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Auction: 321 - The Numismatic Collector's Series Sale and Stocks and Bonds of the Americas
Lot: 1376

Black Mountain Mining Company (Territoryn of AZ), $5 shares, 1908, No. 17864, issued to and signed on the back by Clarence S. Darrow, orange frame, IU,

Clarence Seward Darrow was the leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and perhaps America's most famous attorney. It was Darrow who opposed William Jennings Bryan in the controversial Scopes "Monkey" trial in which Scopes was accused of teaching evolution in a state-funded institution. Darrow represented Leopold & Loeb, represented Eugene V. Debs and other labor leaders. In 1908, when this certificate was issued, Darrow represented the Western Federation of Miners leaders William "Big Bill" Haywood, Charles Moyer, and George Pettibone when they were arrested and charged with the murder of former Idaho Gov. Frank Steunenberg in 1905. After a series of trials, Haywood and Pettibone were found not guilty and the charges were dropped against Moyer. It is interesting to see that while Darrow was vehemently pro-Labor, he was not above obtaining stock in a Capitalistic venture such as Black Mountain Mining.

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$625