The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-09-13
Sheriff Martin
and The Rioters

From the Philadelphia Press.
As is always the case with every mob
dispersed by the officers of the law ana
with every riot suppressed by the use
of force, the claim Will undoubtedly pe
made that the precise men who were
killed and injured in the lamentable re-
sistance to the legal representatives OF
law and order in Luzerne county were
not themselves engaged In violence ana
were meditating no unlawful act. The
law however, requires OF every man
present at a time of riot and disorder that
he shall instantly leave on being notified
by the proper legal authority, and cease,
by his presence and countenance, to aid
the mob. After the riot act Is read and
the mob ordered to disperse there are
no innocent bystanders." The first duty
of every man at the command of the
law and it's officers is to obey, and re-
sistance or delay on his part, much more
violence, justifies the extreme of force
to suppress the mob and disperse the
rioters. Profound regret Will exist that
any men were slain in Luzerne county;
but there would be cause for greater
regret If in any county in this state
| law could be disobeyed and the lawful
| commands of its legal representatives
could be disregarded. For the slain and
| for their families the deepest sympathy
| will be felt and the law will be as prompt
to redress the wrongs of those who re-
Slsteu IL as OF any olHer iilSH'
| O.
On the precise personal responsibility
of the sheriff and his deputies the law,
| the courts and the jury will pass; but
of the broad principle that any body of
| men engaged in violence or on their way
| to engage i'm violence or in any un-
| lawful act must on due command dis
| perse or take the consequences there
| can be no doubt whatever. and public
| opinion has more often to condemn sher-
| ifs for failing to do their duty in this
| respect than for exceeding their just
| powers. In the present case, 1t must not
| be forgotten that the precise mob which
| was fired on had already on the same
| day been guilty of violence and resistance
| to the officers of the law, and that its
| members had been for a week receiv-
ing daily warning of the danger of the
| resistance to law, the supreme authority
| as much for a striker as for any other
| citizen. For a week past crowds of min
ers have been marching" to and fro
among the mines at the junction of three
| counties, Schuylkill Carbon and Luzernc
| and about Hazleton. These miners, as
| numerous decisions new and old have
| held. had "a right to ask other miners
to stop work; but they had no right in
| doing this to trespass on private prop
| crty, to use violence or threatening
words, to make display of weapons or
| to assemble or remain in such numbers as
| to constitute in itself a threat. For one
man to ask men to quit work is legal;
| for 100 men to do the same thing is IL
| legal, because their numbers are in
| themselves threat and suggestion of
violence; and while one man could go
through the public highway to ask 9TH
ers to quit work, when 100 men do the
same thing their use of the public high
way is illegal. because their very pres
ence and organization are in themselves
a threat which the officers of the law
are bound to suppress, and any resist
ance to their commands turns the as
semblage into a mob and its members
into rioters.
"Marching" and camping" as we
have already said. has been in progress
in the region for over a week. The sher-
iff in Schuylkll county made no effort
to suppress this of which any public
report has been made. Last Tuesday,
Sept. T. the sheriff of Carbon county
dispersed the strikers at McAdoo. The
miners at Audenried had gathered there
a week earlier, Wednesday, Sept. /. on
the ground that faith had not been kept
with them. After being dispersed they
| organized secretly at Harwood and
stopped the Ebervale colliery. An at
tempt to stop work at Lattimer, in Lu-
Zcrne county, last Tuesday was stopped
by the deputies, who on this occasion
used their Winchesters, and later three
strikers were arrested. Through the week
the sheriff has repeatedly warned this
| body of strikers. Arrests have been made
Constables and deputies have Informed
them of their Illegal conduct and the
fact that the deputies were armed and
| that the sheriff proposed to do his duty
| was fully known to all concerned. 1r
the face of all this, the strikers started
out on Friday, three days after they
| 1.,g,v
work at this mine and at Minersville
where the strike was declared off near
ly two weeks ago, Sept l, and where
the men were at work. The body which
started from Harwood was made up oi
strikers who had been dispersed at Nc
Adoo, who had reorganized at Harwood
who had attempted an illegal act al
Lattimer last Tuesday and some of whom
had been arrested for the same. Or
Friday the strikers first attacked work
men not miners at the Hazle mines
where ''strippings" are located. Tn,
workmen were driven from the task o.
earning their daily bread and only pro
tected after a fierce hand-to-hand figh
between the deputies and strikers, In
which the former dubbed their musket.
: instead of using them.
After this illegal act, which turned tn,
} body into mob and it's members int
| rioters, the same body went on to Lat
timer and Milnesvlle. from one of which
: places the strikers had been driven thre,
days before. Stopped midway, they wer,
r ordered to disperse and the riot act read
Whether firing was ordered or not Il
= not yet clear, and legal responsibility TO
: any shots fired, if any. after resistanc,
| had ceased is a subject for the courts
but all accounts agree that the strik
ers refused to disperse that violence wa
( ! used on the sheriff and that the issu
was one between the law on one sid
! and the mob on the other. Such an issu
I can be decided only one way and ough
to be decided only one way, by the dis
, pcrsion of the mob and the submission
of the rioters, and any force needed T.
do this is justitiable, lamentable as III
D results may be, but no more force ca
4 Re used than Is needed and If this wa
I exceeded the law and the law alone ca
decide the responsibility of those VIII
used it. For the slain and wounded ther
4 can be none but the sincerest pity an
D regret, but none the less the law mus
always and everywhere be vindicated an
any man or men who resist its officer
do so at their own peril.