Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 24, 1914 Trinidad, Colorado – Mother of Slain Child Tells of Horror of Ludlow Massacre
From the Chicago Day Book of April 24, 1914:
the gunmen, and then the fire the savage murderers mercilessly started.
The shooting started, she says, when Louis Tikas, Greek leader at the tent colony, protested because the uniformed gunmen trained three machine’ guns on the tent colony.
[Mrs. Snyder said:]
Louis told them not to point their guns at the women and children.
Sunday they tried to break up a ball game our men were playing and some of the men got mad and chased them away. That is why they set up the guns and it was then that Louis objected.
Then they cursed him and fired at him. They must have fired 50 shots at him and he fell down dead. That was early Monday.
Our men all went mad then and got what guns they had and started after the gunmen. Our men were on one side of the tents and the gunmen on the other.
All of us women and children ran down into the cellars which were dug a long time ago when the gunmen first came down here and threatened us with rifles and machine guns.
All day long we lay down there without anything to eat or drink.
I had six children, the oldest eleven, and they all cried.
All through the camp we could hear women shrieking and calling to God and the Virgin to come and save their children. The firing continued and the bullets whistled over us hour after hour, and after a while I heard a woman cursing terribly. Later I heard that she had had her hand shot off at the wrist when she reached up from her cellar and tried to get a pail of water to give her children a drink.
My children begged me for water, and finally little William [Frankie] he was my oldest boy said he was going to get them a drink. So he climbed up out of the cellar and he never came back.
I know now that a bullet tore his head all away. I should have gone for the water myself, but I had to stay with the babies.
Just when it was beginning to get dark the gunmen dashed in among the tents and set fire to some of them. Our tents were all close together and the fire spread fast. All the time they kept shooting into the tents, although they knew our men, with their guns, were all away up in the hills.
I took my children and ran to a deep arroyo (gully) where there were about 50 other women and babies.
Lots of the others, though, were afraid to come out of their cellars and they suffocated under the burning floors side walls, which had been built up of boards.
I don’t see how any men could kill little children like my William and them other poor little things who were shot or burned.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 23, 1914 Trinidad, Colorado – City Officials Demand State Troops; Union to Issue Call to Arms
From The Denver Post of April 22, 1914:
Top: Ruins of the Ludlow Tent Colony of Striking Coal Miners, Destroyed by Fire Monday Night During the Battle Between Strikers and Troops. Bottom Left: Refugees from the Destroyed Ludlow Tent Colony, Seeking Shelter. Bottom Right: After the Battle of Ludlow-Scene at the Railroad Station Showing Nearly Every Man, Soldier or Civilian, Bearing arms.
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:
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”
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Senator Helen Ring Robinson Visits the Strike Zone in Southern Colorado
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.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 9, 1904 Colorado Miners Continue to Suffer Under Military Despotism
From The San Bernardino County Sun of April 2, 1904 -Military Despotism Continues in Colorado:
COLORADO MINERS STILL SUFFERING ———-
MILITARY’S DRASTIC ACTION ——— -Moyer Will not be Allowed Freedom. Orders are That Habeas Corpus Shall not be Accepted -Conditions in the Trinidad Coal Fields Continue Deplorable -Families Being Evicted. ———
by Associated Press to THE SUN.
The Denver Post April 4, 1904
DENVER. April 1-General Bell commanding the State troops at Telluride, this morning telephoned Chief of Police Armstrong to detail detectives to watch every movement of Secretary and Treasurer Heywood [Haywood] of the Western Federation of Miners, who is under arrest on a warrant issued by a local court, charging him with desecration of the American flag.
Bell insisted that Heywood be returned to Telluride, no matter how many local warrants were issued and when the time came, a sufficient number of soldiers will be sent from the camp to arrest him, or the Denver troops will be called out to take him.
President Moyer of the Federation last night was removed from the bull pen to the new city jail. He was then locked in a cell and denied all privileges. He is being fed only two meals daily. The Governor has ordered Bell to refuse to accept service of habeas corpus for the release of Moyer. He must stay in custody until the case is taken to the Supreme Court.
EVICTING COAL STRIKERS.
TRINIDAD, April 1.-Fully a dozen influential men among the strikers in Las Animas county have been deported in the last three days by order of Major Hill. The wholesale eviction of strikers in Gray Creek has begun. The military is refusing to allow the people evicted to settle in other parts of the country.
Almost penniless men and their families are compelled to walk long distances to reach points where assistance can be obtained. Many evictions are reported in other camps of the county and much suffering has ensued.
[Newsclip and emphasis added.]
IS COLORADO IN AMERICA?
