The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-14

to be equal. Mark the difference in the
law as administered to the men in the
occur d'Alenes and this robber trust
that is prosecuting them. The halls of
the various unions were entered, their
furniture smashed their safes taken to
military headquarters and money ana
books confiscated in hopes of finding
or manufacturing evidence sufficient to
secure conviction.
In Ohio. this same company refused
to produce its books in court when or
dered to do SO. and openly detied the
attorney general to compel them to
produce any of their records After
wards, according to the statements Of
this grand officer, the trust officials
tried to bride him, but he spurned their
bride and refused to betray the people.
In this he is different to the Idaho Of
ficials. In all ages the courts have been
the bulwarks of plutocracy. Behind the
silken robes the legalized robber found
safe retreat from the wrath of an
outraged people where he could with
impunity trangress upon their most
sacred rights and feel perfectly secure.
But the people will not always continue
to build palatial mansions for the lords
of boarded wealth, while they live in
novels; they will not continue to culti-
vate the magnificent valleys and sur
render the product to those who neither
sow nor reap, to live in luxury while
they starve for the necessaries of life.
The miners will not forever continue to
delve down into the rocky chambers Of
these great mountains, attended by all
the danger of their vocation, and with
their strong brawny arms drag forth
treasures to fill the Golfers of Shylock
in his gilded den on Wall street, while
many of their comrades are tramps on
40 t0h hyr aud
damnable blacklist from which there
is no escape; they will not always stand
idly by and see 400 of their fellowmen
incarcerated in a stockade built by the
Standard Oil trust, guarded by colored
troops, denied the right to consult with
counsel or see their wives and children.
Surely the day is not far distant when
men will not be forced to sign away
their independence in order to obtain
permission to seek employment in any
portion of this once land of freedom;
surely the day is not far distant when
a workingman will not be compelled to
renounce organized labor as a criminal
association to keep the famished wolf
of hunger from the door. The conduct
of Governor Steunenberg and General
Merriam surpasses anything that has
ever been attempted in the world. His
tory does not record an instance when
IL was necessary LOT WOTklHSUldn 10
secure a permit to seek employment in
any country under the sun. except in
Idaho. where democratic governor
has descended to the lowest depths of
depravity, in conjunction with gem
eral of the army, to compel working
men to first obtain their permission be-
fore accepting employment.
Should a workingman violate this
edict he is arrested and thrown into
filthy bastile and treated to the severest
cruelty-from its effects five have al
ready died-and kept there without fur
Their hearing. We fatter ourselves that
we are not as other people are, tamely
submitting to oppression: yet we sit
idly by and witness such acts of inso-
lence and barbarism which, if attempt
ed in England, the people would rise in
their wrath and upset the throne if the
wrong were not adjusted. But here we
go no further than to resolve that we
are not in favor of such cruel treatmen
of prisoners and order the resolutions
published in the plutocratic press, which
never neglects an opportunity to vilify
labor, and another sent to the president
at Washington, man who is owned
sbody and soul by the capitalistic classes
and by his sanction upholds the action
of Gen. Merriam in his attempt to dis