The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-15
CURSED AND |NSULTEO.
Rioters Are Herded in a Barn
Like Cattle.
ARE FED WITH VILE FOOD
Held in Filth Indescribable - Prodded
With Bayonets by Negro Soldiers.
Cornell Describes the situa-
ton at Wardner.

rowing tale of the treatment of the
prisoners. In a talk with Spokane
Chronicle reporter Mr.. Cornell said:
THE rioters are not in prison at
Wardner. The men who are herded
into barn like cattle, guarded by bay
onets, cursed, insulted, fed with vile
food, held in filth Observation-Disclosures
prisoners are not dynamiters, not even
miners. They are merchants, doctors,
carpenters-the business men of the
Occur d'Alenes.
Francis Butler was one captain, l
was the other" said Mr. Cornell. I
read Mr.. Buffers statement in last
evenings Chronicle. 1t is substantially
correct in every respect, but II does not
go far enough 1t does not tell now
these men were cursed and prodded
with bayonets by the colored soldiers.
who heaped on them the VlleSt names;
how the guards were heard to say
they wished the old barn would get
a-fire; how we knew that if it did and
we tried to get out we would be shot
like rabbits, and so promptly passed
rules prohibiting any smoking in the
barn. His story of the bad food is
true for I saw the maggots in the
meat that was given to us to eat. Inc
statement that sick men were held IN
the barn till it reeked and stunk with
filth is also true.
mo, l do not blame General Mer
riam, nor the major in charge; when
they learned Of the conditions they
gave orders which afforded relief. The
white soldiers also simply did their
duty. But the greatest outrage is that
business men are held prisoners with
out the shadow of an eXcuse--beardess
boys, tradesmen, hundreds who never
worked in mine a day in their lives
and deplored the riots most heartily.
Why, they even flung travelling
preacher into prison as rlotef.
q know it. is not safe to say too
much. I know there are men now eA-
ercising brief authority who may try
to have me thrown in prison again for
saying even what have said. But the
country should know the truth, even
if the men who tell it are made to
suffer for daring to speak,
President Boyce of Butte. in speak
ing of recent events and present con-
ditions in the Occur d'Alenes to Salt
Lake Herald man, said he did not coun-
sci harsh measures and did not believe
in resistance to the federal government
because it would not only be wrong,
but absurd. He says he is not worried
by the position assumed by the au-
thorities, for he considers the injurl-
Gus effects to the miners of much less
consequence than is believed by the
public.
"They cannot operate the mines with
out union labor" said he. THAT is a
sufficient answer to the position of Cen
era1 Merriam and Attorney General
Hays They cannot find enough min
ers to do the work of the Occur ID Alene
district outside of the federation They
may get scabs and laborers and try
nft he, hl1t
will not be successful for it won't pay
Mining requires skilled labor. 1t has
always been the history of the industry
that where men who don't understand
the work were employed it costs more
in the end than to pay union wages
AS mine owners are after money, they
| ultimat ely get the work which Is, in
fact, the cheapest-that is. work by
union men.
1.-The whole trouble up there origin
ates over the Last Chance and the
Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines, nei-
Their of which has been worked by
union men, and I undertake to say that
| union men are not responsible for the
blowing up of the Bunker Hill MILL
Men in the Last Chance were work
ing for SO and $3.50 per day, and they
became dissatisfied. The owners prom
ised to pay all underground men $3.50
on July IS In the Bunker Hill about
one third of the men were earning ~
per day, and the other two-thirds $3.50.
When they learned of the promises of
the Last Chance owners they, too,
demanded $3.50, but they got no sat
isfaction and the troubles commenced.
The union men had sympathy for them,
and some aided them. That is the sit
uation. The public believes that all
men in the Bunker Hill and Last
Chance mines were union men, and it
hlnwjpp |.
whereas, as matter of fact, the whole
trouble comes from non-union men,"
MANY of the miners here believe
that the mill was blown up at the in
stigation Of the mine owners in order
to gain sympathy and destroy the
Salt Lake Herald. Again President
Boyce was conservative when he spoke
of this.
Possibly it is the case" said he,
but I should not like to say so with
out evidence. Such things have been
done before, and these owners hate the
| union But until l have more evidence
| l should hesitate to make the charge
I'VE have taken the monster by the
| throat" said Attorney General Hays Of
Idaho to the Boise Statesman, land we
| are going to choke the life out of it..
| No halfway measures have or will
| be adopted. 1t is a plain case of the
|
not propose that the state shall be de-
| feated.
ut was in view of our fixed deter
| mutation to bring every guilty man
| to justice that caused me to tell the
/ mine owners that they could not en-
| pIoy union men during the time mar
| tial law is in force: and I want to tell
| you that with martial law we have a
right to enforce that very thing. We
| have not absolutely prohibited union
| labor, that is in the strict sense of the
| word, for we realize that there are
many union men who are good citizens,
| but we do not propose that men in
| sympathy with the dynamiters respon-
sible for the outrages in the Occur
| dAlenes shall be given employment in
ShoshOne county and thereby be placed
in position to Illustrate our plans. That
is extremely vigorous. | will admit, but
it requires just such action in handling
a set of high handed anarchists and
murderers.
THE union would like very well to