Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “The Class War in Colorado” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part II, Call to Arms

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Quote CO Labor Leaders Call to Arms, Apr 22, ULB p1, Apr 25, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday June 3, 1914
“The Class War in Colorado” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of June 1914:

Black Hole of Ludlow, ISR p719, June 1914

THE CLASS WAR IN COLORADO

By Leslie H. Marcy

[Part II of II]

The Massacre of the Innocents

[-from Rocky Mountain News]

The horror of the shambles at Ludlow is overwhelming. Not since the days when pitiless red men wreaked vengeance upon intruding frontiersmen and upon their women and children has this western country been stained with so foul a deed.

Ludlow Woman Crucified, ISR p716, June 1914

The details of the massacre are horrible. Mexico offers no barbarity so base as that of the murder of defenseless women and children by the mine guards in soldiers’ clothing. Like whitened sepulchres we boast of American civilization with this infamous thing at our very doors. Huerta murdered Madero, but even Huerta did not shoot an innocent little boy seeking water for his mother who lay ill. Villa is a barbarian, but in his maddest excess Villa has not turned machine guns on imprisoned women and children. Where is the outlaw so far beyond the pale of human kind as to burn the tent over the heads of nursing mothers and helpless little babies?

Out of this infamy one fact stands clear. Machine guns did the murder. The machine guns were in the hands of mine guards, most of whom were also members of the state militia. It was private war, with the wealth of the richest man in the world behind th mine guards.

Once and for all time the right to employ armed guards must be taken away from private individuals and corporations. To the state, and to the state alone, belongs the right to maintain peace. Anything else is anarchy. Private warfare is the only sort of anarchy the world has ever known, and armed forces employed by private interests have introduced the only private wars of modern times. This practice must be stopped. If the state laws are not strong enough, then the federal government must step in. At any cost, private warfare must be destroyed.

Who are these mine guards to whom is entrusted the sovereign right to massacre? Four of the fraternity were electrocuted recently in New York. They are the gunmen of the great cities, the offscourings of humanity, whom a bitter heritage has made the wastrels of the world. Warped by the wrongs of their own upbringing, they know no justice and they care not for mercy. They are hardly human in intelligence, and not as high in the scale of kindness as domestic animals.

Yet they are not the guilty ones. The blood of the innocent women and children rests on the hands of those who for the greed of dollars employed such men and bought such machines of murder. The world has not been hard upon these; theirs has been a gentle upbringing. Yet they reck not of human life when pecuniary interests are involved.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “The Class War in Colorado” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part II, Call to Arms”

Hellraisers Journal: Photos from the Colorado Coalfield Strike: Pearl Jolly-Heroine of Ludlow, Miners Prepared to Defend Colonies, Rockefeller’s Gunthugs

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Quote John Lawson 1913, after October 17th Death Special attack on Forbes Tent Colony, Beshoar p74—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday May 21, 1914
Photographs from the Colorado Coalfield Strike

From The Daily Missoulian of May 4, 1914
-Pearl Jolly, Heroine of Ludlow:

Pearl Jolly Heroine of Ludlow CO, Dly Missoulian p1, May 4, 1914

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Photos from the Colorado Coalfield Strike: Pearl Jolly-Heroine of Ludlow, Miners Prepared to Defend Colonies, Rockefeller’s Gunthugs”

Hellraisers Journal: Appeal to Reason Correspondent, John Kenneth Turner, Begins Series on “Government by Gunmen”

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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday May 14, 1914
Mother Jones Praises John Kenneth Turner’s Series, “Government by Gunmen”

From the Appeal to Reason of May 9, 1914:

John Kenneth Turner Opens Fire
On Government by Gunmen

WV Mother Jones w John Kenneth Turner 1913, AtR p1, Apr 11, 1914

Here follows the introductory article of the “Government by Gunmen” series. In investigating these facts John Kenneth Turner risked his life, as it required his association with gunmen, detectives and the riff-raff of capitalist society. Several times he was warned by friends to drop his investigations. A reformed gunman has written the Appeal urging us to suppress this series if we valued Turner’s life. But the author of “Barbarous Mexico” and the investigator of West Virginia and other recent labor wars, laughs at this threat. He believes that the publicity given to this series will not only protect him but all who are today in danger of being “eliminated” by the murderous detective agencies. Here then is the beginning of the “Government by Gunmen” series. And every week for nearly half a year we shall bring before the public bar the strongest indictment of Capitalism’s Invisible Army that was ever attempted in this country. The Appeal feels that our first and most important duty is to abolish Government by Gunmen. It must be done-it will be done. 

By JOHN KENNETH TURNER
Staff Correspondent Appeal to Reason.

