Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1913-05-22
Hatfield Releases
not. They flourish when labor troubles
and revolution are rife.
HENRY D. HATFIELD,
CONTINUED FROM fsT PAGE.

and revolution are rife. u
HENRY D. HATFIELD,
Governor.
Assembly's Answer.
The assembly's answer read as fol-
lows:
May 10, 1913
| Henry D. Hatfield, ~
Governor of the State of West Vir
ginia, Charleston, W. Va.
Dear Sir: Your telegram sent US
in reply to the resolution adopted at
the mass meeting here yesterday and
telegraphed to you is not worthy OF
the governor of civilized state. TWEEN
ty-fve hundred citizens unanimously
declared against the institution OF
martial law and in favor of a public
Investigation of the conditions which
are said to exist in this state. And in
stead of saying one word about either,
lyou dwell upon a subject not touched
by the resolution, and indulge in a4<atz
| tack upon the character and motives
of the committee. which carried out
the instructions of the meeting.
II each and every one of the signers
of the resolution and each and every
one of those $500 present at the meet
ing were far beneath you in wisdom
patriotism and humane impulses it
would not make martial law right. The
| resolutions gecited that men and Wo-
men had been Jailed without warrant
Of law and held in Jail without trial or
sentence. This has been done and is
being done while the courts of this
state are open We have asked for
no one to be freed from thedemands OF
the law We do not believe that any
one should be above the law-not even
the governor Of this state. We want
every man and woman arrested in this
state to be given "a trial according to
the law, and we consider conviction
secured by any other method as
means of Furnishing them outside Of
law. This is the thing that we pro
test against, and We intend to protest
against it as long as we haye breath,
and to continue to plead with our fell
low citizens to join US in our protest
until an end shall come to this fright
full condition by which one man can
set himself up above the law and the
constitution and wipe out, at his
within and wish, all the protection that
human kind have gained for them
selves in centuries of struggles against
oppression.
You say that you intend to keep
this up until the agitation ceases?
This statement shows that you have
never read Alright the lessons of his
tory. Socrates, as he drained the cup
and executed upon himself the SEN
tence that had been passed by the OPP
pressors of his day, said: you can
not stop mems mouths by putting them
to DEATH" Neither did the oppressors
of 1000 years ago end the agitation of
Christianity by putting Christ to
death. And you, too, will fail. Agi-
tation for changed conditions will go
on as long as conditions need chang
Ing. We are demanding that through |
the perfectly legal and orderly me-
thods of courts and investigating
committees these causes be sought |
out and remedied- Your only. reply |
is to call US anarchists.
Deny They Are Anarchists.
Anarchists believe in no law. We |
are only asking for the law. You are
denying us the remedy of the law
You seek, in your telegram. to con-
vey the impression that we are I'M
desirable characters. Among those
whom you have thus attacked are the
of the Ohio Valley Trades
and Labor Assembly and the chair
man of the legislative committee,
both of whom represented the assem-
lly at Charleston during the last SEES
lion of the legislature and to whom
7ou, in your personal contact with |.
hem at that time, gave no reason /;
or assuming that you considered them
anarchists. They were trying to make
avs IN the interests Of humanity, Ii
ryinE TO enact into 8 statute your