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 persons
responded to this appeal and organized the Industrial Workers of
the World, almost unnoticed by the press of the day and scorned
by the American Federation of Labor, whose official organ had
called those in attendance at the second conference "engaged in
the delectable work of trying to divert, pervert, and disrupt the
labor movement of the country.
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