Lawlessness, Anarchy, Despotism
By J. A. S.
For some months a reign of lawlessness has been in progress in the very heart of the American republic; not lawlessness of the sort that one finds on the border line of civilization, where the laws and officials of civil government are set at defiance by a few reckless individuals, but lawlessness on the part of the government itself, or of those forces upon which law and order depend for their preservation. The story of this lawlessness is told by Mr. Ray Stannard Baker in the May issue of McClure's Magazine. No one class of the people, Mr. Baker shows, have been responsible for it. It is not the lawlessness of any one party, but of all parties, exhibited through their representative organizations. Two mining regions of Colorado, Cripple Creek and Telluride, constitute the scene of this strange disturbance in the course of American free government. Four parties have been participants in the events that have taken place—the mine owners, the miners' union, the militia under orders from the government, and the citizens' alliance. On5each one rests the guilt of lawlessness, says Mr. Baker. The miners' union has broken the law, there have been dynamiting and assassination; the corporations have broken the law, there have been bribery and corruption; the citizens' organizations, representing in some degree the great third party—the public—have broken the law; even the legislature itself, wherein the law is made, has been lawless. We have to-day, indeed, in certain parts of Colorado, a breakdown of democracy, and through anarchy, a reversion to military despotism. The parties concerned in this lawlessness have not even professed to be observing the fundamental rules of republican government. Constitutional law is openly violated and scoffed at. The trouble began with an attempt by the Western Federation of Miners to force several non-union mines in Cripple Creek to come into the union; that is, to discharge all their employees who were not union men. The Federation also had in mind the forcing of a universal eight-hour day in the mining industry. The attempt brought on a strike, which involved a number of large smelting mills in various parts of the State, but was not successful. The miners' federation attempted to shut off the supply of ore to the non-union mills, by ordering the miners to refuse to work in any mine shipping ore to these mills. Under this order the mines in Cripple Creek and Telluride were closed down, about five thousand miners being thrown out of work. By this action, dictated to the miners, who had no grievance against their employers, by a few men who had secured despotic power in the miners' organization, one of the chief industries of Colorado was seriously affected, and the prosperity of the State was threatened. In making this demand for an eight-hour day, the miners' union was asking what the State legislature had in 1899 granted them, but which, despite this fact, the miners had never been able to obtain. When an attempt was made to enforce the law, says Mr. Baker, ‘the smelter trust, the coal operators, and other interests fought it before the State Supreme Court, which finally declared the law unconstitutional, although the United States Supreme Court had already approved a similar law passed in Utah.’ The union then began the work of getting an amendment to the constitution. In November, 1902, the question was submitted to the people of Colorado, and an amendment carried by the tremendous majority of 46,714 votes. Both Democratic and Republican parties solemnly pledged themselves in their platforms to execute the will of the people and make laws to enforce this amendment in the legislature of 1902-03. When the legislature met, a powerful lobby representing the mining corporations, appeared at the State capital, and through its efforts the legislature finally adjourned without passing the amendment. ‘Rarely, indeed,’ says Mr. Baker, ‘has there been in this country a more brazen, conscienceless defeat of the will of the people, plainly expressed, not only at the ballot, but by the pledges of both parties.’ The effect of this defeat upon the unions may well be imagined. They had worked long and hard to secure this legislation, they had voted for pledged legislators only to see the plainly expressed will of the people deliberately defeated! Is it a wonder that they were discouraged, even desperate? Here they were compelled to strike to enforce what should have been a State law. It is just such doings as these that drive men to socialism. We preach to the agitators: ‘Your remedy is the ballot; vote and get your rights.’ Here voting did no good. In nearly all the strike speeches I heard in Colorado, this defeat of the will of the people was the strongest argument that could be used. I heard President Moyer say in a speech at Pueblo:— ‘What is the use of your ballots anyway? You might as well tear them up and throw them in the gutter.’ The conclusion drawn by the leaders is that union men must vote the Socialist ticket. To fight the strike, the mine owners organized, and secured from the governor State troops to protect their mines while being operated with non-union men. But in connection with this move an unprecedented and significant thing appeared—the mine owners advanced the money to pay the troops. The Army and Navy Journal said of this act that it ‘virtually placed the troops, for the time being, in the relation of hired men to the mine operators, and morally suspended their function of State military guardians of the public peace.’ The troops, says Mr. Baker, ‘sided openly with the mine owners, were paid and directed by the mine owners.’ ‘The troops came out not merely to prevent violence, but to break the strike.’ ‘On the other hand,’ Mr. Baker adds, ‘no one who knows anything of the history of the miners’ union in Colorado can doubt that there would have been violence and assassination if the operators had attempted to open their mines without military protection.’ Martial law was declared in Cripple Creek in December, 1903, and in Telluride one month later. This was after there had been assassination and dynamite outrages by the miners’ union, or for which at least the union was responsible. Martial law was but another name for military despotism. The office of the Victor Record was visited by an army officer, and a military censorship established. Free speech and a free press were suppressed, as is done in Russia. Citizens were ‘arrested without warrants and without charges, locked up in an unsavory place called the Bull-Pen, and kept incommunicado, often for weeks.’ Decrees of the civil courts were disregarded; the writ of habeas corpus was suspended; small boys and even women were arrested and thrown into the Bull-Pen for speaking disparagingly of the soldiers. This was in the Cripple Creek district. In Telluride citizens long resident in the town, owners of property, were arrested on a charge of vagrancy, and set to work in the chain-gang. In January twenty-six men, some being well-known citizens, were escorted under military guard to the border line of the county and ordered not to return, although in some instances they were leaving property and families behind. Concluding, Mr. Baker inquires, ‘Who is to blame for this condition of anarchy?’ and says:— We hear the military forces roundly abused for their despotism; but without wishing to excuse any of their usurpations or excesses, it is yet pertinent to inquire whether they have done anything that the citizens have not long been doing. Has not the union broken into the homes of citizens? Has not the union interfered with the personal liberty of many a ‘scab,’ driven him from his home and his work, as many a strike leader is now being driven by the bayonet? Has it not even killed its enemies? Have not the corporations of Colorado defeated the will of the people? have they not broken laws every day without punishment? Have not the citizens’ alliances driven men from their homes and their families? Has not even the legislature itself broken the highest law of the republic, the will of the people, for private, or political, or selfish ends? The significance of the situation in these Colorado districts is best expressed by the question whether what has resulted there is a sample of what may result elsewhere and everywhere throughout the country from the unstable industrial conditions that so generally exist in these times. Is what is now seen on a small scale in Colorado, to be seen ere long on a large scale, perhaps a national scale, in this country? Is there to be anarchy followed by the establishment of a military despotism? This is not an idle question. Truly we are living in most serious times, when he who would be safe must be sober and be guided by the higher Wisdom that has foretold the perilous character of these days, and pointed out the way of escape from coming destruction.