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75-588: The West Virginia mine wars era began with the Cabin Creek and Paint Creek strike of 1912–1913 . With help from Mary "Mother Jones" Harris Jones , an important figure in unionizing the mine workers, the miners demanded better pay, better work conditions, the right to trade where they pleased (ending the practice of forcing miners to buy from company-owned stores), and recognition of the United Mine Workers (UMW). The mining companies refused to meet

150-901: A shootout in Matewan, West Virginia , between agents of the Baldwin-Felts and local miners, who later joined the United Mine Workers of America , sparked what became known as the Battle of Blair Mountain , the largest insurrection in the United States since the American Civil War . West Virginia had only a few active coal mines during the US Civil War , with fewer than 1,600 miners in the whole state. Coal mining would flourish, however, between 1880 and 1900, after competing railroad companies began carving routes through

225-560: A cartoon in The Masses called "Poisoned at the Source" depicting the president of The Associated Press , Frank B. Noyes , poisoning a well labeled 'The News' with lies, suppressed facts, slander, and prejudice. It was accompanied by an editorial by Max Eastman claiming that the AP had not only suppressed the facts of the strike, but that the AP had a profound conflict of interest. Despite

300-535: A force of over 5,000 miners from the north side of the Kanawha River joined the strikers' tent city, leading Governor Glasscock to establish martial law in the region the following day. The 1,200 state troops confiscating arms and ammunition from both sides lessened tensions to some degree, but the strikers were forbidden to congregate, and were subject to fast, unfair trials in military court. Meanwhile, strikers' families began to suffer from hunger, cold, and

375-653: A full year of work stoppages and fighting, the mining companies accepted the UMW compromise, which was enforced by West Virginia state soldiers. On April 22 and 23, 1920, between 275 and 300 miners in Matewan, Mingo County joined the United Mine Workers of America . In retaliation, the Burnwell Coal and Coke Company fired all union-aligned miners and gave them three days to leave their company-owned residences. On April 27, 1920, Mingo County officials arrested Baldwin-Felts agent Albert C. Felts, who would later be involved in

450-607: A local justice of the peace. Baldwin-Felts agents carried out their evictions under watch of a crowd of miners and their families. Hearing of the trouble stirring in Matewan, miners from surrounding areas armed themselves and made their way to the town in case of a larger conflict. As the Baldwin-Felts agents were headed to the train station to depart Matewan, they were confronted once more by Police Chief Sid Hatfield and Mayor Cabel Testerman. Both Hatfield and Baldwin-Felts agent Albert Felts reported that they had warrants for

525-459: A mine guard, who was shot down in an open battle between miners and mine guards. Lawson was not within several miles of the scene, but he was indicted because he was in charge of the Ludlow tent colony, and they trumped up a charge that he was responsible for all the acts of the colony. He declared that Las Animas county was owned body and soul by the corporations. In proof he showed that although in

600-518: A second attack. Another miners' raid on Mucklow killed at least two people a few days later, and on February 10 martial law was imposed for the third and final time. Mother Jones was arrested on February 13 in Pratt and charged in military court for inciting riot (reportedly for attempting to read the Declaration of Independence ), and, later, conspiracy to commit murder. She refused to recognize

675-580: A secret trapdoor in her room, a message sent to pro-labor Indiana Senator John Worth Kern . Governor Hatfield released Jones, without comment, after a total of 85 days imprisonment. The Senate's Kern Resolution of May 26, 1913, led to the United States Senate's Committee on Education and Labor opening an investigation into conditions in West Virginia coal mines. Congress almost immediately authorized two similar investigations into

750-500: A splendid man, he declared that he came here as the representative of 500,000 organized coal miners to discuss the so-called "Lawson case." He told how he and Lawson and other leaders went to Colorado in 1913, how they sought a hearing with the mine owners but met with refusal, because the operators had determined to eliminate the union. Then he told of how the strike was called, and how the men had hoped to conduct it peacefully, as no strike could be won by violence. Then Mr. Hayes told how

