Hellraisers Journal: W. F. of M. Convention Demands Bail for Leaders Imprisoned in Idaho

Friday June 15, 1906
Denver, Colorado – Bail Demanded for Moyer and Haywood

From The Salt Lake Tribune of June 14, 1906:

DEMAND MADE FOR BAIL
—–

Western Federation of Miners Wants
Officers Released.

DENVER. Colo., June 13-The Western Federation of Miners’ convention today adopted a resolution addressed to Judge Smith of Idaho demanding that he release the imprisoned federation officials at once on reasonable bail.

A resolution was adopted making charges of disloyalty against Alexander Fairgraves of Mount Helena Miners’ union, Montana. Fairgraves is president of Montana Federation of Labor. Steps will be taken, it is said, to expel him from the Western federation.

The following delegates were elected to the convention of Industrial Workers of the World:

W. D. Haywood of Denver, Vincent St. John of Burke, Ida. (formerly of Telluride); R. P. McDonald, Rossland, B. C.; John McMullan of Butte, Mont.

President C. H. Moyer is ex-officio member of the delegation.

A vote of thanks was tendered retiring Vice-President Williams of Grass Valley, Cal., for his services as acting president since the confinement of President Moyer in prison in Idaho. The newly-elected officers were then installed and the convention adjourned sine die.

The executive board will meet tomorrow to map out work for the organizers and consider matters referred to that body by the convention just closed.

—–

On May 29th, during the Afternoon Session of Day Two of the Fourteenth Convention of the Western Federation of Miners, the following message from Charles Moyer was read to the delegates assembled at the Odd Fellows Hall of Denver, Colorado:

LETTER FROM PRESIDENT MOYER.

Ada County Jail,
Boise, Idaho, May 25, 1906.

To the Delegates of the Fourteenth Annual Convention:

Dear Sirs and Brothers, Greeting—As the conditions which surround me at this time make it impossible to compile and submit my annual report, as provided by our constitution, I will only take advantage of the opportunity offered to address you a short letter.

The great changes that have taken place in the organized labor movement of this country during the past twelve months, in which your organization has taken a prominent part, and I as your representative, feel some responsibility, makes it far more desirous to me, if that could be possible, to be present and take my part in the fourteenth annual convention, but the powers that be have willed it otherwise, and although my lot in life has been cast with the great, (?) overwhelming majority, I find myself, as I was two years ago, still forced to bow to that will. But while so doing, I have the consolation of knowing that our grand organization, the Western Federation of Miners, has done its share.

In fact, has been the vanguard in a movement which is arousing the great majority to a realization of their power; a movement which can and will result in abolishing a system which makes minority rule possible; a movement which I firmly believe is destined to educate the toiling masses to realize that only through united, class-conscious, economic organization, followed by independent political action, can they ever expect to establish a system of government under which a Peabody, a McDonald and a Gooding will be forced to become useful members of society, instead of servile tools in the hands of the small minority who today rule with an iron hand the great masses of humanity throughout the entire world.

Bitter experience has taught me that my class is alone responsible for the bull pen, the policeman’s club, the midnight kidnapping and the many persecutions of which they complain, so I again appeal to you, brother delegates, to take no backward step. Let the declaration for industrial organization of the working class and independent, class-conscious political action go out from the fourteenth annual convention in no uncertain tones, serve warning on the capitalist class that not through persecution of your membership can they swerve you from the path that leads to the emancipation of the wage slave.

I sincerely trust that each and every delegate in the fourteenth annual convention will realize that his interests and those that are responsible for the confinement of Pettibone, Haywood and Moyer behind stone walls in the state of Idaho have nothing in common. Were the interests of all the people identical, you would not be here today representing what is recognized as the laboring class, for there would be no capitalist class, therefore, no necessity for labor to organize. Just as long as there are classes there can be no identity of interests.

The duty devolves upon the working class, which, as I have said, comprise the great majority, to change the system which is responsible for classes, and my experience has convinced me that this can only be accomplished by the entire working class coming together in one powerful organization which recognizes no interests save that of the working class; an organization which recognizes that the classes are responsible for the struggle that is going on and will continue until the toiling millions, acting as one, shall declare in ringing tones, “an injury to one is an injury to all.” Then, and then only, will those who compose the minority class, and who are the masters of today, take their rightful place in society and the class struggle be ended.

Let the Western Federation of Miners be ever found in the front ranks of the army that is marching onward towards economic liberty. Let us rally under the banner of industrial unionism, for all must admit that past experience in our own craft has taught us the lesson that division means defeat; the ancient maxim, “United we stand, divided we fall,” should be the battle cry of every man, woman and child who is a victim of the system of wage slavery, and I feel confident that the delegates in this convention will not be found wanting, but by unanimous notice and vote give such an indorsement to the policy adopted by the industrial convention held in Chicago in June and July, 1905, and which the Industrial Workers of the World has been shaping and putting into effect, that there will be no further doubt as to the position of the Western Federation of Miners.

