THE ORCHARD CASE.

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

THE ORCHARD CASE.

COMMENTS^ ONjTHK JURY’S

United Press Association— Copyright LONDON, July The Times’ New York correspon- , , + savs that doubtless Orchard will be tried and made to pay the penalty of his crimes. He. adds that Haywood’s exoneration implies the exon "ration of the entire inner circle of th Thl e ve C idic? l was S a complete .sur““K l Ti Nov Y,I» corrop.nvlent declares that Haywoodls.trial cost the State- pf Idaho jCIS.OOO arLci £30,000 was spent on the defence. The Times’ New York correspondent further states that many laboi unionists will regard the veid.ot in Haywood’s case as the result of tlic agitation in New York for his quittal. The correspondent adds that citizens were interrogated at random, half a dozen demonstrators being asked as to what the demonstration was about, and not one understood English. These ignorant foreigners throughout the country will believe the fcabor Unionists have won a great • Struggle against their enemies, and ' against the Government, and that 1 the law was arrayed on the side ol ■ their enemies.

- --Received July 30, 10.50 p.m. NEW YORK, July 30. F R. Gooding, Governor of Idaho, declares that despite Haywood’s acquittal the cases against Moyer and Pettibone will be rigorously prosecuted: President Roosevelt has published without comment a telegram from three notorious anarchists, addressed to him, rejoicing-in Hay wood s acquittal.

THE STORY OF THE CASE

SHOCKING RECORD OF CRIME

The trial at Boise, Idaho, of Charles H Moyer, William D. Haywood, and George A. Pettibone, officials of of the Western Federation of Miners .f the United States, on a charge of murdering Frank Steunenberg, exGovernor of Idaho, which has result■d in favor of the accused, is one or jit* most remarkable cases ever heard : n the United States. The cables hare told us of the sensational evidence given by Harry Orchard, the informer, who has confessed to numerous diabolical crimes, which, he declares, were carried out at the instance of the accused and other members of the Federation. Orchard professes to have been converted in gaol, and during his examination ho wept when mentioning the Bible stories which moved him to confess. Ho admitted that he killed the ex-Governor by means of a bomb planted at the gate ill front of. his house at Caldwell, with wires so attached that an explosion would be caused when the gate was opened. The story of the Idaho mining trouble runs back to 1892 They originated in an attempt on the part of the mine owners to exact from each miller a monthly tribute of_ one dollar for a physician and hospital fund. Tne miners, while willing to pay the tribute, preferred their own choice of medical service. The friction engendered by this dispute led to other diflerences, and there occurred a series of terrible crimes, for which the Western Federation olf Miners (formed ;,i 1893) has been pretty generally blamed. It is asserted that a perfectly organised system existed by which the inner circle of the Federation removed by .assassination any prominent man who had incurred their enri.ity. The crimes, culminated in the riot of 1899. About- April 25 of

that year, the Bunker Hill Company, which had been paying a lower wagescale than the other companies in the district, notified its own men that it would, in future, pay the same as the other companies, but refused to recognise the union,, and discharged what few union men were ill its employ. For several days there followed a system of intimidation on the part of'some of the union miners, accompanied by many acts of violence. On the afternoon of April 29, the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mill at Wardner, valued at 250,000d01., was captured by a force of eight hundred union miners (300 of whom were armed and masked) and blown to pieces, two tons of dynamite being exploded under it. Recognition of the, union was the most vital point to the miners, and when they were sure of the company’s attitude they appointed a day when all the mines of the district should be shut down and their power demonstrated. Taking possession of a Northern Pacific train, and recruiting their numbers from the vicinity of Burke, Gem, and Mullan, armed and supplied with dynamite, the miners rode to Wardner expecting a fight. The Bunker Hill miners, however, had been warned, and had fled over the mountain. In the rioting at the mill two, one a Union miner, were killed, and another seriously wounded. Governor Steunenberg was advised by wire of the situation, and immediately declared Shoshone County in a state of “insurrection and rebellion,” and appealed to President McKinley to send Federal troops, th e State troops being in the Philippines. Within five days 500 armed Federal troops, under command of Briga-dier-General H. C. Merriam, were patrolling the canon. The first soldiers to arrive were colored. Men

