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

against thousand fuddling, running
weeping pleading, crazed and terror
lied human beings. And twenty men
women and children-strikers and their
loved ones-fell in that horrid storm
of lead and fame. Fell by gunshot,
bludgeoning from rifle butt, bv blow
from sabre, by burning in the fred
tents, by smothering in the black
holes beneath those tents to which
they had fled to escape Arson's awful
clutch.
They slew them as the beast is slain;
They did not even toll
A requiem that might have brought
Rest to the startled soul,
But suddenly they moved them down
And hid them in a hole.
All day the one-sided battle con-
tinued. Ali that day thrcAgh men
dropped in their tracks; mothers sob
bed over the dying babe on their bos-
oms, only to be stricken themselves;
children were stif1ed, bullet-riddIed
asphyxiated
And when kindly night descended
when the golden sun of the morning.
setblood-red in the west, changing his
promise to the living to the benedic-
hons Tor the dead-those rifles, ma
chine guns and torches had sounded
taps tor a score of workers of Gods
world.
Here, then, is the grim picture of
Ludlow-the smoky, blurred and
blackened painting that must mar the
galleries of the twentieth century!
And what is that?
Just this. That score died in their
own cause. They perished for what
they thought was right They laid
down their all-their livesl-that 9TH
ers might live and work in peace.
Their greatest sin was that they held
out against capitals greed. Hungry
themselves, they asked only the bread
that was refused. Sick, they pleaded
only for the necessary medicines of
life. Downcast, thev begged only for
the barest crumbs of happiness.
All honor to the Twenty of the
Mighty Soul
Like Another long before, who had
given his life to bring solace and COM |
tort to the hearts of men, so did that
twenty die to insure industrial peace.
betterment and greater reward to the
sweating. starving, toiling hosts of i
the earth.
For Ludlow is the beginning and
the endl
Some sporadic assaults on other
bands followed: few scatter
ed acts of reprisal were noted on its
dark wings. But Ludlow stands out
from all these as the climax, the cul-
the final stand of Courage.
Heroism and Self-Sacrifce.
Ludlow carried home to the nation
the horror, wantonness and futility of |
the very things which had created
Ludlow aroused the people to the
realization that capita1istic rapacity
had over-reached itself in producing
Ludlow
Ludlow sounded the emphatic notice
that there must never again be anoth-
er Ludlow
The Twenty of the Mighty Soul
brought these things to pass. AS thev |
stood upon those brown hilltops and |
watched their canvass homes 90 up |
in smoke and fame waiting for the |
next bullet to single them out as VIC I
TINS, had they been gifted with pro-
phetic eye they might have seen a
more indulgent spirit of the
uture rising from the gray and sombre
ashes of the present.
= Dying, if gifted with the same pro-
ohetic eye, they might have been a
.riendlier, easier better employer TAX
ng the place of the old greed-obsess-
I'd taskmaster-a future employer who
would listen to the decently framed
md fairly presented complaints of his
workers.
Going to their reward, they might
1ave realized that there would never
1e repetition Of the scenes of April
20 1914 but that the coming years
would bring an industrial peace to.
make for happier homes, greater edu-
,atIon, more advancement among
he workers, and, by doing that very
hing, bring more profit, more humane
ceiling and wider vision to the en-
,loyer
Perishing from the earth they might
iaye foretold that the day had closed
1n privately hired guards, gunner.
wandering soldiers OF fortune and
hose men who live by coercing.
threatening and killing their fellows
"a closing Of the day on intimidation.
'rowbeating, harrassnent and starry