Hellraisers Journal: News Round-Up from the Southern Colorado Coalfield Strike: Company Town “Marshal” Killed

6th October 20239th October 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III —————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 6, 1913
News Round-Up from the Southern Colorado Coalfield Strike

From the Trinidad Chronicle News of September 25, 1913:

Note: The Chronicle News is published by Judge Jesse G. Northcutt, attorney for Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.

———-

Thursday September 25, 1913
Segundo, Colorado – Company Gunman, Bob Lee, Shot and Killed by Greek Miners

Bob Lee, a gunman brought in to work as a coalfield marshal, was shot and killed by Greek miners near Segundo yesterday. Lee was found on the ground where he had fallen from his horse. His rifle was on the ground beside him still cocked.

The trouble started when the miners were not allowed to send a wagon to the mining camp in order to retrieve their belongs. Bob Lee heard that the Greek miners were taking their anger out on a company footbridge that crossed Las Animas Creek. At about noon, Lee road up on the bridge to confront the miners. Tempers flared as Lee used his horse to push the miners back, and they resisted. As Lee reached for his rifle, shots rang out, and Lee was killed.

The suspects are Tom Larius and four other Greek miners. Word has it that they have fled to New Mexico. A mounted posse has been unable to apprehend them.

———-

From The Rocky Mountain News of September 27, 1913:

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Michigan Miners’ Bulletin: “A Woman’s Story” by Annie Clemenc of Calumet

5th October 20237th October 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Annie Clemenc, Die Behind Flag, Mnrs Bltn, Sept 16, 1913 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 5, 1913
Annie Clemenc, Wife of Striking Miner, Arrested Yet Again

From the Michigan Miners’ Bulletin of October 2, 1913

A Woman’s Story

At Seventh Street Tuesday morning a party of strikers met a man with a dinner bucket. I asked him: “Where are you going, partner?” He replied: “To work.” “Not in the mine are you?” “You bet I am.” after talking with him a while his wife came and took him down the street. She seemed very much afraid.

He had just gone when a couple of Austrians came along with their buckets. I stepped up to one I knew: “O! George, you are not going to work, are you? Come, stay with us. Don’t allow that bad woman to drive you to work. Stick to us and we will stick to you.” He stepped back, willing to comply with my request.

Then the deputies came, caught him by the shoulder and pushed him along, saying: “You coward, are you going back because a woman told you not to go to work?” The deputies, some eight or ten of them, pulled him along with them.

A militia officer, I think it was General Abbey, said: “Annie, you have to get away from here.” “No, I am not going. I have a right to stand here and quietly ask the scabs not to go to work.”

I was standing to one side of the crowd and he said: “You will have to get in the auto.” “I won’t go until you tell me the reason.” Then he made me get in the auto. I kept pounding the automobile with my feet and asking what I was being taken to jail for. The officer said: “Why don’t you stay at home?” “I won’t stay at home, my work is here, nobody can stop me. I am going to keep at it until this strike is won.” I was kept in jail from six-thirty until twelve, then released under bond.

[Newsclip added. Emphasis added.]

Note that Annie was arrested by the military only for talking quietly to the scabs. The deputies who man-handled the scab and forced him to go to work against his will were not in any way molested by the military.

This same issue of the Miners’ Bulletin (page 2) contains an affidavit sworn to and signed by 24 strikebreakers. They tell of being shipped into the Copper Country under false pretenses, of being beaten when they refused to work after they realized that a strike was on, of then being kept prisoner in a boarding house for refusing to work, and of not being paid for the work that they did do. These men were finally released, and then made their way to the Union Hall. They swore out their affidavit on Sept. 29 in Houghton County.

And thus, not only do the soldiers not prevent the deputies from making prisoners of imported workers who refuse to be turned into scabs, but the soldiers actively assists these deputies. In fact, many of the soldiers have been made deputies once their term of service ends.

On Wednesday, October 1, Annie, known as the Joan of Arc of the striking copper miners, was arrested yet again, this time by a Major Harry Britton. Annie was marching at the head of 400 strikers, carrying her huge American flag as usual. They were on their way to perform picket duty at the mines when they were stopped by deputies and cavalrymen with Major Britton in command.