In conclusion, I desire to say, brothers, that there are many matters which, under different conditions, I would have brought to the attention of this convention, but my judgment tells me that it is unwise under the circumstances.

I have requested the individual members of your Executive Board to submit their annual report to the convention instead of to myself, as provided by the constitution, and you will also-have the report of your Executive Board, giving you the details of their work during the year. This, in conjunction with the information and sound advice which will be submitted to you in the reports of Acting President Williams and Acting Secretary Kirwan, I feel, will materially assist you in your work.

For the officers and Executive Board who have ably assisted me since the thirteenth annual convention, I have nothing but praise. They have done their duty as it was presented, without fear or favor. To each and every delegate I desire to convey a hearty handclasp and fraternal greeting, and through them to the membership which they represent and who have honored me with the presidency of their organization for the past four years. I wish to manifest my appreciation of their confidence. May the fourteenth annual convention be a successful one; may the delegates follow the teachings laid down in their ritual and ever bear in mind that only through honest difference of opinion can we expect to arrive at sound conclusion, and may the Western Federation of Miners ever stand for the uplifting of humanity, for the oppressed against the oppressor, is the earnest hope of

Yours for the equality of man,
CHARLES H. MOYER

[Photograph and paragraph breaks added.]

The delegates next heard read a letter from William D. Haywood:

LETTER FROM SECRETARY HAYWOOD.

Ada County Jail,
Boise, Idaho, May 24, 1906.

To the Officers and Delegates of the Fourteenth Annual Convention of the Western Federation of Miners:

Brothers—I am denied the pleasure of being with you in person; to take part in your deliberations; to listen to your earnest speeches; to be one in the actions you determine upon, so I will avail myself of a remaining privilege and write you a letter.

It is needless for me to,impress upon you the importance of your meeting. The recurring conventions of the Western Federation of Miners are fraught with vital interests to the working class. I am more than ever convinced that the policy you have adopted is the only means of releasing the working class from the bondage of wage slavery. The truth of the principles espoused is becoming apparent to other labor organizations and meeting with their approval.

With some satisfaction we can truthfully assert that craft selfishness has been eliminated from our ranks, our efforts have maintained a living wage for unskilled labor in the industry which we represent. In the establishing of a minimum wage which secures to all organized mine workers a decent living, we have in no way interfered with or restricted the ambition or ability of the individual.

We have never encouraged, but in fact, condemned agreements, schedules and contracts of all nature. We are a free lance, as all other labor organizations should be, if they aspire and hope to uphold the principle of “an injury to one is an in jury to all.”

We have never attempted to obtain a monopoly of jobs in the mining industry or any of its branches. If this means open shop, I am in favor of it, as it is my opinion that labor organizations are not fulfilling a proper mission when they attempt to protect themselves at the expense of poor unfortunates who must work, starve or steal. The Western Federation of Miners recognizes the inherent right of man to labor, and demands the privilege for all to organize, irrespective of race, creed or nationality. The union must be open to all, without competition as to skill or barrier of any kind. The purpose, as we view it, is not to monopolize the jobs, but to job the monopolists by organizing the working class and dividing jobs, instead of dividends.

Since 1896 we have never suffered or permitted a reduction in wages, but have gained many material increases. While a vigorous and successful campaign is being made for shorter hours, as pioneers in the eight-hour movement our presence has been felt wherever the issue was at stake. From the time the eight-hour day was initiated in our locals, the Federation has been diligent and vigilant, through Legislatures, States, courts, even to the highest court in the land, the counsel of the Western Federation of Miners has been in evidence. Victory has marked each succeeding step we have taken.

The recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court makes absolute the constitutionality of legislation for shorter hours in all hazardous occupations. The legality of such legislation, the fact that laws are passed, does not imply that labor will not be compelled to put in long hours. The mere enactment of law is not sufficient; there must be an organized power to enforce the law. To get this power it is necessary, not so much to “Americanize the union,” but unionize the Americans. The free-born are beginning to understand that patriotism is a nickname for prejudice; that loyalty to state or nation is sometimes treason to the world. With wife in calico rags, the babies in the factory shinbone for Sunday dinner, a few more twists of the oppressors’ screw and it won’t be so difficult to demonstrate to the American sovereign that the class who own the machinery of production, own the jobs; a job means wages to spend for bread and things to sustain life; to own or control the means of life is to control life itself; wages, then, is slavery.

Capitalism extracts tribute from all toil, and knows no law but dividends, which is capital, being a difference between an equivalent or the full product of toil and that which is paid in wages.

