Presidents and Labor: Woodrow Wilson and the Ludlow Massacre
This entry concerns a president only peripherally. The real story is about a labor dispute that ended tragically, as is evident from its colloquial name, "the Ludlow Massacre". In a 1914 a dispute arose between Colorado miners and their company. Tempers flared and a confrontation resulted that became known the Ludlow Massacre, in which eight strikers, eleven children and two mothers of the children were killed. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was a majority owner of the mine. He had earlier refused President Woodrow Wilson's offer to mediate the dispute, much like Theodore Roosevelt had done in 1902. Wilson's offer was conditional upon Rockefeller agreeing to collective bargaining in the dispute. Following the violence, Wilson sent in U.S. troops, bringing order to the situation. But the ultimate victory of the mine owners in the dispute was considered by many to be a defeat for Wilson.
Portions of the Rocky Mountains were found to be rich in veins of coal close to the surface of the land, and the accessibility of the coal made it profitable to mine. In 1867, these coal deposits were discovered by William Jackson Palmer, who was leading a survey team planning the route of the Kansas Pacific Railway. The rapid expansion of rail transport in the United States at the time made coal a valuable commodity. The coal mining industry in Colorado grew and in by the time Wilson became president, over 15,000 people worked in the industry, about 10 percent of those employed in the state. Colorado's coal industry was owned by a few companies, the largest being Colorado Fuel and Iron. It was purchased by John D. Rockefeller in 1902, and nine years later he turned his controlling interest in the company to his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
Mining was dangerous and difficult and miners faced great risk from explosion, suffocation, and collapsing mine walls. In 1912, the death rate in Colorado's mines was 7.055 per 1,000 employees. In 1914, the United States House Committee on Mines and Mining called on the state to address the high percentage of fatalities in the mining industry. Between 1884 and 1912, mining accidents claimed the lives of more than 1,700 Coloradans. In 1913 104 men died in Colorado’s mines, and 6 in the mine workings on the surface. Those working in the mines mainly resided in company towns, in which all land, real estate, and amenities were owned by the mine operator. This tended to stifle complaints. Company ownership of the towns provided companies considerable control over all aspects of workers' lives. Curfews were imposed. Company guards would not allow any 'suspicious' stranger into the camp and would not permit any miner to leave. Miners who offended company management were liable to find themselves and their families summarily evicted from their homes.
As workers became frustrated by their unsafe working conditions, the saw their solution in unions. Mines that were unionized had a lower rate of fatalities than nonunion mines. Colorado miners had repeatedly attempted to unionize since the state's first strike in 1883. The Western Federation of Miners were organized to represent miners in the gold and silver camps during the 1890s. Beginning in 1900, the United Mine Workers of America began organizing coal miners in the western states, including southern Colorado. The union set its sights on the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company because of its notoriously harsh management tactics. To break or prevent strikes, the coal companies hired strike breakers, mainly from Mexico and southern and eastern Europe, who bullied those inclined towards job action. This company hired immigrants of different nationalities in the mines, a practice designed to discourage communication that might lead to labor
organization.
In 1913 the union presented a list of eight demands on behalf of the miners. These were (1) Recognition of the union as bargaining agent for the miners; (2) Compensation for digging coal at a ton-rate based on 2,000 pounds; (3) Enforcement of the eight-hour work day law; (4) Payment for what was referred to as "dead work" (laying track, timbering, handling impurities, and other above ground jobs); (5) Weight check men elected by the workers (to keep the company honest); (6) The right to use any store, and choose their boarding houses and doctors (rather than having to use those provided by the company); (7) Strict enforcement of Colorado's mine safety laws. and (8) an end to the company guard system. The companies rejected the demands and in September 1913, and the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) called a strike. Those who went on strike were evicted from their company homes, and moved to tent villages prepared by the union. These tent villages were set up near the mouths of canyons that led to the coal camps, for the purpose of blocking the strikebreakers' traffic. This led to confrontations between striking miners and working miners, referred to as "scabs" by the union.
