Hellraisers Journal: Trinidad, Colorado-Young Boy Testifies Before House Sub-Committee, Tells How Soldier Invaded Home, Kicked and Beat Small Children

26th February 202427th February 2024 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 26, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Young Gustav Yeskenski Tells of Soldier’s Brutality

From the Chicago Day Book of February 25, 1914:

Trinidad, Col., Feb.-25. A story told by a little child of the unthinkable, unprintable cruelty of soldiers wearing the uniform of the state of Colorado, brought horror into the faces of the congressmen who are investigating Colorado’s coal strike.

Gustav Yeskenski, 11, stammering in awe of the big men from Washington, gave in broken words the most impressive testimony the committee has heard.

The boy told how a citizen-soldier came on Feb. 10 to his home near Suffield.

Gustav’s father was crippled in a coal mine explosion and is helpless. His mother took in washing until she had saved money to buy a cow. She started a milk route and saved $200, with which she planned to buy a horse and wagon. One day she and her husband came to Trinidad.

While they were away from home the militiamen came.

[Little Gustav told the committee:]

There were two soldiers. One was a captain. He was so drunk that he just lay there in their buggy and never moved.

The other was not so drunk, and he came in our house where me and Mary and Elizabeth and the baby was. He said he was looking for guns, so he took my little twenty-two rifle what my mama gived me.

Then he begins breaking open my mama’s trunk with an axe, yes ma’am, that’s what he done. And I just cried and said for him please not to do that because my mama would whip me, sure, and he just kept on tearing the clothes out of that trunk.

Then I cried more, and all the little kids cried, yes ma’am, we cried hard. And that soldier got a mads at us and we got a ‘fraids on him.

And he kicked my little baby brother, what’s a year and a half old, and knocked him down on the floor and kicked him again. And he hit my little, sister Mary-7-with his gun, and he cut her face all up. And he kicked me, too, here in the side, and he hit my other sister, Elizabeth. She’s 9, yes ma’am.

And he just went on taking clothes out of my mama’s trunk, and pretty soon he found her coat what had her pocketbook in it and he sees my mama’s $200.

Then he took a bottle of whisky out of his pants’ pocket and stuffed that money down in there and then put the whisky back.

And I got an awful ‘fraid and I said “don’t take my mama’s money or she’ll whip me, sure,” and he called me a bad name and kicked me some more. And he went to the kitchen and found some eggs, and some he ate and the rest he threw down on the floor with the dish. Yes, ma’am, he threw the eggs all over my mama’s floor.

After kicking and beating the innocent children, according to little Gustav’s story, the soldier proceeded to still worse treatment, so awful that it is unprintable.

Complaints were made, after the visit of the soldiers, to Gen. Chase, commander of Colorado’s state troops. Chase made his usual indefinite promise to “investigate.”

But after the committee had been shocked by the fiendish story, Chase was stirred to new activity. There actually was prospect that the man responsible for one of the many outrages which have sickened the people of the strike zone might be arrested and punished.

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Trinidad, Colorado-Young Boy Testifies Before House Sub-Committee, Tells How Soldier Invaded Home, Kicked and Beat Small Children” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mary Hannah Thomas, Striker’s Wife, Resident of the Ludlow Tent Colony, Testifies Before the Congressional Committee Investigating Colorado Strike

20th February 202421st February 2024 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mary Thomas, A Striker Like Anybody, RMN p12, Feb 18, 1914 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 20, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Mary Thomas Testifies Before Congressional Committee

Tuesday February 17, 1914 – Trinidad, Colorado
Mrs. Mary Thomas, a resident of the Ludlow Tent Colony, was called before the Investigating Committee, and gave this testimony regarding her 11 days of confinement by the military:

Mary Thomas, called as a witness and duly sworn, testified as follows:

Examination by Mr. Clark [Attorney for the Miners]:
Q. State your name. — A. My name is Mary Hannah Thomas.
Q. Where do you live? —A. What is that?
Q. Where do you five ? — A. Ludlow.
Q. In the tent colony ? — A. In the tent colony.
Q. Do you remember the date of the woman’s parade here in Trinidad ?— A. I do.
Q. That was about — were you in town the day of that parade ? — A. I was, sir.
Q. What time did you get to town? — A. About 15 minutes to 3, is the nearest I could think it was.
Q. Were you in the parade at all? — A. I was not, sir.
Q. State what happened to you that day. — A. I came down town to do some purchases that I wanted to — buy some things, and came down in an automobile, and I reached town, I guess, about 15 minutes to 3, and the parade and everything had passed over, and they were bringing the people back from the first block on West Main Street. I was about 20 yards farther away than the First National Bank. When I turned back — I saw a crowd coming back, and there was some militiamen pulling me over with a fixed bayonet, and told me to keep on moving, and I went on and reached Judge Bowers’s office here. I guess I walked about 30 or 40 yards when I went up three of the steps, and this militiaman said “Move on,” and I said, “I don’t have to.” He said, “You want to be pinched?” I said, “Please yourself,” and he pulled me down by my fur here and twisted me around until I nearly stumbled on my face. I didn’t know what he was trying to do, and he knocked again right back here [indicating her back with her right hand] until I stumbled on about 2 yards, and I stumbled, and then I tried to knock back on him until he knocked me again as if he was a pugilist, and he kept on knocking me and I tried to do the best I could with my muff, and some one came up and gave an order to have me arrested, and two soldiers took me a little farther down near the post office and kept me waiting there, I guess for about an hour, and Gen. Chase came along, and I heard one of them tell him that “there is Mrs. Thomas.” “Oh, that is her, is it,” he says, “from Ludlow, is it,” he says, and they marched me on with about 12 men up to the county jail. They kept me there 11 days, and I demanded to have my children with me, and they brought the children down.
Q. Your children are small, are they? — A. Very, very small; one about 3 and the other 4.
Q. How long did they keep you in there ? — A. Eleven days.
Q. In the upstairs part of the jail ? — A. Upstairs part of the jail.
Q. Was anyone else up there ? — A. Yes; there were other prisoners there.
Q. Men and women there? — A. There was an old man there when I was taken first, about 82 years of age, I guess.
Q. In the cell in which you were confined state whether there was any toilet there. — A. There was a toilet outside and I told him I wanted to go there, and there was a militiaman came up and gave me authority, and I went out to the toilet and then the militiaman came up and gave general orders to put me back in my cell.
Mr. Clark. That is all.

By Capt. Danks [Representing the “military organization of the State of Colorado”]:
Q. You were confined upstairs in the county jail ? — A. Upstairs.
Q. All the time ?— A. All the time.
Q. Do you remember looking out the window and hollering to the soldiers when they were bringing women up ? — A. Hollering ?
Q. Yes. — A. I remember of singing the union song; that is all.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mary Hannah Thomas, Striker’s Wife, Resident of the Ludlow Tent Colony, Testifies Before the Congressional Committee Investigating Colorado Strike” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mary Petrucci of Ludlow Tent Colony Testifies on Insults to Women by Colorado State Soldiers

19th February 202420th February 2024 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday February 19, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Mary Petrucci Testifies on “Insults” to Women

Family at Ludlow Tent Colony, 1913-1914 — **Men, Women and Children at Ludlow Tent Colony**

During the afternoon session of February 17th, the Congressional Investigating Committee heard testimony from Mary Petrucci, a resident of the Ludlow Tent Colony. Few, if any, newspapers seem interested in the plight of the women at the hands of soldiers, especially after their husbands are taken away by these very same militiamen. We, therefore, offer the entire testimony of Mrs. Petrucci as a small glimpse into the lives of the coal mining women as they cope with the military occupation authorized by Governor Ammons, Democrat of Colorado.

———-

Testimony of Mary Petrucci
-afternoon session, Tuesday February 17th, Trinidad.

Mary Petrucci was called as a witness, and having been first duly sworn testified as follows:

Direct examination by Mr. Clark [Attorney for the Miners]:

Q. State your name ? — A. Mary Petrucci.
Q. Where do you live ? — A. At Ludlow.
Q. In the tent colony?— A. Yes, sir.
Q. I will ask you if, at any time recently, and about when, you attempted to come to Trinidad on the 6.10 morning train — A. On the 1st day of February it was in the morning, and I come to take the train for Trinidad, and my sister was sick.
Q. You say your sister was sick ? — A. Yes, sir; my sister was sick.
Q. And who, if anyone, was with you, and did you have any children with you or not? — A. Yes; I had two babies.
Q. How old were they?— A. One 4 months, the other one 2 years old.
Q. Was your husband with you ? — A. Yes, sir.
Q. How many people tried to board the train that morning ? -A. There were two from the tent colony and they were stopped there by the soldiers.
Q. Was there a big crowd there that morning? — A. Not so very.
Q. How many? — A. Oh, about two.
Q. Two or three people besides yourself and your family ? — A. Yes, sir.
Q. Now, what happened — you say you were stopped?— A. Yes, sir; we went to go to the depot and the soldiers told us that we couldn’t come to town this morning, and we asked them why, and they told us they didn’t know why; and the other woman asked them if they wanted to come to see the doctor, and they had to come to telephone to the headquarters of the militia here in Trinidad, and they let them pass and we had to turn back.
Q. Did you talk to the brakeman or the conductor about it? — A. When we were turning back, he asked us what was the matter, and I told him the soldiers would not let us go to the depot, and he asked us why and I told him I didn’t know, and he told me to get onto the last coach, and the soldier says, “Halt, before you get a bullet in you.”
Q. What was it he said ? — A. Before I got a bullet in me.
Q. Did you have your babies with you at that time ? — A. Yes, and my baby very nearly frozen.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Surrounded by 150 Soldiers, Seized and Taken to Military Bastile at San Rafael Hospital, Held Incommunicado

