The military occupation of the coal strike zone of Colorado, by the Colorado national guard, 1913-1914.

Front matter

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THE

Military Occupation

Foreword

I am directed to prefix to the report that follows a word of explanation.

A committee of the House of Representatives in the Sixty-third Congress investigated strike conditions in Colorado. They were not investigating the National Guard, Imt a mass of testimony w T as presented to the committee supporting a very bitter attack upon the state troops. To this attack and this testimony the National Guard paid little or no attention. At the conclusion of the committee's sittings in Colorado, His Excellency, the Governor and Commander-in-Chief, directed the Commanding General to review the testimony presented to the Congressional Committee and to investigate and report the truth of all the charges and accusations made against the military arm of the state. The following report is the result of that order. It was prepared by the Commanding General after careful investigation, and transmitted to the Congressional Committee by the Governor for the purpose of aiding that body to arrive at a true and just estimate of the military situation. The Governor's letter of transmittal accompanying the report to Washington precedes the report itself.

Inasmuch as this report exhibits a fairly detailed history of the military occupation almost to the time of the first withdrawal of the troops, and contains matter that cannot fail of interest to all the people, it was directed to be printed in the present form for general public distribution.

EDWARD J. BOUGHTON,

Major and Judge Advocate of the Military District of Colorado.

THE GOVERNORS LETTER

To the Chairman of the House Committee on Mines and Mining of the Sixty-third Congress

Hon. M. D. Foster,

Chairman, Mines and Mining Committee, Washington, D. C.

Dear Mr. Foster :

By my direction General John Chase, commanding the National Guard in the strike zone, has prepared a statement of the operations of the Guard, and I herewith enclose it, pursuant to conversation I had with you at the time of your departure for Washington. I have looked over this statement, and believe it to be a very fair and reliable presentation of the facts. I sincerely hope it will be of value to jour committee in arriving at a true understanding of the situation in Colorado.

With best personal regards, I am Sincerely yours,

OF THE

COMMANDING GENERAL

TO THE GOVERNOR

FOR THE USE OF

THE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE

TO THE HONORABLE ELIAS M. AMMONS,

GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF COLORADO.

Your Excellency : The Committee on Mines and Mining of the House of Representatives in the LXIII Congress, having been authorized to inquire of certain matters connected with the present strike in the coal fields of Colorado, and having in their investigations touched upon certain matters connected with the military occupation and the conduct of the Colorado National Guard, Your Excellency directed me to submit for the use of the Committee a brief report of the peace conditions, military operations, conduct of the troops, and such information in my possession as might aid or interest the Committee in the accomplishment of its errand under the House Resolution.

Accordingly and in obedience to Your Excellency's directions, I have made careful, and in most instances personal, investigation along the lines suggested, have accumulated and arranged the great mass of information that has come to me as commander of the state troops in the field, and beg leave to submit the following report.

For convenience of treatment, the report is divided into the following parts :

I. The general peace conditions existing in the disturbed region upon the calling out of the state troops.

II. A very brief outline of the principal incidents of the military occupation.

III. A succinct statement of certain military policies with respect to some matters inquired of or brought to the attention of the Congressional Committee.

IV. A report upon some specific incidents in the conduct of the military, brought to the attention of the Congressional Committee.

An appendix is added to the report, in which are collated and copied certain orders, reports, and other documents referred to herein.

I

GENERAL CONDITIONS AT THE OUTSET

In 1910 a strike was declared in Boulder Comity, Colorado. This strike is still in existence. Deeds of violence have been committed by both sides to the controversy almost from the date of the strike to the present time. The operators in Boulder County repeatedly called upon the then Governor of the state, Hon. John F. Shafroth, for protection of their lives and property. Controversial correspondence was carried on between the Governor, the sheriff of the county, and the mayors of the villages involved, with the strike leaders and with the operators in that county. At times the peace officers seemed able to control the violent individuals on both sides of the controversy, and at other times seemed wholly unable to do so. An utter contempt for legal processes and ordinary peace measures has for four years been exhibited in this section of the state. At one time a district judge incarcerated for a period of several months sixteen strike leaders whom he adjudged to be in contempt of his court for flagrantly and defiantly violating an injunction against picketing. This judgment was made the occasion of a demonstration by the strikers in parading around the courthouse in great force, as an intimidation to the civil authority; and the doctrine was inculcated that allegiance should be paid to the union rather than to the state or country.

