THE 
 
 MARTIN P. CATHERWOOD 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL 
 
 OF 
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR 
 
 RELATIONS 
 
 AT 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
B Cornell University 
 M Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924069058802 
 
Argument in Defense 
 of the Communists 
 
 CLARENCE DARROW 
 
Argument of 
 
 Clarence Darrow 
 
 In the case of the 
 
 Communist Labor Party 
 
 In the Criminal Court, Chicago 
 
 v^ 
 
 CHICAGO 
 CHARLES H. KERR fi? COMPANY 
 C Co-Operative 
 
Copyright, 1920 ■ 
 
 By Charles H. Kerr & Company 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 This case was tried in the Criminal Court in 
 Chicago in June, July and August, 1920. William 
 Bross Lloyd, Arthur Procter, Max Bedacht, Jack 
 Carney, L. E. Katterfeld, L. K. England, Lud- 
 wig Lore, Edgar Owen, Niels Kjar, Perry Ship- 
 man, John Vogel, Samuel Hankin, Edwin Firth, 
 James E. Meisinger, Samuel Ash, N. J. Christen- 
 sen, Oscar Jesse Brown, Morris S. Stolar, Charles 
 Krumbein and Karl F. Sandberg were indicted 
 under a statute passed by the legislature in 1919. 
 Similar statutes were passed at the same time in 
 about two-thirds of the states of the Union. 
 These statutes were passed as a part of the cam- 
 paign carried on immediately after the close of 
 the war to deport and, imprison members of the 
 Communist Labor Party and the Communist Party 
 and others, on the theory that they advocated the 
 overthrow of the Government by force. The de- 
 fendants were all members of the Communist 
 Labor Party and the indictment which charged 
 conspiracy to advocate the overthrow of the 
 Government by force rested upon their jnember- 
 ship in this party. The statute of Illinois made 
 it a crime for openly advocative by speech or 
 writing the reformation or overthrow by violence 
 or other unlawful means of the representative 
 form of government of the United States, etc. 
 
 For publishing, issuing or distributing printed 
 
4 INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 matter which advocates crime or violence for the 
 reform or overthrow of the constitutional repre- 
 sentative form of government, etc. 
 
 For organizing V or aiding in the organization 
 of or becoming a member of any society or asso- 
 ciation with the same objects. 
 
 Voluntarily being present with a meeting ad- 
 vocating such overthrow. 
 
 Permitting premises to be used for offices or 
 headquarters of an organization, or a meeting for 
 such purpose. 
 
 For displaying or exhibiting at any meeting, 
 parade, etc., of any banner or emblem symbolizing 
 a purpose to overthrow the government, with the 
 same objects. 
 
 There was practically no evidence in the case 
 except the fact of membership in the Communist 
 Labor Party. As to most of the defendants noth- 
 ing else was charged and as to none of them was 
 there any claim that a conviction could rest on 
 anything except their "membership" in the party. 
 A general raid was made simultaneously through- 
 out the United States under the instructions of 
 Attorney General Palmer on all such organi- 
 sations and their members. This raid was made 
 without complaints or process of any kind and 
 resulted in the arrest of several thousand men 
 and women, and the hardship that has been fully 
 reported in the press. In many cases, as in this 
 one, the local State authoxities took part in these 
 raids. The offices and headquarters of the various 
 
INTBODUOTOBX NOTE O 
 
 groups were forcibly entered; their literature 
 taken, together with all those present at these 
 places. Likewise the homes and places of busi- 
 ness of many were entered, the occupants 
 ai-rested, letters, books and property taken and 
 occupants put in jail. 
 
 The defendant Owen was secretary of the State 
 organization. His home was raided by one of the 
 attorneys representing the State, with several 
 officers. Books, letters and papers were taken, 
 and amongst other things a Eed Flag. The 
 policeman found both this flag and an American 
 flag in his home; he hung the Anaerican flag on 
 the wall and took the Red flag with him and 
 landed Owen in jail. The defendant Procter kept 
 a small book shop in Chicago, where he had on 
 sale, amongst other literature, many so-called 
 Radical books and publications. He was the 
 secretary of a "local" that had been in the habit 
 of meeting in his store. Procter's store was 
 raided, the books of the local, with letters and 
 papers taken, together with whatever else the 
 officers wished and Procter placed in jail. This 
 was done by one of the attorneys of the State, 
 aided by policemen. No firearms or any other 
 ammunition was found in any place raided and it 
 was not claimed that any of the defendants had 
 done anything except to conspire to advocate the 
 overthrow of the Government by force; and this 
 conspiracy rested on the platform of the Com- 
 munist Labor Party. It was claimed that Mr. 
 
b INTEODUOTOKY NOTE 
 
 Lloyd had made a speech in Milwaukee six months 
 before the passage of the law and a year before 
 the forming of the party, in which he advocated 
 the overthrow of the Government by force. This 
 speech was admitted in evidence as showing "in- 
 tent" but not as evidence of any conspiracy. 
 
 The platform of the Communist Labor Party 
 recounts the history of industrialism and the 
 struggle of the "proletariat" in all ages. It de- 
 clares in favor of the OAvnershipof all property in 
 common and acquiring it by tlje community with- 
 out compensation. It advocates the "general 
 strike ' ' ; the organization of ' ' shop committees ' ' ; 
 "mass action" by the workers ; the dictatorship of 
 the "proletariat" and the conquest of the power 
 of the State by the workers. It declared that the 
 ballot is only secondary to- the organization of 
 the workers and "mass action". It affirmed that 
 capitalism was breaking down and that the 
 workers should be prepared for the taking of in- 
 dustry and government when the time should 
 come. It urged the formation of locals and the 
 education of the workers. It cited the Seattle 
 strike as an example of an industrial strike, verg- 
 ing on taking over political authority. It com- 
 mended the labors and the struggle of the I. W. 
 W. It endorsed the manifesto of the third Inter- 
 national held at Moscow since the Bussian revo- 
 lution and stated that it should be a part of the 
 principles of the Communist Labor Party so far 
 as it were applicable to the United States. It 
 
INTEODUCTOKy NOTE ( 
 
 specified the part of the manifesto that was to 
 apply to the United States. Like the manifesto 
 written by Karl Marx and most others, of the 
 kiad, the platform abounded with the words and 
 terminology th'at have become a part of the litera- 
 ture of the radical movements of the world. All 
 their meetings were open and public and attended 
 by few people. The work to be done was essen- 
 tially propaganda. 
 
 The jury returned a verdict of guilty, fixing 
 terms of imprisonment from one to two years. 
 The matter has been pending on a motion for a 
 new trial and up to this time has not been de- 
 cided. In case the trial judge sustains the con- 
 viction, it will be taken to the Supreme Court on 
 appeal. 
 
 November 30, 1920. 
 
Argument op 
 CLARENCE DARROW 
 
 IH THE CASE OF THE 
 
 COMMUNIST LABOR PARTY 
 
 Gentlemen of the Jury : I have for a good many 
 years been arguing oases in Court and in my own 
 way as a lawyer, asking jurors to forget their 
 prejudices and their feelings and deliver a verdict 
 according to the evidence, uninfluenced by fear 
 or passion or heat. 
 
 I must say that in all my experience, which now 
 covers forty- two years, it seems to me I never saw 
 a case where every cheap feeling has been 'appeal- 
 ed to; where every inference has been drawn; 
 where the world has been traveled over; where 
 false and misleading ideas • of law and of fact 
 have been stated; where everything has been 
 urged to, swing a jury from their duty that they 
 might join the mob, as has been done in this case. 
 
 Gentlemen, from the be^ning to the end there 
 has been no attempt at fairness; there has been no 
 effort to see that these defendants had a trial that 
 was such a trial as should be had in an American 
 Court, or in an Indian Court, or in a Cannibal 
 Court; there is no mean and sordid motive, 
 there is not one influence that could be used on 
 
 9 
 
10 - ARGUMENT OF CLAKENCE DARE.OW ' 
 
 this jury, that has not been urged in this case 
 against the liberty of my clients. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, let me be plain about it. ^ If 
 you want to convict these twenty mgn, then do' it. 
 I ask no consideration on behalf of any one of 
 them; if you have any idea in your heads tha/t I 
 want you to protect them or save them, forget it. 
 They are no better than any other twenty men; 
 they are no better than the millions and ten® of 
 millions down through the ages who have been 
 prosecuted— yes, and convicted, in oases like this, 
 and. if it is necessary for my clients, gentlemen, to 
 ^how that America is like all the rest; if it is^ 
 necessary that my clients ^hall go to prison to 
 s'how it, then let them go; they can afford it if 
 you gentlemen can; make no mistake about that. 
 
 If under this hue and cry of today— which I say 
 is moved and instigated by a gang of profiteers 
 who would strangle, freedom that they might get 
 rich; who would traffic in the blood of men; who 
 have determined that in this Country no voice of 
 criticism shall be raised against them; gentle- 
 men, if it can be done, all right; perhaps it can; 
 but there is no more reason why my clients should 
 be saved than anybody else ; although they have 
 been called cowards for doing what not a single 
 lawyer in this case would dare to do, to stand up 
 against a mob. They are not cowards enough to 
 beg, and if youi want to convict them for this, then 
 convict them; but I want to have my say finsl and 
 I shall attempt to say it honestly; and I fancy 
 
IK DEFENSE OF' a?HE COMMUNISTS 11 
 
 not one of this jury, after I am done, can say that 
 I have dodged or sidestepped or appealed to any 
 cheap sentiment or passion to get my clients free. 
 I am not interested in them. I will submit this 
 case squarely to this jury to see what you are go- 
 ing to do in the cause of freedom of speech, and 
 the principles for which men have shed their 
 blood ih every age and every land. Still less 
 am I interested in winning a case. I might have 
 been once but the best wish I could have for my- 
 self would be that I never had to enter a court 
 holise again. I have served my time ,and I am , 
 only interested in one thing in this case. I am 
 interested in the policy of this Country. I am in- 
 - terested in the verdict of this jury as to whether 
 this country shall be ruled by the conscienceless 
 men who would stifle freedom of speech when it 
 interferes with their gold; o? whether this jury 
 will stand by the principles of the fathers and, 
 whether so far as you can, you will stop this mad 
 wave that threatens to engulf the liberty of the 
 American citizens. 
 
 I am interested in thait, and I am interested in 
 nothing else in this case. I would be glad if I 
 could submit this case to you without speaking. 
 It is no pleasure to me to add my wo.rd to all those 
 that have gone before; I would be glad if the 
 responsibility was on someone else. I know you 
 will think that this case is important ; and I trust 
 that youi have got it out of your heads that any- 
 body on our side thinks it is important for these 
 
12 ARGUMENT OF CIAEENCE DAEROW 
 
 J 
 
 twenty men; it is not. Their interest goes with 
 the interest of our common country, and if our 
 common coun1;ry demands anything, gentlemen, 
 that you oan do to them, why do it; but if it de- 
 mands that you be true to yourselves and tme to 
 our institutions and true to the Constitution of 
 the United States, as it once was written, and as 
 it will one day again be written, I truist that for 
 those you will do your duty. 
 
 My good friend Bamhart says, "How is it 
 that Mr. Darrow can drfend this case? Mr. Dar- 
 row did all he oould toward bringing the Amer- 
 ican people to believe it was their duty to enter 
 this World War, and how can he defend twenty 
 men on a charge like this?" 
 
 I am surprised and just a little disappointed 
 that my brother should ask that question. I am 
 defending this case for two reasons, and I will 
 put the more unimportant one first; for two rea- 
 sons, first, because, when I entered the practice -of 
 my profession years ago I determined that there 
 never should be a case, however unpopular, or 
 whatever the feeling, that I would refuse to do 
 my duty and defend that ease; and I can honestly 
 say to this Jury that I have kept the faith; that 
 I have never turned my back upon any defendant 
 no matter what the charge; when the cry is the 
 loudest the defendant ne«is the lawyer most; 
 when every other man has turned against him the 
 law provides that he should have a lawyer; one 
 who can not only be his lawyer, but his friend, 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 13 
 
 V 
 
 and I have done that. This is the second reason. 
 
 The first is this; that I have seldom known a 
 cas^ where I believed so heartily that I am right 
 as in this. 
 
 I believe in this case and my duty in this case. 
 Mr. Bamhart wonders, because I was in favor of 
 the War. I was in favor of it. From the time 
 Belgium was invaded, long before we got into it, 
 I believed it to be our duty, and I believed it with- 
 out any feeling against Germany of any sort; but 
 if I had believed that this War would not have 
 left the World freer, I would not have believed 
 in it. If I had believed that after one autocracy 
 had been overthrown, that here in America, where 
 we cherish individual liberty; here in America, 
 twenty states would pass a statute like this, which 
 we had got along without onei hundred aad fifty 
 years, so that great interests might silence every 
 human voice while they were robbing the Amer- 
 ican people ; if I had believed that this would re- 
 sult, perhaps I would not have believed we should 
 have entered this War. 
 
 I believed in the War; I believed in it to make 
 the world freer and fairer and better for all man- 
 "kind; I believed that Etirope would be freer; I 
 believed that 'America trould be freer, and I 
 did the best I could; but there is something that 
 I believe in more than I do in my country, and 
 that is human freedom. 
 
 I have loved America first of all because she 
 
14 ARGUMENT OF CLAKESNCE DABROW 
 
 stood for this. MJake us a nation of slaves, and 
 I shall love it no more. 
 
 It is not an excess of patriotism 100 per cent 
 or 200 per cent, or a mill on per cent, that made 
 me believe in this War. I believed in it two years 
 before we ever got into it ; and I would have be- 
 lieved in it just the same whether we had been in 
 it or not ; and if our Oongress should have deliver- 
 ed us to the support of Grermany, I could not have 
 stood with the United States. 
 
 Gentlemen, I am always watchful of anybody 
 when he overdoes patriotism. If I did not like 
 the United States better than any other country, 
 I would not stay here because I could go away; 
 in that regard I have an advantage over some 
 others who must stay; but I do like America; I 
 was bom here; I know its people; in the main I 
 like its institutions. I do not like everything it 
 does and I never shall like everything it does. 
 
 There is no Legislature that can pass a law that 
 will make me think black is white; I know better; 
 and there is no Court that can decide a case that 
 will make me think black is white. I might stand 
 it, but it would not change my opinion; and I 
 know enough of other countries to know that we 
 have no monopoly on the virtue of the World. I 
 know that other countries feel as our country 
 does; that their country is best, and it is all right 
 that they should; but I know enough about the 
 world to know that no country has all the good ; 
 and the wise man picks his ideas and his views 
 
IN DEFENSE OP THE COMMUNISTS 15 
 
 and his facts wherever he can get them; they are 
 the c.ominon''heritage' of men; they belong to no 
 land and to no country, and there are things that 
 are higher than patriotism— love of justice, the 
 devotion to truth, the love of freedom; These 
 were bom before national lines were made, and 
 they will live until the last heartbeat dies in man; 
 when they are dead no man will have a country 
 worth protecting or a life worth saving; these 
 are some of the^ things that , never change, but 
 boundaries change according to the needs and 
 customs and habits of men. 
 
 You have been told, gentlemen of the Jury, as 
 a threat, to a tribunal which after all is the great- 
 est tribunal that human civilization lias provided 
 for; when I say that I do not mean to tell you 
 twelve men that you are the greatest men who 
 ever lived or the wisest men who ever lived; I 
 don't know what is lurking back of your skulls. 
 I know that mixed With every man is an infinite 
 heritage, and I do not know whai is there; but I 
 do know this, that a jury of twelve men is the one 
 protection between a human being and those who 
 attack him ; and I know, gentlemen of the Jury, 
 that when tkat safeguard is lost then man's free- 
 dom is gone. 
 
 You twelve men have been told that if you ac- 
 quit these defendants, you will leave the box 
 despised ; that you will endorse everything that 
 these defendants believe. 
 If you gentlemen should find in favor of these 
 
16 
 
 ARGUMENT OF CLARENCE DARROW 
 
 defendants, then the Oommimists might go out and 
 take your home, your furniture, and all that you 
 possess. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, let us see about it. I don't 
 know how those things may affect this jury, yet 
 I have talked to juries for many, many years. 
 
 If you are the right kind of jurors, and I fancy 
 that most men are that, you would sacrifice your 
 home or your furniture or even your reputations 
 with the mob, to do your duty in this case; and 
 you -would not Jiave been jurors if we had not 
 thought you would; because we know how easy 
 it is to appeal to the mob. I have nothing to prom- 
 ise you. The Communist state is so far away 
 that I cannot promise you a home on the Lake 
 Shore Drive if you find these defendants not 
 guilty; you would all be dead long before you 
 ever saw it. T can not even promise you a reward 
 in Heaven, for that I know nothing about; T have 
 no promise to offset what you will lose if our 
 wicked clients invade your homes and takei your 
 towels and napkins and linen; it is left for the 
 State to do that. 
 
 Grentlemen, I can only ask you to decide this 
 case upon the facts as you have heiard them, in the 
 light of the law as you understand it; in the light 
 of the history of the country, whose institutions ' 
 you and I are bound to protect. 
 
 I shall not argue to you whether the defend- 
 ants' ideas are right or wrong.' I am not bound 
 to believe them^ right in order to take their case, 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 17 
 
 and you are not bound to believe them right, in 
 order to find them not guilty. I don't know wheth- 
 er they are right or wrong and yon don't know 
 whether they are right or wrong; but I do know 
 this— I know that the humblest and the meanest 
 man who lives, I know that the idlest and the 
 silliest man who liv;es, should h^ve his say, I know 
 he ought to speak his mind; and I know that the 
 Constitution is a delusion and a snare if the weak- 
 est and the humblest man in the land can not be 
 defended in his right to speak and his right to 
 think as much as the greatest and the strongest 
 in the land. I am not here to defend their opin- 
 ions. I am here to defend their rights to express 
 their opinions. One of the greatest philosophers 
 who ever lived, Nietzsche, said this, that he was 
 not sure that he would die for his opinions, but 
 he was sure that he would die for the right to 
 express his opinions. 
 
 I don't know whether your ideas are right or 
 wrong. No one knows except these attorneys for 
 the State, and the fewer ideas that men have the 
 surer they are that they are right. 
 
