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Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 2, 1900
Washington, District of Columbia – House Investigates Coeur d’Alene Troubles
From The Railroad Telegrapher of April 1900:
IDAHO’S DISGRACE.
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THE investigation before the Committee on Military Affairs of the House of Representatives, with reference to the charges made against the United States soldiers under Brigadier General Merriam, growing out of the labor troubles in the Coeur d’Alene mining district in Idaho, has been creating intense interest in labor circles and elsewhere for some time past. Even those who are callous to labor’s wrongs and pin their faith to the theory that the survival of the fittest is the prevailing law in heaven as well as on earth and the other place, have felt some qualms of conscience that such things should happen in “The land of the free and the home of the brave.”
After a strike and some riotous proceedings, which latter could easily have been quelled by the local authorities, the Governor of the State [Frank Steunenberg] suspended the writ of habeas corpus, an infringement of the liberties of the people not even within the prerogative of the President of the United States, without the sanction of Congress. Over eleven hundred citizens were arrested without warrant by this tyrannically-inclined “servant of the people” and confined in a place unfit for human habitation, and kept there for a period ranging from a few days to eight months.
By and through the courtesy of the Miner’s Magazine and the Pueblo Courier, we are enabled to present pictures of some of the men who have been made “Martyrs of the Bull Pen.”
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Paul Corcoran was born near the historic little town of Callooney, County Sligo, Ireland, on the 15th of March, 1865. At the age of twenty he left Ireland and went to New York City, where he worked for two years; then he went to Leadville, Colo. There it was that he learned mining and received his first lessons in unionism. Corcoran was secretary of the Burke Union for two years. He was arrested on the 4th of May and was in the bull pen until the middle of July, when a special term of court was called to try him.
In connection with the blowing up of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mill on April 29, 1899, he was convicted of shooting a man named Cheyne, although he was nineteen miles from the place where Cheyne was shot. This fact was established during the trial, but notwithstanding this he was found guilty and Judge Stewart sentenced him to seventeen years in the penitentiary.
It is hoped that he may yet be liberated through the United States Supreme Court.
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The boys in San Quentin, Cal., penitentiary were sent there for twenty-two months’ imprisonment by United States Judge Beatty for alleged interference with the United States mails, after it was found impossible to connect them with the mill explosion. Out of the many hundreds of men drag-netted into the “bull pen” these are the only ones who do not now enjoy their freedom, which proves beyond all else the great cry that the Coeur d’Alene district was terrorized by lawless miners to have been false.
Patrick Reddy was born of Irish parents in the town of Woonsocket, State of Rhode Island, on the 15th of February, 1839. In his early youth he was a farm hand and laborer, and also followed the sea for a brief period as a sailor, and part of the time as a fireman on ocean steamships. In February, 1861, he arrived in San Francisco, and soon after engaged in mining, following the occupation of miner and prospector in California, Washington, Idaho and Nevada until October, 1863, when he lost his right arm. In 1864 he began the study of law and was admitted to practice in June, 1867, and has continued practicing law ever since. He has also been engaged in various mining enterprises in the meantime. His practice has been general, including some of the most important mining and criminal cases that have been tried within the last two decades on the Pacific coast. He has also defended a great many suits involving the legality of the boycott, and has been successful in all of them.
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[Emphasis and photograph of miners in bullpen added.]
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III
https://www.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/3
The Railroad Telegrapher
(St Louis MO)
-Jan to Dec 1900
https://books.google.com/books?id=dFMqAQAAIAAJ
Apr 1900 Edition
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=dFMqAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA261
Page 277: “Idaho’s Disgrace”
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=dFMqAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA287
IMAGE
WFM, Wardner Bull Pen of May 1899, Hutton photo 1, 1900
https://archive.org/details/coeurdalenesorta00hutt/page/n5
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/
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Mar 31, 1900
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1900-03-31/ed-1/seq-1/
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Ordered to be printed June 5, 1900
“Coeur d’Alene Labor Troubles”
Report by Mr Dick fr/ House Com on Military Affairs
http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/documents/Coeur_D_Alene_Labor_Trouble_HRept_1999.pdf
Proceedings before the Committee on Military Affairs of the House of Representatives in Relation to the Coeur d’Alene Labor Troubles.
Vol 2, pages 699-1338
https://books.google.com/books?id=brdFAQAAMAAJ
Vol 3, pages 1339-2134
https://books.google.com/books?id=qrdFAQAAMAAJ
Sadly could not find Volume 1 online,
but appears to be available here:
https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/SCSB-7195169
From Hathi Trust digital Library: Vols 2+3
-with link to find in library
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100671082
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Working Man (The Miners Song) – David Alexander
Lyrics by Rita McNeil