———-
Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 29, 1900
How Ruling Class Political Parties Love the Toilers!
From The Social Democratic Herald of October 27, 1900:
[…..]
Tag: Wardner ID Bullpen of 1899
Hellraisers Journal: From Appeal to Reason: General Merriam Represents McKinley in War Against Idaho Miners
———-
Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 16, 1900
Washington, District of Columbia – General Merriam, Tool of President McKinley
From the Appeal to Reason of April 14, 1900:
—–
There is a long and interesting story in the Coeur d’ Alene mining troubles.
The strikers began by acting very badly-no doubt whatever of that. They or their friends unquestionably made mistakes, blowing up a mill with dynamite, etc.
Of course it is probable that the mine owners in their own way abused their power as wickedly. But a mine owner can always hire lawyers, or, if need be, government officials and the army-the strikers cannot. Therefore, the strikers should be careful.
—–
You know that in that mining region men were arrested without warrant. United States troops, sent to obey mine owners’ orders, shut the men up in a “bull pen.” The district attorney was the legal advisor of the Standard Oil corporation. He suspended the habeas corpus idea entirely-said that if the courts had issued habeas corpus papers he would have ignored them.
Hellraisers Journal: The Railroad Telegrapher: “Idaho’s Disgrace”-U. S. House of Representatives Investigates
———-
Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 2, 1900
Washington, District of Columbia – House Investigates Coeur d’Alene Troubles
From The Railroad Telegrapher of April 1900:
IDAHO’S DISGRACE.
—–
—–
THE investigation before the Committee on Military Affairs of the House of Representatives, with reference to the charges made against the United States soldiers under Brigadier General Merriam, growing out of the labor troubles in the Coeur d’Alene mining district in Idaho, has been creating intense interest in labor circles and elsewhere for some time past. Even those who are callous to labor’s wrongs and pin their faith to the theory that the survival of the fittest is the prevailing law in heaven as well as on earth and the other place, have felt some qualms of conscience that such things should happen in “The land of the free and the home of the brave.”
After a strike and some riotous proceedings, which latter could easily have been quelled by the local authorities, the Governor of the State [Frank Steunenberg] suspended the writ of habeas corpus, an infringement of the liberties of the people not even within the prerogative of the President of the United States, without the sanction of Congress. Over eleven hundred citizens were arrested without warrant by this tyrannically-inclined “servant of the people” and confined in a place unfit for human habitation, and kept there for a period ranging from a few days to eight months.
By and through the courtesy of the Miner’s Magazine and the Pueblo Courier, we are enabled to present pictures of some of the men who have been made “Martyrs of the Bull Pen.”
Hellraisers Journal: Ed Boyce, President of Western Federation of Miners, Pays His Respects to General Merriam
———-
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 28, 1900
President Boyce on Gen. Merriam: “pusillanimous tool…of the mine operators…”
From the Kansas City Labor Record of January 25, 1900:
THE WARDNER TROUBLE
—–
General Merriam Censured for his Persecution
of Union Miners. Not a Union Man
Allowed to Work.
—–
In the initial issue of the Miners Magazine President Boyce pays his respects to General Merriam in the following caustic manner:
The following interview with General Merriam by a reporter of the Rocky Mountain News was published in that paper Dec. 13th:
You can say for me,” said the general yesterday to a News man, “that the more Congress investigates the Coeur d’Alene troubles the better it will please me. I am pleased to know that such a movement is on foot.
“The constitution speaks for itself,” continued General Merriam. “Martial law was proclaimed by Governor Stuenenberg May 3d last. Three days after I was ordered to the scene. Arrests were made by the stale authorities, but I do not care to discuss the question. The records speak for themselves.”
Had this pusillanimous tool in the hands of the mine operators, clothed in the uniform of a general bearing the U. S. brand, been animated with no other desire than to do his duty when he reached the Coeur d’Alenes, there would be no need of a congressional investigation.
Did he not arrest every man in the country at the suggestion of the mine operators without cause or provocation and confine them in a filthy barn unfit for habitation, with instructions to shoot any man who showed his head, and denied them the right to consult with counsel?
Did he not examine and approve over his signature one of the most infamous proclamations that ever emanated from the brain of man, which denied every man the right to seek employment in the mines of Shoshone county unless he denounced organized labor and obtained a permit from Dr. France, the Bunker Hill and Sullivan company doctor, noted for his extreme prejudice against organized labor?
Hellraisers Journal: New York World: “Congress to Probe Standard Oil War on Idaho Miners” – Wardner Bullpen to Close
———-
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 2, 1899
Wardner, Idaho – Bullpen to Close; Congress to Investigate
From the New York World of December 1, 1899:
CONGRESS TO PROBE STANDARD OIL WAR
ON IDAHO MINERS.
Gen. Merriam’s “Bull Pen,”
Which Once Held 2,000 Prisoners,
Is to Be Closed Next Week.
—–
NATION AND TRUST VS. UNION.
—–
Trouble Started Seven Years Ago
—Life and Property Have Been Lost
—Both Sides Welcome Inquiry.
