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1903 Cripple Creek, Colorado labor wars...
1903 Cripple Creek, Colorado labor wars...
Item # 723146
December 05, 1903
THE EVENING TRIBUNE, San Diego, Dec. 5, 1903
* Colorado Labor Wars - martial law
* Cripple Creek mining district strikes
The top of the front page has a three column headline: "PRESS CENSORSHIP AT CRIPPLE CREEK" with subhead. (see images) Surprisingly this issue is in good condition being from the "wood pulp" era. Very hard to find issues that are not totally fragile from this era in paper.
Complete with 8 pages, small library stamps within the masthead, generally very nice.
AI notes: The Cripple Creek mining district strikes of 1903–1904 were among the most violent and consequential labor conflicts in Colorado history, rooted in tensions between the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) and mine owners over wages, hours, and union recognition. In 1903, miners demanded enforcement of the eight-hour workday and protested wage reductions and the use of nonunion labor, prompting mine owners to form the Cripple Creek Mine Owners’ Association and refuse negotiations. As strikes spread, the conflict escalated into sabotage, mine shutdowns, and armed confrontations, including a deadly explosion at the Independence Depot in June 1904 that killed several nonunion workers, an act widely blamed—though never conclusively proven—on union extremists. Colorado Governor James H. Peabody declared martial law multiple times, deploying the state militia, which openly sided with mine owners by arresting union leaders without warrants, deporting hundreds of striking miners from the district, and suppressing the WFM. By late 1904, the strike collapsed under military pressure, mass deportations, and blacklisting, effectively destroying union power in Cripple Creek and marking a major defeat for organized labor while reinforcing the use of state authority to intervene decisively on behalf of industrial interests during the Progressive Era.
Category: The 20th Century
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