HD 
 532.6 
 
 C6H3 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
 SB 264 
 
VOLKSZEITUNO LIBRARY 
 
 PUBLISHED QUARTER!^/ 
 
 * r .... 
 
 Kntered as Second Class matter at the New tfork:' l*ost Office, bet. "30,' 1899' 
 
 Vol. VI ) 
 No. 4- j 
 
 NE\Y YORK, JULY, 19O4- 
 
 , 6Oc. 
 
 Colorado! 
 
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 THE LABOR WAR IN CfiLOMDO. 
 
 :BY BEN HANFORD. 
 
 There have been many so-called "investigations" of the pres- 
 ent labor troubles in Colorado. Those coming under my observa- 
 tion have without exception presented what the writers wero 
 pleased to call "both sides." This has included a summing up 
 of various acts which the different writers have assumed to be 
 for or against each, and on these premises basing a verdict to 
 the effect that "both sides are to blame." I went to Colorado to 
 investigate the present trouble there to a considerable degree 
 under the influence of the idea that there were wrongs as well 
 as rights on both sides. 
 
 My researches, however, have entirely eliminated any such 
 impression. As between the strikers and their former employers 
 in the present warfare in Colorado, one side is entirely in tbe 
 right and the other side is wholly in the wrong. There are two 
 sides to the question only in the sense that there are two sides 
 to the question as to whether a thief shall have the "right" to 
 rob an honest man, or whether the perpetrators of deliberate 
 murder for financial gain are entitled to consideration from such 
 survivors as they only failed to make their victims through lack 
 of power. The present struggle in Colorado is not a war between 
 capital and labor. It is a war by capitalists against laborers. 
 
 Only One Right Side. 
 
 In these present Colorado troubles ALL the facts are on the 
 side of the men. The strikers have been peaceable, law-abiding 
 and orderly. Opposed to them have been gentlemen, barbarians, 
 Ravages and traitors, and the private police, deputy sheriffs, mili- 
 tary, thugs, bad men and all the other agencies which can be 
 evoked to accomplish the robbery and bring about the enslave- 
 ment of free men through the use of all the powers of govern- 
 ment by persons and corporations who look up,Qn..the forces of 
 the State as their private property and use them for their per- 
 sonal gains. 
 
 There is only one possible criticism which can be made againat |5 
 the strikers. It will remain for posterity to judge whether It !> 
 justified. The strikers have constantly pursued a ponVy of nun- J I 
 resistance by physical force. SomeNof ''t/ftejn^aye^ been ^xunlr i% il. 
 their houses have been searched with^oit/warnv'iA.tlii*, nghr ut' 
 free speech and free assemblage have bee*n 
 
---'< O 
 
 ' i t c- * * i. _ 
 
 o e * 
 
 1 . 
 
 upon,* fheir 'famrlies'h{ftq been insulted, their leaders have been 
 <is<sacul4:e/J,_ jailed;, writ of rlsabeas corpus and right of trial by 
 ijui'j .has'j^etf. de'iTied,; t'qtVv Imve been hounded from their homes 
 - and deported from the "State without form, semblance or process 
 of law and for what? What heinous crime had they committed? 
 
 Their Only Crime. 
 
 They had refused to work on terms which to them seemed dis- 
 honorable. In short. THEY REFUSED TO BECOME SCABS. 
 
 Under all these outrages it has been only short of miraculous 
 that these men have been so absolutely self-restrained that they 
 have not once taken the initiative in an appeal to force, and it 
 has been the universal rule for them to bear with dignity and 
 resignation the burdens and contumely heaped upon them. This 
 lias not been through any lack on their part of courage to dare 
 or power to perform. What, then, was the force AA r hich kept 
 ^lese men so self-contained through all this fearful stress? 
 
 It was their loyalty to the working class of the nation and the 
 world. They suffered unspeakable wrongs without resistance 
 in order that you workingmen, you union workiugmen, of tlu3 
 North, South, East and West might catch up with them. They 
 knew that their fellow workers in other parts of the country 
 were not informed as to the merits of the controversy, they knew 
 that their fellow nnion men were informed only of such things 
 as their employers through control of the press saw fit for them 
 to know, and they knew that, no matter what victories they 
 might win by force, they would be regarded by their brethren as 
 having taken up arms against their country and its flag. These 
 men of the Rockies understood the Beast Capitalism, and they 
 suffered their awful wrongs without physical resistance in order- 
 that their fellow men might catch up with them, might become 
 wise in time, and because of their sufferings might take such 
 steps as to save themselves from like sufferings. 
 
 That, too, my fellow vrorkingmen and fellow union men, is 
 the purpose of this pamphlet. It is not written to record the 
 praises of the union men of Cripple Creek and Trinidad and Tellu 
 ride. Their deeds are their monument, and their sufferings their 
 song of praise. But you workingmen outside of Colorado should 
 see to it that their sufferings shall not have been iu vain. 
 
 Bull Pens on Boston Common. 
 
 If you nnion men would not have bull pens in Boston Common, 
 if you would not have your houses searched without warrant in 
 New York, if you would not be deported from your homes in 
 Philadelphia and Chicago, if you would not live in fear of assas- 
 
o 
 
 > 
 
 situation for no other cause than that you arc a member of a lain r 
 organization; if the workingmeu of Oregon ami Texas, of Mnii, 
 and Wisconsin, and every other State and Territory <>i tin- I'nioii 
 would not lose the right. to organize; if the men whose labor feeds 
 find clothes and warms and shelters the peoples of the earth 
 would not lose the right to live, it would be wise for them [> 
 study carefully and well the history of the Labor War in Colo- 
 rado'. 
 
 After years of effort by trade unionists, an eight-hour law. 
 applicable to persons employed in and about mines, was passed 
 by the Colorado Legislature in 1890. The corporations fought 
 it in the courts, and the Supreme Court of the State declared it u> 
 be unconstitutional, although similar laws had been held to be 
 valid in various other states, and the Supreme Court of the 
 United States approved such a law for Utah. 
 
 When this law was set aside by the Supreme Court the. union 
 men who had worked so hard and so long for its enaetnit nt did 
 not appeal to force of arms or advocate violence. 
 
 Colorado's Eight-Hour Law. 
 
 The law having been declared unconstitutional, they went to 
 work by peaceful, legal and orderly processes to change ihe Stale 
 Constitution, and at the election in 1902 an amendment to that 
 instrument was submitted to the people of the State providing 
 that the Legislature "SHALL ENACT" an eight-hour law Id- 
 all persons working in :iiid about the mines of Colorado. 
 
 Every political party in the state favored that amendment. 
 Every one of the thirty-five members of the Senate and ev 
 one of the sixty-five members of the House was elected on a 
 platform declaring that such a law would be enacted if the con- 
 stitutional amendment was carried. The amendment received 
 a majority of the vote east in every county of the State ex- 
 cept five, and in the State it was carried by a majority of 4t'>,7H 
 votes. 
 
 After the election the Legislature met, transacted its business 
 and adjourned- AND PASSED NO EIUHT-HOru LAW. 
 
 Why? The world knows why. Because its members had b 
 bribed, jockeyed and bulldozed by the corporation interests intl; 
 State who did not want an eight-hour law. 
 
 The Western Federation of Miners in particular ami labor or- 
 ganizations in general have been denounced as lawless bodies. 
 By whom? By the very persons who violated the law of the 
 State at its fountain head, by the persons who corrupted its law 
 making body, and set aside an amendment to ihe Constitution 
 of the State because it interfered wnu their "business int. . 
 
The men who officer the labor organizations of Colorado have 
 been called anarchists. Those who wish to find the real 
 anarchists in Colorado should go to the State Capitol at Denver, 
 and there they will be found in the person of the Republican and 
 Democratic members of the Legislature, and if they would find 
 anarchists and traitors, they should place their hands on the 
 Governor of the State of Colorado and his Adjutant-General and 
 the men who own them. 
 
 Anarchy and Treason in the State House. 
 
 Treason and anarchy in the State House at Denver is the first 
 and greatest cause of the present labor troubles in Colorado. 
 
 The second cause was the constant and persistent discrimina- 
 tion by the corporations against the employment of union men. 
 
 These two things the failure to pass the eight-hour law and 
 the discharge of men from their work because they saw fit to 
 exercise their legal right to join a labor organization comprise 
 tne substantial causes of the present difficulties. All other mat- 
 ters, wages, ventilation of mines, and the scrip system of pay 
 ment (in the Trinidad coal field), could have been adjusted with- 
 out difficulty. 
 
 The strikes were first to enforce the underlying law, the Con- 
 stitution of the State calling for an eight-hour law. They were 
 second an effort on the part of the men to maintain their legal 
 right to become members of a labor organization. 
 
 In their efforts the strikers have constantly pursued the arts 
 of argument, persuasion and peace. 
 
 The employers from the first have resorted to force, fraud and 
 treason. 
 
 COLORADO CITY. 
 
 Employers Discriminate Against Union Men. 
 
 For a long time the Western Federation of Miners had endeav- 
 ored to organize the mill and smeltermen into unions. The work 
 had been difficult on account of the discrimination of the em- 
 ployers against union men. Of course, the managers were in fa- 
 vor of "free labor/' insisted that their men did not want to join 
 a union, and in order to save them from the tyranny of labor 
 organizations, they employed corps of spies to report to them 
 every man who became a member, and such men were immedi- 
 ately tired. NotAvithstanding this, the men were effectively or- 
 ganized, and on Feb. 14, 1903, Mill and Smeltermen's Union, No. 
 125, at Colorado City, went on strike to redress a number of 
 grievances, not the least of which was the discrimination against 
 union men, and to secure an eight-hour day. This should be 
 
particularly noted, for in all the present strikes in Colorado the 
 two questions, that of discrimination against union men and 
 the eight-hour day, have been the real, points at issue. 
 
 The Militia Ordered Out. 
 
 March 3, seventeen days after the strike, Governor Peabody 
 ordered the troops to Colorado City. Why? On what informa- 
 tion? 
 
 Manager MacNeill, of the Mine Owners' Association, went to 
 the sheriff of El Paso County (in which Colorado City is situated) 
 with letters from himself and other mill managers asking the 
 Sheriff to call upon the Governor for troops. The Sheriff then 
 wrote a letter to the Governor to the effect that he (the sheriff) 
 had received communications from the mill and mine managers 
 requesting that troops be sent to Colorado City, and Manager 
 MacNeill carried the sheriff's letter to the Governor. The Gov- 
 ernor conferred with MacNeill and other managers and sent 
 the troops. 
 
 Were they needed? For what purpose were they sent? 
 
 The sheriff asked for them obediently to the wishes of the 
 mill owners. But Colorado City's Mayor, Chief of Police, City 
 Attorney, Councilmen, and hundreds of citizens passed resolu- 
 tions and signed petitions protesting against the militia bein^ 
 r.sed, and insisting that there was no disorder. 
 
 Why should the Governor send troops to the strike field at the 
 request of a sheriff, who professed no other information than 
 that received from one side to the controversy, the mine o\vu- 
 ers? Why should the Governor ignore not only the statements 
 of the strikers to the effect that there had been and was not 
 likely to be any disorder, but the protests of citizens, city attor- 
 ney, chief of police, mayor and city councilmen to the same 
 effect? 
 
 The Militia "Keep Order." 
 
 As soon as the troops arrived, however, "things were doing.' 
 Then violence began. Pickets of the strikers, peaceable and un- 
 armed men, w r ere arrested by the military. Property of the 
 union was confiscated by the military. Men were denied the 
 use of th public highway by the military. Vile, profane, in- 
 pulting language was used to the officers of the union in their 
 own headquarters by the military, Col. Brown, spokesman. 
 From the time the troops arrived in the strike lield they and their 
 officers used every possible measure to cause the strikers to re- 
 sort to violent and disorderly methodswithout avail. 
 
 Public sentiment became so strong against the Governor that 
 
6 
 
 he was compelled to visit Colorado City in person to investigate 
 conditions, which ho did on March 11, but went only to the mine 
 oAvners and the feAV strike-breakers employed in the mills, entirely 
 ignoring the strikers. 
 
 From the first the union had offered to submit all matters in 
 controversy to impartial arbitration, and after the Governor's 
 visit to Colorado City public sentiment was so strong in favor of 
 the justice of the strikers' demands and the fair and orderly 
 manner in Avhich they sought to enforce them that the Governor 
 was forced to request the mill managers and the representa- 
 tives of the union to meet in his office to discuss their differences. 
 As the result of a conference lasting from 2 p. m. till 3 a. m. an 
 agreement Avas reached betAveen the union and the Telluride and 
 Portland mills. Had the managers of these companies met the 
 officers of the unions to discuss their differences when the men 
 had asked for a conference there need have been no strike. 
 
 But Manager MacNeill, of the Standard mill of the United 
 States Reduction & Refining Co., Avould make no agreement 
 Avith the men at that time. Later a committee of business men 
 and mine owners practically A'ouched for the good faith of Mac- 
 Neill (who would sign no agreement) in the reinstatement of 
 strikers and men discharged for membership in the union, and at 
 the beginning of April this strike passed into history. 
 
 A Traitor Governor Dickers. 
 
 Governor Peabody withdrew the troops, but only ON CONDI 
 TION THAT THE' UNION OFFICIALS WITHDRAW ALL 
 DAMAGE SUITS WHICH THEY HAD BROUGHT AGAINST 
 THE MILITARY AUTHORITIES. As the price of peace the 
 men were forced to Avaive their civil rights in the courts of the 
 State by a Governor Avho had sworn to uphold the law. 
 
