Hellraisers Journal: The Labor World: “Slavery Revealed in Colorado Mines…Managed by Tyrants”-Liberty Denied

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

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 17, 1914
Denver, Colorado – Testimony Reveals Murderous Mine Guards Terrorize Miners

From the Duluth Labor World of March 14, 1914:

SLAVERY REVEALED IN COLORADO MINES
———-
Startling Testimony Given Before
Congressional Committee In Coal Inquiry.
———-

LIBERTY IS DENIED;
WORSE THAN RUSSIA
———-
Blacklist System Kept By Operators Exposed
-Coal Districts Managed by Tyrants.
———-

Military Rule in CO, Woman Bayoneted fr Stt Str, AtR p2, Feb 28, 1914

DENVER, Colo., March 13,-(Special Correspondence.)-Southern Colorado today is in a state of anarchy. Men are held slaves in the coal mines, terrorized by murderous mine guards and robbed of practically every cent of the small pittance they are paid. The striking coal miners are intimidated and murdered by the hired assassins of the operators, denied their constitutional rights by the militia of the state of Colorado. These and many other outrages were brought out by the congressional committee which closed its month’s investigation of the Colorado coal strike Saturday [March 7th].

Colorado’s Liberty (?)

For years the coal miners of the state have maintained that they had less personal liberty, less rights in Colorado than have the people of Russia. For the same length of time the papers of the state have denied these reports.

If there was any doubt in the minds of the people of Colorado as to the real conditions in the coal fields those ideas were dispelled by the oppressed witnesses who appeared before the congressional investigating committee.

The operators and their gunmen have run their lickspittles in office with such a high hand, with such utter disregard of the laws and human life that conditions as they exist seem impossible to the man who has not suffered or failed to spend some time in the district.

One of the just grievances of the miners, established by the men as well as mine superintendents and foremen, was that of short weights. Since the first mine was opened in the state it has been the common practice of the coal operators to steal from 400 to 800 pounds of coal from miners on each car.

Miners Were Discharged.

To offset this robbery the miners had a bill passed providing for checkweighman. When the miners sought to take advantage of this law they were promptly discharged or given such a poor room that they could not make a living and were forced to quit. Instead of abolishing this thievery of coal by the operators, the checkweighman law seemed to increase it for the operators were filled with a desire to demonstrate how they were superior to the law and could do as they pleased in a state where they owned a majority of the officials body and soul.

Probably one of the most notorious works of the operators exposed by the witnesses was the blacklist system that has always been in existence against union miners. After the 1903-4 strike 6,000 men were blacklisted and but few of them have been able to get work up to this time except where companies signed up with the union. Witnesses testified that superintendents at all of the mines in the state had a list of the union men. They told of going to mines, being refused work because they were union men and seeing scores of men employed while they stood there.

Owners Dominate Politics.

One of the most notorious conditions existing in the south has been the domination of politics by the coal companies. They own the courts, the juries and practically every other officer.

Jack McQuarry, a witness and who was deputy sheriff of Huerfano county for seven years, testified that when a man or number of men were killed in the mines, he was ordered to take the coroner to the superintendent and find out who he wanted on the jury, as well as what the verdict was to be.

When Jeff Farr [Sheriff of Huerfano County] and his ring did not have sufficient votes to carry an election, they voted the sheep in the hills or else arrested enough of their opponents to carry the election and held them until they promised to vote the way Sheriff Jeff Farr wanted them to.

It has always been common practice for the superintendent to take his men to the polls and vote the entire gang one way.

“Got” Mine Leader.

McQuarry told how in 1906 the deputies were told to “get” John R. Lawson, International Board Member of the United Mine Workers. They could find no legitimate reason for arresting Lawson so two deputies went up to him, stuck a gun in his pocket, and then arrested him for carrying concealed deadly weapons.

Tony Langowsky, a member of the union and spotter for the operators, threw a bomb into their camp when he testified that he and the mine guards framed up all the dynamite explosions which terrorized Sopris, Colo., for six weeks last fall.

The operators sent out the reports that these explosions were the work of the “lawless” strikers. Langowsky’s testimony absolutely fixes the blame for the outrages which have occurred in Southern Colorado on the operators, who have heretofore been convicted of every crime except that.

It is impossible to bring out even a small part of the testimony in one story. While the operators were convicted of every crime on the calendar, the militia of the state suffered like exposure.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The Labor World: “Slavery Revealed in Colorado Mines…Managed by Tyrants”-Liberty Denied”

Hellraisers Journal: Policy Committee Issues Statement; Mother Jones Inspires Strikers at Sopris, Ludlow and Segundo

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Quote Mother Jones re CO Gov Ammons, wont stop talking, Day Book p11, Sept 27, 1913—————

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:

CO Strike 1913-14, UMWA Policy Com, ed, Ludlow Massacre Fink 1914

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.]

