The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1919-12-18
GOT THE PROOF
FOR COUNTY ATTORNEYS
RAIDS WoBBLY NEST IN sPo.
kANE--GETs LITERATURE
AND CONFESSION.

Here is a story in connection with
the recent meeting of the prosecut-
ing attorneys of north Idaho at Occur
d'Alene In which our fellow towns
man and noted peace officer, Jack
Foster, Is the star performer. The
story comes to Wallace by way Of the
Boise Statesman of last Sunday and
is here reproduced:
How Jack Foster of the state con-
stabulary, facing north Idaho prose-
cutting attorneys assembled at Occur
d'Alene last week, told them that, in
his opinion, the j. w. w. organization
In Idaho can be torn out, root and
branch; how ~.they-the lawyers-Ob-
jected on the ground that pertinent
proofs We're lacking; how the state
detective, nothing daunted, cried.
Proofs! I'll get you proofs" bolted
from the session, hurried at break
neck speed to Spokane, called to his
aid the Washington police, raided a
private house, returned to Occur
d'Alene with all speed and threw be-
fore the astonished lawyers document
after document fixing upon the very
men in custody the crime of criminal
syndicalism; how all this was done is
q story fit to fill the pages of the
~sprightliest detective novel of the
day.
Story Travels Fast.
The story was told state officials
Yesterday by travellers from north
Idaho, among them 4, Fl. Nash, state
land commissioner. AS gathered
%piecemeal from these people, the sal
lent facts are as follows:
Assembled in serious session at
Occur d'Alene, the north Idaho prose-
cutting attorneys We're threshing over
and over the l. w. w, problem. Mean
while, in a dozen county jails, some
60 "wobblies' lay waiting the deci-
sion of the lawyers, a decision preg-
nant for them with possibilities of
vigorous trials and long dark years
behind prison bars. Such is the pen
atty for criminal s~yndicalism in Ida
no.
When Doctors Disagree.
All was not well at the lawyers
conference. 1t was true, the delegates
agreed, that the Idaho law against
criminal syndicalism has fearsome
teeth. 1t was true, too, they admitted.
that the Idaho prisoners were, almost
without exception. members of the I.
w, W, 1t was true, each lawyer de-
clared. that the Industrial Workers Of
the World has been proved, in previ-
Gus prosecutions, to be a criminal or
g~anization, devoted to threats, law
less attacks, sabotage, etc. But-and
the lawyers trembled at the thought
all such prosecutions in Idaho took
place a year ago-or two years. Might
1t not he difficult to prove now that
the organization pursued the same
tactics? Perhaps the local organiza-
ton to which the Idaho prisoners be-
had taken exception to the
doctrines of the old body.
What then?
Jack Foster Takes the Stage.
Then entered Jack Foster, agent of
the state department of law enforce
ment. Under his direction the state
anti wobbly organization in the north
had been perfected. AT his direction
flt1lU am MAN had haan canroha1 arl l.
100 men arrested in the state drive.
He came to tell the prosecutors why
the men were arrested, what kind of
evidence had been found upon them,
If what they were guilty. He told
hem these facts in terms unquestion-
IDLY direct.
But the prosecutors objected.
Granting every assertion the detective
made, they applied to each of them the
lcid test-will 1t pass in court? And
hey answered; NO" The men are !
members Of the order, perhaps, they
aid. That may be proved. But we
ave no new evidence to show the $
haracter of the society. We don't 9
now where they meet. We don't
now what their present propaganda
; There's a gap in the case for the
tate. 4
Then Came Floods Of Proof. /
Then the state detective cried: Il
n 1t is only proofs you h
ant, I'll get you proofs" And he s
fit the session, He hurried to Spo- I
ane. long understood to be the head n
u~arters of wobblies who have drifted "