Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 19, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – U. M. W. District 15 Convention Issues Strike Call
-Strike to begin Tuesday September 23rd. Demands put forth.
The Demands of District 15 United Mine Workers of America
The demands agreed upon during the Special Convention which voted to strike on Tuesday, September 16th, are seven in number:
1. Union recognition
2. A wage scale for various types of mine work
3. The eight-hour work day
4. Pay for all narrow work and dead work
(The coal companies have historically expected the men to work without pay when brushing, timbering, removing falls, handling impurities, etc.)
5. A checkweighman at every mine, elected by the miners
6. The right of the miners to shop where they please, board where they please, and to choose their own doctors.
7. Enforcement of the Colorado Mining Laws and: abolition of the the notorious and criminal guard system which has prevailed in the mining camps of Colorado for many years.
As the convention ended, Vice President Hayes told the cheering delegates that most of the demands were simply a demand for compliance by the coal companies with mining laws which were on the law books of the state of Colorado, and had been for many years.
Hayes continued:
I was never more hopeful for success than I am in this strike. I do not think it will last long. The operators cannot fight an organization of 450,000 men for long. I think we shall realize in Colorado the greatest victory in the history of our organization. I know we cannot lose because our demands are just, and, having made every honorable effort to adjust the differences, the responsibility rest not on us, but on the operators. I hope that when next Tuesday comes every miner will lay down his tools and never take them up again until they take them up as United Mine Workers, recognized by the operators.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 18, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – U. M. W. District 15 Holds Special Convention
-Mother Jones Speaks; Miners Vote to Strike
From The Rocky Mountain News of September 17, 1913:
Monday September 15, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – District 15 of U. M. W. of A. Meeting in Special Convention
The Special Convention of District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America begins today in Trinidad, Colorado. All efforts to negotiate with the mine owners has been exhausted, and it is expected that a strike call will be issued which could shut down the coal mines of the entire state of Colorado. Delegates from Huerfano County have made their way into Trinidad despite the declaration by Sheriff Jefferson Farr that not a single miner from his district would make it to the convention. Apparently, Farr and his 326 deputies were no match for the determined union coal miners.
Mother Jones is in Trinidad and will address the Convention tomorrow.
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Tuesday September 16, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – Special Convention Opens with “Battle Cry of Union.”
The Special Convention of the United Mine Workers of America’s District 15 opened yesterday with 250 delegates singing the “Battle Cry of Union:”
We will win the fight today, boys,
We’ll win the fight today,
Shouting the battle cry of union;
We’ll rally from the coal mines,
We’ll rally from the hills,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union.
The union forever, hurrah boys, hurrah!
Down with the gunthugs and up with the law;
For we’re coming, Colorado,
We’re coming all the way,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union
While general business was being conducted in the hall, the Scale and Policy Committee, led by John Lawson, took testimony from the coal miners of the southern fields. The grievances of the minersare many and include: being paid in script worth only 90 cents on the dollar at the company stores or saloons which they are forced to patronize, being robbed in the weighing of coal at the rate of 400 to 800 pounds per ton, being forced to vote according to the views of the company superintendent, being discharged for union membership, being discharged for voicing any complaint whatsoever about short weights, safety conditions or camp conditions.
But mostly the coal miners hate the company guard system. These gunthugs who lord it over them in the company towns, have become increasingly intolerable as the union organizing drive in the southern coalfield has progressed.
Mother Jones will speak at the convention today, a strike vote will be taken, and demands will be issued. The miners know full well that a strike will lead to to eviction from their homes. They will be homeless along with their families, creating 20,000 refugees in all. The U.M.W. has been shipping tents, food, blankets, and clothing into the area. Locations are being rented by the Union where strikers’ tent colonies can be established.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 17, 1913
Calumet, Michigan – American Flag Knocked to the Ground by Guardsmen
From the Chicago Day Book of September 16, 1913:
Saturday Morning September 13, 1913
Calumet, Michigan – Big Annie and Her American Flag Attacked by Guardsmen
Just days after her arrest Big Annie is back in the thick of the fight. This morning she led a march of 1,000 strikers and the women who support them through the streets of Calumet as is her usual routine. At the corner of Eighth and Elm, they were confronted by the militia and armed deputies. A soldier on horseback used his saber to knock her flag from her grasp. A striker came to her aid and was pushed to the ground by another soldier who ripped the silk fabric of the flag as he slashed about with his sword.