 On July 3, 1903, the employees of the American Smelting and 
 Refining Co. in its Denver mills went on strike for an eigllt- 
 honr day, and on August 10 the miners of the Cripple Creek dis- 
 trict employed in mines shipping ore to MacNeill's mills went on 
 strike. The men were forced to take this step because MacNeill 
 had in no particular lived up to the promises Avhich had been 
 made in his behalf, and also to put a stop to discrimination against 
 union nier. 
 
 In view of the reiterated assertions of Peabodv, Bell, mine 
 OAvners, mill managers, members of the Citizens' Alliance and 
 others of recent date, to the effect that the Western Federation 
 of Miners Is and has ahvays been a laAvless body of riotous incen- 
 diaries, the following paragraph from the public statement of 
 the Mine Owners' Association of the Cripple Creek district should 
 
be noted. It was issued on August 12, 1903, two days after the 
 strike was called: 
 
 "At the time the strike was called and, in fact, ever since 
 the settlement of the labor difficulties of 1894, the most entire 
 harmony and good will has prevailed between the mine 
 owners and employes in the district. Wages and hours of 
 labor have been satisfactory and according to union stand- 
 ards, and general labor conditions have been all that could 
 be wished." 
 
 The strike was an orderly and peaceful one. It consisted in 
 nothing more than in refraining from work on the part of the 
 union men and those who agreed with them. There was no dis- 
 order, lawlessness or violence. 
 
 The Brigadier-General Orders Himself to the Front. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, the mine owners called upon the Gov- 
 ernor for the militia. The Governor said he would cause an in- 
 vestigation to be made. By whom? By Brig-Gen. John Chas?. 
 and Lieutenant T. E. McClelland. These eminent military 
 gentlemen went to the Cripple Creek district to look things over. 
 They arrived in Victor at 9.30 p. in., spent an hour there in con- 
 sultation with a committee of the Mine Owners' Association, 
 arrived at Cripple Creek at 11:40 p. in., went to the headquarters 
 of the Mine Owners' Association there, and remained in confer- 
 once with the owners for two hours, then sent for Sheriff Robert- 
 son and spent two hours in consultation with him. Sheriff Rob- 
 ertson strenuously protested against the use of the militia. What 
 was the verdict of the Governer's Commission? They left Crip- 
 ple Creek on a special train at 4:10 a. in., after being in the dis- 
 trict less than seven hours, and reported to the Governor that 
 troops Avere needed. In other words, they ordered themseh-es 
 to the scene, and on the 5th of September the troops Avent to 
 Cripple Creek. 
 
 The Mayor, a tool of the Mine OAvners, the Postmaster, and 
 a banker A\*ere the only ones except the mine OAvners and man- 
 agers Avho wanted troops sent to Cripple Creek. 
 
 The Sheriff protested against it. 
 
 The Board of County Commissioners unanimously protested 
 against it. 
 
 The City Council of Victor protested against it. 
 
 Mass meetings protested against it. 
 
 Five days after the strike Avas called President .Mover ad- 
 dressed the folloAving Avords to a meeting of the strikers of Crip- 
 ple Creek. 
 
 "I sincerely trust and advise that nothing be done durini: 
 
8 
 
 this trouble that will be in violation of the law. If men feel 
 it their duty to take a position against yon who are striving 
 to procure your rights, you will do nothing but harm your 
 position by resorting to violation of the laws." 
 
 A Public Army for Private Profit. 
 
 But the mine owners wanted troops, and the Governor sent 
 them. If any one thinks the troops were sent to uphold the law 
 and to do impartial police duty, he has only to know that before 
 they were sent the mine owners agreed with the Governor that 
 THEY WOULD FAY FOR THE TROOPS. Pour per cent. 
 State certificates of indebtedness were issued, these the mine 
 owners cashed. They paid the charges and they got the goods. 
 
 After five days in the district the military began on Sept. 10 a 
 rule of mob law by bayonet. Men were arrested without war- 
 rant, charges or process of law. City and county officials, strik- 
 ers and citizens who dared to say or were suspected of daring to 
 think that a trade union had any virtues were haled to military 
 headquarters to give an account of themselves. Not only was 
 it a sin to belreve in trade unions it was a crime not to be- 
 lieve in the Mine Owners' Association. Any one pointed out by 
 them was immediately arrested and placed in the bull pen, some 
 of them not being allowed to see a friend or an attorney. Judgo 
 Seeds issued writs of habeas corpus, and when the imprisoned 
 men were brought into his court, Generals Bell and Chase 
 surrounded the court" with troops, planted a gatling gun in front, 
 placed sharpshooters on the roofs of adjacent houses, and filled 
 the court rooms with militiamen. The attorneys for the men 
 protested against the presence of the soldiers in the court, but 
 the officers of the guard refused to withdraw their men, and the 
 attorneys withdrew from the case rather than serve in a court 
 overawed and intimidated by armed men not responsible to the 
 judge. 
 
 But the judge held court and issued an order that the prisoners 
 bo surrendered to the civil authorities. The generals of the 
 Mine Owners Militia refused to comply with the order of the 
 court, and the prisoners were marched back to the bull pen. They 
 were later released by the Governor's order, but others were 
 arrested, some of them several times, and held for long periods. 
 
 
 
 Printers in the Bull Pen. 
 
 On the night of Sept. 20, '03, the State militia under command 
 of Gen. Chase, forcibly entered the office of the Victor Record, 
 arrested the whole force of the paper and marched them to the 
 bull pen, where they were held for 24 hours before they were 
 
9 
 
 delivered to the civil authorities on writs of habeas corpus. The 
 Victor Record had committed the crime of being on the side of 
 the men, and had protested against the outrages of the military. 
 While the office force was in the bull pen Mrs. Kmina F. Lang- 
 don. wife of one of the linotype operators, went to the office and 
 got out the paper, "somewhat disfigured, but still in the ring." 
 and it did not miss an issue. 
 
 About the middle of last November, things were getting quiet 
 in Cripple Creek. This would never do. Unless there was 
 "something doing," the deputies, detectives, militia and the 
 hangers-on of the armed camp would be out of jobs. 
 
 The Loosened Rail. 
 
 So, on the night of Nov. 16, '03, the spikes were withdrawn 
 from a rail at a curve on the Florence <& Cripple Creek Railroad. 
 At 3 a. m. a train known as the suburban, carrying about forty 
 union and non-union miners came along. But the engineer, Wil- 
 liam Rush, had received a "tip" that all was not right, and for 
 that reason he stopped his train when he reached the curve, and 
 investigated. He found the spikes withdrawn from the rail, 
 as he had been told that he would. 
 
 The matter was reported to the military, and they at once be- 
 gan to make arrests, of course charging the union men with re- 
 sponsibility for the act. 
 
 Every Union Man Acquitted. 
 
 Sherman Parker, W. F. Davis and Thomas Foster and other 
 union men were arrested by the military and held for the 
 crime. The trial of the three named began before Judge Lewii 
 on Feb. 19, '04. With what result? They were all acquitted. 
 
 What else? 
 
 It transpired on the trial that the spikes were pulled by one 
 Charles McKinney, aided by a man going under the name of 
 Charles Beckman, who on the stand declared that he was in the 
 niploy of the corporations, that he was working for a detective 
 agency, that he was a paid spy and bad joined the union for 
 the purpose of spying upon these men. that he had been instru- 
 mental in getting McKinney to do the work, that he had pre- 
 arranged with other detectives in the employ of the corporations 
 that they might watch the work done, and after all this the mine 
 owners and the military authorities arrested union men for the 
 crime, tried their best to fasten the infamous act upon the West- 
 ern Federation of Miners and failed. The testimony of the 
 detectives Convicted themselves of the crime they sought to plao 
 upon the union. 
 
10 
 
 The testimony of many unimpeachable witnesses proved an 
 absolute alibi for the union men. The testimony of the engi- 
 neer of the train which had. been in danger of wreck showed that 
 a detective had inquired of him if loosening the rails at a cer- 
 tain place would wreck the train, and it was at that point that 
 the spikes had been withdrawn. 
 
 The mine owners have persistently denounced the Western 
 Federation of Miners as a lawless organization. In order to 
 make their lies look like truth they have had crime committed 
 on more than one occasion, hoping to blast the good name of the 
 union. This case was only one of many. 
 
 Jockeying with the Courts. 
 
 Regarding the trial of men for the perpetration of these crimes, 
 Attorney-General Miller declared: 
 
 "The Governor and his attorneys will try to prevent 
 an immediate hearing of the cases, as they say, to per- 
 mit the people to become composed. Their hope lies in 
 the fact that Judge Seeds will leave the district Jan. 1, 
 giving up his seat temporarily to Judge Lewis." 
 Judge Lewis tried the derailment cases. EVERY UNION 
 MAN WAS ACQUITTED. 
 
 This case bears a strong resemblance to another. During the 
 strike at Idaho Springs there was an explosion at the Sun and 
 Moon mine, and one man (a union miner) was killed. Immedi- 
 ately the mine owners and members of the Citizens' Alliance 
 charged the crime upon the strikers, many of them were arrested 
 and a number deported. The authorities declared that the union 
 strikers arrested and charged with this crime should not be 
 tried by Judge Owens, as they feared he favored the union. 
 They wanted the cases tried by Judge De France. The cases 
 were tried by Judge De France. The prosecution spent weeks 
 introducing testimony to convict the fourteen union men on trial 
 of a conspiracy to blow up the Sun and Moon mine. After tbe 
 prosecution rested, the defense went to the jury WITHOUT 
 CALLING A SINGLE WITNESS. The jury was composed 
 largely of impartial ranchmen, and they brought in a verdict of 
 NOT GUILTY! Then the same authorities who had strained 
 every nerve to oonvlct union men of a crime of which they 
 were not guilty got up in Judge De France's court and nolle 
 pressed the members of the Citizens' Alliance who Avere under 
 indictment for driving strikers out of town, and of whose guilt 
 there was no shadow of doubt. 
 
 Two days after the pulling of the spikes on the Florence & 
 Cripple Creek Railroad, an explosioa occurred in the Vindicator 
 
ir 
 
 mine by which two men lost /,!> u lives. Like e\erythiii^, else 
 which occurred in the district, it was laid to the union men. and 
 many of them were again placed in the bull pen. but at the con 
 elusion of the trial of the derailment cases, the charges again-i 
 the union men arrested in connection with the Vindicator mine 
 (xplosion were nolle prossod in Judge Lewis' court. There "< 
 many reasons ind much evidence to h-ad to the belief thai if 
 the truth of the matter is ever known the instigators of the crime, 
 will be proven to be members of the Mine Owners' Association 
 or of the Citizens' Alliance. 
 
 "Organizations Controlled by Desperate Men." 
 
 Before these trials Governor Peabody declared martial law in 
 the Cripple Creek district. In his proclamation he speaks of 
 the presence in Teller County of 
 
 "one or more organizations controlled by desperate men. 
 who a )- e intimidating the civil authorities, and who art- 
 setting at detiance the Constitution and laws of the 
 State of Colorado, and that the citizens of said County 
 of Teller by reason of the threats, intimidations and 
 crimes committed by said lawless persons in said county 
 of Teller are unable to enjoy their civil rights." 
 
 The Governor was right. There were "one or more organiza- 
 tions controlled by desperate men,'' who were "intimidating the 
 civil authorities." The very worst of these organizations was 
 the militia, and the most desperate man in control of it was the- 
 Governor of the State of Colorado. There were other lawless 
 bodies the Mine Owners' Association and the Citizens' Alliaii' 
 but the Governor himself and his agents have been engaged in 
 "setting at detiance the Constitution and laws of the State or 
 Colorado." and he 'has never yet proceeded against the real law- 
 breakers for the reason that he is himself the greatest law- 
 breaker. 
 
 The Western Federation of Miners, through its Secretary and 
 Executive Hoard, appealed to the President of the rnite.t 
 States for help, but it needless to record that they received no 
 assistance from that able exponent of the "open shop." Hut tue 
 President sent Major-General John C. Hates to Colorado to inves- 
 tigate. While in Colorado the Major-General was the guest of 
 the Mine Owners' Association. Knou^h said of him and his re 
 port. 
 
 "To hell with the constitution: we are going by the Governor'- 
 orders!" said Major McClelland, acting judge advocate and coun- 
 sel for the mil'larv authorities. 
 
 C. G. Kennison was arrested and bull-penned time and ag:uu on 
 
12 
 
 (me occasion tho military, headed by a notorious ex-convict, in- 
 terrupting the funeral services over a dead union miner to take 
 Kennison away. 
 
 After the funeral of a union miner the military went to tho 
 house of his widow and threatened to take from her her two 
 children, of 7 and 10 years. 
 
 Five boys from 9 to 14 years of age were arrested by the mili- 
 tary and taken to Camp Goldfield. 
 
 The safe of Miners' Union, No. 32, was unlocked and robbed, 
 11 nd other than the secretary the only man who had the com- 
 bination was an officer of the National Guard of Colorado. 
 
 Sherman Parker and other union men were arrested and re- 
 arrested too many times to keep count. 
 
 Women Under the Ban. 
 
 The military protectors of "law and order" dragged a woman 
 from her house, tore portions of her clothing from her body, and 
 with brute force, oaths and villiiication forced her to walk the 
 roads between towns because she had incurred their displeasure 
 by resenting their intrusion into the sanctuary of her home. 
 