 How do, you settle whether your opinions are 
 right or wrong? There is nothing to measure' them 
 by; I have done the best I could through many 
 years to search for truth. Sometimes I have 
 thought I had a gleam of truih; sometimes 
 I felt that I had in my hands the truth, a 
 truth that could not be disputed, but that 
 would be true forever. Sometimeis I thougljt 
 
18 ARGUMENT OF CIAEENCE DABROW 
 
 I had found it; and tlien again I thouglit 
 I had lost it; and the truth I so fondly 
 held in my; hands was only an empty dream, and 
 not the truth at all; and I have searched again 
 and again, and here I find it and there I lose it ; 
 and I expect it will be this way until the end. It 
 is not given to maai to be sure of the truth; there 
 are no standards, there are no measures, every- 
 thing is dumped in on his imperfect brain and he 
 weighs it the best he can and finds out the best 
 way he can whether it is true or false; and he 
 never knows; and, therefore, gentlemleu, above 
 everything else on earth, meii should cling fast 
 to their right to examine every question ; to listen 
 to everyone, no matter who he is; to hear the 
 spoken words and read the written words; be- 
 cause if you shut men's mouths and paralyzei their 
 minds then the greatest truth that is necessary 
 for the welfare of the human race may die. Grentle- 
 men, nature works in a mysterious way. When a 
 new truth comes upon the Earth, or a great idea 
 necessary for mankind is bom, where does it come 
 from? JSTot from the police force or the prosiecut- 
 ing attorneys or the judges or the lawyers or the 
 doctors; not there. It comes from the despised, 
 and the outcast; it comes perhaps from jails and 
 prisons; it comes from men who have dared to 
 be rebels and thjnk their thoughts; and thjeir fate 
 has been the fate of rebels. This generation gives 
 them graves while another builds their monu- 
 ments; and there is no exception to it; it has been 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 19 
 
 true since the world began, and it will be true no 
 doubt foreiver. It has been true in Amerioa, it 
 has been true in every other country in the world; 
 it may be true again; and what I say is, what 
 every man on this jury knows ; you worship dead 
 heroes who died for truth; they were despised and 
 called cowards by prosecutors who were earning 
 a salary, and they were put to death; but future 
 generations have uncovered their graves from the 
 slime that prosecutors have thrown over them, 
 and they have shown to the world the great 
 thoughts and ideas of these martyrs who died that 
 you and I might be saved. It is true the world 
 over. It may be that the human ;raoe can never 
 do better; I can not tell; perhaps there is not much 
 to expect from it; but all the -same we are obliged 
 to do the best we can, and appeal over and over 
 and over again to the consideration and enlighten- 
 ment and the feeling of men against the things 
 that have gone before; and that is what I am 
 asking here. 
 
 It has been many a day since any body of men 
 have been dogged and hounded, with every right 
 violated to get them into prison, as these twenty 
 men have been. 
 
 Gentlemen, Mr. Bamhart says, "They do not 
 believe in the Constitution" and "they have dared 
 to oritioise the Constitution. ' ' They are not on trial 
 for that, gentlemen. If Mv. Bamhart was more 
 familiar with history, and probably if he was not 
 prosecuting this case he would be more familiar 
 
20 ARGUMENT OP CIAEENCE. DAEBOW 
 
 with, history without knowing anything more 
 about it than he knows now; he would know 
 that from the beginning of the Government, down 
 to the present time many of the ablest men, from 
 Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry down, have 
 never believed in our Federal Constitution; they 
 have believed that it was the work of men who 
 had personal interests to serve. 
 
 Wh'&i you get through-with, this case and my 
 clients are safely housed away in Joliet, and the 
 State is satisfied— and the world is saved— you 
 rnight pick up Professor Beard, Professor of the 
 University of Pennsylvania, and read his book 
 on The Constitution. He is a professor and still 
 he has not been convicted. 
 
 Are they trying this case like any other? Here 
 is my client, Owens. Has he right to the protec- 
 tion of the law? And yet the cheap policeman 
 who, Mr. Bamhart says is a cleancut, fine, right 
 living man— how does^he know it? And if he 
 knows it, how do you know it, and if it is true, 
 what of it? 
 
 I repeat it, put it down again— a cheap police- 
 man twice violated the Constitution, the Federal 
 Constitution and the State Constitution,- outraged 
 every right the defendant had while a prosecuting 
 attorney was standing by his side down in Moline. 
 
 They entered his home, they had no search war- 
 rant. They overhauled his papers. They found 
 a flag, a red one, which he had the same right to 
 have in his house that you have to keep a green 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 21 
 
 one, or a yellow one, or any other color, and he 
 impoidently rolled it up and put another flag on 
 the wall, nailed it there. What right did he have 
 to do that, gentlemen? ' 
 
 What about this kind of patriotism that vio- 
 lates your right and mine, that violates the Con- 
 stitution to get you and to get me? They over- 
 hauled his papers, they went through his desk, 
 they rifled everything he had, they went through 
 his room, and they brag of it, in a court of justice. 
 
 Gentlemen, this officer should be impeached and 
 would be impeached if the Constitution was in 
 force in Illinois. 
 
 What right had a State's Attorney, who ought 
 to support the Constitution of the United States 
 and the State of Illinois, what right had he to vio- 
 late the law in this way? 
 
 Has it come to that pass in this country, that 
 because you want to get a man, officers of the law 
 can trample on human rights and Constitutional 
 rights and red handed violate every principle of 
 justice and then excuse it in a Court of Justice? 
 
 Prom the beginning to the end, this case has 
 beMi marked by the most flagrant violation of 
 law, by every effort to magnify, to create passion 
 and prejudice, that you gentlemen might forget 
 those things that are dear to the heart of every 
 real American; that are more essential than any 
 other; that you gentlemen might forget what 
 Airierica once stood for; that you might do your 
 ignoble part toward bridling the tongue of man, 
 
22 ARGUMENT OF CLARENCE DABBOW 
 
 toward paralyzing his mind^ toward stifling his 
 thought, toward uprooting and destroying for- 
 ever that freedom of speech which has heen the 
 comer stone of American institutions. Ton are 
 realy asked to make America the home of the 
 tyrant, the informer and the usurer, who is will- 
 ing to trample laws and constitutions and hiimaa 
 rights beneath his feet, that he may plunder un- 
 disturbed. 
 
 Most that has been used to this jury to stir up 
 feeling in your souls has been the separate acts 
 of individuals; mostly before this law was pass- 
 ed; not one of these has the slightest bearing 
 to prove oonspiiracy in this case. We can ,only 
 ask you that no frenzy of the mob, whether from 
 the mouth of the district attorney, or any other 
 source, shall drive you from the plain laW and the 
 facts that have been proven in this case. Lloyd's 
 speech in Milwaukee has nothing to do with a 
 conspiracy. Whether that speech was a joke or 
 was serious, I will not attempt to discuss; Mr. 
 Forrest has done that, but I will say this in pass- 
 ing, that if it was serious it was as mild as a 
 summer's shoWer compared with many of the 
 statements of these guardians of the law who are 
 responsible for the conditions that exist in the 
 United States. We have heard the statement of 
 men in high places, that certain people who dared 
 to express their opinion should be stood up against 
 the wall and shot. Such a furore was created by 
 the press of the country against Senator LaFol- 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 23 
 
 lette that it was suggested that he be stood up 
 against the wall and shot. We have heard men of 
 position and sitanding in America declare that 
 people who have dared to criticize the actions of 
 those who are getting rich should be put in a 
 cement ship with leaden sails and sent out to sea. 
 Every violent appeal that could be conceived by 
 the brain of man has been used by the poiwerful 
 and the strong. If there is anything that would 
 provoke individuals who do not see questions as 
 the property interests have seen fit to put them, 
 it is the wild fanatical statements of these men 
 who are i-esponsible for these acts. Mr. Lloyd's 
 letter and Mr. Lloyd's speech is nothing but the 
 reaction against the tyranny and oppression, the 
 cruel statements of those people who would seal 
 the lips of every man- who disagrees with all they 
 say and do. 
 
 What about this letter of OKvens? Owens says, 
 "My son is a musician, and my highest ambition 
 for him is that he will be a rebel, and that he will 
 be the musician of the revolution." That is what 
 Owens says, and although it is a personal letter 
 which had no connection with any human being' 
 in this case; although it could throw no light on 
 this case ; it is paraded to this jury .that you might 
 say that O'wens should be sent to prison because 
 he wrote that letter. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I am not going to apologize 
 for that letter. I umderstand Mr. Owens; he has 
 a high ambition for his boy. None of the cring- 
 
24 ARGUMENT OF CLABENCE DAEBOW 
 
 ing, cowardly, timei-servers will ever reach, that 
 height. If the son suceed® in his father's ambi- 
 tion, he may fill a felon's grave, and the time- 
 serving cowards who always stand for the things 
 that pay because they pay, may help send him 
 there; but it is the rebels to whom monuonents 
 have been built. All through the ages, from Mo- 
 ses down, the men who have never followed the 
 o|)inious and ideas of the people around them, 
 are the men who have been building for the fu- 
 ture. They have hewn steps out of the solid rock; 
 they have worked in thorns aad brambles and 
 hai'd places that a stairway might be built for you 
 and for me. They are like Moses, who, defying 
 custom and habit and giving up ease and security, 
 and having that faith which great mortals have, 
 could see far off something better than the 
 world had known; they have led their people 
 through Ipng years of sacrifice to, the Promised 
 Tjand; but these poon rebels have never seen 
 that land, for when they reached tbat spot their 
 eves were too dim to see, or they were laid in a 
 felon's grave while ,the time-servers walked 
 over their bodies to the goal. 
 
 What do you suppose would happen to the 
 world except for these rebels? I wish there were 
 more of them. What do you suppose would iiave 
 happened to the working men except for the re- 
 bels all the way down through history? Think of 
 the complaisant, cowardly people who never raise 
 their voices against the powers that be? If there 
 had been only these you gentlemen would be h«w- 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS ■ 25 
 
 ers of wood and drawers of water. You gentle- 
 men would have been slaves. You gentlemen owe 
 whatever you have and whatever you hope for 
 to those brave rebels who dared to think and 
 dared to speak and dared to act; and if this jury 
 should make it harder for any man to be a rebel, 
 you would be doing the most you could for the 
 damnation of the human race. It is easier to be- 
 lieve something because somebody tells you it is 
 true. It is easy to run with the hounds and bay 
 to death those who may be better than yoursejf ; 
 it was easy for the people of New England to join 
 in the mad rush and hang old women for witch- 
 craft ; it was easy for the people who lived in the 
 days of the Inquisition to light the "fires around 
 men who dared to think; but it is those same re- 
 bels whose burning bodies h?tve been the flame 
 that has lighted the human race to something bet- 
 ter than the world has ever known. 
 
 I sympathize with Mr. Owens in his high ambi- 
 tion that his boy shall be a rebel, and that he 
 may furnish the music for the revolution; whether 
 the revolution ever comes, or not, his voice will 
 be joined with the voices of almost every man 
 whose name is immortal, and his music will be the 
 music of almost every man who ever wrote a 
 strain that stirred the hearts of men. If he should 
 meet this high ambition, I am glad for man, but 
 sorry for him. It means a stony road, a rooky 
 path; it means want, contumely, abuse and sacri- 
 fice; sorrow and a neglected grave. No matter 
 
26 . ARGUMENT OF CLARENCE DARROW 
 
 how brave 'we are, no matter Jiow determined we 
 may be; no matter how these fantastic lights daz- 
 zle and beckon us with the promise of some far 
 off dream; no matter .what we see, what we 
 hope, or what we feel, to all of ns who have been 
 more or less rebels in this world the thought often 
 comes, after all, is it worth the while? After all, 
 should not I have closed my eyes on the dreams 
 and the visions and the hopes, should not I have 
 left the world where the world seems proud to be, 
 and lived in luxury and ease with the good people 
 of the earth? If you find him guilty for this let- 
 ter you will not condemn him, you will condemn 
 yourselves. 
 
 Much has 'been said about the red flag. I say 
 gentlemen, that I have as much right to have a 
 red flag as you have to^ own a green one, or a yel- 
 low one, or one of any other color. I have a right 
 to one flag or a dozen flags, and the jury has 
 never yet been found who could deny it. Let me 
 tell you something abouth this red flag. ' I will 
 tell you why every tyrant on earth has hated it; 
 I will tell you why every man with stolen money 
 in his pocket has hated it; I will tell you why the 
 men back of this law hated it ; although they have 
 no wit and no imagination. Their wit and their 
 imagination, if they ever had any, has been traded 
 for dollars. What is this red flag? Gentlemen, 
 the Communist Labor Party did not invent the 
 red flag. The Socialists did not invent the red 
 flag. The Democrats did not invent the red flag. 
 
IN DEFENSE OP THE COMMUNISTS 27 
 
 It is older than that. It is older than any of those 
 parties. Christopher Columbus did not. It is 
 older than that. It was not invented at Bunker 
 Hill, although it was present. It was invented long 
 before that. No man can tell you when it was first 
 used. We can come pretty near it, though. Since 
 the workingman has grown enough to have the 
 wit to think, and 'since he has found a voice: for 
 himself, although that voice is weak and feeble, 
 the red flag has been the flag of the common man. 
 It was the flag of the workingman long before 
 Greece, and in Greece it was the flag of the work- 
 ingman ; in the Roman Empire it was the flag of 
 the workingman; in ancient France, in Grermany, 
 in Russia, in Switzerland, in England, in Spain 
 and in the United States; and yet these fool legis- 
 lato'rs think they can stamp out the institutions 
 and the customs and the habits of a people. Let 
 us see where it came from. As near as we can find 
 out, the rulers and kings and aristpcrats who get 
 their power from the Almighty — nobody ever saw 
 the Almighty hand it down or even read the cre- 
 dentials of the aristocrats or kings— they had a 
 white flag, or a blue flag; a blue flag, representing 
 their blue blood which was pure and unsoiled, and 
 the whi;te flag, representing no- color whatever and 
 could not be soiled; only working people couild 
 be soiled, because you could only soil your hands 
 with work. The common people had a red flag. It 
 canae from the god of the sun, the red rays of the 
 sun, as far back as you can read in history; when 
 
28 ARGUMENT OF CLARENCE DARROW 
 
 it took a more definite meaning, it meant the com- 
 mon red blood which courses through the veins 
 of all men alike; it represents the brotherhood of 
 man. That is where it came from. In the early 
 days of the Eomans the workingman did not fight. 
 It would not do for the workingman to learn to 
 fight; he might fight the ruler. He had no arms, 
 and you r^niember the noise that is raised here 
 by the counsel in this cas© Ibecause the Ruissians 
 propose to arm the proletariat? No, they should 
 not. 'The other fellow should have the guns. They 
 always did have them. Not the proletariat. These 
 should have hoes and pick axes and spades and 
 scythes. That is their job. The other fellows 
 should carry the guns because they do not use 
 pick axes. While the poor man is working, they 
 will do their part by shooting him, especially if 
 he does not work. Finally the Eomans did take 
 the poor man into their armies and legions to 
 fight. Of course, they found out long ago that 
 the workingman 's red blood would do just as well 
 to fight with as any other kind, and when they 
 took him he carried the red banner. He carried 
 the red banner alongside of the blue banner of 
 the blue bloods ; and the rulers, with the well 
 known tricks on the psychology of the mind, threw 
 these red banners far out into the line of the ene- 
 my and the workingmen, who loved their red flag, 
 would rush madly into the opposing ranks for 
 their beloved flag that it should not be polluted 
 by their enemy. It represented their dreams, their 
 
IN DEFENSE- OF THE COMMUNISTS 29 
 
 hopeis and their ambitions and they defended it 
 with their lives. It was present in the battles of 
 the Romans. When the skilled workmen in the 
 Middle Ages began to establish their trades 
 unions, in France and in Germany, their trades 
 union flag was a flag of red, because it is the flag 
 of the common man, who understood that the 
 blood which courses through his veins was the 
 same color as the blood that bourses through the 
 veins of every human being that ever lived. It was 
 the flag us6d in Germany and in Ehgland, and is 
 the flag today of a large part of the trades unions 
 of the world, and it will Jie their flag when you get 
 through with this infamous prosecution. It will 
 be their flag whether this jury shall say innocent 
 or guilty. 
 
 This flag was the flag of the first colonists in 
 the United States. It flew proudly at the battle of 
 Bunker Hill with other flags of all kinds. This 
 flag flew where Washington had command. It 
 flew at the Battle of Brandywine. The Nuns 
 of Bethlehem embroidered , one with the greatest 
 care and sent it to the Commander that he might 
 rally his men under that banner to fight for Amer- 
 ica against Great Britain; and this story has been 
 commemorated by America'^ best known poet, 
 Henry W. Longfellow, in the following stirring 
 and beautiful words : 
 
 When the dying flame of day 
 Through the chancel shot its ,ray, 
 Far the srlimmering tapers shed 
 Faint liglit on the cowled head; 
 
30 ARGUMEKT OF CLABBNCE DABEOW 
 
 And {'he censer burning swung, 
 
 Where, before the altar, hung 
 
 The crimson banner, that with prayer 
 
 Has been consecrated there. 
 
 And th« nuns' sweet prayer was heard the while, 
 
 Sung low, in the dim, mysterious aisle. 
 
 "Take thy banner! May- it \^ave 
 Proudly o'er the good and brave 
 When the battle's distant wail 
 Breaks t'he Sabbath of our vail. 
 When the clarion's music thrills 
 To the hearts of these lone hills, 
 When the spear in conflict shakes, 
 And the strong lance shivering breaks. 
 
 Take thy banner; and, beneath 
 The battle-cloud's encircling wreath. 
 Guard it, till our homes are free! 
 Guard it! iGod will prosper thee! 
 In the dark and trying hour. 
 In the breaking forth of power, 
 In the rush of steedj? and men, 
 His right hand will shield thee then. 
 
 Take thy banner! But when night 
 Closes round the ghastly flght, 
 If the yanquished^warrior bow. 
 Spare him, by our holy vow. 
 By our prayers and many tears. 
 By the mercy that endears. 
 Spare him; he our love hath shared; 
 Spare him! as thou wouldst be spared. 
 
 Take thy banner! and if e'er 
 Thou shouldst press the soldier's bier. 
 And t'he muffled drum should beat • 
 To the tread of mournful feet, 
 Then this crimson flag shall be 
 Martial cloak and shroud for thee. 
 The warrior took that banner proud. 
 And it was his martial cloak and shroud. 
 
 Gentlemen, you have started on a mad career 
 to make this world safe for Hypocrisy. I would 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 31 
 
 suggest that after you get through, with this case 
 you emulate the example of Charles the Second 
 of England in his treatment of Oliver Oomwell, 
 and that you go down to Cambridge, in the sha- 
 -dow of Harvard College, and dig up the bones of 
 Longfellow, who wrote these lines, and bum him 
 in quick lime as a warning to all people who dare 
 to raise their voice for their fellow man. Why 
 not? Why not? Do you want to tell me that you, 
 with your puny strength, can take away from the 
 people of this world their age-long devotion to a 
 banner which has represented their trials and 
 tribulations through all the past? 
 
 Every idea has its flag. There is something 
 about a flag which catches the eye, and through 
 the eye the imagination. There are flags which rep- 
 resent Temperance. There are flags which rep- 
 resent each nation of the world, and all the ideas 
 of th^e world; isome ideas perhaps bad, and some 
 ideas good. There are flags that represent peo- 
 ple. There are flags that represent a class. This 
 red flag, as far back as you can go in the history 
 of the world, has been labor 's flag. It will be lab- 
 or's flag, gentlemen, whatever you may do. The 
 man who thinks that you can change the customs 
 and habits of a country by passing a law is a shal- 
 low man, who knows nothing of history and still 
 less of philosophy. The red flag has been the em- 
 blem of the workers as -far back as history can 
 go, gentlemen, and I want to say further that this 
 emblem has stood after long tribulation through 
 
32 ARGUMENT OF ClABENOE DAEEOW 
 
 tlie ages. It has waved when the workingman 
 was enslaved; when he was bought and sold; and 
 later when he formed his unions and met in oaves 
 and waste places, under the ban of the law; when 
 he was sent to prison because he dared to haggle 
 over his wages. When he was enslaved in France 
 and his life was in the hands of the king ; when 
 capitalists, even in America, would make him a 
 slave. It has represented the sufferings of work- 
 ingmen throughout all these years. It is his ban- 
 ner, and you cannot take it from him by a verdict 
 in this case. It will be his banner so long as red is 
 the color of the blood that runs through the veins 
 of men; and so long as the breaking clouds of 
 dawn are crimsoned by the glorious rays of the 
 rising sun. 
 
