Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 24, 1914 Chicago, Illinois – Judge Lindsey and Survivors of Ludlow Speak at Hull House
From The Fort Wayne Sentinel of May 20, 1914:
Judge Ben Lindsey; Women left to right: Mary Thomas, Pearl Jolly, Mary Petrucci; Thomas Daughters.
Five survivors of the Ludlow Massacre stopped off in Chicago, as guests of Miss Jane Addams of Hull House, on their way to Washington D. C. where they met with President Wilson. Mary Petrucci whose children were all killed in the fire, Mary Thomas and her two little daughters who hid from machine gun bullets throughout that terrible day, and Pearl Jolly, the heroine of Ludlow, who spent the day under fire as she assisted the women and children to escape: they are all being escorted to Washington by Judge Lindsey and Mrs. Lee Champion. The Judge’s wife was, unfortunately, hospitalized yesterday soon after their arrival in Chicago, and will not be able to accompanied the party further.
From The Daily Capital Journal (Salem, Oregon) of May 19, 1914:
LUDLOW’S STORY IS
TOO HORRIBLE TO PUT IN PRINT ———-
Details Equaled Only by the Burning and Sacking of Ancient Rome ———- COLORADO SITTING ON VOLCANO’S EDGE ———- Father Saluted with Child’s Corpse When He Went to Militia’s Camp ———-
Chicago, May 19,-“The true story of what transpired at Ludlow is too horrible to print.” said Judge Ben Lindsey here today. The famous Denver jurist is en route to Washington, accompanied by Mrs. Pearl Jolly, Mrs. Mary Petrucci and Mrs. M. Thomas, all Ludlow survivors.
“The details of the Ludlow affair are almost unbelievable,” said Judge Lindsey. “They are equaled only in the stories of the sacking of Rome, the pillaging of Carthage and the inhumanities of the Balkan war.
“We are going to Washington to beg President Wilson to not withdraw the federal troops. My own interests are neutral. I want law and order and the citizens of Denver have asked me to help get order.
“The Ludlow story is a black mark on the nation’s history. I can only suggest it and fill in the outlines with the direct testimony of these women who have suffered. As one instance of what occurred-and I have affidavits to back it up-a father went to a militia camp for his boy who had been missing. He was saluted with the child’s corpse. The boys’ head had been shot off and the body half burned. A soldier threw it over a tent to the father, saying: ‘Here, take the _ thing.’
“Mothers who went to rescue their babies were shot down and mutilated. Children only a few years old were killed. Barbarians in even the most unholy days could not have been more cruel than some of the militiamen at Ludlow.”
The party visited Hull House and related the story to Jane Addams. The latter broke down as the women told of the cruelties practiced on helpless women and children by the militiamen. Mrs. Lindsey, a victim of nervous prostration as a result of Denver’s high altitude, was taken to a Chicago hospital and will await her husband’s return from Washington.
From the Chicago Daily Tribune of May 20, 1914:
ON TO WASHINGTON WITH DEATH TALE ———-
Judge Lindsey Hurries East with Women Who Witnessed Ludlow Killings. ———– LEAVES WIFE HERE ILL. ———- Red Cross Nurse Tells How Colorado Soldiers Used Her Insignia as Target. ———-
Judge Ben B. Lindsey and three women who emerged alive from the battle of Ludlow, Colo., on April 20, stopped in Chicago yesterday long enough to send Mrs. Lindsey to the Presbyterian hospital. The wife of the Denver jurist collapsed when she reached Chicago with the party.
While here the women told how the men, women, and children of Ludlow-striking miners and their families-had been shot down by the Colorado national guardsmen. They spent the day at Hull house.
One of the women was a mother who hid all day in a cave while bullets whistled over her head. Another was a Red Cross nurse, and she told how the state soldiers had used her Red Cross insignia as a target. The third woman was the mother of two children. She hid behind a pile of coal while balls from a machine gun sent the coal flying in showers.
Go to Tell Story at Washington.
The judge, with Mrs. Lindsey and Mrs. Lee Champion, representing the relief committee of Colorado, are accompanying the three women to Washington. There they will try to tell the story of the Ludlow combat, of the conditions of the miners and their families, and the attitude of the state soldiers.
The representatives of the coal miners of Colorado want federal troops to remain in the mine district until the strike is settled. Civil war is feared if the regular army men are withdrawn, the judge said.
The women witnesses are Mrs. Mary Petrucci, Mrs. Pearl Jolly, and Mrs. M. H. Thomas and her two children-Rachel, 6 years old, and Olga, 4 years old.They left for Washington at night, leaving Lindsey in the hospital.
“The state soldiers started firing early on April 20,” Mrs. Jolly, the Red Cross nurse, said. “Guardsmen were all about us, and they had planted their machine guns on the hills. When they began firing the men ran to the hills, believing they would not fire on the women and children. But they were mistaken.
Fire on Women and Children.
“No sooner had the men gone than the national guardsmen opened fore on us. When I entered my tent to fix some sandwiches they saw the reflection of my Red Cross badge in the mirror, and a second later the mirror had been riddled with bullets.
“I saw two women and eleven children shot dead in one of the caves. Louis Tikas, the leader of the men, was murdered when he displayed the white flag-the signal of surrender.”
The other women related details of their experience when the state’s soldiers attacked their camps.
More on Judge Lindsey and Women of Ludlow at Hull House with Jane Addams
On December 15, 1914, Judge Lindsey testified before the Commission on Industrial Relations. He gave this testimony regarding the day spent with Jane Addams at Hull House:
When we got to Chicago we were received at the depot by a committee from the Hull House. Miss Jane Addams had wired me that a delegation of women would receive the ladies and exacted the party to go to the Hull House, and all others, of course; but especially the ladles. That she would have some of her friends there to hear the story of Mrs. Jolly and Mrs. Thomas. My wife became ill on the train and I had to go with her to the hospital. I do not recall talking to any newspaper man until later in the day, and I was somewhat surprised to find myself, in an early afternoon edition, saying some things which I did not say, which was our common experience in these matters. Some things were so confusing, no doubt — honestly confusing. They had a meeting at Hull House. I got there late. These ladies told their story. They also had a meeting at the School of Philanthropy that is conducted by Prof. Graham Taylor, of The Chicago Commons, and other people of that type. These ladies there told their story. I made a brief address, called attention to the fact that the coal companies and other large corporations in Colorado had been notoriously lawless in their methods in this State, politically and industrially; and, in my judgment, that accounted for a good deal of the lawlessness — and there was lawlessness on both sides, of course.
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