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Victor
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The Labor History of the Cripple Creek District;
A Study in Industrial Evolution
by Benjamin McKie Rastall
pages 24-30
CHAPTER II
The Two Crises
The First Crisis
Several attempts were made to get the two sides together in a compromise before February 1st. On the evening of January 28th, mainly through the influence of Cripple Creek business men, a meeting of miners, mine workers, and neutrals was held at the Palace Hotel, Cripple Creek. The miners proposed as a compromise, that the mines be allowed to work just as they had been doing, the eight-hour mines to continue on the eight-hour schedule, and the nine- and ten-hour mines on the nine- and ten- hour schedules. The owners, however, took no action on the proposition.
On February 1st the mines that had posted notices went on the ten-hour shift. The men walked out, closing them down. On February 7th, early in the morning, a party of union men started the round of the district, stopping at every long-time mine and calling the men out. By noon every nine- and ten-hour mine in the camp was closed. The Pike's Peak, the Gold Dollar, the Portland,1 and a number of smaller mines, acceded to the eight-hour request, and continued to work.
The following month was one of comparative quiet. The men conducted themselves in an orderly manner, and were content with strengthening their organization in very way possible. John Calderwood was elected president of the unions.2 Mr. Calderwood had been influential in the organization of the Western Federation of Miners. He had also been president of the Aspen Union, and his intimate knowledge of labor organizations, and general popularity with the men, secured his election to the presidency. Throughout the strike he showed himself an able and efficient officer.
The immediate task before the union was to provide a relief fund. This was done in several ways. The men who remained at work on the eight-hour schedule were taxed $15.00 a month. The Green Bee Grocery Company of Cripple Creek gave credit amounting in the end to about $400; $1,000 was loaned by business men of Cripple Creek, $700 was received from the miners of the San Juan country, and $800 from the Butte, Mont., unions. Empty boarding houses were occupied by the unions; cooks volunteered their services; and everything was run on as economical a scale as possible. In this manner the months of the strike were passed without much pinching. Many of the men occupied themselves with prospecting and developmental work, or tried their luck in the small and poorly paying placer area.
By the last of the month the smelters of the state were all running with reduced forces, or had shut down entirely. Early in March the Gold King and Granite mines agreed to the eight-hour schedule, and resumed work.3 Following this, determined efforts were made to reopen several mines on the ten-hour schedule, but the miners were able to keep them closed. Men sent up were persuaded if possible to quit and join the union, otherwise they were threatened and intimidated until they did not dare go to work. The men were beginning to feel ugly, and a number of mines were being put under the guard of armed deputies.
March 14th, on the application of several of the mining companies4 Judge Becker, of the district court, issued an injunction against the miners enjoining them against interfering in any way with the operation of the Cripple Creek mines.5 Sheriff Bowers took one hundred copies of the injunction to Cripple Creek next day, and spent the entire day in posting them throughout the district. The Summit, Victor, B<aven, and Anaconda mines made attempts to open, but only from two to five men appeared at each.
Feeling was running high among the miners regarding the injunction. The sheriff feared trouble, and on his return to Cripple Creek telephoned to Colorado Springs for additional deputies. Soon after he was called to answer a telephone message from the Victor mine. The superintendent of the mine had, a few days previously, asked that a number of men be deputized to protect it. He now reported that men were collecting around the shaft house in a threatening manner, and asked for additional protection. The sheriff replied that he should have it. A wagon was procured, and six men hastily deputized and started out for the mine.
It was a rough mountain road along which the men had to travel, full of stones and ruts among which the wagon lurched heavily. In the darkness it was impossible to make out the path, the instinct of the horses had to be trusted to keep it. At one point about a quarter of a mile below Altman the road passes through a short ravine. Huge rocks lie piled around, leaving scarce room for a wagon to pass, and a thick growth of bushes lines the way and runs up over the hillsides. As they reached this point there was a quick rush of dark forms from behind bush and stone, and a cry of "Hold up your hands! Surrender!'' Someone fired a shot; there was a quick skirmish; a deputy got a ball through the arm. Then they were overpowered, bound, and marched off in silence up the hill.
To understand what had happened we must go back a few months to the time when Altman was incorporated as a city. The residents of the place were for the most part miners, and with the idea of investing the miners' union with all possible civic authority, officials of the union had been elected to all city offices. Thus it happened that Mayor Dean of Altman, and City Marshal Daly, were former members of Altman Union No. 19. The Marshal had word by telephone early in the evening that a number of deputies would be sent along the road that passed Altman. He accordingly appointed a number of special police, and the police of Altman ambushed the El Paso County deputies, and took them prisoners.
The deputies were marched into Altman and shut up in the school house. Later in the evening they were taken before Police Judge Bengley6 and examined on a charge of disturbance of the peace and carrying concealed weapons. Upon showing their credentials as deputy sheriffs, they were released and sent back to Cripple Creek. The city was in need of arms so the deputies went back weaponless.
Meanwhile news had reached Sheriff Bowers that his deputies had been captured, that a fight had ensued, and that Altman was in an uproar. In half an hour Cripple Creek looked as if an army had descended upon it. All the livery stables in the city had been called upon for their horses, and Bennett Avenue for a block was full of mounted men. Every able-bodied man procurable had been deputized and armed, and a military formation was being effected as rapidly as possible. The sheriff was preparing to rescue his men with all the force he could muster.
The tension was broken, however, by the return of a deputy with news that the rest had been released, and were following him in.