 I do not know why the common man should not 
 rule if he can. Maybe he cannot. All this may 
 be a dream. It may be that fixed in the constitu- 
 ency of life is the status of their power; that 
 there must always be rich and always be poor. I 
 do not know. I used to think that perhaps there 
 need not always be poor and need not always be 
 rich. I may have been wrong. , 
 
 Gentlemen, when I was yotmg and enthusiastic; 
 when I believed in things; when I dreamed 
 dreams and saw visions, I thought that some time 
 this everlasting war between the rich and the poor 
 would end; and that by some sort of change in 
 the social system there would be peace and hap- 
 piness and order on the earth. When I was young 
 
IN DEFENSE OP THE COMMUNISTS 33 
 
 I found Henry George and I read his "Progress 
 and Povierty," and it is probably the greatest 
 book on political economy that the last century 
 produced. It has been sold into the millions and 
 millions of copies, and no man who claims to be 
 intellectual could afford to say that he did not 
 know the book; and yet the prime teaching of 
 Henry George is that the land should be common 
 property; that no man should own it; it is the 
 gift of nature; that no man has the right to own 
 it or monopolize it, or buy it or sell it. He might 
 as well traffic in the air you breathe. As well 
 might he sell your life, for without land there can 
 be no life, and Henry George was hailed as the 
 new prophet of a new world. Men read him with 
 amazement and wonder and admiration. They 
 read him with new hope. E^ven rich people stop- 
 ped to read him. Chauncey Depew was chairman 
 of a dinner in^the east given by respectable peo- 
 ple to welcome Henry George. He ran for Mayor 
 of New York and just failed of election. One of 
 his books has been published by the congress of 
 the United States and sent broadcast to all the 
 voters of the United States; and his doctrine was 
 that no man had the right to own the earth; that 
 it should be taken without compensation, for no 
 man could get title to the earth, and yet he lay 
 down on his bed and died a peaceful death; and 
 rnonuments have been reared to him, and poems 
 written to him, and his son has been sent to con- 
 gress, and still you are told you must convict my 
 
S4 AEGUMENT OF CLARENCE DARROW 
 
 clients because - they believe that no one should 
 own the earth, and that land should be taken 
 without compensation. It is in your power to con- 
 vict these men if you want to. Are you people 
 mad? Have you forgotten all about the psychol- 
 ogy of man ? Do you think that you can mark for 
 slaughter a, few people, and can weave a wieb of 
 hate and bitterness around them and convict them, 
 whether there is any evidence or not? 
 
 There have been great souls ever since men be- 
 gan to think who have believed in public owner- 
 ship of land; and there are very few people who 
 believe in unqualified private ownership today. 
 Counsel know very well, if they have common 
 observation, that this doctrine has been preached 
 openly for more than forty years in the United 
 States, and fairly well for more than one hundred 
 and fifty years in the world. 
 
 Mr. Forrest read here yesterday from the New 
 Testament to show that Christ was a Communisf, 
 and that his Disciples were Communists; and 
 Mr. Comerford shouted, "Do you compare your 
 people with him, are they lineal descendants of 
 him?" Let me answer, yes. They are lineal 
 descendants, and you would have sent Christ 
 to jail just the same as you/would these defend- 
 ants, just the same as the prosecutor in his day 
 did- it; just the same as there have always been 
 prosecutors to send to jail every man who had a 
 dream beyond the narrow vision of his fellow 
 man. The doctrines of these defendants are just 
 
IN DEFENSE OP THE COMMUNISTS 35 
 
 the same; and they are lineal descendants of the 
 Communists of the early Christian days; Com- 
 munists have been in the world since man was 
 born. It was not new when Christ came upon the 
 earth. Men have not only professed it, but they 
 have lived it. Now, it may be replied that these 
 were primitive people and that civilized man got 
 over it. * I do not know whether that is true or 
 not, and neither do I care. That communism has 
 been a well known doctrine for ages, every intelli- 
 gent man knows, although the Wall Stteet gentle- 
 men have just found it out; these I do not count 
 intelligent; every intelligent man knows it. The 
 prophets and the teachers and the seers all down 
 through the ages have taught it. When it came 
 to the early Christian times all the disciples and 
 apostles were Communists who owned all their 
 property together and who taught that private 
 property was wrong. Their doctrine -came from 
 Christ, and Christ got it from somewhere else. It 
 has always been in the world. It was the prin- 
 iple all through the Middle Ages. It is the doc- 
 trine of Karl Marx, who has left a greater impress 
 upon this world tha,n any other political econom- 
 ist who ever lived. It was the doctrine of Eobert 
 Dale Owen, who sacrificed his whole life for his 
 fellow man. It has been the doctrine of most of 
 the great idealists and dreamers of the world. I 
 do not know whether it will come or not. 
 
 I will tell yon whei:e it comes from, gentlemen. 
 It is in yoni. It is in every juror in this hpx tO 
 
36 ARGUMENT OF CLARENCE DARBOW 
 
 a limited degree. It is in every State's Attorney 
 who is prosecuting in this case, in a very limited 
 degree. It is in every man who has sympathy for 
 his fellows. It is in every man whose sympathy 
 goes out to his fellow man. It is in every man 
 who hates poverty, not because he is poor, but be- 
 cause other men are poor. It is bom of sympathy ; 
 it is born of love ; it is bom of the feeling of com- 
 mon brotherhood in man"; it will live so long as 
 mothers love their children; so long as idealists 
 love the human race; so long as men hope and 
 strive and dream. Whether we shall ever ac- 
 complish it, I do not know. No man can tell. I 
 do not know whether communism wpuld work. 
 I do not know whether we can ever get a state 
 of society where men are good enough, ideal 
 enough, kindly enough and human enough to say, 
 "Here is mine, I will throw it in with yours, and 
 we will work together for the common good." 
 Perhaps that cannot, be. I shudder to think that 
 we cannot; I have cherished that dream and that 
 hope and that illusion even when I knew that it 
 could not come. I do' not know whether it is 
 scientific. Of course, some of these scientific 
 gentlemen can tell ; but there is something higher 
 than science. I do not know whether you can 
 work it out in cold mathematics or not. Man is 
 one-fourth unselfish and three-fourths selfish. 
 Scientists would probably say, tell me some way 
 to get the one-quarter to overcome the three- 
 quarters. I don't know in mathematics, but just 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 37 
 
 in proportion as a man is an idealist, just in pro- 
 portion as he cares for his fellow man, just in 
 that proportion he will cling to these dreams, 
 whether he believes that they can ever come true 
 or not. I have had my dreams. I do not know 
 whether Socialism or Communism will work or 
 not. I do know that Capitalism does not work. 
 I do know that our present system of industry 
 is a crazy quilt that allows no man to be -really 
 honest, that allows no man to be unselfish, that 
 allows no man to live without sacrificing his fel- 
 low man. 
 
 I know that the present system does not work. 
 I know that it makes men greedy and selfish 
 and mean. I know it stifles every good motive 
 in man. I know that under the present system 
 no one on earth can be as good as he would be. 
 I know that capitalism does noi work and never 
 can work. None of these devout lovers of the 
 capitalistic state, all of whom are sure they are 
 going to Heaven — not one of theni would want 
 to go to Heaven if it was run on the same scheme 
 as the earth. Not one of them that believes that 
 this system could live anywhere except upon the 
 earth. My clients believe that a system fit for 
 Heaven is fit for earth. They are dreamers. 
 Their principles were formed by all the ages. 
 They did not make them. These have come 
 down to them in a dire.ct line from most of the 
 idealists of the world. Karl Marx voiced it bet- 
 ter than any one else. They are dreamers. Tt is 
 
38 ARGUMENT OF CLARENCE DARROW 
 
 true counsel has slurred them. But why, gentle^ 
 men? Why? One of the commonest and cheap- 
 est things that th^ representatives of the State 
 can do in criminal cases is to slur the defendants. 
 It is easy hecause they are helpless, and the at- 
 torneys have ample chance. They are under in- 
 dictment. They cannot rise to r&ply and neither 
 can they hit them over the head with an axe. 
 They have to stand it. The men who hold these 
 opinions hold them hecause they are idealists. 
 That is the reason. Gfentlemen, I cannot tell 
 whether this scheme will work, hut it is what 
 they believe. They have the same right to their 
 belief under the laws of this country as you have 
 to yours; and all of you told me over and over 
 again that you would protect the right of an- 
 other man the same as you would protect your 
 own rights. 
 
 Gentlemen, somebody is interested in this case. 
 We have a statute with the word unlawful 
 in it, which we insist means nothing. They in- 
 sist it may mean strikes, and so it may if they 
 can get the judges to so interpret it. Today they 
 are after these men. Tomorrow they will be 
 after Gompers and the trade unions and every- 
 body who dares defy their power. They know 
 perfectly well that these men are reformers ; but 
 the men who are responsibte for this law would 
 be glad to get the three or four million trade 
 unionist who are banded together for the pro- 
 tection of each other's rights, and not only for 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 39 
 
 the protection of each other's rights but for the 
 protection of the right of every other man to ex- 
 press his opinion. They know that in the next 
 year or two mills will close, railway employes 
 will be discharged. ^ Then, will be a good 
 time to send trade unionists to prison. Do 
 you suppose they care for these men on trial"? 
 Oh, no. They have got too much brains for that, 
 although I would- not accuse the backers of this 
 law with being overly intelligent. They are out 
 to rule the world. They are out to make money. 
 They are out to destroy whatever is between 
 them and their prey. Today it is these twenty 
 men. Tomorrow it will be somebody else. You 
 can only protect your liberties in this world by 
 protecting the other man's freedom. You can 
 only be free if I am free. The' same thing that 
 would get me may be used to get you, and the 
 government that is not strong enough to protect 
 all its citizens ought not to live upon the face 
 of this earth. 
 
 These men are dreamers. They are idealists. 
 They believe that somewhere in the future there 
 can come a condition of society where property 
 will be ov/ned in, common, and they do not be- 
 lieve in paying for it, either. They have a per- 
 fectly good legal right to take it without paying 
 for it, provided an amendment is made to the 
 Constitution of the United States, which I ven- 
 ture we can do before we can get that far. 
 
 Taking property without compensation is only 
 
40 ARGUMENT OF CLARENCE DAREOW 
 
 a technical point to send people to jail. They be- 
 lieve in praying, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will 
 be done on earth as it is done in Heaven." Still 
 nobody wants it done on earth. That is, nobody 
 who has much, and who wants something 
 more. But, gentlemen, we ought to be, careful 
 of our dreamers and our idealists. If a man can 
 have a dream and an ideal in this sordid world, 
 he ought to have it, for the world is hard enough ; 
 it is cruel enough; it is selfish enough. There is 
 enough greed, there is enough envy and there is 
 enough hate in this world, and if now and then 
 a man can have a vision that there will be a sys- 
 tem, where all men will be brothers, where there 
 will be no more haggling and bickering; where 
 there will be no poverty; no rich and poor; where 
 man will live in love and brotherhood— if they 
 have that dream, that ideal ought to be saved 
 to the human race, whether it shall ever come 
 true or not. 
 
 Gentlemen of the jury, I have been trying to 
 point out some of the things that have been em- 
 phasized in this case. They told you about the pro- 
 letariat and bourgeois. Mr. Bamhart says you are 
 all bourgeois. Well, now, I don't know what dif- 
 ference it maikes to you whether you are or not, 
 but I don't think there are more than two bour- 
 geois on this jury, asd I am not going to mention 
 their names. 
 
 Mr. Bamhart gave you the definition of a pro- 
 letariat, and he says it is a man who works for 
 
IN DEFENSE OF - THE COMMUNISTS 41 
 
 9 
 
 wages, who has no property and so forth. He 
 says there are definitions which show a good deal 
 worse than that, that it is the meanest working- 
 man. 
 
 That is right, Mr. Bamhart, that was the defi- 
 nition of the proletariat for long ages. 
 
 For long years to be a working man was to be 
 mean, was to be bought and sold, was to be flogged 
 and killed, was to be the property of the master, 
 body and soul. In France before the Eevolution 
 the workingman meant men without property, 
 and they were; but it does not mean that today, 
 and the "proletariat" does not mean that today. 
 Itineaus simply this, those who do not make their 
 money by employing other people, that is all it 
 means. It means a man who works for wages, 
 either with his hand or his brain, as against a 
 "bourgeois" who employs men to work. 
 
 Almost all the people belong to the proletariat 
 class— almost all is a little too strong, but much 
 more than half, and it would be out of the ques- 
 tion to have the "bourgeois without the prole- 
 tariat," because as long as there are big indus- 
 tries owned by somebody there must be a nujn- 
 ber of men to work in those industries. 
 
 My clients believe in a time when the owners 
 of the industries should be workers, that' is all. 
 They believe in a time to be reached by a different 
 organization of society, when these industries- 
 shall all be owned by the men who work in them, 
 that is what they mean. 
 
42 ABGUMENT OF CLARENCE DARKOW 
 
 Is there anything wrong about that, gentlemen 
 of the jury? 
 
 It may never come, but I fancy that no man 
 who has sympathy for the human race does not 
 wish that some time those who labor should have 
 the whole product of their, toil. Probably it will 
 never come, but I wish that the time might come 
 when the men who work in the industries would 
 own the industries. I would take a chance, al- 
 though I know that under that system I would 
 have to go to work myself. 
 
 Most all of you men on this jury work for 
 others. Is there any reason why the proletariat 
 should not control the State? Through all the 
 long, cruel years the men who have worked have 
 had no voice in the State. G-entlemen, how much 
 have they got now? How much has the working-' 
 man to say about the laws of his country? You 
 were not bom yesterday. How much have you 
 to say as to who will be president or mayor or 
 senator or anything else? Every man knows that 
 the commoii man has practically nothing to say 
 about it. , 
 
 I might go to the polls in November and vote 
 for Cox or for Harding, but what had I to say 
 about the forces that came together and put me 
 in a position where I must vote for one or the 
 other; and I would not vote for either if I could 
 help it; and almost no one else would. 
 
 Who of you, gentlemen of the jury, had any- 
 thing to say about who was to be mayor last 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 43 
 
 1 
 
 spring! You might have had a chance to vote 
 for one ,of two men, neither of whom you wanted, 
 and that is the most, it amounts to nothing. 
 
 I would like to see the proletariat rule for a 
 while, but I have few delusions left; they might 
 not do any better than the others. I have seen 
 working men that were not saints, lots of them. 
 I am not trying to uphold the workingman or 
 his opinion on the ground that he is a saint ; he is 
 not; he is human. But I know that through all 
 the past this world has been ruled by property, 
 and if there can ever come a time when the work- 
 ingman can rule it, I will say he ought to have 
 that chance to see what he can do ; and yet to tell 
 you that is to believe in the "dictatorship of the 
 proletariat"— well, why not? 
 
 I would like to see the proletariat have a chance, 
 to rule; the others have had it long enough, and 
 these never have. The proletariat may lose their 
 idealism as they get a better chance in the world ; 
 that often happens, too, but if it was nothing ex- 
 cepting for a change, I would like to see it tried. 
 I would like to see those who have been a burden 
 on the world for all these ages give some of the 
 others a chance, to see what they could do. 
 
 We have been told by the gentlemen here, 
 "Why, your men do not even believe in the labor 
 unions. ' ' 
 
 Well, suppose they do not', gentlemen? I pre- 
 sume that statement is made for some of the 
 jurors here who belong to labor unions. 
 
44 ARGUMENT OF CLABENCE DAEBOW 
 
 Suppose my clients do not believe in them? I 
 have always believed in them ; they may be wrong, 
 and tliey may be right. The labor unions have 
 no guarantee that they are right. These njen be- 
 lieve there should be a'change in the labor unions, 
 that is what they think. They think long use of 
 power has made them conservative. So it has. 
 Perhaps they are better for being conservative, 
 or maybe they would be better if they were more 
 radical. 
 
 My clients have a right to their opinion. No 
 man can tell whether their opinion is best or not 
 until you try it out. We are told that they do not 
 believe in socialism. Whence comes alL this sym- 
 pathy of my friends, the prosecutors, for union- 
 ism and socialism? Wonders will never cease. 
 
 These gentlemen are standing here and con- 
 demning my clients because they are not for labor 
 unions and they are not for socialism. 
 
 They will tell a different story when it has so- 
 cialism on the rack, as it was on the rack in Al- 
 bany. 
 
 You will hear a different story when, this law 
 catches you, and they are really after the labor 
 organizations of the United States. 
 
 And I will tell you why they say it-^— because, 
 forsooth, somebody on this jury might say, 
 "Well, if they do not believe ih socialism they 
 must be bad; if they do not believe in trades 
 unionism they must be bad; if they do not be- 
 
IN DEFENSE OP THE COMMUNISTS 45 
 
 lieve in this tMng or that thing or the other 
 thing they naust be bad." 
 
 These men have a right to their own opinions, 
 just the same right that you have and the same 
 right that I have and the same right that every 
 man should have, and that opinion may be good 
 or bad. And they tell us another thing, gentlemen. 
 They say the communist labor party has endorsed 
 Lenin and Trotzky, imd that they believe in them. 
 They say that my clients are sympathetic with 
 Lenin and Trotzky; and they are, gentlemen; 
 they are. And what are you going to do about 
 it? I will tell you what I think about it, not be- 
 cause it is my thought, but because it is my posi- 
 tion in this case. I am willing to stand with 
 them upon that question, without the slightest 
 fear as to any intelligent jury in the United 
 States. 
 
 I don't know whether Lenin's government and 
 Trotzky 's government are the best or not. I 
 have no chance to know. I have read the ordin- 
 ary lies of the ordinary papers. I have read 
 about Lenin and Trotzky being defeated one day 
 and the next day carrying their banner through 
 the lines of the opposing army. I have been fed 
 on all these stories and I know not what to thinlt 
 of them, and I confess I do not care. I have no 
 chance to know, neither has any other man a 
 chance to know. Every man's idea of Eussia is 
 clouded, more or less, by his own feelings. I can 
 
46 AUGUMBNT OF CLAEENCB DAKBOW 
 
 say for myself that whatever the governraent of 
 Eussia is I wish it well. 
 
 I know this, that every American with the least 
 drop of red blood in his veins hates the past of 
 Eussia. I know that you can not find a human 
 American — a human American who does not hate 
 the Czar and all his works. I know that any man 
 who loves liberty, any man who loves humanity, 
 would not be willing to get rid of the new and re- 
 place it with the old; and I know you can not 
 overthrow the new unless you replace it with the 
 old. 
 
