USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume I > Part 96
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105
Indictments were found against thirty-seven of the striking miners, charg- ing them with various acts of violence. All of the cases were dismissed except three. One of the three men tried was convicted of stage robbery, but was released by the supreme court. Two were convicted of blowing up the Strong inine, and each was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment, but both were par- doned before their terms expired.
Adjt. Gen T. J. Tarsney, by profession a lawyer, was attorney for some of the arrested miners when they were placed on trial at Colorado Springs. Public sentiment in Colorado Springs had been strongly opposed to the strikers, and was strongly opposed to the populist administration of Governor Waite. About midnight of June 23, during trial, a band of about fifteen masked men entered the office of the Alamo Hotel and induced the clerk to call General Tarsney
845
HISTORY OF COLORADO
from his room. When he made his appearance he was seized by the men, struck on the head with a revolver and hurried into a carriage at the door. He was, driven to a lonely spot on the prairie, five miles from the city, then stripped of his clothing, and tarred and feathered. In this condition he was left to grope his way in the darkness through a rough country, and wandered about for hours, until he reached a farmhouse, where he was taken in and relieved of his torture. Who the perpetrators were was never definitely proved. Several people were arrested and confined for some time in jail, but their cases never came to trial.
THE LEADVILLE STRIKE OF 1896-7
From about 1882 until the financial crisis of 1893 the wage of miners in the Leadville district was $3 per day. A wage scale of $3 per day means that $3 is the minimum wage paid to all persons employed in or about a mine, except laborers on the surface who are not engineers or cagemen. On the $3 scale, engineers receive $4 per day ; pumpmen, $3.50 per day; timbermen $3.50 to $4 per day; shift bosses, $4 per day; and where the work of the miner is more than ordinarily onerous, as in sinking shafts or working in wet places, he receives $3.50 per day. These figures are not absolutely uniform, but approximately so.
After the great and sudden depression of business in the summer of 1893 and after the mines and smelters at Leadville had closed down and all were uncertain of the future, the mine managers, and miners and business men and mechanics and laborers of the district all united in a friendly effort to resume work, and as a result an agreement was made to reduce the wages of miners from $3 to $2.50. At that time the Knights of Labor was the only labor union to which any miners in the Leadville district belonged, but many of the miners had already left that organization. On September 14, 1893, a committee rep- resenting the miners as a whole agreed with the principal mine owners upon a wage scale, which provided that all miners and men employed under ground should be paid $2.50 per day for all calendar months in which the average quo- tation of silver should be less than 837/2 cents an ounce, and $3 per day for all calendar months in which the average quotation should be 83.5/2 cents or over. Miners working in shafts or wet places to be paid 50 cents a day additional. At that time silver was quoted at 731/2 cents per ounce, a greater price than was quoted for it at any time from then until the strike of 1896.
The Knights of Labor was succeeded after a time by the Western Federation of Miners, a local union of which, established at Leadville, in May, 1895, grew rapidly in membership. They made systematic efforts to get every mine worker in the district to join this union. Men were warned to join it by certain dates or else get out of town; further they were told that they would not be allowed to work in Leadville or elsewhere in the West unless they should become urion men promptly.
Preceding this strike of 1896, as admitted by the union itself, 65 per cent of the miners, trammers, topmen, and laborers employed in mining in the Lead- ville district received $3 per day. The mine owners claimed 70 to 75 per cent received $3 per day, but the federation declared that this was too high an esti- mate. The higher rate of wages had come about gradually after the agreement of 1893, under the natural law of supply and demand.
846
HISTORY OF COLORADO
On May 25, 1896, a committee of federation officials waited upon the man- agers of several mines and made a verbal request for an increase of 50 cents a day to miners, topmen, engineers, and all others except miners already receiving $3 per day. All the managers approached refused this request.
The fact that the mine managers had agreed not to deal with any labor organization and to take no action without the consent of the majority of the parties to the agreement was not then publicly known, and indeed remained a secret until it was disclosed by the investigations of a joint special legislative com- mittee early in 1897.
