In less than twenty-four hours after their appointment the commission was back in Denver, and troops were on the way to Cripple Creek. No real investigation had been made; the labor side of the question had not been heard at all. But then, is not the word of a mine magnate worth more than the word of a representative of labor? And is not the demand of a
^4 The Pinkerton Labor Spy.
smelter manager of more weight than the solemn assurances of the sheriff of a county?
The gross misrepresentation of facts which served as a pretext for sending the State troops into the district will prepare the reader for a recital of some of the lawless acts committed by the military, and in addition will serve as a warning to people against permitting high offices of State to be occupied by men who have only the interests of the great corporations at heart, and who, in their abject worship of the golden calf, forget their manhood and their sacred honor.
The governor repeatedly assured the people that he had simply sent the troops into the Cripple Creek district to assist the civil officers in maintaining the peace, and that he had not and would not proclaim martial law. But while he was making these statements to the press, his lieutenants in the field, by and with his authority and consent, were guilty of excesses that would beggar the doings of a Russian military dictator.
A few days after the military arrived, C. G. Kennison, president of Miners' Union No. 40, was arrested without a warrant and placed in solitary confinement in a military guard house, commonly styled a bull pen ; and a day or two later Sherman Parker, president of District Union No. i of the Federation, along with three other union men, was treated in a like manner.