Tag: Denver United Labor Bulletin

Hellraisers Journal: John Lawson Testifies Before House Sub-Committee Investigating Conditions in the Coal Mines of Colorado

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 16, 1914
Denver, Colorado – John Lawson Testifies Before House Sub-Committee

From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of February 14, 1914:

CO House Com, ULB p1, Feb 14, 1914

From Las Vegas Optic of  February 11, 1914: 

MILITIA GAVE CONFISCATED ARMS
TO MINE GUARDS, SAYS LABOR LEADER

SECRETS OF THE CONVENTION WITHHELD
———-

UNION OFFICIAL ASKS COMMITTEE TO EXCUSE HIM
FROM ANSWERING QUERIES
———-

John Lawson, ULB p1, Jan 3, 1914

Denver, Colo., Feb. 11-John R. Lawson, Colorado member of the international executive board of the United Mine Workers of America today asked the house investigation committee to excuse him from revealing all the details of the district convention at which the Colorado coal strike was called.

“You gentlemen must remember,” he said, “that this strike is not over yet, and we do not care to reveal anything that might give away our hand to the operators.”

The labor leader was allowed to give such information regarding the convention as he saw fit and was not pressed for union secrets.

Asked by Chairman Foster for his reasons for insisting upon recognition for the unions, the labor leader said:

“There is no basis for settlement between workman and employer. The union prevents strikes and without it few men strike without justification. Then, unorganized workers cannot obtain redress for abuses or change of working conditions. If they make complaint, they are discharge.”

At the opening of this morning’s session of the strike investigation it was announced that Edward Costigan had been added to the list of attorneys for the miners. John R. Lawson was called to the stand to resume his testimony. The Colorado member of the executive board of the United Mine Workers of America told of the arrival of the militia in the strike zone.

“Almost immediately after the arrival of the troops at Trinidad, detachments were stationed at various points in Las Animas and Huerfano counties,” he said.

“When the troops arrived, the leaders of our organizations informed the men on strike that if they were satisfied the militia was going to enforce the laws, not to take part in the labor controversy.”

The witness then told of having informed Adjutant General John Chase that the Baldwin-Felts detectives employed by the operators were importing arms. He said the general ordered a captain to capture the guns which were taken from an express office by the troops.

“Later,” he resumed, “General Chase admitted that this particular shipment of arms, taken from the express office, was distributed to the guards.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Charles Moyer, President of Western Federation of Miners, Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers; House Committee to Investigate Miners’ Strikes in Michigan and Colorado

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Quote Mother Jones, Stick Together, MI Mnrs Bltn p1, Aug 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 1, 1914
Indianapolis, Indiana – President Moyer Speaks at Mine Workers’ Convention

From The Indianapolis News of January 26, 1914:

Charles Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners gave a long speech at the Convention of the United Mine Workers now in progress in Indianapolis. In his speech, President Moyer described the ongoing violations of Constitutional Rights in both the Colorado and the Michigan strikes:

Charles Moyer, Pres WFM, Survey p433, Jan 10, 1914

…..What is being done in the state of Colorado in the miners’ strike, is being done in the state of Michigan. I don’t think it is any worse. In the state of Colorado men and women have been mistreated by the military, by the armed thugs of the mine owners’ association; they have been arrested without warrant; they have been sent to jail; they have been deprived of all of those rights that are supposed to belong to an American citizen, or one living under this government, the same as they have in Colorado.

Mother Jones has been deprived of her liberty by the military, and is now confined in the custody of the military of that state, without any warrant, absolutely deprived of her constitutional rights.

In the state of Michigan representatives of organized labor have been assaulted, ordered from the state, deprived of every right that we are supposed to enjoy under this great Constitution of ours, and yet, after months of effort we are at this time uncertain as to whether our national government, our representatives down at Washington, are going to make an investigation: are going to inquire into the facts as whether or not these things that we claim and that we believe we furnished them a preponderance of evidence of, are in violation of our American citizenship. They say, I believe, as an excuse for their hesitancy in acting, that they do not want to interfere with state rights, and in answer to that we say that the Constitution of the United States gives the right to every American citizen to meet in peaceable assembly, to freely express himself in speech…..

