You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Tuesday December 8, 1914
Denver, Colorado - Professor Brewster Testifies: Militia Recruited with Scoundrels
Scoundrels in Uniform
Professor Brewster, of the University of Colorado, in his testimony yesterday before the
Commission on Industrial Relations, spared no words to describe the brutality of the state troops as they controlled the strike zone in southern Colorado. He asserted that Lieutenant Linderfelt, the murderer of Louis Tikas, was especially brutal in his conduct at Ludlow, and blamed Linderfelt for the Ludlow Massacre.
Newspapers across the nation are reporting on his testimony today. We take this quote from the Nevada State Journal:
He [Prof. Brewster] declared that Lieutenant K. E. (Monty) Linderfelt, in charge of the machine gun at the Ludlow battle, was a "brute unfit to associate with anybody," and that because of his brutality the committee had asked that he be suspended on January 20, 1914.
Had he been suspended then," he declared, "Ludlow would never have happened.
Note: The committee mentioned in the above quote, was the Labor Investigating Committee, which included Pro. Brewster. The committee investigated the strike and was instructed by Gov. Ammons to report back to him regarding the conduct of the militia in the strike zone.
From the Nevada State Journal of December 8, 1914
MILITIA LIEUT. IS DESCRIBED
AS BRUTE BY WITNESS
----------
Colorado Professor Before Federal Committee,
Gives Views on Strike
----------
MILITIA ROBBED MINERS
----------
Ranks of State Guards Were
Recruited with Scoundrels, Is Asserted
----------
Lieut. K. E. (Monty) Linderfelt
The Butcher of Ludlow
DENVER, Colo., Dec. 7.-Constitutional guarantees were wiped out by Adjutant General Chase as head of the Colorado militia; miners were robbed by the militia; that body was recruited with "scoundrels," and the right of search had been exercised by the militia, while the civil courts were open, was the trend of the testimony of Prof. James H. Brewster of the University of Colorado, attorney for the United Mine Workers before the congressional relations today.
Prof. Brewster had been chairman of the state federation of labor committee that investigated the strike in December, [1913] on the authorization of Governor Ammons.
He declared that Lieutenant K. E. (Monty) Linderfelt, in charge of the machine gun at the Ludlow battle, was a "brute unfit to associate with anybody," and that because of his brutality the committee had asked that he be suspended on January 20, 1914.
Had he been suspended then," he declared, "Ludlow would never have happened.
He asserted Linderfelt had trained the gun on the Ludlow colony during a search of the colony by the militia for weapons, and patting the gun, declared he could sweep the whole colony.
At that time, the witness said, Linderfelt was making threats against Louis Tikas, whom he assaulted on the night the Ludlow battle was on, breaking the stock of the rifle over his head.
Adjutant General John Chase, he said, "thinks he is a soldier, thinks there is war and thinks that way because he cannot help it. He honestly thinks he is the soldier."
Chase had enlarged the military district under the Moyer decision, which he declared was a blot on the jurisprudence of Colorado until it included the whole state.
Louis Tikas, leader of the Greeks who was killed in the Ludlow fight, he declared, was a factor for peace in Ludlow colony. He was a graduate of the University of Athens.
[photograph added]
From The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette of December 8, 1914:
BRANDS COLORADO SOLDIERY AS
A GANG OF BRUTES
DENVER, Col., Dec. 7.-Constitutional rights were abolished by the Colorado state troops when they went into the coal strike zone, declared Professor James H. Brewster, of the University of Colorado, testifying before the federal commission on industrial relations here to-day. The entire conduct of the state troops was a course of outrage and brutality.....
"I am not attempting to justify the events that followed Ludlow," he said, "But if those Greeks had been Americans they would have risen long before."
He characterized the arrest of "Mother" Jones by the militia as one of the greatest outrages on American jurisprudence.
He related the arrest of a women [Mary Thomas] who struck a militiamen because he shoved her during a parade at Trinidad. It was necessary to incarcerate her children with her that they be fed. He declared that merchants of Huerfano and Las Animas counties had been intimidated by the "company" with loss of financial and social position.
A glance of an attorney's eye was sufficient to "fix" a Mexican jury that tried accident cases, he declared, and he narrated the case of a mine guard deputy sheriff tried by a jury of seven or eight brother deputies in Huerfano county and exonerated for breaking a miner's jaw. This was in the "kingdom of Jeff Farr," he said.
Examples of Cruelty.
A "brute unfit to associate with anybody."
The witness said he had seen a youth whose head had been cut open by Linderfelt because one of Linderfelt's men had driven his horse against a barbed fence in crossing the open prairie and at that time Linderfelt believed that some one had stretched barbed wire across the road with malicious intent. Pro. Brewster read excepts from campaign speeches of Judge Northcutt, now attorney for the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, and Judge McHendrie, declaring that nominations to office in southern Colorado had been made on a basis of being "satisfactory to the company." These speeches, he said, were made before Northcutt became allied with the Colorado Fuel and Iron company and before McHendrie had been elected district judge.
"If Mr. Welborn believes a small part of what he says," said the witness, "he is the most unsophisticated business man I ever heard of. He put his business before his citizenship, his rights before society's rights and before any right. As he said at the congressional investigation it is his own business and he intends to run it in his own way. See what damage he has done."
