The miners lost because they had only the constitution.
The other side had bayonets. In the end, bayonets always win.
-Mother Jones
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Friday December 18, 1914
From the United Mine Workers Journal: Strike Ends but Unionizing Will Continue
Children of the Ludlow Tent Colony
Yesterday's edition of the
Journal announced the end of the long coal strike:
The Colorado coal strike, which has cost the lives of thirty-four men, women and children, who were either murdered or cremated by the hired assassins of Colorado coal operators, is ended.
Two hundred delegates, representing eighty-four hundred members of the United Mine Workers of this state, met in Denver this week and decided to end the most titanic industrial struggle in the history of the world.
Among the resolutions passed by unanimous vote was this one:
We also recommend that the efforts to thoroughly organize the state of Colorado be continued and that every mine worker in the state be advised of his right to belong to the United Mine Workers of America, as provided by the laws of the state of Colorado.
This week's
Journal also included coverage of testimony given before the
Commission on Industrial Relations. We have included much of that coverage below.
We further learn from the Journal that Lieutenant Linderfelt wishes that the Ludlow Massacre could be forgotten:
I wish people could, would, or might forget all about Ludlow!
We would like to take this opportunity to assure The Butcher of Ludlow:
`
WE NEVER FORGET
From the United Mine Workers Journal of December 17, 1914:
Strike Ends; Unionizing Continues
Children of the Ludlow Tent Colony
The struggle will continue on behalf of these children and the children of future generations.
By a unanimous vote, the representatives of the Colorado miners agreed to call off the strike, depending on the promise of the President of the United States that the commission appointed by him would compel the enforcement of the laws of the State, the constant abrogation of which, in the past, by the operators was the immediate cause of the strike.
It will be remembered that five of the seven demands made by the miners were merely for assurances that the laws of the State of Colorado should be adhered to by the managers of the mines.
The labor and mining laws of the State of Colorado will stand favorable comparison with the most advanced of the states of the union. The trouble has been, in the times preceding the strike, that the coal companies, in absolute control of the governments of the counties where their mines are located, openly disregard all of the laws; setting up their own arbitrary rule in lieu of the law.
These facts have been attested to by the chief mine inspector of the State of Colorado, and his testimony is borne out by the records of the courts, and by the records of verdicts of coroners' juries.
It must be remembered, also, that the law of Colorado specifically forbids, under penalty of fine and imprisonment, any coercion on the part of employers to hamper their employes from joining any organization they elect to affiliate themselves with. We all know how flagrantly this law has been defied in the past. But, the year's strike of the Colorado miners has had the effect of turning the limelight on the dark places. The conditions that prevailed prior to and during the strike can never be repeated. Colorado is ashamed and will force reforms.
With the lesson of the strike with its attendant horrors, and the influence of the commission appointed by the President, there is every reason to hope that a new day has dawned for the miners of Colorado.
In the meantime let us not forget that some six thousand miners are seeking to return to their jobs. Miners should stay away for the present until those men who have made their homes in Colorado are back to their work.
The necessity for organization will eventually sweep aside all opposition. Colorado will yet take her place among the organized states.
Colorado Strike Ends
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Organization Will Aid Miners Kept Idle.
Denver, Colo., Dec. 12.
The Colorado coal strike, which has cost the lives of thirty-four men, women and children, who were either murdered or cremated by the hired assassins of Colorado coal operators, is ended.
Two hundred delegates, representing eighty-four hundred members of the United Mine Workers of this state, met in Denver this week and decided to end the most titanic industrial struggle in the history of the world.
Seven miners acting as a policy committee of the strikers, submitted the following resolutions which were passed by a unanimous vote:
We, your committee on policy, approve and ratify the action of the International Executive Board in regard to the Colorado coal strike. We recommend that if, after investigation by the authorized representatives of the organization, it is found that a striker be blacklisted because of his activity in the strike, that he be rendered assistance by the organization. We also recommend that we extend the very best legal aid to our striking brothers who have been falsely accused of crime on account of their activity in the strike and make every endeavor to secure their acquittal and release.
"We also recommend that the International and District representatives of the organization be empowered to carry out the understanding had with the independent operators in regard to the Trinidad scale.
This understanding was to the effect that if we could not force the big companies to pay the advance we demanded, that we would not expect the small companies that have recognized our union to pay the same.