Misery, poverty and anguish are by-products of capitalism, the deformities of society begotten of profit, interest and rent.

To teach these self-evident truths, to our free-born as well as foreign brothers, the Bureau of Education and Literature should be improved and made a permanent and prominent feature of the organization. One may be illiterate, but there is no excuse for being ignorant of economic conditions. If angels weep, it is when they see the human mind, a gift of God, prisoned in the narrow confines of ignorance.

Five years ago the Western Federation of Miners declared for united political action and a vigorous campaign of education, along the lines of Socialism. No mistake was made at that time. The splendid results are now apparent. The evidence is not only in our own ranks, but in every branch of organized labor.

Within a month the United Mine Workers of America declared for united political action. The conservative Executive Board of the American Federation of Labor have made a similar recommendation. Politics in the union will be the fashion now. With us it must be working-class politics, no compromise with the enemy. We deny that any identity of interest can exist between the exploiter and the exploited. We recognize the class struggle, we demand the surrender of capitalism, a system that must die that the people may live.

Under the present capitalistic regime, the flesh is bruised, the soul is numbed; virtue is a bauble, honor is a questionable quality, women and children are compelled to strive as bread winners, man’s independence and worth are measured by the jingle in his pocket. The price of a meal is the commercial difference between a hero and a hobo. Millions of willing workers are denied the right to earn a livelihood, the inventive genius of man is mortgaged; labor-saving machinery, instead of being a boon to mankind, privately owned becomes a terrible monster that not only displaces the skilled mechanic, but drags his little children from the school room to feed its greedy maw, while he joins the ever-increasing army of unemployed. Poverty-stricken, a vagrant criminal because poor, a continuity of sentences consigns the freeborn to imprisonment for life.

You can expect no relief from councils, legislatures and congresses elected and controlled by corporations; such law-making bodies are the reflex of the trusts, or privately-owned industries.

Is it possible for the working class to control the political situation? Not without an economic organization powerful enough to operate and control industries necessary to sustain life. The essential thing for the producing class is to control and supervise the means of production and distribution.

This can only be accomplished by the workers themselves organizing an industrial government. The foundation of a working-class industrial government was established when the Industrial Workers of the World was organized. As a delegate to the initial convention of that organization representing your body, the conclusions I have formed of industrial unionism and its purposes will be of some interest to you.

Bring to mind, if you will, all the people employed in all the industries within the territory described by the Dominion of Canada and the United States. Wipe out all international and state boundary lines. We now have before us, in blank, a map outlining the larger portion of North America-our present field of action. Every industry is as broad as the entire territory. Each industry is dependent, in some way, upon other industries, or, to be more explicit, each craft or set of workers is dependent upon other workers. There is a continual interchange of raw material and finished products. To find a means to exchange material and product without loss in the operation is the purpose of the Industrial Workers of the World. To this end, membership is defined as the working class.

The general administration will extend to every phase of industry, subdivided into departments of industries holding similar relation as that of Federal government to the several political states. Each department of industry will be independent of other industries, insofar as their own affairs are concerned. Local unions of the several industries will be to the department of industry as municipalities are to state governments. Provision is made for mixed local unions where there are not enough members to maintain a craft local; mixed local will be attached to the general body. This roughly outlines the plan of organization; it is broad enough to embrace every wage or salary worker (a distinction without a difference), whether they toil with brain or muscle.

The Industrial Workers of the World is not a labor trust, to corner empty stomachs, but a merger of labor, with the purpose in view of getting a corner on everything labor produces, for the mutual benefit of producers only. Industrial unionism has all the advantages of craft unionism, with barriers torn down, selfishness squeezed out, expenses skimmed off. Industrial unionism inculcates in the minds of producers a sense of their importance in society, which labor perpetuates. The rights of members will end only where the rights of others begin. The Industrial Workers of the World is an organization of independent workers consolidated into self-governing local unions of sovereign departments of industries, united in a general working-class organization, demanding for all equal opportunities which will light the lamp of genius in the brains of thousands now groveling in the struggle for existence.

Organized industrially, united politically, labor will assume grace and dignity, horny hands and busy brain will be the badge of distinction and honor, all humanity will be free from bondage, a fraternal brotherhood imbued with the spirit of independence and freedom, tempered with sentiments of justice and love of order—such will be the co-operative commonwealth. The goal, the aspiration of the Industrial Workers of the World, of which the Western Federation of Miners is the Department of Mining Industry. In all probability you will elect delegates to attend the second convention of the organization. It depends upon you to send as your representatives men that are radical and rational. The clanking chains of conservatism are discordant notes in a working-class conference.

