You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Friday, December 11, 1903
Denver, Colorado - "I do not fear the bull pen, it is part of my duty to go there."
R. E. Croskey is a well-respected union man in the Cripple Creek District. He is the First Vic-President of the Colorado Federation of Labor and also Secretary of the District Trades and Labor Assembly. He was in Denver yesterday, attending to his own business there, when he learned that the military was searching the strike zone for him in order to relocate him to the bullpen, and this in accordance with the dictates of Governor Peabody's new "military necessity."
On learning that he was to be "necessitated" upon his return home, Brother Croskey gave this public statement to a Denver reporter:
I do not fear the "bull pen." It has no terrors for me. I am no better than others who are now in it. It is a part of my duty to go there, and I shall. I will spend my time in reading. I want to read again Thomas Payne's "The Rights of Man." I will enjoy it there under the tent of Peabody's tyranny. Then I expect to again read the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln's inaugural address and his Gettysburg speech, and other fiction so dear to the hearts of Americans.
Then, too, I may read the constitution of the United Sates, if I am permitted to do so by the powers that rule over me. I shall not worry about my fare or how long I will be held. After all, it is but a little while here. I want Governor Peabody and General Bell to know that we are not afraid of their jails. I want them to know that we will go in and come out by the same door. They cannot crush out the spirit of freedom that dwells in the hearts of the men he is persecuting. That, you know, was tried long ago,and it failed.
Brother Croskey will return home to the Cripple Creek District in a few days, and has no plans to avoid arrest by the military nor imprisonment in their bullpen.
SOURCE
The Cripple Creek Strike
-by Emma F Langdon
(Part I, 1st pub 1904)
NY, 1969
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
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Thursday December 11, 1913
The Keweenaw, Michigan - Citizens Alliance Holds Mass Rallies, Mobs Attack W. F. of M.
There is no evidence linking the Western Federation of Miners with the Dally-Jane murders. In fact, Prosecuting Attorney Lucas found evidence at the scene which links the Waddell-Mahon men to the crime, and further notes that these gunmen were headquartered near to the boarding house when it was shot up. Nevertheless, the Citizens' Alliance has fixed the blame for these murders upon the W. F. of M, and with the aid of the miner owner's newspapers is loudly advocating that the W. F. of M. be driven from the Copper Country.
Yesterday, mass rallies were held across the Keweenaw by the Citizens' Alliance, well attended as mine owners gave the scabs working in their mines the day off. The rallies were followed by mob-attacks upon union halls and union members. And small wonder that mobs were worked up into a frenzy, considering vile speeches given at the rallies.
At the Amphidrome in Houghton, this is a bit of the speech given by John A. Doelle, chairman of the rally:
Why is it that in a community that was free for years from robbery, is not free at present? Why is it possible that innocent young women are being followed and chloroformed in order that they may be robbed of their virtue?
We could, perhaps, suggest that the hundreds gunthugs, imported by the mine operators, could be the cause, but let us continue. This is part of a speech by Reverend J. R. Rankin:
My sentiments since the beginning of this labor trouble, and I expressed them to some of the leading men in this town, are that the agitators of this trouble should be deported; driven out of the county, for I claim today that they were the cause of all this trouble and crime that has been committed...That kind of a man [a W. F. of M. man] has no right to the protection that that flag affords. That man has no right to live in a country were that flag floats.
As union halls were being raided by the mobs yesterday, the law did nothing to stop the attacks, indeed, the deputies were right there in the middle of the roving mobs along with the Waddell men and the members of the Citizens' Alliance.
The Western Federation sought a restraining order against the Citizens' Alliance from Judge O'Brien which was granted:
ABSOLUTELY AND ENTIRELY DESIST AND REFRAIN From in any manner interfering with, molesting or disturbing Charles H. Moyer, John C. Lowney, Yanko Tersich, Ben Goggia, Mor Oppman, Peter Jedda, William J. Rickard or by way of threats, personal violence, intimidation or by any means whatsoever, calculated or intended to compel Charles H. Moyer [et al.] to leave this District against their will
All of which WE STRICTLY COMMAND YOU TO OBSERVE until the further order of this court in the premises.
However, we are hearing reports that, restraining or no, the mob-attacks are continuing today.
SOURCE
Death's Door
The Truth Behind Michigan's Largest Mass Murder
-by Steve Lehto
MI, 2006
Photo: Citizens Alliance Button
http://www.copperrange.org/...
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Wednesday December 11, 2013
The newspaper of the Citizens' Alliance:
Photo: TRUTH
http://www.1913strike.mtu.edu/...
From Lehto's Death's Door:
By December, the Alliance was publishing its own newspaper, Truth. The December 2 issue claimed a membership of 8,675 and reminded readers, "You Promised 'To Wear at All Times WHERE IT CAN BE SEEN' the Button Indicating Your Membership." The buttons were round and white, with the words "Citizens Alliance" in tall red letters. The paper was filled with anti-union rants-often in all capital letters...
None of the diatribes were signed; there was no reference to anyone at the paper, nor an address given where they might be reached. The only possible hint of ownership-and it wasn't all that revealing-was the line beneath the title: "Published by authority of the Citizens Alliance to tell the truth about the Western Federation." The printing costs were paid by Calumet & Hecla, at the direction of MacNaughton.
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The Popular Wobbly - The Grand Industrial Band
I'm as mild mannered as I can be,
And I've never done them harm that I can see.
Still on me they put a ban, and they throw me in the can,
They go wild, simply wild, over me.
-T-Bone Slim