Roy Acuff

Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: The Kidnapping of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone

There are no limits to which powers of privilege
will not go to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Monday February 26, 1906
The Appeal to Reason on the "Kidnappers' Special"

This week's edition of the Appeal features an article which describes the special train, the "Kidnappers' Special," which spirited Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone away from Denver and over the state line to Boise, Idaho:


Officers of Western Federation Kidnapped.
-----

Under the Thin Disguise of the Law, President Moyer and
Secretary Haywood of Colorado Are Taken to Idaho-
Another Chapter in the Colorado Labor War.
-----
Special Telegram to the Appeal to Reason.

Bulkeley Wells, Colorado National Guard, Telluride Mine Manager.png

Pueblo, Colo., Feb. 20.-Saturday night in Denver, between the hours of nine o'clock and midnight, a set of Pinkerton detectives, armed with a requisition from the Governor of Idaho, which requisition was honored by Gov. McDonald, of Colorado, on Saturday morning, arrested Chas. P. Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners; Wm D. Haywood, Secretary, and G. A. Pettibone, a business man of Denver, on the charge of conspiracy in the assassination of Steunenberg, who was governor of Idaho at the time of the big strike in that state.

The Colorado governor honored the requisition before the men were arrested, which is in direct violation of the law. As soon as the men were arrested they were hustled to the county jail and held for four hours, then placed on board of a special train on the Union Pacific bound for Idaho. The Idaho detectives were reinforced by a squad of Colorado militia in charge of Adjt.-Gen. Buckley [Bulkeley] Wells and Col. W. D. Strickland of Gov. McDonald's Staff. Both are ex-convicts of most unsavory reputations in Colorado. This guard left the state with the manacled prisoners. The accused men were not permitted to send word to their families of friends, nor to communicate with their lawyers. They were literally kidnapped by the officials. The most prominent men in Colorado denounce this as a most unheard of outrage on law and order.