The
Pinkerton Labor Spy
by
Morris Friedman

CHAPTER XII.

THE CRIPPLE CREEK STRIKE—CONTINUED.
THE EXPLOSION AT THE INDEPENDENCE DEPOT.

After the Victor Poole case was disposed of, things quieted down rapidly in Teller County, and by the middle of January the Cripple Creek district was again calm and peaceful.

With all this the strike was still on, both miners and owners refusing to concede anything. The governor, seeing that his tactics could not coerce the miners into severing their relations with the hated Federation, began to gradually withdraw the militia from Teller County, until but a mere handful of soldiers remained in the district.

Negotiations looking toward a settlement were commenced several times, but never came to a successful issue.

Thus the winter gave way to spring, and the spring months likewise passed by without either side showing any disposition to sue for peace. During the early part of June, 1904, the Western Federation of Miners held their annual convention in Denver, and among other things considerable attention was given to the Colorado strikes.

The convention sent a committee down to the Cripple Creek district to investigate conditions there and report back to the convention, and there seemed some possibility of a settlement being effected, when an event occurred which indeed ended the strikes in Colorado, but at a dear price to both contending parties.

On Monday, June 6th, 1904, a number of non-union miners, who were about to board a Florence & Cripple Creek train at the station at Independence, were murdered by a terrible explosion of dynamite, which killed thirteen or fifteen miners outright, and entirely destroyed the station. The miners that were killed were blown into fragments of flesh and bone, and many were wounded.

General operative J. N. Londoner (the "eastern capitalist" who once ably deceived the magnates of Butte, Montana), who was working in the district for President Burns, of the Portland mine, hurried to the scene of the tragedy within a few minutes after it took place, and was an eye-witness to all the stormy scenes which agitated Victor and Cripple Creek for the next twenty-four hours.

Operative Londoner wrote up an exhaustive report, and, as we have good reason to believe his report to be accurate, we quote it below, in full.

The operative refers often to a high officer of the militia named Curz, who seemed to be under his orders. This man Curz was hired as an informant by the operative, so that in case the military decided on any measures hostile to Mr. Burns or the Portland mine, Operative Londoner would get to know it through this officer, and warn Mr. Burns. The name "Curz" is an assumed name, and while we know his real name, we will not divulge it, as it would serve no useful purpose.

The role of the Pinkerton Agency at this time in working against the military and with an employer of union men, need not cause us undue surprise.

Dear Sir:—

OPERATIVE J. N. L. REPORTS:

Victor, Colo., Monday, June 6th, 1904.

After mailing special reports to the Agency and the client, I went to the F. & C. C. Depot to await the arrival of the train carrying the killed miners. It was said by persons in the waiting crowd, unknown to me, that Sheriff Robertson could not be found at his home or anywhere in the district.

After the train carrying the dead arrived here, Sheriff Robertson came upon the scene and took charge in a very ostentatious manner. The killed miners were blown into unrecognizable masses of flesh and bone, and when the crowd beheld this sight it moved them to tears, and then drove them into a frenzy of indignation.

I talked with a young miner named Miller, employed at the Shutehoff Mine. He said he was within a short distance of the Independence Depot when the explosion occurred. He claims the F. & C. C. train was running slower than usual, and that the train actually stopped before the explosion, and within a few yards of the depot. Miller saw one man blown from the platform in front of the F. & C. C. train, and Miller states the man's head could not have been over six inches from the pilot of the engine, yet the engine did not touch him. Miller states, in his opinion, not over twenty-five pounds of dynamite was used, and he feels sure it was dynamite.

At 4.15 A. M. some of the militiamen began to arrive on the scene. They were in command of Major Naylor, H. C. Moore and Coll. There were no others of prominence on the scene, excepting the civil officers, and none of any consequence had appeared up to the time I left for Colorado Springs.

