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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 2, 1899
Wardner, Idaho – Bullpen to Close; Congress to Investigate
From the New York World of December 1, 1899:
CONGRESS TO PROBE STANDARD OIL WAR
ON IDAHO MINERS.
Gen. Merriam’s “Bull Pen,”
Which Once Held 2,000 Prisoners,
Is to Be Closed Next Week.
—–
NATION AND TRUST VS. UNION.
—–
Trouble Started Seven Years Ago
—Life and Property Have Been Lost
—Both Sides Welcome Inquiry.
—–
MARTIAL LAW TO CONTINUE AWHILE.
—–
Cases of Mine-Owners and Miners Ready for Congress
-Bitterness Against Standard Oil.
—–(Special to The World.)
WALLACE, Idaho, Nov. 30.—Congress is to investigate Idaho’s seven-year war in which the Standard Oil Company, owner of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mines in the Coeur d’Alene district, has, aided by the Federal and State authorities, opposed the Miners’ Union. Senator Carter, of Montana, and Senator Heitfeld, of Idaho, champions o the miners, will move for such an investigation early in the session.
Already State Auditor Bartlett Sinclair announces that the famous or infamous Wardner “bull pen,” in which at one time the military authorities had as many as 2,000 prisoners, is to be closed next week—coincident with the meeting of Congress.
Of the total number o£ men incarcerated there only eighteen had a trial before a court or before a jury of their peers. Others were arrested and held at the pleasure of the military or state authorities. Terms of imprisonment ranged from three weeks to three months. Martial law had been proclaimed.
To-day in Wallace one is awakened by the bugles of a detachment of the Sixth United States cavalry encamped on the outskirts of the town. At Wardner is another body of regulars, while several hundred Idaho volunteers are stationed at other points in the Coeur d’Alene district.
Martial Law to Continue.
Gov. Steunenberg declares that while the “bull pen” is to be closed, martial law is not to be revoked. Martial law, however, is being softened to a decided extent, for it will not be long, Idaho people have been assured, before Congress considers officially the acts of the United States War Department and of Gen. Merriam.
Both sides are preparing for the investigation. Most of the positive evidence seems to be on the side of the mine- owners, who are following the leadership of the Standard Oil interests. On the other hand the miners have been the prime movers in securing the Congressional investigation, and they claim to have ample evidence that the outrages were planned by the men connected with the management of the Standard Oil Company’s mines. Whoever is in the right the fact remains that a crime was committed which justified the authorities in considering that a state of anarchy existed in the district.
It was in 1892 that the friction between the managers of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mines (the Standard Oil Company mines) and their miners began. Union wages in the district were then, as now, all through the Montana and Idaho districts $3.50 a day for underground work and $3 a day for surface employees, rates which union men say are moderate, considering the risk and the high cost of living.
Non-Union Men Expelled.
Armed guards and armed miners fought in the precipitous gulches and canyons. The concentrator of the Frisco Mine was wrecked by dynamite. The manager of another mine was captured by a posse of union miners and given his choice between sending his non-union miners out of the State and being blown up with his mill.
In three days nearly all the non-union men in the district were expelled, and then the troops came in and the Coeur d’Alene settled down to its first experience of martial law and the “bull pen.”
In the seven years since then the old fight between organized and independent [scab] labor has gone on in the district, the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mines leading the fight against the unions. These mines have since been operated under the orders of the United States Court and the muskets of the army and “union men” kept out.
In April, 1899, the Standard Oil mines gave out a flat refusal to recognize the miners’ union [Western Federation of Miners]. This organization had enrolled two-thirds of the employees.
Dynamite at the Bunker Hill.
There followed the usual course of a strike and lockout. The managers declared their purpose to run the mines in their own way, began searching for non-union labor and posted guards to protect the companies’ property. The men appealed to the State Arbitration Board, but the mine owners replied that they had nothing to arbitrate.
On the 29th of April a freight train came down to Wallace from Burke and Gem mining camps. It had fully 1,000 men aboard. Many were masked and more were armed.
At Bunker Hill mine some one placed dynamite under the great $250,000 concentrator, exploded it and left the works a mere mass of ruins.
Miners insist that the demonstration against Wardner was not intended to be more than peaceful and that the actual destruction of the concentrator was effected by employees of the Bunker Hill mine for the very purpose of bringing the United States Army.