were arrested in great numbers as they came out of the mines, and, it is alleged, without being afforded, in many cases, an opportunity to change their wet clothes. They were herded in box cars and iu an old warehouse, temporarily, until the “bull pen” at liellog, three miles from Wardner, was erected. Tho entire male population of Burke was arrested. Some of the men escaped into Montana, outside tho military limits, and wero captured and brought back, without requisition, by the troops. These men were all arrested without warrant, and mosr of them detained mouths witlicut charge. Some were arrested for sympathy with the union men, aiid o.io justice of the peace was imprisoned for fining a non-union miner who, while loafing on the street, was alleged to have annoyed a woman. The sheriff and two 1 members of the Board of County Commissioners were

placed in the “bull pen” for official supineness prior to and during the great riot. Wilbur H. Stewart, editor of the Mullan Mirror, was incarcerated for criticising the acts of the troops, and his newspaper plant confiscated. The contents of three iron safes were seized by the troops and; taken from miners’ union halls, in the search for evidence, without warrant and in defiance of a constitutional privilege. Martial law was not declared in the Coeur d’Alenes district either by President McKinley or Governor Steunenberg; yet the civil and military authorities seem to have acted with all the license of military rule. It was (says one writer) undoubtedly: the tacit, if not declared, ipurpoge, of the authorities to stamp put’ utterly the Western -FedhraTioh of ‘Miners and its membc“iship iu that region. There is no doubt that the conditio r of these" men .(there were over one thousand men, at one time or another, in the “bull pen”), crowded in cramped and unprepared quarters is they were at first, was insufferable, 'no building was commonly known as the “hell hole.” The actions of the coored soldiers were, in some instances overbearing. There was no cornua lilt of the white soldiers who reioved the colored soldiers. General Alger, Secretary of War, felt called upon to telegraph General Merriam that, the only purpose of the troops was to suppress rioting and to maintain peace and order, and that the, army “must have npthing whatever to do with* enforcing rides for the government of . miners'- or miners’ unions.”

Steunenberg was assassinated on December 30, 1905, five years after he had retired from the offico of Governor. It. is asserted by the State in this trial that lie was killed by the defendants ’account of his official action at the time of the laboi riots in'the ’Coeur d’Alelies, mining district in 1899. . Scion after the murder, Harry Orchard, a stranger whose movements excited suspicion, was arrested in Caldwell. In his possession were found various articles and papers vluch, it is said, connected him with 'hitcrinie„jvjtli,the union officers who wei ' afterwards indicted. James Me Portlands«a famous detective, who brought to justice the “Mo’He Maguire” assassins in Pennsylvania ms..ay years ago, was employed in the case. Ke assumed tho character of

a miner, and gained admittance to th.-: councils of the federation. Ho ••> • d " O-oii- d n eouf.-s'ion. • ("A- T 'a’----o.>d Petti- . . n ->h-:n ’dams,’ not

atb-vrs ommitted in +he mining districts of Idaho and Colorado. It is" said that the list includes 30 murders and the killing of 14 non-jinion miners at the 'railway station of Independence, Col., in 1904. Orchard

•asserts that ho was employed by th® union officers to do all this dreadful work; also that Adams, ail accomplice, made a similar confession, which he has since, repudiated. A requisition for Moyer, Haywood, and Pettibone (then in Denver) was honored by the Governor of Colorado, I in February, 1906, but no publicity was given to his action. Thereupon the men were quietly arrested and were at once taken by armed officers from Idaho to that State* by special tiain. They were not. permitted to consult counsel or to see members or their families. This treatment or them caused protest to be made by organised labor. The action taken was tested in habeas corpus proceedings, and the Idaho authorities were sustained by the United States Supreme Court. Beginning with this protest against what was called ‘‘kidnapping,^” there has been in the labor unions of the country extraordinary agitation at first promoted by and confined to the socialist element, but afterwards sjireading through nearly the entire membership of the unions. One result of it was the raising of a large fund for the defence expenses of the accused. The claim of the accused, officers appears to be that Orcfiard was hired by the mine-owners to kill Steunenberg and to make a false confession order that the union might suffer in the estimation of the public.—Abridged from Collier’s Weekly and the Independent.