CONTENTS

Preface

PART I — THE STRIKE OF 1894

CHAPTER I — PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
Introduction

Cripple Creek — Location, geology, settlement — General economic conditions in 1894 — Conditions in Colorado and Cripple Creek in 1894

Indirect Causes Of The Strike

Uncertain business conditions — Irregularities in employment of labor

Events Leading Up To The Strike

CHAPTER II - THE TWO CRISES
The First Crisis

Attempts at a compromise — The lockout Feb. 1st, 1894 — The strike Feb. 7th — John Calderwood — Preparation by the unions — The injunction of March 14th — Capture of the deputies — Sheriff Bowers calls for militia — Beginning of friction between state and county — Conference between the generals and union officers — Recall of the militia — Compromise at the Independence

The Second Crisis

Coming of the rough element — The coup of Wm. Rabedeau — The demands and terms of the owners — Formation of the deputy army — "General" Johnson — Preparation of the miners for resistance — First detachment of deputy army — The blowing up of the Strong mine — The miners attack the deputies — Excitement in Colorado Springs — Rapid increase of deputy army — The governor's proclamation

CHAPTER III — THE FORCING OF THE ISSUE
Attempts At Arbitration

Conservative movement in Colorado Springs — The non-partisan committee — The miners propose terms of peace — Failure of the arbitration committee plan — Exchange of prisoners — The mission of Governor Waite — Miners give governor full power to act — The conference at Colorado College — Attempt to lynch Calderwood — The final conference in Denver — Articles of agreement

Militia vs. Deputies

The deputies march on Bull Hill — Call of the state militia — The question of authority — The clash in Grassey Valley — Military finally in control — Movements of the deputies — Conference in Altman — Withdrawal of deputies

The Restoration Of Order

Turbulent conditions in Cripple Creek — Attempts upon life of sheriff — Plan for vengeance in Colorado Springs — The attack upon General Tarsney — Arrests and trials of the strikers

CHAPTER IV-DISCUSSIONS
Peculiarities Of The Strike

The union allows men to work — Exchange of prisoners — Unusual influence of state authority

Arguments Of The Various Parties

The position of the mine owners — The position of the miners — The position of the governor

The Baleful Influence Of Politics

PART II—THE STRIKE OF 1903—1904

CHAPTER I—THE INTERVENING PERIOD
General Development

Increase in population and wealth — Industrial advance — Removal of frontier conditions — Entire dependence upon mining — The working force

The Background For The Strike

Divisioning of El Paso county — Growth of unions in political power — Western Federation becomes socialistic

The Situation Immediately Preceding The Strike

Unions misuse power — Treatment of non-union men — Minority rule — The strike power delegated

CHAPTER II—THE COLORADO CITY STRIKE
The Colorado City Strike

Formation of union — Opposition of Manager MacNeill — Presentation of grievances — The strike deputies and strikers — Manager MacNeill secures call of state militia

Partial Settlement By Arbitration

The Cripple Creek mines requested to cease shipments to Colorado City — The governor visits Colorado City — Conference at Denver — Settlement with Portland and Telluride Mills — Failure of second conference with Manager MacNeill

The Temporary Strike At Cripple Creek

Ore to be shut off from Standard Mill — The strike called — Advisory board — Its sessions — Further conferences — Settlement by verbal agreement

CHAPTER III — THE CRIPPLE CREEK STRIKE
The Call Of The Strike

Dispute over Colorado City agreement — Appeal of the union — Statements submitted by both sides — Decision of advisory board — Second strike at Colorado City — Strike at Cripple Creek

The First Period Of The Strike

Events of the first three weeks — Disorderly acts on September 1st — Release of Minster — Mine owners demand troops

The Militia In The District

The governor holds conferences with mine owners — The special commission — Troops called out — Militia arrest union officers — Other arrests — General partisan activity of the troops

Civil, vs. Military Authority

Habeas corpus proceedings — Militia guard court house — Judge Seeds' decision — The militia defy the court — Prisoners released — Rapid opening of the mines — Strike breakers

CHAPTER IV-TELLER COUNTY UNDER MILITARY RULE
Attempted Train Wrecking And Vindicator Explosion

