shalt
thou eat," says the scripture. This finds immunity among those who can pay
for it. Those who work eat not; and those who eat work not. They do not
have to; they hire some hungry, poor devil to work for them. The hired mlln
whom the capitalist press gloats on the idea of, and whom the pious frauds
declare is the dispensation of divine providence, whom we will always have
among us is a social fungus, the outgrowth of a rotten, corrupt industrial
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In conclusion I will say, compulsion is slavery, and those disinherited of
their natural rights must hire out and serve and obey the oppressing class or
'starve. There is no other alternative. Some things are priceless, chief among
which is life and liberty. A freeman is not for sale or hire.
You accuse the Anarchists of using or advising the use of force; it is falee.
"Out of your own mouth you stand condemned," The present existing state
of society is baaed upon and maintained and perpetuated by force. This
capitalistic system that we have today would not exist twenty-four hours if it
were not held together by the bayonets and the clubs of the militia and police.
No, sir, it would not! Now, sir, we object to this. We protest against it.
But ,'ou accuse us, or the prosecution here accuses us, of that very thing
which they themselves are guilty of. It is the old, old story of .lEsop's fal,lf',
the lamb standing in the water and the wolf above him; he looks up; the
water has run down, the wolf stands above him; he looks down there toward.
the-lamb, and says, "Ho;there! you are making the water muddy." ' The
lamb observes, "My friend, I am below you, in the stream." "That doesn't
matter; )'ou are my meat, anyhow." And he goes fo!' him :md e~ts him up.
That is just the way of the capitalist toward the Anarchist. You are doing tbt'
ver,y thing you accuse us of, and against which we protest. Now, any institution
that is based upon force is self-condemned; it does not need any argument"
in my opinion, to prove it.
The political economy that prevails was written to justify the taking of
somethin:! for nothing; it was written to hide the blushes of the dch when
they look into the faces of the poor. These are they who brand Anarchy as a
compound of "incendiarism, robbery, and murder;" these are they who
despoil the people; they who love power and hate equality; they who dominate,
degrade and exploit their fellowmen, they who employ brute force,
violence and wholesale murder, to perpetuate and maintain their privileges.
On July 14, Juryman Hamill took his seat in the box: here, and the
question was asked him:
Q. "Do you believe in Socialism, Anarchism or Communism?"
A. "Some of the principles I believe in."
Lawyer Ingham will remember the juryman said that.