Industrial Espionage 1890s Style: Undercover Agents in the Coeur d'Alene Mining District
By Fritz E. Wolff
ven though railroads, statehood, and other tended to chive home tl1eir claim to represent tl1e talismans of civilization had reached the district's nu.ners, and to send a message to mine E Pacific Coast by 1890, the twenty years management d1at the goal of uruoruzation justi that followed still contained a measure of raw, fied virtually any action. TI1e MOA reacted wid1 contentious, and sometimes dangerous living for their· own brand of tyranny-blacklisti11g uruon settlers of the American West. Tius was especially members w ith a "work by pemut" system, and true in mining outposts lilce Cripple Creek and creating a virtual business bonanza for detective Telluride in Colorado, Tonopah, Nevada, and agencies in undercover agents, or "operatives," Bisbee, Arizona, w here upstart labor unions hil·ed to infrltr·ate muon ranlcs to gatl1er tl1e infor competed with each other to gain d1e attention mation needed to guide counter-uruon str·ategy.' and allegiance of the working man . Likewise, the Fort unately for d1e comparues, two compet discovery of rich lead-silver deposits in Idaho's ing detective agencies were located only a day's Coeur d'Alene brought a rush of miners, joumey away in Spokane. TI1e Pinkerton Brotl1- capitalists, and uruon organizers aillce, all hoping ers Agency had offices in a dozen cities besides to cash in on opporturuties made possible by the Spokane. Its competition came from the Thiel immense n1ineral wealth. Agency, run by an ex-policeman named William This collision of interests and agendas fos S. Swair1-self-styled as "Captain" Swair1. Writ tered the development of two adversarial Oigaru ten reports from operatives of these agencies zations. First, a disparate collection of early la provide eyewitl1ess accounts across a century of bor muons combined in 1891 under d1e rubric n1illi.ng and labor lustory . They yield a fascinat "Central Executive Committee of the Miners' ing picture, not only of the hour-by-hour dan Uruon of the Coeur d'Alenes." Subsequently, tlus ger inherent in the job, but also of conditions group gained strength by joining forces wid1 rep underground, and of the ebb and flow of public resentatives from seventeen Western mining opi11ion on labor issues witl1il1 a commuruty. In camps at a meeting in Butte, Montana, in May of reading d1em one can obtain a sense of d1e man 1893. That orgaruzation became lmown as the bel1i.nd the report, ills d1oughts, and lus dedica Western Federation of Miners (WPM). Mine tion to duty. managers, preoccupied with the task of building profitable operations in a remote area with no The Players on the Stage infrastructure in the face of sagging metal prices, responded by creating d1eir own, district-wide While violent labor disputes occurTed in numy special interest group-d1e Mine Owners' Pro n1il1i.ng camps in the West, the Coeur d'Alene's tective Association (MOA). Undeterred , the history of labor relations was particularly long and WPM resorted to dynanute and gunpoint coer bitter, involving a conspicuous amount of blood cion in a series of incidents, detailed below, in- shed and destl"Llction. The Coeur d'Alene Mir1- fndustrialE<;_pionage 1890s Style 43
ing District was a large area and the stakes were prices and on what management felt justified in high. From Kellogg o n its western edge, to paying. Wage rates were never f,>'Ltaranteed for any Wallace, Burke, and Mullan thitteen nliles to the specific term and were subject to change over east, the distTict employed nearly two thousand night without notice. A miner's workweek lasted men. The list of principals among the capitalists d1.itteen days and offered few chances for relax and union otgani.zers involved reads like an his ation-an existence best typified as "eat, sleep, torical "Who's Who" of the industty. Magnates and work." Few mines offered the comfolt of a such as Simeon Reed, the Rockefellers, and the city house to change clothes or bad1e. Company Guggenheims bankrolled the Bunker Hi ll and boarding houses often offered marginal food, Sull ivan, Frisco, Hecla, and the Hercules and were alive wid1lice and fleas, and charged exor Morning mines. Freel W. Bradley, Stanley A. bitant fees-sometimes amounting to a half Easton,Joe McDonald, Al Burch, and Frederick month's wages. A miner's life had a hard edge to Burbidge led the MOA at various points in its it that only exacerbated its lesser discomfotts. He development. WFM organizers included Edward also realized d1at some mines paid en01mous