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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (June 24, 1904)
FKS5555555555 rt k:j vwmisy Th Commoner, 3UNB 24, 1904 5 IJ.-M.p i in i' i linn ir.Vn ) linear- Wiiityjy p.mt empire t t' ?r577t? . l?r,K.u7 -C JUU HSBCurr FOLLOWING the explosion at tlio depot at In dependence, Colo., in which fourteen non union miners lost their lives things have heen going on at a rapid gait in Colorado. The city officials who are known to he in sympathy with union men were required to resign and to leave the vicinity. On June 11, a special train, carrying 91 union miners from the Cripple Creek district, all under the guard of militiamen, was unloaded on the prairie half a mile west of the Kansas line' CThe men were left on the prairie without food or water, and the train with its load of militiamen moved away, leaving the union, miners to shift for themselves. The miners finally marched to the Salvation Army colony near Holly where they were supplied with food. AS THE special train was nearing the Kansas line, it was met by Sheriff Brady of Hamil ton county, Kansas, accompanied by forty depu ties. Brady notified the militiamen that they would not bo allowed to pass the Kansas line, as the deported men were not wanted in that state. The men were then ordered to leave the train. Governor Bailey in an interview announced that the sheriff acted without authority, and said that the miners would be welcomed to Kansas if. they wanted to take up citizenship in that state and were willing to obey the law. TH E situation in Colorado is attracting world wide attention. The Colorado governor jus tines the deportation of men and other unusual proceedings by an opinion delivered by the Colo rado supreme court in which opinion the court said that when any portion of the state was in insurrection, the governor's power was supreme. Many thoughtful citizens express great doubt as to the wisdom of the course adopted by the Colo rado governor; but those who approve of that course point to the destruction of the lives of the fourteen non-union men, together with other law less acts which they, charge against the union miners and thoy say that under the circumstances strong and unusual measures are necessary to the re-establishment of law and. order. Representa tives of the labor unions, however, deny that they are at all responsible for this lawlessness and they even go so far as to intimate that the destruction of the lndependen.ee depot was the work of detec tive in the employ of the mine owners. IN THE presence of the conflicting claims made by the mine owners and by the union miners, it is not at all strange that the reading public has become considerably perplexed. A writer in the Chicago Tribune gives what ho calls a non-partisan statement of the troubles and their origin, pointing out that an armed camp on the verge of war has existed in Colorado for a year. This writer says: 'The reign of lawlessness Is ostensibly due to a struggle for the eight-hour day. But since it began that has been lost sight of. An eight-hour law was passed by the state legis lature in 1901. After a legal fight by the employ ers the law was declared unconstitutional by the supreme court. The labor men declared that the courts were under the influence of capital. An amendment to the constitution to cover the point was authorized by the voters at an election, but the legislature failed to act. Then the labor un ions joined in the determined struggle which reached its climax in the wild scenes of yester day." THE Western Federation of Miners objected to the Importation of non-union labor and since then many violent deaths have been re corded. The Tribune writer says: "One of the first of the long list of deeds of violence came in the battle at Telluride in 1901. A strike had been called against the piece work system and declar ing for regular day work, and the places of the strikers had been filled by non-union men. The local union of the Western Federation of Miners ordered 250 rifles and 50,000 rounds of ammuni tion. As the night shift was leaving the Smuggler-Union mine the morning of July 3 they were fired upon from ambush and one man was killed and a number wounded. All the non-union men were then driven from the district at the point f the rifle. As an Indirect result of this trou ble, Arthur L. Colling, manager of the Smuggler union mine, was assassinated on the evening of Novembor 19, 1902, as ho was sitting by a window in his home, and the assassin was nover appre hended. At Idaho Springs, in July, 1903, the Citizens alliance, organized to put down lawless ness, marched fourteen union minors beyond tho city limits and told them to keep going until thoy had left the county and never to show their faces again. This was because tho cioctrical power plant of the Sun and Moon mine had been blown up with dynamite, supposedly by or under tho di rection of union strikers." ON DECEMBER 4, 1903, martial law was de clared in the Cripple Creek district. In Jan uary, 1904, martial law was declared in Telluride. Tho Cripple Greek proclamation was read in tho city of Victor by a cavalry major guarded by flfty troopers, the citizens of the town gathered about, silent. After proclaiming that a condition of an archy there existed, that civil government had become abortive, that life was in peril, and prop erty unsafe, tho government pronounced judgment upon this commonwealth: "Now, therefore, I, James H. Peabody, governor of the state of Colo rado, by virtue of the authority in me vested, do hereby proclaim and declare the said county of Teller, in the state of Colorado, to be in a state of insurrection and rebellion." In the town of Vic tor, the Record, one of the newspapers, was put under military censorship. Tho paper had de clared that some of the militiamen were ex-convicts. The paper was the organ of the union men. A "bull pen" was established and those who ex pressed sentiments of lawlessness were locked up without warrants and sometimes held for days without a hearing. TWO striking incidents are related by tho Tri bune writer, as follows: "Just before tho troops were called into tho field last fall an Inof fensive old Scotch carpenter named Stewart, a re spectable citizen who owned his own home, but who was unfortunate in not being a union man, went to work in one of the Cripple Creole mines. On the nigh.t of September 2 four masked men ap