Читать книгу The Story of my Life - Clarence Darrow - Страница 9

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After two or three years of service in the city law department, I resigned my position and became the general attorney of the Chicago and North-Western Railway Company. It was with a good deal of hesitation and consideration, and after all sorts of advice, that I undertook that position. I was aware that my general views of life were not such as fitted me for this kind of career. Every one connected with the offices of the company knew my opinions and attitudes, but gave me no cause for concern or uneasiness. I was treated with respect and all were most friendly.

This position with the company brought me into a new and varied field. All sorts of questions were submitted to me. I rendered opinions on the liability of the company, in cases of personal injuries, in claims for lost freight, in the construction of the statutes and ordinances, and all the numerous matters that affect the interests of railroads. I also tried a considerable number of cases, some of them involving my old employer, the city of Chicago. In spite of the kindness and consideration of all my associates, I knew that the position was one that I should never really like. It was hard for me to take the side of the railroad company against one who had been injured in their service or against a passenger. I was aware that I always wanted the company to help them, and in this my services were made easier by the general claim agent, Mr. Ralph C. Richards, whose sympathies were the same. I am sure that both he and I were able to help a great many people without serious cost to the road. Later, Mr. Richards practically gave up his position to inaugurate a great work for the prevention of accidents. The policy that he brought about saved many lives and limbs, and has now been largely incorporated into the law.

It was during my services for the Chicago and North-Western Railroad Company that the strike of the American Railway Union occurred, in 1894. Neither before nor since has any such railroad strike happened in America. Mr. Eugene Debs was the head of that organization. He was an intelligent, alert, and fearless man. The strike grew out of a demand for better wages and conditions. The railroads refused to grant the demands. I had then been in my new position about two years, as I now recall it.

When I was sure that there was no chance to settle the difficulties, I realized my anomalous position. I really wanted the men to win, and believed that they should. This had for years been my attitude in cases of strike. I had no feeling that the members of labor unions were better than employers; I knew that like all other men they were often selfish and unreasonable, but I believed that the distribution of wealth was grossly unjust, and I sympathized with almost all efforts to get higher wages and to improve general conditions for the masses.

Still, my duty was to the road, and as the strike loomed it seemed sure that in some way I should be put in positions where one side or the other would doubt my loyalty. Within a few days I found that I had been placed on a committee of all the roads to assist in the management of the strike. I at once went to both the general counsel and the president of the railway company. Both were friends and had full confidence in me. I told them of the situation, and that I could not act on the committee. I made them understand my general feelings and my peculiar position. They recognized it and said that they would not insist upon my being on the committee, that they were perfectly willing to trust me to be neutral, and knew that I would be loyal. I felt then that I should resign my position, that the road had the right to men who were in full accord with their policy; but they urged me to stay, and, of course, their confidence and fairness made a strong appeal to me. So I told them that I would remain, and that if it ever came to a point where either they or I should feel any embarrassment we would take up the question again.

Day after day conditions grew more serious. There was a general interruption of railroad traffic from one end of the country to the other. In many of the great railroads the yards were crowded with idle freight cars. Deputy sheriffs and marshals were called out in all the large cities and many of the smaller ones. I watched the situation with anxiety. I preferred to stay with the North-Western Railway Company, but I could not avoid being in sympathy with the strikers. The Chicago and North-Western Railway Company was involved with all the rest of the roads, and all who came to the offices thought and talked of little else besides the strike. John P. Hopkins was then mayor of Chicago, and John P. Altgeld was governor of the State. These men were both Democrats, and the sheriff of the county was a Republican. Under the laws of the State it was the duty of the mayor in the city and the sheriff in the county to preserve peace. The governor had the right to call out the troops, but only on request of the sheriff or the mayor, when the legislature was not in session. Grover Cleveland was then President of the United States.