divi Boyce, William D. "Big Bill" Haywood, Charles dends to d1eir investors and owners. Frederick Moyer, George Pettibone, and L. ]. "Jack" Burbidge repotted the Bunl<:er Hill and Sullivan's Simpkins. net profit for d1e single mond1 of December 1900, TI1e association and the federation fought each to be $106,000. How did d1e wages of one hun od1er wid1 ploy and counter ploy for twenty-five dred and fifty miners, at three dollars per shift, years. That period saw the destruction of two compare to a figu re like d1at?2 mills by explosives, d1e Frisco's in 1893, and d1e Bunker Hill and Sullivan's SL'{ years later. Twice, Mine Management Idaho's govemors imposed mattiallaw and called in federal troops to quell civil inswTection. Con A mine manager walked a narrow track, at siderable violence occutred-including the assas tempting to balance a multitude of operational sination of one of those governors, Frank demands against d1e cries for profit from inves Steunenberg, several years after he left office. 'l11e tors, with the capricious nature of ore deposits sensational trial of the federation officials indicted as an added complication. To be successful, a for that crime captured the attention of the na manager had to acquire, tt·ain, and above all re tion and pushed d1e role ofd1e undercover agent tain, a labor force with the right blend of skills into the spotlight. To better understand these and incentive to do d1e work Taken in this con disputes, and why the MOA resotted to using text, wages were only one element among a list detectives to aid their cause, it will be helpful to of concerns-such as miners' hours and work bliefly consider the viewpoints of d1e contestants, ing conditions, and d1eir union's power and in as well as to examine those of the federation's fluence-which intluenc:ecl the strategies and tac actions that bred ever-increasing dissension and tics of mine owners and managers. \Vho were distrust in the communities of the Coeur d'Alene. tl1e union's organizers? What did d1ey ultimately want? For what would they be willing to settle? Minet-s' Wages and Working Conditions Would conciliation resolve differences better d1an confrontation? In the face of union activity, could Miners in the nineteenth-century Coeur companies retain complete conuol over d1eir own d'Alene eamed between $2.50 and $3.50 for a ten operations after their inunense expenditure of hour clay spent hand drilling and mucking in hot, capital to begin mining? These were questions wet ground. Their wages depended on metal with little precedent, to which no one knew the 44 2002Mining Hist01yjounzal
answers. But then as now, a steady supply of re potted to work during strikes; men who were ob liable information appeared to be the key to jected to by d1e m1ion shall not again have em management's decision-making process. ployment in any of d1e mines;" and, "bencefortl1, both parties to tbeagreem.entsball befriends."5 Events and Rhetoric In od1er words, d1e union would detennine who worked at those mines and under what conclitions, On 29 April1892, two hundred union men not the mining companies. Mine operations marched William Pipkin and George Wolff into would cease eluting sttikes of indefmite duration the union hall at Burke in the middle of the day. since replacement workets were cUsallowed. Non When they refused to join the WFM, these men urnon miners became persona non grata, ineli were chiven at gunpoint up the mountain trail to gible for employment at mines run by the other ward Thompson Falls, Montana, and wamed that parties to the agreement. And after several yeats if rhey ever returned they would be shot on sight. of murder, coercion, and tyranny on its patt, the On 11]uly 1893, union men fired shots at non WPM ironically insisted that friendshlp should union miners statting a day shift at the Helena prevail hencefottl1. In shott, d1e tlu·ee n1ines sur Frisco mine, then sent a case of dynamite down rendered. the penstock into the mill, which was completely Violence underwtitten and encouraged by the destroyed when the explosives entered the federation continued in the spring and sununer crusher. Shottly thereafter, d1is same group com of 1895, and tl1e first dynamite sttike at d1e Bun menced a fusillade on the Gem mine, but guards ker HiU works, detailed below, occuned in May of that property returned the fire, killing two of of the following year. It appears that the annual d1e union men.3 n1iners' picnics on Independence Day in 1897 and On 3]uly 1894, fo1ty union minets, disguised 1898 served more as rallying points for fwther with