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Colorado Experience: Ludlow Massacre – Transcript
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- By 1910, coal was an essential energy source in the United States, powering factories, railroad lines, steam ships, and homes.
- The strike of 1913 took place to force management concessions regarding better wages, union recognition, and the enforcement of mine safety laws.
- During the Ludlow Massacre, 13 people including 11 children and two women suffocated in a tent cellar beneath a burning tent.
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women and children died to give us the rights that we take for granted today massacring women and children has a way of fixing your attention you like the weekend you like an 8 hour workday you don't like forced overtime you have the L love Strikers to thank for that they started the fight they started the recognition they started turning people's attitudes towards workers they took action they had their own fate in
their own hands for at least a little while they paid the ultimate price to give us safe workplace laws and constraints on corporate exploitation it's one of the most violent uprisings in the history of the United States Colorado experience is a co-production of Rocky Mountain PBS and history Colorado History Colorado brings
history to life for audiences of all ages through exhibits Collections and historic preservation programs throughout the state history Colorado connects people to the stories places and Heritage of Colorado's past that provide perspectives on today and Inspire our choices for tomorrow find out more at www.h hisc col.org additional funding provided by
El pomar foundation and the beter found Foundation celebrating 75 years of philanthropy in Colorado with additional funding and support from these fine organizations and from viewers like you
industrialization had been going on in um the United States for a century um by the 19 means by 1910 America was a nation that ran on coal coal powered the factories and the railroad lines and the steam ships that brought goods and people to the United States coal heated the homes it was probably the most essential energy source in the United
States cfni um was uh the largest steel mill west of the Mississippi River and CF and I was the largest private employer in Colorado the largest private land owner CF and I drove industry in the west and certainly within the state of Colorado it was the coal that brought
large companies to Colorado and also brought a really Multicultural group of laborers people from all over the world coal was essential CF and I had been given as a birthday present from John D Rockefeller senior to his son Junior they made America the Rockefellers made America but they needed
help there was actually recruiters that went into Italy Czechoslovakia Yugoslavia Germany France Greece and the intent was if they can't speak the same language that will reduce their ability to realize their common interest and unite and form a union so they were kind of promis this way of life that was
nothing but layered with gold and so they came out to work these mines they were looked at no more than you know just somebody to produce profit for the companies forced over time when they left their homes women that were left at home would often be exploited these were ruthless conditions these were ignorant immigrants for the company and for the company men and for the people who patrolled the coal camps where people were living there were so
many ways to die in a coal mine there were explosions gas buildup coal secretes as part of its decaying process methane gas an explosive in a mine miners produced clouds of cold dust which not only settled in their lungs slowly suffocating them but also created an accelerant that would ignite the methane gas in 1910 alone more than 400 miners died in Colorado 210 of them in three separate explosions the vast
majority of miners died in ones or twos in in rockfalls in small accidents a mule counted for more than a minor because it was tougher usually to replace a good mule than a minor there was no shortage of people looking to work in the mines if you're a white worker you'll be something like a fireman which requires skill in his supervisory and therefore pays better if you're not a white worker chances are
you'll be working down at the rock face mining being paid solely by the amount of coal that you can mine the company actually provided the person that weighed the coal and sometimes they felt that they were getting cheated out of the amount of coal that they were actually mining if they had just a couple rocks in the coal the company would say no you have rocks in your coal so we're we're not going to pay you for
that ton they would still dump it in the pile you have to drill the coal and then you have to put explosives in the holes that you drilled and then you have to explode them to soften the coal or loosen the coal and then from there you have to load your mine cars up then you had to support your roof because as you go into the mine you're exposing the top of the mine when you have to support it in some fashion or you get cave-ins plus
they'd have to lay the rail for their coal cars as they went in the only work you got paid for is what coal you loaded so as you were doing all this other work you weren't compensated for it so you can go to work at a mine work the whole week 10 hours a day for 7 days and not earn a penny and even when they went home they were still under the control of the company companies felt that it was best to control their miners by by
offering them housing in company towns so the miners worked in the company mine came home to a company house house shopped at the company's store read company approved literature they saw company approved movies they very often lived behind barb wire what the mine owners would say is look we're taking care of you this is paternalism we're making sure that you have a roof over your head you have access to supplies in these very remote mining camps we're
taking care of you as much as we can but really these company towns were intended to contain labor unrest by the time they paid for their blasting powder and they paid for their explosives and paid what they owed to the company store plus the rent of the company house they actually worked for nothing Mother Jones Mary Harris an
Irish immigrant dedicated her lives to protecting the families of workers by being a socialist organizer you could even say an agitator in strikes wherever laborers were in trouble Mary Harris was there to cajo and berate and organize and March and picket and protest and strike Mother Jones rallied the women and children to engage in parades through the streets of Trinidad they were carrying placards they were talking
about the corruption of the system we are Americans too and how come we're not being treated like Americans we're being treated like dogs she led these workers to believe that there was something better if they would stick together and try to fight together very outspoken very rapid IAL very colorful and became kind of a a lightning rod of of the great strike of 1913 and 1914 she was thrown into jail as a result of her
agitations and when that news got out it usually meant that someone was going to come to her cause and and get her out of jail because the image of putting an 80-year-old woman in jail was was not a a happy one for many people she's the conscience of the strike and you know she's also playing the role of the conscience of America and the conscience of the company
even the great strike of 1913 was really the culmination of about 50 years of Labor unrest in the Rocky Mountain West Hard Rock miners under the banner of the western Federation of Miner and then coal miners under the United Mine Workers had been protesting for more control of their own working conditions for about 50 years we have very little here that uh actually documents the event at lllo what we have
is we have materials that predate the event which document things like the conditions in the coal mines the workers conditions accident reports the types of accidents the miners were having things like explosions in the mines possible deaths those sorts of things uh the miners definitely were working under some pretty harsh conditions and lllo was a direct result of the miners not being satisfied with their working
conditions the strike of 1913 took place in order to force concessions from management over better wages they asked for a 10% wage hike they asked for recognition of the United Mine Workers as the agency of collective bargaining but most importantly the biggest issue for the miners was enforcement of Colorado's mine safety laws Colorado had laws on the books to protect miners but they were almost universally ignored what the miners were really interested
in is making sure that their safety was protected but for the mine owners all of these issues were seen as an attack on their their right to private property and they were willing to go to war to the death in order to protect their right to work the mines in any way that they saw fit there are a very large number of deaths in the days and months during the strike leading up to the massacre and if you're really going to understand the significance of the love the massacre you have to look at it all
in context over the winter of 1913 1914 there were various incidents on the streets of Trinidad and up around Wallenberg violence was committed on on both sides I mean the strikers were committing damage against company property and the company men would retaliate it just played out longer than anybody thought it would once the strike began the union members were evicted from their company towns and the United Mine Workers
created a series of tent camps tent cities really on the cusp between the mountains and plains right along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains for these striking miners to live so they set up formal streets uh along which the tents were lined they had a communal tent where they would take meals and plan their strike activities there was a medical tent that was strategically positioned so that all of the world could tell that the miners were
interested in health and well-being again they're up against this assumption that they are savages and that they are dangerous and that they will explode into violence at the drop of a hat so one strategy that the miners had was to try to present this civilized face to the world throughout the winter of 1913 and 1914 miners were living in tents out on the plains during what was a very ferocious winter with heavy snows in
between the snowstorms they did things collectively to try to maintain good spirits they played baseball they embraced the American Pastime as a way to kill time and from there they would send up people to pick it at the mine to prevent strike Breakers from doing any work work and I think they severely restricted production of coal it affected the whole ability to produce
steel once out on strike the the the miners organized in a pretty in a pretty effective way they were led by a Greek Miner named Lou tikus Louis tikus was an organizer and a representative for the United Mine Workers he particularly represented the Greeks who were striking at llo the Greeks themselves were really tough many of them were Veterans of of the Greek war for independence against turkey and and many of the national Guardsmen were were scared to death of