Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 7, 1914
New York City – Judge Lindsey Testifies Before Commission on Industrial Relations
Mrs. Lindsey, Judge Lindsey, Mary Petrucci, Mary Thomas, Pearl Jolly, Mrs. Lee Champion, Olga and Rachael Thomas
On Thursday May 28th, Judge Lindsey of Colorado appeared before the Commission on Industrial Relations. The previous week, Judge Lindsey had escorted miners’ wives, survivors of the Ludlow Massacre, to the White House for an interview with President Wilson.
In his testimony before the Commission, the Judge spoke about the plight of women and children when their husbands and fathers die on the job. He describe how the “industrial government” of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company dictates to every branch of the state and county governments in Colorado, and, that that “industrial government” is dictated to from the federal “industrial government” in New York City.
Of the Ludlow Massacre, Judge Lindsey stated:
It is not an act of civilized warfare, if you please, to turn machine guns and rifles upon a tent colony in which it is known by those who are responsible and those who do the deed that there are defenseless women and children.
Judge Lindsey testified during the afternoon session of May 28th. Present were Chairman Walsh, and Commissioners Ballard, O’Connell, Lennon, Garretson, and Harriman. We present the first part of the testimony below, and will publish the rest of the testimony tomorrow.
TESTIMONY OF JUDGE BEN B. LINDSEY.
Mr. Thompson. Now, just for the purpose of making our record, l will ask you a few preliminary questions. Your name? Judge Lindsey. My name is Ben B. Lindsey.
Mr. Thompson. Your address?
Judge Lindsey. Denver, Colo.
Mr. Thompson. And your profession or-
Judge Lindsey. l am a lawyer, a judge on the bench, and have been for 15 years or thereabouts, in the city of Denver.
Mr. Thompson. Now, you may go on with your story.
Judge Lindsey. l will try, Mr. Chairman, to make my story as connected as possible; but unless l should be misunderstood, I first wish to make a statement as to the statement made by the gentleman who has preceded me [Major Boughton], which l think is a good illustration of much of the misunderstanding which grows out of an unfortunate situation like that which you are asked to hear some evidence about. He read from a newspaper saying that a Mr. Lord, representing the miners, had stated that there were 2.000 men, miners, and if necessary there would be 50,000 more ready to resist the militia. The gentleman did not state what Mr. Lord said, neither did the newspapers that he read from state what Mr. Lord said. Mr. Lord said, for l was present when he said, that if the tactics pursued by certain men in the militia that brought about the murders, as he expressed it and claimed, of women and children were repeated in Colorado that there were in that case 2,000 men who had red blood enough in their veins to resist that sort of encroachment under whatever name it might be called, and that there were 50,000 men in this country who were willing to join.
Now, that is an entirely different statement from that which the gentleman read and the statement which he would have this commission to believe is true. I merely mention it as a good illustration of how Mr. Lawson could have been misquoted and misrepresented by the paper from which he [the witness BoughtonJ read.
l have talked personally with Mr. Lawson within the last fortnight or so, just before I left Denver. I have talked with Mr. Lawson in the presence of men of the most radical type, who proposed or suggested things that I have heard Mr. Lawson fight against and talk against, and the statements made to me by Mr. Lawson are quite contradictory of the statement the gentleman read from the newspaper purporting to be made by Mr. Lawson. Since I left Denver and since I have been in this city I have found myself misquoted on several different occasions and things put into my mouth that l never said, things put into my mouth that I could not have said; and I wish to state to this commission, because of this fact of which I am a witness, having heard Mr. Lord, that it go very slow in accepting statements made in the newspapers.
I have a statement in the Pueblo Chieftain of May 3 that I could offer to this commission, two or three columns, in which it is stated that a certain prominent citizen, of Colorado said that the thing to be done with men like myself was that they should be killed—k-i-l-l-e-d-. I am not going to claim that those men who are making inflammatory statements of that kind are trying to stir up a sentiment among certain individuals that will bring about my own murder, yet that will be found in the Pueblo Chieftain of May 3, which is supposed to be the official organ, in so far as they have any official organ, of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co.Now, so much for that. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: It is not an act of civilized warfare to turn machine guns upon women and children.-Testimony of Judge Benjamin B. Lindsey of Colorado”→
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 28, 1904
Victor, Colorado – Disaster at Independence Mine Claims Fifteen Lives
From The Denver Post of January 26, 1904:
Wednesday January 27, 1904 – Victor, Colorado – Horror at Stratton’s Independence Mine
A horrific accident occurred at about 2:30 a. m. Tuesday January 26th at the Independence mine when Engineer Gellese was not able to control the engine he was running. A cage carrying sixteen men hit the sheave wheel hurling the men inside to their deaths.
Mrs. Emma F. Langdon reports from Victor:
The victims were mostly men of family, and a majority of them were new men in the district. Early in the morning hundred of people rushed to the mine to ascertain if their relatives were among the victims…the military were hastened immediately to the scene and took complete control, not even allowing press representatives near enough to gain facts. As near as the writer could learn particulars they are as follows:
Frank T. Gellese, engineer from Cour D’Alene, was on duty during the night and had experienced no difficulty with his engine, he stated, and at 2:30 he started to hoist the machine men from the sixth, seventh and eighth levels. Sixteen men were on the cage and started for the top. At the seventh level the men noticed that the cage was acting peculiar, and it appeared as if the engineer had lost control of it as it advanced in an unsteady manner. They soon reached the top and were hoisted about six feet above the collar of the shaft and suddenly lowered about thirty feet, then up they went to the sheave wheel and the disastrous accident was the result.
