American Labor Union Journal from Butte, Montana • 1

No 25 BUTTE MONTANA THURSDAY MARCH 21 1004 Voi II ITY CENTS PER YEAH GUMM R4IIE0 AT TELLIffllJE 1NTEHESTS EIIIES HIS OPINION DE UNIONISM With Journalr th th American Labar Union the fntareata of tn tollaro flrat eonaldaratlon working may thay at way right but th working data right or wrong Thus Spoke John Mitchell of the Employer and Employe Says It Is but a Step from One to the Mitchell inline for Cabinet Job Under Roosevelt Gives Evidence of His itness lor the Place Union Men Dragged from Homes at Dead of Night and Driven from town at Point of Alliance Thuijs Threaten to Add Murder to Their Many Other Infamies Alliance Man Says tabor Organizations Are a Wants to Organize (hose Who Control Necessaries of Life Who Pays Wages Holds food for Thought in His Remarks LABOR UNION JOURNAL PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE AMERICAN LABOR UNION fif rv Rents' per year THE OPINIONS THIS PAPER ARE RAMED ON THE HYPOTHESIS THE CLASS STRUGGLE AND WITH AN EVE SINGLE TO Tllf INTERESTS THE WORKING CLASS WE CLAIM THE DISHNCflON BING ONE THE VERY BEST LABOR PAPERS IN AMERICAs ii i ii jr LT 1 II AMERICAN Arrdfdlng to a repori publltJiml In I hr Niilhrirtl lAibr Tribune nf I'ltu burg fit th convention th Illi nois niiiwn WM a warm' 6nn any th Irast President Alltclicll ml drafl rt body and advised flgalnst a reduction Tn wages as eofHemled for hy lire operators A storm of protest against th American ederation of i aAor was raised fn the convention in behalf of th locked out eoravt makers hi An rora the Ameriraii edera ffon of Labor help them?" asked one (1 flnga t( hnvo already contributed to two other organizations thoi be long to th federation have re ceived no help from It" erJM an cthr Oolognto Walker Of Danville limited: "ft eins to me that nbour the only benefit to be got from the Amvrienn' ederation of Labor Is In the shine of credentials to go out somewhere and beg for money and I fof one am tired or it Mr Chairman would Ilk tr know of what use the federation Is anyhow" In the uproar flint followed a mo tion to adjourn was can led after a resolution giving $Wu to die eorsftt was passed to a committee Th convention voted against hasty strikes by defeating the motion giv ing the re'sld nnt of th miners' or ganization authority to cal! a strike without consulting the state execu tive board or the national officers of the United Mine Workers' of America In ihe course of his address Mtrh rll gave a veiled intimation of hn probable resignation whlcli It Is ru rnoi fd will be for the pm pose of ac cepting a RooaevwRhin political plum and to show Tdrnsolf worthy of re: pnbllnBn conliilfnce gave utterance to th following wbicb wore perhaps gathered fniin rloae as sociation with A Hanna that of labor whose endorwe ment of the union wrecking traitor Tu innfarfurmg concern Known as the Corporation Auxiliary Company is so treasured by them Mltdirdl said: "When I was younger and 1ss ex perimml I had different views about the ei ployer class 1 thought the employer was the natural enmy of labor and the workingman had to fight and fight hard for all that he got I lia'v siree learned that it Is only a stop from the employer to that the man who works with bis hands and the man who works With his brains are entitled to equal consideration and their inter ests are hearty identical (The "brain worker" with whom tiie working class become involved as a rule work the worker Their magnificent brain power gives them no greater license to plunder their less 'endowed brother than would Jef fries' physical strength give him the right to carry on a physical hold up gam Jeffries is entitled to all he produces by means of his labor but ho right to the fruit of other mens labor The logic of this applies with equal force to John Mitchell's brain worker Ed) "There is no irreconcilable conflict between capital and labor I have faith la our organization and faith in a large number of the employer class I believe firmly that as soon as we can rid ourselves of mutual suspicion we will establish a permanent co op eration that will work to the lasting benefit of all interests It is our duty as earnest and fair minded workers to try to continue the fair relations of the present and bend our efforts toward forming closer bonds of unity with those on whom ws depend for our employment If we couldn't strike and wouldn't strike we would not now have peace It is the fact that we can strike and will not strike except against unfair treatment that constl lues our After Mitchell had advised the Illi nois miners not to accept a reduction the officers of the United Mine Work ers a few days later sent out a rec ommendation that the cut bo accept nd the mritlcr having been submitted' to a referendum nut Thia recom mendation which Is signed by Mlteli 11 concludes with th i'ollrwlng re mirkaMo worda remarkaMe because of tn pure an dslmplo attitude of hi union and rendered doubly so by Ms attllmle and utterances In Illinois: Is hard to accept a radneunn In wages hut It is better to accept a slightly lower rate and hold our or ganization' ready to take advantage of any Improvements which th future! at th and of a dlsastruim strike that may have our organization so weak ened and tlfmoralized that It would be unable to cope with the vast com Mnntlons of capital now engaged' fn th conf trade" Sre the powerful eonl