Bisbee daily review., 1906-03-04
WHY MINER WANTS
 NO LOCAL UNION Organization Here Would Mean Trouble -5G0 Would
 Be Driven Out

0. E. Sill yesterday wrote the fol lowing open letter Un the local union situation:
 Editor Revicw:-I wish to say that in my mind the most important ques- tion before the people of this City to- day is the question whether there will be a local organization of the West ern Federation of Miners or not. To begin with ] will state my standing with the union.
 I never ~scab5ed" any strike and Gefy anyone To prove that l did. The only trouble I ever had with, any union. or irs members was that boldly expressed my opinion, which the unions say l have no right to do. Or ali the mining camps in which have been. the majority were union camps bu, !r none of them did find the condition Of the miners as good as they are here. All the companies want the miners 10 do. is a shift-S work and they are paid the best ages n the country.
 There is To Company boarding house, or store. which the miners are compelled to' patronize, but in many 1 Gnion camps where I have worked tEere was Company boarding house and stora which the rtners were compelled 10 patronize. In Butte. Montana, which is reputed to be the hest union camp in the United States the wage is 33.50 per day for all men
 who work under ground including tim. | bermen, here in Bisbee the timber
 men receive s<.06 per day. thus the l wages in Bisbee are better than in 1 Butte, also the miners of Bisbee are Tot compelled to pay a union poll tax, which amounts to from $12.o1 10 $24 co per year. furthermore we are ! ot blessed with the political corrup- | ton which exists ir Butte with world. wide reputation.
 The question is do we want a union
 here? YES, if 1t will do any good, but will it do any good? Condition of , the miners here are better than in union carhps. then what good will a union do?
 The only argument the advocates of the union had is Imaginable, they say the union will educate the miners. I have found the intelligence of the l miners of Bisbee to be far above the 1 average. al least they are more in telligent and broad-minded than union | miners. but the Western Federation
 of Miners is school of unionism and | they want to educate the miners of Bisbee in unionism. Very well l
 have taken three years course of
 l.nionism in the W. F. of M. myself
 and at the expiration of that time | became such a graduate that 1 tore | my card in pieces and burned it, be | gan my career in Jerome. Arizona
 on December IS, 1901, went to Je
 home on purpose to join the union I believed it to be a good organiza
 ton and joined it for what good l
 might do. The night that joined
 the union the vice president got ur
 or the floor and made a speech, he said there were parties who had beer
 working in Jerome for two or three months and had not joined the union He said they should be given one
 more chance, and if they did not join
 they should be forced to leave ths
 camp. He said that anyone who haC
 a chance to join the union and refused
 had no right to live. It is needles.
 tc say that such talk was gall to m, American principles. do not know
 of any church or fraternal order tha forces people to join il. What nor, fright has the union to take away th. personal liberties of the people thar any other organization?
 Il Suppose a union should organize
 here and the mining companies dit
 not oppose the organization. there would be trouble any way There are probably fivehunGred men in thi.
 camp who are outlawed by the union
 They are good miners and good citi Izens. many of them have been hert for years and helped develop thi. camp, and make it what 1t is. but th,
 unions say they must go. There ar, two methods by which they will be
 forced to leave; the first is the union. | favorite. A mob Of armed union mer will seize the victim and march him
 cut of camp at the point of guns an< Hid him never return ou pain of deash