the mine owners that their work had been a failure, even as the repressive measures of kings and clergy in the middle ages proved futile, and only
The Pinkerton Labor Spy. 199
served to make men struggle all the harder for their principles and convictions.
The mine owners were smarting from the effects of the two-year struggle and looking for a chance to retaliate on the Federation. As all things come to those who wait, so the very opportunity for which the mine owners were hungering suddenly came, and they grasped it. This opportunity was the assassination of ex-Governor Frank Steunenberg, of Idaho.
On the evening of December 30th, 1905, Mr. Steunenberg was almost instantly killed while entering his home in the suburbs of Caldwell, Idaho. A dynamite bomb had been placed under the front gate of his house, and connected with it by some contrivance, so that when Mr. Steunenberg attempted to enter, the bomb exploded, and he was so mangled that he only survived the explosion by fifteen or twenty minutes.
The assassination of ex-Governor Steunenberg was an awful crime, and it was the duty of the Idaho authorities to discover the fiend who committed it, in order that he might be punished. But .week after week went by, and the murderer of Idaho's former governor was still at large.
People began to forget the tragedy when suddenly, without any previous warning, the startling announcement was made on Sunday, February i8th, 1906, that President Charles H. Moyer, Secretary-Treasurer William D. Haywood and ex-Executive Board Member George A. Pettibone of the Western Federation of Miners had been arrested, and sent under