Gunthug Gun n Booze, AtR p1, May 9, 1914

In the county jail at Marysville, Cal., a short time ago I talked with two young workingmen who were on trial for murder. A jury of twelve men-not working men-has since declared them guilty and a judge has sentenced them to imprisonment at hard labor for the rest of their natural lives.

Yet these two workingmen had not killed anybody. Nor had they planned or attempted to kill anybody.

One, Richard Ford, is ruined for life-torn from his wife and two little children forever-solely because he became the spokesman for 2,300 hop-pickers who went on strike against intolerable conditions.

The career of the other, Herman Suhr, is blasted-he too, is unfortunate enough to possess a wife and two children-solely because he signed a number of telegrams asking that organizers be sent to the hop-fields to enroll the 2,300 pickers in a labor union.

The arrest, the trial and the conviction of Ford and Suhr was a deliberate frame-up of a ring of capitalists, in which a private detective agency took a necessary and criminal part…..

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Appeal to Reason Correspondent, John Kenneth Turner, Begins Series on “Government by Gunmen””

Hellraisers Journal: Mary Petrucci of Ludlow: “She touched and called to her three children, and they were all dead.”

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Ludlow Mary Petrucci, Children all dead, Affidavit, May 11, 1914
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday May 12, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – The Affidavits of Mary Petrucci and Maggie Dominiske

Black Hole of Ludlow

———-

AFFIDAVIT.

State of Colorado, Las Animas County, ss:

Mary Petrucci, of lawful age, being first duly sworn, on oath testified as follows: That her name is Mary Petrucci; that affiant had started to wash, and a little later heard two bombs go off, and noticed the soldiers running toward the steel bridge, and they started to shoot down at the colony; affiant states that it was about 9 o’clock [April 20th]; and then affiant went into her cellar hole; that when affiant went into her cellar hole she took her three children, ages 4 years, 2 years, and 6 months, respectively; that affiant remained in the cellar until 6 o’clock in the evening, when her tent was set on fire; affiant states that her tent was the first one fired, as her tent was No. 1; affiant states that her tent was the tent nearest the railroad track; affiant states that when the shooting commenced with the machine guns the bullets were so thick in he tent that she shut her cellar door; that about 6 o’clock in the evening affiant saw some fire on her cellar door, and on looking out saw that her tent was on fire, whereupon she took her three children and went to the cellar hole occupied by Mrs. Costa and other women and children to affiant unknown; that shortly after affiant reached the above last-mentioned cellar hole the tent took fire, and the women and children commenced to cough, and they were all choked with the smoke; affiant further states that she lost consciousness until the next morning, when she touched and called to her three children, and they were all dead; affiant states that she went to the Ludlow station and came to Trinidad; affiant states that she does not remember anything of the trip from Ludlow to Trinidad; that affiant was taken sick with pneumonia caused by exposure and grief; affiant states that on account of being ill she never saw her three children after leaving them in the cellar hole; affiant states that when she came out of her cellar hole the guards were shooting after her, and she started to the cellar hole where Mrs. Costa was because it was dug in under like a mine, and affiant thought it would be safer, and the guards yelled, ” Get away from there”; affiant states that she had the three children, and she had nowhere else to go, so I went in there.

Further affiant saith not.

MARY PETRUCCI.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 11th day of May, 1914,
[SEAL.]

Leon V. Griswold, Notary Public.

My commission expires September 10. 1917.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Celebration of Greek Easter, a Joyful Day at Ludlow Tent Colony

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Gunthug re Roast Tomorrow, Ludlow Tent Colony Baseball Field CO, Apr 19, 1914, Beshoar p168—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 20, 1914
Ludlow Tent Colony, Colorado – Colonist Celebrate Joyful Greek Easter

Sunday April 19, 1914 –  Ludlow Tent Colony, Colorado
– Greek Easter, a Day of Celebration

Baseball Game at Ludlow Tent Colony CO, 1913-1914
Baseball Game at Ludlow Tent Colony

Sunday was a gala day in the Ludlow Tent Colony for the Greek Easter was celebrated, and the Greeks had declared that they would outdo the Catholics in their celebration of this Holy Day. The colony is made up of residents from many different nationalities, and, on this Holy Day, they came decked out in their various national costumes bringing the colony to life in a riot of color. Snow still covered the prairie here and there, but the sun was shining its warmth upon the strikers and their families on this glorious Easter Day.

Louie Tikas, leader of the colony, was resplendent in his traditional Cretan vraka. He walked through the colony greeting every one with a kiss and the joyful cry of “Christ Is Risen.” Louie’s bright smile was welcomed at every tent, well respected for his calm manner and steadfast courage.

Music filled the air and the children played around the tents. Later on, after church services, there was a feast in the main tent. A lamb had been put on the fire, and there were barrels of beer for the adults.

