Tag: Las Animas County CO

Hellraisers Journal: Forbes Tent Colony Demolished by Colorado Militia; Families Left Homeless in Blinding Snowstorm

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

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 15, 1914
Forbes Tent Colony of Las Animas County, Colorado, Destroyed by Militia

From The Indianapolis Star of March 12, 1914:

ASK FEDERAL INTERVENTION
IN COLORADO MINE STRIKE

Forbes Tent Colony Before n After Destroyed, DP p2, Mar 12, 1914

WASHINGTON., March 10-Chairman Foster, of the House mines committee, which investigated the Colorado coal mine strike, today received the following telegram from officers of the United Mine Workers’ Union in Colorado:

“Twenty-three militiamen, under orders of Adj. Gen. John Chase, this morning demolished strikers’ tent colony at Forbes, Col. Men, Women and children are homeless in a blinding snowstorm. Inhabitants of the upper tent colony ordered by militiamen to leave their home within forty-eight hours or be deported.”

Chairman Foster said the committee stood ready to report drastic recommendations to Congress as soon as it could assemble its data.

———-

Declaring that Federal intervention is sorely needed in Colorado, officers of the United Mine Workers of America sent a telegram to President Wilson yesterday demanding the release of Mother Mary Jones. The telegram follows:

“We again protest against the outrageous treatment accorded Mother Jones and demand her release from Colorado military prison, where she has been confined for more than two months.

“Federal intervention is sorely needed in Colorado. We can ill afford to talk about protecting the rights of American citizens in Mexico, as long as a woman, 80 years old, can be confined in prison by military authorities without any charge being placed against her, denied trial and refused bond, her friends prevented from communicating with her, her request for proper medical attendance denied and every right guaranteed by the constitution of the United States set aside.

“Colorado militia yesterday tore down tents of striking miners at Forbes, leaving miners and families without shelter and causing great suffering. Let us hear from you.”

The telegram is signed by John P. White, president of the miners; Frank J. Hayes, vice president , and William Green, secretary-treasurer. 

[Photographs and emphasis added.]
[Caption to Photographs: “Views of the tent colony at Forbes, Colo., destroyed by order of General Chase last Tuesday [March 10th] in the Trinidad coal strike district. The lower photograph is a view of a tent and the strikers and their families before the soldiers took charge. The upper is a view of the colony dwellers and their destroyed homes, showing the strikers and their children eating the food found in their wrecked tents.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Union Leaders Dragged from Buggy by Masked Men and Beaten Near Trinidad; Mother Jones Unharmed

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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 17, 1904
Trinidad, Colorado – Fairly and Mooney Recovering from Violent Attack

From The Rocky Mountain News of February 15, 1904:

UMWs Beaten Near Berwind n Bowen CO, MJ Not Harmed, RMN p1, 6, Feb 15, 1904

From The Arizona Republican of February 15, 1904:

MINE WORKERS ATTACKED
———-
A Violent Strike Episode
Near Trinidad, Colorado.
———-

Trinidad, Colo., Feb. 14.-William Fairley and James Mooney, members of the national board of the United Mine Workers, from Alabama and Mississippi, respectively, were waylaid this afternoon on the road between Majestic and Bowen, dragged from their buggy and beaten by eight men with stones and six shooters and left lying in the road.

They were able later to get in the buggy and drive to Bowen. They were then brought to Trinidad. Mooney is in serious condition and had to be taken to a hospital. Fairly is able to go to his hotel. No arrests have yet been made. This is the first time since the coal strike was inaugurated that any officials of the United Mine Workers have been assaulted. It is reported that the men who attacked the miners officials are coal company guards. We have learned from the United Mine Workers’ Headquarters in Indianapolis that Mother Jones was in a wagon which was following the vehicle carrying Fairley and Mooney, but she was not harmed. Mother was recently released from the hospital in Trinidad, after surviving a serious siege of pneumonia.

[Emphasis added.]

