Hellraisers Journal, Thursday April 19, 1917
From the United Mine Workers Journal: Ludlow Martyrs to be Honored
From this week’s Journal:
The Seed of Freedom
April 20th is the third anniversary of the day on which was perpetrated the crime that shocked humanity in every part of the civilized world, the massacre of unarmed men, women and babies in the little canvas city that the miners’ organization had built to shelter the evicted strikers of southern Colorado who had revolted against the conditions of servitude imposed upon them in the surrounding coal mine camps.
It is not the purpose of this article to recall the horrors of that day of shame; rather would we rejoice that the time is here when we can demonstrate that the victims of the Ludlow massacre did not die in vain, that there also “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Freedom.”
On Sunday, April 22nd, organized miners from the towns contiguous to the field where the strikers’ tent colony was located and destroyed, will hold memorial services. From Hastings, the great mining camp of the Victor American Coal Company, once closed against every man known to have union sympathies, will come a solid delegation, all the miners of that camp all members of the United Mine Workers union. Every mining town from Morley in the south to Walsenburgh, Fremont County and the lignite coal fields north will send delegations of union men, who can today publish it to the world that they have affiliated with the organization of their industry.
And that is not all. Under the sound trade union management of James F. Moran, acting president, and of Warren Pippin, acting secretary, each day brings reports of new agreements signed up with independent companies that are large producers of coal and employers of labor.
Other companies, more or less dependent upon the Colorado Fuel and Iron Companies, are trying to stave off the time when they will have to deal with their organized employes on equitable terms by announcing voluntary wage raises and the adoption of the Rockefeller “almost as good” (?) method of joint relationship.
That their hopes are futile is proven fully by the resolutions adopted by the members of the local union of the United Mine Workers of Coal Creek, in Fremont County, one of the Colorado fuel companies holding, and supposedly working under the Rockefeller-McKenzie King plan of bogus industrial co-operation.
The resolutions adopted read as follows:
Whereas. To all appearances, new life has been injected into the ranks of the members of the various local unions of District No. 15, U. M. W. of A., since the taking over of the official affairs of said district by the International organization of the U. M. W. of A.; and
Whereas, It has already been demonstrated that the taking over of the official affairs of the aforesaid district has already brought forth fruit, by the peaceful and bloodless manner the International officials of the United Mine Workers of America, displayed in effecting negotiations for a conference with the officials of the Victor American Fuel Company, the second largest coal company in the state of Colorado; and,
Whereas, A conference was agreed upon and held in the city of Denver, on March 22, 23, 24, 1917, between the officers of the Victor American Fuel Company and two employes from each of the various mines of said Victor American Fuel Company in Colorado and New Mexico, assisted by the wise and able generalship of Frank J. Hayes, vice-president, John Lewis, statistician, and Robt. H. Harlin, International board member of the International organization, President James F. Moran and Warren Pippin, secretary-treasurer of District No. 15 of the U. M. W. of A.; and,
Whereas, In said conference between the officials of the Victor American Fuel Company, its employes, the International officers and district officers of the U. M. W. of A., a grand victory was won, by the Victor American Fuel Company accepting a full recognition of the international union of the U. M. W. of A. policies, and entering into a three-year valid contract with the U. M. W. of A.; therefore be it
Resolved, That we, as members of Local Union No. 2409, U. M. W. of A., have full confidence in the conduct of affairs in District No. 15, by its present officers, viz.; James K, Moran, president, and Warren Pippin, secretary-treasurer, and that we pledge our hearty and unanimous support in effecting a 100 percent membership to our ranks ere the year 1917 shall be no more; and, be it further
Resolved, That Local Union No. 2409, U. M. W. of A., hopes that the “grand wedge” driven into the phalanx of stubborn resistance arrayed against organized labor in the state of Colorado, may, before the dawning of the year 1918, be the means of rending asunder this stubborn resistance and be the further means of bringing other great coal companies of the states of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah to their sense of duty and accept in its full entirety, recognition of the U. M. W. of A., for as long as capital and labor are thus arrayed, one against the other, business and honest livelihood are bound to suffer.
Justice is all we ask; we desire no charity.
Respectfully submitted for your consideration.
