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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 10, 1903
Denver, Colorado – R. E. Croskey Interviewed, Does Not Fear Bullpen
From The Denver Post of December 9, 1903:
[Photograph of Croskey added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III
https://www.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/3
The Denver Post
(Denver, Colorado)
-Dec 9, 1903
https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2:12C7581AC4BD0728@GB3NEWS-133D9E58DEAA8A48@2416458-133D93DBE2347C28@7-133D93DBE2347C28
The Cripple Creek Strike
-by Emma F Langdon
Victor, Colorado, 1904
(Photo of Croskey)
https://archive.org/details/cripplecreekstri00lang/page/191/mode/1up?view=theater&q=croskey
See also:
Tag: Cripple Creek Strike of 1903-1904
https://weneverforget.org/tag/cripple-creek-strike-of-1903-1904/
News of Cripple Creek Strike, December 1903
Sunday December 6, 1903
Teller County, Colorado – Governor Peabody declares martial law.
The Governor has had all he can tolerate of writs of habeas corpus, civil courts, and the U. S. constitution in general, and has, therefore, declared martial law in Teller County:
Now, therefore, I, James H. Peabody, governor of the state of Colorado, by virtue of the authority in me vested, do hereby proclaim and declare the said county of Teller, in the state of Colorado, to be in a state of insurrection and rebellion.
Major H. A. Naylor made an appearance at the Victor Daily Record to make it plain that the paper was to cease immediately from publishing any official statements from the Western Federation of Miners. Furthermore, criticism of the military was not to be tolerated and would lead to shutting down the newspaper at once. The paper will continue publishing according to the dictates of military censorship. The Record is the only paper so censored.
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From The New York Times of December 7, 1903:
“TREASON” IN COLORADO.
Adjt. Gen. Bell Threatens Death for
Opposition to Militia.CRIPPLE CREEK. Col., Dec. 6.-Adjt. Gen. Bell, who has arrived here, has issued a statement defining martial law as it will be enforced. He defines “military necessity,” insurrection, and treason. Of the latter, he says:
“Armed or unarmed resistance by citizens of the United States against the lawful movements of the militia is treason and the punishment is death.”
James Gaughan, the Under Sheriff, whose action in releasing an imprisoned striker against whom an information charging assault was to be filed, was the immediate cause of the sending of troops to this district. Gaughan has been removed from office by the military.
[Emphasis added.]
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Emma F. Langdon Reports on R. E. Croskey,
First Vice-President
of the Colorado State Federation of Labor
[October 1903, Croskey assists organization of Women’s Auxiliaries.]
One thing accomplished by organized labor in the Cripple Creek district in the month of October, 1903, was the organizing of the women in the district by the Colorado State Federation of Labor. President Sullivan urged in his address at Canon City in September, the great good that would be accomplished by organizing the mothers, wives, sisters and other relatives of union men into auxiliaries. Mr. Sullivan was in the district about the middle of October and organized the first auxiliary in the district in Victor. On Oct. 21 permanent officers were elected and a strong organization effected. The first officers elected in Victor Woman’s Auxiliary No. 2 were as follows:
President, Mrs. J. C. Hanna; First Vice-President, Mrs. Clark, of Goldfield; Second Vice-President, Mrs. Weaver, of Elkton; Recording Secretary, Mrs. C. G. Langdon, of Victor; Financial Secretary, Mrs. John O’Brien of Victor; Treasurer, Mrs. Converse, of Elkton; Conductor, Mrs. Henry King; Guard, Mrs. Middleton; Chaplain, Mrs. John Calderwood, of Victor; Trustees, Mrs. Ritts, Mrs. D’Arcy and Mrs. Drake. .
R. E. Croskey, first vice-president Colorado State Federation of Labor, then took up the work as organizer and finished the work in Victor. October 24 he organized Auxiliary No. 3 in Cripple Creek and later one in Anaconda. The ladies in each and every auxiliary have clearly demonstrated that they are the most enthusiastic of all interested in the fight for the rights of the American citizen. These organizations were formed to help counteract the work of the Citizens’ alliance, Mine Owners’ association and other organizations antagonistic to organized toilers. And the way those women denounced the un-American, tyranical, bull-dozing methods of the Citizens’ alliance, and the way they worked against the business firms that expressed themselves against the miners was interesting, to say the least…The women are, as a rule, the purchasing agents in the home, and the rank and file of union men’s families in the district would have undergone martyrdom rather than let any money gone to “unfair” dealers. So much, and good for the Women’s auxiliaries of the Cripple Creek district.
[Early December 1903, Croskey Does Not Fear the Bullpen]
In the early part of December, R. E. Croskey, first vice-president Colorado State Federation of Labor; secretary District Trades and Labor Assembly and the author of the “official statements” issued by the Executive Committee District Union No. 1, had business in Denver and quietly left the Cripple Creek district. He has always been a recognized leader of organized labor in the district and therefore it was announced that ‘‘military necessity” made it imperative that Mr. Croskey should be exiled to the bull pen. The military scoured the district for this recognized enemy of the mine owners, but while they were doing so, he was taking a quiet little walk over the Rockies out of the district. In an interview in Denver Dec. 10 [Denver Post, Dec. 9th] Mr. Croskey said in part:
“I do not fear the ‘bull pen.’ It has no terrors for me. I am no better than others who are now in it. It is a part of my duty to go there, and I shall. I will spend my time in reading. I want to read again Thomas Payne’s ‘The Rights of Man.’ I will enjoy it there under the tent of Peabody’s tyranny. Then I expect to again read the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln’s inaugural address and his Gettysburg speech, and other FICTION so dear to the hearts of Americans.”
“Mr. Croskey emphasized the word ‘fiction’ and flashed his sharp eyes for the instant upon the catechist, to see if the chosen words had gone home. “Then, too, I may read the constitution of the United States, if I am permitted to do so by the powers that rule over me. I shall not worry about my fare or how long I will be held. After all, it is but a little while here. I want Governor Peabody and General Bell to know that we are not afraid of their jails. I want them to know that we will go in and come out by the same door. They cannot crush out the spirit of freedom that dwells in the hearts of the men he is persecuting. That, you know, was tried long ago, and it failed.”
Mr. Croskey returned to the district a few days after the interview, but never occupied the bull pen. The opposition recognized in him a formidable and dangerous “enemy,” but “‘kept their hands off.”
[Emphasis added.]
The New York Times, Dec 7, 1903
-Bell Threatens Death for “Treason”
https://www.newspapers.com/image/20331360/
EFL (1904 edition) re Cripple Creek Strike December 1903:
-p183 re Martial Law
https://archive.org/details/cripplecreekstri00lang/page/183/mode/1up?view=theater&q=declares+martial+law
-p168 re Women’s Auxiliaries
https://archive.org/details/cripplecreekstri00lang/page/168/mode/1up?view=theater&q=croskey
-p190+191 re Croskey Does Not Fear Bullpen
https://archive.org/details/cripplecreekstri00lang/page/190/mode/1up?view=theater&q=croskey
https://archive.org/details/cripplecreekstri00lang/page/191/mode/1up?view=theater&q=croskey
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Solidarity Forever – Seth Staton Watkins
Lyrics by Ralph Chaplin