Hellraisers Journal: “The So-Called ‘Militiamen’ are only gunmen and thugs wearing the uniform.”-Ludlow Massacre

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Quote Helen Ring Robinson, Mine Owners Plug Uglies to Blame for Ludlow, RMN p5, Apr 22, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 8, 1914
Godfrey Irwin Describes the Ludlow Massacre and the Killing of Louie Tikas

From the New York World of May 5, 1914
Interview with Godfrey Irwin, an Electrical Engineer employed by the Electrical Transportation and Railroad Company of Trinidad:

Gunthug Militia in Front of Ludlow Saloon, CO 1913 1914, Coal Field War Project

On the day of the Ludlow battle a chum and myself left the house of the Rev. J. O. Ferris, the Episcopal minister with whom I boarded in Trinidad, for a long tramp through the hills. We walked fourteen miles, intending to take the Colorado & Southern Railway back to Trinidad from Ludlow station.

We were going down a trail on the mountain side above the tent city at Ludlow when my chum pulled my sleeve and at the same instant we heard shooting. The militia were coming out of Hastings Canyon and firing as they came. We lay flat behind a rock and after a few minutes I raised my hat aloft on a stick. Instantly bullets came in our direction. One penetrated my hat. The militiamen must have been watching the hillside through glasses and thought my old hat betrayed the whereabouts of a sharpshooter of the miners.

Saw Tikas Murdered.

Then came the killing of Louis Tikas, the Greek leader of the strikers. We saw the militiamen parley outside the tent city, and, a few minutes later, Tikas came out to meet them. We watched them talking. Suddenly an officer raised his rifle, gripping the barrel, and felled Tikas with the butt.

Tikas fell face downward. As he lay there we saw the militiamen fall back. Then they aimed their rifles and deliberately fired them into the unconscious man’s body. It was the first murder I had ever seen, for it was a murder and nothing less. Then the miners ran about in the tent colony and women and children scuttled for safety in the pits which afterward trapped them.

We watched from our rock shelter while the militia dragged up their machine guns and poured a murderous fire into the arroyo from a height by Water Tank Hill above the Ludlow depot. Then came the firing of the tents.

I am positive that by no possible chance could they have been set ablaze accidentally. The militiamen were thick about the northwest corner of the colony where the fire started and we could see distinctly from our lofty observation place what looked like a blazing torch waved in the midst of militia a few seconds before the general conflagration swept through the place. What followed everybody knows.

Sickened by what we had seen, we took a freight back into Trinidad. The town buzzed with indignation. To explain in large part the sympathies of even the best people in the section with the miners, it must be said that there is good evidence that many of the so-called “militiamen” are only gunmen and thugs wearing the uniform to give them a show of authority. They are the toughest lot I ever saw.

No one can legally enlist in the Colorado state militia till he has been a year in the state, and many of the “militiamen’” admitted to me they had been drafted in by a Denver detective agency. Lieutenant Linderfelt boasted that he was “going to lick the miners or wipe them off the earth.” In Trinidad the miners never gave any trouble. It was not till the militia came into town that the trouble began.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From Appeal to Reason: “The Murderous Colorado Militia Was Recruited from Professional Gunmen”

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Quote Mother Jones Babes of Ludlow, Speech at Trinidad CO UMW District 15 Special Convention, ES1 p154 (176 of 360)—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 5 1914
Wars in Colorado and Mexico, Workers’ Blood Shed to Serve Rockefeller’s Interests

From the Appeal to Reason of May 2, 1914:

Appeal Army Called to Immediate
Action in the Class War

Practicality the entire issue of the latest edition of the Appeal to Reason is dedicated to supporting the class war, now ongoing, in Colorado, and opposing the war for “commercial and political domination of Mexico.”

The front-page masthead proclaims:

Masthead JDR Jrs Gunthugs Murder Women and Children at Ludlow, AtR p1, May 2, 1914

On the second page the masthead makes known:

The Murderous Colorado Militia Was Recruited
from Professional Gunmen

The following are portions of a few of the articles on the Colorado Coal War from Saturday’s Appeal to Reason.

Blood of Slaughtered Babes Calls
for Immediate Action

“God give us men: A time like this demands         
Great hearts, strong minds, true faith and willing hands.”

