instructed by the mine owners to close down the Record, was nothing loth. The paper had printed statements derogatory to the military and their commanders, which was against the Rules or Articles of War. It had laid itself open to well-merited punishment. And this punishment came swiftly.
On the night of Sept. 29th, General Bell caused a strong force of cavalry to surround the office of the Victor Record, arrested Editor George C. Kyner and all the employees of the paper and put them in the
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bull pen. The General then cooly gave out the statement that he would arrest any other employees the paper might hire, if they printed anything adverse to or not to the liking of the military.
We know that the reason for closing down this paper was more its friendly attitude toward labor than its antagonism to the military; yet the reader can see for himself that whichever motive prompted General Bell to take this high-handed measure, the moral is just as painful and disagreeable, and only goes to show that our great corporations are just as ready to rob the masses of their liberty, as they are to rob them of their money.
What if the Victor Daily Record did oppose, criticise and cartoon the militia and encourage the strikers to hold out? Is not free speech and free press one of the fundamental laws of the United States? Is not this right solemnly guaranteed to every person throughout the length and breadth of the land? We would not perhaps attach so much importance to this wild escapade of General Bell were it not for the fact that his action was sustained by the Governor of Colorado, and was not rebuked by the Federal Government.
The Mine Owners' Association and militia had expected that the arrest of the entire staff of the Record would cripple, if not destroy, the