The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-11

George Hendry Trades and Labor as
sembly, ]. E. Huseby. a#
Bonner--Lumbermen union No. AZ,
c. p. La Fray.
Deer Lodge-Trades and Labor coun-
Gil, j. NJ. Flynn.
Red Acknowledgements union No
90, Refs Davis.
1t appears after all that the Western
Federation of Miners, which is also in
session in Salt Lake. will devote some
of its time and resolutions to the Ward
| ner troubles. In an interview with a
Herald reporter. President Edward
Boyce of Butte, in speaking of recent
events and present conditions in the
| Occur d'Alenes, said he did not counsel
harsh measures, and did not believe in
resistance to the federal government,
because it would not only be wrong but
absurd. He says he is not worried by
the position assumed by the author
ties, for he considers the injurious eff
fects to the miners of much less conse-
quence than is believed by the public.
'They can not operate mines without
union labor said he last night. THAT
is a sufficient answer to the position of
General Merriam and Attorney General
Hayes. They can not find enough min
ers to do the work of the Occur
d Alene district outside of the fedora
ton. They may get scabs and laborers
and try to make miners of them, but
the effort will not be successful, for it
won't pay. Mining requires skilled Ia
Dor 1t has always been the history
of the industry that where men who
don't understand the work We're en-
ployed. it cost more in the end than to
pay union wages AS mine owners are
| after money, they ultimately get the
work which is, in fact, the cheapest
that is, work by union men.
The whole trouble up there origin
ates over the Last Chance and the
Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines, neither
of which has been worked by union
men, and l undertake to say that union
men are not responsible for the blow
ing up of the Bunker Hill mill. Men
in the Last Chance We're working for
50 and $3.50 per day. and they became
dissatisfied. The owners promised to
pay all underground men $3.50 on July
Is. In the Bunker Hill about one-third
of the men were earning So per day,
and the other two thirds $3.50. When
they learned of the promises of the
Last Chance owners, they, too, de-
manded $3.50, but they got no satisfac-
ton, and the troubles commenced. The
union men had sympathy for them, and
some aided them. That is the situa-
ton. The public believes that all men
in the Bunker Hill and Last Chance
mines were union men, and it blames
them for blowing up the mill, whereas,
as a matter of fact, the whole trouble
comes from non-union men,"
Many of the miners here believe that
the mill was blown up at the instiga-
ton of the mine owners in order to gain
sympathy and destroy the union" is
the rather remarkable statement made
by the Salt Lake Herald. Again Pres
ident Boyce was conservative when he
spoke of this
Possibly it is the case" said he
"but I should not like to say so without
sufficient evidence. Such things have
been done before, and these owners
hate the union. But until | have more
evidence l should hesitate to make the
charge
1.-The mine owners are simply making
a bluff when they promised Attorney
General Hayes at Spokane yesterday
that they wouldn't employ union men
in the Occur d'Alene district said
David C. Coates, editor of the Pueblo
(Col) Courier, the official organ of the
federation. They will promise any
thing to get the aid of the military au-
thorities' ...
II believe that those owners caused
all the damage themselves" said Dele
gate Bell of Boise II believe that they
blew up the mill-or, rather. hired men
to do tin order to get the sympathy
of the country, and to have soldiers
sent in to destroy the miners union.
It's outrageous that such things should
be done But they will find that they
can not successfully operate the mines
without union labor