The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1898-12-15
IN TIME OF WAR AND TUMULTs.

IN TIME OF WAR AND TUMULTS.
What occurred at Gem on the morn
ing of the 18th of July is part of the
history of the labor troubles OF the
year 1892. The hesitating disapproval
that divided the sentiment rather than
the Judgment of the "order classes"
toward the Pittsburgh strikes had
misleading effect in the Occur d'Alene.
The demagogues who here represented
the power of the miners unions were
not comparative thinkers; they did not
allow for the difference in the two situ-
ations. They beheld merely the fact
of this doubtful verdict Of the classes
that are seldom in doubt which side to
take in struggles of this nature, and
they were enormously uplifted by it..
Many of these men, to judge them by
their acts, should be called ANARCHISTS
rather than union men. If not self-de-
voted to the principle of destruction.
they devoted their fcllow-laborer to be
the victim of that principle 'henever
his sole proletaIianism difTe ed from
their own; and they took action oc-
cordingly.
The car loaded with dynamite, which
the strikers had sent down the tram
way for the demolishment of the Frisco
mill, had hung fire, somehow, and disap-
pointed their expectations; but their
next scheme was more successful.
Thewaterpow for the Frisco crusher
was introduced from flume by means
of long, up-slanting iron pipe called
"penstock," the upper hand of which
was accessible from the hill above the
mill and beyond the mines defenses.
The strikers had turned of the water
the night before, and now they proceed
ed to load up the mill with combustibles
from the company's magazine, showing
the powder, wrapped in gunny sacks
down the penstock till they judged the
charge was sufficient. They set II of
about four o'clocliip the morning of the
1lth, and the mill was blown intoruins,
its red boards scattered by that wind
of strife all over the startled country
side, and q not unsatisfactory number
of "scabs" and their guards, who were
in or near the mill at the time, were
killed or injured. There was no pre-
tense of sparing life; the object was to
take it, that good service might be rem
dered TO the cause of unconditional al
legiance to the union by this awful re-
minder of its power. The doctor re-
marked, when he carried the news tc
the refugees in his cellar, that 1t was
like the fable of the eagle wounded
with a shaft feathered from her own
wing-to "blow up the bosses" with the
powder they themselves had paid Tor.
In the fight that ensucd the non
union men were overpowered by the
numbers of their assai,ants, and the
owners. having no defenscs and no de-
tenders left. surrendered their proper
~ and the. persons Of their employees Il
the leaders of the strike. The non
union miners were disarmed, ane
marched as prisoners to the miners
hall, there to be guarded until the sen
tence of eviction from the country
where they had presumed to earn liy
inp independent of labor organizations
should be executed. The agreemen
which the managers were coerced int
signing admitted the right OF the unioi
todictate what persons they should sole
ly employ and.at what prices. This wa!
the famous "union ultimatum," ant
these the means taken to enforce 1t II
the Coeur dAlene.
That friend of the worhngman, MI
Bingham, was so impressed with IN
nature of the crisis that he allowed
himself TO be influenced into tele
graphing to the military authorities
adiuring them to hold back the troop
lest their presence in the infiamed dis
tricts might precipitate threatened act
of violence. This, practically, was de
mand from the union bosses, signed b.
the manager Of an important mine I
be 'let alone" with the implied threa
that, il not let alone, trouble would en-
sue-bridges be blown up, and mine
held down by dynamite would be eS
ploded, and the lives of innocent pei