Annie was also knocked to the ground. The flag was stomped into the mud by the horses of the guardsmen. Big Annie hung on to the flag as soldiers tried to take it from her, shouting:
Kill me! Run your bayonets and sabers through this flag and kill me, but I won’t move. If this flag will not protect me, then I will die with it.
Annie was rescued by other marchers and escaped with only a bayonet blow to the right wrist. The strikers’ march was driven back by soldiers on horseback and by the rifle butts of infantrymen. Deputies joined in on the attack swinging their clubs. The strikers and their supporters retreated to the Italian Hall with Big Annie and her flag, now muddied and slashed.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 16, 1913 Calumet, Michigan – Joseph D. Cannon Eulogizes Brothers Tijan and Putrich
From the Miners Magazine of September 11, 1913:
[Partial transcript:]
The following eloquent address was delivered by Joseph D. Cannon at Calumet, Mich., on Sunday, August 14 over the bodies of Aloiz Tizan and Steve Putrich, who were murdered by the hired mercenary assassins of the Copper Barons of the State of Michigan:
Friends, Brothers and Sisters: We are assembled here today to pay our last sad tribute to the memory of our murdered brothers, whose remains, side by side, are about to be enfolded in Mother Earth’s final embrace. And while we join in consoling those near and dear ones so sadly and brutally bereaved, let us also determine to bring into being a condition of society under which there shall be no incentive for man, hireling or otherwise, to take the life of his fellows.
[…..]
They met their death unflinchingly. When called upon to give up their lives for your cause, they did not hesitate, but fearlessly proved their worth. Let us here resolve that if the time ever comes that it is necessary for us to meet the crisis, as our brothers here have met it, that we will show the same noble spirit and prove ourselves as worthy exponents our cause as have they.
Their lips are sealed in death, but they speak in a thousand tongues the victory which is coming and for which they have worked not in vain. A few days ago they counted but two of the vast horde struggling for the better conditions which at present is your goal, to day they number the power and force of legions, and the good they are doing your cause is unbounded. And as we close this chapter of their lives let us serve notice on those responsible for these deaths that our cause is still marching on, and victory following victory is coming to us now, and that mere death will impede us not.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 15, 1913 Calumet District, Michigan – Annie Clemenc, Maggie Aggarto and Four Other Women Arrested on the Picket Line
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 13, 1903 Cripple Creek District, Colorado – President Charles Kennison Arrested
Report of Emma F. Langdon of Victor, Colorado:
Charles G. Kennison Arrested
Emma F. Langdon
Sept. 10 Chas. G. Kennison, president No. 40 Miners union, was arrested while riding on an early morning train. There was a number of men on the train on their way to work on some of the unfair mines. Kennison got into an argument with a man by the name of T. J. Sturdevant who was working on the El Paso and at that time was on his way to the mine. Sturdevant immediately became insulting to Kennison and finally struck him in the mouth and on the head. Kennison was reported to have drawn his revolver and attempted to strike Sturdevant over the head, when the gun caught in the bell cord in the car. Passengers on the car immediately interfered and stopped the trouble. Kennison got off the train at Elkton, where he was going, and attended to his business there and then went back to Cripple Creek and notified the sheriff’s office where they could get him. He made no attempt to get away or avoid arrest. General Bell had a detachment of militia out all the forenoon and part of the afternoon looking for Kennison. After he was placed in the county jail a detachment of troops was sent to investigate. They found him there but made no demand for him.
THEN CAME CONFLICT OF AUTHORITY.
Under Sheriff Gaughan said in relation to the matter that the military had no right to interfere with the procedure of the sheriff’s office and if they took Kennison into custody they would exceed their authority so far as he was informed. But as to authority, what authority had they in the district at all? This was only the “beginning of the end.”
Lieutenant Wahm, with a squad of six soldiers, rather surprised the miners at union headquarters in Cripple Creek by stationing his detail in front of the hall. Two of the men were deputed to go up stairs and make a search for the president of the union, but as he was not in evidence they soon repaired again to the street. Lieutenant Wahm was informed that a warrant had been sworn out by some person, unknown for the arrest of Kennison by the sheriff’s office and was asked if he would take Kennison in custody in any event.
“Certainly I will take him,” he answered, “even though he is released on bond. If he is not released on bond and is confined in the county jail I will go back to the camp and will secure sufficient force to get him anyhow.”
