The gulf between conservative radical perspectives in the Western Federation of Miners was already unbridgeable before the I.W.W.’s 1905 founding, as B.H. Williams observes. The split would formally occur in 1907, with the conservatives centered on the flagship Butte Miners Union No. 1. Ben H. Williams was one of a number of talented activists of the Socialist Labor Party who remained with the I.W.W. when the S.L.P. split in 1908. Williams would go on to be a major figure in the wobblies as editor of Solidarity from 1910-1917.

‘The Western Federation of Miners’ by B.H. Williams from The Weekly People. Vol. 15 No. 7. May 13, 1905.

In the year 1893, in the city of Butte, Montana, the Western Federation of Miners was launched as a national organization, with the avowed purpose, as expressed in its motto, of “Education, organization, independence”. Had the Federation’s motto been lived up to from the start, many of the sad experiences of a decade might have been spared the Western labor movement. But the kind of education its members received was not an education in the theoretical knowledge of the class struggle, together with the practical recognition of that struggle in its industrial conflicts. On the contrary, the Federation’s education was derived from a succession of bitter defeats on the economic field; from blind encounters with capitalist courts and militias; from the horrors of bull pens; from deportations and wrecked unions. Its form of organization made the Federation a sort of caricature of industrial unionism, while its spirit and methods, a reflex of that organized form, showed it to be essentially a pure and simple affair. Without adequate provision for educating its membership in the theoretic understanding, of their class interests, and in its organization lacking the essentials for unity and coherence, the Western Federation of Miners may well serve as a warning to the American Labor Movement.

Not the least of the tasks of the new industrial union that it is hoped the June 27th convention will launch, will be the task of bringing about “working class unity” among its original components. Among the many constituents of the American Labor Union, which has agreed by referendum to join the new organization, there are varying degrees of ripeness. Some of the American Labor Union organizations are doubtless for the changes called for by the Manifesto, while others are in an undeveloped state and will require much nurture and discipline to put them on the ground of the class struggle and keep them there. In the Western Federation of Miners, such unions, for example, as the Butte Mill and Smeltermen’s, No. 74, are undoubtedly ripe enough to catch the spirit and purpose of industrial unionism. The ripeness in this case is largely due to the fact that the Smeltermen’s Union several years ago set apart five per cent. of its receipts from dues to be used as an educational fund, and since that time its members have been receiving some of the best and most instructive literature of the labor movement. On the other hand, the big Butte Miners’ Union No. 1, is the veritable “white elephant “of the Federation, and presents a nest serious problem for industrial unionism. Organized in 1878, and in point of numbers and resources the largest in the Western Federation of Miners, this union remains practically in the same pure and simple state in which it was founded. The preamble to the Butte Miners’ Union is a strange document, reading like an echo from a past industrial stage:

“Whereas, in view of the fearfully hazardous nature of our vocation, premature old age, and many ills the result of our unnatural toil; and whereas, society which will enable the miner to be his own benefactor WOULD ALSO RELIEVE THE CORPORATIONS OF BUTTE; and whereas, it is profitable to retain skilled and experienced labor when its demand is significant in proportion to the benefits to be derived from its use; and whereas, we should cultivate an acquaintance with our fellows in order that they may be the better enabled to form an undivided opposition to acts of injustice: therefore, we, the miners of Butte, have resolved to form an association for the promotion and protection of our common interests, and have adopted the annexed constitution and by-laws for its guidance, for united we possess strength. Let us then, Act justly, and fear not.”

Capitals are mine. The clause thus emphasized, lends color to an alleged assertion of the late Marcus Daly, pioneer “copper king” of Montana. When asked his attitude regarding labor unions, Mr. Daly is reported to have said that he would not permit the Butte Miners’ union to live a day did it not relieve him of many and varied financial obligations, referring of course, to the care of the sick and crippled from his mines, the burial of miners killed therein, or of those dying from that dread scourge, miners’ consumption, as well as numerous damage suits that might grow out of “unavoidable” accidents and deaths in the mines. The extent of that “relief” which Marcus Daly had in mind, may be inferred from a few facts and statis: tics of accidents and mortality in the Butte mines. Deputy State Inspector J.J. Barry reports 36 fatal and 13 non-fatal accidents in the Butte mines in 1904. But that is not all. The state mine inspector, in his report for the same year, speaking of the fact that there is no specific statute in Montana governing the sanitary conditions of mines, adds:

“In the Butte mines conditions have become so bad in a sanitary way that a reference to the statistics of mortality in that city will show that at least 100 per cent. more men die from diseases caused by bad sanitary conditions in the mines than result from all mine disasters. A very considerable number of the underground workers in Butte are most seriously affected with lung and throat diseases brought on and caused by the unhealthy and unsanitary conditions under which they are obliged to perform their daily duties. Absolutely no provision is made for protecting the health of these men in a sanitary way.”