[Photograph added emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Day Book: B. F. Gurley on the “Daredevil Soldiers” of Colorado Who Obeyed the Order of General Chase to “Ride Down the Women”

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Quote Mother Jones, Ladies Women, NYT p3, May 23, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 31, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – “Women Victims Tell of Shameful Charge”

From The Day Book of January 30, 1914
-“Rose Slater” is incorrect; Sarah Slator is age 16:

HdLn CO Women Tell of Charge by Chase, Day Book p1, Jan 30, 1914HdLn CO Women Tell of Charge by Chase, Day Book p2, 3, Jan 30, 1914CO Victims of Chase Charge Hammond n Slater, Day Book p2, Jan 30, 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: Mrs. Gertrude Lee, Chairman of Democratic State Committee of Colorado, Will Not Help Free Mother Jones from Military Confinement

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Quote Mother Jones, Chase No Own State, RMN p3, Jan 12, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 30, 1914
Sterling, Colorado – Mrs. Lee Refuses to Help Free Mother Jones

From The Cincinnati Post of January 28, 1914:

Mrs Gertrude Lee, Chair of CO Dem State Com, Will Not Help Mother Jones, Cnc Pst p3, Jan 28, 1914

(Will woman suffrage make good in Colorado?

That is the question all the United States is asking today. That question was put up to Mrs. Gertrude A. Lee, Chairman of the Democratic State committee in Colorado. The Governor and his militia Generals, who placed 82-year-old Mother Jones in solitary confinement in a military prison, are members of her party. The following is from the Denver correspondent of the Post, who went to Sterling to see Mrs. Lee.-Editor’s Note.)

STERLING, COLO., Jan. 28.-(Spl.)-Mrs. Gertrude A. Lee, head of the Democratic State central committee, doesn’t know officially that Mother Jones has been illegally imprisoned or that the Colorado state troops rode down and beat women and children paraders with swords in Trinidad.

So she won’t protest

“I want to do what is right for the party and the women,” said Mrs. Lee, who has been recuperating from a nervous attack on a farm near here.

“I don’t know that there is anything wrong in the coal strike fields. I want time.”

“Do you believe any citizen-man or woman-should be deprived of his constitutional right of personal liberty and free speech without due process of law?” she was asked.

Mrs. Lee evaded the question five times and finally said, “No.”

Mrs. Lee will not ask the State [Democratic Party] committee to do anything about the coal strike that will embarrass Governor Ammons.

[Emphasis added.

Note: Mrs. Gertrude A. Lee is married to Colonel George M. Lee who is next in authority to General Chase in the state militia now occupying southern Colorado and enforcing its military despotism upon the striking miners, their wives and their children.

—————

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Hellraisers Journal: Trinidad-Women March in Support of Mother Jones; Chase Orders, “RIDE DOWN THE WOMEN!”

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Quote Mother Jones, Ladies Women, NYT p3, May 23, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 24, 1914 
Jan. 22-Trinidad, Colorado – General Chase Orders Cavalrymen:

“Ride Down the Woman!”

Jan 22 Trinidad CO Sabers Slash, Chase v Women, RMN p1, Jan 23, 1914

The women of Las Animas County gathered in Trinidad on Thursday afternoon to protest the military imprisonment of Mother Jones. They came marching with their children across the Picketwire River bridge and headed up Commercial Street passing by the Columbian Hotel. These were the women from the strikers’ tent colonies and they came singing the strikers’ song: “The Battle Cry of Union.”

Their banners proclaimed:

God Bless Mother Jones

We’re For Mother Jones

As they moved past Main Street, they were met by General Chase on his cavalry horse, and behind the General were his cavalrymen. Behind them were the infantry blocking the street. Nevertheless, the women and children continued singing as they marched toward the brave General and his troops. The General began to yell, “Don’t advance another step. You must turn back.”

The General spurred his horse forward and brushed against 16-year-old Sarah Slator. He berated her, raised his foot, and kicked her in the breast. His horse backed into a buggy and the General fell off. The women began to laugh at the site of the pompous General on the ground beneath his horse.

The General regained his feet, red-faced and furious, and shouted to his men:

“RIDE DOWN THE WOMEN!”

The cavalrymen spurred their horses forward, waving their sabers about and rode straight into the women and children. Several women were slashed: Mrs. Maggie Hammons received a gash across the forehead, Mrs. George Gibson nearly lost her ear, Mrs. Thomas Braley’s hands were sliced as she covered her face. Mrs. James Lanigan was knocked to the ground, and 10-year-old Robert Arguello was smashed in the face. A cavalryman chased the flag-bearer, Mrs. R. Verna, down the street, knocked her down with his horse, and tore the American flag away from her.

