Labor of Sorrow
The Ludlow Massacre
Jim McNeill
Silver Bluff High School
Aiken, SC
for NCHE
Saturday, April 19, 1914
It was a beautiful Saturday along the foothills of southern
Colorado. Many residents of the miner’s tent camp in Ludlow were
enjoying a baseball game and the Greek population was preparing
to celebrate Easter. All of that was to change. Taking a stand for
their rights as workers, the miners were on strike. That strike
would soon lead to tragedy…
SADLY, THIS STORY HAD BEEN ACTED
OUT MANY TIMES BEFORE…
Lowell, MA: 1836; 1845 1846
Pennsylvania and West Virginia
1877
Chicago, Illinois - 1886
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:
1892
Nationwide Strike: 1894
Pennsylvania: 1902
Colorado: 1902 - 1904
New York: 1909
Lawrence, Massachusetts:
1912
Background
The first decade of the 1900s witnessed thousands of European and Asiatic
immigrants coming into southern Colorado. The coming of these immigrants
radically changed the work force. At about the time the immigrants began
arriving, the United Mine Workers union was involved in an effort to unionize
the western states miners. Labor leaders began voicing dissatisfaction with
how coal companies were handling the immigrant influx and initiated a
concerted effort to unionize this new work force. Union officials soon learned,
however, that coal companies would provide stubborn opposition to unionizing
efforts. Unionizing efforts were severely hampered because of language
barriers existing among immigrant miners. Adding to these problems, miners
remained cautious; for in many instances, those who chose to support union
movements found themselves being dismissed from their jobs. United Mine
Workers' union officials eventually broke down most barriers associated with
the miners, but continued to face opposition from coal company officials.
•
http://www.santafetrailscenicandhistoricbyway.org/ludlow.html
Setting
A temporary tent
camp constructed
for striking coal
miners and their
families located
near the railroad
depot of Ludlow
in southern
Colorado
http://www.pbase.com/fletcher_hill/image/85933194
THE PLAYERS IN OUR STORY
The miners and
their families
Approximately 1200
individuals were
camped in a tent city
in Ludlow, Colorado.
The majority of the
residents were foreign
born miners, their
wives and children.
They had been evicted
from their company
owned homes when
the coal strike began
in September of 1913.
The
Company
The Colorado Fuel and
Iron Company (CF&I)
was a large steel
concern. By 1903, it
was largely owned and
controlled by John D.
Rockefeller and Jay
Gould's financial heirs.
It also controlled
several coal mining
interests which
totaled approximately
1/3 of all coal mining
industry in the state.
The National Guard
The National Guard was called out by the
governor of Colorado to quell disturbances,
relating to the strike. They were to also
protect strike breakers as they traveled to
the mines to work. They were given the task
to remain impartial in their treatment of all
involved in the strike.
The Baldwin-Felts
Detective Agency
The Baldwin-Felts detective
agency was based out of
Roanoke, Virginia. The BaldwinFelts firm built a reputation for
being ruthless, vengeful and very
effective at whatever they did,
whether the job called for
evicting a group of striking coal
miners from their companyowned houses or tracking down a
desperate band of outlaws. But
that was out in the field. On the
home front, the agency’s two
owners, William G. Baldwin and
Thomas L. Felts, were known as
fine upstanding citizens, doers of
great charitable deeds,
respectable businessmen. Both
were involved in banking. Felts
even served two terms as a state
senator.
http://www.theroanoker.com/favoritearticles/gunsthugs.cfm.
The United Mine
Workers of America
The UMWA made its first appearance in the Western States in 1900 with a strike in Gallup, New
Mexico. In 1903, the UMWA led a strike in the Colorado coalfields. This strike was successful in the
Northern Field, around Louisville and Boulder, but failed in the South. In 1910, the Northern
operators refused to renew the contract and the miners struck for the next 3 years. In September
1913 the UMWA, which had secretly been organizing the Southern Field, announced a strike there
when the operators would not meet a list of seven demands.
http://www.du.edu/ludlow/cfphoto.html
http://www.takver.com/history/lh_gifs/secsoc03.htm
Mother Jones
Born Mary Harris in Ireland,
raised in Canada, a teacher in
Michigan and a dressmaker in
Chicago, she married George
Jones in 1861 and they had four
children. George Jones and all
four children died in a yellow
fever epidemic in Memphis,
Tennessee, in 1867. Mary Harris
Jones then moved to Chicago,
where she became a dressmaker.
