Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-08-07
PRESIDENT MITCHELL AT WORK.
Issues a n Answer to an Open Letter
BY the Citizens Alliance.

Wilkesbarre, Pa, Aug. 2.-President
Mitchell started to work early Friday
upon a reply to the open letter adj
dressed to him by the Citizens Alli-
anc of Wilkesbarre, an organization
made up of business and professional
men and others. In an address at the
convention of miners of the First dis
trict of the United Mine Workers,
held at Nanticoke some weeks ago,
Mr.. Mitchell criticised the alliance be-
cause, he claimed, it was not consis-
tent. 1t wanted to prosecute all mi
ners who violated the law he claimed,
but overlooked the many violations of
the law committed every day by the
coal combination. The alliance re-
piled in an open letter, in which they
enumerated many outrages said
to have been committed by
strikers and others in the
coal region since the strike
began. Mr.. Mitchell was called upon
to define his position and to issue a
proclamation to his followers, warn
ing them to keep on the side of law
and order. He made no reply to the
letter. Thursday the alliance issued
another open letter to the labor
chief, and after consulting with his
advisers Mr.. Mitchell decided to an
swer it
President Mitchell, in the course Of
his reply to the Citizens Alliance,
says:
Permit me to say that l do not
recognize your right to make de-
mands upon me to specifically declare
myself opposed to any special classes
of lawlessness. AS a citizen of the
United States and the chief executive
of the miners organization, | have
declared, an innumerable occasions,
and in language not susceptible OF
demonstration, that | am opposed
to lawlessness Of every character,
and | do not propose to alter my
views to conform to the tenets of the
Citizens Alliance, namely, wink at
capital crimes while i~nveighing
against minor ~offenses. I have never
in my life sought to condone an un
lawful act. l have thrown the full
weight of my personality and iniu-
ence on the side of law and order;
and | can say without egotism that
the miners union and it's officers have
done more for the conservation OF
peace than all the Citizens alliances
that have heretofore been formed by
men like yourselves, whose sympathy
with the poor and oppressed is like
unto the friendship Brutus enter
tanned for Caesar.
81 do not sur to say that there
have not been some transgressions Of
law by members of the Miners un
ion, but l do say, and defy you tx
successfully contradict the state
ment, that there has been much less
lawless on the part of the miners
and that which has occurred has beer
less serious-in proportion to theil
number than on the part of the dep
uties and coal and iron police who
are charged with authority and ART
specifically commissioned to preserv,
the law, and against whom you havt
made no protest, and your organiza
ton taken no action whatever. Ant
further, the records in the polic'
courts will demonstrate that a small
er number of miners have been con
victed of crime in the anthracite min
ing town during, the progress of thu
strike than for a like period preceding
it.
again, I have no hesitancy in say
ing that there never was a great up
heaval, either industrial, political O
social in which there was as littl
real lawlessness as has existed in tn
anthracite region since the strike wa
inaugurated. AS a said in my speec.
at Nanticoke-to which you took ez
ception-the miners are as law-abid
ing, as patriotic, as liberty-loving a
any other class of citizens in GU
country, and I shall not permit yo
to malign them or defame the res
dents Of this community, either b
direct charge or insinuation withou
registering an emphatic protest"
Death Due to Mosquito Bite.
New York, Aug. 2.-According to