Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1907 — MOYER VS. ORCHARD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MOYER VS. ORCHARD

Head of the W. F. M. Goes on the Stand Everything. HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH CRIME Never Guilty of Anything of Which . He Is Accused. Explains the Federation Action in Employing a lawyer to Defend Orchard in the Steunenberg Case. Boise, Ida., July 11. —Charles H. Moyer went to the stand yesterday, a witness for his fellow-defendant, William D. Haywood, and beside making positive denial of all the crimes attributed to him and the other Federation leaders by Harry Orchard offered an explanation of the unsolicited appearance of the Western Federation of Miners as the defender of

| OHABLBS H. MOYKB. Harry Orchard Immediately after his arrest at Caldwell for tne murder of Steunenberg. Moyer swore that It was Jack Simpkins who engaged Attorney Fred Miller at Spokane to go to Caldwell to represent Orehard, then known as Thomas Hogan, and that it was at the request of Simpkins that the witness and'Haywood subsequently advanced $1,500 from the funds of the federation to meet the expense of defending Orchard. He said, however, that it was the custom of the Federation to defend Its members when they were accused. lie said alsq that he never saw Orchard until Cipher Telegram in Evidence. At various stages of the recital the defense offered in evidence a number of documents, including a heretofore undisclosed cipher Yeleg am which Simpkins sent to Federation headquarters and the union at Sliver City, Idaho, covering the moves to protect the federation, which was charged with tlie <Tiine within a few days after it occurred. Message Was Suspicious. Moyer began by saying tliat he got his first knowledge of the crime from the Denver newspapers, anti that on j the evening of Jan. 4, .five days after I the crime, a telegram in the FederaI tlon’s cipher—a code in which certain numerals represented the alphabet ' and published in the ritual of the organization was used to transmit the ■ password to local unions—-came to I Haywood from Spokane. It was long and the translation was difficult and uncertain, hut lie and Haywood flg- | tired tlie next day that it was signed by Simpkins and read: “Cannot get a lawyer to defend Hogan. Answer.” Moyer testified that he was suspicious | about the message, the newspapers having already charged the crime up to the Federation ami that he decided to consult John Murphy, general counsel lor the Federation, before lie took ■ any steps.