—–
MARTIAL LAW TO CONTINUE AWHILE.
—–
Cases of Mine-Owners and Miners Ready for Congress
-Bitterness Against Standard Oil.
—–(Special to The World.)
WALLACE, Idaho, Nov. 30.—Congress is to investigate Idaho’s seven-year war in which the Standard Oil Company, owner of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mines in the Coeur d’Alene district, has, aided by the Federal and State authorities, opposed the Miners’ Union. Senator Carter, of Montana, and Senator Heitfeld, of Idaho, champions o the miners, will move for such an investigation early in the session.
Already State Auditor Bartlett Sinclair announces that the famous or infamous Wardner “bull pen,” in which at one time the military authorities had as many as 2,000 prisoners, is to be closed next week—coincident with the meeting of Congress.
Of the total number o£ men incarcerated there only eighteen had a trial before a court or before a jury of their peers. Others were arrested and held at the pleasure of the military or state authorities. Terms of imprisonment ranged from three weeks to three months. Martial law had been proclaimed.
Hellraisers Journal: Edward Boyce and Samuel Gompers Denounce Militarism and Treatment of Coeur D’Alene Miners
———-
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 28, 1899
Cincinnati, Ohio – Presidents Samuel Gompers and Edward Boyce Speak
From The Indianapolis Journal of October 27, 1899:
MILITARISM DENOUNCED
—–PROTEST AGAINST THE TREATMENT OF
COEUR D’ALENE MINERS.
—–
Mass Meeting at Which Samuel Gompers Spoke,
and Strong Resolution Were Adopted.
—–
CINCINNATI, Oct. 26.-An enormous meeting was held to-night at Music Hall, the officers of which were of the Central Labor Council of Cincinnati and the speakers were Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, and Edward Boyce, of Butt Mont., president of the Western Federation of Miners. Fully 6,O00 men remained during the two long speeches. The announced purpose of the meeting was to protest against the treatment of prisoners held in the Couer d’Alene region in the “bull pen.”
Before the speaking began the resolutions were read. The first resolution was a demand of the President of the United States to enforce the Constitution, especially in the sixth section, which, they claim, has been violated. The second resolution demanded of the President the withdrawal of the United States troops from Shoshone county. The next resolution demanded a court-martial of General Merriam and his subordinate officers. The last resolution was that all the federal, the military and civil officers responsible for the alleged illegal acts committed by them should be held to the strictest accountability.
President Gompers said the present afforded a great opportunity for laboring people. He said this enormous attendance and the passage of these resolutions would have a far-reaching effect and would do much to relieve the oppressed in Idaho and to bring the oppressors to Justice. President Gompers said that he was in the mountain region near the scene of the uprising in Shoshone county but a few days before it occurred. He said that by conversation with men who knew about the situation he learned the condition of affairs at Wardner, Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines. He vehemently denied that labor organizations had anything whatever to do with that uprising. The labor unions had been locked out by the operators, who went outside and brought in inferior and dangerous nonunion men and set them to work in the mines. These ignorant miners, unused to the ways of the union, demanded union prices and were denied.
Hellraisers Journal: From the Social Democratic Herald: Eugene Debs on Current Events: The Bullpens of Idaho & Progress of Social Democratic Party
———-
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 6, 1899
Eugene V. Debs on Current Events: Honest Workingmen Held in Idaho Bullpen
From the Social Democratic Herald of September 2, 1899:
CURRENT EVENTS PASSED IN REVIEW
—–MINERS’ “VICTORIES” SO-CALLED
—–
Thirteen-Dollars-a-Month Patriotism
-“Bull Pens” and Socialism-Justice in France
in Spite of Hell and the French Army
-Cleveland Boycott
—–By Eugene V. Debs, Terre Haute, Ind.
[Part II of II.]
Idaho.
The “bullpen” of Idaho is the joint product of Republican, Democratic, and Populistic administration. The pictures drawn of this hellhole by reliable correspondents are enough to make decent devils blush with shame. The Democratic Populistic Governor Steunenberg and the Republican General Merriam, monsters of degeneracy, constitute the tsars of this domain. Here hundreds of honest workingmen, without a charge against them, are corralled like cattle, starved like outlaws, and shot like mad dogs, and while the outrages are being perpetrated in the name of “law and order” their wives are made victims of the lust of their brutal keepers.
We often hear that violent revolution is close upon us, but this is only bluster, for if there were but the faintest revolutionary spirit abroad, the Idaho “Bullpen” would fan it into flame like a cyclone and such fiends as Steunenberg, Merriam, and other degenerate tools of the Standard Oil Company would be hung higher than Haman.
Some of these miners may remember what I told them nearly three years ago about coming events, about voting with the old parties and about socialism. They were not ready for socialism then, but now that their unions are broken up, their homes desolate, and themselves prisoners or exiles, and all this by the capitalist system which they have supported by their own votes, they will be compelled to realize that through socialism alone is there escape from the tyranny of capitalist rule and the atrocities of the wage system.
