UNIONISM AND MURDER.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13336, 12 July 1907, Page 8

UNIONISM AND MURDER.

THIC IDAHO TRIAL. HISTORY OF THE CASK. Tim New York coi respondent of the "Argus" forwards tlie subjoined interesting dstails of the subjoined interesting datails of t h-.- above Last*, concerning* tlie. trial in which we have published cable messages during tlie past week. The trial is .*till proceeding. it:id Orchard, tlie <:<mfesied murderer. lnis conn- through a scath ing cross-examination without sign of failure. The question at issue in the trial is whether Orchard was commissioned to murder by the labour union officials, lie says he was, or by the capitalist leade. > in order to discredit labour, as tlie labour officials contend lie was : NKW YORK, May 16.—At the little capital of the thinly-settled mountain state of Idaho there has now been made a beginning in a murder trial of a very exceptional interest and importance, the trial 'of the leading officers, of a powerful labour union for the assassination of the ex-Governor, Frank Steunenburg, and, virtually, for more than 30 other assassinations or murders of the most atrocious character. Nearly twice a.s large as New York, Idaho ha~ not more than 250,000 inhabitants, and the population of Boise, where the Court is sitting and to which pi-ciis correspondent, from all parts of the country have flocked, does not exceed 10,000. In the "parhandle" of Idaho, extending northward to the Canadian boundary, along the Rocky Mountain Divide, and just west of Montana, are the lead and silver mines of the Coeur d'Alene district, the scene of fierce and bloody labour wans for years past, and especially during the seven years ■Ending with 1899. After that- year the field of battle was shifted to the silver Mines of Colorado. To this trial of Moyer, Haywood, and Pettibone (president, secretary, and treasurer, and member of the Western Federation of Miners), the eyes of all labour union men in the States are turned. The agitation begun on their behalf after their arrest a little more than a year ago. and begun by the socialists (tlie three defendants are socialists), has spread through out the entire body of organised labour, and has- become intensely bitter In a certain sense the trial lias taken on the importance of a national issue The case against Haywood is the one now before the Court, and a jury has not yet been ob tained. Steunenberg was assassinated on the evening of December 30, 1905 as he was opening the gate in front of his house in the town of Caldwell. Hidden in the ssnoi" was a bomb attached to the gate by wire. Tlie explosion tore liim to pieces. He had been out of office for nearly five years, and was living quietly as a sheep farmer, but. . the record of his fearless action during the mine riots of 1899 had not been forgotten. In his early life Steunenberg had been a 1 union printer. He never lost his sympathy for unions and union men, but hfl 1 did not permit it to prevent him from! 1 striving, as Governor, to preserve order < in his State. He was a big, hearty fellow, i standing 6ft 3in., and lie had been elected i twice as a Populiist, -which meant th'i'. 1 capitalists found no especial favour in his i eyes. ; Rewards were offered. Harry Orchard. 1 a stranger in Caldwell, and a suspicious 1 character, was arrested. In his room ] were found! explosives, and also letters, it 1 it said, which connected him with the other c men, who were afterwards indicted. Then s there was brought into tha case a remark- ] able man, a detective named James M'- £ Partland. The world hacf forgotten liirr, j or believed liim to be dead and gone. c Nearly 30 years ago M'Partland single- € handed broke up a criminal " inner circlr" g in the labour organisation of tho coal min- f ers of I'cnsylvania. Having, at great'risk, | lived with the assassins for ssveral months, Y he then resumed his true character, bring ing eleven of them ito the gallows. Tn s e is tho man who drew from Orchard a long , and circumstantial confession. Orchard ad j mitted that he liad killed Steunenburg. f His story, parts of which were given ao the public, was that he had been an ag-ent j. of the '"inner circle" in the Western jj'ert- g eration, . and had in this capacity com- j mitted not only this crime but also many £ otilers, incuding some 30 murders. Mine superintendents, foremen, and other \ had been among his victims. He had set J and exploded the dynamite that killed 14-non-union miners wnile they were waiting on the platform of the railway station at ( Independence, Colorado, in 104. , He had set traps, lie said , for ' the Governor of Colorado, and for three justioes of that State's Supreme Court. In ( one instance the wire from a hidden bomb had been attached to a small satchel, which appeared to have been d'ropped by the ' side of a pathway. This was ior the Chief Justice, whose decisions in certain labour cases were disliked. On that day the Chief Justice did not take his accustomed walk, but -was called in another direction. Another citizen chanced to follow the same path. He picked 1 up the satchel and was blown into eternity. For all this there was corroboration in the record of current events. \ When the confession was read at a private meeting of the justices and executive officers in Denver (Colorado) a f=w days after it had been obtained 1 , a passage in it spoke of the planting of a bomb (with collections not yet completed) at the gats of Justice Goddard. " Wait a few minutes," said'the latter. He went to hi--house, a short walk, and returned. " It i• there," said he, with a shudder. Upon the strength of Orchard's 'statement (which it is asserted, has been corroborated in various ways), Idaho's Governor asked the Governor of Colorado to surrender Mover, Haywood, and Pettibor.e for trial. They were living in Denver, th'i headquarters of the Western Federation. Tlia requisition was honoured, but here a blunder was made. There was no pub -. licity. In secret, the three men were arrested, and turned over to the waiting officers from disfant Idaho, who immediately spirited them away on a special train, not permitting them to consult counsel, or even to see members of their families. The excuse was, that publicity would have caused forcible and successful intervention on behalf of .the prisoners. It is possible that such intervention would liave taken place, but the capture and removal of the three men in that manner was a serious error. At once this action was seized upon by the socialist element in the labour unions throughout the land, and denounced as evidence of a capi- - talist conspiracy against leaders of organised labour. Our socialists are encrgelio and some of them arc eloquent. In the course of time they brought a great majority of their labour associates to their way of thinking about this matte.-. In liabaas corpus proceedings the " kidnapping" of the defendants has since L«-cn carried upto the National Supreme Court, but the action of the Idaho authorities- has bien sustained there. After this final decision the l'aga of the unions knew no bounds. It w;is manifested in resolutions almost anarchist in character. Hut in all cases it has been the socialists (by no means a, majority) who have taken th-> the initiative, and given force to protests. The anger of the unions ilamed up anew a few "weeks ago, when, in his controversy with Han-iman (the railroad magnate!, President Roosevelt published his own letter of October last, in which, denouncing Harriman, lie remarked that he and such as lie were as "undesirable citizen," as Mover and Haywood. From one end of

