Tag: The Labor World

Hellraisers Journal: From The Labor World: Young Rockefeller Declares He Has Millions to Crush the Miners’ Union in Colorado

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Statement Apr 18 at Denver CO bf to WDC, RMN p5, Apr 19, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 19, 1914
Washington, D. C. – John D. Rockefeller Jr. Pledges Millions to Crush Colorado Miners

From the Duluth Labor World of April 18, 1914:

YOUNG ROCKEFELLER CHIP OFF OLD BLOCK
———-
Declares Before Industrial Commission He Has
Millions to Crush Miners’ Union.
———-

SOME MORE “DIVINE RIGHT” PHILOSOPHY
———-
Refused to Arbitrate Colorado Coal Strike
-Trusts Everything to Managers.
———-

John D Rockefeller Jr, Brk Dly Egl p1, Apr 6, 1914

John D. Rockefeller, Jr., son of the world’s richest man, testified Monday [April 6th] before the House Mines Committee in Washington about the question of his moral responsibility for the industrial strife which has kept the coal fields of southern Colorado in turmoil for six months.

After more than for hours of cross-examination Rockefeller had told the committee:

That he and three other directors represented his father’s interest of about 40 per cent in the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, the central figure in the big coal strike.

That as a director he had fulfilled all his interest and responsibility in the company when he placed the officers, “competent and trusted men,” in charge of the company’s affairs.

That he knew nothing of conditions in the strike district except from reports of the officers of the company.

He “Protects” “Free” Labor.

That the strike had become a fight for the “principles” of freedom of labor, and that he and his associates would rather the present violence continue and that “they lose all their millions invested in the coal fields than that American working men should be deprived of their right under the constitution to work for whom they pleased.”

This was accepted as an indication that the Rockefeller millions are opposed to the unions in Colorado.

That he favored arbitration in Industrial disputes-generally, but that in the present instance he supported the officers of the company in their refusal to submit the question of unionizing the mines to arbitration.

In support of these conclusions Rockefeller was kept busy for hours explaining defending and arguing. He asserted that employer and employe were “fellow men and should treat each other as such,” but could see no analogy between the unionization of workmen and the combination of capital….

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

WILL DEFEND OPEN SHOP AT ANY COST, PROPERTY OR LIVES

During his testimony this exchange took place between Rockefeller and the Chairman of the Subcommittee, M. D. Foster:

The CHAIRMAN. And you are willing to go on and let these killings take place—men losing their lives on either side, the expenditure of large sums of money, and all this disturbance of labor—rather than to go out there and see if you might do something to settle those conditions?

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. There is just one thing, Mr. Chairman, so far as I understand it, which can be done, as things are at present, to settle this strike, and that is to unionize the camps; and our interest in labor is so profound and we believe so sincerely that that interest demands that the camps shall be open camps, that we expect to stand by the officers at any cost. It is not an accident that this is our position.

The CHAIRMAN. And you will do that if it costs all your property and kills all your employees?

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. It is a great principle.

[Emphasis added.]

From the Rocky Mountain News of April 19, 1914
-Mother Jones Makes Statement Before Leaving Denver for Washington:

HdLn ed Mother Jones to WDC re CO Conditions, RMN p5, Apr 19, 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: The Labor World: Editor W. E. M’ewen Describes Reign of Military Terror Against Miners in Colorado

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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

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.

CO Telluride Miners v Peabody, LW p1, Apr 2, 1904

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.

[Newsclip and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Denver United Labor Bulletin: Old Mother Jones Held Incommunicado in Dark Cellar Cell

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Quote Mother Jones re Walsenburg Cellar Cell, Mar 22, 1914 x26 days, Ab Chp 21, 1925—————

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:

Mother Jones Held in Dark Cellar Cell at Walsenburg CO, ULB p1, Mar 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.

—————

From The Masses of February 1914: Mother Jones by Art Young

Mother Jones Hell Hounds by Art Young, Masses p7, Feb 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: Telluride, San Miguel County, Colorado – Affidavit of A. A. Pratt Arrested by Militia for Refusing to Scab

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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 19, 1904
Telluride, Colorado – Arrested by Militia for Refusing to Scab

March 3, 1904, Telluride, Colorado-Affidavit of A. A. Pratt

AFFIDAVIT.
AH Floaten re AA Pratt of Telluride CO No Scab, ALU p1, Mar 10, 1904

State of Colorado, County of San Miguel, ss.
I, the undersigned A. A. Pratt, make the following statement under oath: On or about February 26, 1904, I was in Denver looking for work. A man by the name of Johnson told me I could get work as a miner in Telluride; that the strike was off and there was no martial law; that the soldiers were all withdrawn, and that transportation was furnished free. I concluded to go, and a Mr. Snodgrass gave me a ticket to Telluride.