In conclusion, we wish to express confidence in the International organization of the United Mine Workers of America for their very generous and loyal support of our strike and we wish to commend the International officers who have worked so loyally for our cause.
We further advise that on Thursday, December 10, the strike be officially terminated on the basis submitted in the resolution adopted by the International Executive Board and that all strikers apply for their former positions in the mines on that day.
We also recommend that the efforts to thoroughly organize the state of Colorado be continued and that every mine worker in the state be advised of his right to belong to the United Mine Workers of America, as provided by the laws of the state of Colorado.
WILLIAM C. GILBERT,
RICHARD DONALD,
THOMAS HOWELL,
M. R. VASQUEZ,
W. B. SLOAN,
D. J. REESE,
WILLIAM KISSELL.
This action was taken by the strikers of Colorado because of the action of President Wilson in appointing the Seth Low committee, the grievance commission named in his truce proposal of September 7.
At that time the President proposed a three-year truce, with a federal commission to take up all grievances and to see that the laws of the state are obeyed by the coal companies. The proposal also set forth that the men would be allowed their state right of belonging to a labor union, hold their meetings, etc., as long as this did not interfere with the working the mines.
The miners accepted this proposition September 16. Up to this time the coal operators have ignored it. The appointment of the grievance committee technically forces the operators to accept the President's proposition and it was therefore up to the striking coal miners to put into effect their acceptance.
Although the strike is at an end, the United Mine Workers of America will take care of all men who have been blacklisted as a result of their activity in the strike.
District offices will be maintained in strike centers to provide for the women and children. Tent colonies will be maintained as long as they are necessary. As each striker secures work, his tent will be removed.
One of the features of the convention ending the strike was the harmony which prevailed and the unanimity with which the strikers realized that this was the only thing to do at this time. The strike not only leaves Colorado with 8,400 union coal miners, but allows them to go back to work and educate those who have not joined the organization.
The spirit with which the miners working under contract kept their word of honor in offering to waive the 10 per cent, wage increase they have been receiving has been met by most of the smaller operators in announcing that they would continue to pay this wage scale although the terms of the agreement made at Trinidad in September, 1913, would absolve them from doing so.
Colorado Strike Investigation
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Commission on Industrial Relations Probe Deeply.
Denver, Colo., Dec. 13.
There have been many investigations into the conditions that caused the Colorado strike; into the conditions that caused the reign of anarchy, the bloodshed, during the strike, but not in any of these investigations has the probing been as deep, or as understanding as in the one now being conducted by the Commission on Industrial Relations, and as a result, every charge the miners have made against the corporation-controlled government of Colorado; against the mine owners and their hired army has been substantiated.
Constitutional rights were abolished by the Colorado state troops when they went into the coal strike zone, declared Prof. James H. Brewster of the University of Colorado.
The entire conduct of the state troops was a course of outrage and brutality, Professor Brewster asserted. Not only had Adjutant-General Chase wiped out constitutional rights, but the miners had been robbed by the state troops, he said, the ranks of the militia had been swelled by the enlistment of scoundrels and the right of search had been exercised by the state troops while the courts were open.
[Reporting on the testimony of Professor Brewster here continues, but has been previously covered in detail by Hellraisers and is, therefore, omitted.]
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OPERATORS FOUGHT RELIGION, MINISTER TELLS COMMISSION
The Southern Colorado coal companies became the aggressors in the coal strike, Rev. James McDonald of Aguilar told the federal industrial relations commission Wednesday, by purchasing arms and putting mine guards on their properties a full year before the strike was called.
The fundamental cause of the strike, said McDonald, who, before he became a minister, was a mechanic at the Victor-American Company's Hastings mine, was the desire on the part of the men for the rights of free speech and free assembly, which had been denied them. McDonald spoke particularly of the Victor-American properties.
Blames Mine Guards.
He declared that mine guards, recruited into the state militia, were responsible for the unfortunate occurrences of the strike, and said that the strikers who came under his observance were, until the killing of women and children at Ludlow aroused them, inclined to be peaceable and law-abiding.
McDonald said he was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, north, and that he had lived in Southern Colorado for more than four years.
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OPERATOR KNEW TENT COLONY WOULD BE BURNED.
Denver, Colo., Dec. 11.
I knew the Ludlow tent colony was to be burned hours before it was set afire.
