Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JULY 30,1107. A NOTABLE TRIAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11128, 30 July 1907, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1107.

A NOTABLE TRIAL.

One of the most sensational murder trials m the criminal history of that land of sensations, the United States, has ter--1 mmated with a verdict of acqtdttal. Public interest .-which earlier m the year was 'focussecf on a domestic drama of a somewhat revolting type, known as the Thaw case, has during the past few months been centred upon a much more excitimj and, m some respects, -^much more momentous trial,, that ; nas been proceeding m ..the little town of Boise. City, Jdaho. The trial of William D. Haywood for themurder of ex-Governor Steunenburg was not only, as it has been described, the greatest legal battle m American history, because of the array of legal talent, engaged on either side, but because of the grave consequences issuing from the verdict m the case. It was something more than a mere , matter, of ascertaining the guilt <>r innocence of persons charged with the committal, .of an atrocious crime and imposing upon the guilty the consequences of the law. The case has been made a trial of strength between forces of capital and 'labor, who m their titanic struggle for supremacy are so largely influencing the destiny of the United States. ,;' Boise City itself had little to do with the case. It was merely the stage of the theatre on which the drama was enacted. It had not furnished any of the defendants, nor any of the lawyers^ L nor the victim of the crime. . All. it supplied was the jury, to try the case. The country, at large furnished the excitement, and. for months past with that strange freedom of comment that is' permitted m America press and public have discussed m the most heated manner the verdict that the jury should return.. Even the president has been involved m the un- •. seemly wrangle, : having ventured an opinion by referring to Haywood and Meyer, -two of the persons accused; together with Debs, a socialist leader, and E. H. Harriman. .the railway magnate, as .types of "undesirable citizens"— surely a very indiscreet utterance for a . President on the eve of a murder trial. In fomenting agitation on behalf of the accused men the labor unions of America have been most active.^ rThousands of men paraded tlie streets of mariy citiesr-50,000 m New York alone—waving red flags, .singing the Marsellaise, _ denouncing tlie Supreme Court, and assailing the f President m terms of bitter reproach. A collection of £50,000, according to some estimates, was gathered from the members of labor unions to ensure for the defendants an adequate defence. Tlie story of the crime, though it has previously been told m our columns,; may be briefly recalled at this juncture. When Frank Steunenburg, ex-> Governor ,'pf Idaho (to quote tlie account m Current Literature) walked composedly toward his home m Caldwell on Christmas Eve, 1905,' chatting with two friends, three men 'were lying m wait near his gate, with 4 sawed-off shot-guns ready to shoot him dead. When they saw his companions they cursed their luck and waited for a better chance. Six days later the ex-Governor walked home again and laid his hand upon the familiar" gate. It was his .last act. The gate was a traitor. To it had -been tied a piece of fishline, one end of. which was attached to a bomb, which ; exploded, tearing Steunenburg to pieces. Immediate steps were taken.>to apprehend the murderers, A patrol was established round the town; no one was permitted to enter or ' leave. Two suspicious characters *were arrested. One gave his name as Harry Orchard, the other as Steve Adams ; a third man, their confederate^ got away, and has never been found. Rewards of £3000 were offered, and a private detective of the Pinkerton agency took up the case. By his order Orchard was placed m solitary confinement. None of tlie guards were allowed to speak with him. As the days passed this enforced silence grew^ almost unbearable. Suddenly he" was addressed by the detective, "What will that old mother of yours think when she reads of you m this; fix?" Orchard broke down and said he J was ready to make confession, TC took tlie. detective three days to write it on paper. Orchard . confessed to 26 deliberate murders, all of them, according to him, planned by an inner circle j of the' Western. Federation of Miners and ; executed by himself and others. From ; Steve Adams, his supposed accomplice, ! another confession was obtained, but < Adams subsequently retracted , it. Three men were implicated by Orchard as prin--1 cipal agents m these murders. .One of ; them is William D. Haywood, secretary jof the Western Federation of Miners ; the second Cliarles H. Moyer, president of tlie sanie Federation ; and the third George A. Pettibone, one of the members of its | executive committee. According to Orchard these tliree men, whose tool he professed to have been, had been responsible for dozens of murders extending over a series of years m Colorado, Idaho, and other States. The interest of the socialists m tliis matter is readily explained. The Western Federation of Miners is the one large labor organisation iii the country that has placed itself upon an out-and-out socialist platform. Haywood himself, after his arrest and during. liis incarceration, was made the. socialist canj didate for Governor of Colorado, conduct- | ing bis campaign from the prison m Caldwell, Idaho, and receiving 16,192 votes, i He was even permitted to publish a letter j from prison, denouncing the Supremo '■Court wliich was to try him, and to illustrate the tone of it one sentence may bo quoted: "So far has tho Supreme Court of Colorado sunk below the level of com' mon decency, a windlass will be required to hoist them into tlie presence of his Satanic Majesty," The murder of Steunenburg came as a sequel to a long series of labor troubles. Trouble began m tho mining districts m 1892, and continued seven years with all the violent accohipaniments of a war between labor and capital, such as happily are not known m New Zealand. Tliere were pitched battles between the union and non-union men. 1 Dynamite was uSed-to wreck mills, men j were assassinated, and feeling became so intense that the President of the Miners . Federation advised every local union to organise a rifle corps, so that m two

years we can hear the inspiring music of the martial tread of 25,000 armed men m tlie ranks of labor." Tho climax was reached by the destruction by dynamito of the mill of the Bunker Hill Company m April, 1899. Steunenburg, then Governor of Idaho, appealed for Federal troops, aiid on tlieir arrival a "bull-pen" was constituted to hold tliose arrested. There were a thousand men held there m a ( condition that has been described as "insufferable." Peace was restored and Steunenburg on retiring from the Governorship went back to his sheepfarm. His violent death sjx years later is attributed by the prosecution to the desire of tho Federation for vengeance. On the other hand the labor and socialist parties claim that the crime was the result of a capitalistic plot to discredit the Federation. In this fantastic theory, earnestly advanced, Orchard, the instrument of the murder, was. an agent of the capitalists and the evidence obtained from him, including the confession, was all prearranged between the detectives and Orchard himself! The People, the daily organ of the socialist labor party m New York, not only maintains this, but asserts with emphasis thaj> m the railway strikes! of 18941, m Chicago, "it was the capitalist class who set the cars afire m order to furnish an excuse fpr sending 1 the Federal troops to suppress the successful strike ers;" m the Colorado labor troubles of 1903, "it was the Mine-owners' Association *who hired thugs to derail, trains, blow up mines and railroad stations." It was on tliis theory mainly that the* defence was built-up,- and the acquittal of Haywood carries its significance m thp fact as pointed out by the New York correspondent of the London Times, that ignorant classes m the labor ranks assume tliey have -won a gigantic- fight against the law which was. m alliance with their enemies. On thi*. 'supposition the -prejudices and passions of the masses have 'been appealed to, so much so that a verdict of "guilty" would have been the signal for widespread. insurrection, -whilst tlie jury's return of acquittal,, though it may moderate the impetus to disorder, still confirms the claim of the labor leaders that there was conspiracy against them, and will doubtless tend to the continuance of bitter strife.