Major Britton attempted to arrest Annie, claiming she spit at a scab. When the Major used his sword to beat back a striker who came to Annie’s aid, other strikers joined in the fray. Cavalrymen then charged into the midst of the strikers. Major Britton bragged:

Excited horses prancing about are the best weapons.

He describe the results with satisfaction:

..a striker with his head bleeding, blood flowing down over his shirt, [was] half-staggering along the road.

Annie was arrested along with nine others. Annie was released and an the very next day lead another strikers’ march with her immense American flag.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Michigan Miners’ Bulletin: “A Woman’s Story” by Annie Clemenc of Calumet” →

Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: “The Case of the Hop Pickers” by Mortimer Downing, Part II

4th October 20237th October 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Shall We Still Be Slaves by ES Nelson, LRSB 1919 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 4, 1913
Wheatland, California – Hop Pickers Attacked While Meeting on Durst Brothers

From the International Socialist Review of October 1913:

—–

[Part II of II.]

While the workers were still in meeting [of Sunday afternoon, August 3rd] and while they were singing “Conditions They Are Bad,” eleven armed men, headed by Sheriff Voss, whirled into the hop yard in two automobiles. They leaped to the ground. Among them was Edward Tecumseh Manwell, the district attorney. All these armed men charged the crowd. Voss, the sheriff, rushed to the stand, seized Dick Ford, and said he was under arrest. Ford asked for a warrant. Voss struck him. At the same time he lifted his gun, fired and ordered the crowd to disperse. Just then a woman seized Voss. He clubbed her with his gun. She tripped him and he fell.

By this time all the eleven men were shooting and the shots sounded like a battle. Voss went down. The crowd closed in around him. The woman was on top. A Porto Rican, name unknown, rushed from his tent through the crowd and got the sheriff’s gun. He saw the district attorney, Edward Tecumseh Manwell, ready to shoot into the crowd of workers. The Porto Rican killed Manwell. Already one of the workers, an unidentified English boy, had been killed. The Porto Rican then shot Eugene Reardon, one of the deputy sheriffs, and at almost the same time he dropped dead himself with a load of buckshot in his breast, which tore away the ribs and exposed his lungs. Harry Daken fired the shot. All these incidents took place while William Beck, one of the prisoners held in Marysville jail, was running less than two hundred yards.

So dumfounded were the deputies when this Porto Rican boy returned their fire that they ran like scared jack-rabbits. In less than a minute after they charged into the yard they were tearing away again in their automobiles. They made the trip back to Marysville from Wheatland, more than ten miles, in eleven minutes.

Left in the hands of the strikers was the sheriff, whose leg had been broken in the scuffle. Four dead bodies and about a dozen wounded testified to the savagery of the fight. The strikers nursed the wounds of the sheriff and the others injured, regardless of whether they were friend or enemy. After the battle, working-class humanity asserted itself. The sheriff told the men and women that they were better to him than his own men, who had fled. He was taken in a wagon to the town of Wheatland and turned over to his friends.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: “The Case of the Hop Pickers” by Mortimer Downing, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: “The Case of the Hop Pickers” by Mortimer Downing, Part I

3rd October 20234th October 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Shall We Still Be Slaves by ES Nelson, LRSB 1919 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 3, 1913
Wheatland, California – Hop Pickers on Durst Brothers Meet and Issue Demands

From the International Socialist Review of October 1913:

—–

[Part I of II.]

ACTING on an invitation by Durst brothers twenty-three hundred men, women and children assembled to pick the Durst Brothers’ hops on their 600-acre ranch near the town of Wheatland, California. The posters and newspaper advertisements described the conditions on the Durst ranch as something ideal. All the workers had to do was to pick a few hops, enjoy a picnic and make plenty of money.

Just prior to August 3 these people assembled at the Durst ranch and found the first thing they had to do was to rent a shack or a tent from agents of the owners at the rate of from 75 cents per week up. The first money they earned was deducted to pay this rent. The rentals charged the pickers were in excess of $480 per week for four acres of ground which the state health inspector has described as a “sun-baked flat.” This in itself was a rather tidy profit for the boss.

It was soon found that Durst Brothers had provided only six single toilets for the twenty-three hundred workers. These apologies for modesty were turned over to the women, who used to stand twenty and thirty deep waiting a turn to use these places, while the whole camp looked on. Later it was found, when the men and women swarmed into the fields to pick the hops, that a cousin of the Durst Brothers had the “lemonade privilege.” In order that this thrifty scion of canny stock should have every opportunity to make an honest penny, Durst Brothers would not permit any water to be hauled into the field, nor would they allow the workers to fill bottles from the water wagons which were used in cultivating the crop. Lemonade was sold to the workers at five cents per glass.

