Hellraisers Journal: Thursday February 4, 1915
From the New York Tribune:
-Mary Petrucci Remembers Her Four Little Children
WE NEVER FORGET
Who lost their lives in Freedom’s Cause
Lucy, Joe, Barnard, and Frank
Once again, Mrs. Mary Petrucci has come east from the coal camps of southern Colorado to give testimony about the long struggle of the miners there. It was during this struggle in Freedom’s Cause that she and her husband lost all four of their children. The eldest, six-year-old Bernard, grew sick last March and died in the Ludlow Tent Colony after the militia refused to let Mary take him to a doctor in Trinidad. The three other children Joe-4, Lucy-2, and the baby, Frank-6 months, were murdered in April by the gunthug militia during the Ludlow Massacre. All three children were suffocated when the militia set the tent on fire over their heads as they sought shelter in the cellar beneath the floor, hiding from machine gun fire.
Mrs. Petrucci has come to New York accompanied by another miner’s wife, Mrs. Margaret Dominiski. Their testimony before the Commission on Industrial Relations will be thoroughly covered by Hellraisers over the next few days. Today we wish to present a long interview with Mary Petrucci conducted by Lucy Huffaker for the “Woman’s Varied Interests” section of the Tribune. Mary Petrucci hopes that by telling the story of her little children, their sacrificed lives will count toward the betterment of workers everywhere. During the interview, she stressed that she and her husband are still strong for the union despite their terrible loss. She concluded the interview with this statement:
But you’re not to think that we could do any differently another time..We are working people-my husband and I-and we’re stronger for the union than we were before the strike. We’ve paid-I guess you’ll admit and everybody will-that we’ve paid a pretty big price for our belief. I don’t know just how any man and woman can do more than have their children, all their children, taken from them, do you? But we’re not ‘scabs.’ We never have been and we never will be. There is sorrow in our hearts, and there always will be, but there isn’t any dishonor.
I can’ 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.