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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 10, 1899
Wardner, Idaho – Cruelties Committed Against Miners Under Military Government
From The San Francisco Call of June 8, 1899:
BARBARITIES PRACTICED AT WARDNER
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Editor Walker Alleges Great Cruelties
Under Military Government.
—–INQUEST ON A DUMMY
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Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Down
Prisoners in the “Bull Pen”
if They Flee From Fire.
—–Special Dispatch to The Call.
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Despite the military censorship something that has rather more the semblance of truth than anything that has been sent out so far, is beginning to come from the Coeur d Alenes.
There are two sides to the story of the mining troubles there. It appears labor leaders assert that the Miners’ Union has not been always and altogether to blame. General Merriam, according to the labor side of the story, has gone greatly beyond even what military necessity would mandate in the suppression of riot. A general order to shoot down men if they should seek to escape death by fire can hardly be justified by anything that has occurred in Idaho so far.
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BOISE. Idaho, June 7.—W. J. Walker, editor of the Freeman’s labor journal and an organizer fur Western labor, tells a pretty tough story concerning General Merriam and Governor Steunenberg’s military rule in the Coeur d’Alene country. Mr. Walker, being one of the principal leaders in labor matters in the Northwest, is kept posted on the progress of affairs in the Coeur d’Alenes, and he says he knows whereof he speaks in the assertions he makes.
