Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-25
MURDER in
ILLINOIS

THE news from southern Alliliois'
where a half a hundred men
working in a strip coal mine were
murdered in cold blood by strik-
ing miners or their sympsthizcrs Is
shocking in the extreme. Ihe un-
disputed facts read like a dispatch
from Russia in the first days Of the
bolsheviki regime. 1t is hard to
believe that American citizens,
naturalized or native, could be re-
sponsible for such atrocities, but
the facts appear to be well anthem
ticated. These forty or fifty men
were not killed in a fight. They
were not armed, they surrendered
to a crowd of armed strikers or
strike sympathizers, were tied to-
eether with ropes, conducted out OF
town and then slaughtered IN
groups, their bodies mutilated N
shocking ways, their pockets emp
tied, and the victims left lying on
the road or in the woods where
thew were murdered. In some in
stance they were denied even a
drink of water before they died.
These murdred men were members
of a union, rot recognized by the
A. r. of 1.-the Shoveiers' union.
They claim that they were sent
from Chicago to work at this strip
mine without knowing that there
was a strike in the district or that
their presence would be resented
by miners. 1t appears that a strip
mine is not operated through shaft
or tunnel, but the coal lying near
the surface dug I'D with steam
shovcls, and the shovelers' union
claimed jurisdiction. The owners
os the mine had a few guards and
a machine eun, but they were help
less to offer much resistance to
5000 armed men. They were slain
also along with the superintendent
and all the men working in the
mine. The details of this massacre
are shocking, past belief. Women
brought their children to see the
piles of mangled corpses and boast
ingly told them that it was the work
of thei- dads. The sheriff and
county officers appear to be in
complete sympathy with the muir
dcrers. No one has been arrested.
The sheriff says he needs no as
s~istance. The county attorney says
it is useless to call a grand jury.
The whole community upholds the
murderers, and the governor OF
Illinois, now on trial for graft,
hesitates about sending troops into
the county. though he has mobillz-
ed a regiment waiting for a call
from the local officials which does
not come. Meantime, the citizens
of that part of the country are
boasting of their share in the mas
eacre and telling what they will do
to the state troops if they come.
Public sentiment in that county
Is defiant of law and order. They
have defied it On other occasions
and no one was punished. The
county has the adjective bloody"
affixed to it on account of murder
and lawlessness in the past. They
are proud of their reputation.
Can the state that produced
Abraham Lincoln afford to let SO
foul a stain rest on its garments?
Such outbreaks of bolshevik revo-
luton ought to be nipped in the
bud in Illinois, as it was nipped in
the bud in Montana. In many re-
spects conditions in Bloody Will
hanson county" remind us of con-
dition in Silver Bow county in our
own state when Governor Stewart
sent the militia to Butte. The local
authorities were defied and help.
less. Muckie Mcdonald and his
supporters threatened to dynamite
the city and loot it if they were
in%terfered with in their campaign
They Dragged about what they
would do to the farmer militia boys
if they dared to ON to Butte
Fortunately we had a governor a
that time with sand and determine
ton to vindicate the law. He sem
the militia to Butte and declared
marshal law there. Frank Conley
then states prison warden, wa:
made provost marshal. and preach
ers of law defiance fled from Butt.
like rats from a sinking ship. Some
of the leaders we're jailed ane
learned their lesson. The rest flee
and hid themselves. Perhaps some