An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho, Part 240

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: [S.l.] : Western Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1524

USA > Idaho > Kootenai County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 240
USA > Idaho > Nez Perce County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 240
USA > Idaho > Shoshone County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 240
USA > Idaho > Latah County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 240

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HISTORY OF NORTH IDAHO.

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privilege, but it is the duty of every honest citizen to state his opinions frankly and freely.

We do not ask anybody to take our side. We leave the side that they will take to their own good judgment, but we say they should take one side or the other and express their views freely and openly with the end in view of securing what is just and honorable to all concerned. All trust also that every citizen who has any stake in this community will appreciate the necessity of discountenancing and opposing any acts of violence which misguided men, stirred up by se- ditious talk, may undertake.

We must have law and order, for without them we can have no prosperity and acts of violence and riot never result in any good to anyone. We trust there will be no more dis- graceful scenes such as were witnessed during the strike at Wardner last fall, when over 100 armed white men waited at midnight on one lone man, who had a wife and family, and ordered him to leave the country at once or they would kill him. This we hold was a high handed and cowardly out- rage. By what right did those men arrogate to themselves the authority to order an American citizen to leave this country? And this is only one instance of many, and we wish to inform those who are now contemplating similar outrages that the law provides that such crimes can be punished by im- prisonment in the penitentiary and we propose hereafter to see the law strictly enforced, and we think we will have the active support of every respectable citizen of this country in so doing.

It may be said by some that this is no fight of ours; we have no interest in it. We answer that every man who has any stake in this community is interested to the extent of all he has to secure good order and prevent outrages. And further it may be said that in case of riot here or the burning or destruction of any mills or other property, Shoshone county will have to pay the loss. This precedent was estab- lished fully at the time of the Pittsburg riots in '77. Alle- gheny county paid over $3,000,000 to the owners of property destroyed, and is not this right? What do we pay taxes for? Can it be said, therefore, that where men are daily talking outrage and riot and inflaming the passions of men who have not one cent at stake themselves that the citizens who have something and pay the taxes have no interest in this affair? We think every sensible man will say we have a deep in- terest, and mean to see to it.

Relative to the unions, we would say again that we have no objection to them if they are conducted by prudent, sensi- ble miners who work for their living. As long as they devote their efforts to mutually aiding and benefitting all working men, by all lawful means we say God-speed them. But when they undertake to run the whole country ; when they undertake to terrorize everybody and by threats and intimidation, coerce and force men to join the union whether they wish to or not, and if they do not join, by force take them from their work and drive them out of the country; when they talk violence and undertake to lay down the law to everybody, we say they are going altogether too far, and moreover, that they cannot succeed by any such means in accomplishing any permanent good for themselves or anybody else. They will merely defeat the ends they aim at

It will doubtless be said that the unions do not undertake any of these things. We beg to ask, who were the men who perpetrated the outrages in Wardner last summer and terrorized that community for weeks by threats and acts of violence? Who were the men who drove the two miners off the Little Chap ground last fall and threatened their lives if they did not leave the country? Who are the men who have undertaken by threats and force to make miners at nearly every mine in the country join the union, and in several cases have taken them from their work and forced them to leave the country? It may be answered that the unions are not re- sponsible for these acts of some of their members. But were not many of these acts sanctioned by a formal vote' of the unions and even if they were not, are not the unions respon- sible for all the acts of their members, which arise ont of or are caused hy talk and acts within the unions. We hold that

they are, and moreover that every member of the union, whether a willing one or forced. is responsible for every act of his union, lawful or unlawful.

