USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume I > Part 99
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On July 2d, five men and on July 3d, nine men who had been passed upon by the military commission as being undesirable residents were deported from Victor to Colorado Springs. One of the party of nine men was John Harper,
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former president of the Victor miners' union, and until June 6th manager of the union store at Victor, which had been closed and looted during the riot.
In addition to the parties of men who were deported from the Cripple Creek district during the last three weeks in June and the first week in July, not a few persons left the district by order of the military authorities without being com- pelled to go on special trains. They were simply told to go, and did so. In addition, at least five hundred other persons left the district during that time without giving the military authorities an opportunity to arrest them.
On the night of July 6th, five men were driven from Victor by a mob, first having been beaten, robbed, and otherwise mistreated.
On July 26, 1904, Governor Peabody suspended military occupancy.
The strikes of 1903-4 in Colorado were disastrous for the Western Federa- tion of Miners, especially in the Cripple Creek district.
On account of these strikes all of the eight unions, as well as the district union, were broken up, and owing to the card system inaugurated by the Mine Owners' Association in 1904 it became impossible for a known member of the federation to secure work in any of the mines in the district.
On January 6, 1905, District Attorney S. D. Crump dismissed the cases charging conspiracy to murder against Charles H. Moyer, president ; John C. Williams, vice president; William D. Haywood, secretary-treasurer; James Kirwan and James A. Baker, members of the executive board of the Western Federation of Miners; John M. O'Neill, editor of the Miner's Magazine; D. C. Copely, and Fred Minster, leaving only nine persons charged with the conspir- acy to murder in connection with the Victor street riots.
THE STRIKE OF 1903-4 AT TELLURIDE
On October 31, 1903, about one hundred miners in the Tom Boy mine struck because the manager of the mine had started its mill with nonunion men. On November 5th, several members of the Mine Owners' Association called upon Governor Peabody and requested him to send troops to Telluride. They de- clared that they could reopen their mines and mills with nonunion men if they were given military protection from attacks by union men. On November 17th, other members of the Mine Owners' Association called on the governor and requested that troops be sent there. They admitted that the situation was peace- ful but declared that they intended to open their mines shortly, and insisted that when the mines were reopened with nonunion miners trouble would be sure to begin immediately.
At the request of the governor, Att .- Gen. N. C. Miller, Asst. Atty .- Gen. H. C. Melville, Maj. C. F. Randolph, C. F. Hagar, and S. D. Crump visited Telluride to investigate the situation. They reported to the governor that troops ought to be sent there to preserve order.
On November 18th, Governor Peabody appealed to President Roosevelt for troops. On acount of a strike of coal miners at Trinidad, the governor apprehended that troops would be needed there as well as at Telluride. He asked him for from two hundred and fifty to three hundred regulars. In an interview he said that his request was based on the fact that the state was without the necessary funds to pay for militia. The president declined the governor's
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request, but at the same time he detailed Gen. John C. Bates to visit Colorado and report upon the strike situation.
He submitted a report, dated Denver, November 29, 1903, and addressed to Lieut .- Gen. S. B. M. Young. The report said in part :
"I find that the disturbances at both Cripple Creek and Telluride amounted to insurrection against the State of Colorado, and in that mining, milling and other business was suspended there by reason of intimidation, threats and vio- lence, and that the civil officers were not able to, or did not, maintain order.
"The militia of the state has been employed, and is now employed at both Cripple Creek and Telluride. I think the employment of the state troops nec- essary at both these points, and that they are now giving proper protection to life and property. At Cripple Creek work has been resumed at the mines, and at Telluride one mine has resumed operations, and owners inform me they pro- pose to open other mines as rapidly as they can secure workmen. At this time United States troops are not needed.
"There is an unsettled condition at the coal mines, both in the Trinidad or southern district and the new or northern district, which may develop into such disorder as to require the use of troops. Should this occur while the whole available force of State Troops is employed at Cripple Creek and Telluride, which is now the case, I think Federal troops will then be needed."
