Tag: Ludlow Tent Colony

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

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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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.”

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Hellraisers Journal: From United Mine Workers Journal: Mary Petrucci Unveils Ludlow Monument on Memorial Day

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mary Petrucci, Joe's Little Hammer, NY Tb p7, Feb 4, 1915
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday June 7, 1918
Ludlow, Colorado – Magnificent Monument Unveiled on Memorial Day

The unveiling described:

Mary Petrucci, on tour, May 1914

Mrs. Mary Pertucci [Petrucci], who lost three of her children in the massacre, unveiled the monument while the great crowd of miners and sympathizers paid their silent respect to the memory of the dead.

On the barren plain where once stood the humble tent colony of the Ludlow strikers, the monument towers, an impressive landmark. Down through the years that are to come it will mark the scene of a dastardly crime. More eloquently than any spoken word it will tell the tragic story of the poor murdered women and the innocent babes of Ludlow who died for democracy.

[Photograph added.]

United Mine Workers Journal of June 6, 1918:

Ludlow Memorial Dedicated, UMWJ, June 6, 1918

Details:

Ludlow Memorial Dedicated, Detail, UMWJ, June 6, 1918

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Hellraisers Journal: Magnificent Monument Dedicated at Ludlow; Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller Appear, Uninvited

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Frank Hayes, Here on Ludlow Field, UMWJ June 6, 1918~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday June 2, 1918
Ludlow, Colorado -United Mine Workers Remembers the Martyrs

From The Fur Workers of June 1, 1918:

MONUMENT AT LUDLOW

Ludlow, Col.,-A magnificent monument was dedicated here May 30, by the United Mine Workers in honor of the 33 men, women and children who were killed by a detachment of the Colorado state militia on April 20, 1914. The militia were gunmen imported into the state by the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, a Rockefeller subsidiary.

The miners and their families had been evicted from their homes by the coal company and were living in tents when they were fired upon by the thugs, who afterwards burned the tents. The United Mine Workers later purchased the site of the tent colony and erected the monument.

At the base of the monument is the figure of a worker, upstanding and resolute, while beside him is the figure of a woman clutching a babe. On the monument is this inscription:

In memory of the men, women and children who lost their lives in freedom’s cause at Ludlow, Colorado, April 20, 1914. Erected by the United Mine workers of America.

———-

Ludlow Monument, UMWJ -p6, May 16, 1918

———-

Ludlow Monument, Inscription, Sharp

[Emphasis and photographs added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Memorial Monument to Be Unveiled This Decoration Day on the Hollowed Ground at Ludlow, Colorado

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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I can’t have my babies back.
But perhaps when everybody knows about them,
something will be done to make the world
a better place for all babies.
At least, I like to think so.
It is the only thing which gives me any comfort.
-Mary Petrucci

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday May 20, 1918
Ludlow, Colorado – Monument to be Unveiled on Hollowed Ground

Let it be recorded in the annals of organized labor that those who perished on Ludlow field on the 20th day of April, 1914, died for a great cause, and let us who now do honor to their memory, so live and act that they may not have died in vain.

From the United Mine Workers Journal of May 16, 1918:

IN REMEMBRANCE

Ludlow Monument, UMWJ -p6, May 16, 1918

On the 20th day of April, 1914, the darkest chapter in the industrial life of America was written.

On the field of Ludlow, Colo., a tented city had been erected by the United Mine Workers of America to house the striking miners and their families after they had been evicted from their homes by the coal company gunmen at the commencement of the great strike in the southern coal fields.

Under the leadership of one E. K. Linderfeldt, a detachment of the Colorado state militia that had been recruited from gunmen imported into Colorado by the Rockefeller and other large coal corporations, deliberately planned the dastardly deed of shooting up and exterminating the peaceful tent colony at Ludlow. On Monday, April 20, 1914, the unspeakable crime was committed, and 33 men, women and children were brutally slain and their poor tented homes were burned to the ground.

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Hellraisers Journal: Testimony of Mary Petrucci: She fled burning tent as militia fired upon her and her children.

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ludlow Mary Petrucci, Children all dead, ed, Trinidad Las Animas Co CO Affidavit, May 11, 1914
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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday February 7, 1915
New York City – Mrs. Petrucci Tells Harrowing Story of Ludlow Massacre

Mrs Dominiski & Mrs Petrucci, NY Trib, Feb 4, 1915

On Wednesday morning, February 3rd, Mrs. Mary Petrucci sat listening to Mr. Jerome Greene, Secretary of the the Rockefeller Foundation, give his testimony before the Commission on Industrial Relations. She heard this man speak of the vast amounts of money donated to worthy causes by the foundation bearing the name of the man who controls the condition under which the Colorado miners and their families work and live. Pennsylvania’s New Castle Herald described her response to that testimony:

“The Rockefeller way of philanthropy,” he said, “is a far better way than if he [Mr. Rockefeller] were to blow it in on his own amusement or give his money away in an ostentatious manner.”

Mrs. Mary Petrucci seated in the front row, threw her arms about Mother Jones and, in an audible whisper, said:

My God! What do you think of that, and we and our families facing starvation in Colorado.

That afternoon, Mrs. Petrucci followed Mrs. Dominiski to the witness stand and recalled that terrible day when her three youngest children perished in the Ludlow Massacre. Her eldest had died just a few weeks earlier of illness.She described fleeing her burning tent, carrying the baby and pulling her little daughter by the hand while her four year old son ran along behind:

Well, in the evening when the fire started I came out of my tent; it was all on fire, and I came out of my tent, and as I was coming out of my tent under that tank there was a lot of militiamen, and I was running out and hollering with my three children, and they hollered at me to get out of the way and they were shooting at me and I ran into this place [the cellar where the children died].

She awoke early the next morning and made her way to the Ludlow depot, and from there to Trinidad. She lay ill with pneumonia for the next nine days, and only when she recovered did she learn that all of her little children were dead.

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