The herald., 1898-10-16
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16. 1898.
THE VIRDEN TRAGEDY

Our morning contemporary, in its issue
of the 18th instant evidently miscon-
ceives the essential features Of the situa-
ton at Virden, Illinois, in assuming that
Governor Tanner is legally responsible
for the fatal results of the recent conflict
between the striking miners and i'm
ported negroes at that place. The Her
aid is not the defender or apologist of
the governor of Illinois, further than
Justice and equity would demand of 1t in
any similar instance irrespective Of the
official or social standing of the parties
involved.
Governor Tanner is a peace officer.
The powers and duties expressly given
to the executive department of the state,
under the constitution of Illinois, must
be first employed in preserving the pub
lie peace. To this end the whole power
of the state is under his control, and he
is the sole Judge, under the constitution,
of the steps necessary to be taken, in any
given case, to prevent riots and other
breaches of the peace. Now the strike
of the miners of the Virden Coal COM
pany involved no violation of law per Sc.
1t is the well recognized right and privi-
lege of those men to endeavor to i'm
prove their condition as such by peaceful
demand of higher wages or shorter
hours of labor. This, up to the time Of
the invasion of Virden-for 1t was equiv
alent to that-by the negroes from
Alabama was all that the striking miners
had done. It was the importation Of
these Alabama men that caused all the
trouble. In an interview at Springfield,
Illinois, on Wednesday, the 18th instant,
published in The Herald of the 18th,
Governor Tanner stated that he had been
advised that Mr.. T. c. Houck, president,
and Mr.. Lukens, superintendent, of the
virden Coal company, had collected in
Alabama laborers drawn largely, if not
entirely, from the criminal class, Eek
convicts who had learned their trade
while doing time in the penitentiaries of
Alabama" whom they intended to put
to work in their mines "at the point Of
the bayonet and the muzzle Of the VIM
chester"
With such information, properly
avouched, Governor Tanners duty in the
premises was plain, namely: to prevent
by all legal methods, the public disor
der-and as it turned out the fearful sac
rif1ce of human life-sure to result from
the execution of such a threat. The
head and front of Governor Tanners Of
Tending hath this effect no more. Yet
our contemporary says that the gov
ernor "hhas willfully neglected his duty
in the matter" and has in effect melted
the strikers to further violence by Civ
ing them to understand tha he will make
common cause with them" etc. Surely,
the facts in the case warrant no such
constructive Interpretation. Governor
Tanner did no more than any other
chief magistrate of a state should have
done similarly situated. The truth is,
the gentlemen at the head of the Virden
Coal company manifested but little re-
spect for the law, In forcing the issue
between the striking miners and the
imported laborers. A little sound
discretion and less determination
of the rule or ruin type on
the part of the company's officers
would have avoided the trouble alto
gether. 1t is in evidence that the
miners desired to discuss the question of
the strike in a peaceful way with the
Alabama men, when the unhappy con-
flict was precipitated.
OF course, in advance of an examina-
tion Of witnesses in a court of justice
it cannot be ascertained with certainty
as to which party fired the first shot;
1t cannot, however, but be apparent,
from the facts already in possession of
the public, that the officers OF the Virden
coal mine, in insisting upon the mporta-
tion of the convict laborers, invited, and
are therefore responsible for, the bloody
tragedy that followed
But from first to last there is nothing
In the facts of the case in any way re-