The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1907-05-25
.THt b0|J[ hUDD[E
A REVIEW OF THE IDAHO MIN.
ING TROUBLE AS PRESENTED
IN FULL.
BOTH SIDES WE'RE TO BLAME IN
EFFORTS TO SUPPRESS
EACH OTHER.
BOTH SIDES WE'RE TO BLAME I,

The lawless ones in the Coeur de
Alenes attempted with results dis
astrous to themselves, to blow up
the property of the Bunker Hill and
Sullivan company. Six masked men
took from the storage at Mullon
forty-siX Springfield rifles and about
10000 cartridges of the Idaho Ma
tional Guard. A judge who was
about to sit in the trial of a union
man, was waited upon, and advised
that 1t would "be we'll for him to
rule right" Masked men took one
Whitney, foreman at the Helena-Fris-
co up the railroad track, told him to
move on and when twenty or thirty
PAGES away he was shot dead. There
were various other acts of lawless-
ness. On May 8, 1897, President
Boyce of the federation, In a speech
at Salt Lake City, advised every un-
ion should have rifle club, $50 that
In two years we can hear the inspir-
ing music of the martial tread of
$4,000 armed in the ranks of labor"
he advised that all members of the
national guard be made ineligible to
membership in the Federation, and
that patronage and assistance be
withheld from companies or individ-
uals employing members of the ma
tional guard and all examinations
admittin them to membership"
In April, 1899, the demands of
miners for increased wages at the
Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines,
where the scale was lower,- the
mining being done in the dry
IN other mines; strike was ordered,
and the companies locked out the
union men. On April 20, following
union meetings from which some of
the men emerged masked 500. men
took possession Of a Northern Pacific
train, covering the trainmen with ri
t1es, and rode to the powder house Of
the Helena-Frisco mine, seized 1000
pounds of dynamite, carried it to
the Bunker Hill mine, put it under
the mill and then touched it of. The
mill worth $25O,0O0 was destroyed.
The buildings, offices and residences
were fired. A miner suspected of be-
ing a traitor was shot dead Two
employees of the company were killed
while attempting to escape.
Governor Steunenberg promptly
declared all Of Shoshone county 'in
state OF rebellion and insurrection
called for federal troops and in a
few days 500 men under the COM
mand of Brigadier-General H. G..
Merriam, were patroling the canon.
Some of the troops were colored.
There Immediately followed whole
sale arrests Of miners as they came
from mines, in their wet clothes,
without process of warrants, and they
were herded in box cars, the "bull
pen,' and in an old warehouse. The
entire male population of Burke was
arrested. Miners attempting to flee
into Montana were apprehended and
brought back by the troops. Most
of the arrested men were detained
for months Some were arrested for
sympathy with the union men, and
one justice of the peace was i'm
prisioned for fining non-union man
for alleged molestation of a woman
on the street. The sheriff and two
members of the board of county COM
missioners were placed in the bull
pen for official supineness prior to
and during the riot. An editor was
incarcerated for criticising the ac-
lions of the troops. Safes Of the min
ers union were seized, blown open,
and searched for evidence, without
warrant and in defiance of constt-
tutfonal privilege" "It was undoubt-
edly the tacit, If not declared pur-
pose of the authorities to stamp out
utterly the Western Federation OF
Miners and it's membership in that
REGION, says Mr.. Connolly in Col
lier's. He continues:
There is no doubt that the condi-
tion of these men (there were over
one thousand men, at one time or
another In the "bull pen") crowded
in cramped and unprepared quarters,
as they were at first, was insuffer-
able. One building was commonly
known as the "hell hole" The ac-
tions of the colored soldiers were in
some instances overbearing. There
was no complaint Of the white SOL
diers who relieved the colored men,
though Lieutenant Lyons gave the
union pumpmen at the Tiger-Poor-
man mine, who had quit, ten min
utes to return to work, with threats
of violence and Imprisonment II they
refused, and General Alger, secre-
tary of war, felt called upon July
81, to telegraph General Merriam
that the only purpose of the troops
was to suppress rioting and to main
tain order, and that ..the army must
have nothing to DO with enforcing
rules for government Of miners or
miners unions.
Acts Of heartless cruelty on the
part OF the; troops are cited. Gov.
steunenbere had sent to the Bunker
Hill mine after the explosion, Bartlei
Sinclair. state auditor. q his spe.