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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: 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: 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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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Coal Miners Fight to Win in Colorado by Robert M. Knight, Part II

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 4, 1913
Coal Miners of Southern Colorado Are Fighting to Win, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of December 1913:

Miners, Women, Children Parade at Trinidad, ISR p333, Dec 1913

[Part II of II]

Some one has said, “A fool in revolt is infinitely wiser than a learned philosopher apologizing for his chains.” Believing this, fully 95 per cent of the miners answered the call to strike [September 23, 1913]. Men with families within three days of starvation and without clothes enough to protect their frail bodies from the biting winds of mountain winters came out fully determined to win or die in the attempt. And who will blame them? Work such as the miner does is no longer honorable but has come to mean “drunkenness, vice and superstition.” It makes men and women unscrupulous, hard and restless. It destroys for others the treasure of life-a home. All the noble sentiments of liberty and the joy of labor mean in reality to the miner slavery of the worst type.

With thoughtless hymns of praise of this massacreing of labor, society allows one wholesale slaughter after another without a protest. While I am writing this the news arrived of the Dawson, New Mexico, disaster, in which the lives of 261 miners were lost and the operators refused to allow Secretary Doyle of the miners’ union to give the widows and orphans $1,000 donated by the union because the camp was non-union. And just as certain as that nothing becomes better without the desire to improve it so it is a healthy sign of the times that starvation wages for conscientious drudgery no longer fills the miner with heartfelt gratitude toward the master class.

The mine slaves were so cowed that the operators were sure that not more than 25 per cent would quit and when practically every miner laid down his tools, completely tying up the coal industry of Colorado, the wrath of the masters knew no bounds. They immediately got busy and sent a deputation of their lackeys, consisting of a lawyer, banker and a Catholic priest (Father Malone), to Washington to repeat the lies of the operators that the miners were satisfied with conditions but forced to strike by eastern agitators like Frank Hayes and Mother Jones. Their thugs began to terrorize the country, shoot up the tented camps of the strikers, insult the women and abuse the children and the operators began to call for the militia that the state might pay the cost of breaking the strike and thus save John D. a few paltry dollars with which to build a few more churches and start more Sunday schools where they sing and PREY-“servants obey your masters.”

Failing to get the militia as soon as they called, the operators had to content themselves with filling the jails of Colorado with strikers who dared to exercise their constitutional rights of peacefully asking imported strikebreakers to not work. In the city of Boulder and within the shadow of Colorado’s greatest educational institution, the state university, thirty-six were confined in the county jail until the court permitted the prisoners to bail each other out. Forty-nine others were arrested in Las Animas county and marched seven miles to the Trinidad jail between two rows of armed guards with Belk and Beltcher (out on bond for murder of Lippiatt), following up the rear with a Gatling gun mounted on an armored automobile.

Frank Hayes says, “The operators have several machine guns mounted on autos. They also have what is known as the ‘steel battle ship [Death Special].‘ This is an automobile with a high body of solid sheet steel built up so as to almost conceal the guard inside. The steel furnishes resistance to the bullets and is so arranged that the assassins on the inside may shoot their rifles in perfect safety. It is a splendid refuge for a coward. The body of the machine is shaped like a torpedo and was designed and built for mine guards. It carried a rapid fire machine gun with a range of more than two miles. As bad as West Virginia was there was nothing down there to compare with this latest instrument of murder that the operators of Colorado are using.”

As this procession neared town, G. E. Jones, a member of Western Federation of Miners, attempted to get a picture of the armored car. A. C. Felt beat him insensible and destroyed his camera and had him arrested for disturbing the peace.

