You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Saturday August 22, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado - The Gunthugs of the El Paso Mine
We have already seen how the El Paso has hired on criminals paroled from the state prison expressly to replace the union men who, through years of toil, brought great wealth to the mine owners. At this time there are seventeen men of this sort working as armed guards around the mine. They take it upon themselves to enforce the company's law upon the citizens of this state whose business takes them anywhere near to company property. They are not deputized by the sheriff, nor under the supervision of any elected official.
And while enforcing the Company Law on and off company property, they show little respect for the laws of the county or state in which they now reside. There are reports of these guards brawling amongst themselves. They stand accused of theft and of even more barbaric acts, such as indecent exposure before the children of the area. Brother Dennison, proud member of the West Federation of Miners, is unfortunate enough to live nearby to the mine with his family, They suffer daily the taunts, jeers, threats and indecent acts of these company gunthugs.
SOURCE
The Cripple Creek Strike
-by Emma F Langdon
(Part I, 1st pub 1904)
NY, 1969
Friday August 22, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado - The Visit of Deputy Labor Commissioner Brake
Brake arrived in Trinidad amazed to find a small peaceful town in spite of all that he had heard in Denver about the troubles here. He arrived at 7:45 p.m. on Saturday night, and checked into the Toltec Hotel on Commercial Street. Soon after, he was standing in the street over the bullet-ridden body of Gerald Lippiatt, organizer for the U.M.W.
Sunday morning, Brake met with the local Chamber of Commerce. Brake promised to use his influence with the Colorado Federation of Labor to avoid an endorsement of a strike by the local miners. As the Convention proceeded in the presence of Brother Lippiatt's empty chair, draped in black, Brake found that his influence on the union men was little to none.
The Convention voted to support any action that District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America should decide to take in the southern coalfield, up to and including a shut down of all the mines in the area.
Out of the Depths
Barron B. Beshoar
(1st ed 1942)
CO, 1980
Hellraisers Journal on vacation!
Hellraisers will appear in abbreviated form until Sept 2nd for a vacation of sorts. A total vacation is not possible since the capitalist never took any time off in their suppression of the U.S.labor movement.
Solidarity,
JayRaye