You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Monday January 4, 1904
From The Anaconda Standard: Governor Declares Union Men Cannot Return to Telluride
Modified Form of Martial Law.
Denver, Colo., Jan. 3.-Governor Peabody to-night declared a modified form of martial law in Telluride, and that city will be placed under the same restrictions as now prevail at Cripple Creek. The object of the order is understood to be to prevent the return of the men who were arrested and sent out of the district. These men are considered by the military as agitators who are responsible for the whole trouble at Telluride.
--------
Protests Against Militia.
Denver. Colo, Jan. 3.-J. Warner Mills presided over a mass meeting which crowded Coliseum hall to-night to protest against the action of the militia in the mining districts of the state. Among the speakers of the meeting was "Mother" Jones, Gen. J. Charles Thompson and Judge Owers.
We will note that the "agitators who are responsible for the whole trouble at Telluride" are, in fact, hard-working miners, members of the Western Federation of Miners, whose only crime is to be on strike. Under the terms of Governor Peabody's declaration of martial law, the homes of these men can be entered at any time, the men can be taken from their families, deported out of the district, and warned not to return.
SOURCES
The Anaconda Standard
(Anaconda, Montana)
-of Jan 4, 1904
The Cripple Creek Strike
-by Emma F Langdon
(Part I, 1st pub 1904)
NY, 1969
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Sunday January 4, 1914
Walsenburg, Colorado - Kostas Markos Lays Dying after Imprisonment in Cold Cellar Cell
The Investigating Committee of the Colorado Federation of Labor, led by John Lawson, yesterday went to the Oxford Hotel in Walsenburg to interview Kostas Markos. Doctor Nur has told Markos that he is dying, and the Committee came to hear his story before death silenced him.
Louie Tikas served as an interpreter for Kostas Markos, who speaks only Greek. Markos is 32 years old, and he has a wife and children in the Old Country. He was a miner in the Ravenwood pit who honored the strike call, left the mine camp and moved into a house in Walsenburg with about twenty-five other Greek strikers. He served as the cook of the house. His crime was cooking a meal for two Greeks, recently imported by the mine operators, as his fellow strikers convinced them not to become scabs, but to support the union.
On November 26th, Brother Marcos was walking around Walsenburg with these two Greeks when the militia stopped him and found him to be carrying a gun. They beat him and threw him into jail. They forced the two Greeks to go to work in the mines.
The Huerfano County Jail in Walsenburg is a cold, damp cellar with a cement floor. And here, Kostas Markos was held incommunicado for 22 days with only a few thin blankets for warmth in the unheated cell. Brother Markos grew ill under these conditions but was denied medical care until his condition became grave. By then, it was too late to save him.
The militiamen finally allowed him to go to a room in the Oxford Hotel, where he is now expected to die within a day or two.
Through Tikas, Brother Markos told the Committee of his treatment at the hands of the militia as his condition grew steadily worse: it was bitterly cold in the cell; he was fed very little; he was not allowed to bathe; he was called vile names; and his silver watch from the Old Country was stolen. The Greeks, he was told, were always causing trouble, and would not be allowed to remain in the mines when the strike ended. Nevertheless, he was offered his freedom if he would return to work as a scab. This kind offer was refused, for Kostas Markos prefers to die a union man.
SOURCE
Buried Unsung
Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre
-by Zeese Papanikolas
U of Utah Press, 1982
Photo: A Striking Colorado Coal Miner, 1913-14
An unidentified striking coal miner, used here to represent Kostas Markos.
http://www.du.edu/...
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Saturday January 4, 2014
More on the Telluride Deportations at the Hands of the State Militia:
The first Sunday night of 1904, witnessed the proclamation of martial law in Telluride; the censorship of the press, telegraph and telephone, and the deportation of thirty-one men.
The strikers were conducting a literary when a group of soldiers strode, into the hall, set down their guns with a bang, the officer in command stepped under the electric light and read the proclamation in a voice trembling with emotion. Why he should have trembled I could not imagine. Was it fear? A large portion of the audience were women and children. Was it a sense of his own importance in the game being played? Or did the ghost of his dead manhood rise up and protest against the brutality of his act ?
Among the deported were J. C. Williams, vice president of the Western Federation, who had been looking after the finances, and Attorney Engley, who had conducted the striker's defense. We were paraded through the streets under military guard, a squad of cavalry occasionally dashing by; drawn up in front of military headquarters and singly taken before his majesty, Major Zeph T. Hill, where we were asked the following questions: "How long have you been here ? What is your occupation ? Where were you born?"
Thirty-one men, in addition to the seven incumbents, taxed the capacity of the jail, but in the opinion of our generous authorities nothing was too good for a striker, so we took our medicine. The following morning we were given a sandwich and cup of coffee, after which the militia guarded us to the train, preventing the Citizens' Alliance renewing their acquaintance with us; cutting short the "good byes" of husbands, fathers and sons.
We were given a military escort to Ridgeway, where we were lined up on the sidewalk and informed that we were taken out of San Miguel county because we were not wanted there. (We had guessed as much before, but this made it certain.) If we returned we would be thrown into the bull pen and kept there indefinitely. If we showed any signs of disrespect to the militia we would be immediately re-arrested.
We proceeded to Montrose and established headquarters for the deported men.
SOURCE
Guy E Miller's account of the Telluride Strike
in Langdon
-see link above
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Wayfaring Stranger-Emmy Lou Harris
I am a poor wayfaring stranger
While traveling through this world of woe
Yet there's no sickness, toil or danger
In that bright world to which I go