The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1913-06-18
THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR MAR.
TIAl LAW

TIAL LAW.
The people of America should insist
upon a full statement Of the facts as
To the situation in West Virginia. Ii
s serious enough when several coGn-
ties in state have been dominated
BY martial law Tor months, but the
! conditions become more portentious
when the constitution OF that state
| expressly declares that under no COZ.
ditions or circumstances shall mart al
/ Jaw DE proclaimed-when, under the
law, there exist no authority for the
proclamation OF martial law; whcI
the power of military is expressly
limited to arrest and when it is prl.
vided that all prisoners shall be tried
by the civic authorities aud all Dun
ishment must be inflicted By the
courts. If men can be execute and
imprisoned in contempt of the ccEsti.
tuition merely because an exo.lt We
proclamation has suspended ths law,
we are warned that all law Is IL.
danger OF being trodden under f0.t
and all liberty may be put down by
military force.
But who is responsible? We have
been Loudly assured that martial law
existed in West Virginia 10 satisfy
the demands OF mine owners-that
the law was suspended at the de-
mands of capital. But a committee IF
socialists was appointed to invesii-
gate and that committee included
Messrs. Dcbs and Berger, who may
have the right TO deliver judgment
for their party; its report declares:
lie tQov. Hatfield) had inherited
martial law from Gov. Glasscock and
the reason he permitted II to remain
effective was because he was request
ed TO do SO by the union miners them
selves, to prevent them and their or
ganizers from being assaulted and
beaten up by the Baldwin-Feltz thugs
in the employ of the mine owners.
This statement OF the governor was
subsequently verified by all the Off
cials and organizers of the United
mine Workers."
Now the charge made by the un-
ions is that Gov. Glasscock proclaim
cd martial law to serve the purposes
of the mine owners who desired to
break sirike~that the disorder and
violence In the mining districts was
due TO the lawlcss conduct OF the
deputies and detectives thrown into
the counties to protect the interests
Of the capitalists. Accept all these
charges as true, and we now have the
admission that such unlawful condi-
tons are perpetuated to serve the IN
terests of labor Is it not plain that
one party under this statement, is as
much responsible for present cond-
ions as the other?
But the mine owners charge that
the labor agitators insisted on the
strike To promote the Interests OF the
mines in other states which employed
union labor-that they demanded the
tight to organize the laborers in West
ly paid or i'll treated but because OF
the desire to drive all labor into the
fold from which they eXacted tribute.
TO protect life and property, GOV.
Glasscock called out the troops. but
the agitators have done all they could
to delay return to normal eondi-
tons.
In view of these claims the rest of
us are interested in learning that
state of the Union is used as a tool Of
first one interested and then another
that II is driven to violate its con
stitution and its laws by these op-pos
ing interests and that it cannot en-
force order nor protect life and prop
erty in any case.