The company hired the Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency to protect the new workers and harass the strikers. Baldwin–Felts used violence to intimidate the strikers, going so far as to fire bullets into the tents at random, occasionally killing and maiming people. They used an improvised armored car, mounted with a machine gun to patrol the camp's perimeters. Frequent sniper attacks on the tent colonies drove the miners to dig pits beneath the tents to protect their families.
As the violence increased, Colorado Governor Elias M. Ammons called in the Colorado National Guard on October 28. At first, the Guard's presence calmed the situation, but Guard leaders were more supportive of company management. On March 10, 1914, the body of a replacement worker was found on the railroad tracks near Forbes, Colorado. The National Guard said that the man had been murdered by the strikers. In retaliation, the guard's commander ordered the Forbes tent colony destroyed. The attack was launched while the inhabitants were attending a funeral for some children who had died a few days earlier. The attack was witnessed by photographer Lou Dold.
The strikers persevered until the spring of 1914. By then, the National Guard had largely broken the strike by helping the mine operators bring in non-union workers. The state had run out money to maintain the Guard, and Governor Ammons decided to recall them. The governor left one company of National Guardsmen in southern Colorado and formed a new company called "Troop A," which consisted largely of Colorado Fuel & Iron Company mine camp guards and mine guards hired by Baldwin-Felts, outfitted in National Guard uniforms.
On the morning of April 20, 1914, Easter Monday, three Guardsmen appeared at the camp ordering the release of a man they claimed was being held against his will. Camp leader Louis Tikas agreed to meet with a local militia commander at the train station in Ludlow village, a half mile from the colony. While this meeting took place, two companies of militia installed a machine gun on a ridge near the camp and took a position along a rail route about half a mile south of Ludlow. Fearing trouble, Tikas ran back to the camp. The miners positioned themselves so as to flank the militia positions and this led to a gun battle. The fighting lasted for the entire day. The militia was reinforced by non-uniformed mine guards later in the afternoon. At dusk, a passing freight train stopped on the tracks in front of the Guards' machine gun placements, allowing many of the miners and their families to escape to some hills to the east called the "Black Hills." By 7:00 p.m., the camp was in flames, and the militia descended on it and began to search and loot the camp.
Louis Tikas had remained in the camp the entire day and was still there when the fire started. Tikas and two other men were captured by the militia. Tikas and Lt. Karl Linderfelt, commander of one of two Guard companies, had a history of previous confrontations. Two militiamen held Tikas, and Linderfelt broke a rifle butt over his head. Tikas and the other two captured miners were later found shot to death. Tikas had been shot in the back. Their bodies were left along the Colorado and Southern Railway tracks for three days in full view of passing trains. The militia refused to allow them to be moved until a local of a railway union demanded the bodies be taken away for burial.
During the battle, four women and eleven children had been hiding in a pit beneath one tent, where they were trapped when the tent above them was set on fire. Two of the women and all of the children suffocated. Relief parties carrying the Red Cross flag were driven back by the gunmen, and for twenty-four hours rescuers were prevented from crossing the firing line.
Three company guards and one militiaman were killed in the day's fighting.
In response to the Ludlow massacre, Colorado labor call on union members to acquire "all the arms and ammunition legally available," and fighting continued for the next ten days. In Trinidad, Colorado, United Mine Workers of America officials openly distributed arms and ammunition to strikers at union headquarters. 700 to 1,000 strikers attacked a number of mines, driving off or killing guards and setting fire to the buildings. About 75 people died during this portion of the fighting. The Governor sent militia reinforcements back into the strike zone.
The fighting finally ended only when President Woodrow Wilson sent in Federal troops. The troops, who reported directly to Washington, DC, disarmed both sides, displacing and even arresting some of the militia in the process. The UMWA ran out of money, and called off the strike on December 10, 1914.
In the end, the strikers failed to obtain their demands, the union did not obtain recognition, and many striking workers were replaced by new workers. Over 400 strikers were arrested, with 332 of them indicted for murder. Only one man, John R. Lawson, leader of the strike, was convicted of murder, and that verdict was later overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court. Twenty-two National Guardsmen, including 10 officers, were court martialed. All were acquitted, except Lt. Linderfelt, who was found guilty of assault for his attack on Louis Tikas. He received a minor penalty.
