Citation Needed - The Ludlow Massacre

Episode Date: April 17, 2019

The Ludlow Massacre emanated from a labor conflict: the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel and Iron Company guards attacked a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914, with the National Guard using machine guns to fire into the colony. Approximately twenty-one people, including miners' wives and children, were killed. The chief owner of the mine, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was widely excoriated for having orchestrated the massacre.[3][4] Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here.  Be sure to check our website for more details.

And then they sleep outside in like a canvas house. What? Yeah, they call it camping. Oh my God, that sounds terrible. None of us are going to do this Eli. Well, then I am not going back to work. Oh, for fuck's. Guys, what's up?

What are you talking about? Eli gave us a list of demands or he's going on strike. Yeah, and he's been in the balcony all morning and he won't even come out to record. Get outL.I. gave us a list of demands or he's going on strike. Yeah, and he's been in the back a little morning and he won't even come out to record get out of there. E.L.I. You are just against workers. Right, Tom is with all workers. Tom?

Tom, add that Noah can't call me a dumbass to my demand. Okay, that is demand 468. No one's going to read it. Wait, what about what are the other ones? They're ridiculous. One out of every five meals has to be... Vegan. On earth.

Absolutely not. Nope. And also number one, we have to give him belly rubs when he quote, makes a funny. Oh, hard now, hard now. And listen, it is one, no. We have to end every episode with a three minute long group hug. Not happening, nope.

Nope. Okay, well then you know what, I'm not coming out then. Great. That's where we go. Okay, so what do we do? Well, plan A. Uh, we did plan A last week when he wouldn't come out of his blanket for it. I think it'll work again.

I think it'll work. It always does, it always works. It's not too. Okay, okay. All right. Eli, guess I'm just gonna have to eat all this I think it'll work. It always does, it always works. You want it too? Yeah, okay. That's okay. All right. Eli, guess I'm just gonna have to eat all this vegan chocolate ice cream all by myself then.

Wait, see, so before you, all that vegan ice cream, you have ice cream? Oh, good. Oh yeah, ice cream. Does it have coconut sprinkles? Gross. It wouldn't be Wednesday without coconut sprinkles, now would it?

Can I have some if I come out? You sure can, buddy? Yeah. Okay, take them. Y'all! Y'all! You think that maybe we should just give him the ice cream one of these times?

Boop, boop, boop! Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop! Thank you, Heath. Got it. Give him the ice cream one of these times. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Thank you, Heath. Got it. Hello and welcome to Citation Needed, the podcast where we choose a subject, read a single article about it on Wikipedia and pretend we're experts because this is the internet and that's how it works now. I'm Heath and fuck you if you don't support unions. We'll explain, but we should not have to.

Should we really join? And joining me tonight are the union reps for the 80s cover band guild, I guess, Cecil and Noah. The real problem is negotiating prices with picket master. Oh, that, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh and Heath, if you know a better way to support a strong workforce, I'm listening. If you're not going to eat them, why bother picking out? That's the scabber. That's the type of scabber.

Not sure. Thank you. Oh, it's not what I'm going to have. I'm going to kill cowards. No, we all understand. OK, got it. what I'm saying. I'm not kill cowards. No, we all understand. Okay, got it. Just for you to learn. I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating,

I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, I've been eating, All right, Eli, why don't you go ahead and tell us what person-placed thing concept phenomenon or event are we gonna be talking about today? Today, we'll be talking about the Ludlow Massacre because if anything screams comedy potential, it's an event that ends in the word Massacre.

You know this, you know. Right. And Noah, you're currently a resident of Themdar Hills, Georgia. We're ready to expose some veins, like you're going through airport security. Apparently, yeah. It's great.

So what was the Ludlow Massacre? It was the bloody end of a minor strike in Colorado that took place 105 years ago on Saturday. You remember when Ronald Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers? Yeah. It's like that except if he'd ordered the National Guard to burn down their homes and shoot them too. All right. Great. So the David Kuresh episode plus like a little bit of the centrally a Pennsylvania episode plus old timey voices. This is going to be fun.

I mean, yeah, that's pretty much the synopsis. Okay. So in Colorado, Cole was the weed of the 1890s, right? That's what made the state go. Cole veins in the Rockies are super accessible. And in the ever expanding web of railroads, mining became damn viable in Colorado in the late 1860s. This drew a ton of new investment into the area and by its peak in 1910, the coal industry

was employing at least one out of every 10 people in the state. Yeah, and seven out of 10 of those were prostitutes for those coal miners. So they run through a lot of prostitutes. No, they have to replace the track on the prostitutes too. Just, it's job creation, it's important. Yeah, it's trickle down. That's a trickle over the fucking place, but we broke through another shaft.

