The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1914-02-06
Denounces Government Court
Martial; Terms Strong
DISCUSSES RECENT STRIKES
Men Should Be Given Hearings Through
Tribunals That Have Stood tie
Real Test
ASSOCIATED Press OIspatch.I

| IASSOclatb l'reSS DlSpatCn.J
Washington, February 4.-Govern-
ment by court martial in the recent
strike in the coal fields of West
Virginia was characterized by
Senator Borah in an address to the
senate today as a "blotch, isolated
and infamous" on the history of
that state.
NO progress can be made, no
ultimate good accomplished In deny
ing to labor even in emergencies the
well guaranteed rights Of American
citizenship" declared the senator,
who was q member of the committee
which investigated conditions in the
Cabin Creek region. while 1t may
nave the effect through mere brute
force of apparently quelling for a
lime the disturbance, IL divorces the
citizen from the state, 1t leaves
resentment and revenge, bitterness
and anarchy among those without
whose respect and devotion the
government cannot live.
ION the other hand. if in the
hours of unclaimed passion, the
government, with fairness and
equity, through an ordinary channel
gives men hearing before tribunals
whose organizations have been
worked out through centuries Of
experience, IL commands the respect
and in the end the obedience of
ell.
Must BE Settled In Courts.
at is tr,iling with words. it is
intellectual hypocrisy. l. is blind. in
ruriated madness TO talk about de-
termining built or innocence i'm any
ether way under our institutions
than through the courts and be-
fore a jury. And West Virginia
owes it's TO herself, owes 1t to the
coming generations who are yet to
work In her limitless fields of i'm.
rriscned wealth, owes II to her
splendid and heroic men who or
Eanized the state and gave her
place among the loyal states of
:emoye The blotch, isolated and
infamous, from her presidents and
N the future live up, to the splendid
constitution which her early states.
men and Patriots formed"
Observation had taught him.
Senator Borah said, that the vast
majority OF laboring men favored
peaceful methods in urging their
purposes. Labor leaders who
preached lawlessness he branded as
enemies t. the man who tolls and
his wife aud children: to the great
cause of letter conditions, better
pay and happier homes.
IF our claim that this is a govern
ment of order and law be anything
more than a Pharisaical display of
wellworn and diaphanous false
hood he continued, then we must
extend to the men struggling in their
limited way for the rights of labor,
every right and every guarantee
embodied In the great charter
under which we live. The most
pronounced enemy to our form of
government that we can uncover Is
the man who would seek to apply
the constitution to one class and
withhold II from another. These
rights canrot be denied to the men
who labor to any man, without
government from turret to founda-
ton stone"
Martial Law un-American.
Martial law as known on the
ether side OF the water. unqualified
and imperiCus, the law of one will,
one brain. cannot exist under cur
form OF government" the senator
declared 1T Is at war with its
spirit and In defiance OF its express
terms. The only martial law we
know or can properly know is
n aid OF the civil authorities,
in aid OF the processes OF the
court and augmentive of the power
CT the sheriff and lis comltatus
That and that only is the extent to
which II may go and that is as far
as II has ever gone I'm what is now
the United States since the puny
slaves of royal power were hunting
:or Sam Adams and John Hancock
that they might try them before a
drum-head court-martial.
IF the constitution may be set
aside by tire sweeping proclamation
OF an adjutant general. II the manner
therein provided for determining
guilt or innocence does not apply to
oil men Mt all times, II IL does not
reach down and give even the
lowest his right to be heard in the
orderly way provided for the hear
Ing OF all. II has already passed
the stage OF an experiment and has
become confirmed delusion. There
IL disposition in these days upon
fll sides 10 appeal to the constitu-
lion when Il seems well to do so and
to ignore II when II Is foun din
convenient. But I venture to pro-
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