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Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 27, 1914
Denver, Colorado – Thousands Gather to Protest Slaughter of the Innocent at Ludlow
From The Denver Post of April 27, 1914:
[Photos above: Top: Crowd standing in the rain at the state house. Bottom left: Edward Doyle. Bottom right: Jesse Vetter.]
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 25, 1914
Denver, Colorado – State Labor Leaders Issue Call to Arms
From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of April 25, 1914
CALL TO ARMS:
Organize the men in your community in companies of volunteers to protect the workers of Colorado against the murder and cremation of men, women and children by armed assassins in the employ of coal corporations, serving under the guise of state militiamen.
Gather together for defensive purposes all arms and ammunition legally available. Send name of leader of your company and actual number of men enlisted at once by wire, phone or mail to W. T. Hickey, Secretary of State Federation of Labor.
Hold all companies subject to order.
People having arms to spare for these defensive measures are requested to furnish same to local companies, and, where no company exists, send them to the State Federation of Labor.
The state is furnishing us no protection and we must protect ourselves, our wives and children, from these murderous assassins. We seek no quarrel with the state and we expect to break no law; we intend to exercise our lawful right as citizens, to defend our homes and our constitutional rights.
John R. LAWSON
JOHN McLENNAN
E. L. DOYLE
JOHN RAMSEY
W. T. HICKEY
E. R. HOAGE
T. W. TAYLOR
CLARENCE MOOREHOUSE
ERNEST MILLS[Emphasis added.]
-Lawson, International Organizers from U. M. W. District 15.
-McLennan, President of District 15, U. M. W.
and also President of Colorado State Federation of Labor.
-Doyle, Secretary-Treasurer of District 15 U. M. W.
-Ramsey of the U. M. W. of A.
-Hickey, Secretary of Colorado State Federation of Labor.
-Hoage of the Denver Printing Press Assistants’ Union No 14.
-Taylor and Moorehouse of the Denver Trades and Labor Assembly.
-Mills, Secretary-Treasurer of Western Federation of Miners.
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 19, 1914
Washington, D. C. – John D. Rockefeller Jr. Pledges Millions to Crush Colorado Miners
From the Duluth Labor World of April 18, 1914:
YOUNG ROCKEFELLER CHIP OFF OLD BLOCK
———-
Declares Before Industrial Commission He Has
Millions to Crush Miners’ Union.
———-SOME MORE “DIVINE RIGHT” PHILOSOPHY
———-
Refused to Arbitrate Colorado Coal Strike
-Trusts Everything to Managers.
———-
John D. Rockefeller, Jr., son of the world’s richest man, testified Monday [April 6th] before the House Mines Committee in Washington about the question of his moral responsibility for the industrial strife which has kept the coal fields of southern Colorado in turmoil for six months.
After more than for hours of cross-examination Rockefeller had told the committee:
That he and three other directors represented his father’s interest of about 40 per cent in the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, the central figure in the big coal strike.
That as a director he had fulfilled all his interest and responsibility in the company when he placed the officers, “competent and trusted men,” in charge of the company’s affairs.
That he knew nothing of conditions in the strike district except from reports of the officers of the company.
He “Protects” “Free” Labor.
That the strike had become a fight for the “principles” of freedom of labor, and that he and his associates would rather the present violence continue and that “they lose all their millions invested in the coal fields than that American working men should be deprived of their right under the constitution to work for whom they pleased.”
This was accepted as an indication that the Rockefeller millions are opposed to the unions in Colorado.
That he favored arbitration in Industrial disputes-generally, but that in the present instance he supported the officers of the company in their refusal to submit the question of unionizing the mines to arbitration.
In support of these conclusions Rockefeller was kept busy for hours explaining defending and arguing. He asserted that employer and employe were “fellow men and should treat each other as such,” but could see no analogy between the unionization of workmen and the combination of capital….
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
WILL DEFEND OPEN SHOP AT ANY COST, PROPERTY OR LIVES
During his testimony this exchange took place between Rockefeller and the Chairman of the Subcommittee, M. D. Foster:
The CHAIRMAN. And you are willing to go on and let these killings take place—men losing their lives on either side, the expenditure of large sums of money, and all this disturbance of labor—rather than to go out there and see if you might do something to settle those conditions?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. There is just one thing, Mr. Chairman, so far as I understand it, which can be done, as things are at present, to settle this strike, and that is to unionize the camps; and our interest in labor is so profound and we believe so sincerely that that interest demands that the camps shall be open camps, that we expect to stand by the officers at any cost. It is not an accident that this is our position.
The CHAIRMAN. And you will do that if it costs all your property and kills all your employees?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. It is a great principle.
[Emphasis added.]
From the Rocky Mountain News of April 19, 1914
-Mother Jones Makes Statement Before Leaving Denver for Washington:
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 18 1914
Denver, Colorado – Mother Jones Resting After Release from Cold Cellar Cell
From the Rocky Mountain News of April 17, 1914:
From The Indianapolis Star of April 18, 1914:
MINERS WOULD REOPEN CASE
TO PRESENT ‘MOTHER’ JONES
———-DENVER, Col, April 17-A movement was started here tonight by the policy committee of District No. 15 of the United Mine Workers of America, to reopen in Washington the congressional investigation of the Colorado coal miners’ strike by seeking to place before the committee the testimony of “Mother” Mary Jones, the aged strike leader who was released from military imprisonment at Walsenburg on Thursday.
“Mother” Jones who came to Denver immediately on her discharge, probably will leave tomorrow for Washington.
Telegrams were sent tonight to Representative M. D. Foster, chairman of the recent investigating House mines committee, and to Representative Keating of Colorado, urging a hearing for “Mother” Jones.
