There has existed at Goldfield, which is exclusively a mining town of an estimated population of between 15,000 and 20,000 in South Nevada, for over a year past, and especially since the spring of 1907, a disturbed industrial situation, due to frequently recurring labor difficulties between the mine operators on the one hand and the miners on the other. The two sides were represented almost completely by the Goldfield Mine Operators' Association, ... on the one hand and by the local union of the Western Federation of Miners on the other, a union comprising substantially all the miners in Goldfield. This union, known as Goldfield Miners' Union No. 220, is a branch of the general organization known as the Western Federation of Miners. It has carried on its rolls a membership estimated at above 3,000 men, which number, however, included members of crafts in Goldfield other than workers in and about mines. Figures furnished us by the mine operators showed that about 1,900 mine workers went on a strike on Nov. 27, 1907. Although a number of strikes and minor difficulties had occurred during 1907, the only acute situation arising prior to the call for troops existed in the spring of 1907. This controversy involved not only a dispute between the mine owners and the miners at Goldfield, but also between the members of the miners' union and the members of other crafts in Goldfield affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. The Goldfield Miners' union was also affiliated with the organization known as the Industrial Workers of the World, and an effort was made to force members of other crafts not affiliated with this organization to join its ranks. Not only the Mine Owners' Association and members of the miners' union went armed, but members of crafts not affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World felt it necessary to carry arms to protect themselves while at work. The condition of Goldfield at that time was that of an armed camp, and for a time a serious clash seemed imminent. The controversy resulted in the murder of a restaurant keeper[361] and aroused such opposition against the Industrial Workers of the World that a ban was practically put upon them, and the organization under that name was forced to abandon Goldfield. This acute situation disappeared before the spring of 1907. A succession of miners' strikes, however, had taken place throughout 1907, some of them with apparently little justification; and although the operators had yielded to nearby all the demands of the union, it seemed impossible to secure any settled industrial conditions.
The mine operators insist that the socialistic doctrine adopted and preached by the Western Federation of Miners practically justified the stealing of ore by the miner.... The industrial situation was further aggravated by the fact that the Goldfield Union would not enter into any contract governing working conditions for any specified length of time, and the mine operators, therefore, could have no assurance at any time that any settlement of a dispute was more than a temporary makeshift, nor could they secure any assurance of stable industrial conditions for any fixed length of time. Moreover, the Goldfield Miners' Union embraces in one single union not only the various crafts working in and about the mines, but also clerks, waiters, bartenders and other miscellaneous crafts and avocations in Goldfield. On Nov. 27, 1907, a strike of the miners was inaugurated and is still in effect. This strike grew out of a refusal on the part of the miners to accept cashier's checks in payment of their wages. The miners insisted upon some form of guaranty by the mine operators of whatever paper was accepted in lieu of cash. Various propositions were made, but no basis of agreement was reached.[362]
The commission reported that there was no adequate excuse for the request for Federal troops.
The action of the mine operators [said the commissioners] warrants the belief that they had determined upon a reduction of wages and the refusal of employment to members of the Western Federation of Miners, but that they feared to take this course of action unless they had the protection of Federal troops, and that they accordingly laid a plan to secure such troops and then put their program into effect.[363]
Although at the time the I. W. W. and the W. F. M. made common cause, after the final separation of the two national bodies the Federation was not only critical but bitterly denunciatory. The editor of the official organ of the W. F. M.—J. M. O'Neill—was derisive in his comments on the rôle of the I. W. W. at Goldfield. "The I. W. W. took root at Goldfield, Nevada," he says, "and a vast number of the miners became the victims of the sophistry and fell for the propaganda of the spouting hoodlums.... Other mining camps of Nevada became infected with I. W. W.-ism...." But he comes thankfully to the conclusion that "the labor movement of Nevada is slowly recovering from the pestilence of I. W. W.-ism...."[364]
Charges of a very different character were hurled at the I. W. W. and its Goldfield activities from financial circles in Chicago. It was stated that "detectives have substantiated allegations of a conspiracy to commit ten murders, a conspiracy formed and fostered within the hierarchy of the I. W. W...." And that "leaders of the I. W. W.... have been using this labor trouble as a lever for stockmarket jobbery...."[365] This last charge was reiterated in another issue of the same paper, in which it was suggested that "certain stock brokers were working hand in glove with the leaders and agitators at the head of the I. W. W. to break the market...."[366]
A member of the I. W. W. now living in Goldfield, and who took part in the industrial struggles of 1906 and 1907, sends the following brief comment:
In September, 1906, at the behest of the mine owners, 220 of the W. F. M. took a vote to take the town workers, No. 77 of the I. W. W., into their fold. It was carried with the assistance of the church, and 220 and 77 were amalgamated. The first cry on the streets before they even held a meeting was that the cooks and waiters were running the miners' meeting; then followed the dissensions mapped out by the mine owners, the Citizens' Alliance, the stool-pigeons, spies and gum-shoes, till the following September the convention expelled the W. F. M. for non-payment of per-capita tax and the W. F. M. sent organizers of the Sherman faction, but the dual unions did not last long, and in fact 220 itself was shaking, till finally it went down and the only cry you hear from those whom the powers that be cannot control is the one big union, and it is only a matter of a short time till the workers get aroused, and then there will be something doing.[367]
The I. W. W. and the W. F. M. did win important concessions from the Mine Operators in Goldfield and that, according to officials of the I. W. W., was the reason why they were so roundly abused. "The chief crime of the I. W. W. in Goldfield," said St. John, "was that they had secured the eight-hour day with wages from $3.00 to $5.00 and board for all restaurant and hotel employees; a ten-hour day with $5.00 wages for clerks, and an eight-hour day with $6.00 per day for bartenders."[368] Most I. W. W. leaders point to the Goldfield situation in those early days as a conspicuous illustration not only of improvements gained in wage and hours, but also of the possibilities of job control by the workers. An I. W. W. who was an active participant in the Goldfield achievements of the I. W. W. and is now a district organizer on the Pacific Coast, writes:
At that time we had job control in many mining camps. At