That's a low job creation. Another goth sure. Another goth sure. All right, so almost all of these people worked for one of three major mining conglomers the largest of which was John D. Rockefeller's own Colorado fuel and iron Needless to say they'll back in the turn of the last century Colliers had a hell of a lot worse a job than they do today Okay, I feel like it's only right that we acknowledge the only reason this essay exists is so Noah could prove he knew the word

Colliers right that we acknowledge the only reason this essay exists is so Noah could prove he knew the word colliers. I just want to know. I learned it when I was researching this. That was really proud of that. That was a new word for how many of the colliers were a trusskin. That's the real. All right, so now obviously this work is inherently dangerous, but lacks attitudes towards mind safety made it a hell of a lot worse. In 1912, the death rate in Colorado's minds was seven people per thousand per year. What? No, no, no, the national rate for anyone in any job was 3.15 for 1000. So it's so for everybody back then. Yeah. But yeah, coal mining was particularly bad. Yeah, seven deaths per thousand miners per year. That's obviously rough, but that average across every job is terrifying.

You know, in 1912, just some average salesman could work a double shift and be pretty much tied with coal miners on the opposite diner. What the fuck was happening? Why did I get into coalsale? All right, so now and what's more, coal mining in Colorado was even worse. They consistently had a higher casualty rate than other coal mines in other states where at least the feeble safety laws were being maintained to make matters worse.

Miners were generally paid in tonnage and that's it, right? So like anytime you spent short up loose timbers or lay in tracks or tending to your own safety in any way was entirely uncompensated. I thought you meant they got paid in coal. I was like, I got another ton of coal. This seems circular. I should be paid in money. This is a Usually come by this weekend. We're gonna barbecue. Yeah, we're gonna It's worse than getting paid in coal. We'll get to it But occasionally it's even worse than them. She's getting paid in some of the coal. They just dug up The result though is that a lot of these call years, they were immigrants. Jesus Christ.

Oh, don't you worry, see. Oh, America hasn't changed that much in a hundred years, bro. All right. So obviously this led to a lot of desperate calliers, cutting corners and taking really risky gambles. In 1913 alone, 104 men died in Colorado minds and another six died on the surface in mind related accidents. Yeah, all this cutting corners makes a lot of sense to me.

I mean, if something goes wrong, it's important for you to make sure that it goes wrong for you. That's not it. Sorry. I ain't measuring twice. Fuck you. It's just me. What the fuck? I'm not even getting paid to survive the day. Alright, but no, okay, but to be clear, dying all over the place wasn't the only thing that made the job suck. Yeah, no one cleaned the breaker microwave. He's been in the shower and they didn't, not for like at least 70 years or something.

Just put a lid on the coal when you throw it in the microwave and then she's this. So, okay, so most of these mines also operated with company towns, which meant like the mine owned the workers home and the only store they were allowed to shop at. And to make sure that they only shop where they were supposed to and they didn't sneak off, the mine employed company guards who carried around rifles with softpoint bullets to keep

everyone inside said company town. Wow. Wikipedia quotes a story in Philip S. Foner describing the company towns as quote, futile domains where the company acted as Lord and master. End quote. Yeah. And now companies buy your meals and put a dry cleaner in the building so you barely notice you've put in 60 hours every week this year and your wife is fucking the yoga

instructor. Well, you're working on your second heart attack. So much better. Yeah. Hunter is going to say five years of improvement. Exactly. So the sushi guy. Yes.

So with this much control over the lives, as you can imagine, the mine owners took every effort to discourage unionization. They fired and evicted people suspected of organizing the company guards broke up any unauthorized meetings of any kind. Like if you had too many people playing a fucking board game, that was broke up. And some of the minds even made it a practice of trying to put immigrants with different languages together in some like tower of- What?

Babel- To keep from like even knowing each other's names and shit I guess. So cool to me. Jesus. Wow. So being a coal miner in 1912, it's a lot like being a public school teacher right now.