Because of the failure to effect a settlement between the parties to the controversy in the northern coal fields, a strike in the southern zone was precipitated in August, 1913. On account of threatened vios lence to the properties of the operators and the lives of the workmen about the mines, the sheriffs of Huerfano and Las Animas Counties, being appealed to by the owners of the mines, placed on duty a large number of deputy sheriffs. The strike leaders selected strategic points for the establishment of the tent colonies which were made necessary by the departure of strikers from their homes on the mine premises. Nearly every one of these tent colonies was so placed that it commanded ingress and egress to and from the mines located in the canon near by. The location of the colonies was not an accident, and, in view of the statute regarding picketing; it would seem that it was a deliberate attempt, on the part of those responsible for the placing of the camps, to bring about a thorough system of picketing without apparently violating the law. The canvas for the tents had hardly been raised before deeds of violence were reported from the vicinity of nearly every one of the colonies. Additional mine guards were placed about the properties to secure the safety of such workmen as were passing the colonies to work. There is no question but that there were instances where the mine guards unnecessarily provoked the residents of the tent colonies. These latter, in turn, seemed honestly to believe that they and their families were in danger from the mine guards.

They, therefore, armed themselves for protection. As instances of violence increased, the opposing parties to the controversy became violently aroused. For at least ten days prior to the calling out of the National Guard a condition of absolute terror prevailed in the mining camps and in the tent colonies. At least four pitched battles occurred, and at least nine men were known to have been murdered and a large number wounded. The civil authorities seemed, and, indeed, represented to Your Excellency, that they were wholly unable to do anything for the preservation of peace. A large number of battles had taken place throughout the two counties. Anarchy reigned supreme. No attention was paid to the courts or the civil peace officers whatever. People were arrested and detained in the tent colonies, and the sheriff, armed with civil process, was frankly informed that he would not be permitted to serve it. With all the deputies at his command, the sheriff was unable to discharge his usual duties without battle. This awful state of affairs Avas represented to Your Excellency by all of the civil authorities charged with the preservation of the peace. The sheriffs of both counties, the judge of the District Court, mayors, aldermen, county officers, and numerous citizens — sympathizers with each side of the industrial conflict — implored Y r our Excellency to use the power of the state to end the open defiance of the constitution and laws. Accordingly, Your Excellency directed me by executive order to mobilize the National Guard, and to enforce the constitution and laws, acting either in conjunction with or independently of the civil authorities, doing all such things as in my judgment seemed necessary to conserve the peace and vindicate the dignity of the state.

I proceeded with- the National Guard to Huerfano and Las Animas Counties on the 28th of October, 1913. I found the conditions even worse than had been described to Your Excellency. I found two bodies of men in large numbers, fully armed, with the intensest hatred of each other in their hearts, ready to fly at each other's throats. The thirst for blood was unmistakably evident, as were the signs of an habitual and long-continued disregard and contempt for all civil government. The mining camps and tent colonies, though very numerous, were detached and widely separated over two large counties, the district presenting a front of about 100 miles. The military problem entrusted to me was interesting. With the all too meager force at my command, I was able, without bloodshed, to occupy this territory, reestablish the constitution, and enforce a sullen peace. The problems that developed day by day have been difficult and often delicate, and when the time came that there was added to our other difficulties the burden of deliberate deceit and misrepresentation, widely promulgated through the press bureau of the unions, our cup of tribulation nearly overflowed. In the discharge of our duties to the state as citizens, this volunteer force has had to go on silently in the accomplishment of the patriotic errand entrusted to it, under abuse and frequent scurrilous attacks, without a press bureau for the dissemination of the truth, often being placed in false light and false position before the public. But, at the end of all, the mission has been accomplished, and the state may well feel proud of its National Guard, whose members, uncomplainingly and at the cost of great personal sacrifice, have served the state so well in its hour of need.