Following this incident, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. hired labor relations expert and future Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King to help him develop reforms for his mines and mining towns. Other mine owners agreed to follow the Rockefeller plan. A new era of labor-management relations was developing.
Many years later, South Dakota Senator and Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern wrote his doctoral dissertation on the subject, later published in a book called The Great Coalfield War.
Portions of the Rocky Mountains were found to be rich in veins of coal close to the surface of the land, and the accessibility of the coal made it profitable to mine. In 1867, these coal deposits were discovered by William Jackson Palmer, who was leading a survey team planning the route of the Kansas Pacific Railway. The rapid expansion of rail transport in the United States at the time made coal a valuable commodity. The coal mining industry in Colorado grew and in by the time Wilson became president, over 15,000 people worked in the industry, about 10 percent of those employed in the state. Colorado's coal industry was owned by a few companies, the largest being Colorado Fuel and Iron. It was purchased by John D. Rockefeller in 1902, and nine years later he turned his controlling interest in the company to his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
Mining was dangerous and difficult and miners faced great risk from explosion, suffocation, and collapsing mine walls. In 1912, the death rate in Colorado's mines was 7.055 per 1,000 employees. In 1914, the United States House Committee on Mines and Mining called on the state to address the high percentage of fatalities in the mining industry. Between 1884 and 1912, mining accidents claimed the lives of more than 1,700 Coloradans. In 1913 104 men died in Colorado’s mines, and 6 in the mine workings on the surface. Those working in the mines mainly resided in company towns, in which all land, real estate, and amenities were owned by the mine operator. This tended to stifle complaints. Company ownership of the towns provided companies considerable control over all aspects of workers' lives. Curfews were imposed. Company guards would not allow any 'suspicious' stranger into the camp and would not permit any miner to leave. Miners who offended company management were liable to find themselves and their families summarily evicted from their homes.
As workers became frustrated by their unsafe working conditions, the saw their solution in unions. Mines that were unionized had a lower rate of fatalities than nonunion mines. Colorado miners had repeatedly attempted to unionize since the state's first strike in 1883. The Western Federation of Miners were organized to represent miners in the gold and silver camps during the 1890s. Beginning in 1900, the United Mine Workers of America began organizing coal miners in the western states, including southern Colorado. The union set its sights on the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company because of its notoriously harsh management tactics. To break or prevent strikes, the coal companies hired strike breakers, mainly from Mexico and southern and eastern Europe, who bullied those inclined towards job action. This company hired immigrants of different nationalities in the mines, a practice designed to discourage communication that might lead to labor
organization.
In 1913 the union presented a list of eight demands on behalf of the miners. These were (1) Recognition of the union as bargaining agent for the miners; (2) Compensation for digging coal at a ton-rate based on 2,000 pounds; (3) Enforcement of the eight-hour work day law; (4) Payment for what was referred to as "dead work" (laying track, timbering, handling impurities, and other above ground jobs); (5) Weight check men elected by the workers (to keep the company honest); (6) The right to use any store, and choose their boarding houses and doctors (rather than having to use those provided by the company); (7) Strict enforcement of Colorado's mine safety laws. and (8) an end to the company guard system. The companies rejected the demands and in September 1913, and the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) called a strike. Those who went on strike were evicted from their company homes, and moved to tent villages prepared by the union. These tent villages were set up near the mouths of canyons that led to the coal camps, for the purpose of blocking the strikebreakers' traffic. This led to confrontations between striking miners and working miners, referred to as "scabs" by the union.
The company hired the Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency to protect the new workers and harass the strikers. Baldwin–Felts used violence to intimidate the strikers, going so far as to fire bullets into the tents at random, occasionally killing and maiming people. They used an improvised armored car, mounted with a machine gun to patrol the camp's perimeters. Frequent sniper attacks on the tent colonies drove the miners to dig pits beneath the tents to protect their families.
