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Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 11, 1904
A. H. Floaten, of the Western Federation of Miners, on Colorado’s Military Despotism
From the Appeal to Reason of January 9, 1904:
[The Grip of the Monster by G. H. Lockwood]
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[Colorado Military Despotism by A. H. Floaten]
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 10, 1904
Trinidad, Colorado – Mother Jones Critically Ill, Taken to Hospital
From the Harrisburg Telegraph (Pennsylvania) of January 9, 1904:
From The Denver Post of January 9, 1904:
TAKEN TO HOSPITAL
———-Safety Precaution Taken for
“Mother” Jones.
———-Trinidad, Colo., Jan. 9.-“Mother” Jones, national organizer for the United Mine Workers of America, who has been lying ill at the Coronado hotel in this city for the past three days from typhoid fever, was removed to the hospital at 1:45 this afternoon on advice of her physician, Dr. White. “Mother” Jones is threatened with pneumonia and while the disease has not yet developed, it was deemed best to prepare for the worst. “Mother” Jones is 63 years old and up to her present illness has been in fairly robust health.[Emphasis added.]
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 7, 1904
Telluride, Colorado – Martial Law Declared; Union Men Deported
From the American Labor Union Journal of January 7, 1904:
[News from Telluride by A. H. Floaten]
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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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Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 27, 1903
Colorado Military Arrests Striking Miners at Altman, Independence and Victor
From The Rocky Mountain News of November 24, 1903:
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 13, 1903
Major McClelland Explains Military Despotism in the Cripple Creek Strike Zone
Report of Emma F. Langdon of Victor, Colorado:
“TO HELL WITH THE CONSTITUTION.”
“To hell with the constitution. We are going by the governor’s orders,” said Major McClelland, acting judge advocate and counsel for the military authorities, according to the statement of Attorney John M. Glover [published in the Victor Daily Record of October 4th]:
I was in the office of District Attorney Trowbridge when Tom McClelland and Willis V. Elliott were preparing information against Editor Kyner for libel. Referring to the seizure of the office of the Victor Record, I said to McClelland, “Your people apparently have not much respect for the constitution. That was a blow at the freedom of the press,” to which McClelland replied: “To h— with the constitution. We are going by the governor’s orders.” To which I replied: “We will have some of you fellows pleading for your liberty before a jury where the governor’s orders don’t go.” McClelland replied: “We will take care of that when we come to it.” Elliot was present and heard this conversation.”
Immediately upon the appearance of the foregoing, McClelland denied that he made the remark that he was not going by the constitution, which at once brought forth the following from Mr. Glover:
Cripple Creek, Colo.,
Oct. 5, 1903.Editor of the Daily Record, Victor, Colo.:
Dear Sir:—The conversation reported in your issue of October 4, as having occurred between Thomas McClelland, judge advocate of the National Guard and myself, took place explicitly and exactly as stated by your correspondent. My version of the matter will be accepted by the people of this section and by any jury before which McClelland shall be tried. I repeat that this conversation took place in the immediate presence and hearing of Willis V. Elliott, also an officer of the National Guard, and I cherish the hope that Mr. Elliott has too much regard for his honor and his uniform to join in McClelland’s denial.
Very truly yours,
JOHN M. GLOVER[Newsclip and emphasis added.]
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 12, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – The Military Bullpen at Camp Goldfield
Report of Emma F. Langdon of Victor, Colorado:
[The Military Bullpen]
Now I will invite the reader to take a trip to the military prison and see how fared the Record prisoners.
These prisoners were marched unceremoniously to the bull pen. Armed thugs forced them into a filthy and squalid little tent, absolutely barren of furniture or bedding, where they were told to stay under penalty of having their heads blown off if they appeared an inch outside of the entrance.
The night was bitterly cold and on that frigid mountain side, under the intimidating guard of a horde of armed assassins, the working force of the Victor Record passed a night of torture equal to anything ever devised by the Spanish inquisitors. The entire force will bear testimony that the treatment accorded them was so inhuman and revolting as to surpass the belief of American citizens.
The “bull” tent had just been vacated by a number of drunken soldier prisoners, who had vomited all over the interior. The stench was sickening, but there they were forced to lay, without even so much as a gunny sack to protect them from the cold. Shortly after sunrise they were told to come to “breakfast.” Emerging from the filthy kennel they were escorted to the mess table a short distance away. A dozen guards kept them covered with guns loaded with riot ammunition while two grimy negro cooks dished out a little slop on tin plates and told them to eat. There were no knives, forks or spoons at hand. “Use your fingers,” said the head negro when remonstrance was made.
Beneath the table were a number of wash boilers and buckets filled with the accumulated garbage of several days and the stench arising therefrom was nauseating enough to insult the gizzard of a buzzard. It is quite needless to state that they had no appetite.
They returned to the tent hungrier and more distressed than ever. The day was raw and cold and they were chilled to the marrow. Faint and sick Mr. Richmond approached the captain of the guard and implored him for God’s sake to obtain some blankets. His appeal was cut short with an oath from that dignitary.
