INFAMY IN IDAHO.

NZ Truth, Issue 109, 20 July 1907, Page 1

INFAMY IN IDAHO.

: The plutish Press, which is quite as unscrupulous, and as untrustworthy, m the Commonwealth of Australia as t is m other parts of t'he world, is publishing lurid cablegrams, frequently, m which it enFarges upon what it calls a vast conspiracy : to commit murder that, it is alle-gerl, has bean unearthed m 'the United States. The alleged murder-, ors are 'officers, of 'the Western Feder-; .ation of Miners, a very powerful union of working miners intheWestern. States. of America! 1 ' and it is al-: .leg-ed- that tho accused men, Mover,---,1-Lawood, and Pettibone, employed an infamous scoundrel named Orchard, to commit a number of murders, and that Orchard actually did commit some of these murders, one of them b-eing that of one Steunenberg, who 'vas the Governor of the State of Idaho. This assertion by. Orchard, the capitalist papers have had: the audacity to call a "confession," thus., entirely ignoring the fact that the ; .fellow is making accusations against others, and that, as he has done this as a witness- on behalf of the State, he is really doing so with safety guaranteed' (openly or secretly) to his own worthless carcase. The organised workers of America do not regard it as a confession, but as a perjured accusa;fcibh' r by an irifarafcus criminal of the' type that is capable of perpetrating the blackest perjury fer dollars. • N * It is quite likely that the odious Orchard did kill Governqr Steunenberg, for the former appeals to have had a personal grudge against the dead man, • but there is not the slightest good 1 reason to believe that the men accused of the offence of having employed him for the purpose ever had any criminal agreement with him. Everybody m Idaho and the adjoining States knew that Orchard was what is there called '-'a bad man"— that is to say, that he was a scoundrel capable of committing any crime of treachery and violence. It is, therefore, \ quite likely that, when' he found the toils tightening around him, when he discovered that tb.<,men employed to investigate the crime of the murder of Steunejiberg were daily .setting nearer to the discovery of himself as the perpetrator, he determ inert to save himself by alleging that he was employed to commit the murder by the officers •of a union preatly hated and dreaded by the capitalist's of the Western States of America. It is even more than: probable tfoat the cunning criminal struck a bargain with tbe organised capitalists who have had Idaho overrun, during the last few years with "Pink-, erton' detectives." If tbe infamous Orchard thus saves his own neck, and secures a good round sum of money from Western capitalists for /the purpose of destroying the lives of the exceptionally capable and courageous! officers of the Western Federation <?* Miners, he will, no doubt, consW that he has done % good s£noke v/" business. /^ . ** * : It, however, cannot be regarded as eectain that Orchard really did kill Governor Steimeniber-g ; It is possible that the crime was committed by some of the Republican officers of Idaho who were engaged m gigantic frauds concerning timber lands. That these frauds were perpetrated has jheen discovered, and also that-Gover-nor Steunenberg knew of the frauds. One of the worst of the swindlers, v/as Senator Borah, who was main-: •Jy instrumental m working up the prosecution of Moyer, Haywood, and Pettibone. A recent issue of the New York "People" says :— ■ New light is being thrown onjthe character of the mem high m office m Idaho who are trying to send the officers of the Western Federation of Miners to the gallows. It appears that the whole gang are implicated m gigantic timber land frauds, m which former Governor Steunenberg also had a hand. The capitalist criminals are now appealing to President Roosevelt to shield them, on tbe pretence that to push the case now .would delay the trial' of Moyer, Haywood and Pettitoone— a trial which for over a year has been postponed by tbe prosecutfcn, while the defence was urging Bpeedy vrial. . • ' • * The revelation of this state of tttfngs causes the existence oi J l .. '^f*. picion that Steunentoerg may have fallen out with one of his iellow-swind-lers> and this may account . for tas,