 I laiow something of Eussia; I have been a 
 student of her literature for years; I have read 
 much of her history. I know that she has been 
 the last word of tyranny in Europe for more than 
 a thousand years. I know that she has had a 
 government of arbitrary power; a government 
 of despotism, tempered by assassination; a gov- 
 ernment where all the good and all the brave and 
 all the liberty-loving people of Eussia have been 
 killed or sent to feioeria and left to rot their life 
 away because they loved their fellow man. I 
 know that you can not get an American citizen 
 who- values his reputation who dares say a word 
 for the past, not one. 
 
 And yet, gentlemen, that government which has 
 been the government of Eussia for ages, that gov- 
 ernment could not be overcome unless something 
 Avas put in its place, and the despotism of all the 
 
IN DErENSE OF THE COMMUi^ISTS 47 
 
 years could not be washed away except in tears 
 and blood. 
 
 I remember years ago reading Victor Hugo's 
 wonderful masterpiece, "Les Miserables," and 
 he told the story of, the old revolutionist living in 
 the hills ; no human being had seen him for years ; 
 he was the last citizen of the old revolution which 
 swept from power the last shred of the despotism 
 that France had known; when the monarch 
 came back he was a hunted man, so he retired to 
 the mountains and lived a hermit's life. A 
 rumor reached the valley that he was dying. An 
 old priest heard the rumor and he asked himself 
 the question whether after all, though he had been 
 called an Atheist, though he was a Revolutionist;, 
 whether it was not his duty to visit the old man 
 in his last days that he might give hito consola- 
 tion, and help him- on his dark journey to the 
 great unknown. So the priest made the trip 
 to the old Revolutionist who was sitting in his 
 chair outside his hut; as the sunlight was fading 
 away the old man told the priest about himself. 
 "Yes, I am dying." He says, "The malady is 
 passing slowly to my heart. You see the sun, 
 how low it is in the west; by the time it sets I will 
 be dead.!' 
 
 The priest asked him about his- soul. The revo- 
 lutionist said, "Have you' come here to tell me 
 about my soul?" 
 
 The priest said, "No, but what of the cruelty of 
 the revolution?" 
 
48 ARGUMENT P'F CIABENCB DAREOW 
 
 The old man was dying, but told the priest 
 about the glories of the rebellion. 
 
 The priest said, "What about the men they 
 guillotined; what about the blood that was shed; 
 how do you excuse all that?" 
 
 The old man roused and said, "Yes, blood was 
 shed, the guillotine had many victims, it was a 
 revolution." The old system was passing away 
 and the new one coming on. It came with tear's 
 and blood. A storm liad been gathering for a 
 thousand vears ; it burst ; you blame the thunder^ 
 )>olt. 
 
 This is the poor logic of today, the world al- 
 ways blpimes the tlmnder-bolt, it forgets the 
 storm that had been gathering tlirough the years. 
 
 Here is Russia. There is scarcely a man in 
 America that has not read of Russia. You have 
 read the story of hei patriots and her devoted 
 ones, her martyrs banished to Siberian mines be- 
 ( ause they dared to speak for the common man. 
 
 You have read about the Russian heroes walk- 
 ing in chained gangs over hundreds of miles 
 across the weary road, often in the winter's snow; 
 you have- read of them dying on the way; yon 
 have read of the long lines of human bones that 
 marked the pathway of these devoted ones, and 
 these men died because they loved their fellow 
 man; they were victims of the minions of the 
 Czar. 
 
 A cloud had been gathering for a thousand 
 years ; in the storm and tempest of the great 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 49 
 
 European war; that cloud burst and the throne 
 of the Czar crashed, crumbling to the earth. 
 
 I am glad for one that the throne tottered to 
 the ground. If no other good came out of the un- 
 speakable misery of this great war, the fall of the 
 Czar and his cruel dynasty was some compensa- 
 tion for all the blood that was poured out. 
 
 This at least was of great value to the human 
 race ; and I say this, even though revolution after 
 revolution may follow the downfall of the Czar. 
 
 I do not know whether the government of Lenin 
 and Trotzky can stand or not; I do not know, 
 neither do I care. T know it is there today and I 
 know what was there before; I know it was time 
 for the old to die and time for the new to be 
 ushered in; and if it takes another revolution 
 and another and a hundred others, I am glad at 
 least that the govej-nment of the Czar no long- 
 er soaks the earth with blood. 
 
 T can not tell what is in store for Russia. I 
 liope good for her, as well as I do for all the other 
 weary sons of man. I hope for her as I do for 
 Austria, borne down by disaster and by want. I 
 hope for her as T hope for all the people of the 
 earth. 
 
 Some time when the clouds are lifted and the 
 night is over we may know. It is given to no 
 man to see the future. Back of the heavy curtain 
 which hides the present Russia from the future, 
 back of that curtain no human eye can see. Still 
 we. know that the fates are weaving, that they are 
 
50 ARGUMENT OF CIAKENOE DAKROW 
 
 throwing the shuttle hack and forth to fashion 
 the future pattern of the human race. What the 
 pattern shall he neither you nor I can tell. We 
 can only meet the future of Russia and the world 
 as we meet the future in our lives. We can meet 
 it with fortitude, hope and trust. 
 
 I know that no decent man wants the past to 
 come to Eussia again. I know that no man would 
 ask for it except for cash. To attempt to predict 
 the future of a government horn' in the throes of 
 a great world war, born in the anguish and pover- 
 ty of a great people, to do that, gentlemen, is to 
 attempt to do something that is beyond the ken 
 of man. Some time we will know. I hope at 
 least that the present will last until the old is 
 dead, beyond recall. 
 
 When I hear about a Russian princess waiting 
 on a table in a restaurant in Constantinople it 
 does not bother me; the only question that -both- 
 ers me is whether she will make a good waitress, 
 that is all. I don't know what right she had to be 
 a princess. The newspapers can print these stor- 
 ies, but they will draw no tears from me. As long 
 as somebody waits on the table I would just as 
 soon it would be a princess as any one else, pro- 
 vided she knows how to do the job. There were 
 many, many weary ages when royalty was served 
 by serfs, but their turn has come; their turn has 
 come. 
 
 G-entlemen, I believe I speak for my clients, I 
 know I speak for myself and I believe I speak 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 51 
 
 for every man who loves freedom and fairness and 
 justice, when I say that I wish Russia well ; that 
 I hope the past has gone forever; when I say that 
 I helieye that no American soldiers should be in 
 Russia today; when I say that I believe that it is 
 an unspeakable crime that they should be there; 
 when I say that I believe that no other land on 
 earth should stand against their right of self- 
 government; and their right to work out their 
 own destiny as the fates shall will; and yet, gen- 
 tlemen of the jury, everything has been said that 
 the wit of man could devise, to get you in such a 
 frame of mind that you will have no sense of jus- 
 tice and fairness, that you will throw aside your 
 judgment and yield to your passion in this case 
 because my clients welcome the dawn of revolu- 
 tion in Russia. 
 
 Why, in this they believe what "Wilson did ; what 
 Wilson did when he learned that the old regime 
 was overthrown and that a new power had taken 
 its place; when he issued his message to the 
 American people, congratulating them on the fact 
 that Russia had awakened, and that the people, 
 after the long, long night of the past, were claim- 
 ing the right to liberty, the right to self-govern- 
 ment, the right to freedom; and that Russia had 
 taken her place among the other nations of the 
 world standing for the liberty of man. 
 
 I don't suppose the end has come for Russia. 
 The truth is, the end never comes for anything. 
 There is no way to fix this weary world so it will 
 
52 AROUMENT OF CLABENCE DABBOW 
 
 stay and still be right. As long as the world shall 
 last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected 
 and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last 
 forever. The objector and the rebel who raises 
 his voice against what he believes to be the in- 
 justice of the present and the wrongs of the past 
 is the one who hunches the world along. 
 
 Now, let me tell you another little incident here 
 to show the prejudice of these gentlemen, 
 
 When they burglarized my client's house in the 
 daytime, in violation of the State Constitution 
 and in violation of the provisions of the Federal 
 Constitution, they took from him " a circular, 
 gentlemen, you remember it; Mr. Barnhart read 
 it, with tears in his voice, and said, "My GU)d, 
 can it be." 
 
 What was it? Now, let me show you what they 
 are trying to do to you. That circular said that on 
 the 14th day of November— my client Kjar, I had 
 almost forgotten his name. Tou gentlemen could 
 not repeat the names of these defendants, much 
 less tell what they had done. I will show yau 
 f.fter a while just what they have done. It would 
 bring a blush to the face of any man who tried to 
 be fair, to be asked to convict a human being upon 
 the evidence. Now, it was Kjar who had a cir- 
 cular announcing that on the 14th day of Novem- 
 ber there was to be a picnic. It was on the same 
 date as the one that the Bolsheviks came into 
 power in Russia; the anniversary of the over- 
 
IN DElJ'ENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 53 
 
 throw of the Russian government ; they were cele- 
 brating it; there were to be pictures of street 
 scenes of Russia on the day, when the old regime 
 had fallen, and the people with high hopes and 
 fine dreams, dreams that perhaps will never be 
 realized, were ushering in the new. 
 
 All right, gentlemen, the world is full of those 
 pictures. ' ' The king is dead ; long live the king. ' ' 
 
 There never was a king who died but what the 
 deluded people thanked Grod that the king was 
 dead and looked forward with joy and hope be- 
 cause a new king was to rule. The old was dead, 
 and* in their imagination they dreamed of 
 plenty of prosperity, of food for the people, of 
 not too much work, but plenty of wages, of good 
 things to come because there was a new king; and 
 when his turn came to die they thanked God that 
 he was dead and another king had come. 
 
 Grentlemen, the poor old human race has been 
 doing that forever, thanking God for the things 
 they have got rid of, dreaming their dreams and 
 smoking their pipes, and living and -dying in the 
 delusion that some time the kingdom of heaven 
 wa^ to come to earth. 
 
 All right, gentlemen ; I am glad after all the long 
 and weary ages, that Russia had hers ; 1 am glad 
 and I hope that they were happy for a time. I 
 hope they rejoiced over the death of the old, I 
 hope they rejoiced at the passing of that night 
 which had hung over Russia for long, weary 
 years. On the 7th day of November, 1917, the old 
 
54 ABGUMBNT OF CLARENCE DABBOW 
 
 was overthrown and the new was bom, and 
 on the 7th day of November, 1919, two years later, 
 my clients — 
 
 Mr. Comerford: You are mistaken, Mr. Dar- 
 row. 
 
 Mr. Darrow: What is that? 
 
 Mr. Comerford : Yovi are mistaken, if you will 
 pardon me. That was the overthrow of the Keren- 
 sky government, not the overthrow of the Czar. 
 
 Mr. Darrow: Oh, pshaw. 
 
 Mr. Comerford: I simply iaterrupt, thinking 
 you want to be accurate. 
 
 Mr. Darrow: Of all the little, foolish, insig- 
 nificant things that men pick out, it is that the 
 overthrow of the Kerensky government was not 
 the real overthrow of the Czar. 
 
 Every man who knows anything about Keren- 
 sky never had the slightest faith in him and coun- 
 sel knows it. He has been driven out of most of 
 the important countries of Europe. He left Eus- 
 sia and his country. He was the first that 
 followed the Czar, and he left without stopping to 
 take the government with him or doing anything 
 except make speeches, a typical oratorical word 
 peddler, in no way fitted for the job; if his place 
 had not been taken by Lenin then the old tyrants, 
 whom you love and whom you would bring back 
 to power to complete the destruction of that un- 
 happy people, would have come back. There was 
 nothing between the Russian people and the 
 jnonarchy but Lenin, good or bad, and he has held 
 
IN DEFENSE OP THE COMMUNISTS 55 
 
 that country for three years, and I am glad he 
 has. 
 
 As I say, gentlemen, I am glad of it, and when 
 something hetter shall come I will be infinitely 
 glad of that; but the man who wishes Lenin's 
 power destroyed, that man is working for the 
 whip and the lash, and the dungeon, which jnade 
 slaves. of Eussians for a thousand. years. 
 
 Now don't make any mistake about that, gen- 
 tlemen; there can be no mistake about it. 
 
 Now, my deluded clients, if they had come to 
 me and asked whether they should celebrate the 
 overthrow of the Czar, I would have said, "No, 
 you are crazy; the people don't want it; let them 
 alone ; you may not belong in the penitentiary be- 
 cause yoiji think you can help the world, but you 
 belong in the insane asylum, for the world doesn't 
 want to be helped." That is what I would have 
 said, then I would probably have gone and tried 
 to help. That is the difference between reason 
 .and impulse. 
 
 My clients held a celebration on November 7th, 
 1919, two years after Lenin assumed the govern- 
 ment in Russia, to keep the old regime out of 
 power; and Jack Carney I supposed made a 
 speech. Well, I hope he enjoyed making it and 
 had a good' time; they showed pictures of the 
 celebration in Moscow, where the people came to- 
 gether in mad acclaim, because the old was dead 
 and the new was bom. 
 
 How I do like to look at those pictures of those 
 
56 AEOUMENT OF CLARENCE DABBOW 
 
 enthusiasts who had a dream of what was coining 
 true. I do not like to look at the picture after 
 it has come true. They are like the pictures of 
 the troops in Berlin marching proudly to the 
 front; and the troops in Vienna naarching proud- 
 ly to the front, and the troops in France march- 
 ing proudly to the front ; and the troops every- 
 where marching proudly to the front; and now 
 the glory is over for the war is done. 
 
 They had this celebration on the 7th of Novem- 
 ber, two years after Lenin came into power. 
 
 Well, now, gentlemen, let me tell you a little 
 i^tory. It won't take me very long to tell it and 
 it is applicable to this case^ 
 
 I got a card on the 14th day of June, I think it 
 was, just a little while ago. Some aristocratic 
 gentlemen, who believe in'jails for Chicago', were 
 liolding a celebration over the fall of the Bastille 
 in Paris a hundred and fifty odd years ago. 
 
 Qf course they believed in jails here; but the 
 Fiench people, in 1779 or thereabouts, destroyed 
 the Bastille in Paris by a mob, and we could cele- 
 brate that unconstitutional event in Chicago. 
 
 Isn't it marvelous how a Chicago man does like 
 liberty in some other country? 
 
 I can get together all the bankers in Chicago 
 for a feast in commemoration of the French rev- 
 olution, and after they get quieted down a little 
 about their money and over their fear of Bol- 
 shevism we could get them all together in com- 
 
IN t)ES*EKSE OP THE COMMTTlTISTS 57 
 
 memoration of the Russian revolution and the 
 triumph of Lenin. 
 
 You can get men to be patriotic over freedom 
 ior any country on earth except their own; and 
 that is a misfortune, that is all. That is what my 
 clients here did not know. They thought that 
 men could be just as patriotic over liberty at home 
 as they could over liberty abroad. 
 
 No, it can not be- done. It just can not be 
 done. But I got that invitation. I had ac- 
 cepted it a few years before. This time I did not 
 because I was busy trying to find twelve good men 
 and true in this case, like Diogenes going out 
 with his lantern to hunt an honest m*an; I don't 
 suppose he knew whether^ he had found him, and 
 T don't -know whether I did, but still we all keep 
 on trying. 
 
 Well, our people got together to celebrate the 
 fall of the Bastille in France. I approved, al- 
 though I did not celebrate ; I approve of any bas- 
 tille falling now and then. It was high time that 
 tijmbled; in my mind's eye I saw this picture. 
 
 I saw a land that had been fair and great; a 
 land where the rulers, through their worthless 
 lives, their reckless waste and their disregard of 
 human rights, had destroyed freedom and made 
 brutes of men ; where they had driven the people 
 to beggary that they might be rich and profligate ; 
 where they had taken all for the king and left 
 nothing for the poor; where if the poor disobeyed 
 their masters they were killed ; where the serf 
 
59 ARGUMENT OF CLAKBNOE DAEEOW 
 
 was a slave ; T saw that land suffering under cen^ 
 turies of cruelty, injustice and wrong. Almost in 
 a nig'lit I saw her slaves arise against the French 
 laws and constitution; I saw them rise against 
 the institutions that the strong had made ; against 
 the church and the state, and in one mad 
 frenay sweep these from the earth. I saw that 
 long line from Versailles marching on Paris, a 
 line led by an old woman in the front, with a 
 butcher knife in her hand and a great apron filled 
 with human heads ; I heard them singing the Mar- 
 seillaise, the song of freedom, as they went out 
 to wreak vengence and dealth upon the rulers for 
 the long night of cruelty and injustice that had 
 drenched the fair land of France with blood and 
 tears ; I saw them moving like the mad waves, a 
 nation aroused to action against the tyranny of 
 the ages ; I saw this mob led by the inspiring mar- 
 tial strains of the Marseillaise; I saw them suT- 
 round the Bastille and pound it into dust; I 
 saw coming from its grimy dungeons men who 
 had been so long confined that there were no rec- 
 ords of the time they were shut in, or the charge 
 on which'they came ; men whoge ey^s were dazzled 
 by the light of day when they left their gloomy 
 cells; I saw the pent-up feeling born of the op- 
 pression of all the ages turned loose in Paris; I 
 saw the mad holiday of an oppressed and outraged 
 people drunk with power. 
 
 For a time at least these despised one's were 
 rulers, for the old was dead and the new was 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 59 
 
 born ; I saw their banners and read thereon liber- 
 ty, equality, fraternity, and on the 14th day of 
 July we celebrated the madness of that righteous 
 mob; we rejoiced over the destruction of the old 
 and the birth of the new; all this was in Chicago, 
 where live the comfortable people who are prose- 
 cuting this case, the comfortable people who love 
 justice when it is far away, the comfortable people 
 who taKe a rebel to their hearts if he' is a long way 
 off, these smug men celebrated it; and the respect- 
 ables of America have been celebrating it for fifty 
 years because the event was in France, and long 
 ago. 
 
 And yet we are condemned because our dream- 
 ers went mad with joy over the same kind of a 
 revolution in Russia two years ago. 
 
 "Wait fifty years and you will find another pros- 
 ecutor— you will find another prosecutor trying 
 to send men to jail in Chicago while his employers 
 are having a dinner to celebrate the revolution in 
 Russia, that overthrew the Czar. 
 
 Are any of you sorry for the French revolu- 
 tion? I wonder if these prosecutors are sorry 
 for it. 
 
 Liberty was enthroned, the old was destroyed 
 and a new France was bom. Today we are cele- 
 brating it. The new rulers of France, kept their 
 place by the guillotine and the sword; they killed 
 Lhe king and they killed the queen, but the people 
 lived. 
 
