the Mine Owners' Association. It was the duty of this commission to decide the fate of all the miners and union sympathizers in the military bull pens.
Scenes were now enacted daily in Victor and Cripple Creek that put one in mind of the Revolutionary Tribunal's "Reign of Terror" in France more than a century ago — or the more recent vengeance of capitalism upon the Paris Commune in 1871.
During the days of the French Revolution, all those brought before the Tribunal were merely asked if they were aristocrats. If they were of noble birth, they were invariably sent to the guillotine. In 1871, everyone confessing himself even a theoretical Communist was shot. While the Military Commission on Deportation did not order any executions, yet what it did in free America in 1904 was bad enough.
Let us assume that the commission is in session: John Smith is brought before the tribunal under heavy guard.
President: John Smith, are you a union man?
Smith: Yes, sir.
President: I sentence you to deportation from this district, and warn you never to return, on peril of your life. Officer, take him away!
The Pinkerton Labor Spy. 109
Tom Brown is brought in.
President: Tom Brown, is it a fact that you sympathize with the union men?
Brown: I do.