The San Francisco call., 1907-06-04

procured to do some crime of violence
he was securely in tho tolls. He would
know that II he did not thereafter obey
the direction Of the leaders implicitly
his own time would be short Occa-
sionally the sudden death of one who
had been an agent of violence served
notice on all the others of what would
happen to them If they ever failed in
their tasks. BY such means, the state
will allege, the ring was enabled to
continue itself in power.
The murder of Steunenberg was
merely an incident in the great con-
spiracy. He had given the western
federation one of its bitterest fights II,
the Coeur d'Alene troubles in 1899 and
had brought 1T to defeat In that dis
trict from which it has not yet recov-
cred. He had been marked for killing
several times and efforts had been made
failures the attempt was abandoned.
only to be renewed, this time success
fully when lapse of time had put
Steunenberg somewhat off his guard.
MOTIVE FOR MURDER
Steunenberg was out of politics then
and his removal ceased to be of such
Importance to the conspirators as it
had BEEN The murder was accom-
plfshed more out of revenge and be-
cause some other plans were not then
ready for execution than for any other
reason, the prosecution alleges. But
slip in the plans was made, which
brought the whole conspiracy to its
undoing.
The locality where steunenberg
lived was not such as those where so
many other crimes had been commit
ted 1t was simple little rural COM
munity, which was thoroughly and
tremendously aroused by the murder
of its most distinguished citizen No
adequate scheme for a getaway had
been made. The town was completely
surrounded by authorities and posses
of citizens and the murderer could not
escape. He was gathered up in the
dragnet and sufficient evidence was
accumulated to establish his guilt be-
yond question.
He understood that situation. More
over, he was sufficiently intelligent to
understand that there was no end to
the career on which he had entered
At that time the authorities here
had no notion of what was really be-
hind the murder and no conception of
the far reaching conspiracy which is
now charged. But the murderer of
Steunenberg, realizing the situation,
confessed He told the whole story
of the inner circle of the western fed
Grafton of miners. He detailed crime
after crime and spoke of brutal muir
ders and important incidents. Up to
that time the prosecution had been in
the hands of the authorities of Canyon
county, where the Steunenberg murder
was committed. But now the state
took up the matter. 1t had become a
question between the state of Idaho
and the conspiracy and the state au-
thorities saw that it would REQUIRE
the Uhnla Of
down and punish the criminals.
McPARTLAND's WORK
For some time James Mcfarland,
the Pinkerton detective who ram down
the Mollie Maguires and sent 20 of
them to the gallows, had been working
on the case. 1t was he who secured
the confession of Orchard the actual
murderer Of Steunenberg. Since that
time he has devoted himself almost
wholly to working up evidence to cor
roborate the confession, which first re-
vealed the extent OF the alleged con-
spiracy.
Such in brief is the case which the
state will endeavor to prove to the
Haywood jury. Some zoo witnesses
nave been subpenaed, several of them
members or friends of the western
federation and openly hostile to the
prosecution. The Indictment simply
charges Haywood, Meyer, Pettibone
and Jack Simpkins with being in
Caldwell and personally committing
the murder That is in conformity.
with the Idaho practice, although there
is no real contention that any of the
four. with the possible exception of
Simpkins, was actually present.
Both sides are prepared to make a
hard fight over the admission of evil
dence- IT the defense can limit it to
that which will tend to show the con-
nection of the defendants with the
Steunenberg murder the prosecution
will probably fail. But If. as is the
expectation, anything substantiatinr
the charge of conspiracy can be shown
then the state is believed to be rea-
sonably hopeful of securing a conyic-
tion- There is reason to believe that
dence will be shut out