 I remember a striking passage in CarlyJe, the 
 
60 ARGUMENT OF CLAKBNCE DABEOW 
 
 great Scotch philosopher ; he. told of the crueltiea 
 of France in this mad debauch of liberty. Car- 
 lyle said, "Yes, the guillotine was busy; yes, 
 blood flowed and men were killed, the nobles raved 
 and cursed and cried aloud, but this was the dif- 
 ference : through all the long ages it had been the 
 poor who were killed; it had been the poor who 
 died in a thousand ways ; now the rich were killed, 
 the guillotine- was busy with the thousands who 
 made the most noise ; the heads of those who were 
 chopped off were the heads of those who cried the 
 loudest and who could make their complaints 
 heard by the world, while the poor, the common 
 man, who, for years, had died in a thousand dif- 
 ferent ways, had met his end in the dumb silence 
 of despair; he was silent w^ith no one to listen to 
 his wrongs until one day he arose in his wrath and 
 swept the powerful from the earth." 
 
 The people had their wa,y in Paris until the man 
 on horse-back came and all the civilized world has 
 been wishing that Napoleon were still alive that 
 be might have commanded in this last great war. 
 Still Napoleon was hated more than any man the 
 world had known; England feared him, Gennany 
 hated him, all the world despised him; they feared 
 and hated the revolution then, that revolution 
 which Victor Hugo called the greatest event in 
 history, that revolution which we all approve 
 today. 
 
 Grentlemen, we forget. If the people of Chicago 
 can celebrate the fall of the Bastille, why should 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 61 
 
 not my clients celebrate the fall of Nicholas, old 
 Nick? 
 
 I wish they could have got along without kill- 
 ing him or shedding any royal blood, but with all 
 the crimes of all the Czars on his head nothing 
 else could have been written in the book of fate. 
 
 Long ago it was written down that "without 
 the shedding of blood there can be no remission 
 of sins;" and it would be strange, indeed, if the 
 blood that had been shed in France ; it would be 
 strange, indeed, if the sufferings that Russia has 
 undergone could be paid for in any other coin but 
 blood. , 
 
 Gentlemen, we have had another example of the 
 outside influences which I want to refer to, be- 
 cause these arer the real things in this most ex- 
 traordinary case. 
 
 Why will you gentlemen find my clients guilty 
 if you shall return such a verdict? I can discuss 
 in an hour all the real things that there are in this 
 case. Now let us see what else they say. 
 
 Here is my friend, Procter. He keeps a book 
 store on Clark street; and like anybody who keeps 
 a book store, it makes no difference what he sells, 
 you can find something worth while in almost any 
 book. He has a little book store, where he keeps 
 "radical literature," whatever "radical litera- 
 ture" may be. Of course, fashions in books 
 change like fashions in clothes. It was once the 
 Bible that_was radical. Again it was John "Wesley 
 who was radical, and people were sent to prison 
 
62 ARGUMENT OF CLARENCE DARROW 
 
 because they believed in him. Again to oppose 
 witchcraft was radical. 
 
 Everything is radical in its turn. The only way 
 I can tell what is radical is to find out how your 
 belief differs from mine. 
 
 Procter had a radical book store. They took 
 my friend Heth down there. Now Heth is a law- 
 yer, a good one, too, and, as I have already re- 
 marked to the jury, I like Mr. Heth, and if he was 
 not in this job he would be all right. 
 
 But what does he do, gentlemen? Why, he went 
 over there with a policeman and without any war- 
 rant, and without any excuse, he raided the store; 
 he violated the Constitution of the State that he 
 is bound to support; he violated the provisions 
 of the Federal Constitution, and he did an utterly 
 lawless act, and for what, gentlemen of the jury, 
 do you suppose he did it? 
 
 Why, he thought that if he rushed in ihere and 
 took Procter like a thief in the night he would 
 find something, didn't he? 
 
 He thought he would find something, he thought 
 he would find some evidence on him and he 
 thought -he would give him no chance to get rid 
 of it? 
 
 Now, gentlemen, he had no authority to take it. 
 He went in there and he took out his books and 
 his records and Procter said, "There are my 
 books and my records, take them," the records of 
 the small transactions of a group of men who met 
 in his back room looking for the kingdom of Qod 
 
liif DEFENSE Of THE COMMTJNIStS 63 
 
 in the distant future; he got these radical books, 
 books that Procter had for sale, some were bound 
 with red covers. 
 
 Great God, gentlemen, red covers. 
 
 If they have good luck with this jury, they will 
 doubtless pass a law that wherever red appears 
 on a flag' or on a book or in the Aurora Borealis, 
 ii must be painted black. 
 
 They took away his books. There were some 
 copies of the "Eevolutionary Age" of July 5th. 
 Now mind, this raid was made on the first day of 
 January, or the second, six months after July 
 5th, and after the Communist Labor Party had 
 been organized in September, and after the Com- 
 munist Labor Party bad adopted its platform. 
 Every person who joined it, and every one affil- 
 iated with it, was bound by the convention of the 
 Communist Labor' Party ; but on January 2nd, 
 they raided his store and they find a copy of the 
 "Revolutionary Age" of July 5th, whicb pub- 
 lished the "Left "Wing Manifesto" adopted in 
 New York. 
 
 Now, let me say that while I know little about 
 you tw;elve men, we are bound to take a chance in 
 this world, and I have got to take a chance on you, 
 and here it is. While this looks easy to me, per- 
 haps it is not. 
 
 You know, and every ordinary lawyer knows, 
 that a thing does not always go because it is sensi- 
 ble. yVe know that it goes because it goes. 
 
 That paper of July 5th contained a published 
 
64 ARGUMENT or CLABBNOE DABEOW 
 
 copy of the Left Wing Manifesto which was 
 passed in New York about July first. 
 
 Now, if Mr. Procter had that paper as an agent 
 for all of my wicked clients, and he was selling 
 the Left Wing Manifesto, in January, 1919, be- 
 cause he was the agent of my wicked clients, then 
 they are bound. by that platform; but if ie had it 
 just as he had all the rest of the literature for sale, 
 his individual act, a paper for sale publi-shed three 
 months before the party was bom then it was 
 Procter's act, and they are in no way bound by it. 
 Now, what do you think about it? Why did they 
 take it? I will tell you why they took it, gentle- 
 raen. They took it because this platform of July 
 fitb, the Left Wiag Platform, which was adopted 
 by a committee in New York two months before 
 tliese Communists made their platform, has 
 something in it that is stronger than the Com- 
 munist Labor platform in Chicago. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I trust you won't forget it. 
 That is why that paper with the Left Wing Plat- 
 form, which the Chicago Communist Labor Party 
 utterly repudiated, was offered in this case. The 
 Communist Labor platform adopted in Chicago 
 in September provided that no one could join the 
 party or organize a local unless tljey were bound 
 by^the Chicago plan. 
 
 Gentlemen, that was the platform adopted by 
 my clients, and if they ever conspired in the 
 world, they conspired when they got together on 
 September 5th and adopted this platform. 
 
TN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 65 
 
 Yet, gentlemen, they want you ta believe, con- 
 trary to your common sense, that Procter, who is 
 a book seller selling radical literature, had on 
 sale the "Left Wing Manifesto," not because he 
 was a book seller selling radical listerature, but 
 because he was an agent of the Communist Labor 
 Party; that he distributed this Left Wing Mani- 
 festo as their agent when they had explicitly 
 turned it down and made a platform of their own. 
 own. 
 
 Gentlemen, if my clients were charged with 
 murder, with robbery or with burglary, no lawyer 
 in the world would argue under circumstances 
 like these, that a jury should say that he did not 
 have this literature as a book dealer, but that he 
 did have it as the agent of a political party, when 
 that political party had utterly repudiated it and 
 made a platform of its own. They know it and 
 it is little less than infamous to send them to 
 prison upon evidence like that ; and yet the whole 
 force of this case is made up of two things, gen- 
 tlemen. 
 
 Every word of evidence in this case is in that 
 Left Wing Manifesto and in the Moscow Mani- 
 festo, and our clients explicitly declared in their 
 platform what part of the Moscow Manifesto they 
 endorsed. 
 
 It is on these things, gentlemen, these guesses 
 and surmises and insinuations and falsehoods and 
 schemes and. traps and cobwebs that these prose- 
 cutors are trying to send to the penitentiary 
 
66 ARGUMENT OF CLARENCE DABROW 
 
 twenty'inen, and incidentally, gentlemen of the 
 jury, seeking to violate the Constitution of the 
 United States and of the State of Illinois; seek- 
 ing to place freedom of thought and freedom of 
 speech under such a ban that no man will ever 
 dare to think or ever dare to speak again in a 
 land which once was free. 
 
 Inferences have been thrown out here that a- 
 sympathetic strike is an illegal strike. 
 
 I do- not know what these gentlemen will say and 
 I do not care. If they want to argue to this jury 
 that a sympathetic strike is an illegal strike, all 
 right, gentlemen ; it will not be the only absurd 
 thing that you have argued to this jury. I have 
 respect for a man who strikes because he himself 
 needs, or thinks he needs, more to take care of his 
 family or himself, or for any other purpose of 
 the kind. 
 
 I have respect for the men who lay down their ' 
 tools and take a chance to better conditions for 
 themselves ; but, gentlemen, when a man wha has 
 a job and is making no claim for himself, when a 
 man who has a job will lay down his tools and quit 
 his job out of sympathy for his fellow man, whom 
 he believes is not treated right, I have infinitely 
 more respect for him; it shows a higher idealism, 
 it shows a greater sense of justice when a man 
 does this for some one else, than when he does it 
 for himself. 
 
 Long ago it was written, that "greater love hath 
 no man than this that he would give his life for 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 67 
 
 his friend." Greater love has no organization 
 than that it will lay down its tools in sympathy 
 \7ith its fellow man. 
 
 T may do something for myself and I am en- 
 titled to no credit for it ; but when I will risk pri- 
 v^ation and want and financial loss and ostracism 
 from my fellow men, for the sake of bettering the 
 conditions of the rest, whom I feel are suffering 
 injustice, then I am entitled to credit; and I care 
 not how many lawyers argue that a sympathetic 
 strike is illegal, and I care not how many legisla- 
 tures declare it, or how often judges say it, so 
 long 9.S men have human hearts and human feel- 
 ings and human sympathies and kindly emotions, 
 men will know that it is not. They will know that 
 the man who fights for his fellow man is a better 
 man than the one who' fights for himself. 
 
 There are some things higher than the laws. 
 There is an innate sense of justice; there is a 
 human sympathy on which the race lives, which is 
 its preservation, and these have persisted, while 
 laws have come and gone ; and woe be to the law 
 that gets in front of it, for no prosecutor is strong 
 enough to defend it. 
 
 You can not do it, gentlemen ; it will not be 
 t ried in this case. I wish it would, I wish counsel 
 would insist on what they started out to do, in- 
 stead of coming into this court at the eleventh 
 liour, after all this array before this jury, and 
 after every effort that has-been made to fasten 
 the Seattle strike on these defendants. 
 
68 AKGUMBNT OF CLARENCE DAEEOW 
 
 Let us see about the Seattle strike which It is 
 claimed the defendants endorsed. This began 
 with the shipyards strike, did it not in January, 
 1919? 
 
 The shipyards, as we gather from this testi- 
 mony, were financed and owned by the people in 
 the East. Of coursei they were; everything is 
 financed and owned by people in the East. These 
 sedition statutes were financed and passed in 
 more than twenty states after the war had closed, 
 by people in the East. 
 
 It is perfectly plain that twenty states passing 
 these same laws immediately after the close of 
 the war, were moved by a common purpose, and 
 were influenced by a common organization, and 
 that those statutes are there because someone 
 wanted them. And that, too, after we had lived 
 for a hundred and fifty years without them. 
 
 That is what I say about it. You can think of 
 it, do as you will, but some time, when reason has 
 regained its throne, if it ever does; or what is 
 more probable, when the human race has taken 
 some new frenzy and forgotten the old, America 
 will repent in sack cloth and ashes for the in- 
 justice that has been done to men under these 
 panic laws. 
 
 Now, they called the Seattle strike, and they 
 called it in sympathy with the ship builders^ and 
 how was it? 
 
 Mr. Comerford, in examining our witnesses, 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 69 
 
 paid, "Well, how many^ restaurants did you 
 open?" 
 
 "Twelve or fifteen, I don't know how many." 
 
 "How big were they?" 
 
 "Well, I don't know how big, some of them as 
 big as this room and some of them twice as big 
 as this room." 
 
 "Q. How many people were there in Seat- 
 tle?" 
 
 "400,000." 
 
 "How many milk shops did you open?-" 
 
 "Oh, I don't member, twenty." 
 
 "How many people?" 
 
 "400,000." 
 
 And these wicked strikers, gentlemen of the 
 jury, these wicked strikers, because they did not 
 (•pen more eating houses, and more milk shops; 
 these trade unions, gentlemen, these trades unions 
 tire guilty and their guilt reflects back on my 
 clients. 
 
 Now, let me call your attention to something 
 else. 
 
 They have brought Ole Hanson, former Mayor 
 of Seattle, here and they had another person here, 
 and with the means at their disposal they could 
 have brought all they wanted here. 
 
 Let me ask you if there is any evidence in this 
 case that a single person went hungrj% that a 
 single person failed to get food and milk? Not 
 one. The strikers were not bound to open a 
 single restaurant in Seattle, not one. A week's 
 
70 ARGUMENT OF CLAKENOE DAREOW 
 
 notice liad been served. Ole Hanson, Seattle's 
 Mayor, could have done that if he had wanted 
 to, the strikers were not bound to do it. They 
 were striking in sympathy with the shipyards 
 strikers and all they needed to do was to strike. 
 If Ole Hanson wanted restaurants let him get 
 busy instead of writing foolish and criminal 
 proclamations to make money out of the Amer- 
 ican people. 
 
 What did they do when they commenced this 
 , strike? They did what no strikers ever did in 
 Chicago in my experience; they did what I don't 
 recall any other committee ever doing, although 
 they may have done it. They went clear beyond 
 any duty that rested upon them, and they show- 
 ed their sympathy and their common feeling, is 
 there any doubt about that, gentlemen of the 
 jury? 
 
 Before they ever called this strike, they made 
 arrangements so that everyone" could be fed, 
 whether he was a striker or not. 
 
 Of course, there were some people who ate 
 at home, I suppose they did not all eat in res- 
 taurants, they never do in any community that 
 I know anything about. 
 
 The unions themselves made those arrange- 
 ments, and I have heard them criticized because 
 they furnished tickets to their members' at 
 twenty-five cents apiece where they charged the 
 ordinary public thirty-five cents. "Well, why not, 
 gentlemen? Why not? And yet this is urged 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 71 
 
 before this jury as a reason why you should con- 
 vict these men who have done nothing; against 
 whom there is not a breath except these preju- 
 dices which have been gathered from the four cor- 
 ners of the earth. 
 
 The unions were not bound to furnish food for 
 Seattle. Men who are engaged in an industrial 
 struggle, have the right to carry on their strug- 
 gle, and if the other side' can not live, let them 
 make terms, that is all. 
 
 But these men in Seattle went further than men 
 generally go. The first thing they did was to 
 provide places to eat and places to buy milk, 
 and provided that the lights should not be turn- 
 ed off. 
 
 Gas was left flowing, electricity was left 
 running, telephones were running and every- 
 body was fed; the only man who was creating 
 any disturbance was Mayor Ole Hanson;. 
 
 Now, they brought two witnesses here, one of 
 them Wilson. Now, gentlemen, I want to speak 
 to you about Wilson, and I am going to speak 
 about him and take the chance of Mr. Comerford's 
 waving the Starry Banner in front of you, which 
 I know he will do anyway, and talking about 
 everything except the case. Mr. Wilson was 
 wounded in the wrist, and he was gassed, and he 
 says that he was shipwrecked coming home from 
 the war. 
 
 1 want to be' absolutely on the square with this 
 jury. No man believed that the United States' 
 
72 ARGUMENT OF CLARENCE DABROW 
 
 duty was to enter thi swar more than I did ; and 
 so far as I could, I helped to the best of my ability 
 and strength as Mr. Bamhart has told you. 
 
 No man has more respect for the soldiers 
 dead and the soldiers living, who did their 
 part in the allied cause than I. There prob- 
 ably are men who are more patriotic. I never 
 inade a dollar out of patriotism in my life, and I 
 never expect to; so I know that there are 
 men who are more patriotic because they are get- 
 ting more out of it than I ever wanted to get. I 
 prefer my own country to any other, and I am 
 willing to stand by it in most things it usually 
 does. I do not think it has always been right; I 
 do not think any country always right; and I re- 
 serve my right as an individual tO' criticize it 
 when I think i.t is wrong; and I always shall re- 
 serve it unless I shall have a change of heart; and 
 if no man did criticize our liberties would soon be 
 lost. 
 
 I believe that my country was right in this war. 
 I was for it with all my heart and strength. I 
 believe in the group feeling which binds people 
 to their country, but I db not believe in the super- 
 stition which says that whatever my country does 
 is right, and, I certainly do not believe in making 
 money out of my devotion to my native land. 
 
 Now let us see about Wilson. Lawyers are fun- 
 ny^fellows. I think Wilson, in all of his early life, 
 was little less than a tramp. Mr. Bamhart, Coun- 
 sel for the State, testified in this case, and I do not 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 73 
 
 object to his tfi^stifying, he is a nice fellow, but 
 if what he say® is true, he has got the most curious 
 mind I ever knew. , 
 
 Barnhart said he lay awake the other night 
 thinking, seeing if he could remember what hap- 
 pened to him when he was a boy. He has the 
 queerest mind I ever saw. Of course, it is different 
 frpm mine, but my memory of my early Ufe is 
 distinct and clear. I have talked to' a great many 
 people and Mr. Barnhart 's psychology is different 
 from any man's that I ever knew. 
 
 Now here is Wilson, who, at the age of about 
 thirty-five, went to war, enlisting in the Canadian 
 araiy. 
 
 He spent his life beforfe going to war, all the 
 way from Ne^ Jersey to— well, to the Klondike 
 or close to the Klondike, he has been a perpetual 
 traveler. If he had walked to all of thiese places 
 be would never have done anything but walk all 
 of his life, for thirty-five years. He never stop- 
 ped anywhere long enough to catch his breath or 
 to do a day's work, and he could scarcely tell who 
 employed him for any length of time, except he 
 does think he worked for somebody twice, al- 
 together six months, putting the two times to- 
 gether, and then he prospected. Well, he is a 
 prospector for fair, that is what be was doing in 
 Seattle after he got back from the war. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, you heard him. In all his 
 thirty-five years he could scarely mention the 
 name of a man that h© worked for. He did give 
 
74 ARGUMENT OF CLARENCE DABROW 
 
 you- two or three names, and he gave them to you 
 in such a way as to make you think that he was, 
 making them out of his head. I don't know where 
 he lived or who he is, and I was more doubtful 
 after he spoke about it than I was before. 
 
