The Haywood Trial: Plea for the Defense

Clarence S. Darrow

Governor Frank Steunenberg, of Idaho, was killed on the night of December 30, 1905, by a bomb which was adjusted to explode as he opened the yard-gate to his home. One Harry Orchard turned State's evidence and confessed to having placed the bomb at the instigation of William D. Haywood, President of the Mine Workers' Union. The murder grew out of labor troubles in the Idaho mining region. Haywood was indicted for murder, and his trial attracted the attention of the whole country. Eminent counsel were engaged for both sides. Following is an extract of the plea to the jury on behalf of the defendant, who was eventually acquitted. The speech is naturally strongly emotional. In the first paragraph Harry Orchard is denounced, and the rest of the speech is a general plea for the laboring interests which Haywood, the defendant, represented.

GENTLEMEN, when you are through with this trial and have gone back to your homes and think of it, pictures will come to you of the figures in this case, and amongst the rest, Harry Orchard. Everybody will picture him according to how they see him. You have seen him here. You have heard his story. You have seen him, sleek and fat and well fed, facing this jury day by day, asking for this man's blood. Do you ever want to see him again? Is there any man that can ever think of Harry Orchard except in loathing and disgust? And yet, gentlemen, upon the testimony of this brute you are asked to get rid of Bill Haywood. You are asked to take his life because down in Colorado and up in Coeur d'Alenes he had been against the Mine Owner's Association, and because he has been organizing the weak, the poor, the toilers.

Gentlemen, it is not for William Haywood alone

that I speak. I speak for the poor, for the weak, for the weary, for that long line of men who, in darkness and despair, have borne the labors of the human race. The eyes of the world are upon you-upon you twelve men of Idaho to-night. Wherever the English lauguage is spoken or wherever any tongue makes known the thoughts of men in any portion of the civilized world, men are talking and wondering and dreaming about the verdict of these twelve men that I see before me now. If you kill him your act will be applauded by many. If you should decree Bill Haywood's death, in the railroad offices of our great cities men will applaud your names. If you decree his death, amongst the spiders of Wall Street will go up pæans of praise for these twelve good men and true. In every bank in the world, where men hate Haywood because he fights for the poor and against that accursed system upon which the favored live and grow rich and fatfrom all those you will receive blessings and unstinted praise.

But if your verdict should be "not guilty" in this case, there are still those who will reverently bow their heads and thank these twelve men for the life and reputation you have saved. Out on our broad prairies where men toil with their hands, out on the wide ocean where men are tossed and buffeted on the waves, through our mills and factories, and down deep under the earth, thousands of men, and of women and children-men who labor, men who suffer, women and children weary with care and toil-these men and these women and these chil

dren will kneel to-night and ask their God to guide your hearts-these men and these women and these little children, the poor, the weak, and the suffering of the world, are stretching out their helpless hands to this jury in mute appeal for Will Haywood's life.

The Haywood Trial: Plea for the Prosecution William E. Borah

This is an extract from a jury address in behalf of the prosecution of William D. Haywood, charged with conspiracy to murder as stated in the head-note to the preceding selection. The changing emotions and strong climaxes in this speech offer a fine opportunity for effective declamation.

No doubt that many times during this trial you have been moved by the eloquence of counsel for the defense. They are men of wondrous powers. They have been brought here because so rarely gifted in power to sway the minds of men. But as I listened to the music of their voices and felt for a moment the compelling touch of their hypnotic influence, there came back to me all the more vividly, when released from the spell, another scene there came to me in more moving tones other voices. I remembered again the awful night of December 30, 1905, a night which added ten years to the life of some who are in this courtroom now. I felt again its cold and merciless chill, faced the drifting snow and peered at last into the darkness for the sacred spot where last lay my dead friend. I saw men and women standing about in the storm and darkness, silent in the

presence of the dreadful mystery, and Idaho disgraced and dishonored-I saw murder-no, not murder a thousand times worse than murder, I saw anarchy displaying its first bloody triumph to Idaho. I saw government by assassination pointing to the mangled form of Frank Steunenberg, and saying to all-"Look, look, and take notice! Here is the fate of all who do their duty to their state and the Government."

Counsel for the defense have tried to make you believe that we would have professional distinction at the cost of human liberty or life. There has been something in this cause to make a man forget all professional pride. I only want what you want -human life made safe-assassination put out of business. I only want what you want-the gate which leads to our homes, the yard-gate whose inward swing tells of the returning husband and father, shielded and guarded by the courage and manhood of Idaho judges. He who takes life in the malice of the heart forfeits his right to livefor the sake of society, for the sake of all men who love their fellowmen and want to live with them in peace-he forfeits his right to live.

If this be true where individual man slays but another, ten thousand times more true should it be where men in hatred and malice, in stealth and in secrecy, combine, confederate, and agree to carry on and commit indiscriminate murder, where men defy law, denounce society, trample upon all rights, human and divine, and thirst for the blood of all who chance to thwart or oppose their criminal

purposes. Anarchy, pale, bloodless, restless, hungry demon from the crypts of hell-fighting for a foothold in Idaho! What shall we do? This is the question. Shall we crush it, shall we make it unsafe for the disciples of this creed to do business here, or shall we palter and trim and compromise and invite to choose other victims? These are the questions to be settled by you and you alone. In the court of your own conscience the verdict must be worked out, and I must leave it all with you.

The Apostle of a New Idea

Herbert S. Bigelow

This is an extract from an address on "Calf Paths," being one of numerous addresses published by the People's Church and Town Meeting Society, of Cincinnati, Ohio. This declamation is climactic in construction: the first two paragraphs contain an illustrative story; the point of the story is expounded in the third paragraph; and the last paragraph drives the point home in a strong appeal.

AT Ephesus, a certain man, named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no little business unto the craftsmen; whom he gathered together, with the workingmen of like occupation, and said: "Sirs, ye know that by this business we have our wealth. And ye see and hear that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away such people, saying that they are no gods that are made with hands."

And when they heard this they were filled with wrath and cried out saying, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" And they rushed with on accord into