The Coal War (50 page)

This difference was a circumstance which puzzled you at first; it took you some time to work out the explanation. The thing which was called “the public” was not really the public at all; it was not a human, a real thing, but an artificial creation, an institution; it was newspapers, political machines, churches, colleges—organizations maintained and controlled by privilege. The mass of the people were warm-hearted, they loved justice, they believed in democracy and the American tradition; the only trouble was that the truth was withheld from them. They simply did not
know
what was being done to workingmen all over their great country, from Lawrence, Massachusetts, to Wheatlands, California, from the lumber-camps of Louisiana to the copper-mines of Michigan.

So Hal and Mary traveled about, meeting the people face to face, telling them what they had seen with their own eyes; and they saw men's hands clenched in anger, they saw tears running down the cheeks of women. When the meeting was over, the people crowded about to pledge their aid; they passed resolutions, they gave money, they went home to tell their friends and neighbors. And they were all men and women who had votes, and were accustomed to make use of them; they did not forget overnight what they had heard; they would organize, and keep in touch with you; so, if you had patience and determination, you would find yourself in the end with the means of punishing politicians who had betrayed the public interest, and sold the state to predatory corporations.

There was an English poet of the Chartist times, whom his enemies in derision dubbed “the Corn-law rhymer”. One does not read about him in text-books of literature, because his work is not to the taste of those classes which tend the shrines of culture. But in an old book which Hal loaned her, Mary came upon some verses called the People's Anthem—as noble in utterance and as perfect in form as any hymn in English. Because they voiced so perfectly the longing in her heart, Mary always closed her meetings with a stanza from this Anthem. The heart of Ebenezer Elliott has long since been dust, but in its time it suffered imprisonment and ignominy, and its cry is as moving to an audience in the Rocky Mountains as in an English factory-town:

“When wilt thou save the people?

O, God of Mercy! when?

Not kings and lords, but nations!

Not thrones and crowns, but men!

Flowers of thy heart, O God, are they!

Let them not pass, like weeds, away!

Their heritage a sunless day!

God save the people!”

POSTSCRIPT

The reader of this book will wish to know what relation the story bears to fact. “The Coal War” is a historical novel, dealing with the Colorado strike of 1913-14. The writer has availed himself of the fictionist's privilege, only so far as concerns matters of no social significance. He has given imaginary names to towns, coal-camps and characters, for the sake of convenience, and in the interest of good taste; but all the characters having social significance are real persons, and every detail of the events of the strike is both true and typical.

The reader who wishes to investigate the evidence for these statements will find in another volume, “King Coal”, a list of documents, comprising some eight million words, three-quarters of it affidavit or sworn testimony. It hardly seems worth while to reprint this list here; it will be more to the point if I give a few definite references. Thus, the reader who is interested in the character of Mike Sikoria, as he appears in this volume and in “King Coal”, may find him on pages 679-694 of the Congressional Committee report, entitled “Hearings before a Sub-Committee of the Committee on Mines and Mining, House of Representatives, Sixty-third Congress, Second Session, pursuant to House Resolution 387.” The story of “George Tareski”, who was made to dig his own grave, has been taken bodily from the same report, pages 2052-58. In the same manner, episode after episode has been made out of the sworn testimony of actual participants or witnesses. Every case of injustice, every practice named among the causes of the strike, has been sworn to by witness after witness. The speeches made at the convention which called the strike are from stenographic records. The statements as to political conditions were sworn to by actual participants in these practices. The statements as to violations of the state mining-laws, and the maintaining of peonage during the strike, have been sworn to by state officials.

As to the picture drawn of the conduct of the militia, it has been made from the testimony of several hundred witnesses, a large number of them having no connection with the strike or with the strikers. Professor Purdue is a real person, who has told his own story—and part of the story of Will Wilmerding as well. Captain Harding is also a real person—though perhaps I should state that I never met the gentleman, but have merely imagined a character upon the basis of his testimony and report. I have taken the liberty of having him present at the Ludlow massacre, although he was not actually there. Billy Keating is a real person; so are MacKellar, Louie the Greek, Jim Moylan, John Harmon, Mrs. David, Rosa Minetti—the testimony of all these people having been given under oath.