 The men back of the Mine Owners' Association, the various 
 Citizens' Alliances, the Governor of Colorado, and the rich and 
 great and powerful are always talking whenever a strike takes 
 place about the safety of life and limb. And yet every day, in 
 the regular course of industry, they constantly jeopardize the 
 lives of their employes, in order to save the money required for 
 safety appliances, and refuse to abide by the law of the land 
 whenever profits are involved, not only in the netalliferous mining 
 industry, but in coal mining as well. 
 
 The military was after the "agitators" and the press. The 
 right to speak and print was interfered with from the day the 
 troops arrived in the district. 
 
 Section 10 of Article 2 of Colorado's Constitution says: "No 
 law shall be passed impairing the freedom of speech"; that every 
 person shall be free to speak, write or publish whatever he will 
 on "any subject." 
 
 Regarding the suspension of the press the following temperate 
 (under the circumstances) statement by the Executive Committee 
 of the Miners' District Union should commend itself to all rea 
 soning and fair-minded men: 
 
 "Did it ever occur to the military gentlemen that they 
 took oath to support the constitution of the State, and 
 that when they issue such orders as the one on Saturday 
 they are violating their oaths? The fact, is that the 
 American people pay too little attention to such matters. 
 
13 
 
 No man who has so little regard for his oath of office 
 should be permitted to hold office for u single day. 
 Contempt for all law follows a deliberate disregard for 
 law on the part of those charged with its execution. 
 It is our humble opinion that the greatest disregard and 
 violation of the law shown in Teller Co. is that due to 
 the militia. They have trampled upon the liberties of 
 the people. They have been guilty of unreasonable 
 searches and siezures. They have interfered with free- 
 dom of speech. They have arrested persons without 
 warrant of law, and imprisoned they without bail." 
 Dec. 22 Major H. A. Naylor, in command of the Cripple Creek 
 district during the absence of Col. Verdeckberg, made a state- 
 ment that, owing to the large number of idle men throughout 
 the district, an order would be made that all those having no 
 employment or visible means of support would be given 
 the alternative of one of three things either to go to work, leave 
 the district, or go to the bull pen for an indefinite term. 
 
 Intoxicated soldiers created rough house in a hotel because a 
 bartender refused to give them drinks on account of the military 
 regulations prohibiting the sale of drinks to soldiers. 
 
 Scab or Be Shot. 
 
 In the early period of the strike numbers of strike-breakers 
 were brought to Cripple Creek who had been secured in Michi- 
 gan and other states east of Colorado on a pretense by the agent 
 of the operators that there was no trouble. In some cases en- 
 tire squads of them refused to work on learning the true condi- 
 tion of affairs. In some cases these men had to escape from 
 the mines as from a prison, and in one case a man who broke 
 from a group that was being escorted to the mines by a militia 
 company was shot at by the officer in command, but made good 
 his escape. 
 
 Perhaps no statement has been issued which in general terms 
 so temperately and yet so correctly and adequately describes the 
 situation in Colorado as the following resolutions adopted at the 
 largest public meeting ever held in Denver in the early part of 
 January of this year. They follow in part: 
 
 "Prudence indeed will dictate that government long estal* 
 lished shall not be changed for light and transient causes, ami 
 accordingly all experience has shown that mankind are more 
 disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right them- 
 seives by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 
 
 "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing 
 invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them 
 under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to 
 
14 
 
 throw off such a g-overiiment and to provide new guards for 
 their future security. 
 
 "Such has been the patient sufferance of the people of this 
 state, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to 
 denounce the tyranny and usurpations of the officials now con- 
 trolling the machinery of their government, and using it for pur- 
 poses of private gain and to promote certain business interests 
 at the expense of our liberties. 
 
 "The history of the present governor of Colorado is a history 
 of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct obect 
 ihe establishment of an absolute tyranny throughout this state 
 of certain classes over others. To prove this, let facts be sub 
 niitted to a candid world. 
 
 "He has refused to call together the Legislature of the state, 
 that it might have the opportunity to pass laws calculated to re- 
 store peace and quiet to the state, and to settle the various con- 
 troversies now going on between large bodies of our citizens, 
 banded together in different organizations, unions, alliances and 
 associations, and has exposed the state to all the dangers which 
 may arise from the warrings of conflicting industrial interests 
 and the convulsions caused by them. 
 
 "He has constantly and almost daily violated the constitution 
 of the state of Colorado and of the United States, although hav- 
 ing taken the oath to support them. 
 
 "He has, in time of peace, and without justification in law 
 or fact, or appeal for help from the civil authorities of the coun- 
 ties affected, ordered the militia of the state to invade certain 
 counties, and has there set aside the duly constituted civil author- 
 ities by force of arms, and has done this at a time when the 
 courts were open and their process was unresisted. 
 
 "He has obstructed the administration of justice and defied 
 our courts by ordering the militia of the state to disobey the 
 writs of the courts of the state. 
 
 "He has pretended to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. 
 
 "He has kept armies among us in times of peace, without the 
 consent of our Legislature. 
 
 "He has affected to render the military independent of and 
 superior to the civil power. 
 
 "He has combined with others in furtherance of the spirit of 
 greed, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution 
 and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his aid and support 
 and using the power of the state to aid certain people combined 
 under the form of unions or alliances, to obtain advantage over 
 others combined in like manner, and in so doing 
 
 "He has imposed taxes upon us without our consent. 
 
 "He has deprived us in many cases of the trial by jury. 
 
15 
 
 "He has taken away our charters, abolished our most valuable 
 laws, and altered fundamentally the forms of our government. 
 
 "He has, in defiance of Article XIII. of the amendments to 
 the constitution of the United States, which says: 
 
 "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as a 
 punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been 
 duly convicted, shall exist within the United States," 
 compelled the militia to force men at the point of the bayonet to 
 work in the mines at pumps and elsewhere, without their con- 
 sent. 
 
 "He has further, in defiance of his oath and of Article I. of the 
 amendments to the constitution of the United States, which pro- 
 vides that 
 
 "Congress shall make no laws abridging the freedom of 
 speech or of the press, or the right of the people to peace- 
 fully assemble, and to petition the government," 
 attempted to muzzle the press of the state, and to establish a 
 censorship over the same. 
 
 "He has, in defiance of Article IV. of the amendments to the 
 constitution of the United States, which says: 
 
 That "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, 
 houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and 
 seizures, shall not be violated, and that no warrant shall 
 issue, but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirma- 
 tion, and particularly describing the places to be searched, 
 and the person and thing to be seized," 
 
 allowed the militia, under his orders, to violate the liberty of 
 persons, to search houses and to seize papers and effects, without 
 warrant and in direct violation of all law. 
 
 "That he has. in defiance of Article II. of the amendments to 
 the constitution of the United States, which says: 
 
 "That the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall 
 not be infringed/' 
 
 allowed the militia, acting under his orders, to search for and 
 take arms from their rightful owners, and to confiscate the same 
 wherever found, and has permitted the militia, in violation of 
 said article, to issue proclamations demanding the surrender of 
 all arms and their registration, and has further allowed said 
 militia, while enforcing his orders, to invade the private premises 
 of citizens, and notably, those of one John M. Glover, for refusal 
 to comply with illegal proclamations, and for asserting his con- 
 stitutional and legal rights. 
 
 "That each and all of these acts are calculated to excite do- 
 mestic insurrection among us. and to bring on a conflict among 
 people engaged in divers industrial affairs. 
 
 "A governor whose character is thus marked by every act 
 
16 
 
 which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free peo- 
 ple. 
 
 "We have warned him from time to time of his attempts to 
 extend an unwarranted jurisdiction over us. We have appealed 
 to any sense of .justice and magnanimity he may be supposed to 
 possess, and we have begged him by the ties of our common 
 kindred to discontinue these usurpations which will inevitably 
 lead to further discord and must continue disastrously to dis- 
 turb the peace of the state. These appeals he has treated with 
 contempt. 
 
 "It is, therefore, resolved, that the time having arrived when, 
 in consequence of the usurpations and tyrannies above set forth, 
 the courts of the state are rendered powerless by an organized 
 mob, pretending to act as the militia of the state, to redress our 
 grievances, it is now the duty of every citizen to exercise the 
 right of self-defense in protection of the rights guaranteed him 
 under our constitution and laws, and at any and all cost, to pro- 
 tect himself and his property from arrest, seizure or search by 
 any persons not armed and authorized by warrant issued by 
 civil authority. 
 
 "It is further resolved, that for repeated violation of his official 
 oath, as governor of this state, and for the many usurpations antf 
 tyrannies above set forth, we demand the impeachment of James 
 II. Peabody. 
 
 "It is further resolved, that we demand that the district at- 
 torney of Teller county at once institute criminal proceedings 
 against said Peabody and the mob acting under his orders, for 
 assault with attempt to kill John M. Glover on the 28th day of 
 December, 1903, nnd that the proper authorities also institute 
 criminal proceedings against said Peabody and others responsi- 
 ble for the numerous crimes of false imprisonment, larceny, 
 riot, etc., recently committed by organized mobs in Teller, San 
 Miguel snd other counties, to the end that the offenders may be 
 punished, when law and order once more prevails, and the courts 
 and civil authorities are no longer prevented by mobs from the 
 exercise of their functions. 
 
 "Be it further resolved, that the surrender by the militia of 
 Victor Poole to the civil authorities of Teller county, at the time 
 when the right of the militia to hold him and to defy the writ of 
 habeas corpus was pending before the Supreme Court, is and 
 was an acknowledgment by the governor of the state that he 
 and the militia under his orders had wilfully and knowingly vio- 
 lated the constitution and laws *of the state in arresting said 
 Poole and imprisoning him without charge or warrant. 
 
 "We further regard the release of said Poole and his sur- 
 render to the civil authorities as a pitiful and cowardly attempt 
 
17 
 
 on the part of the governor to evade the consequences of his 
 crime, and to prevent being branded by the highest court of the 
 state as a law breaker. 
 
 "Be it further resolved, that we demand that the illegal ex- 
 pense incurred by reason of the acts of the governor in defying 
 the courts and civil authorities, shall be borne by those who, as 
 the beneficiaries of those acts, have advanced the money and 
 profited by its expenditure. 
 
 "Resolved further, that we insist upon the rigid maintenance 
 of our constitutional safe guards, and point out that to break 
 them down by force under any pretext, is treason of the highest 
 kind which leads to anarchy and the sure rule of that force whose 
 first victims will be those Pharisees now crying for that law and 
 order of which they are the sole violators." 
 
 
 Explosion at Independence Station. 
 
 At 2:1" Monday morning, June (>, the depot at Independence in 
 the Cripple Creek district was blown up by an explosion of giant 
 powder. The explosion took place at a time when the station 
 contained a large number of miners, mostly non-union, just from 
 the hill to take the train to their homes. 
 
 Fourteen were killed and a number injured. 
 
 Instantly the entire district was in the greatest excitement. 
 
 Members of the Mine Owners' Association and of the Citizens' 
 Alliance immediately took charge of everything. The military 
 were at once called for. 
 
 One of the first things done was to shut down all of the non- 
 union mines, and to order the men to come into town, bringing 
 with them their arms. 
 
 Rope's-End Resignations. 
 
 Sheriff Robertson, who had been duly elected to his office by 
 a majority of votes, was taken before the joint committee of the 
 Citizens' Alliance and the Mine Owners' Association, and ask^d 
 to resign. 
 
 He refused. 
 
 Surrounded by armed men, his resignation was thrust in 
 front of him, a coil of rope with a hangman's noose in the end 
 was thrown at his feet, and again he was asked to resign. 
 
 He complied. 
 
 The resignation of Coroner Doran was brought about in the 
 same way. The conspirators did well to remove the Coroner. I It- 
 would have found out the persons who were guilty of the crime, 
 and that would have been a life aud death matter for some of 
 
18 
 
 the employees or members of the Mine Owners' Association and 
 the Citizens' Alliance. 
 
 In addition to the resignations of the Coroner and Sheriff, the 
 military, mine owners and Citizens' Alliance also forced the 
 resignation from their offices of Assistant Prosecuting Attorney 
 Cole, City Marshal Graham (of Cripple Creek), City Marshal 
 O'Connell (of Victor), and in Goldfield Marshal Brother, Night 
 Marshal McCarthy and Justice of the Peace Reilly were deposed 
 from their offices, together with all the aldermen in Indepen- 
 dence, and a fire chief and a county commissioner. 
 
 Meetings of excited citizens were held, and at one of these in 
 the open air C. C. Hamlin, secretary of the Mine Owners' Asso- 
 ciation did his best to make his remarks as inflammatory as 
 possible, and declared that the explosion was caused by mem- 
 bers of the Western Federation of Miners, At one point in his 
 'address he said he would like to know what the "boys from the 
 bills" thought of the matter, and a union miner spoke up and 
 said "let me talk." 
 
 No sooner had he spoken than shooting began, and two men 
 were killed and several injured. All the firing was attributed 
 to the union men, but Hamlin kept on talking and was unin- 
 jured. 
 
 A raid was at once started on the hall of the union miners. 
 Many shots were fired at them. Several were wounded. The 
 papers declared that the miners were armed and made a desper- 
 ate resistance, but not a man in the attacking party received a 
 scratch. 
 
 The men in the hall were taken to the bull pen. The hall was 
 searched. The records of the union were appropriated. 
 
 Deportations of union men were at once begun. Each day 
 saw the departure of tens and scores. 
 