825-597: A team of lawyers to prosecute a case against Sid Hatfield and fifteen other men alleged to have participated in the Matewan Shootout, specifically on the charge of murdering Albert Felts. All sixteen men were, however, acquitted by a Mingo County jury. Shortly thereafter, the West Virginia Legislature passed a bill allowing criminal cases to be prosecuted with juries summoned from another county. Murder charges were renewed, only this time for

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900-646: A voice for miners throughout the rest of his life. This letter is just one that was featured in the United Mine Workers Journal and the Hellraisers Journal Dear Sir and Brother: Just a few lines to advise that we expect to have the Ludlow Monument erected and in place by next Decoration Day, and we propose to hold dedication exercises at Ludlow on that date. In view of this fact, it might be well to postpone

975-720: Is a dangerous profession overall, but between 1890 and 1912, West Virginia mines had the highest miner death rates in the country. During World War I , West Virginia miners faced higher death rates than even soldiers in the American Expeditionary Force fighting in Europe. Some West Virginian coal miners joined the United Mine Workers (UMW) in response to wage reductions following The Panic of 1893 . By 1902, UMW membership in West Virginia had reached 5,000 miners. Union membership among West Virginia coal miners remained low, however, especially in southern parts of

1050-500: Is owned by the United Mine Workers of America, which erected a granite monument in memory of the miners and their families who died that day. The Ludlow Tent Colony Site was designated a National Historic Landmark on January 16, 2009, and dedicated on June 28, 2009.Modern archeological investigation largely supports the strikers' reports of the event. Frank J. Hayes, then international vice-president, twice invited

1125-781: The Colorado Coalfield War , which began as a strike against the Rockefeller -owned Colorado Fuel and Iron company in September 1913 and saw the April 20, 1914 Ludlow Massacre . Frank Hayes (unionist) Company Government National Guard Events Locations Commemorations Frank J. Hayes (May 4, 1882 – June 10, 1948) was an American miner and president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) from 1917 to 1919. A Democrat, he also served as Lieutenant Governor of Colorado in 1937–39. He

1200-774: The Matewan Massacre . Paint Creek%E2%80%93Cabin Creek strike of 1912 Mother Jones Bonner Hill; William E. Glasscock The Paint Creek–Cabin Creek Strike , or the Paint Creek Mine War , was a confrontation between striking coal miners and coal operators in Kanawha County, West Virginia , centered on the area enclosed by two streams, Paint Creek and Cabin Creek . The strike lasted from April 18, 1912, through July 1913. After

1275-487: The 55 mines on Cabin Creek. However, miners on Paint Creek received compensation of 2 1 ⁄ 2 ¢ less per ton than other union miners in the area. When the Paint Creek union negotiated a new contract with the operators in 1912, they demanded that operators raise the compensation rate to the same level as the surrounding area. This increase would have cost operators approximately fifteen cents per miner per day, but

1350-670: The AP's denials, its local AP representative, Cal Young, was also a member of the military tribunal passing judgment on the strikers. The AP responded with two suits of criminal libel against Eastman and Young in November 1913 and January 1914. Both suits eventually were dropped. The AP's specific reasons for dropping the suits, and its general relationship to labor, are explored in Upton Sinclair 's 1919 exposé The Brass Check . The United Mine Workers of America , Mother Jones, and Baldwin-Felts Detectives would all be involved in

1425-645: The Colorado National Guard along a 40-mile front from Trinidad to Walsenburg . The entire strike would cost between 69 and 199 lives. Thomas G. Andrews described it as the "deadliest strike in the history of the United States", commonly referred to as the Colorado Coalfield War . The Ludlow Massacre was a watershed moment in American labor relations. Historian Howard Zinn described the Ludlow Massacre as "the culminating act of perhaps

1500-562: The Kanawha County Sheriff Bonner Hill and a group of detectives attacked the Holly Grove miners' settlement with an armored train, called the "Bull Moose Special", attacking with machine guns and high-powered rifles, putting 100 machine-gun bullets through the frame house of striker Cesco Estep and killing him. Sarah Blizzard led a group of women to damage the railroad tracks used by the train to prevent

