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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 8, 1904
Telluride, Colorado – Brutality Against Striking Miners Continues

Guy Miller Reports From Telluride

From the Telluride strike zone comes this disturbing report from Guy Miller, President of the local miners’ union (W. F. of M.):

[On Tuesday, March 2nd] thirty-four men were arrested in the justice court on the charge of vagrancy, twenty-seven of them were fined $25 and costs and given until two o’clock [Wednesday] to pay their fines, leave the county or go to work. Sixteen reported for work…they were taken to the jail by Willard Runnels and put to work on the sewers of the town. One of the men, Harry Maki, refused to work. Runnels led him to a telephone pole, compelled him to put his arms around the pole, then fastened handcuffs on his wrists. The wind was blowing a gale and the snow filled the air. He was left standing chained like a beast for several hours. After many protests had been made against this cruel treatment Runnels took him to the jail….

Brother Maki remains in jail at this time and has not been given anything to eat since his ordeal began.

Brother Miller describes the type of men brought in by the mine owners to lead the fight against the Western Federation of Miners:

Runnels and Robert Meldrum were imported from Wyoming by the mine managers for the avowed purpose of discovering the murderer of Arthur Collins. But their only contact with the union was when some man was held up on his way to town and searched for stolen ore, without warrant or any process whatever. Runnels and Meldrum were pals of Tom Horn, the leader of a band of desperadoes who had been hired by the cattle ranchers to fight the sheep ranchers. Horn was hanged at Cheyenne, Wyoming, in November, 1903, for the murder of little Willie Nickell, the twelve-year-old son of a sheep rancher. The evidence indicated that he received $600 for the murder. It is characters like these who lead the “law and order” brigade for the Mine Owners and Citizens’ Alliance—men skilled and reckless in the use of the gun. When a corporation pays fancy prices for skilled labor of any kind—carpenters, electricians, engineers or man-killers—it expects the employe to give value received for the wages paid, and they never pay for anything they do not expect to need.

Striking Miner Harry Maki, Western Federation of Miners:

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Brutality Against Striking Miners of Telluride Continues; Many Arrests and Harry Maki Chained to Telephone Pole in Bitter Wind and Cold” →