Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned (86 page)

14.
Yerkes had, at various times, employed Darrow’s former legal associates Goudy and Goodrich as lobbyists, but Darrow himself steered clear of the baron. Sunset Club proceedings, Jan. 17, 1901; Lloyd to Parsons, Mar. 17, 1897, HDL; Chester M. Destler,
Henry Demarest Lloyd and the Empire of Reform
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1963); Lincoln Steffens, “Enemies of the Republic,”
McClure’s
, Aug. 1904; Tarbell, “Chicago Is Finding Herself”; Ginger,
Altgeld’s America;
Steffens, “Chicago: Half Free”;
Chicago Tribune
, Nov. 29, 1897, Dec. 2, 1898, Apr. 22–May 3, 1903;
New York Times
, July 4, 1897;
Chicago Daily News
, Apr. 23, 24, 1903.

15.
The council ultimately approved twenty-year franchises that would ease the city toward municipal ownership. Darrow, “Mark Tapley Dunne,” signed manuscript, CD-LOC; Henry Webster, “From Yerkes to Dunne,”
American Illustrated Magazine
, Apr. 1906; Tarbell, “Chicago Is Finding Herself”;
New York Times
, May 4, 5, June 13, July 8, Oct. 29, Nov. 14, 1905, Mar. 13, Apr. 4, 5, 1906, Apr. 3, 19, 1907;
Chicago Tribune
, May 18, 19, June 8, June 30, Aug. 24, Sept. 2, 22, 23, 1905; Mar. 17, Apr. 2, 1907; Darrow to Dunne, June 19, 1905, CD-LOC; Darrow to Whitlock, Oct. 16, 1905, Apr. 8, 1907, BW; Austin W. Wright to C. E. S. Wood, Jan. 12, 1904, and May 23, 1907, CESW-HL;
Blair v. City of Chicago
, 201 U.S. 400; Steffens,
Autobiography
.

16.
Darrow ultimately dropped the City company as a client, when asked to defend the firm against the lawsuits filed by those injured by its streetcars. Instead, in 1902 and 1905 Darrow’s law firm carried lawsuits against the transit firm, involving the death and maiming of young boys run down by its cars, to the Illinois Supreme Court, winning one and losing the other.
Chicago Tribune
, Mar. 8, 10, 1896; Feb. 13, 1897;
New York Times
, June 27, 1897; see
Chicago City Railway Co. v. Tuohy
, 196 Ill. 410 and
Chicago City Railway Co. v. Jordan
, 215 Ill. 390, and Leeming note, Stone papers, CD-LOC; for International Harvester controversy, see footnote 4 in Chapter 12.

17.
In Darrow’s defense, it should be noted that others found the politics of the reform era as complicated. As
Theodore Roosevelt told a friend: “I have had on occasions to fight bosses and rings and machines; and have had to get along as best I could with bosses and rings and machines when the conditions were different … I have seen reform movements that failed and reform movements that succeeded and have taken part in both, and have also taken part in opposing fool reform movements which it would be a misfortune to have succeed.” See Roosevelt to Lorimer, May 12, 1906, Theodore Roosevelt papers, Library of Congress. In the otherwise excellent
Altgeld’s America
, Ray Ginger mistakingly attributes the “Dear Miss S” episode to the jury-bribing case. Masters,
Across Spoon River
, “My Youth,” and other unpublished manuscripts, ELM;
Chicago Tribune
, May 3, June 14, 18, 21, 27, 28, 29, July 25, Sept. 16, 1902, Nov. 24, 1903; Wright to Wood, Jan. 12, 1904, CESW-HL; Hapgood,
Spirit of Labor
.

18.
Darrow’s role in revealing Smith’s dealings in the bank was beyond reproach; even Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, no fan of Darrow, praised his actions. “I do not think that I shall sit here and listen to any criticism of Mr. Darrow,” said Landis, who was described as “trembling in anger” at the lawyers for Smith’s cronies. “Mr. Darrow has done something in this case that few officers of a bank would undertake to do.” Masters and Darrow tried for years to wring money from the bank’s assets and, for leverage or in spite, opposed Smith’s pleas for clemency.
Chicago Tribune
, Feb. 16, 17, 20, 1906, Apr. 7, 13, 16, 18, 20, 1907, Apr. 28, 1908, May 1, 16, June 2, 3, 13, 1909, July 13, 1910;
Chicago Daily News
, Feb. 16, 17, 19, 1906;
New York Times
, Feb. 16, 1906, Apr. 7, 1907;
Chicago Daily Journal
, Feb. 16, 1906; Darrow testimony, Commission of Industrial Relations, 1915; Masters,
Across Spoon River
and unpublished manuscripts, ELM; Hubbard,
The Philistine
, June–November 1906; Garland,
Companions on the Trail
.

