Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1898-11-25
An Eastern Opinion OF Tanner.

Today Gov. John R. Tanner Of Illi-
nois is the most conspicuous state ex-
ecutive in the land. He has met con-
dition not altogether unusual in man
uer decidedly unusual. Hence his-cel-
ebrity. There was-and is yet-a min
ers' strike at and in the vicinity Of
Pana, Ill. Operators insisted on a GER
tain wage-rate; miners insisted on one
different. Miners offered to arbitrate,
operators rejected offer. Feeling ran
high. Operators built stockades and
announced a determination to import
colored miners-some of them ex-con-
vcts-from Alabama. Miners threat
ened bloodshed if attempt was made.
1t was made; there was bloodshed and
DEATH Then Gov. Tanner did the
thing that has given him temporary
fame. He dispatched troops to the
scene of the disturbance to prevent the
importation of ex-convict negroes from
Alabama and not to protect the proper
ty.
In similar cases the hitherto un-
broken record CT governors of states
has been to dispatch troops to protect
property and to prevent interference
with any laborers employers might
bring from anywhere to do anything
under any conditions. Gov. Tanners
departure from the usual course has
been as wide as possible. Consequent
ly some men and newspapers proclaim
him q demagogue, an anarchist,
traitor to American institutions; other
men and newspapers see in him saga
cious statesman, respecter OF the
rights of the people and genuine Am
erican. Gov. Tanner is free to state
that he has gone outside Of the law.
That is, he has disregarded the legal
rights Of the operators to hire whom
they pleased, because the hiring they
contemplated would in his opinion
bring into the state lot Of undesirable
citizens, likely to become public
charges either in almshouses or jails.
He further contends that under the
unusual conditions prevailing at Vir-
den it was for him to say what course
was to be taken to preserve the peace
and conserve the interests of the state,
rather than for one party to the dis
pute to insist on its legal right to die
tate what should be done, regardless OF
consequences. Mr.. M. d. Ratchford,
president of the United Mine Workers
of America, and a member of the Ma
tional Industrial commission, express
ed himself as follows on the governors
position toward the labor 1t was in
tended to import:
Gov. Tanner has taken the right
stand in the Pana strike. The men he
has to stand out against are mainly
ex-convicts who learned to mine coal
in the penitentiary mines Of Alabama.
No man has a right to import such
class of people to take the place of
honest workingmen. If such right
exists, the governor of Alabama would
doubtless be willing to parole every
convict in his state, on condition that
he at once go to Illinois.
There is not good citizen in the
state who would not call upon Gov.
Tanner to resent such an action with
force. IL necessary. And as this is true
will it not hold good in the present
case? This criminal class is being i'm
ported now, and Gov. Tanner is justi-
fed in taking decisive action. The
union miners were driven to desperate
straits by these negroes, who made
their holding peaceable meeting i'm
possible, and in view Of this their &C
ton is excusable."
There can be no doubt that in the
end the operators will win out. They
will import any kind of labor they |
please at terms agreeable to them and |
those they employ, and the state OF
Illinois will have to protect them, no
matter how much it costs, or how |
many citizens of Illinois it distresses.
An Injunction has already been obtain
ed forbidding interference with i'm
ported laborers, and in this respect it
is really not very material what Gov. |
Tanner may do or not do.
But he has called attention to some
conditions that are not recognized in
our laws, but may be- either by judicial
of existing laws or leg
islative enactment of new laws. 1t
should require no particularly acute
discernment to perceive that the whole
trouble in reality rests upon condi-
ton fundamental in the relations Of
miners and operators. The truth is
that when an operator who treats his
employees as the virden miners were
treated Is censured for his course he