There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Saturday March 30, 1907
Caldwell, Idaho – Judge Wood Grants Change of Venue
From the Montana News of March 28, 1907:
COURT DECISION
—–Judge Grants Change of Venue-
Trial Will Take Place in Boise-
Date Will Be Set on April FirstSpecial to the Montana News.
Caldwell, Idaho, March 25, 1907
Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone were all in court this morning to hear Judge Wood’s decision on the change of venue motion. The court room was crowded. The judge said it was not necessary to rehearse the facts connected with the case, that he had come to the decision that the trial should go to Ada county. With the consent of the defendants or to over-rule the motion. There were certain conditions existing at Caldwell that were different from those elsewhere but a large part of the showing would pertain equally to all other counties in this portion of the state, that there was a large portion of the county out side of Caldwell where a jury could be obtained. Attorney Nugent for the defense asked if providing the case changed to Ada, whether they were supposed to stay there no matter what condition might be revealed. On getting a reply in the affirmative he said they would have to have time for deliberation. The judge said they should have all the time they wished, and a half hour was named as sufficient. Prisoners and attorneys then retired.
They returned in twenty-five minutes and Mr. Nugent stated that since they had been given no alternative and since it was dangerous to go to trial in Canyon county they would abide by the judge’s decision, and go to Ada county. He called attention to the advantages of Washington county and to the fact that Mr. Steunenberg had resided for four years in Boise. The judge replied that Washington county was in no wise fitted for the trial. Mr. Hawley then asked the judge if it was understood that the prisoners were forced to remain at Boise no matter what the conditions were. The judge replied that he did not intend to take any rights away from the prisoners that the law allowed them. The motion was allowed and the case changed to Boise.
Next Monday in Boise court a specific time will be set, Mr. Nugent said they would like special trials for each defendant which he was told would be granted, and he would be informed which would be tried first. The trial will be about the first of May.
Mrs. Moyer was not in the court room having been taken to the hospital for an operation.
———-
[Photograph added.]
Montana News on Defense Argument for Change of Venue:
Court at Caldwell
—–Argue for Change of Venue-Richardson Gives
Prosecution Sledge Hammer BlowsCaldwell, Ida., March 21.
The arguments by counsel on the question of removing the trial of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone to some other county besides that of Canyon, where the crime was committed, closed in Judge Wood’s court this afternoon about 3 P. M., and the judge took the motion under advisement until Monday morning next. This motion on a change of venue has consumed 4 days. The court room has been crowded at every session. It is a remarkable fact that the onlookers are composed almost entirely of the working class. They have an expression on them as though to say, “Here is where we have an interest. Our class is on trial. Here is where we become a social factor.” The jury venire summoned for Monday morning, March 18, has been present at the opening of each session but dismissed by the judge. W. J. Scott of Cripple Creek, W. T. Bradley of Boise, and Easterly of Silver City, Ida., have been present as proletarian representatives at the trial. The prisoners have all three been in court. The exercise and change of scene they are getting seems to be doing them all good, and they all seem in excellent spirits. They are brought down on the “pony” every morning from Boise in charge of the sheriff and three guards. At noon they take their dinner at a boarding house just across the street from the court house. Mrs. Moyer and Mrs. Pettibone also come down on the train every morning. They are with their husbands in the intervals of the court sessions in a small side room where the men are kept. While a guard is with each prisoner wherever he goes there is no undue display of harshness or authority. The men move around the court room, talk to their friends, counsel with their attorneys, and no better treatment could be asked for under the circumstances.
Exhibit of Press Influence.
After the over-ruling of the motion for dismissal on Monday, in presenting its case for a change of venue, the rest of the day was spent in presenting the carefully compiled exhibit which the defense has prepared to show that the minds of the community were so poisoned that a fair and impartial trial was impossible. The excerpts were principally from the Idaho Statesman, and the Capital News of Boise, and the two Caldwell weekly papers. The Idaho Statesman is looked upon as Governor Gooding official organ, and has been particularly vicious in its outrageous utterances. The Caldwell yelpers have followed its lead.
From these clippings evidence was given that the mine owners had finally despaired of obtaining any convictions against the Western Federation in Colorado and had decided to shift the scene of their nefarious attempts to Idaho where they thought more congenial soil might be found among juries of farmers, that were unprejudiced through sympathy with the great mining organization.
Taft’s “Law and Order” speeches were given and the power of executive influence brought to bear to arouse sentiment against the defendants.
