Hellraisers Journal: President Roosevelt, Secretary Taft, and the Western Federation of Miners

Hellraisers Journal, Friday November 2, 1906
Boise, Idaho – Secretary Taft to Speak for Governor Gooding

From this week’s Montana News:

ROOSEVELT AGAINST THE
MINERS’ UNIONS.

William Howard Taft, Secretary of War

Boise, Ida., Oct 24.-A special to the Statesman, from Washington. D. C., says:

That President Roosevelt thoroughly approves the course taken by Governor Gooding in prosecuting the men charged with the murder of ex-Governor Steunenberg can no longer be questioned. It was officially announced today that Secretary Taft, the strong arm of the administration, at the special request of the president will make two speeches in Idaho in order that the people of that state may know that the sympathies of the national administration are with Governor Gooding and those who stand by him for law and order. Secretary Taft will speak at Pocatello Friday, November 2, and at Boise the next day.

President Roosevelt has been deeply interested in the Idaho campaign since its inception, because he has been anxious that the people shall give their hearty support to the ticket that stands for law and order. He deeply regretted the attempt made in some quarters to becloud the issue when it was so apparent to him this is the only issue involved.

The president is so intensely in earnest that his instructions to Secretary Taft would leave no option, if he had any inclination to choose other topics, but Secretary Taft is as much concerned as the president. One of his friends said when his trip was announced: “You can bet your last dollar that Taft will give those dynamiters hell.”

[Photograph added.]

From today’s Leavenworth Post:

MURDER AND MORMONISM
—–

ISSUES THAT WILL CONFRONT TAFT IN IDAHO.
—–

SITUATION UNPARALLELED
—–
Taft to Speak for Re-election of
Governor F. R. Gooding,
In Whom Roosevelt has Taken Interest.
—–

Boise, Id., Nov. 2.-When the adipose Secretary Taft comes to Boise tomorrow with the benevolent intention of teaching the Idahoan how to vote he will confront a political situation unparalleled in the political history of the country. Out here in Idaho folks are not vitally interested in the tariff on limberger cheese or other abstruse problems of the governmental economics. Murder and Mormonism are the issues in this state, and the discussion of national measures is wasting wind.

It is known that Secretary Taft is coming here to use his eloquence and influence toward the re-election of Governor F. R. Gooding, in whom President Roosevelt has taken a personal interest. It is also known that the fat secretary was sent in response to an urgent appeal for aid from the Republican state committee. Apparently, the Republicans are scared. Daily the Democrats have been growing more confident of election of their gubernatorial candidate, Judge C. O. Stockslager of the state supreme court. The issue between the candidates, which has rent the state into political factions, is murder, neither more nor less.

In December of last year ex-Governor Steunenberg was murdered, a bomb attached to the gate leading to his residence contributing to his untimely taking off. Later Harry Orchard, a professional assassin, confessed to having committed the crime at the instigation of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone, officials of the Western Federation of Miners, with headquarters in Denver. The latter were arrested, kidnaped, according to the miners and lodged in jail. The case attracted wide attention, and the arrest of the federation leaders was condemned by union workmen all over the country. Attorneys for the prisoners declared the arrest to be illegal and the result of a conspiracy entered into by Governor Gooding and others.

That Governor Gooding has been too active in the prosecution of the men many of his supporters admit. The statement attributed to him that the accused labor leaders “will never leave the state alive” is hardly the proper thing for an executive bent only on exact justice. Both parties are making political capital of the case. Gooding is waging a strenuous “law and order” campaign and is supported by the mining, commercial and railroad interests of the state. Arrayed almost to a man solidly against him are the laborers, who will vote for the Democratic candidate. Stockslager is apparently friendly to Moyer and Haywood and believes them to be the victims of persecution. His platform is a brief one-a promise not to use the executive authority to interfere with the prerogatives of the courts.

The Mormon issue has butted into Idaho politics through the ambitions of Senator Fred Dubois to retain his toga. Dubois went to Washington five years on the free silver question, since deceased. A new issue was needed and the astute senator found it in anti-Mormonism. The floodgates of oratory were turned loose and many people learned for the first time of the hydra-headed Mormon monster which was eating into the very vitals of their beloved state. The Gentiles outnumbered the Mormons in this state about two to one and anti-Mormonism looked like a safe bet, but the people haven’t taken to it with any great degree of enthusiasm. Assassination is the paramount issue, and it is up to Taft to brighten up on the subject if he wants to make good in Idaho.

———-

[Photograph added.]

SOURCES

Montana News
(Helena, Montana)
-Nov 1, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/77935258/

The Leavenworth Post
(Leavenworth, Kansas)
-Nov 2, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/109839857/

IMAGES
William Howard Taft, Secretary of War, ab 1905
https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3b34936/
HMP, Moyer Haywood Pettibone, ab 1906
pdf! http://darrow.law.umn.edu/documents/Wilshire_Mag.pdf
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/photo.php?pid=777

See also:

William Howard Taft
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft

Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town…
-pages 400-406
by J. Anthony Lukas
Simon and Schuster, Jul 17, 2012
https://books.google.com/books?id=d07IME-ezzQC

“Roosevelt and His Regime” by Eugene V. Debs
from Appeal to Reason of April 20, 1907
https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1907/1907-roosevelt.htm

The Popular Wobbly – The Grand Industrial Band
Lyrics by T-Bone Slim
http://www.folkarchive.de/wild1.html