INDUSTRIAL WARFARE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13392, 28 May 1914, Page 8

INDUSTRIAL WARFARE.

COLORADO MIXING STRIKE

BATTLE WITH THE.'

MILITARY.

- ' SAN FRANCISCO, April 27. '".For. -.-three days last week there wa-s aeiual warfare between the* coalmine strikers of Ludlow district (Colorado) and ' the military. ». The deaths were greater m number than ths American losses- m the taking of Vera Cruz from Mexico, At least 25 lives are known to have been- lost, and soma statements place the number as high as 50. The officials of the United Mine Workers, m a telegram to Mr Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, at Washington, ;used the following .imploring language : "Will you, for' God's sake, and m the name' of humanity, call upon all of your citizenship to demand of the President of the United States and both Houses of Congress, that they leave Mexico alone and come into Colorado to . relieve these miners', their wives and children, who are being slaughtered by the dozens by •numerous mine guards." More than 400 armed strikers faced the State militia it} the battle. Each ..■de holds- the other blameworthy *lor the outbreak • of 'violence. Major Hamrock,' m charge of the militia, declares that the fighting was precipitated by a crowd of Greek strikers under one Louis Tikas, who opened lire upon a detachment of his men while they were drilling near the military camp. Earlier m the daiy,^lajor Hainrock had ordered Tikas to release a striker who, it was asserted, was desirous of returning to work. Tikas i$ one of those killed m th© fighting. According to the 'strikers' side of the controversy, Tikas went to meet Major Hamrock, at the latter's request, and- never returned. Tlie fighting Shen began. - : V Th© most lamentable feature of the outbreak was the less of life . among women and children . that it involved. Of the actual combatants sev.n were killed by bullet wounds. The • strikers' camp was a kind of tent city, most of them having been living under canvas, wR-i their families, for some months past. This camp waa within the zone of the battle, and m order to protect tfye womfen and children holes were dug m, ihe ground under the tents. How. 'eviri' "the 'tents caught fire, and at' least l)y' women and children wore either burned or smothered to death. . Labor leaders state that the military delibately*. fired upon tlie tent camp, but this is emphatically denied by the military authorities, who say. they do hot know how. the fire started. -Tlie Ludlow camp is a.charred mass to-day, and additional horrors are still, heing revealed. Tn holes dug under the' tents for protection against the rifles "and' machine guns •mothers and their children are found suffocated and cremated. One little ci'rl was found dead with a doll m her arms. -A' touching incident is related of Louie Snyder, the 12.yea_.-old son of His baby sister, unnoticed, Siad" scrambled out 'Of the trench m *-#4__ch the family had taken refuge durigk.the fighting, and was toddling along the fine of fire. ' The boy ran after*. tEe baby, overtook her, and had just (succeeded m pushing her back into the '-trench when he was hit by a rifle shot a ltd killed. ' ,'■ V . -Major Hamrock believes the number ol dead to be 33. This.. is undoubtedly the most serious strike war cinee the. flighting m the same State 10 years ago, surpassing iv loss of life and bitterness of feeling the conflicts of |he Michigan copperminers with the military authon. ties. The Governor of Colorado, who was m Washington, attending to national" business when the armed ho-tili-fties began, at onoe returned. A special session of the State Legislature to deal witTf the crisis has- been summoned.