Within three days after June 19 all the larger mines in the district were closed, throwing nearly 1,300 additional men out of work, making a total of about 2,250 men idle in consequence of the strike. Governor Albert W. McIn- tire directed the deputy commissioner of labor, William H. Klett, to visit Lead- ville for the purpose of conciliation and of effecting a settlement if possible. Mr. Klett succeeded in bringing about a meeting of mine managers and a com- mittee of the miners.
But both sides were obdurate and the meeting proved a failure.
Shortly after the commencement of the strike the mine owners began to negotiate for the importation of miners from places outside of Colorado with whom to work their mines. On August 19, some of the mine managers gave notice that unless union men should return to work on or before August 22 miners would be imported from elsewhere. The union men not returning to work, some of the managers made arrangements to get miners from Joplin, Missouri, but the first lot of these did not arrive until about the fourth day after the destruction of the Coronado property on September 21. Knowledge that labor was about to be imported, which would probably break the strike, had an aggravating effect on the strikers, and undoubtedly was the main reason for the attack upon Coronado.
The first attempt to resume work at any mine was made at the Coronado where an inside fence was built around the surface working, and arms were obtained for the use of employes. The manager explained that he took these precautions because of reports that an attempt would be made to prevent the reopening of the mine, while abuse and threats had been directed against him personally. About August. 17, underground work in the Coronado began with a force of about 17 men, all of them residents and miners of Leadville, which force was increased to about 20 by September 20. The Emmet property also had been fenced with boards, and mining there was resumed with a force of 40 men, of whom 35 were in the mine on the night of September 20-21. The men who took the places of the strikers were threatened, some of them beaten, and several of them shot at. The city police force seemed inadequate to pre- vent such violences and the offenders were not arrested. Reports that the re- opened mines would be destroyed were circulated.
About 12:30 A. M., September 21, people living near the Coronado mine were aroused and told to leave their homes, as trouble might be expected. At 1 A. M. a mob of one hundred to one hundred and fifty men, among whom were unquestionably many of the strikers, made an attack upon the Coronado mine. Three dynamite bombs were thrown to destroy the large oil tank within the inside enclosure, which tank supplied fuel for the boilers. The contents
847
HISTORY OF COLORADO
of the tank escaped, spread over the ground, and set fire to the buildings. All of the buildings except the shaft house and all of the machinery on the surface were destroyed, causing a loss of about $25,000.
At the time of the attack the employes about the mine consisted of 17 men and one boy. They made a vigorous resistance with firearms. The attacking party, also was fully armed, and immediately after the first bomb explosion a general fusillade commenced, which continued for half an hour. Three of the attacking party identified as members of the federation, were killed. The de- fenders of the mine escaped from both the bullets and the conflagration. Many citizens of Leadville seized arms and hurried to the scene. The city fire depart- ment arrived promptly, but the firemen were threatened with death and impeded in every attempt to stay the flames. One of them, Jerry O'Keefe, while holding a nozzle, was fatally shot-the fourth man to meet his death in this riot.
About three A. M., when the buildings of the Coronado mine were ablaze, the rioters made a rush toward the Emmet mine, half a mile distant. Bombs were thrown, destroying a portion of the fence around it. An improvised cannon, which had been made out of steampipe re-enforced with babbitt metal, was discharged at the shaft house. The rioters rushed at the opening in the fence, but were driven back by a terrible fire of buckshot and rifle bullets. They renewed the charge, but were again repulsed. They then retreated without inflicting further damage to the property or any of its defenders; but another of the mob, also a member of the federation, was killed. By the evening of September 21st the number of troops that had arrived at Leadville was 230; by the next evening it was 653.
The presence of the troops had a quieting effect immediately upon the com- munity and there were no further outrages or breaches of the peace worthy of mention.
Governor Albert W. McIntire was succeeded by Governor Alva Adams in January, 1897. In January the number of troops at Leadville was considerably reduced; in February it was reduced below 100; on March 10th the remainder of the National Guard on duty at Leadville were relieved from duty.