Pay at this hop yard was at the rate of 90 cents per hundred pounds of hops picked with a sliding bonus up to 15 cents, according to the length of time the worker staid on the job. Durst Brothers were particularly urgent that the hops should be absolutely clean of leaves or stems and that only the blooms should be taken. This rigid inspection made the work far slower than in other hop yards.

Conditions were so bad that after one or two days’ work the pickers assembled in meeting and voiced their discontent. They drew up demands for better sanitary conditions, more toilets, that lemons and not acetic acid should be put in the lemonade; that they should have water in the field twice a day, that high pole men be provided to pull down the hops from the poles, and that owing to the strict inspection of the pick that the pay be a flat rate of $1.25 per hundred pounds. This would enable an average worker to earn about $2 per day, out of which he had to pay for his shack and board himself.

These demands were presented to Durst Brothers by a committee. Ralph Durst, testifying before the coroner’s jury, stated that when Dick Ford, the chairman, approached him he “had both his gloves on and that he jocosely slapped Ford across the face.” He then took the demands under consideration. After a time he returned and made evasive promises of remedy of the sanitary conditions, talked a lot about having water in the field and flatly refused to advance the wages. This was on Sunday afternoon, August 3. The workers remained in meeting and were considering the reply of Durst. While they were so assembled Durst telephoned to the nearby town of Marysville for the sheriff and a posse. [to be continued…]

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: “The Case of the Hop Pickers” by Mortimer Downing, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Jack London on the “Good” Soldier, the Lowest Aim in the Lives of a Young Men

2nd October 20231st October 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Jack London, The Good Soldier, No Killing, ISR p199, Oct 1913 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 2, 1913
“The ‘Good’ Soldier” by Jack London

From the International Socialist Review of October 1913:

Jack London from The Comrade of March 1903:

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Jack London on the “Good” Soldier, the Lowest Aim in the Lives of a Young Men” →

Hellraisers Journal: Emma F. Langdon Reports: Judge Seeds Takes a Stand Against Military Monarchy and for the Constitution

1st October 20231st October 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III —————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 1, 1903
Cripple Creek, Colorado – Judge Seeds Defends Constitutional Government

Cartoon by A. W. Steele of the The Denver Post:

Report of Emma F. Langdon of Victor, Colorado:

Judge Seeds Thursday morning (September 24) notified General Chase to be present in court with his prisoners [Parker, Campbell, Lafferty, McKinney] before 2 o’clock in the afternoon, as promptly at that hour he would render a decision in the habeas corpus case. Chase stated that whatever the decision of the court might be, he would certainly bring the prisoners back to Camp Goldfield unless otherwise ordered by the governor of Colorado. At 1:30 the military appeared with the same old pomp, minus the gatling gun. (Formerly of Wyoming.)

After patiently listening for several hours, Judge Seeds ordered the prisoners released and handed over to the civil authorities, and gave reasons for his decision in a long and carefully compiled argument from which I quote a few:

[Judge Seeds Speaks:]

If the court shall err in its conclusions, it will be no fault of the able counsel who appear for and against the prisoner. Extraordinary industry has been displayed by counsel in the production of authorities, and the questions involved have been discussed with unusual ardor, eloquence and logic. As the result of counsel’s labors, and the great attention and consideration the court has given to their arguments and authorities, it feels clear in its conclusions, and can announce them without any misgiving.

The importance of the questions cannot be over estimated. They embrace not only the power and authority of the commander of the military forces of the state over the freedom of the citizens in times of local disturbances that may more or less imperil life and property, but also the very fundamental principles of American liberty…..

