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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 22, 1913
News from the Coal Miners’ Strike in Southern Colorado
From The Rocky Mountain News of October 21, 1913
-Trinidad, Colorado-October 20
Nine Hundred Striking Miners March to Honor Luca Vahernick
From the Trinidad Chronicle News of October 20, 1913:
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 19, 1913
News Round-Up from the Coal Miners’ Strike in Southern Colorado
Wednesday October 15, 1913 – Southern Coalfields, Colorado
-Coal Operators Provide Gunthugs with “Death Special.”
The coal operators have brought a new machine into the strike zone of Colorado. Called the “Death Special” by the miners, the machine is an automobile covered with armor and equipped with a search light and a machine gun. It is usually seen roaming about the various tent colonies filled with Baldwin-Felts gunthugs holding their rifles at the ready. Word has it that Mr. Felts, himself, had the large automobile delivered from Denver to Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron plant in Pueblo. There the sides were torn down and replaced with three-eights-inch steel plates. The machine gun was shipped in from West Virginia where it had served previous duty against the miners of that state.
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Thursday October 17, 1913 – Trinidad, Colorado
-Death Special follows 48 Union Men from Starkville to Trinidad
Yesterday strikers engaged in peacefully picketing at the Starkville Mine. This mine is owned by James McLaughlin, brother-in-law of Governor Ammons, Democrat of Colorado. Forty-eight of these union men were rounded up, placed under arrest by company guards and county deputies and marched the three miles back to Trinidad. On either side of them were rows of armed gunthugs, and behind them came the Death Special with its spotlight and machine gun aimed at their backs.
The union men offered no resistance, but as they come down the hill into Trinidad, they began to shout. They are being held in the Las Animas County Jail.
G. C. Jones, organizer for the Western Federation of Miners, was beaten by Gunthug Belk and by A. C. Felts as he attempted to get a Kodak of the menacing machine. The young photographer, Lou Dold was more successful.
In the past few days other attacks upon the striking miners and their families have been perpetrated by the mine guards. The Sopris Tent Colony was shot up by company gunthugs as they sped by in an automobile. In Walsenburg, Gunthug Lou Miller and six of his companions, roamed the streets assaulting strikers and union sympathizers wherever they found them. The town of Segundo was sprayed with machine gun fire for a full ten minutes as punishment for the beating of guard who had insulted a woman there.
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Saturday October 18, 1913 – Forbes Tent Colony, Colorado
-Mine Guards Attack with Death Special, Striker Luca Vahernick Killed
Mine guards, yesterday, attacked the Forbes Tent Colony making use of the machine gun from the Death Special. Guards on horseback also used their rifles in the attack. A miner, Luca Vahernick, was killed, and a boy, Marco Zamboni, was shot nine times in the legs. A young girl who was on her way home from school was shot in the face. She lives on a near-by farm. The attack began at 2 p.m. and continued until dusk. The miners had only seven rifles or shotguns, six revolvers, and very little ammunition, but they were able to defend the Colony and prevented the guards from entering.
John Lawson arrived at Forbes this morning. As Lawson approached the camp, he found the Gunthugs Belk and Belcher lurking about, and confronted them. These are the same guards who were involved in the murders of Brothers Lippiatt and Powell, and now it appears, they have murdered another union brother. Louie Tikas stepped between Lawson and Belk, in that quiet, calm way of his and eased them apart. And, in this way, he may have saved Brother Lawson’s life.
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 15, 1913
Ludlow Tent Colony, Colorado, Sunday September 28th
-Don MacGregor Visits Miner’s Tent, Describes Conditions
From the Chicago Day Book of October 4, 1913:
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 14, 1913
Ludlow Colony, Colorado – Gunthugs Attack Strikers’ Tent Village
The Ludlow Tent Colony
Wednesday October 8, 1913
Ludlow Tent Colony – Gunthugs fire into tents, miners rally to defend the camp.