1575-479: The Matewan Shootout. By July 1, 1920, in the county had unionized and joined the UMW strike. Miners and mine guards engaged in several armed skirmishes over the closure of coal mines and access to rail routes in the summer and fall of 1920. The West Virginia government declared martial law and sent federal troops to quell the strike, but backed down under threat of a general strike of all union coal miners in West Virginia. Baldwin-Felts Agency Chief Thomas Felts hired

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1650-555: The Matewan shootout, for illegally evicting miners of the Burnwell Coal and Coke Company as punishment for union activity. Mingo County Sheriff G. T. Blankenship negotiated with miners groups that as long as only Mingo County officials enforced the eviction notices, the miners would peacefully comply. Miners in Mingo County continued to join the UMWA. On May 6, 1920, a United Mine Workers meeting drew 3,000 attendees. By May 17, 1920,

1725-578: The Paint Creek area, and most miners there were unionized. In March 1912, Paint Creek UMW miners attempted to renegotiate their contracts for higher pay and automatic union dues. In response, a number of Paint Creek mines withdrew their recognition of UMW. On April 18, 1912, union and non-union miners from Paint Creek, as well as 7,500 miners from the previously non-union Cabin Creek, Kanawha, and Fayette counties, went on strike. The UMW set up tent camps for miners and their families who had often been evicted without warning. UMW Vice-President Frank Hayes and

1800-591: The UMWA executive council, he unsuccessfully ran for governor of Illinois on the ticket of the Socialist Party of America . When UMWA president John P. White resigned in 1917 to take a federal government job, Hayes was elected president to succeed him. Hayes' tenure as UMWA president was not an effective one. He was not a firm leader, and lacked administrative abilities. His health deteriorated quickly during his presidency, probably due to alcoholism. By 1919, he turned most of his duties over to John L. Lewis , who

1875-612: The UMWA set up a tent colony for evicted miners outside of Matewan. On May 19, 1920, thirteen agents of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency returned to Matewan to evict miners from Stone Mountain Coal Corporation housing. The Baldwin-Felts agents were challenged by Matewan Police Chief Sid Hatfield and Matewan Mayor Cabel Testerman, who contested the agents' authority in the town. The Baldwin-Felts agents persisted, however, based on permission from

1950-719: The West Virginia counties of Fayette, Kanawha, Logan, Boone and Mingo was prepared and signed by the President Warren G. Harding , awaiting his order for it to be promulgated. and troops of the 19th and 26th U.S. Infantry divisions were readied at Camp Sherman in Ohio and Camp Dix in New Jersey, respectively, to be sent by railroad to West Virginia. The union leaders ignored the order and 2,500 federal troops arrived on September 2, bringing with them machine guns and military aircraft armed with surplus explosive and gas bombs from

2025-548: The anniversary demonstration until May 30th, at which time we expect to hold a great demonstration at Ludlow, which will be attended by all the members of the International Executive Board. I suggest that you notify your Local Unions as to our intention to hold dedication exercises on May 30th. With all good wishes, I am, Fraternally yours, FRANK J. HAYES, President It may be stated here that owing to difficulties encountered in transporting material,

2100-601: The babes on their bosoms thy fiends murdered there, The women and children of Ludlow? Your conscience acquits you-but what of the dead! O! what of the murdered-they asked you for bread; They begged you for freedom and you gave them lead, The women and children of Ludlow. They sought but a chance for their husbands and sons, A future more kindly for their little ones- Your conscience acquits you-yet slaughtered with guns The women and children of Ludlow. Your conscience acquits you-go look where they died; Go look where they perished, ay, pleaded and cried- The mothers,

2175-521: The children, the babes crucified. The women and children of Ludlow. And then tell the God you profess to adore, O! then tell the Master, your hands red with gore, Your conscience you-though slaughtered the poor, The women and children of Ludlow. Frank Hayes sent the following letter about a monument for the Ludlow Massacre to another member of the UMWA leadership upon his retirement. He continued to be

2250-469: The cities ... The miners meanwhile had armed themselves in self-defense and in a battle had temporarily succeeded in driving the Baldwins into the hills. Then came the Colorado National Guard, in command of Adjutant General John Chase. Assured by him and Governor Ammons that they would be let alone, the striking miners voluntarily surrendered their arms. On the last day of October 1913, with banners flying,