For the reason that the governor recites in the order, he directs the brigadier general commanding the National guard to forthwith order out the troops, etc., specified, to properly enforce the constitution and laws of the state, and to prevent the threatened insurrection and to protect all persons and property in said county from unlawful interference, and to see that threats, intimidations, assaults and all acts of violence cease and that public peace and order be preserved. I take it that what all these commands mean is that the brigadier general should, with the National guard, support and enforce the laws within the prescribed district. That the case presented by the petition required that the habeas corpus should issue as prayed admits of no question. The question is, does the executive order, admitting all that it recites as the basis for it, to be true, and that General Chase arrested and detained the prisoners by virtue of that order, constitute a justification of the act……

The threatened insurrection referred to in the order was in connection with a strike in the Cripple Creek district by the metaliferous miners. It is not denied that they quit work peacefully; but it was feared by some and claimed by others that in the course of the strike persons would be injured and property destroyed and that the insurrection was threatened by an organization known as the Western Federation of Miners to which the striking miners belonged. Whether the fear was well or ill founded it is not for the court to say. It will accept the statement in the executive order as the truth. It feels bound to do so from the respect which one of the co-ordinate branches of the state government should always entertain for the other two…..

I take it to be fundamental that, except a state of war exists, a state in which all civil authority is overthrown, what is known as “martial law” cannot exist or be declared under our state constitution…..

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Hellraisers Journal: Emma F. Langdon Reports on the Military Seizure of the Town of Cripple Creek by General Sherman Bell

30th September 20231st October 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III —————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 30, 1903
Cripple Creek, Colorado – General Bell Captures Town as Miners Marched to Court

Cartoon by A. W. Steele of the The Denver Post:

Report of Emma F. Langdon of Victor, Colorado:

Friday Sept. 18, was the day the prisoners [Messrs. Parker, Campbell, Lafferty and McKinney] were to be produced by the military. The writs issued by Judge Seeds being returnable on that date. Tom McClelland appeared in the district court that morning to represent Generals Chase and Bell, who were not present, and asked for a continuance of the habeas corpus cases for five days. This was refused by Judge Seeds, on the grounds that the respondents had made no return upon the writ, neither producing the prisoners in court, or showing cause why the order of the court had not been complied with. McClelland then stated to the court that if given until 2 o’clock in the afternoon, he would make a return on the writ and then argue the question of continuance.

When court convened at 10 o’clock McClelland arose and, with folded arms, addressed the court, stating that he represented the respondents, Chase and Bell, and on their behalf asked for a continuance. He said: “A great many question are involved in this case, and owing to the duties of the military camp I have not had the time to prepare such an answer as I would like to present to this court. Under this statute it is discretionary with the court to allow five days for an answer. I would, therefore, ask until Monday morning or longer to do so.”

General Eugene Engley, counsel for the prisoners, objected. He said: “There has not been sufficient showing to warrant the continuance sought by Brother McClelland. The statute is very clear on this point. It says that only upon the return of the writ a day shall be set for a hearing. A continuance must be made after a return of the writ, which has not been made. Whether an imprisonment has been made by the military forces or by civil officers, that person ought to know before making an arrest what is the authority for doing so, and he should be ready at any time to make a showing of his position.” McClelland said that upon the return that day the court might make an order for continuance, either for making a return or for a hearing.

John Murphy, general attorney for the Western Federation said: “The order of this court was to produce these prisoners. The respondents are in contempt because they have not done so, and have given no reason to the court why they have failed to produce the prisoners. Without warrants citizens of this commonwealth have been thrown into prison. The military is only the reserve police of the state, and cannot hold a man longer than absolutely necessary to take him before a magistrate.’’ The court said that section 2108 of the code contemplates a return of the parties to whom a writ is directed. He added: “That would be a foundation for the court to consider the questions at issue. Upon that the court would be advised that there are matters subject to trial. It would then be within the province of the court to fix a time for a hearing. Moreover, it is the judgment of the court that on a proper showing the time of the return may be extended, but that the showing must be one upon which the court should be advised that more time may be necessary. Mr. McClelland’s showing is not sufficient. It should be supported by facts and circumstances.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Editorial from The Rocky Mountain News: “Adjutant General Sherman Bell should be relieved and removed from command of the troops at Cripple Creek.”-Dangerous and Unfit

29th September 202329th September 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III —————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 29, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – General Bell Unfit for Command

From The Rocky Mountain News of September 14, 1903:

Editorial Page:

BELL SHOULD BE REMOVED

ADJUTANT GENERAL SHERMAN BELL should be relieved and removed from command of the troops at Cripple Creek. His mental characteristics are such as to make him an unsafe and even dangerous person to hold that position. This has been shown by his conduct since he went to the district in his disregard of the law and the most ordinary rights of citizens.

