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Show WINTER 2013 UHQ pp 4-90_UHQ Stories/pp.4-68 12/5/12 9:38 AM Page 42 uTAH HISTORICAL QuARTERLy After the resolution of the strike, Globe Inspection Company spies continued their espionage in Park City and Salt Lake City. A report from the company dated July 10, 1923, quoted a warning issued to union members by IWW delegate W. G. Nelson, who was an organizer in the Eureka district. “Be careful when rustling employment at the Tintic Standard. It is full of stools and it is well known among the IWW that twelve men who have the authority to wear stars are working undercover in that mine.”64 In another report dated August 17, 1923, an operative who attended an IWW meeting in Salt Lake City, expressed his contempt at the behavior of five unfamiliar men he suspected were labor spies from a competing company. After the men maneuvered to have their leader, Harry Kinney, nominated and sustained as the chairman of the meeting, the operative observed, “This man Kinney proved himself to be a very poor chairman, apparently not familiar with proceedings and before the meeting had been in session any length of time, a motion was made that another of these strangers be appointed to act as chairman . . . . Action of this kind only increased suspicion, the old ‘Wobblies’ realizing there was a frame-up somewhere . . . . Secretary Sullivan protested against the seating of anyone in such a manner.” After some confusion, the meeting was ruled “out of order” and “all old ‘Wobblies’ left the hall together, leaving the balance standing in front of the hall.” He added: All five of the strangers who tried to get into the meeting last night are under suspicion and this man Kinney has been singled out as a detective. There was much business of importance to be transacted in the meeting last night, but the old members did not feel like taking any chances in bringing this business up unless absolutely certain that all members present were loyal ‘Wobblies.’ It is my personal opinion that Kinney is a representative from some agency but his work was rather crude. He will never get very far when it comes to getting information as he is under suspicion and those in charge of the office will watch him closely.65 The Globe Inspection Company became involved in another Utah labor dispute when coal miners throughout the nation went on strike in 1922 and coal companies near Price, in Carbon County, employed spies to infiltrate “miners’ union and keep close tabs on the activities of union leaders.”66 Operatives, also known as “inspectors,” attended local IWW and United Mine Workers (UMW) meetings and also closely followed the movements of all union members.67 After attending one IWW meeting, an inspector reported, “There is going to be considerable labor trouble in the mining camps of Utah this 64 Ivers papers, July 10, 1923. Ibid, August 17, 1923. 66 Allan Kent Powell, “Utah and the Nationwide Coal Miners’ Strike of 1922,” Utah Historical Quarterly 45 (Spring 1977): 138. 67 Spring Canyon Area Coal Company Records, MSS 252, Box 3, Folder 6, Harold B. Lee Library, Special Collections, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. The United Mine Workers, a union for coal workers and technicians, was founded in Columbus, Ohio, on January 22, 1890. 65 42 |