masks and coats tumed inside-out, wall(ed acts of sabotage tl1an for shating good cheer and d1rough the town of Burke to the Gem mine and drilling contests.6 pulled John Kneebone from his blacksmith shop. The words of union leadets themselves indi As the entire town looked on, Kneebone was es cate the attitudes behind d1eir o1garuzing philoso cotted into d1e mine yard and gunned down. His phy and confrontational policies. One operative crin1e, in d1e eyes of the federation, was testify took notes on the speed1es made by vatious union ing for the prosecution at the trial of the men officials at the 1906 WPM convention, wl1ich took indicted for the 1892 activities. Later the same p lace six months after ex-Governor day, the masked mob ran the Gem mine's su Steunenberg's assassination, in which the federa perintendent and foreman over the line into Mon tion had been implicated. The detective's repott tana.4 to Easton quoted guest speaker Charles Sherman On 30 July 1894, du·ee mines-the Gem, Stan as urging the miners to "stand pat and continue dard, and Helena-Ftisco-signed a work agree d1eir otganizing work at a greater speed d1an ever ment wid1 d1e WPM written by Edward Boyce, a until d1e union was so strong d1at they would be firebrand union organizer from Butte, and a lead able to lock out the companies and take posses ing figure in the otganization's early development. sion of tl1e entire 1nine operation." Shetman was According to d1e anonymous aud1or of a manu president of d1e Industrial Workers of the World script entitled "A Histoty of the Western Federa (IWW), the radical labor organization that the tion of Miners in d1e Coeur d'Alene" (1904), this WPM had helped to found tl1e previous year, at1d agreement stipulated that "no men should be im- with which it retained affiliation as the IWW's IndustTialEspionage 1890s Style 45
"Mining Department." In another speech at the today a·nd work on tbe 1natter. Ifwe convention, Marion Moor, WFM board member .find the guiltyparties, they will beprop from Arizona, said: "The Italian quartz miners erly disposed ofby the Kellogg citizemy. will be in the WFM next year~ and if uuuble starts, We can look for no aid in this matter I do not believe in giving them macaroni to fight from county autborities.9 with; but believe in giving them rifles to get what they are after. "7 A few days later; after learning that the agent that Captain Swain profX>SE!cl was a Scotsman, Bra The Bunker Hill and Sullivan dley expressed some doubt as to the man's suit Takes a Stand ability, writing that
As one can imagine, the agreement Boyce ne it may be that my !Tbiel Agency} detec gotiated with the Gem, Standard, and Helena tive will do us no good. In tbat case, I Frisco mines created a serious division in the will ask you to send us a goodPinke11on MOA's unity of purpose, while it did very little to man. I think the Scotsman we have in reduce tensions in tl1e district during tl1e last half view will not do-a detective to acconz of the 1890s. The federation blacklisted mer plish anything bere must be ankisbman. chants for selling supplies to non-union opera He must also bephysically [cap}able of tions, and even those mines agreeing to the con holding ajob und.erground. I wilt wi.m tract were not free from WFM manipulation. you to send me a Pinleerton Irisb miner. Exasperated with the break in the ranks of the !lou1· Scot bas an kisb brogueperbaps MOA, Freel Bradley, general manager of the Bun he will do-lntt in no event do we want ker Hill and Sullivan, continued to pursue that a Cornish detective.'0 company's long-standing policy of maintaining a non-union shop--going it alone, if necessary.8 Union sentiment against ilie Bunker Hill and At 11:20 p.m. on 10 May 1896, a dynamite Sul Ii van finally boiled over three years later, on charge exploded beneath the Bunker Hill's mill 29 April1899, in the famous dynamiting of the flume and immediately thereafter a blaze was set company's new $250,000 mill, and the murder of against the mill itself. Bradley's report on the in one of iliree of its loyal employees who fled clown cident reads: a road in a hail of rifle bullets. At Bradley's re quest, Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg de It was the intention oftbesefirebugs to clared martial law in the disuict and asked Presi make a sure thing ofburning up the mill dent McKinley to send federal a·oops to enforce by destroying theflume and thus cutting that declaration. Those troops incarcerated seven offour water supply. VeJyfortun.ately hundred miners in a hastily-built, wooden stock for us, the