WHAT IS YOUR OPINION?

Do you think the four or five thousand striking miners referred to in the following dispatch were honest or dishonest? Did they stand there in the cold with serious and anxious faces, listening to their great leader because they were evilminded and bent on doing somebody a wrong, or was it because they thought somebody was wronging them and refused to stop it? I have no doubt you will say they were honest although some of you may say they were mistaken. But suppose they were mistaken? So long as they thought they were right, should they not have the right to bring those into court whom they accused of wronging them and have the matter fully invesigated and determined? The law gives you that right if somebody wrongs you, but it will have absolutely nothing to do with the wrongs these men complain of, and that is why so many of them are there shivering in the cold, consulting what to do, and eagerly listening to the advice of John Mitchell.

The picture of this little army of poorly paid, poorly fed and poorly clothed miners, standing there in the open air in December, half frozen, listening to a speech on their rights and duties as men, reminds one of Washington's little army of ragged and hungry patriots bravely enduring the rigors of winter at Valley Forge for the sake of freedom.

Trinidad, Colo., Dec. 3d, 1903.-With the temperature at freezing point, President Mitchell addressed a crowd estimated at between 4000 and 5000 in the open air this afternoon. The crowd shivered from cold but listened attentively throughout, frequently interrupting the speaker with cheers. Mr. Mitchell said in part: "I cannot tell when or how the strike will end, whether in a day or a month, or a year, that depends on yourselves. You cannot hope to win without making sacrifices. I have been in many strikes and have seen starvation and eviction. Strikes are serious things, not pleasure, and men must strike bravely. An organization that has met victory in great Pennsylvania. Strikes cannot be driven from Colorado. Our organization is 380,000 strong, strong to be beaten in this State. If you are of the same mind as I am you will mine no more coal until you receive fair compensation under proper conditions. You should all obey the law, and this a good man will do. You must fight peaceably."

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Do you imagine these eight hundred women are pleading with the President of the United States to protect bad men, anarchists and insurrectionists?

Cripple Creek, Colo., Dec. 5, 1903.-In consequence of Governor Peabody's order placing this district under martial law a committee of the women's auxiliary of the labor unions

of this city, numbering eight hundred members, has telegraphed President Roosevelt "appealing to him for protection against unjust ruling of the governor of the State."

Who is it that is carrying on with a high hand?

"The declaration of martial law has paralyzed all business in this city. Heavily armed pickets of the National Guard are stationed at all street corners and many residents do not venture on the streets. Provost Marshal McClelland is occupying the Mayor's office and has caused the arrest of several persons. The Western Federation of Miners is preparing to make a joint fight against martial law and for the release of their members now confined in various jails and bull-pens.

Following the supression of the Victor Record Provost Marshal McClelland to-day threatened to cut off Cripple Creek from the outside world by locking up the correspondents of Denver papers and censor all matters sent Denver newspapers.

Is this the language of men without a grievance?

"Denver, Dec. 5, 1903.-The Executive Board of the Western Federation of Miners to-day issued an address pledging the moral and financial support of the organization to its members in Colorado, Arizona, California, Nevada and every other locality where they are fighting a battle against corporate despotism and for the uplifting of humanity to a higher plane of civilization."

To the coal miners who have joined in the fight for eighthour day, the address says: "We pledge the deathless fraternity of our organization."

Concerning Governor Peabody's action in placing Cripple Creek under martial law the address says:

"The Executive Board can find no words satisfactorily strong to denounce this act in the most brutal drama of coercion that makes a Russian Siberia a paradise when compared to Colorado.

"We know no surrender, and justice will arise from the staggering blow administered by a soulless executive and the future will record the political revenge of an oppressed people, who are awakening from their lethargy to smite unbridled tyranny a blow that will end in its eternal death."

Do not be too hard on poor Peabody, boys; he is a todyist of course, but he cannot help it. He is the legitimate offspring of conditions that have existed for a long time. Let us wipe. out the conditions that produced him and the breed will soon become extinct.

MINERS' ORGANIZATION TREATED WITH CONTEMPT BY MINE OWNERS.

"Denver, Dec. 3, 1903.-Delosa Chappell, President of the Victor Fuel Company and F. J. Hearne, of the Colorado Fuel Iron Co., held a conference to-day to agree upon a line of action to be pursued in respect to any proposition that may be received from the United Mine Workers looking to a settlement of the strike in Southern Colorado. It was decided to reject any proposition that may come from the United Mine Workers.

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'Our course is fully determined upon," said Mr. Chappell. "We have nothing whatever to do with Mr. Mitchell and his collegue."

