Hellraisers Journal: From The Miners’ Magazine: The Smeltermen’s Strike in Colorado City, Led by WFM, Part V

Quote BBH Corporation Soul, Oakland Tb p11, Mar 30, 1909 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 24, 1903
Colorado City, Colorado –Mill and Smeltermen’s Union on Strike, Part V

From The Miners Magazine of April 1903:

THE STRIKE IN COLORADO CITY.

[Part V of V: Miners of Cripple Creek Support Smeltermen]

The Cripple Creek Press, the official organ of organized labor of the Cripple Creek district (since suspended) had the following to say in its editorial columns of March 15:

The announcement of a settlement of the differences between the Mill and Smeltermen’s Union No. 125, of Colorado City, and the managers of the Portland and Telluride mills is pleasing to the people of this district, but the failure of the United States Reduction and Refining Company to enter into the agreement made by the other mills means something which is not pleasing. It means that unless the mines shipping to the Standard mill accede to the demands made upon them by the executive board of the Western Federation of Miners, that they quit shipping their ores to the said United States Reduction and Refining Company on Monday, that the miners employed by them will be called out by the Federation. It means that when these men are called out in support of their brothers on strike against the Standard mill, they will go out and tie up those mines so tight that Manager MacNeil will have a difficult time in getting material to keep his pet scabs at Colorado City employed. The Western Federation has done everything in its power to bring about an amicable settlement, and when Manager MacNiel refuses to accept the terms made by the managers of the other mills he places himself behind the pale of public consideration and the only thing now left for the mine managers who are shipping to his mill will be to whip him into line or submit to a strike of miners employed by them. There is no middle ground with the miners on this question. They will be compelled to insist upon the demands made by them being complied with or walk out.

The governor failed to keep his promise that he would immediately withdraw the troops, and the delay of the governor in issuing his order recalling the state militia caused the following to be issued from the headquarters of the Western Federation of Miners on March 17:

The representatives of the Western Federation of Miners, since the strike was declared at Colorado City, have at all times held themselves in readiness to confer with the mill managers for the purpose of bringing about an amicable adjustment of differences. For months previous to the strike, the officers of the Federation labored early and late to bring about an honorable settlement, which would prevent any open rupture between the mill managers and their employes. The officers of the Federation have given a respectful hearing to representatives in all departments of business, and at all times have shown a disposition to submit their grievances to a board of arbitration. Had the mill managers manifested as earnest a desire to pour oil upon the troubled waters as the Western Federation of Miners, the people of the state of Colorado would never have been compelled to forward protests against the executive of the state for his loyalty to corporate interests.

Had the mill managers exhibited even the slightest disposition to act in a spirit of justice to their employes the strike would have been averted and the treasury of the state would not have become a graft for military officials who are “bug house” when clothed with the uniform of blue. The militia of the state has been used for the purpose of inciting riot, but with all the infamous schemes concocted by Bell and Brown, the strikers have remained unruffled, and have shown to the people of Colorado that they are law-abiding, and that even uniformed ruffians could not goad them to acts of violence. The sheriff of El Paso county has demonstrated that he has been a willing auxiliary in the hands of the mill managers to exaggerate the conditions of the situation at Colorado City so that corporations which refuse to arbitrate could secure the militia to perform picket duty at the expense of the state.

The governor, toward the close of the interview Sunday morning, admitted without any solicitation, that the representatives of the Western Federation of Miners had gone more than three-fourths of the way and had been more than fair in bringing about a settlement and that he would at once issue an order to withdraw the troops. The governor admitted, after his personal investigation of affairs at Colorado City, that he was unable to connect the strikers with any violation of the law. In the interview that was held Sunday at the governor’s office to arbitrate with Manager MacNeil, the governor receded from his former agreement to withdraw the troops. He asked the representatives of the Western Federation of Miners for a further concession, namely, that he would immediately withdraw the troops providing that the Federation would withdraw all suits against the officers of the state militia. The representatives of the Federation were again magnanimous and accepted the proposition of the governor.

The governor and attorney general asked that these suits be withdrawn as a personal request, owing to the fact that the office of the attorney general was crowded with business and that no funds were available for engaging special attorneys to defend the military officials. The governor and the attorney general remembered the opinion that was rendered by Rogers, Riddle and Helm during the Leadville strike of 1896, and knew that the legal opinion rendered by this trio of constitutional lawyers would have far-reaching effect on some of the brainless nonentities that are now connected with Colorado’s National guard. The governor has violated every syllable and letter of his agreement by sending his private secretary to Colorado City to make a personal investigation and report. The private secretary to the governor, when reaching Colorado Springs, placed himself under the supervision of Bell and Brown, so that his report to the governor would be of such a character as would enable militia grafters to live a little longer on “easy street” at the expense of the state.

