The Monte Vista journal., 1915-07-24

most appalling kind has been mani
tested in the administration of justice
in the courts of that state. John r.
Lawson, mine striker and an intel
ligent leader who fought the Rookie
Teller interests with all his brains,
has been sentenced to life imprison-
ment at hard labor. On what
charge? During the coal mine
troubles of over a year ago when the
strikers were fighting armed thugs,
called mine guards, from the slums
of Baltimore, Philadelphia and New
York, there was a battle one day.
One guard, John Nimmo, was killed.
John r. Lawson was indicted for his
murder. In the trial it was proved,
and the prosecution admits it, that
| Lawson was eight miles away when
the battle and the killing occurred.
However-the Rockefeller interests
vile legislature a special law creating
| judge to try the case against Law
| son. And the governor appointed
man by the name of Hillyer to be
this Special judge. Hillyer, ACOAL
COMPANY ATTORNEY, served he
| Rockefeller interests we'll Put on
the job for the sole purpose of get
ting Lawson, he overrode all rules
of fairness. permitted drum head
court martial tactics at this trial,
and forced verdict of guilty against
Lawson. Mark this: Hillyer did
this even at the moment while the
Supreme Court of the state was re-
viewing the case as to whether or
not Hillyer was proper judge to sit
upon the case. When Hillyer asked
Lawson if he had anything to say
why sentence should not be passed
upon him, Lawson made a statement
Among other things he said:
ut is plain that nothing that l
can say or do will change your fixed
determination to start me down the
dark path to Imprisonment for life
First of all, in the name of the
pect. l protest against your right or
power to pass any judgment against
me. 1t is undenied in this case that
you were appointed to the bench this
spring for the trial of myself and my
associates, fresh from the employ
ment of the very coal operators of
Colorado and the country, including
the Rockefellers, who have pressed
and engineered these sprosecutions.
you are so deeply prejudced
against me that my case was a trav-
estv of justice from the start. Today
the Supreme Court of Colorado in
Denver is reviewing your conduct
and yet you refuse to wait another
twentyfour hours for the guidance
of that courts decision.
Second, you refused to permit the
| jury to be drawn from the regular
| jury box provided by law and you Or
dered an open venire. This method
was exactly adapted to procure what
! none was surprised to discover:
| hand picked jury of coal company
partisans.
Nothing was to be permitted to
stand in the way. and it is significant
that even jury so selected refused
to convict me until bailiff selected
by you. according to affidavits on file
in this court. tortured juryman
with manufactured reports of the
dangerous Illness of the jurors wife,
and as final stroke warned the jury
that under your orders that jury
would have nothing further to eat
until they gave their verdict
May | ask whether judicial trav-
esty is not the right description of
such proceedings?"
All over the country meetings have
been held protesting against this
travesty upon justice. There are
newspapers and other periodicals
that have not been afraid to protest
And Frank p. Walsh. Chairman of
the Federal Industrial Relations
Commission, who had investigated
conditions in Colorado, made in n
speech at Chicago, July ~, the
charge that John r. Lawson was
railroaded to life sentence by a