When I arrived at Telluride, on the evening of the 27th, I was met at the depot and taken to the Victoria hotel to stay all night. The next morning a horse was brought to the hotel for me to ride to the Smuggler-Union mine, about four miles away. On the way to the mine we passed soldiers standing guard. When I got to the mine I made inquires and found out that the strike was on, that the district was under military rule. As the conditions had been misrepresented to me, and I did not want to work under these conditions, I told the boss that I had forgotten something in town and thus obtained a pass to present to the soldiers between the mine and the town.

In Telluride I was arrested on a warrant sworn to by Bulkely Wells, manager of the Smuggler-Union mine and commander of the militia, charging me with obtaining money under false pretenses. He appeared as a witness against me, although there had been no agreement made with him, nor with any one else, that I was to pay anything for fare, hotel or horse hire. These were furnished me without me asking for them, and he admitted that he had no agreement with me. There was no one but myself that knew anything about the matter, so the justice found me not guilty, but it shows to what measures they are willing to resort.

I do solemnly swear that the above statement is true to the best of my knowledge.

A. A. PRATT.

Sworn and subscribed to before me on the 3rd day of March, 1904
ALBERT HOLMES,
Justice of the Peace.

[Paragraphs and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: The Labor World: “Slavery Revealed in Colorado Mines…Managed by Tyrants”-Liberty Denied

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Quote John Lawson 1913, after October 17th Death Special attack on Forbes Tent Colony, Beshoar p74—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 17, 1914
Denver, Colorado – Testimony Reveals Murderous Mine Guards Terrorize Miners

From the Duluth Labor World of March 14, 1914:

SLAVERY REVEALED IN COLORADO MINES
———-
Startling Testimony Given Before
Congressional Committee In Coal Inquiry.
———-

LIBERTY IS DENIED;
WORSE THAN RUSSIA
———-
Blacklist System Kept By Operators Exposed
-Coal Districts Managed by Tyrants.
———-

Military Rule in CO, Woman Bayoneted fr Stt Str, AtR p2, Feb 28, 1914

DENVER, Colo., March 13,-(Special Correspondence.)-Southern Colorado today is in a state of anarchy. Men are held slaves in the coal mines, terrorized by murderous mine guards and robbed of practically every cent of the small pittance they are paid. The striking coal miners are intimidated and murdered by the hired assassins of the operators, denied their constitutional rights by the militia of the state of Colorado. These and many other outrages were brought out by the congressional committee which closed its month’s investigation of the Colorado coal strike Saturday [March 7th].

Colorado’s Liberty (?)

For years the coal miners of the state have maintained that they had less personal liberty, less rights in Colorado than have the people of Russia. For the same length of time the papers of the state have denied these reports.

If there was any doubt in the minds of the people of Colorado as to the real conditions in the coal fields those ideas were dispelled by the oppressed witnesses who appeared before the congressional investigating committee.

The operators and their gunmen have run their lickspittles in office with such a high hand, with such utter disregard of the laws and human life that conditions as they exist seem impossible to the man who has not suffered or failed to spend some time in the district.

One of the just grievances of the miners, established by the men as well as mine superintendents and foremen, was that of short weights. Since the first mine was opened in the state it has been the common practice of the coal operators to steal from 400 to 800 pounds of coal from miners on each car.

Miners Were Discharged.

To offset this robbery the miners had a bill passed providing for checkweighman. When the miners sought to take advantage of this law they were promptly discharged or given such a poor room that they could not make a living and were forced to quit. Instead of abolishing this thievery of coal by the operators, the checkweighman law seemed to increase it for the operators were filled with a desire to demonstrate how they were superior to the law and could do as they pleased in a state where they owned a majority of the officials body and soul.

Probably one of the most notorious works of the operators exposed by the witnesses was the blacklist system that has always been in existence against union miners. After the 1903-4 strike 6,000 men were blacklisted and but few of them have been able to get work up to this time except where companies signed up with the union. Witnesses testified that superintendents at all of the mines in the state had a list of the union men. They told of going to mines, being refused work because they were union men and seeing scores of men employed while they stood there.

Owners Dominate Politics.

One of the most notorious conditions existing in the south has been the domination of politics by the coal companies. They own the courts, the juries and practically every other officer.

Jack McQuarry, a witness and who was deputy sheriff of Huerfano county for seven years, testified that when a man or number of men were killed in the mines, he was ordered to take the coroner to the superintendent and find out who he wanted on the jury, as well as what the verdict was to be.