2325-464: The company operations. Due to this threat, the mining companies deployed additional armed guards and awaited the miners' attack. Consequently, the Governor proclaimed martial law to be in effect on September 2, 1912, seizing 1,872 rifles, 556 pistols, 6 machine guns, 225,000 rounds of ammunition, and 480 blackjacks – as well as large quantities of daggers, bayonets, and brass knuckles. On May 19, 1920,

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2400-462: The confrontation, Fred Stanton, a banker, estimated that the strike and ensuing violence cost $ 100,000,000. The confrontation directly caused perhaps fifty violent deaths, as well as many more deaths indirectly caused by starvation and malnutrition among the striking miners. In the number of casualties it counts among the worst conflicts in American labor union history. The strike was a prelude to subsequent labor-related West Virginia conflicts in

2475-590: The congressional committee, investigating the Colorado strike, when asked if he approved of the use of machine-guns and paid gunmen to break the strike, even though scores of people were murdered, replied: "My conscience acquits me.") Your conscience acquits you-but how make reply And speak now of justice, with eyes to the sky, When there in the ashes their torn bodies lie, The women and children of Ludlow? How look on their faces, their blood-matted hair, Their charred, blackened bodies all swollen and bare, And

2550-577: The copper mining industry in Michigan, and mining conditions in Colorado. One theme of the Senate hearings was an attempt to identify the number of deaths related to the strike, and responsibility for them. One source estimates "perhaps fifty violent deaths" without estimating the effect of the conditions in the tent camp. The strike came to national attention in July 1913, cartoonist Art Young published

2625-510: The deaths of Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers. In the weeks following the August 1st assassinations, miners organized and armed themselves across West Virginia. From August 20, 1921, miners began rallying at Lens Creek , approximately ten miles south of West Virginia state capital of Charleston . Estimates of total numbers vary, but on August 24, between 5,000 and 20,000 miners began marching from Lens Creek into Logan County, West Virginia . Many of

2700-568: The deaths of the other 6 Baldwin-Felts agents. Sid Hatfield and his deputy Ed Chambers were also brought up on charges of destroying the Mohawk mining camp in McDowell County. On August 1, 1921, Hatfield, Chambers, and their wives traveled unarmed to the McDowell County courthouse to stand trial. Upon reaching the courthouse, Hatfield and Chambers were shot and killed by waiting Baldwin-Felts agents. Miners in West Virginia were outraged at

2775-509: The demands of the workers and instead hired Baldwin-Felts agents equipped with rifles to guard the mines and act as strikebreakers. After the Agents arrived, the miners either moved out or were evicted from the houses they had been renting from the coal companies, and moved into coal camps that were being supported by the Union. Approximately 35,000 people lived in these coal camps. A month after

2850-518: The end, Shouting the battle cry of union. We have fought them in the North, Now we'll fight them in the South, Shouting the battle cry of union. We are fighting for our rights, boys, We are fighting for our homes, Shouting the battle cry of union; Men have died to win the struggle; They've died to set us free, Shouting the battle cry of union. (John D. Rockefeller Jr., testifying before

2925-462: The ensuing Battle of Blair Mountain. Press support did not extend to union growth; UMW membership in West Virginia dropped by about half between 1921 and 1924. The Matewan shootout is re-enacted annually in Matewan, West Virginia . John Sayles dramatized the events of the Matewan shootout in his 1987 film Matewan . A documentary named The Mine Wars was made about these events for PBS and

3000-410: The fight today, Shouting the battle cry of union; We will rally from the coal mines, We'll battle to the end, Shouting the battle cry of union. Chorus: The union forever, hurrah, boys, hurrah! Down with the Baldwins, up with the law; For we're coming, Colorado, we're coming all the way, Shouting the battle cry of union. We have fought them here for years, boys, We'll fight them in

3075-538: The first few months of the strike, and constructed a machine gun equipped armored train known as the "Bull Moose Express", which they used to fire upon the tent camps of striking workers, killing miner Cesco Estep. Miners, with the support of Mother Jones and the Socialist Party of America , acquired weapons and retaliated against the mining company guards. In September, 1912, West Virginia Governor William E. Glasscock declared martial law and sent 1,200 state troops to confiscate weapons and ammunition attempted to quell

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3150-441: The following years, the Battle of Matewan and the Battle of Blair Mountain . The violence on Paint Creek and Cabin Creek began with a United Mine Workers of America strike in April 1912. Prior to the strike there were 96 coal mines in operation on Paint Creek and Cabin Creek, employing 7,500 miners. Of these mines, the forty-one on Paint Creek were all unionized, as was all of the rest of Kanawha River coal field except for

3225-644: The help of Hayes, serving as the UMWA International Vice President, declared a strike with eight demands. After the demands were known the Cabin Creek Miners' Union joined the striking miners as well. During the first month of the strike the UMWA organizers kept peace, but subsequently the mine operators hired the Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency to break the strike. After 300 Baldwin-Felts Detectives arrived,

3300-637: The influence of the UMW, the strike was conducted without violence for its first month. However, on May 10, 1912, the operators on Paint Creek and Cabin Creek hired the notorious Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency to break the strike. Baldwin–Felts responded by sending more than 300 mine guards led by Albert Felts , Lee Felts , and Tony Gaujot Activist Mother Jones arrived in June, as mine owners began evicting workers from their rented houses, and brought in replacement workers. Beatings, sniper attacks, and sabotage were daily occurrences. Through July, Jones rallied

3375-455: The jurisdiction of the military court, and refused to enter a plea. Jones was sentenced to twenty years in the state penitentiary and acquired a case of pneumonia. New governor Dr. Henry D. Hatfield was sworn in on March 4 and immediately traveled to the area as his first priority. He released some thirty individuals held under martial law, transferred Mother Jones to Charleston for medical treatment, and in April moved to impose conditions for

3450-408: The labor organizer Mother Jones also arrived and was subsequently arrested. The strike lasted from April 18, 1912, through July 1913. After the confrontation, Fred Stanton, a banker, estimated that the strike and ensuing armed conflict cost $ 100,000,000. The confrontation directly caused perhaps fifty violent deaths, as well as many more deaths caused indirectly by starvation and malnutrition among

3525-438: The laws. Though winter lay ahead, the mining families were nonetheless evicted from company houses. The United Mine Workers of America immediately built tent colonies for them. The largest, having two hundred tents and a population of nearly a thousand people, was located on the barren plains of Ludlow. When the strike in southern Colorado finally went into effect on September 23, over eleven thousand mine workers, 95 per cent of

3600-402: The mine owners imported 700 gun-men to break the strike, of how they started the trouble by shooting into the tent colonies established by the strikers who had been evicted from company houses. He told dramatically of the shooting or murdering of thirty-eight men, women and children, and not one indictment had been brought against the mine owners. Lawson was indicted for the killing of John Nimo,

3675-489: The mine, John D. Rockefeller Jr. , was widely criticized for the incident. The massacre, the seminal event in the Colorado Coal Wars , resulted in the death of 21 people. The deaths occurred after a daylong fight between militia and camp guards against striking workers. Ludlow was the deadliest single incident in the southern Colorado Coal Strike, which lasted from September 1913 through December 1914. The strike

3750-442: The miners were armed, and some acquired weapons and ammunition from the towns along the march's path. Logan County Sheriff Don Chafin had assembled a fighting force of approximately 2,000 county police, state police, state militia, and Baldwin-Felts agents to stop the approaching miners in the mountain range surrounding Logan County. On August 25, the miners began arriving in the mountains surrounding Logan, and fighting began between

3825-639: The miners' union and agitated for greater militancy and adoption of socialism as the union's only economic and political philosophy. He was elected an international vice president in 1911. While a vice president, he helped strategize and organize the Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike of 1912 in West Virginia and the Colorado Coal Strike of 1913–1914 (during which the Ludlow Massacre occurred). The Paint Creek Miners' Union with

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3900-485: The most violent struggle between corporate power and laboring men in American history". Congress responded to public outcry by directing the House Committee on Mines and Mining to investigate the incident. Its report, published in 1915, was influential in promoting child labor laws and an eight-hour work day. The Ludlow site, 18 miles northwest of Trinidad, Colorado , is now a ghost town . The massacre site