8th February 202411th February 2024 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 8, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Mother Jones Seized by Soldiers, Held Incommunicado

From the International Socialist Review of February 1914:

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Surrounded by 150 Soldiers, Seized and Taken to Military Bastile at San Rafael Hospital, Held Incommunicado” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mary Thomas, of Ludlow Tent Colony, Held in Filthy Jail Cell, Keeps on Singing Through Broken Window

6th February 20249th February 2024 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – February 6, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Mary Thomas Held in Filthy Cell

SINGING IN JAIL THROUGH BROKEN WINDOW

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

Mary Thomas, noted singer and resident of the Ludlow Tent Colony, was one of the women arrested on January 22nd, the day that General Chase tumbled from his horse and ordered his troops to “Ride Down the Women!” Soon her two little daughters, three and four, were brought to her, and the three of them were held in the filthy cold cell for eleven days.

Her crime was talking back to an officer who had ordered her to move off the sidewalk from where she had been watching the parade. She told him:

You go on and go wash your dirty clothes you have on before you order me off of the sidewalk.

The militiaman began to pull her and she fought back using her fingernails on him. She was taken to jail where she placed a call to Louie Tikas at the Ludlow Tent Colony to let him know of her arrest.

At night she stood at the broken window and sang beautiful arias to her supporters gathered outside in the ally. She gives this account:

Then the hundreds of men prisoners in the basement jail…joined in. It almost drove the police and military out of their minds. It caught on through town, and soon all you could hear was “Union Forever” throughout Trinidad. I continued this procedure daily. The crowds came, and grew bigger and bigger. Finally it got so that the police had to disperse them. This made them angry and they would break the jail windows. It was no use to replace the panes, for they would just be broken again the next day.

Apparently, the little girls also caused some trouble in the jail cell. Mrs. Thomas tells the story of her release:

In the middle of the night two officers came rattling the door. “What are you trying to do?” they yelled. I didn’t know what they were talking about having been wakened out of a sound sleep. Then I noticed that the place was swimming in water. My children must not have turned off the tap. A mopping crew came immediately, supervised by a guard.A few hours later the jailer and another man unlocked our door and said angrily, “Get out!” “What? Without notice?” I said jokingly. “Get out, and take that wrecking crew with you!” I lost no time in obeying that welcome command, and we headed for the union headquarters.

Note: Newsclip from The Rocky Mountain News of January 23, 1914.

—————

MARY THOMAS DESCRIBES COMPANY TOWN

Mary Thomas, the greet-singer at the Ludlow Tent Colony, came from Wales with her two little daughters last July. Her husband, Tom, picked her up at the Trinidad train depot, and on the way back to the Delagua mining camp, he warned her in a whisper, “Don’t talk about anything important within hearing of that stool pigeon driver for the company.” As they approached the camp he cautioned her, “Don’t be nervous if the mine guards question you. I’ll answer their questions.”

It was dark when they arrived at that camp, and two big guards shined their lights into the automobile, inspecting Mary and the two little girls. Tom was thoroughly interrogated and had to explain to the satisfaction of the mine guards that he was bringing his wife and children into the camp. Finally, they were permitted to enter.

Mary states that she was completely demoralized when she saw the tumbled down shack that was to be her home. The door opened directly onto the dirt street in front of the house. There was no front yard and no porch, only a block of wood for a step. The cupboard was broken, the chairs were rickety, and the walls were lined with thin cardboard, torn and sagging in several places. Should a fire ever get started, she thought, the shack would go up in flames like a tinderbox.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mary Thomas, of Ludlow Tent Colony, Held in Filthy Jail Cell, Keeps on Singing Through Broken Window” →

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

3rd January 20242nd June 2024 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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:

—————

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: Special Convention of Colorado State Federation of Labor Held in Denver, Takes Up Cause of Striking Miners

20th December 202322nd December 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 20, 1913
Denver, Colorado – News from Special Convention of State Federation of Labor

Thursday December 18, 1913-Denver, Colorado
– News from Special Convention of the Colorado Federation of Labor

Louie Tikas w Flag of Ludlow, RMN p3, Dec 19, 1913 — Louie Tikas with
Flag of Ludlow

Louis Tikas was released by the military three days ago from the cold, unheated cell with the broken window through which blew the bitter winter wind and snow. Yesterday, the Trinidad Free Press printed this letter from Louie to the paper’s editor:

Dear Sir,

In regards to calling you up by phone I have changed my mind, so I will write you a few lines of information. I arrived at Ludlow about 3 P.M. The most people of the tent colony were waiting for me, and after visiting the colony tent by tent and shaking hands with most the people, I find out that all was glad to see me back…

I am leaving tonight for Denver to attend the state Federation of Labor convention and believe that I will be called to state before the delegates of the convention anything that I know concerning the militia in the southern field. While I stay a few days at Denver I will return to Ludlow again.