By February, 1897, most of the union miners had returned to work on the mine owners' terms.
THE STRIKE OF MINERS AT LAKE CITY IN 1899
On March 14, 1899, a strike of miners began at Lake City, Hinsdale County, Colorado, or, to be more exact, at the Village of Henson which is three miles from Lake City. Two mines were affected-the Ute and Ulay and the Hidden Treasure. The Aulic Mining Company leased and operated the Ute and Ulay mine and mill, in which about one hundred men were employed, of whom about forty were Italians. The Hidden Treasure Mining and Milling Company em- ployed about the same number of men, with about the same proportion of Americans and foreigners. The Italians were members of a local union of the Western Federation of Miners, which had been organized only a few months previously. Some Americans also were members of this organization.
The cause of the strike was a requirement of the companies that all single men in their employ should board at company boarding houses. The Italians
848
HISTORY OF COLORADO
refused to comply with this order. They sought to induce the Americans to strike, but the latter continued to work. The Americans were unaware of any disturbance until the day shifts started to work on the morning of March 14th, when they were met by the Italian's armed with rifles. Not a man was allowed to enter the mines. The Americans having been driven away from the mines, a few returned to go to work but they were beaten by the Italians, who threatened to shoot them if they should return.
The discovery was made that the state armory at Lake City had been broken open and that the arms and ammunition therein, fifty Springfield rifles and 1,000 rounds of ammunition, had been removed. Investigation showed also that within a few days the Italians had purchased nearly all the Winchester rifles and other firearms on sale in the town.
.Governor Charles S. Thomas on March 16th ordered four companies of in- fantry and two companies of cavalry to the scene of the disturbance, and whole- sale arrests followed.
The military officers, civil officers, mine managers, citizens, and the Italian consul reached an agreement on March 20th under which the prisoners should be released upon the understanding that the single men should leave the county within three days and the married men within sixty days. The agreement further provided that employes of the companies might board wherever they pleased. This settlement was received with general approval except by the Italian consul and the Italian strikers, but as the managers of the companies had already re- solved not to employ Italians, the foreigners really had no inducement to remain in Hinsdale County, so that they, too, acquiesced in the settlement.
On March 20, 1899, the troops were withdrawn from the county.
STRIKE OF MINERS AT TELLURIDE IN 1901
The strike of gold miners which began at Telluride, San Miguel County, Colorado, on May 2, 1901, led to a serious disturbance two months later. The object of the strike was to abolish the fathom or contract system of work. This system was an innovation in Colorado. It is an old Cornish system, and was introduced in the Smuggler-Union mine about 1899, up to which time compara- tively few of the miners in Colorado had ever heard of it. As applied to mining, the fathom means six feet high, six feet long, and as wide as the vein, whatever it may be. If a miner happened to get into a wide vein of ore his earnings would be very small. The work was not even let by contract which the miner helped to make. The management simply fixed a given price per fathom and the miners could accept it or go without work.
Under this system the earnings of the miners as a whole had been materially reduced. The system was really a violation of the spirit of the eight-hour day. Many of the miners worked more than eight hours a day, and yet were unable to earn the current wages in the district-viz., $3 per day. The miners claimed also that the contract work made the mine more dangerous and greatly increased the liability to accident.
The Smuggler-Union Company refused to abandon the fathom system, and the strike was simply a contest to decide between two methods of employing labor. Just after the strike was declared the local union of Western Federation of
849
HISTORY OF COLORADO
Miners proposed to Arthur L. Collins, the assistant manager of the company, that the question in dispute be submitted to the State Board of Arbitration and that both sides should be governed by its decision. Mr. Collins rejected this propo- sition, insisting that there was nothing to arbitrate.
After the Smuggler-Union mine had been closed for about six weeks, work was resumed there on June 17, 1901, with about fifty miners, which number was increased within two weeks to about ninety. In addition, about sixty men were employed in the concentrating mill. The miners were employed, not in accord- ance with the fathom system, but by the day, receiving the regular wages of the district. In short, the mine resumed operations with non-union men upon exactly the same terms upon which the union miners were willing to declare the strike off and return to work.
