The
Pinkerton Labor Spy
by
Morris Friedman

CHAPTER VI.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER.

We will now give a brief summary of the causes leading up to one of the greatest struggles between capital and labor that ever disgraced the country.

On August 10th, 1903, the Cripple Creek miners were called out on strike, and all mines closed down, in order to shut off the supply of ore from the smelter trust, and thus force them to concede the just demands of the Colorado City and Denver smeltermen. Shortly after, the miners of San Miguel County also went on strike in order to force the trust to treat justly with the smeltermen in their county. Thus, to a great extent, the quartz mining industry of the State was at a standstill.

But in order to understand the real reason why capital made such an extraordinarily desperate struggle against the Western Federation of Miners, we must go back to the month of May, 1903.

During this month the Federation held its annual convention in Denver, and among the things discussed were, the discrimination of the mill trust against the smeltermen, the trouble at Colorado City, the readiness of Governor Peabody to farm out the state troops to any corporation that would pay for them, and the refusal of the legislature to enact an eight-hour law as demanded by a majority of 46,000 voters of Colorado.

It was the sense of the convention that labor had nothing to expect from Governors and legislators who were sold, body and soul, to the trusts. Therefore, after a warm discussion, the convention endorsed Socialism, and decided that henceforth the Western Federation of Miners would take an active and independent part in politics.

The mine owners and corporations doing business in Colorado viewed this unexpected move on the part of the Federation with the gravest concern, for they well knew that the endorsement of Socialism by a powerful body like the W. F. of M. would give that movement an impetus that might soon win success at the polls.

And when the corporation officials imagined honest men piloting the ship of state, and at the head of the city governments of Colorado, they trembled. State troops would no longer be the tools of capital; workingmen would have an honest trial before an upright judge, the corporations would have to do a square business and obey the laws at greatly reduced profits.

As a counter check to the Federation, the trusts first of all fathered an organization known as The Citizens' Alliance, which started in Denver, and soon had branches in every city in Colorado and other Western points. The membership of the Denver Citizens' Alliance consisted of business people, and their ostensible purpose was to co-operate with organized labor in promoting harmony and industrial prosperity. The real object of the Alliance was to disrupt and rout organized labor, and more particularly to help drive the Western Federation of Miners from the State.

Be it said to the credit of organized labor of Denver that they penetrated the real aims and objects of the Citizens' Alliance, and sought to crush it in its inception by calling a general strike; but beyond tying up the industries of Denver for a few days, labor accomplished nothing. The strike failed.

Once the Alliance was safely organized, Bishop Matz of the Catholic Church thundered forth anathemas against Socialism and its new champions, and thus gave the stamp of religious approval to whatever steps the trusts might take to coerce the miners into submission or drive them from the State at the point of the bayonet.

Bishop N. C. Matz took up the fight in behalf of reaction, and for a number of Sundays the Right Reverend Bishop, instead of preaching peace, love and charity, attacked a political party, labor unions and the Western Federation of Miners in discourses which were widely reported by the press.

The following is an extract from one of his lectures:

"Socialism, that is the enemy our century will have to face. We must prepare to do so at once. Godlessness, which St. Thomas calls the greatest of all sins, has brought it forth. Infidelity robs man of the hope of heaven and the fear of hell, and urges him to seek heaven here instead of hereafter. Thus humanity is led to plunge recklessly in pursuit of pleasure.

"A return to God through Christianity is the only remedy. Christianity teaches man that God alone, who has made the human heart for himself, can fill the wants of that heart. It teaches him that this want shall be fully satisfied only in heaven. Earth, with its few years of miserable existence, at best is not worthy of man's infinite aspirations. There, in heaven alone, full justice will be done. There the roles will be inverted, and the poor, the afflicted, of whom the earth was not worthy, will be the landlords."