3975-507: The mountains of Appalachia. West Virginia produced 489,000 tons of coal in 1869, 4,882,000 tons of coal in 1889, and 89,384,000 tons of coal in 1917. The quick expansion of mining in West Virginia prompted many mining companies to construct company towns , in which mining companies own many, if not all housing, amenities, and public services. Miners were often paid in "coal scrip", paper notes issued by mining companies that could only be redeemed at company-owned stores in company towns. Mining

4050-539: The operators refused. The union called a strike for April 18, 1912. Their demands were: After little debate, the Cabin Creek miners decided to join the Paint Creek miners and declared their own strike. After the strike began, the national United Mine Workers pledged full support, hoping to spread the union into Southern West Virginia, a longtime goal of the union. The UMW promised full financing and any aid it could provide to support strikers. Partly because of

4125-422: The operators to a joint conference, as did the miners assembled in convention at Trinidad on Sep 15, 1913. But the operators had ignored these invitations. It is significant that of the miners' six or seven demands, only two were not already guaranteed under severe penalty by the laws of Colorado. Much of the source of irritation, then, might have been eliminated if Governor E. M. Ammons' administration had enforced

4200-427: The original arrangements to have the monument arrive at Ludlow in time to hold dedication services on the day of the anniversary of the Ludlow massacre, could not be carried out. The dedication and memorial exercises will be held on Decoration Day as set forth in the above communication. All local unions of Dist. No. 15 are advised to make suitable arrangements to be represented at Ludlow on the 30th day of May, when it

4275-640: The others arrest. Accounts of the May 19th shootout itself differ. Some reports indicate that Baldwin-Felts agents attempted to arrest Sid Hatfield, and shot Mayor Testermen when he intervened on Hatfield's behalf. Others indicate that Hatfield initiated the violence, either by firing himself or by signalling a prepared ambush. In either case, the shootout resulted in ten dead: Mayor Testerman, two miners, and seven Baldwin-Felts agents, including Baldwin-Felts Agency Chief Thomas Felts' younger brothers, Albert and Lee. Support for unionization in Mingo County increased after

4350-421: The past 23 years over 1000 miners had been accidentally killed, not one resulted in a damage suit in favor of the miners' families. All the court officials had been in the pay of the corporations. The sheriff picked the jury. There was no jury box, but he drew a venire of 75 men prejudiced against Lawson, and of these the twelve worst were placed on the trial jury. Then he told of how the jury was coerced to bring in

4425-418: The recently concluded World War I . Facing a large and well equipped fighting force, the miners were forced to stand down. Though the battle ended in clear defeat for the pro-union miners, they gained some press support in the following years. Approximately 550 miners and labor activists were convicted of murder, insurrection, and treason for their participation in the march from Lens Creek to Logan County and

4500-419: The rising tensions between miners and mining companies. The declaration of martial law reduced armed conflict in the winter of 1912–1913. In April, 1913, UMW officials presented the Paint Creek mining companies with a compromise deal, leaving out some miner demands but maintaining support for a 9-hour workday, accountability for miner compensation, and protection from backlash for union membership. After nearly

4575-455: The singing men, women and children marched behind their band down the road to meet the militia ... [ 3] "Frank J. Hayes, International Vice President of the Union, the man who had charge of the Colorado situation, and colleague of Lawson, was then introduced. Mr. Hayes spoke in clear, ringing voice. His splendid diction and his magnetic personality at once won his hearers, and he held their closest attention. First paying tribute to Lawson as

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4650-461: The state. Striking gained momentum as a tactic with the 1897 Coal Miner's Strike, which included mines in northern West Virginia's Pittsburgh seam. The 1902 New River Coal Strike in Raleigh and Fayette Counties continued momentum into southern West Virginia, and foreshadowed the coming violence with its concluding massacre known as the "Battle of Stanaford". UMW had a strong, if isolated, presence in

4725-537: The strike began, hostilities began with the arrival of the Baldwin-Felts Agents who provoked the miners. Socialist Party activists began supplying miners with weapons: 6 machine guns, 1,000 rifles, and 50,000 rounds of ammunition. On September 1, 1912, approximately 6,000 unionized miners from across the Kanawha River crossed the river and declared their intent to kill the mine guards and destroy