After the feast the colonist played a game of baseball in the ball park built next to the tents. American style gym bloomers had been provided as an Easter present for the women, and one of the games was played, men against the women, with the women wearing their new bloomers for the first time.

—————

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Hellraisers Journal: Mine Guards Kill Four Men at Coal Creek, Tennessee; Gunthugs Opened Fire When Small Boys Began Yelling, “Scab” at Imported Miners

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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 10, 1904
Coal Creek, Tennessee – Company Gunthugs Murder Four Men 

From the Coffeyville Daily Journal of February 9, 1904:

A STRIKE TRAGEDY.
———-
Four Men Killed and Three Wounded
in Tennessee.

Coal Creek TN Massacre, NYT p1, Feb 8, 1904
The New York Times
February 8, 1904

Knoxville, Tenn., Feb. 9.-A bloody tragedy was enacted [Sunday, Feb. 7th] in the little mining town of Coal Creek, Tenn., forty miles northwest of Knoxville, as the result of which four lives were snuffed out and three persons wounded, one perhaps fatally. The clash was the culmination of the trouble between union and non-union labor. Three of the dead men were killed by guards employed by the Coal Creek Coal company, while the fourth victim, a deputy sheriff, was killed by a guard he had gone to arrest. The dead:

MONROE BLACK, miner, aged 24 years; married; leaves wife.
W. W. TAYLOR, miner, aged 31; leaves wife and four children.
JACOB SHARP, section hand; a bystander, aged 35; leaves wife and six children.
DEPUTY SHERIFF ROBERT S. HARMON, killed by Cal Burton, a guard at the Briceville mine.

The wounded are:

A. R. Watts, merchant of Coal Creek, an innocent by stander, shot through both cheeks.
Mote Cox, miner, shot through the left arm.
Jeff Hoskins, engineer on the Southern railway; slightly wounded.

When the wage scale was signed in district 19, United Mine Workers of America, the Coal Creek company refused to comply with the demands of the men. They refused to resume work in the Fraterville and Thistle mines, and for several months these two mines were shut down. Efforts were made to resume with non-union men, but these were either induced to join the union or were chased away, presumably by union men. The aid of the courts was invoked to oust families of union miners from the houses owned by the company. Scores of arrests were made for trespassing, and ill feeling was thus engendered. Recently a dozen guards, in charge of Jud Reeder, who served as lieutenant of police in this city for many years, were employed to guard the mines and protect the men who had been induced to go to work.

Non-union men were being brought to the mines every few days and Reeder and his guards would go to the railroad station and meet them. Today the crowd of idlers around the station was increased. Reeder and twelve guards came from the mines to meet a few non-union men who were to arrive on the morning train. When the non-union men got off the train, they were seen by a number of small boys, who began yelling, “Scab.” The killing grew out of this taunt. It is hard to tell what the provocation was, but the miners must have crowded up and attempted to take away the non-union men bodily or offered some direct insult to the guards.

Reeder and another guard drew their pistols and began shooting, Reeder doing the most of it. Miners and bystanders were taken by surprise and before they could realize what had happened the guards had climbed into their wagons and driven back to the mines.

About 12 o’clock a dispute arose between Deputy Sheriff Bob Harmon and Guard Cal Burton [whom Harmon was attempting to arrest]. Burton shot Harmon twice, killing him instantly.

[Newsclip and emphasis added.]

It is interesting that the reporter’s account supplies the company guards with an excuse for opening up gunfire on unarmed protesters. Seems the reporter could not believe that company gunthugs would murder striking miners and bystanders for no other reason than that some small boys hollered “Scab.” 

Note: Willful neglect of safety standards by the Coal Creek Coal Company led to deaths of 184 men and boys in the Fraterville Mine Explosion on May 19, 1902.

—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mine Guards Kill Four Men at Coal Creek, Tennessee; Gunthugs Opened Fire When Small Boys Began Yelling, “Scab” at Imported Miners”

Hellraisers Journal: Duluth Labor World: Hastings, Colorado-“Mother Jones Says Rockefeller Oppresses the Coal Miners”

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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 7, 1904
Hastings, Colorado – Mother Jones Exposes Rockefeller’s “Sunday School Methods”

From the Duluth Labor World of February 6, 1904:

MOTHER JONES
Says Rockefeller Oppresses the Coal Miners.

Mother Jones Gives 500 Dollars to CO Strikers, LW p4, Feb 6, 1904

Hastings, Colo., Feb. 5.-[Mother Jones, the miners’ friend, who is now going up and down among the striking miners in Colorado, says:]

Rockefeller’s mining company cleared $39,000 [*] last year, and every dollar of it was wrung form the miners.

At some of these mining camps a miner is not even allowed to bring a pound of butter from the outside. He is compelled to buy everything at the company’s store. Every man who comes to the mines to work must be searched, and when he goes to visit a friend outside the camp an armed guard goes with him.

