Tag: Telluride Strike of 1903-1904

WE NEVER FORGET: Alexander Obremski Who Gave His Life in Freedom’s Cause at Rugby, Colorado on May 18, 1907

Janet RayeWe Never Forget
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Link up in one socialist company;
Evil must perish!
Only together and united!
Long live the Western Federation of Miners!
-Alex Obremski

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WE NEVER FORGET, Alex Obremski, Rugby CO May 18, 1907

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Alexander Obremski
Union Organizer for the Western Federation of Miners

In 1907, Alexander Obremski was a union organizer for the Western Federation of Miners, working in the very dangerous field of the Trinidad area of southern Colorado. The field was considered to be so dangerous that organizers took the precaution of traveling in pairs.

On the evening of May 18, 1907, Brother Obremski was shot down in a saloon in Rugby, Colorado, near Trinidad, by Juan Espinosa, “a Mexican allegedly hired by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) for this purpose.” [See below.]

A large funeral was held in Trinidad on May 22nd to honor the intrepid union organizer. He was survived by two brothers who lived in Starkville, Colorado.

According to M. E. White who had charge of WFM headquarters in Trinidad:

Much credit is due for the three hundred members initiated here in the last five months, and at Pueblo, to the faithful and diligent work of your organizer, Brother James Peretto, and the late Brother Obremsky who took their lives in their hands in the work of educating the slaves of this district.

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SOURCE I

Essays in Colorado History, Issues 5-10
Colorado Historical Society, 1987
(Search with “alex obremski” reveals signature: “Alex. Obremski.”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=_ngjAQAAIAAJ

Note: not available online except in snippet view. By using various search-words, I was able to bring up some relevant information. I will be attempting to track down this source in a library.

Page 55-

Alexander Obremski (1876-1907)
Correspondence from Trinidad, Colorado
Published as “Korespondencje. Trinidad, Colo.” in Robotnik Polski

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Hellraisers Journal: Harper’s Magazine on the Moyer-Haywood Case: “The Murder Charge at a Labor Union’s Door”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday May 30, 1907
Boise, Idaho – William D. Haywood on Trial for Murder

From Harper’s Weekly of May 25, 1907:


THE MURDER CHARGE AT A
LABOR UNION’S DOOR


BY THE CONFESSION OF ONE OF ITS MEMBERS, THE WESTERN
FEDERATION OF MINERS IS CHARGED WITH HAVING INSTIGATED
TWENTY-SEVEN MURDERS, INCLUDING THE ASSASSINATION, IN 1905,
OF FORMER GOVERNOR STEUNENBERG, OF IDAHO. FOR COMPLICITY
IN THIS CRIME, W. D. HAYWOOD, OF THE FEDERATION’S
“INNER CIRCLE,” IS ON TRIAL FOR HIS LIFE

HMP, Pettibone Moyer Haywood, AtR, Feb 16, 1907

AN attempt to learn the truth about the most serious charge that ever has been laid at the doors of organized labor is now being made at Boise City, Idaho. William D. Haywood, secretary-treasurer of the Western Federation of Miners, is on trial in the District Court, charged with the murder of Frank Steunenberg, former Governor of Idaho. Two other officers of the Federation are jointly accused, but they will be tried separately. One remarkable fact which provokes arguments for and against the organization is that the evidence upon which Haywood and his associates have been indicted is based upon the confession of a member of the Federation who is reported since to have lost his reason.

The three men charged with conspiracy and murder are Haywood, Charles H. Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners, and G. A. Pettibone, formerly a member of the supreme governing body of the organization. These three are men of unusual intelligence and high executive ability.

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Hellraisers Journal: Remembering Brother Maki of Telluride, Chained to Pole, Miners Still Wonder: “Is Colorado in America?”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday March 4, 1907
Telluride, Colorado – The Strike of 1903-1904 Remembered

Yesterday’s Hellraisers Journal featured an article by Comrade Debs from the Appeal to Reason in which was recounted the reign of terror perpetrated upon the members and supporters of the Western Federation of Miners by the Mine Owners, through the powers acting on their behalf, during the bitter strike of three years ago. Today we remember the striking miner who was chained to a telegraph pole on a cold winter day, which incident, along with many like it, left the miners wondering: “Is Colorado in America?”

