Salt Lake Tribune | 1914-05-02 | Page 6 | Warlike Colorado

WARLIKE COLORADO. Perhaps tho mining companies in Colorado will claim a kind of prescriptive prescrip-tive fright to arm their guards. For j-cars tho southern counties of! Colorado have been in a state of martial lawlessness. lawless-ness. The civil luw has been relocated to a position of inferiority. In free countries tho civil law is presumed to be dominant and martial law is resorted re-sorted to only in cases of insurrection, and then the law is imposed by the constituted con-stituted authorities of the state. In Huerfano and several other counties in Colorado a military dictatorship has been established by tho various sheriffs who have acted for the mining companies com-panies in controlling not only lawlessness, lawless-ness, but elections, and whatever else their feudal lords, thought required control. con-trol. That an iron hand was needed in these counties is evident from tho recent re-cent state of auarchy and bloodshed. For 3'ears a state of Avar has existed. Both sides have defied tho law and have put forward various excuses for the defiance. Now that the L'niled States troops have takou possession of the district the question rises as to which faction shall be disarmed iirst. Tho minors do not wish to surrender their arms for fear the mi no guards will bo pcrmittod to retnin theirs. It is to bo hoped I hat some means can bo found to place hhesc counties on a permanent peace footing. They havo discovered that the A-eo' existence of armed forces leads to battles and bloodshed. blood-shed. Tho only way to preserve peace and to make tho civil power supreme is to disarm all factions. Ono can readily realize, however, that the problem has its perplexities. Wo conceive that oven the United 'States authorities do not havo tho right to disarm the sheriffs and the deputy sheriffs except perhaps for tho period during which tho United States soldiers shall occupy tho district, and then only under martial law. When th'o soldiers retiro from the scene the sheriffs and their deputies will havo a perfect right to carry lireairnis. Under the protection of tho troops the mine owners will be ablo to assert their just rights to operate their properties prop-erties without interference, but when the troops havo doparted what will Colorado do? Perhaps it would bo fortuualc for the people of Colorado if their state could revert to the status of a territory and be governed by Uncle Sam.