Pinkerton Labor Spy Contents

Chapter I. The Mission Of Pinkerton's National Detective Agency.

Chapter II. The Methods Of The Agency.

Chapter III. Operative No. 5, A. H. Crane.

Chapter IV. Operatives Nos. 43, 23 and 9, Joseph F. Gadden. J. H. Cummins and Philander P. Bailey.

Chapter V. Operative No. 42, A. W. Gratias.

Chapter VI. Birds Of A Feather Flock Together.

Chapter VII. The Cripple Creek Strike.

Chapter VIII. The Cripple Creek Strike (Continued).

Chapter IX. The Cripple Creek Strike (Continued).

Chapter X. The Cripple Creek Strike (Continued).

Chapter XI. The Cripple Creek Strike. The Writ of Habeas Corpus.

Chapter XII. The Cripple Creek Strike. The Explosion At The Independence Depot.

Chapter XIII. The Cripple Creek Strike (Concluded).

Chapter XIV. Operative No. 36, George W. Riddell.

Chapter XV. A Reign Of Terror.

Chapter XVI. A Reign Of Terror (Continued). Just Military Necessity.

Chapter XVII. A Reign Of Terror (Concluded). The Moyer Decision.

Chapter XVIII. James McParland Tells The Truth Confidentially To General Manager Bangs. Moyer Is Released.

Chapter XIX. Two Black Sheep Meet, But One Doesn't Know The Other.

Chapter XX. Pinkertons and Coal Miners In Colorado. Operative No. 38, Robert M. Smith.

Chapter XXI. Pinkerton and Coal Mines In Wyoming—No. 15, Thomas J. Williams.

Chapter XXII. The Pinkertons In California—No. 31, Frank E. Cochran.

Chapter XXIII. The Pinkertons In California—(Concluded). Destruction of The United Brotherhood of Railway Employees.

Chapter XXIV. What The Pinkerton Agency Claims To Be—A Financial Statement.

Chapter XXV. The Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone Case, Now Before The Public—Pinkerton Conservatism.

Chapter XXVI. The People Of The United States Vs. Pinkerton's National Detective Agency.

The
Pinkerton Labor Spy
by
Morris Friedman

book image

CHAPTER III.

NO. 5, A. H. CRANE.

The conscientious work of a Pinkerton labor spy, who had just helped to start a strike, is shown in the following:

Dear Sir:—

OPERATIVE NO. 5 REPORTS:

Colorado City, Colo., Wed., Feb. 18, 1903.

At 9.00 A. M. Sanger came and called me out and said that he heard there was a car-load of Italians going to be shipped here to-day, and asked me what I thought best for him to do, and I said I did not just know what would be best, but he could send a few men to see them when they got off the train. He then told me he had sent two men to each depot. He then left.

I went to see Moyer and Mangon, and there I met Mr. Burr, from Leadville, who has come down to take charge of the strike. We talked a few minutes. I left and went to get something to eat, and while in the restaurant two or three different union men came after me to make out applications for them.

At 10.00 A. M., I left the restaurant and went with Sanger to fix out the applications. Moyer told me the electricians and blacksmiths had quit, so it would make things a little more difficult for the Standard Mill to work. He said if we continued to keep on the way we were doing, the Standard would have to go down. We then obligated four members, after which I left the room and went on the street and stood around with the men until about 11.30 A. M., when I went into the Alamo Club. I met Sanger and other union men, and they all seem to think that the men will win the strike.

About 12.00 o'clock I left the club and took a walk around the different places where the union pickets are stationed, and found everything very quiet indeed, and returned to town about 12.45 P. M., when I went to dinner.

At 1.15 P. M. I saw Sanger. He said he had a bond for Charles Lewis, and wanted someone to sign it so as to get him out of jail, so we then hunted around and found J. Hill and Swartz, and they signed it by just writing their names on the back. When I gave it to the Justice, he said it was no good signed that way, which I knew, but said nothing to Sanger.

photo of A H Crane

A. H. Crane

I then left the Justice's office and had a little talk with Mr. Hawkins, then went to the D. & R. G. Depot to see the union men who were watching the trains, but found none there, so stayed around a little while, when Richerson, Garrison, Howard and two other union men came. I talked a few minutes to them, and about 3.00 P. M. left them and took car for Colorado City, where I met L. N. Edwards. He said he had some good news for us, and that Mr. Fullerton, of the Telluride Mill, wanted to have a talk with Moyer and the other officers of the union and try and fix matters up. Edwards said Mr. Fullerton said he did not want to discharge any union men, and would not, as he thought it would be best if all the men belonged to the union, and he did not want any of the union men to think he was connected with Mr. Hawkins or any of those companies, and would not have a thing to do with them. Edwards then left me.

