COLRADO STRIKE WAR.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14985, 4 June 1914, Page 10

COLRADO STRIKE WAR.

MANY BATTLES

DISARMAMENT BY FEDERAL

TROOPS.

(from on ow>- co*iß_rsPoxm*_vr.)

SAX FRANCISCO, May 10

In the history cf American industrialism there has never been a more striking instance of the passion and hatred and lawlessness engendered by attempting to settle labour disputes through the processes of private war than is furnished by tho shocking conflict now being, fought out on the coal and iron mines of Colorado. It is warfare pure and unadulterated. There are opposed armies equipped with rifles cannon, and ammunition. At fioquent intervals they meet in battle. Many lives have been lost, nrobably in the neighbourhood of a hundred, including the score of women and children who were smothered and burned to death in the trenches underneath the fired tent camp. Accounts telegraphed from the scene of the fighting read like nothing so much as stories of guerrilla warfare in the Boer war. Here, for instance, is a newspaper despatch from Walzenberg, which is in tho thick of the troubled zone:—

"The fighting at the Walsen mine began last night, soon after the McNally mine had been captured by the strikers and its defenders driven out. Tho seventy-five Walsen guards took their stand on 'Wator Tank Hill,' above the mine, where the powerful searchlight installed by the company waa operated. A heavy firo from strikers on tho surrounding hills was replied to vigorously by tho guards. During the fight at Water Tank Hill the. residents of Walscnberg were startled, by reports of artillery. The guards had mounted on the" hill two cannon made in the company's machine shops. Tho cannon wero constructed of 8-inch shafting, with 3-inch holes bored through. The guaids loaded their improvised artillery through tho muzzle with powder and various missilos, and fired them at the hills from which the miners were pecking away with high-power rifles. Tho successful defence of Wator Tank Hill was attributed largely to the effect of the cannon. Late in the night, while tho guards .still were pounding the surrounding mountains with artillery and rifle fire, an attack was made on the Walsen mine proper by a body of strikers in Seventh street, inside the town limits. Beforo daylight tho fire of the strikers was directed into the camp from east, south, and west. The fighting continued until about 11 o'clock."

On the same day that this battle occurred there was moro or less fighting all over tho strike district, covering a territory practically 200 miles in length north and south'of Denver, but Tor loss,of life the most serious encounter since tho opening battle last month was at Forbes on April 29th. At 5.30 in tho morning an army of strikers opened fire on the Forbes camp. With women and children safely barricaded in the mine slope the mine guards responded spiritedly. The firing continued until, abont 10 o'clock, when the attacking party ceased h<v.tilities and disappeared over the hills. In the fighting seven of the mine guards and one striker were killed;.but it is believed that several of the wounded, carried away by tho strikers, bore mortal injuries. All the mine buildings were practically destroyed by fire. From Trinidad, tho chief town in the region where most of the fighting took place, came {The , following telegram thatnight :—"Not since the days.of Indian warfare has terror reigned in Southern Colorado as it did to-night. With unburied bodies and blackened ruins of mines dotting the hills and canyons of LaS Animas and Hurefano counties, thousands of non-combatants wero awake, : waiting breathlessly for the siews of tho first outbreak of the watr, of mino guards and militia with an army of coal miners."

Disarmament of' both sides is. now being proceeded with, under Federal authority, in the hope that it will bring the warfare to an end. i-Whon first asked by the Governor of GolbraiTo to intervene in the interests of law and order, President Wilson, at that timo busy, .night and day with the Mexican affair, replied that he was loth to believe that the authorities of Colorado ! wero unable to cope with the situation. j Later, however, he ifsued a proclamation, and ordered United States troops t i take charge of the situation. In his proclamation ho called upon all "insurgents to disperse and retire peacefully to* their respective homos within a limited timo" ; but somo of tho bloodiest fighting occurred afterwards. Tho Secretary of War, Mr Garrison, has demanded that all men not in tho military servirte, shull turrander up "their amis, including private mine guards as well as the strikers." Even the police and county officers in the district occupied by the Federal troops are to ■ surrender their arms. In a number of cases.the guards and/strikers have given up their rifles and ammunition ; hut they are slow to do so. and charges are made that many guns have been hidden by. both sides. . As.showing' the extent to which tho .com/batants wjro arming, William .Diamond, a union leader, speaking to a m-iss meeting at Starkvifle,- declared that . a shinment of 300 high power rifles and 60.000 rounds of ammunition c i route from NeV York to tho United Miio Workers of America would be turned oyer to the-Federal troops immediately upon the arrival of the consip;"! merit

The fire,which destroyrd the Ludlow, tent colony, causing the. death of many women and children, was enured b' militinmen-or mine guards, or both, a-coT-dinc. to the verdict of the co-oner'*, iury. The victims name to their d«*nth'by n?*rh*-xjation, and the iurv fo'*nd that the fire was started by the .militiamen or cnards.