At daybreak, July 3, 1901, about two hundred and fifty union miners, armed with rifles, shotguns, and revolvers took positions behind rocks, trees, and other ob- structions near the mine buildings. When the night shift was coming off and the morning shift was about to go on, a committee of the strikers came within hailing distance of the non-union men and notified them that if they should quit work immediately they would not be molested, but if they did not do so there would be trouble. The non-union men were in charge of William Jordan, a foreman, and were armed. A fusillade of shots commenced, with the result that John Barthella, a union miner, was instantly killed. This inflamed the blood of the strikers, and they opened fire upon the company's buildings, in which non- union men were supposed to be sheltered. These men took refuge in the bullion tunnel and returned the fire of the strikers, but without effect. The firing be- tween the contending forces continued until about ten o'clock when the non- union men capitulated and surrendered their arms. When the battle was over it was found that three men were dead and six wounded. All of the killed were employes of the company, except Barthella; all of the wounded were employes of the company save one, who had been accidentally wounded by one of his striking comrades.
In the afternoon the strikers lined up eighty-eight of them, all who had es- caped, escorted them up the trail to the top of the range, saw them heading into Ouray County, and cautioned them never to return to Telluride. In spite of the understanding that they would be allowed to leave unmolested, many of them were outrageously beaten; one was beaten into insensibility ; another was shot through both arms.
By order of the governor, one troop and four companies were mobilized at Denver. But the governer did not deem it wise to send a force of soldiers to the distant scene of trouble without first being convinced that such action was necessary for the preservation of order. He desired further information before acting, and placed himself in communication with citizens of Telluride.
During most of the day on July 6th, a conference was held between Manager A. L. Collins, a committee from the miners' union, citizens of Telluride, and commissioners from Denver, and a settlement of the strike was effected.
The troops mobilized at Denver were relieved from duty. In conformity with the agreement, the strike was declared off, the Smuggler-Union mine and mill resumed operations, and peace was restored in the Telluride district. After July 6th, the non-union men who had been deported were permitted by union
Vol. I-54
850
HISTORY OF COLORADO
men to return to the camp. Many of them did return and some worked in the same mines with union men without interference.
On November 28, 1901, the mine managers and the miners' union agreed upon a scale of wages and hours for the Telluride district. The wage scale, fixed upon at the termination of the strike of the Smuggler-Union miners, the preced- ing summer, was rather uncertain and indefinite. There had been misunder- standing and confusion over the wages of several classes of workmen employed in and about the mines. The new agreement was made permanent for a period of three years. It practically abolished the contract or fathom system which was so objectionable to the miners. It fixed eight hours as a day's work for all men working underground.
On November 19, 1902, over a year after the strike was settled, Manager Arthur L. Collins was killed in his house, by a shot fired by an assassin from the outside. This murder has never been cleared up.
THE STRIKE OF THE REDUCTION MILL EMPLOYES AT COLORADO CITY IN 1903
Until 1902 the Western Federation of Miners had few members among the employes of the smelters and reduction plants in Colorado. The organization was very strong in the various mining camps. A very large proportion of the miners belonged to the federation, especially in the Cripple Creek district.
In 1902 efforts were made to unionize the men working in the various smelters and ore-reduction plants. These efforts were not successful at Denver, Pueblo, Leadville, or Durango, where smelters were located, but a union was formed at Colorado City August 14, 1902. It was called the Mill and Smeltermen's Union, No. 125, of the Western Federation of Miners.
The federation claimed that the managers discharged union men as soon as they were apprised that the men belonged to the union. It claimed that the United States Reduction and Refining Company had discharged forty-two men for that reason.
A committee of the Western Federation of Miners waited upon the managers and demanded that discrimination against federation men be discontinued. A demand was made also for an increased scale of wages.
