Leadville strike of 1880 was for higher wages and an eight-hour day;
the trouble at Cripple Creek in 1894 mainly was due to radical ett'orts
and means to increase the membership and extend the influence of the
local Union of miners ; and that of Leadville in 1896 was for larger
pay, and for the recognition of the Miners' Union by the owners and
operators of mines in the district.
The principal cause of the turmoil at Telluride. Cripple Creek and
in other places ad.jacent to them, in 1901-04, practically was the same
as that which had prevailed at Cripple Creek in 1894. But, as the
strife in the later period went on and on. the insistence and belligerency
of one of the parties to the controversy and the protestations and re-
sistence of the other engendered intense personal animosities, which
were further heightened by violent acts that were charged against the
former.
The culmination of the violence came, as I have remarked above,
early in June, 1894, at Independence, a municipality in the Cripple
Creek field. At about 2 o'clock in the morning of the 6th day of that
month a (juantity of a high explosive was detonated under the platform
of the railway station at that town, and where there was assembled a
large number of non-union men. The explosion, the perpetrators of
which never were identified, caused the death of eleven of these men,
and the wounding of six others, three of whom were shockingly maimed
for life. Later in that day, two non-union men were killed and some
others were woimded in Victor — another municipality in the Cripple
Creek field — by rifle shots that were said to have been fired from the
headquarters of the ^Miners' Union in a building near by.
These crimsoned events were followed immediately by a demand to
the Governor of the State, James II. Peabody. that he intervene, and
with a military force, take full charge of affairs in the Cripple Creek
field. Therefore, several companies of the State's National Guard at
once were sent into the scenes of lawlessness and bloodshed, and which
then were placed under what was a modified, and yet elastic, form of
martial law, which was kept in force until toward the end of that
summer. A peculiar feature in the execution of that form of martial
law, at that time, was the deportation from the field of trouble of more
than 150 men who were accused of being "dangerous characters,"' and
of having taken active part in fomenting lawlessness. These were
loaded into railway cars and hauled away, some to the border-line of
Kansas and others to that of New Mexico, at which points they were
HISTORY OF COLORADO Tol
unloaded and oi-dered to move therefrom afoot, and not to re-enter into
Colorado. It would seem that if these were dangerous men this dis
position of them was a gross imposition upon Kansas and New ilexieo.
The men should have been retained in Colorado; and. if guilty of the
accusations against them they should have been punished, and" if inno-
cent they should have been released forthwith.
Since that period the mining industry in Colorado has been prose-
cuted under peaceful conditions. It has had no disorders, no wanton
tragedies ; and if the records of those which have afflicted it in the past
could be expunged from the history of the State, most certainly would
that be done by unanimous consent.
In the year 1904, the people of the city of Denver formed and
put into effect a nnniicipal government that is a wide departure from
the usual and time-honored system of administering the general affairs
of urban municipalities.
The change was authorized by an amendment to the Constitution
of the State, and which had been directed to be submitted to a vote of
the electors of Colorado by an act of the General Assembly, approved
on March 18, 1901. The proposed amendment was sanctioned by the
voters at the general election that was held on November 4, 1902, and
thus was made Article XX of the State's fundamental law, under the
title of "City and County of Denver." The leading purpose of the
amendment was expressed in the first section of the Article, which reads
as follows :
â– "The municipal corporation known as the City of Denver, and
all municipal corporations and that part of the quasi-municipal cor-
porations known as the County of Arapahoe, in the State of Colorado,
included within the exterior boundaries of the said city of Denver as
the same .shall be bounded when this amendment takes effect, are here-
by consolidated and are hereby declared to be a single body politic
and coi'porate, by the name of the 'City and County of Denver'."
The remainder of the document — which is a long one — specified in
detail the manner in which the purpose of the first section should be
put into eft'ective operation, and also provided for the creation of a
convention to frame a charter for the government of the new munci-
pality in accordance with the Constitutional Amendment, but siTl).iect
to a vote of the electors of the combined city and county.
