You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Saturday October 3, 1914
From the Appeal to Reason: Scores of Colorado Miners Charged with Murder & Arson
John Lawson to left of Mother Jones and Attorney Hawkins
Lawson is charged with 12 murders, 1 assault to kill, and 4 arsons
From today's
Appeal to Reason comes the grim news that scores of striking miners of the Southern Colorado Coalfields have been charged with murder, assaults and arson. If convicted, they could all face the gallows. Among them is John Lawson, the most prominent of the strike leaders. We present the first part of this article today and will publish part two in tomorrow's
Hellraisers.
Coal Barons Fill Jails With Rebel Mine Slaves
BY JOHN MURRAY.
Staff Correspondent Appeal to Reason.
Trinidad, Col.-To jail all the strike leaders in southern Colorado, try them for murder, and thus break up the union with the terror of the noose, is the plan of the coal operators just disclosed by the wholesale arrests now taking place in Las Animas and Huerfano counties.
Over one hundred arrests from grand jury indictments have already taken place in Las Animas county alone and it is estimated that two hundred more striking miners are marked for imprisonment in the foul cells of the county jail.
Jesse G. Northcutt, acting in dual capacity of attorney for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company and "special prosecutor" under Jude McHendrie, has practically taken the place of the district attorney in directing the issuance of grand jury indictments.
Double and treble twists of the noose have been made for the most able among the union leaders.
Pete Katsoulas, "Little Pete," the Greek leader who protected women and children at Ludlow, is charged in his indictment with no less than 13 murders and five arsons.
Bernado Verna is accused of committing 14 murders, four arsons and one assault to kill.
John R. Lawson, board member of District 15, U. M. W. A., has written against him by this grand jury of company agents and gunmen, 12 murders, four arsons and one assault to kill. One of the persons he is accused of killing was Max Powell, a union man, who met his death in the line of fire covered by the gunmen of the scab Ludlow mine.
Over 60 miners have been charged with attempting to kill Walter Belk of the Baldwin-Felts Detective agency.
Seven strikers from Forbes are charged with the death of a negro who was run over by the train as he was staggering back from a drunken carouse.
An assault to murder was multiplied by five because there happened to be five gunmen in an automobile that the accused miner was supposed to have fired at.
Excessive Bail Demanded.
On every charge the bail bonds are piled high so that a grand total of over $700,000 is now demanded for the release of the labor leaders of southern Colorado who stand between Rockefeller and his desired industrial despotism.
First it was the gunmen who herded the miners into the coal mines and shot down all objectors.
Next came the militia and made massacre.
Following the United States troops, and under their sheltering arms the scabs streamed into Colorado as never before.
Now the judges are to fill the prisons.
The terror of the noose dangles before each striking miner's eyes. What can the unarmed, helpless workers do?
The Appeal also offered this good news:
Bob Uhlich Freed on Bail-Appeal Scores Victory
Trinidad, Colo.-Bob Uhlich, leader of Colorado striking miners who has been in prison since last November on trumped-up charges, has been released on bail finally granted by Judge McHendrie. Until the Appeal to Reason took hold of his case Judge McHendrie refused to grant bail four times. The recall movement against Judge McHendrie which has been furthered by the Appeal is the cause of the judges' back-down.
In the statement given to your representative, Bob Uhlich thanks the Appeal and its loyal army for his freedom. "It is my firm conviction that the fight of the Appeal to Reason in my behalf is the reason for my present liberty," declares Uhlich. Bob Uhlich sympathizers now confined in the Trinidad bastile are not only freed on bail but cleared of all the false charges brought against them by the coal operators and their henchmen. "We all look to the Appeal for rescue," concludes Uhlich.
JOHN MURRAY.
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SOURCE
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-of Oct 3, 1914
http://www.newspapers.com/...
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGE
John Lawson, Mother Jones, Horace Hawkins
http://ludlowsymposium.wordpress.com/...
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They'll Never Keep Us Down-Hazel Dickens
The power wheel is rolling, rolling right along
And the government helps keep it going, going strong
So working people get your help from your own kind
Cause your welfare ain't on the rich man’s mind
Your welfare ain't on the rich man’s mind
Your welfare ain't on the rich man’s mind
They want the power in their hands
Just to keep down the workers and
Your welfare aint' on the rich man’s mind
-Hazel Dickens
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