Several striking miners walked up to Hastings from Ludlow yesterday attempting to collect their mail from the U. S. Post Office there. When mine guards refused them their mail, they argued briefly, but then headed back toward Ludlow. The guards laughed and fired shots over their heads as they walked away.
A short while later, Walter Belk and George Belcher, the same Baldwin-Felts gunthugs who were involved in the murder of Brother Lippiatt, drove near to Ludlow and let loose with a volley of shots into the tents. When miners came running to defend the Colony, more guards began shooting. The miners took up their guns and returned fire.
Women and children ran from the tents and gathered at the fence on the west side of the camp. Seeing that they were exposed to fire, John Lawson ran along the fence urging the women and children back to the tents. As the miners forced the guards to retreat, the women and children, singing union songs, returned to camp.
There are reports that shots were fired at the camp again this morning. John Lawson urged the miners not to leave the camp in pursuit of the guards, but to stay close by:
While you fellows run down there a mile or so the Hastings guards will come down and take the tent colony.
The miners are taking Lawson’s advice. They remain in the camp with their rifles close at hand.
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Friday October 10, 1913
Ludlow Tent Colony – Gunthugs fire on baseball field, kill Mack Powell.
Yesterday morning gunthugs from Hastings fired upon the baseball field at the edge of the camp. Striking miners had been enjoying a friendly game, but, as bullets hit the dirt around them, they quickly ran for their rifles. They were able to drive the guards away from the camp. Mack Powell was sitting on his horse and watching from a distance when he was struck by a bullet and killed. Guards were later heard to brag that they had killed a miner.
Mack Powell was a union miner who had taken work as a cowboy on the near-by Green Ranch. Mack was married, and lived with his wife and his wife’s grandmother.
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Sunday October 12, 1913
Southern Coalfield – Operators ship in machine guns; Union prepares.
Should any American citizen believe that, surely, those mine guards who shot up the Ludlow Tent Colony and killed Mack Powell have been arrested, let them be, here and now, disabused of that naive notion of equal justice. In fact, the guards have not been arrested; they have had four machine guns added to their supply of weapons with which to continue their attacks on the tent colonies.
Vice President Hayes of the United Mine Workers of America said recently to John Lawson, “But they can’t conduct a war against us with machine guns. They wouldn’t turn machine guns on defenseless people.”
John Lawson believes that the operators are just that ruthless, and said, “We’ve got to protect the women and children at all costs.”
The colonies have been directed to put up breastworks and to dig pits under the tents. The women and children will be able to shelter there whenever the colonies are attacked. At this time, the Ludlow colony is the particular focus of the gunthugs, but all of the 20 or more colonies are considered to be at risk.
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 8, 1913
“Colorado Strike Song”-Sung to the Tune of “The Battle Cry of Freedom.”
From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of September 27, 1913:
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 7, 1913
Colorado Strike Zone – Policy Committee Issues Statement; Mother Jones Speaks
From the Trinidad Chronicle News of September 26, 1913:
In a general statement issued last night the district policy committee of United Mine of America composed of Frank J. Hayes, John McLennan, John H. Lawson and E. L. Doyle declared their position as follows:
We desire law and order above all things. We shall try to conduct this strike in such a way to command the respect of the public and civil authorities. A man who commits or talks violence as a means to win this strike is not properly representing the mine workers’ organisation.
We depend for success on the justice of our cause. We request the operators to warn their imported gunmen to respect the law and to cease their intimidation of union miners.
We have cautioned our people in this respect and we ask the operators to do likewise. Our responsibility in this matter is the same and we ought to meet it like men.
There is no occasion for the alleged purpose of protecting property. It is an evidence of weakness on the part of operators and is a reproach to all law abiding citizens. There is no need for the operators or their agents to ship hundreds of rifles into this region as they are doing at present for the purpose of intimidating peaceful lawsabiding people. We propose to the beet of our ability to protect life and property and to safeguard the liberties of our people by lawful means.
