You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Wednesday June 15, 1904
Cripple District, Colorado - Even the Former Governor of Colorado Afraid To Speak Out
Things have come to quite a pass in the state of Colorado when even the former governor of that state suggests that he could end up in the military's bullpen for expressing his opinion on military rule in the Cripple Creek District. Former Governor Charles S. Thomas is counsel for the Portland Gold Mining company, the mine recently closed down due to having committed the crime of employing too many union men. Governor Thomas, reportedly made this statement in Denver yesterday:
We all realize that If we open our mouths about anything connected with Cripple Creek we lay ourselves liable to the bull pen or some other of the drastic measures that come under the head of military necessity.
Matters remain absolutely in statu quo. We have not decided fully as yet what course will be taken to reopen the mine. I suppose that if I talk too much I might get what Frank Hangs received. His only offense was acting as legal counsel for some men charged with crime several months ago. Perhaps If I should talk actively in regard to my client I might be burned at the stake.
Frank Hangs is the Attorney for the Western Federation of Miners who was arrested and taken to the military's bullpen on
Monday.
The above statement by Former Governor Thomas was reported in today's edition of the Omaha Daily Bee which also carried news of more arrests and deportations upon the orders of General Bell. The Bee further published a statement from the Western Federation of Miners and one from General Bell who attempts to justify the military despotism now in effect in the Cripple Creek Strike Zone:
CITIZENS AFRAID TO SPEAK
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Former Governor Thomas of Colorado Intimates Speech is Dangerous.
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DRASTIC MEASURES BY THE MILITARY
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Method In Vogue in the Mining Districts Forces Men to Hold
Their Silence or Suffer Arrest.
DENVER, June 14.-"I have nothing further to say about plans for reopening the Portland mine," said former Governor Charles S. Thomas, counsel for the Portland Gold Mining company, today. "We all realize that if we open our mouths about anything connected with Cripple Creek we lay ourselves liable to the bull pen or some other of the drastic measures that come under the head of military necessity.
"Matters remain absolutely in statu quo. We have not decided fully as yet what course will be taken to reopen the mine. I suppose that if I talk too much I might get what Frank Hangs received. His only offense was acting as legal counsel for some men charged with crime several months ago. Perhaps If I should talk actively in regard to my client I might be burned at the stake."
Test Kennison's Arrest.
A hearing is to be given to C. G. Kennison, president of the Cripple Creek Engineers' union. No. 82, and W. F. Davis, president of local Miners' union, to test the legality of their arrest. The prisoners, who were arrested yesterday, will be taken back
to Cripple Creek for trial if the court finds that they were legally arrested.
Eighty-seven warrants are out for miners who are accused of complicity in the explosion at the independence station and the rioting at Victor. These warrants have been placed in the hands of Under Sheriff Felix O'Nell here and will be given to his deputies to serve.
Leave Town to Avoid Arrest.
Among those wanted are the following: Sherman Harker, secretary of the Altman union, who was acquitted after having been held in the bull pen three months on the charge of having conspired to wreck a Florence and Cripple Creek train; B. L. Whiting, secretary of Engineers' union No. 381 of Altman; Fritz Gorey and W. B. Easterly, members of unions in the district. It is said that some of the men for whom warrants have been issued in Teller county have left Denver for Butte, Mont., to avoid arrest and incarceration in the bull pen.
In each case the charge is murder based on the explosion of Monday morning of last week at Independence station. City Marshal L. S. Moore of Goldfield, who arrested President Kennison, said today:
I know all of the miners and have been their friend all along. I was a member of the union through the Bull Hill strike in 1894. I have sympathized with the union until the dynamiting and rioting.
Vice President J. C. Williams and Secretary W. D. Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners said today that the accused men were delegates to the federation's convention and were in Denver at the time of the explosion. Officers of the federation have been requested by agents of the Mining exchange building to move the union headquarters from that building. The officers say this is petty spite work begun at the instance of the Citizens' Alliance. They have numerous offers of quarters.
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Statement by Miners.
Acting under instructions given by the twelfth annual convention of the Western Federation of Miners recently held in this city, the executive board of that organization today issued a statement regarding the strikes in Colorado and the recent disturbances in the Cripple Creek district.
The Western Federation of Miners...has always courted and invited the utmost publicity in all its acts and the acts of its members in matter affecting all its dealings...notwithstanding persistent reports to the contrary, every local union voted upon the proposition before any strike was called. The recent convention sent a committee to Cripple Creek to investigate the situation. This committee...found representatives of miners ready and willing to listen to a proposition of settlement.
Before any further conference could be held...the Citizens' Alliance interfered in such manner as to frustrate further efforts in the direction of a settlement, the interference of the alliance being no doubt prompted by the bitter hatred of the merchants against the co-operative stores established and maintained in the district by the federation..
We are fully convinced from information by trustworthy persons that the original explosion and subsequent outrages perpetrated are not only the work of the Citizens' Alliance, but are of the opinion that the whole matter was planned in advance. Perhaps no single occurrence has so much bearing on this conclusion as the forcible resignation of the various regularly elected officials of the district.