minors' union which has the good will and has had the support financial and moral cd the labor unions of tho cast west north and south and which would again' have this support is conceded by Its president bo finable to cope with tho "vast aggregations of capita! In the coal trade" Yet according to tfda Moses "It Is only a stop from the employer to rhe and further ho remarked "'that their Interests are nr lv Well th'e operators am Intereeled In bringing about a reduction Ar the workers? If nor where does the iden tity of Interest come in? Tli em ployers want a "long" ten workers want a short ton Th em ployers want a pluck me store Theemployers want thci union disbanded or what fs' better Iri the hands of their friends The employers ward a big surplus In the labor market so there will be competition for jobs They want the miners to live In their houses and pay 1 exorbitant rents They want a condi tion of things where the worker can not get 'means to feiive the camo and must have work from the company or starve and the prettiest women in the camp may tm force I to surrender their bodies to tho supcrmtc'idont in ex change for employment for their hus bands Ara the workers i rest mi in having such a condition of things John Mitchell? Most assuredly not M'hor then does that identify of in terest come in? Did vou not make a mistake John Mitchell? Did yon not mean that since von had won favor In fhe sight of the capitalist class and become a cabinet possuiuuy that your interest and those of the employers were nearly If this was what you meant you prob ably stated the facts but when yon say that the interest of the poor mine Slave ar nearly identical with those of the men who feed you on partridge and truffles and other dainties which the working class read about but never see let alone taste you have stated a palpable falsehood John Mitchell and you have at least brains enough to know it If not principle enough to be ashamed of it itiier through ignorance or design the study of political economy is dis couraged In most institutions of learn ing and the dull text books used and prosy methods of presentation have earned for it the name of the dismal science a base slander by the way It is not the science but the in structors who are dull Every now and then one meets with interpreta tions of economic terms in the daily press which are convincing proof of the most infantile ignorance on the part of the high salaried editorial writer of even the rudiments of the science he attempts to discuss A case in point is the San rancisco Star In a recent editorial on errors as to capital it says: portions or kinds of wealth as are used in producing more wealth or as aids in wealth production are capital Ev ery political economist knows this The day laborer working on a highway with a pick axe or shovel if he owns the tools is a Here is an illustrated definition with A Citizens' Allinncft has been: formed at 6'ikland CoL The nrto rlrins trginlzr Herb George atf drew th minting In the emrrae 1 of his talk he said: la gd tiling I am not posing as a nnMn hinder I arri i so thoroughly Imbued with nnlonlatli' that I want to show how If worki on the other side Over fn Coluradu where I live they would nui let rao into ihir nufrn so I formed one of my own Mow fcverytiody tluro be longs to a union If not tn erm then to the other lint there are aliout U(W) or 150'1'3 mor men who Wring to the i Union than to tho labor unions Now we run things fmwead rf them copied their union so they have ho kick coming We have a president just as they do They havei secretary so do wo They hav an cxe trllvv! committee to do their work and we have the earn Thi fu ft plan to smoko them orn with tholr own fire When we got every town olty and hamlet in Colorado wo formed' a stat alliance anti bye and bye we will Lave a national and If wecessnry an futcrnatlonal one Unionism Is only a bluff yob stand up to It they will trike off their hots to yon We hang up Old Glory to i ho mast head fn tho name of law and order and ft worgs wonders There are about f5 per cent of tho tnon belonging to labor unions who arp 'hero because they have to he I't thorn know that you will an ran protect thm and you wtlt at once get their support "Trades unionism is the worst kind of tyranny If you want your son to learn a trade you have to go and ask some on cjs whether ho can or not Is that the spirit of an American citL zc Why fn they had ev erything We canid get no action at all Tho sheriffs polios and the Judi ciary were union men and they had ns tied hand and foot inally wo got about 12(1(10 more names attached to our organization than the labor unions controlled and wo went to th gov ernor and asked him what he was going to do We showed him our power nd he was ith us Thn we put the State troops into every place there was a likelihood of UP outbreak and made them under stand fhat violence would not be tolerated At Cripple Creek we have abso lute control The miners there be longing to the unions lire dropping out one Tiy one of their own nccord: the climate has changed and they thrive there any more have al! sorts of cards in our work but I will read this as a sample: and (taler irst This is to certify that Herbert George is a member of the Pan rancisco Citizen Alliance The man who pays the wages and car 1 rics the a vengeance And the Star asserts that every political economist knows this As a