II History Of Operations

Under this head no attempt is made to detail the daily occurrences and the daily and eyen hourly developments in the peace problem. Only a bare outline of the principal events can be undertaken.

Having moved the troops into the field and finding the situation in the disturbed counties as I have indicated above, my first effort was so to distribute the relatively meager forces at my command as to protect the entire line of one hundred miles front. Bearing in mind that my sole and only object was to carry out the orders of Your Excellency, and enforce peace and the observance of the constitution and laws of the State of Colorado, without reference to any incidental effect upon either side of the industrial conflict, my only desire was to accomplish my mission without bloodshed or the clash of arms, if possible. With two regiments of infantry — not, however, fully recruited — three troops of cavalry, one detachment of the field artillery, the hospital corps and signal corps, we arrived in the disturbed region on the morning of the 29th of October, 1913.

I established one base camp upon the outskirts of the city of Trinidad in Las Animas County, and another base camp at Walsenburg in Huerfano County.

SOUTHWESTERN MINE AND POST-OFFICE ARSON

While these necessary routine operations were progressing, and during the night of the 29th of October, our first day in the field, a conspiracy was formed among certain strikers at Aguilar, which resulted in a band of men going to the near-by Southwestern mine, pouring oil upon the tipple and mine buildings, setting fire thereto and destroying that property, and incidentally the adjacent United States post-office, with the mail contained therein. For a long time thereafter it was impossible to discover the perpetrators of this arson, but months later, through the efforts of the Judge Advocate's office and the Military Commission, the offenders were apprehended and turned over the United States marshal, upon the request of the Department of Justice of the United States.

DISARMAMENT

On the 31st day of October, the third day of the occupation, when the establishment of the military camps was well under way, I undertook, pursuant to Your Excellency's express directions, to disarm both sides of the conflict that I found raging upon my arrival. Realizing that in the event of the concealment of their weapons I would have great difficulty in disarming the combatants, I consulted the strike leaders, including John R. Lawson, and obtained from them, and especially from him, an assurance that if I first disarmed the mine guards employed through the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency to guard the operators' properties, the strikers would then cheerfully surrender the arms in their possession. It must be remembered that, upon our first coming into the field, the National Guard had at least the ostensible welcome and apparent cordial co-operation of the striking miners. Relying upon the assurances iiiven me by Mr. Lawson and the other strike leaders, I proceeded to disarm the mine guards upon the various properties, against whom the most bitter feeling of the strikers prevailed. In the disarmament of these mine guards I had no difficulty whatever. They were assembled by their employers, the operating companies, and promptly turned over the high-power rifles with which they had been supplied. This disarmament I carried on with respect to the mine guards and employes of the operating companies in every camp throughout the entire strike zone, and speedily finished the complete disarmament of that side of the industrial conflict,

It was arranged, upon the completion of the disarmament of the operators, that the military receive the arms of the strikers, and accordingly, upon the 1st of November, 1913, by an. agreement between myself and the strike leaders, a parade of the troops to the tent colony at Ludlow, by far the largest of the strikers' colonies, was arranged. From all appearances the very best feeling prevailed between the troops and the strikers. I paraded detachments of the troops of various arms within Las Animas County at the Ludlow tent colony, upon the suggestion and invitation of the strike leaders, including Mr. Lawson. My object was not only to receive the arms of the strikers, as promised, but to occupy peaceably and with good feeling the strategic points in the canons about Ludlow, which the presence of so large a body of armed men might have made difficult of accomplishment without bloodshed, had my entrance been disputed.

