Page:Van Cise exhibits to the Commision on Industrial Relations regarding Colorado coal miner's strike.djvu/12

7322 Men and soldiers seized and took from the tents whatever appealed to their fancy of the moment. In this way, clothes, bedding, articles of jewelry, bicycles, tools, and utensils were taken from the tents and conveyed away.

So deliberately was this burning and looting that we find that cans of oil found in the tents were poured upon them and the tents lit with matches.

From a tent marked "John Lawson's headquarters" were taken a store of new underclothes and a mass of ammunition piled in thousand-round boxes. It has been said that the next morning there remained standing tents which were afterwards destroyed. A very careful investigation of that statement has led us to a settled belief, and we so find, that all of the tents were burned on Monday night and that what burning and looting there was, w r as completed before morning.

To return now to the progress of the battle, while the tents were burning and after the rescue work had been completed and the women and children cared for, the men under Capt. Linderfelt pressed on down the railroad and after a stubborn fight took and occupied and held the steel bridge that commanded the arroyo. The taking of this bridge ended the battle. From this time on for several hours the firing continued, but in gradually diminishing volume until it ceased altogether, about midnight.

In taking the steel bridge two men had been left at a pump house between the colony and arroyo. At this point these men took a prisoner who proved to be Tikas (Louis the Greek).

The men brought this prisoner back along the railroad to the crossroads at the corner of the colony, and called out "We've got Louis the Greek!" Immediately between 50 and 75 men, uniformed soldiers, men of Troop A, and mine guards rushed to that point. Lieut. Linderfelt came up with the others.

Tikas was then turned over to the lieutenant, his captors returning to their post. Some words ensued between the lieutenant and Tikas over the responsibility for the day's doings, Lieut. Linderfelt swung his rifle over Louis's head, breaking the stock of the gun. There were cries of "Lynch him!" from the crowd.

Someone ran into the tent colony and got a rope and threw it over a telegraph pole. Lieut. Linderfelt had difficulty in restraining the crowd.

He declared that there should be no lynching and turned the prisoner over to Sergt. Cullen, with instructions that he would hold the sergeant responsible for Tikas's life. About this time two other prisoners were brought to the cross-roads, whom Capt. Linderfelt had captured at the steel bridge and sent down. These were Filer, the secretary of the union, and an unknown man whom we believe, however, to have been Frank Rubino.

Sergt. Cullen in turn turned his prisoner over to Pvts. Mason and Pacheco. Lieut. Linderfelt then went back along the tracks to the station. During this time the group of men and prisoners at the crossroads was standing erect in the glare of the burning tents ; they were not firing but afforded an excellent target to their adversaries.

Shortly after the departure of Lieut. Linderfelt, firing was resumed. The men returned to their places under cover of the railroad embankment and recommenced firing into the colony.

The three prisoners ran through this fire toward the tents and were all shot before they reached them; Tikas was shot in the back, showing that he was killed from the soldiers' side. Filer, was shot in front, showing that he was killed from the strikers' fire. The unknown who dropped between the other two we have no information of.

Two bullets passed clear through the body of Tikas, showing that they must have been steel-jacketed bullets, such as are used by the soldiers and also by some of the mine guards and Troop A men. The one bullet that was found in his body is a soft-nosed bullet which is an ammunition never used by the soldiers.

In speaking of the different kinds of bullets used in the Battle of Ludlow, we are led to controvert a statement that the soldiers and men supporting them used explosive bullets. It is not difficult to understand why this mistake is made. The steel-jacketed bullet used in the present Springfield rifles makes a noise in passing through the air very like an explosion. By the sound alone it could very easily be mistaken for an explosive bullet. The bullet extracted from Louis Tikas was not an explosive bullet.

It was submitted to us by the coroner, and we found it to be a very common type of soft-nosed bullet. While not inhuman, like explosive and poisoned