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Hellraisers Journal – Monday August 21, 1899
Wardner, Idaho – Hundreds of miners have been in bullpen for over two months.
From the Appeal to Reason of August 19, 1899:
Free America!
Washington Times, [July 18, 1899].
(Part II)
General Merriam had been instructed to go to Wardner to quell disturbances and to keep order, but according to the affidavits these were the last of the duties he imposed upon himself. It is sworn that immediately upon his arrival he began a wholesale carnival of arrests, which continued for several weeks. Every man who was known to have been connected in any way with a labor union was arrested without any charge being made, and as the county jail was considered too soft a place, the prisoners were placed in a large barn known as the “bull pen,” and were strongly guarded.
THROWN INTO A BULL PEN.
In a short time over 700 men were packed into this pen and forced to sleep on a filthy floor, and were given no attention. Nearly all of these men were charged with no crime, and were arrested by order of Governor Steunenburg because they had at some time belonged to labor unions. The sheriff of the county and two members of the board of county commissioners were arrested among others, because, as the governor said, they were “sympathizers.” The county attorney attempted to secure the release of the sheriff and was threatened with arrest if he dared offer a protest. The prisoners were cut off from all communication with the outside world and were allowed to see nobody. Their wives and children were allowed to starve and were subjected to the most revolting outrages by the colored troops and the lawless hangers-on who had sworn that they believed that labor unions to be criminal organizations.
The conditions inside the pen were sickening, according to the statements of those who have been imprisoned there. Scurvy and slime were everywhere, and several cases of insanity were developed among the prisoners. Every able-bodied man in the town of Wardner had some experience in this place and every miner who refused to sign an application for a permit to work was arrested as a “sympathizer.”
IN THE PEN FOR TWO MONTHS.
Hundreds of these men have been in the pen for over two months and are hardly fit to move. The affidavits declare that the homes of the prisoners were entered by the troops and ransacked for “evidence.” There was no privacy and anything of value was stolen or destroyed. Complaints were made to the governor, who at once arrested the complainants and declared that “the county was too good for the _____ _____ _____” and that “he would see them in hell before this business was over.”
The governor then issued the following proclamation, which was approved by General Merriam. The document is classed as the most outrageous instrument ever penned, and it is stated that it is in direct violation of the Constitution.
THE PROCLAMATION.
To the Mine Owners of Shoshone County:
Certain organizations or, combinations existing in Shoshone county have shown themselves to be criminal in purpose, inciting and, as organizations procuring property to be destroyed, and murders to be committed, by reason whereof it has been twice necessary to declare martial law in Shoshone county.
You are hereby notified that the employment of men belonging to said or other criminal organizations during the continuance of martial law must cease. In case this direction is not observed, your mines will be closed.
Any parties applying far work in any of the following underground mines will be required to obtain from Dr. Hugh France, the duly appointed and authorized agent for the state of Idaho for the purpose, or his deputy, at Wardner or at Wallace, a permit authorizing said person to seek employment in any of the following mines: Bunker Hill and Sullivan, Last Chance, Empire State-Idaho, Consolidated, Tiger and Poorman, Hecla, Mammoth, Standard, Helena-Frisco, Gem, Morning, Hunter, and such others as may be hereafter included in the above list. Parties applying for such permits must be prepared-first to deny all participation in the riots of April 29, 1899, in Shoshone county; and, second, to deny or renounce membership in any society which has incited, encouraged, or approved of said riots or other violation of public law.
Mine owners must refuse employment to all applicants for underground work who do not present a duly signed permit authorizing the same. Such permits will be deposited in mine owners’ office subject to periodical inspection.
All parties now under employment by any of the mines above named will be required to procure within ten days from this date the permits above referred to as a condition to their remaining in the service of their respective companies.
By order of the governor and commander in chief.
BARTLET SINCLAIR.
[Governor Steunenberg’s Representative in Coeur d’ Alene District.]Examined and approved:
H. C. MERRIAM, Brig. General U. S. A.The contents of this proclamation were rigidly enforced by the troops, who were employed as police by the Standard Oil Company to enforce their wishes and to intimidate all union men.
TO SWEAR AWAY HIS FREEDOM.
Before a miner could obtain work in a mine he was compelled to swear away his moral freedom and become a slave. Following is one of the applications which had to be signed before a man was permitted to seek employment.
I did not participate, actively or otherwise, in the riots which took place at Wardner on the 29th of April, 1899. Believing that the crimes committed on said date were actively incited, encouraged, and perpetrated through and by means of the influence and direction of the miners’ unions of the Coeur d’ Alenes, I hereby express my unqualified disapproval of such acts, and hereby renounce and forever abjure all allegiance to the said miners unions, of which I was a former member, and I solemnly pledge myself to obey the law and not to again seek membership in any society which will encourage or tolerate any violation of law.