The parade of the troops at the Ludlow tent colony was memorable. The road for a half-mile or more between the point of detraining and the entrance to the colony was lined on either side by men, women, and children. Many of the men were in the strange costume of the Greek, Montenegrin, Servian, and Bulgarian armies ; for the colony numbered among its inhabitants many returned veterans of the Balkan Avars. The little children were dressed in white, as for a Sunday-school picnic. All carried small American flags and sang continually the Union songs. Through this line of men, women, and children the troops paraded — infantry, cavalry, and field artillery. Flags were waved in welcome, and an improvised band of the strikers heralded our approach.

We passed by Ludlow, occupied the Berwind and Hastings canons, and then returned to the colony to receive the surrender of the hundreds of high-power rifles I knew the strikers to be possessed of. At this point occurred the first instance of bad faith on the part of the striking people. Expecting to receive hundreds, if not thousands, of arms, there were delivered into my possession some twenty or thirty weapons, many of them of obsolete pattern, the strikers topping off the humor of the situation by including in the delivery of arms a child's toy pop-gun. Since that time the recovery of the strikers' arms has been attended with the greatest difficulty ; it has been a game of hide-and-seek, and while I have been able to recover, a few at a time, a large number of high-power weapons, belonging to the union, from various hiding places, I will state that there are hundreds of guns still concealed and waiting occasion for use.

CORONADO RIOT

In the meantime I had upon my hands a large number of the mine guards whom I had disarmed, and who, being defenseless in the presence of enemies thirsting for their blood, had to receive protection. These mine guards I undertook to ship out of the strike zone. For that purpose I assembled a number of them in Trinidad. On the evening of the 31st of October I had in the Coronado Hotel at Trinidad a number of mine guards who had been disarmed and were awaiting a train to take them out of the country. Notwithstanding the representations made to me concerning the disarmament of the detested mine guards, and when I had rendered them helpless by disarming them, all of which was known to the striking miners, a great crowd gathered around the Coronado Hotel in which these disarmed men were contained, for the avowed purpose of reeking condign vengeance upon their enemies, thus, as they supposed, delivered into their hands. Some five or six hundred men assembled around the Coronado Hotel with the express design of killing the disarmed and defenseless guards within. This is what is known as the Coronado Hotel riot. Notwithstanding all of the fair promises of Mr. Lawson and other strike leaders that induced me to disarm the mine guards first, they then rather gleefully assured me that they could not control their people, and that the feeling among the strikers, thirsting for the blood of the mine guards, was such as could not be stayed by any influence of the leaders. I found it necessary upon this occasion to assemble infantry and cavalry in the streets of Trinidad, and to disperse the mob thus bent upon wholesale murder, and to protect the disarmed mine guards until they could take the train out of the district. Fortunately, I was able to quell this riot and prevent large loss of life without bloodshed or other serious consequences than a few arrests.

From this time forward, from the breach of faith concerning the disarmament, until this day, the history of the strike leaders has been a record of bad faith, subterfuge, misrepresentation, and chicanery with the military forces of the state, who entered the field taking no sides, having no interest in the industrial conflict, intent only upon preserving the peace and guaranteeing the constitution, until by these methods the striking miners have come to look upon the National Guard as a foe, in league with their antagonist, and the Guard has come to know that no faith can be placed, and no honesty or integrity of purpose can be found, in the strikers' camps, as conducted by their present leaders. And I say this, having no interest whatsoever in the industrial conflict still raging.

SHOOTING AT FORBES

On the 5th of November the camp at Forbes was fired upon by the striking miners, and I found it necessary to send a company of infantry to that camp, which has received military protection ever since.

