You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Friday January 15, 1904
Denver, Colorado - Report of Emma Langdon from the C. F. of L. Convention
Guy Miller, President
Telluride Miners' Union
We have received this report of yesterday's events from Mrs. Emma F. Langdon of the Typographical Union, delegate to the Special Convention of C. F. of L:
A committee of the State Federation of Labor called on the governor [yesterday] and made the following requests:
That the troops be withdrawn.
That the vagrancy order be rescinded.
That the deported men be allowed to return to their homes.
The governor gave a specific reply. He promised "justice" to all the miners, etc.
The report of the committee was made by Chairman Thos. Hyder, who spoke of the governor as "wearing a smile that never comes off." Among the things the governor offered against the Telluride miners was that he had "only deported foreigners, ex-convicts, etc., most of whom bore assumed names." The writer, at the very moment the chairman of the committee was making the report, had the honor of occupying a seat next to Guy E. Miller, president of the Telluride union, who had been deported by order of the "czar." I made inquiries of Mr. Miller, " Guy" as he is commonly called, as to his convict number, and also as to what his real name was, but for the reason that at birth he had been christened Guy E. Miller and for the additional reason that he had never been to the penitentiary I could obtain no satisfactory reply to my question.
While the committee was still reporting the good promises made to them by the "czar of Colorado," how each and every man would have "justice," etc., there came a message to the convention from the Cripple Creek district that Sherman Parker had again been arrested by military and again confined in the Military prison. The message aroused the indignation of every delegate in the convention....
Guy E. Miller made a motion that the convention wait upon the governor in a body and demand the release of Parker. The appeal made by this loyal union man, who had suffered arrest three or more times, incarceration in the bull pen and finally deportation, will ever remain fresh in my memory; the eloquence of his address not having been surpassed by any orator I have ever heard...The motion so ably placed before the convention by Mr. Miller lost, and a committee was appointed to see the governor [this] morning.
SOURCE
The Cripple Creek Strike
-by Emma F Langdon
(Part I, 1st pub 1904)
NY, 1969
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
Photo: Guy Miller
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
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Thursday January 15, 1914
From the Miners' Bulletin: "Strikers Hold Monster Meetings"
The Bulletin, the voice of the Western Federation of Miners in Michigan's Copper Country reports:
During Friday and Saturday of last week monster meetings of the striking miners were held at Hancock, Calumet and Ahmeek at which several noted men addressed the assemblages. The result of the visit of governor Ferris in settling the strike was soon discovered to be of no consequence, and as a result these meeting were called in protest of his weak and vacillating attitude in the matter. The Governor while here conducted his conferences in a very tactful and evasive way, and tread lightly on the toes of both warring factions. However since his return to his native haunts, he is credited with having made some statements that do not reflect much credit on the attitude he took while in the copper country. The Governors remarks in question were substantially as follows: "That if the strikers and Mine Owners would get together without the assistance of agitators, the strike would soon be settled," or in their words, if the strikers went to the Mine Owners and begged for their jobs back, tore up their union cards and conceded every point to the Mine Owners, they would be gladly put on the pay roll again.
The Governor would have us believe that an "agitator" is of some peculiar species, whose sole aim is to create discontent then to intensify it by creating more discontent and so on ad infinitum. The foreign agitator referred to by the Governor is not nearly so insistent as the home product of which every striking miner in the district must be classed. Should the strikers and Mine Owners get together and settle the industrial war it could not be done without some agitation on the part of the strikers if they were conceded a single point, and the Governor knows this as well as does the strikers. The Governor is as persistent in his overt desire to see the Western Federation eliminated from the district, as are the Mine Owners. His wishes in this matter, however will not be fulfilled, and he might as well understand this first as last...
[paragraph break added]
The Governor, apparently, wasn't listening when James MacNaughton told the thousands of striking copper miners and their families that grass would grow in the streets before he would negotiate with them, and that further, he would teach them to eat potato parings.
Many fine speeches were delivered at the mass meetings by such noted speakers as Charles Edward Russell of the Socialist Party of America, now in the copper country investigating conditions, James Lord of the United Mine Workers of Illinois, Seymour Stedman of the Illinois Legislature. Due to his recent gunshot wound at the hands of the Citizens' Alliance mob, W. F. of M. President, Charles Moyer kept his remarks brief. He, nevertheless, received a long enthusiastic ovation. The Bulletin reports:
When he arose to walk to the front of the stage the cheering and waving of hats and handkerchiefs began and did not subside for fully fifteen minutes.
So much for the "coercion" of "outside agitators."
SOURCES
Miners' Bulletin
"Published by authority of
Western Federation of Miners
to tell the truth regarding
the strike of copper miners."
-of Jan 14, 1914
Death's Door
The Truth Behind Michigan's Largest Mass Murder
-by Steve Lehto
MI, 2006
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Wednesday January 15, 2014
More on the Investigation by the Socialist Party of America
From the Miners' Bulletin:
Whole Responsibility on Mine Owners
By CHARLES EDWARD RUSSELL
Member of the Socialist Party Investigating Committee
Next to the impression of wide spread misery and distress caused by this strike, the strongest impression one gets from an investigation of it is that all of the suffering, all the bloodshed, all the loss of life, all the fierce hatred engendered, were absolutely unnecessary.
From this conclusion I can see no escape after reviewing the situation as it really is.
There was not one thing in the demands of the men that was not perfectly reasonable, nothing that was not just, nothing that was extravagant, nothing that the companies could not well afford to grant.
The employing companies include some of the richest mining concerns in the world. The increased expense that would be caused by granting the demands would have been but a trifle compared with their enormous profits. It is admitted that the cost of living in the copper country is very high; it is also admitted that this cost is and has been increasing steadily. Unless the miners were to be definitely condemned to greater privations, a worse standard of living, and still narrower prospects than they had previously endured an increase in their earnings was unquestionably necessary...
The real reason why the companies rejected the demands of the men was the bitter hatred the mine mangers felt toward organized labor. There was no consideration of any question whether the men were right or wrong. There was no consideration of the justice and necessity of the men's demands. The only thing considered was that these men were members of a labor organization and any demand coming from organized labor was to be suppressed no matter what its nature or its justice.
That is the sole thing that precipitated the strike, and that is why I say the strike was absolutely unnecessary, and sole blame for it and its consequences rests upon the employers. For this is not a case in which one can say that there was wrong on both sides. The mere fact that the employers would not treat with their employees in itself puts all the blame upon one side, and that the side of the employers...
SOURCE
Miners' Bulletin
"Published by authority of
Western Federation of Miners
to tell the truth regarding
the strike of copper miners."
-of Jan 14, 1914
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Solidarity Forever-UAW Members
Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite
Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?
For the union makes us strong
Chorus
Solidarity forever, solidarity forever
Solidarity forever
For the Union makes us strong
-Ralph Chaplin, 1915
This version of Solidarity Forever is especially appropriate to dedicate to the Michigan Copper Strikers of 1913-14. For, although they were defeated after a hard-fought and painful struggle, many of them moved to Detroit and went to work making automobiles. Here they became the old veteran fighters when the UAW began their organizing campaign which ended in victory in Great Sit-Down Strike of 1937.