Confirmatory evidence comes also from the president of the Associated Charities, another organization that is assisting the Butte Miners’ Union to “relieve the corporations.” From an appeal for funds, sent out last winter, and signed by Mrs. Alice Roach, President, I take the following passage:

“The treasury has reached a point of depletion that causes alarm. With the cold weather just beginning innumerable calls are made on the treasury by helpless widows and children of men who have been injured or killed in the mines, or of those who died after long illness: with miners consumption, and the deserted wives left destitute and helpless with young children, often infants. That they may be cared for, the Associated Charities must ask for assistance. Everyone in Butte knows the prevalence of miners’ consumption.”

In view of the above facts, it may be asked where the first part of the clause of the preamble comes in, that is, how the union has “enabled the miner to be his own benefactor”? Certainly that union has “relieved the corporations of Butte”; how has it assisted the miners to improve their condition or to “form an undivided opposition to acts of injustice” on the part of their employers?

Briefly stated, the mining situation in Butte has always been that of two rival “copper kings” competing with one another for political and economic power. Formerly it was Marcus Daly and W.A. Clark, and the miners were kept divided along the lines of nationality, Daly catering to the Irish and Clark to the English. Today it is J.D. Rockefeller and F.A. Heinze, or the Amalgamated Copper Co. and the United Copper Co. Nationalities no longer divide the workers, the trick is now done to the tune of the “trust” and the “anti-trust”. Heinze poses as the foe of the “trust” and the friend of workingmen; he is moreover a genius in the art of fooling the people, and has the advantage of being constantly on the scene to direct operations. The people of Butte look upon Heinze as a “protector” against Standard Oil aggression. Mostly as a result of this competition between rival corporations, wages of miners have been kept from falling, and an occasional “sop” in the form of an eight hour, or some other “labor law” has been thrown out to quiet the workers.

In the mines, however, absolutely no protection is afforded the workers against “acts of injustice”. A complete system of espionage prevails therein, and the fear of the “spotter” puts the seal of terror on the lip and the look of distrust in the eye of every miner. Scores of “rustlers” throng the mines three times a day the year round, ready to take the places of those who, for some reason, cannot keep pace with the mad rush for profits. By means of this reserve army and the spy system, the miner is kept in constant terror for his job, and readily submits to whatever conditions the capitalist sees fit to impose upon him. Unsanitary mines, defective timbering, due to the rush of getting out ore, unprotected chutes and manways, leading to accidents swell the statistics of mortality and add to the list of maimed and crippled with monotonous regularity, while coroner’s juries, “composed of miners,” invariably return the verdict of “unavoidable accident.”

What is the Butte Miners’ Union doing all the while? “Relieving the corporations” of the inevitable consequences of such conditions–of possible damage suits, of funeral expenses and hospital fees! That this union is powerless to protect its members was shown in the case of the switchmen’s strike in Butte two years ago. In September, 1903, the switchmen and trainmen on the B.A. & P., working in the yards around the mines, struck for the reinstatement of one of their number, a member of the Brotherhood of Railway Switchmen, discharged for presenting certain demands of the switchmen to the company. To protect the strike breakers and the company’s property against the men on strike, miners, with union cards in their pockets, were called out of the mines, armed with pick handles, and compelled by the company to patrol the tracks until the strike was broken and the switchmen’s union “smashed”. The Butte Miners’ union not only failed to discipline its members for thus assisting strike breakers to take the places of their fellow workers, but the union likewise offered no protest against the company’s forcing union men to do the work of scabs.

Both Heinze and the Amalgamated are “friends of the Butte Miners’ Union,” so long as that body confines itself to its original purpose of “relieving the corporations.” Each is willing to assist the union to collect dues for such purposes by discharging miners who refuse to pay dues. But neither Heinze nor the Amalgamated will tolerate interference by that union with internal conditions of their mines. Nor does the union attempt to interfere.

Engineered by “company suckers,” deserted by the rank and file, who do not attend its meetings and only pay dues from compulsion–the Butte Miners’ Union presents a spectacle of impotence that is pathetic and disheartening in view of the systematic, highly organized and terribly effective capitalist machine arrayed against it.

What will the coming industrial union do with an organization like this? This question suggests another: What will the new industrial union do with the Western Federation of Miners? A fountain cannot rise higher than its source.

The Butte Miners’ Union has been dominated by its friends the “backbone of the Federation.” Will the June 27th convention break that backbone?  

New York Labor News Company was the publishing house of the Socialist Labor Party and their paper The People. The People was the official paper of the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP), established in New York City in 1891 as a weekly. The New York SLP, and The People, were dominated Daniel De Leon and his supporters, the dominant ideological leader of the SLP from the 1890s until the time of his death. The People became a daily in 1900. It’s first editor was the French socialist Lucien Sanial who was quickly replaced by De Leon who held the position until his death in 1914. Morris Hillquit and Henry Slobodin, future leaders of the Socialist Party of America were writers before their split from the SLP in 1899. For a while there were two SLPs and two Peoples, requiring a legal case to determine ownership. Eventual the anti-De Leonist produced what would become the New York Call and became the Social Democratic, later Socialist, Party. The De Leonist The People continued publishing until 2008.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/050513-weeklypeople-v15n07.pdf