At a special election, held on June 2. 1903, delegates were chosen
to form a convention to construct a charter for the proposed dual
organization. That body completed its labors on the first day of the
following August; and the results of its work were submitted to the
voters, at a special election, held on the 15th of the ensuing September,
when it was rejected by rather a heavy majority. This nullified all
of the summer's proceedings in relation to the matter, and required
an entire repetition of them.
Therefore, at a special election, held on December 8. 1903, another
complement of delegates was elected and charged with the duty of
producing, within sixty days thereafter, a charter devoid of certain
features which had caiised the first one to be defeated. In all of this
the convention was successful, and its work was ratified, at special
election, held on March 29, 1904, by a large majority. At another
special election, held on Jlay 17th, following, and after a lively cam-
paign, officers re(|uired for the new form of municipal government were
elected, with Robert W. Speer as chief executive, with the title of
Mayor. These officials entei'ed upon their duties on June 1st, of that
year, and put the administrative machinery into motion. But in the
meantime there had been several appeals to and decisions by the courts
on the subject of the constitutional and statutory regularity of the
proceedings and results.
The change added to the city of Denver the outlying towns of
Montclair, Elyria, Globeville, Argo, Berkeley, and Valverde. which
752 HISTORY OF COLORADO
previously had been separate corporations, althov;gli practically parts
of the city. Their annexation added considerably to Denver's popula-
tion as defined by law.
The Constitutional Amendment had terminated abruptly the city
government that was in operation when the amendment became effec-
tive. But the latter provided for the formation of a provisional gov-
ernment, which managed the city's affairs from that time until the
new organization was inauguratecl.
This unique form of numicipal government made Denver both a
city and a county. l)y merging and blending of authority and powers
which in every other part of the United States are divided between the
two separate and distinct divisions of local government — as they were
in Denver and Arapahoe County before the innovation was introduced.
The present combination has no County Commissioners — the Council
(as of the ordinary city) having the powers and jurisdiction that for-
merly were lodged iii" such officers. The offices of Sheriff' and Chief of
Police are consolidated: likewise are those of County Treasurer and
City Treasurer, of County Clerk and City Clerk, and of County Sur-
veyor and City Engineer. Such consolidation of official positions and
duties also extends to various minor divisions of the former two inde-
pendent organizations. According to the mandatory language of the
third section of the amendment, the members of the great body of the
municipality's employees must be appointed upon merit instead of in
reward for political activity, and must not be dismissed except for
specific and proper cause.
So far as it has proceeded in its career, this government appears to
be working satisfactorily ; and its friends and supporters are confident
that it will continue to do so indefinitely.
In the winter of 1904-05, there was developed in Colorado a polit-
ical episode which resulted .soon afterward in placing our State in a
situation that was unprecedented in the United States — that of having
successivedly within twenty-four hours three lawful Governors.
At the State election, in November, 190-4, Alva Adams, of Pueblo,
and James H. Peabody. of Canon City, (and who sought another term),
respectively were the candidates of the Democratic and Republican
parties for the office of Governor of the State. After the unofficial re-
ports of the results of that election were made known, and which ac-
corded to Jlr. Adams a plurality of about 10,000 votes, the managers
of the other party repeatedly charged that the plurality was a conse-
quence of fraudulent voting — mainly in the city of Denver. However,
the canvass of the election returns by the new General Assembly, im-
mediately after the beginning of its session, showed a plurality of
9.774 votes for ilr. Adams. Therefore, he was duly inaugurated as
Governor, on January 10. 1905.
On the second day afterward. ]\Ir. Peabody filed with the Secretary
of the State Senate a notice of his determination to contest the elec-
tion of Mr. Adams; charging, with specifications, that the latter had
not received a plurality of the legal votes that had been cast at the
election in the preceding November, and tliat therefore he was usurp-
ing the office of Governor.