A great many cars were burned in the yards of Chicago and other cities. As in most cases, each side claimed that their enemies were responsible for the fires. One night I went to one of the railroad yards and saw many cars in flames. Crowds of people were gathered around to see the destruction; most of them were boys and young men. A number of them were deputies who had been sworn in to preserve the peace. The crowd was quiet and attempted no demonstration. They only stood and looked at the burning cars; and little, if any, effort was made to quench the flames. I presume that it was not possible to get much water so far from the city supply, but of this I am not certain.

I had no knowledge as to who started the fires, but I was satisfied that most of all those in the yards were sympathetic toward the strikers. They were working men and their families, who are always automatically on the side of the strikers, just as the wealthy are on the other side. I have no doubt that many of the deputies who were sworn in were friendly toward the strikers. I have observed many deputies and other officials in times of strikes, and also the militia, and have found that generally they were really in sympathy with the strikers. Most of them were poor, and so without taking any thought about the situation they sided with their class. This has been the case since man evolved. It was clearly the case in the French Revolution, and in all lesser political and social upheavals that ever came to my attention, either through experience or study.

Industrial contests take on all the attitudes and psychology of war, and both parties do many things that they should never dream of doing in times of peace. Whatever may be said, the fact is that all strikes and all resistance to strikes take on the psychology of warfare, and all parties in interest must be judged from that standpoint. As I stood on the prairie watching the burning cars I had no feeling of enmity toward either side. I was only sad to realize how little pressure man could stand before he reverted to the primitive. This I have thought many times since that eventful night.

The strike was hardly well under way before the railroads applied to the Federal Courts to get injunctions against the strikers. Neither then nor since have I ever believed in labor injunctions. Preserving peace is a part of the police power of the State, and men should be left free to strike or not, as they see fit. When violence occurs this is for the police department and not for a court of chancery. I had never been connected with a case involving strikes, but both by education and natural tendency I had a deep-rooted feeling for the men against whom injunctions were issued.

A short time before I had stood on the prairie watching the cars in a cloud of smoke, the railroads asked the Federal Court for injunctions. The General Managers' Association, including all the roads, had appointed Mr. Edwin Walker their attorney in these cases. Mr. Walker was a clever and very astute lawyer. For years he had been the general counsel for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Company, and had also represented large interests in Chicago and other parts of the United States.

When the interference in train schedules became general there was, of course, delay in carrying the mails. The railroads put mail cars on every train where there was any possible chance of sending them out. The strike leaders were always advised by their lawyers to try to let mail trains through, but the general stoppage of work nevertheless caused delay.

The injunction cases were commenced by the United States Government. Mr. Edwin Walker was regularly appointed special attorney for the government in the prosecution of these cases. So, in this matter, Mr. Walker was general counsel for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Company, for the General Managers' Association, and a special attorney for the United States. I did not regard this as fair. The government might with as good grace have appointed the attorney for the American Railway Union to represent the United States. The A. R. U. had thus far been represented by their regular attorney from Indiana, and Mr. William Irwin, a well-known lawyer from Minneapolis. Soon after the injunctions were issued, Mr. Debs and a good many of my friends came to ask me to go into the case. I did not want to take it up, knowing about what would be involved. I knew that it would take all my time for a long period, with no compensation; but I was on their side, and when I saw poor men giving up their jobs for a cause, I could find no sufficient excuse, except my selfish interest, for refusing. So, again I went to the president of the company and told him that I felt that I should go into the case, although it would mean giving up my position; and I told him that I believed some one whose political views were more in keeping with their interests would be a much better man for the company. He was most cordial and attentive. He agreed that I must do whatever I considered right, but asked me to continue my connection with the road when I went into private practice and take such matters as we agreed upon, at about half the salary I had been receiving. This connection was thus kept up for a number of years. The president of the road was Mr. Marvin Hewitt. We remained the best of friends to the end of his life. He died about 1920, I believe.