Men cannot associate together and form societies to do certain things and then because they fail to attend or do not vote, claim that they are not responsible and that certain two or three leaders made speeches and motions and carried things to suit themselves. This has, we think, been the trouble right along in the proceedings of the unions. Two or three men who can talk, make all the speeches and all the motions and the majority of the sober, sensible men, partly through fear and partly through diffidence, have very little to say about it; in short, take no more active part in the acts of their unions than if they were 100 miles away. The votes even do not express the sentiments of those present, for if we hear them rightly, they are given orally, vive voce, and not by ballots, with the result that after two or three inflammable speeches damning the mine owners have been made, very few have the courage to vote no. Now, we would ask if any body of men can hope for permanent success by pursuing any such methods ?

It is well known to those who are acquainted with the history of the miners' unions that the pursuit of such methods have been the cause of the rain and end of many of them. The leaders, not content with a conservative course and ac- complishment of the beneficial objects that properly come within the province of the unions, undertake to run every- thing and everybody with a high hand, to lay down the law to the whole community; in short, they use their brief au- thority to convert the unions they control into great tyrants which not only grind and terrorize the community, but also their own members. Such a course, whether pursued by a miners' union or a government, can end only in defeat and ruin. It is unnecessary to state instances. There are dozens of them and old miners can call to mind many within their own experience. They know of several cases where, urged on by reckless leaders, the union demanded an advance for miners from $3.50 to $4 per day, and after a strike which cost the miners, mine owners and the community a great loss of time and money, they ended by going to work at $3 per day. If the present condition of things is maintained in the Coeur d'Alenes, we very much fear that after weeks and months of idleness, turmoil and strife, a similar result will be reached. History repeats itself over and over again.

It may be answered that the members of the Coeur d'Alene unions are conservative, prudent and temperate, and never undertake anything not properly within the province of any mutual benefit society. We would ask if many of the leaders have not now made up their minds that if they are successful in the present conflict, they will within sixty days urge a strike for $4 per day for miners, for the closing of all company boarding houses, for a boycott on all business enter- prises in which any mine owner has an interest, for a rule that no miner will be allowed to work in any mine in the Coeur d'Alenes over seven days unless he joins the union, if not freely then by force, that no mine foreman shall dis- charge any man under ground until he has given a satisfactory reason for so doing to the union. Not ony have these things been talked up, but they have been voted upon, and if not definitely determined as yet, it is well known that they will be when the time is considered ripe.

Suppose under this state of affairs, the mine owners were to accede at once to the ultimatum of the central committee, can it reasonably be expected that any permanent peace in our fair country would be secured? Vain hope! We venture the belief and we have good grounds for it, that sixty days would not elapse until trouble would arise somewhere, and the fiat of the union would go forth and must be complied with or the offending mine, or all of them, would be closed down and the men driven ont. Under this state of affairs, we, the mine owners, think it is about time to call a halt and we do so most emphatically; and we think every right thinking man in the country, be he miner or business man, will say, "Amen. You are right and we are with you.“ We would ask again, was there ever any cut in wages in any camp in the Coeur d' Alenes, was there every any strike or any trouble

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whatever, or any damning of mine owners, or threats of mur- der or of the destruction of property before we had the un- ions? Everybody knows there was not.

There was peace and amity everywhere until the fall of 1890, when the miners' union was first formed, and trouble began almost immediately and we have had lots of it since and it has been increasing in volume and violence up to the present time. It has been said that the mine owners have broken a contract which they had with the unions to pay shovelers and carmen $3.50 per day and that the mine owners should have notified the unions before publishing any change of wages. We would in answer ask if the unions no- tified the mine owners last year before they decided on de- manding a raise in the wages of carmen and shovelers? They did not, but they simply made a peremptory demand on the mine owners and said, "Raise these carmen's pay to $3.50 a day or we will on a certain day shut down your mine," and meeting with refusal in three places, they did close the mines, to the great loss of all concerned. When the advance was granted by one mine after another in order to have peace, we do not remember that there was in a single case any cove- nant or agreement that it should stand for any specified time. In short the mine owners had no opportunity to agree and they were simply held up and told to do certain things, which they did, and there was no promise or agreement on either side that it should continue for any specified time, or that any notice should be given by any one side or the other de- siring to change it.

