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Wednesday June 29, 1904
From the Appeal to Reason: Part V of Report From Cripple Creek by Comrade Shoaf
Practically the entire issue of this week's Appeal to Reason was devoted to the courageous reporting smuggled out of the Cripple Creek Strike Zone by Comrade George H. Shoaf. Today we present our fifth in a series featuring the stirring front-line coverage from the Cripple Creek Strike Zone by this most intrepid correspondent:
Sacking of the Engineer's Hall.
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Words are week things with which to try to describe the vandalism enacted in the lodge hall of Engineers' Union No. 80. Only a personal visit to the place will adequately satisfy the curiosity of the working people of this country who really desire to know the truth.
All of the minor union locals in Victor had their headquarters here and the four walls of the assembly room were literally pictured with their charters. Engineers' local No. 80 had a library worth a thousand dollars. The Maccabees prided themselves on their beautiful new piano. Elegantly tapestried curtains hung from the windows, and the Brussels carpet was almost rendered useless by the wealth of costly rugs.
An investigation the day following the raid of the militia revealed a fearful scene. The piano had been overturned and its thinnest sides smashed in. The curtains were pulled down, thrown into a pile in the middle of the floor and besprinkled with filth. Books from the library were scattered up and down the sidewalk, where they had been thrown from the front windows. Every charter in the room was destroyed, and the silk banner of Local 80, costing $185.00, was torn literally into shreds. The carpet was cut up, rugs bayoneted through and through, chairs were torn apart, tables were overturned, the secretary's desk demolished and the books and records of every union in the hall confiscated and carried to military headquarters.
These things were done by members of the national guard of Colorado as a military necessity in the name of law and order!
Women members of the Maccabees, who accompanied the writer on his tour of investigation, broke down and wept bitterly amidst the ruins. Their precious, prided work of years here lay a wanton wreck before their helpless sight. The wails of agony that emanated from their lips, indicative of the heart struggles within, presented a scene of sorrow the memory of which will never leave his mind.
But so commonplace had such experiences become to the regular townspeople that this specific outrage attracted no more than ordinary attention.
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Destruction of the Victor Record Office.
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News of this affair has been so widely advertised that a repetition of the harrowing details is unnecessary. It is enough to say that the plant was rendered useless for two weeks and that the damages amounted to $8,000.00.
Since the beginning of the strike and from the formation of the union, the Victor Record has been the unfaltering champion of organized labor. It never lost an opportunity to print the truth, and, as a consequence, the entire force, from the proprietor to the galley boy, were three times seized by the deputies and militia and thrown into the bull pen. There is no shadow of a doubt but that the heart of George E. Kyner, editor and proprietor of the paper, beats responsive to every principle advocated by union labor.
The day following the invasion of the plant, officers of the Citizens' Alliance gave it out to the world through the Associated Press that union miners had sacked the place to revenge themselves against an editorial which Kyner had printed the evening before, in which he advised calling off the strike. That this report was a lie, sent out to mislead public opinion, is best stated in Mr. Kyner's own words, who, when interviewed by a representative of the Appeal to Reason, said:
I had been arrested three times for printing the truth about this strike, had my paper censored repeatedly by the military authorities, and on more than one occasion was threatened with death if I did not change my editorial policy.
When the troops came this last time and began the deportation of the union men, I saw that the strike was broken in this district. To avoid further bloodshed and to lessen the agony of the wives and children of the striking miners involved, I advised ending the strike. Hundreds of union men, friends of mine, entertained similar views, for they thought that if the strike was called off and the men allowed to remain, it would be only a question of time when the union could be resurrected. Accordingly, an editorial to that effect was printed.
But I want to say here and now that no union man is guilty of the high-handed outrage committed in my office last night. While I am not prepared to give names, I will say that I know that the deed was done by men closely connected with the Citizens' Alliance. This talk implicating union men in the plot is done solely for the purpose of injuring their cause, and is strictly in line with the other unjust accusations lodge against them charging them with the responsibility of the Independence horror and other disasters that have occurred in the Cripple Creek district during the past six months.
The Limit of Inhumanity.
