You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Wednesday November 25, 1903
Camp Goldfield, Colorado - Union Men Taken to Bullpen, Held Without Charges
Since the tragic explosion at the Vindicator Mine which killed two men, the military has been rounding up striking miners without warrants and holding them in the bullpen at Camp Goldfield without charges. The Mine Owners have fixed the blame for the explosion on a mysterious "inner circle" of the Western Federation of Miners. And the Colorado National Guard works at the behest of the Mine Owners, of that there can be no doubt.
We would point out the findings of the Coroner's Jury: "From the examinations made at the mine, and the evidence introduced, the jury is unable to determine the exact cause of the explosion." We would also point out that it is the mine owners, and not the miners, who make boast of importing enough gunthugs into the strike zone to start their own "rough houses." We would further point out that no mine owner nor any of their imported criminal have ever been arrested in connection with the several suspicious fires which have destroyed the homes of union miners, the home of Brother Dennison being only one example, other homes having been burned at Beacon Hill and near the Santa Rita.
We have received this list of men who have been arrested:
Sherman Parker, H. Chase, Link Bolson, W. B. Easterly, W. F. Davis, John Schoolcraft, Gus Johnson, J. B. Isibell, R. Bolan, William Beecher, Victor Poole, Mr. Fleming, H. P. Jones, C. G. Kennison, C. H. McKinney, Bob Adams, P. H. Mullaney and Frank Campbell. We have word that a few have been released, but do not have those names at this time.
SOURCE
The Cripple Creek Strike
-by Emma F Langdon
(Part I, 1st pub 1904)
NY, 1969
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
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Tuesday November 25, 1913
From the Miners' Bulletin: "The Outlook Bright," (For Union Men), Part II
The following article is from the front page of No. 38, the November 22nd edition of the
Bulletin:
Many workers have been deceived into coming into this district to secure employment, a large majority not knowing where they were going; the car doors being locked during the trip. However, most of them detest scabbing and make a get-a-away at the first opportunity. The strikebreakers are cruelly misused, very few if any, being permitted to leave the vicinity of the works at which boarding houses have been installed. The first money earned by these men is appropriated by the companies for railroad fare advanced, then comes the store and board bills.
Several men who had been working at the Quincy mine for the past six weeks quit and left the country the other day without securing one penny in wages, it all being eaten up by board, railroad fare and the store. The Mining Companies of this district in their positions since the camp was organized have become absolutely domineering. Their right to name wages and working conditions having never before been challenged. It [the challenging of their absolute power] is taken as an insult to their Integrity, a slur to their generous and patronizing spirit toward their employes.
There follows a long list of mines and a schedule of average daily wages over a period of the last few years, which averaged between $2.57 per day to $1.75 per day with number of hours worked per day not given.
SOURCE
Miners' Bulletin
"Published by authority of
Western Federation of Miners
to tell the truth regarding
the strike of copper miners."
-of Nov 22, 1913
Photo: Imported Strikebreakers, Michigan Copper Strike
http://coppercountry.wordpress.com/
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Monday November 25, 2013
Affidavits from strikebreakers imported into the 1913 Michigan Copper Strike:
State of Michigan, County of Houghton, ss:
We, the undersigned, being duly sworn, depose and say, that we reside in the city of Chicago, State of Illinois. That we went into the Chicago Commissary Co. & Employment Agency inquiring if there was any work to be had and we were informed that there is work in Michigan, either in the mines or on the railroad. We asked is there any trouble or strike in the district and were informed that there was no labor trouble or strike in that district, and we were promised to be paid at the rate of $2.50 a day, board would cost $5 a week, and the company pay every two weeks.
Stani Skinbr,
Frank Fvode,
Emil Braun,
Yachnal Miller,
Fred Bauer,
Zot Bolefski,
Tom Zacki.
Subscribed and sworn to before me, a notary public in and for Houghton County, Mich., this 29th day of September, A. D. 1913.
John Ktiskila,
Notary Public, Houghton County, Mich.
My commission expires November 17, 1916.
County or Houghton, State of Michigan, ss:
Barney McAllister and John McManus, being first duly sworn, depose and say that they are residents of Fargo, N. Dak; that on the 21st day of October, 1913, they went to the Western Employment Agency office in Fargo, where they could get a ticket to the Michigan mines for $2. They only intended to go as far as Superior, Wis., where they intended to stay . "One of the deputies at the station stepped up to us and we told him we wanted to get something to eat and would like to stay over night as we were tired." He said, drawing his gun: "You have to go to Calumet." Then we were taken to the cars. We were guarded until we got to Calumet where the train stopped. We were taken from the cars by five or six deputies, put in an auto and taken to one of the mining camps.
Deponents further saith not.
John McManus.
B. McAllister.
Sworn to and subscribed before me, a notary public, this 28th day of October, 1913.
John Malnar, Notary Public.
My commission expires June 13, 1915.
SOURCE
Strike in the Copper Mining District of Michigan: Letter from the Secretary of Labor [William B Wilson], Transmitting in Response to a Senate Resolution of January 29, 1914, a Report in Regard to the Strike of Mine Workers in the Michigan Copper District which Began on July 23, 1913
-page 66
http://books.google.com/...
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I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry-Hank Williams
I've never seen a night so long
When time goes crawling by
The moon just went behind a cloud
To hide its face and cry
-Hank Williams