THE I.W.W.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15772, 13 December 1916, Page 12

THE I.W.W.

ETJiD OF THE SID NUT TBIAL. STRONG COMMENTS BT THE JUDGE. • The closing scene of the remarkable trial of tie twelve members of the I."W."W!, who wero found guilty of seditions crimes and conspiracy, came last woeli, when Mr .Tustico Pring delivered sentence upon the prisoners. The ' prisonevrs having all madp. "speeches from the dock" of varying length, in which they posed as martyrs to "capitalism,and denied their guilt, the Judge passed sentence. In doing so he said "Itach of Vou prisoners has condemned the verdict of the jury. 1 have only, to say this, that in my opinion the jury have done no more than their duty. They have been extremely patient and carcful in the case, and no one who has listened to the evidence can possibly doubt tlie correctness of the conclusion to which they have come. Everything ihat was possible was done for you by the able counsel who have defended you. but in spite of that the jury h;ive come to the one conclusion thai was npen to any men of eommonsenee. Now you have been convicted of very, very scrious crimes. You are members of an association which I do not hesitate to state, alter the revelations in this case, is an association of criminals of the worst type—a hot-bed of crime —ai»i J hope that, very fctrong and drastic steps will be taken to uproot that association. "If' I may venture one. suggestion it is this: That tho Domain meetings attended by members of this association be peremptorily stopped, because, it is perfectly clear that these meetings aro simply held there for the purpose of recruiting young and ignorant men into the ranks of this association. Only tho other day two members of this association, in the most cowardly and cold-blooded way, shot down a policeman, whose only fault, was that he was doing his dnty. These two men, in tho course of a few days, will pay the last dread penalty of the law —sentence of death —and you may consider yourselves very lucky that' sonic of you are not in the same position, because you have not hesitated to devise a most devilish scheme, not merely for the destruction of property, but absolutely regardless of human life, which might, have been destroyed, and would have been destroyod, no doubt, if the many attempts you made had been successful. Yon talk about your loyalty to your class. Do you think that you were serving that, class by resorting to these diabolical plots? What, would have been tbo result of your actions to that class if those plots had been successful? It would have meant this: that you would have deprived members, of that, class whom you say you represent of their employment. "You talk about class hatred. Who has bronght, or • endeavoured to bring about that class hatred? You yourselves, by your speeches in ' the Domain and by this pernicious literature that yon- have scattered abroad. T hope that the police will see to it that every piccc of that pcrnidons literature is destroyed. I hope the authorities will use their, best endeavours to prevent. any more of it entering this country. One of your counscl described the crime with which you are chargcd as the, act of dcnls, and I think he was right. Now, lam going to pass / sontcnco upon you that I do not think is reasonably commensurate with the terrible crime of which you havo been convicted, but I would rather lean to the side, of mercy than vongcance. Nevertheless, I must pass a very heavy penalty upon you, and lam going to do it. Otherwise I would fail in mv duty towards the whole of the public of New South. Wales.

'"The sentence upon von, Glynn, HamOtoii, • McPhereon, Teen, Bcatty, Fagin, and Grant, upon each count of which yoa havo been fonnd guilty, is that you bo imprisoned and kept to hard labour in Parramatta Gaol for the term of fifteen years, the sentences to be, concurrent. The sentence upon you, Reeve, Larkin, Besant, and Mdore, npon cach count, is that you be imprisoned and kept to hard labour in "Bathnrst Gaol for a. period of ten vcars, the sentences to be concurrent. The sentence upon you, King, is that you be imprisoned and kept to hard labour in Bathurst Gaol for a period of fivo years, the sentence to commence at the expiration of the sentence you aro now serving." The men -were then removed from the dock.