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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 17, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Chase: Mother Jones is “an Inciter of Violence and a Disturber”
From the Trinidad Chronicle News of January 15, 1914
-200 Women Invade Hotel, Demand Gen. Chase Release Mother Jones:
From The Day Book of January 16, 1914
-Mother Jones on Mexican “Bandits” and Colorado Soldiers:
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 14, 1904
Denver, Colorado – Delegates of Convention of State F. of L. Consider Miners’ Strikes
Monday January 11, 1904 Denver, Colorado
-Colorado Federation of Labor Holds Convention To Support Strikes
More than 350 delegates are assembled today at the Waiters’ Hall in the Club Building in Denver. This is a Convention of the Colorado Federation of Labor called in order to consider ways and means of supporting the ongoing strikes of the Western Federation of Miners and the United Mine Workers of America. These courageous striking miners are now facing unprecedented Military Despotism at the hands of Generals Bell and Chase under the orders of Governor Peabody.
J. C. Sullivan, President of the C. F. of L. opened the Convention with these words:
Friends and Fellow Citizens, I Greet You:
An industrial condition that makes necessary the assembling of labor’s hosts in special convention is certainly significant, and, if the facial expressions of firm determination that are stamped on the countenances of this magnificent audience correctly reflects its feelings, there is still hope that “liberty” and “justice,” though banished from this centennial state of ours, “by order of a political accident,” and citizens forced to leave their homes and firesides at the bayonet point in the hands of “our” modern “Hessians,” for the sole and only reason that they refuse to join forces with our “modern Tories,” and say they will not sell their manhood on mammon’s greedy altar nor bow the knee in cringing sycophancy to the aristocratic anarchist, though he be clothed with brief official authority.
This, my friends, is a gathering that, if each and every delegate here assembled does his full duty to his country, to his fellow man, to himself and to the posterity of mankind, this meeting will go down in the annals of history as the most important gathering that has ever been held in Colorado up to this time. But if, for any reason, you fail to do your duty, you will, by that failure, assist the modern Tories and the mine operators’ hired Hessians to banish the lovers of liberty from their homes and firesides, and establish in their stead willing corporate vassals, to whom manhood is an unknown quality, to whom justice is a myth and liberty an illusion. The time is now, my friends, when not only labor’s voice must be heard, but labor’s hosts must act, if necessary, if justice is to be again enthroned in the fair State of Colorado.
[Emphasis added.]
Tuesday January 12, 1904 Denver, Colorado
-C. F. of L. Convention Receives Greetings from Mother Jones
Mother Jones, who is recovering from a serious illness in Trinidad, nevertheless sent her greetings to the Special Convention of the Colorado Federation of Labor now in progress in Denver. At the afternoon session yesterday, H. B. Waters, secretary of the Convention, read the following:
Trinidad, Colo.,
January 11, 1904State Federation of Labor, Convention Hall, Denver, Colo.
To the Delegates of the State Federation of Labor:Greeting-Let your deliberations be tempered with a high sense of justice for all mankind-malice toward none, for you are the bulwark of the nation. The day dawneth when you shall get your own.
Fraternally in the cause of labor,
MOTHER JONES
The chairman and the secretary of the Convention were instructed unanimously to answer Mother Jones:
To Mother Jones, Trinidad:
The greatest labor convention ever held in the state sends you greeting and wishes you health and God-speed.
J. C. SULLIVAN, President
H. B. WATERS, Secretary
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 13, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Mother Jones Seized by State Militia, Held at San Rafael Hospital
From the Trinidad Chronicle News of January 12, 1914:
“Mother” Mary Jones, nationally known as a strike leader, is a military prisoner at the San Rafael hospital where she is being held incommunicado. The woman, who was deported from the strike zone Sunday, January 4, by the military authorities and warned not to return to the district under pain of immediate arrest, accepted the defi and returned this morning. She slipped quietly out of Denver at midnight on a C. & S. train.
That she expected arrest is indicated by her action in alighting at the D. & R. G. crossing this morning instead of waiting until the train reached the station. She walked to the Toltec hotel alone and took a room but did not register at once. The fact of her presence became known to the military authorities about eleven o’clock and a few moments later a military detail in command of Lieut. H. O. Nichols entered her room, placed her in an automobile and whirled her away to the hospital at full speed, with a swarm of cavalry men galloping behind the machine.
Apparently the only object of the aged strike leader had in returning to Trinidad was to see if the threat to arrest her would be carried out. It was. “Mother” Jones was apparently not surprised at the action but was loud in her denunciation of the “military despots who stab and spit upon constitutional rights.” She declares she has viloated no law and that she is willing to face any sort of a civil inquiry. “Why take me to a hospital?” she shouted at Lieut. Nichols , when arrested. “I am not sick! Why not take me to jail?” The prisoner made it clear that she was even more willing to be placed in a cell “for the sake of the cause.”
[…..]
[Paragraph break and emphasis added.]