She lost her home, shop and
belongings in the Chicago Fire.
A gradually growing interest in
labor union issues and in radical
politics led her to become active
by her late 50s as Mother Jones,
white-haired radical labor
organizer. Mother Jones worked
mainly with the United Mine
Workers, where, among other
activities, she often organized
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/motherjones/p/mother_jones.htm
strikers' wives.
http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/majones.htm
What were the miners’ demands
that forced the strike?
1. Recognition of the union
2. A 10% increase in wages on
the tonnage rates for mined coal
3. An eight-hour work day
4. Payment for “dead work” – work
required of the miners that wasn’t
specifically the mining of coal
5. The right to elect their own
check – weightman; the person
responsible for weighing the amount
of coal that was mined
6. The right to trade in any store, to
choose their own boarding places,
and choose their own doctors
7. Enforcement of Colorado mining
laws and abolition of the company
system
A
The coal companies refused and…
approximately 90% of the workforce struck, 10-12,000
miners and their families. Those who lived in the camps
were evicted, and on September 23rd the striker families
hauled their possessions through rain and snow out of
the canyons to about a dozen sites rented in advance by
the UMWA to house them. The UMWA supplied tents
and ovens, and organized the strikers into the tent
colonies. The colonies were located at strategic spots
covering the entrances to the canyons, in order to
intercept strikebreakers. Ludlow, with about 200 tents
holding 1,200 miners and their families, was the largest of
these colonies
http://www.du.edu/ludlow/cfhist2.html
B
http://lcweb2.loc.gov
http://www.du.edu/ludlow/gallery1.html
The mine operators reacted
quickly…
• Strike breakers were brought in…the Baldwin-Felts
Company was brought in…and a campaign of
harassment against the striking miners began.
http://www.du.edu/ludlow/gallery2.html
On October 28, 1913, Colorado Governor
Ammons called out the National Guard to
maintain order.
The militia commander,
General Chase,
suspended habeas
corpus in the strike zone,
conducted mass jailing
of strikers, and led a
cavalry charge against a
parade of striker women
in Trinidad who were
protesting the
imprisonment of Mother
Jones by General Chase.
Mother Jones had
arrived in the town of
Trinidad by train to
support the striking
miners.
C
http://www.du.edu/ludlow/gall2c.html
http://lcweb2.loc.gov
The strike continued
through the winter.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/AMALL:@field(NUMBER+@band(codhawp 10060480))
On March 10th the body of a strike-breaker was found near railroad tracks near the
Forbes tents and the National Guard’s General Chase ordered the colony to be
destroyed. The strike was reaching a climax, and National Guardsmen were
ordered to evict the remaining tent colonies around the mines, despite them being
on private property leased by the UMWA. http://libcom.org/history/1914-the-ludlow-massacre
Hostilities continued to escalate…
On April 19, 1914…
the baseball game was almost over when down out of the hills, where these
strikers had lived in hovels like hogs, had been robbed of their coal, had been
deprived of their political, industrial and religious liberty, had been driven into
unsafe mines to be slaughtered, came the gunmen of industry, the hired murderers
of Sunday school teacher and "philanthropist' John D. Rockefeller, Jr. There were
five of these gunmen on horseback and armed with high- power rifles. They came
to break up the baseball game. But they realized that even high-powered rifles and
machine guns trained on the baseball diamond from the hills might not be able to
combat the crowd of fans, and they started away chagrined. Some of the strikers'
wives and children laughed at these imported assassins who were too cowardly to
carry out their purpose. "Oh, that's all right; have your fun today; we'll have our
roast tomorrow," said one of the gunmen, and they rode away.
https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/mgordon/www/course/448-440/fink.htm
On Sunday, April 20…
at about 9:00 AM gunfire
broke out at the colony.
The exact circumstances
are uncertain. Those
miners who were armed
(we don't know how many
this was) took positions in
a railway cut and in
prepared foxholes to draw
fire away from the colony.