Young Sarah Slator showed great courage when she challenged a cavalryman who was threatening a mother with his bayonet as she struggled to run with her three-year-old child in tow. Sarah said, “You’re so low you could do anything.” Sarah was among the six women arrested. Twelve men were arrested later in the afternoon.

Colorado newspapers are full of derision for the victorious General and his triumphant cavalrymen. The Denver Express reported:

Great Czar Fell!
And in Fury Told Troops to Trample Women

A craven general tumbled from his nag in a street of Trinidad Thursday like humpty-dumpty from the wall. In fifteen minutes there was turmoil, soldiers with swords were striking at fleeing women and children; all in the name of the sovereign state of Colorado…The French Revolution, its history written upon crimson pages, carries no more cowardly episode than the attack of the gutter gamin soldiery on the crowd of unarmed and unprotected women.

Newsclip inset from above: The Rocky Mountain News of January 23, 1914

—————

Photographs from Trinidad Protest of January 22, 1914:

Jan 22, 1914 Trinidad CO Chase v Women Parade for Mother Jones 2, du edu, —–Jan 22, 1914 Trinidad CO Chase v Women Parade for Mother Jones, du edu, —–Jan 22, 1914 Trinidad CO Chase v Women Parade for Mother Jones 3, du edu, —–Jan 22, 1914 Trinidad CO Chase v Women Parade for Mother Jones 3, du edu,

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Hellraisers Journal: Wives of Strikers and Strike Sympathizers Invade Hotel of Gen. Chase, Demand Release of Mother Jones.

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Quote Mother Jones, Chase No Own State, RMN p3, Jan 12, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 17, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Chase: Mother Jones is “an Inciter of Violence and a Disturber”

From the Trinidad Chronicle News of January 15, 1914
-200 Women Invade Hotel, Demand Gen. Chase Release Mother Jones:

HdLn Women v Chase re Mother Jones, TCN p1, Jan 15, 1914

From The Day Book of January 16, 1914
-Mother Jones on Mexican “Bandits” and Colorado Soldiers:

Mother Jones re Mexican Bandits n CO Soldiers, Day Book p15, Jan 16, 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: San Francisco Bulletin: “The Stormy Petrel of the Strikers”-Mother Jones Deported from Trinidad, Colorado

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Quote Mother Jones, re Chase Deportation Will Return to Trinidad, Carbondale Dly Fr Prs p1, Jan 6, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 8, 1914
Denver, Colorado – Stormy Petrel of the Strikers States She Will Return  

From the San Francisco Bulletin of January 7, 1914:

Mother Jones, Stormy Petrel, SF Bltn p6, Jan 7, 1914

From the Chicago Day Book of January 5, 1914:

MOTHER JONES DEPORTED

Denver, Col., Jan. 5.-“Mother” Jones, the “angel” of the miners, was forcibly deported from the coal strike district at Trinidad on orders of General Chase, who had her met at the depot “when she arrived from El Paso and kept under surveillance of a detachment of military until the arrival of a train for Denver, when she was put aboard.

Lieut. H. O. Nichols and four soldiers guarded her to Denver. When the train reached Walsenburg, where “Mother” Jones had expected to make a speech to the strikers, she tried to talk to a group gathered around the station, but was prevented.

As the train pulled out of the station, she shouted: “I expect to visit you again, when Colorado is made part of the United States, but now-”

General Chase has ordered that she be sent out of the district never to return so long as the strike lasts. He says she will be deported every time she comes back. Mother Jones says she will return in two weeks. 

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Colorado Federation of Labor Committee Begins Investigation of Military Outrages in Coalfield Strike Zone

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Lt Linderfelt Jesus Christ, Dec 30 1913, Report CO BoL p185, 1914—————

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:

HdLn CO FoL Investigating Com in Strike Zone, ULB p1, Dec 27, 1913

—————

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.

—————

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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Hellraisers Journal: 1500 Labor Delegates Meet with Colorado Governor in Senate Chamber; Policy of Action Adopted

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 22, 1913
Denver, Colorado – State Federation of Labor Adopts Policy of Action

From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of December 20, 1913:

1500 CO FoL Conv Dlg Meet w Gov, ULB p1, Dec 20, 1913———-
1500 CO FoL Conv Dlg Meet w Gov, Policy Action Adopted, ULB p1, Dec 20, 1913

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