The most painstaking evidence on every phase of the situation was exposed before the public gaze in this vast mass of the stuff that the tools of the master class have deluged the country with. It was plainly evident that the stuff circulated had been of so vicious and outrageous a character that no jury in its senses would ever convict men on so manifestly unjust and malicious attacks.
The showing was also plain that accusations of every sort have been made against the methods of the defense. No matter what step was taken some malicious motive was impugned to it. The frequent allusions to socialism and socialists throughout the progress of the case testify to the power the socialist party has already become in American politics.
Adjourn for Steunenberg Funeral.
The court was adjourned Tuesday morning on account of the funeral of A. K. Steunenberg, the brother of the former governor, and the man who succeeded him as the leading business man of Caldwell.
The attorneys in the case that have been present during the week are Hawley, Stone and Van Duyn, prosecuting attorney for Canyon county, for the prosecution, and Richardson, Nugent, Fred Miller, and Walter and Henry Griffith of Caldwell, for the defense, L. O. Whitsell of Wardner, Ida., who has been employed by the defense on the case, was also present. Fred Miller did the first of the reading of the clippings, but about the middle of the afternoon Tuesday Henry Griffith took his place.
Class Struggle Evident.
Nothing could have more plainly brought the great economic class struggle involved in this social war than the reading of these clippings. The capitalist sees only the plausible reasons for its own attitude and acts, and knows naught of a great counter formative force around it. This was brought out in the bitter denunciatory terms used concerning the activities of the working class. The Goldfield miners [on strike in Nevada] were called “wild savages of the desert.” The same accusations seemed to be made against the socialists as against Christ-that they were stirrers-up of strife; and the most atrocious misrepresentations were continually set forth by these venal sheets, tools of the administration. In one place they were classified as professional socialists, tool socialists, and anarchists. Even in Germany, after all these years of public prominence, the same idiotic thing was heard, where it was laughed at openly in the Reichstag the other day.
The same thing occurred in the Idaho court room. The crowd frequently laughed openly at the ridiculous statements, and it was plain the prosecution did not relish the ludicrous situation in which they were being placed. Their grand tragedy was degenerating into a farce before the very eyes of the public. It was so evident that the plan had been to heap ignominy of the grossest kind upon the socialists, and then connect the trial and the defense with them.
Statements Scored.
Wednesday morning’s Statesman had such a particularly vile attack on the methods of the defense that Attorney Richardson asked to place this vomit in the exhibit. The paper shrieked that it had been contending all along for a fair trial, while the socialists had worked tirelessly ever since the inauguration of the case to prejudice the minds of the people of that county and entire state against the prosecution. Their assertions had been proclaimed from the house tops and the gutters. The attempt to prevent a fair trial had been notorious; it had been scandalous. The socialists had caused [accused?] the officials of crimes. Prejudice had been worked up against the state by the apostles of anarchy. The agitation never had been excusable. The people of Canyon county were intelligent and fair-minded, and the socialist emissaries invaded that section to poison their minds, and flood the community with seditious publications. Mr. Richardson read the entire article, said it was an insult to the court during the very progress of the trial to claim that the defense was corrupting citizens for jurors, while they were making persistent efforts for a change of venue.
Affidavits Presented.
The reading was finished during the morning by Walter Griffith, and in the afternoon the defense took up the affidavits that had been gathered to show the prejudice that existed in Canyon county against the defendants. Six-hundred of these affidavits were presented. They were arranged in different classes, one of each class being read, and only names of affiants of all the rest, with time of residence in county, and name of voting precinct. Only names of voters were used, and of those who had resided in the county more than a year. The following is the long form:
[The affidavits for the defense were then published and the reading into the record of same described.
Arguments for and against change-of-venue motion continued the next day until the middle of the afternoon, whereupon Judge Wood stated that he would give his decision on Monday morning.]
[Photograph added.]
SOURCE
Montana News
“Owned and Published by the
Socialist Party of Montana”
(Helena, Montana)
-Mar 28, 1907
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024811/1907-03-28/ed-1/seq-1/
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024811/1907-03-28/ed-1/seq-5/
IMAGES
HMP, Pettibone Moyer Haywood, AtR, Feb 16, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67586811/
HMP Attorney Edmund F Richardson, Boise, May 11, 1907
http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/photo.php?pid=832
See also:
Tag: Haywood-Moyer-Pettibone Case
https://weneverforget.org/tag/haywood-moyer-pettibone-case/
For more on the strike in Goldfield, Nevada:
http://depts.washington.edu/iww/iwwyearbook1907.shtml
Miners Life – Kilshannig