Defense counsel Clarence Darrow, his wife Ruby, and a stenographer named Miss Terry checked into the Idanha on April 26, 1907. Although he enjoyed morning coffee with The Idaho Statesman in the hotel's lavish lobby, Pinkertons made him nervous, and Darrow soon retreated to a rented bungalow on Warm Springs Avenue.
          Darrow, age 50, was already America's best known nonconformist by the year of the Haywood trial. "To think is to differ," said Darrow. In court he frustrated the prosecution with theatrics and frequent objections. One reporter called Darrow "a master of invective, vituperation, denunciation, humor, pathos and all other arts of the orator, except argument." When he wept for the defendant, the jury wept as well.

          Darrow knew that a jury of Idaho farmers would be hostile to unionism. He knew his client's reputation, and that to characterize Haywood as saintly would be to savage the facts. "They do wrong often," said Darrow of the labor unions. "They are sometimes cruel; they are frequently corrupt. But [the unions] have stood for the poor, they have stood for the weak, they have stood for every humane law that was ever placed upon the statute books. I don't care how many wrongs they have committed. I don't care how many crimes. I know their cause is just. Had it not been for the trade unions of the world, you today would be serfs instead of free men."

conspiracy, assassination • labor wars • the accused • when, who, why • the media • the prosecution • the defense • the verdict • gallery • home