This was the testimony of H. G. Farber, station agent and telegraph operator at Ludlow before the commission this morning. Chairman Walsh asked him if he did not mean to convey the idea that he had formed the impression that such was to be the case, but Farber replied, "I knew it," and added that he could tell definitely from what source his knowledge was obtained.
He also testified that he witnessed the entire battle of Ludlow, and asserted positively that the first shooting was done by the soldiers on Water Tank Hill. This contradicts all the testimony given at various inquiries by officers and men of the national guard.
Lieutenant К. E. (Monty) Linderfelt of the Colorado national guard, commonly known as Butcher, who admitted striking Louis Tikas, the Greek leader, who was his prisoner, which assault ended in Tikas's death, was the chief witness before the Industrial Relations Commission this afternoon. The commissioners questioned him closely about his connection with the Ludlow battle and why the strikers hated Linderfelt, but the guardsman told nothing he had not already revealed at other hearings.
Linderfelt exclaimed on the stand:
I wish people could, would, or might forget all about Ludlow!
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COAL IS KING, SAYS WITNESS.
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Bribery, Corruption, Fraud and Conspiracy Charged in Hearing.
Denver, Colo., Dec. 12.
Bribery, corruption, fake registration and fraudulent election counts—as he said they existed in Huerfano county, were testified to today by Robert Young, ex-mine superintendent, foreman and pit "boss," before the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations.
Young said he was last employed by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in the Walsenburg district two years ago.
Blame for these conditions Young placed on "Jeff" Farr, the sheriff, also called "ruler of the kingdom of Huerfano," and on the coal companies.
Young told the commission that at the last election nine precincts were closed by orders of Farr and that mine clerks and the mine superintendents had to serve as clerks and judges of elections. He also declared that orders had been issued to "go down the line for the gang."
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DISTRICT ATTORNEY SAYS COMPANIES OWN COURTS.
Colorado Justice
The absolute control of all legal machinery in the counties of Las Animas and Huerfano by the coal companies was graphically testified to by District Attorney J. J. Hendricks, who said that no recovery against a coal company had been obtained in the courts of either of these counties in twenty years. He also stated that in six years during which the predecessor of the present district judge occupied the bench a personal injury case against a coal company was never allowed to go to a jury. He described the trial of five deputy sheriffs in Walsenburg, charged with murder at the Seventh street killing of three miners, over which Judge McHendrie presided, and asserted that the verdict of not guilty was brought in by a jury composed of eleven Mexicans and one white man. Hendricks charged that the coal companies participated in the selection of juries.
"In capital cases," he said, "the regular venire is always exhausted and a special venire to be picked by the sheriff is ordered. I have never known a judge to order a special venire drawn from the regular jury box as long as I have practiced in these courts."
Governor Ammons
Declaring that Governor Ammons had attempted to force officials of the United Mine Workers of America to consent to a special settlement of the strike in a county where he owned property, and quoting the governor as saying,
"If you don't permit the mine of Routt county to open somebody will be
sorry for it,"
Edward L. Doyle, secretary-treasurer of District 15, United Mine Workers, stopped in the midst of his testimony and received a note from his counsel.
[Doyle said after reading it:]
I have been warned...not to answer any questions in any manner which might be used against me in a trial for conspiracy which is now pending. I want the commission to understand that I am perfectly willing to answer any questions, but I believe the coal operators in this state are powerful enough to send any man to the penitentiary whether or not he is guilty.
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[emphasis added photographs added]
SOURCE
The United Mine Workers Journal, Volume 23
Executive Board of the United Mine Workers of America, 1914
(search: strike ends unionizing continues, & choose p.5
& then click down to p.13)
http://books.google.com/...
IMAGES
Children of Ludlow
http://www.du.edu/...
Martyrs of Ludlow by MKSinSA
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Children of the Ludlow Tent Colony
http://www.is.wayne.edu/...
Ludlow Massacre by Pancoast
http://dlib.nyu.edu/...
Colorado Justice
http://dlib.nyu.edu/...
Governor Ammons
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
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They'll Never Keep Us Down-Hazel Dickens
Well we've been shot and we've been jailed, Lord, it’s a sin
Women and little children stood right by the men
But we got that union contract that keeps the worker free
And they’ll never shoot that union out of me
They’ll never shoot that union out of me, oh no
They’ll never shoot that union out of me
Got a contract in our hand signed by the blood of honest men
And they'll never shoot that union out of me
-Hazel Dickens
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