And so I gave up my position and became one of the attorneys for Mr. Debs in the great strike of the American Railway Union. I did not want to take the position, and felt that I should not, but I had not been able to justify my strong convictions with a refusal to aid them in their contest. About the time of the issuing of the injunctions, and before I left the North-Western Company, Mr. Edwin Walker, as special government attorney, wired the President of the United States, Grover Cleveland, to send Federal troops to Chicago. He did this against the protest of the governor and the mayor, and clearly without legal rights. The Constitution of the United States provided that the President could send troops to a State on request of the legislature, or of the governor, when the legislature was not in session, but no one seemed to care for the Constitution, as no one does when an occasion seems important. I no longer get so excited over such acts as I once did. I know that when men are sufficiently aroused they ignore laws and customs and precedents, and try to get their way. The great World War demonstrates the impotency of human restraints and arrangements in the face of an overwhelming passion. Governor Altgeld asserted that there was no authority for sending the troops to Chicago; as clearly there was none. As a matter of fact, there was no need whatever of Federal troops, even had the President a legal right to send them. There was no rioting or uncontrollable disorder, no open defiance of the law. Here and there a few men might gather and some discussion might lead to a fight, but that is always a common occurrence in such cases.

It is true that a large number of cars in outlying districts were burned, but no military force could have averted that. This did not result from any uncontrollable disorder. The police at all times had the situation fully in their hands, and there was no sign or chance of disturbance. The Federal troops were really brought as a gesture, but an unfriendly one against the Constitution and the laws and the liberties of the people. When the troops arrived they stood around like the policemen and officers and citizens, until their presence was so obviously useless that they were recalled.

Mr. Debs and all the members of his board were enjoined--enjoined from what? Of course no one could tell. It depended upon how many inferences could be drawn from other inferences, and to what degree. But the injunction and the troops and the press made it impossible to win the strike. I do not mean to discuss the original merits of the strike. The men left the railroads en masse to keep their wages from being cut and working conditions lowered. The railroads resisted because to yield meant greater cost in the running of trains. Both sides were right, but I wanted to see the workers win. I knew of no way to determine what a workman should be paid; what he should have in a way is determined by what he can get, and, so far as we can see, every one's compensation is settled the same way.

In addition to the injunctions, Mr. Debs and all his executive board were indicted by the Federal grand jury for conspiracy. Like all such indictments, these were framed in general terms, to cover anything that by fact or construction might justify a conviction.

If there are still any citizens interested in protecting human liberty, let them study the conspiracy laws of the United States. They have grown apace in the last forty years until to-day no one's liberty is safe. The conspiracy laws magnify misdemeanors into serious felonies. If a boy should steal a dime a small fine would cover the offense; he could not be sent to the penitentiary. But if two boys by agreement steal a dime then both of them could be sent to the penitentiary as conspirators. Not only could they be, but boys are constantly being sent under similar circumstances.

If A is indicted and a conspiracy is charged, or even if it is not charged, the state's attorney is allowed to prove what A said to B and what B said to C while the defendant was not present. Then he can prove what C said to D and what D said to E, and so on, to the end of the alphabet, and after the letters are used up the state's attorney can resort to figures for as long a stretch as he cares to continue. To make this hearsay or gossip competent, the state's attorney informs the court that later he will connect it up by showing that the defendant was informed of the various conversations, or that he otherwise had knowledge of them. Thereupon the complaisant judge holds that the evidence is admissible, but if it is not connected up it will be stricken out. A week or a month may pass by, and then a motion is made to strike it out. By that time it is of no consequence whether it is stricken out or not; it has entered the jurors' consciousness with a mass of other matter, and altogether it has made an impression on his mind. What particular thing made the impression, neither the juror nor any one else can know.

These conspiracy laws, made by the courts, have gone so far that they can never be changed except through a general protest by liberty-loving men and women, if any such there be, against the spirit of tyranny that has battered down the ordinary safeguards that laws and institutions have made to protect individual rights. In that event, any degree of freedom cannot be established except by statutes of the Federal government and of the several States. In this event, these laws will be chipped away by courts through sophistry and tyranny, as they always have been destroyed. Liberty cannot prevail unless the feeling is in the hearts of the people; and wealth, and the hope of it, have taken this away.