peared at his home. The old man, who had been quietly reading a newspaper, let them inr they, set upon him and beat him frightfully with a pistol butt before the eyes of his wife, and then dragged him out, shot him through the back, and left him for dead. On November 21, while the troops were in control, Superintendent McCor mick and. Beck, shift boss, were descending into the Vindicator min, which had opened with non union labor. At the sixth level a terrific explo sion wrecked the cage and killed both men in stantly. An infernal machine, the remains of which were found, had been set so that tho descent of fhe cage would explode a keg ol powder. No one knows who did this awful deed, and the coro ner's jury could fix no blame." IT I S asserted by 'this same authority that the civil officers were largely under the domina tion of the labor unions and several instances are cited where sheriff and under sheriff showed not only partiality for the unions, but violated the law in order to please union leaders; but the oth er side is not entirely excused by this writer, for he says: "In its efforts to cope with the law less the militia itself is said to have -gone beyond the bounds and to have denied constitutional rights to citizens. In answer to the charge that the constitution was being violated Judge Advo cate McClelland is credited with this remark: To hell with the constitution; we are not following the constitution.' Col. Verdeckberg, commanding in tho Cripple Creek district, is said to have de clared: 'We are under orders only from God and Governor Peabody.' " TH E extensiveness of the Colorado strike may be better understood by this statement: "The strike in the mining districts ot the state during the last year are said to have kept 35,000 workmen in idleness for five months. There were 4,000,000 working days wasted and $10,000,000 in wages was lost to the men, while tho los3 from non-production and from direct damage to prop erty is placed at $40,000,000. Added to this must be the cost of keeping the Colorado militia in the field. Militiamen have been in active service al .most continuously longer than a year." A dreary picture of the future Is drawn in this way: "La bor and capital are doterminod to fight to tho ond. Tho armies engaged aro large. Tho Western Fed eration, tho mino workers, and other union mem bers numbering 113,000, aro resolved not to yield. Thoy aro opposed by tho 39,000 business mon, who constitute tho Citizens' alllanco, and to theso must bo added nearly every mino owner in tho stator and tho thousands of unorganizod indepen dent workmen, who insist upon their rights to work regardless of tho will of tho unions." TH E extent to which fooling has boon arousod in Colorado is shown by tho tone omploycd by former Govornor Thomad. 'I ho Associated press, undor dato of Denver, Juno 14, says: "I have nothing further to say about plans for reop ening the Portland mine," said former Govornor Thomas, counsol for tho Portland Gold Mining company, today. "Wo all reallzo i.hat If wo open our mouths about anything connected with Crip ple Creek, wo lay ourselves liable to tho bull pen or somo other of tho drastic measures that como undor the head of military necessity. Matters re main absolutely In status quo. Wo have not de cided fully as yet what course will bo taken to reopen tho mine. I suppose that if I talk too much I might get what Frank Hangs rccolved. His only offenso was acting as lo&al counsel for somo mon charged with crime sovoral months ago. Perhaps If I should talk actively In regard to my client, I might bo burnod at tho staito." THE executive board of tho Western Federa tion of Miners has issued a statement in wftich it denies responsibility for tho lawless acts committed against non-union mon. Referring to tho Independence explosion, this statement says:" "Wti are fully convinced from information by trustworthy persons that tho original explosion and subsequent outrages perpetrated aro not only tho work of tho CItlzons' alliance, but aro thor oughly of tho opinion that tho whole matter was planned in advance. Perhaps no singlo occurrenco has so much bearing on this conclusion as tho forcible resignation of various regularly elected officials in the district. What 'public necessity' justified the mob to compel tho resignation of theso officers we will leave to tho reader to judgo for himself. To set aside tho expressed will of tho people to depose officials named by the ma jority to conduct public affairs is of itself a crime against citizenship that we cannot pass without severe. criticism. Beside this all other crimes are punyare parlor jokes, or comic opera." REFERRING to tho imprisonment and de portation of union miners and tho refusal to permit any merchants to supply provisions to tho families of such men, tho oxecutlve board says: "The very fact that union men arc deported bjr the military Is of itself sufficient to show that no evidence has been obtained against these men, for If evidence of crime was at hand does any reason able man or woman suppose that tho military commandant, or that the mob sheriff, would be simple enough to deport to other parts tho guilty persons? No, indeed. What evidence there is ac quits tho miners, but apparently fastens the crlmo upon the heads of hired assassins and thugs in the pay of tho Citizens' alliance. The apparent success of this line of action at Telluride has evi dently prompted the recent acts of violence in tho Cripple Creek district. Tho lawless mob at all times had access to the state guns and ammuni tion. When the mob had committed outrages without number, tho power of the great state of Colorado steps In, takes up affairs where tho mob left off, deports union men, abuses others, and brazenly heralds to the world the palpable He that the miners' unions are criminal organizations and must be wiped out. At no time during all this struggle has the military power or tho civil power , been used to protect our members in their rights of citizenship. Evoq. at the present time no de termined effort is being made by Jhe authorities, . to discover tho real perpetrators or the Indepen- dence explosion. Nothing is attempted to do dono except -to fasten this unholy crime by imputation and innuendo upon the heads oi our innocent membership." IT IS evident that the Colorado strike Is by , no means ended, for the "executive commit tee of the Western Federation concludes Its state-