AMERICAN-MINERS ON STRIKE.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14975, 23 May 1914, Page 5

AMERICAN-MINERS ON STRIKE.

BATTLE "WITH TfllT MHiiTAI&Y j ••■; ; KILLED. ■■''•=■.-'■ • f ""(rBOU OTTBtOWSr COEBESPONDENT.)' I SAN PRANCKCO, April 27. * Pbr three days last week there wae actual ■ warfare between the •' cpalmiiis. strikers of Ludlow district. Colorado,- ---' and.- the military. -Tho deaths were greater in number than tho American losses in the taking of Vera Cruz .from Mexico.< At least>twenty-five livee-are known to - have. been lost, and some statements; /place the number as high as, fifty. The officials of the. United Mine' Workers, in a telegram to Samuel. Gompers,. president of the • American Federation of -Labour : , at Washington* used the, following imploring language; "Will you., for God's sake and in tho name of humanity,, call- upon all. ol your citizenship to, demand of -the president iof the .TJnitedvStates.and botb. Houses...of,. Congress .that they,: leave Mexico alone and come into Colorado to, relieve.. these miners, their wives andchildren-who are being slaughtered by. .the dozens by;-numerous mine guards." .-...' ■ ':•-■'.• . .-, : ■ More; than four hundred armed -strikers; faced the state.militia in the battle. Each side holds the other blameworthy! ■: for -the outbreak of Major, ! Hamrock', in charge of' the militia, do? dares that the fighting: wasprccipitat/ed by a crowd. of■ Greek strikers under 'one ''Loins Tiki's, who opened fire upon : a detachment, of. his men while; they were drilling near, the military- ,campl Eaflier in* the. day. Major Hamrock had ordered' Tikas to release a.striker who, it ;was asserted, was desirous of return-, ittg to work. Tikas is one of tnoso killed in • the. fighting: ; -. According 'to the strikers' side of the controversy, Tikaa went - to. meet Major Hamrock, at'the latter's-request, and-never vetorned. The fighting-then-began. ■ Jhe most feature of the bloody , outbreak was the- loss, of women's and children's' life. that \rfc . involved . - Of the "actual combatants, seven ,were killed by'bullet wounds. The strikers' camp was a kind of tent city, most of them having: been living under canvas with' their for some months past. This camp was within the zone.of the battle, , and in order to', protect • the' women and children holes were dug in the ground uuder the tents. However, the tents caught fire," and at-least' 15 women and children were either burned- orsmoth--1 ered to death. Labour leaders charge ' that the military deliberately fired upon the'tent camp, but this-is tically denied by the military authorities, who say they do not know how the firo started. *Tho Ludlow camp is a charred mass to-day, and additional horrors are still being revealed. In holes dug under the tents for protection agiiist the rifles and machine guns mothers and their children are-found suffocated and cremated. One little girl was found dead with a doll in her arms. A touching incident' is related of Louis Snyder, the 12-year-old son of a striker. His baby sister, unnoticed, had scrambled out, of the trench in which the family had taken refago during the fighting, and was toddling along* the line of firo. The boy ran after the bahy. overtook her and had just succeeded in pushing her back into the trench when he was hit b> a rifle shot and killed. Major Hamrock believes the number of dead to be 33. This is undoubtedly the most serious strike war since the fighting in the same State ten years ago, surpassine in loss of life and bitterness of feeling the conflict of the J Michigan eopper-mitiers with the mfliI tary authorities. , The Governor of i Coldrado, who was in Washington a.tnational business when tie j armed hostllitiea began, a-t once ro- ! turned. A special sec-ion of tAe 1 State Legislature to deal with the { crisis has been summoned.