When Jeff Farr [Sheriff of Huerfano County] and his ring did not have sufficient votes to carry an election, they voted the sheep in the hills or else arrested enough of their opponents to carry the election and held them until they promised to vote the way Sheriff Jeff Farr wanted them to.

It has always been common practice for the superintendent to take his men to the polls and vote the entire gang one way.

“Got” Mine Leader.

McQuarry told how in 1906 the deputies were told to “get” John R. Lawson, International Board Member of the United Mine Workers. They could find no legitimate reason for arresting Lawson so two deputies went up to him, stuck a gun in his pocket, and then arrested him for carrying concealed deadly weapons.

Tony Langowsky, a member of the union and spotter for the operators, threw a bomb into their camp when he testified that he and the mine guards framed up all the dynamite explosions which terrorized Sopris, Colo., for six weeks last fall.

The operators sent out the reports that these explosions were the work of the “lawless” strikers. Langowsky’s testimony absolutely fixes the blame for the outrages which have occurred in Southern Colorado on the operators, who have heretofore been convicted of every crime except that.

It is impossible to bring out even a small part of the testimony in one story. While the operators were convicted of every crime on the calendar, the militia of the state suffered like exposure.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Writ of Habeas Corpus Denied by Colorado District Court for “Dangerous Person,” Mother Jones

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Quote Mother Jones, Chase No Own State, RMN p3, Jan 12, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 9, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Writ of Habeas Corpus Denied for Mother Jones

From El Paso Herald of March 6, 1914:

MILITIA MAY HOLD WOMAN, COURT RULES
———-
Judge Denies Writ of Habeas Corpus
in the Case of “Mother” Jones.
———-

POWER OF MILITARY OFFICIALS UPHELD
———-

Cartoon Mother Jones Surrounded by Soldiers Trinidad, ISR p462, Feb 1914

Trinidad, Colo., March 6.-In a verbal decision rendered at the opening of the district court this morning, Judge A. W. McHendrie denied the writ of habeas corpus for “Mother” Mary Jones, the noted woman strike leader held under military guard at the San Rafael Hospital, and remanded the prisoner to the custody of the respondent in the action, Gen. John Chase, commander of the state militia in the strike zone.

The ruling of the court was brief. Immediately upon hearing the decision, attorney F. W. Clark, local counsel for the United Mine Workers, asked for and was granted 60 days to prepare a bill of exceptions to be submitted to the supreme court.

Like [Albert] Hill Case, Says Court.

The court held the case in all essential respects to be the same as the case instituted early in February for others who were held prisoners by the military authorities for alleged connection with the burning of the Southwestern mine tipple and postoffice.

The court in its ruling upheld the powers of the military authorities in arresting and detaining the petitioner under specific instructions form governor Ammons, who in his order to Gen. Chase, declared the woman to be a “dangerous person” and one likely to raise riot or disorder.

To Appeal Case.

But few people were in court when the opinion was rendered this morning. The attorneys for the petitioner will now submit the case on appeal to the supreme court, which a short time ago denied an original application.

[Drawing and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Women of Michigan Copper Country Tell of Brutal Treatment from Company Guards; Berger Testifies

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Quote Poem Ellis B Harris re Annie Clemenc n Women of Calumet, Mnrs Mag p14, Nov 27, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 24, 1914
Hancock, Michigan – Deputized Company Gunthugs Brutalize Women

From the Detroit Evening Times of February 17, 1914:

MI Testimony bf House Com re Thugs v Women, Cibacca Baby's Death, Dtt Eve Tx p9, Feb 17, 1914

From the Duluth Labor World of February 21, 1914:

BERGER TESTIFIES AT STRIKE INQUIRY
———-
Says Socialist Party Had Nothing to Do With Strike
Simply Contributed Money
———-

Victor Berger appeared before the congressional committee at Hancock [Michigan] Tuesday to tell what he knew about the copper strike. Mr. Berger appeared as a committee witness. He was not called by the Western Federation of Miners. He declared the Socialist party had nothing to do with calling the strike and nothing to do with fomenting it. “When the strikers got hard up” he said, “the Socialists gave them financial aid up to $25,000 in money and a greater quantity of clothing.”

Mr. Berger said the national flag of the Socialists was the Star Spangled Banner, but “the red flag is our international flag-the red flag of brotherhood.”

Women Were Assaulted.

The committee listened to a large number of women witnesses during the week. One woman said she was hit in the back by a rock thrown by a gunman. She was afterwards arrested and was taken to jail in an automobile carrying her 4-months-old baby with her. The baby died from exposure from the cold a few days later. She has not been able to find out why she was arrested…..

