The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-02-09

declaring, however, that his only rea-
son for doing so was that he believed
that justice would be as we'll indicated
with a life sentence as with death.
Bailey's crime was a particularly per-
nicious one. With three companions,
Gertrude Biggs, his sweetheart, James
Forsha and William Moon, they hired a
hack late at night which was driven
by Albert Ferguson, who had taken a
strikers place. Ferguson drove them
to a residence section of the city. where
they got out of the carriage and Bailey
shot the driver.
1t was proved that after the crime
the same men lured another driver to
the outskirts Of the city and nearly
killed him. For the killing of Fergu-
son loon M Forsha received peni-
tertiary sentences as ~accomplices.
Gertrude Biggs was released because of
the testimony she gave.
In many ways Bailey won sympathy
for himself. In confessing the crime he
declared that after shooting Ferguson
he spent the night in prayer for the
life of his victim. Again he asserted
that if he ever got out of prison he
would devote his life to caring for the
needy sisters of his victim. Again he
wrote a song, beginning:
] dreamed of roses red like blood
And lilies white as snow.
And yet, while in the county Jail, he
was Judge" of the kangaroo court"
among the prisoners. and in that ca
pacity cruelty a prisoners who re-
fused to comply with his commands.
This was learned after II OF his vic
Tins was found to be seriously hurt.
1t was only after q long legal bat
tie in which the unions employed the
best of counsel to defend Bailey that
he was convicted. There We're union
men on the jury hat sentenced him
to be hanged.
Following is the version Of the Bal
ley ease given by the current Golfers
Weekly:
Labor and capital should be treated
with equal fearlessness by men worthy
to hold public office. One of the quail
tiles m % admirable in the president
Is his courage alike before the votes of
the labor and the dollars of the mill
1ionaire. Justice is an officials high
est duty, whether to pauper or trust
magnate. Some criticism has been
made of late on Governor Folk of Mis-
souri, for his communication to impris-
onment for life of the death sentence
passed upon one Bailey for numbering
a "scab," and at least one brilliant
newspaper, which is always the organ
u~nfavorab!y with that of Governor
Hoch of Kansas. who refused to pardon
a man condemned to six months inn
~prisonment for injury to a "scab." Such
q criticism SHOWS how far habitual
bias n so. The Hoch case is one of
short Imprisonment upon unquestioned
facts. What resemblance has such a
case to that of a man sentenced to
death on testimony which later was
admitted to have beef p~erjured? Mr..
Folk we take to be a brave man, and
his own conclusions on the case must
appeal to the unbiased mind. II be-
lieve." he says. that a labor union MAJ
should be punished for his crimes Just
like anybody else. but do not think
1T right to hang a man merely because
he is a union man, irrespective of the
facts. To have yielded to the demands
of those who fiendishly clamored for
the mans life when the evidence did
not. in my opinion, show that he de-
served death. would nave been inhu-
man: to have allowed them to ouench
their thirst for his blood, in order to
crafty their wish for an example to
be held up to t%errorize labor organiza-
tons. would nave been cowardly. I
think a labcring mar is entitled to the
same rights before the law as any one
else-no more n no less. II this
man had not been a union labor man.
there would have been no one demand
ing the forfeit Of his life, and there