Whether or not they know what the Industrial Workers of the World* are all about, the soft coal miners of Colorado have been listening to I. W. W. organizers since last summer when the "Wobblies" engineered a "sympathetic" strike in behalf of the late anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti. Colorado mine operators discountenanced the comparatively conservative United Mine Workers some time ago, introducing company unions to replace branches of the A. F. of L. subsidiary. Wages having been depressed below the Jacksonville scale, the I. W. W., one of whose favorite phrases is "Yours till the next big strike," saw a chance to foment general unrest in Colorado after the success of their Sacco-Vanzetti demonstration. That, plus the natural desire of laborers for higher pay, and the tendency of coaldiggers to suspect their washed-&-brushed employers, was the background of "wobbling" last week in Colorado.
In September, 198 delegates from Colorado mines met at Aguilar, Colo., under I. W. W. auspices. The delegates had been elected by mass-meetings at many a mine. They unanimously endorsed demands drawn up by the I. W. W. including: a) restoration of the Jacksonville minimum wage; b) recognition of the miners' state committee; c) recognition of the miners' agents at mine tripples to check coal weighing (to ensure fair pay for digging done).
The Aguilar conference filed notice of a strike with the Colorado Industrial Commission, as required by law. The Commission investigated the conference and pronounced it unrepresentative of all the coal miners of Colorado. The conference offered to submit its demands to a referendum of all the miners at mass meetings. Then the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co.'s company union, and other local labor bodies, discharged from their ranks all I. W. W. sympathizers. The Industrial Commission pronounced the I. W. W. an outlaw organization and its proposed strike illegal.
In Walsenberg, Colo., where are the state headquarters of the I. W. W., members of the Chamber of Commerce, with the mayor's authority, raided the I. W. W. office. "Smalltown imitation Fascisti," sneered the I. W. W. The next day, Oct. 16, meeting at Pueblo, they called their strike.
The strike "took." Some 4,000 men walked out at once. Some 3,500 joined them later. The I. W. W. took great care to use peaceful methods. Weapons were forbidden. U. S. flags, usually carried by children, headed their processions. Women joined the marches to mines which were still operating, notably a Mrs. Santa Bernash of Trinidad, whose most famed exploit was scratching and rumpling some guards who tried to detain her at a bridgehead near Ludlow.* Her followers pitched two of the guards into Bear Creek. She was arrested, jailed, and to take her place at the marching picketers' head came her sister, Amelia Siblich, called "Flaming Milka" for the bright red dress she wore.
Handsome, young, fearless, scornful, "Flaming Milka" marched to one mine after another in the southern Colorado district, day after day adding to her following. "Don't work, men!" she cried. "A strike is on. Stand by your comrades." Pointing at mine-guards with fixed bayonets, she would cry: "They can't dig coal with bayonets!"