mill hands discovered thefire ade. Since those miners represented almost half befor-e it bad made any headway, As the of the local mine labor force, the MOA was put .fi1 -e followed so closely upon the explo- in the ironic position of wanting federal authori sion, we all thought tbat we were sur ties to reduce tl1e number of men imprisoned in rounded by an army ofdynamiters, but order to help keep tl1e mines open. no cowardice was sbown and all hands The spectacular violence and destruction in were ready to figbt. I have telephoned the Coeur d'Alene strike of 1899 clicllittle to en to Spolecme for a detective to come hem hance tl1e standing of the federation in ilie eyes 46 2002Jl1ining Hist01y]ournal
of the local population. The MOA took advan operative also had to be able to write intelligible tage of that situation by establishing a work-by reports on his obsetvations, and convey these to permit system, whid1 only issued pem1its to non management undiscovered. union miners. While it may have been illegal, the Since d1e loose conversation held in local sa blacklist was effective-keeping the mines oper loons was the wellspring of most information, ating w hile dispersing union miners to other operatives had to hold their liquor, guard their camps in the West. 11 speech and simultaneously keep a dose watch on the comments of others. This may have been a Operating Undercover difficult balance to maintain, given an expense account and a local abundance of Kellogg's Old A successfi..il operative had to possess a com Bourbon and Penywinkle Rye whiskey. Opera plex and demanding set of skills. Intelligence tives were instructed to report both on organiz gathering could only begin after gaining d1e trust ing activities and on working conditions under and acceptance of the rank and file, but to do ground. Managers needed to know what was that one had to have the ability to overcome an going on far below d1ei..r offices, and realized d1at atmosphere rife with distrust and extreme suspi the truth did not necessarily emerge during d1eir cion of newcomers. As Bradley mentioned, an weekly tours through d1e stopes. other essential qualification for the assignment Maintaining cover was a life-and-death mat was to possess credible mining skills-to look, ter for operatives, who resorted to code names act, and talk like a miner, not a detective. The such as Number 15, Number 66, Z, or B108 to avoid identification through their written mate rial. Such a betrayal might occur accidentally or intentionally, since suspicious mail and telegrams were commonly opened and read by post office employees sympathetic to the union. Operatives' reports often identified union members or sym pathizers employed by d1e mines. But in a repott to Stanley A. Easton (Figure 1), who assumed management of the Bunl(er Hill and Sullivan in December of 1902, operative BIOS expressed the need to move cautiously when firing these men. "In the matter of protecting my cover," he wrote, "I must ask you to withhold immediate action on some of the patties who will be named [as] soon as my investigation-now unde1way, is complete. I rather dunk d1ere are pa1ties looking out for me in Wardner, ... that a trap can easily be laid [for me)." 12 Photographs of operatives on assignment are viltually non-existent unless accessible in declas Figure 1. Stanley A. Easton, President and sified Pinketton Agency files. This is not sutptis General Manager of tbe Bunker Hilt Con-z ing, since a picture appearing locally, captioned panyfrom. 1902 to 1954. University ofldabo "Pinketton Operative, Hecla Mine, 1906," would Special Collections. JndustrialEspionage 1890s Style 47
earn d1e agent involved a fast ride out of town or a cold plot in the local cemetery. The photo of Charles Siringo (Figure 2) is something of an ex ception, though it was taken on a 1907 assign ment as a bodyguard to d1e chief ofPinkenon's Denver office rather than while working as an operative. In me photo, Sitingo displays his trade mark Colt .44 pistol and a catved walking stick that concealed a tvventy-inch throwing knife. Siringo achieved fame as Pinkerton agent "C. Leon Allison," who infiltrated the WFM local at Burke so completely as to be elected its secre taiy.13
A Murder, A Manhunt, and Reports from the Inside