On January 17th. the General Assembly, in joint convention, ap-
pointed a committee consisting of twenty-seven members (eighteen Repub-
licans and nine Democrats), and authorized it to hear the evidence in the
contest, and to report its conclusions. Fourteen days were allowed to the
contestor and a like number to the contestee for the introduction of evi-
dence, and five additional days were granted to the contestor to produce
evidence in rebuttal. During that period the parties to the case brought
in a vast mass of testimony and other forms of evidence. The com-
mittee was engaged twelve days in considering the evidence and pre-
paring its reports, which were laid before the General Assembly, in
joint convention, on March 3rd.
HISTORY OF COLORADO 753
Fourteen Republican members of the committee submitted a signed
report which allotted to Peabody a majority of 2,280 votes; and which
stated that this conclusion had been reached by rejecting the entire
vote of 104: election precincts in Denver, and of twenty-eight precints
in other counties of the State, on the ground of fraud and conspiracy on
the part of the Democrats.
The nine Democratic members of the committee presented a report in
which they declared that Peabody had failed to prove his election ; and
therefore they recommended the dismissal of his contest.
"William H. Griffith, Chairman of the Contest Committee, and three
other Republican members of it, made a report in which they alleged
that there was much fraud in forty-eight voting-precincts in Denver;
but that the allegations of fraud in the fifty-six other precincts in that
city, which Peabody had asked to have thrown out, had been disproved.
In conclusion, this report recommended that the contest be dismissed.
Senator ^lorton Alexander, who was one of the signers of the ma-
jority report, also presented another, in which it was recommended that
the election for Governor be declared null and void, and that the Lieu-
tenant Governor (Jesse F. McDonald, a Republican,) be seated as
Governor. Alexander subsequently amended his report by striking out
the reference to the Lieutenant Governor, thus leaving it to provide
merely for declaring the office of Governor to be vacant.
Having been retjuested for an opinion on this method of determin-
ing the contest, the Supreme Court of the State promptly pronounced
it to be illegal.
The arguments of the attorneys for the contestants, addressed to
the joint convention, then followed, and at great length ; but final action
by the convention was deferred from day to day while many and stren-
uous efforts were being made to unite the Republicans for Mr. Peabody.
The convention consisted of ninety-seven members, and of these the
Republicans had a majority of thirty-five on joint ballot. However,
twenty-two of the Republican members were, according to common
reports, firmly opposed to seating Peabody for the remainder of the
biennial term.
Such was the situation in the afternoon of March 1.5th. But be-
fore the reassembling of the joint convention on the next day, the
Republican members had agreed to a conclusive programme, which was
to be carried out forthwith. This arrangement providing for ousting
Mr. Adams by deciding the contest in Mr. Peabody 's favor ; for seating
Peabody subject to the condition that he should, beforehand, give a
pledge, in writing, to resign and surrender his office on the next day;
and for the inauguration of Lieutenant Governor McDonald, as Pea-
body's successor, immediately after the latter "s resignation.
Although the Republican majority on a joint ballot was thirty-
five (the membership of the General Assembly having consisted of sixty-
six Republicans and thirty-one Democrats), it had been found impos-
sible to obtain for Peabody a sufficient number of votes to seat him
as Governor for the remainder of the biennal term, which would end
in January, 1907. The twenty-two hostile Republicans (to whom I
have referred above) had refused to be bound by any action in caucus
in relation to the contest, and also had entered into a compact to vote
a majoritv of them were in favor of seating Lieutenant Governor Mc-
solidlv against any proposition to seat Peabody unconditionally. Hut
Donald in the Governor's chair, if legal methods could be found for
doing so. These conditions forced the compromise programme that I
have outlined above, and which nominally vindicated Peabody, and at
the same time eliminated him as a further factor in the affair.
The programme was followed faithfully, on March 16th and 17th.
