<P> At the end of the 19th century, Cripple Creek was the largest town in the gold - mining district that included the towns of Altman, Anaconda, Arequa, Goldfield, Elkton, Independence and Victor, about 20 miles from Colorado Springs on the southwest side of Pikes Peak . Surface gold was discovered in the area in 1891, and within three years more than 150 mines were operating there . </P> <P> The Panic of 1893 caused the price of silver to crash; the gold price, however, remained fixed, as the United States was on the gold standard . The influx of silver miners into the gold mines caused a lowering of wages . Mine owners demanded longer hours for less pay . </P> <P> In January 1894, Cripple Creek mine owners J.J. Hagerman, David Moffat and Eben Smith, who together employed one - third of the area's miners, announced a lengthening of the work - day to ten hours (from eight), with no change to the daily wage of $3.00 per day . When workers protested, the owners agreed to employ the miners for eight hours a day--but at a wage of only $2.50 . </P> <P> Not long before this dispute, miners at Cripple Creek had formed the Free Coinage Union . Once the new changes went into effect, they affiliated with the Western Federation of Miners, and became Local 19 . The union was based in Altman, and had chapters in Anaconda, Cripple Creek and Victor . </P>

What factors accounted for the success of the cripple creek miners' strike of 1894
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