After referring to the imprisonment and deportation of union miners and the refusal of the Citizens' alliance to permit any merchant to supply provision to the families of such men the statement continues:
The very fact that union men are deported by the military is of itself sufficient to show that no evidence has been obtained against these men, for if evidence of crime was at hand does any reasonable man or woman suppose that the military commandant, or that the mob of deputy sheriffs would be simple enough to deport to other parts the guilty persons? No, indeed. What evidence there is acquits the miners, but apparently fastens the crime upon the heads of hired assassins and thugs in the pay of the Citizens' alliance.
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No Effort to Locate Criminals.
Even at the present time no determined effort is being made by the authorities to discover the real perpetrator of the Independence explosion. Nothing is attempted to be done, except to fasten this unholy crime by imputation and innuendo upon the heads of our innocent membership.
As was plainly shown some months ago in a trial where the Western Federation of Miners was accused of wrecking a train, the federation was innocent. So it is clear that none of the present outrage were committed by our members. As was plainly shown then that the crimes and outrage were committed by hired detectives and thugs for the purpose of bringing discredit upon union men, so it will be shown that the present outrages, even the ruthless slaughter of the unfortunates of the explosion that killed sixteen men at the Independence depot on the morning of June 6 was the work of these same hirelings, who simply enacted the first part of the plot that was to furnish the excuse for all subsequent outrages.
Bell Issues Statement.
CRIPPLE CREEK, Colo., June 14.-Adjutant General Sherman Bell, in command of the military here, has issued a statement concerning the deportation of union miners and others from the Cripple Creek district. The statement was prepared at the request of an eastern newspaper for an opinion as to why the deportations do not conflict with the provisions of the constitution of the United States against depriving any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law. It reads in part as follows:
The powers of the military in dealing with en organization engaged in insurrection against the lawful authorities of the state, in a criminal conspiracy against the lives of its citizens, has recently been defined by the honorable supreme court of this state in re Moyer, in which I refer you for my authority. I am taking only such steps as are necessary to restore peace in this community and to render safe the lives of its citizens. Many innocent lives have already been sacrificed and the authorities of Colorado propose that these assassinations shall cease.
The people of Colorado love order and peace and law, just as much as those of the older communities, but they sometimes make their election of citizens in a hurry, and the murderous, unspeakable outrage at the Independence station a week ago, coming as a culmination of many hidden crimes, all traceable to the Western Federation of Miners, precipitated such an election.
A committee of forty leading business men today unanimously agreed upon the following statement of the attitude of employers toward union labor in this district:
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Determined to Have Peace.
In the future neither walking delegates, agitators or labor unions will be allowed to say who may or who may not labor in Teller county, who may or who may not be in business here. The source of all strife In the Cripple Creek district has been the Western Federation of Miners and the Trades assembly, which they dominated, and through which they carried out their boycotts, etc.
There Is no room in Teller county for these two organisations, and their existence will no longer be tolerated. The citizens and taxpayers are determined to have peace and law and order in Teller county, and while they have no wish to work hardship on any person simply because of his membership in a labor union, nevertheless, drastic measures must and will be adopted to preserve peace.
Thirty-Six Miners Exiled.
VICTOR, Colo., June 14.-Thirty-six men were deported this afternoon by the military. The men were residents of different sections of the district, but mainly lived in Cripple Creek and Victor. There was a large crowd at the Florence and Cripple Creek station when the men were loaded on the train, but little excitement or demonstration of any kind was made. The destination of the exiles was given out unofficially as New Mexico. The report was current, however, that they would be taken through that territory to the Old Mexico line and made to pass over on to Mexican soil. A strong guard of military will accompany the men until they are finally released. The men sent out today are nearly all union men or union sympathizers. Quite a number of them are married. Food was taken on the train for the prisoners.
SOURCE
Omaha Daily Bee
(Omaha, Nebraska)
-of June 15, 1904
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...
IMAGE
The Bull Pen
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
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Monday June 15, 1914
Washington D. C., - John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Remains Firm, Will Not Agree to Mediation
By Ryan Walker from the Appeal to Reason of May 23, 1914
From today's edition of the Chicago
Day Book:
COLORADO MINES SITUATION IS
COMING TO SHOWDOWN
Washington, June 15.-A military receivership to compulsory arbitration faces the Rockefellers and allied interests in the Colorado coal fields. Aroused by the belligerent brief of the mine operators submitted to the House mines committee, members declared Pres. Wilson will be forced to one of the above extremes to settle the civil war now dormant under orders from federal troops.
Congress, Colorado state officials and the United Mine Workers were bitterly attacked in the brief. Lawless agitation throughout the country lamented. Congress was charged with showing extreme favoritism to "Mother" Jones, a strike leader. The operators showed no signs of agreeing to mediation. Everything in the brief was a reiteration of the position of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., before the House committee that the Rockefellers would lose every cent invested in Colorado before they would yield to the union demands.
SOURCE
The Day Book
(Chicago, Illinois)
-of June 15, 1914
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...
IMAGE
"The Oil of Rockefeller" by Ryan Walker,
Appeal to Reason, May 23, 1914
http://www.newspapers.com/...
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Fire In The Hole - Hazel Dickens
Daddy died a miner and Grandpa he did to,
I'll bet this coal will kill 'fore my workin' days is through.
And a hole this dark and dirty an early grave I'll find
I plan to make a union for the ones I leave behind.
-Hazel Dickens
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