Sunday April 8, 1906
Boise, Idaho - George H. Shoaf Reports for Appeal to Reason

The past few issues of the Appeal to Reason have been devoted almost exclusively to the frame-up, now unfolding in Idaho, of the officials of the Western Federation of Miners. George H. Shoaf is on the ground in Idaho, having been sent there as a special correspondent. Today and tomorrow, Hellraisers will feature Shoaf's reporting from the April 7th edition of the Appeal.

George H. Shoaf Reports from Idaho, Part I:

Firm Determination of the Mine Owners to Railroad
the Federation Officials to the Gallows
Plainly Apparent.
-----
By George H. Shoaf, Staff Correspondent.

BOISE, Idaho, March 28.-Unless some unforeseen contingency arises Comrade Eugene Debs can begin preparations to follow Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone into eternity. I believe Comrade Debs gave utterance to the declaration that "If they hang Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone, they've got to hang me." Well, unless the unexpected happens, those three men are gong to hang. From the present outlook, McPartland's [McParland] prophecy that "the Federation men would never leave Idaho alive," is going to be made good. Everything is cut and dried, the frame-up is complete, there is hardly anything left to do now but to go through with a mock trial, in which the attorneys for the defense will be permitted to cut no figure, and proceed to the execution.

"But suppose union labor, and the working people of Ada County strenuously object to these men being hung?" was asked of Governor Gooding in the corridor of the Idanha hotel, in Boise.

"TO HELL WITH THE PEOPLE."

[Replied the governor:]

To hell with the people. What do I care for the people? If any of these unionites try to raise trouble I will call out the military.

There you have the situation in a nutshell. Backed by the armed power of the state, the Mine Owners' association, hankering for a taste of human blood, is going to end the life of the three imprisoned men, peaceably by due process of law if it can; if not that way, then Cripple Creek experience will be repeated in Canyon and Ada Counties, the district will be declared under martial law, and the outrage will be consummated.

NO SHOW FOR THEIR LIVES.

When I first investigated the situation in Idaho I thought the men would have a show for their lives. Recent developments, however, have dispelled that illusion. The county, district and state authorities are deliberately going to ignore public sentiment, and, despite any protest that union labor might make, they are going to hang these men. A. M. Simons was nearer right than I thought when he wrote: "They are going to legally murder these men unless such a sentiment is aroused, in the East that they dare not do it." But despite the sentiment that may be aroused, the men are going to hang anyhow. The overwhelming majority of the people of the United States may clamor for justice, and demand that these men be given a square deal, but it will do no good. The people are going to be ignored as completely and as absolutely as though they had no existence. Mere clamor, resolutions of denunciation, or an aroused public sentiment will not stay the hands of the "gory-beaked vultures" who are biding their time to bring Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone to the gallows. That statement can be put in anybody's pipe and smoked to a queen's finish.

FACTS WARRANT THIS CONCLUSION

Not only does the situation on the face of it, warrant my making that prophesy, but the facts and conditions behind the situation point to no other conclusion. While Attorney Richardson will not admit it, I have reason to believe that he views the affair in about the same light that I do. It is an awful prophesy, a terrible conclusion, but I can arrive at no other.

JUDGE SMITH A MERE TOOL.

Judge Smith, in whose court the trial will occur, is a republican, and an appointee of Governor Frank Gooding. If I have been told once I have been told a hundred times that he could never have been elected to the office. He was appointed about a year ago to take charge of a new district that had been created, one of the counties of which is Canyon County [where Caldwell is located]. His term of office will expire with that of governor Gooding's this fall. Since this case has arisen he has been in constant conference with the governor, Detective McParland, and the attorneys for the persecution, from whom he receives instructions regarding his methods of procedure. While his home is in Caldwell [where ex-Governor Steunenberg was murdered at his home], he spends much of his time with Governor Gooding in Boise.

GOODING AND SMITH CONFER.

He had a long conference with the governor at the Idanha Hotel the night preceding the morning on which he ordered that the three men be separated and confined in separate jails. Gooding, Smith and McPartland took the elevator of the hotel and went to the Pinkerton detective's room, where the three men were closeted for a number of hours. It was then that the plot was arranged whereby the prisoners were to be given the alternative of either returning to the penitentiary, or being separated and confined in different county jails.

MOYER'S HEALTH MUCH WORSE.

Moyer has been practically a physical wreck ever since he spent 101 days in close confinement in the Telluride jail two years ago. He is afflicted with and extreme case of asthma, and it is very difficult for him to breathe. This affliction has reached his lungs and as a result he is the mere shadow of his former self. About the only way he can breathe is to sit up in bed propped with pillows. Since his recent imprisonment this malady has increased in intensity and of late he has been a very sick man.

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.

When the consultation between Smith, Gooding and McPartland occurred it was decided to separate Moyer from his companions and place him in solitary confinement. No one should be permitted to see him thenceforth except the jailor and McPartland. He was not to be tortured by either being beaten with thongs, knocked to the floor repeatedly with a club, hung up by the thumbs, or branded with a red hot iron-the favorite methods of extracting confessions from prisoners, employed by the Pinkerton Detective Agency-but it was calculated to place him in solitary confinement, where he could not see the light of day and where he could not hear the sound of a human voice. Day after day should be permitted to elapse during which time no news of the outside world should be allowed to filter into this martyr to the cause of the working class. He could pace the narrow limits of his darkened cell, wrapped in the solitude of his own thoughts. He could clinch his fists in rage, or stretch forth his arms in supplication, but it would bring him no relief. He could cry aloud and pray for the liberty of death, but his prayers would fall on unheeding ears. No one should be permitted to behold his anguish but his jailer and the infamous man who has sworn that neither he nor his companions would ever leave Idaho alive.

[Photographs of George Shoaf, Governor Gooding, and Charles Moyer added.]

SOURCE
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Apr 7, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66993864/

IMAGES
From the AtR:
-Jack London on Haywood Moyer, AtR, Apr 7, 1906
-Appeal to Reason, Apr 7, 1906
-Gov Gooding on Haywood Moyer, AtR, Apr 7, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66993864/
George H Shoaf, p.391, Common Cause, Vol 2, 1912
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=Q_E-AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcove...
Gov Gooding of Idaho
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/photo.php?pid=1342
Charles Moyer, Darrow Collection
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/photo.php?pid=1384

See also:

C99 Tag: Haywood-Moyer-Pettibone Case
http://caucus99percent.com/tags/haywood-moyer-pettibone-case

Statement of A. M. Simons, editor of International Socialist Review, was from the March 3, 1906, edition of the Appeal to Reason:
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66993697/

Bill Haywood Trial, Darrow Collection
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/trials.php?tid=3

The Cripple Creek Strike: a History of Industrial Wars
in Colorado, 1903-4-5
-by Emma Florence Langdon
Haywood-Moyer-Pettibone Case
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/wfmhall/langdon29.html#dedication

For more on Moyer in solitary confinement at Ada County Jail, and for more on Moyer's previous imprisonment at Telluride:
Hellraisers Journal: President Charles Moyer Very Ill in Solitary Confinement in Ada County Jail
-by JayRaye
http://caucus99percent.com/content/hellraisers-journal-president-charles...