Detective agencies did a land-office business wid1 d1e Bunker Hill and Sullivan after the sabo tage of ils mill in 1899. The company hired as many as twenty-four operatives over the course of several years to monitor activities in the dis trict. But even d1at effott was eclipsed in drama and itnpottance by d1e activities following d1e as sassination of ex-govemor Frank Steunenberg at Figure 2. Pinke1ton agent Charles Siringo pho the end of 1905. On d1e snowy night of 30 De tographed during the trial oftYIFM q[flcers in cember 1905, Steunenberg set off a trip-wire Boise in 1907. Heboldsasiluer-plated Colt .44, bomb attached to the gate in front of his home and a ca1ved walking stick which conceals a in Caldwell. Before Steunenbetg died, he repOlt twenty-inch knife. Tbe inscription ·reads: "To edly said "they finally got me," implicating the Hany Orchard, Compliments of Yours Truly Western Federation of Miners in his murder. Cbas. A . Siringo. " Jclabo State Historical Soci Aud101ities quicldy apprehended a convicted felon ety. named Harry Orchard, who admitted to con structing and planting the bomb, but alleged mat A report filed on 25 October 1905 provides a federation officials Bill Haywood, George good example of how an operative inftlu-ated d1e Pettibone, Charles Moyer, and jack Simpkins had union and gad1ered incritninating evidence two paid him to do so. The assassination launched monms prior to the assassination. Opet-ative 15 substantial and far-reaching operations by both wrote that the Thiel and Pinketton agencies. Their opera tives played major roles in removing the there is a girl here in tbe dance hall who federation's indicted officers from Denver to isnexttoall oftbem. Sbeseemstohea Boise, and in suppotting d1e prosecution's case favorite oftbe union men as she bas been in me subsequent ttia l. 14 in all the union camps in.Montana. She is German cmdspeaks all qftbe Scandi- 48 2002Mining HistOIJI ]ow nat
navian languages. She told nze that all 1"eas011r-please do it in a manner not the Swedes andNOI·Luegicms belong to the to bring suspicion on me.17 union. She pointed out tln·ee to me. I gave them the signal and they came over Unfortunately for histotians, the operatives' cmclshook hands anclzue had a drink.15 repotts ftled during the remaining weeks of No vember and December 1905 are missing from The following clay, Number 15 indicated to the Bunker Hill and Sullivan manuscript collec Easton his need for better accommodations and tion. Perhaps they were extracted for use as more ptivacy than that available in his lodgings in evidence in the Steunenberg trial or to protect Kellogg. cettain operatives. Operative B108 was sent to Kellogg a week I am staying at Page's Hotel. It costs after the Caldwell bombing. He may have been $1.50perdcw lhaveasmallroomwith one of the top Pinketton agents, for his repotts no table, or anything that!could use.for are extraordinaty documents, displaying precise writing. I am writing this on my knee. handwriting, a fine command of the English The moms in which I couldget a table language, and an eye for detail as depicted in would cost me $1. 75. The moms which the following ently: is {sic} usedfor miners have.fmm 2 to 4 men ·in them and I could have no pri We have aman- strcmgerfrom Butte vacy at all. I am going to tly andfind a selling shoe strings. Description: A. 40, room on tbe outside ifit is satiifactmy bt. 5ft. 8incbes, L. BT. Hail; mediu·m with you. If it is not; let me know by mustache, same color. Blue eyes and Saturday. jack Simpkins is not in town. left band badly crippled. Evidently He bas gone over on the St. JV!cuy's river burned or crusbed at one time. No. 8 to a homestead he has over there. He is, sboes, wearing orclina'Y bigb rubbers. !learn, deputy district 01ganiz erjor the Wea1s on lift coat lapel, blue emblem union.16 ofUnited Mine Wodee1s ofA1nerica. Says be is a union man and in bard This repott also indicated that the Pinketton men lucie." • ~~ had been tipped off that the WPM had a plot in the works against someone, and that Jack BlOB's comments on working conditions tm Simpkins was involved and needed to be watched. derground are interesting; they come clown By the end of October, Number 15 had made forcefully on the side of d1e working man and friends with the saloon cmwd and gained the con appear to be aimed at providing impetus and fidence of the bartender. Number 15 reported enlightenment to management on d1e need for change. "Spent my time from 5:30p.m. until Captain Link, who runs tbeArmolySa 3:30a.m. in the mine," he recorded, foon is one qfthe most dangerous men, as he is shrewdand has some ue1ycatcby and .from. 12:45 p.m. to 3:45p.m. argu.ments. He is one ofSimpkins {sic} amund town. ctt the va1ious drinking advisers. Tomorrow I will give you a n!s011s. 111ere is nothing occupying the list ofnet mes ofmen who are members attention q/tbe men so mucb aspay o.ftbe union, and wbicb are the most clay. Seveml ofthe men in the same ardent. Ifcmy ofthem am letgo .for tba t stope with me, wbo are nzucke1s, are Industria/Espionage 1890s Style 49
