The Chicago Martyrs by John P. Altgeld

116
I
ADDRESS OF ALBERT R, PABSONS.
ADDRESS OF ALBERT R. PARSONS.
117
for another. Every ~overnmentis a conspiracy to enslave the1ll.borer.
. Take the morality of the capitalistic system and look at it. In the moral.
Ity of the capitalistic system everything is for sale. Love, honor, liberty,
everything is for sale; everything has its price, under this modern system 01
commercialism: profit and loss; meum et teum, and this trains every man to
be a l~ar and a hypocrite, Men are taught to be hypocrites, to carry a mask
on their face, to lie, to misrepresent everything. No man can be honest and
s~cceed in business or make money. It is impossible. Honesty is punished
WIth poverty, while dishonesty revels in every luxury.
•
Now, sir, is it fair to try a man by a class jury for disloyalty to that class?
A verdict of guilty from such a source is a foregone conclusion. Do you call
such a trial as that a fair, impartial,_or unprejudiced trial? Nonsense. I
believe if there had been some workingmen on that jury they would have understood
something about this question; tlley would have considered the matter
quite differently. They would, at least,have given our side a fair chance.
T.he coal monopoly has been touched upon. Why, the capitalistic papers
of ChICago say: "Strangle it." That is what Fielden said on the Haymarket.
Thl( trouble is that the moment this thing is touched you slinl!: open the door
of Socialism and in they pile pell-mell. It is no use talking. Three coal kings
met in the parlorof a New York hotel-this was done last year-they advanced
the price of coal, which is a free gift of nature to all ber children as much as
air and fire and water are; it belongs to the people alone as Socialism main,
tains and will consummate, even if this court should car~youtand baptize in
blood an attempt on the part of the people, peaceably and lawfullv and con·
stitutionally, to do and accomplish this result. I say these coal ~onopolists
advanced the rate of coal fifty cents a ton, the equivalent of an advance of
$30,000,000 from the needy people of the United States.
But a few days ago the same coal monopoly m!'t again and advanced the
price o,f anthracite fifteen cents per ton, and by limiting the output they still
farther advanced the price of what remains on their hands in the market and
practically put a tax for this prime necessity of life upon the people, wes; and
east, and turned the hundred thousand miners out to freeze and starve.
Last year I was in the west. I was sent for by the Knights of Labor in
Kansas on the 4th day of July, last July a year ago, to address them. While
traveling that section I went throughout Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri,
and' among the places I visited were the coal mines. I went down into
the mines. I saw the manner in which this coal business was carried on.
They dig up the coal out of the ~round; they bring it up to a place which thev
call the screening. There are several kinds of coal, three kinds, the lump,
the nut, and the screenings. Now, the screenings is the portion of the coal
which falls through a certain sifter, or selve, and among it is the dust, little
lumps of coal an inch and a half to three inches in diameter. This coal constitutes,
the miners tell me, about one-fourth of a ton to each ton. Well tlie
miner receives nothing for that at all, he doesn't get a cent; it is not paid for.
Last Fourth of July I witnessed these things while traveling throughout the
States, and when I returned home, I was hard up. I did not have monev
enough to buy a ton of coal at once. I had to buy my coal by the scuttle and
I paid 10 cents a scuttle for coal that winter, and the coal that I bought' was
this screening coal which the miners did not get a cent for. It cost me $9 a
ton, and the miners did not get a cent for it. And yet there are people here
who say that these grievances are imaginary; and that there is nothing in
lli~. . .,
Well, now, here is a nice thing to be read inthis country', in this.age. A
man was interviewed the other day by the Chicago papers. His name was
Lord Sbastakoff, a mi,llister of the Russian navy, travelinl!: in America for his
health. This minister, this master of the czar's council, met the reporters.
He says: "Have you hanged your Nihilists?" referring to the condemned
Anarchists. On being told that all we):e condemned and in prison, but they
were not yet hanged, he expressed the hope that the execution would take
place at an early day, and strongly discountenanced any delay in the matter.
Talk. about foreigners-you fellows that are talking about foreigners; I think
tbat IS a pretty good one. You are going to hang theBe men on this theory,
because they are foreigners. Actually it was made a point to the jury-urged
upon the jury by the State's attorney-that ~e were foreigners, and that we
were hostile to the great and glorious institutions of our America. "They were
not born here;" and they actually tried to make the jury believe'that none of
us were born here--tLat all of us were imported; and it did sway that jury;
it did have its effect upon that jury. Now, here ~omes tbis fellow from the
czar's dominions.
He says, "Gentlemen, that has been a good job; carry it out; don't give
them any sho\y at all."
Now, I denounce this thing. But you say we are revolutionists. Well, if
we are, who made us such? Are not the labor exploiters, the monopolists,
the mine, factory and workshop czars creating a revolution? They are the
revolutionists.
I am only a "kicker." I object, I say" No! take your yoke off my neck.
take it off, I will not have it on there," and they reply, "You stand still, now,
and let me put'in this coupling pin, and you'll carry that yoke well enough-if
you don't I will have you carried off to the police station; if you make any
noise about it, I will have you hung!" Sir, our execution will be a legal
notification to the American workingmen to be warned by our fate that they
must not e;xpect to have any of their" imaginary" grievances, as it were,
remedied or rectified,
Now, your honor, I have gone into this matter for the reason that you
said there was nothing in extenuation for these utterances and this kind of an
'organization. I believe you used language something like that. I have gone
into this matter as exteDRively as I have for the pUl'pose' of showing that, if
your honor was laboring under a misapprehension, I wanted to remove that
..misapprehension; that has been the object of what I have said or had to sav
outside of the matter or mere I'ecord of the trial. Now, before I conclude o~
this point of extenuation, I want,to read an editorial in the Chicago Daily
, l!ew8 of September 25 What is this? Is it October? *
• [NOTE-I was Il"reatly exbaubted Irom physical and mentBl exertions, baviug spolleu
two hO,nrs the day hefore and over four hours consecutively that day, tlle jUdge denyilJg
me a short respltll at noon. At many times during the speech the jndlte had indicated his
impatience by his actions and looks, to the discomfiture of the speaker. When I asked
this question I felt my memory fail me.