They charge the mine owners with having had an understanding with the State government in advance, which assured the declaration of martial law, and they declare the purpose of this to have been first the destruction of the unions, and second the creation of such a condition in the district that outside capital would be kept out while a plan for consolidating the mining properties was perfected.
Miners Quote Senator Heitfeld.
Miners quote Senator Heitfeld, who made an independent investigation, and assert that men generally suspected of complicity in the outrage have been given good places in the mines, while others have been driven out of the district merely for being union men. They cite the case of the President of the Gem miners’ union, who was arrested the day after the explosion, kept in jail one day and soon after was at work in a position of more authority in one of the mines.
Union men further claim that the concentrator destroyed was old-fashioned and a positive drag on the property, and they comment suggestively upon the fact that fifty or sixty boxes of powder already thawed and ready for use were instantly discovered by the raiders. This powder is usually kept frozen, and in that state is practically non-explosive. Spokesmen of the miners ask why the superintendent of a mine which was not working had prepared this powder.
On the other hand, the mine-owners declare that the whole outrage was carefully planned by the unions at meetings held in the unions’ hall. They add that the expeditious manner in which the plot was carried out gives the lie to any claims that it was provoked at the moment.
The arrival of the troops in the mining camps was signalized by wholesale arrests. In Burke, not only miners, but school teachers, doctors, merchants, visiting drummers, and even members of a visiting theatrical company, were caught in the net.
At Mullan, Wilbur H. Stewart, editor of the Mullan Miner, was thrown into prison. His wife [Maggie Stewart] attempted for a time to continue the publication of the Miner in his absence, but there came one day a detachment of negro soldiers escorting deputy sheriffs, who seized the plant and suppressed the paper. After some weeks’ imprisonment, Mr. Stewart was released without a trial or examination.
Two members of the Board of County Commissioners were arrested and kept several weeks in the pen. In their cases specific complaints were filed, one being that they had failed to make any effort to stop the riot. The third commissioner was not molested.
A few weeks ago A. M. Dewey, said to be an employee of the United States Department of Labor, visited the Coeur d’Alene district for a day or two and left, saying he would return to make a full investigation, but he has not since been seen.
All Wait on Congees.
A sub-committee of the Industrial Commission made a partial investigation here in August and left behind a number of witnesses who, union men claim, were disciplined by the authorities and mine-owners for testifying.
Now, both sides profess the utmost satisfaction over the news that Congress itself will investigate.
It is said that Gov. Steunenberg has been promised the support of the Standard Oil Company in his political ambitions. He is slated to go to Congress, and it is said that he hopes to succeed Senator Heitfeld in the United States Senate.
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[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGE
Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege, Ab Chp III
https://www.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/3
The World
(New York, New York)
-Dec 1, 1899
https://www.newspapers.com/image/3762136
See also:
Tag: Coeur d’ Alene Miner’s Struggle of 1899
https://weneverforget.org/tag/coeur-d-alene-miners-struggle-of-1899/
Tag: Wardner ID Bullpen of 1899
https://weneverforget.org/tag/wardner-id-bullpen-of-1899/
Maggie Stewart
https://weneverforget.org/tag/maggie-stewart/
Note: the third Shoshone County Commissioner was, indeed, “molested,” see:
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 29, 1899
Edward H. Hamilton Reports from the Coeur d’Alene Country, Part II of IV
The Shoshone County Commissioners were:
William Boyle
https://weneverforget.org/tag/william-boyle/
Mosses Simmons
https://weneverforget.org/tag/moses-simmons/
William Stimson
https://weneverforget.org/tag/william-stimson/
The Shoshone County Sheriff also found himself in the Wardner Bullpen:
Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 8, 1899
Wardner, Idaho – Bullpen Now Holds 1000 Men of Couer d’Alenes
1000 Miners & Allies Herded into Bullpen at Wardner, Idaho; Includes Sheriff & Commissioner
For more on A. M. Dewey, see:
Machinists Monthly Journal of Nov 1899, page 730
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=WjMAAAAAMAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA730
Pacific Union Printer of Dec 1899, page 7
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=yEQx8qk10BoC&hl=en&pg=GBS.RA16-PA7
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Working Man (The Miners Song) – David Alexander
Lyrics by Rita McNeil