The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-11
DENIES FIX SPENCE OF
 VIGILANTE COMMITTEE
MINE OWNERS ATTITUDE IN
 CRIPPLE GREEK RIOTS.

Statement Regarding It-Operotors
 Placed in False Light by Eastern
 Press Leaders Attribute Troubles to Defeat of Eight-Hour
 Law in Colorado.
 Cripple Creek, Col, June 1O.-Clar- ence c. Hamlin. secretary of the Grip pie Creek district Mine Owners asso-
 ciation gave out a statement to-day in
 reply to a telegram from New York
 newspaper asking him as head of the vigilantes' to present his side of the
 labor troubles here. MT. Hamlin's
 statement follows:
 There is no vigilante committee in
 this community. The only movement
 that might be considered of that char aeter occurred after the Independence
 outrage of Monday, when determined
 citizens took steps to bring about the
 resignation of several officers who were
 either incompetent or in collision with those responsible for the murders and
 dynamiting which have taken place
 here since the strike. These offices have been filled by capable men and the situation is now in the hands of a
 sheriff fully capable to handle it. The
 action is in full harmony with the ad- jutant general Of the state.
 "The position of the Cripple Creek operators has been placed in an ab- solutely false light by the eastern press. Labor leaders attribute these troubles to the defeat of the eight hour law in Colorado. The fact is that we have been working an eight hour day
 for ten years, paying, a minimum wage of three and an average wage of about four dollars a day. The actual work ing time os miner is about seven hours.
 No grievance was lodged against the operators when the strike was called and had the question been left to the miners themselves ninety per cent. would have voted against 1t. This strike is due to the fact that the strik- ing power has been taken from the union members and lodged in the hands of few leaders, criminals themselves, and dependent on crimes to attain their ends.
 While this strike is called sym pathetic one. to aid certain mill men, most of them also working an eight hour day, it's real purpose was to com |pel every miner in this district to join the Western Federation of Miners or leave the country. This organization
 has a record of lawlessness, murder, arson and dyhamiting in Ceur d'Alene, Butte. Leadviite, Idaho Springs, Tellu- |ride, Cripple Creek analelsewhere, sex- tending over period of ten or fifteen years, which should iappall humanity. These outrages eliminated here when fifteen men wera blown into eternity,
 and nearly as many more maimed so that death would be a mercy. The on fly parallel to this organization can be found in the Mollie Maguires of Penn sylvania, and their members were law abiding citizens compared with the or ganization which we have to deal with. The peace and quiet of the state de- mand that this organization be exter- minated, root and branch. The Yespon-
 sibilty for the above outrages is so we'll fixed that no person can belong to the federation and pretend to be a law abiding citizen.
 Since Mondays calamity we would close every mine in this district ten years rather than let a single member of this organization work or live here.
 But this Is not necessary, for all our
 mines are working fun handed with la better class of men, all nen-union, than ever before.
 ''The fact that no lawlessness has been committed since the outrages of
 Monday, and that every good citizen lis standing at the right hand of the sheriff in his endeavor to maintain the law and to suppress this lawless organ ization, speaks volumes for the patience and law loving qualities of the people |of this community. There is no legal question involved in this controversy other than that of the right of the community to purge itself of a criminal organization, whose very existence is a standing menace to the lives and prop |erty of those whose only offense is that they claim the right to work.
 Our fight has not been against un- ionism as such, but against criminal Organization, and it will not be discon- tinued until no member of this organiz- ation is left in Teller county