In ending, his attorney, Mr. Welborn, told of the shooting of Marshal Lee, of Segundo, on September 24, 1913, the day after the calling of the strike; the killing of mine guards at La Veta; and how physicians had been kept from going to the wounded men for two hours.
Mine accidents could be charged to overhead expenses only if a national law was enacted, he said; other wise the extra burden would turn the local consumption field over to competitors from other states. The Colorado Fuel and Iron company carried no accident insurance to settle directly with claimants. The only reason for the unrest in Colorado was the introduction of lawless element by the Unite Mine workers of America, he said. Had the law been enforced and the militia use vigorously the strike would have been ended, he thought.
How Mine Company Worked.
Mother Jones in the Cold Cell Cellar
Which Killed Kotas Markos
----------
The fuel and iron company had availed itself of the services of private detectives in the field, but made no independent contract for them, Mr. Welborn said. These men had brought a machine gun from West Virginia and the others had been brought by the company. The militia or the federal troops had these guns now.
Professor Brewster said that man after man was imprisoned at Trinidad by order of General Chase without charges while the civil courts were open.
Men were arrested without any pretense of a crime charged against them, he said, and declared that Governor Ammons explained that it was to get "evidence."
Some were held forty days in jail. One died of the effect of the damp cell [Kostas Markos], the committee found, Professor Brewster testified.
Robberies of miners by militia men, he said, were of common occurrence.
Concerning the conduct of Linderfelt, Professor Brewster quoted him as informing a citizen that he was "Jesus Christ and all my men on horseback are Jesus Christs."
"It was this man," he said, "who received a message April 20, from Major Hamrock at Ludlow to 'bring the baby.'"
The 'baby' being the Machine gun.
"I am Jesus Christ and all my men on horseback are Jesus Christs."
----------
Of Sheriff Jefferson Farr, of Huerfano county, the witness said:
"Jefferson Farr is a good, stout, pleasant sort of person. He is in the wholesale liquor business. Saloon people who do not buy of him frequently find their places closed as disorderly houses."
The witness indoresd "Mother" Jones' address at the Trinidad strike conference. She declared that the time was ripe to stand together and make the bosses come through.
[Declared Professor Brewster:]
If the Boston tea part was an act to be proud of, the strike in the southern coal fields was equally justified.
[emphasis & photographs added]
WE NEVER FORGET
Kostas Marcos
---------------
SOURCES
Nevada State Journal
(Reno, Nevada)
http://www.newspapers.com/...
-Dec 8, 1914
The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette
(Fort Wayne, Indiana)
http://www.newspapers.com/...
-Dec 8, 1914
See also:
Industrial relations: final report and testimony,Vol. 7
United States. Commission on Industrial Relations
D.C. Gov. Print. Office, 1916
(search: Brewster, & choose p.6632 for full transcript of testimony)
http://books.google.com/...
Militarism in Colorado: report of the committee appointed at the suggestion of the Governor of Colorado to investigate the conduct of the Colorado National Guard during the coal strike of 1913-1914.
Colorado State Federation of Labor, 1914
"Are the track, the tipple and the tank more precious than the lives and liberties of men? If so, let us no longer pretend that this is a country for free men; let us openly announce that the dictator’s will is our law, and let us blow the constitution to shreds at the mouth of the mine owner’s machine gun."
Image:
https://www.facebook.com/...
To read:
pdf!http://more.ppld.org:8080/...
Hellraisers + Brewster:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Hellraisers + Linderfelt
http://www.dailykos.com/...
IMAGES
Linderfelt and Militiamen at Ludlow Saloon
http://www.du.edu/...
Lieutenant Karl E Linderfelt, Butcher of Ludlow
http://www.du.edu/...
Linderfelt on Horseback
http://www.cobar.org/...
Mother Jones in Cold Cellar Cell
https://archive.org/...
Lt Linderfelt and his Cavalrymen
http://margolis.faculty.asu.edu/...
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
They'll Never Keep Us Down-Hazel Dickens
Well we've been shot and we've been jailed, Lord, it’s a sin
Women and little children stood right by the men
But we got that union contract that keeps the worker free
And they’ll never shoot that union out of me
They’ll never shoot that union out of me, oh no
They’ll never shoot that union out of me
Got a contract in our hand signed by the blood of honest men
And they'll never shoot that union out of me
-Hazel Dickens
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
11:47 AM PT: I was able to find the letter regarding Linderfelt's lack of fitness for duty written by the C. F. of L. Investigating Committee to Gov. Ammons:
Hellraisers Journal: Democratic Colorado Governor Ammons Allows Militia to Continue Reign of Terror
http://www.dailykos.com/...
2:44 PM PT: "Transcripts of Statements of Witness Appearing Before the Investigating Committee Appointed by John McLennan, President State Federation of Labor, Investigating Conduct of State Militia in the Southern Colorado Coal Fields"
Sadly, these transcripts cannot yet be found online. They can be found in the John R Lawson Collection of the Denver Public Library's Western History Department:
http://eadsrv.denverlibrary.org/...
Specifically, here:
http://eadsrv.denverlibrary.org/...=