Attempts to wreck F. & C. C. R. R. trains — McKinney and Foster arrested — McKinney makes conflicting confessions — Trial of Davis, Parker, and Foster — Digest of evidence — Release of McKinney — The Vindicator explosion — Evidence in case

A State Of Insurrection And Rebellion

The governor's proclamation — The power conferred as interpreted by militia officers — Local police deposed — Censorship of Victor Record — Registering of arms — Idle men declared vagrants — More general arrests of union officers — Habeas corpus suspended in case Victor Poole — Rowdyism by certain militiamen — Mine owners' statement — Federation flag posters — Withdrawal of troops

CHAPTER V—THE FINAL CRISIS
The Slxth Day Of June

Independence station explosion — Wrath of the community — Sheriff forced to resign — Bodies taken from undertaker — Mass meeting at Victor — The Victor riot — Militia capture miners'' union hall — Wholesale arrests of union men — Riot in Cripple Creek — Meeting of Mine Owners' Association and Citizens Alliance — The federation to be broken up

The Annihilation Of The Unions

Teller County again under military rule — Plant of Victor Record wrecked — Forced resignation of large number of county and municipal officials — The military commission — Deportations — Militia close the Portland mine — Aid to families forbidden — District entirely non-union — Withdrawal of troops

The Period Immediately Following

Mob deportations — The Interstate Mercantile Company — Second wrecking of the stores — The November elections — The expense of the strike — Summary

CHAPTER VI—DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The Western Federation Of Miners. Its Side Of The Case

History of the federation — Its socialistic tendencies — Sympathetic statement of its position

The Mine Owners' Association. Its Side Of The Case

History of the organization — The card system — Sympathetic view of its position

The Citizens Alliances. Their Side Of The Case

History of the alliances — Sympathetic view of their position

The State Authorities

Statement by Governor Peabody

The Responsibility And Blame — The Western Federation Of Miners

Cause of strike — Crimes of the strike

Mine Owners' Association

Criminal guards — Mob violence

The State Authorities

Use of troops — Perversion of authority

Arraignment Of Each Side By The Other

The "Red Book" — The "Green Book."

Comparison Of The Two Strikes

The first natural, the second artificial — Frontier conditions vs. complete industrial development — Contrasts in the use of state authority — Civil and military authority — Politics — Minority rule

Significance Of The Labor History

Bibliography

The Labor History of the Cripple Creek District;
A Study in Industrial Evolution
by Benjamin McKie Rastall

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pages 9-18

Part I

THE STRIKE OF 1894

THE LABOR HISTORY OF THE CRIPPLE CREEK DISTRICT

CHAPTER I

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
INTRODUCTION

The Cripple Creek District lies in the first range of the Rocky Mountains, about 25 miles west of Colorado Springs, and 85 miles southwest of Denver. It has an altitude of from 9,000 to 12,000 feet, none of the mines being at an elevation of less than 9,000, and some being over 11,000 feet above sea level. Geologically, the region is of volcanic origin. Great flows of lava have issued from a formerly existent volcano in the heart of the district. When these hardened they were subjected to severe stresses in the earths' crust and broken by countless fissures in parallel systems. Later, hot percolating waters from deep-seated sources in the earth came to the surface, bearing in solution gold telluride, with quartz. These were deposited as the valuable ores in the fissure veins of the district.

Rough, gaunt, broken, dry and almost arid, cut into barren rocky ridges, and valleys along which scraggly dwarfed trees eke out a bare existence, and naught can flourish save the hardy mountain grasses and wild flowers;—it is not a place to invite human habitation, nor to support it under ordinary conditions. The only sign of occupancy in 1890 was the Womack cattle ranch occupying the present site of the city of Cripple Creek.

In 1893, less than three years later, the city of Cripple Creek numbered about 5,000 people, and close at hand were Victor, Anaconda, Altman, and numerous smaller towns. Three wagon roads led into the district, from Divide on the north, from Colorado Springs on the east, and from Canon City on the south. Along these roads night and day passed heavy trucks drawn by six and eight horses, bringing into camp provisions and building material and mining machinery, or leaving with loads of ore for the smelters. Heavy passenger coaches came in every night to crowd the number of fortune seekers. On the north the Colorado Midland Railway was running a branch road in from Divide, and the Florence and Cripple Creek Railway was pushing even harder to get into camp from the south.

