The good ol' days...
TUCSON CITIZEN
July 19, 1917
PASSPORTS NOW NEEDED TO GET INTO BISBEE DISTRICT
Men are Reporting for Work at Mines at Rate of About Fifty a Day
(Associated Press Leased Wire)
BISBEE, July 19. – Beginning today every stranger entering the Warren mining district must bear a passport from the mayor or recognized commercial body of certain designated cities if he wishes to pass the civilian guards posted along the roads in this region by Sheriff Harry Wheeler without being subjected to a searching questioning as to his business by the armed watchers.
The duty of the guards it to prevent members of the Industrial Workers of the World or their sympathizers from entering the district, and the passport idea was hit upon as a means of avoiding unnecessary annoyance to tourists and other reputable citizens.
Issuance of passports by the Douglas Chamber of Commerce was begun today. At the request of Governor Thomas E. Campbell, sheriff Wheeler announced that passports also would be recognized when signed by the chief of police, the secretary of the Chamber of Commerce or El Paso or the mayor of Tucson.
Makes It Easy for Tourists
This will enable tourists traveling by automobile along the borderland highway to pass through the district without being delayed for examination by the guards.
Armed guards, many of them dressed in khaki and wearing leggings so that they look like soldiers to the uninitiated, are posted at strategic points along all the highways and railways entering the district. These outposts are manned night and day and are visited daily by Sheriff Wheeler. Every automobile is stopped and inspected, at night by means of flashlights, and the occupants questioned closely.
The various outposts are in communication by means of telephones and signals.
Guards Live in Tents
The guards eat and sleep in tents pitched on the mountainsides and have not left their posts since the deportation of Industrial Workers of the World members and their alleged sympathizers a week ago today. Motorcycle patrols also ride over the district searching of any so-called “undesirables” who may have slipped past the guards.
A fund of more than $70,000 is said to have been raised to defray the expenses of this elaborate system of picketing.
Sheriff Wheeler has warned the guards to keep a close watch for persons attempting to bring liquor into the district.
“Whisky,” said the sheriff, “is as bad as the ‘wobblies’ for stirring up trouble.”
Miners are coming into the Warren district at the rate of 50 a day to find work in the mines and mills of this copper camp. They are coming from Globe, Miami, Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan and other sections and are applying for employment after being examined by the investigation board of citizens here. |