———-

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).

Colorado Mother Jones at Segundo, RMN p3, Sept 27, 1913——Colorado Mother Jones at Segundo, RMN p3, Sept 27, 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Policy Committee Issues Statement; Mother Jones Inspires Strikers at Sopris, Ludlow and Segundo”

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

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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:

HdLn RMN p1, Sounther CO Miners Vote Strike, Mother Jones Speaks, Sept 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.

—————-

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.

—————

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

Hellraisers Journal: Denver United Labor Bulletin: Strike Resolutions of United Mine Workers Given Indorsement in Colorado State Federation of Labor Convention

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

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 26, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – State Federation of Labor to Support Mine Workers’ Strike

From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of August 23, 1913:

HdLn re Lippiatt n CO F of L Conv, Dnv ULB p1, Aug 23, 1913CO F of L Conv Sec Tre Hickey n Pres McLennan Rpt, Dnv ULB p1, Aug 23, 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Denver United Labor Bulletin: Strike Resolutions of United Mine Workers Given Indorsement in Colorado State Federation of Labor Convention”

WE NEVER FORGET: August 16, 1913, Gerald Lippiatt, Age 38, Shot Down by Gunthugs on the Streets of Trinidad

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WE NEVER FORGET

Gerald Lippiatt
Shot Down by Gunthugs at Age 38

Gerald Lippiatt, Scott Martelle Blog, Aug 16, 2013
Gerald Lippiatt

Gerald Lippiatt did not come into Trinidad looking for fight. He was a striker from the northern field who was in the southern field working as an organizer. But, sadly, he took the bait when George Belcher and Walter Belk, two well-known Baldwin-Felts gunthugs, began to butt him with their elbows as he attempted to walk around them on Commercial Street. Other gunmen joined in, cursing him as they lurked about on the sidewalk, smoking their cigarettes.

Brother Lippiatt headed to the Packer block for his gun. Several of his fellow organizers in the union office tried to stop him to no avail.

“All right, you rat, let’s have it out,” Lippiatt shouted at Belk. The professional gunthug knew his business, and Lippiatt was soon lying dead in the center of the street.

The Colorado State Federation of Labor met for their yearly convention in Trinidad two days after the killing of Brother Lippiatt. The chair which would have been occupied by Lippiatt was draped in black. Perhaps, Brother Lippiatt was on their minds as they voted their support to District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America for any action deemed necessary with respect to conditions in the southern coalfields. Efforts were underway to avoid a strike against coal operators of southern coalfields, but the likelihood of avoiding that strike was fading with each passing day.

The coffin of Brother Lippiatt left Trinidad accompanied by the delegates from northern Colorado who were returning home from the C. F. of L. Convention. Gerald Lippiatt was brought home to Colorado Springs for burial. As the flag-draped coffin was taken from the baggage car and loaded onto the hearse, the delegates stood silently by, hats in hand, remembering who was responsible for his murder.

It was the sad duty of John McLennan, President of District 15 of the UMWA, to call John Lawson, International Board Member, at his home in Denver to inform him of Lippiatt’s death. Lawson related the conversation he had with Lippiatt three days before his death:

“I am leaving for Trinidad tonight, John, and I want to tell you goodbye. I think I am going to be killed”

“Killed? What do you mean?”

“The gunmen have been pressing me pretty hard down there, John, but I am going back. I’ve got a hunch they are going to get me this time.”

“Then you mustn’t go. Stay here and we’ll send someone else down; someone who isn’t so well known to them.”

“No, John, I’m going back. It is my job, and I want to go. But this is my last trip. Goodbye.”

Gerald Lippiatt was born in England in 1874, and came to America in 1891 with his parents and five siblings. The family settled in Ohio. He was survived by an older brother in Colorado Springs. He was engaged to be married to Edith Green of Rugby. He was likely a father as Martelle mentions a descendant. He had been Secretary of the UMWA local union in Frederick, Colorado, and was active in the northern coalfield strike before being sent to the southern field as an organizer.

