PAGE TEN
William J. Burns, “The Great
Detective.”
''THE National Association of the Chiefs
1 of Police has displaced from its honorary
roll, the grandest rascal and the most com
prehensive criminal that ever foisted himself
upon the credulous as “The Great Detective.’’
The truth is, Burns is no detective at all.
lie is a man who docs, on a large scale, what
the individual thug does on a small one: he
commits crime in behalf of rich criminals.
lie hires him,self and his gangs to the Big
Money law-breakers, who either want to
unload their own crimes upon the innocent,
or who want to crush the laboring classes in
their efforts to obtain a fair wage and humane
treatment.
Burns is a Knight of Columbus; and he
is quite good enough for that organization of
papists whose 4th degree oath makes them
traitors to our Government, and whose rifles,
stored in the underground vaults of churches,
keeps them prepared for treason.
Let me quote what others say .about the
eminent Knight of Columbus, William J.
Burns.
The Milwaukee Leader, arraigns the infa
mous scoundrel in these terms:
The king of American gunmen, the chief of
the tribe of sneaks, who, by ia succession of press
agent stunts that rival those of his friend Roose
velt, has risen to national notoriety, seems to be
getting a little publicity that he does not like.
When he first burst through the front pages
of the capitalist press, and was deluging the
magazines with eulogistic articles written by his
agents, the Socialist and Labor press called atten
tion to the fact that documents published by the
National government showed him to have been
guilty of fabricating evidence, bribing witnesses
and a half dozen other crimes which should have
put him behind bars.
But Burns was given the credit for landing a
number of labor leaders and that expiated all
other sins.
Then came the case of the California hop-pick
ers, where Burns tortured witnesses, bribed and
intimidated and assaulted those whom he wished
to get rid of, and was then permitted to send his
men into court to exploit their crimes for the
purpose of sending workingmen to prison.
So long as Burns confined his work to laborers
he was able to “get away with it.” When he
interfered in the Frank case, where the class
lines were not drawn, he was promptly called to
time. Although the actions of the Burns men in
the Frank case were mild in comparison with
their reckless disregard of law and decency in the
cases they conducted against labor, yet because
laborers were not the victims, some of his men
went to jail, Burns himself barely escaped from
imprisonment and was mobbed by an angry
crowd.
Now the International Association of Police
Chiefs, whether moved by professional jealousy
or a fine sense of honor, it would be difficult to
say, are threatening to pull the lid off Burns’
operations and disvow him.
Yet tlbs man is today at the head of a private
army of desperate cutthroats, thugs and criminals,
every one of whom is armed and licensed to prey
on sock y, and especially on the working class.
These most depraved elements of our society are
given an opportunity to gratify their debauched
instincts under the cover of legal authority and
in the name of law and order.
These men are sneaking 'about in every union
hall. They are fomenting trouble inside the
Socialist movement. They are the chief agents
of violence in every strike. And while they are
paid and equipped for this service by the exploit
ing class, they are backed by the authority of the
State and hide behind its shelter when committing
crime.
The San Francisco Town Talk publishes
an editorial on Burns, from which we quote
a few lines:
Our daily papers have been denying their read
ers news of great local interest that comes from
Atlanta, Ga.» byway of the great dailies of New
York and other large cities. It is news that
throws a white light on Detective Williiam J.
Burns, a celebrity who was once a notable figure
in the life of this community. There are men
and women in San Frisco who used to adore
Detective Burns. They received him in their
homes, dined him in their clubs, were proud to
be seen with him in public, and frothed at the
mouth whenever Town Talk told the truth about
him So profound was their confidence in him,
THE JEFFERSONIAN
so bitter and barbarious their hatred of men whom
he was hired' to pursue, that they thought it but
right he should have control of the machinery of
justice; and because the Chief of Police would
not turn the police department over to him they
hounded that official to his death, the mystery
of which has never been cleared jap. There was
never a more transparent rogue in the world
than William J. Burns, but if his adorers in San
Francisco —rattle-brained women and hare
brained men—had been given their way there
was no crime that he might not have been
equipped with facilities to commit. As these folk
are still presuming to direct public affairs here
abouts it is of some importance that we should
keep track of the press-made detective that every
body might come to realize the value of their
guidance. Burns went to Atlanta with a great
flourish of trumpets after taking the newspapers
into his confidence and telling them he was pre
pared to prove the innocence of Leo Frank, the
wealthy manufacturer convicted of the murder of
Mary Phagan, and establish the guilt of Jim
Conley, a poor negro. It soon turned out that
the only evidence he had was an affidavit made
by the Rev. C. C. Ragsdale, a Baptist minister, to
the effect that he heard Conley confess that he
murdered Mary Phagan. Ragsdale has since con
fessed that he perjured himself for S2OO, and his
son explains that the affidavit was obtained by
threats to expose a fraudulent land deal put
through by the minister. If it was Burns that
made the threats it would not be the first time
that he employed this method of obtaining evi
dence. Whatever the truth, he has been directly
implicated in the crime, and the people of
Atlanta were so strongly convinced of his guilt
that they organized a mob to hang him, thus
giving him a little of the kind of experience that
he was quite willing others should have when he
was inventing frame-ups in this city.
