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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 3, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – State Federation of Labor Committee Begins Investigation
From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of December 27, 1913:
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Wednesday December 24, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – C. F. of L. Investigating Committee Begins Hearings
The Committee established by the recent Convention of the Colorado Federation of Labor to investigate alleged abuse by the military met in Trinidad yesterday to begin hearings on the matter. Now, Professor Brewster was asked to sit on the committee despite his views on the United Mine Workers which are less than favorable. Yet, the Professor is trusted as an honorable and fair man, willing to listen objectively to the evidence.
General Chase has refused to meet with the committee in spite of the letter from Governor Ammons requiring him to do so. He indicates that, perhaps, he will find the time at a later date to meet with the C. F. of L. Investigating Committee.
The committee heard testimony from Mrs. Maggie Dominske of Ludlow. She described how she was on her way to the Ludlow post office with a group of women when they were stopped by militiamen:
They put up their guns and said, “God damn you, don’t you go another step. If you do,we’ll shoot you. We’re getting tired of these sons-of-bitches coming up here and we’re going to put a stop to it.”
The Professor asked if the women had been on a public road, and Mrs. Dominske replied that, yes indeed, they had been using a public road. The Professor declared:
I am surprised. Surprised. I wouldn’t have believed it if I had not heard it straight from these women. It is plain they are telling the truth.
We imagine that the good Professor will encounter many more such surprises before the investigation is completed.
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Wednesday December 31, 1913
Ludlow, Colorado – Lt Linderfelt declares himself “Jesus Christ”
Yesterday evening, a cavalryman was injured when his horse tripped on a piece of barbed wire. The injured man was brought to the Ludlow depot. A few minutes later Lieutenant Linderfelt appeared and went into a rage. Louie Tikas happened to be at the depot waiting for a train, also at the station was a boy of about fifteen years. Linderfelt focused on that boy, accusing him of setting the wire, and, when the boy denied the charge, began to beat him. Linderfelt next began to berate Louie:
There you are, you round-face son-of-a-bitch. You’re responsible for that wire.
Louie remained calm, but Linderfelt continued to rage. He gave an order to his men:
You Tollerburg fellows beat it over to the colony and cut every God damned wire around the place. The first man that interferes with you-shoot his head off.
Linderfelt then punched Louie in the face as he yelled:
I am Jesus Christ, and my men on horses are Jesus Christs, and we must be obeyed.
Witnesses report that Louie Tikas maintained his usual calm as Linderfelt struck him several more times. The lieutenant than ordered his men to take Louie to the military camp.
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Thursday January 1, 1914
Ludlow Tent Colony, Colorado – Federation Committee Sends Telegram to Governor
Following the assault by Lt. Linderfelt upon the young boy and Louis Tikas at the Ludlow depot, the Colorado Federation of Labor Investigating Committee came to the tent colony and began taking testimony from witnesses. What they heard so concerned them that John Lawson, as chair of the committee, decided to immediately send a telegram to Governor Ammons:
We did not expect to report to you until we had completed the taking of testimony at all camps, but in our judgment the following serious matter should be reported to you at once: Lieut. K. E. Linderfelt, of the cavalry stationed at Berwind, last night at Ludlow brutally assaulted an inoffensive boy in the public railroad station, using the vilest language at the same time. He also assaulted and tried to provoke to violence Louie Tikas, head man of the Ludlow strikers’ colony, and arrested him unjustifiably. Today, in the presence of one of our number, he grossly abused a young man in no way connected with the strike, also making threats against the strikers in the foulest language. He rages violently upon little or no provocation and is wholly an unfit man to bear arms and command men as he has no control over himself. We have reason to believe that it is his deliberate purpose to provoke the strikers to bloodshed. In the interest of peace and justice, we ask immediate action in his case.
Louie Tikas has been released as a result of this telegram, but Lt. Linderfelt remains stationed at Berwind, near to the Ludlow Tent Colony.
The Committee found that it was Linderfelt’s men who left the barbed wire on the ground for the horses to trip over. They have been cutting fences in the area so that they can more easily ride across the fields. According to Lawson:
They cut the wire themselves and were too lazy to gather it up. They were responsible for the [cavalryman’s] fall.
Furthermore, the men sent by Linderfelt to cut wire around the tent colony, took that rusty barb wire and stuffed it down the well which is the source of drinking water for 1200 men, women and children.
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From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of January 3, 1914
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Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES & IMAGES
United Labor Bulletin
(Denver, Colorado)
-Dec 27, 1913
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91052295/1913-12-27/ed-1/seq-1/
-Jan 3, 1914
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91052295/1914-01-03/ed-1/seq-1/
Out of the Depths
The Story of John R. Lawson, A Labor Leader
-Barron B. Beshoar
Colorado Labor Historical Committee
of the Denver Area Labor Federation, 1942
https://archive.org/details/outofdepths0000unse
https://archive.org/details/outofdepths0000unse/page/119/mode/1up?q=professor&view=theater
https://archive.org/details/outofdepths0000unse/page/120/mode/1up?q=professor&view=theater
https://archive.org/details/outofdepths0000unse/page/123/mode/1up?q=linderfelt
https://archive.org/details/outofdepths0000unse/page/124/mode/1up?q=%22jesus+christ%22
https://archive.org/details/outofdepths0000unse/page/125/mode/1up?q=%22jesus+christ%22
https://archive.org/details/outofdepths0000unse/page/126/mode/1up?q=linderfelt&view=theater
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 22, 1913
Denver, Colorado – State Federation of Labor Adopts Policy of Action
Karl E. Linderfelt (November 7, 1876 – June 3, 1957)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Linderfelt
Tag: Colorado Federation of Labor Investigating Committee 1913
https://weneverforget.org/tag/colorado-federation-of-labor-investigating-committee-1913/
Tag: Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-1914
https://weneverforget.org/tag/colorado-coalfield-strike-of-1913-1914/
MORE on Professor James H. Brewster:
The Prof. was to pay a high price for serving on the Colorado Federation of Labor Investigating Committee, and for his later service to the union workers:
THE COLORADO CASE.
In June, 1915, Prof. James H. Brewster, who had been a teacher of law at the University of Colorado during the year 1914-15, and who failed of reappointment at the end of the year, charged that “this failure to reappoint, in view of the admission of the president of the university that Mr. Brewster had performed his teaching duties with ’eminent satisfaction,’ was practically a dismissal; and that ‘the only causes for this dismissal are the facts that I testified to the truth before the Commission on Industrial Relations (Dec. 7 and 8, 1914), and that I appeared as counsel for the Miners’ Union before a congressional committee in February and March, 1914′”. He further charged that on May 7, 1915, President Farrand, upon being shown a telegram from the chairman of the [U. S. Senate] Commission on Industrial Relations requesting Mr. Brewster to come to Washington to testify again before the commission, stated that “if he complied with Chairman Walsh’s request his connection with the university must cease at once-that is, before the expiration of the then current university session.” In an open letter President Farrand denied both charges and shortly thereafter requested the American Association of University Professors to investigate the case.
SOURCE
Bulletin, Issues 40-50
United States. Bureau of Education
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1916
(search: brewster “colorado case”) p56
https://books.google.com/books?id=bYoqk3Jq-qIC
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Colorado Strike Song – John McCutcheon