I met Sanger, who told me I had better take a trip around and see how the boys were getting along, which I did with two other men from the Building Trades Council. We went to the big pump on Sixth street, and then across the company's ground past the old mill to the road which leads to the Avenue. We saw no one on the way until we got to the M. T. Railway switch which leads to the sampler. There I talked with the company's watchmen. I said to them, "You are not doing much looking around when you let men walk across the company's ground, and strikers at that." They did not say much to me, so I went across the tracks to where the union men were sitting. I talked a few minutes with them, but learned nothing from them, and left them and went to town. There I met Dowse, Sanger and several others. They asked me how things were, and I said, all right. We then all went to the Alamo Club and had the treats together.

At 6.00 P. M. we all left for supper, after which at 6.45 P. M. I met Garrison, Henderson, and several union men. We talked together until about 7.15 P. M., when I went to my room and got my books, and at 7.30 P. M. I went to the meeting. There were about 150 or 200 in attendance, with all the new members. Fifteen were taken in the first time, and thirty-one the next time, so it made quite a few new members.

After we got them fixed out all right, Mangon made a little talk to the boys, and told them to work as they had the past two days, and then he did not think we would have to call out the Cripple Creek miners, but if we could not stop the Standard Mill, they surely would call out the miners. Mangon said he would leave us in the morning, and would visit each union at the camp, and tell them how we are fixed, but he did not need to tell them anything, as it was all left to the District No. I. He then sat down.

Burr then made a little talk and asked the President to pick out a strike committee of five men. He picked out *A. H. Crane, H. L. Sanger, Tom Daniels, C. Lyons and J. H. Hill as the committee, and asked each and every member to do as the committee told them. Three men were picked out as captains to look after the different shifts of pickets.

The next thing taken up was about Mr. Western, the Superintendent of the Telluride Mill. The men want him removed from the works, and are going to present a bill against him at the Trades Council after the 25th, so as to have the trouble come all together, as several men consider him unfair to organized labor.

About 11.45 P- M. we left the hall. I first took my books to my room, and then took a walk around, but found everything very quiet indeed. I then came back to the restaurant and had a little lunch, then went to my room, and at 2.30 A. M. discontinued for the night.

Yours respectfully, .......................

The above report of secret operative A. H. Crane, more commonly known at the Pinkerton office as No. 5, like many other reports of a similar character, was sent to Mr. J. D. Hawkins, superintendent, and Mr. Charles M. MacNeill, vice-president and general manager of the United States Reduction & Refining Company, popularly believed to be a part of the smelter trust, and numbering among its valuable possessions the great Standard Mill, the largest orereduction plant in Colorado City.

[The reader will note that Operative Crane heads the committee appointed by the union to manage the strike on the smelter.]

Four days previous to the date of No. 5's report, given above, Mill & Smeltermen's Union No. 125 of the Western Federation declared a strike on the Standard Mill. The press reported the event as a passing occurrence, and the public scarcely paid any attention. Yet, as the inauguration of this strike was to a great extent the result of No. 5's work, and had such far-reaching effects, a little inquiry into the causes will be interesting as well as instructive.

Charles M. MacNeill, vice-president and general manager of the U. S. Reduction & Refining Co., is primarily responsible for the occurrence of the trouble at Colorado City, consequently for the great Cripple Creek strike, and, to say the least, is a very peculiar and much-talked-of man. Worshipped by the rich as a demi-god, execrated by labor as an arch-fiend. Who is right? What kind of a man is MacNeill?

Judging him by his actions, we should say that Mr. MacNeill must be a twin brother of Mr. Baer, of Pennsylvania. The attributes of the one are characteristic of the other. Mr. MacNeill is a typical American trust magnate, and serves as a good example of what the American people may some day have to face, if men of this stamp are not checked in their mad career. He is naturally a strong-willed man, and probably owes his success to this quality. But success turned his head and petrified his heart, so that in the course of time he has succeeded in imitating to perfection the brutality of a savage African slave-driver.

This brief description of Mr. MacNeill will render intelligible the events leading up to the strike at Colorado City, and the complications resulting therefrom.

Prior to the trouble at Colorado City, the lot of the mill and smelter employee was deplorable. Mercilessly over-worked, underpaid, driven by a harsh taskmaster by day, watched by lynx-eyed Pinkerton operatives by night; ill clad, half starved and roughly denied his constitutional rights, the smelterman of Colorado was indeed an object calculated to inspire even a stone with pity.

