To advocate peace with things as they are
is treason to humanity.
This is a class struggle and on class lines
it must be fought out to a finish.
-Ida Crouch-Hazlett
Hellraisers Journal, Monday November 4, 1907
Rathdrum, Idaho – Jury Selection in Adams Trial
In Boise, the Pettibone trial is delayed until November 18th; and from Rathdrum, we find reporting on jury selection from The Labor World and from the Montana News.
From the Duluth Labor World of November 2, 1907:
PETTIBONE TRIAL DELAYED.
—–
Hearing Set for Monday Is Postponed
Until Nov. 18 by Stipulation.BOISE, Idaho, Oct. 31-Attorneys for state and defense in the case of complicity in the murder of former Governor Steunenberg, today signed a stipulation that the trial, which was set for next Monday shall be continued until Nov. 18.
———-
[Photograph added.]
More from The Labor World:
EDITOR OBJECTIONALBLE TO
ADAMS DEFENSE
—–RATHDRUM, Idaho, Oct. 30.-The work of securing jurors to try Steve Adams progresses slowly. Most of today was taken up in the examination of L. G. Willis, one of the editors of the Coeur d’Alene Journal. The defense appears to be making a strong effort to get him off the jury. Attorney Clarence Darrow arrived yesterday and has taken charge of the examination of jurors. There are still 63 jurors in the box who have not been called.
———-
[Photograph added.]
From the Socialist Montana News of October 31, 1907:
STEVE ADAMS TRIAL BEGINS
Jurors Disqualified for Hearing Mrs. Hazlett,
Editor Of the Montana News, SpeakRathdrum, Ida., Oct., 29.
The special venire of 8 jurors appeared in Judge Wood’s court at Rathdrum, Ida., this morning at ten o’clock.
Another great trial in the long list of legal efforts to crush the Western Federation of Miners has commenced. Steve Adams is on trial for his life on the charge of killing Fred Tyler, an alleged timber claim jumper in the Marble Creek country.
Adams was tried on this charge last February in Wallace, Ida., the jury disagreeing. The prosecution demanded a change of venue on the ground that there were so many members of the Western Federation around Wallace that it was impossible to get a fair trial.
The Pettibone trial has been postponed till the 18th of November, and the attorneys for the state and the defense have signed a stipulation that if the Adams trial is not concluded by the date named, there will be a further continuance. Thirty-three jurors had been previously examined with eleven in the box when the case was opened this morning.
But few reporters are here yet, and the Montana News, and the papers which its correspondent will represent, are the only labor and socialist papers that have a representative on the scene of the historic incident in the great American class struggle.
The Rathdrum High school has inaugurated a feature of the utmost value as an educational factor. Two pupils are there each half session in seats reserved for them, with their notebooks, whose duty it is to give to the school a faithful report of the trial. The insight into actual conditions a great labor trial like this will give to a young mind is incalculable.
The attorneys present for the prosecution are H. P. Knight, prosecuting attorney for Shoshone county, Walter H. Hansen and James E. Gyde of Shoshone county , C. H. Potts and Robt. E. McFarland of Kootenai county, where the case is being tried.
The attorneys for the defense present are C. L. Heitman, Edwin McBee, Fred Miller, F. W. Waurms, and L. Crane. Clarence Darrow came in just at the beginning of the afternoon session, having made a quick trip from the coast. He is looking better than when at Boise, and his voice is full and strong.
Scene of the Trial
Rathdrum is a beautiful quiet country town, with the high rim of the mountains rising at its edge. The courthouse is an old shackly wooden building, and the courtroom a shabby little affair whose utmost capacity is probably 150 people. Reporters, lawyers, jurors, and court officials stumble over each other as they go about their duties. As the day grows dark and the lights are turned on they are so faint and murky as simply to make the gloom more visible. But in a way there is a kind and tolerant air prevailing in this dingy chamber. The spectators are kind, plain farmer people, and the jurors seem to have largely these characteristics. Everything seems quiet with no special prejudice around, Judge Woods is a little pleasant mannered man whose habits of jurisprudence seem to have been more restricted than those of Judge Wood of Boise.
The antiquated custom prevails here of all hands rising when the judge enters and remaining standing till he is seated. What feudal nonsense!
Adams Looking Well.