 Let me ask you, I don't want you to be influenc- 
 pd by Mr. Bamhart's mind or by my mind. You 
 would gb wrong, probably, if you did ; at least Jf 
 you took his mind; but I fancy the ordinary mind 
 can go back to its childhood, at least until he is 
 five years old, and he can tell the names of all the 
 boys that he playeid with and all the men who 
 were his neighbors and all places he went through 
 and all the work he did. Of course, he wiir mag- 
 nify the work more or less, but he remembers it, 
 and he can trace his life and he can tell just where 
 he spent his time and just what he has done, and 
 the names of all the people that he has met, un- 
 til he gets along— well, at my time or along about 
 Mr. Forrest's time, although he is younger than 
 I am, and then we are apt to forget the names of 
 the people that we meet and forget other things 
 as well. We look at a man and say, "Well, I 
 know your face but I don't know your name;" 
 but in all your childhood, in all your youth, and 
 in all the time of your young manhood you know 
 all of them; and I undertake to say that the life 
 of every man on this jury is just the same as mine. 
 It is no trouble for me to go back to five years oi 
 age and tell who lived across the street and who 
 lived down the lane, and who lived across the 
 
IN DEFENSE OP THE COMMUNISTS 75 
 
 field, and what they did, the first names and the 
 last names and all about them and myself. It 
 might be some trouble for me to remember the 
 names of those I knew since I was sixty, because 
 the brain, you know, is born perfectly plastic, just 
 like putty. The impressions of youth and child- 
 hood are made upon plastic substance, and the 
 impressions are deep and set. As it hardens they 
 stay forever, but as it hardens the new impres- 
 sions are not as deep as they once were. 
 
 The impressions on an old brain are fainit, if 
 any, and they pass away, but your brain and my 
 brain, recalls the early things; you know all 
 about them, and Wilson knew all about them, but 
 he didn't tell, and I fancy Mr. Bamhart knows 
 all about his. Now, if he does not he is different 
 from anybody else. He might have a case of 
 aphasia, or whatever it is, or he might have 
 made the best of it for this jury, but there is no 
 man on this jury who does not know that his 
 statements were not true. This man Wilson knew 
 everything that he had done, and if his story is 
 true, he had been a tramp and nothing else. 
 
 I am glad he went to war, I am glad of it; but 
 gentlemen let us make no mistake about that war 
 business. 
 
 And right here, gentlemen, let me say that I 
 appreciate full well that I am travelling where 
 ordinarily a man would say that he had to watch 
 his step; I know the connection that members of 
 this jury had with the war, and I know there is 
 
76 AKGUMENT OP CLARENCE DABEOW 
 
 not a thing that I will say in my argument that 
 can be twisted or made misleading that will not 
 be done for the benefit of this jury. 
 
 I have said th^.t I respected the men who went 
 to war for what they did; whether they were 
 drafted or went voluntarily; but gentlemen, men 
 are not made over just because they go to war. 
 A man who was a crook and an adventurer before 
 he went to war will probably be one when he gets 
 back, and you may talk all the pyrotechnics that 
 you please, but that is true. 
 
 There is one soldier over here in the County 
 jail under sentence of death today for killing his 
 wife. There is another over here in jail to be 
 placed on trial next week for killing his wife. 
 
 Almost every day they come into these courts 
 just the same as every other man, and there is 
 just as many of them in the penitentiary and just 
 ks many of them going wrong as there are of 
 other people, and no more. You know it and coim- 
 s&l knows it, whatever he says to you he knows 
 it. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, if a boy had within him the 
 instincts of manhood when he went to war, he 
 had them when he came back home. 
 
 I will go further than that, there are boys who 
 never had been developed, and who have been 
 made men by the infinite trials and sufferings of 
 this great war; but as a rule they are the same 
 afterwards as they were before. 
 
 I give them credit for all they -did, for all they 
 
IN DEFENSE OP THE COMMUNISTS 77 
 
 suffered, and I give this witness credit for all lie 
 suffered, that is all right; but I oau not forget 
 what he was, and still is; nor can I forget this, 
 gentlemen of the jury, that he has not reformed. 
 
 Now what did he do? Let us take his story for 
 it. If you want to blame him all right, blame 
 him. Let us take his story. 
 
 He said he was gassed. He took two months' 
 pay from the government while he was recover- 
 ing. All right. I am glad he got it. I want to 
 see everybody who was iajured and everybody 
 who suffered loss fully paid. 
 
 But then he went up into Canada, and what 
 did he do? He began detective work and began 
 at once, and then he comes down to Seattle, gentle- 
 men. 
 
 He comes down to Seattle within two or three 
 months, and what did he do? 
 
 He joined the organization of Soldiers and Sail- 
 ors and Workingmen, did he not, as a secretary 
 of some sort, at $5.00 a day? 
 
 But does he join it as secretary? 
 
 No, he did not join it as the secretary, he only 
 pretended to be the secretary. He joined it as a 
 detective, didn't he? 
 
 The first thing he did when he got out, and he 
 did almost nothing before he got in, was to take 
 a job at $5.00 a day as detective; and on the side, 
 according to his own story, he raked off some 
 money from Swayne who thought he was his 
 friend, that was what he did. 
 
78 ARGUMENT OF CLAKJINCE DABEOW 
 
 Now what was lie doing there? You know what 
 he was doing, he told yon. This crooked, sinnat- 
 ing spy, this crooked man in a crooked trade, 
 went to the carpenters, he went to the engineers, 
 he went to the Labor Temple, pretending to be 
 one of them, and their friend, holding his ear open 
 and carrying reports to his employer, didn't he? 
 
 He was there, just as for the last hundred years, 
 this same class of sneaks have infested every labor 
 organization in the United States and in England 
 —to trick and beguile and spy while claiming' to 
 be honest men. 
 
 I don't care if his blood crimsoned the whole 
 ocean, he is a detective and a spy and nothing on 
 earth can change him. 
 
 I say, gentlemen, no right thinking man has 
 any kind of regard for that sort of fellow. No- 
 body, even the man who hires him. You can not 
 tell which side he is on. He will hire out on one 
 side and then work for the other side. An honest 
 man can not do that. The man who does it will 
 make any kind of reports and tell any kind of a 
 story that fits his case, because lying is his tradie. 
 To pretend to a man that he is one thing when he 
 is another is a lie, out of which he lives. 
 
 And what about him? What did he do in this 
 case? 
 
 He said he was secretary, although he was not 
 a secretary in good faith. He said he was sec- 
 retary of the Soldiers, Sailors and Workingmen. 
 , The Soldiers, Sailors and Workingmen, had noth- 
 
IN DEFENSE OP THE COMMUNISTS 79 
 
 ing to do with the strike. Their organization 
 was not represented in the Metal trades or in the 
 Central Union. There might have been men con- 
 nected with the Soldiers, Sailors and Working- 
 men who were, but they came from some other 
 organization and had no connection directly with 
 the Central Labor body. They were not connect- 
 '^ed with it in any way. 
 
 Mr. Wilson, if he tells the truth— which per- 
 haps he does and perhaps he does not— spent his 
 time distributing money. He did not tell you 
 what for, he did not tell you where it went, and 
 probably it is just as well for him that he did not. 
 He did not tell you that; he spent his time trying 
 to get evidence against the men whose- friend he 
 pretended to be. 
 
 He says that one day he went up to the Labor 
 Temple— not the Labor Temple, but the Collins 
 Building— or maybe twice, and he saw baskets 
 there, and he saw two Qr three baskets opened 
 and there were revolvers in those baskets. 
 
 Well now, gentlemen, let us see about it. I 
 think he is lying. Let me tell you why I think 
 so. 
 
 In the first place I think so because it is impos- 
 sible for that kind of a man to tell the truth and 
 because he did not tell the truth to this jury about 
 where he had been and what he had done. 
 
 I think it is impossible because every witness 
 in this case, including Ole Hanson, every witness 
 said that this strike was absolutely peaoeeble; 
 
80 ARGUMENT OF CL.ABENOE DAEBOW 
 
 not a gun shot; not an assault and battery; not a 
 single show of arms; not a particle of force; even 
 the guards on the streets who were furnished by 
 the unions to see that no violence took plac©, even 
 these were armed only with a white ribbon which 
 they wore upon their coat. 
 
 Is there one man who can say that he ever saw 
 a gun, exept this slimy detective? 
 
 If I had been a member of that organization I 
 would have felt myself justified in having guns 
 iu there to defend the organization against the 
 people who might i3e stirred up by the vaporings 
 of Ole Hanson. They had a right to have thera 
 there. They had as much right to have them there 
 as a man has in his own home or any other or- 
 ganization, but I don't believe they had them.- 
 
 "Was there oi;ie upon the street? Was there one 
 in a public place? Was there one anywhere in 
 sight in the whole city? 
 
 And yet this piece of perjury, and if not per- 
 jury, utterly irrelevant stuff is brought into this 
 case, not to convict the Seattle strikers', whom 
 they say are all right, but to convict the defend- 
 ants, to convict my clients. 
 
 Gentlemen, you have been men of affairs in 
 every walk of life and know the world acd its 
 purposes; you know the feelings and the passions 
 of men ; did you ever hear or, ever dream of any 
 case where the State tried to place men in prison 
 upoti evidence with which they were in no wise 
 connected, upon prejudice, upon feeling, upon 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 81 
 
 passion, upon hate, upon direct promises and 
 threats to the twelve men in the jury box, as they 
 have in this case? 
 
 If a jury upon this evidence could take away the 
 liberty of any human being, then in this land in 
 times of stress and tribulations and trials, in this 
 land any man may be jobbed by the very jury 
 that history has shown to be the last refuge be- 
 tween the defendant and his accusers. 
 
 Gentlemen of the jury, there is not a scrap of 
 evidence in this case that is in keeping with the 
 testifliony of Wilson; there is not a fact about 
 Seattle in keeping with it, not one. It is pract- 
 ically disputed by their own witness, Ole Hanson. 
 
 Now let me say a little about Ole Hanson, 
 gentlemen. 
 
 He was the Mayor of Seattle, a man who, like, 
 everybody else, is just the kind of a fellow that 
 the Lord makes him. You can not add to him or 
 take away from him. At least it would be danger- 
 ous to take much away from him, and I am afraid 
 you can not add to him. 
 
 He was Mayor. This strike came on the town; 
 very likely he could not help it. His town is not 
 the first one where a strike has occurred; we have 
 had them here in Chicago; we have had them in 
 New York; we have had them in practically every 
 big city in the country; and we will probably 
 have them for years to come; there is nothing 
 strange or remarkable about it; the only strange 
 and remarkable thing about this is that it was 
 
82 AUGUMENT OF CLABENOB DARROW 
 
 such a general strike. There was peace and or- 
 der, and the citizens were well protected, which 
 shows exactly what the strikers tried to do and 
 what they did do. 
 
 Ole Hanson, evidently figuring with the Cham- 
 ber of Commerce, or with some of the other- peo- 
 ple of wealth and influence in the community, al- 
 lowed himself to be influenced by them. That is 
 almost always the case. He was the mayor of 
 this city. He has not shown, in a single instance, 
 that there was any trouble, aily riot, any assault 
 or any fear of trouble. No one in this case' has 
 shown where, in a single instance, there was any 
 effort to take hold of the business of the city or 
 any >interf erenoe in any way with any of the mu- 
 nicipal departments, and yet they started here 
 with a flourish to prove to you that Seattle was 
 an illustration of what was meant in this Mani- 
 festo, of taking possession of political power. 
 
 Where did anybody try it, where was it done? 
 Where was it suggested, where did this thing 
 come from, anyhow? 
 
 Ole Hanson had no such thought, at least, not 
 before he left Seattle; he had no such thought 
 while he was actinig as mayor; he had no such 
 thought while he was dealing with the organiza- 
 tion. 
 
 Every proclamation issued by the workers, 
 every statement issued in connection with thisr 
 strike; showed that they were engaged simply in 
 a sympathetic strike, to help the ship workers. 
 They called on the business men by proclamation 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 83 
 
 I 
 
 saying, ' ' That your interests lie with us as against 
 these non-resident ship owners; if wages are rais- 
 ed there will be more money to spend with you. ' ' 
 
 This certainly does not indicate any intention 
 of taking over the city; taking over the indus- 
 tries; or doing anything except using their power 
 to get more wages for their fellows, who no doubt 
 deserved them, but whether they deserved them 
 or not they thought they did and that was enough. 
 
 Hanson had several interviews, most of them 
 flatly contradicted by Duncan, many of them ut- 
 terly inconsistent with his own statement made at 
 other times and shown in'this case. 
 
 Where does he show that anybody ever under- 
 took to take his job or any other job or perform 
 any of the functions that he or the city adminis- 
 trations were performing or take anybody's in- 
 dustry or anybody's business? 
 
 And yet, gentlemen, they come here and carry 
 that inference to this jury. 
 
 Now let me show you something which proves 
 that no one ever dreamed of such a thing until 
 Counsel thought it was necessary to make a case. 
 
 Notice of this strike was given, as I recall it, 
 on Sunday, the 2nd of February, that the strike 
 was to take place on Thursday, the 6th. It did 
 take place on Thursday, thei 6th. On Wednesday, 
 the 5th, Ole Hanson had a conference with the 
 labor men in charge of this strike. He had a right 
 to take every precautiqn necessary for the city 
 during the time of the strike. 
 
84 ARGUMENT OF CLARENCE. DARROW 
 
 He had another conference the 6th and another 
 one the 7th, and on the 7th, as he says, a commit- 
 tee of working men came in headed by Duncan; 
 came to his office, and he boastfully says he kept 
 them waiting f roin ten o 'clock in the morning until 
 three o'clock in the afternoon. They came there at 
 his request, to see what could be done to call off 
 this strike, which was just a day old; a strike 
 which was never meant for anything except to 
 gain the point by the workers of the shipyards ; he 
 kept them waiting there he says, all the af tetnoon. 
 
 Duncan denies this. He says Hanson called in 
 his friends from the Chamber of Commerce and 
 they had a conference, but Ole Hanson says that 
 while he was keeping these men waiting in his 
 outside office, he got busy and gave to the even- 
 ing papers what he called his proclamation, and 
 here it is,^ gentlemen, Ole Hanson's proclamation. 
 I fancy this is the first proclamation that he ever 
 issued, and it probably will be the last. 
 
 I want to call your attention, gentlemen, to 
 what is in it, and to what is not in it, as showing 
 the falsity of these witnesses; to show you that 
 nobody ever had the remotest thought of taking 
 possession of the City of Seattle or doing any- 
 thing except winning this strike. As shoiwn to 
 you, the strike was conducted for perfectly law- 
 ful purposes by a body of patriotic workingmen, 
 and the only bad thing about it was that Hanson 
 thought it was bad. 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 85 
 
 Now what did Ole think on the 7th day of Feb- 
 ruary, 1919, when he issued his proclamation? 
 
 Here it is: 
 
 "To the People of Seattle: By virtue of the 
 authority vested in me as Mayor I hereby guar- 
 antee to all of the people of Seattle absolute and 
 complete protection. ' ' 
 
 And yet, from the beginning to the end, not 
 a man was interfered with in any way. 
 
 "They should go about their daily work and 
 business in perfect security." 
 
 Why not? 
 
 "We have fifteen hundred policemen, fifteen 
 hundred regular soldiers from Oamp Lewis, and 
 can and will secure, if necessary, every soldier in 
 the northwest to protect life, business and prop- 
 erty." 
 
 All of which were safer in that four or five 
 days of strike than before or since, in the history 
 of Seattle. 
 
 ' ' The time has come for every person in Seattle 
 to show their Americanism." 
 
 To show their Americanism? 
 
 "Go about your daily duties without fear. We 
 will see to it" 
 
 We will see to it? 
 
 "—that you have food, transportation, water, 
 light, gas and all necessities. The anarchists in 
 this community shall not rule its affairs." 
 
 The anarchjsts in this community shall not rule 
 its affairs? 
 
86 ARGUMENT OP CLARENCE DARROW 
 
 "All persons violating the law will be dealt 
 with, summarily." 
 
 It is signed ' ' Ole Hanson, Mayor. ' ' 
 
 Now, gentlemen, up to that time and after that 
 time not a single voice had beien raised against 
 business and good order, not a single thing had 
 happened in Seattle, as peaceable as on a Sunday 
 morning, and everybody says so including their 
 witnesses. 
 
 Property and life were properly secured, and 
 yet they have carried the inference here, and 
 Hanson has said that he heard a wild speech at 
 the comer of Fourth Avenue and some other 
 street, that the strikers were going to assume the 
 control of the city, and Wilson had been report- 
 ing to his employers these statements that he had 
 gained as a spy; reporting that they were going 
 to get control of the city and usurp the functions 
 of the city. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, pray tell me why, on the 7th 
 day of February, after this strike had been brew- 
 ing for a week; after repeated conferences by the 
 Mayor with the strike committee; after this 
 sleuth had been going in and out and making his 
 reports; after every effort had been made to stir 
 up violence by these agents; after all this time, 
 pray tell me why Ole Hanson issued his procla- 
 mation and never in any way referred to any ef- 
 fort of these strikers to take control of the city ; to 
 interfere with property; to usurp the functions 
 of the State; or to do a single unlawful thing? 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 87 
 
 Think you, gentlemen, tliat if there had been 
 any effort to do any of these things, Ole would 
 not have spoken of it? 
 
 Think you the proclamations would not have 
 come so thick and fast that he would, never need 
 another line of advertising as long as he lived? 
 
 Think you that this cheap, advertising, money- 
 mad man would have overlooked an opportunity 
 to bring to the world what they were doing? Do 
 you think that he would have' overlooked an op- 
 portunity to be advertised on all the fences and 
 all the sign boards all over the United States, so 
 that he might make money for the heroism he 
 showed in this battle^? 
 
 Why didn't he say something about it? Why 
 , didn 't he call the attention of the City of Seattle 
 to it? Wby didn't he call the attention of the 
 Government of the United States to this fact, if 
 it had been a fact? Why did he never raise his 
 voice or raise his hand to protect the administra- 
 tion of the city, if the city was in any danger? 
 
 Never once did he refer to this until he began 
 to coin his notoriety into money, then this great 
 patriot -talked about something that never hap- 
 pened. 
 
 Now let me say one other thing about Ole Han- 
 son. 
 
 I told you that I did not believe his t'Ostimony, 
 and I do not. 
 
 Now, there is one particular spot in this case 
 where Ole lies or Duncan lies, and if it is any- 
 
03 ARGUMENT OF CLABJBNCB DAREOW 
 
 thing of importance to you, that is, if it is of any 
 importance to you, you can determine which it 
 "was; I think I know which it was. It is important 
 to me only as showing the kind of man he was 
 and the effort that he has made in this case to 
 convict twenty men who are in no way respon- 
 sible for it, if it had been true. 
 
 After this case was finished, and the last 
 word had been spoken on both sides, the State 
 called Ole Hanson, for his second engagement, 
 and they pulled out a book which had notjbeen 
 offered in evidence. in this case; no juror has any 
 chance to know what its contents are, and it 
 probably would have nothing to do with it if they 
 did, and they passed the book to Oile and asked 
 him where he got it. 
 
 When Mr. Duncan was on the witness stand 
 after Ole had tol^ his story, which was meant to 
 link up these defendants with an attempt to 
 usurp the powers of government, when all they 
 could link them up with was the quietest, the 
 most orderly, the most carefully conducted, and 
 the worthiest strike that America has ever" seen, 
 according to the evidence in this case. 
 