To return to the question of the moment. The central committee has notified us that they will permit no work to be done at any mine in the Coeur d'Alene excepting at $3.50 per day for all men underground and at short hours, that is to say, ten hours for the day shift, excepting Saturday-nine hours-and nine hours for the night shift, excepting Saturday night-eight hours. Let us take a look over the situation and see what justice there is in this ultimatum. Is it not true that the price of silver is 86 cents per ounce and going lower every day? Is it not true that silver mines in Butte and in nearly every other large camp are daily shutting down because they simply cannot afford to run? Is it not true that there are from 1,000 to 2,000 miners idle in Butte and vicinity and many thousands more in other camps all over the coun- try? Is it not true that copper and iron ore are very low, and that in consequence there are in the Lake Superior region thousands of idle miners and laborers? Is it not true that the miners in that region are working at $2 and less per day of ten hours ? Is it not true that in nearly every camp in Utah, Colorado and California wages are but $3 per day or less ? And notwithstanding these facts we, the mine owners of the Coeur d'Alene, are being damned and vilified and threatened for offering to pay the scale of wages stated at the beginning of this article. We will simply add that we have determined that the wages cited are fair and liberal, and all we ought to be asked to pay, and having so determined we do not mean to start up our mines at any higher wages. We will wait until the Ist of April for our men to make up their minds, and if they decline to accept, we will have no other course but to claim the right to work our mines (which we have paid for and own) outside of any unions, and we are fully determined to do so without any dictation from any association, conced- ing, however, the right to cvery person to demand any price they see fit for their lahor as long as they do not interfere with the rights of others, and we feel confident the law will uphold us in so doing.

We would ask in conclusion: What is the cause of all the cursing of mine owners that we hear? What is the cause of all the misrepresentations, all the covert threats and in- vectives ? Is there any sense cr reason in it? Have we not paid everybody regularly all that we owed them? Have we swindled anybody? Have we wronged anybody in any way ? Was anything of the kind ever heard prior to last year?

We challenge anybody to show any just cause for it. Would anybody be living in the Coeur d'Alenes if there were not mine owners ?

COEUR D'ALENE MINE OWNERS' ASSOCIATION.

THE REPLY OF THE UNIONS.

As miners, we are not gifted with the literary abilities of the hired attorneys of the Mine Owners' Association, nor at the same time with that talent of making statements so absurd and false as to cause a blush of apology on the cheeks of Ananias, but as working men we ask a thoughtful and considerate public to view both sides of the question before forming an opinion as to the merits or demerits of the case brought before their notice. Without eulogy or self praise we can say that the character for honesty and integrity of those members of the miners' unions who have been in the past or are now prominently identified with these organizations in the Coeur d'Alenes, and as officers of the several unions in the respective communities in which they reside, is such as to be above and beyond the reproach of the Mine Owners' Association; they can certainly lay claim to be practical miners.

The miners of the Coeur d'Alenes can appeal to the peo- ple of this section. in whose minds the memory is still fresh of the course pursued by some of the mine owners when an endeavor was made to establish the Sisters' hospital in our midst It is also well known that what they now truthfully call a "noble institution" formerly they designated a "foreign and un-American corporation." It is also thoroughly under- stood that it was the refusal of some Wardner companies to deduct hospital fees in accordance with the wishes of the majority of their employes that led to the misunderstanding of last summer, and that since the local unions have consoli- dated, the organizations have, in proportion to the amount of fees collected in dnes from their members, cared for their sick, as well as decently interred their dead, and in sick benefits have paid as largely as any of the secret benevolent societies in existence, besides equally establishing better feel- ings for the welfare of their members and their mutual pro- tection. When we bear this expense we would like to ask the Mine Owners' Association and the public whether the tax- payers of Shoshone county and the individual members of the unions are benefited one cent's worth by the trouble caused, time lost or feelings engendered? We emphatically say yes, and challenge even our worthy foes to truthfully deny this assertion.