Continue reading “WE NEVER FORGET: August 16, 1913, Gerald Lippiatt, Age 38, Shot Down by Gunthugs on the Streets of Trinidad”

Hellraisers Journal: UMW Organizer Mike Livoda Warned to Leave Colorado, Beaten and Terrorized at Huerfano County

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 4, 1912
Mike Livoda, Organizer for U. M. W. A., Beaten in Huerfano County, Colorado

Affidavit of Mike Livoda
-Sworn to on June 20, 1912, at Las Animas County: 

Affidavit Las Animas Co CO, Mike Livoda Beaten on 13th at Huerfano Co, Sworn to on June 20, 1912

From the Denver Post of June 27, 1912:

ATTORNEY GENERAL ASKED TO
ASSUME PROSECUTOR
———-
Other Authorities Fail to File in
Assault and Robbery Case.
———-

Governor Shafroth has been reminded that when a county prosecuting officer fails to do his duty when facts are presented sufficient to make a prima facie case the attorney general of the state can step in and personally take charge of the prosecution. When Attorney General Benjamin Griffith returns Friday he will be instructed by the governor to proceed against the five men who dragged Michael Livoda, organizer for the United Mine Workers of America, from his bed, robbed him of his union papers and ordered him to leave Walsenburg and Colorado.

John McLennan and John R. Lawson, in charge of the organization of miners, made the request that the state executive take action after District Attorney McHenry of Las Animas county failed to act. Deputy District Attorney Undershot, at Walsenburg, also refused to cause the arrest of the accused men.

McLennan and Lawson gave the names of these men to Governor Shafroth to turn over to the attorney general for prosecution: Charles A Kaiser, assistant superintendent of the Walsen mine; Deputy Sheriff Carr, stationed at the Walsen mine; James Farr, deputy sheriff, stationed at the Ravenwood mine, where Livoda was beaten, and a nephew of Sheriff Jefferson Farr; John Neish, superintendent of the Ravenwood mine, and Joseph Watson, guard at the Ravenwood mine. They claim to have witnesses to prove the five men guilty of the assault and robbery

Livoda was asleep in the house of a friend on the night of June 13 when five men entered the place, went through his clothes, took all union documents, marched him through the camp with mouth bound so he could not cry out, and when he reached the open country turned him loose after firing four shots and threatening to kill him if he came back.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: UMW Organizer Mike Livoda Warned to Leave Colorado, Beaten and Terrorized at Huerfano County”

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1911, Part II: Found Visiting Colorado Miners Jailed by Injunction Judge Whitford

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Quote Mother Jones, Injunction Shroud, Bff Exp p7, Apr 24, 1909—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 27, 1911
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1911, Part II
Mother Jones Accompanies Samuel Gompers on Visit to Jailed Miners

On Sunday, August 20th, Mother Jones accompanied Gompers on his visit to the miners jailed by Injunction Judge Whitford, which visit was described in the August 29th edition of The Joliet News (Illinois):

Mother Jones crpd ed, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

President Gompers [while in Denver] en route to the Pacific coast expressed a desire to visit the coal miners who have been made the victims of the abuse of the injunction writ in the strike in the northern coal fields of the state. The committee in charge made suitable arrangements and a trip was made to the quarters of the miners in the jail, where Mother Jones, on behalf of Mr. Gompers, presented the prisoners with a large bouquet of flowers. An informal and impromptu meeting was held and a few remarks made by Mr. Gompers. The prisoner have been accorded the privileges of the court yard and following the meeting inside the jail all retired to the court yard where, with the grated windows of county jail serving as a background, a group picture was taken, President Gompers and Mother Jones being the central figures.

[Photograph added.]

—————

From The Denver Post of August 21, 1911:

GOMPERS VISITS MINERS IN JAIL
———-

“Distortions of law” and “byplays of justice” were terms applied to the injunctions issued by District Judge Greeley W. Whitford in the miners’ trouble of northern Colorado by Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, in a speech at Eagles’ hall in the Club building at 2 o’clock Sunday afternoon [August 20th].

Later in the day he visited the miners in jail and told them they were martyrs to labor’s cause and deserved to be ranked with Lincoln and Jefferson in their devotion to the people. He told the men thy suffered no moral stigma and the good their imprisonment is doing for labor could not be measured in words…..

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1911, Part II: Found Visiting Colorado Miners Jailed by Injunction Judge Whitford”

WE NEVER FORGET the Men, Women and Little Children Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914

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

WE NEVER FORGET WNF List of Ludlow Martyrs ed———

Sept 15, 1913 – Trinidad, Colorado
Convention of District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America

The delegates opened their convention by 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 will rally from the coal mines,
We’ll fight them to the end,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union.

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

The miners faced the grim prospect of going out on strike against the powerful southern coalfield companies, chief among them, John D Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. The coal operators had steadfastly refused to recognize the Union and had ignored all attempts at negotiation.

