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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 155-158
The State Authorities
In every case in which troops were used in the Colorado City and Cripple Creek difficulties, they were called into action before such conditions existed as are generally considered to warrant resort to state military power, viz., the commission of such overt acts as to show the existence of a mob, or such a condition of lawlessness as has gotten beyond the possibility of successful local control.50 The troops were called out upon the assertion that such conditions were imminent, not that they existed, and final judgment as to the justice of the calls must rest upon that point.
One side of the case is well put in the report of Colonel Verdeckberg, Commanding Teller County Military District:
"During my long and varied experience in the National Guard of Colorado it has invariably occurred that troops, when utilized in suppressing riots, insurrections and rebellions, were not ordered into the disturbed localities until life or property had been destroyed, or, in other words, until a seemingly stronger argument presented itself for such a procedure than was taken in the campaign just closed. Threats and intimidations were of such a startling nature and of such frequent occurrence that, continued longer, they would naturally have brought about a more serious state of affairs and additional hardships to the law-abiding citizens of the district and to the State in its suppression of lawlessness. Without doubt, therefore, in view of the fact that the primary objects for which military rule was established in Teller county were satisfactorily accomplished, the more speedily on account of its early inception and its preventive influence over the acts of lawless men and agitators, and that its results have worked toward the betterment of conditions throughout the county, the prompt action of your excellency in thus using the strong hand of the military before bloodshed or the destruction of property could ensue was the most important factor in the restoration of peace and order; and this campaign should establish a strong and valuable precedent."
The other side is represented in an editorial from the Denver Post.
''The situation at Cripple Creek is a reminder of the fact that the President of the United States and governor of a state have unlimited power in emergencies. . . .
''But there is nothing the governor of a state or the president of the United States tries so earnestly to avoid as the exercise of the power now being used by Governor Peabody. Seldom has it been used, and, indeed, the most odious conditions have been tolerated rather than exercise naked, undisguised force. So all the presidents of the United States and all the governors of states have hesitated long and well, and, indeed, there is no modern example of the thing Peabody is doing, save Cleveland's famous act in Chicago. . . .
"In Cripple Creek the thing at which Peabody has struck with all the power of the state is not physical, as in Chicago, but in the air. That is to say, men said they were afraid to go to work; but there were no criminal acts. The governor's excuse for his action is that he levels the armed force of the state against fear. To the man who cares nothing, sympathetically, one way or the other, but who has a regard for law, the view of the matter is that the governor should have refused to act until there was evident lawlessness and disorder.
"The fact of the business is that the reasons for Peabody's action would justify the seizure of all union labor leaders on the charge of treason, regardless of any strikes. In fact, it may be doubted if the governor realizes what he is doing. The real, vital interest in the thing is that Governor Peabody of Colorado, has cast a dye which, unless he backs out, to use plain words, means that organized labor is treasonable and, if his attitude is accepted, will mean the crushing of labor organization by the government as being a society or organization which challenges the supremacy of government. As soon as the country realizes what is being done in Colorado it will be recognized as a national issue."
There can be but one judgment as to the use made of the troops. State officers represent the power of the people as a whole, and when their authority is exerted it is theoretically for the blind suppression of crime, and for the preservation of order, in the interest of the general welfare, without regard to class, order, or condition. "When this power is exercised on lines of partisan bias to directly further the interests of one class as opposed to those of another, it is a perversion of the intention of democratic government, and calls for unqualified condemnation.
Sherman M. Bell, Adjutant General, in general charge of the troops, had been a rough rider in the command of President Eoosevelt during the Spanish-American war. He returned to Colorado to be hailed as a popular hero for a time, but soon lost the admiration of the public through his overbearing ways and self-conceit. In the Cripple Creek campaigns his idea seemed to have been to make the most gorgeous military display possible, and to give himself the largest notoriety as a military leader.81 He was perfectly frank in the statement that his entire intention was to aid the mine owners and to smash the unions,52 and his conduct caused a large number of representative Colorado citizens to give credence to the statement that he was in the direct pay of the mine owners. Governor Peabody refused to hold himself responsible for many of the extreme acts of the general, but if he was failing to carry out the governor's orders he should have been removed.53
The charges upon which Teller County was placed under military rule were not proved to be well founded.54 The state authorities failed to secure the conviction of any of the criminals that it was claimed the local civil authorities were needlessly and intentionally allowing to go free, and they thus laid themselves open to the most serious charges of deliberate partisan action.55 The use made of state authority during the second period of military rule, when city governments were being overthrown and men being deported in large numbers, is to be strongly condemned. The use of the militia to virtually back armed mobs.56 and to give some show of legality to a commission which on its own admission was forcibly deporting men simply for refusal to leave a certain organization,57 was, in the opinion of the author, a perversion of public authority, of the most vicious type. It is true that the commission had to deal with some men of criminal type, and in their deportation there may have been some justice, but when the associations started avowedly and deliberately to wipe a legal organization out of existence,58 state authority should have had no choice but to intervene. We may find some excuse for the citizens of the district, beside themselves with the horror of the days before, but the public authorities lost an opportunity for the display of that broader wisdom, and stabler judgment, overriding the frenzied passions of the moment, that should be a chief glory of the state.
50See pp. 75-77, including f. n., pp. 93-96. including f. n., and pp. 126 and 127.
51See pp. 96-102, 110-116, f. n. 2.
52See p. 99.
53See pp. 99, 110, including footnotes. Also various interviews during the period of military rule.
54See pp. 115, f. n. 29; 109, f. n. 11; pp. 109, 110, 118. Also section on Trials, Chap. VI.
55Ibid.
56See pp. 125, 126, 128, 130-33, 136, including f. n. 33.
57See pp. 129, 130, including footnotes.
58See pp. 116, 126, 142, 146.
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