You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Tuesday December 15, 1914
Denver, Colorado - Linderfelt and Doyle Before Commission on Industrial Relations
Today we offer newspaper accounts of testimony given before the Commission on Industrial Relations by Lieutenant Karl E. Linderfelt, Butcher of Ludlow, and Ed Doyle, Secretary-Treasurer of District 15, U. M. W. of A. One man led the militia, infested as it was by company gunthugs, against the men, women, and little children living in the miners' tent colony at Ludlow. We all know the disastrous results of that leadership. The other man stood with those striking miners and their families, went to jail on their behalf, and is still facing a long prison term, or worse, for his courageous stand as a leader of the Colorado Coalfield Strike.
Strikers' Policy Committee, United Mine Workers of America
John McLennan, President District 15
E. L. Doyle, Secretary-Treasurer District 15
John R. Lawson, International Board Member from District 15
Frank J. Hayes, International Vice-President
From The Cincinnati Enquirer of December 12, 1914:
STRIKER
----------
Enters Class of Rebels
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When He Takes Up Arms Against State,
Says Linderfelt.
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Lieutenant Who Directed Troops at Ludlow Would
Send Miners To Prison For Treason.
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Denver, Colo., December 11.-Lieutenant K. E. Linderfelt told the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations his story today of the fight at the Ludlow tent colony and his attitude concerning the enforcement of martial law in the Colorado coal strike.
"A man who takes up arms against the constituted law of the state is no longer a striker, he is a rebel," said Linderfelt. "Of course I have feelings against these men. Not because they were members of the United Mine Workers, but because they were in arms against the law. There is no place in this state for armed men, whether they are strikers or mine guards."
Linderfelt said that if he had been in full charge he would have tried by courtmartial the Americans found under arms and would have sent them to the penitentiary for treason. The aliens in arms he would have deported to their native countries, he declared, under the alien laws of 1804 and 1805.
Linderfelt contradicted the testimony given by H. C. Farber, station agent at the Colorado and Southern Railroad Ludlow Station, who said the battle started immediately after two signal bombs were exploded on Water Tank Hill by the militia. Linderfelt testified the bombs were exploded after his detachment was attacked by strikers, entrenched in a railroad out about 600 yards distant. The bombs were a signal for help, he said.
Farber said he recognized mine guards among the militia.
Farber declared he had been prevented from dressing the wounds of a Greek boy by Lieutenant K. E. Linderfelt, who took the lad away as a military prisoner.
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[photograph added]
From The Cincinnati Enquirer of December 13, 1914:
"FARCICAL,"
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Is Term Used By Doyle
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In Description of Court Proceedings
in Strike Cases.
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Miners' Leader Says Prisoners Were
Identified By Numbers of Their Chairs, Not Names.
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Ed Doyle, on the right, with Frank Hayes
SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE EXQUIRER.
Denver, Colo., December 12-Edward L. Doyle, Secretary-Treasurer of District 15, United Mine Workers of America, testified before the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations to-day.
Doyle told of his two trials for contempt of Court on charges that he violated the injunction against the Northern Colorado coal miners, which, he said, "prevented them from doing anything but eating and sleeping." The trials, he said, were "farcical." There was no jury, he said, and during the proceedings the prisoners were identified by witnesses according to the chairs in which they sat in Court, Doyle declared. Most of the men convicted, he added, had not been in a street fight with strike breakers as charged. In the first case the union men were sentenced to a year in jail and a fine.
Doyle said that he had been offered his freedom after his second conviction if he would make an apology for articles he had written for the official organ of the United Mine Workers of America. His second trial was for participation in a miners' meeting, forbidden by an injunction, said Doyle. The offending articles were read in Court, he testified, and he was called upon to admit authorship of them. Then, said Doyle, the Judge turned to the operators' attorneys, not to the Prosecuting Attorney, and told them "to get out a warrant."
Doyle at this time was sentenced to a year's imprisonment and to pay a fine of $500. After four months in jail and within three days of the hearing of his appeal to the Supreme Court, Doyle said that his jailer came to him and told him that if he would apologize privately to the Judge for writing the articles he would be released. Doyle said that he refused. The following day, he said, he was released on the order of the Judge.
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[photograph added]
From The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette of December 15, 1914:
BLAMES OPERATORS FOR CALLING STRIKE,
LOST GOOD STANDING
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Armed Miners Stand Ready to Defend Their Families
and Tent Colonies after the Ludlow Massacre
DENVER, Colo., Dec. 14.-"If the Colorado Fuel and Iron company allowed the strike to be called without going into conference with the strike leaders to see if they would consent to the elimination of Article Four," declared Edward L. Doyle, secretary-treasurer of District 15, United Mine Workers of America, in his testimony to-day before the federal commission on industrial relations, "they did themselves and every one else an injustice."
