The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1913-06-19
1.-THE WRECK OF A STATE"

- government" says Article
". OF the National Constitution.
Yet in Kanawha county, w. Va,
where a strike of coal miners has
been in progress for more than a
year, there is a military zone estab-
ished by order of the Governor
where constitutions and laws have
been suspended, where a satrap's
will is supreme and where American
citizens are as supremely stripped OF
civil rights as the most God-forsaken
of Siberian exiles.
Under this despotism men, women
and children have been arrested
without warrant denied trial by
jury, condemned to Imprisonment by
military commission and in some
cases sent to the penitentiary. The
civil courts and civil officers have
been ignored. The writ Of habeas
corpus has been suspended. Free
speech has been denied. Arbitrary
arrests have been made outside Of
the zone and summary punishments
inflicted upon those thus tyrannically
abducted.
Two Governors, Glasscock and
Hatfield, are chargeable with execu-
tive responsibility for these condi-
tons, but more profoundly involved
in the wrong and shame is the State
Supreme Court. In two judgments
(Nance and Mays, and Paulson, Bat
ley, Boswell and Mary JOnes) which
in tone and temper recall the Bloody
Assizes, this tribunal has falsifed
facts and falsifed law openly, de-
family, arbitrarily. The names of
the judges who subscribed to these
DEGREES, which will be better known
some time than they are today, are
L. Judson Williams, George POffen-
barger, Charles w. Lynch and Henry
Miller. To his everlasting honor,
Judge Ira E. Robinson vigorously
dissented in both cases. All are Re-
publicans.
The falsehood upon which the
West Virginia judicial usurpatiOn
rests is that war exists in Kanawha
county; that Kanawha county is
"enemy country" that it is
belligerent territory; that the Gov
ernOr alone is empowered to de-
termine the necessity for martial
law, and that by implication and
assumption, if not by divine right,
in spite of constitutional mandates
to the contrary. he is justified in as
unlimited authority.
To support this falsehood the
court laboriously argues away the
Bill of Rights, waves aside trial by
jury, sneers at the great writ Of
habeas corpus, and by various friv-
Olous citations, such as to proceed
ings for contempt and police court
practice, undertakes to show that
constitutional guarantees, after all,
are not to be regarded too seriously.
In a state of war it is held by the
court that the powers of the Cover
nor must be at least as great as
those of the private citizen who, if
threatened, shoots, and shoots to
kill In a state of war, slaughter is
justifiable if the peril is imminent
or the objects sought to be attained
are important. In a state of war
there is what may be called an I'M
written law. In a state of war the
Supreme court of West Virginia in
effect commends us to lynch law.
The truth is, however, that there
has been no war in Kanawha county.
There has been no foreign invasion.
There has been no organized resist
ance to the sovereignty and dignity
OF West Virginia. Such disorder as
has appeared has been personal and
industrial. The war has been fight
ing between man and man. The
carnage at worst has been muir
der, and in most cases it has been
i