Never mind, miners, "Every dog has his day" and "it is a long lane that has no turn." Stick together and vote together and you will by and by officer the government of the State and Nation and these contemptious nabobs will fawn around you for favors like whipped puppies.

MORE HIGHHANDED INJUSTICE IN COLORADO.

Denver, Colo., Dec. 2, 1903.-A special to the News from Telluride, says eight of the seventeen strikers who were arrested on the charge of vagrancy Monday, and fined and given until this afternoon to leave town or return to work, were rearrested to-day and lodged in jail. The others were not found by the deputy sheriff although it is not believed any of them have left town and not one of them has returned to work nor paid his fine. It is understood that the men will be put to work on the streets under guard. Twelve non-union men arrived in Telluride to-night.

Telluride, Colo., Dec. 3, 1903.-Eight of the seventeen striking miners who were arrested on the charge of vagrancy were put to work on the streets to-day under guard. Some of them had money but they preferred to work out their fines rather than pay them.

Mr. Mitchell and other mine workers officials were served to-day with papers in a damage suit for $85,000 filed by the Victor Fuel Co. President Mitchell was to-day served with a summons to court in the suit of the Victor Fuel Co., for an injunction to restrain the United Mine Workers' officials from interfering in any manner with the operation of the company's mines."

Ordered to leave town or return to work!

Return where to work? To the Victor Fuel Co. of course. Oh No! The troops are not for the purpose of intimidating

anybody. They are "to keep order." These men have just quit working for that company for a cause which they deemed sufficient, and the chances are that they have money enough to pay their way. How then, can they be vagrants?

If a man stops work because he wants to and has money to pay his way, does that make him a vagrant to be ordered out of town?

If that rule was applied to all, where would many of the officials and stockholders of the Victor Fuel Company fetch up?

THE CONSPIRACY FINALLY EXPOSED. GENERAL BELL GIVES REASONS FOR RESIGNING.

Denver, Colo., May 22, 1904.-"The State militia was degraded to the uses of corporations which connived at the breaking of the law. The very men whom we used troops to protect, imported all-around bad men, the very men I ran out of their camps, to break the law in Denver and carried the election in their interests. With this statement Adjutant General Bell, heretofore the right-hand man of Governor Peobody in his military methods of handling recent labor troubles, announced to-day his purpose to resign his position and have nothing more to do with what he considers an improper use of the State forces.

"I shall resign the office of Adjutant General probably tomorrow and by the first of July there will be another man in my place," he continued, "I do not approve of using the militia of the State to help any political movement. I am accused of using, or attempting to use the militia in the late campaign. This is false, but the corporations used the militia for their purposes, and instead of the militia being used to protect the people and uphold the law, that force was actually used to encourage trouble."

There you have it, from the lips of the highest officer in command of the troops that they were used by corporations under the pretense of protecting the people and upholding the law, when actually, they were used to encourage trouble."

NO LAW IN UTAH

To protect the rights and interests of laboring men, but plenty of it and plenty of officials and militia to help corporations defeat their rights.

"Salt Lake, Nov. 28, 1903.-Vice-President Kramer, of the Utah Fuel Co., has replied to Gov. Well's telegram of yesterday asking if he (Kramer) would meet a committee from the Miners' Union and endeavor to settle the coal miners' strike in Carbon county.

In his reply Mr. Kramer positively declined to meet representatives of the United Mine Workers of America on the ground that the present condition of affairs was brought about "for the sole purpose of aiding their organizers in installing their union in its supremacy to the law, order, dignity and peace of the State and the absolute exclusion from work of all employes of the Utah Fuel Co. who would not join their Union.

Why should not Mr. Kramer decline to meet representatives of the United Mine Workers when he knows, with the aid of the State militia he is independent of them and can down them? The militia are there to do his bidding and help him do it.

Suppose the weight of the militia's influence was transferred to the miners' side of the scale, what then?

But think of his impudence and assurance in accusing the laboring men of striking "for the sole purpose of installing their union in its supremacy to the law," which is not true, "and the absolute exclusion from work of all who would not join the union?"

What was the Utah Fuel Co. "installed" for? Was it not to corral and obtain a monopoly on all the coal in the State to the "absolute exclusion" of everybody else? Was it not for the "sole" purpose of forcing everybody who used coal to pay monoply prices for it?

Is there nothing then, in the objects and purposes of his company that is equivalent to "installing it in its supremacy to the law, order, dignity and peace of the State?" Perhaps not, but it will disturb the peace of mind of tens of thousands of people to dig up the price of a ton or two of coal just the same, and it would also disturb the dignity and good order of every miner's family to learn how to live on the very lowest living wages, if he had to work for the company and the union was not strong enough to protect his right to just wages.