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The Story of Civil Liberty in the United States

The Story of Civil Liberty in the United States - Civil Liberty and Labor (1870-1917) - Page 220

the dynamite were dismissed … Jan. 29th, a business man of Lawrence who had no connection with the strikers, was arrested for conspiracy and charged with having planted the dynamite nine days before…. On May 16th, he was convicted of conspiracy to injure by the planting of the dynamite and was fined $500.00.

DEPORTATIONS

The expulsion of an individual or a group from a community by violence was probably first employed by workers to get rid of strike-breakers. But since the nineties, it has been an accepted form of lawlessness, resorted to by “citizens committees,” private detectives, the police and even the State Militia. It is, of course, a violation of constitutional liberties, yet there is no successful recourse to law, even where the members of a mob are known. The deporters usually represent public sentiment and control the local officials.

After a dynamite outrage during a strike at Idaho Springs, 1903, at a meeting of the Citizens' Protective League (an organization of mine-owners and businessmen) a bank president said: “If it is good law for the Western Federation of Murderers (Miners) at Victor to walk five Austrians out of town, it is good law for us…. I now move that we go to the calaboose and there take the prisoners and escort them to the edge of the city limits and tell them firmly to go and never to return.” After some objection from the deputy district attorney on the ground that there was no evidence that the 23 men in jail were guilty, the motion carried with a shout. The guards gave up their keys, and 14 men were deported in an orderly, almost friendly manner…. Some of the men had lived in Idaho Springs several years … four or five had families there. The Citizens' League issued a statement claiming to have protected the miners from violence…. The deported men petitioned Gov. James H. Peabody, praying that “as citizens of this State, you will tender us such protection as will return us to our homes … and that we be guaranteed no further molestation from a lawless association….” The Governor

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220
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