Adopted and passed March 27, 1917, by Local Union No. 2409, U. M. W. of A., Coal Creek, Colorado.
W. C. GILBERT, Prea.,
D. G. DAVIES, Rec.-Secy.To our certain knowledge the intent of the above resolution to effect a one hundred percent organization within the present year is the openly avowed purpose of all the miners in the state of Colorado, and even those of the operators that heretofore have been most bitterly opposed to organization, recognize that its fulfillment can not be much longer delayed.
And so, on this the third anniversary of the crime by which eager and vindictive servitors of the corporations thought they had succeeded in forever quenching the fires of unionism in the blood of its supporters, we find the organization stronger in Colorado than ever in the history of that state, and with the goal—victory and real collective bargaining through organization—an early certainty.
———-
[Photograph of Black Hole of Ludlow added.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCE
United Mine Workers Journal, Vol 27
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
Jan 4-May 31, 1917
by United Mine Workers of America
https://books.google.com/books?id=c-8_AAAAYAAJ
UMWJ Apr 19, 1917
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=c-8_AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PT486
“Seed of Freedom”
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=c-8_AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PT489
IMAGES
The Black Hole, Ludlow Massacre by Fink, after April 20, 1914
https://archive.org/stream/ludlowmassacrere00finkrich#page/38/mode/1up
CO Dnv Jt Conf, D15 UMWA, Mar 22-24, UMWJ Apr 19, 1917
& UMWJ Eds; Wallace, Poggiani, Halapy, Apr 19, 1917
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=c-8_AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PT489
CO Strike 1913-14, UMWA Policy Com, Ludlow Massacre Fink 1914
https://archive.org/stream/ludlowmassacrere00finkrich#page/68/mode/1up
See also:
The Ludlow Massacre
-by Walter H. Fink
Director of Publicity, District No. 15, U. M. W. A.
Denver, 1914
https://archive.org/details/ludlowmassacrere00finkrich
For more on the taking over of District 15 by the International:
Out of the Depths
-by Barron B. Beshoar
Colorado, 1980
https://books.google.com/books?id=gQ4eAAAAIAAJ
Pages 353-4, here Beshoar uses Denver Labor Bulletin of Feb 10 & 24, 1917, as a source:
The internal strife [*] in the union came to a head in February, 1917, when the executive board, at a special meeting in Indianapolis, gave a sub-committee of five authority to suspend the charter of District 15. [John R.] Lawson asked that a five-man investigating committee be named to make a thorough study in the state and report back to their international body before any action was taken. He offered to step aside voluntarily if it could be shown he had retarded the growth of the union movement in any way.
Although the subcommittee of the executive board had until April to act, it did not waste a minute. James F. Moran of Iowa and Warren Pippin of Kansas were sent to Denver to take charge of Colorado. The charter of District 15 was suspended and all official positions connected with the district union were abolished. The central offices were moved from Denver to Pueblo. Lawson and [Ed] Doyle were out. Their dream of a strong, united labor movement, motivated by principles of brotherhood and common good, seemed to be vanishing before their eyes after years of heart-breaking struggle and danger.
A spirit of compromise with the coal operators had seized the international officers in the hope of getting rid of a costly strike without losing face or their lucrative positions…Lawson and Doyle had refused to compromise principle so they must go. Lawson was bitter at first as expressions of loyalty poured in from every section of the state, but he soon resigned himself as he knew he was helpless against the machinations of the international officers. They controlled the machinery of the organization and there was nothing he could do. The sentence of life imprisonment for murder still was hanging over his head…
[Photograph and paragraph breaks added.]
*Note: “The internal strife” dates back to Sept 1914 and to the disagreement over acceptance of President Wilson’s Plan for ending the Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-1914, with John R. Lawson and Ed Doyle opposed to certain parts of the plan.
From the UMWJ of Feb 15, 1917:
John R Lawson on UMWA Executive Board from District 15
& D15 President and Secretary: John McLennan and E. L. Doyle
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=c-8_AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PT200
& John L Lewis announced as recently appointed Statistician.
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=c-8_AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PT204
From UMWJ of Feb 22, 1917:
No UMWA Executive Board member from District 15
& D15 President and Secretary: James F. Moran and Warren Pippin.
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=c-8_AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PT232