 They pulled out this little book, "Soviets at 
 Work," and they said, " Mr. -Duncan, did you 
 give this to Ole Hanson," and he answered it 
 promptly and said "Yes, I did." 
 
 "How did you happen to give it to him?" 
 "Why, Ole said he wanted one and asked me 
 
TN DEFEKSIT OF THE COMMUNISTS 89 
 
 if I could get it. I told him yes, and went out and 
 bought it, and I gave it to him." 
 
 He answered without a moment's hesitation, 
 he told the story plainly and truthfully; and then 
 after 01 e had testified, and they had never asKed 
 him a word about it, they called him back on the 
 witness stand, in rebuttal, as they call it, and 
 asked him where he got this book, and Ole says 
 this: 
 
 He says, "At one time about the beginning of 
 the strike, he says to Duncan, what do you fellows 
 want to do," and Duncan pulled out a book and 
 says, "You might read this and then you will 
 know. ' ' 
 
 And then Ole says, "The further you keep 
 away from Russia the better. ' ' 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I want to know who is lying. 
 I don't want to know— I do know, but I want you 
 to know, that is all; not that it makes any .differ- 
 ence in this case, but just for the fun of it, that is 
 all. ' 
 
 If Ole's statement is true, he came down here 
 to Chicago with this book in his pocket. He knew 
 all about it when he took the witness stand the 
 first time. 
 
 y When he took the witness stand the first time 
 he related all the conversations that he had with 
 Duncan and the strikers, he told the whole story, 
 and he would have told this story if it had been 
 true. 
 
 In relating the conversations with these strik- 
 
90 ARGUMENT OF CLARENCE DARROW 
 
 ers and with their agents when he went on the 
 witness stand in the first instance he would have 
 said to this jury that in the early stages of this 
 strike, or hefore the strike wa's called, Duncan 
 came to his office and passed him this book and 
 he says, "If you want to know what we want, read 
 this hook." 
 
 Then I, Ole, said, "The further you keep away 
 from Russia the better. ' ' 
 
 Wouldn't he have said itt You know he would 
 have said it, but he did not. He told his story 
 and related the incidents of every meeting and 
 left the witness stand. 
 
 They passed this book to Duncan, thinking in 
 some way that they might catch the man off his 
 guard, that he might forget his story as he told 
 it, then they put this miserable, contemptible 
 false story into his mouth, and he repudiates it 
 and Ole gets up here and swears to it. Grentle- 
 men, it is upon this kind of testimony that they 
 have built up this case. 
 
 Is Ole Hanson hard to understand? Is he? 
 Doesn't he show, all over him, the marks of a 
 cheap poser? Doesn.'t he show all over him evi- 
 dence of a lightheaded, notoriety hunter? Think 
 of it, gentlemen? Imagine one of you. Suppose 
 you had been the hero of this bloody strike. Sup- 
 pose you had preserved civilization and Amer- 
 icanism, because you were such a great and such 
 a brave and such a noble Mayor? Suppose that 
 you had bared your breast to this mob, that opens 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 91 
 
 up milk stations and eating houses and carefully 
 guards the peace of the city? Suppose that you 
 had earned the plaudits of your fellowmen and 
 the enconiums of the press? Suppose that you 
 had done that and suppose that you had been 
 heralded by State's Attorneys as the great savior 
 of the world, what would you have done? 
 
 Well, I fancy you would have stuck to your 
 job? I fancy you would have stayed right there 
 and run the job; But not Ole, oh no, not Ole. 
 When he was advertised from one end of America 
 to another for his fool proclamation because he 
 was the jumping jack Mayor of Seattle, when 
 his advertising was worth thousands in lecture 
 courses, he forthwith lays down his job and leaves 
 Seattle to go to the dogs, or to the workingmen, 
 as the case might be. 
 
 The captain deserts the army, and the pilot 
 gets off the ship and lets Seattle go to the devil 
 while he rakes in the shekels. 
 
 Now, that is Ole; that is Ole Hanson, the cheap, 
 vaudeville performer. 
 
 If there was a museum down here on Clark 
 Street that is where you would find him this after- 
 noon, with the stuffed white horse that figured 
 in the Oronin case. 
 
 He left the Mayoralty of Seattle to make sev- 
 enty thousand dollars a year lecturing. We asked 
 him why he did it. What did he say? 
 
 Why, he said he needed the money. 
 
 Tliat is a fine excuse for a patriot, and pretty 
 
92 AUGUMENT OF CLARENCE DABBOW 
 
 near all of the professional patriots need the mo- 
 ney; that is the reason they are professional pa- 
 triots, they need the money. ^ 
 
 And that shocked even Frank Gomerford. This 
 great patriot left the city in the hands of a moh, 
 because he needed the money; so Frank tried to 
 help him out by asking him how many children 
 he had, and he said he had nine f-children and 
 three grand children. 
 
 Well, of course, if a man has nine children and 
 three grand children, he might do anything to 
 get a living, even come down here and lie, and 
 I suppose that is the theory of his examination. 
 
 Nine children and three grand children, and yet 
 he probably had almost all of them when he got 
 the people to elect him Mayor, and as quick as 
 he got some ' fame and some notoriety that 
 he could work into cash he left his job and took 
 the cash. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, you can take his story if you 
 want to, but I will undertake to say that in any 
 ordinary case, where the feelings and passions of 
 men are not involved a story like this would not 
 be looked at, for a single minute. 
 
 And what did we show about that strike? 
 
 Why, we even converted the counsel on the 
 other side, which was some job, gentlemen. 
 
 I don 't think we converted their reason ; we .iust 
 put them in a position where they thought it 
 would be foolish to tell you anything else, that is 
 all, 
 
IN DEFENSE OP THE COMMUNISTS 93 
 
 Mr. Duncan told this story. He was present 
 at all of it, he was a part of it. He told you that 
 this strike was conducted by the Central Labor 
 Cofoncil; that they picked out three hundred men 
 to run the strike; that every single man or them 
 was a delegate to the Central Labor Council rep- 
 resenting some union; that it was a trades union 
 strike from beginning to end; that they took 
 every precaution to see that safety and peace pre^ 
 vailed in Seattle; that they took every precaution 
 to feed the people and care for their needs; and 
 that it was peaceable from beginning to. end; that 
 he never once heard anybody sugges-t violence or 
 taking control of the government; that the strike 
 was for one purpose and one purpose only, that 
 is what he said. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, is there any doubt about that 
 in your minds? 
 
 "We called a business man, he has been long 
 connected with the unions, he was present during 
 that strik^e. There never was a wor4 of violence, 
 he says, there never was a single unlawful act, 
 perfect peace, and everybody was provided for. 
 
 Then we called a woman who for years has 
 been president of a Woman's Club of Seattle. 
 I suppose she is lying too ? 
 
 No interest in this strike, except that at this 
 particular time she was the chairman of the com- 
 mittee on civics, whose business it was to invest- 
 igate this strike, she had a daughter working dur-. 
 
94 AEGUMENT OF CLAKENCE DAEE.OW 
 
 ing the whole time, she spent her whole time in- 
 vestigating this strike. 
 
 Was this woman lying? 
 
 Is there any one of you gentlemen that would 
 think that she was lying any more than that your 
 wife or your mother was lying. 
 
 A plain woman, she held as important a posi- 
 tion as anyone in the Oity of Seattle; no way con- 
 nected with this strike, her interests would he all 
 against it; hut she investigated it to find out the 
 facts, and she went up and down the streets ana 
 saw the guardsi that had heen specially placed to 
 help in the protection of the city; she knew there 
 was no violence; she knew there was no hlood- 
 shed; she knew the city was fed; she knew the 
 telephone system was working; she knew the city 
 was lighted; that it had milk; that it had all that 
 was needed for its people. 
 
 Yet this strike is paraded before this jury, in 
 order that in some mysterious way it might play 
 upon the minds and ^he prejudices and the pas- 
 sions of you twelve men, to get a verdict of guilty 
 in this case. 
 
 Counsel says, "What about a strike that would 
 not permit a store to run in Seattle and that 
 would place an exemption sign upon a hearse?" 
 
 Well now, gentlemen, I fancy you people know 
 something about strikes. You do if you have 
 lived long in Chicago or in any civilized commu- 
 nity. There will be strikes until thd iudustrial 
 
m DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 95 
 
 system is changed, if it ever is changed, which 
 it probably never will be. 
 
 Counsel insists that the Communist Labor 
 Party is seeking control of industry. Is there any 
 reason on earth why the po(Jr should not control 
 industry if they can? I submit there is none. If 
 I thought they could do with it what many of 
 these dreamers think they can do, I would say, 
 speed the day. But whether they can or not, they 
 have a right to try. 
 
 But my clients despise the ballot. Gentlemem, 
 you would be slaves today if you had de- 
 pended on voting. Men might never vote and 
 they might get their rights, and they might vote 
 forever, and be slaves. Mfen may take their 
 choice of method^; so long as we have the sem- 
 blance of freedom in the world, they may do either, 
 they may do both, and they may do neither. 
 If you gentlemen only got what you voted for, 
 you would get mighty little. Voting is a habit, 
 sometimes wise, and sometimes unwise. I gener- 
 ally vote when there is something important. I 
 sometimes vote, but for the life of me, I do 4iot 
 know where my vote ever brought results. Of 
 course you cannot be a professional patriot un- 
 less you are terribly strong for voting. Voting 
 came directly from God Almighty. The man 
 who gets something he does not vote for, is a sin- 
 ner. Of course, it is all right to vote for some- 
 thing you do not get ; but you must never get any- 
 thing you do not vote for. 
 
96 ARGUMENT OF CLAKENCE DABROW 
 
 I say again, that a strike, a. general strike or 
 a special strike, is perfectly lawful. If a general 
 strike results in violence, you may punish the 
 violence, and that is all. It may be violence will 
 result from a strike. Violence often comes where 
 the feelings of men are deeply roused on questions 
 that affect large masses of men. We are made 
 that way, but you cannot stop the progress of the 
 world because something is liable to happen, any 
 more than you can stop the building of a sky- 
 scraper because somebody is sure to get killed 
 while it is building. That is incidental to it; and 
 if there has to be bloodshed because of changes, 
 that is no reason why the changes should not 
 come. If you take out of the history of the world 
 all the progress that has come through violence, 
 you would not have enough State's Attorneys left 
 to send men to jail for striking. Men would 
 still be using clubs and living in caves. The 
 world moves in wonderfully mysterious ways 
 and the logic of lawyers never was the logic of 
 the universe. A lawyer might want to make the 
 Mississippi Valley fertile and rich and productive, 
 and he would pass a law; but Nature sixty, 
 seventy, one hundred thousand years ago 
 sent a glacier down through the valley which 
 ground and pulverized the soil to make it ready 
 foT the homes of men. Nature works one way 
 and lawyers work another. Lawyers sometimes 
 think they are the bosses, but Nature is the boss; 
 and if lawyers had sense enough to conform thedr 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 97 
 
 endeavors to natural lines they would not 
 x^ake such fools 6i themselves. They would not 
 be everlastingly flying in the face of what must 
 be. 
 
 , Now, what about a general strike and what 
 about changing the conditions of industry and 
 forms of institutions in any way except by push- 
 ing a ballot into a boxf Now, gentlemen, I in- 
 sist that you have a perfect right to change any 
 law or custom or institution by a strike the same 
 as by a ballot. Let us see. It seems to be the 
 theory of counsel that strikes must be confined 
 to raising the pay or shortening the hours or 
 changing the conditions of working men. That 
 is not the law and never was the law. I have 
 the right to go out and urge the people of the 
 United States never to do another day's wort 
 until the ISth Amendment was repealed, and I 
 would do it if I thought I could get them to stop ; 
 but I don't think I could— but I have a perfect 
 right to do it. I have the right to urge men not 
 to work until any law is changed. It has been 
 done over and over and over in the history of the 
 world, and it will be done more and more. 
 
 Does man live by the ballot alone? How many 
 of yon men are members of unions'? Most of you 
 have the eight-hour law. Did you wait to vote 
 to get it? Did you get it by any vote you ever 
 cast? I say no. How did they, get the eight-hour 
 day in this country? I have read the history of 
 it. I was present with some of it. I know how 
 
98 ARGUMENT OP CLABENCE DABROW 
 
 it came about. I know it came by workingmen lay- 
 ing down their tools and saying, we will no longer 
 work until we get an eight-hour day. Not only 
 did they get an eight-hour day in this, manner; 
 -but that is the way they got the fifteen-hour day; 
 that is the way they got the 12-hour day; that is 
 "the way they got the ten-hour day and then the 
 eight-hour day; not by voting, but by laying 
 down their tools; and then let me tell you what 
 happened. After that was over and after the 
 victory was won, then these time-servers, these 
 politicians who make up the legislatures of most 
 of the States in the Union, in order to get the 
 union vote, passed laws making an eight-hour 
 workday. No law was passed until after the 
 victory was won. 
 
 I remember the great railroad strikes in this 
 country led by Arthur years ago; he was called 
 a fool and a traitor, as he was later called con- 
 servative and reactionary. In the early days of 
 the railroad organizations he led the strikers for 
 shorter hours and for higher pay; and you will 
 find written in law reports cases against him and 
 his organization because they violated the law in 
 the strikes. Sometimes they were sent to jail, but 
 they did not stop. They won their point; they 
 shortened their |iours; they raised their pay; they 
 niade it safer for the men who drive the engines, 
 and those who ride on the cars. They got more 
 for themselves and more for their fellow men; and 
 then the lawyers and legislators came in and made 
 
tU DEFBiTSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 99 
 
 legal what they had already done. That is what 
 happened, and that is what will happen again and 
 again. 
 
 We have now pretty generally an eight-hour 
 working day in America; sometime we will have 
 a shorter one. I don't know when. Personally 
 I do not care when, but we will have a shorter 
 one, hut none of tjiose eight-hour working days 
 ever came by legislation. - Men used to toil ten, 
 twelve and fifteen hours for the smallest amount 
 that would keep body and soul together. Gentle- 
 men, we had an illustration of it on this jury. 
 Half of the men excused from jury service were 
 men who had been only to the fourth grade in 
 school; in this great city, in this great land, where 
 you can vote four or five times a year if you want 
 —half of them, almost half of them had not pass- 
 ed the fourth grade, and not one out of ten had 
 ever had a chance to read or study since they had 
 left the common school. I want to know whether 
 any of you people who work for wages, which is 
 most of you, and who have a better chance than 
 your ancestors had, whether you are thanking 
 God for the i>oliticians who gave it to you. If 
 you do you are silly. I want to know whether you 
 ever voted these wages to yourself, or did you 
 go out and get them. Did you get your friends to 
 stand together and say, we will not go down in 
 the mine and dig coal for men unless we have 
 enough for ourselves and our families, and unless 
 we have reasonable hours to work and reasonable 
 
loo ABGXTMENT of OLAKEilOE DABBOW 
 
 conditions of life. We will not risk our lives on 
 engines unless we have reasonable appliances; 
 imless we have reasonable wages; unless we have 
 reasonable hours. And you got it by fighting for 
 it. You could not get it by voting. There are too 
 many law makers. There is Congress; the Senate 
 and the President and the Supreme CSourt and the 
 State Legislature and another Supreme Court and 
 Lawyers and everybody else to be satisfied be- 
 fore you get it, and you would die before you 
 could vote it to yourself. 
 
 That is the way you have got it in the past, and 
 that is the way you will get it in the future, and 
 you gentlemen can make the most of it. Now, I 
 don't need to tell you gentlemen that it has been 
 gained that way, you all know it. I don't object 
 to voting. I seldom miss a chance, but there are 
 many things in this world besides voting; many 
 many things, and voting is a very small part of 
 a man's life, and very, very few are the things 
 he gets from it, but the way these gentlemen talk 
 one would think that all you had to do was to 
 go put and vote. You do not even need to be 
 educated, or to study. You do not even need to 
 understand political questions. The education of 
 voters is much more important than the voting. 
 The actions of men are much more important 
 than voting. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, strikes have often been called 
 in industrial matters, and everybody knows it. 
 They have been called to affect political matters 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 101 
 
 just the same. Belgium had two recent strikes. 
 I cannot tell you the second time, but as I recall 
 it about five or six years ago the last one and the 
 other one a few years before. Only a very small 
 fraction of the Belgium people could vote. Of 
 course, those were the blue bloods who were ex- 
 tremely patriotic; workingmen did not vote. They 
 worked. They did not even vote for a change of 
 law because they could not vote. It might have 
 made a difference or might not, if they had. What 
 did they do? They struck. They said, we will 
 work -no longer until we get a chance to vote. We 
 will strike. Just as our ancestors struck at Bos- 
 ton Harbor. We said we would send no more 
 taxes to England until we were represented in 
 England, and we struck by force and violence and 
 "unlawful" means. 
 
 The Belgians went out as a man and parliament 
 was .called together and gave them limited 
 suffrage, just as limited as they dared, but of 
 course, limited; two years passed and they struck 
 again. About two years before the war, they 
 struck for complete suffrage and refused 
 to work until they got it; and parliament was 
 called together and they got it because they 
 struck. A political strike, and not a drop of 
 blood was shed, not a drop. If men had died, 
 none the less the strike would have been legal; 
 none the less it would have been just; none the 
 less it would have worked. 
 
 In 1904, after the Enssian-Japanese War, the 
 
102 ARGUMENT OF CIABBNCE DARROW 
 
 Russians struck for a constitutional form of gov- 
 embment, and the strike involved a territory of 
 more than three thousand miles in length, and 
 as I recall it, about two thousand nailes wide, 
 covering about ohe-flfth or one-sixth of the ter- 
 ritory of the world, and they laid down their tools 
 and work stopped; railroads stopped; farm hands 
 stopped work; all Russia struck. Struck for a 
 constitutional form of government where the 
 poor would be represented in the government, 
 and they refused to work. They were indicted; 
 they were tried and many of them fled to America 
 and American officers even tried to send them 
 back to death; Mr. Root was then Seoretaiy of 
 ^tate and not one of them was returned. He was 
 a lawyer and an honest man, but we have fallen 
 to an Attorney-Genera] now named Palmer. Not 
 one of them was returned, and they refused to 
 work, gentlemen, every one of these poor peas- 
 ants who had felt the lash upon their bare backs, 
 and whose fathers and grandfathers for twenty 
 generations had felt the same, who had been 
 bought and sold, killed like dogs for the blue 
 bloods and the rich; they all stayed out un- 
 til finally the Ozar surrendered and the people 
 established the Duma, and they sent their rep^ 
 resntatives to the Duma, the Russian parliament. 
 They sent Socialists and working people, and 
 trades unionists and communists, and all kinds 
 of men who • represented the poor of Russia; un- 
 til in a night, contrary to law and contrary to 
 
IN DEFENSE OP THE COMMUNISTS jl03 
 
 htimaiiity, the Czar revoked this law and dissolved 
 this parliament and sent these men back home, 
 helpless, with their rights destroyed, to live the 
 life their fathers and their grandfathers and their 
 great great grandfathers had lived before. The 
 Russian Ozar revoked the power he had given to 
 the people and once more put his heel upon their 
 necks, and it rested there until near the end of 
 this great' war in the last throes of Russia's de- 
 spair her people arose again and swept from 
 power forever the last of the Romanoff family that 
 ever lived to ours© the earth. 
 