What would a Chicago workingman think if he had to pay 90 cents for a quart of syrup that cost at wholesale $1.25 a gallon? What would he think if his employer taxed him a dollar a month for a doctor whether he needed one or not? What would he think if he was obliged to pay his employer 50 cents a month for a preacher?

Yet such are Mr. Rockefeller’s Sunday school methods of conducting his mining business in Colorado,” says Mother Jones.

[Emphasis added. Newsclip added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “Calumet” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part II-Profits, Wages and Working Conditions

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Quote re Annie Clemenc at Mass Funeral Calumet, Day Book p4, Jan 6, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 3, 1914
“Calumet” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part II-Profits, Wages and Working Conditions

From the International Socialist Review of February 1914:

Calumet MI by LH Marcy, ISR p453, Feb 1914

[Part II of II]

Italian Hall Massacre Calumet MI, Small White Caskets, ISR p457, Feb 1914

We have seen how the copper country is governed by an “invisible government”; from the judge on the bench, to the grand jury in session; from the national guard of the state of Michigan, on “duty,” since July 24, 1913, to the sheriff with his hundreds of imported professional strike breakers whom he swore in as deputies. The Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, Calumet, is the invisible government of Michigan.

This poor-little-rich corporation was “created” in the early fifties. According to a statement given out by Attorney Peterman, and endorsed by General Manager W. F. Denton, and General Manager C. L. Lawton, we find this devout confession: ”The profits of the Calumet and Hecla have been large, but they were due solely to the fact that the Creator put such rich ore in the company’s ground.”

However, Congress in the year of our Lord, 1852, seems to have been in total ignorance of this little gift on the Creator’s part to the copper crowd, for we find that “it gave to the state of Michigan 750,000 acres of public land, to aid it in building a ship canal around the Falls of St. Mary. The state in turn bargained this land to the contractors who built the canal, at a dollar and a quarter an acre. The lands thus disposed of at so beggarly a price were supposed to be swamp, or overflowed lands, but somehow, and strange to say, a part of them are now the rocky matrices from which the Calumet and Hecla has long been extracting shot-copper,-that company having in some way got hold of them. Years later a man named Chandler, who claimed to have bought the same land over again from the State of Michigan, brought a suit to dispossess the copper company,-charging all sorts of fraud in the switching of swamps so as to be quarries of copper-bearing rock. But the Supreme Court ruled against him, on the ground that as he got his deed from the state, he was in no better plight than the state, and that the state could not go back on its first deed to the canal contractors: so the Calumet and Hecla people kept it.”

This “good thing” was capitalized for $2,500,000 in shares of $25 each, instead of $100-note that. Of this $25 a share, only $12 was paid in. A total cash investment of $1,200,000. According to the Mining and Engineering World of December 27th, Calumet and Hecla has declared dividends on issued capitalization to December 1, 1913, amounting to $121,650,000, or $1,216 a share or $101 profits for each dollar invested.

Dividends for 1900 amounted to 320 per cent; for 1906, 280 per cent; for 1907, 260 per cent. In the Boston market, the stock was quoted on the day before New Years, at 427, bid price. Bearing in mind that the par value of the shares is but $25, this figure means that the stock is now worth more than 1,700 per cent, and bearing in mind also that only $12 a share was actually paid in, it means more than 3,400 per cent, market value. The president of the company receives a salary greater than the president of the United States.

Not long ago, when dividends threatened to be unusually enormous, the company purchased an extensive island in Lake Superior, stocked it with the finest game, and it is now used by stockholders of the company as a hunting preserve.

And the capitalists, who have never seen the inside of a mine shaft, who have stolen and defrauded to gain possession of the Calumet mines, have refused to permit their wage slaves, who produce all the wealth brought out of the mines, to organize into a union. They have denied the right of these workers to organize to demand more wages and better working conditions. Their arrogance is summed up in the words “We have nothing to arbitrate.”

These capitalists want MORE labor from the laborers. They are not satisfied with having stolen hundreds of millions from the men who have dug the wealth from the dangerous recesses of the earth. They demand still MORE.

* * * * * * *

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “Calumet” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part II-Profits, Wages and Working Conditions”

Hellraisers Journal: From Miners Magazine: “Human Rights Shall Not Be Murdered in America-President Moyer After Operation”

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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 9, 1914
Chicago, Illinois – President Moyer after Operation with Walker, Terzich and Riley

From Miners Magazine of January 8, 1914:

Moyer af Surgery in Chicago w JHW, Terzich, MJ Riley, Mnrs Mag p8, Jan 8, 1914

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From Miners Magazine: “Human Rights Shall Not Be Murdered in America-President Moyer After Operation””