The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-06-14
So our leaders led,
And we are women's men.
Antony and Cleopatra.
War Between the States.

The closing by the state of Colorado
of the Portland mine, which had en-
ployed union labor from the outset of
the strike, was quickly followed by
the driving into exile of seventy-six
union men-all by the order of the
state. The state militia proceeded to
seize that number of men and to put
them on a special train well loaded
with militiamen, and to dump them in
Kansas at a point half a mile east OF
the Colorado state line. The Asso-
ciated Press report describes the place
As "a deserted spot on the wide prairie,
with no railway station, eating house
or farmers house within several
miles" The militiamen fired part
Ing volley into the air as they deserted
the seventy-six union men, but they
neglected to fire off" any rations to
appease their hunger, for although
union men they were capable of hun
ger and thirst In the arid districts Of
western Kansas.
The deserted mon were unarmed and
defenseless and hungry, and the sheriff
of the Kansas county came along and
fired" them back into Colorado. He,
too, forgot to furnish them with food.
They reached at last a small town in
Colorado, where they we're furnished
with food by the Salvation Army.
Later the officers of the union organ
ization sent them money that enabled
II EN- to return to Denver, where they
will endeavor to ascertain In the fed
eral courts what their rights are
whether they can be deprived at the
pleasure of Governor Peabody OF GER
tain inalienable rights, such as liberty
and the pursuit of happiness.
The right of one state to dump Of
tending citizens on another state is
involved, but the republican governor
of Kansas Is standing by the republi-
can governor Of Colorado, and both
will try, 1t is plain, to keep the ques-
ton from widening to war between
the states, because such an issue would
affect the presidential campaign. The
Kansas sheriff has, however, acted,
and the deported are back in Colorado.
The issue raised will be Investigated
and adjusted in the courts.
Governor Peabody may have the
right to deprive men of employment
by summarily closing mine, and he
may have the further right to exile
them, but he certainly has no right TO
dump his exiles on another state, even
IL that states executive is for party
reasons acquiesoent. The sheriff Of
the Kansas county that was made the
scene Of the un-American affair, was
not acquiescent, and the courts will be
called upon to act-not the Colorado
state courts which are controlled by
Governor Peabody and the mine own
ers, but the federal courts which are
presumably independent
The enure incident reads like a
story from the depths of Darkest Rus
STA. An autocracy has sprung up,
establishing here deportation and ex-
lie and parting volleys, but no food
supplies. Until this matter is righted
1t is best to say no more about Russian
methods. Accounts of Siberian exile
are superfiuous, when we have the arti-
cl. in full bloom in Kansas county
in the desert miles away from human
i.abitation. The coyotes may have
looked on with plying eye, but Gov
ernor Peabody's militiamen did not.
they fired parting volleys, and went
Lack to the baggage car stored full of
eatables.
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Madam hmnricon Mofhodc