The Pinkerton Labor Spy. 121
abandon those plans which they had only dared to speak about or threaten in Cripple Creek.
Here, as in Cripple Creek, the desire of the mine owners was to strike terror into the hearts of the striking miners by a display of martial tyranny the like of which had never before been attempted in this country against workingmen.
The military lost no time in inaugurating a reign of persecution, terror and exile.
The union leaders were first arrested and thrown into jail on the meaningful charge of "conspiring to break the law," and were for a long time kept in solitary confinement, without even being accorded the privilege of consulting counsel. Since such treatment is meted out in Colorado to people arrested on the suspicion that they "conspired to break the law," we wonder what punishment should of right be inflicted on those who, like the Colorado State Administration, stand convicted before God and man of having broken for years every law of heaven and earth, of State and land, at the dictate of men of millions?
Soon after the leaders were arrested and jailed on the charge of "conspiring to break the law," many of the rank and file of the Western Federation of Miners were likewise arrested and thrown into jail on the charge of "vagrancy."
These alleged vagrants, all of whom had funds, and were respectable and law-abiding citizens of the community, had a much harder time than their leaders, who were held on an apparently more serious charge. Some of them were fined, while others were given a term in jail. Still others were treated even worse, being compelled under heavy guard, like convicted felons, to clean the streets of Telluride, and do other menial