On January 3, 1904, the militia arrested twenty-two men and imprisoned them in the county jail. These included Eugene Engley, a former attorney- general of Colorado and attorney for the Western Federation of Miners; J. C. Williams, vice-president of the Federation; Guy E. Miller, president of the local union, and Henry Mainke, a prominent union leader. Williams had come from California to direct the strike at Telluride. On the same evening Maj. Z. T. Hill, in command of the troops at Telluride, announced to newspaper corre- spondents that the state of affairs rendered it necessary that all press reports should be censored ; that the telegraph and telephone lines were under his control. and no reports could be sent by such means without his sanction.
The twenty-two men were deported to Ridgway, forty-five miles distant, by the militia on the next day and there ordered not to come back to Telluride. Thirteen men arrested January 4th, four arrested January 8th, and six arrested January 15th were deported to Ridgway. One man who returned to Telluride was rearrested by the militia and imprisoned January 6th. By February 2d. the number of men deported was eighty-three.
On the night of March 14th, about one hundred members of the Citizen's Alliance held a meeting at Red Men's hall, after which they armed themselves, searched the town, and took into custody about sixty union men and sympathizers. In some instances the doors of residences were forced open. The men who were captured were brought to a vacant store and about 1:30 o'clock in the morn- ing were marched to the depot and loaded into two coaches. Fifteen members of the mob accompanied the train to Ridgway, where the prisoners were ordered to get off, and further ordered never to return to Telluride.
On April 5th, the Telluride Mine Owners' Association issued the following statement :
"We do not propose to enter into negotiations of any nature with the West- ern Federation of Miners. We do not recognize a union in Telluride. There
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is no strike in Telluride. All our mines are working with a full force of men and we do not know what kind of a settlement can be made. With us there is absolutely nothing to settle."
On April 8th, seventy-four men, who had been deported from Telluride by the military authorities and citizens, returned on the train arriving at 7:30 o'clock in the evening. They were met at the depot by Adjt .- Gen. Sherman M. Bell with about one hundred soldiers and about two hundred armed citizens. They were marched to the opera house, where their baggage was searched for firearms and other weapons. After being given supper, they were put on the train and again deported. General Bell, Capt. Bulkeley Wells, and a detail of thirty soldiers accompanying them to the county line.
On June 15, Governor Peabody suspended military authority in the Telluride district and troops were relieved from duty. In November the mine owners granted, voluntarily, eight-hour shifts to all employes to go into effect Decem- ber 1, 1904.
At a special meeting of San Juan District Union No. 3, of the Western Federation of Miners, held at Ouray on November 29, 1904, the strike which had been called on September 1, 1903, was declared off. The meeting attended by Charles H. Moyer, president of the Federation, who, in an interview on November 29, said :
"We have called the strike off because we take the position that the issues involved have been conceded by the mine owners and operators in the Telluride district, in that they recently posted notices to the effect that after December Ist they would grant an eight-hour work day, both for their mills and smelters, and a minimum wage scale of $3. These were the demands we made over one year ago."
TIIE FIRST STRIKES IN THE COAL SECTIONS OF COLORADO
On August 14, 1903, an open letter, headed "A Manifesto" and addressed to Governor James H. Peabody and the public generally was issued by District No. 15, of the United Mine Workers of America. The letter was signed by William Howells, president of District No. 15, embracing Colorado, Utah, southern Wyoming, and New Mexico. The letter specified the grievances which the coal miners had against the coal operators. .
For some time previous the officials of the United Mine Workers of America had been making efforts to extend that organization in Colorado, but they met with strong opposition from the coal companies, and in some cases men had been discharged because they had joined the union. Many of the coal miners in the state were foreigners-Italians. Austrians, and Slavs.
