Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 3, 1899
From Butte, Montana: W. F. of M. President Boyce on Idaho Trouble
From The Butte Miner of May 1, 1899:
THE MINERS SIDE OF IT
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President Boyce of the Federation
Makes a Statement.
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ORIGIN OF COEUR D’ALENE TROUBLE
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It Dates Back to 1887 When an Attempt Was Made
to Reduce Wages in That District-
Present Demand on Bunker Hill Did
Not Come From Miners Union Men.
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The Butte Miner April 30, 1899 —–
Butte, Mont., April 30, 1899.
To the Miner: Dear Sir-Having read your editorial in today’s Miner-“The Coeur d’Alene Affair,” the spirit of fairness contained in the article prompts me to inform you on the true status of the situation in the Coeur d’Alenes, as you have been misinformed through the Associated Press dispatches or some other unreliable source:
Previous to October, 1887, all mines operating in the Coeur d’Alene district paid underground men $3.50 per day; at this time the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Minning company reduced miners to $3 per day and other laborers in the mines to $2.50 per day. This reduction caused the employes to go on strike and organize a miners’ union, since then known as Wardner Miners’ union. During those pioneer days in the Coeur d’Alenes laboring men were not plentiful and in order to operate the mines the company was forced to restore miners’ wages to $3.50 per day, and other laborers in the mines to $3.00 per day. This wages schedule continued to 1890, when a demand was made upon this company to pay the same wages to underground men as was being paid by all other companies in the district-namely, $3.50 per day. To this the Bunker Hill and Sullivan company objected and another strike ensued. After two weeks’ suspension the company agreed to pay the prevailing wages of the district.
Peace and tranquility reigned in the district until 1892, when the Mine Owners’ Industrial Protective association reduced wages in all the district from $3.50 per day to $3 and $2.50 per day. This is the reduction which caused the great strike with which the world is familiar.
Gradually the mining companies consented to pay the former wages-$3.50 per day-till every mine in the entire district was paying it.
The [the Coeur d’Alenes] district includes Burke, Gem, Mullan, Wallace and Wardner. However the mines at Wardner held out and refused to pay it, until the 26th inst., when the Last Chance mine broke away from the influence of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines and agreed to pay the district price-$3.50 per day-as soon as it had its new compressor plant in place which would take ten weeks. To this the union readily consented, saying it had no intention of imposing any hardships upon the company.
When the Last Chance agreed to pay the going wages of the district it left he Bunker Hill and Sullivan company alone.
This agitated the employes of the latter company, who disliked to work for less wages than was paid by the adjoining mine. Accordingly, on April 24, [1899] a number of the employes of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan company waited upon the manager and requested him to grant them the same concessions as the Last Chance company granted its employes. This he absolutely refused, saying he would continue to pay the same wages he always paid-$3 for miners and $2.50 for other labor in the mines. Then part of the employes quit work and attempted to induce other to join them.
When the Bunker Hill and Sullivan miners had this demand it was the duty of Wardner Miners’ union to sustain them, although they were not union men.
The Bunker Hill and Sullivan company was not asked to recognize the union in any manner, for every laboring man knows that it would be useless. The only demand made upon the company was to pay underground men $3.50 per day, the wages of the district. This demand did not come from the union; it came from the employes, who, according to the statement of the president of the company, Mr. Bradley., in Tacoma, on the 28 inst., were non-union men; and it is history the world that non-union and union men cannot harmonize. In fact, Mr. Bradley says in his interview that his mine was an eyesore to the union men.
If the Bunker Hill miners were receiving the same wages as paid in other mines in the district they would never demand that the company increase their wages; and reason and common sense tells us that a committee of non-union miners would not wait upon the manager and ask him to recognize the union.
The fairness with which you treated the affair in your editorial prompts me to make this brief explanation.
Yours respectfully,
EDWARD BOYCE
President Western Federation of Miners.
(Seal.)
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