That's interesting. It's interesting. Well, except the bullets used to be a lot safer. There we go. You know what I'm talking about. Soft fight bullets, right? Michelle Fiferin, dangerous mines. With that song by Colio. All right. So as bad as things were in Colorado minds, no amount of effort was going to keep the

United Mineworkers of America out of the state. And once they got off foothold, they decided to go after Colorado fuel and iron, both because it was the biggest target, but also because it was reported anyway to be the most egregious violator of the meager labor rights of the day. So in 1913, the union presents a list of seven demands to the minotors. Yeah, and I had to admit, because they're trying to nail it to the minenturance, but the mines just kept collapsing. Actually, that's three today. We're going to have to mail this instead. All right, so by today's standard of employment,

the demands of the miners were impossibly reasonable. Here they are, this is all of them. One, recognition of the United Mine Workers of America and collective bargaining, kind of a prerequisite to all the other stuff, right? Demand number one is read this letter basically. Coming to compensation for digging coal at a ton rate based on 2,000 pounds, which is not the amount.

Yeah, that's how much a ton weighs up until now. They'd been using the long ton, which is 1,200 pounds. That's amazing. Or other option, you can pay us in long dollars, which equal a dollar ten. That's up to you guys at the mining company. We're flexible on the second one. Demand three enforcement of the eight hour workday law. So, you know, just not breaking the law.

Number four, payment for dead work. That's all the track laying, brace adding, safety shit that we talked about earlier. Great. Yeah. Demand number four, no partial slavery. Yeah. Nothing ending with the word slavery, you started. There's nothing with the word slavery. We get a real quick with a death rate of seven per thousand,

maybe they could have come up with a better term than dead work. That's what a lot of know is actually. All right, so number five, wait, checkmen that were elected by the workers. Right. So in other words, no corporate lackey going, yeah, that looks like only 18 hundred pounds to me. So we could pay it by a measurement of output. What should we use to get that right?

A scale or the keen eye, the guys who hired gun wielding thugs to keep us in our city cage. Yeah. Scale. Yeah. Okay. Right scale down, use the scale part. That's a lot. I'll say number six, the right to use any store and to choose their boarding houses and doctors.

A lot of these are just, please not slavery. Yep, no point of view of those. Number seven, the final one, strict enforcement of Colorado's laws, such as mine safety rules, the abolition of script, which was like non-money money that the company would pay you, but only the company store would take. But she's, yes. She's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's,

she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she this thing. Yeah, it's the gift certificate as a Christmas gift of a paycheck. Yeah. And also this included an end to the company guard system. Well, this company money thing, Jeff Bezos has read in these shaking his head, call accounting, have him scrap Amazon Dimes.

We're not doing it anymore. Yeah, also call the NCAA, have him scrap basketball and football. You guys hear me? He's a emancipation, shit. Whoa. All right. So as reasonable as stop breaking the law and don't hire people to beat us and shoot rubber bullets at us is, the mine owners rejected the demands entirely.

And in September of 1913, the UMWA called a strike. To be fair to the mine owners, laws don't usually apply to the rich. They are probably just very confused by the whole system. That's exactly what happened. All right, so first thing that happens here is the company kicks all the striking workers out of their company owned homes. So they have to move into these tent villages that the union and set up an advance of the strike

uh... now these tent villages were strategically located near the bottlenecks that any scabs the company brought in would have to go through to get to the various minds fuck yeah i can imagine that would be awkward hey steve uh... we're we're headed Hey, yeah, just going to the To the not getting beaten to death. No, get into death. Yeah, that's where I'm going. Yep Cool have some barbecue. You want some coal?

Yes great And we got beat to death So obviously this gets bloody right away. The mine owners hire the notorious Baldwin Thelts detective agency to protect the strike breakers and harass the strikers. And by harass, by the way, they mean kill and maim. Okay, so the detectives went on to fire bullets into tents randomly, sometimes with people in them,

and drive around in an improvised armored car mounted with a machine gun that they called the death special. Oh shit. Hey, Bill, did you return that bulleted list of demands back to the strikers like we asked you to? I may have misheard that. All right, so to protect themselves from frequent sniper attacks, a lot of the striking miners went to ground

They started digging holes in their tents and living and basically mini world war one trenches and shit Great so like occupy Wall Street, but you know with leaders and goals And a better ending find out and a better ending. Oh, shit. It's true. So wait a minute, wait a minute. The miners dug in like really? We're gonna see that one coming.

We never figured it was. All right, so and keep in mind by the way, this shit is going on all over the state, not just one or two minds. So within a few months, you've basically got pitched battles between strikers and hastily deputized sheriffs. So in October 28th, then Governor Elias M. Ammons calls in the Colorado National Guard to put down the strike.