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 10, 1904
Trinidad, Colorado – Mother Jones Critically Ill, Taken to Hospital
From the Harrisburg Telegraph (Pennsylvania) of January 9, 1904:
From The Denver Post of January 9, 1904:
TAKEN TO HOSPITAL
———-Safety Precaution Taken for
“Mother” Jones.
———-Trinidad, Colo., Jan. 9.-“Mother” Jones, national organizer for the United Mine Workers of America, who has been lying ill at the Coronado hotel in this city for the past three days from typhoid fever, was removed to the hospital at 1:45 this afternoon on advice of her physician, Dr. White. “Mother” Jones is threatened with pneumonia and while the disease has not yet developed, it was deemed best to prepare for the worst. “Mother” Jones is 63 years old and up to her present illness has been in fairly robust health.[Emphasis added.]
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 8, 1914
Denver, Colorado – Stormy Petrel of the Strikers States She Will Return
From the San Francisco Bulletin of January 7, 1914:
From the Chicago Day Book of January 5, 1914:
MOTHER JONES DEPORTED
Denver, Col., Jan. 5.-“Mother” Jones, the “angel” of the miners, was forcibly deported from the coal strike district at Trinidad on orders of General Chase, who had her met at the depot “when she arrived from El Paso and kept under surveillance of a detachment of military until the arrival of a train for Denver, when she was put aboard.
Lieut. H. O. Nichols and four soldiers guarded her to Denver. When the train reached Walsenburg, where “Mother” Jones had expected to make a speech to the strikers, she tried to talk to a group gathered around the station, but was prevented.
As the train pulled out of the station, she shouted: “I expect to visit you again, when Colorado is made part of the United States, but now-”
General Chase has ordered that she be sent out of the district never to return so long as the strike lasts. He says she will be deported every time she comes back. Mother Jones says she will return in two weeks.
[Emphasis added.]
I’ll go back; they can’t keep me from my boys.
I am not afraid of all the troops in the State.
-Mother Jones, New York Times
January 5, 1914
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 5, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Mother Jones Deported from Strike Zone by Militia
From The Washington Times of January 5, 1914:
From The New York Times of January 5, 1914:
COLORADO TROOPS OUST MOTHER JONES
———-
Woman Strike Agitator Deported from Trinidad
Under Guard of Soldiers
———–WARNED NEVER TO RETURN
———-
One Thousand Taxpayers Meet and Warn
Other Agitators to Get Out in Twenty-for Hours.
———-Special to The New York Times.
TRINIDAD, Col., Jan. 4-“Mother” Jones was seized by the militia upon her arrival at Trinidad this morning from El Paso, taken from a Santa Fe train, held for two hours and deported from the strike district.
Capt. E. A. Smith, acting under orders from Gen. John Chase, met the train with a detachment of soldiers. The troops prevented a demonstration from the strikers at the station.
Mother Jones was held under surveillance until a Colorado & Southern train arrived from Denver. Then she was place aboard the train under guard of a lieutenant and four soldiers, and ordered never to return to the district. She had planned to spend several days among the coal strikers, and was to make a speech to-day at Walsenburg. The train on which she was being held under guard passed through Walsenburg.
Gen. Chase had been notified that she was on the way to Trinidad and acted so quietly that none of the strikers knew of his plans to deport her. When the soldiers took her in charge, she said:”I never had believed you would go this far.”
Contrary to her usual custom, she did not make any protest. While she was being held here she was not permitted to talk to any of the strikers or union leaders, the soldiers refusing to allow John McLennon, head of the mine workers, to speak to her.
At Walsenburg the train stopped for only a few minutes. Thousands of strikers, having been apprised by telephone of Mother Jones’s deportation, were at the station, but none was allowed to approach near enough to speak to her. However, she tried to make a speech.
The train pulled out just as she was assuring the miners that she would return to Colorado “as soon as it becomes a part of the United States.”
———-
Denver Col., Jan. 4-“The deportation of Mother Jones was the most disgraceful act ever perpetrated by supposed police officers in the Union,” said John McLennon [McLennan], President of the Colorado State Federation of Labor tonight.
“I’ll go back; they can’t keep me from my boys,” said Mother Jones on her arrival here to-night from Trinidad. “I am not afraid of all the troops in the State.”
“Gov. Ammons said: ” I do not care to express an opinion regarding the deportation of Mother Jones, because I am not fully aware of the circumstances, but I would not hesitate to express an opinion if the person concerned were a resident of Trinidad.”
After the deportation, Gen. Chase gave out this statement:
“Mrs. Jones was met at the train this morning by the military escort acting under instructions not to permit her to remain in this district. The detail took charge of Mrs. Jones and her baggage and she was accompanied out of the district under guard after she had been given breakfast. The step was taken in accordance with my instructions to preserve peace in the district. The presence of Mother Jones here at this time cannot be tolerated. She had planned to go to the Ludlow tent colony of strikers to stop the desertion of union members.
“If she returns she will be placed in jail and held incommunicado.”