Witnessing the revolting sight at the depot, the crowd started down the street, where many others were encountered. Erick Johnson, or some one, said to be shift boss of the Portland Mine, was met by the crowd on Fourth Street near Victor Avenue. Nearly everyone in the crowd was condemning the union, calling them vile names, and charging them with the commission of killing the Findley miners. The man said to be Erick Johnson spoke up and said, "You've got no right to charge the union with this crime; get your evidence first; you've got no proof. I am a union man working at the Portland, and I am proud of it, and I have worked as hard as any of you carrying the injured to the hospitals; but, by God, if a union man committed this crime, I will be one of the first to help lynch him." At first I thought Johnson would be attacked, but the crowd left him, still applying vile names to the union men. Another union man was encountered at the corner of Fourth and Victor Avenue. He started to say something when one man in the crowd told him if he would open his mouth he would kill him.

Two non-union miners went into the National Cafe, where they met a policeman, and pulling their revolvers from their pockets, they shoved them in the face of the policeman, and dared him to take their guns away.

By this time the streets were thronged with non-union miners and sympathizers, and the crowd more and more angered. It was then that a desperate-looking man who was under the influence of drink began a tirade against the union miners employed at the Portland Mine, and a number of men in the crowd took up the cry—they were of the lawless element and all unknown to me. There were cries of "Let's go to the Portland and get the s.... .. ....... out. We'll get them if we have to burn down the whole g.. d..... outfit; they're the gang we want to get first; that's the dump we want to get rid of." Some one suggested they look about for arms and then march on the Portland. There were many such remarks made relative to the Portland, but there was not a known man in the crowd.

As I have said, the situation was growing more desperate every minute, and I was satisfied serious trouble would develop in a few hours; and, too, I believed the Portland Mine would be attacked and the property destroyed. I therefore boarded the 7.50 A. M. Short Line for Colorado Springs to acquaint the client of the condition of affairs. Before leaving Victor, I saw Curz and told him to watch the situation carefully, to enable him to put me in touch with affairs on my return.

I left Victor at 7.50 A. M., arriving in Colorado Springs at 10.30 A. M., immediately going to the client's office. I met Mr. Parkinson and Mr. Bischoff, and was informed the client had just departed for Denver. I made these gentlemen acquainted with the condition of affairs at Victor, and later consulted Asst. Supt. Cary at the Denver Agency, and talked with the client by telephone, receiving instructions to watch the situation at Victor as it affected the Portland property.

I left Colorado Springs at 6.20 P. M. via the Short Line. On the train I met General Reardon, A. A. Rollestone, B. J. Cunningham, and others returning from Denver. General Reardon and A. A. Rollestone talked of the situation at Victor in a jocular manner, and General Reardon said it was a d..... good thing to get a little advertising with. "We've been too d..... quiet in the district, and now my home town's going to furnish a little music for the boys." He said there was no truth in the reports of violence, and in the report that Sheriff Robertson had been forced to resign. He said when he got to Victor he was going to take charge of the situation. A. A. Rollestone said simply he was sorry he had not been in Victor to take a hand in the fun.

On arrival of the train at Victor, a squad of militia met the train, examined the passengers closely, and secured two cases of ammunition consigned to them from Denver. Curz met me at the train, and I accompanied him to the Military Club and to the improvised bull pen in the dance hall of the Armory. Curz was the executive officer in active command. There were one hundred and sixty union miners and sympathizers in the bull pen, among them being Marshal Mike O'Connell, of Victor; Marshal brothers, of Goldfield; former President O'Neill of the Miners' Union; Davis, of the W. F. of M. Executive Committee, and Police Judge Gibbons. Squads of soldiers and citizens were busy bringing union men, agitators and sympathisers. Major Naylor is acting marshal, and has in his company constantly "Kid" Waters. Wilkes, who is claimed to have assaulted Wardjon, is here to-night, and has been made deputy sheriff.

