The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-07-23
THE OTHER EXTREME

n < " HEN EN- RENE
1t is quite absurd to apply one rule
to one end of the labor problem and
another rule to the other. While in
one part of the country people are de-
nouncing the intolerance of the unions
which forbid to men the right to labor
unless they will become members of
an organization, in another part of the
country the authority of employers is
exercised not only to stop a man from
working because he belongs to par
ticular union, but to drive him from
the state. This is the situation in Col
orado; and it is as deplorable in it's
way in relation to American liberty
and the rights of man as are such out
breaks of violence as followed on the
heels of great strikes in years past.
The Associated Press reports from
Denver, Col, that the Portland mine
is closed again ''in consequence of the
action of the military authorities" It
says that squads of soldiers have ar
rested 40 of the 500 men who were
at work there and explains their inter-
ference as follows: 1.-The men thus
summarily removed from their labors
are accused of no crime, the only ac-
cusation being that they refuse to sac
rffice their membership in the Western
Federation of Miners and take out
Mine Owners association working
cards" The following interesting
statement is also attached: There are
said to have been about 100 union
miners still at work on the Portland
who have not taken out Mine Owners
association cards, and they will now
be required to take out such cards or
to leave the district
No such conditions have ever existed
in any state of the Union. Where they
do exist not only has the civil gov
eminent given place to martial tyran-
ny, but there is an extreme of law
breaking on the part of the employers
which is just as reprehensible as the
excuses of the employees that provoked
it. The Western Federation of Miners
has been a lawless and tyrannical as
ISOLATION. So is any organization
which calls in the military power of
the state to compel peaceable working
men, disturbing nobody and violating
no rights, not only to give up their
employment but to leave the state un-
less they will take out membership
cards in an association approved and
conducted by the employers them
selves. ~
1t is the business of the federal gov
eminent, on petition and complaint be-
ing made, to take cognizancee of such
a situation as this. A republican form
of government has ceased to exist in
Colorado. There is no province of the
Orient more despotically ruled by
military tyrant than is that state to-
day. 1t has not been thought suffi-
Gent by employers there, taking adj
vantage of a public opinion enraged
by atrocities committed in the interest
OF the employees, to stop these acts of
violence, but they have called out the
entire military power of the state to
break up voluntary unionism and to
enforce upon the workingmen another
system of unionism instituted by them
selves. Anarchy exists in Colorado
just as much as if a mob were burn
ing property and driving labor out of
the state. No fair minded man can
deny that the whole force of criticisms
leveled against labor whenever and
wherever it sets aside the law beats
with greater force and fierceness upon
the employers and the state officers of
Colorado today.