The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-08-17


Preceded tho Murder Of Governor
Steunenberg Of ldaho--Two Senators
Who Faithfully Sawed tho Public.
Troubles Of Mr.. &Fairbanks--oov
ernor Glenn and the Railroads.
BY WILLIS j. ABBOT.
The acquittal of Haywood, the accus-
cd conspirator, for the murder of the
late Governor Frank Steunenberg of
Idaho created a great deal of interest
at Washington. Most people We're
greatly surprised by It. But few who
knew of the conditions which led up TO
the assassination were seriously aston.
ished.
Steunenberg was murdered brutally.
But prior TO that time he had handled
the labor organizations Of the mining
districts of his state with almost equal
brutality. Modern history is forgotten
very quickly nowadays, and compara-
lively few people remember the story
of the Coeur d'Alenes. the bull pen and
the deportation of miners. 1t so hap
DtllS lnul Nufll llt Nplh VI lilt bldlt
for the repression of unionism in the
mines was at It's highest went there
for leading New York newspaper and
remained for many weeks. The story
of the conditions at that time would
make pamphlet, not II mere news let
ter. The town of Wallace was terror
ized-swept clean almost of its male
populaticn-by troops acting under the
governors orders. Clarence Darrow,
attorney for Haywood, never said a
truer thing than when he admitted
that the Miners federation was fight.
ing organization, nor could he have
made n more just charge than when he
said the mine owners organization was
equally militant.
Many people are going TO critciso
this verdict They are doing so in
Washington today. Yet those who ex-
press criticism are men who do not
bear in mind the fact that the owners
of the mines in the main were miners
themselves only short time before
these troubles broke out. They pos
sessed exactly the same passions and
the same Instincts of the men whom
they strove TO keep down. In so far
as It was war of class against class
It was simply a struggle between mel
Of identical mental and social stand
ing but between the house Of have
and the house of want. AS has usual
ly been the case, the people with the
property were able to get the forces
of government behind him.
When | was in Wallace there were
something like 300 miners in the bul
pen; no union miner was allowed II
the district and the attorney genera
OF the state, together with the colone
of regiment of United States troops
the number of which | have now for
gotten, approved every application fol
employment before new man coulC
go into the mines. The applicant fol
employment was forced TO deny al
union affiliations, either in the pas
or for the future. Then he was per
mitted to go TO work under a license
revocable ct will by the state or by
the army. 1t is clear enough that thl'
was an un-AmericGn system of meet
ing labor difficulty which it may wei
be admitted was serious one. Fo
1t Governor Steunenberg, a great, big
whole souled man whom | remembe
well and who never showed the slight
est sign of resentment when | criti
cised his methods, was responsible
The bitterness against him among th'
working people of the mining rang
was such that almost any among tel
thousand of them might have PLOTTED
his assassination. Orchard committed
the murder, as he confesses, but th'
conspirators back of orchard will no
he so easy TO find.