The woman whose baby died was Margaret Cibacca. Her testimony, describing how she was taken into custody along with her children and then dumped out into the cold, is disturbing. Mrs. Cibacca the wife of a striking copper miner, was at home with her five children, ages 3 months to six years, when the deputies came pounding at her door. They told her that they wanted her to come to the mining office to visit a sick woman.

She gathered up her five children and went with them in their automobile to the mining office of the Baltic Mine. They forced her to leave the three older children outside in the cold with only the six-year-old to watch them. The two littlest ones, they allowed her to take inside. Once they had her in the office, they locked the door. She was alone in there with three deputies. There was no sick woman.

She asked why she was there, what she had done, and they laughed at her and beat her, even as she held her little children. She begged them to let her go home and feed her children, and they laughed at her again and began to beat her with a club on her side and on her back as she attempted to ward off the blows and protect her tiny children. The bruises can still be seen on her back.

Finally, they forced her with her children into the automobile for the drive to Houghton to see Justice Little. On the way they told her that she would be locked up for six months. Justice Little questioned her for about a half hour and then told her she was free to go, but go where? There was no ride back to Baltic, eight miles away, the deputies were gone, and she had no money.

At last, her husband was able to come for her. He brought blankets for the children who were cold to the bone, especially the three-month-old baby, from waiting outside for their father. They were too late for the train back to Baltic, and the striking miner was forced to spend his meager strike benefit on a rented automobile to take his tired, hungry, and terrified family home.

The baby came down deathly ill the next day, and died shortly thereafter.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Women of Michigan Copper Country Tell of Brutal Treatment from Company Guards; Berger Testifies” →

Hellraisers Journal: Duluth Labor World: Hastings, Colorado-“Mother Jones Says Rockefeller Oppresses the Coal Miners”

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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 7, 1904
Hastings, Colorado – Mother Jones Exposes Rockefeller’s “Sunday School Methods”

From the Duluth Labor World of February 6, 1904:

MOTHER JONES
Says Rockefeller Oppresses the Coal Miners.

Mother Jones Gives 500 Dollars to CO Strikers, LW p4, Feb 6, 1904

Hastings, Colo., Feb. 5.-[Mother Jones, the miners’ friend, who is now going up and down among the striking miners in Colorado, says:]

Rockefeller’s mining company cleared $39,000 [*] last year, and every dollar of it was wrung form the miners.

At some of these mining camps a miner is not even allowed to bring a pound of butter from the outside. He is compelled to buy everything at the company’s store. Every man who comes to the mines to work must be searched, and when he goes to visit a friend outside the camp an armed guard goes with him.

What would a Chicago workingman think if he had to pay 90 cents for a quart of syrup that cost at wholesale $1.25 a gallon? What would he think if his employer taxed him a dollar a month for a doctor whether he needed one or not? What would he think if he was obliged to pay his employer 50 cents a month for a preacher?

“Yet such are Mr. Rockefeller’s Sunday school methods of conducting his mining business in Colorado,” says Mother Jones.

[Emphasis added. Newsclip added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Trinidad-Women March in Support of Mother Jones; Chase Orders, “RIDE DOWN THE WOMEN!”

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Quote Mother Jones, Ladies Women, NYT p3, May 23, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 24, 1914 
Jan. 22-Trinidad, Colorado – General Chase Orders Cavalrymen:

“Ride Down the Woman!”

Jan 22 Trinidad CO Sabers Slash, Chase v Women, RMN p1, Jan 23, 1914

The women of Las Animas County gathered in Trinidad on Thursday afternoon to protest the military imprisonment of Mother Jones. They came marching with their children across the Picketwire River bridge and headed up Commercial Street passing by the Columbian Hotel. These were the women from the strikers’ tent colonies and they came singing the strikers’ song: “The Battle Cry of Union.”

Their banners proclaimed:

God Bless Mother Jones

We’re For Mother Jones

As they moved past Main Street, they were met by General Chase on his cavalry horse, and behind the General were his cavalrymen. Behind them were the infantry blocking the street. Nevertheless, the women and children continued singing as they marched toward the brave General and his troops. The General began to yell, “Don’t advance another step. You must turn back.”

The General spurred his horse forward and brushed against 16-year-old Sarah Slator. He berated her, raised his foot, and kicked her in the breast. His horse backed into a buggy and the General fell off. The women began to laugh at the site of the pompous General on the ground beneath his horse.

The General regained his feet, red-faced and furious, and shouted to his men:

“RIDE DOWN THE WOMEN!”

