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Show L ,.v- RED EVENTS IN f BUTTEHISTOiHY Fourth Military Invasion in City's Annuals as Mining Center BUTTE, Mont., May 6.' The arrival here of United States troops, sent on April 22, 1920, to prcsorve peace fol-lowlnj? fol-lowlnj? a strike called by Metal Mine "Workers' union No. 8, Industrial work-firs work-firs of the World, constituted the fourth military Invasion of this, the, greatest mining city In the world. Butte's first serious labor trouble developed Jn 1014. j Tt was the boast of tho old Butte i Miners' union No. 1. Western Fodera-B. Fodera-B. '( Hon of Labor, that it never had had a Af strike during o3 years of Its existence. Bl Wages were comparatively high and f" living comparatively cheap. A large per cent of the miners owned their own homes and they were con3erva-i The period of disaffection began about 1910, when radical elements in fl. the camp began lo coalesce under the' H loarlnrshln nf T?nv T jiwiq .T. Tliincwn. !ti I Socialist. Duncan left the pulpit for the radical lecture platform, and In J 911 ran for mayor and was elected r overwhelmingly. Duncan was re- 4 I elected mayor in 1913, by a large vote, ! and, It Is said, imediately began his 1 battle for control of tho Butte Miners' union, and through It of the Western Federation of Miners, which embraced almost all the metal miners In the land. The conservatives In the, union, . backed by Charles H. Moyer, presl-J dent of the federation, resisted. On June 13, 1 P 1-1, the annual parade' of I ; the Miners' union was broken up by I J; mon said to be I. W. W. and Duncan ', followers. 1 J Moyer came to Butte from Denver j IR to investigate. On the .night of June( " 26 he attended a conference in thei Miners' hall. A mob gathered outside HP Deputy sheriffs wero sent to tho hallj K, I to protect Moyer, who was threatened.' It. Shots were fired. It bocame a fusllado II and two men In the crowd were hit. I 1 One of them died. E ; j Tho mob stormed the hal. Moyer I i fled to Helena, where he appealed to I Governor Sam V. Stewart for protec- I Uon. mlt . 1 Mcn txt h 1 1 a lha linll wnci hlntrn nr Ijj and a reign of terror was created. A I i sort of soviet was established, with 1 "Muokie" McDonald as dictator. Mc- h 1 Donald chose a cabinet of twenty for 1 I advisors. I Buildings were dynamited. The ' , radicals broke into factions and aj ? Finn leader tried to assassinate Mayor I S Duncan, but was killed by Duncan. ? I The Finn faction then blew up Dun-. B I can's Socialist printing house. People j began to leave Butte In droves. j ! Then the governor sent the Second ; 5 ' Montana guard In the great war af-l j I terwards, tho 163rd U. S Infantry ' j to Butte. Tho troops quickly dis- ij - solved the 'soviet." McDonald and I A several others soon after were sent itj - to prison and the mayor was removed I flBm from office by legal proceedings insll-; Br' tuted by the governor for failure ioJ VVf), preserve the peace. BWwjj 11 Tne election of ID J 6 was carried; UHb the conservatives.' Duncan left Butte H? and allied himself with tho National! P Non-Partlsan league, one of whoso' 1 papers in North Dakota he edited, llel HPC Is now, It Is said, running an employ-' M ment office in Minneapolis. McDon- fll' aid was paroled by Governor Stewart. Later he was reported to have insulted HR 1 the governor during a mass meeting lll In Butte In 1916. lie went back to U ' serve out his term, but soon after V gained his freedom. H: Duncan and McDonald were suc- fl ceeded by W. F. Dunn, in his early Hf youth a prizefighter, and later an or- Hs if i ganizer for a union of electrical work-era. work-era. Dunn came to Butte from Cana- T da, and with R. B. Smith of Butte sot H up the Butte Bulletin, a weekly radi-cal radi-cal nowspapcr. In 1917 trouble again Hl broke, and tilts' time federal' troops Bft went into Butte because the war de- BBBBBH manded that copper production go Hk ahead without K Soon after au editorial in the Bulle- B advised the public to orders m f tnc of defense. Dunn, HIB writer this article, and Smith, as BBBBBJ editor of tho paper, wero tried in H Helena under the state sedition act. V convicted and finod $5,000 each. Their Hf caso s nw pending before the state supreme B In the 1919 federal troops Hj were again obliged to spend some time in Butte. Meanwhile, Dunn's paper had begun to advocate tho soviet system sys-tem and later the One Big Union. After the disruption of their union in 1014 by the "McDonald rebellion," the conservative miners never reorganized. reor-ganized. The I. W. W. and the O. B. U. are said to control those Butto miners who belong to a union now. nn |