The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 1907 A SENSATIONAL MURDER TRIAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2146, 31 July 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 1907 A SENSATIONAL MURDER TRIAL.

A cablegram which apP^ l^ vestordav’s issue hi mushed the climax to ono o'f the most remarkable trialß that has yet taken place m America. It told of the acquittal of William U Haywood on a charge of having con spired to murder tlio late Govomoi of Idaho, Frank Steunonberg. io the man in tlio street what lias been usuy referred to as “the Orchard case” has been of little importance but to the 80,000,000 inhabitants ot the United States and to Unionists everywhere its progress has been watched with broatliless interest. iho actual charge was that vv lllinm D. Haywood, secretary and treasurer ot | tl- ' Western Federation of Minors, Charles H. Moyer, president, and George A. Pettibono, a member ot tuo executive, had conspired to bung about the murder of Steunenborg in April, 1905. The charge was founded upon the testimony of a man named Harrv Orchard, who confessed to having 'murdered the ox-Governor, but alleged that in doing so lie had simply been the tool of the Western Federation of Miners’ Executive. It is impossible to anyone who l ias c lived in America to conceive or tno industrial conditions which, arc P^ 1mitted to exist by ono of the foremost nations of modern times. In such cities as Chicago, for instance, there is an average of more than one strike per day, and only the most serious ever get publicity in the press. Unionism has grown tremendously in recent years, but it is still lighting for its existence in most parts of the country, and the weapon is always the same—strikes. In tlioir wake come violence and bloodshed, as "the result of the employers endeavoring to fill the unionists’ places by nonunionists, and nowhere is this more marked than amongst the rough min--Wof the Western States. In fact, si jiiig tlio past ten vears there lias -arp&n something akin to civil war in Y,ain portions of Idaho altd ColorPeni Frequently, when local autliori*as been insufficient to repel in--K-stri'til rebellion, the assistance of ?io United States military has been Invoiced, and there has ensued the peculiar and saddening spectacle oi American citizens being shot down like dogs by their own soldiery. It is not easv to allocate the blame for thU deplorable state of affairs. The unionists liavo undoubtedly been guilty of many acts of violence, but on the other hand they have been goaded on by the callous oppression of the mine-owners, supplemented by brutal and tactless actions on the part of the heads of the State Government. Probably the roal cause of the long series of disturbances lias boon the lack of a Governor possessing the necessary dominance of personality, humanity of disposition, and tactfulness of manner requisite to liandlo an extremely difficult situation. Be the fault what it may, tlio fact remains that for years past there liavo been periodical outbursts, during which unionists and non-union-ists have been foully murdered. The authorities have beon compelled to adopt higli-handed measures during periods of the greatest turmoil. Men whose only' crime was that they were supposed to be in sympathy with the unionists have been arrested by hundreds and placed in extempore prisons. fittingly described as “bullpens,” and kept there for weeks without any charge being laid against them. Suspects have been brought before the members of the Vigilance Committee—consisting of prominent citizens —and upon entering the room have been warned to leave the district. If they demurred their attention was drawn to a noosed rope lying on a table, and the hint was usually sufficient to warrant compliance. Hundreds of unionists were banished from the State of Coloi-ado in this way about three years ago; hurried over the border at the point of tlio bayonet, ruthlessly torn from their families and the homo of their birth. Such are the results achieved in some parts of America when in the case of industrial disputes employers and employed are permitted to ‘‘fight it out” by means of strikes. Frank Steunonberg was Governor of Idaho in the latter nineties, and liis action in sending troops to assist in quelling a serious disturbance convinced the unionists that he was in league with the mine-owners, and from that moment he believed himself to bo marked for assassination by tlio Inner Council of the Western Federation of Miners. ' He was subsequently murdered as stated by Orchard. The defence was that Orchard ha'd'acted as a tool of tlie mineowners, and anyone conversant with American industrial politics would be quite prepared to believe that the organisation referred to might have been guilty of even such a diabolical outrage in order to destroy for ever the power of their sworn enemies, the Miners’ Federation. With these facts stated it will be understood that unionists tile world over have been watching with tlio keenest anxiety the progress of the Orchard case, and " will note with unfeigned delight the fact that a kindred organisation has been freed from one of the vilest charges ever brought against a set of laLoring men. The only question remaining concerns the fate of the man Orchard, who stands convicted not only of murder but also of perjury and of taking the principal part in a plot against the Miners’ Executive.