The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-03-22
THE SILVER REEF ROW.
what AN Honest miner Has 20 Say About
h Affair.

above caption, will be of great interest to our
The condition of affairs at that mining camp:
EDS. TRIBUNE: The mining industries of
Utah are directly and indirectly the para
mount financial industry Of the territory on
which all other branches of business are more
or less dependent for support. The mines
furnish labor for laborers and mechanics, a
market for the farmers produce and
employment for teamsters and fraighters.
They are consumers for the merchants wares
and are the principal supporters OF our stage
lines and railroads, which are great convent
ances to our territory. Hence, anything that
is detrimental to the mining industry of the
territory is more Or less detrimental to all
other industries.
The late violent and riotous acts of the
Miners Union A at Silver Reef are not only in
curious to the Reef and its immediate vi
cinity, but to the whole mining and other in
duslries of the territory, and are calculated
to drive capital from our midst that is seek
ing investment in our mines and other indus
tries.
Our mining interest has had enough to con-
tend with in the way of Mormon hostility to
mining and Mormon scare-crOws OF rebelling
against the government and driving out the
gentle population and conisclting property,
etc. These %groundless fears have prevented
hundreds of thousands of dollars from being
invested in our territory. just as we have
removed the prejudice against Utah and COLI
vinced capitalists that their Investments are
as safe in our territory as in any of the
mining states and territories, and demonstrate
Ell the richness and extent of our mining re-
giols and our superior local facilities for
working our mines, the miners of one of our
most t1ourishing mining districts organize a
Union. ostensibly for mutual aid and benev-
client purposes, to assist its members in case
of sickness or accident, but, in reality, tor
very different purposes, as their re-
cent unlawful acts demonstrated. Many good
mel joined the Union from benevolent and
philanthropic motives, believing it a duty
they owed themselves and their fellow labor
ers TO unite with a brotherhood having for its
cardinal object benevoleuce, charity, mutual
CIV uiii elooiStdllCc " u IlcI1DtTS Ill ulStIeSS,
but who, finding the objects of the organiza-
ton perverted to ac's of violence in open de-
tance OF the laws of the country, now de-
nounce its actions in the severest terms, and
sever their connections with it.
This organization, like all other unlawful
Organizations, concealed its real objects until
such time as its numerical strength would
enable 1t 10 override the local authorities and
set at defiance the laws of the country, plac-
ing the lives and property of the very men
who gave The lAboring class ernpl oyment in
Jeopardy and at the mercy of a misguided
mob.
What milder term than 'mob' can be ap-
piled TO an organization that will Danish the
representative of New Yors mining COM
pany from the district and bid him not re-
turn except at the peril Of his life ? For
what? Simply because he attempted to carry
out the orders of his employer, take possess
sion OF the company's property, forbid men to
work unless they joined the Union, and then
only at stipulated wages regulated by the Or
ganization.
These atrocious acts were committed with
out Justihable provocation Oh the part of the
s~o-called Union, as a plain statement of the
facts will show.
There has been a general reduction of
miners wages in all the mining states and
territories, the highest being from So to So. so
pc: day, except in a few camps in Nevada.
Inc mining companies operating in the
Silver Reef could not see why they should
pay ~ to % per cent. mole for labor than
any other mining districts, especially as the
mines at the Reef are so easily worked md no
danger Of lead poison to the miners. Hence
the companies resolved to reduce the wages
} from 81 to $3 so per day.
The resident manager of the Stormo,,t
Conlpan receiving orders from his COMPANY
TO reduce the wages proceeded to carry ont
his orders, for which he was subsequently,
oanlsled from the district. This, and the
fear that the other two companies would also
reduce wages, was the sole pretext and prov
ocation for all of the ~victors' proceedings at
Silver Reef.
Why the other two companies did nof stand
in with the Stormont conn ,nv ia , m..,o.af
J speculation. 1t is suggested by some that
'he'r resident managers feared Punishment
no perhaps violence and destruction of them
property. Labor rioters generally get the
worst OF IL IN the long run and are despised
ana ostraclzed wherever they go. just as the
Molly Maguire's of Pennsylvania. The
5 writer has heard several prominent MINING
| men OF Utah an" Idaho declare that thew will
| not give employment to any of the uembers
r OF The union who participated in, Or approved
| OF the late riotous proceedings.
There is no law by which a mine oynar