The San Francisco call., 1899-05-20
BOLD DEFENSE
OF ORGANIZED
LABOR UNIONS
Sentiment of S. F.
Labor Council.
DENOUNCES GEN. MERRIAM
UTTERANCES OF IDAHo'S GOV
ERNoR CRITICIZED.
a Very Strong Resolution Defining
the Position of the Laboring
DEN0UNCES GEN. MERRIAM
UTTERANCES OF IDAHo'S GOV
ERNoR CRITICIZED.
a Very Strong Resolution Defining
the Position of the Laboring
Man to Be Sent to Presi-
dent Mckinley.

At a meeting of the San Francisco La
Dor Council last evening the action of the
military authorities IN dealing with the
strikers at Wardner, Idaho, and the SEN
timents of Major General Merriam and
Governor Steunenberg regarding labor or
ganizations were denounced in a caustic
resolution. a copy of which will be for
warded to the President of the United
States that he may feel the pulse of San
Francisco toilers on the Wardner situa-
tion.
The resolution was drafted by COM
mittee appointed at a previous meeting
and adopted last night with but a sin
gle dissenting voice. Its purport is con-
tradiction of the expression of Idaho s
Governor that labor organizations are
criminal in purpose and prohibitive of
employment to members thereof; also
that Ehe utterances of Major General
Merriam are the underminings of civil
liberty. 1t is as follows:
Whereas. a condition of momentous gravity
has arisen from the conduct of the State and
Federal authorities in dealing with the parties
suspected Of eomDlicity in the destruction Of
the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mill at Ward
ner Idaho. on April %. 1899; and
Whereas. this condition is the result of ut
terances made by Major General Merriam, [.
s. A, while in authority on the scene, TO the
effect that trade unions should be legally pro-
proclamation OF Governor Steunenberg of
Idaho. which declares that certain organiza-
tons or combinations tthe miners unionsl eX-
listing in ShoshOne County have shown them
selves to be criminal in purpose by destroying
property and permitting murder, and pro-
hibiting the employment by mine-owners of
men belonging to said other criminal or
ganizations'' during the continuance Of mar
tial law, with the alternative of closing the
Resolved by the San Francisco Labor Coun-
ell that we condemn the language OF Major
organized labor and a threat against all forms
OF civil liberty; and further
Resolved That we condemn the action of
Governor Steunenberg in declaring the GER
tain organizations or combinations in ques-
tion-to wit, the miners unions-to be GRIM
inal In purpose and prohibiting the employ
opposed TO the known facts, arrogant
stretch Of authority under martial law. and
a total subversion Of the principle, underlying
the determination Of both law and equity, that
trial and conviction must precede condemna-
tion and punishment; and further
Resolved. That urgently protest against
the cruel and inhuman treatment Of the min
and others now under arrest at Wardner,
and against the arrest and removal Of the civil
officers Of Shoshone County and appointment of
others chosen with a view to their piancy
under the military regime, as an, aggravation
of the main indictments, designed for the pur-
pose Of terroriZing the community and the
public at large; and further
Resolved. That in the present stua-
tion at Wardner. Idaho. a definite relation to
the recently inaugurated policy of the Govern
Ienl Mhich repudlates the principle OF equal
and naliensble rights, applied to those peo-
pies of other countries with whom the Govern
ment IS now at war, and, therefore. that this
situation clearly forecasts the extension of
that policy with the results to all the
people of the United States and further
Resolved. That submit this statement of
our position TO the public in the hope and con-
fdence that il Will arouse the fullest sense of
the danger involved in these conditions We
deplore the acts of violence against property
and the deaths that have occurred in the af-
fccted locality. but deny that these cir
cumstauces afford any justification for the
course now being pursued by the authorities
The civil authorities vested with full
power to punish the persons responsible for
these crimes, and pledge our assistance to
that end by every means compatible with law
We. therefore, declare that the action of Cen
eral Merriam and Governor Steunenberg is
conclusive evidence of policy to destroy civil
government and to establish upon the ruins
thereof an oligarchy dependent upon and sup
ported by military power Confronted by this
condition, it behooves every citizen to voice