PINKERTON 'S NATIONAL DE'rECTIVB AGENCY. ,Wfll(>oO ... AU .AN PINI(If\TON 1 6~. "08 ' T A . I'INfiiOCATON . Hlw YQIU., QCO, 0 .ANC$, ALLAN ~INK ~ ~TON, WM. A, fi'IN KCIHO,.,, (;"IICoA,:!,...._ ...::~;~(:~::~·•- np~~t*•\ .. n~~.~•• ~-
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Nam• ...... L. J, .Sintpktnt. An•• ...... J. ~tnunon..t. Aa• ...... 40ye.ara. Hclrht ...... 1 n. 8 •·t or 9 ln. \Vtl.ht ...... , l80 poun:(lt, liulld ...... Heavy, ehlc:k ch•, tc4, •lla'hl. ly tloop aho ul6er Figure 3. 17Je wantedposter issued by the Pi·n.kertonAgencyfor L.f Simpkins, a W1'M executlve comm.ittee m.em,ber implicated in the murder offomterldabo Gouemo1· Steunenberg. Idaho State Histori cal Society. g1-eatly d(c;satiified with tbe wetplaces. bad seuera l drinks with bim, andpulled Their mgzm'lent isfor more wages. The b im.f01' ali I could safely. He does not grievance ·is prett:yu;elljoundedand they believe Orchardguilty , and ifon thejwy cannot be severely criticized, as the wa would not convict him on ci1t:umstan teris streaming down.19 tial evidence no matter how strongly it pointed toward the accused. He thinks A week l ate1~ on 15 Januaty 1906, B108 wrote tbe miners here could enjoy tbe same comjo1ts ofd1y houses, bathrooms, gum this morning I met myfriend Gm-rity- clotbes.for wetplaces , and eight boU1· 50 2002 M.ining Hist01y ]ow nat sh {(Is as in Butte. 20 band ofclyncuniters , styling tbemse/ves; 'Tbeheadofthe WesternFederation, 'cu-e B108's writing on the last page of a lengthy depleted and come clown o.fftbeirperch report in Februaty suggests a depth of knowl and take ·up a pick and shovel the same edge and perspective on the entire labor move as rbebfel/ow man wbo bas been robbed ment in the West, one reaching fa r beyond the to keep tbem.fat.21 boundaries of a temporary assignment in the Coeur d'Alenes. B108 advised Easton that in orderto be more effective, he needed to move from the Bunker At a convention oftbe AF qfL held in Hill and Sullivan to the Hecla nline located notth San Francisco, the W.F.M refused to con ofWallace on Canyon Creek. His reasoning was tinue any affiliation unless Socialistic sound; the Hecla, Frisco and Tiger-Pootman principles were adopted. Mf Gonzpers mines had a su·ong federation p resence in their used his axe and 1--epudiated the soc-ialists workforces and continued to setve as otganizing and also the side affiliation with the sites, permit system or not. While advising the UnitedMine Workers ojAmerica. 'Ibis change, he wrote, "I have instructed Mrs. G to billpassed cmdfor I he last year the WF.Jl!I move here from Spokane ... we have our estab bave been losing g1ound eve1y day. lislu11ent near the Mace schoolhouse. I would be During th is time the WFNI members pleased if you would give me a box number or were permitted to eventually break the some blind address in the Post Office. The rea coal miners strike and cripple their or sons are obvious." 22 ganization in Colorado. Recently in Operative 24 worked in Kellogg during the Nanaimo, B.C., theyjoin edallicmcewith same period. His repott of 31 ]anua1y 1906 con the lVestem Fuel Co., and broke up a veyed some of the hazards associated with being nice organization qftbe lffi'IW qfA, thus a part- time miner and a full-time spy. He re completely WJ-ec/eing o1gcmized labo1· on potted "the Bunker Hill and Sullivan is on fire. Vancouve,·Island. How serious I cannot leam, but will rep01t as soon Ybe fight between tbese two oJgani as I find out. I went to work last night at 6:30 zations has·waged on fora yeco; results p .m. and after being in the mine half an hour, being about even with each otber. It was made deathly sick with gas, and had to come seems now the UMWofA is aggressive out and go home. I have been ill all clay today, cmdfueling thefight, and the WFN!puts scarcely able to move, but will report for duty as up a.flag q/truce. But the former OJga soon as possible." 23 n ization with its 400,000 m.em.bers & By mid-February,]ack Simpkins, indicted for milli on dol/a r treaswy, .. . is considered Steunenberg's assassination along with Moyer, by the [mine} operato1s a godsend, good Haywood, and Pettibone, had suspiciously disap for both men and operatoJ~ insuring peared. Operative 24 repmted "as requested, I tranquilityforeacb and e&'eiJI.Jleara con am watching vety closely for L. J. Simpkins to tract is signee" and using conciliation as put in his appearance in camp. None of the men the basis for settling grievances. It ap appear to know where he is." Aud1olities issued pears to me that it is ajlght to rbe death a warrant for Simpkins' arrest and the Pinkerton andyou canmst c1ssw-ed that tbeJ-ewi/1 agency circulated a reward poster (Figure 3). Dur be no C([filiat ion unless the \.'