murder. In the peculiar state of feeling that existed m Idaho, with practically a state of civil war m that State, it would not be difficult to indilce the public to believe that the murder had been committed by some miner, m revenge for the extreme steps taken by Steunenberg against. the Western Federation of Miners and its members. That capitalist conspirators m the United States are quite capable of doing this is shown by their history. The "Pinker ton Detective" force, which, consists largely of men armed and trained as "strike-breakers," is invariably ; employed by the capi'talfcsts during any serious strike, and scarce- I ly one of these important strikes passes without some of the strikers having been slain by Pinkertons. At Homestead, at the works belonging to that Andrew Carnegie who goes moaning about the'world asking the question, "What am I to do with my millions ?" pitched battles took place between the Pinkertons and the strikers. The Pinkertons, armed' with Winchester repeating rifles, embarked upon barges, and proceeded towards the place where the strikers were entrenched. These, however, ! were themselves armed, and while some of them fired upon the Pinkertons from behind .walls of steel rails, others poured oil upon the water and set alight to it, with the result that the Pinkertons had to acknowledge themselves defeated, and surrendered to tbe strikers. Usually, however, strikers are simply massacred by the Pinkertons. • • « These .precious Pinkertons , some of wifoose doings m San Francisco, • California-, we recently described m an article, entitled "American Labor Warfare," have been 'very active m Idaho. Tbe "Pinkertons" m Idaho ane known as "McPartland's Strikebreakers," but the only way m which they seem to differ from the original Pinkertons is m being even more bloodthirsty than the men who were overcome and captured at Homestead. It is quite likely that some of these armed detectives of McPartland have entered into a conspiracy with t'he 'mine-owners of Idaho and Colorado to destroy the lives of the singularly capable men officering the Western Federation of Miners. The so-called Anarchists of Chicago were done to death m a similar manner, as a result of a conspiracy between a number of rich men (headed by Lyman J. Gage) and certain of the heads of the police (Inspector Bonfield and Captain Schaack). The wealthy men of Chicago met secretly, and arranged that, as somebody— probably a relative of some person who had been shot down m the street by the" ruffianly police j of Chicago— had thrown .a bomb at tbe police, the opportunity would be good to accuse the leading labor organisers m Chicago— some of whom 'ooliishly called themselves Anarchists -of the crime. Accordingly, Cap/tain Schaack— who has written a biased, catch-penny book on the affair—was employed to work up the case, and with the aid of trumpery testimony the men were convicted. • • • . As the outcome of this conviction, brought about by a trial m which tbe presiding judge acted the part of the Public Prosecutor— and also took cape to rule against every point taken by the counsel for the defencefour men, leading men m the Chicago Lafaor movement, were hangiad. These ; men were Parsons, the editor of a journal called "The Alarm ;" August Spies, the editor of a journal called "Arbeiter Zeitung" (Labor Gazette), Fisher, and Engel. Three other men, Fielden, Schwab*, and Neebe, were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. There was no attempt ever made to show that the accused had ever seen such a bomb as that thrown at the police. The testimony of the principal witness against Spies (one Harry Gilmer) was most seriously impeached, and no man can impartially read the testimony adduced at the trial without feeling convinced that, had the accused entered into a bomb-throwing conspiracy — as charged by the prosecution— they would, as was pointed out by Carter Harrison, the Mayor of Chicago, have thrown, not one bomb, but scores. ♦ » • After the four men had been hunted, i a spite of appeals for clemency from all parts of the world, from n eri ,i. Hke Victor Hugo, it '^as discovered that..,. Captain Schaack was an unscrupulous, rascal." Ebecsold, another . police captain, stated that Schaack

deliberately concocted alleged 1 Anarchist plots m order to keep himself m the limelight, and to persuade the rich men of Chicago, that he was one of their most serviceable tools. Stress was also laid upon the fact that some of the documents used m evidence at the trial had been found to be countersigned by Lyman J, Gage, thus showing that these documents had previously been submitted to the secret committee of capitalists before being taken into court. It was also pointed out that the meeting at which the bomb was thrown at the police was of the most peaceful character — until it was attacked by the police. So peaceful was it that Carter Harrison, who was there to 'disperse it should ; it prove , disorderly, returned to his home, after informing Inspector Bonfield that the meeting was of such a nature as not. to; call for police ■ interference. Furthermore, it was shown that the accused men had been but { little known to each other . prior to the trial, and that, jnstead of having been tried, they had been. really "railroaded to the gallows' ' •by'a plutish partisan, Judge Cary. . : .* ' * " ' •* Apparent the capitalists of America are seeking to play the same game m. Idaho as they did m Chicago. It has already been testified by a man named Adams, who was charged with murder, and was accjuitted, that, while he w : as awaiting trial, he was promised liberty and a large sum of money if he would give false evidence . against Moyer, Haywood. ; and Pettiboii'3. His wife, too, was also urged, to try to persuade her husband to do this, and, upon her refusing, she was thrown into the same oell as that occupied by her husband. Nothing has been .said by the daily press of Australia about the fact of Sena/tor Borah— who is " the District Attorney proceeding against the accused — having, been indicted by the Grand Jury for being one of the principals concerned m the timber-lands frauds. Nothing is said of this by our daily Press, nor of the further fact that so littl^ weight did the prosecution consider that the testimony of Orchard would have with a jury, that, they kept the accused persons imprisoned fourteen months, while they were making attempts to induce Adams and his wife, and other persons, to giv,e additional testimony against the accused. America may be the greatest Republic m the world ; but it is decidedly not m the most civilised country, or the country m. which there is the most consideration for the man of toil. It is a land of unbridled greed, a land where wealth is worshipped more than m any other country, and where, consequently, m order to get and to retain this wealth, cbvetbus men will hesitate at the commission of, no crime, particularly against men who/ by combining to obtain higher wages 1 , would thus < reduce the. profits of the capitalists who have invested money m various enterprises. It may be that the officers of the Western Federation of Miners will be hanged, but if so, there is likely to be, as. the ,New York correspondent of the London "Times" pointed out recently, a most serious social outbreak. This outbreak will, probably, 'be much more serious than tho war between the North and the South ; and may even result m the complete overthrow of the present system of American plutocratic government.

Terror and a Trial.