A little later a murderous looking gatling gun was drawn up, trained on the prisoner’s tent, and they were subjected to the nerve rending ordeal of posing as targets. The excitement attending this outrageous intimidation completely unnerved some of them.
Attorney Tully Scott, formerly of Kansas, succeeded in getting them liberated through some legal procedure and after unwinding a few miles of military red tape the commanding general turned them over to Sheriff Robertson of Teller county, when for the first time they learned that they were defendants in a libel case.
It was a deliberate plot to suppress a paper for telling the truth about the uniformed hirelings who were guilty of the outrages above mentioned.
The excuse for the taking of the Record force was that in the issue of the day before, there was an article of about six lines which referred to two tools of the mine owners as ex-convicts. It was learned that in the case of Vannick it was true, but Scanlon, with all his faults, had not, as yet worn the stripes. However, there was a correction coming out the following morning. The whole truth of the matter was that the military was watching every movement of the Record for a chance to raid the office. The real reason of the military raiding the office at that hour, was to suppress the official organ of the Western Federation of Miners. The district had only the one paper that stood up for the cause, and of course the enemy did not have a very warm feeling of friendship for the Record. The reader will at once realize that even had the editor been guilty of criminal libel the operators or the mechanical force could not legally be held responsible. But when the military endeavored to suppress the Record they reckoned without their host. Again the writer will quote: “The best laid plans o’ mice,” etc. The writer would advise the warrior Chase, when he again undertakes to suppress the press, to not only arrest the force at work, but every living printer in the county—and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to carefully guard the cemeteries, for the press is a hard game to beat—even by a warrior of the ability of Chase, as he has doubtless discovered.
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 29, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – General Bell Unfit for Command
From The Rocky Mountain News of September 14, 1903:
Editorial Page:
BELL SHOULD BE REMOVED
ADJUTANT GENERAL SHERMAN BELL should be relieved and removed from command of the troops at Cripple Creek. His mental characteristics are such as to make him an unsafe and even dangerous person to hold that position. This has been shown by his conduct since he went to the district in his disregard of the law and the most ordinary rights of citizens.
The troops have been used to make domiciliary visits, to enter peaceable meetings by force of arms and to make arrests without warrant or indictment and without giving information to the persons arrested or to the public of the reasons of the arrests. Some even are being held forcibly in durance without charge of any kind against them.
Granting that the governor was sincere in the belief that the troops were necessary in the district, his first great mistake was to consent that the cost of sending them should be paid by one of the parties to the controversy. The officer in command looks upon himself and his troops as in a sense the employees of that party, and it is not to be doubted that the mine owners have driven Bell to do illegal acts which have marked his sway. He and they protest that there is no martial law; while martial law prevails in fact almost to the last extreme. When men are arrested and place in confinement without charges against them, solely by the order of the general commanding, it is martial law.
The troops of the state when called out on such occasion, should act solely as assistants to the civil authorities in preserving the peace. The officer in command has no right whatever to undertake to set aside civil authority and make his own whims the sole law.
The officer in command in Cripple Creek should be calm, self-controlled and responsible, and as Bell is not qualified in any of those particulars, the governor should repair, so far as possible, the harm already done by removing him at once. A man of demonstrated unfitness should not occupy a place of such great trust at a time when so much is involved as is the case in the Cripple Creek district at the present time.
[Emphasis added.]
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 28, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – Military Despotism Dominates Strike Zone
Military Despotism in the Cripple Creek District
September 13 found the military in complete control of the entire district. The troops dominated everything. A “bull pen’’ was established. Men were taken from home and families at dead of night, made to get out of bed and go with the militia and placed in the “bull pen” without explanation. They were not allowed defense and there were no charges preferred against them. Union meetings were, from the date given, broken into and obstructed without apparent cause.
One among the first shocks dealt the people of the district was Sept. 12, when it was announced that the leaders of the military had ordered the arrest of Sherman Parker. It was learned that the order had been executed shortly after midnight, when Mr. Parker was at home asleep. At 12:20 [a. m. Saturday], Sept. 12, Mr. Parker was awakened by a knock at the door. He went to the door and answered the call. He was told that the gentleman calling had a note from a man by the name of Jack Minor to present to him in the way of introduction. Mr. Parker stepped nearer the door and was immediately placed under arrest and taken from his family without further explanation and lodged in the ‘‘bull pen,” which was established near the Strong mine.
Sherman Parker is and has always been a peaceable citizen. There is probably none better in the county, but he was a member of the strike committee, and after the troops were here at the instigation and for the assistance of the mine owners, they were to arrest anyone that stood in their way of running affairs with an unlimited high hand. He was forbidden consultation, it is stated, with an attorney, and was simply told to “lie there and take what he was given.”
The executive committee of District Union No. 1, Sept. 13, ran the following statement in its official organ in regard to Minford and Sherman Parker:
W.H. Minford, the man who was supposed to have been beaten by strikers at Goldfield, was in reality beaten up in a bawdy house fight at Cripple Creek. He is now under arrest for giving false information and is detained in the county jail.
