Corbin Strike

JUDGE WARNS RIOTERS IN CORBIN CASE. – Conviction of Three Ringleaders Sustained. – Warning To Others. – Too Small To Fight a Nation, and Canada Is Too Small For Men of This Stamp.

            At Fernie last week Judge G.H. Thompson, sitting in county court, sustained conviction of the three men sentenced for making trouble at Corbin last April.  A copy of the judgment is given here in part:

            “Three months ago,” his honor told the accused, “the papers were full of your actions.  The Corbin riots appeared in the newspaper with headlines in red.  I was interested in reading this morning to see that you occupy about an inch of space in the newspapers.  The people have lost their interest in you; you amount to so little in the eyes of the public that the newspapers hardly mention you.

“Too Small To Fight Nation”

            “On the other hand – what is occupying the attention of the people today?  What has occupied the thoughts of the people for the last one hundred years and will occupy them for untold generations to come?  Canada!  And you thought you could fight Canada.  Canada has no room for men like you.  Canada is working out its own problems.  It is too busy in working out its own destiny to be bothered with men like you.

            “You are too small to fight a nation.  I hope that one thought will be a lesson to you three men and to the rest of the community.  We are none of us big enough to fight our nation.  No section, whether it be an aggregation of wealth or an aggregation of violence, can fight the country.

            “I wonder, too, if you ever thought whom you were fighting in the concrete?  The men whom you are fighting were men just like yourselves; earning their daily bread, doing their duty.  You sent several of them to the hospital.  You have maimed some of them.  Do you think it is fair?  They are no better, or worse, than you men.  They risk their lives for a small wage.  You are risking your lives in the mines.  We all have to work.  There is no room in Canada for the man who does not work.

Commend Police

            “I can not let the occasion go by without passing a word of commendation to the police.  Inspector MacDonald and his men showed singular patience.  Remember that they are just as human as you are; they showed singular patience under great provocation.  One of the most striking things to me is the little violence with which they repelled the violence you showed.  They acted up to the highest traditions of an organized police force.  I can not let this occasion go by without giving a word of commendation, a word of praise, to  them”  Judge Thompson stated.

            Two of the three accused were fined $50 and costs of appeal, and a third $25, without costs.