Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 16, 1904 Cripple Creek District, Colorado – W. F. M. Blamed for Independence Depot Explosion
Tuesday June 7, 1904 – Independence, Colorado -Bomb Explodes at Railroad Depot; W. F. of M. Accused and Attacked
Mrs. Emma Langdon Reports from Victor, Colorado:
At about 3 o’clock on the morning of June 6, a mine of dynamite was exploded by means of an infernal machine, place underneath the station platform at Independence and thirteen men were instantly blown to fragments and many other mutilated…
[Emphasis added.]
Mrs. Langdon reports that the Citizens’ Alliance placed the blame, without any proof whatsoever, upon the Western Federation of Miners. The militia, apparently, agrees. Union halls have been raided, and union men killed.
From The San Francisco Call of June 7, 1904:
ANARCHY RUNS RIOT IN COLORADO; DAY’S VICTIMS NUMBER TWENTY-TWO ——————–
Anarchy ran riot in the Cripple Creek district of Colorado yesterday. At Findley dynamite under the railroad station platform was touched off by means of a revolver so placed with a wire connection that it could be fired from a distance. The platform was crowded with non-union miners at the time. Thirteen of these men were killed and others were shockingly mangled. Then followed a succession of street riots in Victor, resulting in numerous casualties, and a charge of soldiers upon the headquarters of the miners union. Volleys were fired into the building and at least seven men were killed. At an early hour this morning the rioting had not been checked, and shooting affrays were occurring constantly.
Scene of Cripple Creek’s Labor Disturbances, Colorado Executive Who Sent Troops to Enforce the Law and Head of the Municipal Governing Body of Victor, Where Clashes Between the State’s Soldiers and Rioters Are Continuous.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 30, 1911
Aberdeen, Washington – The Constitution as Upheld for Fellow Workers
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of December 28, 1911:
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WAKE UP GOVERNOR HAY. —————
Tacoma, Wash, Dec. 17, 1911.
Honorable Marion E. Hay,
Governor of the State of Washington,
Olympia, Wash.
Sir:-
We, the undersigned, do hereby respectfully call your attention to the lawlessness which, as we are informed, now exists and for some time past existed in Aberdeen, Chehalis county, in this state.
We herewith enclose affidavits to show that workingmen who have been charged with no crime whatever have been compelled to leave said city by an irresponsible mob of brutal men armed with guns and cubs-a proceeding for which we are advised, there is no authority in law and which, we submit, is to a marked degree, against the peace and dignity of our state.
Our laws, as we are informed, provide that persons charged with a crime may be arrested and after being found guilty in the manner prescribed by law, may be punished. Such punishments, we are informed, may be fine, imprisonment, the infliction of death penalty upon the offender, and in certain cases the performance of an operation to prevent procreation.
There is no law providing that persons, guilty or innocent, desirable or undesirable may be run out or town.
Trusting that you may, in the exercise of your authority as chief executive of our state, see your way clear to suppress all lawlessness and assuring you of our ability and willingness to furnish much or evidence of the character herewith enclosed, we beg to remain, respectfully yours,
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, Friday February 16, 1917
From Everett Labor Journal: Report on Industrial Warfare, Part II
Over a period of three weeks, from January 26th to February 9th, The Labor Journal of Everett, Washington, published the “Report on Everett’s Industrial Warfare,” by E. P. Marsh, President of the Washington State Federation of Labor, which report he had delivered on the first day of that bodies annual convention, Monday January 22, 1917. Hellraisers Journal republished Part I of that report yesterday; we offer Part II today, and we will concluded the series with Part III of the report tomorrow.
EVERETT’S INDUSTRIAL WARFARE, PART II
EVERETT’S INDUSTRIAL WARFARE;
REPORT OF PRESIDENT E. P. MARSH
Activity of the Everett Commercial Club.
I wish it were possible with a short homily to end the story here, for the sorriest part of it now begins. It is to be expected that when two men are in a fist fight, the bystander will at least keep his hands off, or, when one has been terribly beaten, insist that the fight end and the men patch up their differences. The business interests of the city were the bystanders in this struggle, but by no means “innocent.” They had every right to say to the contending parties: “You fellows have fought long enough; why don’t you quit, find out what it is all about, and see if you can’t be good friends again?”
The business interests were suffering keenly because of this struggle. The strikers [striking Shingle Weavers of Everett] were living on short rations, little money to spend for groceries, meat and shoes. The strikebreakers were being housed on mill property, fed from a commissary, spending none of their money with Everett merchants. If the Commercial Club members had a right to take a hand in the proceedings, and naturally they felt they had, for they were being hurt, it was their bounden duty to honestly investigate the truth of the statements of the contending parties, approach the whole problem in a spirit of community good, offer conciliation and mediation to both contending parties. Now notice how they went about it.
Some months previously the Commercial Club had been reorganized on the bureau plan, the various activities of the business life of the city being chartered out and turned over to various bureaus. There was an advertising bureau, a transportation bureau, etc. It became a stock concern, stock memberships being issued in blocks to employers and business houses and some distributed among employers and their employes. What a field for an industrial bureau that would have kept in touch with the human side of the city’s industries, striven for industrial peace by studying the vexatious labor problem with an eye to helping along friendly relations between employers and their men. But there was no such bureau, at least not equipped to function in the social relationship of industry. Mistake No. 1 of the Commercial Club.
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