(IFJ\1 comes ing the ensuing manhunt, C. Harry Williams, a under the name ojlffi'IW qfA , cmd this deputy sheriff of Shoshone County doubling as Jndustlial Espionage 1890s Style 51 an operative for the Thiel agency, was assigned get rijle. I have grave suspicions. ... to track down and capture Simpkins. Wi lliams Tbere is anotberman bocuding atJl!Irs. followed his quany on a baffling trek through Fox['s} restaw'Clnt-Dan 0 'Connell,foJ' the snowbound Northwest. Simpkins was first merly Chi~{qf Police atRepublic , Wash reportedly seen boarding a train at Tekoa, Idaho, ington. Cowunonly lenown as then disembarking at Chatcolet only fifty miles 0/eanogan Dan, a union trustee ... he away. Williams then followed the trail to is a one clay prospector-goes out in the Simpkins's homestead ncar the town of St. Maries. eveni11g a11d back in tbenro1ninr(p' os Unable to ftnd Simpkins d1ere, Williams made his pecting in tbe cla rle) and at otber times way bad< to the Simpkins' family residence in Spo out in the morning and bade in the kane-only to be told that two days earlier a evening. Both parlied1 usual trail is wagon had anived under cover of darkness and over the divide in back of the !ie?· spititedivlrs. Sit11pk.i.ns away. While in Spokane, cules 1nill. I have also noted that one Williams obtained a search warrant to enter the wo1nan-a Jl!Irs. CIC/1·/e-also does c cause of the charges against the Western Fed eration of Miners, but also because of the spent today in tbe Hecla mine, and made celebrities who briefly visited the scene. The inquiries as to what the men tb inle ofthe actress Ethel Barrymore attended courtroom eight hour shift, and the W"IFM. A ma proceedings after a week's performance as jority bate the leaders qf the WPM for Madame Trentoni in "Captain Jinks of the being such ?·"Ctdical fellows. T7Je opinion Horse Marines." Charles Siringo served as a is general now that the WJ'-M will have bodyguard for James P. McParland-the ci to vacate the field. Everything being gar-chomping, never-say-die, chief of granted uoluntari6;, and tbere being 110 Pinkerton's Denver office.26 otber condition for tbem to demanct After ninety clays of testimony in a bUstetingly even iforganized It can be aJguecl by hot courtroom, the trial .concluclecl with a "not tbe n01~union m.iner as: '1flhat's tbe guilty" verdict for Haywood. Freedom for Moyer use, tbe union costs money to keep up. '128 and Pettibone soon followed. But to paraphrase a comment in Norman MacLean's novella, USPS No move by the Mine Owners' Association could 1919: The RangeJ~ the Cook, and a Hole in the remove all the tensions and conflicts miners expe 5/gy, being acquitted of mlUrder by a jllly in Idaho tienced from their work and their relations with at the time is not at all the same thing as being their co-workers and managers. But granting the innocent. 'TI1e editor of ti1e Idaho Daily States eight-hour clay ce1tainly helped, giving miners and man, Calvin Cobb, called the result "a good hang millmen inunediate relief and hope for future im ing spoiled."27 provements. A semblance of peace replaced 1:\.vo decades filled with suspicion, feat; and bloodshed. The Mine Owners Move Still, memories are long and some union supp01t The Outlook Changes ers continued to resent the defeat of d1e Westem Federation of Miners and its expulsion fmm d1e On the evening of7 July 1906, the Ivline Own district. That o1ganization lost influence after 1907, e rs' Protective Association convention met in changing its name and agenda to reflect an evolv Wardner, site of the original Bunker Hill and ing industly when it became the International Union Sullivan discove1y, with delegations attending of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in 1916.29 from all of the mining companies in the Coeur It is difficult to say whed1er d1e violence and d'Alenes. Herman Rossi, a prominent Wallace property destl"ltction recounted here delayed or ac politician and an owner of the Amazon- DLxie celerated improvements in working conditions in Mine, offered a motion, unanimously approved, the Coeur d'Alene's mines and mills. Either way, which granted workers the eight-hour clay at all reports from undercover operatives provide a cap mines in the district. That