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Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 30, 1902
Denver, Colorado – W. F. of M. and W. L. U. Hold Conventions
From the Kansas City (Kansas) Labor Record of May 29, 1902:
NEW LABOR UNION.
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Western Labor Union in Session in Denver
Expects to Take In Eastern States.
Denver.-The annual convention of the Western Federation of Miners and the Western Labor union assembled here on Monday. There are 300 delegates, representing more than 100,000 workers in the Western states and in British Columbia. The two organizations work in harmony, but the conventions meet apart, both in secret session.
Secretary Clarence Smith, in his report, said that the membership of the Western Labor union had doubled in the last year. The report recites that a large number of applications for charters have been received from independent labor organizations in the East. The annual address of President Edward Boyce of the Western Federation of Miners, which he read at the session of the annual convention of that body Wednesday afternoon, was devoted largely to the subject of trusts, which he declared dominate the mining industry. Mr. Boyce recommends the formation of state miners’ unions. He advocates socialism and ownership by workmen of mines and smelters.
President Boyce expressed the hope that the members of the Western Federation of Miners and the members of all other labor organizations would meet in convention for the purpose of taking political action.
Thomas I. Kidd, third vice-president, and Frank Morrison, secretary of the American Federation of Labor, are in the city for the purpose of securing a hearing before the two conventions and endeavoring to adjust the conflicts that have occurred between the Western organizations and the American Federation.
From the officers’ reports presented at the annual convention of the Western Labor union, it appeared that this new general labor organization has begun to invade Eastern territory and will extend its jurisdiction across the continent if the convention approves the plans that have been formed. President Daniel McDonald declared that the present industrial system ”allows the toiler to be robbed,” and urged each union to impress upon the laboring men that “labor owns itself.”
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[Emphasis added. Newsclip added from Parsons, Kansas, Daily Eclipse of May 29th.)
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SOURCES
Quote re WLU for Progress from Pueblo Courier, June 3, 1898
Note: Pueblo Courier was chosen as official organ of WLU.
-per page 415:
History of the Labor Movement in the United States, Volume 3
The Policies and Practices of the American Federation of Labor, 1900-1909
-by Philip Sheldon Foner
International Publishers, 1964
https://books.google.com/books?id=cTDyAAAAMAAJ
The Labor Record
(Official Organ of the Trades Assembly of Kansas City)
-May 29, 1902, Kansas Edition
https://www.newspapers.com/image/488512686
IMAGE
Parsons Daily Eclipse
(Parsons, Kansas)
-May 29, 1902
https://www.newspapers.com/image/425821197
See also:
Hellraisers Journal, Monday May 16, 1898
Salt Lake City, Utah – W. F M. and Montana Unionists Unite to Form Western Labor Union
Pueblo Courier-June 24, 1898 – June 19, 1903
(Sadly June 3, 1898, not available here.)
https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=cl&cl=CL2.1898.06&sp=PBC&e=——-en-20–1–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA——–0——
“The Western Labor Movement” by Eugene V. Debs from ISR of Nov 1902
https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1902/west.htm
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There Is Power in a Union · John McCutcheon
Lyrics by Joe Hill