elopment in this
matter must be thoroughly considered. On March 18, Orchard, persisting
in his story to the last, pleaded guilty to the murder of Governor Frank
Steunenberg, at Caldwell, Idaho, and was sentenced to be hanged--with
the recommendation by the presiding judge that his sentence be commuted
to life imprisonment by the Prison Board of the State. In pronouncing
sentence upon Orchard, Judge Fremont Wood, who presided over the trials
of both Haywood and Pettibone, expressed his belief in Orchard's story
in a most convincing way. The parts of the Judge's statement dealing
with Orchard's testimony, which follow, are of peculiar value to those
desiring to arrive at a final conclusion regarding the responsibility
for the campaign of murders which took place during the labor wars of
the Western Federation of Miners; they are the summing up of the entire
matter by a mind whose judicial fairness has been recognized by both
parties in this great controversy.

"I am more than satisfied," said Judge Wood, "that the defendant
now at the bar of this court awaiting final sentence has not only
acted in good faith in making the disclosures that he did, but that
he also testified fully and fairly to the whole truth, withholding
nothing that was material and declaring nothing that had not
actually taken place.

"During the two trials the testimony of the defendant covered a
long series of transactions involving personal relations between
himself and many others. In the first trial he was subjected to the
most critical cross-examination by very able counsel for at least
six days, and I do not now recall that at any point he contradicted
himself in any material manner, but on the other hand disclosed his
connection with many crimes that were probably not known to the
attorneys for the State, at least not brought out by them on the
direct examination of the witness.

"Upon the second trial the same testimony underwent a most thorough
and critical examination and in no particular was there any
discrepancy in a material matter between the testimony given upon
the latter trial as compared with the testimony given by the same
witness at the former trial. I am of the opinion that no man living
could conceive the stories of crime told by the witness and
maintain himself under the merciless fire of the leading
cross-examini