CHAPTER 8: INDUSTRIAL WARFARE

1.
Steunenberg family correspondence, Dec. 31, 1905, to Jan. 13, 1906, Frank Steunenberg family papers, Albertson College of Idaho, Caldwell, Idaho; Confession of Harry Orchard, PP.

2.
William Hard, “The Western Federation of Miners,”
Outlook
, May 19, 1906.

3.
Lloyd, notebook, Darrow to Caro Lloyd, no date, HDL. The rosewater quote, by Honoré Mirabeau, a French revolutionary figure, is taken from Darrow,
Story of My Life;
Ray Stannard Baker, “The Reign of Lawlessness,”
McClure’s
, May 1904; Steffens to Laura Steffens, June 25, 1912, Lincoln Steffens papers, Columbia University.

4.
James Hawley, “Steve Adams’ Confession and the State’s Case against Bill Haywood,”
Idaho Yesterdays
, winter 1963/1964; Melvyn Dubofsky, “James H. Hawley and the Origins of the Haywood Case,”
Pacific Northwest Quarterly
, Jan. 1967.

5.
A. K. Steunenberg, quoted in Anthony Lukas,
Big Trouble
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997).

6.
Abbot to Lloyd, Dec. 1899, HDL; U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Military Affairs,
Coeur D’Alene Labor Troubles
(1900); William Gaboury, “From State-house to Bull Pen,”
Pacific Northwest Quarterly
, Jan. 1967.

7.
Theodore Roosevelt to Calvin Cobb, June 16, 1906, Theodore Roosevelt papers, Library of Congress; Baker, “Reign of Lawlessness”; AFL Circular, June 20, 1904, Samuel Gompers papers, Library of Congress; Philip S. Foner,
The Policies and Practices of the American Federation of Labor, 1900-1909
(New York: International, 1964).

8.
Baker, “Reign of Lawlessness”; Darrow,
Story of My Life;
George Kibbe Turner, “The Actors and Victims in the Tragedies,”
McClure’s
, Sept. 1907; George Kibbe Turner, “Introductory Note to the Confession and Autobiography of Harry Orchard,”
McClure’s
, July 1907.

9.
Philip S. Foner,
The Industrial Workers of the World, 1905-1917
(New York: International, 1965).

10.
Pinkerton papers, HIS; Pinkerton papers, PP; Steunenberg correspondence, Frank Steunenberg family papers, Albertson College of Idaho, Caldwell, Idaho;
Idaho Daily
Statesman
, Dec. 31, 1905, Jan. 1–11, 1906; Luke Grant, “The Haywood Trial: A Review,”
Outlook
, Aug. 24, 1907;
U.S. v. Barber Lumber Co.
, 194
Federal Reporter
, 1912.

11.
Idaho Daily Statesman
, June 24, 1907.

12.
McParland reports to Gooding, Orchard confession, Hassen to McParland, Apr. 2, 1908, Thiele memo, IHS; McParland reports, PP; Steunenberg correspondence, Frank Steunenberg family papers, Albertson College of Idaho, Caldwell, Idaho;
Idaho Daily Statesman
, Dec. 31, 1905, Jan. 1–5, 1906, June 14, 1907; Lukas,
Big Trouble;
Baker, “Reign of Lawlessness”; Debs,
Appeal to Reason
, Mar. 10, 1906; Darrow,
Story of My Life
.

13.
Theodore Roosevelt to William H. Moody, Mar. 26, 1906, Theodore Roosevelt papers, Library of Congress; Darrow to Caro Lloyd, Dec. 8, 1910, HDL; Darrow to Mitchell, Mar. 13, 1906, and Mitchell to Darrow, Mar. 14, 1906, John Mitchell papers, Catholic University; Dubofsky, “Hawley and the Origins”;
Pettibone v. Nichols
, 203 U.S. 192 (1906);
Idaho Daily Statesman
, May 30, June 1, 1906.

14.
McParland later told Gooding of a “rumor” that Adams and his uncle received $75,000—a titanic sum—to go over to the defense. The
Statesman
reported, citing no sources, that the defense had bribed Lillard through “the use of large amounts.” McParland reports, HIS; McParland reports, PP; Stone,
Clarence Darrow for the Defense
.

15.
Darrow was not operating alone. Richardson and Nugent accompanied him on his visits to Lillard and would have had to agree to the deal. Though the WFM received contributions from other organizations, it is difficult to see it raising $75,000—more than a million dollars by today’s standards—for the Adams family. And, of course, the source must be considered. The Pinkertons spread cash around and presumed that the other side had its own “slush fund” to buy jurors, as detective Charles Siringo put it. McParland reports, HIS; McParland reports, PP; Charles Siringo,
A Cowboy Detective
(Chicago: Conkey, 1912).