4800-459: The strike settlement. Strikers had the choice to accept Hatfield's somewhat favorable terms, or be deported from the state. The Paint Creek miners accepted and signed the "Hatfield Contract" on May 1. The Cabin Creek miners continued to resist, with some violence, until the end of July. Mother Jones remained under house arrest, in Mrs. Carney's Boarding House , until she smuggled out a message through

4875-501: The striking miners. In the number of casualties, it counts among the worst conflicts in American labor union history. The Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel and Iron Company guards on a tent colony of 1,200 coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado , on April 20, 1914. About two dozen people, including miners' wives and children, were killed. The chief owner of

4950-686: The total, left the pits. With company operations halted by this mass work stoppage, the "Big Three" corporations—Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, Rocky Mountain Fuel Company, and the Victor American Fuel Company—imported the Baldwin-Felts industrial detectives of West Virginia. The Baldwin–Felts organization promptly took over the sheriffs' offices in Las Animas and Huerfano counties ... and staffed them with several hundred barrel-house bums and professional gunmen imported from

5025-435: The two forces. Though Sheriff Chafin commanded fewer men, they were equipped with machine guns and rented aircraft, from which they dropped rudimentary bombs on the attacking miners. On August 30, 1921, President Warren G. Harding threatened to declare martial law in counties in West Virginia affected by the violence if the armed bands of miners did not disperse by noon on September 1. A proclamation to declare martial law in

5100-479: The unsanitary conditions in their temporary tent colony at Holly Grove. Mother Jones and Sarah Blizzard organized an “umbrella march” when pro-union women marched through the valley with umbrellas. On October 15, martial law was lifted, only to be re-imposed on November 15 and lifted on January 10 by Governor Glasscock, with less than two months left in office. On February 7 Mucklow was again attacked by miners with at least one casualty. In retaliation that evening,

5175-406: The verdict of guilty. Mr. Hayes concluded his masterly speech by enumerating the demands of the Colorado miners, all of which were based on Colorado laws that were not being lived up to by the mine owners. He severely arraigned Rockefeller, and recited a poem that he had composed, based on Rockefeller's expression, "My Conscience acquits me." He was given thunderous applause." During his tenure on

5250-443: The well-known labor activist Mary "Mother" Jones even visited the state to pledge their support. Mining companies in the Paint Creek area hired strikebreakers and armed guards to suppress the strike, including 300 agents from the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency . Striking miners and their families were prohibited from using company bridges and roads, as well as utilities like running water. Company guards killed several miners over

5325-553: The workers, made her way through armed guards to persuade another group of miners in Eskdale, West Virginia to join the strike, and organized a secret march of three thousand armed miners to the steps of the state capitol in Charleston to read a declaration of war to Governor William E. Glasscock . On July 26, miners attacked Mucklow, present-day Gallagher , leaving at least twelve strikers and four guards dead. On September 1,

5400-411: Was born in the coal mining town of What Cheer, Iowa , in 1882, but moved with his family as a boy to Illinois . At the age of 13, he began working in the coal mines. His father was active in the unions. He joined the United Mine Workers and held a number of local union offices before being elected secretary-treasurer of District 13 in 1904. A socialist , he allied himself with the radical left-wing of

5475-490: Was named the union's acting president. Hayes resigned the office of president in 1920. Although he retained a position and salary as an international field representative, he retired to Colorado . During Hayes retirement to Colorado he wrote labor songs and poetry (much of it concerning the Ludlow Massacre). Source: Sung to the tune of "The Battle Cry of Freedom" We will win the fight today, boys, We'll win

5550-604: Was organized by the miners against coal mining companies in Colorado. The three largest companies involved were the Rockefeller family -owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company , the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company , and the Victor-American Fuel Company. In retaliation for Ludlow, the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of antiunion establishments over the next ten days, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with

5625-404: Was originally aired on the network January 26, 2016. Narrated by actor Michael Murphy , it used archival material and interviews to convey the story as part of their ongoing American Experience series. The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum, located in downtown Matewan, offers artifacts and interpretations of the events. The building that houses the museum still bears the scars of bullet holes from

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