It is believed that the men were thrown against the top of the cage, from the force of the sudden stop, that they were knocked unconscious and knew but little, if anything, after that took place; that in the drop of the cage the speed was so rapid that through the force of the air pressure they were thrown out against the walls of the shaft, which caused them to be literally torn to pieces. When the cage struck the sheave wheel it not only threw Bullock (the only one saved) out, but also threw out a man by the name of Jackson and killed him.
No one aside from the engineer saw the accident. A miner stepped into the shaft house just after the the accident and saw a number of hats laying around. He then looked up and saw Jackson in the timbers with the sheave wheel on top of him.
The military and Manager Cornish were immediately notified and hastened to the mine. Engineer Gellese was arrested and held for investigation.
The remainder of the force, numbering about 200 men in the mine, were obliged to be taken out on a small cage that would accommodate but two men at a time, and they did not all succeed in getting out until about 6 a. m.
Most of the men killed fell to the sump below and it was twenty-four hours before all the bodies could be found. There were portions of them found from the top to the 1,400 foot level The bodies were almost all beyond recognition, heads, legs and arms being torn from the trunks. It was a gruesome sight.
[Emphasis added.]
Coroner Doran will convene a coroner’s jury to investigate the cause of the accident. The Mine Owners’ Association and the Citizens’ Alliance are already spreading rumors placing the blame upon the striking miners of the Western Federation of Miners.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 19, 1913 New Castle, Colorado – 37 Coal Miners Dead in Explosion at Vulcan Mine
From Grand Junction (Colorado) Daily Sentinel of December 17, 1913:
…..Among the mine victims of Tuesday are many of the boys who were made fatherless by the previous disaster [Feb. 18, 1896]. Widowed Mothers forced them into the mine again……
“Thank God I am a farmer,” said A. S. Tibbits at 2 o’clock this morning to a Sentinel reporter, after having spent the day in rescue work at the mine.
“I was one of the helpers in the Vulcan disaster eighteen years ago, but this explosion wrecked the mine a dozen times as bad.”…..
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 12, 1903 Hanna, Wyoming – Sister of Victim of Mine Fire Not Allowed to Stay at Camp
From The Butte Miner of July 11, 1903:
Mrs. Mary Cooney returned to Butte yesterday from the Hanna coal mine in Wyoming on the Union Pacific, where here brother, John Boney, met his death with 233 other miners through the recent fearful explosion of gas. Besides her grief because of the loss of her brother in so terrible a manner Mrs. Cooney reports having had a very trying experience at Hanna.
It is stated that the managers of the coal property, who virtually own and control the little mining camp, have given strict orders, both at their store and to the residents that no eatables or other supplies or entertainment should be given or sold to any strangers or visitors to the camp. It was given out that the reason for this order was that the families of the miners who were killed were all destitute and could not give up anything to new-comers.
It was not explained, however, why the company store would not provide strangers and visitors with eatables, as the railroad company that owned the mine and the camp could easily ship in any day whatever was needed.
Under these conditions Mrs. Cooney was compelled to go back and forth to Medicine Bow, a station on the railroad twenty miles distant.Mrs. Cooney was accompanied on her sad mission by her daughter, Mrs. Felix Ogier, also of Butte, and during the time taken up with the arrangements and the funeral they had to make the trip back and forth to Medicine Bow station every day.
Another act of the mine company that is complained of is the order that was given in regard to the papers and other valuables that were found in the cabins and trunks of the 234 miners who met their death. The papers and other belongings of the men were all taken to the company store, and inquiring friends and relatives, it is stated, were not allowed to have access to the property or even inspect it.
Mrs. Cooney signed papers petitioning the appointment of a resident of Hanna as administrator of her brother’s estate, and it is expected that soon, through the courts, the administrator will secure possession of the estate. Mrs. Cooney is the mother of Deputy County Clerk John Doran, of Butte.
John Boney was buried at Carbon, a station twelve miles from the scene of the awful disaster. He was laid beside his father, who died and was buried at Carbon a number of years ago.
The bodies of only two other miners besides John Boney were recovered from the blazing mine interior. The mine is on fire in every portion, and it is impossible to reach the workings where the men met their deaths, it being a great distance from the surface. The tunnel from the main entrance slopes gradually for a mile and a half, and from that point there are seventeen miles of workings on sixty-nine levels.
As all hope of rescuing the 31 bodies has been given up the work of sealing up all openings to the mine has been commenced. This step is taken with view to smothering out the flames that are raging fiercely in all parts of the mine.
It is currently believed at Hanna that the precautions being taken by the company to discourage visitors from coming to the camp and from remaining there after they do come is with the object of diminishing as much as possible the amount of evidence that will be available against the company in case of damage suits. There is considerable talk of blame being attached to the management for the disaster, and it is not desired that there should be any inspection of the conditions at the mine or interviews with the residents.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 31, 1922 Pennsylvania Law for Protection of Anthracite Miners Set Aside by Supreme Court
From the Duluth LaborWorld of December 30, 1922:
COURT DECLARES LABOR ACT VOID ———- Pennsylvania Mine Cave-In Law Held to Be Confiscatory ———-
The United States Supreme court has set aside the Pennsylvania law which prohibited the mining of anthracite coal in a manner that would endanger the lives or injure the property of persons-occupying houses situated on the surface soil. Justice Brandeis dissented.
The court held that the law deprived coal owners of valuable property rights without compensation. Under the decision, coal owners can mine coal without any regard for cave-ins that endanger lives and property, unless the coal that is necessary for props is paid for.
In his dissenting opinion, Justice Brandeis said:
If by mining anthracite coal the owner would necessarily unloose poisonous gases, I suppose no one would doubt the power of the state to prevent the mining without buying his coal field. And why may not the state, likewise, without paying compensation, prohibit one from digging so deep or excavating so near the surface as to expose the community to like dangers? In the latter case, as in the former, carrying on the business would be a public nuisance.
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