Wednesday April 18, 1906
From the Appeal to Reason: George Shoaf on Idaho Frame-Up, Part I

Over the next few days, Hellraisers will present the entire article from the pen of correspondent George Shoaf who is on the ground in Idaho. Shoaf describes, in full the conspiracy to hang the officers of the Western Federation of Miners and, thereby, destroy the mighty union of some 40,000 miners and smeltermen.

From the Appeal to Reason of April 14, 1906:

DESTRUCTION OF FEDERATION
PURPOSE OF CONSPIRACY
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Mine Owners' Association Seeks to Make Moyer, Haywood and
Pettibone Vicarious Victims for Capitalistic Crimes in Order to
Disrupt Organization and Crush Socialism.
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PINKERTON CRIMES LAID BARE
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Lawless Methods of Organized Thugs Operating Under Cloak
of Detective Agency Are Mercilessly Exposed.
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BY GEORGE H. SHOAF.
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WHAT of the Western Federation of Miners, and its capitalistic enemy, the Mine Owners' association? Why are these two organizations in the field? What are the objects and purposes of their existence? Why is it that the Mine Owner's association is resorting to such extreme and desperate measures and spending so much money to remove the Western Federation of Miners from the field of action?

Before answering these questions one point should be made plain: the Miner Owners' association is not fighting to destroy the Western Federation of Miners merely because the miners are organized. The railroad men-firemen, engineers and trainmen-throughout the West are organized, yet the mine owners are not opposing the railroad brotherhoods. In fact, the Mine Owners' association declares it as in favor of union labor-of a certain kind.

Confederation Is Complete.

The Western Federation of Miners is based on the solidarity of the working class. It is the crystallization into one body of all the little, separate miners' unions that sprang into being all over the West several years after the great gold discoveries that astonished the world about a decade ago. Edward A. Boyce, one of the first presidents of the Federation, did as much as any one man to consolidate the miners into one vast organization. He realized the power of unified action, and, for a number of years, inculcated and incorporated the results of his thought into the platforms put forth by the Western Federation of Miners. He knew the character of the men who owned and controlled the gold and silver mines of the Rocky Mountains. He understood the labor question through and through. He knew that reason, argument and the truth and beauty of justice had no place in the policy of those who dictated the corporate interests of the West. He had reason to believe that the time would come when the mine owners would seek by force to overthrow the Federation, and to forestall this action he said: "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 in this important question so that in two years we can hear the martial tread of 25,000 armed men in the ranks of labor."

Precedent for President.

These words of Boyce were not the threatening words of revolution; they were words that have since been endorsed by the president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, when he advised congress to increase the navy, strengthen the army, and build up our coast fortifications to the end that we might preserve peace by being prepared to fight. No men would have been banished from their homes in Colorado if they had stood upon their constitutional rights, among which is the right to bear arms. It was the humble, submissive, acquiescence of the Cripple Creek miners, taught them by the later heads of the Federation, Moyer and Haywood, that emboldened Sherman Bell and his cowardly militia to brow-beat, bulldoze and deport nearly three thousand union miners from the Cripple Creek district two years ago. I was in that district during the deportations and saw union men unresistingly submit to brutalities that no white man out ever to have submitted to without first shedding his last drop of blood.

But Edward Boyce finally retired from the presidency of the organization and the present set of officers were installed. I have described the characters and methods of President Moyer and Secretary Haywood heretofore and repetition were unnecessary. I will now say something of the rank and file.

Exceptional in Character.