Mrs Emma F. Langdon Reports from Colorado:
Moyer was arrested on the 26th day of March, 1904, at Ouray, and taken to Telluride, charged with desecration of the flag. He was released under $500 bond only to be immediately re-arrested by the military authorities. A warrant was also sworn out charging Secretary-Treasurer Haywoodwith the same offense, but before it was served a similar one had been sworn out in Denver and Haywood remained in custody of the Denver officers. Governor Peabody, when interviewed concerning the re-arrest of Moyer, disclaimed any knowledge of the facts, but stated that it was the intention to rearrest Moyer every time he secured his release on bonds.
Mrs Langdon repeats the question raised by the “Desecrated” Flag Poster:
Is Colorado in America? If you consult the map you will find it there. If you read the facts in this recent industrial struggle in the light of American history and traditions, you will find nothing to recall memories of our country’s youth or the hopes that led strange people across the sea to stretch wider the boundaries of a land where none were so strong as to be above the laws and none so weak as to be beneath their protection. There is nothing in recent history, save by the way of contrast, to recall the fact that ours is the Centennial state marking more than one hundred years of progress under the idea that ”all men are created free and equal with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
It is an unpleasant awakening from thoughts like these to a realization of such facts as were inscribed upon a symbol of the flag and burned into the hearts of thousands of Colorado’s citizens.
Desecration of the flag? Was it not the deeds done under it and not the truths inscribed upon it that constituted the desecration?
Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 8, 1904 Editor W. E. M’ewen Describes Military Despotism in the State of Colorado
From The Labor World of April 2, 1904:
ANARCHY IN COLORADO.
The situation in Colorado is commanding the attention of the free thinking people of America. If there is such a reign of terror here as is charged by the executive authorities of the state why is it that the leaders of the lawless element have not been convicted in a court of Justice?If the miners are such a bad lot of men why have they not been prosecuted? These are questions that are asked by the thoughtful, unprejudiced men of America.
The truth is that Governor Peabody has entered into a conspiracy with the mine owner’s association to crush the miners’ union. The state’s treasury, already depleted in a vain attempt to destroy organization among the miners, is now being mortgaged, to complete the work of extermination which was begun last July. After the struggle is over and when the state shall have been carried to the verge of bankruptcy, it will be found that the miners’ union is stronger than ever.
A review of the hearing before the committee on labor legislation in congress proves conclusively that but one man was killed during the entire strike-a mine superintendent. The mine owners say that he was assassinated. The miners deny the charge, and say that he was killed as the result of a grudge, by an old enemy. The miners further declare that this superintendent was their friend and hence, even if the union championed crime, he would be the last man in Colorado to be attacked.
After several months of watchfulness the militia have at last arrested President Moyer, who is accused of being the arch criminal of the state. What is the charge against him? Desecrating the flag. The man who is accused of being the leading spirit in the criminal work of the state is cast into prison on an entirely foreign charge. Mr. Moyer had a hand bill printed with a picture of the American flag upon it, and the words “are we living in America,” above it. In the stripes were printed some rebukes against Gov. Peabody.
Miners have been deported from their homes by the Citizens’ Alliance of Telluride.
What is the Citizens’ Alliance of Telluride? An organization of gamblers-of the class that usually loiter about a mining camp.
Why are the gamblers against the miners’ union? Because the miners’ union is against the gamblers. The Western Federation of Miners is not only a progressive organization, but it is a wealthy organization. It discovered that many of its members were spending most of their wages at gambling. After their money was gone they secured loans from the union. This grew to be a nuisance. The line had to be drawn somewhere. It could not very well cure the miner from gambling, so in the interest of self preservation it insisted upon the enforcement of the state gambling laws. This was a new departure in Colorado mining communities. The gamblers defied the law. The miners secured their arrest and conviction.
Since the strike was inaugurated Gov. Peabody has pardoned all of the convicted gamblers upon condition that they join the state militia. These are the men who are deporting the miners from their homes. The mine-owners, the governor of the state and the gamblers have formed a partnership, and entered into a conspiracy to crush the miners’ union. The purpose of the gamblers is to get the pittance that the mine-owners see fit to deal out to the miners, while the purpose of the governor at this time, is to rid the state of this body of citizens, knowing full well that he cannot get their votes on election day. There will probably be a political revolution in Colorado.
Then there is Mother Jones, the friend of the miners. She who goes about their homes, nursing the mothers and children, and speaking words of good cheer to the men, was cast into prison for doing this, by a tin soldier who is unfit to even touch the hem of her garment.
There may be some reason for military occupation in Telluride, but there cannot be any just excuse for military despotism. The fair and conservative people of America, when acquainted with the full facts in the case, will look with pity and contempt upon the state of Colorado.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 31, 1914
Walsenburg, Colorado – Mother Jones Confined in Dark Cellar Cell
From Denver’s United Labor Bulletin of March 28, 1914:
Note: Mother was arrested at Walsenburg by the Colorado militia on Monday March 23rd, at about 5:30 a. m. She has been confined, since that time, in the same dark cold cellar cell that was the cause of the death of striking miner Kostas Marcos.
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From The Masses of February 1914: Mother Jones by Art Young
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 29, 1904 Trinidad, Colorado – Coal Strike Leaders Deported on Orders of Governor Peabody
From The Scranton Republican of March 28, 1904
MOTHER” JONES AND OTHERS DEPORTED ———- Major Hill Commanding State Militia at Trinidad Causes Her Arrest on Saturday.
DENVER, Colo., March 27.-Having received authority from the governor to act upon his judgment, Major Hill, commanding the state militia at Trinidad last night arrested “Mother” Jones, William Wardjon of Iowa, Joseph Pagini [Poggiani] and Adolph Bartolli, placed them on an eastbound train, and ordered them never to return to Trinidad or Las Animas county.
“Mother” Jones has been in Trinidad several months encouraging the strikers and counseling the driving out of non-union workers. Wardjon is an officer of the Iowa United Mine Workers who has been in Las Animas county for some time. He recently addressed a gathering of strikers advising that the non-union miners in the southern district be sent out in coffins. He further said that had such measures been taken here the strike would have been settled long ago. He called the Trinidad miners cowards, and said that if they had not shown cowardice and had done as he advised, the strike would not have lasted three weeks let alone three months.
A stenographic report of the speech was furnished Gov. Peabody before deporting Wardjon and others. Finding it was lawful and had been done in other states under similar circumstances, the government answered Major Hill’s request for authority to deport by placing the matter in the officer’s hands.
Pagini and Bartolli, who were deported with Wardjon and Mother Jones, are editors of the Italian Weekly at Trinidad, which was suppressed yesterday because of its rabid anarchistic editorials.President Moyer of the Western Federation of Miners, arrested yesterday for desecration of the flag, spent last night in jail at Telluride, being unable to secure bail.
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
As can be seen from the above article, the kept press is always quick to accuse leaders of the United Mine Workers of America of inciting violence, yet violence committed against those same leaders by deputized private gun thugs draws no such criticism.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 28, 1904
Colorado Governor Peabody Plots Further Deportations from Strike Zones
From the strike zones of Colorado comes news of further actions being taken against strike leaders by Governor Peabody. In Trinidad, where the United Mine Workers are conducting a strike against the coal operators, the military is planning to deport Mother Jones and other leaders from the strike zone.
In the strike zones of Telluride and Cripple Creek, posters and flyers (see below) printed by the Western Federation of Miners and authorized by Charles Moyer, President, and Big Bill Haywood, Secretary-Treasurer, were distributed. As a result, Moyer has been taken into custody for “desecration” of the flag.
From The New York Times of March 27, 1904:
TO RUN LABOR LEADERS OUT OF COLORADO
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“Mother” Jones and Mine Agitators
Among Those to Go.
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MINERS’ PRESIDENT ARRESTED ———- Charged with Desecrating the American Flag -Italian Paper Seized by Militia and Censorship Established. ———
Special to the New York Times.
DENVER. March 26.-Gov. Peabody and Attorney General Miller held a conference this afternoon at the Capitol, at which a programme of deportation was decided upon for Trinidad. After the meeting the Governor wired Major Hill to prepare to deport all non-resident labor leaders from the district.
A special train will be secured and the leaders referred to will be taken outside the State and left there. The names on the deportation slate include those of Mother Jones of Pennsylvania, W. R. Fairley of Alabama, William Wardjon of Iowa, Chris Evans of Indiana, and Edward [Charles] Demolli of Utah.
The local companies assert that if the miner agitators are taken out of the district two-thirds of the strikers will return to work. The fact that they are non-residents will prevent them from securing injunctions or habeas corpus writs, the privilege granted a citizens of the State.
At Trinidad to-day the office of the Anarchistic weekly paper, Il Trovotore Italiano [Il Lavoratore Italiano], was seized by a squad of soldiers and this week’s issue, which was ready for distribution, was confiscated. It is charge that the paper had incited strikers to violence. Major Hill has established a press censorship.
[Note: Il Lavoratore Italiano is an Italian-language newspaper published since 1902 in Trinidad, Colorado, which serves as the official organ of the United Mines Workers’ District 15.]
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OURAY, Col, March 26.-Charles Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners, was arrestedhere to-day on charge of desecrating the American flag, and started overland for Telluride.
President Moyer was arrested on warrant which charge that he used pictures of the flag with inscriptions painted between the bars as poster.
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