The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1904-06-04
Declaration of Independence is
Rivalled by a New Declara-
tion Issued by: the Western
Federation Of Miners Execu-
tive Board.

Some of the Labor World readers
have asked for the publication of the
statement recently issued by the Ex-
ecutive Board Of the Western Fedora
ton OF Miners. Press reports gave
but meager account. Since then the
statement has commanded. the atten.
ton OF the literary writer's of the coun-
try. No stronger document has been
issued in America since the Declara-
ton of independence was written in
1776. For the benefit of our readers
we publish it as follows:
DENVER, Colo, May 20, 1904.
To the People:
The executive board of the Western
Federation of Miners, in executive ses-
sion assembled, with one voice pro-
claim that the infamy and. barbarism
OF military rule in Colorado beggars
the vocabulary Of the English lang
uage for words to give expression to
our denunciation Of the official anarchy
that has blackened and disgraced the
history of the state. In all the annals
OF the history of nations, where tyrants
have welded the iron rod of persecu-
tion and oppression, and crimsoned
history with chapters of cold -blooded
brutality, Colorado rises like an unriv-
allied monarch of them all, and with
governor that is lost to shame and
every principle of justice, makes the
dark ages look like painting of
Paradise.
We have borne with patience the
repeated wrongs of corporate and COM
merc1al vengeance, administered by a
debauched chief executive. We have
admonished the members of the West
ern Federation of Miners, during all
the stormy days, weeks and months
OF the conflict in Colorado, to remain
cool and calm, and bear with fortitude
the unholy and impious imputations
that have been hurled against them
from the slanderous lips Of hate,
hatched and incubated in the womb of
dehumaniZed greed. He have coun-
selled respect and reverence for the
law, when our members were made
! martyrs Of persecution, and though
| our mental vision could behold them
incarcerated in military penitentiaries,
arrested without charge or warrant,
though we could behld them torn from
| their wives and families, and their
homes desecratedf. by unit formed out
tIlaWs ,4ssth tho1lshM eouls1 seasth dess
ortet1sand. ,exiled, and hear the walls
Of agony that burst from the bleeding
and despafring hearts of frenzied and
| distracted women and children, yet
amid all the unparalleled and unpre-
cedented outrages that appeal to the
! manhood of American citizenship for
! Justice, we have proclaimed peace,
peace, peace, until the very words
seem to mock the spirit of liberty that
dwells in the human heart, until the
very word peace" seems to become
but another name for coWardice. We
have been patient and admonished
peace, while courts were defied and
the constitution Of the state and ma
ton trampled finder foot We have
been patient and adnnonished peace,
while our members were goaded by the
exultant ieers of bayonet equipped
mobs, and their mothers wives, sisters
and daughters insulted by the foul and
brazen conduct of libertine soldiery,
recruited from the vagrants of the
clums. But the time for proclaiming
peace, when there can be no peace has
passed away, and the hour for heroic
and determined action has come, that
must drag despotism from it's arrog-
ant throne, and strangle to death the
Judas treason that laughs in derision
at the constitutional rights of the citi-
zen garbed in the livery Of labor.
Eight years Of blood and carnage
mark the infancy, OF the republic, in
dethroning the regal despotism of a
ruler who was philanthropist COM
pared with the Gear of Colorado. The
''Declaration of Independence was
the elimination Of story Of wrong,