Article Four of the demands of the miners' union related to the "check off" by which the operators were made agents of the union to deduct union dues and fines from the pay-rolls.
The article had been eliminated in contracts with operators in other fields in a number of instances, he said. The check off, he added, enabled the union to enforce contract obligations upon members by imposing fines that were collected by the operators and turned over to a charity fund of the union. Most of the breaking of contracts in District No. 2, of Pennsylvania, had been the result of the exclusion of the "check off," he said.
Doyle asserted that the union did not hold itself obliged to disarm the strikers, since its leaders had no authority to compel obedience except to the rules and regulations of the union. Their arms were personal property. He thought it proper for strikers not to turn over all their arms to the militia. They were apprehensive as to their treatment after the arms were given up, he said.
Numerous telegrams, letters and exhibits were turned over to the commission by the witness. This matter was not introduced formally into the record, but was used as a basis for questions, which the witness declined to answer on the ground that he was one of a number of labor leaders under indictment for conspiracy to murder.
The questions related to the purchase of arms by the union. The witness offered to produce evidence that the employes of operators started the violence if the commission would pay the expenses involved. No strike, Doyle declared, had ever been won by violence. Public opinion decided strikes, he declared, and the strikers were handicapped by the lack of good education among its leaders and lack of funds to hire literary talent to present its side.
Much had been gained by the strike, he declared, in the southern fields, but in the northern field the miners had lost ground. Although the southern miners had not secured their demands, the operators know now, he said, that the men can and will strike. The spirit of the men was such that they will not allow themselves to be imposed upon again and the operators because of the spirit, he said, would be inclined to treat their men with more consideration.
"Such a clearing of the atmosphere as this six months ago," he declared, "would have ended the strike differently."
[photograph added]
SOURCES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
(Cincinnati, Ohio)
-Dec 12 & 13, 1914
http://www.newspapers.com/...
http://www.newspapers.com/...
The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette
(Fort Wayne, Indiana)
-Dec 15, 1914
http://www.newspapers.com/... » »
See also:
Industrial relations: final report and testimony
United States. Commission on Industrial Relations
D.C. Gov. Print. Office, 1916
Vol. 7:
http://books.google.com/...
Vol. 8:
http://books.google.com/...
CIR Volume 7:
(search: with page numbers)
6858-Dec 11, 1914, 10 AM
Denver Colorado
6858-Harry C. Farber, agent, Colorado & Southern Railroad, Ludlow, CO
6866-Lt Karl E Linderfelt, Colorado National Guard, The Butcher of Ludlow
6886-Afternoon Session 2 PM
6886-Linderfelt (continued)
6902-J. J. Hendricks, District Attorney, 3rd Judicial District of CO
6913-Adjourned 4:35 PM
6913-Saturday December 12, 1914 10 AM
Denver, Colorado
6913-Robert Young, miner, Walsenburg, CO
6925-Edward L Doyle, District 15 Secretary-Treasurer, UMW
6936-Afternoon Session 2 PM
6936-Doyle (continued)
6960-Adjourned 4:25 PM
6961-Monday Dec 14, 1914 10AM
6961-Doyle (continued)
6990-Adjourned 12:30 PM
End of Volume 7
CIR Volume 8:
(search: with page numbers)
6993-Monday Dec 14, 1914 (continued)
6993-Afternoon Session, 2 PM
6993- Doyle (continued)
7077-Adjourned 5:25 PM
7334-Doyle Exhibit No. 1
Testimony of witnesses to the Walsenburg Massacre of October 24, 1913
7343-Doyle Exhibit No. 2
Membership from ledger of district No. 15, UMW, November 20, 1914, itemized by
subdistricts and local unions.
7344-Doyle Exhibit No. 3
Notes in pencil of Colorado State Federation of Labor Convention held in Denver on
December 16, 1913. (Following which Governor Ammons authorized a C. F. of L.
Committee to make an investigation of military conduct in the southern strike zone.)
7347-End of Doyle Exhibit
IMAGES
Policy Committee of District 15, UMW
https://archive.org/...
Lt Karl E Linderfelt, Butcher of Ludlow
http://www.du.edu/...
Frank Hayes and Ed Doyle
http://commons.wikimedia.org/...
Armed Miners Colorado Coalfield War
http://www.du.edu/...
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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.
CHORUS:
The union forever, hurrah, boys, hurrah!
Down with the gunthugs and up with the law;
For we're coming, Colorado, we're coming all the way,
Shouting the battle cry of union.
-Frank Hayes, 1913
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