But since our American trust managers either have no hearts, or hearts harder than stone, the miserable condition of his employees produced no softening effect on Manager MacNeill. On the contrary, suspecting that his men might endeavor to organize for their mutual protection, he secured the services of No. 5 from the Agency for the express purpose of preventing any such move. The operative was given work in the Standard Mill as a bona fide smelterman, and succeeded in a short time in gaining the confidence of his fellow-workmen.

Some time during August, 1902, an agent of the Western Federation of Miners visited Colorado City, and secretly organized a local known as Mill & Smeltermen's Union No. 125. Fortunately for this newly-formed organization, No. 5 was not among the charter members. If he were, the union would have been nipped in the bud. However, as the leaders in the union movement were anxious to strengthen the organization, a number of Mr. MacNeill's employees were quietly approached and induced to join the union. No. 5, owing to the good reputation he bore among the men, was also approached, and after pretending to hesitate and consider the matter, he finally joined the union.

The Agency and Mr. MacNeill were disagreeably surprised, and even somewhat alarmed, when they discovered that the employees had successfully stolen a march on them. Mr. MacNeill was quick to see the danger of allowing the union to flourish unmolested, and he instructed the Agency to furnish him the names of employees who had had the effrontery to join the union. Since No. 5 was a member in good standing, the Agency found no difficulty in complying.

Mr. MacNeill then commenced to discharge every employee whom No. 5 designated, and when some of the men wanted to know why they were discharged, he told them openly and boldly that he discharged them simply because they had joined the Mill Men's Union. The discharged employees, filled with resentment against Mr. MacNeill and his methods, managed to obtain work at other plants in Colorado City, and not only retained their membership in the union, but induced many employees of other mills and smelters to become members.

Toward the end of 1902, No. 5 was elected secretary of the union, and given charge of the organization's books and papers. The Agency and Mr. MacNeill were jubilant, for now the operative could not only provide them with a complete membership list, but would also furnish them with copies of the local union's correspondence with Federation headquarters. No. 5 did all he was told to do.

During February, 1903, Mr. MacNeill decided to annihilate the union by a crushing blow; and he discharged about twenty-three union employees at one time, unceremoniously telling them the reason for their dismissal. This wholesale attack filled the union with consternation, and almost had the effect hoped for by Mr. MacNeill. But he and the Agency reckoned without the Western Federation of Miners.

So soon as the national officers of the Federation received notice of the doings of MacNeill, President Charles Moyer hastened to Colorado City, consulted with the disheartened members and officers of the union, and infused new life and courage by assuring them of the support of the Miners' Federation.

Mr. Moyer delegated a committee to call on Mr. MacNeill to induce him to reinstate his discharged employees and to cease discriminating. Mr. MacNeill received the committee, told them he needed no advice or assistance from anybody as to how he should conduct his business, and then courteously dismissed them.

Without loss of time, Mr. Moyer ordered the union to declare a strike on the Standard Mill, beginning with Saturday night, February 14th, 1903, and told the men they would be liberally supported with money and all the necessaries of life by the Western Federation of Miners.

The news that a strike was to be declared on the Standard Mill spread like wildfire. Some men felt timid, but the great majority welcomed the struggle with joy and thanksgiving. Why should they avoid it? What could they lose? Were they not starving? Were they not living in tents instead of houses? Were they not deprived by a hundred schemes of the niggardly wages they did receive? Were they not worked harder than beasts of burden, and treated worse? Had they not been discharged for forming a union that might safeguard their interests, and had not Mr. MacNeill contemptuously spurned all offers of arbitration and conciliation?

By Saturday night, February 14th, 1903, the men were unanimously in favor of a strike, and Mill & Smeltermen's Union No. 125 declared the Standard Mill unfair, and requested all men working in or about the smelter to quit work and join the union. Many employees heeded the call, and in a few days the union counted between 250 and 300 members.

As will be noted in No. 5's report for the 18th of February, Mr. Burr, of Leadville, was appointed to take charge of the strike, and in addition, a strike committee of five men was appointed with No. 5 heading the list.

Mr. Burr picketed the Standard Mill so effectively that no one could enter or leave the plant without running into some of his pickets, who persuaded many men to join the union. For about a week or ten days the situation in Colorado City remained unchanged. Manager MacNeill still blandly insisted that he had nothing to arbitrate.

No. 5 had been instructed, from the day the strike began, to phone Supt. Hawkins once each day from some point in Colorado Springs, telling him if any steps of importance were in contemplation by the union. In this way Mr. Hawkins would be in a position to thwart the union's plans, whereas, if he waited for the operative's report, two or three days' valuable time would be lost.

