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

book image

pages 155-158

The State Authorities

In every case in which troops were used in the Colorado City and Cripple Creek difficulties, they were called into action before such conditions existed as are generally considered to warrant resort to state military power, viz., the commission of such overt acts as to show the existence of a mob, or such a condition of lawlessness as has gotten beyond the possibility of successful local control.50 The troops were called out upon the assertion that such conditions were imminent, not that they existed, and final judgment as to the justice of the calls must rest upon that point.

One side of the case is well put in the report of Colonel Verdeckberg, Commanding Teller County Military District:

"During my long and varied experience in the National Guard of Colorado it has invariably occurred that troops, when utilized in suppressing riots, insurrections and rebellions, were not ordered into the disturbed localities until life or property had been destroyed, or, in other words, until a seemingly stronger argument presented itself for such a procedure than was taken in the campaign just closed. Threats and intimidations were of such a startling nature and of such frequent occurrence that, continued longer, they would naturally have brought about a more serious state of affairs and additional hardships to the law-abiding citizens of the district and to the State in its suppression of lawlessness. Without doubt, therefore, in view of the fact that the primary objects for which military rule was established in Teller county were satisfactorily accomplished, the more speedily on account of its early inception and its preventive influence over the acts of lawless men and agitators, and that its results have worked toward the betterment of conditions throughout the county, the prompt action of your excellency in thus using the strong hand of the military before bloodshed or the destruction of property could ensue was the most important factor in the restoration of peace and order; and this campaign should establish a strong and valuable precedent."

The other side is represented in an editorial from the Denver Post.

''The situation at Cripple Creek is a reminder of the fact that the President of the United States and governor of a state have unlimited power in emergencies. . . .

''But there is nothing the governor of a state or the president of the United States tries so earnestly to avoid as the exercise of the power now being used by Governor Peabody. Seldom has it been used, and, indeed, the most odious conditions have been tolerated rather than exercise naked, undisguised force. So all the presidents of the United States and all the governors of states have hesitated long and well, and, indeed, there is no modern example of the thing Peabody is doing, save Cleveland's famous act in Chicago. . . .

"In Cripple Creek the thing at which Peabody has struck with all the power of the state is not physical, as in Chicago, but in the air. That is to say, men said they were afraid to go to work; but there were no criminal acts. The governor's excuse for his action is that he levels the armed force of the state against fear. To the man who cares nothing, sympathetically, one way or the other, but who has a regard for law, the view of the matter is that the governor should have refused to act until there was evident lawlessness and disorder.

"The fact of the business is that the reasons for Peabody's action would justify the seizure of all union labor leaders on the charge of treason, regardless of any strikes. In fact, it may be doubted if the governor realizes what he is doing. The real, vital interest in the thing is that Governor Peabody of Colorado, has cast a dye which, unless he backs out, to use plain words, means that organized labor is treasonable and, if his attitude is accepted, will mean the crushing of labor organization by the government as being a society or organization which challenges the supremacy of government. As soon as the country realizes what is being done in Colorado it will be recognized as a national issue."

There can be but one judgment as to the use made of the troops. State officers represent the power of the people as a whole, and when their authority is exerted it is theoretically for the blind suppression of crime, and for the preservation of order, in the interest of the general welfare, without regard to class, order, or condition. "When this power is exercised on lines of partisan bias to directly further the interests of one class as opposed to those of another, it is a perversion of the intention of democratic government, and calls for unqualified condemnation.

Sherman M. Bell, Adjutant General, in general charge of the troops, had been a rough rider in the command of President Eoosevelt during the Spanish-American war. He returned to Colorado to be hailed as a popular hero for a time, but soon lost the admiration of the public through his overbearing ways and self-conceit. In the Cripple Creek campaigns his idea seemed to have been to make the most gorgeous military display possible, and to give himself the largest notoriety as a military leader.81 He was perfectly frank in the statement that his entire intention was to aid the mine owners and to smash the unions,52 and his conduct caused a large number of representative Colorado citizens to give credence to the statement that he was in the direct pay of the mine owners. Governor Peabody refused to hold himself responsible for many of the extreme acts of the general, but if he was failing to carry out the governor's orders he should have been removed.53

The charges upon which Teller County was placed under military rule were not proved to be well founded.54 The state authorities failed to secure the conviction of any of the criminals that it was claimed the local civil authorities were needlessly and intentionally allowing to go free, and they thus laid themselves open to the most serious charges of deliberate partisan action.55 The use made of state authority during the second period of military rule, when city governments were being overthrown and men being deported in large numbers, is to be strongly condemned. The use of the militia to virtually back armed mobs.56 and to give some show of legality to a commission which on its own admission was forcibly deporting men simply for refusal to leave a certain organization,57 was, in the opinion of the author, a perversion of public authority, of the most vicious type. It is true that the commission had to deal with some men of criminal type, and in their deportation there may have been some justice, but when the associations started avowedly and deliberately to wipe a legal organization out of existence,58 state authority should have had no choice but to intervene. We may find some excuse for the citizens of the district, beside themselves with the horror of the days before, but the public authorities lost an opportunity for the display of that broader wisdom, and stabler judgment, overriding the frenzied passions of the moment, that should be a chief glory of the state.

50See pp. 75-77, including f. n., pp. 93-96. including f. n., and pp. 126 and 127.

51See pp. 96-102, 110-116, f. n. 2.

52See p. 99.

53See pp. 99, 110, including footnotes. Also various interviews during the period of military rule.

54See pp. 115, f. n. 29; 109, f. n. 11; pp. 109, 110, 118. Also section on Trials, Chap. VI.

55Ibid.

56See pp. 125, 126, 128, 130-33, 136, including f. n. 33.

57See pp. 129, 130, including footnotes.

58See pp. 116, 126, 142, 146.
NEXT: The "Red Book" — The "Green Book."