The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-03
Special Dispatch to the Standard.

BOISE, May 2.-General Merriam, COM
manding the department of the Colora-
do, arrived here this morning from Om-
aha, en- route to the Occur d'Alenes. He
left on to-night's train for the scene of
the trouble accompanied by United
States Marshal Ramsey
General Merriam was very reticent
as to his plans, but very vigorous in his
denunciation of the outrages He said
he would cooperate to the fullest ex-
tent with the state administration to
preserve order and bring the guilty
| parties to justice, intimating that he
would not stop to inquire into any legal
questions that might bear upon the
governors actions.
I'VE are not here to quibble over tri-
f1es In such an emergency" he added
Asked as to how many troops he was
| going to send in, he declined to answer
saying that information was "just what
those murderers in the north want to
| KNOW" and adding significantly, after
I have placed hundred or so of them
| under arrest l will tell you what my
| plans are" 1t is the proposed attempt
to arrest the Miners union men that is
going to precipitate a bloody conflict
A letter has been received here from
the Occur d'Alenes written by a symp-
athizer with the union men in which
the following language is used:
The people of the state generally do
not understand the situation here or
they would withhold their judgment
Is 1t better that we, the workingmen
and those who depend upon their sup
port and their trade. should be starved
to death and trampled under the feet
of the grinding Bunker Hill and Sulli-
van and other companies or that we
should take things into our own hands
in the absence of any protection of the
law? Shall we be destroyed or shall
the property of a wealthy corporation
be reduced to ashes as an indication of
the wrath of a long-suffering people? :?
We can secure no help from others
against the Infamous conduct of the
wealthy corporations, so We must help
ourselves and keep bread and butter
in the mouths Of our children, who
might starve before the very eyes of
mining companies without a shadow of
sympathy. We have mapped out our
course. The Bunker Hill and Sullivan
or any other company like it cannot
longer operate here under past ARA age
ments. Troops can be sent in, but we
will wear them out and, if they attempt
to arrest any of us under government
by injunction arrangement of the min
ing companies. our creeks will run red
with blood. We would all regret to be
forced into such position, but we can
not permit ourselves to be irOned and
packed to United States prisons like
dogs, leaving our families to starve. We
are prepared for the worst and we pro-
pose to have the best of IT,"
1t is understood that the band of
armed and masked men who left
Wardner yesterday had double pur-
pose. One was to lay mines in the
underground workings of the Bunker
Hill and Sullivan mine and the other
to fortify an already naturally strong
position in the mountains Once there
it would be difficult for the soldiers to
dslodge the miners. 1t is known that
four companies of soldiers are already
on the road to the Coeur d. d'AleneS. One
is the Gath infantry colored, from Spo-
kane, one each of the same regiment
from Fort Vancouver and Walla, and
| Troop F. 4th cavalry. from this place
which left tonight on the same train
with General Merriam.
1t is learned that United States
Judge Beatty has not issued a new in
junction, but he holds the injunction
issued in 1892 still effective.
Many of those implicated in the pres
ent trouble were also mixed up in the
riot of 1892. The United States mar
shal takes with him a list of those en-
braced in the injunction of 1892, and
the arrests will be made hereunder
| providing the governor decides that
| he is not warranted under the law in
| declaring a state of insurrection.
In that event those arrested will be
punished for contempt of court by
Judge Beatty. That was the case in
1892 when a hundred men were i'm
prisoned, some being sent to the United
States prison at Detroit