legislative departments, forsworn itself- in obedience to the will of large moneyed interests.
Yet the unexpected happened. The Supreme
The Pinkerton Labor Spy. 135
Court, after hearing the arguments, took the case under advisement, and, pending decision, remanded Mr. Moyer to the custody of his military captors, who placed him again in the bull pen at Telluride. On June 6th, 1904, the court announced its decision, denying Mr. Moyer's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Justice Robert W. Steele dissented.
This decision is very interesting, instructive, and would also be rather amusing, to quote Bishop Matz, "had it been rendered in the course of a spirited romance for the sake of forcibly pointing a moral"; but when a decision like this is rendered by a real court, to be binding upon real people, then, to again quote Bishop Matz, "it is high time for the people to wake up and protect themselves."
Chief Justice William H. Gabbert wrote the opinion for the court. This opinion harps on the fact that the Constitution of the State gives the governor power to suppress insurrection and rebellion by means of the National Guard, and that the governor is sole judge of conditions constituting an insurrection and rebellion.
The learned Chief Justice, with the magnificent ingenuity of a mediaeval logician, argues that if the military have the right to shoot and kill in order to suppress rebellion, how much greater is their privilege merely to seize and confine human beings in bull pens. Tis a kindness — "milder means" — if the soldiery pen up rather than slay.
"The power and authority of the militia in such circumstances are not unlike that of the police of a city, or the
sheriff of a county Certainly such officials would be