The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-12

tion of Frank Steunen-
 "O berg reads like a story
 "A of murder and mystery
 of the middle ages There are features of it, to the one who are features of 1t, to one who has followed the unraveling of its tangled threads from the beginnins as a personal friend of the martyred ex-Governor, that are not Of the lire or free America, in the enlightened twen- tieth century.
 The cold cruelty of the perpetrators of the crime, be they who they may, might perhaps have been expected from the blood-sated hero of story or medieval times, when there was noth- irk disgraceful, but only the. subject of boast, in the tearing of an enemy limb from limb. Such an act as the dynamtting of a hated official might not have been regarded with such feel ing of abhorrence in tyrant-stricken Russia. even at this day.
 But when a man who is regarded by all his fellows with whom he has come in contact for years as a citizen of the purest character a man of unblem- ished reputation, whose very features proclaimed him the friend of all who had the privilege and honor of know ing him. is suddenly blown to pieces as he enters the gate of his home after a hard day's work. five full years after he has retired from the office where by doing his duty, as he saw 1t, he ac- uufred the enmity of the people who caused his death-such an act, in land of en1ightment, sounds incredible.
 For Frank Steunenberg-not Hon 0rable.' if you please. for he loved to be regarded as an humble cftizen-was not q tyrant. Even in the days when he was putting down with an iron hand the riots and the bloodshed that A.t1r A1,A 1n&f nf n series in the famous Occur dAlene mining district he was ruling matters as easily as he could.
 He did not act upon information fur nished by the mine owners, nor even by the county officials, whom he feared might be prejudiced in their view of the local situation; he cast about him. and picked out the most trustworthy Of his official family. State Auditor Bartlett Sinclair, and sent him In per son to the Occur d'Alenes to investi- gate conditions before martial law should be proclaimed. Even then he hesitated. He listened to statements upon both sides. He tried first this expedient and then that, to stop the iawlessness. His closest friends urged him to take the situation in hand and check the bloodshed, but still he hesi- tated.
 But finally he became convinced, as the great body or peOple dt 1udHo Capital City had become convinced be- fore him, that nothing was left but for him to act. And when he acted. if was with a determination and a spirit that belied his seeming procras- tination-
 There had been strike after strike fin the district, year after year, and never without bloodshed. but so thor oughly did Governor Steunenberg act, when finally he was aroused, that from that day to this, peace has reigned Tn the Cour d'Alenes. The riotous strikers were not only suppressed; they were deported All classes of 1aboring men, union and non-union. were given to understand that thereafter Idaho in her sovereignty would not submit to violence of the character that had pre- vailed. whether by strikers or others
 The ruction occurred in the spring of 1899, just after Steunenberg had be- gun serving his second term Chief Executive of Idaho. A year and a half following, on the first Monday in. Jan uary, 1901. he retired, after four years service in the gubernatorial office, not having been a candidate for a second reelection.
 During the five years that succeeded the former Governor. without ostenta- tfon. returned to the little village of Caldwell. thirty miles to the west of Boise. where he devoted himself to his family ana 10 ms private dlIdlrS. Ile maintained his office there. being en- gagged as the executive officer of small country bank. and from there he managed the interests of his flocks of sheep. which grazed in the foothills of the Sawtooth Mountains a hundred miles to the eastward
 He was a frequent visitor to Boise, the capital, and it was during those years that followed his retirement from oflce that I became best acquainted with the sterling qualities that were hidden beneath the modesty and unas- suming. retiring surface character.
 More than once, during those years, after Steunenberg. as an act of friend ship for the young man who was strug- gling forward in the newspaper pro- fession that had been his in earlier