employers refused to obey the law and as the employers dominated the courts and the government there was no other way to enforce the law, and so the miners went on strike.

As to this we will take some extracts from the sworn testimony before a committee of the National House of Representatives investigating this matter. James Dalrymple, State Inspector of Mines, is on the stand.

Q. How then does it [Colorado] compare with the statistics of the nation? [referring to coal mine accidents].

A. From the time that Colorado started to produce coal until the beginning of 1909 it is nearly two to one; Colorado has killed nearly two to the United States's one.

Q. To the balance of the United States?

A. Taking the United States as a whole; and from that time until the beginning of 1913 it will run about three and one-third.

Q. Accidents at mines, how are they handled? who cares for these men? Does the State maintain miners' hospitals, or are these men cared for out of their own funds, or do the companies bear the expense or how?

A. Some of the companies have hospitals, and the man pays so much per month to help keep him at the hospital.

Q. Sort of a relief fund they pay into?

A. Yes, they pay so much a month for a doctor and hospital combined.

Q. Not voluntary?

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A. No, if you work for a company you have got to pay the doctor.

Q. Why don't you ask the Legislature of Colorado to make you direct appropriations for yourself and the necessary number of deputies to enforce this new law?

A. I would rather ask the devil for transportation to heaven.

Edwin V. Brake, Deputy State Labor Commissioner, was asked:

Q. Have you any State law as to check weighmen?

A. Yes.

Q. What is it?

A. The old law was that if twenty men would petition they were entitled to a check weighman provided they paid for him themselves.

The witness then read reports that had been made to him by an assistant he had assigned to investigate the numerous complaints that had come to him in anonymous letters of cheating by the companies in weighing coal. Following is an extract from the assistant's report:

Colorado Fuel and Iron Company's mine at Morley Has no check weighman. Find the miners complaining of weights. On inspecting two pairs of scales I find that neither will balance and that the scales on the south tipple with 350 pounds increased the weight of a car of coal only 50 pounds. This is very unsatisfactory to the min

ers, who claimed that if they asked for a check weighman they would be discharged. This is disputed by Mr. Harrington, the company attorney at Denver.

At the C. F. & I. Company mines at Berwind and Tobasco I was positively refused to be allowed to examine the scales and was told that I had nothing to do with them. I found the mine policed by a gunman, ready to run any one out of town that didn't suit him."

After explaining the truck, or company store system, Commissioner Brake said: "We have a great many cases of complaint where they have to pay $1 a month."

Q. What for?

A. For an employment agent to keep them in a job.

All of which again was in direct violation of the law.

Q. Why have not you as Commissioner of Labor prosecuted these companies for their violation of the law?

A. Well, most of these violations occur in Las Animas and Huerfano Counties. You, being a stranger here (the committee was sitting in Denver), it is permissible for you to ask that question, but anybody that lives here knows that you cannot prosecute anybody in that country.

The witness added: "The deputy factory inspectors are specifically charged with the en

forcement of the child labor law in this State and we have a great many violations down there, and we tried to get some prosecutions on that, but we could not."

On the subject of wages the witness said: "The average gross earnings per day for the 312 days in the year would be $2.24. Then there are some fixed charges."

Q. You stated a while ago that the State's attorneys met about a year ago and decided to prosecute for infractions of the law in the State of Colorado. Is that a new thing in the State of

Colorado?

A. Well, yes, I should think so. I for four years couldn't get a prosecution in this county.

These brief extracts are printed here as no more than samples and to indicate how just and well founded are the pratings of the men and the newspapers that condemn the Colorado miners as violators of law and order. As a matter of fact the mine owners had abolished all law long before the strike began and had set up a government of their own. The miners instead of being the enemies of law and order were their champions. They were endeavoring to have the law of the state respected and to cause the anarchist mine owners to respect the Constitution of the state and of the United

States. That is perfectly plain from the above testimony and no fair-minded person can hold any other opinion. The simple fact is that the mining companies were the lawbreakers; the miners were the law-defenders.

The companies brought in thugs and gunmen, most of them experienced and seasoned men that had served in West Virginia and Michigan. The Baldwin-Felz detective agency sent in their most expert man-killers, although Section 3 of the state laws of Colorado on Labor Disputes reads "Any person or persons who shall hire, aid, abet, or assist in hiring, through agencies or otherwise, persons to guard with arms or deadly weapons of any kind, other person or property in this State, or any person who shall come into this State armed with deadly weapons of any kind for any such purpose, without a permit in writing from the Governor of this State, shall be guilty of a felony."

The militia of the state was also brought out to overawe the strikers.

As usual in such instances the miners lived in houses owned by the mining companies and as soon as the strike began they were dispossessed. Tents were furnished by the miners' organization and the homeless families were sheltered in