The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1922-07-28
SEN. MYERS, DEMO-
GRAFT DENOUNCES
HERRIN KILLING
But He Never Uttered a Word
Of Protest Against the
Lynching of Frank Little or
the Cold Blooded Murder
of Workers on Anaconda
Hill or the srnothering of
Toilers in the Spectator
Mine.
(By Defense News Service)

y
Chicago, Ill.-United States Senator
Henry L. Myers, democrat, of Mon
tana is pictured as standing in the
front door of a glass house, throwing
brickbats at passersby, in an open
letter addressed to him by Henry
Feinberg, secretary of the general de
tense committee.
This characterization is based on
statement issued by Senator Myers
in Washington denouncing the Herrin
affair as zone of the most horrible
and reprehensible that has ever dis
graced the annals of this country"
Myers predicted the downfall of the
American republic if "such assaults
on constitutional government" as he
phrased it, were allowed to go unpun-
ished.
Feinbergs letter TO the democratic
senator follows in part:
There is no question that the Her
rim killings were horrible, and it was
reprehensible that the mine owners
there attempted to take bread and
butter out of the mouths of the work
lngmen and their families through the
use of thugs and machine guns.
"But whatever the horror and
wherever the blame may lie, criticism
Of the state of Illinois as a disgrace
to the nation comes with question
able propriety from you as a senator
from Montana. Your own common
wealth has a dark and bloody record
as a destroyer of human lives.
"If you say that the Herrin affair
was horrible, do you contend that it
exceeded the murder of Frank Little
in Butte in 1917? We have searched
through our records concerning that
outrage and we fail to find that you
ever demanded that the perpetrators
be punished.
''Should the details of Little's death
have grown dim in your memory, we
repeat them briefly: Frank Little, a
speaker for the Industrial Workers
of the World, was lying in bed with
an injured leg when group of
Butte business men broke open the
door of his room at 2 o'clock in the
morning. They forced him to his
feet, beat him, unsexed him, and then
dragged him for two miles behind a
fast-moving automobile to the railroad
trestle where they hanged him.
Substantial evidence of the guilt
of well-known Butte citizens was
presented to the county prosecuting
authorities by Little's friends. No
move was made by the authorities to
prosecute Little was killed because
he made speeches to copper miners,
because he helped to solidify them
against exploitation in a community
where the great mass of workers are
in state of virtual slavery.
"One hundred and sixty-four cop
per miners died in the Speculator mine
fire at Butte in 1916. The safety
exits had been closed with concrete
bulkheads to prevent adjacent mines
owned by the same corporation from
Stealing the Spectators air." Many
men were found dead in front of those
bulkheads, their fingers worn to the
their frenzy to escape.
"T1e mine owners responsible for
those 164 deaths were never punished.
Did you ever make any effort to have
them punished?
Thugs employed by the Anaconda
Copper Mining company in Butte
fired in cold blood on unarmed pickets
traversing a public road in daylight in
April, 1920. Two of the pickets died.
Scores of people saw the thing done.
Eye witnesses brought the facts to a
coroner's jury. That jury, composed
of professional jurymen, wlitewashed
the murderers. Nobody was ever
punished. Did you issue any protest
then?
"The unrestrained lawlessness of
copper corporation gunner in Mon
tana has long been a pattern for mobs
in other commonwealth"