The Springfield herald., 1904-06-17
GENERAL BELL
ON CRIPPLE CREEK SITUATION
Gives His Version Of the Present Trcu-
bIes in Letter to the Chi
caqo Tribune

You want 10 KNOW WHdt tlle cOHul-
tion is in Teller county. Here it is:
The Cripple Creek district is cleaned
up and there will be no more trouble
in the vicinity
1T took drastic measures to accom-
p,ish this. but it has been done. l
reached Victor at o'clock Wednesday
morning. With me | carried procla-
nation of martial law, signed by the
acting governor, Warren A. Haggott.
/ was to make it public if in my opin-
ion, the conditions justified it.
Il found things in most threaten
ing condition Indignant citizens,
men of the law and order class, men to
yield to nobody in their respect for the
law, had taken things into their own
hands. They ruled the district with an
iron hand For years they had been
under the dominance of city and coun-
ty officials who were either members OF
pr sympathizers with the Western Fed
Grafton of Miners.
They had submitted to Partially IN
the enforcement of the law, to bastard
ly explosions and dynamiting, to
attempted train wrecking and whole
sale murders, and never once had
they taken the law into their own
hands.
But the awful crime of Monday
morning, when fourteen men whose
only crime had been that of working
in defiance of a gang of murderers ana
dynamiters, met their death by pre-
Iueditated explosion of dynamite,
brought matters to crisis.
"Law-abiding citizens and business
EIen and property owners realized that
either they or the members OF the Fed
Grafton must leave the camp. There
was not room for both. and they pro-
Ceeded to force the other men out.
And don't blame them. Early
Wednesday morning | issued the proc
jamation of martial law. Then | went
to work to clean up the district My
agents reported the presence OF large
number of agitators at DunnVille, the
new mining camp ten miles from Grip
pie Creek. Wednesday afternoon l left
ior there with $50 deputies and SOL
diers.
THE men ambushed up and for
twenty minutes a battle ragged. They
surrounded us on all sides in the hills
and poured their bullets into my par
ty. The elevation from which they
were shooting destroyed their aim and
that was all that saved my men.
Il sent detachments up the cliffs and
nineteen of the men were taken pris-
oners. One noted agitator named
Carley kept up the firing and was shot
and killed.
"On my return to Victor took up
The cleaning out of the district. Under
my order. every agitator was arrested
nnd thrown into the bullpen. At one
time we had nearly 300 prisoners. We
took possession of the union headquar-
tiers and in them found absolute proofs
of premeditated murder. Pictures OF
prominent non-union men were marked
FOR death. They were kept on file until
the men were killed, and then the
names were crossed out.
81 put the prisoners in the sweat box
and the evidence l obtained from them
is appalling. i do not care to give this
out at present but will say this:
1T convicts two of the most promi-
nent of the union leaders of this dis
trict in one of the most diabolical muir
ders ever perpetrated.
Thursday afternoon, l closed down
the Portland mine. This was the only
mine in the camp employing union Ia
Dor. and some of the most dangerous
men in the district were employed
there. They can reopen at any time
they want to, but let me tell you this.
They can't have any of the men l have
arrested. They will have to get other
men. and those men won't be agitators.
For so long as | am in control here
these agitators and dynamiters will not
be permitted in the district. | deported
seventy-nine this afternoon, and III de-
port as many tomorrow. l am going
to clean up Colorado, so I'm sending
them out of the state. And they won't
come back.
10 h; 10 q lat RI
ing, peaceful state. where any man can
work under any condition, and at any
wage he sees fit I'm going to run this
gang of dynamiters and murderers out
of this state. or put them in the peni-
tentiary, and l want to make that just
as emphatic as can. They have kept
Colorado in terror for nearly yeat
now. and it's going to end.
THE Federation is a Socialistic Or
ganization by its constitution, and is
anarchistic in it tendencies. 1t is alb
soutely controlled by one man. Will
liam Haywood, who is using it for po-
litical purposes. The men even haven't
the right to vote for strike, or for
calling off a strike All of that power
has been placed in an executive com.
mittee of which Mr.. Haywood, the sec
retary of the organization, is at the
head. With him it's case of rule ol
ruin and he is trying his best to ruin
now that he can't rule.
THE strike in the Cripple Creek dis
t-ict began last August. Since thai
time thirty-eight men have come TO
their death by violence. for which the
agitators are solely responsible. There
have been dozens of cases of dynamite
ing in the camp, two of which have re-
suited fatally, causing sixteen deaths.
Train wrecking has been resorted TO
and | have evidence of an attempt by
agitators to wreck train carrying
300 men, women and children who had
been attending a military ball in Vic
tor.
These are the kind of men I have
to fight and they are the kind of men
propose to run out of Colorado. | have
restored peace in Telluride and Trni-
day. | have the most of the agitators
out of the state or in the bull pen, and
| have President Meyer of the Fedora
ton in the bull pen at Telluride.
This is the line I'm going to follow
out, II 1t takes me year. I'm going
to keep at this work for a year. If
have to. and I'm going to restore peace
to Colorado.
THAT is what am here for and that