As the violence increased, Colorado Governor Elias M. Ammons called in the Colorado National Guard on October 28. At first, the Guard's presence calmed the situation, but Guard leaders were more supportive of company management. On March 10, 1914, the body of a replacement worker was found on the railroad tracks near Forbes, Colorado. The National Guard said that the man had been murdered by the strikers. In retaliation, the guard's commander ordered the Forbes tent colony destroyed. The attack was launched while the inhabitants were attending a funeral for some children who had died a few days earlier. The attack was witnessed by photographer Lou Dold.
The strikers persevered until the spring of 1914. By then, the National Guard had largely broken the strike by helping the mine operators bring in non-union workers. The state had run out money to maintain the Guard, and Governor Ammons decided to recall them. The governor left one company of National Guardsmen in southern Colorado and formed a new company called "Troop A," which consisted largely of Colorado Fuel & Iron Company mine camp guards and mine guards hired by Baldwin-Felts, outfitted in National Guard uniforms.
On the morning of April 20, 1914, Easter Monday, three Guardsmen appeared at the camp ordering the release of a man they claimed was being held against his will. Camp leader Louis Tikas agreed to meet with a local militia commander at the train station in Ludlow village, a half mile from the colony. While this meeting took place, two companies of militia installed a machine gun on a ridge near the camp and took a position along a rail route about half a mile south of Ludlow. Fearing trouble, Tikas ran back to the camp. The miners positioned themselves so as to flank the militia positions and this led to a gun battle. The fighting lasted for the entire day. The militia was reinforced by non-uniformed mine guards later in the afternoon. At dusk, a passing freight train stopped on the tracks in front of the Guards' machine gun placements, allowing many of the miners and their families to escape to some hills to the east called the "Black Hills." By 7:00 p.m., the camp was in flames, and the militia descended on it and began to search and loot the camp.
Louis Tikas had remained in the camp the entire day and was still there when the fire started. Tikas and two other men were captured by the militia. Tikas and Lt. Karl Linderfelt, commander of one of two Guard companies, had a history of previous confrontations. Two militiamen held Tikas, and Linderfelt broke a rifle butt over his head. Tikas and the other two captured miners were later found shot to death. Tikas had been shot in the back. Their bodies were left along the Colorado and Southern Railway tracks for three days in full view of passing trains. The militia refused to allow them to be moved until a local of a railway union demanded the bodies be taken away for burial.
During the battle, four women and eleven children had been hiding in a pit beneath one tent, where they were trapped when the tent above them was set on fire. Two of the women and all of the children suffocated. Relief parties carrying the Red Cross flag were driven back by the gunmen, and for twenty-four hours rescuers were prevented from crossing the firing line.
Three company guards and one militiaman were killed in the day's fighting.
In response to the Ludlow massacre, Colorado labor call on union members to acquire "all the arms and ammunition legally available," and fighting continued for the next ten days. In Trinidad, Colorado, United Mine Workers of America officials openly distributed arms and ammunition to strikers at union headquarters. 700 to 1,000 strikers attacked a number of mines, driving off or killing guards and setting fire to the buildings. About 75 people died during this portion of the fighting. The Governor sent militia reinforcements back into the strike zone.
The fighting finally ended only when President Woodrow Wilson sent in Federal troops. The troops, who reported directly to Washington, DC, disarmed both sides, displacing and even arresting some of the militia in the process. The UMWA ran out of money, and called off the strike on December 10, 1914.
In the end, the strikers failed to obtain their demands, the union did not obtain recognition, and many striking workers were replaced by new workers. Over 400 strikers were arrested, with 332 of them indicted for murder. Only one man, John R. Lawson, leader of the strike, was convicted of murder, and that verdict was later overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court. Twenty-two National Guardsmen, including 10 officers, were court martialed. All were acquitted, except Lt. Linderfelt, who was found guilty of assault for his attack on Louis Tikas. He received a minor penalty.
Following this incident, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. hired labor relations expert and future Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King to help him develop reforms for his mines and mining towns. Other mine owners agreed to follow the Rockefeller plan. A new era of labor-management relations was developing.
Many years later, South Dakota Senator and Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern wrote his doctoral dissertation on the subject, later published in a book called The Great Coalfield War.