The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-05-16
ALARM SOUNDED.
Kansas Anarchist Will Not Ad-
wise Miners to Be Good.
Says That He Did That Once
Upon Time.
SITUATION CHANGED.
Then the State Militia Was
Behind Him.
Is Tired of COunselIing Only
Peaceful Methods.
ANGEL OPERATORS
G. C. Clemens Says He Would
Like to See a Few.
Miners Cannot Win by Pacific
Is Tired of Counselling Only
Peaceful Methods.
OPERATORS
6. C. Clemens Says He Would
Like to See a Few.
Miners Cannot Win by Pacific
Means.


miners of Kansas is concerned C. C.
Clemens is always interested. He has
been among the miners and has seen SO
much of their suffering that whenever
he hears of their being oppressed he
feels like taking off his Prince Albert
coat and helping them fight their bat
ties.
Mr.. Clemens does not entirely believe
the press report sent out from Pittsburg
concerning the miners strike down
there. He believes from private infor-
nation he has received that the strike
will spread. possibly to the Usage and
Leavenworth mines. In discussing the
strike today, he said:
six years ago 1 received my first
practical introduction to a strike Dur
ing the strike of the miners in south
eastern Kansas in 1898, Governor Lew
elling asked me to go down there and
see the exact situation and report;
kindly remarking, They will all recOg-
nize you as a hellion from Hellville and
will tell you the truth I consented to
go upon condition. to which the govern
or assented, that if L sent back a cypher
telegram for militia the militia would
be sent, and thaSt if l wished the troops
to use in dismantIing stOckades built by
the operators, the troops would be used
accordingly. L remained down there
some two weeks, and there was not 50
much as a breach OF the peace COM
nitted by a miner after my arrival. 1
told them, and was believed: 1 am no
tenderfoOt. If 1 thought you could win
by force, 1 would advise you to use it.
1t is only because know that you have
not a ghost of a show to win that way
that I counsel you against any breach
OF. the law Obey. the laws. strictly
yourselves, and 1 will see to it, and L
am here with the power to see to it.
that these anarchist operators obey the
law, and this shall be a fair fight l
made my word good in Cherokee coup-
- h.. -frars1
despite the sheriff and the remainder
of the legal machinery; for I had the
attorney general, and the governor with
his militia, at my back; but was taken
i'll a PittSburg soon after my arrival
in consequence of drinking water there.
I shall never make that blunder again.
No man has to drink water at Pitts
burg.
But it was impossible for the miners
to win at that time, for reasons need
not state. Now, I have been told that
some folks will wish me to go down
there again, during the present strike,
and try to get the miners to be good.
1 shall do nothing of the kind. These
operators are simply rebels against the
people of Kansas. 1 care not if every
court in christendOm should declare the
scrip and screen laws void on technical
grounds; the will of the people is ap-
parent, whether the people have been
unfortunate or not in their choice of
language. Men who are constantly
ready to appeal to courts and to arms
to vindicate the law, should set a de-
cent example by obeying the will of
the people without scrutinizing too
closely the mere form of its expression.
Should these operators apply to Gov
ernor Stanley for military assistance,
as I sincerely hope they will have to
do, he ought to tell them, as he recently
told the Young Peoples Good Citizen
ship league, here in Topeka: Obey the
laws yourselves, and then you can bet
ter induce others to obey them But
will he? Or does that remark apply
only to the prohibitory law? We shall
see.
There will be terrible suffering down |
there in two or three weeks. There is
suffering down there all the time, but
it will get worse. There are whole
camps of Kansas miners who have,
with their families, to live shorts !
as their only food-in good times. No
man with a heart in him has ever gone |
to the homes of the Kansas miners |
without returning rank revolutionist |
No man with a heart can go down |
there and see things with his own eyes |
without wishing for an insurrectiOn |
that would not leave on earth single !
wretch who profits by that misery. L |
can not now. years after being in the |
midst of it. talk calmly. much less tenn |
perately. about the condition of the |
miners of Kansas. 1 shall not talk tenn |
perately. Why should /? Murder is /
geon or by starvation: and why should |
| speak tenderly about the outrages of |
coal opera tors, who, to the selfish cru |
city of Mark Hanna, add the Httleness |
of soul which I fancy he would feel it /
beneath him to entertain2 They are |
persistent rebels against the known will |
Of the people. If the laws expressing |
that will are defective, it is because the |
vretches themselves hired scoundrels in |
the legislature to produce these defects
IN order that they might be grounds for |
defeating in the courts the laws the |
people did all they could to enact. They
are outlaws, and are entitled to no de-
cent citizens respect. They violate all |
avs, human or divine. in their mad |
haste to be rich. Shall 1 weep if their
victims turn and break some laws that |
protect these wretches themselves? No.
will not go down there to counsel
pea ce. If I go at all it will be for other
purposes. and to make the operators
that there is a God in Is
'ael and that he is sometimes on the
side of the oppressed. Look into the
hungry faces of a miners wife and chill
lren and tell him to obey the laws
while his oppressor heeds no laws? |
Never With Jefferson, Adams, Wen
iell Phillips and others, I believe there |
ire times when an oppressed class, de-
erted by the laws and their ministers, |
lave a right to fall back upon nature |
nd RI annpa1 from "a SOEPrpf00fu of l