organization of stability. One
industrial organization, however, has been of the greatest encouragement
to the I.W.W. The Western Federation of Miners, which was organized at
Butte, Montana, on May 15, 1893, has enjoyed a more turbulent history
than any other American labor union. It was conceived in that spirit of
rough resistance which local unions of miners, for some years before
the amalgamation of the unions, had opposed to the ruthless and firm
determination of the mine owners. In 1897, the president of the miners,
after quoting the words of the Constitution of the United States giving
citizens the right to bear arms, said: "This you should comply with
immediately. Every union should have a rifle club. I strongly advise
you to provide every member with the latest improved rifle which can
be obtained from the factory at a nominal price. I entreat you to take
action on this important question, so that in two years we can hear the
inspiring music of the martial tread of 25,000 armed men in the ranks of
labor."

This militant vision was fortunately never quite fulfilled. But armed
strikers there were, by the thousands, and the gruesome details of their
fight with mine owners in Colorado are set forth in a special report
of the United States Commissioner of Labor in 1905. The use of dynamite
became early associated with this warfare in Colorado. In 1903 a fatal
explosion occurred in the Vindicator mine, and Telluride, the county
seat, was proclaimed to be in a state of insurrection and rebellion. In
1904 a cage lifting miners from the shaft in the Independence mine at
Victor was dropped and fifteen men were killed. There were many minor
outrages, isolated murders, "white cap" raids, infernal machines,
deportations, black lists, and so on. In Montana and Idaho similar
scenes were enacted and reached a climax in the murder of Governor
Steunenberg of Idaho. Yet the union officers indicted for this murder
were released by the trial jury.

Such was the preparatory school of the new unionism, which had its
inception in several informal conferences held in Chicago. The first,
attended by only six radical leaders, met in the autumn of 1904. The
second, held in January, 1905, issued a manifesto attacking the trade
unions, calling for a "new departure" in the labor movement, and
inviting those who desired to join in organizing such a movement to
"meet in convention in Chicago the 27th day of June, 1905." About two
hundred per