Daily inter mountain., 1900-02-01
C0EBEL IS NOT GOVERNOR.

With a mendacity seldom equaled in
the columns of the partisan press, the
Butte Miner this morning introduces a
discussion of the situation in Kentucky
with the following text:
If there were any lingering doubts in
the minds of even a hide-bOund party
paper as to whether the shooting of Will
liam Goebel of Kentucky was part of
republican plot to keep one party in con-
troll in the Blue Grass state it ought to
have been removed by the proceedings at
Frankfort yesterday.
In other words. the Miner is convinced
that the shooting of Goebel was part Of
deliberate plot laid by the republican
party to prevent the unseating Of Gov
ernor Taylor! Such an assumption on
the part of any newspaper is monstrous,
in default of any evidence to justify it.
Neither the assassin nor his motives are
as yet known, and until they are it is
the height of injustice to even insinuate
planned and executed the murder of
Goebel. Such a step ought to suggest
itself to any man with an ounce of brains
as being too injudicious to be contem-
plated for a moment, as it could do the
Taylor men no good and might seriously
injure their prospects as we'll as the
future of the republican party in that
state.
From political standpoint, the shoot
ing of Goebel could be regretted by none
more deeply than by Kentucky republi-
cans themselves. They are embarrassed
by the event. just as the Clark men
would have been by the situation had
some crank killed whiteside, the prose-
cutting witness before the senate COM
mittee. at the inception of the case. The
public would have at once reached the
conclusion that the Clark men did it,
be given, and the Anaconda Standard
would have encouraged that belief to
the utmost. Clark might have been
ruined, even though the crime had been
committed by some irresponsible crank
for reasons that had nothing to do with
the investigation. The assassination OF
Garfield and the embarrassment of the
Conkling men, cited in these columns
last night. was case in point.
1t is, therefore, manifestly unjust to
assume that Taylor and his friends were
s,,.
Goebel from the sphere of activity. The
effect of the shooting of Goebel became
at once apparent. in the haste of his par
tisans in official positions to throw facts
to the dogs, and refuse to consider argu-
nicnts on the merits of the election con-
troversy, in order to rob Taylor of his
seat by declaring that Goebel was gov
ernor before he died The republicans
We're denied the opportunity to even
make their case on it's merits, so great
was the haste inspired by the bitterness
"hlch the crime engendered. On strict
party lines the democratic majority in
the legislature, having fraudulently
ousted a number of republican members.
undertook the work of ignoring the facts
in toto, in order to make sure of dispos
sessing Taylor Of the seat to which he
had been honestly and fairly elected. bv
attempting to make dying man goyer-
nor of the state.
This aroused wholesome spirit of op-
position, and as both sides had worked
themselves up to the fighting point, and
armed men swarmed in the streets NJ
Frankfort, Governor Taylor did what
any self-respecting executive would
have done under the circumstances
prorogued the legislature and provided
for it's convention elsewhere, placing the
commonwealth under martial law. The
effort of the democratic members of that
body to evade the law. to out-wit the ex-
ecutive. and defy fhe state militia, re-
minds one of some of the events in Nom
tana history, when all sorts of subter-
fuges were resorted to by democratic
members of the legislature to make
themselves ridiculous before the world.
They are doing the same thing in Ken
tucky. Goebel could not become even