Adams looks well, self-contained and at ease. His long confinement shows what is called the “prison color.” His face is pale and his hands very white. He has peculiar hands, with long, thin, nerve-filled fingers. His nose is unusually long and sharp, his hair sandy, and his height about five feet six or seven. Determination is his prevailing characteristic. He shows great self-control and is a well-poised character. He is a man that goes consciously into whatever stand or place he takes in life a man who stands with his class; a man who could never do or be anything else than as a part of the working class. The integral association with the working class is prominent in his looks and mental attitude. He is the embodiment of that part of our class humanity out of which revolutions and a new social alignment compassing the social injustice to labor must come.
Wife of the Accused.
Annie Adams, bright, alert and vigorous, sits by the side of her husband, watching every move and question, and making constant suggestions to her lawyers. Adams sits by her seemingly contented and satisfied that whatever she says or does is all right.
J. W. Lillerden [James W. Lillard, uncle of Annie Adams], Adams’ uncle, on whose ranch in Oregon Adams was arrested is in court sitting beside his niece and nephew. He is a bewhiskered farmer, a kind, good, old man to whom these troublous scenes must seem dreadful.
Forming the Jury.
At the beginning of the session on Tuesday the usual proportion of jurors asked to excused, although there does not seem that same eagerness to get off from the trial that here was in Boise. C. A. Berry was the first man called to the only vacant chair in the jury box. He is a Rathdrum real estate man. Attorney Knight conducted the questioning.
News Editor Subject of Questioning.
To the amazement of the defense Mrs. Hazlett was made a specific subject by the prosecution in the close questioning. The jurors were asked if they had heard her speeches, if they had read about her in the Spokesman-Review, and if they were influenced by her efforts in educating the public,. The questioning in regard to Mrs. Hazlett was closely followed by queries as to acquaintance and talking with Moyer. Any one who espouses socialism or labor organization is a dangerous character in the community.
This of course referred to the Spokesman-Review that Mrs. Hazlett had said she was coming to Rathdrum to educate the Adams Jury. There never was anything to the report but a pure unadulterated lie. The only mention Mrs. Hazlett made of the case when giving her lectures in Rathdrum was that she thought as fair a trial could be held there as in any place in Idaho.
Anarchists, Et Cetera.
The jurors were questioned as to their sympathy with “anarchists,” reading socialist publications, and the books reporting the cost of the Federation trials to the state of Idaho; also if they knew Dixon of Chicago, “a Federation Detective.” It was too comical.
The jury was then passed for cause by the state.
Attorney Heitman conducted the questioning for the defense till Mr. Darrow came.
It is evident that the same old battle at Boise is continued here. The questions are about the same.
At the close of the day the jury box was full. To one looking on by the enlightenment of science what barbarism! Twelve men sitting there to decide on murdering another-over the primal curse of private property! How this property has degraded human nature! What blackness of savagery encircles us!
Ida Crouch-Hazlett.
———-
[News inset from Albuquerque Morning Journal of November 2nd.]
Annie Adams, Drawn by C. N. Landon of Spokane Press:
SOURCES
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Nov 2, 1907
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1907-11-02/ed-1/seq-1/
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1907-11-02/ed-1/seq-5/
Montana News
-Socialist Party of Montana
(Helena, Montana)
-Oct 31, 1907
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024811/1907-10-31/ed-1/seq-1/
IMAGES
George A Pettibone, Darrow Collection
http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/photo.php?pid=777
Steve Adams, Haywood-Moyer-Pettibone Case of 1906-07, Darrow Collection
http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/photo.php?pid=356
WFM, Adams Trial Rathdrum, Abq Jr Nov 2, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/156288963
HMP, Mrs Steve Adams by Landon, Spk Prs, May 24, 1907
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085947/1907-05-24/ed-1/seq-1/
See also:
Tag: Haywood-Moyer-Pettibone Case
https://weneverforget.org/tag/haywood-moyer-pettibone-case/
The Cripple Creek Strike:
a History of Industrial Wars in Colorado
Denver, 1908 edition with appendix
-by Emma Florence Langdon
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/wfmhall/langdon00.html
“Adams Case”
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/wfmhall/langdon30.html
“Pettibone Trial”
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/wfmhall/langdon35.html#thepettibonetrial