As the word of a notorious fabricator would not be believed under oath by a jury, we cannot see why Peabody's word should be believed when he charges other persons or organizations with the crimes that he charged the innocent, atrociously persecuted members of the United Mine Workers of America.
Major Zeph T. Hill was appointed commander of the militia in Las Animas County, with headquarters at Trinidad. Major Hill was a very energetic officer, and the coal miners, no doubt, remember him with great affection.
Curfew was established and enforced. No person
170 The PiNKERTON Labor Spy.
was allowed on the streets after 9 o'clock in the evening.
The coal miners were photographed like notorious criminals, by the Bertillon system. Eighty strikers at Berwind, who objected to being thus humiliated, were marched by a detail of cavalry for twenty miles to Trinidad, in a scorching hot sun, where sufficient force was available to photograph and register these men according to the Bertillon system. The men were given nothing to eat or drink on the road, and one man who fell by the road-side was left lying in the sun. This event occurred on May 19th, 1904.
Meetings of the coal miners' union were forbidden, unless a soldier was present at every meeting.
The press, the telegraph and telephone were placed under rigid military censorship.
Coal miners were deported from the State by trainloads, without reason and without appeal.