The action of the governor has shown him to be weak and vacillating, and that he is a man who has no conception of the dignity of his office. The Western Federation of Miners, through its representatives, have used every honorable effort to bridge every chasm, notwithstanding the fact that the Mine Owners’ Association, the mill managers, the state militia and even the governor himself have been arrayed against them.

The governor is now intimating that we promised there would be no strike in the Cripple Creek district. We never made any such promise. It would have been an impossibility for us to make a promise of that character while MacNeil, the “[Divine Rights] Baer of Colorado,” refused to recognize the Western Federation of Miners. We gave the governor to understand that we would fight MacNeil to a finish, and under no circumstances could he construe our meaning that a strike would not be declared upon the mines that would ship ore to unfair mills. We have been willing and are now willing to arbitrate with Manager MacNeil. He has refused to arbitrate with us as an organization, and he alone is responsible for the situation that confronts the people of the Cripple Creek district. We have been more than fair, and have gone three-fourths of the way, according to the governor, and we are now willing to place the justice of our cause in the hands of the whole people of the state, and let them be the jury to bring in the verdict.

(Signed)
CHARLES MOYER, President W. F. M.
WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD, Sec-Treas. W. F. M.

Charles Moyer took his departure for the Cripple Creek district on the afternoon of March 16, to hold a conference with the members of District Union No. 1, as to future action in reference to the Standard mill, whose manager absolutely refused to recognize the Western Federation of Miners or their representatives in the settlement of the strike.

President Moyer, after arriving in the Cripple Creek district, immediately went into conference with the district members, and it was agreed at said conference that the mines that were shipping ore to unfair mills should be requested to refrain from so doing, or that the men on such mines would be called out. The conclusion arrived at by the meeting was not put into execution until 4 o’clock in the afternoon of March 17, at the request of a committee of business men who labored with MacNeil for a settlement of the strike. The committee of business men failed to induce MacNeil to accept the terms proposed by the representatives of the Federation, and the ultimatum of District Union No. 1 went into effect.

The following is the list of the mines that were involved:

Mines which granted the request to stop shipping to the Standard mill, and the number of men which remained at work:
Isabella, 100; Vindicator, 200; Mary McKinney, 125; Strong, 75: Gold
King, 50; making a total of 550 men employed.

Mines which refused the request of the union to cease shipments to the
Standard mill and the number of men called out:
Ajax, 200; Stratton’s Independence, 500; Granite, 60; Elkton, 63;. Thompson, 40; making a total of 863 called out.

The governor, after receiving telephone communication from his private secretary, whom he had dispatched to Colorado City to report on the situation, issued the following order at 7 p. m. March 17:

Denver, March 17, 1903

Colorado City, Colo.,

Sir—You will immediately recall the troops under your command, now at Colorado City, to their company stations, together with all quartermaster, ordnance and commissary stores, the property of this state, and report to the adjutant general.

JAMES H. PEABODY,
Governor and Commander-in-Chief.

Sherman Bell, the adjutant general-elect, whom Governor Peabody has slated, has been unanimously condemned, not only by members of organized labor, but men in every department of business have covered the hair-brained, strutting, burlesque on a soldier with the odium of their contempt. The delegates in the Republican convention that was held recently in Cripple Creek denounced the utterances of Sherman Bell as “idiotic, revolutionary and un-Republican.” Resolutions have been passed and forwarded to the state senate demanding that his appointment shall not be confirmed by that body. Blow-hard Bell is a Republican and a resident of the Cripple Creek district and this repudiation by men who know him best should cause the governor to hesitate in placing the state militia in the hands of a man who has proved himself an irresponsible wind bag with nothing to him but “hot air” and feathers.

During the strike at Colorado City, while the commanding officers of the state militia were ignoring the rights and liberties of citizenship, Judge F. W. Owers threw a bomb in the shape of a judicial opinion, that caused the state administration to clip the wings of the verdant captains and colonels whose heads were expanded through self-importance. The legal opinion that was written by Judge Owers and published in the Denver papers, defining military and civil authority, was unanswerable, and the minions who craved to serve their masters were put up against a stone wall. F. W. Owers commands the respect of every laboring man in the state, who recognizes in him one of the highest types of that incorruptible manhood whose unswerving loyalty to justice gives dignity and honor to the judiciary.

March 31, at 9 o’clock in the morning, Camp Peabody passed into history, and the “boys in blue” returned to their homes to discard the uniform and become peaceable and law-abiding citizens

[Photograph and emphasis added.]