provide them with a complete membership list, but would also furnish them with copies of the local union's correspondence with Federation headquarters. No. 5 did all he was told to do.<
During February, 1903, Mr. MacNeill decided to annihilate the union by a crushing blow; and he discharged about twenty-three union employees at one time, unceremoniously telling them the reason for their dismissal. This wholesale attack filled the union with consternation, and almost had the effect hoped for by Mr. MacNeill. But he and the Agency reckoned without the Western Federation of Miners.
So soon as the national officers of the Federation received notice of the doings of MacNeill, President Charles Moyer hastened to Colorado City, consulted with the disheartened members and officers of the union, and infused new life and courage by assuring them of the support of the Miners' Federation.
Mr. Moyer delegated a committee to call on Mr. MacNeill to induce him to reinstate his discharged employees and to cease discriminating. Mr. MacNeill received the committee, told them he needed no advice or assistance from anybody as to how he should conduct his business, and then courteously dismissed them.
Without loss of time, Mr. Moyer ordered the union
36 The Pinkerton Labor Spy.
to declare a strike on the Standard Mill, beginning with Saturday night, February 14th, 1903, and told the men they would be liberally supported with money and all the necessaries of life by the Western Federation of Miners.
The news that a strike was to be declared on the Standard Mill spread like wildfire^ Some men felt timid, but the great majority welcomed the