From items appearing in the public press, gathered from some of our mine managers by reporters in neighboring states, we are led to believe that wages cut no figure in the late shut down, but now the only motive seems to have been to crush out organized lahor and to establish in the Coeur d'Alenes by importation of contract labor (that curse of American institutions) a condition similar to that brought about from this course in some of the older states. That the question at issue is a mere matter of business no one seeks to deny, but the fact still remains that nowhere in latter days has capital invested in mining enterprise been so pro- ductive in so short a time as in the Coeur d'Alenes. In proof of this assertion we have only to quote from the annual re- ports of some of our mine managers to their directors for the past year. One of the managers sometime since made a state- ment, afterward appearing in the public press, that the con- cessions received from the railroad companies would to his company alone make a difference of $30,000 per annum, which, taken with the dividends paid during the past year, makes an immense yearly return on the capital originally invested. What is true in this case is equally so of the other companies, except where affairs have, as is generally understood, been grossly mismanaged.

That the "altitude is low and the climate pleasant" we do not deny ; nor do we feel under any obligations to the mine owner for this gratuitous gift of Providence, but if at some of the mines where the companies run the boarding and lodg- ing houses the condition of the houses and the quality of the hoard were in proportion to nature's gifts in the first in- stance we would feel that in that matter we were being treated with only a merited degree of justice. To show how unfairly the Mine Owners' Association dealt with us, let us review their assertion that the wages offered in their statement were

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HISTORY OF NORTH IDAHO.

those existing ever since the mines started. We answer that the statement is false, for in all of the principal mines until the summer of 1887 the wages for all underground men were $3.50 per day, when the wages of carmen and shovelers in some of the mines were reduced to $3 per day. Immediately after this reduction of wages the first miners' union was or- ganized, as a natural sequence, and to say that the increase made last year was paid under protest is also false, as we hold conclusive proof that in certain mines in this section the addi- tional wages were paid without the solicitation of the miners' union, much less under protest. The ultimatum of the Mine Owners' Association conveys the idea that we are nothing more nor less than a band of anarchists continually threaten- ing the destruction of life and property, liable at any mo- ment to carry out such threats if necessary to accomplish our purpose. This is interesting news to the people of this sec- tion. Whatever the effect of such slanders on the outside may be we have no fear of the result at home. We ask when, where and by whom were such threats made? When did the destruction of life by the miners' union begin? When were the mines of the several companies burned? When were the flumes blown up and what name did the mine manager bear when in the flesh who was killed in his boots or threat- ened with such consequences by any member of the miners' union? We assert without fear of successful contradiction that such dire threats were never made by anyone acting under authority of the union, and we know, as do all the citi- zens of this section, they were never carried out nor could they be with the consent of any of the unions

Of some of the managers it may be said that a change seems to have come over the spirit of their dreams since September of last year. On the 24th of that month the then manager of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Company, with the then central union, entered into an agreement in which the following occurs :

"In consideration of the foregoing concessions the con- solidated miners' unions of the Coeur d'Alene hereby guar- antee to protect all the company's property, its agents and officers, from any acts or demonstrations of violence or threats from individuals or bodies of its members."

We ask before hecoming a party to the statement pub- lished, did the said manager satisfy his mind as to the date on which the local or central union violated this or any other agreement made with him or others? The Coeur d'Alene managers did enter into written agreements with the union, their denial to the contrary notwithstanding, in which the following occurs: "That there shall be no person employed in our mines at a less price than $3.50 per day until I shall first notify you in writing."