Great, great, yeah. The governor called in guys with guns to attack the guys who were getting attacked by guys with guns. Yes, because the guys who were getting attacked by guys with guns. Yes. Because those guys who were being attacked were doing nothing too aggressively. Very aggressively. Nothing too aggressive. And speaking of organized nothing, let's take a quick break for some apropos of nothing. Nothing. It's... Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Living wage, no, no, no, no, sick days, health and just, my god, do they want a pony as well, Johnson?

Exactly, sir. So, what are they proposing? A strike? Not exactly, sir. Because the boys down and haven't your need work, let them strike us. Actually, actually, sir. Yeah.

As the press will be bad, but we can't let these loonies use a little thing like a strike. They aren't going to strike, sir. And then what are they going to do? Tell me, man. Well, they're gonna kill and eat us, sir. Oh, wait, don't. They do what now?

They're gonna murder us and eat our flesh. Let me get this straight. If we don't give in to their demands, then they are going to murder us. Yes, sir. And then feast upon our corpses. Absolutely, sir. Yes.

Yo, Johnson, a company is nothing without its workers. That's what I always do. I will drop the paperwork, sir. And we're back. When we left off, a bunch of canaries got shot in the face, so nobody was sure if anything was wrong at the closing line. What's next? Alright, well, as we all know, nothing cals civil unrest quicker than shooting those motherfuckers. That's the motto on the police cars in Chicago too.

It's funny because it's true. So by and large, the mobilization of the National Guard did the trick. They were able to escort enough strike breakers through the lines to successfully remove the strikeers' leverage, and they were able to do it pretty quick. Unfortunately for the Colorado taxpayer though, they weren't able to do it pretty cheap So within a few months with most of the strikers back to work anyway the governor has to recall them good Good strike everybody lost our houses and our lives, but they never Take our pride because you know, that's not a real thing

pride because you know that's not a real thing. No, you can't say we have it. All right, so at this point though important note, not all the strikes are over and fearing that recalling the truth might lead to a resurgence of violence, the governor agreed to create a new national guard company that consisted mostly of Colorado fuel and iron mine camp guards. You want him to violence? No, violence, good. Right. mostly of Colorado fuel and iron mine camp guards. No violence. Good. Yeah. No, you don't.

Remember those guys that were shooting into the tents earlier from Baldwin fells detectives? Yeah, those guys. So they basically just gave those guys National Guard uniforms to wear and told them the secret handshake and said, you're the National Guard. So, you know, the military, but with less discipline. They're like digging around for a name like, hmm, black water's taken. Let's go black lung.

Black lung. Yeah. All right. So, on the morning of April 20th, these national guardsmen show up at one of these tent cities claiming that there's a man in the camp that was being held there against their will. So, the camp leader, a dude named Louis Ticus, tells them that they don't have any kidnapping victims, but eventually agrees

to take a meeting with the militia commander at a train station about half mile away. While he's in the meeting, two other companies of militia moved in and installed a machine gun on a ridge near the tent city. Because Lewis Ticus was the only guy who knew they called no machine guns at some point. This whole thing feels like a really great setup for a really fucked up surprise party for Lewis though, like, surprise! We've a shingun all your friends. Must have seemed like that too, by the way, to him, because Tika started to realize someone was fishy right away.

He hurries back to the tent city to warn him that he thinks an attack is coming. So the miners mobilize, they try to outflank the militiamen and during this maneuver, the gunfight starts and hundreds of women and children in the tent city go running for their lives. Bring your family to work day, got weird. You know, see, so I think they've mostly done away with that now, but we do still have a problem with bring your machine gun to work day. That's still in effect.

Yeah. Too much. He is your family as a human shield. I'm just saying. It's actually in the HR training now. It's sad. So this gun fight lasts all day with the militia men firing from a high rich by seven pm.

The whole camp is engulfed in flames to the militia heads down from the ridge to loot what hasn't burned up yet. They execute the few strikers that haven't fled including teacus, but the deaths that really resonated with the country afterwards were the deaths of two women and 11 children who'd been hiding in one of those aforementioned tent ditches when the tent was set on fire. Jesus. All 13 of them suffocated. Guys, I feel bad.

I think there might have been unintended consequences to our, you know, hail of machine gun fire. Fuck, son. to our, you know, hail of machine gun fire. That's sad. All right. Now, I should say that everything is kind of disputed here. It was disputed heavily by the mine owners at the time. And there was a really long time. People said, maybe the story was exaggerated.

Maybe it wasn't. All the archaeology seems to like support the worst interpretations of this from the perspective of like the mine companies are terrible. So with that in mind, I'm a dinosaur. I want to. That's what that word means to me. I want to quote, mind them of lengthy piece. Thanks for keeping this part serious for me.