A train load of soldiers, deputy sheriffs and citizens just left for Independence and Goldfield to bring in all the union men and agitators. The city is in the hands of the militia and citizens, all of whom are armed. Every available citizen is acting as a deputy sheriff and is armed with revolver and rifle. As soon as I showed my face at the Armory, I was made a deputy sheriff and told to kill any union man or sympathiser that said a word to me. All the mine owners, managers and superintendents are commissioned as deputy sheriffs. There is considerable talk of taking out the strong union leaders from the bull pen and hanging them, and at this time the streets are thronged with people from all over the district.

As soon as Curz could get away we went to my room, and he gave me a synopsis of the events of the day. At the scene of the explosion, pieces of dynamite, caps and cans were found, and a wire three hundred feet in length found running from the depot platform to a point near -he Delmonico Mine. At the end of this wire was attached a chain leg, around which the wire was wound eight or ten times. A meeting of the mine owners, managers and citisens was called at the Military Club, at which was discussed ways and means of handling the situation, and it was decided to demand the resignation of Sheriff Robertson and other officials. It was also decided to call a mass meeting to be held on the corner of Fourth and Victor Avenue. While a committee went in search of Sheriff Robertson, Marshal O'Connell got together a number of union men and made them deputies. O'Connell said he was going to clean out the militia. Sheriff Robertson was brought to the Military Club amidst the howling and jeers of the people. Sheriff Robertson was asked to resign, and he refused to do so. A number of men procured a rope, made a noose, and gave Robertson five minutes to decide. In the meantime, willing hands had torn out the bill boards in the space adjoining the Armory, and a space made clear to hang the Sheriff; but Robertson, glancing out at the angry mob, sat down and signed his resignation, saying, "Boys, you've got the drop on me, and I know they'd hang me." O'Connell and his men came to the Armory, and O'Connell came in and demanded the release of Robertson. O'Connell was kicked out of the building. Ed. Bell, interested in the El Paso Mine, was appointed sheriff, and immediately gathered about him a number of newly appointed deputies and started out to disarm O'Connell and his deputies.

The mass meeting had been called at Fourth and Victor Avenue, and a great crowd was standing about, awaiting the speakers. C. C. Hamlin had spoken only five minutes, when the shooting began. The shots came from the Miners' Union Hall, and a man standing in the doorway of the union store on Victor Avenue was firing into the crowd. There is no doubt the attempt was made to kill C. C. Hamlin, and a bullet grazed his hand, but caused no other injury to him. The militia, under the command of Curz, was called out and soldiers placed on the roofs of buildings opposite the Miners' Union Hall, on the Gold Coin shaft house, and on the Baltimore Hotel, in the rear of the hall. There was no request to surrender, but the soldiers were given command and began firing into the Miners' Union Hall. After twenty minutes of continuous firing, the miners exhibited a white flag from the window of their hall. Forty-four men were made prisoners, four men were found wounded, and one miner was in a dying condition. The militia captured a wagon-load of rifles, thirty six-shooters, two barrels of ammunition, and provisions enough to last the men several days. All of the union's records, papers and paraphernalia was taken out and much of it destroyed. Guards were placed at the hall.

Curz said they had been informed the man that set off the dynamite mine ran to the Portland Shaft No. 3 and got away through this shaft. Curz did not know where the information came from. Curz said a number of Portland miners were among those confined in the bull pen. Curz said it also was reported at the Armory, a wagon-load of guns had been taken to the Portland Mine during the day. Curz said the union store at Goldfield was destroyed, and all of the goods from the Victor union store thrown out. The union store at Cripple Creek was also taken possession of and guards were placed in all of these stores.

Private Ham of the militia arrested a man named Miller, and he, with two others, are confined in the Armory under a heavy guard, charged with inciting riot and committing murder.

