Broken in health and spirit, the [smeltermen] decided to make one last fight for their lives.
While they have not won a decisive battle, they have won admiration
by refusing to work without gaining at least one concession.
-Emma F Langdon
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Thursday March 30, 1905
Denver, Colorado - Legislature Passes Eight-Hour Law, Smeltermen Call off Strike
From today's edition of the Lane County Journal of Dighton, Kansas:
STRIKE DECLARED OFF.
-----
At a Meeting Held the Vote Was
Made Unanimous.
Smeltermen of the Western Federation of Miners
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Denver, March 26.-At a meeting of the local smelter men's union the strike in the Globe and Grant smelters was declared off by unanimous vote. The passage of the eight-hour law recently by the legislature influenced the action. The members believe that the provision of the law which says that all men coming in contact with noxious gases shall work only eight hours can be interpreted to include all smelters men, for the reason, they say, that the smelter fumes and gases are so penetrating as to affect persons and property in the vicinity of smelters and certainly must have effect upon the men employed in and around the plants themselves.
Eight hundred men employed in the Globe and Grant smelters struck on July 30, 1903, and, according to the statement of Secretary Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners, but 2 per cent of this number returned to work. The Grant has been idle continuously since the strike, although the Globe has been operating. The cause of the strike was the refusal of the demand of the men for an eight-hour day.
[Photograph added.]
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SOURCE
Lane County Journal
(Dighton, Kansas)
-Mar 30, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGE
Striking Smeltermen of the Western Federation of Miners,
from the Miners Magazine, August 1903
(Photo not labeled but shown with article on the
Smeltermen's Strike.)
https://books.google.com/...
See also:
Miner's Magazine
Western Federation of Miners, Aug 1903
https://books.google.com/...
Long article on 8 Hour Fight & Smeltermen's Strike
https://books.google.com/...
A Report on Labor Disturbances in the State of Colorado:
From 1880 to 1904, Inclusive, with Correspondence Relating Thereto
by Carroll Davidson Wright
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1905
https://books.google.com/...
Chapter XIII: "Strike of Smeltermen at Denver in 1903"
https://books.google.com/...
The Cripple Creek Strike
A History of Industrial Wars in Colorado, 1903-4-5
-by Emma F Langdon
"Being a Complete and Concise
History of the Efforts of
Organized Capital
to Crush Unionism"
The Great Western Publishing Co.
Denver,Colorado, 1905.
(Passage of 8 Hour Law & End of Smeltermen's Strike.)
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
Conditions in the Coal Mines of Colorado: In the Matter of the Hearing Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Mines and Mining, House of Representatives, Sixty-third Congress, Second Session-Brief for the Striking Miners
-Edward P. Costigan,
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Mines and Mining.
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1914
https://books.google.com/...
"The Colorado Eight-Hour Law Situation-The Testimony.
https://books.google.com/...
Note: this is especially relevant:
On March 21, 1905 (Laws of 1905, p. 284; Rev. Stat., 1908, see. 3912), an act was approved declaring all labor of miners in under ground mines and attending blast furnaces, etc., which labor is in contact with noxious fumes, gases, or vapors, to be dangerous, and limiting the period of employment to eight hours per day, except in an emergency. Violation was made a misdemeanor, punishable with fine of from $50 to $300.
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The January Conference of Industrial Unionist
Mother Jones,
Nominated by Haywood to
Committee on Manifesto
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Today we will cover the third and final day of the
Conference of Industrial Unionist held in Chicago during January of 1905. Our readers will remember that on
day one (January 2nd), a committee was elected to "draw up and submit a plan of procedure for the conference." Elected to that committee were: Simons, O’Neil, Trautmann, Hagerty, Haywood, Sherman, Estes, Moyer, Smith, and Hall.
At the end of day two (January 3rd), a Committee to draw up the Manifesto was formed which included the ten members of the Committee on Procedure plus two addition members of the Conference, Bohn and Mother Jones. It was then decided, as the last order of business, that the Committee on Manifesto would meet during the morning of day three, while the Conference itself would reconvene that afternoon.
Minutes from end of day two:
Hall moved the election of a committee of twelve, Chairman Haywood to be ex-officio an additional member thereof, to draw up the Manifesto. Seconded.
Amended by Swing that the Committee on Procedure with two additional members draw up the Manifesto. Seconded by Hagerty. Amendment carried.
O’Neil nominated Bohn, Haywood nominated Mother Jones; both elected by acclamation.
Moved by O’Neil, seconded by Bohn, that the committee meet in Wostas Hall at 8 o’clock A. M., January 4. Carried.
Moved by Smith, seconded by Hagerty, that the conference adjourn until 1:30 P. M., January 4. Carried.
Morning of January 4, 1905, Wostas Hall, Chicago
Meeting of Committee on Manifesto
`
Sadly, there are no minutes from this meeting entered into the record of the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World. However, I believe that it is a safe assumption to conclude that such a meeting took place due to the Manifesto being discussed and adopted by the reconvened Conference later that afternoon.
