Ludlow Massacre the Date April

¶ … Ludlow Massacre

The date April 20, 1914 will forever be a day of infamy for American workers" (Tripod) it is the day when 20 innocent men, women and young children were brutally killed as they were going on a strike against their employer. The men were miners who, for years, had been trying to join a union, but had always been stopped by the mine owners, led by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. When they decided to organize a strike, in the hope to sensitize their employers, the miners and their families were put out of their company owned houses. They set up a tent colony on public domain, and this is the place where they found their end. The details of the attack are gruesome and terrifying, unworthy of humanity. The militiamen called for the leader of the miner in order to negotiate, but shot him in front of his men. "The massacre occurred in a carefully planned attack on the tent colony by Colorado militiamen, coal company guards, and thugs hired as private detectives and strike breakers. They shot and burned to death 20 people, including a dozen women and small children. Later investigations revealed that kerosine had intentionally been poured on the tents to set them ablaze. The miners had dug foxholes in the tents so the women and children could avoid the bullets that randomly were shot through the tent colony by company thugs. The women and children were found huddled together at the bottoms of their tents" (Tripod).

The question that has been tormenting generations of U.S. citizens is how this tragedy could occur in a civilized twenty century America? The main cause was given by the mine owner's disapproval of the strike and the refusal to negotiate the demands of the miners, demands which were in fact justifiable. "They called for the right to organize unions, better wages, enforcement of eight-hour work day laws, payment for "dead work," the right to elect their own check-weigh men without company interference, the right to trade at any store, and choose their own boarding places and doctors, and enforcement of the state mining laws and abolition of the company guard system" (Colvin, 2005). The causes of the massacre are various and they can be succinctly presented as follows:

the miners were working in improper and hard conditions, without any protection and security the mine administrators refused to respect and meet the demands of the workers the miners had been for years prevented from entering the UMWA (the United Mine Workers of America) and they had strong desires to join the organization that would protect their rights the mine owners would exploit the workers and pay them the lowest possible wages the miners were only paid for the coal they extracted, without the consideration of the complementary activities, such as laying the tracks the extracted coal was measured by a check-weighman, who often cheated and measured less that the actually extracted amounts mine owners had developed towns where the miners and their families were forced to live; they had to shop in the company stores and send the children to the company schools (Colvin, 2005)

The Ludlow Massacre is one of the most infamous events in the history of American labour and it perfectly depicts the working habits of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Miserable and unsafe working conditions for the employees, low pay and exploiting bosses, who responded with violence to the demands forwarded by their workers. "The Ludlow Massacre is an extremely important event in labour history, both for the state of Colorado and the United States" (Colvin, 2005). As an immediate result, the southern part of Colorado was tormented by a ten day civil war, during which the miners had retorted. For the American labour, it represented the starting point of the power held by the working force. However the end was in favour of the company, the long-term effects of the Ludlow event soon became obvious. The general public paid more attention to the working conditions of the miners and the moguls were severely criticized. The United States Commission on Industrial Relations commenced an investigation of the strike and became increasingly aware of the existent problems, to even implement several regulations on working conditions. "The Commission's 1,200-page final report argued for workers' rights to organize, for restrictions on the use of private detective agencies like Baldwin-Felts and for the need for state intervention in protecting worker rights. It influenced President Wilson to champion bills in 1915-16 that would ban child labour and institute the eight-hour workday" (Colorado Bar Association). However the developments made in the area of human resource management cannot entirely be attributed to the Ludlow Massacre, it can easily be said that the event contributed to the development of policies and regulations in regard to a better treatment of the workers.