With the exception of the Chinamen and a few imported representatives of foreign nationalities, the people who inhabit the intermountain West are a great, rugged, strong-minded and openhearted class of people. Generally speaking, they are the pick of the people who formerly inhabited the East. If they had not been ambitious and imbued with the spirit of enterprise they would not have come West. The men who compose the Western Federation of Miners are an exceptionally strong type of manhood. They are strong of limb and possess the capacity for vigorous thought. While the Federation embraces all creeds and all nationalities, there is no doubt that the Irish, as a race, constitute the backbone of the organization. But while this is true, it is a significant fact that most of the members of the general executive board are not Irishmen. President Charles H. Moyer is a German, from a straight German parentage. William D. Haywood is of direct English descent. John Williams, the first vice-president, is a Cornish miner from the coast of England. James Kirwin, who is at present acting in Haywood's place, is an Irishman. There are several other sons of the Emerald Isle on the executive board, besides Kirwin, but most of them are not Irishmen. The charter of the organization recognizes neither creed, color, race nor previous condition of servitude in obligating new members.

"Labor produces all wealth; wealth belongs to the producer thereof."

These words from the charter of the Western Federation of Miners practically strike the keynote of the objects and purposes of the organization. The members of this union believe that those who produce the wealth of the world are entitled to the full product of their toil, and should not be content with only a part thereof. Here is the line of demarkation between the Western Federation of Miners and the American Federation of Labor. The miners want all they produce; the men led by Samuel Gompers are satisfied with a part of the products of their toil. While there are other differences, this is the great, essential dividing line between the two organizations.

Politics Is Their Crime.

The Western Federation of Miners believe not only in industrial unity, but they believe in and advocate united of political action of the working class at the ballot box. They are organized not only to strike for higher wages and better conditions, but they are organized to vote for the same things they demand by strike. They hold to the opinion that a man should eat his bread in the sweat of his brow, and that the man who does not sweat is not entitled to eat the bread produced by those who do sweat. They demand that every man in society, unless he be sick, a lunatic or enfeebled by old age, shall work for a living, and that the man who does not work has no rightful place in society. They abhor idlers, condemn parasites, denounce thieves, and they place idlers, parasites and thieves in the same category.

And while they demand the full product of their toil, declare that every able bodied man in society should earn his living by working for it, and denounce idlers, parasites and thieves, they emphatically abominate and condemn the present political, social and economic system, which they hold responsible for injustice and crime, and demand its abolition and the substitution therefor of the Co-operative Commonwealth.

In a word, they are Socialists....

[Emphasis and photographs added.]

Note: Sadly, the casual racism which was expressed by Shoaf towards non-white and Chinese workers was common in the writings of unionist and Socialists of the day. Shamefully, the Appeal allowed the article to go to press without confronting the writer for his use of the phrase "no white men should" and the disparaging remark towards the western Chinese workers. The Western Federation of Miners played the leading role in the founding of the IWW and with the insertion into the IWW Constitution the principle that the new organization "recognizes neither creed, color, race nor previous condition of servitude in obligating new members." However, much work was left to do in order to fully implement that high ideal.

SOURCES

Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Apr 14, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66993900

Source for: western federation of miners = 40,000 miners smeltermen
(The exact membership details we will learn at the WFM Convention in May of 1906.)
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=fn0QAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcove...

IMAGES
Haywood, Moyer, Shoaf, AtR, Apr 14, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66993900
WFM Button
https://www.nps.gov/kewe/learn/historyculture/museum-guide-5.htm
Edward Boyce, Langdon, Rebel Graphics
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/wfmhall/langdon16.html
Citizens' Alliance Terror in Cripple Creek Strike
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66990747/
Miners Magazine, Cover Detail, 1913-14
http://books.google.com/books/reader?id=BT4tAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover...

See also:

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones on Despotism, "There is more freedom in Siberia than in Colorado." -by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/7/13/1313656/-Hellraisers-Journal-Mot...

IWW Constitution and By-Laws, 1905
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015079028836;page=root;view=...
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?q1=creed%20color;id=mdp.3901507902883...

The Cripple Creek Strike
-by Emma Florence Langdon
Denver, 1904-05
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/wfmhall/langdon00.html
Appendix, April 1908
(Coverage of Haywood-Moyer-Pettibone Case)
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/wfmhall/langdon29.html#dedication

The Darrow Collection, Haywood Trial
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/trials.php?tid=3