We quote another extract from Bishop Matz's lectures, which will be found entertaining, if not scientifically instructive:

"Nothing could be more anomalous, abnormal and ridiculous than the position of Socialists claiming to be Godly and Christian men. If ever the devil did travesty the angel, he did it in Socialism.

"In the famous romance of Gil Bias we read of a beggar seated by the wayside in a lonely spot, asking for alms in the name of God, while pointing a gun at your head.— A fair specimen of the Socialist who, in the name of Christianity, holds you up for what you possess. In a romance such things are amusing, but when the lone bandit suddenly conjures around him an armed band 100,000 strong, and the romance passes into reality, threatening life and property, and the very existence of society, it is high time for society to wake up and prepare to save itself.

"This is the condition we are facing now. The sooner we prepare to meet it the better."

The following is a pungent bit from the reply of the Federation to their saintly antagonist:

"The Catholic Church condemns Socialism. We deny it. Bishop Matz condemns Socialism, because 'The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib.' "

While the attacks of Bishop Matz on the Federation did not frighten that organization into altering its plans, nevertheless, as the Bishop had designated the Socialist as a highway robber, his remarks and advice, to a certain extent, justified the extreme measures taken shortly after by the Mine Owners' Association, Smelter Trust, Citizens' Alliance, the Governor and Supreme Court, and the Pinkerton Agency.

As an illustration of the attitude of the Citizens' Alliance toward organized labor, we quote below a few remarks by Herbert George, one of the founders of the organization and the editor of its official organ. He said at a mass meeting of the Alliance at the Denver Chamber of Commerce, May 11th, 1903:

"Labor unions are a natural result of conditions, and they consist of a lot of people who are not as bright as they might be. These are led by a lot of tricky fellows who break into the legislature instead of the penitentiary."

As this statement received the thunderous applause of his delighted listeners, the reader can decide whether the Citizens' Alliance was favorable to the cause of labor.

To further help the reader form a correct opinion, we will remark that J. C. Fraser, superintendent of the Pinkerton office at Denver, became a member of the Alliance, the Agency paying his annual dues.

All these great forces were primarily organized for the purpose of insuring victory in the effort to drive the Western Federation out of Colorado, although the leaders in this movement claimed to champion the cause of the people against a band of assassins who posed as trade unionists. They told the people that they were friendly toward every union outside of the Western Federation of Miners; but these statements could only mislead those who have eyes and see not.

For, when corporate wealth, intoxicated with victory over the Western Federation, beheld the coal miners in Southern Colorado striking for just conditions, they hurled themselves with overwhelming force on the Coal Miners' Union, the conservative United Mine Workers of America, and after a short reign of terror mercilessly suppressed the "Rebellion."

It was this remorseless campaign against the coal miners which showed the devil in his true colors. For, while it demonstrated that the Western Federation was particularly obnoxious on account of its Socialistic tendencies, it also proved that capital in the long run was ready at any time to cooperate with any movement that would crush labor.

The Pinkerton Agency, if possible, did even better work against the United Mine Workers of America than against the Federation, as will shortly be seen; and this in spite of the following statement of the Messrs. Pinkerton in a book published by the Agency in 1892, entitled "Pinkerton's National Detective Agency and its connection with the labor troubles at Homestead, Pennsylvania."

"We have always approved and sympathized with labor organizations when directed by honest, capable and conservative leaders. The law-abiding members have no quarrel with us, nor any grievance, or cause, or complaint against us. We have never violated any of their rights. Our detective branch may have sought to ascertain when they intended to strike; but it is only fair and proper that the employers should have this information."

If the Pinkerton Agency still holds to the above declaration, and to the best of our knowledge it does, then no bigger falsehood was ever flaunted in the face of the world. The work of No. 5, No. 43, No. 23, No. 9 and No. 42 is a decisive refutation of the Agency's lying statement, and their work which almost disrupted District No. 15 of the United Mine Workers of America will merely serve to illustrate that old proverbial saying, "Appearances are deceitful."

Chapter VII. The Cripple Creek Strike.