It is a sense of duty, as well as a pleasure that prompts me to write this communication, as I still hold the responsibility of the office to which you elected me. Brother James Kirwan has been in charge of financial affairs since about February 20th, coming to headquarters immediately after the arrest of myself, and Brothers Moyer and Pettibone. Brother Kirwan will submit to you in detail a report of our stewardship of the funds and all matters pertaining to the office of Secretary-Treasurer.

Owing to the incessant clamor of our enemies, also some who should be our friends, it is absolutely necessary that you make, if possible, a more careful audit of all accounts than ever before. It is particularly essential that the membership of the Federation know in detail all transactions. Many who are ignorant of the facts credit the Western Federation of Miners with untold wealth, while we know its chiefest possession is the noble spirit of men and women united under the three stars. Although we have been maligned, villified and condemned by the exploiters of labor and their hirelings, accused of having an inner circle bound by terrible oaths to conspire, connive and commit crime, every man of you knows this to be the basest calumny, and it is your stern duty to throw the infamous lie back into the teeth of the accusers.

The Western Federation of Miners has engendered the intense hatred of capitalists and corporations, not because the organization at any time advocated violence, but because you have at all times demanded recognition and obedience of law by the master class, who seem to think that law and regulation are only intended for those who labor. When the inevitable conflict comes, it will be precipitated by the class that ignores and tramples under foot the mandates of civilized society. The man in overalls will be found on the side of decency, fighting for the common good.

As in Russia today, it will certainly be in America tomorrow. With the rapidly concentrating and centralizing of wealth in the hands of the few, an industrial empire is being created with divine-right money kings enthroned, who will reign with the absolutism of monarchs. Already political liberty is almost nullified by bribery and corruption by the disfranchisement of the propertyless and uneducated. These unfortunates will exert their force and power in the social revolution, the class struggle for real liberty, industrial freedom.

You can hear the moans, the agonizing cries of Russia, writhing in labor pains of a social democracy to be born. Strike hands with your fellow-workers who are fighting for liberty, revolting against serfdom, torture and oppression and iniquity. Lend all moral and financial assistance within your power.

Your every effort in convention will be towards improving the condition of the working class. In this I am with you heart and soul. During the time you are in session, myself and comrades will be on trial charged with a terrible crime. If we get a fair trial, an impartial jury, we will clearly prove that we are guilty of no greater crime than that of being active members of a progressive labor organization.

A word of greeting to the local secretaries for many courtesies which tended to lighten the burdens and made a pleasure the tasks of office, which I now relinquish to you, conscious of having always done my best.

We desire to extend our sincere appreciation to all labor organizations, both political and industrial, and to the working-class press for their earnest support and confidence. I particularly desire to mention and commend to fellow workers everywhere the “Appeal to Reason,” and hope you will return a hundred fold the loss it has sustained in our behalf.

With best wishes to all and each of you, long live the Western Federation of Miners. Fraternally,

Yours for Industrial Freedom,
WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD.

[Photograph, paragraph breaks and emphasis added.]

SOURCES

The Salt Lake Tribune
(Salt Lake City, Utah)
-June 14, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/76376956/

Official Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Convention
Western Federation of Miners of America
-Held in Odd Fellows Hall at Denver, Colorado
-May 28-June 13, 1906
https://books.google.com/books?id=Q8A3AQAAMAAJ
Letter from Moyer
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=Q8A3AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA14
Letter from Haywood
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=Q8A3AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA17

IMAGES
IWWs Kidnappers Special Poster by BBH, detail, ab/ May 1906
http://idahoptv.org/productions/specials/trial/resources/headlines.cfm
WFM Button
https://www.nps.gov/kewe/learn/historyculture/museum-guide-5.htm
HMP, Moyer, Waldeck 1, Spokane Press, May 16, 1906
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085947/1906-05-16/ed-1/seq-4/
Big Bill Haywood, Darrow Collection
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/photo.php?pid=197

See also:

Hellraisers Journal: Western Federation of Miners Re-Elects Imprisoned Officers Moyer and Haywood -by JayRaye
http://caucus99percent.com/content/6-14-1906-hellraisers-journal-western-federation-miners-re-elects-imprisoned-officers-moyer

For more on charges against Alex Fairgraves
-see p.181 of WFMC 1906:
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=Q8A3AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA181
-& p.298 of same:
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=Q8A3AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA298

Election of delegates to IWW Convention
-see pages 302-3:
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=Q8A3AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA302

Note: There was much discussion of the IWW at the 1906 WFM Convention. The Convention was addressed by Charles O. Sherman who was, at that time, serving as IWW President.

The delegates were presented with a full review of how the WFM had become the Mining Department of the IWW. This review includes a report written by Haywood shortly after the conclusion of the IWW Founding Convention. Search the Proceedings with “Industrial Workers of the World” for more information on the relationship between the WFM and the IWW at the time of the 1906 WFM Convention:
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=Q8A3AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA1