Page:Van Cise exhibits to the Commision on Industrial Relations regarding Colorado coal miner's strike.djvu/4

7314 shaft of the letter, that is to say, the point where these two roads unite and cross the railroad, called in that locality the crossroads, is a point that commands the approach to both the canyons, as well as the travel north and south along the railroad.

It was at this commanding point, the crossroads, that the Ludlow tent colony was located. In an angle formed by the arms of the letter, about one-third of a mile from the colony, was the military camp. Since early in November the brown tent of the soldiers and the white tents of the colonists stood thus, facing each other across the railroad. For the protection of the two canyons, military substations were established, one at Hastings in the northern canyon, and one at Cedar Hill in the southern.

The Ludlow tent colony, by far the largest of all such colonies, housed a heterogeneous population of striking miners. The colony numbered hundreds of people, of whom only a few families were Americans. The rest for the most part were Greeks, Montenegrins, Bulgars, Servians, Italians, Mexicans, Tyroleans, Croatians, Austrians, Savoyards, and other aliens from the southern countries of Europe. These people had little in common either with the few Americans resident among them or with one another. Each nationality had its own leader, customs, and mode of life.

We are credibly informed that within the colony 22 different tongues were spoken, unintelligible one to another. The percentage of American citizens, even naturalized citizens, was small. It will readily be seen that these people did not possess much means of interchanging information or social ideas. This fact is important as explaining conduct upon their part that otherwise might seem unaccountably strange.

The most forceful portion of the colonist were the Greeks. We do not know that they outnumbered the other nationalities in the colony, but we are positive they dominated it.

The will of the Greeks was the law of the colony. They were the most aggressive element, the fighting men; and they imposed their desires upon the rest. These Greeks segregated themselves in a quarter set apart for them. They were secretive. Such was their position and authority that although many nations had leaders of their own, the Greek leader was the master of the tented city.

By the other colonists the Greeks were regarded as heroes, for many of them, we are told, had seen service in the Balkan wars. The strange thing, and one that we found important, is that there were no Greek women or children in the colony.

Living in the immediate vicinity of the colonist population just described, were three distinct groups of men controlled by distinct feelings toward the strikers. In the first group were the nonunion workmen in the mines of the adjacent canyons. These men were dwelling with their families in the villages about the mines where they were employed. Most of them were recent arrivals, coming in as strike breakers to take the strikers' places in the mines.

STRIKE BREAKERS INDUSTRIOUS.

This class is not to be confused, as it has been, with the mine guards. The nonunion workmen were, as a class, men of industry and peace, of practically the same composition as the inhabitants of the tent colony. Their attitude toward the strikers was one of indifference, coupled with a fear of molestation. But they held no animosity; they felt themselves the permanent inhabitants of the villages.

A troop of national guards were enlisted, about the middle of April, among the superintendent and foremen, the clerical force, physicians, storekeepers, mine guards, and other residents of the coal camps. This unit of the National Guard was designated Troop A, but so recently was it recruited that at the time of the Battle of Ludlow, it had not yet selected its officers nor was it supplied with uniforms, arms, or ammunition. (When this company was called to reenforce the uniformed guardsmen at Ludlow, its members appearing in civilian clothes, gave rise, perhaps excusably, to the belief of the strikers that they were armed mine guards—a class much hated by the colonists.)

These mine guards formed another distinct class. They are men whose employment is to guard the properties; they are not permanent residents of the mine communities like the nonunion workmen, but have come with the strike and will depart with it.