Let us also assume that all of the members of the Committee of Manifesto were present, and now review their names and the organization with which they were associated. We find that, with the notable exception of Bohn and perhaps Trautmann and Sherman, most of the members of this committee were connected with the Socialist Party of America. The American Labor Union had adopted the platform of the SPA, and the WFM and the UBRE were both member-unions of the ALU. The International Socialist Review was the voice of the left-wing of the SPA.
A. M. Simons, Editor International Socialist Review, Chicago, 6 Fifth avenue.
John M. O’Neil, Editor Miners’ Magazine (Western Federation of Miners), Denver,
Room 3, Pioneer Building.
W. E. Trautmann, Editor Brauer Zeitung, journal of the brewery workers,
Cincinnati, Ohio, Odd Fellows Temple.
Thomas J. Hagerty, of the American Labor Union, Chicago, Room 3, Haymarket Building.
W. D. Haywood, Secretary, W. F. of M. Denver, Room 3, Pioneer Building.
Charles O. Sherman, General Secretary United Metal Workers, Chicago, 148 W. Madison Street.
George Estes, of the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes, Chicago.
Charles Moyer, President Western Federation of Miners, Denver, Room 3, Pioneer Building.
Clarence Smith, General Secretary-Treasurer A. L. U., Chicago. Room 3, Haymarket Building.
W. L. Hall, General Secretary-Treasurer U. B. R. E., Chicago, Room 3, Haymarket Building.
Frank Bohn, Organizer Socialist Labor Party and Socialist Trades & Labor Alliance,
New York.
Mother Jones, had recently left her employment as an organizer for the United Mine Workers
and, at the time of the conference, appeared to be employed by the Socialists of
Illinois (connected with the Socialist Party of America.)
Last Session of the Conference of Industrial Unionists
AFTERNOON SESSION, JANUARY 4, 1905.
William D. Haywood, Chairman
Conference of Industrial Unionists
``````````
George Estes, Secretary
Conference of Industrial Unionists
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Called to order 1.30 P. M., W. D. Haywood in the chair. Minutes of the previous day read and approved. Committee on Manifesto reported.
Moved by Smith, seconded by Bohn, that a committee of three be appointed to re-write the Manifesto. Carried.
The chair appointed Simons, Trautmann and O’Neil for the committee.
Moved by Hagerty that the conference constitute itself an organized bureau with committees and a Secretary to conduct the necessary business incident to the calling of the coming convention in June. Committees to be appointed by the chair. The Secretary to be elected by the conference. Seconded by De Young.
Amended by Smith that an executive committee of five to conduct all the work incident to the calling of the convention, be elected. Seconded and carried.
Nominations for the Executive Committee were as follows: Trautmann, Smith, Hall, Moyer, Bohn, Hagerty, Estes, Haywood, and Sherman. Vote resulted in the election of Haywood, Hall, Simons, Trautmann and Smith.
Moved by Smith that the expenses of this conference be borne by the members of the conference and that the Executive Committee be instructed to find ways and means to provide the funds for the administration of its work incident to calling the convention. Seconded by Hagerty. Carried.
Moved by Moyer, seconded by O’Neil, that the Manifesto as rewritten be adopted. Hagerty amended the paragraphs of the Manifesto relating to transfers to include workingmen holding union cards from foreign countries. Seconded by Trautmann. Carried. Amended by Sherman to add the words, “Military and judiciary,” seconded by De Young. Carried. Motion to adopt the Manifesto as amended carried.
Moved by Trautmann, seconded by Sherman, that an invitation be extended to the continental Industrial Unions of Europe to send a representative to the convention in Chicago in June. Carried. The chair then announced that the matter of making and forwarding the invitation would be left in the hands of the Executive Committee.
The following persons then contributed fifty cents apiece toward the expenses of the conference: Haywood, Trautmann, Mother Jones, O’Neil Sherman, Hagerty, De Young, Moyer, White, Smith, Unterman, Krafft, Bradley, Pinkerton, Shurtleff, Hail and Estes. Adjourned sine die.
[Photographs added.]
---------------
SOURCE
Proceedings of the First Convention of the
Industrial Workers of the World
New York Labor News Company, 1905
(Can also be read here, scroll down about half for record of January Conference.)
https://www.marxists.org/...
IMAGES
Mother Jones, Miners' Angel
http://www.biography.com/...
Big Bill Haywood, 1904
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
George Estes
http://cdnc.ucr.edu/...
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Internationale - Pete Seeger
Debout! les damnés de la terre
Debout! les forçats de la faim
La raison tonne en son cratère,
C’est l’éruption de la fin.
Du passé faisons table rase
Foule esclave, debout! debout!
Le monde va changer de base
Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout!
C’est la lutte finale
Groupons-nous et demain
L’Internationale
Sera le genre humain.
- Eugène Pottier
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