LOUIS TIKAS
Ludlow, Colorado

[Emphasis added.]

The special convention of the Colorado Federation of Labor was called by President McLennan and Secretary W. T. Hickey:

The strike of the miners has grown to a real war in which every craft and department of organized labor is threatened with annihilation unless they take a positive and decided stand for their rights. The uniform of the state is being disgraced and turned into an emblem of anarchy as it was in the days of Peabody. In the southern fields, military courts, illegal and tyrannical, are being held for the purpose of tyrannizing the workers. Leaders of labor are being seized and arrested and held without bail. The homes of union miners have been broken into by members of the National Guard and property stolen. In order, that members of organized labor in every part of the state, whether affiliated or not, may become familiar with conditions in this struggle, a convention is hereby called to meet in Denver Tuesday December 16, 1913, at 10 o’clock. The purpose of the convention is the protection of the rights of every worker in this state and the protection of the public from the unbridled greed and outrages of the coal operators.

[Emphasis added]

More than 500 delegates answered the call and assembled at the Eagle’s Hall on Tuesday December 16th. They included national officers from United Mine Workers, President White, Vice-President Hayes and Secretary Green. John Lawson and Louie Tikas arrived from the strike zone in the southern field. There was outrage as the Convention learned of the disaster at the Vulcan mine. This is the same mine which the union had called a death trap just months before. Many delegates made it plain that they are in favor of a statewide general strike should one be called by union leaders. The Convention demands that Governor Ammons remove General Chase from command and immediately transfer all military prisoners to the civil courts.

Mother Jones made her way to the convention in spite of military orders that she stay out of the state. It is said that sympathetic trainmen assisted her in slipping into Denver. She made her opinion of Governor Ammons clear by calling for him to be hanged.

—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Special Convention of Colorado State Federation of Labor Held in Denver, Takes Up Cause of Striking Miners” →

Hellraisers Journal: News from Colorado Coalfield Strike: Robert Uhlich and Louie Tikas Held in Cold Snow Covered Jail

16th December 202317th December 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 16, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – Tikas and Uhlich Held in Cold, Snow-Covered, Jail

News from Southern Colorado Coalfield Strike

Sunday December 7, 1913, Trinidad, Colorado
Tikas and Uhlich covered in snow in jail as a blizzard raged.

Dangerous Uhlich Trinidad CO Jail, TCN p1, Dec 3, 1913 — Trinidad *Chronicle News*
**December 3, 1913**

The jail cell in Trinidad where Louie Tikas, Bob Uhlich, and fifteen other striking miners are being held, is unheated. Also, there is a broken window through which the wind and snow filled the gloomy cell as the blizzard raged across Colorado a few days ago. The men were forced to sleep, as best the could, on bunks covered with 3 inches of snow, and no blankets.

Brothers Tikas and Uhlich were interrogated by Major Boughton, chief legal officer of the militia. The men were grilled for several hours. Uhlich refused to give any testimony whatsoever, stating that only the civil authorities had the right to question him. Brother Uhlich has been designated a “dangerous and undesirable alien.” Tikas was promised his freedom if he would persuade the Greeks at Ludlow to turn themselves into scabs. We may assume that he refused this offer, for he has not yet been released. Brother Adolph Germer was arrested returning from Denver recently. We are unsure at this time where he is being held.

—————

Saturday December 13, 1913 Cedar Hills, Colorado
Lt. Linderfelt Recruits Hard-Core Veterans and Mine Guards

Lt. Linderfelt has been recruiting new soldiers to fill the ranks of Company B of the Second Battalion. This company is camped at Cedar Hills, near to the Ludlow Tent Colony at the entrance of Berwind Canyon. Word has it that he has turned to the veterans with whom he served in the Philippines and Mexico.

More and more mine guards are also being recruited to fill the ranks of Company B. Linderfelt dislikes the part-timers now serving in Company B. He is only too happy to replace them as they seek to return to their civilian lives. Linderfelt prefers to approach the job of keeping the peace in the strike zone through the use of company gunthugs and battle-hardened soldiers. Company B has frequent run-ins with the colonist at Ludlow. They go heavily armed into the camp, unlike the soldiers of the other companies who often visit the Ludlow camp in small groups and without arms.

—————

From the Trinidad Chronicle News of December 15, 1913:

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: News from Colorado Coalfield Strike: Robert Uhlich and Louie Tikas Held in Cold Snow Covered Jail” →

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

4th December 202315th December 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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:

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

20th November 202322nd November 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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.

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