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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 30, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – W. F. of M. President Moyer Speaks
From the Butte Labor World of August 28, 1903
-Speech by Charles Moyer, August 15th at Pinnacle Park Picnic:
[…..]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote BBH Corporation Soul, Oakland Tb p11, Mar 30, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/72436098/
The Labor World
(Butte, Montana)
-Aug 28, 1903
(choose page 16 of 20)
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=eGJUmgNLeWAC&dat=19030814&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
See also:
Tag: Cripple Creek Strike of 1903-04
https://weneverforget.org/tag/cripple-creek-strike-of-1903-04/
Account of Picnic by Bill Haywood
Bill Haywood’s Book
The Autobiography of William D. Haywood
International Publishers, 1929
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015050276461&seq=124&q1=picnic&start=1
Five days after the [Cripple Creek] strike was declared the miners of the district had a picnic at Pinnacle Park. John C. Sullivan, president of the Colorado State Federation of Labor, formerly a Cripple Creek miner, was one of the speakers. Moyer, Copley, Davis and others spoke. There was plenty of enthusiasm and determination among the miners and their families who had gathered in the park. When I was called on, I bantered a little with the Mine Owners’ Association, the Citizens’ Alliance, and the Pinkerton detectives, some of whom were present, and whom I charged with being responsible for the strike.
I told the miners:
The mine owners have said they would finish the El Paso tunnel themselves. I know there are many of you here who will lend them your cast-off overalls!
This raised a derisive laugh from men who knew what working underground was like. I went on:
I deny the statement signed by the mine owners, wherein they assert that the strike in this district was forced or compelled by the heads of the W.F.M. This strike is by members of the unions of this district. It is a strike of the W.F.M. against the inhuman conditions of life imposed upon the men working in the mills, reducing the ores that you produce. Our brothers, the mill men of Colorado City, have used every possible method to induce MacNeil to come to an agreement, or even to live up to his promises made to the commission that was sent to him by Governor Peabody….
I challenge the mine owners when they say that affairs in this district have been all that has been asked for since 1894. This is contradicted by the continuous and bitter discrimination against members of the W.F.M. by the El Paso, Strong, Ajax, Gold-King and some other mines. Such action does not tend toward harmony and goodwill.
The laws of Colorado are good enough for a union man, but they are not good enough for the corporations of this state, or the corporations would not spend vast sums to corrupt every legislature that is elected…..
There are many mining camps throughout the West where every man working in or about the mines is a union man. Why cannot the same conditions prevail here?
The Western Federation of Miners was born of the oppression of the mine owners, but it has grown under that oppression. This organization is your life, your only security, and in this fight we must stand with it to the end.
Account of Picnic by Emma F. Langdon
The Cripple Creek Strike
-by Emma F Langdon
Victor, Colorado, 1904
https://archive.org/details/cripplecreekstri00lang/page/77/mode/2up?view=theater
Aug. 15, the miners’ unions gave a big picnic at Pinnacle park, which was attended by a multitude. Regardless of the fact that thousands were out of employment at the time, everybody seemed to thoroughly enjoy the day. President Moyer, of the Western Federation, John C. Sullivan, president Colorado State Federation of Labor, William D. Haywood, secretary-treasurer of the Western Federation of Miners, and D. C. Copley, member of the executive board of the Western Federation and other prominent labor leaders attended the picnic and made addresses.
Mr. J. C. Sullivan [President of the Colorado Federation of Labor] was first introduced to the audience and said in part after excoriating the business men for their action in declaring no more credit would be given their customers so soon after the strike was called:
The business man is prosperous with the money he puts in his till received from the miner, but immediately upon the first cloud of trouble showing on the horizon, he cuts the miners off without notice, at the behests of mine managers. Are they worthy of any consideration at the hands of the miner? Would it not have been better if the business men had said to the men who had traded with them and paid their bills for years to have said to their customers: “Our finances will not permit us to carry you, but we will sell you goods at cost price for cash.”
After paying his respects to the Citizens’ Alliances and Pinkerton thugs he closed with the remarks that “it is time the laboring men thought about more than wages and hours.”