Sherman Parker, secretary of Free Coinage Miners’ Union No. 19, was dragged from his bed at his home in Independence by a squad of soldiers at 12:20 yesterday morning. No charges have been preferred against him and he is a prisoner without warrant of law. We want all union men over the country to know how the military are treating our members. Several have been arrested and in no case have charges been preferred against them.
DISTRICT UNION NO. 1, W. F. M., EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
One of the most ridiculous things that occurred during the strike was the operating of a searchlight. The light was moved from one mountain to another and turned on the various little cities of the district. Another ridiculous thing was that the citizens of the law-abiding community was given the opportunity of seeing a gatling gun. One was taken from Camp Goldfield to Beacon hill in the afternoon of Sept. 11. It was probably the one that was borrowed from Wyoming to help out Colorado in the great war of the Cripple Creek district. At any rate the gatling gun was here and was hauled from place to place as the great “rebellion’’ went on.
Sept. 15 the militia aroused the people of the district when a company of cavalry marched to the residence of Patrick J. Lynch of Victor, and who is chairman of the board of county commissioners of Teller county, and, without doubt, as peaceable a citizen as lives in the state of Colorado, arrested and marched him to appear before Generals Bell and Chase. Nothing since the strike started so thoroughly aroused the people of the county as this outrage of September 15. Mr. Lynch was presented with no papers. He was given no reason for arrest. He was simply taken from his table while dining, and marched at command to Camp Goldfield.
A troop of about twenty men marched down Fourth street across Portland, where Patrick J. Lynch resides. They immediately surrounded his residence, going into the back yard and into the alley, then an officer approached the house and arrested Mr. Lynch. He was rudely seized and taken out forthwith. He was not allowed to return to his residence, but soldiers were sent back for some purpose.
Mr. Lynch was ordered to mount one of the horses and was surrounded by troopers. Two were kept on foot also to guard him. As the procession marched along the street to the camp hundreds of people lined both sides of thoroughfare and the expressions that were uttered were possibly the strongest that had been heard. Others laughed at the folly and the absurdity of the action was ridiculed from every source.
Mr. Lynch was immediately ordered before Generals Bell and Chase when he reached the camp. He was told that it had been reported to them that he had criticized the soldiers and exercised the privilege of every American citizen in urging men not to return to work. This Mr. Lynch denied emphatically, and, turning to General Bell and pointing his finger at him, said: “There is a man who has known me for ten years, and he knows that I am as peaceable a citizen as lives in the state of Colorado.” After a few other remarks Mr. Lynch was released and allowed to return to his home and partake of another meal by his own fireside, though the military bravos were still in the district.
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 27, 1903
Colorado State Federation of Labor Supports Striking Miners of Cripple Creek
STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR AROUSED.
During the week of September 14-19, the Colorado State Federation of Labor was in session at Canon City and realizing the oppressing domination of Colorado militarism and understanding that all organized labor was in imminent danger of military suppression by the determined and lawless methods used to crush the Western Federation of Miners, passed unanimously the following resolutions:
Whereas, A gatling gun, the property of the state of Colorado, supposed to be used by the Colorado militia to uphold the laws of the state of Colorado, without class distinction, has been loaned and for the past six months has been in the Standard mill at Colorado City; and,
Whereas, Such loaning of the property of the state of Colorado is not only not good public policy, but is a detriment to the interests of the state and is without doubt at the behests of certain citizens for the purpose of intimidating other residents of Colorado City and is distinctly a case of arming one class of citizens against another, which is absolutely against the constitution, wherein equal privileges are guaranteed to all; therefore be it
Resolved, By the Colorado State Federation of Labor, in convention assembled, that the action of the officers of the Colorado National guard, and especially of Governor Peabody as commander-in-chief, be denounced as absolutely without warrant or precedent and as against the best interests of the state and dictates of good government.
Whereas, On the 28th day of July, 1903, the Sun and Moon transformer at Idaho Springs, Colo., was blown up by means and persons as yet unknown; and,
Whereas, There is a certain organization in Idaho Springs known as the Citizens’ Protective league, composed of all classes except organized labor and organized for the purpose of antagonizing labor in their efforts to better their conditions; and,
Whereas, Said Citizens’ league without warrant of law, aided and abetted by the sworn peace officers of the county, did take from their homes and imprison certain members of organized labor for certain affiliations and did after said imprisonment as an organized mob under the direction of the said Citizens’ Protective league (did) expel said members of organized labor from Idaho Springs with a warning to never return on pain of death and did banish said members of organized labor from their homes and families; and
Whereas, The district judge of Clear Creek county, presided over by Judge Frank W. Owers, has in the trial of the cases instituted by the banished members of organized labor against the members of the mob shown a spirit of fairness, as refreshing as it is rare in cases where a clash has arisen between labor and the capitalistic class; and ,
Whereas, The said Judge Owers has publicly declared from the bench that it is his purpose to administer the laws of the state of Colorado regardless of class or caste; therefore be it
Resolved, By the Colorado State Federation of Labor, in convention assembled, that we do strongly commend the action of Judge Owers in meeting out exact justice to all violators of the law; and that a copy of these resolutions be furnished Judge Owers under the seal of the Colorado State Federation of Labor.