The following morning the air was full of rumors. Several men were reported killed or wounded; the miners were said to be in arms everywhere, and to be guarding all roads leading to Altman. Sheriff Bowers, after advising with the district court judge at Colorado Springs, made a call for the state militia. Governor Waite immediately issued orders to Company A of Colorado Springs, Company C of Pueblo, and Companies B, E, and K of Denver, and the Chaffee Light Artillery, about three hundred men in all, to proceed with all possible dispatch to Cripple Creek and preserve the peace. These troops collected in Colorado Springs under the leadership of Generals Brooks and Taraney on the day following. They were taken to Midland over the Colorado Midland Railway and after an all-night march over the mountains, arrived at Cripple Creek early the next morning.
In the meantime Sheriff Bowers had secured the arrest of Mayor Dean and Marhall Daly of Altman, and President Calderwood of the Altman Union. He now made a flying trip to Colorado Springs with the three men, and secured warrants for eighteen more. Calderwood, Dean, and Daly were released on bail, and made a tour of the principal cities of the state, holding mass meetings in the interest of the miners. Sheriff Bowers returned to Cripple Creek with his warrants, and called upon General Brooks for aid in serving them. General Brooks inquired if there had been any resistance made to arrests. The sheriff replied that there had not. The general then refused to aid in making the arrests, upon the ground that he was there simply to preserve the peace, and as much to protect the miners as the county authorities.7
On the same day8 the union officers were called to a conference with the generals at the Palace Hotel. The union men asserted that they had never had the slightest intention of resisting the sheriff, or of adopting violent measures; that the whole action had been taken by the city officials of Altman, who had thought the movement of the deputies an attempt to capture the city. They asserted that no resistance whatever had been made to arrests, and that none would be made.9 Their statements were telegraphed the governor, and at the same time the following message was sent by the trustees of Altman: "Militia arriving in Cripple Creek. Did you send them and what for? Everything quiet here." Next day the troops were recalled.10
During the last few days of excitement another movement had been on foot looking toward a compromise. Just before his arrest, President Calderwood met in conference at the Independence mine with W. S. Stratton and Chas. Steele. After considerable discussion Mr. Stratton proposed as a compromise to lay before the union, that the mine should work a nine-hour day shift and eight-hour night shift, with pay at $3.25. The union at first rejected the offer, but two days afterward reconsidered, and accepted it. The Independence started on the new schedule March 19th. None of the other mine owners followed Mr. Stratton's example, however, so the movement was without much result. It is to be regretted that the other owners did not see their way clear to follow Mr. Stratton's action. Had they been as willing to come to a compromise at this period as were the miners, the difficulty would probably have been settled on the spot, and all the turmoil, danger, and expense of the months of May and June avoided.
1President James F. Burns, of the Portland, In a, published letter concerning the attitude of the Portland, said: "During the time of what was known as the 'Bull Hill War' or more correctly speaking, the labor trouble of 1894, the, Portland was working about 125 men, while the principal officers and stockholders—Including myself—lived at the mine and were in the closest possible touch with all employes, knowing each other personally. During the time that trouble existed elsewhere In the district, everything went smoothly at the Portland. We had been paying $3.25 per shift of 9 hours, which permitted the working of only two shifts. We promptly made a new scale of $3.00 for 8 hours which was accepted by the union, and 3 shifts instead of two, put to work."
2Mr. Calderwood was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, and was put to wort in the coal mines of that place when nine years old. He gained a common school education through the night schools of that town. Coming to this country when a young man of seventeen, he engaged in mining in the eastern states for a number of years. He then attended the McKeesport school of mines, and upon being graduated in 1S7G, came to Colorado. Here he he'd various mining positions, and came to Cripple Creek in November, 1893. After the strike he remained in the district as an assayer.
3President Calderwood estimates that 300 union men were at work in the eight-hour mines after this time.
4The Gold King, the Strong, the Isabella, the Victor, the Summit, the Zenobia, the Ingraham, and the Free Coinage Mining Companies.
5Copy published in Colorado Springs Gazette, for March loth.
6Also a member of the federation.
7The above is Sheriff Bowers' account of the dispute. The Adjutant General gives the story somewhat differently.
8Early in the day General Brooks and myself were asked to a conference with the officials of the county and the business men of Cripple Creek, whom we met to the number of perhaps 30 at the Palace Hotel. They represented to us the terrible conditions existing in the city and adjacent mining camps, representing that there was no safety for life or property in either, and declaring that the civil authorities were unable to preserve the peace; that the roads and trails were guarded by armed men, openly defying the officers of the law. The sheriff of the county, Mr. M. F. Bowers, was present, and declared his inability to serve the processes of the courts. A careful inquiry into these affairs by General Brooks and myself disclosed the fact that no person in the county had been charged with the commission of any offence in regard to the existing labor troubles, and that no warrant or other process of court had ever issued, and that neither the sheriff nor any of his deputies had ever been resisted in any way, nor had Sheriff Bowers ever been, or had he ever sought to go to Bull Hill, where it was alleged the trouble existed. After this conference I told Sheriff Bowers that the troops were there at his solicitation, but only in aid of the civil authority in the service of process; that on his own showing no process had issued from the courts, the military was not subject to his order, and that the facts in the case would at once be made known to the governor."
9March 18th.
10That no resistance to constitutional authority had been offered by anyone in the mining districts, and that no disturbance of any kind had occurred beyond the ordinary small offenses that are constantly occurring in mining camps."
NEXT: Coming of the rough element — The coup of Wm. Rabedeau — The demands and terms of the owners — Formation of the deputy army — "General" Johnson — Preparation of the miners for resistance — First detachment of deputy army — The blowing up of the Strong mine — The miners attack the deputies — Excitement in Colorado Springs — Rapid increase of deputy army — The governor's proclamation