I met Steve Stucka this evening. He asked me if I thought the strike would be settled soon. I told him I heard nothing of a settkm^nt or anything that would in-
64 The Pinkerton Labor Spy.
dicate a settlement; that the strike would last a long time yet, also that I believed the union will have to give up by next fall, if we did not win by that time.
Now, that the convention is over, I will again take personal charge of the relief work and will carry out the instructions I received from Mr. Cary about a week ago in regard to cutting down the relief as much as possible, so as to cause dissatisfaction, and get the men against the union,
I will put the blame for not giving the men more relief as much as I can on W, D, Haywood, by saying I am carrying out his instructions,
I discontinued at 9 P. M.
Yours respectfully,
But Mr. McParland was mistaken. The men chose starvation and idleness rather than starvation wages for twelve hours work at the fiery furnaces of the smelters.
Month after month went by, and yet the men stayed out, until, wearied with the hopeless struggle, the union, after a two-year fight, called the strike off, and permitted its members to resume work. This defeat of the union was due, not so much to the work of No. 42 as to the occurrences in the Cripple Creek district during the closing moaths of 1903 and the summer of 1904.