ARMIJO MURDER

On the 8th of November one Pedro Armijo was murdered near the tent colony at Aguilar. Armijo was a non-union workman, who, upon that day, was visiting relatives in Aguilar. This town, one of the largest in the district, was inhabited almost exclusively by union people. It has been the center and hotbed of disorder during the entire campaign. A committee of the Aguilar local union was sent to Armijo to urge him to join the union. This committee, comprising the president and treasurer of the union and one other, frankly told Armijo that it was highly dangerous for him to stay in Aguilar unless he took a union card. Armijo, however, was not to be intimidated, and flatly refused to join. While the committee was inside the house, threatening Armijo, a large crowd of men assembled in the street. The town marshal, a very radical union sympathizer, was then sent by the union committee to deport Armijo from the town. The marshal took him out of his relatives' house and, followed by the crowd, escorted him through the streets of Aguilar in the direction of the tent colony on the outskirts of the town. Before reaching the colony, the marshal turned Armijo loose and sent him upon his way toward the camp of his enemies. The unfortunate man was thrust into the jaws of death. Passing along by the tent colony, and about an eighth of a mile from where the marshal left him, he was murdered in his tracks by a gunshot. Instantly both the crowd from town and the inhabitants of the tent colony surrounded the body. That the killing Avas planned and advertised there can be no doubt. The tent colony people and the idle men from the town were upon the ground to see the fun. If the murder had been deliberately planned by the town marshal and the union committee, they could not have acted with greater care to insure its success. Upon the examination of these men before the Military Commission, they were most reluctant and unreliable witnesses as to the occurrences of that morning, giving a decided impression that they knew much more than they were willing to tell.

SMITH ASSAULT

On the same day, November 8, Herbert Smith, a mine clerk at the McLaughlin mine near Trinidad, was overtaken upon his road home by three or four striking miners, and very brutally and severely beaten, so that at one time there was a question of his recovery. No reason for the assault existed other than that Smith was at work, and was considered a scab. The guilty parties were apprehended, and, upon recommendation of the Military Commission, detained for a while and then turned over to the civil authorities.

LA VETA KILLING

Also on November 8 occurred what has since been known as the La Veta killing, when three mine guards and the driver of their car were shot and killed without warning.

One John Flockhart, the local representative of the United Mine Workers at La Veta in Huerfano County, learning that William Gambling, a mine guard, was coming to La Veta to have dental work done, with the assistance of Charles Richards and Peter Rich, assembled a number of the strikers, supplied them with guns and ammunition from his private residence, intercepted Gambling by forcibly taking him from a hack, and then conducted him to Miners' Union Hall, where they undertook to make him join the union. Gambling was, however, permitted to telephone to the other mine guards on duty in the vicinity, who at once came to his rescue in an automobile. The armed party, under the leadership of Charles Richards, a professed expert shot, proceeded to the outskirts of the village and took up their position behind an embankment a few hundred yards from the county road, along which the mine guards must pass.

The guards passed into the village without molestation, took Gambling into their car, and quietly drove away within five minutes after their arrival. The party on returning from La Veta was composed of three mine guards, Gambling, and the chauffeur. When arrived at a turn in the road, about a half-mile from La Veta, in full view of the detachment of strikers stationed behind the crown of the adjacent hill, a fusillade of shots was rained upon them. The guards tried to return the fire, but could see nothing of their assailants. Of those in the automobile four were shot and killed. Gambling, though wounded, was the only one of the party to escape the slaughter.

I at once sent a detachment to this locality to care for the dead and apprehend the murderers. As a result, Charles Richards, Charles Shepherd, Peter Rich, Sam St. John, and Jose Chavez were arrested. Upon examination they acknowledged the shooting. These men are now held for trial on the charge of murder. Flockhart disappeared immediately after the killing, being given the necessary funds for transportation by the union at Walsenburg, and is still a fugitive from justice. It may be well to remark that a large number of the inhabitants of La Veta were apprised of the coining killing and witnessed it from points of advantage, their advance information emanating from Flockhart and other leaders.

PIEDMONT DYNAMITING

On the 18th of November the house of one Domenik Peffello at Piedmont was destroyed by dynamite. Peffello had been an active union man, but had deserted the ranks of the strikers and returned to work.

