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Posts tagged as “western federation of miners”

The Way We Really Were

By Virginia McConnell Simmons During the elections in 1892 and in 2016, the respective populism bore no resemblance one to the other. In Colorado in 1892, union organization – especially the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) – was growing rapidly, while mine owners were trying to increase the three-dollar-a-day, eight-hour work day to nine without additional pay. Davis Waite, after a short stay in booming Leadville, had moved to Aspen and started a newspaper, where he vigorously supported miners. Backed by the People’s Party (a.k.a. Populist Party), Waite won election as governor, but his term (1893-95) was dominated by the ...

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