The reason for this rapid change was gold. Mr. Robert Womack had in 1890 sunk prospect holes, and secured ore that assayed high in gold.1 News of his success had spread quickly, and soon prospectors were trooping in from all directions. By this time over 40 mines were in process of active development, and prospect holes were being sunk in every direction.2 Nearly $3,000,000 worth of ore had been shipped from the mines already, and every week new veins of rich promise were being opened.3

The social conditions of the region were those usual in an unsettled mining community. Life at the camp was generally rough. Men were many and women few. Saloons and dance halls were numerous. The roads were poor and the city streets even worse. Dumps from the mines often crossed the sidewalks, and half filled the streets. Houses were mere frame shells, or rough log huts. Prices of all merchandise were very high as the result of the 20 mile haul over mountain roads; the poorest shacks rented for $12 or $15 a month; fire wood was $4.50 per cord; and water sold for 5 cents a bucket or 40 cents a barrel.


GENERAL ECONOMIC CONDITIONS


Under these conditions Cripple Creek was rapidly becoming a great mining camp, when its development was arrested by a five-months' mincing strike. To fully understand this strike it is necessary to get its setting among surrounding conditions, and to see clearly the forces which acted as indirect causes or active impulses toward it. What conditions made a war between labor and capital imminent, and what influences led to the actual controversy.

In 1893 the United States was in the midst of a great financial panic. The expenditures of the government far surpassed its income. The reserve in the treasury was dangerously depleted, and the credit of the government was maintained by large bond issues. The business world was in a terrible condition. At the close of the year there had been over $500,000,000 withdrawn from National Banks alone. To meet the demand these banks had been compelled to withdraw loans to the extent of $318,000,000. Five hundred eighty banking institutions had been compelled to suspend payment, with liabilities of $165,000,000. There had been over 16,000 business failures. $1,200,000,000 worth of railroad property had gone into the hands of receivers. Thousands of shops and factories had shut down; more thousands were working part time only; commercial houses and railroads were working under greatly reduced business; and as a result millions of laborers were idle.4 It was estimated that in the city of Pittsburg [sic] alone 100,000 men were out of employment.5 In every city men were eager to seize an opportunity to work for their board alone, and rumors were current of men offering themselves as slaves for life for a promise of mere subsistence.

It was a time prolific of strikes. Contemporaneously with the Cripple Creek strike came a great coal miners strike, covering Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, and the great Pullman strike, which starting in Chicago swept eastward half way to the Atlantic, and southward to the Gulf, and westward to the Pacific coast. Coxey's Army was marching toward Washington, a great body of the protesting unemployed, and a special session of Congress had been called to consider ways of relieving the great financial stress.

In Colorado the conditions were even worse than elsewhere. Added to the general depression had come the rapid decrease in the price of silver, the consequent closing of the silver mines, and the loss of one of the state's greatest sources of wealth.

The labor difficulties common to the country and the state were shared by Cripple Creek. Evidence of severe conditions is perhaps best given by the size of the detachment that left the district on May 4th to join Coxey's Army in the march to Washington. Over three hundred strong it left Cripple Creek and Victor, under the leadership of General J. S. Sanders, with flying colors and beating drums. The Florence and Cripple Creek Railway furnished a free train for the army to Canon City, and the Denver and Rio Grande did the same to Pueblo. At Pueblo the men were fed and housed for a few days, and then took forcible possession of a Missouri Pacific train, and started off for Chicago. The officials of the road tried in every way to stop them, and at last wrecked a train to block the track. But the Coxey men cleared away the wreck and went on. They were forced to abandon their train by a second wreck in a cut, but stole another train a few hours afterward, and succeeded in getting half way across Kansas, where they were arrested, and finally dispersed by United States marshals.6

The labor difficulties incident to the closing of the silver mines fell upon Cripple Creek. To the great gold camp flocked the unemployed miners of the silver region, to find work in the gold mines, or to open prospect holes on their own account.

1Cripple Creek Illustrated, Warren & Stride, p. 11.

2vide mines listed by the Colorado Springs Stock Exchange early in 1894.

3Cripple Creek Illustrated, Warren & Stride, p. 23.

4See Cripple Creek District newspapers for May 4, and 5.

5Pueblo papers for May 5, and 6.

6Colorado and Kansas newspapers generally, for May 5-8, Inclusive.

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