The strike is complete in every particular. The best in the history of our organisation, notwithstanding statements to the contrary, and the miners of Colorado will remain out of the mines until their rights are fully recognized.
At the scene of the Segundo tragedy [September 24th killing of C. F. I. “Marshal”]…Mother Jones [yesterday, September 25th] delivered another impassioned speech to miners, urging the men to remain on strike until the operators meet the full demands. No illusion was made to the killing of Marshal Lee…..
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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From The Rocky Mountain News of September 27, 1913
Strikers congregated in front of the town hall, where more than 3,000 listened to “Mother” Jones and other strike sympathizers (“Mother” Jones in the center).
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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.
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- Wednesday September 24, 1913
Southern Colorado-Thousands of Striking Miners and Families Exit Company Towns
From the Trinidad Chronicle-News of September 23, 1913:
A meeting was held at Sopris this morning and talks were made by Frank J. Hayes and “Mother” Jones. A meeting will be held at Ludlow this afternoon. These meetings will continue from day to day at differenct camps to “keep the enthusiasm going”, as Vice President Hayes intimated last night.
Mother Jones worked up to a high pitch bordering on frenzey deliverd an impassioned address to more than three hundred coal miners at Sopris this morning. The meeting was held under canvass and the venerable labor leader sought to stir up the fires of revolet in the breast of every miner. While the speaking was going on scores of miners were receiving union cards. International vice president Frank J. Hayes also spoke. There was a good deal of enthusiasm manifested.
[Statement of Vice-President Frank Hayes to C-N reporter:]
We have conducted a quiet, dignified campaign. We feel confident the operators will accede to our demands in the near future. The miners by their action today have proved that they desire to enjoy better working conditions and work as union men and enjoy the same rights and privileges as the miners of Wyoming and neighboring states.
This is an age of co-operation and we demand the same right as the mine owners assert to band ourselves together for the purpose of promoting social and economic welfare. The statutes of Colorado concede us this right and the right to sell our labor collectively. We cannot surrender this legal right.
In view of the prosperity of this particular company [C. F. & I.] which also reflects the prosperity of other big corporations, we see no good reason why the miners should not enjoy more of the comforts and refinements of modern civilization. We have repeatedly sought to secure a joint conference but without success. We are still waiting for a conference to adjust the present controversy. If working conditions are as good as the operators say they are, then the operators ought not to fear to meet the miners in joint conference.
[Emphasis added.]
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 23, 1913
Southern Colorado – Exodus of Miners and Families from Company Towns Increasing
From the Trinidad Chronicle News of September 22, 1913:
[…..]
At Segundo yesterday a meeting was held, attended by about two hundred…“Mother” Jones addressed a meeting at Walsenburg and returned to this city on the C. & S. train last evening.
Vice President Hayes and International Board Member John R. Lawson will arrive here tonight and will speak at meetings Sopris and Ludlow tomorrow. [Lawson’s] last official utterance before the strike was made in Denver last night when discussing the situation he said:
There will be a complete tie-up of coal mines all over the state on Tuesday. Statements of conditions made by the operators are ridiculous. The operators are only trying to deceive themselves and the public. This contest of the coal miners of Colorado is one largely for improvement of conditions. The operators have laid stress on the demand for recognition of the union. I see the Denver Chamber of Commerce also says that that is the cause of the strike. They are wrong. Recognition of the union is only a minor question.
The miners are fighting for improved conditions, for rights granted them by the state law, and they are eager for a strike. Why, the organization has been preventing a strike for the last three years.
The United Mine Workers are prepared to fight ten years, if necessary, to make conditions in the Colorado mines as good as they are in those of Wyomng and other states. They are prepared to fight indefinitely. They have the money necessary and they can get more.
The Colorado coal miners are poverty stricken. The union has to take care of them, to feed and clothe them, the minute they go on strike. They would not be willing to strike under such conditions if they did not have rights to fight for.
[…..]
[Emphasis added.]
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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:
