The Pensacola journal., 1907-05-12
The Great Idaho
TragedY-Drana.


Another act in the great Idaho
tragedy-drama is being presented now
in the trial of Haywood, Meyer, and
Pettibone, officers of the Western
Federation of Miners, on the charge
of having conspired to assassinate
former Governor Steunenberg who
was blown to pieces by an internal
machine as he was entering his gate
on the night of December 80, 1905.
A man named Henry Orchard was
arrested for the crime and he later
made confession in which he i'm.
plicated the three men now under
trial, charging that they had plotted
the governors murder and had fur
nished the money needed TO perfect
the plot.
The moving factors in the prosecu-
ton are the Mine Owners Association
and their hired tools, the Pinkerton
detectives, while behind the defense
stands the Western Federation of
Miners and their union labor sympa-
thizers all over the country.
Newspapers all over the country,
which have been hostile to the work
ingman's interests at all times, have
been unsparing in their denunciation
of the three labor officials who are
now on trial for their lives, but We
are not so sure that any evidence will
be produced to justify this denuncia-
tion or to in anyway sustain the
charge on which the men are being
tried
We are satisfied, however, that re-
gardless of whether these men are in
nocent or guiIty-and we must presume
them to be innocent until they are
proven guiIty-the record of their
prosecutors, the Mine Owners Associ-
alton, is stained with crimes so dark
and deep that civilization, if the
whole truth were known, would be ap-
palled at the revelation.
For years the miners of Idaho and
Colorado have been engaged in
hours-an eight-hOur day has been
their watchword-and the Mine Own
ers' Association has as persistently
opposed them.
The Mine Owners have stopped at
nothing to accomplish their ends.
They have maintained hired spies in
the labor organizations, have en-
ployed detectives to manufacture ~evi-
dence whereby miners might be i'm
plicated in crimes, have corrupted
legislatures and bought up state Of
ficials, have held men prisoners with
out any process or warrant of law,
have by force deported miners from
the state, have resorted to perjury,
kidnapping, and murder and no one OF
them has ever yet been brought to
trial or made to pay the penalty of
his crimes.
A few years ago, a democrat ran
for governor of Colorado and was
elected. There was no doubt of his
election anywhere, but as his repub-
lican opponent was a mine owner
supported by the Mine Owners AsSo
citation, the latter's owned-republi-
can legislature unseated the demo
cratic governor, though it did not
have the nerve to seat his opponent,
and the republican lieutenant COVER
nor served out the term.
So strong had the eight-hour senti-
ment become in Idaho that both po-
htical parties endorsed IL, but when
the legislature met, the Mine Owners
Association purchased enough of its
members to defeat an eight-hour bill.
The enmity of the Miners against
Steunenberg began several years be-
fore his assassination when, as gov
srnor, he called out the militia at the
Mine Owners command, shot into
crowds of the striking miners, and
later herded them in bull pens with |
the militia standing guard.
AT the time he was murdered. the |
former governor had been out of of |
fee for several years and all enmity |
was Thought 10 have subsided. Hay |
wood, Meyer, and Petubone were resi- |
dents of another state. They could |
not possibly have had any interest
in the crime or any motive for wish. |
Ing 1t committed. Steunenberg had !