On September 4. Governor Peabody received a committee of officials of the United Mine Workers of America, who called upon him to enlist his influence in securing concessions from the coal operators. The governor attempted to bring about a conference of the coal operators and the officials of the union, and appointed September 11th, as the date for such a meeting. On that day the union officials were present, but the representatives of only three coal com- panies appeared. Most of the operators refused to enter the conference. The largest companies were the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company and the Victor
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Fuel Company, both of which were controlled by the Rockefeller-Gould interests. Neither of these companies being represented at the conference, W. H. Mont- gomery, deputy commissioner of labor, telephoned to the office of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company and was told that the manager declined to send a rep- resentative to the conference, that he would willingly confer at any time with a committee of the company's workmen, but would not recognize representa- tives of the union.
An annual convention of District Union, No. 15, of the United Mine Work- ers of America began at Pueblo, Colorado, on September 24th. On the follow- ing day the convention was addressed by Charles H. Moyer, president of the Western Federation of Miners, who spoke in regard to the pending strikes at Colorado City, Denver, Idaho Springs, Cripple Creek, and Telluride. The United Mine Workers of America and the Western Federation of Miners are entirely separate organizations, the former being composed of coal miners, the latter of metalliferous miners. On the same day, September 25th, the convention formulated and adopted the following demands upon the operators in District No. 15 :
Clause I. That eight hours shall constitute a day's work.
Clause 2. That all wages shall be paid semi-monthly, and in lawful money of the United States, and the scrip system be entirely abolished.
Clause 3. An increase of 20 per cent on contract and tonnage prices, and 2,000 pounds shall constitute a ton.
Clause 4. That all underground men, top men and trappers receive the same wages for eight hours as they are now receiving for nine, nine and one-half and ten hours or over for a day.
Clause 5. For the better preservation of the health and lives of our crafts- men we demand a more adequate supply of pure air as prescribed by the laws of the state.
At this time the coal miners were working from nine to ten hours a day, the demand being for eight. Those who worked on the contract basis were required to mine 2,400 pounds per ton. It was demanded that 2,000 pounds should make a ton. Section 1 of chapter 55 of the Session Laws of 1901 provides as follows :
All private corporations doing business within the state, except railroad cor- porations, shall pay their employes, the wages earned each and every fifteen days, in lawful money of the United States, or checks on banks convertible into cash on demand at full face value thereof, and all such wages shall be due and pay- able, and shall be paid by such corporations, on the 5th and 20th day of each calendar month for all such wages earned up to and within five days of the date of such payment.
In the camps of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company and of the Victor Fuel Company the scrip system operated as follows: When a miner desired to buy goods previous to the regulay pay day, he obtained from the mine office an order on the company's store for such a valuation of merchandise as he might desire. If, upon the conclusion of his purchase, he did not wish to use the entire order, he was given the change in scrip. With this scrip he could buy what he might desire at any other time. At the end of the month the
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orders issued were deducted from the monthly wage and the balance was paid him in cash.
The miners claimed that higher prices were charged in the company stores than in other places. They also had other grievances. They objected to being forced to live in the houses of the coal companies. They protested against the discharge of men for having joined the union. They desired, not only that 2,000 pounds of coal should be counted as a ton, but also that they should have their own check weighman, one who would be a member of the union.
Employes of the Victor Fuel Company objected to deductions made from every man's wages, $1 a month for medical attention and 25 cents a month for a school fund. They claimed the privilege of employing their own physicians, practitioners who were not distasteful to them and whom they did not consider incompetent. They alleged that while the company deducted from their total wages $1,800 to $2,000 monthly for medical attendance the cost to the company for such service did not exceed $700 a month.
The Victor Fuel Company owned all the property in the towns of Hastings and Delagua, Las Animas County. A special school tax is levied by the state on property in the cities and towns in the state. The Victor Fuel Company paid this tax for the towns of Hastings and Delagua out of the 25 cents a month deducted from the wages of every employe, whether he was a married or single man.
