The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1904-04-21
TERRORIzlNG METHODS OF FRIENDS
OF LAW AND ORDER"IN COLORADO


to Cripple Creek
The contention of the state author
tiles is that the local officials were
either acting in the interest Of the
strikers or intimidated by them; that
they were neglecting to enforce the
laws. and that 1t was necessary for
them to interfere.
At all events 1t is clear that the
troops appeared in the Cripple Creek
district not by the request of the To-
cal authorities. but against their most
strenuous protest: not for the pur-
pose of cooperating with them, but
rather Of superseding them.
And 1t must be doubted whether
this difficult and delicate business
was intrusted to the wisest agents.
We find fault with the miners for not
selecting level-headed leaders, but
what shall be say about the civil au-
thorities when they put affairs of this
nature into the hands Of men who are
distinguished for everything else but
cool judgment and good temper?
All the accounts agree that the
military leader first sent into this
field was a man with far more valor
than discretion--utterly unfit for such
an emergency.
Conditions were not likely to i'm
prove under such management, and
they did not; the worst outbreaks &C.
CURED after the troops were sent into
the district. The blowing up Of
Mines the attempted derailing of
trains took place under military rule.
Thus begins series Of collisions
between the civil and the military
authorities which are unparalleled,
think. In our civil history. Men were
| arrested and imprisoned in the mill
tary bull pen," not because of any
overt acts committed by them, but
because their influence was bad; when
the courts granted writs of habeas
corpus and demanded that informa-
ton be filed against them. the mill
tary at first refused to obey the writs,
and then, when the prisoners were
brought into court and released. be-
cause no charges had been made
against them, they were rearrested on
leaving the courtroom and sent back
to confinement
In the case of one man so rearrest-
ed. second writ of habeas corpus
was issued by the district court,
against the military authorities and
the sheriff. commanding the produce
ton of the body of the prisoner; on
which the governor issued a procla-
nation as follows: I'm the case of
Victor Poole l further direct that the
writ Of habeas corpus be suspended
until further ordered by me-
At this time no other proclamation
suspending the writ had been made,
and this prisoner was the only person
in the state to whom it applied.
Did you ever hear" asked an emf
nent legal authority whom l consult
ed. ''of such a thing as the suspension
of the writ of habeas corpus in the
case of single man?'
Into the legal question of the right
of a governor to suspend the writ, a
layman may not go: but the histori-
cal analysis would indicate that it has
not been done in more than one case
by executive officers, unless they
have been authorized to do 1t by the
legislature; and in such cases the
procedure has been carefully regulat-
ed by law and ample provision has
been made for speedy trial of the
person thus detained. l think that
no executive officer has ever before in
this country declared that prisoner
held without legal warrant should not
be released by orders of the court
until ordered by me-"
1t Is evident that we are Witness
ing here some tremendous stretching
OF prerogative. l have no doubt that
Governor Peabody has been governed
in all this by the best intentions, and
it is true that a great many of the
best people in Colorado support him
in all that he has done. But good
lawyers shake their heads.
Worse than executive annulling of
the safeguards of liberty have been
some of the military interferences
with the operation of the courts. In
one of these cases, during the hearing
upon the writ of habeas corpus. SOL
diers with fixed bayonets took pos
session OF the courtroom. From more
than one judge in Colorado there has
come the indignant query why the
court was not promptly adjourned.
Other strenuous measures have
marked the struggle. The method of
~ go. ,Ltlon was mauSurated by the
military authorities, who forcibly re-
moved from the county several men
and warned them not to return. Here,
too. the courts interfered and the de-
ported men were brought back to
their homes.
And now appears upon the scene
the Citizens alliance, and takes the
law into its own hands. BY these
bodies. acting with neither court nor
military authority, large numbers OF
men have been seized in their homes.
dragged to the railway trains and
forcibly deported from the county.
Many of these are men of families.
who own tho houses in which they
live.
More than 100 men were thus de-
ported from Telluride.
The bodies Of men by whom this
violence was done were composed of
merchants, lawyers, mine superin-
tcndents and others: those exiled were
OF course tho members of the miners
union or their sympathzers. The
militia. who were there to preserve
order. seem to have looked on APP
provingly.
1t Is evident that there Is a reign