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Show vjvj I AN OLD WOMAN IS ABUSED. The keeping of "Mother" Jones, a woman-over SO years, in durance vile in Colorado, is an act of which the officials should be ashamed. That in substance is the view taken by tho Butte Miner, a paper owned by former for-mer Senator William Clark of Montana, Mon-tana, which says: "She is a very old woman, a large part of whose life has been dovoted to advocating better conditions for the coal miners In this country. "The authorities assert that this 'Mother' Jones is dangerous, and, if allowed the liberty of free speech, she might cause a riot and bloodshed, blood-shed, so she has been thrown In jail. "Conditions must be very bad in the Colorado mines if it Is necessary to gag anyone, to say nothing of this aged lady, and prevent them from discussing conditions in public. "Of course if martial law had not been declared in this coal region, 'Mother' Jones could not be held in jail 2't hours, for she would be immediately im-mediately released upon a writ of habeas corpus. "Under military law the citizen loses all the rights guaranteed by the constitution and Congressman Evans of this state found that out a few weeks ago, when, as a member mem-ber of tho congressional investigating investigat-ing committee, ho started to examine exam-ine into conditions on a private visit to the miners, with the result that he came very nearly being arrested and thrown behind the bars himsdlf. "For a great state to fear an old woman of 80 years of ago Is certainly cer-tainly a spectacle "to make the average aver-age person laugh, if it were not for the injustice done to this unfortunate unfortu-nate victim of martial law." |