Colorado Labor Wars 1903-1904
Go West, young man! The discovery of silver and gold in the West after the American Civil War created a population and mining boom. Men, and some women, flocked to the American West in the hopes of finding the “mother lode.” Most arrived with wild hopes of great fortunes. Their reality was very different. Searching for silver or gold was expensive. Individuals had to pay for a claim, the land in which they had rights to search for precious metals, and their equipment, along with lodging and food. Many obtained these items with the little cash they had and the promise that they would pay their creditors back once they found their riches. Few ever found those riches.
Eastern industrialists entered the Western precious metals market. Mines and company towns were scattered throughout the West wherever silver and gold existed. For the men indebted to others, laboring in the mining camps meant that they would receive an income for their labor and have access to food and shelter, as long as they could pay their rent from their wages. A company miner’s livelihood depended upon the sale of silver and gold; if those markets fell, their wages declined significantly.
In the late 1870s, miners in Butte, Montana laid the groundwork for the Butte Miners’ Union. Over time, the union had enough labor victories under its belt that its membership formed the Western Federation of Miners in 1893. This new labor organization included most of the workers who mined in the West, including Colorado. The formation of the union was fortuitous as the price of silver began to plummet at the onset of the 1893 financial panic.
As the price of silver declined, mining companies began making wage cuts. As with laboring counterparts in eastern industries, rents and the price of goods remained the same while pay was reduced. States with mining operations pandered to the mine owners to ensure that the wealth of their operations benefited the state and its political climate. Mine workers, on the other hand, were forced to labor for lower wages. In 1894, the Western Federation of Miners called a strike in retaliation for mine owners lengthening the work day from eight hours to nine hours without increasing pay.
Mine owners in Cripple Creek, Colorado, near present-day Colorado Springs, locked out their workers and began publicizing the need for laborers in the mines. The governor of Colorado, Davis Waite, a Populist supportive of workers’ rights, called in state troops to protect the workers’ rights and to maintain the peace. The strike ended with no change in the working days for miners. By 1903, state support for the workers had evaporated.
Beginning in 1903, the Western Federation of Miners wanted to get smelter workers an eight-hour day. Miners throughout the region of Cripple Creek struck in sympathy. This time, Governor James Peabody, a staunch supporter of business, used state troops to intimidate and forcibly remove workers. Joining the state troops were the mine owners’ security agents from the Pinkerton Detective Agency.
Western Federation of Miners struck in the mining areas of Colorado City, Cripple Creek, Idaho Springs, Telluride, Denver, and Durango from March 1903 through June 1904. Dynamite was used to sabotage mines and to control the movement of strikers. Riots broke out among union workers, nonunion workers, and supporters on both sides. Striking workers also violently deported company men or forced them to concede to union demands. Explosions of mines and plans to derail trains were a part of the labor unrest in the mining areas of Colorado.
Despite the regional violence among strikers, strikebreakers, and company men, there were few recorded deaths. This may be due to the influx of new workers entering the mining area and people abandoning the violence. In the aftermath of the Colorado Labor Wars, the Western Federation of Miners joined forces with the newly formed Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1905.