16.
Idaho Daily Statesman, Daily Idaho Press
, and the Wallace, Idaho
Times
, Feb. 7–Mar. 8, 1907; McParland reports, IHS; McParland reports, PP; Darrow,
Story of My Life;
Arthur Weinberg,
Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1957).

17.
McParland reports, HIS; McParland reports, PP. Adams took the news philosophically. He would have preferred to be acquitted, he told a deputy, but “it’s better to hang the jury, than to hang the prisoner.”

18.
McParland reports, HIS; McParland reports, PP;
Idaho Daily Statesman
, July 7, 1907.

19.
McParland reports, HIS; McParland reports, PP.

20.
McParland reports, HIS; McParland reports, PP; Roosevelt to Attorney General Charles Bonaparte, Mar. 26, 1906, Roosevelt to Calvin Cobb, June 16, 20, 1906, Roosevelt to James Sherman, Oct. 8, 1906, Theodore Roosevelt papers, Library of Congress;
New York Times
, May 5, 1907;
Idaho Daily Statesman
, May 5, 1907; Lukas,
Big Trouble
.

21.
Lukas,
Big Trouble
.

22.
Roosevelt was lobbied by Gooding, Cobb, Borah, and others, including prominent journalists like William Allen White, to drop the case. “I cannot help feeling some
indignation at this desire of persons who profess to be friends … to have you … relieve Borah,” Attorney General Bonaparte warned the president. “Most of the employees, both of my Department and that of the Interior, who have been engaged in the prosecution of land frauds in that region … are generally convinced of Borah’s guilt.” But Roosevelt contrived to pressure the leader of the investigation, U.S. attorney Norman Ruick, to resign, and Borah was then acquitted. McParland reports, HIS; McParland reports, PP; B. F. Cash to Bonaparte, Mar. 23, 1907, Bonaparte to Roosevelt, Mar. 29, 1907, Norman Ruick to Bonaparte, Mar. 29, 1907, Gooding to Roosevelt, Apr. 10, 15, 1907, Cobb to Gifford Pinchot, Apr. 13, 1907, Hawley to Roosevelt, Apr. 18, 1907, Borah to Roosevelt, Apr. 24, 1907, William A. White to Roosevelt, July 26, 1907, Theodore Roosevelt papers, Library of Congress; Bonaparte to Roosevelt, Aug. 1, 7, 10, 15, and Sept. 1, 1907, Ruick to Treasury, Aug. 12, 1907, U.S. Department of Justice records, National Archive.

23.
There was talk from one Idaho defense attorney, said Operative 21, about bribing the Haywood jurors. Such allegations made their way to the press and were repeated over the years, tarnishing Darrow’s performance in Idaho. (“The newspaper grape vine is that Darrow bribed the Steunenberg jury,” Edgar Lee Masters wrote, thirty years later.) But if an actual attempt was made to corrupt the jurors, it is likely that Operative 21 would have known about it, and that McParland would have exposed it.

24.
Mirror
, May 16, 1907;
New York Times
, May 17, 1907;
Boston Globe
, May 17, 1907;
Denver Post
, May 7, 1907.

CHAPTER 9: BIG BILL

1.
The description of the Haywood trial is drawn from the trial transcript, available at the Idaho Historical Society, the
Idaho Daily Statesman, New York Times, Boston Globe, New York Sun
, and the Associated Press, May 9, 1907–July 29, 1907. See
Boston Globe
, June 3, 1906; Ethel Barrymore,
Memories: An Autobiography
(New York: Harper, 1955); William Haywood,
Bill Haywood’s Book: The Autobiography of William D. Haywood
(New York: International, 1929).

2.
Ruby Darrow to Stone, CD-LOC; Darrow to Whitlock, Apr. 8, 1907, BW; Darrow,
Story of My Life;
see
New York Sun
, May 9, 19 and June 3, 1907.

3.
See
New York Times
, May 9, 16, 1907. The prosecution was incensed at Wilson’s perfidy, and Cobb took revenge by informing Roosevelt, who was weighing candidates for a federal judgeship, that Wilson was given to “brutal and disreputable” drunken “sprees.”

4.
See November 1906 Darrow–Richardson exchange, CD-UML, and Darrow to the defendants, CD-LOC;
Harper’s Weekly
, June 2, 1906. Richardson and John Murphy were the WFM’s regular lawyers. Darrow brought in
Peter Breen, a radical from Montana.
Fred Miller of Spokane and young
Leon Whitsell had represented the miners in the Coeur d’Alenes;
John Nugent was a friend of Haywood from Idaho, and there were others with local insight or connections carried on the payroll.