On February 28, 1903, Mill and Smeltermen's Union, No. 125, declared the Portland and Telluride mills unfair and ordered a strike at both. The strike at these mills began on the evening of that day. In the Portland mill there were about one hundred and seventy-five employes, of whom about one hundred went out. The Telluride mill usually gave employment to about one hundred and fifty men, but it was shut down for construction work. The strikers composed about one hundred and fifty men who had worked in the mill. Federation pickets were stationed about the Portland and Telluride mills, as they had been about the Standard mill, and tents were erected for their accommodation. Notwithstand- ing the pickets, a number of new men were employed by the Portland mill, and it continued in operation. More deputy sheriffs were sworn in by Sheriff Gilbert, the number reaching sixty-five. Several cases of disorder occurred. The strikers were accused of violence toward strike-breakers and the deputy sheriffs were accused of brutal treatment of the strikers.
The troops were ordered out and arrived at Colorado City March 3, 1903.
851
HISTORY OF COLORADO
Finally a conference was held in the governor's office from 2 P. M. March -14th to 3 A. M. March 15th. The results were that agreements were signed by Presi- dent Moyer and the managers of the Portland and Telluride mills. The terms of the agreement with the manager of the Portland mill were as follows :
First. That eight hours shall constitute a day's work in and around the mills, with the exception of the sampling department, which may extend to ten hours per day.
Second. That in the employment of men by this company there shall be no discrimination between union and non-union labor, and that no person shall be discharged for reason of membership in any labor organization.
Third. That all men now on strike shall be reinstated within twenty days from Monday, the 16th day of March, A. D. 1903, who shall have made appli- cation for work within five days from said date.
Fourth. That the management of the Portland Gold Mining Company will receive and confer with any committee of the Colorado City Mill and Smelter- men's Union, No. 125, at any time within said twenty days upon the subject of a scale of wages.
The first, second and fourth clauses of the agreement with the manager of the Telluride mill were practically identical with the agreement signed by the manager of the Portland mill, but the Telluride mill being shut down for con- struction work, the third clause was somewhat different binding the manager of the Telluride to reinstate all former employes in the same positions they had formerly occupied as soon as operations should be resumed, and a fifth clause bound him to employ, during the period of construction, as many of the old em- ployes as practicable.
During the first part of the conference in Governor Peabody's office Manager MacNeill, of the United States Reduction and Refining Company, was present with his attorney. They withdrew from the conference on March 14, 1903, but the next day, at the governor's invitation, they met Messrs. Moyer and Haywood in the governor's office. Manager MacNeill agreed to accept the terms of the first two clauses in the agreement with the managers of the Portland and Tel- luride mills, but refused to agree to discharge men who had been employed since the strike began in order to reinstate the strikers. On this point he would only agree not to discriminate against federation men when he needed more inen. He refused to treat on the subject of an advance in wages, and refused to recog- nize the federation. The results of these conferences were that the strikes at the Portland and Telluride mills were called off, while the strike at the Standard mill of the United States Reduction and Refining Company continued.
Troops were withdrawn from Colorado City on March 19th.
THE SYMPATHETIC STRIKE AT CRIPPLE CREEK, 1903
A strike of gold miners in the Cripple Creek district was inaugurated in March, 1903, to support the mill men who had struck at Colorado City the pre- vious month. The sympathetic strike was ordered by District Union No. I, and was indorsed by the executive board composed of national officers of the Western Federation of Miners. District Union No. I was composed of thirteen members, representing the eight local unions in the Cripple Creek district and one at Colora-
852
HISTORY OF COLORADO
do City. All of these local unions had voted to give the district union full power to act in the matters at issue, and to call a strike if necessary.
At a meeting held at Cripple Creek on March 16, 1903, which was attended by President Charles H. Moyer, District Union No. I, decided to request the owners of such mines as were shipping ore to the Standard mill at Colorado City and to the mills at Florence, owned and operated by the United States Reduction and Refining Company, to cease making such shipments.
In the conference which was finally brought about, but few concessions were made by Manager C. M. MacNeill, for the settlement proposed covered the strike at the Standard mill as well as the sympathetic strike at Cripple Creek.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.