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 coalfields. 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 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