Military Rule in CO, Woman Bayoneted fr Stt Str, AtR p2, Feb 28, 1914

Two wars are now on. Both are wars in the interest of John D. Rockefeller and American capitalism. One is a war for the commercial and political domination of Mexico by the oil king and his colleagues. The other is  a war to crush out the rebellious spirit of the wage slaves of the Colorado coal mines, owned and operated by the Rockefeller interest.

As you read this, the newspapers will have given you columns upon columns about the American conquest of Mexico. Every known method of appealing to the gullibility of the American workers will have been used. The flag incident and other excuses will have been put forward to justify the sending of the American military and naval forces to our neighboring country. At the same time distorted reports of the bloodiest slaughter of working men in modern times will have appeared in the capitalist press.

This latest battle at Ludlow, Colo., is probably the most outrageous assault upon the rights, liberties and lives of the working class in American history. This issue of the Appeal to Reason gives you only what cold ink and type can transmit. No amount of writing can give you an adequate description of the murdering and maiming of women and children such as occurred last week in one of the sovereign states of this republic. On the other hand the slightest affront to the alleged dignity of American capitalism will have been played up and elaborated upon by most expert writers, artists and photographers that the filthy lucre of capitalism’s prostituted press can purchase…..

[Photograph, paragraph break and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother and Babies Slain in Safety Cellars as Flames Devour Ludlow Tent Colony; Battle Continues

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Quote Helen Ring Robinson, Mine Owners Plug Uglies to Blame for Ludlow, RMN p5, Apr 22, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 22, 1914
Ludlow Tent Colony, Colorado – Mothers and Babies Slain; Battle Continues

From The Rocky Mountain News of April 22, 1914:

Mothers and Babies Slain at Ludlow, RMN p1, Apr 22, 1914

Editorial from Rocky Mountain News of April 22, 1914
“The Massacre of the Innocents”

Ludlow Massacre of Innocents, Editorial RMN p6, Apr 22, 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: Senator Helen Ring Robinson on Rockefeller’s “Conscience” and His War on Union Miners in Colorado

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JDR Jr My Conscience Acquits Me, House Com Testimony p2858, WDC Apr 6, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 13, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – State Senator Robinson Opines on Rockefeller’s Conscience 

From the New York American of April 12, 1914:

Frightful Conditions Southern Colorado Strike Zone by Hellen Ring Robinson, NY Amn p31, Apr 12, 1914

By Helen Ring Robinson.

State Senator in Colorado, an Authority on
Economic Conditions in That State.

TRINIDAD, COLO., April 11—What is a conscience? The question comes like a shout to an observer down here in the Colorado strike zone, where the Rockefeller interests are paramount, after reading that John D. Rockefeller, Jr., declared before the Congressional committee investigating that strike that his “conscience acquits him” of responsibility for the conditions existing to-day in these coal fields.

Under such circumstances the Rev. R. Cook, of Trinidad, declares that the devil must have a large option on the conscience of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., but he insists on letting it go at that. He will not answer the question, “What is a conscience?”

Nobody in Trinidad will even try to answer it. The John D. Rockefeller, Jr., remark seems to have obfuscated any ideas the people here once had on the subject of “What is conscience?”

Here are some of the conditions in the Southern Colorado coal fields for which the Rockefeller interests must be held largely responsible.

Here are just a few facts which the facile conscience of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., acquits him of all responsibility for—facts which are matters of common knowledge in the two counties of Colorado dominated by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company—-dominated in other words, by the Rockefeller interests…..

[Emphasis added.]

The article by Senator Robinson goes on to address the following conditions existing in the Coalfields of Southern Colorado under the rule of John D. Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Company:
“Political Control and Unspeakable Corruption.”
“White Slave Market Conducted in the Open”
“Gunmen, Enlisted Serve in the Militia.”
“Mathematical Analysis of Rockefeller Conscience”
“Militia Outspoken Against Labor Unions.
“[Imported Strikebreakers] Knew But One Word and That Was ‘War'”
“Depths of Ignorance Versus Millions”
“Control Without Vision Real Cause of Trouble”

—————

Senator Helen Ring Robinson Visits
the Strike Zone in Southern Colorado

Helen Ring Robinson, Madison Parish LA Journal p1, Mar 14, 1914

Senator Helen Ring Robinson, traveled to  the strike zone of Southern Colorado, arriving on April 8th, to begin an investigation into the ongoing strike situation in order to report on conditions there for the New York American.

