The record-union., 1899-05-08

SPOKANE, May 7.-Mines of Sho-
shone County, Idaho. that propose to
operate during the reign of martial
law may do so only on condition that
they do not employ members of the
! Occur dAlene Miners Union.
! This is the martial law as laid down
! by General Merriam and Attorney Gems
eral Hayes of Idaho. AT a meeting
of the mime owners in this city this
morning Mr.. Hayes presented this
mandate. The owners cheerfully prom
ised to obey.
I'VE are going to clean up the Coeur
d Alenes,' said Attorney General Hayes
prior to his departure for Boise. Il
have seen some of the mine owners to-
day and they have been informed by the
proper authorities that they cannot en-
ploy any one connected with a criminal
organization in the county. The Min
ers' Union in Shoshone County contains
many desperadoes and criminals who
have under the protection of the union
perpetrated crimes and outrages. Twice
has it been necessary because of these
men and their organization to put the
county under martial law. We want to
put stop to that sort of thing.
The owners living in Spokane allow
the union to run things and when prop
erty is threatened or riots occur as a
result they wire to the Governor of
Idaho to send troops to protect their
property. Some of these mine owners
know who the men were who left their
mines to go up to Wardner for the pur-
pose of blowing up the Bunker Hill and
Sullivan mill
They allowed the men to go out of
the mines to destroy the property of
another and then to return to work
I'VE have undertaken as large a job
of criminal prosecution as ever COM
menced in the history of the country.
Trying between 700 and 800 men is
task of enormous magnitude. We pro-
pose to push the prosecution vigorously,
however. ! am obliged to go back to
Boise for few days on official bust
ness, but will be back in about a week
and expect to spend the entire summer
in the Occur d'Alenes. Prisoners Will
be tried in both the State and Federal
courts. Murder and arson are some of
the charges the State will bring against
these men and we hope to infiict the
extreme penalties. The State and Fed
eral authorities are working amicably
together in the matter and will aid each
other all possible. Something was done
in this strike that was never before
done in the history of the United States.
A single company was sent into a dis
trict to cope with 1000 rioters
I refer to the company of the Twen-
tyfourth Infantry from Spokane COM
manded by Captain Bachelor. 1t was
necessary to entrust this one company
with the duty, for others could not be
got there quick enough.
1T does not seem to be generally I'M
derstood that Governor Steunenberg
called upon the Government for troops
before he knew of the destruction of
the mill. TIe had heard a report that
the mill was to be blown up, but had
received no confirmation of the report
when he called on the President at
p. m. Saturday for troops"
To-day's meeting of the Occur d'AleneA
mine owners was held at the offices of
Finch q Campbell. 1t was called at
the request of Attorney General Hayes,
who desired to lay before the owners
the mandate of the State and Federal
authorities that union miners could not
be employed in the region
Mr.. Hayes laid before us the ruling
that union men must not be employed
said Mr.. Finch after the meeting. He
said further that the State authorities
would expect our cooperation and we
told him they wouldi have it, OF course
we cannot get men right away and we
do not propose to go out and look for
them. We are going to wait and see If
they come to us. There are certainly
great many good men in the uniona
but, as Mr.. Hayes said, when we told
him, if they are good men they can dis
avow their allegiance to the unions and
go to work. Until men sufficient to
operate the mines come in, the mines
will have to remain closed down.