1914 April 20: How The Ludlow Massacre Affected the Citizens of Hanna, Wyoming

Page by Bob Leathers
One of the most horrific events to affect Hanna's history was the Ludlow Massacre. The massacre occurred in Colorado on April 20, 1914. The event directly affected the citizens of Hanna. It was a horrible event, but it did bring about positive changes to the local, state and national coal mining industry. The event forced important changes in child labor laws. It brought about newly negotiated labor contracts, enforcement and clarity to the eight hour day and improvements to underground coal mine working conditions. About three weeks prior to the Ludlow Massacre, the Rock Springs Miner, on April 4, 1914, reported the Hanna miners union voted to send $4000.00 to the striking miners in Ludlow, Colorado. The Hanna miners put their support as well as their money behind the strike. The Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard and the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, owned by John D. Rockefeller Jr., on a tent camp of approximately 1,200 striking coal miners and their families.  The strike was organized by the United Mine Workers of America.  The massacre killed men, women and children.  Rockefeller was nationally blamed for the incident.
YouTube:  Woody Guthrie Ludlow Massacre
Shared from YouTube
The video begins by picturing the "Death Special" built by the coal company's private security.
Over 100 years ago, the Rocky Mountains were the source of a vast supply of coal. At the peak, 16,000 people were employed and that accounted for 10% of all employed workers in the state of Colorado. It was dangerous work; in just 1913 alone, the mines claimed the lives of over 100 people. There were laws in place that were supposed to protect workers, but largely, management ignored those, which led to Colorado having double the on-the-job fatality rate of any other mining state. It was a time of company towns, when all real estate, housing, doctors and grocery stores were owned by the coal companies themselves. This led to the suppression of dissent as well as overinflated prices and an extreme dependence on the coal companies for everything that made life liveable. In some cases, workers couldn't even leave town, and armed guards made sure they didn't.  Also, If any miner or his family began to air grievances, they might find themselves evicted and run out of town. (Unworthy.com 2015)
In the early 1900s it was the United Mine Workers of American that organized the workers in Hanna as well as many other Rocky Mountain coal mining towns.  In 1913 the coal miners went on strike in Southern Colorado in an effort to improve their desperate conditions. The strike culminated in the April 20, 1914 Ludlow Massacre.

 The miners went on strike for:
  • Recognition of the United Mine Workers of America as the workers' bargaining agent.
  • An increase in tonnage rates of coal mined by each miner, equivalent to a 10% wage increase.
  • Enforcement of the "eight-hour day."
  • Wages for mandatory "dead work"  that usually wasn't compensated for, such as laying coal car track, timbering the entry, roof and walls, rock and slate removal, entry and walk way cleanup, and other such jobs assigned by the company.
  • The job known as "Weight Check Men"  to be elected by workers. This was to keep company weight men honest so the workers got paid for their true work.
  • The right to use any store rather than just the company store and choose their own houses and doctors.
  • Elimination of company script.
  • Elimination of the company guard system.
  • Strict enforcement of mine safety laws. 
In response to the strike the various coal companies took severe action agains the coal miners and their families.
The coal company evicted all the miners from their company homes, and they moved to tent villages on leased land set up by the UMWA. Company-hired guards (aka "goons") and members of the Colorado National Guard would drive by the tent villages and randomly shoot into the tents, leading the strikers to dig holes under their tents and the wooden beams that supported them.
No one knows who fired first. But by midmorning, it was war. Finding shelter in creek beds, foxholes and railroad cuts, the strikers sniped at the soldiers with hunting rifles and shotguns. Many of the union men had combat experience from European conflicts; maneuvering expertly, they sought to outflank the enemy position. State troopers were fewer at first, with less training and discipline, yet they dominated the battlefield. “The militia might have been outnumbered,” writes Scott Martelle in Blood Passion: The Ludlow Massacre and Class War in the American West, “but they were not outgunned.” Their machine guns fired thousands of rounds over the course of the day. A soldier was shot in the neck and bled out. A striker “cried and cried” after being hit in the temple. A young man watching the battle had the top half of his skull blown off. An 11-year-old boy hiding in one of the tents fell dead with a bullet lodged in his brain. Wounded men and animals lay twisted across the field. Militia reinforcements arrived throughout the afternoon. The strikers gradually fell back under the heightened assault by hundreds of soldiers. By 7 pm, the army pushed into Ludlow itself. The first tent began to blister and burn just as the sun was setting. (The Nation.com 2015)
Scores of people were killed during the strike days. Unfortunately most of those killed were women and children.
It was almost midday when rescue workers finally searched the maternity ward. Beneath the charred remains of the tent, they discovered the bodies of two young mothers and their eleven children, all of whom had suffocated. (The Nation.com 2015)
This event was a sad because it seems that it could have been prevented. The root cause of the massacre was greed.

Ludlow Massacre - Colorado Experience

Shared from YouTube
One of the most significant events in the struggle for labor laws in America played out in Las Animas County in the spring of 1914. With the control of much of Colorado's coal mines in the hands of just a few companies, miners grew increasingly intolerant of low wages and dangerous working conditions. Despite efforts to suppress union activity, the United Mine Workers of America called a strike in September of 1913. Over the next few months, tensions escalated as the striking miners ransacked several mines. The dispute culminated in a violent clash on April 20, 1914. Despite this tragic outcome, the event sparked national outrage and led the way of workers' rights in America. (Rocky Mountain PBS)
Slide show: A Link to Hanna - The Ludlow Massacre
Pictures by Bob Leathers
Music: Ludlow by Jason Boland

Click on the button to play the slide show.