You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Wednesday March 2, 1904
Cripple Creek District - Witnesses for the Defense Demolish Case Against Union Leaders
The work of demolishing the case against the district leaders of the Western Federation of Miners, begun early last week by the "persecution's" own witnesses, was completed later in the week by the witnesses for the defense. The case for the defense was presented, beginning on Friday. Mrs. Emma F. Langdon offers this report from the courtroom:
February 26, the examination of witnesses for the defense began, and then came revelations of the utter debasement of hired fiends who would have perpetrated a crime upon Colorado's fair name that time could never eradicate. The testimony of dozens of unimpeachable witnesses proved clearly an absolute alibi for [Sherman] Parker and [Thomas] Foster. The testimony of Victor Mathers proved conclusively to any mind that the foul conspiracy and alleged crime was carried out by Sleuth Scott with Sleuth Sterling a close accomplice! Section Foreman Powers measured the tracks in the snow the morning of the bungling job and his testimony proved a most perfect link in the unbroken chain of evidence against Scott and Sterling as the actual perpetrators of the alleged "attempted wreck." Under the positively unimpeachable evidence of the numerous witnesses for the defense, the "persecution" utterly collapsed.
Saturday, February 28, witnessed the complete demolishing of every scintilla of every suspicion, let alone of evidence, against the defendants, and the diabolical jobbery of ambitious sleuths and spies and the wholesale perjuries of the star witnesses for the "persecution" had been thoroughly exposed and nothing but the formality of absolute acquittal by the jury [could] legally establish the innocence of the victims of one of the most heinous plots ever conceived in the minds of persecutors.
The case is now in the hands of the jury, and a verdict is expected at any time. Meanwhile, Assistant District Attorney Cole has seen fit to nolle pross the cases against Sherman Parker, C. G. Kennison, W. F. Davis and Steve Adams. They were charged in connection with the alleged murder of Superintendent McCormick and Shift Boss Beck at the Vindicator mine on November 21, 1903. Mr. Cole also nollied the cases against W. F. Davis, accused of pulling the spikes in an alleged train-wrecking plot on November 13 and 17. The remaining cases against Thomas Foster and Sherman Parker will also be nollied according to Assistant District Attorney Cole.
SOURCE
The Cripple Creek Strike
-by Emma F Langdon
(Part I, 1st pub 1904)
NY, 1969
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
Photo: Colorado, Striking Miners in the Bull Pen
Used to represent the Cripple Creek Strikers of 1903-04, I've seen this photo credited to both the 1904 and the 1894 strikes. More research needed.
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
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Monday March 2, 1914
From The Daily Free Press: Huhta Confesses to Painesdale Murders
5 UNION MINERS HELD FOR SLAYING
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Three Nonunion Workers Killed in Copper Strike Were British Subjects.
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FORMER OFFICIAL CONFESSES
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Prisoners Are Accused of Firing Fusillade of Shots Into Boarding House While Hid in the Woods Near Painesdale.
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Houghton, Mich. March 2.-In connection with the Painesdale murder mystery, which is said to have begun one of the developments of the copper miners' strike, five members of the Western Federations of Miners were arrested here. The arrests were made after an alleged confession by John Huhta, former secretary of the South Range local of the federation.
Nick Verbanac, an organizer for the federation; Hjalmer Jailonin, Issac Juttinen; Joseph Juttinen and Huhta are prisoners in the Houghton county jail charged with the murder of Thos. Daily, Arthur Jane and Harry Jane, nonunion mine workers at Painesdale, early on the morning of Dec 7.
Held Without Bond.
They are held without bond for hearing on March 5.
The confession made by Huhta was voluntary, according to Sheriff Cruze [sic]. Special Prosecutor George E. Nichols was summoned by wire from his Grand Rapids home to Houghton to receive the confession. The arrests followed.
Sheriff Cruze said the confession, in substance, was that Huhta declared he and the other men under arrest fired a fusillade of shots into the Daily boarding house from the woods nearby; that he fired nine shots himself, and that the plot was conceived by a man who has not been arrested.
Victims British Subjects
Huhta stipulated specifically that he was turning state's evidence, said the sheriff, and said that he was moved to confess by pangs of conscience and anger toward the federation, which had removed him as secretary.
Verbana is a Croatian miner. The four other prisoners are Fins. The case attracted widespread attention because the victims were British subjects. A special grand jury spent several days investigating the affair, but returned no indictments.
SOURCE
The Daily Free Press
(Carbondale, Illinois)
-of Mar 2, 1914
See also: Hellraisers Journal of Monday December 8, 1913
"Painesdale, Michigan - Boarding House Attacked, Three Dead, Girl Wounded"
http://www.dailykos.com/...
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Note: I've been thinking about this song lately in relation to the many union leaders, both national and local, who ended up on trial for their lives. Perhaps, one of these days, I'll try and rework the verses a bit to dedicate to the memory of these brave men. We will soon find John R Lawson on trial for his life in Colorado, a man who had already nearly found his wife and daughter killed when his home was bombed, and who was soon thereafter shot down and almost killed by the mine owner suspected in the bombings of the homes of the local union leaders.
Being a Union Leader in those days was a job only for those able to stand up against fierce brutality. Those who were as brave as they could be.
I Am A Union Woman-Deborah Holland
This is the worst time on earth that I have ever saw,
To get shot down by gun thugs and framed up by the law.
-Aunt Molly Jackson
Warning: link is pdf!