Curz said the present plan is to hold separate the confined miners in two or three parties, and try them by Vigilance Committees and endeavor to hang the leaders. Curz said the plan was to go after the Portland men to-morrow. There would be no attempt to injure the Portland property, and they will endeavor to take the men after they have left the mine. Curz said a number of people at the Military Club during the day made remarks that Mr. Burns ought to close down or declare the mine strictly non-union. Curz said, including those killed at Independence, the number killed to-day is eighteen.

Kyner, of the "Victor Record," was taken to the bull pen, but several Shriners demanded Kyner's release, and two soldiers said if Kyner, who was a Brother Shriner, was not released they would throw down their arms, so Kyner was set free.

When General Reardon arrived to-night he went to the Military Club, and started in to raise trouble. He told the officers and the boys they were not doing right, and had acted without policy in the events of the day. General Reardon went to the bull pen and ordered the release of two or three men. Someone accepted Reardon's orders, and let the men go. One of the men released was a man named Logan, whose brother is a prominent Republican jurist in the East. Reardon told someone he could not afford to create the illwill of so prominent a Republican.

As soon as it was known what Reardon had done, the men were re-arrested, and Reardon was informed that he would have to get out of the Armory, and if he did not keep his nose out of their affairs, they would throw him into the bull pen. He was told he had nothing to do with the business they had in hand.

Things are quiet enough to-night. Arrests are still being made, and at this hour, 4.00 A. M., they are bringing in two and three men at a time.

Yours respectfully, ..................

Before dealing with the Independence horror, we wish to say that up to date the fiends who committed this crime have not been apprehended,—nay, more, no real effort has ever been made by the Mine Owners' Association to capture them.

On the evening of June 6th, District Union No. 1 of the Western Federation of Miners, adopted resolutions denouncing in unmeasured terms the outrage, and offering assistance in capturing the murderers.

The military, mine owners and people in general, seemed to have gone mad. Yet, despite the apparent confusion and anarchy, everything seemed to be done deliberately and systematically. The Mine Owners' Association knew that the explosion had aroused popular feeling to fever heat, and lost no time in taking advantage of it.

It will be noted in Operative Londoner's report that most of those who constituted the yelling, threatening crowds that surged up and down the streets of Victor were desperate characters, mine owners, mine managers and militiamen. It will also be noted in Operative Londoner's report that the mine owners, instead of devising means to capture the fiends who committed the crime, forced Sheriff Robertson of Teller County to resign, by threatening to lynch him on the spot if he refused. Almost all the regularly elected judges, commissioners, and other civil officers of Teller County were forced to resign, and their places, from sheriff down, filled with mine owners and mine superintendents.

After the civil government had been thus violently subverted by the Mine Owners' Association, every union miner in the Cripple Creek district was arrested and thrown into the bull pen.

On the night of June 8th, a number of heavily armed men raided the office of the Victor Record, smashed the entire plant, including the valuable linotype presses, and drove the office force from the district, with a warning never to return, if they valued their lives.

The entire city council of Goldfield was compelled to resign, and then put in the bull pen.

The next step taken by the military was the closing down of the Portland Mine. This was accomplished by General Bell under the following proclamation:

"Whereas the Portland Mine, situated in Teller County, is, and for a long time has been, engaged in employing and harboring large numbers of dangerous, lawless men who have encouraged and given comfort and assistance to those who have been so guilty of said crimes and outrages, so that said mine has become and now is a menace to the welfare and safety of the good people of said County, and a hindrance to the restoration of peace and good order.

"Now, therefore, by virtue of the power conferred upon me as commander of the military forces in said County, and as a military necessity, it is ordered that said mine be at once closed, and all persons found therein or thereabouts, who are dangerous to the community, be arrested and held until further orders."

The Portland miners were arrested and placed in the bull pen along with the hundreds of their comrades who had preceded them. Not only were union men arrested, but even those suspected of sympathizing with the union. Among those arrested was Frank J. Hangs, attorney of the Western Federation of Miners.

