s cannot be committed by numbers with impunity,
that while it is fairly safe, it won't be absolutely safe. We have no
protection. That is the vital part of this case. We have no protection.

[Illustration: JOHN LOONEY]

"If this case were just that of murder committed by one man acting
alone, the importance of your verdict would be of small significance,
compared with the importance of your verdict in a criminal case where
the members are part of an organization. True, the society has no doubt
a great many aims that are desirable to improve the welfare of the
workingman. But it has one aim, one vital aim, in its platform to bring
upon it the condemnation of thinking, sober men and women residing
permanently in the State of Washington, and that is sabotage.

"We are not claiming that the killing of Jefferson Beard was in the
exercise of sabotage. We are saying that sabotage along with the
conscious withdrawal of efficiency, sabotage along with the destruction
of property, may also mean crime.

"The I. W. W. members did not come to Everett for the purpose of
employment; they were men who were wanderers upon the face of the earth,
who desired to establish themselves nowhere, and none of them, as far as
this witness stand is concerned, expected to work in Everett or to put
sabotage in effect in Everett by working slow. The only way they could
use sabotage in Everett was by the destruction of property. The mayor
became alarmed, and the sheriff, after their repeated threats in their
papers. But whether you believe sabotage to be good, bad, or
indifferent, really is not vital in this case except as a circumstance.

"Now, the Wanderer. The Wanderer did not happen the way they said it
happened. The sheriff did shoot after they refused to stop. The sheriff
did hit some of them with the butt of his gun. The sheriff brought them
into Everett because they constituted an unlawful assemblage. The
sheriff did the only thing he could do. He filed charges against them
and they were arraigned in court. Twenty-three men cannot be tried
quickly when each one demands a separate trial by jury. Twenty-three
trials would stop the judicial machinery for three months. They could
not be tried and so the sheriff turned them loose. Maybe he did hit them
harder than he should have. Policemen do that! Sheriff do that! Lots of
time they hit men when it is not necessary. Hit them too hard,
sometimes. They don't always understand exactly what they ar