The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-06-13
MINERS, STATEMENT.
Say Responsibility for Lawlessnes:
Rests With Mine Operators.


Rests With Mine Operators.
Denver, June 1s-The executive board
of the Western Federation of Miners is
sued a statement today regarding the
situation in Cripple Creek, in reply to
the statements made by General Sher-
man NJ. Bell and Secretary c. Q. Ham
lin Of the Cripple Creek District Mine
Owners association. as follows:
The cause of the strike of the West
ern Federation of Miners in Colorado
is one of long standing and involves
the failure on the part Of mine man
ayers in various parts of ne state to
live up to their own written agreements.
AS far back as 1884 as a result of the
agreed that eight hours should con-
stitute a days work, that the minimum
daily wage should be SO and that there
should be no discrimination against
union men in the hiring and discharge
of labor.
At the outset of the present trouble
Manager MacNeill of the Standard
mill OF Colorado City peremptOrily
discharged forty-five men, members of
the Western Federation of Miners, for
no other reason than that they had
become union men. All of these were
old employees of from two to six years
standing. Mill men are affiliated with
the Western Federation of Miners and
are entitled to all of the protection
that goes with such membership To-
day the only questions involved are
the enforcement of the eight-hour
day, the right of men to organize in
the unions and to prevent discrfnlna-
ton against union men of all kinds
The responsibility for the lawless-
ness connected with the contest rests
entirely-on the shoulders of the mine
operators the Citizens alliance and
their allies backed up by the ready
power of the state government
The responsibility has been placed on
these persons and organizations by Dis
trict Judge Theron Stevens, who de-
nounced the military usurpation III
Telluride in strong language, from the
bench; by District Judge J. Walter
Dixon, Republican, who openly con-
dennis Governor Peabody and severely
criticises his acts involving the deporta-
ton of men from the state without
trial or other chance of hearing; by ex-
Governor Charles s. Thomas, who plain
~ points to the Mine Owners associa-
ton and Citizens alliance as being re-
sponsible for the many outrages com
mitted on the persons of helpless ana
innocent miners; by the recent Demo-
acratic state convention, which denounc-
ed in unSCathfng terms the line OF pol
icy pursued.
The events of the present week in the
Cripple Creek district justify every
accusation contained above. The fol-
lowing crimes on citizenship have FOL
lowed swiftly upon one another:
The resignati of Sheriff Robert
son of Teller county, forced by a mob
at the point of a pistol and a coil of
rope.
oner Doran of Teller county of the
city marshal of Victor; of various al
dermen and justices of the peace in
the district; the entire official direc-
tory of the city of Goldfeld; assault
and demolition of the union hall in
Victor; forcible entrance into the
four union cooperative stores and
destruction of the contents; destruc-
armed mob; invasion of DUnnville.
outside the military lines, by an
armed force under military COM
mand; arrest of men at their work
and Incarceration within the military
lines. Hundreds of men confined in
unsanitary dull pens; forcible shut
down of the great Portland mine, en-
ploying union men, by order of the
military commandant on the plea of
military necessity, and subsequent de-
pOrtation of the men therein en-
ployed.
Concerning the explosion which
wrecked the depot at Independence and
killed fifteen unfortunate non-union
miners, it need only be said that the
self-cOnfessed trafnwrecker, Mckinney,
in the employ of the Mine Owners as
sOciation, had a few days previously
been released from custody at the be
hest of the attorney for the association
and that this same Mckinney was OBJ
served going down Potts canyon in
the immediate vicinity of the wreckage
only a short time after the disaster,
and that the bloodhound used to follow
the trail of the criminal went directly
to a house occupied by a detective in
the employ of the Mine Owners associ-
alton and that he was promptly called
off. Mckinney stated on cross-exam-
ination during the trial of the union
miners who were accused of the at
tempted train wrecking that he and
other detectives did it for money con-
sideratiOn.
Photographs of marked miners re-
ferred to by General Bell who, he
claims, were marked for death, must
be regarded, as an invention of his own
brain. The photographs in question are
those of strike breakers and were kept
for the purpose of publishing a scab
list with the pictures of the men ac-
company their description. so that
members of organized labor all over the
country would become thoroughly ac-
Quainted with these men who have
committed treason to themselves and
to their class. The pictures are moth
ing more than those having charge of
the strike in the district have publicly
used for many months.
Charges that miners are not allowed
to vote on questions of strike are ut
terly absurd. As a matter of fact. ac-
cording to the constitution of the West
ern Federation of Miners, it is abso-
lutely impossible for the executive
board to call a strike of its own volt
ton. The present strike is a direct
vote of the unions in the district, which
left the matter entirely in the hands
of properly delegated authorities for
adjudication.