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The Rationalization of Union Violence

J. Anthony Lukas penned a revealing subtitle to his

book Big Trouble.1   His account of how a former Idaho gov-

ernor was probably assassinated by vengeful union chiefs

was subtitled: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets off a

Struggle for the Soul of America.

Former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg was killed by

a bomb as he opened the gate to his home in Caldwell on

December 30, 1905.  Within days, detectives closed in on

Harry Orchard, in whose hotel room traces of bomb-making

material were found.  Investigators soon discovered that

he had been active with the Western Federation of Miners

(WFM) in Idaho.  Under interrogation, Orchard confessed to

the Steunenberg murder and pointed to the chief conspira-

tors: WFM president Charles Moyer, adviser George

Pettibone, and the WFM's bombastic secretary-treasurer,

"Big Bill" Haywood.  Their apparent motivation stemmed

from their violent confrontation in 1899 with then-governor

Steunenberg.

The first round had been fought in 1892, when hun-

dreds of union militants rode through the mining district

"warning managers to dismiss nonunion labor or see their

valuable machinery blown sky-high."2   Eventually, both

Idaho and federal soldiers restored order.  But in 1896,

Steunenberg was elected governor on a Populist-Democratic

ticket, and was presumed to be more sympathetic to union

interests.

Emboldened by the election results, the WFM prepared

for the next battle.  Two days before Christmas in 1897, a

band of masked men rousted a nonunion foreman out of bed,

then marched him through the streets of Gem and shot him

to death.

Just over a year later, the WFM hierarchy rejected a

wage increase and struck the Bunker Hill company's mines,

demanding recognition as the sole representative of  all

the miners.3   On April 26, 1899, some 150 union militants,

many of them armed, "turned workers away from the mine

with dire threats."4   Three days later, hundreds more

unionists commandeered a train in nearby Canyon Creek,

drove it to Bunker Hill, and blew up a huge concentrator

that cost the Bunker Hill company about $250,000.5

Steunenberg had become convinced that the local sher-

iff was colluding with the WFM.  Finally on April 26, he

asked President William McKinley to send federal troops to

restore order.  For this act, Steunenberg incurred the