66 The Pinkerton Labor Spy.
The mine owners and corporations doing business in Colorado viewed this unexpected move on the part of the Federation with the gravest concern, for they well knew that the endorsement of Socialism by a powerful body like the W. F. of M. would give that movement an impetus that might soon win success at the polls.
And when the corporation officials imagined honest men piloting the ship of state, and at the head of the city governments of Colorado, they trembled. State troops would no longer be the tools of capital; workingmen would have an honest trial before an upright judge, the corporations would have to do a square business and obey the laws at greatly reduced profits.
As a counter check to the Federation, the trusts first of all fathered an organization known as The Citizens' Alliance, which started in Denver, and soon had branches in every city in Colorado and other Westem points. The membership of the Denver Citizens' Alliance consisted of business people, and their ostensible purpose was to co-operate with organized labor in promoting harmony and industrial prosperity. The real object of the Alliance was to disrupt and rout organized labor, and more particularly to help drive the Western Federation of Miners from the State.
Be it said to the credit of organized labor of Denver that they penetrated the real aims and objects of the Citizens' Alliance, and sought to crush it in its inception by calling a general strike; but beyond tying up the industries of Denver for a few days, labor accomplished nothing. The strike failed.
Once the Alliance was safely organized, Bishop Matz of the Catholic Church thundered forth anathemas against Socialism and its new champions, and thus gave the stamp of religious approval to whatever steps the trusts might take to coerce the miners into