The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-10-27
MILITARISM DENOUNCED
PROTEST AGAINST THE TREATMENT
OF CcEUR D'ALENE MINERS.
peers Spoke. and strong Resoiu-
tions Were Adopted.

CINCINNATI. Oct. 2s.-An enormous
meeting was held tonight at Music Hall,
the officers of which were Of the Central
Labor Council of Cincinnati and the speak
ers were Samuel Gompers. president OF the
American Federation of Labor. and Edward
Boyee. of Butte, Mont. president of the
Western Federation of Miners. Fully 5000
men remained during the two long speeches.
The announced purpose Of the meeting was
10 protest against the treatment of pris-
oners held in the Couer Alene region in
the bull PEN
Before the speaking began the resolutions
were read. The first resolution was de-
mand Of the President of the United States
TO enforce the Constitution. especially in the
sixth section. which. they claim. has been
violated. The second resolution demanded of
the President the withdrawal of the United
States troops from Sboshone county The
next resolution demanded a court-martial of
General Merriam and his subordinate Off
GERS. The last resolution was that all the
federal. the military and civil officers re-
sponsible for the alleged illegal acts COM
mitted by them should be held to the strict
est accountability.
President Gompers said the present af-
forded a great opportunity for laboring peo-
pie. He said this enormous attendance and
the passage of these resolutions would have
far-reaching effect and would do much to
relieve the oppressed in Idaho and to bring
the oppressors to justice. President Gompers
said that he was in the mountain region
near the scene of the uprising in Shoshone
county but few days before Ii occurred
ne SAID that by conversation with men who
knew about the situation he learned the
M a fofr
Hlii and Sullivan mines. He vehemently de-
nleu mat labor organizations had anything
nMhh a 10 do with that uprising. The
operators, who went outside and brought in
interior and dangerous nonunion men and
ser them to work in the mines. These ignor-
ant miners, unused to the ways of the union
demanded union prices and were denied
MT. Gompers related a story of what fol-
lowed. including the dynamiting of the
property. Some one in the audience shout
ed, Good" Mr.. Gompers Responded "No.
not good Organized labor cannot stand for
s sn acts of violence. Organized labor is
the great CONSERVATION of peace" He de-
scrfDed the bull pen and said it utterly ig-
nored the sanitary wants of those corraled
IN IL. and that it stinted them in food and
exposed them TO the weather 1t would go
down in history as the black hole and the
unreasonable of Idaho. He said that the
charge OF the operators that the violenc.
was the work of labor organizations was
maiiciously false. The operators were
compelled to make that charge to screen
themselves from being the cause of the vio-
renee py bringing ignorant nonunion des-
peradoes to take the places of union men
The case in Idaho, he said, is but symp-
tt N OF militarism and despotism which met
with prevalent favor on the part of capital
lists and the great money powers He asked
the question: How can we preserve the
liberty of this country?''
A voice in the audience said ELECT
Jones The voice was promptly squelched
After Mr.. Gompers's speech Edward
Hoyt, president of the Western Fedora
ton OF Miners, gave plain, straight
forward, exhaustive history of the troubles
covering seventeen eighteen years
among the miners in Shoshone county. Aft
er his speech, which was finished very late,
the resolutions were adopted with a roar
ing aye and then with a standing vote