When it became known that an agreement had been
50 The Pinkerton Labor Spy.
reached, there was much rejoicing all over the state, and everybody prepared for an era of prosperity and happiness.
But there were five elements which were a bar to the continuance of peace: Manager MacNeill, who had no idea of keeping faith with his men; the Agency, which preached war to the knife against the Western Federation of Miners; Governor Peabody, who at best was a toy in the hands of corporation managers; the Cripple Creek Mine Owners' Association, which was leagued to crush the Federation of Miners; and Sherman Bell, Adjutant General of the State of Colorado, generally regarded as a hare-brained adventurer, scarcely to be trusted with the guardianship of a pigpen, let alone the military forces of a great state.