BELCHER ASSASSINATION

Two days later, on the evening of November 20, occurred the assassination of George Belcher in the streets of Trinidad. Belcher had been one of the leaders or foremen of the mine guards employed by the operators through the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency. I have already described the feeling that existed on the part of the strikers toward these mine guards. This feeling was concentrated and centered in a deep hatred of their leader, Belcher. Rumors were afloat for many days before his murder that he and Belk, another mine-guard leader, were shortly to be assassinated. About half-past seven in the evening, which in Trinidad is the busiest and most crowded hour of the day, on the main corner of the city, at the intersection of Main and Commercial Streets, beneath an arc light that hangs in the middle of the street, and in the presence of perhaps a hundred onlookers, Belcher was shot from behind as he was walking across the street, by a Tyrolean Italian named Louis Zancanelli.

Belcher fell instantly. His blood flooded the pavement, and his brains protruded from the bullet wound through his head. He expired almost at once. It happened that I myself and the Judge Advocate were present in the immediate vicinity at the time of this occurrence, and saw Belcher before he died. Zancanelli was taken on the spot, and within five minutes of the occurrence was interviewed by myself and the Judge Advocate at the city jail. For five days he sullenly denied any knowledge of the murder, at the end of which time he voluntarily sent for me with the announcement that he had a confession to make. His confession was astounding, and was gratuitously offered, not as a result of any third-degree methods of examination or any promise of clemency. He was a psychological study, and he was treated with great kindness ; for it was believed that only by such means could he be induced to tell what he knew. The result proved that to be the case. He stated to me and to the Judge Advocate, and later to the Military Commission, that he had been hired to kill Belcher and Belk by one Anthony B. McGary and one Sam Carter. These two men were, and perhaps are yet, international organizers of the United Mine Workers of America. Zancanelli's story proceeded as follows: That McGary and Carter had made several trips to Ludlow, where Zancanelli lived, to offer him this employment. They offered the job likewise to one Mario Zeni, his tent-mate. Zancanelli at first declined, but Zeni accepted and came to Trinidad to do the deed.

A week afterwards Zancanelli came likewise, and was told by Zeni that he had not had an opportunity to accomplish the murder. McGary and Carter met Zancanelli in Trinidad and played upon his feelings and pride, telling him that Zeni was no good, had no courage, but that he, Zancanelli, could do the job if he would. Thereupon Zancanelli undertook it. McGary and Carter told him that he would probably be arrested, but that the union was so strong and powerful that it would get him out of jail at once, and protect him from the consequences. They told him also that, if he succeeded, the union would take care of him the rest of his life, so that he would not have to work. They promised him f 1,000 ; that is to say, $500 for each murder. The four of them — Carter, McGary, Zancanelli, and Zeni — went from union headquarters across the street to a saloon, and there McGary cashed a check for $50, receiving the money in gold, and paid $25 each to Zancanelli and Zeni upon account — two $10 gold pieces and a $5 piece to each. Zancanelli then had Belcher pointed out to him, and followed him around and lay in wait for him. On the evening of the second day thereafter his opportunity came, and he stole up behind his victim and shot him with a revolver that McGary had furnished him for the purpose. This revolver had certain peculiarities by which it was identified readily by its owner. It had belonged to one Barulich, a chauffeur employed by the union to drive its car. Barulich stated that he carried the gun in his automobile when driving McGary and Carter around from camp to camp, and that it had disappeared a short time before, and that he supposed either McGary or Carter had taken it.

Upon this confession of Zancanelli's, effort was immediately made to arrest McGary and Carter, and it was then discovered that they had fled the state the day after the murder. This same Barulich stated that he was directed by McGary and Carter to take them in the car to the first railroad station east of Trinidad ; that upon arrival there McGary and Carter had directed him to proceed further eastward, and that upon arriving at each town in their progress he received similar orders to drive further, until they reached Lamar, a town on the Santa Fe railroad near the Kansas border. Upon arrival at Lamar an eastbound train was just pulling in. This train was boarded by McGary and Carter, who directed Barulich to return to Trinidad.