Two Great Trials Pending
By Editor
As we go to press two great trials are pending, one in Idaho for the murder of Governor Steunenberg; the other in San Francisco, a trial of Abram Ruef for extortion and other crimes. The country is interested in them both. The former case has been tried over and over again by a great many of the Socialists and the men acquitted; and everybody who has even intimated that it would be better to wait until after the trial is over and the evidence is in has been stigmatized as an enemy to the laboring man, and many other worse epithets. No cause gains anything by such means. The friends of Haywood, Moyer, and Pettibone would gain very much more sympathy from the people at large if they themselves would say, "We are not only willing but anxious that justice shall be done and the crime placed where it belongs; and while we wish to defend our brethren, we will do everything on our part to help the cause of truth and justice." Tennyson has well said: 'The evil can not brook delay,
The good can well afford to wait.'
In San Francisco the testimony before the grand jury has seemed to indicate that Mr. Ruef and his associates are guilty of superlative grafting, and the report comes before this note is finished that Mr. Ruef has pleaded guilty and the jury is discharged. The trial of Mayor Schmitz comes next, the case against whom is said to be stronger than against Ruef. Certainly San Francisco is to be pitied. The earthquake and the fire are the lesser of her evils.