There is-no doubt that the nine owners would not object to the unions provided they were officered by their nominees, but to this every member objects, as they should, in order to maintain some independence that in future as in the past they might be in a position to direct their efforts to mutually benefit al! working men and by lawful means, and to state that the central or any other local union means in the future to select a county ticket to be voted on in the fall is a falsehood without a vestige of truth. The miners did without doubt at the last election vote for and elect certain managers and others to the state legislature, but the record left by some of them was such as not to give much en- couragement to the people to elect any of them again. The union as a society did not perpetrate the outrages in Wardner last summer, but as citizens, perhaps, attended a mass meet- ing where certain men were forced to leave by the decree of said meeting. Again, to say armed men forced American citi- zens to leave Wardner is so tinged with falsehood as to re- main unanswered. If our local unions sanction the acts of the central organization it is not by intimidation, as the pub- lic would be made to believe. Our constitution is open to the public and we invite all to study it carefully, as we defy any one to say we are an unlawful body. As for using coercion in order to enlist members, the people here know well we have never used the like with one-half the force the associa- tion has done to compel outside mines to fall in line. Will the Mine Owners' Association allow their constitution to be

perused by the public? We think not, because from informa- tion now in our hands, we know it is so opposed to law and order that the darkened archives of the association is its safest retreat.

In conclusion we say that business enterprises have not been boycotted by the unions here simply because the mine owners were interested, but in some cases when attempts were made to force men to trade with such concerns the unions did interfere, but never without just cause. How has it been with the Managers' Association? It has continually pursued our members, and to be an officer in either local or central union has been for a long time since sufficient reason for the black- listing of the offending member. In all mining districts in the west we have miners' unions, but owners in other sections contrive to get along without a mine managers' association. We thank the citizens of our respective communities for their expressions of sympathy and hope always to merit their ap- proval.

THE CENTRAL MINERS' UNION OF THE COEUR D'ALENE.

The proposition of the mine owners was finally re- jected by the Central Executive union and the Coeur d'Alene Mine Owners' Association issued a manifesto in which they said, among other things :

"We have made an effort in good faith to resume work, but cannot do so under existing circumstances. We could bring in men from distant mining sections who would be glad to work for the wages offered, but we will not do so except as a last resort. * We desire to announce that we now withdraw the proposition made, and also that we have decided, as we cannot work the mines, to reduce expenses as much as possible and to allow our mines to remain idle until June Ist, by which time we hope to have made such arrangements as will enable us to resume business."

As the first of June approached the mine owners began bringing in miners from the outside, under guard of armed detectives. They also sted out in- junctions in the Federal court and had them served on a number of different persons, restraining them from interfering in any way with the operation of the mines. During the month of June some of the mines were run by non-union labor, short-handed and intermit- tently, whereas in others union and non-union men seem to have been working side by side, the former, at least, at the old scale of $3.50 a day, and in still others only union men were employed.

The mines which came under the special displeas- ure of the union men were the Bunker Hill and Sulli- van, at Wardner, and the Gem and Frisco, on Canyon creek. At the Canyon creek mines the feeling be- tween the union strikers and the non-union men who had taken their places and were working under guard was very bitter. Exchange of harsh words were very frequent and fist fights were not uncommon. These eventually precipitated an armed encounter on July IIth between union men and the employes and guards of the Frisco mine. At about five o'clock in the morn- ing of that day the firing commenced. It is said by both sides that the shooting was not intended at first to do other execution than to frighten the men out of the mine. Soon, however, a pitched battle resulted,

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both miners and guards firing to kill. The strikers were at a disadvantage, so withdrew up the hills. It was now that the plan of destroying the mills took shape in their minds. They came to the end of the tramway, placed some giant powder in a car and started it to the buildings on its errand of destruction. The fuse was too short, so the explosion took place too soon to do serious damage, though the tramway was destroyed. Powder was then carried to the flume and, the water having been first turned off, sent down the penstock and to the water wheel. The old mill was thus wrecked, but fortunately most of the men had withdrawn to the new mill, thus saving their lives. The men in the mill continued firing a short time, but soon realizing their hopeless position, surrendered.

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An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho, Part 240

Author: Publication date: 1903 Publisher: [S.l.] : Western Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1524

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: [S.l.] : Western Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1524