CHAPTER XI.
WITNESSES FOR PLUTOCRACY DISCREDITED.[8]
When the nature of the present world conflict is understood, those who favor the people's cause will cease to receive any further instruction or advice whatever from their enemies or the allies or agents of their enemies.
If America declared open war upon Britain should we put the slightest confidence in any statement, emanating from English sources as to the best line of attack? And, if a coterie of young Britishers were to enter our camp and advise our soldiers to open fire in a northward direction, should we not rather suspect an attack from the enemy on the south? Is it not a rule in war always to fire in the direction opposite to that advised by your enemies? In all business and other practical affairs of life is it not universally recognized as the extreme of folly to accept as facts the statements of those who may profit by our discomfiture?
Most assuredly! And it is time for the merchants and workingmen of America to apply to their political struggle these simple maxims so well established elsewhere.
WORTHLESS TESTIMONY.
Imagine a courtroom filled with spectators and a group of culprits being tried for wholesale theft. The strongest evidence has been produced by both the prosecution and defense and the result is in doubt. Anxious crowds are waiting in suspense for some decisive stroke that shall give an advantage to one side or the other. The counsel for the defense arises and plays his last card by an eloquent appeal in behalf of the prisoners, basing his plea entirely on the superiority of his witnesses. He shows that they stand much higher in the community than the witnesses for the prosecution, who are poor, untutored countrymen. "My witnesses," says he, "include the leading men in your community—your parson, the principal of your high school, and the editor of your paper. Yours are mere yahoos and ignoramuses, not capable of exercising judgment in such a case as this." A murmur of assent passes around the room. There is a cheer of confirmation, and the jurors nod their heads significantly.
The prosecuting attorney, instead of making a speech, plays his last card by taking the jury to the stable, where they discover that the horse on which the teacher rode to court is one of those stolen from Farmer Hayseed's stable, and further he proves that the suit of clothes worn by the parson on the witness stand was made of the very piece of woolen goods taken from the country storekeeper, and that the coins that fill the purse of the respected editor are the same identical marked coins accumulated by Widow Jones for her old age and taken from her money drawer on the night of the crime in question. No speeches, no arguments are necessary after this. The jurors purge their memories of the testimony for the defense, and the culprits are sent to prison.
In the great case of "The People versus Monopoly," now being tried at the bar of Public Opinion, the defense, beaten upon every other point, bases its last plea upon the superiority of its witnesses. It is claimed that the authorities on finance, the press and the pulpit are witnesses in defense of Monopoly. We acknowledge this, and in answer wish only to take the jury, who are to decide this case, to the homes of these witnesses, where they can see for themselves that they are sharers in the plunder that has been taken from the plaintiffs.