the country lo the other, at union meetings and in union newspapers, Mr Roosev?lt was sharply attacked. He did not withdraw the remark, but courageously sough, to justify it, pointing out, at the same time, that for months the unions had been striving, by manifestoes and threats, to ■ r influence tha course of justice in these ? cases. Some knowledge of tho labour wars in * (he Coeur d'Alene and in Colorado is need- - ed for a clear understanding of the charge. 1 against, the.-* men. The Coeur d'Alene riots of 1892 culminated in the destruction of the mill of the Helena-Frisco mine. - A great charge of dynamite was sent dow.: j to the mill in a penstock: or flume, ' carrying water from an adjoining hill The ? property was blown to pkces, and with it several non-union workmen. Pettibone was :■ 'the leader, and was injured while looking into tha flume to watch the effect of the ; explosion. For his work he served eight 1 months in' gaol. Federal troops restored order, but the non-union men fled from J tha district. > In . the following years two mining com i panies steadfastly resisted the union demands and at timss fought lire with fire. There has never been any room for sentiment in those mountain inining ■ camps. A series of crimes led up to the riots of 1899 On April 29, in that year 400 armed union men, wearing masks, captured a railwai train a few miles from Wardner, and rode to that place carrying a lat'ge quantity of dynamite and a doctor, whom they compel led to go with them. At Wardner they attacked the mill of tlie Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining Company, because, tu--owners of the property had refused to in crease wages. Nearly all of the officer and employees escaped to the hills. Those who were captured were shot in cold blood. Then, with dynamite, the property valued at £300,000, was completely destroyed. Steunenberg was Governor. The mi!it':t of the little State were in the Phillipin-. Islands. Ho called upon President M'ivinley for troops, and they were sent to him. Then he and the soldkrs ruled with an iron hand. Nearly all of the union mine s were arrested, and confined in an improvised structure ,called the "ball pen.'There tliEy were treated harshly, but onlytwo or three were ever punished under the law and these got off with a few months in gaol. By requiring every app icant for work to have a permit, signea by his agents, Governor Steunenberg drove the criminal agitators out of Idaho. They went to Coloiado, but they never forgoi what the big Governor lia a done, and, ii Harry Orchard has told' the truth, the* took revenge by means of the bomb at his gate. Reference has already been made to the crimes of violence> in Colorado (at Cripple Creek, Telluride, Victor, and other places), which followed the advent of the Western Federation leaders in that state. Owing to repeated murders, the situation became so serious that all the militia were in service for many months in 1903 and 1904, and the state was an armed camp. Or-' chard's 'story is that he committed, or assisted in commiting, nearly ; all of y the murders of those days, including the killing of several non-union men by throwing them into a lime-kiln. Another alleged tool, named Stephen Adams, now under arrest, also confessed, but has since repudiated his confession. . Orchard's mind is said to have become impaired recently, and the prosecutors may find it necessary to rely largely upon such evidence as they have obtained in corroboration of his original < statement.. The chief prosecutor is William I3>. Borah, one of Idaho's two national Senators. For tli3 expenses of the defence 1 a large sum, said to be more than 1,000,000 dols. has been raised by the Western Fed- ] eration and other unions. Tlie accused men ' are represented by well-known attorneys from Chicago and Denver, among them being Clarence S. Darrow, an advocate, who has some literary reputation. It is asserted "by the; defendants that the entire proceeding has been a plot of the 1 capitalistic mine-owners to convict land hang them, because they have been successful as leaders of organised labour. Orchard, ' they say, was hired by tho mine-owners to assassinate Steunenburg,' and to make ; a false confession, implicating themselves, in order that the Mountain Miners' Union and unionism everywhere might suffer in public estimation. Although the explanation does not explain itself to the average unbiassed man, it appears to be accepted to-day by a great majority of the members of our labour unions. they do not realise that the organised men of the United States liave. never been fairly represented by the violent and lawless men, who have been permitted to control the comparatively small number (32,000) enrolled in the Western Federation of Miners.