The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1914-09-05
SCARLET letter
.S|STER0F STATES
Colorado Allows Ruthless Murder
Of Miners During Coal
Strike.

Colorado is known today as the
Scarlet Letter Sister of States
She bows her head In shame to the
men, women and little children whom
she has allowed to be murdered and
crenaated through the complete DOM
ination of her executive, legislative,
judicial and military arms by tho
large corporate interests.
For wanton disregard and criminal
negligence Of life, the Colorado coal
operators have long been known.
Gerald Lippiatt, union organizer,
was the first to pay the death penalty
for fighting corporate greed In Colo
RADIO. He was murdered by George
Belcher, a notorious Baldwin-Feltz
thug, on the streets of Trinidad, Au-
gust Is. 1913.
When, On September %, 1913, H.
232 Of their employees struck to obtain
their political and Industrial freedom
by the enforcement Of then existing
laws, the operators laid aside their
former excuse that the murder of
their men in the mines was "acci-
terminate the strikers and their fam
lilies.
More than one thousand gunner,
dregs of the large cities, "men'' who
earn their living at $500 to $500 a.
day shooting down the workers, were
brought into the state. Among these
were many of the Baldwin-Feltz de-
tectives who had manned the Bull
Moose Special" in West Virginia and
shot down men and women and babes
at their mothers breasts.
A. G. Felt, Colorado head Of these
thugs, began at once the construction
Of an armored automobile in the
shops of the Colorado Fuel & Iron
company.
Fitted. with a machine gun and
manned by five imported murderers.
this death Special" was driven at
top speed through the ten colonies,
shooting among the women and chill
dren.
Matt Powell was killed October 8.
1913, when the gunner attacked the
Ludlow tent colony.
One of the most dastardly attacks
made by these thugs was that at
Forbes, October II, 1918. The ma
chine gun was trained on the tent
colony. When the smoke cleared
away. Luke Verhonik was dead and a
boy had been shot in the leg nine
times.
On October "a, 1913, operators
gunner, with their high-powered
rifles, made an attack on the strikers
In Seventh street, Welsenburg, Colo.
Three union men, Kris Kokich, Andy
Auvinen and Cisto Croci, were killed.
But the most infamous attempt to
exterminate the strikers was made on
April 20, 1914, when two companies
Of the operators gunner, who had
recently been enlisted into the Colo
RADIO national guard, and under the
! command of Major Pat Hemrock and
Lieutenant K. e. Linderfelt, deliber-
ately attacked the Ludlow tent col
| ony.
Machine guns had been placed in
position two days before. Using them
like garden hose, the gunner swept
the tent colony filled with women and
children, from one end to the other.
strikers, and James Fyler were de-
liberately murdered while prisoners
{ Of these quinn militia. Charles
Costa, Frank Rubino and John Bar
toloti, strikers, were killed.
| That night the tent colony was set
aflre with oil-soaked torches and
burned to the ground.
Red Cross nurses who went to
Ludlow to administer aid to the in
| jured and take care Of the dead were
driven back by the gunmen-militia
with explosive bullets.
! Wednesday revealed the real hor-
rors of this war of the operators by
machine guns and high-powered rifles
against the union miners who are
striking to secure an enforcement Of
Colorado laws.
In one cave, the "Black Hole OF
Ludlow" were found the charred and
distorted bodies Of eleven little chill
| dren and two women. Frank Snyder
II, who had run from another safety
retreat to get drink Of water for hi:
sick mother, was found dead, sho1
through the head by the gunner.
militia.
The operators thugs and the mill.
tia, driven mad by their lust for tn
blood of the strikers, then began {
systematic campaign to completed!
exterminate them.
Aguilar, another at Forbes, three a;
welsenburg. The arrival Of Fedora
troops prevented further slaughter b,
these imported murderers Of tn
Colorado coal operators.
The names of those who have bee1
murdered and cremated by the gun
, in their attempt to prevent the Goa
miners from obtaining political AM
Industrial freedom through COLLECTIVE
bargaining and an enforcement o
Colorado laws follow:
Murdered and Cremated by the Gun
naen-dilitia in the Ludlow
Massacre, April 20, 1914.
Age.