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

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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:

Feb 17 Trinidad CO Testimony bf House Com, RMN p12, Feb 18, 1914

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.

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Hellraisers Journal: News from Colorado Coalfield Strike: Forbes Tent Colony Attacked by Operators’ “Death Special”

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Let every miner wear his red bandanna
around his neck. It is our uniform.
-John Lawson
———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 19, 1913
News Round-Up from the Coal Miners’ Strike in Southern Colorado

Wednesday October 15, 1913 – Southern Coalfields, Colorado
-Coal Operators Provide Gunthugs with “Death Special.”

Baldwin-Felts Death Special

The coal operators have brought a new machine into the strike zone of Colorado. Called the “Death Special” by the miners, the machine is an automobile covered with armor and equipped with a search light and a machine gun. It is usually seen roaming about the various tent colonies filled with Baldwin-Felts gunthugs holding their rifles at the ready. Word has it that Mr. Felts, himself, had the large automobile delivered from Denver to Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron plant in Pueblo. There the sides were torn down and replaced with three-eights-inch steel plates. The machine gun was shipped in from West Virginia where it had served previous duty against the miners of that state.

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Thursday October 17, 1913 – Trinidad, Colorado
-Death Special follows 48 Union Men from Starkville to Trinidad

Yesterday strikers engaged in peacefully picketing at the Starkville Mine. This mine is owned by James McLaughlin, brother-in-law of Governor Ammons, Democrat of Colorado. Forty-eight of these union men were rounded up, placed under arrest by company guards and county deputies and marched the three miles back to Trinidad. On either side of them were rows of armed gunthugs, and behind them came the Death Special with its spotlight and machine gun aimed at their backs.

The union men offered no resistance, but as they come down the hill into Trinidad, they began to shout. They are being held in the Las Animas County Jail.

G. C. Jones, organizer for the Western Federation of Miners, was beaten by Gunthug Belk and by A. C. Felts as he attempted to get a Kodak of the menacing machine. The young photographer, Lou Dold was more successful.

In the past few days other attacks upon the striking miners and their families have been perpetrated by the mine guards. The Sopris Tent Colony was shot up by company gunthugs as they sped by in an automobile. In Walsenburg, Gunthug Lou Miller and six of his companions, roamed the streets assaulting strikers and union sympathizers wherever they found them. The town of Segundo was sprayed with machine gun fire for a full ten minutes as punishment for the beating of guard who had insulted a woman there.

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Saturday October 18, 1913 – Forbes Tent Colony, Colorado
-Mine Guards Attack with Death Special, Striker Luca Vahernick Killed

Mine guards, yesterday, attacked the Forbes Tent Colony making use of  the machine gun from the Death Special. Guards on horseback also used their rifles in the attack. A miner, Luca Vahernick, was killed, and a boy, Marco Zamboni, was shot nine times in the legs. A young girl who was on her way home from school was shot in the face. She lives on a near-by farm. The attack began at 2 p.m. and continued until dusk. The miners had only seven rifles or shotguns, six revolvers, and very little ammunition, but they were able to defend the Colony and prevented the guards from entering.

John Lawson arrived at Forbes this morning. As Lawson approached the camp, he found the Gunthugs Belk and Belcher lurking about, and confronted them. These are the same guards who were involved in the murders of Brothers Lippiatt and Powell, and now it appears, they have murdered another union brother. Louie Tikas stepped between Lawson and Belk, in that quiet, calm way of his and eased them apart. And, in this way, he may have saved Brother Lawson’s life.

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