The militia sprayed the
tent colony with machinegun and rifle fire.
http://www.du.edu/ludlow/cfhist3.html
D
http://www.du.edu/ludlow/cfhist3.html
By 7:00 p.m., the tent colony
was in flames and the militia
was looting the colony. The
leader of the Greeks in the
colony, Louis Tikas, and two
other miners were captured
and at some point shot and
killed by the militia. After
being shot in the head,
miner Charles Costa died
singing “Union Forever.” The
known fatalities at the end of
the day were 25 people,
including three militiamen,
one uninvolved passerby,
and 11 children.
E, F
http://www.du.edu/ludlow/cfhist3.html
http://www.kued.org/productions/fire/photos_stories/massacre.html
Under the command of
Karl Linderfelt, the militia
doused the tents in Ludlow
with kerosene and set
them on fire. They also
looted the camp.
During the battle, four
women and ten children
took refuge in a pit dug
beneath a tent. All but
two, Mary Petrucci and
Alcarita Pedregone,
suffocated when the tent
above them was burned.
The dead included Mary
Petrucci's three children
and Alcarita Pedregone's
two children.
G
By the next morning, the camp was gone.
Word of the massacre spread and a
call was sent for all miners to rise up
against the mining companies. This
resulted in the Ten-Days War . During
that ten day period, miners in
southern Colorado fought against mine
guards and militia from Trinidad to
Walsenberg.
H
The Ten-Day War ended
when Governor Ammons
requested federal
assistance. President
Wilson ordered troops to
the area to end the
fighting.
http://www.du.edu/ludlow/gallery4.html
Meanwhile, survivors buried their dead…
http://www.du.edu/ludlow/gallery4.html
and refugees tried to adapt.
I
http://www.du.edu/ludlow/gallery4.html
What were the results of the
strike?
• At least 50 people were killed during the
strike, massacre and Ten-Day War.
• The strike dragged on until December of
1914 and the union was defeated.
• Mass arrests of strikers were made with
332 indicted for murder. All charges were
eventually dropped.
• Only 22 National guardsmen were courtmartialed, all exonerated.
• John Rockefeller Jr. engaged labor relations expert W. L.
Mackenzie King to develop a plan for a series of
reforms in the mines and company towns of southern
Colorado. Variously known as the Colorado Industrial
Plan, Colorado Plan, Industrial Representation Plan or
just “Rockefeller Plan,” the reforms called for a worker
grievance procedure, improvements to company towns
such as construction of paved roads and recreational
facilities like YMCAs, enforcement of Colorado mining
laws and the election of worker representatives to
serve with management on four standing committees
concerned with working conditions, safety, sanitation
and recreation
•
The Colorado Industrial Plan effectively established
a company union. The Colorado Plan served as the
model for many other company unions that spread
across the country and by 1920 covered 1.5 million
workers or about 8 percent of the workforce.
http://www.cobar.org/index.cfm/ID/581/dpwfp/Historical-Foreward-and-Bibliography/
• John D. Rockefeller was excoriated by the
public, press and government.
J
• Rockefeller’s attempt to rehabilitate his image
resulted in the birth of professional public
relations.
K, L, M
What do you think?
What happened to Ludlow?
• The UMWA purchased
land where the tent
camp stood, preserved
the death pit where 11
women and children
died and erected a
granite monument in
1918 to honor the
memories of those who
died.
Sadly, the monument was vandalized,
but later repaired in 2005.
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/ludlow.html
Ludlow itself is a ghost
town - victim to the end
of the mines.
http://www.ghosttowngallery.com/htme/ludlowco.htm
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/ludlow_second_century.html
Sources
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http://www.du.edu/ludlow/index.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rockefellers/sfeature/sf_8.html
http://www.santafetrailscenicandhistoricbyway.org/ludlow.html
http://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Ludlow_Massacre.htm
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5736/
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5737/
http://archaeology.about.com/cs/military/bb/ludlow.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6kuvBnNNUs
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/ludlow.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkadog/sets/72157616926219217/
http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Ludlow:Massacre.htm
http://www.loc.gov
http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/eastman/works/1910s/trinid.htm
http://www.ghosttowngallery.com/htme/ludlowco.htm
http://www.nps.gov/history/nhl/Fall08Nominations/Ludlow%20Photos.pdf
http://www.folkarchive.de/werecomi.html