matter of fact political economists know more than this They know that exploitation is essen tial to capital They know that the true definition of capital is: That part of surplus values which are used In reproduction through exploitation The tools' are therefore not capital but wealth If he hires them to another they then become capital because they are being used to ex ploit The carpenters' union every member of which owns his own tools will feel amused at the efforts of the San rancisco Star to place them in the capitalist class Attention Is called to the position not for the purpose of writiug a lengthy treatise on capital a subject which: has already been so well covered by Karl Marx as to leave nothing unsaid but merely to show how prevalent is the Ignorance of the terminology of economics even among Intelligent men "Now whit wo sr nftur fg ouf own kiml of people Von fiftVC he big enomrb to stand for ftift com nninify or liu unions wilt own you body soul Bud breeches They 'nil limit the siri'ply by their epprentlecHhip elinsu The firsi thing to do to get Hie financial 'Interests lined up 'lids will not he hard Yon don't want to mnke Ifren sign a enrd hnt get time that they are with von The next step is to get the vrbofe stide grocera flu Is mrrefr hnrder lint it enn be done Then wo get the flour derrlem and nil Idm'" who drstribnte the neeewnries of Id Then the work 1st cnsv Yon errn i then reach the sm dl men through I these Mg ones It is easy when It once gets started It may not be right to put a crimp in your op ponent but If yorf find a man that stJeks out after' yon have urged film to loin ft Is easy enough to do It lie will be ft good member when you get through with Mm It some times needs something of this kind to shake Min tip and make a good Arnericari citizen of Min don't nee wagon spoke to enfon yfuit we want but nse our brnim "Sow in getting one up here the first thing fo do Is to get ou'goml terms with tlieiu Treat them as if they were one of you irntead of tw hig of another mould liiim reli (('ontiniied on our) PROIKIIOil Telluride Wife Ap peals to oreign Monarchy for Succor from Citizens Alliance Assaults Mrs Stewart orbes wife of the secretary treasurer of Telluride Min union lias sent a long message to Pearce vice consul of the British consulate at Denver demand ing protection for tierself and chil dren and also her husband If sat isfactory assurances are not obtained from Mr Pearce Mrs orbes will take up the matter with the British ambassador at Washington orbes is also a British subject his family being a prominent and influ ential one The Citizens' Alliance jainboric threatens to result in in ternational complications The char acter of the kidnapped men is shown by a Telluride message which reads: one firearm was on the person or in the homes Of any of the men deported and this was an old revolv er for which the owner had no am munition That circumstance does not indicate that the men had re turned to Telluride to murder and pillage They came back to be with their families and at home and if pos sible to secure employment Their deporters branded them as anarchists murderers and assassins and fell upon and forced them to leave before thej had scarcely time to renew ac quaintance with their home ties "Socially the town is becoming inore divided every day and a bitter feeling is being engendered that may never be eradicated There are men working in the mines around Tellu ride who came here and sought em ployment out of necessity who are in sympathy with the strikers and the outrage of Monday night has only served to make them their strong friends Other people who were somewhat indifferent in regard to the strike believing that both sides were wrong to some extent are now firm friends of the unionists The episode has caused a revulsion of feeling among a great many people 4nd the principle of unionism is Stronger in San Miguel county today than ever before Many who were friends of Governor Peabody three months ago are now his political enemies THE DEINITION CAPITAL MEMBERS THE WORKfNG CLASS Sixtyfive union men and their sympathizer at Telluride Coio have been attacked in their homes at dead of night by an armed band of Citizens' Alliance thuga Their doom were broken irr their families shot at and terrorized while tho fuckfese etrikers were dragged from their hedti and In several inatanoee beaten over the head with guns a a were forced out Into the freezing cold of a mountain night loaded on a train Hauled out many miles from home and dumped like cattle vittr a warning ringing in their ears that death would be their portion if they da red to return a This appears to bo the cilmax Every right which the American people calf theirs han been violated but up ta this point the bread mas ters have attempted to cloak their infamy under a mantle of seeming 2 regularity hut now disguise and subterfuge has been thrown to the a winds and the wage master stands forth In his true colors the brutal a bestial creaturr that he Is stopping at nothing not even murder In his 2 efforts to subdue and throttle the worklnj class 2 Words fall In attempting to picture the Industrial helt which the mine managers have made of the Centennial shate Every working a man who has a spark of manhood must boil with anger at the indig 2 nlties heaped upon his class Every union mart must fee) the humiliation and shame which these 2 Colorado hell hounds have hurled upon us ae member of organized labor and yet through It all during the making of the blackest pages in a 2 the modern history of the class struggle the president of the Amerl 2 can ederation of Labor has maintained a shrieking silence Neither by' spoken or written word has Samuel Gomper shown that his freer a ests were any more concerned with the working class than are the in a terests of the stock jobbers of Wall street WHY THIS SILENCE? Is 2 it because the Western ederation of Miners no longer pay their per 2 capita tax to him and that his interest 'in unionism is measured by a a what he can get out of it or is It because he has entered inter an alii 2 2 ance with tfie knrrre owners to crush the Western unions? What Is 2 the price of his silence? 