Company G. First Infantry, Colorado National Guard, to-night was ordered to leave here tomorrow morning for Oak Creek to take charge of the strike situation in that district. In issuing the order Gen. Chase said that seventy-five men would leave on a special train.
[Emphasis added]
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 3, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – State Federation of Labor Committee Begins Investigation
From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of December 27, 1913:
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Wednesday December 24, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – C. F. of L. Investigating Committee Begins Hearings
The Committee established by the recent Convention of the Colorado Federation of Labor to investigate alleged abuse by the military met in Trinidad yesterday to begin hearings on the matter. Now, Professor Brewster was asked to sit on the committee despite his views on the United Mine Workers which are less than favorable. Yet, the Professor is trusted as an honorable and fair man, willing to listen objectively to the evidence.
General Chase has refused to meet with the committee in spite of the letter from Governor Ammons requiring him to do so. He indicates that, perhaps, he will find the time at a later date to meet with the C. F. of L. Investigating Committee.
The committee heard testimony from Mrs. Maggie Dominske of Ludlow. She described how she was on her way to the Ludlow post office with a group of women when they were stopped by militiamen:
They put up their guns and said, “God damn you, don’t you go another step. If you do,we’ll shoot you. We’re getting tired of these sons-of-bitches coming up here and we’re going to put a stop to it.”
The Professor asked if the women had been on a public road, and Mrs. Dominske replied that, yes indeed, they had been using a public road. The Professor declared:
I am surprised. Surprised. I wouldn’t have believed it if I had not heard it straight from these women. It is plain they are telling the truth.
We imagine that the good Professor will encounter many more such surprises before the investigation is completed.
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Wednesday December 31, 1913
Ludlow, Colorado – Lt Linderfelt declares himself “Jesus Christ”
Yesterday evening, a cavalryman was injured when his horse tripped on a piece of barbed wire. The injured man was brought to the Ludlow depot. A few minutes later Lieutenant Linderfelt appeared and went into a rage. Louie Tikas happened to be at the depot waiting for a train, also at the station was a boy of about fifteen years. Linderfelt focused on that boy, accusing him of setting the wire, and, when the boy denied the charge, began to beat him. Linderfelt next began to berate Louie:
There you are, you round-face son-of-a-bitch. You’re responsible for that wire.
Louie remained calm, but Linderfelt continued to rage. He gave an order to his men:
You Tollerburg fellows beat it over to the colony and cut every God damned wire around the place. The first man that interferes with you-shoot his head off.
Linderfelt then punched Louie in the face as he yelled:
I am Jesus Christ, and my men on horses are Jesus Christs, and we must be obeyed.
Witnesses report that Louie Tikas maintained his usual calm as Linderfelt struck him several more times. The lieutenant than ordered his men to take Louie to the military camp.
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 17, 1913
Denver, Colorado – Convention of State Federation of Labor Begins
From The Denver Post of December 16, 1913:
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 16, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – Tikas and Uhlich Held in Cold, Snow-Covered, Jail
Sunday December 7, 1913, Trinidad, Colorado
Tikas and Uhlich covered in snow in jail as a blizzard raged.
The jail cell in Trinidad where Louie Tikas, Bob Uhlich, and fifteen other striking miners are being held, is unheated. Also, there is a broken window through which the wind and snow filled the gloomy cell as the blizzard raged across Colorado a few days ago. The men were forced to sleep, as best the could, on bunks covered with 3 inches of snow, and no blankets.
Brothers Tikas and Uhlich were interrogated by Major Boughton, chief legal officer of the militia. The men were grilled for several hours. Uhlich refused to give any testimony whatsoever, stating that only the civil authorities had the right to question him. Brother Uhlich has been designated a “dangerous and undesirable alien.” Tikas was promised his freedom if he would persuade the Greeks at Ludlow to turn themselves into scabs. We may assume that he refused this offer, for he has not yet been released. Brother Adolph Germer was arrested returning from Denver recently. We are unsure at this time where he is being held.
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Saturday December 13, 1913 Cedar Hills, Colorado
Lt. Linderfelt Recruits Hard-Core Veterans and Mine Guards
Lt. Linderfelt has been recruiting new soldiers to fill the ranks of Company B of the Second Battalion. This company is camped at Cedar Hills, near to the Ludlow Tent Colony at the entrance of Berwind Canyon. Word has it that he has turned to the veterans with whom he served in the Philippines and Mexico.
More and more mine guards are also being recruited to fill the ranks of Company B. Linderfelt dislikes the part-timers now serving in Company B. He is only too happy to replace them as they seek to return to their civilian lives. Linderfelt prefers to approach the job of keeping the peace in the strike zone through the use of company gunthugs and battle-hardened soldiers. Company B has frequent run-ins with the colonist at Ludlow. They go heavily armed into the camp, unlike the soldiers of the other companies who often visit the Ludlow camp in small groups and without arms.
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From the Trinidad Chronicle News of December 15, 1913:
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 12, 1903
Trinidad, Colorado – Funeral Held for De Santos and Vilano, Mother Jones Attends
From The Denver Post of December 11, 1903:
