Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-02-04
WIVES OF MINERS TELL
OF TRAGEDY At LUDLOW
sion Describes Shooting at Women
and Children.
OPERATORS AFRAID or UNIONS
Official for Colorado Declares They
Realized They Would BE Forced
to Obey Laws Which Repeatedly
Had Been Violated.

NEW YORK, February ,3.-Iohu r.
the United Mine Workers OF America.
from the district which includes Colo
| RADIO. to-day told the Federal Commits
sion on Industrial Relations that Colo
RADIO Fuel and Iron Company and other
operators had refused to deal with or
ganized labor because they realized
that the unions would force them to
obey the mining laws. which. he snid.
they repeatedly had violated.
Mr. Lawson. who was witness last
week. was recalled after Mrs Mary
Petrucci and Mrs. Margaret Dominski
wives Of Colorado miners. had told the
story OF LUDLOW. Mrs. Petruccrs three
children were smothered TO death In a
subterranean chamber where they had
hidden when the tent colony was
burned
Lawson said that the only reason the
operators had granted the miners any
thing was because they had seen the
handwriting on the wall. placed there
by the unions"
The operators realized, he asserted
that the unions not only would force
them to obey the statutes, but would
prevent them from importing vast
numbers of European workers who
never had seen u mine before. and then
paying them what they pleased and
LIT IL,
DEFENDS POLICIES OF
R0CKEFELLI;R FOUNDATION
Jerome D. Greene. secretary OF tho
Rockefeller Foundation. and formerly
member of the personal stan OF John
ID. Rockefeller. defended the practices
and policies OF the Rockefeller Founda-
ton and the aims and ideas of it's
founders.
Greene admitted that the foundation
could do many things incompatible
with tho general interests OF the pub
lic." such ns conducting propaganda
against organized labor or n campaign
against compensation for workmen.
But. he declared. there was not even n
remote possibility that such things
would happen. He snid he considered
the Colorado troubles to be economic.
Mrs. DOminski, questioned about
living conditions in the Colorado mine
regions, said prices at the stores Of
the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company
were higher than elsewhere. and that
FOR this reason miners frequently went
to nearby towns for their supplies
She asserted that one miner was dis
charged when caught with supplies
purchased outside.
Mrs. Dominski described the alleged
shooting at women and children by
militia at Ludlow. She said that
militiamen had demanded from a leader
named Tykas the production of n GER
tain miner who was not In camp
shortly after Tykas had so informed
them. she said. she heard n bomb ex-
plodc, and. looking out OF her tent. she
saw militiamen riding toward them.
WOMEN SAW MEN
SET FIRE TO TENTS
Tykas told us to scatter, as the
militia had machine guns" said the
witness. About fifty or sixty women
and children were standing on the hill
when they started to shoot at u.s. Two
Of my children hid In well. and I hid
in barn with my child saw mon
set fire to the tents"
Mrs. Petrucci related her experiences
during the alleged attack on the colony.
II took my children into an under
ground chamber" sho said. There
were three women and eight children
In the cellar by the time l got there
Ten minutes later, the tent caught on
fre. and then ! lost consciousness
The next morning someody dragged me
out. When / reached the depot found
out for the first time my children were
missing"