At Pueblo, she met with Manager Weitzel of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. Like his boss, J. D. Rockefeller Jr., she found him to be a man of fine manners, high ideals, and impeccable courtesy. An unnamed appointee of Governor Ammons was not, however, so easily impressed by such high-class affectations, and confided to the Senator that the brutality directed against the strikers has so sickened him that he wished he had a few bombs to throw at certain people.

She made a tour of the mining camps and saw no sign of the bathhouses nor the recreation centers, nor the dance halls of which Mr. Rockefeller spoke so proudly during his testimony earlier this week before the House Committee in Washington. She did find plenty of saloons, however, along with dreary company shacks covered in soot near smoking piles of slack.

She also made a tour of the strikers’ tent colonies, where she found the people enjoying the warmth of spring after enduring the long Colorado winter in the tents. The colonist, made up of twenty-two different nationalities, have grown close during the long cold months, especially the women and children. The Senator noted that the angelic children turn into “little fiends” when the militiamen enter the camps, shouting “scab-herders” and “Tin Willies” at them. Many of the older strikers have not forgotten the brutalities visited upon them by militiamen and company guards during the bitter strike of ten years ago.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones in Boston and Baltimore with J. W. Brown of West Virginia, Speaks on Colorado Coal Strike

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Quote Mother Jones, Stick Together, MI Mnrs Bltn p1, Aug 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 21, 1913
Mother Jones Travels to Boston and Baltimore Accompanied by J. W. Brown

From The Boston Globe of November 17, 1913:

Mother Jones w JW Brown Speaks re CO Strike, Bst Glb p8, Nov 17, 1913

From the Baltimore Sun of November 20, 1913:

Mother Jones w JW Brown Speaks re CO Strike, Blt Sun p2, Nov 20, 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones in Boston and Baltimore with J. W. Brown of West Virginia, Speaks on Colorado Coal Strike”

Hellraisers Journal: Governor Ammons Orders Troops Out Against Strikers in the Coalfields of Southern Colorado

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

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 29, 1913
Denver, Colorado – Governor Declares Martial Law in Southern Coalfields

From The Denver Post of October 27, 1913:

CO Gov Ammons, McLennan, Hayes, White, Last Try bf Troops, DP p2, Oct 27,1913

Officers of the United Mine Workers of America in conference with Governor Ammons regarding the strike situation in the Southern coal fields. Left to right are Governor Ammons, John McLennan, district president of the United Mine Workers of America and president of the Colorado State Federation of Labor; Vice President Frank J. Hayes and President John P. White of the United Mine Workers of America.

From The Rocky Mountain News of October 28, 1913:

Bnr HdLn CO Gov Orders Troops ag Strikers, RMN p1, Oct 28, 193

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Hellraisers Journal: Mary Heaton Vorse on the Mesabi Iron Miners’ Strike in Minnesota, Part II

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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday August 31, 1916
Mesabi Range, Minnesota – “Injustices, Large and Small”

From The Outlook of August 30, 1916:

THE MINING STRIKE IN MINNESOTA
-FROM THE MINERS’ POINT OF VIEW

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE OUTLOOK
[Report of Mary Heaton Vorse, Part II]

Mary Heaton Vorse, 1874-1966, Spartacus Ed

Under the contract system, the miner contracts to mine ore for a certain price a car load. The price of this car-load may be, and is, varied at any time according to the conditions encountered. It is the mine captain who fixes the price. According to the miners, it has been the custom to sell the best places for prices varying from the virtue of the miners’ wives and daughters to presents of drinks and cigars. So universal is this custom that any reference to the graft of the captain is received in any meeting of miners by laughter and applause.

There are at present in the hands of the Federal investigators affidavits sworn to before a notary public concerning all these forms of grafts, from insulting propositions made to the women of miners’ families to affidavits that drinks or money were paid for the job.
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