The cavalrymen spurred their horses forward, waving their sabers about and rode straight into the women and children. Several women were slashed: Mrs. Maggie Hammons received a gash across the forehead, Mrs. George Gibson nearly lost her ear, Mrs. Thomas Braley’s hands were sliced as she covered her face. Mrs. James Lanigan was knocked to the ground, and 10-year-old Robert Arguello was smashed in the face. A cavalryman chased the flag-bearer, Mrs. R. Verna, down the street, knocked her down with his horse, and tore the American flag away from her.

Young Sarah Slator showed great courage when she challenged a cavalryman who was threatening a mother with his bayonet as she struggled to run with her three-year-old child in tow. Sarah said, “You’re so low you could do anything.” Sarah was among the six women arrested. Twelve men were arrested later in the afternoon.

Colorado newspapers are full of derision for the victorious General and his triumphant cavalrymen. The Denver Express reported:

Great Czar Fell!
And in Fury Told Troops to Trample Women

A craven general tumbled from his nag in a street of Trinidad Thursday like humpty-dumpty from the wall. In fifteen minutes there was turmoil, soldiers with swords were striking at fleeing women and children; all in the name of the sovereign state of Colorado…The French Revolution, its history written upon crimson pages, carries no more cowardly episode than the attack of the gutter gamin soldiery on the crowd of unarmed and unprotected women.

Newsclip inset from above: The Rocky Mountain News of January 23, 1914

—————

Photographs from Trinidad Protest of January 22, 1914:

Jan 22, 1914 Trinidad CO Chase v Women Parade for Mother Jones 2, du edu, —–Jan 22, 1914 Trinidad CO Chase v Women Parade for Mother Jones, du edu, —–Jan 22, 1914 Trinidad CO Chase v Women Parade for Mother Jones 3, du edu, —–Jan 22, 1914 Trinidad CO Chase v Women Parade for Mother Jones 3, du edu,

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Hellraisers Journal: The Denver Post: “Siberian Exiling Scenes Re-Enacted at Telluride” and News from Cripple Creek

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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 20, 1904
News from Colorado Strike Zones of Telluride and Cripple Creek

From The Denver Post of January 15, 1904:

CO Siberian Exiling Scenes Deportations Telluride, DP p13, Jan 15, 1904

SIBERIAN EXILING SCENES.

Telluride, Colo., Jan. 15-Tears, curses, maledictions and prayers were heard at the depot this morning when the train pulled out of the station having on board six union miners, who were being deported by the military. The men were given breakfast early, the meal being served from the Sheridan hotel, after which the wife of one of them was reluctantly permitted to visit her husband in jail. At 8 o’clock a bunch of blue-coats, under the command of Captain Scholz, marched to the court house and the prisoners were taken to the county jail and formed into line, ready for the march to the station.

A woman with a small child attempted to fall in line with her husband, but was brutally prevented by the soldiers, who forced her back on the sidewalk. With a face drawn with bitter agony and grief she endeavored to keep up with the soldiers as they marched down the streets, but the prisoners had reached the train long before she had gone a block.

At the depot the men were immediately put aboard the train and two soldiers stationed at the car windows. The relatives of the men were allowed to talk to them, and for a moment the air was filled with tearful good-byes and well wishes.

Fifteen minutes before the signal was given to start three women came running down the track. One of them , a Mabel Marchinado, a mere girl, hardly 17 years old, weeping bitterly, rushed over the icy platform to the window in which one of the men was sitting, and exclaimed: “oh, papa, what are they going to do with you?”

Her father, Tony Marchinado, endeavored to comfort her, but the girl continued sobbing pitifully. The sympathy of the entire crowd at the depot went out to this girl, and some turned away. Then the soldiers ordered her to move on.

The girl suddenly ceased weeping and, turning to those standing, and in a voice loud enough for the military to hear, said: “I think it’s living shame for men living in this country to be treated in such a manner.” She was not arrested.

The woman with the small child in the meantime reached the depot almost exhausted. She purchased a ticket and boarded the train on which her husband was about to be sent into exile. She cried bitterly and her baby was blue with cold. “I am too sick to work and look after our baby alone, and I am going with my husband, if it means the jail.” she moaned. If ever volumes of mute sympathy went out from a crowd, it went out greater as she bent down her head and fondly kissed the lips of her offspring, in vain endeavor to hush its cries from the biting cold. It was by far the saddest incident yet recorded in the military occupation of Telluride and the subsequent deportation of striking miners…

[Emphasis added.]

The names of the six deported men are: Tony Marchinado, Tony Sartoris, Louis Sartoris, F. W. Wells, Matt Lingol and Battiste Monchiando.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The Denver Post: “Siberian Exiling Scenes Re-Enacted at Telluride” and News from Cripple Creek” →