General Bell next appointed what was known as a "Military Commission on Deportation," consisting of mine owners, mine managers and tools of the Mine Owners' Association. It was the duty of this commission to decide the fate of all the miners and union sympathizers in the military bull pens.

Scenes were now enacted daily in Victor and Cripple Creek that put one in mind of the Revolutionary Tribunal's "Reign of Terror" in France more than a century ago—or the more recent vengeance of capitalism upon the Paris Commune in 1871.

During the days of the French Revolution, all those brought before the Tribunal were merely asked if they were aristocrats. If they were of noble birth, they were invariably sent to the guillotine. In 1871, everyone confessing himself even a theoretical Communist was shot. While the Military Commission on Deportation did not order any executions, yet what it did in free America in 1904 was bad enough.

Let us assume that the commission is in session: John Smith is brought before the tribunal under heavy guard.

President: John Smith, are you a union man?
Smith: Yes, sir.

President: I sentence you to deportation from this district, and warn you never to return, on peril of your life. Officer, take him away!

Tom Brown is brought in.

President: Tom Brown, is it a fact that you sympathize with the union men? Brown: I do.

President: That's a serious offense against our idea of law and order, and I, therefore, banish you from this district forever. Do not return if you value your life.

James Wilson is brought in.

President: Wilson, were you not talking to a member of the Western Federation of Miners at the time you were arrested?

Wilson: I was.

President: Didn't you know that your doing so was against the provisions of the Articles of War?

Wilson: Perhaps that's so; but the man I spoke with was my own brother, Charles Wilson.

President: Enough! You admit your guilt. I sentence you to be deported from this district, and if you know what's good for yourself, you'll never return. Officer, take him away, and fetch the next prisoner!

This is about as near as one could describe the work of the Military Commission on Deportation. Everyone who was known to be a member of the Western Federation of Miners or a sympathizer of the Federation, was sentenced to deportation. Each day dozens of these men were roughly hustled into special trains, and railroaded out of the State of Colorado under heavy guard, to whatever points General Bell took a notion to banish them.

Hundreds of innocent men were in this way torn from their homes and their families, for no other crime than because they belonged to or sympathized with a union. The Portland miners shared the same fate as the rest of the Federation men, although General Bell had designated them specifically as "dangerous and lawless men." It is strange why these lawless and dangerous men were not held for trial instead of being deported and turned loose beyond the State line.

The actions of the military in this case were perhaps no stranger than the speech of Secretary Hamlin, of the Mine Owners' Association, at the mass meeting referred to in Operative Londoner's report, wherein, instead of appealing to his audience to catch the dynamiters and murderers, he yelled at the top of his voice: "Let us drive the Federation men to the hills!"

We may imagine the plight of the families of the deported miners; how the wives and mothers worried over what was happening to their loved ones; and, besides, they were left destitute, and starvation stared them in the face. To make matters worse for the women and children of the deported miners, all the union stores in the district had been destroyed by the military and mine owners.

The Federation, indeed, tried to help the afflicted families by arranging with some of the large wholesalers of the district to furnish them with supplies, and charge the cost to the Federation. The wholesalers were anxious to fill the large orders of the union, but the military sternly forbade them to furnish the families of the deported miners with supplies of any kind.

The military authorities then informed the Western Federation of Miners that if they wished to send relief to the destitute families, they must turn it over to the "shoulder-straps" for distribution.

Following is a copy of the proclamation to this effect:

Victor, Colo., June 14th, 1904. SPECIAL ORDER NO. 19. No organization will be allowed, while this County is under military control, to furnish aid in any form to the members of any organization or their families in this County, unless the same is done through military channels. Major Thomas E. McClelland is Provost Marshall of this military district, and he stands ready to receive from any person or organization any money or other supplies which are for distribution to any persons rendered needy by reason of the military occupation of this County for the suppression of insurrection, and all money and other supplies so furnished will be applied to the relief of the persons above referred to.

Chapter XIII. The Cripple Creek Strike (Concluded).