H. M. Robertson – WE NEVER FORGET

Quote Emma F Langdon, Miners Are My Brothers, EFL p244, 1904 —————

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.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Emma F. Langdon Reports on Cripple Creek Strike: Military Despotism, the Bullpen at Camp Goldfield” →

Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III —————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 11, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – Governor Sends the Militia into Strike Zone

Report of Emma F. Langdon of Victor, Colorado:

[Cripple Citizens’ Alliance]

Emma F. Langdon

About Sept. 1 there were many rumors of an alliance being formed in Victor. Upon investigation it was found there was an organization known as the “Citizens’ Alliance” in Cripple Creek. If there was at the above date, such an organization in Victor, there could not be one member located. Just what this organization hoped to accomplish in the Cripple Creek district was hard to understand, but it was not hard to understand from whence the spirit of the movement came. It required but little investigation into the membership to convince one that it was inspired by the mine owners; at least, the most prominent members are their lieutenants in the district. These men, it appears, first interviewed the Victor merchants but received a decided “turndown,” for which all friends of organized labor were grateful. The situation is different here from what it is in Denver. The great mass of people here are union people and just how a “Citizens’ Alliance’” could hope to accomplish any good for itself or anybody else is hard to understand. Just think of it; the idea of the business men, or anyone else of this district, organizing to fight organized labor. What has made the Cripple Creek district from a business standpoint? Has it been the generosity of the mine owners, or the work of organized labor in establishing a wage scale here that would put enough money in circulation to make business here in place of going to Colorado Springs.

In the city of Victor the news of the organization caused much amusement at that time, be it said to the credit of Victor’s business men.

[Home of Mr. Dennison, Union Miner, Burned]

[From] when the first non-union men began the work of building a fence at the El Paso, until the completion of the tunnel, there was enacted at the mine many disgraceful scenes of lawlessness. Guards at the mine had fights among themselves; insulted passers-by; stopped respectable people that had business to pass that way, at the point of rifles. They were, it was said, caught stealing. They made indecent exposures before innocent children; for which some of the men employed were arrested. The home of Mr. Dennison, a union miner, was destroyed by incendiaries on the night of Sept. 2, and while it was not proved positively that it was the work of the El Paso crew, evidence was strong against them. If they did not actually light the fire that destroyed the property, they, at least, made plain the fact that they were glad to see Mr. Dennison and family made homeless. While the house was in flames and the work of saving some of the household goods was in progress, the guards stood by and laughed and jeered. They did not offer to assist the unfortunate people. For that reason, I say if they were not instrumental in the burning of the building, at any rate, they made no secret of their joy at the sight of Dennison’s home being in flames.

[Large rewards were offered by the county officials and citizens for evidence leading to the arrest of those guilty of the assault upon businessmen Stewart an Hawkins, however] no reward offered for the villains that burned the home of Mr. Dennison, a union miner, and there was very little said of the matter by the enemies of organized labor.

[Governor Sends Investigating Committee]

When it was announced that an investigating committee was to visit the district a general expression of satisfaction was heard on every side. But, alas, that investigating committee—what a farce.

The members of the committee arrived [in Victor] over the Short Line Sept. 3, at 9:30 p. m. They were hastened through a back alley by F. M. Reardon to a rear entrance into the Bank of Victor, where they were met by Mayor French and a few other prominent citizens and held a short consultation, when they left for the residence of Nelson Franklin. The committee remained at the residence of Nelson Franklin about a half hour and then took the low line electric for Cripple Creek, where they went into session and held a long interview with Sheriff Robertson. They refused to talk. After the meeting with the mine owners they returned to Victor on a special car.

A telegram received at the Victor Daily Record office from Denver shortly after midnight said that the commission was in session at the National hotel in Cripple Creek and would not be ready with the recommendation for several hours. The commission consisted of Attorney General N. C. Miller, Brigadier General John Chase of the National guard, and Lieutenant T. E. H. McClelland, an obscure lawyer of Denver. No intimation was given out as to the possible conclusions.

The commission returned to Denver early the following morning, being in the district less than eight hours and only interviewed one side of the question.

[Troops Arrive]

September 4, about noon, the news reached the district that troops had been ordered to the gold camp and would arrive that night. The people were seized with consternation at this news. A wail of indignation went up from at least two-thirds of the entire population. The people at once understood the mission of the “investigating committee” and why they did not consult. all parties concerned. The first of the state troops arrived in the district Sept. 4 before midnight, and from then on for twenty-four hours they came until there was located, in one of the quietest, most conservative, law-abiding districts in the world, over 1,000 men with munitions of war sufficient to fight a small nation.

The all absorbing subject on the streets of Victor and in the entire district was the question of the arrival of the troops. The farce committee sent here by Governor Peabody to secure an excuse to bring the troops, returned to Denver Sept. 4, early in the morning, and immediately advised the governor to send the troops. Adjutant General Bell had his men in readiness. In fact, they were wearing their uniforms around Denver early in the morning and were simply waiting for the farce committee to report what had been agreed upon the day before.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Emma F. Langdon Reports on Cripple Creek Strike: Colorado Governor Sends Troops into Strike Zone” →