Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1906-03-17
"MOLLiE MAGUIRISM" IN THE
WEST.


ern Federation of Miners in a series
of assassinatons and murderous plots
that the New York Globe thinks Dor
ders on nihilism, and which the Hart
ford Courant likens to the "reign of
terror established in the Pennsylvania
coal regions by the Mollie Maguires,
more than thirty years ago." The
present crisis in the affairs of this la
Dor union, which many newspapers
have without reservation held largely
responsible for the disorders and
crimes in Colorado in the strike of
1904, is due to the confession of Harry
Orchard, who acknowledges numbering
Ex-Governor Steunenberg, of Idaho, on
December 80, 1905, and dynamiting
fourteen non-union miners at a rail
way station at Independence, Colo, on
June 6, 1904. Steunenberg, it will be
remembered had been active in at
tempting to restrain violence and sus-
tain the law in the Occur d'Alene min
ing riots in 1889. OF this confession
Governor Gooding, of Idaho, says that
when it is made public in detail, it
will shock civilization"
In what is published of this con-
fession Orchard charges that he was
hired to kill the Ex-Governor by the
inner circle" of the Western Fedora
tion of Miners. He claims to have at
tempted to dynamite Justices Gabbert
and Goddard of the Colorado Supreme
Court, former Governor Peabody, of
Colorado, and many others, including
militia officers, and charges the lead
ers of the Federation with a long list
of crimes. "The confession is a re-
cital of as hideous a story as the an
nails of crime have ever produced"
says the Louisville Courier-Journal,
which regards the confession as the
truth, since many of the details have
been verified by the police, even to
the finding of bombs in the places de-
scribed. AS a result of this confess
sion William D. Haywood, secretary
treasurer of the Federation of Miners,
Charles H. Meyer, president, and
George A. Pettibone, of the same un.
ion, have been arrested in Denver and
taken to Boise City, Idaho to stand
trial. The union is reported to be de-
termined to fight the case to the end.
Many of the papers are reserved in
their discussion of these arrests, fear
ing to PREJUDICE the case, yet they are
iouu III thC VI ouCn 70
of violence. "a very few such occur
rences," says the New York Globe,
would cause a popular uprising and
sweep the country clean of unionism
for many years to come" and the Port
land Oregonian remarks that at is
now a fight between every American
citizen who believes in right, justice,
and freedom and the fiends who, with
bomb, stiletto, and pistol, seek to make
it impossible for any American citi-
zen to enjoy these blessings" If con-
viction should follow. the Spokane
(Wash.) Spokesman-Review declares,
the Western Federation would be re-
garded by citizens "as an outlaw or
ganization," and the Louisville Cour-
ier-Journal calls upon the authorities
to search out every member of the
band and prosecute him mercilessly."
Colorado has probably suffered
more than any other State from the al
legged crimes of the Western Fedora
ton of Miners, and in looking over the
newspapers of that State we find that
most of them are not prejudging the
case, but anXiously awaiting the out
come of the trial. what the people
desire more than anything else is that
the truth relating to the horrible
crimes in Colorado and in Idaho shall
be made known" says the Pueblo