But his deep-seated animus against labor unions did come to light until the investigation occurred before! Military Affairs Committee. Then a report from him the War Department bearing date of June I was duced. In that report the General said: "Since trouble in Idaho originated in hostile organizations kn. as labor unions, I would suggest a law to be enacted Congress making such unions or kindred societies a cri Yet though there was no such law-neither a U States law nor an Idaho law — this General, comman a detachment of regulars, treated the miners' union kindred societies at Coeur d'Alene as if they were in a crime, and he set himself up as judge, jury and ja Does not this Coeur d'Alene experience demons the possibilities of military Government? Has it no gestion of what might be expected in any one of our were a Governor to follow the Colorado preceden: arbitrarily proclaim military rule? Gives it no i tion of what might come in the United States at should some President, following in the footsteps of Cleveland, sweep aside State authority and send F troops to establish by force of arms whatever h choose to call "law and order" ? The men of the line in the militia in many localit as yet not estranged from the general mass of the. and the labor unions. They frequently give p. their sympathy with strikers whose so-called "vic they are called out to quell. A notable instance appeared in the anthracite strike of 1902 in Pennsy when some of the striking miners were also members militia companies called out. Not only did they the strike fund a liberal portion of their pay as but they collected contributions from most of th soldiers. It is a fact that elsewhere, however, unions, feel the soldiers are used by the monopoly powers them, are advising their members to get out and And as for the regulars, discipline makes mere machines of the men of the line, to move at command of officers risen, not out of the ranks in a democratic way, but educated apart, after the manner of the old European nobility, and from that exclusive rearing and the entrance to military command as a life calling, possessed of the aristocratic idea that those who have power are those who were born to rule and must be upheld. Thus Privilege uses the soldiers of the Republic as it uses the courts for itself and in violation, in abrogation, of the rights of the body of the people. |