 SWden had a general strike a few years ago 
 to establish woman's suffrage. Pureily a political 
 strike, nothing else. These things are Just as old 
 as the efforts of men to better their condition. 
 The people had a political strike since the war in 
 GTermany. Some man, Kopp, I believe, under- 
 took toi overthrow the present government 
 and bring back into power that ancient regime 
 that had caused the world war and brought 
 so much blood and sorrow. What did they 
 do? The Grerman workingmen laid down 
 their tools and said, we will not work until that 
 usurper has abdicated. They struck, not for 
 something new, but for thei government already 
 in existence, and they won. The German work- 
 ingman had the intelligence and the courage to lay 
 down his tools; and by that means, this usurper, 
 seeking to bring back the old govemmeirt 
 and overthrow the rmw, lost his power, lost it with- 
 
104 AKGUMENT OF CLAItENCE DAEROW 
 
 out the shedding of blood. They won because 
 they refused to work, and that is about the sim- 
 plest thing a man can do, and about the most 
 unusual— h© is so used to work. 
 
 I could call attention to strike after strike. The 
 French strike, one of the last strikes threatened. 
 The strike of the Ehglish miners and railroad 
 men, where they refused to mine coal or haul cars 
 if they were to be used to send troops to Russia. 
 These men had political power. They were vot- 
 ers and they said to Lloyd Greorge, "if you want 
 to send soldiers to Russia, that is trying, after 
 long ages of tyranny, to breathe the free air of 
 men, that is fighting the age-iong battles of 
 freedom— if you Tindertake to send an English- 
 man, or a pound of coal, we who work deep 
 down in the earth, who dig this coal for the use 
 of men, will refuse longer to work or to run the 
 trains." They did iiot wait for another election, 
 when they might be swindled or juggled out of 
 something, but tjjiey struck and won their fight. 
 They are threatening the same thing in Ireland. 
 How it will come out, I do not know. They are 
 ' doing it the most effective way and using the 
 most effective power that was ever placed in the 
 hands of a workman when he wants to us it, and 
 it is about the only power he has. 
 
 I will call your attention to one thing more, 
 and then I will pass to something else, i 
 
 You have heard of the Adamson Bill. The 
 railroad employes of this country, just before 
 
IN DEFENSE OE THE COMMUNISTS 105 
 
 the war, said they were willing to work, but could 
 not work while the profiteei*s were getting rich, 
 unless they had higher wages. War had not yet 
 broken upon America, but the reflex of it had 
 cau'sed the high prices iu America, and they said, 
 we will strike and strike together unless our 
 wages are raised. This was just before the presi- 
 dential election of 1916. President Wilson called 
 together Congress iu great haste; he called the 
 leaders of the railroads together; he urged every- 
 body he could urge and he gave his promise that 
 if they would remain at work, the question would 
 be settled and a''Board would be appointed to set- 
 tle it. They held up the strike until the Adamson 
 Bill was passed, a political bill to take care of 
 their wages, which was won by their organization 
 and their power to strike. The bill was passed 
 and Wilson went before the country and urged 
 it, and the powerful interests of this country con- 
 demned him, because he had been awed by the 
 great organization of labor who threatened to 
 strike because they could not live on their wages 
 with the high prices of the day. It was threshed 
 out before the people of the United States and 
 he was elected, as you all know. This is nothing 
 new. In many i of the civilized countries of the 
 world, often in the United States, purely political 
 strikes have been called. One has just been^ threat- 
 ened with the railroad workers until a commission 
 was appointed . to settle their grievances again ; 
 and they called off their strike until the com- 
 
106 ABGT^MENT OF CLAEENCE DARBOW 
 
 mission was appointed. They waited faith- 
 fully until they had the time to settle it, and 
 it was settled by a political commission 
 appointed to prevent it. Why, gentlemen, the 
 idea that human progress rests on the ballot 
 is so absurd that no thinking man ever conceived 
 it. Men lived in this world long before they 
 voted. Men tilled the soil and dug in' the mines 
 and felled the trees, raised :families and bxiilt up a 
 civilization without the ballot; and they can build 
 up a dvilization and keep what they have and 
 hold it even in spite of it. Nothing takes the place 
 of work, of energy, of devotion, of standing for 
 your rights, of individual action. When this 
 country or any people sees fit to give up all the 
 things which have brought America the wealth 
 and power she has, and which has brought our 
 individual workmen what power they have ; when 
 they see fit to give it up and trust only to 
 the ballot, they are lost and every intelligent man 
 knows that they are lost. It is good in its place, 
 but its place is secondary to the efforts of men; 
 its place comes after education; its plac6 comes 
 after organization; it comes after all the forces 
 that have made us great and that have made us 
 free. These are the things that count. Gentle- 
 men, my clients are condemned here because they 
 said in their platform that while they voted, they 
 believed the ballot was secondary to education 
 and organization. All right, gentlemen, yoiu 
 have your views about it, but my clients 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 107 
 
 are right, and you jurors througli your daily 
 life, and daily conduct, and in your relations to 
 society knoW it well. Education, organization 
 with your fellow man, for your industries and 
 your institutions, these are the things that you 
 rely upon for your life and your progress and 
 the progress of the society in which you live, and 
 everybody knows it who has tried to think of it or 
 who cares to think. 
 
 A question was asked hy the prosecutors of 
 you jurors as to whether you believed in 
 "legal freedom". For God's, sake, tell me 
 what is "legal freedom". It is a tricky catch- 
 phrase that has ever been used to enslave 
 men. What is "legal freedom?" Everybody al- 
 ways had "legal freedom." The men who were 
 roasted to death by the Spanish Inquisition had 
 "legal freedom." That is, they had all the free- 
 dom that the law gave them. The old men and 
 the old women of America who were hung for 
 witchcraft, enjoyed "legal freedom." No man 
 who ever knew the meaning of that word "Free- 
 dom" ever attached to it the word "legal." 
 "Freedom" is "freedom," and nothing is done by 
 a government that is not legal. If it is not legal, 
 they make it legal, and men in the past who had 
 their tongues pulled out, who were pierced with 
 red hot irons, who were boiled in oil, who were tied 
 to stakes, who were bent on the rack and tortured 
 until they died, who had every limb torn from 
 them, who had their nails pulled out and splinters 
 
108 Argument of clarence iDAiiRO'W 
 
 rxm into their flesh, all were enjoying "legal free- 
 dom" while they were tortured and killed. That 
 is what you will enjoy if in this country of ours 
 the evil forces back of this prosecution can have 
 their way and provide their kind of "freedom." 
 The time will come very soon when America will 
 be ashamed of her cowardly attempt to send men 
 to jail under laws of this kind; ashamed of the 
 suppression of freedom of thought and freedom 
 of speech which is making a mad house of a once 
 free land. 
 
 My clients are abused because the Communist 
 Labor Party expressed sympathy for the I. W. W. 
 T have read more or less about the Industrial 
 Workers of the World. I know where the news- 
 papers have placed them. They have been so 
 often prosecuted and condemned that most men 
 in America hesitate to sjrmpathise with them; 
 and yet, gentlemen, they have done a work for a 
 class of workers that no other labor organizations 
 could do or ever did do, and if you have read the 
 stories in the Atlantic Monthly, or even in our 
 daily papers, you have seen that these men have 
 organized the transient laborers, the men who 
 were taking a temporary job at this, that and the 
 other kind of work, and could not be members of 
 the old organizations because they did not stay 
 long enough in a place; men with no support who 
 were imposed on in a thousand different ways. 
 They have brought this transient labor together. 
 Only recMitly an investigation has been made by 
 
IN DEFteNsfc ot- The communists 109 
 
 tlie American Loyal Legion, and it reported that 
 they had done a much needed work in pro- 
 viding decent places where men could live and 
 decent conditions for people who had no chance. 
 
 Now, about shop committees and mass action 
 in the shops: What is a labor union for except 
 to connect up for the mass action of its members ? 
 Why, gentlemen, you must have lived in the dark 
 ages. Doi you not know about shop committees? 
 Do you not know that in most lines of industry 
 that have shown the greatest progress, every 
 organization has its shop committee? And al- 
 most every question is put up to that shop com- 
 mittee and unless that shop committee can agree 
 with the employer it is submitted to arbitration. 
 These men are dealing openly with their employ- 
 ers in this way, and many, many of them have 
 their shop committees all over the United States. 
 Mass action by shop committees, when did this 
 become wicked? When did it transpire that be- 
 cause somebody advocated mass action by shop 
 committees that we will send him to jail? All 
 right, gentlemen, there they are. If you think it 
 would help matters, why, it is all in your hands. 
 
 And, gentlemen, the conquest of the state, what 
 of it? Why should not the workingman raake a 
 conquest of the power of the state? That is what 
 they have been talking about trying to do ; it is 
 what everybody has tried to do. I fancy in this 
 general mix-up the wjorkingman has never had a 
 chance at the power of the state; no organization 
 
110 ARGUMENT OF CIAKENCE DABBOW 
 
 could believe in the conquest of the power of the 
 state unless it believed in the state. Unless 
 it wanted to use that organization and believed 
 in it. Is there any more reason why the work- 
 ingman should not make the conquest of the state 
 than any other part of society ; why should these 
 men be sent to jail because they wanted to make 
 the conquest of the power of the state? Every 
 political party in America is trying to do it, and 
 are doing ^ it. The Eepublican party is now very 
 busy making the conquest of the power of the 
 state, and doing everything it can think of that 
 they may make the conquest of power. The S<3- 
 eialist party has always done it; the Democrats 
 have done it when they were out and tried to keep 
 it when they were in. My clients ' policy is just like 
 the policy of everyone else, excepting this, they 
 think they would use it for the benefit of the work- 
 ingman. Perhaps even if these men did make the 
 conquest of the power of the state their dreams 
 would not come true, I cannot tell, but they haye 
 a right to try; they have a right to. think, they 
 have a right to proselyte, they have the right to 
 their opinion and to make their opinion heard. 
 This is what I plead for, and I am not interested 
 in whether their opinions are right or wrong. 
 If they are wrong, the American people 
 under free discussion can find the wrong; and if 
 by any chance these opinions shall convert the 
 Uiiited States, then the United States needs con- 
 verting. The prosecution have taken these 
 
' IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 111 
 
 phrg,ses, which are innocent ; which are in common 
 use; which are used by every political party, 
 which are used in all campaigns, which are ab- 
 solutely harmless, and have twisted them into 
 damning phrases that this jury might send these 
 men to jail. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, this platform and program and 
 constitution that they have read to you, I will 
 not read again. You may read it when you go 
 to your jury room and give it any weight that 
 you think it ought to have. This platform and 
 program is simply a statement of the political and 
 industrial history of the world as these men saw 
 it. It is nothing but a stateinent of fact, and a 
 .prophecy of the future, and there is in it, I un- 
 dertake to say, not one word that calls on any 
 human being for force or violence. I might 
 prophesy that the world will change one way or 
 another. T might prophesy that good will shall 
 sometimes abide with man to such an extent that 
 we shall all dwell together in unity and peace. I 
 might prophesy that sometime on healing wings 
 the dove would descend upon the earth and 
 there would be noi more wars nor rumors of wars ; 
 that every man would love his fellow man and the 
 whole world seek the highest good of all; where 
 want shall be forever banished; where there shall 
 be no more ignorance and no more greed; where 
 there shall be no children working in industries 
 that- great institutions may get rich'; where there 
 shall be no poverty ; where disease will be conquer- 
 
112 ARGUMENT OF OIARENCB DAKROW 
 
 ed ; where there will be that peace and good will on 
 earth that the religious have always said pre- 
 vailed in heaven. I might prophesy. I don't 
 know whether it is coming or not. I rather sus- 
 pect it is not ; if it does come, I fancy, gentlemen, 
 I will be too dead to know anything about it. At 
 least I will be so blind I cannot see it, but I might 
 prophesy it. I can make another prophesy. It 
 has been made by sociologists, by captains of in- 
 dustry, by bankers, by preachers, by politicians, 
 by labor leaders, — I can make a prophecy that 
 even this country which I love more than any 
 other, in spite of the faults which I believe she 
 has, that even this country, through the greed of 
 wealth, ever seeking and reaching and grabbing 
 more and more, taking from you and from me; 
 from the hungry children that toil in mills ; taking 
 from the consumers of the world until nothing is 
 left; taking as they would be taking now except 
 for the rebels who oppose them. I can prophesy 
 ' that they will do here what they did in Russia ; 
 will crush the workingman in darkness and night, 
 until some day America will see the greatest and 
 bloodiest revolution that the world has ever 
 known. I can prophesy that, and it has been 
 prophesied again and again in America, and I 
 would be well within my rights if I announce this 
 dream. It may come and it may not. Any dream 
 or every dream may be true or false. I would be 
 simply saying that I. see the danger that this may 
 come. This is not urging you gentlemen to go 
 
IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMUNISTS 113 
 
 and get your gun and get it quick and go out to- 
 night and take tlie City Hall. It is not urging 
 anyone to force and violence. It is giving my 
 opinion, and I still have the right of an American 
 citizen to express my opinion, at least if no spy or 
 prosecutor is looking,— I still have that right. I 
 do not know what the future holds in store for 
 us. Life is not all a summer's dream, whether 
 it is the individual life or national life. We are 
 born. We are tossed on the sea of fate. We are 
 driven here and we are driven there. We have 
 our joys and our pains. We have our pleasure 
 and our distress. We die and no man knows 
 , where he is bound, or whether there is a port. We 
 live on faith and we live on hope and we nerve our- 
 selyes to stand the hard rebuffs of life ; we take it 
 afs it is, and nations are only aggregations of men. 
 I have always loved this country. I love its broad 
 prairies ; its great mountains ; its noble rivers ; its 
 dense forests; its wealth of mine hidden in the 
 earth; I love' the freedona that has come from new 
 ideas, from a constitution made by rebels and pro- 
 tected by rebels ; from a constitution bom in strife 
 and tempest and rebellion. I love it for what it 
 has been, materially and spiritually; I love it be- 
 cause over its vast areas one can find a free breath 
 of pure air; because of its intellectual freedom; 
 here one may live ; he may speak the thought that 
 is in him ; he may develop and grow ; if he will he 
 may be free; and without freedom nothing is of 
 value. I love it for these and for these I will 
 
114 ARGUMENT OF CLAKENCE DABROW 
 
 fight. I know the danger of security and ease and 
 power. I know that freedom produces wealth 
 and then wealth de'stroys freedom. I know that 
 the nation that is not watchful of its liberty will 
 Jose it. I know that the individual that will not 
 stand for his rights will have no rights, and I 
 believe the first duty df every American citizen 
 is to protect himself and his country in all the 
 liberties we have and all that we can get. 
 
 I want to say to you that all through the ages 
 the blood of the martyrs stains the pathway of 
 the human race. Every step in progress has been 
 marked by blood and tears. Nothing ever came 
 to the old world that was worth the while that did 
 not cost life and blood and anguish of body and 
 of soul. Martyrs have filled the world with graves. 
 They have died for what they thought and spoke, 
 but the monuments of the world have been built 
 to them. Little detectives, and prosecutors and 
 courts and juries have condemned them to death. 
 Still, the human race has moved forward over 
 their mangled forms, and its path has been lighted 
 by the\burning bodies of these devoted ones. 
 
 I do not know what will befall freedom now, but 
 T know that the future is ours. I know that his- 
 tory makes clear the injustice of the past. I know 
 that the dead have risen triumphant over the 
 judgment of juries and courts. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, no man can speak freely what 
 is in him if he fears the jail. You cannot write 
 freely with manacles on your bands. You cannot 
 
IN DEFENSE OF IHE COMMUNISTS 115 
 
 f 
 
 speak or write or think freely with, detectives on 
 your track. You can only be yourself in the open, 
 clear light of day; giving what the infinite says 
 through ypu ; giving it freely as it comes. There 
 can be no free thought without free speech. Of 
 what avail to think if I may not write or speak? 
 Gentlemen, I do not pretend to know the future 
 that is in store for America. I know that nations 
 like individuals are bom and 4ive their time and 
 die. We are young. Our life should be long. 
 "While we live we should preserve all the freedom 
 that we have and strive for more. We should 
 protect our ponstitution as our fathers gave it. 
 Protect it not in the letter but in the soul. I do 
 not know what the future holds- in store for 
 America or the human race. I am willing to take 
 my chance, and I want to take my chances by leav- 
 ing every man free to bring his contribution to 
 the world; by leaving every man free to express 
 his thought; by leaving every man free to throw 
 his opinions into the great crucible that we may 
 work it out. This is freedom. It is the freedom 
 we have believed in. It is the freedom we have 
 worked for, and gentlemen it is the freedom I 
 urge you to protect and save. I do not urge it 
 for myself or for my clients — they are the small- 
 est concern to me; but I urge you for the sake of 
 your common country, for the sake of what is 
 even nearer and dearer than that, the liberty of 
 men, the freedom of the human soul, which alone 
 makes life worth the living ; I ask you to say that 
 
THE ANCIENT LOWLY 
 
 A History of the Ancient Working People from the Earliest 
 
 Known Period to the Adoption of Christianity 
 
 by Constantino 
 
 By C. Osborne Ward. 
 
 The contents of this work impresses one with the conviction that 
 almost a life-time of labor must have been spent in gathering the 
 information and weaving it into an intelligible narrative. From 
 the authorities quoted. Ward seems to have been acquainted with 
 the whole range of Creek and Roman literature throwing light on 
 the life of the ancient lowly, as vrell as tablets, inscription and 
 rare parchments of these and other countries. The formidable 
 sources of information which he cites remind one of the exhaus- 
 tive researches of Buckle in English history, Darwin in biology and 
 Marx in economics. 
 
 As Morgan's "Ancient Society" gives the historical facts 6t 
 man's ascent from the lowest stages -«f savagery through com- 
 munism to the dawn of civilization. Ward takes up the hitsoric 
 thread with the appearance of civilization but with this differ- 
 ence; Morgan traced the development of institutions — property, 
 government, the family, etc., while Ward portrays the economic 
 conditions, the social status, forms of organization, strikes and 
 rebellions of the ancient working classes. The book is unique in 
 its field, for the information given can, so far as we know, be 
 found in no other work. 
 
 It will perhaps come as a surprise to some to know that some 
 of the revolts of the slaves and other workers of antiquity reached 
 such proportions as to rock empires and threaten the privileges 
 of the ruling classes who lived on their toil. Spartacus, a Roman 
 gladiator, broke his chains and field to the mountains of Italy, 
 gathering an army of over 300,000 slaves and defeating the 
 Romans in many battles before he was finally crushed. Ward also 
 tells in full detail of the ancient trade unions, and of their intimate 
 connection with the early Christian church, before this was cap- 
 tured by the ruling classes under Constantino. 
 
 Two large volumes containing 1348 pages; price per set, 
 expressage prepaid by us, $5.00 
 
 CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY, 
 341 East Ohio Street, Chicago 
 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 3 1924 069 058 802