A RANCHMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS 



"Charlie" was a born handler of men, always 

 taking the human equation into consideration, and, 

 during his superintendency, probably had as few 

 labor complications as any superintendent in any 

 industry in America. His men idolized him. Dur- 

 ing a strike, which came very quickly after the plant 

 was visited by labor organizers, I recall that men 

 were hard to hold in line, and persisted in telling the 

 agitators that they would do anything "Charlie" 

 Tourtelotte said was right. I recall that Samuel 

 Gompers came promptly and effected a settlement. 

 The strike was with the firemen, and lasted only a 

 short time ; but with its inception notices were sent out 

 all over the country urging a boycott of the products 

 of the Armour Packing Co., which had not then con- 

 solidated with Armour & Co. of Chicago, with Philip 

 D. Armour as a large stockholder. 



Corrective notices were of course sent. At that 

 time the western mining districts were strongly or- 

 ganized. Butte, Mont., the most notable, was the 

 leading district, and at that place there were 52 

 organizations, operating through a central council, 

 and a notice of the lifting of the boycott had not 

 reached that body. Everything was peaceful at 

 Butte. In the Coeur d'Alene country, with head- 

 quarters at Wallace, Idaho, practically the same 

 condition as to organization existed; but in that 

 country things were very bad. Mine-owners were 

 being killed, and troops were sent there. 



[12] 