Gun men patrol the public roads in armored autos, shooting up first one camp and then another. The first resistance the strikers offered was at Forbes, October 17, one striker was killed, two wounded and a deputy shot in the hip. One hundred and forty-seven bullets from a machine gun passed through a tent occupied by an aged Scotchman, who saved his life by lying flat on the floor. After this battle the miners made preparations to defend themselves from further attacks of the guards.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Coal Miners Fight to Win in Colorado by Robert M. Knight, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Coal Miners Fight to Win in Colorado by Robert M. Knight, Part I

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

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 3, 1913
Coal Miners of Southern Colorado Are Fighting to Win, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of December 1913:

Mother Jones Marches with Boys in Trinidad, ISR p330, Dec 1913

[Part I of II]

”THE fight is on. We would have avoided it; we still stand ready at any time to meet representatives of the other side with hopes of effecting a settlement. We hold out the olive branch continually. But because we wish for peace must not be construed as a sign that we are not able to fight. Our past record should dispel such idle dreams. We will aid our brothers in the Colorado fields with all of our resources; with the advice of men of experience; with the hearty good will and sympathy of the vast army of sturdy workers that make up our membership. And these will give a good account of themselves against all the powers of darkness the operators may bring against us.”-Mine Workers Journal.

For months the leading newspapers (?) of Denver and all the capitalist sheets throughout the state, both daily and weekly have been repeating the same rigmarole in regard to the coal strike. While they insult the union men, they anxiously defend themselves against any suspicious of sympathy with the Standard Oil crowd. Their excuses are: A strike is an industrial war for more wages and not one of principle, it does not in their opinion affect the question of morality; finally, even if right and justice is on the side of the miner it is a vain attempt to subjugate by force of a strike, the peaceful relations of No. 26 Broadway [Rockefeller’s HQ in New York City]. Would not open shop conditions free the miner of all his trouble? Therefore, should not the miners welcome the open shop as a happy event instead of seeking a recognition of the union through a “bloody and ruinous strike”?

Let us look a little into the real cause of this strike that dates, back to April 1, 1910, a time when there were not over three thousand organized miners in the state. Our contract expired then and the operators knew we would never be any weaker and perhaps they never more powerful. Therefore they sought to force an open shop by refusing to recognize the miner’s right to organize and sell his labor-power collectively. A strike resulted, one that history will perhaps record as the hardest fought mile of the miner’s road to industrial freedom.

There were but few of us and after several months the busy world outside forgot all about the strike in northern Colorado. Strikes were fought and won in various parts of the country; all the while the miners stood firm, fighting injunctions, suffering jail sentences and other hardships without complaining, yet knowing all the time our only hope for victory was an organized strike in the southern part of the state, as we were unable to seriously affect the market. National organizers were sent south and at once began the task of secretly organizing the slaves in John D.’s hell-holes of Colorado. This work was slow and dangerous requiring three and one-half years’ time (and “God knows” how much cash).

When the civil war was ended in West Virginia the militant workers of the union, including Frank J. Hayes and “Mother Jones” were sent to Colorado to assist in the organization work and with their arrival things began to move apace. Hayes soon asked the operators for a conference and demanded recognition of the union in the name of 15,000 newly organized slaves. The operators ignored all invitations to arbitrate boasting they had five millions of dollars for defense. They began preparing for a strike by importing gun men and thugs from West Virginia through the Baldwin Feltz detective agency. W. H. Reno, chief detective for C. F. & I., also opened a recruiting station in the Dover Hotel, 1744 Glenarm place, and succeeded in sending out of Denver some of the most notorious characters from the red light district and barrel house bums. Upon the arrival of these criminals in the strike zone Sheriffs Gresham and Farr (appointed by the coal companies), gave them deputy sheriff commissions.