On the 16th. the General Assembly, in joint convention, formally de-
cided the contest in favor of Mr. Peabody, by a vote of 51 to 41. Ten
Republicans voted with the Democrats for Mr. Adams. Immediately
754 HISTORY OF COLORADO
after the action tliat had made him Governor, which occurred about
5 o'clock in the afternoon, ilr. Peabody was escorted into the presence
of the joint assembly by a comniittee of its members appointed for that
purpose, and was greeted with cheers. After the oath of office had
been administered to him. by Chief Justice Gabbert, of the State Su-
preme Court. Governor Peabody thanked the members of the General
Assembly for having "done their duty. ".and assured them that their
action would meet with the approbation of their constituents. Fur-
thermore, he said that the decision in his favor would do away once
for all with "criminal elections." and that if this end were attained
a great good would come to the State. But in the course of his address
he gave not even a hint that he was pledged to resign the office of Gov-
ernor on the following day.
Governor Peabody. accompanied by a party of friends, then pro-
ceeded to the quarters of the chief executive, from which Mr. Adams
already had withdrawn. Here he remained about twenty minutes,
receiving congratulations from many callers. But neither on that day
nor on the next did he transact any liusiness of importance.
At 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the following clay. Governor Pea-
body's written resignation of the office of Governor was conveyed to
the Secretary of State. It was alleged at that time that the resignation
had been in the hands of a third person since the compromise agree-
ment had been made. The Secretary of State immediately certified Mr.
Peabody "s resignation, and before 5 o'clock in that afternoon Lieutenant
Grovernor McDonald was "sworn in" as Governor of Colorado by Chief
Justice Gabbert. AVithout any further ceremony. Governor ^McDonald
entered upon the discharge of his duties.
Some friends of 'Sir. Adams had urged him to hold his seat, by
force, if necessary : but he gave no heed to such advice. Some friends
of Mr. Peabody had insisted that he should not resign; but to these
he replied that he did not care to hold the place, and that he was tired
of the worrying circumstances of the affair.
Mr. ]\IcDonald reluctantly accepted the consequences of the con-
test. He had taken no part in the bitter political warfare that had
been waged over the Governorship since the preceding Xovemlier : and as
presiding officer of the General Assembly in joint convention he had
made several rulings against the movement ^-^ihich finally resulted in
placing him in the Governor's seat.
At the time Governor Adams was unseated, he said:
"I am going back to my home and my Inisiness in Pueblo. I am
President of a savings bank, and T have a hardware establishment, and
so I have no fear about the Invad and butter proposition. At this time
I am by no means in a jocular frame of mind. I have been outraged,
and I feel the resentment that is natural. However, if the people can
endure it, I can. My friends, many of them in the opposite party, have
stood by me staunchly. I shall never forget their devotion to the
cause of right and simple justice. I was advised liy some friends, whose
loyalty was supreme, to hold the office by force, but I never for a mo-
ment had an idea of accepting such advice. I am for law and order in
the real sense of the phrase, and self-sacrifice is a part of my duty in
adherence to that principle. I simply submit to the outrage that could
not peaceably be prevented."
In a letter by Governor Pealiody to the Secretary of State, and
which accompanied his ^vritten resisnation W'hen the latter was placed
in the hands of that officer, he said that he contested the election for
Governor "believing then, and fully convinced now" that he had re-
ceived a plurality of the lawful votes that were east for the office: that
it was a matter of duty to the people of Colorado and to the Republican
Party that the contest should be prosecuted : and that he considered the
decision of the General Assembly in seating him to be a complete vindi-
cation of his course. Furthermore he said:
HISTORY OF COLORADO 755
'"To my surprise and regret, I discovered toward the latter stages
of the contest that certain members of the legislature, elected as Repub-
licans, entertained feelings of ill will and dislike toward me personall.y.
â– 'I shall not attempt in this eomniuuieatiou to vindieate myself
against what I conceive to be a personal enmity, unwarranted by the
facts, and ungenerous to a degree. Suffice it to say that I am now
painfully conscious of its magnitude.
"I have always been, and will ever continue to be, a faithful adher-
ent of Republican principles and doctrines, and I conceive it to be the
duty of every true citizen to make personal sacrifices, if need be, for
the welfare of the political organization to which he may belong.
"Imbued with these sentiments, I am constrained to the conclusion
that the best interests of the Republican Party of this State will be
subserved if I now retire to private life, hoping thereby that my present
effacement as a political factor in Colorado will restore peace and
harmony now. so sorely needed in the Republican Party of this Staie."
