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Hellraisers Journal- Wednesday September 24, 1913
Southern Colorado-Thousands of Striking Miners and Families Exit Company Towns
From the Trinidad Chronicle-News of September 23, 1913:
A meeting was held at Sopris this morning and talks were made by Frank J. Hayes and “Mother” Jones. A meeting will be held at Ludlow this afternoon. These meetings will continue from day to day at differenct camps to “keep the enthusiasm going”, as Vice President Hayes intimated last night.
Mother Jones worked up to a high pitch bordering on frenzey deliverd an impassioned address to more than three hundred coal miners at Sopris this morning. The meeting was held under canvass and the venerable labor leader sought to stir up the fires of revolet in the breast of every miner. While the speaking was going on scores of miners were receiving union cards. International vice president Frank J. Hayes also spoke. There was a good deal of enthusiasm manifested.
[Statement of Vice-President Frank Hayes to C-N reporter:]
We have conducted a quiet, dignified campaign. We feel confident the operators will accede to our demands in the near future. The miners by their action today have proved that they desire to enjoy better working conditions and work as union men and enjoy the same rights and privileges as the miners of Wyoming and neighboring states.
This is an age of co-operation and we demand the same right as the mine owners assert to band ourselves together for the purpose of promoting social and economic welfare. The statutes of Colorado concede us this right and the right to sell our labor collectively. We cannot surrender this legal right.
In view of the prosperity of this particular company [C. F. & I.] which also reflects the prosperity of other big corporations, we see no good reason why the miners should not enjoy more of the comforts and refinements of modern civilization. We have repeatedly sought to secure a joint conference but without success. We are still waiting for a conference to adjust the present controversy. If working conditions are as good as the operators say they are, then the operators ought not to fear to meet the miners in joint conference.
[Emphasis added.]
Tuesday September 23, 1913, Southern Colorado Coalfield
–Mass Evictions of Striking Miners and Families from Company Towns Underway
The strike call went out from the Special Convention of District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America last week and today the miners are answering that call. Mass evictions from the company towns are now under way. It is expect that, by nightfall there will be more than 12,000 miners ousted from the shacks which the coal companies provide as homes. The wives and children of the miners could bring the total number of people evicted to about 20,000.
There are reports of company gunthugs kicking in doors, and throwing the furniture and other belongs of the families into the muddy streets. A cold rain has been falling, and threatens to turn into snow later on today. Some of the miners have secured wagons; others do the best they can with push carts to make their way down the canyons to their new homes, the tent cities erected by the United Mine Workers on the plains below.
The union has established tent colonies at various location such as Walsenburg, Aguilar, Forbes, and Ludlow. The tents have wooden flooring and stoves for cooking and heating. The miners and their families are arriving cold and wet with frightened little children in tow.
Meanwhile, Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Company has opened an office in Denver where Detective Reno is busy hiring gunmen. We have reports that fifty were recently hired, and Reno brags that:
We’ll hire 200 more at least to supplement the men we have.
Reno has ordered an armored automobile which will be built in the company’s steel plant in Pueblo. It will be equipped with a machine gun and is intended for use in the strike zone.
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, Rise Up and Strike,
Sept 16 UMW D15 Conv Trinidad CO
Dnv Express of Sept 17, 1913
Foner p236
https://books.google.com/books?newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&id=T_m5AAAAIAAJ&dq=foner+mother+jones+speaks&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22rise+up+and+strike%22
The Chronicle-News
(Trinidad, Colorado)
-Sept 23, 1913
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90051521/1913-09-23/ed-1/seq-1/
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90051521/1913-09-23/ed-1/seq-7/
Out of the Depths
Barron B. Beshoar
(1st ed 1942)
CO, 1980
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 23, 1913
Southern Colorado – Exodus of Miners and Families from Company Towns Increasing
Sept 23, 1913, Trinidad CO Chronicle News
-Coalfield Strike Begins; Miners Lay Down Tools
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-chroniclenews-sept-23-1913-trinid/132332672/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-chroniclenews-sept-23-1913-trinid/132332818/
United States Commission on Industrial Relations
Report on the Colorado Strike
-by GEORGE P. WEST
WASHINGTON, D. C. 1915
(search: exodus)
(search: tent colonies)
(search: reno)
https://ia600300.us.archive.org/33/items/reportoncolorado00unit/reportoncolorado00unit.pdf
Tag: Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-1914
https://weneverforget.org/tag/colorado-coalfield-strike-of-1913-1914/
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