The Elbert County tribune., 1914-06-19
MARTIAL LAW At BUTTE
UNION REvoLTERs RIOTS MAKE
MINERS HOLIDAY TRAGIC.
!. w. w. Splits Miners Forces, Rebels
Wreck Hall, Destroy Records, and
HurI Mayor Through Window.

Western Newspaper Union News Service
Helena, Mont-June 15.-Ten COM
panies of the Montana National Guard
have been ordered held in readiness
for service in Butte. The order was
Issued by Adjutant General Greenan.
Butte, Mont-.A day of turmoil fol-
lowed the riots incident to the break
Ing up of the miners union parade.
Early Sunday afternoon a crowd took
two. prisoners out of the city jail and
later took possession OF an auto fire
truck which the firemen attempted to
move through the crowd on false
alarm
Governor Sam v. Stewart wentsto
Butte from Helena to investigate the
situation
Butte Saturday night was virtually
under armed rule, with its saloons,
that have not been closed in years ex-
cept on election days. locked tight, and
with every hardware store cleared of
all its arms and ammunition by the
police, as the result of a series Of riots
during the day-Miners' Union Day
the thirty-fourth anniversary of the es-
tablishment of the union In this camp.
The miners union, with upwards of
5000 members, is divided against
itself.
More than 1000 men have refused to
recognize the union further and under
the leadership of agitators of the In
dustrial Workers of the World the Sc
ceders from the big organization at
tackled the miners union parade. COM
posed of more than half the labor bod
les of the city.
President Bert Riley of the union
and parade marshal Michael Conway
were knocked from their horses by
volley of stones from the rioters.
Other officers of the union were
chased from the line of march and
took refuge in the sheriffs office at
the court house.
The parade broken up and the speak
ing exercises abandoned because of
the stormy street scenes, the rioters
crowded in the union hall in the
center of the city. Every piece of fur
niture in the building was demolished
and thrown into the streets. A piano
was thrown down the stairway, the
books, records and two safes of the
union were thrown out OF windows.
The ballot boxes, containing the 4,500
votes cast at the recent election of
union officers, which had not yet been
counted, were destroyed and their con-
tents emptied into the street.
Alderman Frank Curran, acting may
or of the city, Socialist, went to the
union hall to appeal to the rioters to
dispense, and was thrown from sec
was taken to the hospital severely in
jured.
The mob did not cease its work of
destruction until even the carpets of
the big assembly hall of the union had
been torn from the floor and thrown
into the streets.
A crowd of 10000 persons witnessed
the demonstration. Police and the
sheriff's deputies were powerless.
The disgruntled faction of the min
ers held a meeting in the auditorium
to take steps toward the formation of
a new miners union under the Indus
trial Workers of the World organiza-
ton.
The trouble had it's origin over the
dissatisfaction of the miners with
heavy special assessments levied
against them by the officers of the
Western Federation of Miners and the
local officials as benefits for the Mich
igan copper mine strikers.
Some of the miners were said to be
paying as high as $S and $40 a month
In assessments. More than 100000
had been sent from Butte to Michigan.
Although the strike there has been
called off. the assessment continued.
Men failing to pay the assessments
were disfranchised at the recent union
election. The climax came when the
men employed at the Spectator mine
of the North Butte company refused to
exhibit their union cards to the six
walking delegates of the union sent
there to inspect them. The union of
ficials notified the mine management
that the men would not be allowed to
go to work The men marched down
from Butte Hill and called out the
night shift. Men from the Butte and
Superior mines also joined the move
ment.