Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1900-03-22
Idaho Bull Pen Horror.

IDS I1OuSe, uuU0F tuS ECoOiOelOh Va
Congressman Lentz, of Ohio, are in
vestigating the use and abuses of the
military in the Coeur d. Alene mining
region, in the northern part of the
state of Idaho.
Some time prior to April %, 1899,
the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining
Company, employing about 800 men.
was operating a non-union mine, pay
ing fifty cents per day less than the
other mines in the district, who were
then employing about 100 miners.
This condition led to friction, and all
OF the miners, both union and non
union. went out on strike. The
miners from the adjoining camps took
a train, broke into a powder house,
took seventy boxes of dynamite, de-
stroyed the Bunker Hull and Sullivan
concentrator and at the time killed two
men, one an employe of the Bunker
Hill and Sullivan mine and the other
not. They Immediately dispersed and
went to their homes.
The Governor called on the Presi-
dent for troops and he sent Brigadier
General Merriam to the country, who
called to his aid eleven hundred troops.
General Merriam and the Governor at
once established martial law and ar
rested, without any warrants or civil
process, about eleven hundred men,
and detained them first in box cars and
an old barn and subsequently in an
improvised prison called a bull pen,
the average number imprisoned being
five hundred men. Men so arrested at
once sought by writs of habeas corpus
to be either released, admitted to bail
or informed of the charge against
them. The attorney general of the
state of Idaho. appearing both for the
state authorities and and for General
Merriam, resisted the issuance of the
writ of habeas corpus, claiming it was
suspended as to all prisoners arrested
under military authority and although
the evidence before the committee
shows that the writ was applied for in
a number of instances it was always
refused because OF the impossi6ility of
the court to enforce it and because of
the claim OF martial law advanced by
the military.
There have been only fourteen men
prosecuted, one by the state and thir-
teen by the federal authorities, the
state prosecutions being for the murder
of the man Sheyne, the federal prose-
cution being for the obstruction of the
mail, the train used by the strikers
being a mail train. These prisoners
were kept in this bull pen from May
Sd, many of them until the month of
November, without being accused un-
der oath of having committed any
crime. Bail was denied them and the
writ of habeas corpus refused. These
rights are all secured to American
citizens both by the Federal Constitu-
ton and the constitution of the state of
Idaho. Both constitutions provide
that the writ of habeas corpus shall
not be suspended except In rebellion
or invasion and then only as provided
by law, and the legislature of Idaho
has never passed any law authorizing
the suspension of the writ of habeas
corpus. The writ was suspended in
the state of Idaho in violation of the
law.
General Merriam and Bartlett Sin
clair, the Governors representative.
devised the celebrated permit system,
and as martial law was instituted on
the Sd day of May, 1899. and has con-
tinued to the present time, this system
has continued to be. and is now, in
force. All miners belonging to min
ers' unions are denied the right to Sc
cure these permits. The permit sys-
tenn is placed under the control of DR..
France, the Bunker Hill and Sullivan
physician, who practically controls
the right to work in Shoshone county.
Miners who were attempting to work
upon their own properties without a
permit have been arrested and i'm
prisoned without charge of any char
acter. Permits have been refused
them upon application and when is
sued to others these permits have been
revoked at the will OF Sinclaire and
France and the military authorities.
Many of the miners who were working
in the other mines in this district who
employed union labor had returned to
work after the explosion, and the mine
owners and the miners were both salts
fed to continue this employment. Un-
der this permit system 1,100 miners
were prevented from working in the
mines because they were union miners.
aud the mine owners were forced to
go to Joplin. Mo-, and Other places,
and import labor.
While the miners were imprisoned
under this military control no provi-