You learned all about the Independence depot bombing in grade school, right? Maybe you should have.
Colorado and other western states had a serious terrorism problem in the late nineteenth and early twentieth ceturies. It stemmed from a brutal conflict between mine owners and the Western Federation of Miners, a violent labor union. The union's first strike, at Cripple Creek in 1894, was a success due to violence against non-union strike breakers and sabotoge of mining property.
The leadership of the WFM turned socialist by 1899:
Bill Haywood, the sectretary-treasurer of the organization, and other leaders in Denver, suggested to Cripple Creek members that they had a right to steal gold because the nation's wealth belonged to those who produced it. This attitude caused mine owners to police the mines which of course caused more tension and hostility.
In 1899 union strikers blew up an Idaho mine facility, killing two. In 1901 a strike at Telluride turned into a gun battle, three men were killed.
Bill Haywood (allegedly) hired one Harry Orchard as a professional terrorist, and in 1903 Orchard began a notorious career by planting a bomb in the Vindicator mine in Colorado. He intended to kill a crew of non-union miners, but placed the bomb on the wrong level of the mine and killed only two. A few months later he was a bit more accurate and placed two crates of dynamite under the train platform at Independence, Colorado, and killed 13, and seriously injuring about 15 more.
He also planned to assassinate the Governor of Colorado and two of the state's Supreme court justices, a very real threat considering that in 1905 he successfully killed former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg. Orchard was caught, confessed to all these things and more, and implicated Haywood and WFM leaders in the string of violence.
Clarence Darrow represented Bill Haywood in the Idaho trial for the assassination, and won his acquittal in what was then called the trial of the century. In 1921 Haywood jumped bail from a different criminal case and fled to Moscow, where he became an advisor to the Bolshevik government. When he died in 1928 some of his ashes were buried in the Kremlin.
The Colorado labor war killed a total of 33 men. It's remarkable that it's so little remembered these days. Many more people remember the Ludlow Massacre, an incident in a later strike in which 25 striking miners and family members were killed by militia brought in to quell the strike.
Posted by Walter at October 16, 2004 02:43 PMI am shocked, shocked, that you did not quote and applaud this part: "More memorable about the convention, however, was Boyce's presidential address. He said, "I deem it important to direct your attention to Article II of the Constitutional Amendments of the United States-'the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.' This you should comply with immediately. Every union should have a rifle club. I strongly advise you to provide every member with the latest improved rifle, which can be obtained from the factory at a nominal price. I entreat you to take action on this important question, so that in two years we can hear the inspiring music of the marital tread of 25,000 armed men in the ranks of labor." Although this speech would be used against the WFM for years to come, none of the federation's locals was known to have founded a rifle club. (BT p. 213)."
:-)
I kinda note that your selection was otherwise rahter, ah, selective. You clearly state that the union was "violent" -- obviously true on a variety of occasions -- but don't label the mine owners; apparently they were non-violent, which is thoroughly belied by the cite you give; you also fail to note the variety of times it states that the union was only violent after either the mine owners initiated violence, or refused fair arbitration, or the like.
Posted by: Gary Farber at October 16, 2004 04:18 PM I didn't mean to argue the relative merits of mine owners vs labor, only to point out that there was once a serious terrorist threat around here that is now mostly forgotten. That would be more of a book-length treatise, anyway.
I did notice, and do applaud the passage you cite. Really. I wonder what would happen if modern union leaders would say the same.
A couple of years ago, when I was commuting to Boulder from Denver, I listened to the books-on-tape version of Big Trouble, about the murder of Steunenberg and Big Bill's trial. The thing I remember best is how hard the union worked to make sure that people were either out of state, or wouldn't, or couldn't talk.
Posted by: Joshua Sharf at October 20, 2004 10:38 PM