The Denver papers of Sept. 10 in speaking of the arrest of Mr. Kennison said in part:
C. G. Kennison, president of Miners’ Union No. 40, was arrested about noon today and placed in the county jail on the charge of carrying concealed weapons. In an interview with our correspondent he said:
“I am guilty of the offense charged. I carried a weapon for the sole purpose of defending my life. The guards at the El Paso mine said that they would stretch me up to an electric light pole. Manager Sam McDonald of the Strong and Gold King properties told me on Bennett avenue that I would be in my grave before the strike was over. I was brutally assaulted this morning and shamefully abused by a lot of scabs and I drew a revolver in defense of my life. I do not care to say any more about the matter at the present time. No, I am not a deputy sheriff. I had a commission but I surrendered it some days ago.”
Deputy District Attorney Cole, when told of the bull pen that had been established at Camp Goldfield said: “It is perfectly outrageous and General Bell has no warrant of law for arresting people and detaining them without a warrant. I shall look into the matter officially at once.”
Kennison was released Sept. 11 at 4 o’clock from the county jail on bond. The charge against him was assault with intent to kill. He gave bond in the amount of $500. Mr. Kennison was in jail just a day when released. The men who assaulted him were never arrested the reader will take note of that fact.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 12, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – Citizens Protest Against Military Despotism
Report of Emma F. Langdon of Victor, Colorado:
Citizens of Victor Protest
Emma F. Langdon
There was sent out in the district a few circulars announcing a meeting on the corner of Fourth and Victor avenue, Sept 5, at 4 o’clock for the purpose of making a formal protest against the outrageous proceedings and declaring against the threatened establishment of martial law, and for the purpose of placing the community of law-abiding Americans in the proper light before the world. The meeting was called for the purpose of passing a resolution that would express the sentiment of the people of the district. In answer to the few circulars sent out, hundreds of representative citizens gathered and held a rousing enthusiastic meeting.
J. E. Ferguson of Victor, was elected chairman of the meeting and delivered the following address:
It is a very extraordinary occurrence which has, on such short notice called out this vast assemblage of law-abiding citizens. We are today confronted with a condition which calls forth from the breast of every peace loving, law-abiding citizen expressions of condemnation such as he has never before felt.
Without any provocation whatever we have in our midst an army of soldiers but for what purpose has not yet been declared. Last night while the community was asleep this body of armed men were unloaded in our midst. Up to this hour, I am informed, they have not officially made known to the sheriff or any other peace officer that they are here. Why are we thus afflicted? Why this array of soldiery and munitions of war? It is said that the governor of this state has sent them here and that he has been notified of the existence of that necessity. What peace officer has called for the aid of the state militia? I hear the name of Mayor French mentioned. Whether he is guilty or not I am not prepared to say, but if he is his actions do not show that he has acted in good faith. Mayor French is the mayor of this city. His authority as an executive officer extends only to the limits of his municipality. If there existed in his jurisdiction a necessity for troops why has he not had them sent to Victor? Not a single soldier is stationed within the city limits or so far as I am informed in any other city of the county. Your sheriff has called for no militia. He has need of none. The constitution of the state of Colorado gives power to the governor to call out the militia to execute the laws, suppress insurrection or repel invasion. Can it be said that any of these constitutional conditions existed as a basis for his recent action?…
It is now over three weeks since the present strike was declared and such a condition has at no time existed. I want to say to you as a citizen of your city, and as an officer of the law, for I am an officer of the court, that in over four years that I have resided in Teller county, I have not seen three consecutive weeks that were fraught with as little violence, as little disturbance, as little breaking of the law as the past three weeks have been. It has been charged that the mayor has been guilty of assisting in perpetrating this wrong upon this city and county. If the necessity existed, when did he wake up to his duty? Mr. French was mayor of the city last April and at that time there was not a property holder or renter of property who was not nightly and daily in fear of incendiary fire. House after house was fired all over the city, many of which were burned to the ground. Murder was committed by the setting of the fire. Yet this law-abiding mayor did not think of calling in the militia.
The purpose of this meeting, ladies and gentlemen, is to adopt a set of appropriate resolutions which I am informed has been prepared. It is proper that you should do so. Some action should be taken at once to show the powers that reign over us that we have been misrepresented. That we have no need of martial law, and I hope that proper resolutions will be adopted.
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