 Some were taken to Denver, some to Kansas, some to New 
 Mexico, 
 
 General Bell and the Constitution. 
 
 General Bell, sworn to obey the Constitution of the State of 
 Colorado and of the United States, publicly declared: 
 
 "These men were deported to the Kansas-Colorado line, and 
 more will follow to-morrow, to which no apologies are made to 
 any one. Should they return, they will be immediately placed 
 in a military prison, and there remain indefinitely." 
 
 To be a union man was crime. It was no protection to be a 
 husband or a father. Men were taken from their families, hus- 
 bands torn from Avives who were critically ill, and from chil- 
 dren who had no other protector, at the instance of civil and 
 
19 
 
 military authorities, acting at the institution of men who had 
 no other charge to prefer against them than their suspicion 
 that they should be suspected. 
 
 Nearly every man arrested was subjected to awful "sweating" 
 by the detectives of the Mine Owners' Association, and such weiv. 
 the means employed that several of them lost their reason, and 
 others were confined to hospitals on account of their injuries. A 
 favorite method was to hang them up by the thumbs until their 
 Censes left them. 
 
 The Western Federation of Miners had four cooperative stores 
 in the Cripple Creek district. All were sacked and closed and 
 contents destroyed or stolen. 
 
 To understand the animosity of the Citizens' Alliance one has 
 only to know that the four co-operative stores which were 
 sacked and gutted by the mob of "respectable gentlemen" com- 
 prising that body were a thorn in their side. The Western 
 Federation was practically forced to start these stores to supply 
 its members with the necessaries of life. They sold goods at 
 close to cost price, did a large trade, and every member of the 
 Citizens' Alliance felt that every dollar spent in a co-operative 
 store was a dollar taken out of his own pocket. Whenever there 
 was so much as a rumor of a settlement between any of the 
 mine owners and the strikers, something was sure to happen in 
 the district. The Citizens' Alliance would brook no settlement of 
 the troubles between the strikers and any minemanagers that 
 did not have for its basis an agreement on the part of the West- 
 ern Federation of Miners to discontinue its co-operative supply 
 stores. When a settlement was being considered between sev- 
 eral of the operators and the strikers last November the Vindi- 
 cator explosion took place, and on Friday, June 3. of this year 
 a committee from the national convention of the Federation con- 
 ferred with several mine managers regarding the differences 
 hotween them and their former employees, and on the following 
 Monday the Independence explosion took place. 
 
 The military authorities confiscated the horses and wagons be- 
 longing to the miners' co-operative stores and used them as 
 police patrol wagons to haul members of the union to the bull 
 pen and the sweat box. 
 
 In many instances members of the Citizens' Alliance refused 
 to sell the necessaries of life to the families of deported men. and 
 the military authorities ordered the agent of the Western Fed- 
 eration of Miners who had been distributing relief to the wives, 
 mothers and children of the exiles to discontinue his work, re- 
 quiring all supplies to pass through military channels. 
 
20 
 
 John Carley Killed. 
 
 On the 8th of June General Bell took a military force to Dunne- 
 ville, 17 miles south of Victor, and in another, county where 
 martial law had not been proclaimed, and attacked a body of 
 union miners engaged near there in working a new mine. 
 
 The union men were unarmed, but the troops fired some hun- 
 dreds of shots, one of which struck and killed John Carley. 
 
 When shot down he was running from one rock to another 
 tor shelter, trying to make his escape. He was a union man. 
 
 Again a battle, and again not a soldier got a scratch, though 
 the papers were full of reports to the effect that the union men 
 had made a desperate and formidable resistance. 
 
 Office of the Victor Record Wrecked. 
 
 The office of the Victor Record, which had been friendly to 
 the strikers, was visited by eight men and its plant and ma- 
 chinery totally wrecked. The force of this same office had been 
 in the bull pen on a previous occasion. 
 
 Throughout the present strike troubles in Colorado the 
 Great Portland mine had continued in operation. Its force of 
 men was part union and part non-union. 
 
 When the military had taken charge of affairs after the ex- 
 plosion of the Independence station one of General Bell's first 
 sicts was to force Mr. Burns, the manager of the Portland, to 
 close down his mine, for no other reason than that he employed, 
 some union men. The employers declare that they want the 
 'open shop." Mr. Burns was running an "open shop." The 
 Mine Owners' Association insisted that he should not run an 
 "open shop," that he must run a shop closed to union men, or 
 not run at all, and they enforced their edict backed by the 
 bayonets of the State, under the orders of a man whose master 
 has repeatedly declared that he was using the troops to main- 
 tain the right of every man to work. Mr. Burns brought suit 
 against the Governor of Colorado for damages for the illegal 
 action of the militia in closing the Great Portland, but the direc- 
 tors of the company, preferring treason to patriotism, ordered its 
 discontinuance. 
 
 Members of the Mine Owners' Association and of the Citizens' 
 Alliance sent committees to the owners of all stores, shops and 
 works and demanded that they sign an agreement to refuse em- 
 ployment to all members of the Western Federation of Miners 
 and the American Labor Union. They at first included members 
 of the American Federation of Labor in those who came under 
 the ban, but later made an exception of men belonging to that 
 body. 
 
21 
 
 TRINIDAD. 
 
 The Strike in the Coal Field. 
 
 While the events narrated in preceding chapters were trans- 
 piring in the metalliferous mining industry in Colorado City. 
 Cripple Creek, and other gold fields of the State, similar crinn s 
 for similar causes were being committed by the armed agents of 
 the corporations and the armed authorities of the State in tne 
 coal fields of Southern Colorado in and around Trinidad. 
 
 The trouble with the Coal miners of District 15, United M.u 
 Workers of America (which covers New Mexico, Utah and Colo- 
 rado) dates from August, 1900, at which time the workers of that 
 vicinity began their efforts to organize. In Southern Colorado 
 where the Coal Companies had practiced oppressions beyond the 
 power of pen to describe, the first local was organized on Aug. 
 nth. 1900, at Pictou, Colo. National Organizer Jas. Kennedy 
 went to Pryor, Colo., to organize a local, and he was holding ;; 
 meeting of about 40 men when the Sheriff of Huerfano County 
 and two deputies came upon the ground, lined up the crowd and 
 arrested Kennedy and two of the men and threw them into the 
 county jail. They were released later, but the authorities made 
 no effort to prosecute the sheriff for his unlawful act. 
 
 John L. Gehr, then District President, organized locals 
 throughout the southern part of the state to the number of about 
 fifteen during the spring, but the companies discriminated 
 against union men, and, that failing to break up the organiza- 
 tion, closed their mines. 
 
 Organizing Unions Dangerous Work. 
 
 In the Spring of 1902 Ralph Prukop, then District President, 
 was run out of Hastings, by D. M. Simpson, general manager 
 for the Victor Fuel Company, aided by mine guards. Several 
 attempts were made by Fmkop and John Simpson, secretary of 
 District 15. U. M. W. of A., to organize Hastings, but they were 
 always met by the deputies of the coal company, and many of 
 the men were fired out of camp for no other reason than that 
 they attended open-air meetings held for the purpose of explain- 
 ing to the men the purposes of organization. 
 
 In the Summer of 1903 Italian National Organizer Chas. 1 >e 
 Molli was run out of Primero. Colo., for organizing the men. 
 
 In August of the same year John Simpson. Jas. Kennedy and R. 
 M. Smith marched through Rouse with a body of men. 200 in 
 number, and held an open meeting at Pryor. Seventy-rive depu- 
 ties had been gathered there by the Companies to break up the 
 
22 
 
 meeting, but failed in their object. Next morning, however, 
 seventy men who had attended the meeting were discharged 
 by the company. 
 
 From Aug. 1st, 1900, to Nov. 9th, 1903, over 9.000 men had been 
 enrolled in the United Mine Workers of America in Las Animas 
 and Huerfano Counties, Colo., but on Nov. 9th less than 2,000 re- 
 mained in the organization. Over 7,000 had been discharged 
 and put on the black list. 
 
 Join the Union, Lose Your Job. 
 
 The companies have always declared that their men did not 
 want to join the union, but thousands were deprived of their em- 
 ployment during the summer of 1903 merely on the suspicion of 
 being union men. After standing this torment for three years 
 every effort was put forth by the men to settle their troubles 
 with the coal companies by agreement. On August 14, 1903, the 
 men issued a statement of their grievances, which was sent to 
 the coal companies, to the public and the Governor of the state, 
 setting forth the many causes of dissatisfaction, and asking 
 tor a conference with the corporations to avert a strike. 
 
 In September, 1903, the miners held a convention in Pueblo, 
 at which a scale of prices for work in the southern coal field of 
 Colorado was drawn .up, together with a statement of wrongs 
 for which they demanded redress, and a copy of the same was 
 sent to the employers. 
 
 The mesi asked for an increase of wages, that wages be paid 
 semi-monthly, and in money instead of script on the company 
 store, honest weight of coal mined, the eight-hour day as pro- 
 vided for by the Constitution of the State, and the ventilation 
 of the mines in accordance with the existing laws of Colorado. 
 
 The union repeatedly asked for a conference with the corpora- 
 tions, but were at all times ignored by them. 
 
 The National Organization interested itself in the situation in 
 the district, and when all efforts to meet the employers for a 
 discussion of affairs had failed the call was issued for the men 
 to strike on Nov. 9th, 1903. More than 13,000 men responded 
 to the call, which was over ninety-six per cent of all the em- 
 ployees under the strike jurisdiction. 
 
 The operators had used every resource, resorted to every 
 means, fair and foul, to prevent the organization of the men. 
 Yet when the strike was called, seven unorganized men re- 
 sponded for every man who was a member of the union. They 
 had been afraid to jeopardize their employment by joining the 
 union, but when the strike was called they manfully stood ov.t 
 
23 
 
 with the union men in the hope of wresting some relief from 
 conditions which had bec-onie unbearable. 
 
 Before the strike was called the district had been swarmed 
 with deputies and thugs for the purpose of intimidating the 
 miners. Every possible means was used to break the strike by 
 the companies. Men were offered as high as $7 a day, steady 
 work, and $100 bonus to go to work and break the strike, but 
 they refused to leave the ranks of the union. They steadily 
 declined to accept anything from the company except terms that 
 would be honorable, and looking to such an adjustment of their 
 difficulties as would further the interests of the entire body of 
 strikers. 
 
 Failing to break the strike, the operators started the breaking- 
 up system, called '"kangarooing," by their hired thugs. Law was 
 cast aside, and the rule of main force was established by the 
 corporations. 
 
 Evicted from Their Own Houses. 
 
 In many of the mining camps every foot of ground except the 
 public highway was the property of the coal company. Some 
 men lived in company houses, which they had secured by leases 
 containing clauses allowing the company th^ right to evict its 
 tenants within live days after they ceased work in the mine. 
 Others, not being able to get houses from the company, had 
 rented ground on which they had erected their own dwellings, 
 but the company had in such cases inserted in the lease of 
 the ground the same clause, giving them power to evict a man 
 from the house he owned and had himself erected on live day*' 
 notice. The company owned the land, and as soon as the strike 
 was ordered they gave their tenants the five days' notice to 
 vacate, and at once drove the men from their homes, and in 
 order to make sure that they should not return tore down their 
 houses. 
 
 But in particular cases which were taken to the courts, and 
 where the tenants were sustained, the corporations, with their 
 armed forces of thugs and deputies, proceeded with their work 
 of destruction and eviction regardless of judicial decisions. 
 
 In consequence of these wholesale evictions, the union supplied 
 the strikers with tents, and many of them, together with their 
 wives and children, spent the entire winter in camps. But after 
 martial law was declared the military kept them on the move, 
 and at intervals they were required to break up and pitch their 
 tented homes in new places. 
 
 Nov. 18th, 1903, National Organizers Win. Wardjon. Jas. Ken- 
 nedy, Joe, Poggiuni ami Will. Campbell were arrested on the pub- 
 
24 
 
 lie highway at Hastings, Colo., and thrown into jail, and later 
 escorted out of camp. The tlnion at once asked the courts for 
 an injunction, but after a lengthy trial Judge Northcutt refused 
 to grant it, saying that the civil courts were open for the prose- 
 cution of such cases. 
 
 Draw Blood on a Mule. 
 
 Dec. 7, 1903, a party of non-union men in charge of William 
 Jennings on the highway near Berwind, declared that they had 
 been shot at by would-be murderers, though no one was in- 
 jured save their team of mules. 
 
 Two Strikers Killed, Two Injured. 
 
 Drawing blood from a rnule, however, was sufficient excuse 
 for the corporations. They had no evidence whatever that 
 union men were implicated in the matter, but they at once de- 
 clared that union men were guilty, and on that night sheriff's 
 deputies in the pay of the companies attacked a party of strikers, 
 killing two and wounding two. 
 
 On Dec. 17, at New Castle, Colo., five houses, owned by John 
 Lawson, Evan Davis, Win. Isaacs, Wm. Doyle and Thos. Doyle, 
 were wrecked by dynamite. The men were union committee- 
 men, and there is every reason to believe that the company's 
 deputies were responsible for the deed. 
 
 Jan. 24, Wm. Maher and Henry Mitchell, local organizers of 
 the union, were beaten up at Engleville, Colo., by the mine 
 guards. Maher was injured so seriously that he was confined 
 to the hospital. 
 
 Jas. Doneky a local union man, was next pounded up by 
 Deputy Sheriff McPherson at the corner of Main and Commercial 
 Streets, in Trinidad. Doneky's leg was broken and he sustained 
 other injuries. 
 
 The first week in Feb., 1904, Wm. Wardjon, National Organ- 
 izer, was attacked by the deputies or detectives at the same place 
 in Trinidad. He was dragged off to the jail, but no charge was 
 made, and the sheriff after an investigation released him. 
 
 February 14, 1904, Wm. Fairley and Jas. Mooney, national 
 organizers of the union, were caught by seven men, believed to 
 be detectives, about a mile from Trinidad and beaten until they 
 could not walk. They were disabled for several weeks, and 
 Mooney was disfigured for life. 
 
 Feb. 24th a union miner was killed in Dawson, New Mex., by 
 Bud Phalmer, deputy sheriff, who claimed he committed the act 
 in self defence. 
 
 On the same day Chris Evans was attacked on a railroad 
 
25 
 
 train as it was pulling out of Trinidad by three men believed to 
 be deputy sheriffs, and pounded into unconsciousness. He is 
 financial agent in the strike field of the U. M. W. of A. 
 
 March 1st District Organizer Julian Gomez was beaten up by 
 a deputy sheriff in Trinidad. He was laid up as a result of 
 his injuries. 
 
 March 14th an Italian striker was killed in Pryor, Colo., by 
 deputy sheriffs. He was driven from his own house, and killed 
 while running away in the effort to save his life. 
 
 March 23rd, 1904, the soldiers came to Trinidad, Colo., and 
 martial law was proclaimed in Las Animas County. Later the 
 houses of strikers in Las Animas County were repeatedly 
 searched for fire-arms by the soldiers* In Segundo, Colo., sev- 
 eral houses were visited by the soldiers at midnight, women 
 and children were dragged from their beds and taken out on the 
 prairie by the militia in their efforts to force them to tell where 
 guns were bidden. Men were taken from their beds at night and 
 threats made that they would be shot if they did not tell 
 the location of firearms which did not exist. 
 
 Mar. 2r>th, A. Bartoli. an Italian printer employed by District 
 15, was arrested by the militia. No charge. 
 
 March 2(Hh the II Lavoratore Italiano was confiscated by 
 militia and publication stopped while martial law continued in 
 Trinidad. 
 
 Mother Jones Deported. 
 
 On the same date National Organizers Mother Jones, Win. 
 Wardjon. Joe. Poggiani and A. Bartoli. the printer, were deported 
 by the militia. Mother Jones was given five minutes to pack 
 her belongings and get ready, after which time she was escorts t 
 to the Santa Fe train, and deported with instructions not to re- 
 turn to Las Anituas while martial law was in force. 
 
 March 30 John Faletti, district organizer, was beaten up at 
 Glenwood Springs, Colo., by men believed to be Reno detec- 
 tives. He was laid up for several weeks from cuts on the head. 
 
 April 1st, more midnight searches were made at Segundo, Colo. 
 Women were again the victims. 
 
 April 2nd Chas. Demolli was arrested at Helper, Utah, by the 
 deputy sheriffs for "agitating" among the miners. Demolli is a 
 national organizer. He was held for several days, but was 
 acquitted by the courts. 
 
 April 8th, 1004, Jas. D. Ritchie and Robert Beveridg<> were 
 arrested at Brodhead, Colo. The next day they and several men 
 from Sopris. Colo., were deported to New Mexico with instruc- 
 tions not to return. 
 
26 
 
 April 9th Chas. Demolli, national organizer, was pounded up 
 at Pueblo by men believed to be part of the Reno gang. He was 
 in a critical condition for several days. 
 
 April 19th more striking miners were arrested and deported. 
 Jules Ragnier, A. Ferns, A. Anderson of Brodhead, Colo., were 
 among the number. All were reputable citizens. 
 
 Involuntary Servitude for Freemen. 
 
 April llth Pavio Romero and John Simpson, the latter dis- 
 trict secretary, visited Segundo, Colo. They were detained by 
 the militia and later sent back to Trinidad. On the same date 
 Gian Bernardi, a striking miner, was bayonetted in the leg by 
 militia, and forced to work cleaning the streets of the town. 
 About 300 strikers were from time to time compelled to work by 
 the militia, though they had neither been charged with nor con- 
 victed of crime. 
 
 April 15th Rugby, Hastings, Majestic, Bowen and the Trinidad 
 camps of miners on strike were ordered moved by the militia. 
 
 April 27, 1904, fifteen strikers were deported by the soldiers. 
 All were officers of local unions, or were serving on their vari- 
 ous committees. 
 
 On the same date Jas. D. Ritchie was rearrested for having 
 returned to Trinidad to see his family without a permit from the 
 military headquarters. 
 
 April 30th National Organizer Wm. Wardjon was beaten up at 
 Sargent, Colo., by men believed to be detectives in the employ of 
 the coal company. He was taken to the hospital at Salida and 
 was not expected to live for several days, though* he finally re- 
 covered. 
 
 May 2nd eleven strikers were arrested by the military authori- 
 ties, and the same night thirty men were deported from Trinidad 
 to New Mexico, with instructions not to return. Several business 
 men were among the number. 
 
 Unspeakable Brutality. 
 
 May 7th Joe Raiz a striker at Sunlight, Colo., was caught in 
 the hills just back of camp by three masked men, tied to a tree 
 and castrated. He was an old man, nearly 70, and died three 
 days later from his awful injuries. 
 
 This outrage was so horrible that there was a pretense at In- 
 vestigation, and the authorities reported that in their opinion the 
 old man was not in his right mind and had inflicted his injuries 
 upon himself. 
 
 On the 10th of May James D. Ritchie was taken out of prison, 
 where he had been held for 14 days without a charge against 
 
27 
 
 him, and deported for the second time, being told to never com 
 back. I shall have more to say of him later. 
 
 On May 17 the military authorities ordered each of the strik- 
 ers in camp near Hastings to give his name, age, nativity, occu- 
 pation, and proceeded to take the height, weight and descrip- 
 tion of the men. Seventy-nine of the men refused to give their 
 names, believing the information was being secured for the pur- 
 pose of making a blacklist, which without a doubt was the fact. 
 
 Driven Like Droves of Cattle. 
 
 The men who declined to give the information desired by the 
 military forces were then inarched nineteen miles in the hot sun, 
 driven by a force of cavalry as if they were a drove of cattle, 
 given no food either during or after the march, and lined up at 
 the military headquarters in Trinidad, where they were photo- 
 graphed, registered and released, with the exception of three, 
 who were put in the military jail. 
 
 The alleged cause of this outrage? Some time previous a 
 repair shop at Hastings caught fire and burned down. It was, 
 of course, laid to the strikers. Everything was laid to the strik- 
 ers by the civil and military authorities. All the authorities 
 were owned by the coal companies, and all were directly or in- 
 directly in the pay of the coal companies. 
 
 Did the strikers set fire to the repair shop? Not a particle 
 of evidence to that effect was brought out. There is any amount 
 of circumstantial evidence to the contrary. 
 
 Punished for the Crimes of Their Accusers. 
 
 For one thing, the repair shop was closely guarded by depu- 
 ties; deputy sheriffs swarmed in all the country round, and a 
 striker could go nowhere without observation by them. It is 
 hardly conceivable that a striker could have gotten into the shop 
 without discovery by deputy sheriffs, and if a striker did suc- 
 ceed in entering the place he would have no opportunity of mak- 
 ing his escape after setting it afire. 
 
 By any sane man, by any impartial agent of the law, the very 
 last men on whom suspicion could rest of responsibility for the 
 fire in the machine and repair shops would be the strikers. 
 
 If the fire was an incendiary one. who was guilty? 
 
 Who should be guilty? Who would have an interest in having 
 such a thing occur? Who had an opportunity to bring about its 
 occurrence? 
 
 Who but the deputy sheriffs? 
 
 Why? 
 
28 
 
 Why? Because there was "nothing doing" in the strike field. 
 Because when there was "nothing doing" they were in danger 
 of losing their jobs. And many of them are just the characters 
 to undertake any kind of dirty work, and no kind of honest 
 work. 
 
 At the time of this fire deputy sheriffs were being laid off, los- 
 ing their jobs, daily. And if only something could happen, they 
 would have a new lease on their manly occupation of swaggering 
 around with a' six-shooter on their hip and beating up unarmed 
 
 strikers. 
 
 Knowing the general character of these men, is it at all un- 
 fair to at least suspect them before others? 
 
 1 have gone into this case in detail for the reason that it is 
 typical of many. 
 
 May 28th Julian Gomez, District Organizer of the union, was 
 released after being held thirty days without any charge against 
 him. He was instructed to leave the county, not to return under 
 penalty of being thrown into the jail again until it should become 
 the pleasure of the military authorities to let him out. 
 
 This is in no sense a complete list of outrages. It contains 
 nothing more than samples. An index of all the crimes com- 
 mitted by the civil and military authorities of the State and 
 county and a list of the persons whose lawful rights were tram- 
 pled in the dust by them Avould more than fill a book the size of 
 this and leave no space for comment. 
 
 Persons were arrested by the military authorities and kept in 
 confinement under no other charge than "military necessity." 
 "Military necessity," was the excuse for any foul or evil deed 
 that the coal companies desired to have perpetrated. 
 
 Other than those friendly to the corporations, it was sometimes 
 impossible to get even so much as the names of persons arrested 
 and deported. Friends and relations of the prisoners were 
 rarely allowed to visit them. 
 
 Midnight Law and Order. 
 
 Men were arrested at midnight, men were deported at midnight, 
 houses were searched for arms at midnight, and homes of the 
 strikers were torn down at midnight. 
 
 Not only were strikers arrested, but any one who was suspected 
 of sympathyzing with them was in constant danger, and among 
 the arrested and deported men are to be found ex-soldiers, busi- 
 ness men and men with bank accounts of no small size. 
 
 Nearly every union official who went into the Trinidad dis- 
 trict, with the exception of John Mitchell, was beaten into in- 
 sensibility one or more times by the agents of the coal operators, 
 
29 
 
 
 
 and many of them have received letters threatening their lives, 
 notifying them to leave the State or be put away, on- by <>u-. 
 The following is from a letter bearing the signature of a well- 
 known detective, which was no doubt lost by him. The original 
 is in a safe place. It clearly shows the methods pursued by the 
 secret agents of law and order in their warfare against the utfhm. 
 
 "Pass Him Through the 'Kangaroo'!" 
 
 "Mr. W. H. Reno., Denver, Colo. 
 
 "Trinidad, Col., Feb. 10, 1904. 
 
 "Dear Sir After I left you in Trinidad on the night of the 7th 
 I went back to the hotel and there received a telephone messag.- 
 from Jim Peretti, President of the Union at Hastings, to the 
 effect that a meeting would be held in Tobasco, and that -Mother 
 Jones and Poggini would talk to the Italians from the camps of 
 Rerwind, Hastings and Tobasco, I went to see Mother Jones and 
 she told me that her intentions were to go to Hastings also after 
 the meeting was over at Tobasco but Poggini told her not to go 
 there because it was very dangerous on account of the guards 
 there. 
 
 "Mother Jones spoke at Tobasco about two hours and the lan- 
 guage she used was something frightful. She tried to impress 
 the Italians with the idea that Mr. Chapell, President of the Vic- 
 tor Fuel Co., had been stealing the bread from their mouths ever 
 since the Company was organized. She told that one time she 
 met Mr. Chapell on the train and that her first Impression was 
 that he was a nice man but, after she spoke to him for a few 
 moments she concluded that he was an hypocrite. And then she 
 went to work and told of a certain Italian that she knew in To- 
 basco that had a dog, and he did not know what to name it and 
 some one suggested that they call it "Abraham Lincoln" but he 
 said that it would disgrace the name of Lincoln, and then some 
 one else suggested that they call it "Chapell" and he said that 
 the name would disgrace the dog. While she was telling these 
 Italians what a thief Chapell was, an Italian by the name of 
 Joe Madonna spoke and said that he had been working for Mr. 
 Chapell for eleven years and had never had any trouble until 
 he joined the Union and for the last year and a half he had 
 b'on in 'hot water' all the time; he said that he would be will- 
 ing to go to work but he did not like to go first. 
 
 "As a matter of fact, I think that the majority of the Italians 
 in and around Hastings are all willing to go to work but it *eems 
 that a few of them are drawing a certain amount of money from 
 the Union every moiitli and as long as these fellows are paid 
 
30 
 
 wages they will not toll these miners to go to work. They are 
 very much discouraged at the out-look of the situation. Sixty- 
 i'our families arrived in Hastings on the 8th just the time when 
 the strikers had gone to Tobasco to listen to Mother Jones' 
 
 speech. 
 
 * ' 
 
 "Joe Mosco I drove out of town, also Rosario Dolce and his 
 family, Nic Odo refused to vacate and there was no way for 
 me to get him out so I told Thompson to arrest him on the charge 
 of vagrancy at about 12 o'clock at noon; That night he was 
 taken before the justice of the peace and the case nolle prossed: 
 that was about 8 o'clock. I had Gordon, Barret, Smith and 
 King wait for him down by the bridge and they "Kangaroocd 
 him" and the last I heard of him he was in the hospital, and 
 he will not attempt to come back to Hastings. 
 
 "It seems that the only way to get these agitators out of the 
 camps is to ''Kangaroo" them, and when they are all gone I am 
 satisfied that the boys will go to work. 
 
 'In regard to Jim Poggini, President of the Union, I will say 
 that he seems to be a \ery smart man. I tried to get him at his 
 house on the 9th but lie slipped away from me and is camping 
 somewhere below the Companies property. I left word before 
 I left to arrest him on sight and pass him through the "Kan- 
 garoo" and I will guarantee you that it will be a cold day when 
 he gets back to camp. 
 
 "I have been reporting daily to Mr. Simpson and also to Mr. 
 Bartlett, Vice President of the Victor Fuel Co. 
 
 "The boys arrived from Washington, also the check. I^do not 
 know what plans these leaders have at present but it seems that 
 they have not very much hopes of winning the strike. Most of 
 the Italians at Hastings are moving below the camp's ground 
 on a ranch owned by a fellow named Peter Orlando; they have 
 tents and their provisions come from Trinidad. Their idea is to 
 Keep their guards on the ranch and prevent anybody from going 
 in or going out of Hastings. Don't worry about this matter as 
 I will attend to it. 
 
 "I left word with Gordon when I left, not to show any fa verities 
 and if anyone tresspnssed to send them to the undertaker, a los- 
 son or two like that will teach them something and stop all the 
 trouble I think. Yours truly, 
 
 (Signed) Chief secret service for the 
 
 State of Colo." 
 
 That letter shows the methods of the "law and order" legions 
 in the coal fields of Colorado, 
 
31 
 
 TELLURIDE. 
 Mob Rule Maintained by the Military. 
 
 Practically the same causes that led to the strike in the Crippl" 
 ("reek District brought about the strike in Telluride. First the 
 mill and smeltemeu went out for the eight-hour day which the 
 Constitution of the State guaranteed to them. Then, aggravated 
 by the discrimination against union men, the miners joined in 
 the strike. These strikes have been declared by the mine own- 
 ers to be sympathetic strikes something which they regard as 
 infamous. I know of nothing which to me seems to be nobler 
 than a sympathetic strike a case where men who are not directly 
 interested lay down their tools and voluntarily undergo the 
 :; \vful and racking hardships of a strike in order to right the 
 wrongs of their fellow workers. But in neither Telluride nor 
 Cripple Creek can the present strike be said to be sympathetic 
 in the tme sense. The miners and the mill and smeltermen were 
 members of the same general body, the Western Federation of 
 Miners, .and the strikes were those of federated trades. 
 
 The Telluride strike began with the cessation of work by the 
 mill men 011 September 1, '03. The strike grew in extent until 
 on October 21 the men on the Tom Boy quit, practically tying up 
 all the big mines in the district. 
 
 From the time the strike was really on. deputy sheriffs in the 
 employ of the mine owners and managers resorted to every 
 species of insult and assault for the avowed purpose of provok- 
 ing the strikers to deeds of violence which might be used as an 
 excuse to shoot them down like dogs. 
 
 Fnarmed pickets of the strikers were arrested, charged with 
 trespass for walking on the public highway, 
 
 Scab, Leave Town, or Be Shot. 
 
 * 
 Deputies and Citizens' Alliance men stood on the principal 
 
 street corners armed with rifles and shot guns, and Bulkeley 
 Wells went to the office of the Telluride Journal and secured 
 a stack of rifles which he distributed to the mob of business men 
 and bad men. 
 
 They hoped that some of the strikers, on being arrested with- 
 out warrant and for no crime, would make resistance, in which 
 case the union men were to be drowned in their own blood. 
 
 Such was the discipline and order of the men. however. that 
 they stood even this outrage without resistance, and later the 
 arrested men were released on bail. 
 
32 
 
 From the time the strike was on the old cry went up for the 
 militia. Needless TO say the Governor listened and responded. 
 As in the other cases where he had sent the armed forces of the 
 State, Governor Peabody made no effort to learn anything of the 
 strikers' side of the case. The fact that the owners wanted sol- 
 diers was sufficient. 
 
 No sooner had the militia arrived than the strikers and those 
 who sympathized with them were arrested, on every conceiv- 
 able charge, and on no charge. 
 
 Not an official or committeeman of the union escaped. Some 
 of them were arrested many times. 
 
 Day after day men were arrested, many of them on the charge 
 of "vagrancy." One of the men arrested on this charge had 
 $140 in his pocket at the time, but was not allowed to give bail. 
 
 The usual procedure was to arrest a group of men, take them 
 before the justice, and then inform them that they must leave 
 toAvn, pay a fine of $25 for vagrancy or GO TO WORK. 
 
 These men were miners, and going to work meant SCABBING 
 IN THE MINES. 
 
 Henry Macki, Lion-H carted. 
 
 Many of these men, all of whom had means of support, and 
 some of whom had considerable property, were fined, and when 
 they refused to pay they were put to work on the streets. One 
 man, protesting that he had committed no crime, declined to be 
 worked as s convict, and for this Henry Macki was handcuffed to 
 a telegraph pole in the public highway. His spirit was un- 
 broken, and he was taken to the jail, and starved for 36 hours, 
 but nothing could break his lion heart. 
 
 Some of the men arrested for vagrancy wished to give bail, 
 but the time was evening and the justice was "too sleepy." 
 
 Strikers' Attorneys Assaulted by Deputy Sheriff. 
 
 The Western Federation sent attorneys from Denver to go 
 into court on behalf of these men, and those for whom attorneys 
 appeared on that occasion were released. On the evening of 
 the day that the cases were tried, Mr. Richardson, their attor- 
 ney, was assaulted by a deputy sheriff, together with Mr. 
 Floaten, a citizen and business man of Telluride, who was with 
 him at the time. 
 
 Yet after all these infamous acts, after assaults, outrages and 
 illegal arrests without number, the strike was unbroken. The 
 men declined to go to work. They still had friends, and good 
 ones. 
 
 Something must be done! 
 
 What? 
 
33 
 
 Homes of Strikers Searched for Arms. 
 
 On March 8 the military made a thorough search for firearms. 
 Armed soldiers entered the houses of the citizens and ransacked 
 every room. The military declared that they had nn-eived re- 
 ports that a large number of guns had been secreted in certain 
 portions of the town. 
 
 Then what? 
 
 Martial Law Declared Off. 
 
 March 11 the Governor of the State declared martial law in 
 Telluride at an end. 
 Then what? 
 
 The Armed Mob with Free Rein. 
 
 On the night of March 14 members of the Telluride Citizens' 
 Alliance and others held a meeting, armed themselves (in many 
 cases with rifles and revolvers owned by the State) and they 
 scoured the town and took into custody 79 union men and sympa- 
 thizers. In many cases doors to dwelling houses were broken 
 open. The victims were gathered by ones and twos, first in a 
 vacant lot, then held in a vacant store until all that were de- 
 sired had been secured, when they were inarched to the depot 
 and loaded into two railroad coaches and taken to Ridgeway, 
 where they were left and told never to return to Telluride. 
 
 Others than strikers and union men were deported. Any one 
 who was suspected of a friendly feeling for the men was taken 
 with the rest. The mob was also an instrument of private veng- 
 eance. Any member of the Citizens' Alliance who wanted an 
 enemy to leave town had only to name him. Among others who 
 were assaulted and deported was A. H. Floaten. manager of the 
 People's Supply Company, the largest department store in Tellu- 
 ride. 
 
 Wonderful mob, that. 
 
 Courageous! 
 
 The Conspiracy. 
 
 March 8 the men disarmed by militia. 
 
 March 11 the Governor suspends martial law. 
 
 Maxell 1-1 the mob armed with State gnus drove the disarmed 
 union men from their homes. 
 
 Was it a conspiracy? Was the Governor in it? Can any one 
 doubt it? 
 
34 
 
 "Gentlemen of the Mob." 
 
 A wonderful combination, that Telluride mob of March 14. 
 Acting in the interest of "tree labor'' free to be shot or leave 
 town. Look at the persons composing it. Solid business man, 
 sordid micer, sodden drunkard, "companions in arms." Pimp, 
 profligate and pillar of the church, there in the interests of home 
 and country. Bunco, short-card and cold-deck man, there look- 
 ing for a chance to shoot the decalogue into some one who needs 
 it. Banker and bank clerk, grocer who owes bank money, 
 grocer who wants to owe bank money there to protect "our 
 business interests." Two mine managers, two mine superin- 
 tendents, one superintendent of electric light company they're 
 there to bring about business "prosperity." A newspaper pro- 
 prietor, a printer and a .reporter, there in the interests of a free 
 and enlightened press or is it the hope of ads. and sinews from 
 a mine owner? A Prohibitionist and a wholesale beer dealer, 
 shoulder to shoulder. Three lawyers there, a Democrat, a Re- 
 publican and a mugwump, surely there in the interest of lav/ 
 and justice or cases from mine owners? There's one grocer, 
 solid Democrat and trustee in a church, turning to with all hi;s 
 heart in company with a Republican politician who keeps a 
 bawdy house. There's another grocer, Republican, ex-post- 
 master, "smearkase statesman," with his clerk, who sell supplies 
 to a boarding house run by the mine owners, together with a 
 Democratic grocer who can see no good reason why he should 
 not furnish all the supplies required by the company boarding 
 house. Most Christian dry goods merchant, trudging along with 
 his competitor, a Jewish dry goods merchant, in harmony for 
 the first time in their lives. A butcher, a barber, an ex-convict- 
 there, for what? And Captain Bulkley Wells, suave, handsome, 
 a collegiate, polished gentleman, millionaire, mine owner, mine 
 manager, military commandant of the district he's there, with 
 a dozen militiamen Cnot in uniform), half a dozen deputy sheriffs, 
 detectives, gin mill keepers, proprietors of gambling houses and 
 bad men there in the interest of free labor? peace? harmony? 
 law? order? morality? Well, Captain AVells knows what he's 
 there for as mine owner. 
 
 The Governor and the Courts. 
 
 San Miguel County was again placed under martial law. 
 Why? 
 
 Because Judge Stevens had issued an injunction restraining 
 rhe Telluride Citizens' Alliance, the Mine Owners' Association 
 
35 
 
 and all others from in any way interfering with the return of 
 the deported men to their homes. 
 
 The courageous gentlemen who had made up the mob th.it 
 drove honest men from their homes did not like to come in close 
 contact with the District Court, so they again appealed to their 
 great and good friend Governor Peabody and he again established 
 martial law in the Telluride district for the express purpose of 
 placing himself above the authority of the courts. 
 
 Martial Law to Uphold the Lawless. 
 
 Governor Peabody said: 
 
 "If they will CALL OFF THE STRIKE and disperse peace- 
 ably to their homes, that is all 1 want. I will say that law 
 and order will be preserved in this State so long as I live and 
 have a militia to accomplish such purpose." 
 
 The men had been dispersed from their homes by molts armed 
 with the rifles of the State, but the Governor would do nothing 
 to protect them. 
 
 Stewart Forbes, Antone Matti and A. H. Floaten, three of the 
 deported men, went to Denver and made repeated efforts to see 
 Governor Peabody, but could not succeed. It takes a mine 
 owner to get an audience with the Governor of Colorado. 
 
 From time to time deported men returned to Telluride. Some- 
 times they were told on alighting from the train to take the next 
 train out of the town. Sometimes they were immediately 
 arrested by the military authorities, kept over night in jail, and 
 placed on the morning train with a warning not to return. On 
 one occasion sixty-four came back in a body, all unarmed. The 
 next morning fifty-eight of them were again deported by the 
 militia. 
 
 This was kept up for months. Hardly a day went by that 
 some man was not told by Bulkeley Wells or Herron (both mine 
 managers i to leave town within one. two or three days. 
 
 On the day I arrived in the city a man who had been working 
 in the mines was deported on the charge of being a spy for the 
 union, working there for the purpose of getting information as to 
 the output of the mines, etc. Another man. one of the strikers, 
 was warned to leaA*e town while 1 was in the citv. and the day 
 I left a man worth twenty thousand dollars was ordered to leave 
 at once. Hi crime was his belief in the justice of the union's 
 cause. 
 
 'President Moyer Arrested. 
 
 Charles Moyer. President of the Western Federation of Min- 
 ers, was arrested at Ouray on the '2tth of March. From thai 
 
36 
 
 time till June 14 he was constantly in charge of the military 
 authorities. 
 
 The charge against him was "desecrating the flag." The Fed- 
 eration had printed in red, white and blue colors a representa- 
 tion of the United States flag, and on each of the thirteen stripes 
 was printed one of the following lines: 
 
 "Martial law declared in Colorado. , 
 
 "Habeas corpus suspended in Colorado. 
 
 "Free press throttled in Colorado. 
 
 "Bull pens for union men in Colorado. 
 
 "Free speech denied in Colorado. 
 
 "Soldiers defy the courts in Colorado. 
 
 "Wholesale arrests without warrant in Colorado. 
 
 "Union men exiled from homes and families hi Colorado. 
 
 "Constitutional right to bear arms questioned in Colorado. 
 
 "Corporations corrupt and control administration in Colorado. 
 
 "Right of fair, impartial and speedy trial abolished in Colorado. 
 
 "Citizens' alliance resorts to mob law and violence in Colorado. 
 
 "Militia hired to corporations to break the strike in Colorado." 
 
 Peabody Flouts the Judiciary. 
 
 Every one of those statements is true. Governor Peabody 
 knows it. General Bell knows it. Every honest man who is 
 familiar with the facts knows it. A reduced copy of this flag 
 appears on the cover of this pamphlet. 
 
 On March 31 Judge Stevens issued a writ of habeas corpus 
 directing Adjutant-General Sherman Bell and Captain Bulkeley 
 Wells to bring President Moyer into his court. Expecting such 
 a writ to be issued, Peabody had ordered Bell to ignore it before 
 it was signed by the Judge. 
 