The history of politics in Colorado deals with nothing that is com-
parable, in uniqueness, with this settlement of a contest for office.
Turning now to a brief consideration of other activities in the State
we shall see that these ai'e producing bountiful harvests, and of a kind
that are different and better than some of those that are the fruits of
politics. Prominent in this work is the great industry of agriculture,
which, at the present time, is yielding crops, the valuation of which
requires the use of large condiinations of figures. According to the
latest statistics, the annual products of the soil in our State have in-
creased in magnitude to such an extent that their market values exceed
the sum of $75,000,000. They include a great variety of crops, which
run as follows, relatively to their worth in money: hay, other forage,
sugar-beets, "garden truck,'" spring wheat, potatoes, fruit, ioats, corn,
winter wheat, melons, barle.y, rye, and flax-seed. To these are to be
added marketed milk, butter, eggs and poultry, the cash returns for
which run up I into surprising sums. All of these go directly from the
land to the market, excepting .sugar-beets. The value of merchantable
sugar, together with that of the pulp of the beets (which is good food
for livestock), above the price paid for the beets, adds another great
sum to the annual worth of the results of agriculture. Yet. this industry
still may be regarded as being in its youth, and its present development
to be only a forecast of that whicii is to come in the near future.
Furthermore, not all of its, benefits can be measured by the dollar.
Beyond estimate in terms of money are the wholesome and steadying
influences of country life.
Manufacturing, aside from that of which the products do not reach
the general markets, tmt are consumed in the communities in which
they are made, has attained proportions that place it ahead of agricul-
ture in the value of its productions. Denver and Pueblo are the seats
of nearly the whole of the manufacturing, proper, that is done in the
State; and, relatively, as to population, the last-named city is in the
lead, I shall not attempt here to enter upon the particulars, or to pre-
sent tabulated statistics, of this industry. The greatest manufacturing
establishment in the State, and which would be considered great any-
where else, is that of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, a maker
of steel, at Pueblo. Its annual manufactures of steel products has
exceeded two millions of tons.
The industry of coal-mining, which usually is conducted so quu-tly
that it does not "commonly receive direct attention, has kejit pace, pro-
portionately, with the increase of population and activities in the State,
The annual output of coal now has advanced to lO.OOO.OdO of tons, in
round figures. But this work represents not much more tlian a scratch-
ing of the surface of Colorado's coal measures.
The livestock industry, which now, in all of its aspects, is radically
different from that of the ••cow-boy" period, still retains high impor-
756 HISTORY OF COLORADO
tauee. aud the financial results of its annual operations are estimated
to be aliout $25,000,000.
While mining for the precious metals still is. aud probably will
continue to be throughout a long period, a profitable industry in Colo-
rado, it has been, as the reader already has observed, displaced from
its former position as the leader in the production of values, by the
results of the agricultural industry, manufacturing, and by coal-raining.
However, the annual yield of the yellow metal since the year 1900,
aud of which the value has averaged about .$23,000,000. has retailied
to Colorado the distinction of being the foremost State of the Union
in the production of gold. This work no longer is of a speculative char-
acter, but has become rather prosaic. The everyday operation of the
gold-mines is but little ditferent, practically, from the proceedings in
mining coal. A number of tons of ore. carrying values that are known
almost to exactness, are taken out day by day, and the metal is extracted
from it by processes which have been highly refined in efficiency and
economy. Sober reports of the yields month by month come forth as
promptly as do those of railway companies in relation to the volume of
their traffic. Xo bonanzas are encountered, nor are any nuggets or
chunks of gold fouud embedded in the rock with which the miners deal.
The course of silver-mining has continued in a direction that has
trended downward, and which has resulted in a steady reduction in the
quantity of Colorado's output of the white metal. Since 1900. the mar-
ket value of the annual yield in the State has been about $7,500,000,
much of which was taken from ore that also contained gold and zinc.
The market value of silver has fluctuated in recent times from several
points below to several above fifty cents per ounce, which is a price