The State Federation of Labor held its annual convention at Trinidad August 18 and when the U. M. W. of A. delegates began to arrive in town late Saturday afternoon G. W. Beltcher and Walter Belk, two Baldwin-Feltz heroes, shot and instantly killed Gerald Lippiatt, a district organizer on the main street of Trinidad. A coroner’s jury, composed of “good” business men, rendered a verdict of “justifiable homicide”; District Attorney Hendricks later preferred a charge of murder against them but the courts of Colorado do not value a coal miner’s life very high and Lippiatt’s murderers were promptly released on bond because such human hyenas are needed by the operators to maintain law and order during a strike.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Coal Miners Fight to Win in Colorado by Robert M. Knight, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: “Louie the Greek”-According to Judge Jesse Northcutt, Coal Operators’ Attorney, Master of Public Opinion in Southern Colorado

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Louis Tikas, Song by Frank Manning—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 20, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – Northcutt Attacks Louie Tikas, Leader of Greeks at Ludlow

From the Trinidad Chronicle-News of November 13, 1913

Louie the Greek re Tikas, TCN p1, Nov 13, 1913

Jesse G. Northcutt, former Colorado district judge, is the publisher of the Trinidad Chronicle-News, he has also been hired on as attorney for the coal operators. Furthermore, he is known to assist John J. Hendrick, the district attorney for Colorado’s Third Judicial District which covers Las Animas and Huerfano counties. How handy for the operators to have one of their own working within the criminal justice system under which striking miners are being prosecuted!

Thus, we see that Judge Jesse G. Northcutt plays several roles within the strike zone: “respected” former Judge, attorney for the coal operators, and the assistant to the District Attorney. Let us now add to that list, the role of master of public opinion through the pages of the Trinidad Chronicle-News:

“Louie the Greek” leader of three hundred of his country men-striking miners at the Ludlow tent colony, is perhaps the most conspicuous figure in the industrial war in southern Colorado. “Louie the Greek” is shrewd and fearless-a veteran of the Balkan war, and he controls the Greeks at the tent colony with a spoken word, a lift of the eye brows or a gesture of his hand.

[Emphasis added.]

The above is from the November 13th edition of the Judge’s newspaper. A week earlier (November 4th), the Chronicle described Louie’s fellow Greek miners as:

..a band of warlike Greeks who have been carrying on guerrilla warfare in the hills for weeks and who have repeatedly declined to obey the orders of the strike leaders.

[Emphasis added.]

As far as reporting goes, the job done here is not such a great one. Tikas never went to war in the Balkans, although several of his fellow Greek miners did. Louie Tikas is, in fact, a United States Citizen. He is a respected leader in the Ludlow Tent Colony where he is known for his quiet, calm manner in the face of severe provocation from the deputized company gunthugs.

And as to armed Balkan War Veterans in the Ludlow Tent Colony, all we have to say is: Thank God, the miners and their families have some protection from the hundreds of imported deputized armed gunthugs with their machine guns, high powered rifles, searchlights, and the Death Special which roams the strike zone at will.

Judge Jesse G. Northcutt was seen riding in that very same Death Special which flaunts the mounted machine gun that killed Brother Luca Vahernick at the Forbes Tent Colony. The Judge was found in the Death Special along with the gunthugs Belcher and Belk at Forbes, by John Lawson, the morning after the attack. It was Louie Tikas who stepped between Lawson and Belk in that quiet, calm way of his, and perhaps, saved Lawson’s life.

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Hellraisers Journal: Colorado Coal Miners Obey Strike Order; Evictions Underway; Mother Jones Visits Strikers and Families

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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 13, 1903
Colorado Coal Miners Obey U. W. A. Strike Order; Mother Jones on Hand

From The Indianapolis News of November 9, 1903:

COLORADO MINERS OBEY
THE ORDER TO STRIKE

FEW REPORTED FOR WORK IN DISTRICT 15.
SURPRISE FOR OPERATORS
John Mitchell, The Columbian, Bloomsburg PA p2, Oct 23, 1902Denver, November 9.-Information received from the coal fields of Colorado to-day indicates that the strike of coal miners will be more extended than anticipated. It is reported that the order of the executive committee of the United Mine Workers of America declaring a strike in District 15 for to-day has been obeyed in Colorado almost to the man. At certain mines where it was confidently believed a sufficient number of men could be retained to operate them, it appears that not enough men reported to make a showing.In the northern fields, where the men decided to strike upon their own referendum vote because an eight-hour day has not been granted, the walkout is complete. It is said that several of the independent mine will make efforts to continue in operation, but, it is understood, with little hope of success.
`
Troops in Readiness