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To thoroughly subdue and starve out the last remaining vestige of unionism in Teller county, an order cutting off the source of supplies from the families of union men was issued as follows:
Immediately upon the issuance of this order John Kettleson, a local grocer in Victor, was summoned before the Citizens' Alliance and informed that he must cease selling groceries to union people at once or accept the consequences.
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Women and Children Starving.
As a result of this remarkable order suffering began to appear among a number of union families, Mrs. Ada B. Hanna, the humane officer of the district, reporting the following families as being upon the verge of starvation: Mrs. John Logan and nine children; Mrs. Patrick Finn and two children; Mrs. John Gary and five children; Mrs. Mary Boyle and four children; Mrs. Mary McCarthy and seven children; Mrs. Bell Cooper and four children, and a number whose names could not be secured. The heads of these families, all union miners, had either been deported or were languishing in the bull pen.
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Unnamed Heroines.
The world will never know the privations endured by the brave women who openly declared their willingness to starve rather than that their husbands should forsake the sacred cause of unionism. History records the heroism displayed by the women, North and South, who, when the nation was locked in a death grip of civil strife, endured worse than what the soldiers suffered on the battle field. But when the story of the gold miners' strike of Colorado has been finally told it will be found that the glory of the women who championed either the Blue or the Gray has been easily eclipsed by the heroism of the women who surrendered their all-husbands, fathers, sons, children, friends, homes and country-for the establishment of the principle of industrial liberty.
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Mrs. Adams Robbed by Soldiers.
When Mrs. Will Adams opened her door in response to a knock, seven cocked rifles, leveled and ready to fire, were shoved into her face. A demand for her husband was made. Disbelieving her story that he was not there, the deputies threw her into the yard and ransacked the house for themselves. After their departure she found that $20.00, all the money she had, was gone. A complaint at military headquarters was met with laughs of derision.
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Not Permitted to See His Sick wife.
Mrs. James Brown was ready to be confined when her husband was taken from her side. Dr. Hayes, who arrived a few minutes later, seeing the collapsed condition of the woman, sent a message to the bull pen requesting his return. The request was refused, and an hour later the child was born unattended by the presence of a father. The following day Mr. Brown was deported to Mexico.
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Guilty of Feeding Starving Children.
Three men told Mrs. Maggie Morrison to quit relieving the distress of the suffering or she would be deported. She had been guilty of the crime of carrying bread to starving children.
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Wholesale Robbery by the Militia.
In almost every house that was entered money, jewelry and other articles of value were taken by the deputized scabs. No attention was given the complaints of those robbed. Jack Green, when searched, managed to slip his paper money through a hole in the lining of his coat down into the sleeve. This he saved, though the silver was taken. Every man who had a dollar on him was considered legitimate prey by the deputies and in every instance the victim was robbed of every cent he had.
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His Crime-"A Union Sympathizer."
Old grievances were revenged in this day of opportunity. Any man who had in times past incurred the ill will of a neighbor was charged with sedition by said neighbor and hailed before the Citizens' Alliance as a union sympathizer. Charles G. Briggs, a locksmith, came very near being deported in this way.
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Women Arrested and Searched.
The Woman's Auxiliary was advertised as a rebellious organization and ordered to disband. Mrs. Kate Houten, Mrs. Estelle Nicholls and Mrs. Sophia King, the three district local presidents, were arrested, searched for treasonable literature, subjected to a rigid examination and freed, finally, on the condition that they would remain indoors and cease talking.
[emphasis added]
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The Sanctity of the Home Outraged.
For weeks after the first raid was made sentinels were posted around the homes of the strike leaders and everyone going into or coming from the houses was severely questioned by the guards. The doors of the houses were ordered to remain unlocked so that at any time during the day or night searching parties could have easy access. Quite frequently the wives and daughters of miners would be rudely awakened in the early morning hours, made to get up in their night clothes and hold a light for men who pretended they were looking for returned exiles.
But why continue the enumeration of the criminal enormities perpetrated upon these defenseless women and children by the savage militia and still more savage scabs? The existence of law and order was at stake and traitors must be stamped out. The business interests of the Citizens' Alliance and Mine Owners' Association must be conserved and the only method whereby those interests could be effectually protected lay in the wiping out of every opposing influence.
GEORGE H. SHOAF.
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Images 3 & 4 are from source above at link provide with source.
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