same night the asso tivating, eyewitness view of the labor wars fought ciation made concessions to their workers on in one of the West's richest mining distl"icts. But wages and working condit:ions, rhus undercutting Operative 5 indicated in his last repo1t, filed on 19 the federation's agenda in a bold stroke. July 1906, that even after the labor wat; life's labors Operative B108 repo1tred on the miners' reac and sonows continued for the average hardtock tion the following clay, indicating to his supetiors miner, as did its joys. "The men a1e in good spirits their success in nullifying the Western Federation and satisfied when going off shift this evening. They of Miners in the Coeur d'Alene. He informed were so happy that they sang songs all d1e way out Easton that he had the [Kellogg] tunnel. I am going to my 100m now. In bed at 9:45 p.m. "30 .,.. Industrial Espionage 1890s Style 53 Notes 1. ]. Antho ny Lukas, Big Trouble: Murder in a Small 12. AI Burch toW. S. Swain , 30 Dec. 1901, Folder 1579, \flestern Mining Town Sets offa StrugglefortheSoul Bunker Hill MSS. "AnsweJing yours of d1e 26d1 con ofAm erica (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997), ceming the envelope that appears to have been opened, 98-104. Clark C. Spence, Mining Engineers and the will state, d1at I have take n d1e matter up wid1 d1e Post American West: The Lace Boot Brigade, 1849-1943 Office officials here, but am unable to determine at (Moscow: University oflclaho Press, 1993), 182--86. what point it could have been opened." Operative B108 2. Patricia Hart and Ivar Nelson, Mining Town: 'flJe to Stanley Easton, 3 May 1906, Folder 1578, Bunker Photo Record ofT N. Barnard and Nellie Stockbridge Hill MSS. from the Coeurd 'Aienes (Seattle: University of Wash 13. Lukas, Big Trouble, 102. ington Press, 1984), 45--47. Fredeiick Bwbiclge to Freel 14. Lukas, Big Trouble, 153-4. W. Bradley, 8 Jan. 1900, Bunker Hill Mining Company 15. Operative 15 to Easton, 25 Oct. 1905, Folder 1578, Manuscript Group 367, Special Collections, Univer Bunker Hill MSS. sity ofldaho Libraty, Moscow (hereafter: Bunker Hill 16. Ope rative 15 to Easton, 26 Oct. 1905, Folder 1578, MSS). Bunker Hill MSS. 3. Anonymous author, "A Histoty of the Weste rn Fed 17. Operative 15 to Easton, 30 Oct. 1905, Folder 1578, eration of Miners in the Coeur d'Aienes," Stanley A. Bunker Hill MSS. Easton Papers, Apr. 1904, MS Group 5, File 14, Uni 18. Operative B108 to Easton, 4 Feb. 1906, Folder 1578, versity ofldaho Special Collections, Moscow. Bunker Hill MSS. 4. Anonymous, "A Histoty of the Weste rn Federation 19. Operative B108 to Easto n, 5 jan. 1906, Folder 1578, of Miners," 6. Bunker Hill MSS. 5. Anonymous, "A Histoty of the Western Federation 20. Operative B108 to Easton, 15 Jan. 1906, Folder 1578, of Miners," 7. Italics mine. Bunker Hill MSS. 6. Anonymous, "A Histoty of the Western Fede ration 21. Operative B108 to Easton, 15 Feb. 1906, Folder 1578, of Mine rs," 9. Bunker Hill MSS. 7. Unknown Pinke rton o pe rative to Sta nley Easton, 22. Operative B108 to Easton, 19 May 1906, Folder 1578, "Notes from WFM conve ntio n, 31 May to 14 June Bunker Hill MSS. 1906," Bunker Hill MSS. 23. Ope rative 24 to Easto n, 31 Jan. 1906, Folde r 1578, 8. Lukas, Big Trouble, 109. Bunker Hill MSS. 9. Freel W. Bradley to john Hayes Hammond, 11 May 24. Operative 24 to Easton, 17 Feb. 1906, Fo lder 1578, 1896, Bunker Hill MSS. Bunker Hill MSS. Lukas, Big Trouble, 167. 10. Bradley to Hammond, 15 May 18%, Bunker Hill MSS. 25. Operative B108 to Easton, ? March 1906, Folder 1578, 11. Hattancl Nelson, Mining Town, 57-67. Although an Bunke r HiU MSS. Ita lics tnine. Idaho statute of 1893 prohibited employers from black 26. Lukas, Big Trouble, 224. listing workers because of union affiliation, this stat 27. Norman Maclean, A River Ru ns 'flJrough It and ute was being litigated at the time of the second Coeur Other Stories (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, d'Alene fight. It was eventually ovetturnecl by the U.S. 1976), 126. Lukas, Big Trouble, 723. Supreme Cmut, probably more for reasons of politics 28. Operative B108 to Easto n, 8 July 1906, Folder 1578, than jurisptUdence. Idaho Governor Frank Hunt is Bunker Hill MSS. sued a decree to prohibit the practice of blacklisting in 29. james McBride, "The Bisbee Dep01tation in Words 1901, bur the MOA established an "employment of and Images," 'flJe Mining J-IistoJy j ourna16 (1999): fice" in Wallace th at kept unions out of the Silver Val 67, 76. ley until about 1949. 30. Operative 5 to Easton, 19 July 1906, Folder 1578, Bun ker Hill MSS.