Show LETTER TO GOV SPARKS fao No Warrant Whatever Existed for Calling Upon the President for Troops ROOSEVELT WAS DECEIVED SOLDIERS SOLDIERS WILL BE WITHDRAWN AT ONCE Washington Jan 12 President Roosevelt ha determined to withdraw the federal troops troop from rom Goldfield Nev Nov shortly after the legislature begins Its special session Tuesday This intention intention Intention tion was made known at the White Whitehouse Whitehouse Whitehouse house t day when the report of the special lal investigating ting commission was made public together with a letter from the president to Governor Sparks dated Jan 4 The president says he lie shall be governed by the recommendations recommendations in the report unless ss the governor can show that tho the statements In the report are not In accordance with tho the facts The report says I The conditions did not support the tho I general allegations In the governors go request for troops nr n r were wore his specific specific specific statements established to any such extent as to justify his use of these statements for the purpose of getting federal troops It concludes with this recommendation tion II Responsibility Upon Nevada But we most firmly believe that up upon upon upon on the assembling of the legislature or within a few days thereafter the troops should be removed regardless I of any request for their retention that I Imay may be made by either the legislature or tile tHe r vernor of Nevada It being es essential essential essential at the state of Nevada shall understand this situation completely shall recognize the fact fant that there will at that date dute be thrown upon It and It alone the primary responsibility of keeping order and that recognizing this thiN responsibility it may take such action as Is the duty of the state and andas andas andt t as will be sufficient In the premises In his letter to Governor Sparks aft af t ter or er T reviewing steps so far Car taken in hi inthe hith intile tile the th Goldfield G mining trouble the president president dent kilt continues I No Cause Whatever 1 I have just received d the tle report of oC these se three gentlemen Murray Smith and und Neill which sets forth In the emphatic language their belief after a careful investigation on the ground that there was no warrant whatever for calling on the president for troops and that the tho troops should not be kept indefinitely in Goldfield The report further states that there was no insurrection and that none of f the conditions described in IIi Sections of the revised statutes as war warranting warranting warranting ranting Interference by b the federal government existed and that the ef of efI effort I fort was and Is plainly an at effort by bythe bythe bythe the state of Nevada to secure the tho per performance performance performance by the United States of oC the ordinary ordinal police duties which should as us a matter mutter of course be performed by Nevada Nea a herself The report fur further further ther thor says ys No Question About It ItI I f There Is absolutely no question that tha if the state of Nevada and the county of Esmeralda exe tse the powers at ato o their disposal they can maintain satis satisfactory satisfactory satisfactory factory order In Goldfield that so far these authorities have done nothing but butr r rely ly on federal aid vind nd their attitude now flOw Is expressed by b that of refusing to do o anything and desiring to throw their own burdens on the federal gov gln government for the maintenance of those elementary conditions of order for which they and they only are responsible sible The signers of the report express their conviction that the troops should remain in Nevada until the assembling of the legislature so as to preserve the status quo in order that the tho legislature may deal with the situation as It ex exists exIsts exIsts but that shortly thereafter the troops should be removed Agrees With the Report I 1 agree with the recommendations of this report of which I enclose a copy opy and shall act accordingly Unless it can be shown that the statements of the report are not in accordance with the facts it will be incumbent upon the legislature of Nevada when It con convenes yenes venes itself to provide for enforcement of the laws of the stat star The state of Nevada must Itself Its lf make a resolute effort in good faith to perform tho the po police police police lice duties dutle Incident to the existence of ofa ofa ofa a state As the operators association had instigated the call for federal aid all the commission on reaching Goldfield ill ll 11 lowed its counsel to present the opera operators operators operators tors side of the case fully This Continued on n Page 2 I LETTER TO GOV SPARKS Continued from Page 1 pied five fhe days At the end of bf these i hearings belUl gs the report says Inasmuch as we were by this time I satisfied that the mine operators had hadnot hadnot I Inot not In any particular established a case justifying either cither the thc bringing pr or the retention of the troops we did not Icem leem it necessary to take any extensive evidence on tho the other side and the time hearing was substantially closed with wah witha waha a brief formal interview with the com corn committee committee from the miners union Precipitated P by Mine Owners Reviewing the conditions leading up to the present strike and since the strike began Nov 27 21 last the report draws this conclusion The action of the mine operators warrants the belief that they had de determined determined determined upon a reduction in wages and the refusal of employment to members of the Western Federation of Miners lIners but that they the feared to take this course of ot action unless they lad had I Ithe the protection of federal troops ord uld rd that they accordingly laid a a plan pl n to secure such troops and then put their program into effect i When the troops arrived the mine minee C e I W operators Issued a statement in which they the Indicated a reduction in iii miners JOiners wages from 45 5 to S 4 a day also their Intention not to employ minors miners who belonged to the union The report adds While this cut in wages an ic H i to employ members of the West Western ern em Federation of Miners was not an aim announced announced until after the time arrival of the ile troops every even indication confirms the tile belief belle that such action was in fm m before the arrival of the time troops was part of the general plan of t f the mine owners to establish their inde jude independence independence of ot the union and hat the coming of the time troops was expected end nd urged by br them to make such l ilan ian feasible Conditions Did Old Not ot Justify Conditions at Coldfield the tue import a erts not justify calling fo the troops The single case of the unlawful unlawful unlawful ful use u of dynamite which to accomplish any damage was surround surrounded ed by b such circumstances the says gays a s as 33 to raise a reasonable doubt as asto asto asto to the genuineness of the charge char e that members member of ot the time union were responsible ble The great bulk of the testimony teslin n not of ot the operators tended to show sh v ac according according cording to the report not the exist existence once ence of past or present disorder but the possibility of future fut re disturbances should the troops be withdrawn This I Iview view was wa 3 held by b many men of almost a all ail classes but was based on the I changed conditions since the troops had arrived namely the declaration of the time operators reducing wages and refusing refu to employ union men As to the refusal of the operators tors to employ union men the report sets forth a statute of the state prohibiting such discrimination The commission ex cx expresses expresses presses itself as satisfied that out of if the entire membership In the miners union there are not over oer a few hun hundred hundred hundred dred men inen of dangerous type while the great majority probably of ot the membership of the union were vire conceded to be men of ten tendencies I The report adds Union Laid Itself Open 4 By permitting their organization to be managed and controlled by rae men 1 of violent tendencies the as a body has thus laid itself o oien oen en to the reproach of being a vicious organza tion In view of the foregoing facts l we se believe there is considerable danger dauger that serious disorders will le Ite attempt attempted ed if It the troops be withdrawn and amI the mine operators insist on carrying out their publicly announced policy But if a handful of men have controlled the Goldfield miners union and committed the organization to indefensible poli ioli policies des cies and practices it is no reason rea SOli why the county of Esmeralda and the state stale of should tamely submit to the domination of ot this same group and should sho ld not assert their authority and power to enforce respect res for IJ and order without support of federal C troops |