The Lamar register., 1904-06-15
GENERAL BELL
ON CRIPPLE CREEK SITUATION
Gives His Version Of the Present Trou-
bles in Letter to the Chi
caqo Tribune.

| Tribune as 10 tne exact situdtioH heiS'
General Bell yesterday sent the fol-
| lowing message:
| You want to know what the condi-.
| ton is in Teller county. Here it is:
The Cripple Creek district is cleaned
| UP and there will be no more trouble
in the vicinity.
| TT took drastic measures to accom-
p,ish this, but it has been done. 1
| reached Victor at 2 o'clock Wednesday
morning. With me l 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.
II 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
or sympathizers with the Western Fed
| Grafton of Miners.
They had submitted to partiality in
| the enforcement of the law, to dastard-
| 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 gang of murderers and
dynamiters, met their death by pre-
meditated explosion of dynamite,
brought matters to crisis.
"Law-abiding citizens and business
rlen and property owners realized that
either they or the members of the Fed
CT q 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
lamation of martial law. Then l went
to work to clean up the district. My
agents reported the presence of large
humber of agitators at Dunnville, the
new mining camp ten miles from Grip
pie Creek. Wednesday afternoon l left
for there with 150 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.
II 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 l took up
the cleaning out of the district. Under
my order every agitator was arrested
and 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.
II put the prisoners in the sweat box
and the evidence obtained from them
is appalling. / do not care to give this
| out at present, but will say this:
"It 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, / closed down
the Portland mine. This was the only
mine in the camp employing union la
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 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 I'll 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.
Il am going to make this a law-abid-
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-
Tertiary. and l want to make that just
as emphatic as can. They have kept
Colorado in terror for nearly a year
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
solutely controlled by one man, Will
liam Haywood. who is using it for po-
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 or
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 that
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 l have evidence of an attempt by