New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1914-05-27
crimes are that are too horrible to,

crimes are that are too horrible to-
mention. III
This is a terrible arraignment, and the
blood of every fairminded person boils
when he comtemplates this ruthless
; massacre and the mutilation of defense
less women and children. Naturally,
we want to know to whom the blame
attaches or should attach. The murder
was committed by the militia and the
gunner. They actually committed the
! foul deeds, but they were not responsible
for the conditions that brought about
the conflict. Rockefeller and his kind,
the ones higher up, are primarily to blame
for the massacre and they should be
made to realize that fact to the fullest
extent.
Possibly, equally to blame with the
mine owners are the officials of the state
of Colorado, primarily Governor Am
mons who knew that the laws OF Colorado
were being trampled under foot by the
mine owners and that this disregard OF
the laws led up to the conflict which
stains not only the fair name of Colorado,
but of the entire Nation as we'll. The
Governor knew of the fragrant violation
of the laws OF the state, because he had
been advised thru a report filed with
him by the Secretary of the State and
Commissioner OF Labor.
Speaking of the employment Of armed
guards to break up miners unions, to
enforce labor by imported strikebreakers,
and to deny miners the rights Of citizen
ship in Colorado, the Secretary OF State
declares: ''The system as employed by
the C. F. and I. Company in Las Animas
County is not only in open defiance Of all
! the laws of the State of Colorado, but it
maintains, under the thin guise of law,
an armed force, consisting OF deputy
sheriffs, in all its camps, who are used not
only to violate all the laws, but to NAL
treat anyone who attempts in any way
| to assert his rights as citizen.
| THE county officials OF Las Animas
! County are in league with this Company,
so that it is absolutely impossible to get
anything like justice from the hands OF
the legally elected officials of that county.
in order to thoroughly understand
to what extremes these so-called officials
, of the law 60, shall state that after the
Company exacts a rent for their houses
from their employees, no home is sacred
or has any privacy, the Company taking
the ground that, as they own the property
they have the right to enter it at all
times, and I have been told by women
| in Primers that there was no privacy In
! their home life, that whenever a repre-
sentative of the Company or a deputy
sehriff desired, they entered the house
unannounced.
we find that children are employed
in the mines, at the coal washers and at
the coke ovens, in direct violation offthe
!, laws of Colorado. which make it unlaw-
full to employ any child under sixteen
! years of age in any dangerous occupation,
and the only excuse offered by the officials
of the Company it is none that is of
their business, as these children are
working with the consent of their par
ents.''
Futher evidence in the report refers to
boys under sixteen years old engaged as
! ''trappers" in the mines of the c. F. and
l. Company, who lost their lives after
working only six months in these mines.
One Of the boys was killed on his fifteenth
birthday Other children in the Rookie
teller mines were as young as ten years.
As result of permitting the coal
barons to carry things with high hand,
human blood has been shed, defenseless
women have been outraged andmassacred
and innocent children have been burned
and shot to death. In addition to this
sacrifice of human life the people Of the
State of Colorado are now called upon
to tax themselves to the extent of 81 ,O0O,-
900 to pay expenses of the state militia
while they were committing murder to
protect the property of the mine owners!
| Costly and inexcusable as this sacrifice
has been, it may not have been in vain,
if the lesson it teaches has been so vel
learned that there will be no repetition.
The coal barons who stole the natural
resources from the people should be
taught their place and if they are not
willing to learn that they do not own the