The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-01-30
Adams Record of Investigation
Now Is Public.
HISTORY OF THE CASE.
Reward @ fered for Taylor Was
Cause of Trouble.
Kansan Has Said He Will Not
Accept Pardon.

| editor OF the Appeal to Reason, called
the leading Socialist paper in the world,
is to go to prison under federal sentence
| tomorrow-unless efforts that are be-
] ing made to obtain for him pardon
are successful.
| Frederick Upham Adams of this city
has investigated the case of Warren
and has prepared an exhaustive state
ment, which is made public today.
Warren is a resident of Girard, Kan,
and publishes his paper there. His
| sentence provides six months in jail at
| Fort Scott, Kan. The case involving
| him is unique, and, according to Mr..
Adams, miscarriage of justice. Mr..
| Adams in his plea says:
I'm his recent message President Taft
| urged the necessity for reform ins our
legal methods. Nothing can better
illustrate the PRESSING need of such re-
form than the strange facts now to be
disclosed. Rabelais, Dickens and all Of
fuge and chicanery would have stood
amazed in contemplation of what has
happened to Fred D. Warren
Criticised Treatment of Miners.
The troubles of Warren arise out of
his violent disapproval of the methods
employed in the prosecution of Hay
wood, Meyer, and Pettibone, officials of
the Western Federation of Miners, who
were tried on a charge of inStigating
the murder of Ex-Governor Frank
Steunenberg of Idaho in 1904. These
three men were seized in Colorado and
taken by force on a special train to
Idaho and there placed on trial
The manner in which they were
taken into the jurisdiction of Idaho was
declared by their attorneys to be kid
mapping, and the matter was taken 10
the United States supreme court, which
with one dissenting opinion by Jus
tice McKenna-refused to order the
three prisoners returned to Colorado
The court said:
Even if it be true that the arrest
and deportation of Pettibone, Meyer.
and Haywood from Colorado was by
fraud and connivance, to which the
governor of Colorado was party. this
| does not make out case of violation
of the rights of the appellants under
the constitution and laws of the United
States
Out of this case Warren, down in
Kansas, conceived an idea which has
brought on his trouble. Governor Goe-
bel of Kentucky had been assassinated
in 1900 and Ex-Governor w. S. Taylor.
Caleb Powers, and others were indict-
ed for this crime. Taylor fled to In
diana and his extraditions was refused
by Governor Mount.
Taylor'S reason for remaining in In
diana was that obviously he could not
get fair trial in Kentucky. For years
he remained under the protecting wing
OF the HOoS1er state
Warren Offers a Reward.
On January u, 1907, about six weeks
after the decision of the supreme court
on kidnapping, the following announce
ment was made in the Appeal to Rea-
son:
Zone Thousand Dollars Reward-The
Appeal to Reason will pay 81, 900 in gold
to the person or persons who will kid
nap Ex-Governor Taylor and return him
to the state officials of Kentucky, where
he is wanted on a charge of numbering
Goebel.''
In an editorial explanatory of this Of
fer Warren said:
1.-THE supreme court of the United
States has held that kidnapping is
perfectly legal method of taking an ac-
cuSed man from one state to another.
This, decision was rendered in the now
famous Moyer-Haywood case, in which
the defendants were both socialists and
workingmen. Will the supreme court
of the United States hold to this same
opinion of the defendant is a RepubH-
can and a CAPITALISM"
The publication of this inducement to
kidnapping was not questioned by the
government, but later Warren printed
the same offer on the outside of envel-
opes, thousands Of which he circulated
through the mails. For this latter act
he was indicted in May, 1907, by a fed
era1 grand jury.
''Scurrilous and Threatening"
The indictment asserted that the
printing of the envelopes was "of a
scurrilous, defamatory and threaten
ing character, and calculated by the
terms and manner and style Of dis
play, and obviously intended to reflect
injuriously upon the character and
conduct of another. to wit: William
S. Taylor, a former governor of the
state of Kentucky. contrary to the
form of the statute in such case made
and provided, and against the peace
and dignity of the United States
Warren was not brought to trial on
this charge for two years and Mr..
Adams says the delay was due to the
governments desire to have Taylor as
a witness and that Taylor didn't dare
to leave Indiana. Finally Governor
Wilson of Kentucky in April. 1909,
granted Taylor a full pardon and ten
days later the case of Warren was
called.
Taylor, as a government witness.
testified that he was not under fndict-
ment at the time Warren issued his
effect of showing that Warren had as
sailed a man not even under indictm ent
and presumably innocent
Mr.. Adams brings evidence to show
that a matter of fact Taylor was
under Indictment continuously from
1900 until Governor Wilson pardoped
him nine years later.
Judge PoIlock's Ruling.
Warren was convicted. His law
| yers, appealing for a new trial, urged
that the federal supreme court had
! legalized kidnapping in the case of Hay
wood and Meyer; but Judge Pollock
of the federal court said:
kidnapping is crime. and if any
one had. following the offer here
made, kidnapped Taylor in Indiana,
they would have been guilty of crime
So would the party employing him to
do so.''
When the case was carried to the
United States circuit court of appeals
| Judge Hook said.
aside from the question whether
| the language employed by the accused
| is scurrilous. defamatory, or threaten
| ing, it was clearly calculated and
OBVIOUSLY intended to reflect Injurious
| 1y on the character and conduct of the
person name. The accused