On October 26, 1903, John Mitchell, national president, addressed an official letter to William Howells, of Trinidad, Colorado, president of district No. 15 in which letter he said :
"Information reaching us from the various mining camps indicates a grow- ing restlessness and impatience upon the part of miners and mine workers, whose conditions of employment, especially under the two companies referred to, have grown to be intolerable. These reports are fully confirmed by the official state- ments sent to us by our representatives, and are repeated by special officials sent to Colorado to investigate.
"In view of these circumstances, we have decided to authorize the inaugura- tion of a strike in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and southern Wyoming, to take effect Monday morning, November 9, provided an adjustment has not been reached in the interval, or negotiations are not then pending which would jus- tify us in believing that a settlement would be secured.
"You are, therefore, advised to issue an official order to the mine workers of District No. 15 to discontinue work and remain in idleness on and after Novem- ber 9th, unless they receive instructions to the contrary from this office.
"You are authorized to inform all mine workers, union and nonunion, that the national organization of the United Mine Workers of America will render all possible assistance in conducting the strike and prosecuting it to a successful issue."
Several national organizers of the United Mine Workers of America were ordered to Colorado to organize the unions more thoroughly in that state. Las Animas and Huerfano counties embrace what are called the southern Colorado coal fields. There are extensive coal mines in Fremont County, which is near the middle of the state, and there are coal mines in Garfield County in the west-
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ern end of the state. Boulder County embraces most of what is known as the northern Colorado coal fields.
The strike went into effect on November 9, 1903. In Las Animas County about 6,500 miners struck; in Huerfano County, about 450; in Fremont County about 1,700; in Boulder County, about 1,500; in Garfield County, about 300. At various mines in New Mexico about 500 miners struck. The number who struck in southern Wyoming was small. In Utah there was none.
The strike in the northern field was settled on November 28th.
President John Mitchell arrived at Trinidad on December 2d, and the next day addressed a public meeting of 3,000 people. He urged the strikers to stand firm.
On December 3d, the Victor Fuel Company filed suit against the United Mine Workers of America ; its president, John Mitchell; its vice-president T. L. Lewis; its secretary-treasurer, W. B. Wilson, and all its national and district officials who were in Colorado. The defendants were charged with interfering with the conduct of the business of the company, and with intimidation of its employes, and also with shipping miners and employes of the company out of the state. The plaintiff alleged that the profit lost on the coal which the com- pany would have marketed since the strike began, and which could not be mar- keted because of the strike, was $50,000; that the cost to the company for armed guards, made necessary by the strike, was $25,000; and that other damages amounted to $10,000, making a total of $85,000.
The southern mine operators having declared unanimously that they would' not confer with the national president or any other officials of the United Mine Workers of America, Mr. Mitchell made no effort to meet them.
The first cases of assault during the strike of coal miners took place in Las Animas County on December 7th. In the forenoon Marshal Milton Hightower was superintending the tearing down of some of the shanties of the Victor Fuel Company at Hastings, in which the miners had formerly lived. He was set upon by a mob of Italian women, one of whom struck him with a cleaver.
Thomas Jennings, an employe of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, and a brother of the superintendent of the company's mine at Berwind, had con- ยท ducted several parties of men from Berwind to Primero. He was conducting a party of four on the afternoon of December 7th, when they were fired upon by unknown men.
On the night of the same day a fight occurred at the coke ovens of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company at Segundo. The division superintendent, learning of the attack upon the Jennings party, telephoned to the superintendent of the coke ovens, asking him to request the deputy sheriffs who were guarding the property of the company to allow no one to enter Segundo without satisfying themselves that they were all right. About 8 o'clock in the evening the deputies halted six Italians near the ovens. Almost immediately shooting began. each side claiming afterward that the other fired first. About a hundred shots were fired. None of the deputies was hurt, but one of the strikers was killed and three others were wounded, one fatally.
The governor sent troops to Trinidad on March 23d, four hundred of the National Guard arriving there on that date in charge of Maj. Zeph T. Hill. A press censorship was established and members of the signal corps were sta-
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tioned at the telegraph and telephone offices to enforce it. No messages were transmitted without the "O. K." of Major Hill.
