The Gem worker and the Idaho labor herald. (Boise, Idaho) 1914-1917, 1915-04-22
THE ANNIVERSARY OF LUDLOW


As we write, there is before us
pamphlet, bearing date of Septembe
Fl, 1914, and published by committe,
of Colorado mine managers. TIL,
first paragraph of the introduction
says:
1t is of the utmost importance tina
every American citizen should under
stand what has really been going OF
in Colorado"
And the closing sentence reads:
1T is to be hoped that a knowledge
by the American people of the FACTS
may promote permanent and hearty
industrial peace throughout the United
States.
Since these paragraphs were written
every American citizen understands
what took place in Colorado, because
the TRUE FACTS have been given
to the world, every one of which pro-
claims the Colorado mine owners and
managers who desired a diffusion of
such knowledge to be as cruel a band
of tyrants as history records.
Whether, "a knowledge by the
American people of the FACTS" will
promote permanent and hearty in
dustrial peace throughout the Unetid
States" or not, no one can say. We
don't believe it will There may be a
truce, but there can be no peace where
justice does not prevail. And there is
no justice to be had from men who
proclaim, as did these Colorado mine
managers, that, I'm our Judgment no
question of the rights of organized
labor is now involved"
1t was Madam Roland, during the
dark days of the French Revolution,
who complained of the crimes COM
mItted in the name of liberty.
We must raise a protesting voice
against the crimes committed by op-
pressive corporation managers and
heartless, corrupt, subservient Colo
RADIO officials in the name OF law and
order" and property rights" And
there is no difference between the
guillotine of Danton, Robespierre and
Marat and the rifles and machine guns
of the hired assassins of the Colorado
mine owners of Ludlow. The Jacobin
military and civil tyrants of Colorado
used the latter as merciless1y as did
the puppets of the organized French
abal, the former The system and
its result under the Terror in Paris in
l797 is equalled by the Terror at
Ludlow in 1914
The two most vehement champions
OF the mine owners were General
Chase OF the Colorado militia and
Congressman George Kindel of that
state. kindel, in a speech in the
House of Representatives on June 49,
1914, essayed to champion the cause
OF the mine owners. He prided him
self because he was a member of a La
Dor Union, but the quality of his
unionism is best described by his own
words:
The necessity for the maintenance
OF the open shop" said he, "for which
the mine owners of Colorado are
lighting, involves principle far from
local in its character If this country
is to endure, at least in its present
form, the constitutional right of every
man to work for whom. when. and
upon such terms as he sees fit must
be preserved"
General Chase, not content with his
part in the military Operations
against the miners, in his report to the
Governor of Colorado spews his We
nom upon Mother" Jones in these
words, referring to her speeches:
These speeches are couched in coarse.
vulgar, and profane language, and adj
dress themselves to the lowest pas
sions of mankind"
But Notwithstanding the falsehood
and the bias thrown about the Ludlow
the world knows the truth.
and so long as the world endures it
will stand out as the most cruel specie
OF oppression and rapine in recorded
history, and the men who had the
minds to conceive and the hearts to
do the execrabie deed will ego down
TO the tongueless silence of the dream
less dust despised by all mankind
The men. women and children who
died in defense OF their loved ones and
for a glorious cause. should never be
forgotten. And they will never be.
Generations unborn will revere their
memory, and repeat the tale OF horror
to their offspring, and they in turn in
hand it down to their children TO in
spire them with deisre for noble
deeds.
Let US no longer raise our voice in
protest against the Muscovite and the
Turk. We have had our Homestead,
our Calumet, and our Ludlow. And it |
we're enongh. There must be no more
such deeds. or else men will cease to