Those who signed the above were then issued a permit to seek employment. The following is an original document exhibited to the president yesterday:
PERMIT TO SEEK EMPLOYMENT.
No. 1016
June 23, 1899.This is to certify that J. Fink, a miner by occupation, is qualified under the proclamation issued by the governor of Idaho, May 8th, 1899, to seek employment in any of the mines in Shoshone county and has permission by virtue hereof to do so. This card is to be deposited with the manager or superintendent of the mine where the person above named is employed, and must be held for periodical inspection pursuant to the terms of the aforesaid proclamation.
Witness my hand this 23d day of June, 1899.
DR. HUGH FRANCE.
[Coroner and Acting Sheriff of Shoshone County]
By J. C. McDANIEL, Deputy.The president now has several affidavits from respectable white women, the wives of prisoners, who were outraged and insulted by the negro soldiers, and who were laughed at when they entered charges. One woman nearly killed a soldier who tried to break into her house, and an innocent miner was arrested for having assaulted the soldier “while discharging his duty.” A long list of outrages covering a period of three months has been reported and will be investigated.
CITIZENS PROTEST.
During last mouth, when some of the citizens of the county protested against the wholesale arrests on the ground that they would have to bear the expense of prosecution, “The Lewiston Tribune,” the official organ of Governor Steunenberg, assured the people editorially that “the state has an understanding with the large mine owners whereby the latter will bear all the expense of the trials, and the general public will not be affected by the expenditures of court processes.” This, it is said, is a direct statement that the Standard Oil Trust will bear all the expenses of the prosecution, and has formed a league with the state officials so that convictions may be obtained.
The witnesses for the defense, it is alleged are being driven out of the county or thrown into the pen, and Senator Heitfeld assured the President that the Governor had instructed the jury now trying these men that “they might not find a man guilty, but considering the circumstances, they had no right to acquit him.” Not one of the men now being tried for murder has be en allowed counsel, and it is stated that unless the President interferes they are certain to be hanged.
In speaking of the conditions in the. Coeur d’ Alenes, Senator Heitfeld said last night that no American citizen could bring himself to believe that such a condition of things could exist in this country.
No pen could picture the horrors, the degradation, the hopeless misery of the miners in the country. They have been starved, imprisoned, immuned from even the fresh air, spat upon and kicked, and yet they are American citizens. I cannot begin to express my feelings. I went out there thinking to see a bad condition of affairs, but I found a hell of horror. No man can talk of the horrors of a Russian Siberia to me. I have witnessed a Siberia created by a heartless tool of a corporation, Governor Steunenberg, and if the people of the country could realize what had occurred since April they could almost be tempted to drive him from the country.
A REIGN OF TERROR.
Hon. William B. Goldsmith, formerly a member of the Idaho legislature, and until April sheriff of Shoshone county, stated that it was useless to describe the state of affairs now existing in the Coeur d’Alenes, as the public could not be prevailed upon to believe the horrors of the reign of martial law.
[Said he:]
I was arrested and kept in the “bull pen” for thirty days because as sheriff I demanded justice for innocent men. Six witnesses who offered to testify in my behalf were locked up as sympathizers. I might be in that hole yet were it not for Senator Heitfeld. Outrages! Why I was compelled to remain in jail and while there my wife was insulted daily by the very men who were supposed to preserve law and order.
President Ed. Boyce, of the Western Federation of Miners, said that he had witnessed the Homestead and other labor troubles but had never been ashamed of his manhood until he witnessed the horrors of the present reign in the Coeur d’Alenes.
[Said he:]
It would make any man cry to see the way, innocent men, women and children are being treated there. The outrages practiced by Governor Steunenberg and General Merriam would bring a blush of shame to the cheek of the Czar of Russia. Steunenberg will be branded as a murderer when the world learns of his doings, and unless we get an immediate investigation, he will hang every prisoner in the pen. He has threatened to do so, and with the aid of the martial law he will do it.
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Freedom? Stop! You’re a traitor!
The land with sedition’s rife,
Down! down! with the carnage hater
And oh for “the strenuous life!”-MAYOR J. H. QUICK.
Sioux City, Iowa.———-
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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SOURCE
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Aug 19, 1899
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66953092
IMAGE
WFM, Wardner Bull Pen of May 1899, Hutton photo 1, 1900
https://archive.org/details/coeurdalenesorta00hutt/page/n5
See also:
Tag: Wardner ID Bullpen of 1899
https://weneverforget.org/tag/wardner-id-bullpen-of-1899/
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Working Man (The Miners Song) – David Alexander
Lyrics by Rita McNeil