Charles Moyer
He led the union through the Colorado Labor Wars, was accused of murdering an ex-governor of the state of Idaho, and was shot in the back during a bitter copper mine strike.
[1] Moyer was strongly committed to industrial unionism, and pushed the WFM to organize both underground and surface miners as well as all ancillary mine workers.
He was released on bail, but re-arrested the following day on the orders of Adjutant General Sherman Bell of the state militia on charges of "military necessity".
Writing for the majority, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. refused to question the governor's assertion of facts which led to the declaration of martial law or grounds for Moyer's arrest.
Concluding that the governor's good faith would protect a person's constitutional rights, Holmes held that Moyer's civil liberties had not been infringed.
He concluded that only "one big union" linked to a strong political party could effectively counteract the anti-union power of the state and employers.
[1] In January 1905, Moyer participated in a conference in Chicago to consider whether the Socialist Party would be an effective vehicle for labor's goals.
Using coercion and intimidation (including restricted food rations and threats of immediate execution), Pinkerton agent James McParland wrung a 64-page confession from Orchard.
But they waited until Saturday evening to arrest Haywood, Pettigrew, and Moyer, then held the three overnight in the Denver Jail, and refused requests by the three to contact lawyers and family.
Early Sunday morning the prisoners were put on a special train, and guarded by Colorado militia, were sped to Idaho.
Concerned that the WFM's reputation for radicalism was making it difficult to reach collective bargaining agreements, Moyer re-affiliated his union with the conservative American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1911.
[13] He pushed resolutions through the WFM convention committing the union to the same limited legislative goals favored by the AFL such as the eight-hour day, a ban on child labor, and controls on immigration.
Historian Vernon H. Jensen has asserted that the IWW had a "rule or ruin" policy, under which it attempted to wreck local unions which it could not control.
In Minnesota, for example, the miners went on strike in 1916 to abolish the contract system, to secure a minimum wage, and to end exploitation by the company.
[19] According to Marxist historian Philip S. Foner, the issues of socialism and industrial unionism — and more specifically, the AFL vs. the IWW — had been debated by the Minnesota miners since the WFM's Mesabi Range strike of 1907.
[22][23][24][25] On August 22, soon after Moyer returned to Denver, he asked American Federation of Labor (AFL) President Samuel Gompers for financial aid for the Michigan strikers.
Six days later the AFL Executive Council endorsed the strike; it did not assess affiliates but suggested an immediate appropriation of at least five cents per member.
[26][27][28][29][30] On Sunday afternoon, August 31, a crowd of 2,700, 800 of them women and children, marched in sweltering heat to pack the Palestra, a "colossal oven," where Moyer encouraged them to continue early morning picketing, telling them they had the right to peacefully persuade men to stay away from work.
Were there "a few more conservative talkers such as Moyer there might be a chance, many people believe, for the federation to accomplish something, for the other class of verbal bombs is reacting against the organization," the reporter stated.
Moyer said that he favored having the militia in the district but that "the governor should order them to disarm all these thugs and gunmen, load them on trains and dump them without the confines of the state."
Ferris was skeptical, saying it resembled his earlier rejected proposals: "When James MacNaughton says that he will let grass grow in the streets before he will ever treat with the Western Federation of Miners or its representatives, I believe what he says."
[26][32] Moyer returned to the district for a day with Darrow and then went to Chicago to confer with Duncan McDonald of the Illinois division of the United Mine Workers of America about a $100,000 loan.
Moyer also obtained a $25,000 loan from the United Brewery Workers of America, and contributions to the WFM's Michigan Defense Fund rose to $18,074 in September.
Special Houghton County Prosecutor George E. Nichols warned Moyer that he would hold him accountable if strikers attacked the Alliance parades.
The night before the meetings, Moyer told strikers at Red Jacket to avoid violence, and that the Alliance was looking for any opportunity to make trouble.
Organizers Thomas Strizich, Yanko Terzich, Mor Oppman and Ben Goggin translated his message to the strikers.
Moyer urged the AFL to give this the greatest publicity and call it to the immediate attention of President Woodrow Wilson.
As the grand jury started its work, Judge Orrin N. Hilton of Denver arrived to reinforce the WFM's legal staff.
The Houghton Trades and Labor Council wired Ferris on December 11 saying that it feared bloodshed from the Alliance and asked for an immediate federal investigation of the situation.
Headlines in the Mining Gazette epitomized the feeling: WHILE COPPER COUNTRY MOURNS FOR ITS DEAD, MOYER TRIED TO MAKE CAPITAL OF DISASTER and USES CHILDREN'S DEATHS TO BENEFIT HIS STRIKE.
