The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1907-08-08
OVER JEALOUS
PEACE OFFICIALS
lake Law Into Their Own Hands and Attempt
to Provoke Strikers to Disorder on
Mesabe Range.

Much has been printed in the
trust press of the country during
the past week in regard to the
striking miners Oh the Mesaba
Range i'll Minnesota, representing
them to be Il lawleSs band of cut
throats and other choice epithets.
That these charges arc malicioue
falsehoods will be readily seen by
the following editorial comment of
the Minneapolis Journrl, under the
caption Of ''Ovcr Jealous oilicrs:D
"Thc most serious danger threat
cning the mining region in Mime
sofa today is the indiscrctions of
officers of tho law. While the az
rest of Pctriclla on the charge of
carrying concealed weapons would
nave been justified at any other
time, it was an act of doubtful
wisdom under the circumstances.
The leader of the miners hGve no
business, of course, to carry con-
ccaled weapons, but his arrest be-
fore he had committed or threaten
ed any act of violence, was, under
The circumstances, Il stupid piece
make trouble.
"Ihc breaking up of the miners
meeting assembled to discuss their
course of action, and conducted,
according all reports, in an orderly,
quiet manner, was not justified by
conditions, and just that kind of
official indiscrction, to call it by
no stronger name, on the range to-
day, and is calculated to give
Governor johnson more anxiety
than anything else.
"Of course the miners have a
right to meet if they want to and
discuss their affairs, and so long as
they do it in an orderly manner no
sheriff or police officer has any
business Interfering If this in
stance of over zeal on the part of
the civil authorities passes with.
out provoking serious trouble, it
Will De an evidence of greater pru-
dcncc and wisdom on the part of
the leaders of the miners than OH
the part of the officers of the law. -
The following is taken fAom the
Duluth Labor World which bears
out the correctness of the above
and utterly discredits the Iuried
reports sent out to the plute press:
conditions are bristling hot on
the range where the greatest in
dustrial struggle of recent date is
being conducted.
'Pegcc officers are iniudiciously
taking the law into their own
hands, and their actions tend to
provoke men to disorder.
''Sherifr Bates accepts paid hire
lings of the Steel Trust as deputies
and takes them by special train to
the scene of the strike.
ARMED thugs parade range
towns, are not citizens of Mime
sofa, and their presence will tend
to 1ncite violence, because the per-
manence of their employment de-
pends upon the amount of dis
order theycreate.
"Rights ofproperty seem to have
precedence over the rights of man,
ana with this as doctrine the
peace oiliters are unjusly mis-
treating, coercing and depressing
law-abidinS men.
Inc absence of peace officers
seems to be more conducive to good
order than thoir presence.
The behaviour of the miners,
notwithstanding reports to the con.
trary, deserves the commendation
of all good citizens. Even the
most bitter opponents of the Wes,-
ern Federation of Miners must ac-
knowledge that the public utter
ances of its officers tended towards
peace and the maintenance of law
and order.
The newspapers of st Louis
county which are opposing the
miners, and the officers of the
Steel Trust, who feared at the be.
ginning that there would be blood
shed and destruction of property
on the range, are happily disap-