To give even a summary of the evidence would require a volume. Therefore I will select one representative episode, and give a detailed summary of the evidence upon it. For this purpose the “Ludlow massacre” will serve best—it being the most conspicuous single event, and likewise the one about which there has been the most controversy. I remember, after the publication of the militia testimony, reading an editorial remark in a leading New York newspaper, to the effect that the editors were glad not to have to believe that the militia of the state had deliberately set fire to the tent-colony. Now, when a conservative and cautious-minded newspaper editor does not wish to believe a thing, he can find reasons for having his way; but I assume that the readers of this book wish to believe the truth, and I think one can fairly say that the evidence upon this point is sufficient to have hung a number of officers of the militia if there had been such a thing as justice in the State of Colorado.

In my story of the events at “Horton”, I have for the most part followed the militia's own account, the report made by three militia officers, Major Boughton, Captain Danks and Captain Van Cise, under circumstances described in this novel. I have taken the liberty of departing from their narrative on only two important points. Let me first state these points, and my reasons for disputing their opinions upon them.

It is their claim that rifle-firing was begun by the strikers, and had continued for some minutes, before the three signal-bombs were set off by the militia. Against this, the testimony of the strikers is unanimous that not a shot had been fired anywhere when the signal-bombs were heard. But my reason for rejecting the statement of the three militia officers is not the testimony of the strikers; it is the evidence brought before the United States Commission on Industrial Relations, impugning the good faith of the officers upon this point. There was a disinterested witness available, Mr. M.G. Low, pump-man of the Colorado and Southern Railroad water-tank at Ludlow. This witness, a decent and fair-minded man, had watched the events from close at hand, and he testified that first Major Boughton and then Captain Van Cise came to him and questioned him as to what he had seen; he told them that the bombs had been fired first, and that the first sounds of rifle firing had come from the militia position on Water-tank Hill. Yet having had this statement, the officers failed to call him before their body or to mention his testimony in their report!

The other contention of the militia report to which I have not considered it necessary to pay attention is the one that the first fire in the tent-colony “was due either to an overturned stove, an explosion of some sort, or the concentrated fire directed at one time against some of the tents.” The stoves at Ludlow were of the kitchen range variety, not to be upset by rifle bullets. As for the concentrated fire of rifle bullets setting fire to tent-canvas, I have not been able to find any military man who would consider such a theory. The statement seems the more superfluous, because the militia officers admit that shortly afterwards other tents were deliberately set fire to by the uniformed militiamen, in the manner described in the affidavits of the strikers and their wives. Here are four paragraphs from the report bearing upon this point:

“We find that the tents were not all of them destroyed by accidental fire. Men and soldiers swarmed into the tent-colony and deliberately assisted the conflagration by spreading the fire from tent to tent.

“Beyond a doubt, it was seen to intentionally that the fire should destroy the whole of the colony. This, too, was accompanied by the usual loot.

“Men and soldiers seized and took from the tents whatever appealed to their fancy of the moment. In this way, clothes, bedding, articles of jewelry, bicycles, tools and utensils were taken from the tents and conveyed away.

“So deliberately was this burning and looting done that we find that cans of oil found in the tents were poured upon them and the tents lit with matches.”

Now I have carefully investigated all the evidence bearing upon the Ludlow massacre, and believe it may safely be declared an established fact that the destruction of the tent-colony was deliberately carried out by militiamen; also that it had been planned in advance and was directed throughout by militia officers. There is, in the first place, the affidavit of Mrs. Susan D. Hollearin, postmistress at Ludlow, who witnessed a great deal of the fighting from her office, which was used as headquarters by the officers. She testified that before the fighting began she heard Major Hamrock say, “Line up, boys, and get ready.” She testifies that the bombs went off before any shots had been fired. She testifies that she heard Lieutenant Linderfelt, in command of the machine-guns, say, “Keep working on the tent-colony. Shoot everything that moves.” She testifies “I looked down and saw that one tent was on fire at that time. Later another tent caught fire. There was no wind, just a little breeze. The tents seemed to catch fire from the outside, and caught in spots. About the time the train came in, the women and children in the colony began to scream, and could be heard in the depot, and I heard the soldiers giving the women and children orders to ‘Get a move on you, and get the hell out of here,' and such statements as that.” She testifies that in the morning, hearing that Mary Petrucci's children were still inside the tents, she took a flag of truce. “When I got nearly there I saw three or four soldiers leaving. They had been firing the few remaining tents. I saw this.”

There is the testimony of W.J. Hall before the Coroner's inquest. Mr. Hall was the driver of an automobile, having nothing to do with the strike; he testified that he was stopped on the road by the militiamen, who took his car and used it for the moving of a machine-gun. He heard the orders given “to go in and clean out that colony. For them to drive out and then to burn the colony.”

The testimony of Doctor Aca Harvey, of Aguilar, before the Coroner's inquest. He was trying to attend a dying man who had been shot through the head. He carried a white flag, but was fired upon. The militia used explosive bullets. He saw two fires started separately. Mr. Hayes, his companion, climbed up onto the water-tower with his field-glasses, and described to him men in uniform throwing oil upon the tents, setting fire to them; he could see the blaze.

R.J. McDonald, before the Coroner's inquest, a military stenographer employed by the troops, went out with them to see the fighting, and at six
P
.
M
. he heard one of two militia officers (whom he named) say, “There is thirty minutes yet before dark, and we have to take and burn the tent-colony.”

A.J. Reilly, freight-brakeman on the Colorado and Southern freight-train, stopped to let a passenger-train pass. He saw the tents blazing. “Saw a man in military uniform touch a match to the third tent. Ten or fifteen more stuck their guns up to our faces and told us to ‘move on and be damn quick about it,' or they would shoot us.”

“Did you say anything to those men?”

“No, sir, not a word.”

“Who were those men who stuck their guns up to your faces?”

“Uniformed men.”

The testimony of William Snyder, store-keeper at the Ludlow tent-colony, whose twelve-year-old boy had his brains shot out by an explosive bullet.

“Did anybody come to your tent while you were there?”

“Yes, the militia came there.”

“What did they say to you?”

“They set fire to the tent, and opened it and came in.”

“They set fire to your tent?”

“Yes, sir.”

(The remainder of the remarks of the militia, as testified to by Mr. Snyder, are given in the text of this novel—except that a number of unprintable oaths have been omitted.)

The affidavit of Mrs. Alcarita Pedregon. She swears, among other things, “I seen a militiaman come over there and look inside the tent and strike a match and set fire to the tent. I stayed in the tent until it was all burned up. There were eleven children and two women suffocated with the smoke where I was. I lost two children in this cave when the tent burned. I don't know where my husband was at this time. I looked up out of the hole and saw the soldier set fire to the tent with a match. I lost everything I had in this fire.”

The affidavit of Mrs. Ed. Tonner. “My tent was so full of holes like it was like lace, pretty near. It could have been about four when little Frank got his head hurt, and a little while after this they tried to set the tents on fire. I kept bobbling my head up and down, and Mr. Fyler said, ‘For God's sake keep your head down, or you will get it blown off.' About six o'clock they turned around and tore the tent between the two tents, and they set the broom on fire with coal oil, and they set the tent on fire, with me right underneath with my five little children. Then Gusta Retlich, she helped me out with the children, grabbed them up, and then we run to a Mexican lady's tent farther down, and then Louie the Greek helped me, he helped me down into a hole and threw water in my face as I was fainting with all the children.”