One of the longest and most violent labor disputes in the 20th century, the Ludlow Massacre occurred in 1914 when private security forces and National Guard troops attacked striking mine workers in Ludlow, Colorado. The miners were living in a tent city after the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company had evicted them from company-owned homes. The attack left 32 people dead, including nine children. The incident sparked public outcry against employer violence and prompted government investigations into workplace violence.
Labor violence was a common occurrence in the turn-of-the-century United States, but nowhere was it more prevalent than in the nation’s mines. Mine operators, intent upon maximizing profits, worked to increase production and keep labor costs as low as possible. Efforts to introduce new technology and to aggressively resist organized labor accomplished the task. Hostility between mine workers and mine operators was particularly intense in western mining communities.
The Ludlow conflict began when the United Mine WORKERS Of America (UMWA) began an organizing drive at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, owned by John D. Rockeeeller, Jr. Faced with competition from the more radical Western Federation of Miners and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the UMWA found organizing western miners difficult. Union leaders, however, were determined to organize in the West and steadily gained new members between 1900 and 1913. Relations between workers and mine operators in Ludlow had been strained for more than a decade. Company officials resisted attempts to organize and brought in immigrant workers to divide miners along racial and ethnic lines. Living conditions were made more difficult, because workers were required to live in company housing and shop at the company-owned store at inflated prices. Many miners found themselves perpetually in debt.
In September 1913, miners ignored the pleas of union officials for moderation and voted unanimously to go on strike. Company officials responded to the strike by evicting between 11,000 and 13,000 workers and their families from company housing, forcing them to live in a makeshift tent colony just as the harsh Colorado winter set in. The company proceeded to attempt to undermine the strike by hiring replacement workers and an armed private security force from the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency. Colorado’s governor, Elias Ammons, attempted to keep the peace by calling in the National Guard, but the miners quickly grew suspicious of the troops when company officials agreed to pay for their expenses. In exchange, troops protected strikebreakers and harassed and intimidated striking miners. The arrest and deportation of legendary labor leader Mother Jones intensified the conflict. Over the course of the long winter, numerous fatalities occurred, prompting Governor Ammons to remove all but a company of troops.
The troops that remained in the spring of 1914 were under the direction of Lieutenant Karl Linderfelt. Intent upon breaking the strike and punishing Louis Tikas, one of the strike leaders, Linderfelt and his National Guard troops attacked the tent colony on April 20. Facing gunfire throughout the day, miners and their families attempted to flee or take shelter. Linderfelt entered the colony and ordered his troops to set fire to what remained of the tents. When the smoke cleared the next day, the tent colony lay in ruins. Thirty-two miners had been killed, including two women and nine children who had been smothered by the blaze as they attempted to hide. Although Linderfelt and others involved in the massacre eventually were found guilty, their punishment amounted to no more than a slap on the wrist.
Throughout the country, workers and the general public were outraged. The UMWA pleaded with others in the labor movement to come to the defense of the striking miners. Guns, ammunition, and money flooded in, as did armed miners from the entire region. Violent clashes continued throughout the month until President WoODROW Wilson sent federal troops into the region and ordered both sides to disarm, ending the violence. Despite scathing criticism and a congressional investigation, mine owner Rockefeller insisted that, while the loss of life was regrettable, the goal of maintaining the open shop justified the actions of company officials and the National Guard. The Wilson administration, though shocked by the behavior of the National Guard and Rockefeller, refused to side with the striking workers. In December 1914, more than a year after it began, the strike ended in defeat. The violence used to defeat the striking miners is indicative of the difficulties that faced workers and the labor movement throughout the Progressive Era.
See also open shop movement.
Further reading: Philip S. Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States, vol. 5 (New York: International Publishers, 1980).
—Robert Gordon
World History