Hellraisers Journal: “Free America!” – Reign of Terror Continues Against Miners of Shoshone County, Part II
———-
Hellraisers Journal – Monday August 21, 1899
Wardner, Idaho – Hundreds of miners have been in bullpen for over two months.
From the Appeal to Reason of August 19, 1899:
Free America!
Washington Times, [July 18, 1899].
(Part II)
General Merriam had been instructed to go to Wardner to quell disturbances and to keep order, but according to the affidavits these were the last of the duties he imposed upon himself. It is sworn that immediately upon his arrival he began a wholesale carnival of arrests, which continued for several weeks. Every man who was known to have been connected in any way with a labor union was arrested without any charge being made, and as the county jail was considered too soft a place, the prisoners were placed in a large barn known as the “bull pen,” and were strongly guarded.
THROWN INTO A BULL PEN.
In a short time over 700 men were packed into this pen and forced to sleep on a filthy floor, and were given no attention. Nearly all of these men were charged with no crime, and were arrested by order of Governor Steunenburg because they had at some time belonged to labor unions. The sheriff of the county and two members of the board of county commissioners were arrested among others, because, as the governor said, they were “sympathizers.” The county attorney attempted to secure the release of the sheriff and was threatened with arrest if he dared offer a protest. The prisoners were cut off from all communication with the outside world and were allowed to see nobody. Their wives and children were allowed to starve and were subjected to the most revolting outrages by the colored troops and the lawless hangers-on who had sworn that they believed that labor unions to be criminal organizations.
The conditions inside the pen were sickening, according to the statements of those who have been imprisoned there. Scurvy and slime were everywhere, and several cases of insanity were developed among the prisoners. Every able-bodied man in the town of Wardner had some experience in this place and every miner who refused to sign an application for a permit to work was arrested as a “sympathizer.”
Hellraisers Journal: “Free America!” – Reign of Terror Continues Against Miners of Shoshone County, Part I
———-
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 20, 1899
Wardner, Idaho – 300 Miners and Sympathizers Remain in Bullpen
From the Appeal to Reason of August 19, 1899:
Free America!
Washington Times, [July 18, 1899].
(Part I)ACCORDING to the affidavits and sworn statements presented to the president [William McKinley] yesterday by Senator Heitfeld, [Populist] of Idaho, a reign of terror and brutality has been established in Shoshone county in that state and an American Siberia has been inaugurated by the Standard Oil Trust, aided and abetted by Brig. Gen. H. O. Merriam and a regiment of colored regulars. The testimony now in the possession of the president contains the sworn statements of representative business men who describe such a round of brutal torture and barbarity as makes the rule of Spanish tyranny in Cuba seems merciful and humane in comparison.
The testimony shows that the Coeur d’Alene district has been under martial law for nearly three months, and the county has been absolutely cut off from the rest of the world. More than 300 innocent men, the testimony shows, have been imprisoned in a filthy “bull pen” during the three months, and have been subjected to such outrageous treatment that twenty-four deaths have occurred and the living are physical wrecks. Every sympathizer has been imprisoned or driven out of the county, and even now eight men are being tried for their lives without counsel. The county attorney is guarded and threatened with arrest should he dare to enter a protest, and over 100 witnesses for the defense have been driven out and warned not to return.
PAYING ALL EXPENSES.
The Standard Oil Trust is paying all expenses of prosecution to insure conviction. A rigid press censorship has been established and no man’s life is worth a word of sympathy. Men have been murdered and woman outraged by the colored troops and no heed has been given these things by the military rulers. The governor of the state is charged with being in the employ of the Standard Oil Trust, and the accusations are backed up by his own defy, in which he states that “the large mine owners will run the state in the future and that he (the governor) will keep the country under martial law during the balance of his term.”
All this, and more, it is claimed, has been proven, and President McKinley has promised to begin an investigation at once.
Hellraisers Journal: Paul Corcoran, Secretary of Burke Miners’ Union, Found Guilty, Sentenced to 17 Years in Prison
———-
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 30, 1899
Wallace, Idaho – Paul Corcoran Found Guilty of Second Degree Murder
From The Butte Miner of July 28, 1899:
IN THE SECOND DEGREE
—–
Paul Corcoran Found Guilty by
a Jury at Wallace.
—–SEVENTEEN YEARS IN PRISON
—–
The Defense Will Trust to Executive Clemency Rather
Than Risk Another Jury Trial-
After Sentence Had Been Pronounced,
Court Adjourned Until September.
—–
Wallace, Idaho, July 27.-Paul Corcoran was this morning found guilty of murder in the second degree by a jury in the district court, for the killing of James Cheyne at Wardner on April 29 last, during the riots, when a mob of 1,000 miners blew up the Bunker Hill and Sullivan concentrator.
Judge Stewart this afternoon sentenced Corcoran to serve 17 years in the penitentiary. Corcoran’s case was considered a test one, and had he been acquitted it is not probable that any of the other 300 men who are under arrest would have been tried for participation in the riots and murders at Wardner. This afternoon, however, Judge Stewart set the trials of Graddock and Inman, on a charge of murdering Smith and Cheyne, for September 4.
