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308 VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
explosions have been brought to the door of the detectives
employed by the Mine Owners' Association. It was
found that many ex-convicts and other desperate characters
were employed by the detective agencies to commit
crimes that could be laid upon the working miners.
The story of Orchard and the recital of his atrocious
crimes have occupied columns of every newspaper, but
the fact is rarely mentioned that many of the crimes that
he committed, and which the world to-day attributes to
the officials of the Western Federation of Miners, were
paid for by detective agencies. The special detective of
one of the railroads and a detective of the Mine Owners'
Association were known to have employed Orchard and
other criminals. When Orchard first went to Denver to
seek work from the officials of the Western Federation of
Miners he was given a railroad pass by these detectives
and the money to pay his expenses. (41) During the
three months preceding the blowing up of the Independence
depot Orchard had been seen at least eighteen or
twenty times entering at night by stealth the rooms of
a detective attached to the Mine Owners' Association,
and at least seven meetings were held between him and
the railroad detective already mentioned.
Previous to all this— in September and in November,
1903 — attempts were made to wreck trains. A delinquent
member of the Western Federation of Miners was
charged with these crimes. He involved in his confession
several prominent members of the Western Federation
of Miners. On cross-examination he testified that
he had formerly been a prize-fighter and that he had
come to Cripple Creek under an assumed name. He
further testified that $250 was his price for wrecking
a train carrying two hundred to three hundred people,
but that he had asked $500 for this job, as another man