Detachments of troops were sent to Engleville, Hastings, Segundo, Berwind, Sopris, and Starkville. For sometime mining had been done at the first four camps. None had been done at Sopris and Starkville since the strike began, but the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company had announced that these two camps would be reopened as soon as the men could be secured, and had further an- nounced that while some of the strikers who had been particularly obnoxious in their actions and utterances would not be re-employed most of the old employes would be taken back to work should they apply for work.
The first deportations by the militia at Trinidad occurred on the night of March 26th, when Josef Paganni and Adolfo Bartolli, William M. Wardjon, and "Mother" Jones were deported. Six militiamen accompanied them from Trini- dad to La Junta, and warned them never to return. Paganni was the editor and Bartolli was the publisher of Il Lavatore Italiano, Wardjon was a national organ- izer of the United Mine Workers of America, and "Mother" Jones was employed by that organization.
On April 2d, eight men were deported from the state. They had been ar- rested at the several coal camps during the previous two weeks and had been confined in the county jail. They were placed on a Colorado and Southern train, conducted by a detail of soldiers to the line between Colorado and New Mexico and warned not to return.
Further deportations occurred on April 9th, May 19th, and May 22d.
On June IIth, the troops were withdrawn. An effort to induce the men who had returned to work to strike again on September 7th, failed.
The annual convention of District No. 15, which met at Pueblo, voted on September 16th to continue the strike and officially it lasted about a month longer. All those who were on strike up to October 12th, were given union clearance cards and allowed to return to work, a privilege of which all who could obtain employment availed themselves.
In the state district court at Trinidad, on December 7th, 1904, the Victor Fuel Company filed suit against the United Mine Workers of America and various national and district officers of that organization. The company charged the persons named in the complaint with conspiracy to ruin its business, and asked for damages in the sum of $491,000 as a result of the strike; $75,000 because since the strike began that amount had been expended for guards to protect the company's properties; $50,000 for the loss of old employes, whom the strikers were alleged to have coerced and intimidated until they quit work; $19.000 because of printing, legal expenses and court costs ; $320,000 for dam- ages to mines through disuse and the company's inability to fulfill contracts for coal and coke. This suit was in addition to the suit for $85,000 damages which had been filed several months previously.
These cases were not pressed to an issue.
THE COAL STRIKES OF 1910, AND 1913
In 1910 a strike of coal miners was declared in Boulder County. This con- tinued through 1911 and 1912, and finally became a part of the big strike in the Southern field in 1913.
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There were spasmodic outbreaks in the northern field, but at no time did the governor feel called upon to order troops into the district. The mines were, however, worked with nonunion and returning miners' help, often to full capacity, but generally to within half or three-quarter capacity.
At one time a district judge incarcerated for a period of several months sixteen strike leaders whom he adjudged in contempt of court for flagrantly violating an injunction against picketing.
The controversy entered largely into political contests and seriously affected the independence of the judiciary.
When Vice-president Hays of the United Mine Workers of America came to Colorado in August, 1913, the conditions in all coal camps except in a part of the northern fields appeared to be satisfactory and the relations between employer and employes were not strained.
In that month in 1913 there were employed in and around all the coal mines of the state 12,089 men, about 60 per cent or 7,235 of these men were engaged in actually mining coal; 40 per cent or 4,823, were otherwise engaged in the in- dustry.
The eight-hour law which had been enacted in 1911 was in force in this field.
While there were and are many coal companies operating in the state the three largest, controlling 95 per cent of the coal production of the state were the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, which also operated steel mills at Pueblo, the Victor-American Fuel Company, and the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company. The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, controlled by the Rockefeller interests, owns and leases about 300,000 acres of coal and other lands. The Victor American Fuel Company owns and controls about 50,000 acres in the Colorado fields, having in addition leases on large tracts of coal lands in New Mexico. The Rocky Mountain Fuel Company owns and controls approximately 31,000 acres.
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