1
4
It will be a long time before the people
forget how the Burns bubble collapsed when
a few plain columns of printed stuff in The
Jeffersonian, painted the grand rascal, just
as he is.
He fled the State, and he does not dare to
come back.
If the laboring people had one sincere and
competent champion in the U. S. Senate, such
criminal organizations as these Burns and
Asher “Detective Agencies” -would be broken
up. - -
They are a revival of the Pinkerton Army,
which a Populist member of Congress put
out of business, 22 years ago.
Roman Catholic Priests Make
War On a Great Jew.
YOU who have read this paper for years,
know it to be a fact, that I have never
insulted any man’s religion, and never held
the average Catholic to be other than a good
citizen, true to bis race and his country.
My war has been waged against the organi
zation, whose home is Italy; whose control
has been exclusively in Italian hands for more
than 400 years; whose fundamental laws are
in deadly conflict with ours; and whose secret
societies and priests are the sworn servants
of this foreign organization.
I do not believe that the average Catholic
layman has any idea of the vile questions
which priests ask women.
Neither do I believe that the average Catho
lic knows the secret workings of the Italian
organization.
In fact, the average layman in the church
of Rome is kept in the dark, ON PURPOSE.
How many American Catholics know that
the priests are taught that, if they do not have
carnal connection with, a woman more than
two or three times a month, the fault is not
serious?
How many American Catholics know that
when the Italians were fighting for Home
Rule, against pope-rule, in 1870, Pope Pius
IN. wrote to*the Protestant King of Prussia,
begging that he send, Protestant soldiers to
Italy, TO CRUSH THE ITALIAN CATH
OLICS?
That is history, but the American Catholics
do not know it.
Bismarck held back the Pope’s letter to
King William, until the heroic Liberator,
Garibaldi, had captured Rome, put the pope
to flight, and established Italian Home Rule.
Now, of course, these facts are well known
in Italy, and to Ernesto Nathan, the great
Jew whom the King of Italy nominated to
represent his country at the Panama Exposi
tion.
Because the King of Italy honored Nathan
with the appointment, the Romanist priests
and newspapers began to preach a crusade
of hate against the Jews and of boycott
against the Fair.
What right have the priests in this coun
try to object to what the King of Italy
chooses to do?
They virtually declare that they will kill
the Exposition, if they can, rather than allow
the King’s appointee to act as Commissioner.
What sort of justice is there in trying to
damage the Fair, and cause a loss to our
Government and people, because the King of
Italy appointed a Jew ?
But, they say, Nathan “insulted” the Holy
Father.
How?
I will tell you how:
The Italians decided to hold festivals and
celebrations in honor of their achievement of
Independence—independence from Pope-rule
■which had been sustained by the foreign bay
onets of Austria and France!
These foreign bayonets, called in by the
Italian pope, were dripping with the blood of
Italian padriots.
Just as the Southern States of our Union
rejoiced when bayonet rule ended, and we
gained control of our home affairs, so the
Italian patriots jubilated over the driving out
of the French and Austrian bayonets which
had upheld the Temporal Power of popery.
But this old Italian, Joseph Sarto, thought
vastly more of papal power than of Italy’s
independence; and the old dupderhead actu
ally ordered all the Italian Catholics to go
into mourning, on the anniversary which all
patriotic Italians were celebrating.
This unnatural conduct of the pope was
calculated to create bad feeling, division
among Italians, disorder, riots and blood
shed.
Feeling this way about it, Ernesto Nathan,
who was then Mayor of Rome, and responsi
ble for the peace of the City, denounced the
conduct of the pope, just as it deserved to be
denounced.
Neither patriotism nor religion actuated
the pope in stirring up that strife. He was
moved by the intense rancor wdiich popery
bears to anything that is free, independent
and democratic.
It was this speech, in which Mayor Nathan
rebuked Sarto for a course of conduct that
could not possibly result in v good, and which
might result in very great harm—it was this
speech that “insulted” the pope.
Suppose we people of the South wanted to
celebrate the anniversary of the overthrow of
Carpet-bag Government, and the Republicans
should decide to go into mourning on that
dav!
We ■wouldn’t like it very much, would we?
Suppose that we sons of the slave holders
should be silly enough to go into mourning
on Emancipation Day, while the colored
brother is celebrating his freedom, what
■would sensible folks think of us?
Well, you can apply either illustration to
Italy and thus get a fair estimate of the
pope’s lack of common sense.
I do not believe that the average American
Catholic -will take any part in this attempted
boycott of the Panama Exposition. They
know that the orders to the priests have been
sent from Rome.
They know that the pope is doing wrong
when he attempts to use religion as a weapon
of revenge. They know that it is none of his
business whom the King appoints, and this
Government receives.