2 2 Regardless ef his attitude the working class every where are a standing together In tills common struggle but Samuel Gompers has a by his actions Justified every doubt of his Integrity that has been ex 2 2 pressed Is It not time that unions affiliated with the A of 2 unions that have responded so nobly to call for help were smoking Gompers out? If his interests are with the working class a 2 mke him say If his interests are vith fhe capitalist class then 2 make him admit it Smoke the fakir out 2 a a aaaaeaaaeeasaeacesoaaeaoaesaaaaaeaaaaaaaaseaaae Oiro of the most astounding crimes in th annals of TvesUim labor troH was comtnitrorl at Telluride Colo on March 15 when a Bifiiafl of Citizens' Alliance which is cblefly niarfri up of the gambler and mfluo eteinent arrnd therazelves with Winchesters and revolvers anil Invad prl th homes of sixty five or seventy union mon breaking down the doors and in some Instances dragging men from tbr Ir beds brutally beating them and finally herding them In a lot until a train was ready to talte them out of the tty They were driven to the depot by an armerl mob and threat ened with pain of death if tlrey ever dared to rerurn Among the number who were driven out of the city are A ioa'cn national committeeman of the Socialist party and also mana ger of the largest store In the city Jerry Barnes ItM'iell Secretary orbes of the Union Anton Matte Harry Maiike and Newton Newspaper men were warned to their homes The leaders of th Alliance mob were: Buckley Wells of the Smuggler Union and captain of the militia which has been dis banded Jack Herron manager of the Tom Boy mine Charles Chase mart ager of the Liberty Bell mine IL Shockley manager of the and mine Cooper Anderson mana ger of the Nellie mine and an attor ney named Watkins The first cause for this action on the part of these capitalistic thugs is to be found in the strike which they have been un able to break but there is another cause and one which enlisted the sympathy and support of the maque element against the miners It is pointedly stated by a Colorado paper as follows: tire strike was declared last September there has been no open gambling in Telluride Immediately after the miners walked out soma or the officers and leaders of the union swore out warrants against the pro prietors of saloons In which gambling was conducted The proprietors closed their gambling tablas and they have been idle since "When martial law was revoked last week the gamblers lost no time in throwing faro banks and roulette wheels wide open The union men declared gambling would not be per mitted to be reopened and there was a burrli element also bitterly op posr to a resumption Since the gam reopened union men have been gathering evidence Namei and evi dence were aiibmittcil tn the deputy district attorney and ft Is iitiderstood sixty informations were to have been filed against the gamblers "Tho proprietors of the saloons in wli'eh gambling is condtlcfe) and a number of the gamblers are members of the Alliance The mine managers are said to be also In favor of gambling as it has a tendency to keep the men here After conning down from the mines on pay day and remaining a day or two the men do not have enough money left to get away and must go back to work In the mines "The alliance meeting lasted about one hour and was over shortly after 9 o'clock The members came up from the opera house anti walked hastily home In a few minutes they were noticed returning and congre gating in front of th irst National bank White at home they had armed themselves with Winchester shotguns and from one to three revolvers and a number of them changed their at tire donning corduroy suits high boots and slouch hats pulling the lat ter close down over their forehead When interrogated none of them knew anything nor had heard any thing 10 all members of the alliance to take part in the proceed ing had assembled in front of the bank building The body of men moved up the street to the alley at the telephone office following It to the Victoria house the small build ings along the way being thoroughly searched "In front of the hotel an alliance member who is a bartender and hold ing a commission as deputy sheriff suggested that former City Attorney Kiniken and A loaten be taken Mayor Rogers who was follow ing protested earnestly against this but the crowd paid no attention to his remarks and the mayor went home riob here separated into three bodies for the purpose of ransacking at the same time different districts inhabitated by union men and sym pathizers heavy tread of many meh (Continued on Page our) I.