Therefore the operative made daily trips to Colorado Springs, and spent considerable time talking over the phone. As the operative was secretary of the union, and an influential member of the strike committee, he was naturally well known to all the men; it was this very prominence which proved his undoing.

Some of the men began to note the daily trips, and a few followed No. 5 and noticed that he talked a great deal over the telephone. As the same thing occurred day after day, the men began to suspect there was something wrong, and in order to satisfy themselves invaded the operative's room at Colorado City, where they found more evidence than they needed; yet, so careful was the operative, that despite a number of papers which the union men found, he could not be connected in any way with the Pinkerton Agency. All he could be accused of was, that he was a paid spotter of Messrs. Hawkins and MacNeill.

When No. 5 returned to his room, he saw at a glance that the game was up, and hurriedly began to pack his belongings for flight. A number of union men who had been watching him entered his room, and told him he was wanted at the union hall. He attempted to remonstrate, but to no avail. He was marched to the union hall amid the hooting and execration of the people, and brought to trial.

The operative vehemently protested his innocence, but the evidence of his guilt was so clear that personal violence would have surely been offered him by the enraged smeltermen, had not Mr. Burr and a few other leaders interfered in his behalf. The union then expelled No. 5, marched him to the depot in a body, and told him to go.

The exposure of the operative made a great stir. When No. 5 arrived in Denver he was met by representatives of the press whom he told of the cruel way he had been mistreated at Colorado City, and protested all the while that he was absolutely innocent. The Pinkerton Agency also published formal statements in the Denver press, denying the operative's connection with the Agency, and saying among other things that they had never known of any such man as A. H. Crane.

Yet, while the public was reading the accounts in the press, No. 5 was recovering from the mortification of his exposure in a back room of the Pinkerton Agency, in the Opera House Block, Denver. As his exposure had rendered him useless to the Agency in this territory, he was in a few days transferred to the Chicago office.

The following story will prove conclusively the relations which existed between A. H. Crane and Pinkerton's National Detective Agency.

After the operative was exposed at Colorado City, he was loaned to the Chicago office, for a mining operation in Kentucky.

While he was thus engaged, the Denver Agency received a letter from General Manager MacNeill of the smelter trust, containing a sealed envelope addressed to the operative. Mr. MacNeill's letter requested the Agency to forward the sealed envelope to Operative Crane. Complying with this request, the Denver office sent the sealed letter to Chicago, and this office forwarded it to the operative along with other mail.

On opening the envelope, all the operative found was a fifty-dollar bill. As there was no explanation, he presumed it was expense money, and charged himself accordingly.

At the conclusion of the operation the operative settled his accounts with the Chicago office on the basis that this fifty-dollars was expense money, without the office tumbling to the error.

During the time the operative was at work in Kentucky, Superintendent J. D. Hawkins of the Standard Mill met Assistant Superintendent Cary of the Denver Agency twice, and asked the latter on each occasion whether Mr. MacNeill's letter had been delivered to the operative. Mr. Cary informed Mr. Hawkins that the letter in question had been sent to Chicago, and undoubtedly that office had forwarded it to him.

Some time thereafter Operative Crane returned to Denver, and met Supt. Hawkins on the street. Mr. Hawkins asked him if he had received a letter from Manager MacNeill. The operative said, no. Mr. Hawkins told Crane that Manager MacNeill had sent him a fifty-dollar bill in a sealed envelope. To this the operative replied, "Well, I got a sealed letter with a fifty-dollar bill in it, but I supposed it was expense money, as there was no explanation."

When Operative Crane reported this conversation at the Agency, the superintendent at once wrote the Chicago office, with the result that the error was discovered, and the fifty dollars returned to Denver.

The rules of the Pinkerton Agency do not permit an operative or an official to accept a gift or reward at the hands of a client. Therefore, unless an exception was made in this case, the money would have to be refunded to Manager MacNeill.

Manager McParland was very reluctant to do this. He knew the motive which prompted the smelter magnate to make this gift, and heartily approved of it. For this reason, Manager McParland wrote a long letter to General Manager Bangs on April 24th, 1903, in which he recited the operative's faithful services to the smelter trust, the perseverance he displayed in holding down his job at the smelter for over a year, and the indignities he suffered after his exposure. In view of these circumstances, the tender-hearted McParland pleaded that the rules might be suspended for once, so that the operative could accept Mr. MacNeill's present.

Apparently Manager McParland had influence at court. His petition was granted, and Operative Crane got the fifty dollars.

Chapter IV. Operatives Nos. 43, 23 and 9, Joseph F. Gadden. J. H. Cummins and Philander P. Bailey.