The miners had had their fill of dangerous working conditions, crooked checkweighmen, long hours, and low pay. They lived in peonage in company towns, were paid in company scrip, and were forced to shop for their daily needs in high-priced company stores which kept them always in debt. But, mostly they hated the notorious company guard system. Every attempt to organize had been met with brutality on the part of the coal operators.

Mother Jones addressed the convention for over an hour, urging the men to:

Rise up and strike! …Strike and stay with it as we did in West Virginia. We are going to stay here in Southern Colorado until the banner of industrial freedom floats over every coal mine. We are going to stand together and never surrender…

Pledge to yourselves in this convention to stand as one solid army against the foes of human labor. Think of the thousands who are killed every year and there is no redress for it. We will fight until the mines are made secure and human life valued more than props. Look things in the face. Don’t fear a governor; don’t fear anybody…You are the biggest part of the population in the state. You create its wealth, so I say, “Let the fight go on; if nobody else will keep on, I will.”

Continue reading “WE NEVER FORGET the Men, Women and Little Children Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914”

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for March 1918, Part I: Found in Kansas and Iowa Speaking at UMW District Conventions

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She is the same dear little old Mother Jones
and if she has lost any vigor
in the past two years I can’t see it.
-An Iowa Miner, 1918

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday April 19, 1918
Mother Jones News for March 1918: Found in Kansas and Iowa

Mother Jones Fire Eater, Lg Crpd, St L Str, Aug 23, 1917

 

We begin our Mother Jones news round-up for March 1918 with a report of Mother listening to A. F. of L. President Samuel Gompers pleading for the Eight Hour Day before the Chicago Alschuler Hearings. We next find her speaking before district conventions of the United Mine Workers held in Kansas and in Iowa.

From Springfield’s Illinois State Register of March 1, 1918:

GOMPERS SAYS SHORTER DAYS WILL WIN WAR
—–
Long Hours and Low Wages Drive Men to Drink,
Is Plea of Labor Chief at Chicago
—–

MOTHER JONES LISTENS
—–

Chicago, Feb. 28.-Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor made a stirring appeal today in behalf of an eight-hour day for employes in the meat packing industry at the stockyards wage arbitration. He appeared as a witness for the employes and his testimony was eagerly listened to by “Mother” Mary Jones, an organizer for the United Mine Workers and several hundred other representatives of organized labor from all sections of the country…..

From the Kansas Pittsburg Daily Headlight of March 11, 1918:

DISTRICT MINERS’ CONVENTION STARTS
—–

MOTHER JONES IS ON HAND TO ADDRESS
KANSAS COAL DIGGERS
—–
President Howat’s Report Was Read
at Opening Session-
Excluded Two Papers From Hall.
—–

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for March 1918, Part I: Found in Kansas and Iowa Speaking at UMW District Conventions”

WE NEVER FORGET: Alexander Obremski Who Gave His Life in Freedom’s Cause at Rugby, Colorado on May 18, 1907

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Link up in one socialist company;
Evil must perish!
Only together and united!
Long live the Western Federation of Miners!
-Alex Obremski

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WE NEVER FORGET, Alex Obremski, Rugby CO May 18, 1907

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alexander Obremski
Union Organizer for the Western Federation of Miners

In 1907, Alexander Obremski was a union organizer for the Western Federation of Miners, working in the very dangerous field of the Trinidad area of southern Colorado. The field was considered to be so dangerous that organizers took the precaution of traveling in pairs.

On the evening of May 18, 1907, Brother Obremski was shot down in a saloon in Rugby, Colorado, near Trinidad, by Juan Espinosa, “a Mexican allegedly hired by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) for this purpose.” [See below.]

A large funeral was held in Trinidad on May 22nd to honor the intrepid union organizer. He was survived by two brothers who lived in Starkville, Colorado.

According to M. E. White who had charge of WFM headquarters in Trinidad:

Much credit is due for the three hundred members initiated here in the last five months, and at Pueblo, to the faithful and diligent work of your organizer, Brother James Peretto, and the late Brother Obremsky who took their lives in their hands in the work of educating the slaves of this district.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SOURCE I

Essays in Colorado History, Issues 5-10
Colorado Historical Society, 1987
(Search with “alex obremski” reveals signature: “Alex. Obremski.”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=_ngjAQAAIAAJ

Note: not available online except in snippet view. By using various search-words, I was able to bring up some relevant information. I will be attempting to track down this source in a library.

Page 55-

Alexander Obremski (1876-1907)
Correspondence from Trinidad, Colorado
Published as “Korespondencje. Trinidad, Colo.” in Robotnik Polski

Continue reading “WE NEVER FORGET: Alexander Obremski Who Gave His Life in Freedom’s Cause at Rugby, Colorado on May 18, 1907”