From the Albuquerque Morning Journal of March 3, 1904:


FRESH TROUBLE BREAKS OUT IN
TELLURIDE STRIKE
—–
Striker Chained to a Telegraph Pole
—–
BY VINDICTIVE DEPUTY
—–
The Thermometer Was Near Zero and
the Western Federation of Miners
Is on Its Ear.
—–

WFM Telluride, Maki chained to pole, Cook Co Hld, Jun 3, 1904

Denver, Colo., March 2.-The headquarters of the Western Federation of Miners in this city was thrown into a fever of excitement late this afternoon by a report of ill-treatment of a striking member of the Miners’ union under arrest on a charge of vagrancy at Telluride, by the civil authorities there. The information came in a telegram from Secretary Forbes of the Telluride union to Secretary Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners, as follows:

See Peabody. One of our men shackled to a telegraph pole. Are we going to stand this any longer? All arrests by civil authorities.

Secretary Haywood immediately replied he had instructed E. E. Richardson, attorney of the Western Federation of Miners to go to Telluride at once and institute legal proceedings in the name of the union for the protection of the strikers under arrest. He also advised the officials of the Telluride union to insist upon their rights and use every means at their command to protect themselves.

He said he would make no appeal to Governor Peabody. Mr. Richardson left for Telluride tonight. The local papers have been unable to get any news of conditions in Telluride tonight because of the rigorous censorship prevailing. However, the following version of the affair today was sent out by Captain Bulkeley Wells who is in charge of the local military.

“Five of the men convicted under a vagrancy charge by the civil authorities yesterday, were put to work this morning by order of the sheriff, filling in an excavation. One of the men, Harry Maki, refused to work and was handcuffed to a telegraph pole by the deputy sheriff in charge. This action on the part of the civil authorities has caused great indignation among the strikers.”

[Note: Many of the miners were convicted as vagrants because they had committed the crime of going out on strike.]

Both Captain Wells and Sheriff Rutan disclaimed any responsibility for the action of the deputy sheriff in his treatment of Maki. As the weather at Telluride just now is very cold, the barometer being in the neighborhood of zero, the officials of the Western Federation of Miners in this city feel certain the chaining of Maki to a telegraph pole was an unnecessary hardship. It is understood that Maki was finally released from his uncomfortable position and returned to prison.

[Drawing of Brother Maki added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Federal Judge Upholds Colorado Supreme Court in Moyer v Peabody, Legalizes Bullpen

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday December 2, 1906
Denver, Colorado – U. S. District Court Upholds Autocracy

From the Appeal to Reason of December 1, 1906:

THE “BULL PEN” LEGALIZED!
—–

Decision of Federal Judge Invests
Governors of States with
Autocratic Power.
—–

WFM Colorado Strikes 1903-1904, The Bull Pen

WHEN an insurrection is declared by the governor to exist in any part of Colorado a citizen of the district affected by the proclamation of the chief executive of the state may be imprisoned and detained at the will of the military authorities, according to an opinion handed down by Judge R. E. Lewis in the United States district court in Denver, Colo., Monday, November 19. Such action by the military authorities is declared not to be a violation of the fourteenth amendment, or of the law providing for the writ of habeas corpus.

This decision, which is one of the most important announced in a Colorado court in recent years, was handed down in the case of Charles H. Moyer, president of the Western Federation of Miners, vs. James H. Peabody, former governor of Colorado, Sherman Bell, former adjutant general, and Bulkeley Wells, now adjutant general, but at the time of the commission of the act of which plaintiff complained an officer in the Colorado national guard. Mr. Moyer had sued for $100,000 damages for alleged false imprisonment during the strike troubles in San Miguel county two years ago. The demurrer of the defendants was sustained.

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