[Emphasis added.]
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 17, 1914
Walsenburg, Colorado – Mother Jones Released from Cold Cellar Cell
Mother Jones is in Denver today after her release yesterday from the cold damp cellar cell which served as the Military Bastille in Walsenburg, Colorado. Newspapers around the country are reporting the news.
From El Paso Herald of April 16, 1914:
Walsenburg, Colo., April 16.-“Mother” Mary Jones, who has been a military prisoner in the hospital ward of the county jail since March 22, was released this morning upon orders of Gen. John Chase. The aged strike leader was offered transportation to any point in the state, but the offer was refused.
The appearance of “Mother” Jones at the door of the jail was the signal for a demonstration by a large crowd of strikers and the strike sympathizers that had gathered in anticipation of her release. The aged leader appeared in good health and declared she was feeling well.
Will Lay Woes Before Wilson.
“Mother” Jones was escorted to union headquarters, where she conferred with a number of strike leaders. She announced her intention of speaking at a mass meeting late today after which she plans to go to Trinidad and speak. Later she intends to go to Washington.
“Mother” Jones said:
“You’ll know soon enough why I go to Washington.” Later she intimated that she proposed to tell the story of her experiences in the Colorado coal strike to president Wilson and to the congressional strike investigating committee.
[Emphasis added.]
Note: the cellar cell where she was held for 26 days is hardly a “hospital ward.” It is, in fact, the same cold damp cell which claimed the life of striker Kostas Markos earlier this year.
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 31, 1914
Walsenburg, Colorado – Mother Jones Confined in Dark Cellar Cell
From Denver’s United Labor Bulletin of March 28, 1914:
Note: Mother was arrested at Walsenburg by the Colorado militia on Monday March 23rd, at about 5:30 a. m. She has been confined, since that time, in the same dark cold cellar cell that was the cause of the death of striking miner Kostas Marcos.
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From The Masses of February 1914: Mother Jones by Art Young
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 30, 1904
Denver, Colorado – Mother Jones to Governor Peabody: “You Don’t Own This State”
Mother Jones was deported by the military on orders of Governor Peabody on Saturday March 26th. With other organizers of the United Mine Workers of America, she was put aboard a Santa Fe train bound for La Junta, Colorado, some 65 miles north and east of Trinidad. They were all given deportation papers which warned them never to return. Mother sat all night in the station at La Junta, and the next morning, with the assistance of a sympathetic railroad conductor, she was able to board a train to Denver. From her hotel room, near the Governors office, she wrote the following letter:
Mr. Governor,
You notified your dogs of war to put me out of the state. They complied with your instructions. I hold in my hand a letter that was handed to me by one of them, which says “under no circumstances return to this state.” I wish to notify you, governor, that you don’t own the state. When it was admitted to the sisterhood of states, my fathers gave me a share of stock in it; and that is all they gave you. The civil courts are open. If I break a law of state or nation it is the duty of the civil courts to deal with me. That is why my forefathers established those courts to keep dictators and tyrants such as you from interfering with civilians. I am right here in the capital, after being out nine or ten hours, four or five blocks from your office. I want to ask you, governor, what in Hell are you going to do about it?Mother Jones
[Emphasis added.]
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 23, 1914
“General Villa’s Ultimatum to President Wilson”
From the Appeal to Reason of March 21, 1914:
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 22, 1914
Denver, Colorado – Mother Jones Arrives After Deportation from Trinidad
-Meets with John Lawson and Horace Hawkins
From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of March 21, 1914:
“Mother” Jones and John R. Lawson.
Remarkable likeness of the 82-year-old Camp Angel, telling her story to John R. Lawson, Executive Board member U. M. W., Monday [March 16th] after arrival in Denver from Trinidad, where she was detained as military prisoner for 9 weeks.
From The Denver Post of March 16, 1914
-Statement of Mother Jones after Deportation from Trinidad:
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 19, 1904
Telluride, Colorado – Arrested by Militia for Refusing to Scab
March 3, 1904, Telluride, Colorado-Affidavit of A. A. Pratt
AFFIDAVIT. State of Colorado, County of San Miguel, ss.
I, the undersigned A. A. Pratt, make the following statement under oath: On or about February 26, 1904, I was in Denver looking for work. A man by the name of Johnson told me I could get work as a miner in Telluride; that the strike was off and there was no martial law; that the soldiers were all withdrawn, and that transportation was furnished free. I concluded to go, and a Mr. Snodgrass gave me a ticket to Telluride.When I arrived at Telluride, on the evening of the 27th, I was met at the depot and taken to the Victoria hotel to stay all night. The next morning a horse was brought to the hotel for me to ride to the Smuggler-Union mine, about four miles away. On the way to the mine we passed soldiers standing guard. When I got to the mine I made inquires and found out that the strike was on, that the district was under military rule. As the conditions had been misrepresented to me, and I did not want to work under these conditions, I told the boss that I had forgotten something in town and thus obtained a pass to present to the soldiers between the mine and the town.
In Telluride I was arrested on a warrant sworn to by Bulkely Wells, manager of the Smuggler-Union mine and commander of the militia, charging me with obtaining money under false pretenses. He appeared as a witness against me, although there had been no agreement made with him, nor with any one else, that I was to pay anything for fare, hotel or horse hire. These were furnished me without me asking for them, and he admitted that he had no agreement with me. There was no one but myself that knew anything about the matter, so the justice found me not guilty, but it shows to what measures they are willing to resort.
I do solemnly swear that the above statement is true to the best of my knowledge.
A. A. PRATT.
Sworn and subscribed to before me on the 3rd day of March, 1904
ALBERT HOLMES,
Justice of the Peace.[Paragraphs and emphasis added.]
