Well, after looking through my sources on the history of the
United Mine Workers (UMW), I now realize it is necessary to
continue this story for a few weeks more if I”m to cover John L.
Lewis”s role as UMW leader as fully as the topic deserves. So
this week we”ll examine one particular incident, the Ludlow
Massacre of 1914, in some detail before launching our tale of the
Lewis era.
You”ll recall that in our last installment we covered the Strike of
1902, a major triumph for the miners as they won further wage
and workweek concessions. But the fact is that being a miner
was still a terribly tough way to earn a living. In the book “The
Growth of the American Republic,” Morison (sic) et al describe
the conditions of the time.
“Coal miners worked without adequate safeguards in dangerous
underground pits, and the record of accidents and deaths was
appalling; work was seasonal, sometimes only 2 or 3 days a
week; miners who lived in company-owned towns could call
neither their homes nor their souls their own.”
Unfortunately for the UMW, they were not recognized in the
state of Colorado, where John D. Rockefeller held sway with his
coal fields. In 1903-4, the UMW tried to unionize the ranks and
their efforts were crushed. Ten years later, it was even worse.
By 1913, the Rockefeller family controlled some 24 mines, under
the auspices of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CFI).
John D. was retired by this time and John D. Rockefeller Jr.
(“Junior”) was in charge. The 39-year-old shared his father”s
disgust for unions. In addition, the CFI mines were losing
money and Junior wanted to prove to his father that he could turn
them around.
CFI paid the miners just $1.68 per day in scrip, which they could
then only spend in Rockefeller stores and in rent for their
company shacks.
As I”ve mentioned before, the accident rate in the mines of this
era was horrid. In Colorado alone, some 79 died in a single CFI
explosion back in 1910, and in 1913, statewide, 464 Colorado
miners were killed or maimed. It also needs to be noted that
the death rate in Colorado was far greater than in states where the
UMW was recognized.
Any efforts to reform the CFI mines were met with disdain. The
owners from time to time made concessions and then
immediately fell back on them. In the fall of 1913, the miners
struck.
The owners” boss on the scene wielding day-to-day control was
LaMont Montgomery Bowers, a man who rejected mediation of
any kind. Bowers hired 300 gunmen, procured 8 machine guns
and obtained an armored car the miners called “the Death
Special.”
The miners feared that they would be evicted from their shacks
and they were, with 12,000 men, women and children being
thrown into the rain. Gun battles erupted and several strikers
were killed.
Author Harold Evans relates the tale of Junior”s appearance
before a Congressional committee on the killings. When asked
whether the action was justified, Junior replied, at “any cost.”
As Evans writes, Rockefeller found it necessary “to defend the
great national principle, the freedom of the workers not to have a
union do things for them which they and the company did not
think were in their interests.” John Sr. liked what Junior said so
much, he sent him 10,000 shares of CFI stock.
In 1914, the violence intensified at CFI”s mines and the National
Guard was called in. The Guard was to escort the strikebreakers
(scabs) into the mines. But the governor of Colorado didn”t have
the funds to pay the militia so LaMont Bowers pressured the
bankers in the state to cough up the money to do so.
On April 24, 1914, lieutenant Karl Linderfelt had the Guard open
up the guns on the miners in the town of Ludlow. Linderfelt was
described as a “psychopathic sadist,” a charge one can not refute
when it”s known that he also had the militia, at the same time,
attack the camp where the miners had sent their families out of
harm”s way.
As the militia moved in to the families” camp, many of the Guard
were drunk when they torched a tent, suffocating 2 women along
with 11 children who were hiding in a dirt bunker (hereafter known as
the “Black Hole of Ludlow”). The miners then fought back but were
totally outgunned. 30 were killed, as well as 3 Guardsmen. Strike
leader Louis Tikas was among the victims, having been tortured before
he was shot to death.
When news of the action swept the country, condemnation of
CFI and the Rockefellers was swift. On April 28, President
Wilson sent in federal troops to quell the unrest, but by the
time order was restored, at least 74 had died. Linderfelt, the
psychopath, personally beat one miner to death.
In 1915, both LaMont Bowers and Junior confessed before the
Senate Committee on Industrial Relations that the massacre was
a disgrace. Junior then allowed a form of company union in the
CFI-owned mines.
While all this was going on, John D. Rockefeller Senior was
donating $100,000,000 to start the Rockefeller Foundation, the
largest single philanthropic act in history. What a guy!
Next week, John L. Lewis.as the history of the United Mine
Workers continues.
Sources:
“The American Century,” Harold Evans
“The Growth of the American Republic,” Morison, Commager,
Leuchtenburg
“A History of the American People,” Paul Johnson
Brian Trumbore