The troops have been used to make domiciliary visits, to enter peaceable meetings by force of arms and to make arrests without warrant or indictment and without giving information to the persons arrested or to the public of the reasons of the arrests. Some even are being held forcibly in durance without charge of any kind against them.

Granting that the governor was sincere in the belief that the troops were necessary in the district, his first great mistake was to consent that the cost of sending them should be paid by one of the parties to the controversy. The officer in command looks upon himself and his troops as in a sense the employees of that party, and it is not to be doubted that the mine owners have driven Bell to do illegal acts which have marked his sway. He and they protest that there is no martial law; while martial law prevails in fact almost to the last extreme. When men are arrested and place in confinement without charges against them, solely by the order of the general commanding, it is martial law.

The troops of the state when called out on such occasion, should act solely as assistants to the civil authorities in preserving the peace. The officer in command has no right whatever to undertake to set aside civil authority and make his own whims the sole law.

The officer in command in Cripple Creek should be calm, self-controlled and responsible, and as Bell is not qualified in any of those particulars, the governor should repair, so far as possible, the harm already done by removing him at once. A man of demonstrated unfitness should not occupy a place of such great trust at a time when so much is involved as is the case in the Cripple Creek district at the present time.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Emma F. Langdon Reports on Military Despotism in the Cripple Creek Strike District of Colorado

28th September 202329th September 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III —————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 28, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – Military Despotism Dominates Strike Zone

Report of Emma F. Langdon of Victor, Colorado:

Military Despotism in the Cripple Creek District

September 13 found the military in complete control of the entire district. The troops dominated everything. A “bull pen’’ was established. Men were taken from home and families at dead of night, made to get out of bed and go with the militia and placed in the “bull pen” without explanation. They were not allowed defense and there were no charges preferred against them. Union meetings were, from the date given, broken into and obstructed without apparent cause.

One among the first shocks dealt the people of the district was Sept. 12, when it was announced that the leaders of the military had ordered the arrest of Sherman Parker. It was learned that the order had been executed shortly after midnight, when Mr. Parker was at home asleep. At 12:20 [a. m. Saturday], Sept. 12, Mr. Parker was awakened by a knock at the door. He went to the door and answered the call. He was told that the gentleman calling had a note from a man by the name of Jack Minor to present to him in the way of introduction. Mr. Parker stepped nearer the door and was immediately placed under arrest and taken from his family without further explanation and lodged in the ‘‘bull pen,” which was established near the Strong mine.

Sherman Parker is and has always been a peaceable citizen. There is probably none better in the county, but he was a member of the strike committee, and after the troops were here at the instigation and for the assistance of the mine owners, they were to arrest anyone that stood in their way of running affairs with an unlimited high hand. He was forbidden consultation, it is stated, with an attorney, and was simply told to “lie there and take what he was given.”

The executive committee of District Union No. 1, Sept. 13, ran the following statement in its official organ in regard to Minford and Sherman Parker:

W.H. Minford, the man who was supposed to have been beaten by strikers at Goldfield, was in reality beaten up in a bawdy house fight at Cripple Creek. He is now under arrest for giving false information and is detained in the county jail.

Sherman Parker, secretary of Free Coinage Miners’ Union No. 19, was dragged from his bed at his home in Independence by a squad of soldiers at 12:20 yesterday morning. No charges have been preferred against him and he is a prisoner without warrant of law. We want all union men over the country to know how the military are treating our members. Several have been arrested and in no case have charges been preferred against them.

DISTRICT UNION NO. 1, W. F. M., EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

One of the most ridiculous things that occurred during the strike was the operating of a searchlight. The light was moved from one mountain to another and turned on the various little cities of the district. Another ridiculous thing was that the citizens of the law-abiding community was given the opportunity of seeing a gatling gun. One was taken from Camp Goldfield to Beacon hill in the afternoon of Sept. 11. It was probably the one that was borrowed from Wyoming to help out Colorado in the great war of the Cripple Creek district. At any rate the gatling gun was here and was hauled from place to place as the great “rebellion’’ went on.