 When the military authorities failed to produce President 
 Moyer in his court Judge Stevens ordered his release, and ordered 
 the incarceration of Gen, Bell and Capt. Wells in the county jai! 
 at Ouray without bail, and fining Bell and Wells $500 each. 
 At the same time the Judge said: 
 
 "The Governor in Insurrection and Rebellion." 
 
 "A very grave question is presented as to whether it is the 
 striking miners or the Governor of Colorado and the National 
 Guard that are engaged in insurrection and rebellion against 
 the laws of the State.'* 
 
 No attention was paid to the verdict of Judge Stevens. The 
 attorneys of President Moyer appealed to the Supreme Court of 
 Colorado. That court issued a writ of habeas corpus, which the 
 Governor obeyed out of "courtesy to the court," 
 
37 
 
 The court refused to release Mr. Moyer, but took the matter 
 under advisement, after hearing argument of counsel, and on 
 June (J rendered a decision, two judges concurring, one dissent- 
 ing, that the Governor of the State had the right to suspend the 
 writ of habeas corpus in cases of insurrection and rebellion, 
 and that he (the Governor) was the sole judge of what consti- 
 tuted insurrection and rebellion. 
 
 As the Supreme Court of Colorado has ruled, the Governor has 
 the right to declare the State or any portion thereof to be in in- 
 surrection and rebellion at any time, and he is the sole judge of 
 the fact. Having declared a state of insurrection and rebellion 
 to be in existence, he can then use the military power of the 
 State for any purpose whatsoever, including the killing and im- 
 prisonment or deportation of any and all citizens, limited only 
 by his own interest, desire and caprice. This makes him an 
 absolute autocrat. By the use of this power he can not only 
 imprison workingmen on strike, if he likes he can imprison any 
 one who has the temerity to contest an election with him, or de- 
 port any one who might be suspected of voting against him. This 
 is ihe import of the Supreme Court decision, and one may well 
 believe that the members of that court have joined Peabody in 
 his treasonable effort to overthrow all constitutional govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. Meyer's attorneys then appealed to the United States 
 Courts, and on June 14 a Federal judge issued an order requir- 
 ing Governor Peabody to produce Mr. Moyer in his court at St. 
 Louis. 
 
 Immediately this order was issued Governor Peabody, with 
 characteristic cowardice, delivered Mr. Moyer to the sheriff of 
 San Miguel County, that he (the Governor) might answer the 
 writ of the United States court by declaring that the prisoner 
 was not in his custody. 
 
 The Starry Flag Floats Over the Jail. 
 
 President Moyer had been kept a prisoner by the military 
 authorities for more than two months on the charge of "desecrat- 
 ing the Hag," and in all that time they had not been able to get 
 sufficient evidence against him to take him into court and ask 
 for his detention and trial. 
 
 When the Federal court came into the case, however, then the 
 charge was made against him of "abetting murder." 
 
 From the first day of the first strike in Colorado President 
 Moyer had counseled the strikers to be peaceable and orderly. 
 They had followed his advice to the letter. When I met him in 
 the military prison at Tellwride, with the stars and stripes, 
 
38 
 
 boisted by men in the pay of traitors to their country, floating- 
 over his cell, President Moyer was still counseling peace, and 
 expressed the hope and desire that the men would continue to 
 be orderly and law .abiding, notwithstanding the outrages w r hich 
 were being heaped upon them. 
 
 One of Governor Peabody's Anarchists. 
 
 Governor Peabody unsolicited informed me that he was not 
 opposed to trade unions, that he was not opposed to socialism; 
 that no one had been arrested or deported by the military au- 
 thorities except anarchists and aliens men who were fugitive;-: 
 from justice in their" native country and had no right to be in 
 Colorado or the United States. 
 
 The day before I left Trinidad I walked some miles over the 
 mountains where a man named Jim Ritchie was in hiding with 
 his w r ife and three children. 
 
 Jim Ritchie had been deported once and returned without per- 
 mission. He had then been arrested, placed in the military jail, 
 kept for fourteen days, and again deported, with a warning 
 "never to come back." He was charged with being an "agi- 
 tator." 
 
 Who was Jim Ritchie? Nobody much. When the war with 
 Spain broke out Jim Ritchie enlisted in Troop G. First Volunteer 
 Cavalry (the famous Rough Riders), and served all through the 
 campaign in Cuba with Roosevelt. When Roosevelt was mus- 
 tered out lie went to Albany to become Governor of New York. 
 When Jim Ritchie was mustered out he re-enlisted in an infantry 
 regiment for duty in the Phillipines. 
 
 Roosevelt served two years as Governor of New York. Jiin 
 Ritchie served one year, nine months and eleven days in the 
 United States Army in the Philippines, and was honorably dig- 
 charged. 
 
 The Hero's Reward. 
 
 i 
 
 About the time that Roosevelt became President Jim Ritchie 
 became a coal miner. 
 
 About the time Roosevelt began to lay the wires to get a nom- 
 ination from the Republican party Jim Ritchie went on strike. 
 And about the time that Roosevelt was declaring for the "open 
 shop" his old companion in arms, Jim Ritchie, was being de- 
 ported from his home because he could no more be a scab in 
 peace than a traitor in war. 
 
 So much for the anarchists that Governor Peabody is fighting. 
 
 In the Trinidad coal field the employers would at no time con- 
 
39 
 
 fer with the officers of the union. As usual, they said they wen* 
 at all times ready to listen to anything their employees had to 
 say to them as INDIVIDUALS. But they absolutely refused 
 to recognize the union. Individual employes repeatedly went 
 to them and asked that ills be remedied. With what result? 
 With the result that so far from any of their grievances being 
 remedied, the individuals who had the temerity to mention them 
 were either discharged from their employment or placed in such 
 unfavorable places in the mine that they were worse off than be- 
 fore. 
 
 "Contented Employes." 
 
 The coal companies redressed the grievances of the men by the 
 instant discharge of any man who had a grievance. Their 
 method of securing contented employees was to discharge every 
 employee who was discontented. 
 
 The managers of the coal companies could not recognize the 
 union. They could recognize the militia, they could recognize 
 the deputy sheriffs, they could recognize thugs and bad men, , 
 all in their employ and all paid for out of their pockets but they 
 could not recognize the union. The men who owned the coal 
 mines could recognize anything and anybody on earth exccut 
 the coal miner. 
 
 Some of the houses furnished the men by the companies were 
 the worst of shacks. In some places the companies did not have 
 sufficient houses, and leased the men ground on which they built 
 dwellings of their own the lease, however, requiring that they 
 be vacated on five days' notice. But in one or two camps, nota- 
 bly that of Primero, the company had erected a group of houses 
 that were really fit dwelling places for human beings. 
 
 The demands of the men, as I have said, were for increased 
 wages, the eight-hour day, honest weight, wages to be paid in 
 lawful money, and ventilation of the mines. 
 
 "See the Houses at Primero !" 
 
 So far as the employers through their flunkies and factotums 
 made any answer to the demands of the men, it was one con- 
 tinued anthem in praise of the "houses at Primero." 
 
 "Increase our wages," said the men. "Look at those houses 
 at Primero!" replied the bourgeois editor of the organ of the coal 
 companies. 
 
 "Give us the eight-hour day," said the miners. "What non- 
 sense," said the agents of the companies. "You men don't 
 want the eight-hour day. Look at those beautiful houses at 
 Primero!" 
 
40 
 
 "Give us a check weighman," said the men, "so that we shall 
 not be required to mine 3,500 pounds of coal in order to get credit 
 for 2,000 pounds." 
 
 "Hogs!" responded the members of the Citizens' Alliance, 
 every last man of them on the side of the coal barons. "You 
 poor miserable children of darkness! It is not a check weigh- 
 inan that you want. A ton is a ton, isn't it? whether it weighs 
 3,500 or 2,000 pounds? What can common people like you know 
 about honest weight, anyhow? Look at those beautiful brick 
 houses at Primero!" 
 
 "Pay us our wages in money, instead of scrip on the company 
 store," said the men. 
 
 "Money! Money?" yelled the chorus of little business men in 
 the Citizens' Alliance, who felt themselves honored and flattered 
 when a mine manager spoke to them. "Money? For coal min- 
 ers? You're a lot of miserable foreigners! It's not money you 
 want. Look at the houses of those miners at Primero! Some 
 of them are painted! Besides, we want all the money our- 
 selves!" 
 
 . "Ventilate the mines as the law requires," said the men. 
 "We must have air or we can't work." 
 
 "Anarchists!" yelled the bourgoise chorus. "You are a lot of 
 Dagoes and Mexicans. You want air? Look at those houses 
 at Primero. Some of them have windows!" 
 
 No matter what these thirteen thousand men asked for, suffi- 
 cient answer unto all to point to the little group of cottages, and 
 say "Look at those houses at Primero!" 
 
 President Roosevelt Appealed To. 
 
 On the 18th of last November Governor Peabody asked Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt for help. He declined. 
 
 Officers of the Western Federation have asked him for help. 
 Ho declined. 
 
 Private, individuals have asked him for help. No response or 
 a declination. 
 
 Suppose the union miners had been deporting mine owners. 
 Suppose the union miners had imprisoned the mine managers in 
 a bull pen. Suppose the union miners had placed ropes around 
 the necks of such officers of the law as displeased them and forced 
 them to resign. Suppose the union miners had wrecked the 
 plant of such newspapers as had opposed them, and placed the 
 editors in a bull pen. Suppose the union miners had given every 
 member of the Mine Owners' Association and of the Citizens' 
 Alliance the choice of tearing up his card of membership or be- 
 ing deported from the State, 
 
41 
 
 When the President Would Interfere* 
 
 Under such circumstances, would the President of the United 
 States have interfered? Does anyone doubt it? Mr. Roosevelt 
 cannot interfere so long: as the mine owners have everything 
 their own way. If they should meet with a set back of any 
 kind, we shall see the President act as promptly as his sainted 
 predecessor in the Coaur d'Alenes and as the Bonded Prophet 
 did at Pullman. 
 
 Maj.-Gen. John C. Bates reported to the President that the 
 mails were not interfered with. If the Major-General had been 
 able to escape from the Mine Owners' Association, for a brief 
 interval during his "investigations" in Colorado he might have 
 found that persons were not allowed to use the public highway 
 in Hastings to go to the Post Office for their mail, and that they 
 were stopped and turned back by strikers? Oh, no! The 
 Major-General would not have overlooked such a fact. They 
 were stopped and turned back by deputy sheriffs in the pay of 
 the coal companies. 
 
 Gentlemen, Every One of Them. 
 
 The personnel of some of the leading men on the capitalist 
 side may be interesting. Captain Bulkeley Wells, a gentleman 
 and a savage; Major Hill, a gentleman and a barbarian; General 
 Bell, a gentleman and a fool; Governor Peabody, a gentleman 
 and a traitor all gentlemen. 
 
 On the other side men, workingmen. 
 
 History might have been different in Colorado had Captain 
 Wells been a man instead of a gentleman. He would have made 
 a good union man, had he studied life a little more and Harvard 
 text books less. There are things not to be learned from Har- 
 \ard professors. 
 
 Major Hill, a gentleman of the old school, a humane man with 
 an inhuman occupation. 
 
 General Bell just a common fool, with an uncommon oppor- 
 tunity for folly. 
 
 Gov. Peabody, traitor. It is charged that he has been a shy- 
 iock, note-shaver and dance hall proprietor, I know not how 
 truly. But there can be nothing in his past to add discredit to 
 his infamous present. 
 
 All of them would deserve hanging except for two reasons 
 perhaps they do not know that they deserve it, and society can- 
 not afford to make hangmen. Still, we may utilize their own 
 hangmen, if they make them, as I fear they will. 
 
 Some day the people will wake up, and when they do these 
 people will find they are but lice in the lion's mane, 
 
42 
 
 Spirit of the Men. 
 
 Can the man be licked? 
 
 I met an Italian striker who had been twice deported because 
 he would not go to work in the mines, because he would not 
 scab. He had a Avife and five children. Said he to me: 
 
 "I taka da wife and da five baba, and walka da million mile, 
 and eata da rock, but no scaba da mine!" 
 
 The same spirit pervaded all the strikers, from the officers 
 doAvn to the humblest man in the ranks. In all my life I never 
 have, I never shall, meet better, nobler, truer men. 
 
 Can such men be licked? "The old guard dies, but never sur- 
 renders." 
 
 And suppose they die. Their cause still lives. Not better, 
 but stronger hands and larger numbers take it up, and it goes on 
 to ultimate victory. Bells and Peabodys will not accomplish a 
 task that foiled a Bismarck. 
 
 Truth on the scaffold betrays the hangman and destroys the 
 tyrant. 
 
 Who Backs the Fight? 
 
 Who has been back of this great tight? We know that there 
 has been some larger power than the little men seen in the fore- 
 ground. 
 
 Who is it in the United States that reaches into every home 
 and takes sugar from the boAvl, coffee from the urn, coal from the 
 cellar and oil from the lamp? 
 
 AVho is it in the United States that, through his control of 
 poAverful banks, makes money plenty when he wants to bull the 
 market and sell stocks and bonds, and makes money scarce when 
 he Avants to bear the market and buy stocks and bonds? 
 
 Who is it in America that issues his orders to the United States 
 Senate, and House of Representatives, dictates to Governors and 
 State Legislatures, buys aldermen and corrupts judges? 
 