Unusual precautions have been taken by the sheriff of Las Animas county in southern Colorado, where trouble is feared. It is reported that strikers have threatened violence if they are ousted from the cottages of the Victor Fuel Company and the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. The State troops are being held in readiness.Already the effects of the strike are being felt in this city. Practically all the dealers announced to-day that they had no coal to sell. The prospect is favorable for a serious coal famine in Denver and other points in the state.

[Emphasis and photograph added.]

Mass evictions from the  coal company “cottages” (shacks) are underway at this time. And, in fact, the miners, rather than threatening violence, have prepared for this eventuality by establishing tent colonies on land rented by the union. The company guards, however, do not refrain from violence as they evict the striking miners and their families, kicking in doors, ransacking family belongings, and generally spreading terror as they roam about the strike district heavily armed. Most of these company gunthugs have been deputized by the Las Animas County Sheriff.

—————

From The Arizona Republican of November 10, 1903:

SILENT MINES
—————

Formal Beginning of Strike in District 15
—————
THE TIE-UP IS COMPLETE
—————
The Struggle Will Be a Long One
But Both Sides Are Prepared for It
-“Mother Jones” Is Now in the Field
—————
CO Miners Idle, Strike Order Obeyed, Ipl Ns p11, Nov 10, 1903Trinidad, Colo., Nov. 9.-The strike of the coal miners of district No. 15 of the United Mine Workers of America is now on in full force, and indications point to a long struggle. This morning only a very small per cent of the men reported for work and the tie-up is complete in Las Animas county, the largest producer of District 15, Starkville, Gray Creek, Engleville and Sopris, the largest producing camps went out to a man.At union headquarters tonight all the officials were jubilant over the outlook and more than pleased at the number of non-union men who went out with the union. Since Saturday night nearly 2,000 men sent their names to the union. Out of nearly 3,000 employed in this county, it is claimed that less than one hundred reported for work. These are at Hastings, Delagua and Primero, Victor fuel camps, and it is openly stated that if any trouble occurs in this district it will be at the above camps.“Mother” Jones is doing more than all the balance of the organizers to bring the men into line. Union headquarters was very busy today. William Howells, president of District 15, said tonight, “You can say that the men in this section went out to a man and the tie-up is more complete than we thought it would be. We have a right to feel good over the large number of non-union men who joined us. Eighty per cent of the men have gone out in Huerfano county and also in Colfax county, N. M. We nor the Colorado Fuel and Iron company officials dreamed that the strike would be of such magnitude.”

[Emphasis added. Newsclip added from Indianapolis News of Nov. 10th.]

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Hellraisers Journal: “Miners Go Out…Mother Jones Lecturing Miners for More Complete Organization”-Speaks at Sopris

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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 9, 1903
Mother Jones Speaks to Miners at Sopris and Starkville, Colorado

From The Rocky Mountain News of November 8, 1903:

Colorado Coal Strike, MJ Speaks at Sopris, RMN p1n2, Nov 8, 1903

[Mother Jones at Sopris and Starkville]

…..The meeting held at Sopris last night [November 6th], where the speaker was Mother Jones, was crowded. To-night she speaks at Starkville. Both these towns are incorporated, and the coal companies do not own the town sites, so no interference with the meeting can be brought about, even if it was the desire of the operators…..

     It is stated that all the miners are out at Berwind, and that all at Sopris and Starkville will refuse to go to work Monday. In the two latter towns, Mother Jones has made hurricane appeals to the miners to strike. She is a speaker of the strongest type, and the fact that she is a white haired woman carried weight with her talks, all of which recited the condition in the Eastern fields, and none of which referred to the conditions prevailing in Colorado or how to improve them…..

[Emphasis added.]

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