The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-10-27
BLACK HOLE Of " ARDNER
Merriam Denounced by Gompers
and Boyce.
HIS TRIAL is DEMANDED
An Enormous Mass Meeting in Cincin-
nati-Rousing Resolutions of Con-
demuation Adopted Unani-
mously.

Cincinnati, Oct. 26.-An enormous
meeting was held tonight at Music
hall, the officers OF which are members
of the central labor council of Cincin-
natl, and the speaker. Samuel Com
pers, president of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor, and Edward Boyce
of Butte, Mont, president of the West
ern Federation Of Miners. Fully 5000
men remained during the two long
speeches. The announced purpose of
the meeting was to protest against the
treatment of the prisoners held in the
bull pen in the Occur dAlene region.
Before the speaking began the reso-
buttons We're read. The first was de-
mand upon the president of the Unit
ed States to enforce the constitution,
especially the sixth section, which
they claim has been violated. The sec
ond resolution demanded of the pres
ident the withdrawal Of the United
States troops from Shoshone county;
| the next demands a court martial of
| General Merriam and his officers The
! resolution was that all the federal,
military and civil officers responsible
| for the alleged illegal acts committed
| by them should be held to the strict
est accountability.
Gompers said the present time at
forded great opportunity for laboring
people. 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 their oppressors to
Justice. President Gompers said that
he was in the mountain region near the
scene of the uprising in Shoshone coun-
| ty but few days before it occurred.
BY conversation with men who knew
| about the situation he learned the con-
| dition of affairs at Wardner, Bunker
| Hill and Sullivan mines. He vehement
| ly denied that labor organizations had
| anything whatever to do with the up
rising The labor unions had been
locked out by the operators. who went
outside and brought in inferior and
dangerous non-union men ana SCI then
| to work in the mines. These ignorant
| miners, unused to the ways of the
unions, had asked for union wages and
| were refused. He related the story OF
what followed, including the explosion.
! Some one in the audience shouted
Good" Mr.. Gompers responded: NO.
not good Organized labor cannot stand
| for such acts Of violence. Organized
labor is the great conservator or
peace"
He described the bullpen and said it
utterly ignored the sanitary wants OF
those corraled in it and that 1t stlnted
them in food and exposed them to the
weather. 1t would go down in history
as the black hole and the Anderson
vile of Idaho. He said the charge OF
the operators that the violence 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 violence by bringing ignorant
non-unon desperadoes to take the
places of union men. The case in Idaho
he said, is but a symptom of milltar-
ism and despotism which met with pre-
valent favor on the part of the CAPT
talists and the great money powers He
asked the question: How can we pre-
serve the liberty of this country?'
A voice in the audience said: NElec'
Jones'" The voice was promptly
squelched.
After Mr.. Gompers' speech Edward
Boyce. president of the Western Fed
| Grafton of Miners, gave plain
straightforward and exhaustive histor!
of the troubles. covering II or Is years
among the miners in ShoShone county
After his speech, which was finished
very late, resolutions were adopted
with roaring aye and then with
standing vote.