The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1914-05-08
MASSACRE OF
THE INNOCENTS
THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
SAYS COLORADO MILITIA
HAVE ACTED AS MURDER
GUS GUNMEN.

The horror OF the SnamDleS at Lud-
low is overwhelming. Not since the
days when pitiless red men wreaked
vengeance upon intruding frontiers
men and upon their women and chill
dren has this western country been
stained with so foul a deed.
The details of the massacre are
horrible. Mexico offers no barbarity
so base as that of the murder of de-
fenceless women and children by the
mine guards in soldiers clothing.
Like whitened sepulchres we boast of
American civilization with this in
famous thing at our very doors.
Huerta murdered Madero, but even
Huerta did not shoot an innocent little
boy seeking water for his mother who
|lay ill. Villa is a barbarian, but in
|his maddest excess Villa has not
turned machine guns on imprisoned
women and children. Where is the
outlaw so far beyond the pale of
human kind as to burn the tent over
the heads of nursing mothers and
helpless little babies?
Out of this infamy one fact stands
clear. Machine guns did the murder.
The machine guns were in the hands
of mine guards, most of whom were
also members of the state militia. 1t
was private war, with the wealth of
the richest man in the world behind
the mine guards.
Once and for all time the right to
employ armed guards must be taken
away from private individuals and
corporations. To the state, and to the
state alone, belongs the right to main
tain peace. Anything else is anarchy.
Private warfare is the only sort of an
archy the world has ever known, and
armed forces employed by private in
|terests have introduced the only priv
ate wars of modern times. This prac-
tice must be stopped. If the state
laws are not strong enough, then the
federal government must step in. At
any cost, private warfare must be de-
stroyed.
Who are these mine guards to whom
is entrusted the sovereign right to
massacre? Four of the fraternity
were electrocuted recently in New
York. They are the gunner of the
oil hn Of ~.
manity, whom bitter heritage has
made the wastrels of the world.
Warped by the wrongs of their own
upbringing, they know no justice and
they are not for mercy They are
human in intelligence, and not as high
in the scale of kindness as domestic
animals.
The blood of the innocent women and
children rests on the hands of those
who for the greed of dollars employed
such men and bought such machines
of murder. The world has not been
hard upon these; theirs has been a
gentle upbringing. Yet they reck not
of human life when pecuniary interests
are involved.
The blood of the women and chill
dren, burned and shot like rats, cries
aloud from the ground. The great
state of Colorado has failed them. 1t
has betrayed them. Her militia, |
which should have been the impartial
protectors of the peace, have acted as
murderous gunner. The machine
guns wich played in the darkness upon
the homes of humble men and women,
whose only crime was an effort to
earn an honest living, were bought and |
paid for by agents of the mine owners.
Explosive bullets have been used on |
children. Does the bloodiest page in |
the French revolution approach this in |
In the name of humanity, in the
name of civilization, we have appealed |
to President Wilson. His ear heard |
the wall of the innocent outraged and |
dying in Mexico; Cannot the presi- |
dent give heed to the suffering of his |
own people?
Think, Mr.. President of the captain |
of the strikers, Louis Tikas, whose
truce with the gunmen was ended |
with his murder. Think of the fifty |
one shots which were passed through |
the strike leader. Think of his body, !
which has lain exposed since his in
famous killing. Then, with that vast
power which has been committed to
you as the executive of this great ma
tion, attend to the misery wrought by
an anarchistic lust for dollars. With
out your speedy aid the poor and the
needy, betrayed by the state, may be