Hellraisers Journal: News Round-Up from the Southern Colorado Coalfield Strike: Company Town “Marshal” Killed

6th October 20239th October 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 6, 1913
News Round-Up from the Southern Colorado Coalfield Strike

From the Trinidad Chronicle News of September 25, 1913:

Note: The Chronicle News is published by Judge Jesse G. Northcutt, attorney for Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.

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Thursday September 25, 1913
Segundo, Colorado – Company Gunman, Bob Lee, Shot and Killed by Greek Miners

Bob Lee, a gunman brought in to work as a coalfield marshal, was shot and killed by Greek miners near Segundo yesterday. Lee was found on the ground where he had fallen from his horse. His rifle was on the ground beside him still cocked.

The trouble started when the miners were not allowed to send a wagon to the mining camp in order to retrieve their belongs. Bob Lee heard that the Greek miners were taking their anger out on a company footbridge that crossed Las Animas Creek. At about noon, Lee road up on the bridge to confront the miners. Tempers flared as Lee used his horse to push the miners back, and they resisted. As Lee reached for his rifle, shots rang out, and Lee was killed.

The suspects are Tom Larius and four other Greek miners. Word has it that they have fled to New Mexico. A mounted posse has been unable to apprehend them.

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From The Rocky Mountain News of September 27, 1913:

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Hellraisers Journal: Don MacGregor of the Denver Express Describes the Great Exodus of Striking Miners and Their Families from the Coal Camps of Southern Colorado

25th September 202326th September 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

The Exodus from Coal Camps to Ludlow, Don MacGregor, Dnv Exp Sept 24, 1913 per Beshoar p —————

Hellraisers Journal- Thursday September 25, 1913
The Great Exodus of Striking Miners from Company Towns

Southern Colorado, September 23, 1913
-Evicted Families Arrive at Ludlow and Trinidad as Rain Turns to Snow.

So Colorado Miners Evicted, Dy Bk p22, Sept 24, 1913 — Chicago *Day* *Book*
**September 24, 1913**

As the miners and their families were evicted from the company towns, Don MacGregor, a reporter from the Denver Express, was a witness and filed this report which was published September 24th:

No one who did not see that exodus can imagine its pathos. The exodus from Egypt was a triumph, the going forth of a people set free. The exodus of the Boers from Cape Colony was the trek of a united people seeking freedom.

But this yesterday, that wound its bowed, weary way between the coal hills on the one side and the far-stretching prairie on the other, through the rain and the mud, was an exodus of woe, of a people leaving known fears for new terrors, a hopeless people seeking new hope, a people born to suffering going forth to new suffering.

And they struggled along the roads interminably, in an hour’s drive between Tinidad and Ludlow, 57 wagons were passed, and others seemed to be streaming down to the main road from every by-path.

Every wagon was the same, with its high piled furniture, and its bewildered woebegone family perched atop, and the furniture! What a mockery to the state’s boasted riches. Little piles of miserable looking straw bedding! Little piles of kitchen utensils! And all so worn and badly used they would have been the scorn of any second-hand dealer on Larimer Street.

Prosperity! With never a single article even approaching luxury, save once in a score of wagons a cheap gaily painted gramophone! With never a bookcase! With never a book! With never a single article that even the owners thought worth while trying to protect from the rain!

[Emphasis added]

John Lawson, International Organizer for the United Mine Workers of America, was on hand through-out the day. When a superintendent taunted him by shouting, “A good day for a strike,” Lawson replied:

Any strike-day would look good to the people from your mines.

At Ludlow, Lawson helped to set up the canteen and greeted arriving families with milk and hot coffee as the rain turned into a snow.

One thousand tents being shipped from West Virginia by the U. M. W. have been delayed. At the Ludlow Tent Colony, many miners and their families spent the night in the big central tent. Some were taken to local union halls, and others were given shelter in the homes of nearby union sympathizers. The Greek miners, many of whom are single men, spent the night camped out in the snowstorm.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Denver United Labor Bulletin: Miners’ Strike in the Colorado Coal Fields Will Begin on Tuesday

22nd September 202322nd September 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote re Mother Jones, Fighting Angel, Denver CO ULB p1, Sept 20, 1913 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 22, 1913
Southern Colorado Coalfields – Miners Will Begin Strike on Tuesday

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

U. M. W. District 15 of Colorado Issues Strike Resolution, Makes Demands:

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Hellraisers Journal: “Rise Up and Strike”-Mother Jones Speaks at UMW District 15 Special Convention; Miners Vote to Strike

18th September 202319th September 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Rise Up and Strike, UMW D15 Conv Sept 16, 1913 Trinidad CO —————-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 18, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – U. M. W. District 15 Holds Special Convention
-Mother Jones Speaks; Miners Vote to Strike

From The Rocky Mountain News of September 17, 1913:

Monday September 15, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – District 15 of U. M. W. of A. Meeting in Special Convention

The Special Convention of District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America begins today in Trinidad, Colorado. All efforts to negotiate with the mine owners has been exhausted, and it is expected that a strike call will be issued which could shut down the coal mines of the entire state of Colorado. Delegates from Huerfano County have made their way into Trinidad despite the declaration by Sheriff Jefferson Farr that not a single miner from his district would make it to the convention. Apparently, Farr and his 326 deputies were no match for the determined union coal miners.

Mother Jones is in Trinidad and will address the Convention tomorrow.

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Tuesday September 16, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – Special Convention Opens with “Battle Cry of Union.”

The Special Convention of the United Mine Workers of America’s District 15 opened yesterday with 250 delegates singing the “Battle Cry of Union:”

We will win the fight today, boys,
We’ll win the fight today,
Shouting the battle cry of union;
We’ll rally from the coal mines,
We’ll rally from the hills,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union.

The union forever, hurrah boys, hurrah!
Down with the gunthugs and up with the law;
For we’re coming, Colorado,
We’re coming all the way,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union

While general business was being conducted in the hall, the Scale and Policy Committee, led by John Lawson, took testimony from the coal miners of the southern fields. The grievances of the miners are many and include: being paid in script worth only 90 cents on the dollar at the company stores or saloons which they are forced to patronize, being robbed in the weighing of coal at the rate of 400 to 800 pounds per ton, being forced to vote according to the views of the company superintendent, being discharged for union membership, being discharged for voicing any complaint whatsoever about short weights, safety conditions or camp conditions.

But mostly the coal miners hate the company guard system. These gunthugs who lord it over them in the company towns, have become increasingly intolerable as the union organizing drive in the southern coalfield has progressed.

Mother Jones will speak at the convention today, a strike vote will be taken, and demands will be issued. The miners know full well that a strike will lead to to eviction from their homes. They will be homeless along with their families, creating 20,000 refugees in all. The U.M.W. has been shipping tents, food, blankets, and clothing into the area. Locations are being rented by the Union where strikers’ tent colonies can be established.

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