return; surely this was high treason against the State. In the second place, the union miners would undoubtedly re-establish their picket lines and try to persuade the non-union men to quit work and join the Federation; surely this was high treason against the pocketbooks of the mine owners. Horrible! If double treason of this kind does not constitute an insurrection against the consti-
124 The Pinkerton Labor Spy.
tution (of Russia?) and the established order of things, what does?
The mine owners decided that they would be serving their God and their State but poorly if they permitted such treason to go unchallenged.
Accordingly, on the night of March 14th, just seventy-two hours after the suspension of martial law, the Citizens' Alliance of Telluride, 100 strong, met in secret session, and discussed means to handle the situation. The conclusion arrived at was to re-deport the union miners, as the only possible vindication of the Colorado law. The meeting adjourned, and the members armed themselves to the teeth. It was close on midnight before everything was ready, but the lateness of the hour did not cool the enthusiasm of these champions of American institutions.
Everything was done systematically and with expedition. The Citizens' Alliance force was divided into a number of squads, and these detachments tore the union miners from their beds and hustled them off to a place previously agreed upon. About eighty men were soon rounded up and kept under heavy guard until the next morning. Then they were all packed into an outgoing train, and warned never to return on peril of their lives.
Among the men deported was A. H. Floaten, one of the wealthiest and most prominent business men of Telluride. Mr. Floaten was not a miner, nor was he a member of the Federation. His only crime consisted in the fact that he was an active Socialist.