***
President Moyer, of the Western Federation, was the next speaker. He was greeted with prolonged applause. President Moyer said in part:
The responsibility for the present conditions has been laid by most of the newspapers at my door. I wish to say that I am ready at this time to assume any responsibility in a fight for humanity and living conditions for the miners of the Cripple Creek district. All I ask is that the other people in the state, who are responsible for the present conditions in this district shall be saddled with like responsibility. The facts are that the legislature of 1899 passed an eight-hour bill, the supreme court declared it class legislation and declared it unconstitutional. Notwithstanding this the representatives of organized labor went before the men who were working twelve hours in the smelters and urged them to wait and a future legislature would do something for them. The eight-hour constitutional amendment was carried by 40,000 majority, 70,000 votes being cast for the amendment. The Fourteenth Colorado legislature went into session pledged to the enactment of an eight-hour day. The representatives of the mill and smelter trusts went into session with them. The result was no law was passed. Upon this legislature I place the responsibility of the present trouble. Had this legislature performed its duty there would now be no strike in the Cripple Creek district.
***
A small per cent of the press has been clamoring that this is a sympathetic strike. This I most emphatically deny! It is a strike of the Western Federation of Miners. The mill men are part of the Federation, and to deny them support at this time is the same as denying one of the unions here support should it be attacked by a corporation. The men have pledged themselves to support their brothers of the Federation and they will do it.(Loud applause.)
President Moyer then stated that the strike was part of a plan to disrupt organized labor in this state. The first part of the plot being the calling out of the militia without provocation by the governor, and he lays the responsibility of the Cripple Creek strike at the door of the governor on account of the militia being sent to Colorado City in the spring of 1903.
Mr. Moyer closed his address with a strong appeal to the men not to commit any violence of any kind. Saying, to do so would be to play into the hands of the mine owners. He received an ovation when he finished his remarks.
***
The next speaker introduced was William D. Haywood, secretary-treasurer of the Western Federation of Miners, who addressed the audience in part as follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers of the Western Federation of Miners, Members of the Citizens Alliance, Members of the Mine Owners Association, and Pinkerton Detectives.
He said he desired to include all, as he knew all were in the audience and he mentioned the latter as he held them responsible for the strike.
The Federation was born by oppression of the mine owners, which had sometimes been worse than the Spanish Inquisition. The Federation has now more thousands of members than it had hundreds in 1893, having at this time 207 affiliated unions. Popular government gave us 70,000 votes for an eight-hour law, but the corporations spent $50,000 to defeat it and before the fight for an eight-hour law is over the mill and smelter trust will be sick of its bargain. The laws of Colorado are good enough for a union man, but they are not good enough for the corporations, else they would not spend a fortune to corrupt every legislature that is elected…
***
Mr. Haywood ridiculed the statement of the mine owners that they would start the mines if they had to work themselves. He said the miners would give them their cast off overalls to work in. The statement of the mine owners that affairs in this district had been all that was asked for since 1894, Mr. Haywood denied. He said discrimination had been practiced against the union miners on the Strong, Ajax, El Paso, Gold King and other mines, that the owners had never lived up to their agreement made at that time. He cited the union conditions that existed in some union camps where all union men are employed. Why, he asked, cannot the same conditions prevail here? He illustrated his remarks with several humorous stories that fit the cases and concluded with an earnest appeal to the miners to be loyal to the organization “which is the only friend you have against corporate oppression.” He was loudly applauded.
***
W. F. Davis, president of Free Coinage Miners’ Union No. 19, and a member of the committee of District Union No. 1, was next introduced. Mr. Davis was one of the committee who waited upon Mr. MacNeill at Colorado Springs, before the strike was called. He said Mr. MacNeill had stated that he (MacNeill) thought eight hours was long enough for any man to work in a mill or smelter and that $1.80 was not enough for a single man to live on, saying nothing of married men. MacNeill, said however, that he could do nothing for the committee, as his company would not permit it.
***
Mr. D. C. Copley, member of the executive board of the Western Federation of Miners, was the last speaker. He said in part:
I have been a resident of this district for the past eight years and can, therefore, sympathize with the men in this strike. The strike is being managed by the men whom the miners have elected for that purpose. All could not manage the details. That must be left to a few to attend to. Those few were chosen by the men themselves and it is the duty of every member to stand by them at this time. I am confident that the men I have known for the past eight years will not go back on the Federation and all that is necessary to be done is for the men to stand shoulder to shoulder and we will win the victory.
[Emphasis added.]
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Dump the Bosses Off Your Back