Sept. 15 the militia aroused the people of the district when a company of cavalry marched to the residence of Patrick J. Lynch of Victor, and who is chairman of the board of county commissioners of Teller county, and, without doubt, as peaceable a citizen as lives in the state of Colorado, arrested and marched him to appear before Generals Bell and Chase. Nothing since the strike started so thoroughly aroused the people of the county as this outrage of September 15. Mr. Lynch was presented with no papers. He was given no reason for arrest. He was simply taken from his table while dining, and marched at command to Camp Goldfield.

A troop of about twenty men marched down Fourth street across Portland, where Patrick J. Lynch resides. They immediately surrounded his residence, going into the back yard and into the alley, then an officer approached the house and arrested Mr. Lynch. He was rudely seized and taken out forthwith. He was not allowed to return to his residence, but soldiers were sent back for some purpose.

Mr. Lynch was ordered to mount one of the horses and was surrounded by troopers. Two were kept on foot also to guard him. As the procession marched along the street to the camp hundreds of people lined both sides of thoroughfare and the expressions that were uttered were possibly the strongest that had been heard. Others laughed at the folly and the absurdity of the action was ridiculed from every source.

Mr. Lynch was immediately ordered before Generals Bell and Chase when he reached the camp. He was told that it had been reported to them that he had criticized the soldiers and exercised the privilege of every American citizen in urging men not to return to work. This Mr. Lynch denied emphatically, and, turning to General Bell and pointing his finger at him, said: “There is a man who has known me for ten years, and he knows that I am as peaceable a citizen as lives in the state of Colorado.” After a few other remarks Mr. Lynch was released and allowed to return to his home and partake of another meal by his own fireside, though the military bravos were still in the district.

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Hellraisers Journal: Convention of the Colorado Federation of Labor Condemns Militarism in Cripple Creek Strike Zone

27th September 202320th October 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

MJ Quote Solidarity —————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 27, 1903
Colorado State Federation of Labor Supports Striking Miners of Cripple Creek

Report of Emma F. Langdon of Victor, Colorado:

STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR AROUSED.

During the week of September 14-19, the Colorado State Federation of Labor was in session at Canon City and realizing the oppressing domination of Colorado militarism and understanding that all organized labor was in imminent danger of military suppression by the determined and lawless methods used to crush the Western Federation of Miners, passed unanimously the following resolutions:

Whereas, A gatling gun, the property of the state of Colorado, supposed to be used by the Colorado militia to uphold the laws of the state of Colorado, without class distinction, has been loaned and for the past six months has been in the Standard mill at Colorado City; and,

Whereas, Such loaning of the property of the state of Colorado is not only not good public policy, but is a detriment to the interests of the state and is without doubt at the behests of certain citizens for the purpose of intimidating other residents of Colorado City and is distinctly a case of arming one class of citizens against another, which is absolutely against the constitution, wherein equal privileges are guaranteed to all; therefore be it

Resolved, By the Colorado State Federation of Labor, in convention assembled, that the action of the officers of the Colorado National guard, and especially of Governor Peabody as commander-in-chief, be denounced as absolutely without warrant or precedent and as against the best interests of the state and dictates of good government.

Whereas, On the 28th day of July, 1903, the Sun and Moon transformer at Idaho Springs, Colo., was blown up by means and persons as yet unknown; and,

Whereas, There is a certain organization in Idaho Springs known as the Citizens’ Protective league, composed of all classes except organized labor and organized for the purpose of antagonizing labor in their efforts to better their conditions; and,

Whereas, Said Citizens’ league without warrant of law, aided and abetted by the sworn peace officers of the county, did take from their homes and imprison certain members of organized labor for certain affiliations and did after said imprisonment as an organized mob under the direction of the said Citizens’ Protective league (did) expel said members of organized labor from Idaho Springs with a warning to never return on pain of death and did banish said members of organized labor from their homes and families; and

Whereas, The district judge of Clear Creek county, presided over by Judge Frank W. Owers, has in the trial of the cases instituted by the banished members of organized labor against the members of the mob shown a spirit of fairness, as refreshing as it is rare in cases where a clash has arisen between labor and the capitalistic class; and ,

Whereas, The said Judge Owers has publicly declared from the bench that it is his purpose to administer the laws of the state of Colorado regardless of class or caste; therefore be it

Resolved, By the Colorado State Federation of Labor, in convention assembled, that we do strongly commend the action of Judge Owers in meeting out exact justice to all violators of the law; and that a copy of these resolutions be furnished Judge Owers under the seal of the Colorado State Federation of Labor.

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