 AVho is it in the United States that is greater than any or all of 
 thorn for a time? 
 
 AVho is it that has been under indictment by grand juries in 
 State after State in the American Union, and never yet beeu 
 brought to trial in any of them, though his guilt is known and 
 proven ? 
 
 AVho is it that controls our steel industry, our raihvay industry, 
 our coal industry, our very life? 
 
 AVho is it that teaches business in his Bible class? 
 
 Who is it that has left a trail of incendiarism and bloodshed 
 and crime in every industry that ho has acquired? 
 
43 
 
 Who is it that arms his hired thugs to beat union men in Trini- 
 dad and buys lawyers, legislators and governor to beat the Con 
 stitution of Colorado in the Capitol at Denver? 
 
 Who is it? 
 
 John D. Rockefeller, Most Christian Criminal. 
 
 Who could it be but John D. Rockefeller, J, Pierpont Morgan, 
 Meyer Guggenheim, George Gould and the little band of pirates 
 in business and freebooters in commerce who are rapidly becom- 
 ing by illegal methods the legal owners of everything in America, 
 including its government. 
 
 WHO COULD IT BE BUT KING CAPITAL? 
 
 The Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., the Victor Fuel Co., the Ameri- 
 can Smelting & Refining Co. and the United States Reduction 
 & Refining Co. are all members of the Manufacturers' Associa- 
 tion of the United States of America. Back of all the puny indi- 
 viduals who appear in the foreground are the great financiers, 
 the great captains of industry, the men who OWN THE UNITED 
 STATES. , 
 
 An Army Wanted. 
 
 But the members of the Manufacturers' Association were not 
 sufficient in numbers to carry out their infamous purpose of de- 
 stroying the union. They owned the Governor of the State and 
 its military forces, but they were insufficient for the purpose. 
 They could supply offices and generals to guide, but they had no 
 army to do things. What should be done? Where was an army 
 to be found? 
 
 An Army Found. 
 
 The small business men! THEY must supply the army. So 
 the work of organizing Citizens' Alliances was pushed. Emis- 
 saries were sent about to stir up in the little business man r 
 hatred of the union. These emissaries said nothing about the 
 wrongs suffered by the small merchant at the hands of the 
 trusts and corporations. They magnified every little difficulty 
 of the merchant class with the trade union. They pointed to 
 the boycott, the eight-hour day, the early-closing movement, and 
 used fact and fiction to make the little business man think that 
 all his troubles were due to labor organizations. 
 
 The arts of sophistry and persuasion succeeded . with many. 
 With others coercion was necessary. This was supplied by the 
 large capitalists at first. Many a man was forced into the Citi 
 zens' Alliance by his banker. The latter had merely to deiiianu 
 
44 
 
 payment of loans already made or refuse to make. loans that wero 
 the only salvation from bankruptcy. In other cases it was the 
 matter of various supplies required by the larger corporations. 
 Ihe members of the Manufacturers' Association wanted the 
 middle class to organize to help them tight labor organizations, 
 and they did not scruple to use coercion of the foulest kind. 
 
 The Citizens' Alliance has supplied the army to do the dirty 
 work in this war in Colorado. 
 
 The eventual outcome should rather excite pity than hate. 
 
 Think of a little business man who has not sense enough to 
 know that a workingman receiving high wages can and will buy 
 more of his goods than he could if his wages were reduced. 
 
 But that is to be the least of his troubles. The little business 
 men of Colorado have been doing their best to assist the great 
 captains of industry to destroy the trade unions. If they suc- 
 ceed, where will they be then? Do they think that their fight 
 for life will be easier when they come face to face with the trust 
 because the trade unions have been destroyed? 
 
 The Citizens' Alliance doing the dirty work of the mine own- 
 ers to enable them to beat the Western Federation of Miners, 
 destroyed the co-operative store of the union, but do the mem- 
 bers of the Citizens' Alliance think they will be able to destroy 
 the department store when it comes to Cripple Creek? 
 
 The members of the Citizens' Alliance could perform no act 
 which would hasten their own bankruptcy more than the over- 
 throw of the union, and when they cease business by being 
 forced out of business what then? 
 
 Then these \ery same men will become wage-earners, and if 
 they are not fools as wage-earners they will find that they can 
 further their interests by organizing into unions and they are 
 striving to destroy the only thing that can be their future refuge. 
 
 ^ 
 
 Digging Their Own Graves. 
 
 So far as the members of the Citizens' Alliance succeed in 
 their purpose to overthrow the trade unions, they but dig their 
 own grave, and aid the trusts to pile dirt on the coffin. 
 
 n 
 
 All but the Government. 
 
 The men on strike in Colorado had the law on their side. They 
 had the Constitution on their side. They had justice and hu- 
 manity on their side. They had everything on their side except 
 tho Government. The Government was on the side of the mine 
 owners. Now as aforetime the capitalists had taken the pre 
 caution Lo capture the government in order to defy the law. They 
 
45 
 
 used the sworn officers of the law to accomplish the law's over- 
 thrown. They defiled the Legislature and defied the Constitu- 
 tion and debauched the courts. They bought or bent the highest 
 executive officer of the State to do their will, and obedient to 
 their commands he has violated all the rights of a free people 
 and violated his oath of office that he might poison the sacra- 
 ments of human liberty. From the first day of the first strike 
 the Governor of the State could have ended the trouble by en- 
 forcing the law and Constitution of Colorado in the spirit of 
 American freedom. He preferred to make himself the Czar of 
 Colorado and to make the Centennial State an American Siberia 
 under the Stars and Stripes. There were other things in tho 
 Colorado Labor War besides the eight-hour day and the dis- 
 crimination against union men, but they were trifles. If at any 
 one time during the struggle the Governor had enforced the 
 eight-hour law and the legal right of the men to join a labor 
 union had been maintained, everything would have been settled 
 on three days' notice. 
 
 The mine owners said they wanted free labor; they lied. They 
 wanted cheap labor, not only cheap labor, but slave labor. They 
 wanted dogs to do men's work. But it is not to be. Shameful 
 as they may think it, slaves cannot do the freeman's task! 
 
 The mine owners declared that men should not be forced into 
 the union. The men struck thq,t their members should not be 
 forced out of the union. 
 
 Manifesto by the Western Federation. 
 
 Is it any wonder that these conditions inspired the officers of 
 The union to say: 
 
 "The Executive Board of the Western Federation of Miners, 
 in executive session assembled, with one voice proclaim that the 
 infamy and barbarism of military rule in Colorado beggars the 
 vocabulary of the English language for words to give expression 
 to our denunciation of the official anarchy that has blackened 
 and disgraced the history of the state. In all the annals of the 
 history of nations, where tyrants have wielded the iron rod of 
 persecution and oppression, and crimsoned history with chap- 
 ters of cold-blooded brutality, Colorado rises like an unrivalled 
 monarch of them all, and with a governor that is lost to shame 
 and every principle of justice, makes the dark ages look like a 
 painting of Paradise. 
 
 "We have borne with patience the repeated wrongs of corpor- 
 ate and commercial vengeance, administered by a debauched 
 chief executive. We have admonished the members of the West- 
 ern Federation of Miners, during all the stormy days, weeks and 
 
4G 
 
 months of the conflict in Colorado, to remain cool and calm, and 
 bear with fortitude the unholy and impious imputations that 
 nave been hurled against them from the slanderous lips of hate, 
 hatched and incubated in the womb of dehumanized greed. We 
 have counselled respect and reverence for the law, when our 
 members were made martyrs of persecution, and though our 
 mental vision could behold them incarcerated in military peni- 
 tentiaries, arrested without charge or warrant, though we could 
 behold them torn from their wives and families and their homes 
 desecrated by uniformed outlaws, though we could see them de- 
 ported and exiled, and hear the wails of agony that burst from 
 the bleeding and despairing hearts of frenzied and distracted 
 women and children, yet amid all the unparalleled and unprece- 
 dented outrages that appeal to the manhood of American citizen- 
 ship for justice, we have proclaimed peace, peace, peace, until 
 the very words seem to mock the spirit of liberty that dwells in 
 the human heart, until the very word 'peace' seems to become 
 but another name for cowardice. We have been patient and ad- 
 monished peace, while courts were defied and the constitution of 
 state and nation trampled under foot. We have been patient 
 and admonished peace, while our members were goaded by the 
 exultant jeers of bayonet-equipped mobs, and their mothers, 
 wives, sisters and daughters insulted by the foul and brazen con- 
 duct of a libertine soldiery, recruited from the vagrants of the 
 slums." 
 
 What is back of all these outrages? 
 
 THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM OF PRODUCTION. 
 
 The Same Old Fight. 
 
 The PRIVATE OWNERSHIP of mine, mill, factory and work- 
 shop. It is a fight of MINERS against MINE-OWNERS. Work- 
 ingmen on one side, capitalists and their agents on the otLer 
 side. 
 
 It is the same old fight between laborers and capitalists which 
 will never be settled until the WORKERS become the OWNERS 
 of the tools with which and the land on which they labor. 
 
 The Only Remedy. 
 
 HOW shall we workingmen ever become such owners? By 
 making our fight a political as well as an economic one. The 
 men who own the mines and mills to-day get their title through 
 ti>e law. Tne law comes out of the ballot box. We working- 
 men put the law into the ballot box. Just as in the past we 
 have put laws into the ballot box which have allowed the Rocke- 
 
47 
 
 fellers and Morgans to make private property of mine and mill. 
 so in the future we can put that law in the ballot box which will 
 make those things SOCIAL property, owned by all. Then there 
 will be no strikes, no lockouts, no bull pens, no deportations. 
 
 Colorado is a great State, her mountains are filled with gold, 
 silver and other metals and coal, her soil is prolific, its products 
 \ aried, her climate is balm to the afflicted. But Colorado's 
 Capitol at Denver is lousy with vermin in the fold of the Stars 
 and Stripes. This year Colorado spends $50,000 on an exhibit 
 at the World's Fair in the hope of inducing people to come to 
 the Centennial State, and in the same time the traitor in the 
 Governor's chair spends $700,000 in deporting the skilled labor 
 from the State. 
 
 There would have been a different Story of the Flag and Colo- 
 rado if the Avorkingmen of that State had captured the Govern- 
 ment before going on strike. There'll be a different story yet to 
 tell if in the future they vote against Republican Deportation 
 Peabody and against Democratic Bull-pen Steunenberg; against 
 Republican Coeur d'Ale.nes McKinley and against Democratic 
 Pullman Cleveland, no matter in what form or under what name 
 they may appear on the ballot. ONLY IN SOCIALISM SHALL 
 WE FIND PEACE. 
 
 Your Fight, Reader. You May Be Next. 
 
 If we workingmen of the North, South. East and West would 
 not be deported, if we would not be bull-penned, if we would not 
 be shot, we had best arouse ourselves. We union men should 
 see to it that our brethren do not want for money. Long and 
 painfully these Colorado heroes have struggled. They have 
 been fighting the battles of the whole labor movement as well 
 as their own. They have suffered, we have read of their suffer- 
 ings; they have been shot down like dogs, driven from their 
 homes like criminals, imprisoned in bull pens like cattle we Inn e. 
 only read of their imprisonment, their deportation, and their 
 slaughter. 
 
 But it will soon be up to us. Whaf is done in Colorado to-day 
 may be done in Illinois to-morrow, in New T York a day later and 
 next day in Massachusetts. 
 
 If you would help your brother union men in Colorado, strike 
 for freedom in your own home. Whether it be in Now York or 
 New Orleans, in Maine or Minnesota, every blow struck for the 
 freedom of the working class will be felt in Colorado and 
 around the world. Free yourseves, and you will free them. And 
 
48 
 
 there is no way in which you can strike more effectively than by 
 a Socialist ballot. 
 
 Choose Ye Now! 
 
 If you would rather your union would be destroyed than go 
 into politics, don't do it. 
 
 If you would rather be shot than join the Socialist party, don't 
 do it. 
 
 If you would rather be a slave than vote the Socialist ticket, 
 don't do it. 
 
 Your choice is between capitalism, slavery and death on the 
 one side, and Socialism, liberty and life on the other. 
 
 Which shall it be? Choose ye now. 
 
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THE SOCIALIST PARTY 
 
 NATIONAL 
 TICKET 
 
 For President : Eugene V. Debs 
 
 For Vice President: 
 Benjamin Hanford 
 
 
 FOR 
 
 Information abont the Socialist Party apply to 
 NATIONAL SECRETARY 
 
 WILLIAM MAILLY 
 
 No. 269 DEARBORN ST. 
 i^ CHICAGO, ILL. ^ -^^ 
 
 In the States of New York and Wisconsin this Party 
 on the ballot under the name of ''Social Democratic 
 Party.' In New York its official emblem is the Arm and 
 Torch. In the State of Minnesota the capitalist courts have 
 d us the right to use our chosen name, so our ticket 
 appear on the ballot this year under the name of 
 olic Ownership Party." 
 
Hew VorKcr Uol^zcitung 
 
 3>cn 3it*ercffett dcs arbcitcttftcn fclfcs actui^mct 
 
 g)ffice 184 'g&ffiam fr., 'glen ^orfc 
 
 1878 -O- $J. . &*v 1512 
 
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 (Sontttag 5 Sent 
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 5Zeue auf bem ebtet ber Slrbetterbemegitng 11 nnterrtc^ten 
 
 Jfbonnement i.oo per 3abr Had) uropa $2,00 per Uabr r 
 
 "THE WORKER" 
 
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 Principles of the Socialist Party 
 
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