The representative., 1900-05-24
IDAHO BULL-PEN HORROR

IDAHO BULL-PEN HORROR
6cathing Review OF the Chief Actors
in the Atrocities by Past General
Master Workman James n. Sover-
eign-Fine Tri0-Steunenberg and
Merriam-The Latter Anticipates
the Former in Declaring Martial
Law.
The arbitrary will of one man applied
to the government Of the people. to pass
upon the guilt or innocence of suspected
offenders and pronounce judgement and
impose punishment without Judge, court
or jury. is the most dangerous precedent
that can be established in free coun-
try. Yet such are the very principles
established in Northern Idaho, and
which may become general II tolerated
by the people.
In the investigation now pending be-
fore the military affairs committee of
the lower house Of congress the support
ers Of martial law claim that the magni-
tude of crimes committed in Idaho by
the laboring people made it necessary
to abrogate all civil law and concentrate
government into the will of one man in
order that life and property might be
protected and criminals punished. On
these claims Gov. Steunenberg, Bartlett
Sinclair, his representative, Gen: H. c.
Merriam, and the national administra-
ton rely for popular support.
That great crimes were committed in
the Occur d'Alene on April 20, 1899, no
one will question. That the criminals
should be punished. no one will ques-
tion, and that life and property should
be protected no one will question. But
martial law did neither. Martial law
protected a criminal mining company,
imprisoned a thousand men against
whom no charge of crime was made,
women and children, and established
industrial crimes which required work
Ing people to secure permits to seek
honorable employment
When Gov. Steunenberg and Gen.
Merriam arrived in the Occur d'Alene
mining district, they saw the wreck and
ruin of lawlessness, and 1t was right and
proper for them to apprehsnd suspected
criminals. But there, before their eyes,
was the great Bunker Hill and Sullivan
mine, the managers Of which we're con-
fessed criminals. Every one of them
had openly violated the criminal
statutes of Idaho and def1ed the authori-
ties. They had for years discharged
every man in their employ as soon as
they learned that he belonged to a labor
organization; and they employed spot
ters to hunt down every employe who
dared to Join the miners union. Such
acts constitute a crime under the laws
of Idaho. Yet neither Steunenberg or
Merriam, in their pretended search for
law and order, could see this great COM
pany.
They could make a military raid into
Montana and arrest men at the point of
the bayonet who had never lived in
Idaho.
They could arrest men without war
rant as they came from the deep mines
in their wet clothes and refuse them
even the small privilege Of putting on
dry garments, and in that condition take
them in box cars 20 miles through the
cold mountain air and huddle them into
an old barn without food, beds or
blankets.
They could suspend the privilege of
the habeas corpus, so that they would
not have to show cause for the imprison-
ment Of any innocent person.
They could force members of the !
miners union, at the point Of the |
bayonet, to work when property was |
in danger and refuse innocent men,
bers OF the same union the privilege of |
earning living when their wives and |
children were starving for bread, thus
oA'AAAS pAOPOAV q ASACl COASlu0IdIlOu I
than human life.
They could ire on poor, unfortunate |
prisoner with the Krag- -Jorgenson as he |
was being taken to the asylum after he |
was pronounced insane, and few min |
utes dater drag his dead body from the
Occur d Alene river.
They could put the county officers in
solitary confinement for months with
no criminal charge against them, 80 as
to subvert the county government and
give place to their favorites.
They could put the inmates OF their
bull pen on bread and water for nine
consecutive days, to starve them into
involuntary servitude, when no convic-
tion OF crime was secured against them,
and compel them to stand in line in the
not summer sun seven hours a day
under orders to be shot IL they moved
out of their tracks.
They could permit their pets to run
wide-open gambling hells in violation
OF law, and license their princinal
deputy to practice nameless induleencea
as proprietor and manager Of the most
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