So I want to quote a kind of lengthy piece here from Julia May Courtney who is writing for Mother Earth magazine at the time. This is a very pro-union magazine. So obviously she had an agenda here, but that doesn't mean it wasn't true. So according to her account, the militia quote, fired the two largest buildings, the striker stores, and going from tent to tent poured oil on the flimsy structures, setting fire to them. From the blazing tents rush the women and children only to be beaten

back into the fire by the reign of bullets from the militia the men rush to the assistance of their families and as they did so they were dropped as the worrying messengers of death spent surely to their mark and quote uh... and i quote this because a i think it gives a sense of the real tragedy here and b i feel like worrying messengers of death is an underused synonym for bullets We did the story the other day and I'm like hey, can I get some worrying messengers of death and they didn't even know the fuck I was talking about So I'm bringing it back. Why were you buying bullets? I live in Georgia. I think it's required like it's just that's right

You can't get milk without a box of bullets if you want to get a fishing license That's right. You can't get milk with a box of bull. If you want to get a fishing license, I was taking a family work. I agree about this worrying message as a death thing. It's the only singing telegram with a Doppler effect. I agree. Good night, lady. Good night, lady.

Good night, ladies. I'm done. I'm done. Now, much to the surprise of the governor and the mine owners, I'm not ladies, I'm not. Now, much of the surprise of the governor and the mine owners, the strategy of all-out massacre of families did not have the calming effect on the population they were hoping for. And when news of what was now being called the Ludlow Massacre spread, the miners erupted.

Labor leaders issued a call to arms, not a super normal thing for labor leaders. In a town called Trinidad, the UMWA distributed arms to strikers after a union headquarters publicly, openly. And before the smoke and cleared over Ludlow, a wide-ranging guerrilla war between the militia and the coal miners had begun. So okay, so this war goes on for 10 days. Somewhere between 700 and a thousand miners attacked one mine after another, driving off the guards, killing the ones that

refused to be driven off and setting fire to the buildings. Hey, quick thing, libertarians. No, it just described a market solution. He did. We don't have any units. That's the market solution. So hundreds of state militia were mobilized, but they were outnumbered. They were disorganized. And the miners' orgy of vengeance kept going until Woodrow Wilson sent in federal troops. The 10-day event called the Colorado Cold Field War added approximately 75 more deaths to the strike's total. Yeah, so like an average day and a half for the mine workers. Like a kid. Yeah, actually some old miners about to retire that day.

She's like, oh, we're doing a, we're doing a mercenary machine gun battle nights. Okay. Because I was sure I would get killed in the mines. My last day was just a mercenary. That's 3.15 these days. Yeah, that's pretty good. All right. So after the dust settled, 408 strikers were arrested and 332 of them were charged with murder. In the end, only the leader of the strike was convicted of murder, though. And his verdict was eventually overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court. In addition, 22 national guardsman were court marshaled,

all but one of whom were acquitted. The exception was Lieutenant Linda felt who was apparently the guy who shot Lewis Ticus in the back of the head execution style. And he was given a light reprimand. Notty, naughty fascist goo, naughty, naughty, yeah, no. Do you promise to never, ever shoot that guy in the back of the head again? All right. So now eventually the UMWA ran out of money and officially ended the strike on December 10th of 1914 without any concessions from the mine owners at all.

That being said, the strike had a huge impact on the nation itself and the reputation of Colorado and those mine owners. Rockefeller, Jr., who was running the company at this point, did agree to a whole bunch of extra ship for the miners and even allowed him to organize after he realized that not doing that could be crazy fucking expensive. Okay, okay, we'll obey some of the laws, but not all of them. Is that the concession they won? No, it was kind of worse than that. It was more like, okay, we're not going to obey the laws, but we'll put ketchup in the break room. It was a lot of shit like that. The federal

government also got involved. I feel like sending in the National Guard was already pretty involved. Yeah, beyond that. So responding to a national outcry, Congress directed the House Committee on Mines and Mining to investigate the event and the report that they published in 1915 is often credited with having a huge influence in promoting child labor laws and standardizing the eight-hour workday. Hey, libertarians, one more time. No, it just described a solution to the market solution. Maybe there's some other word for that market thing sometimes.

Market dissolution, I don't know. Give me that one a day, I court. Okay, so the site of the Ludlow Mine today is a ghost town, but the United Mine workers of America owns the massacre site itself where they erected a granite Monument in memory of all of those people who died for your lunch break really All right, and if you had to summarize what you've learned in one sentence what would it be? You already have the goddamn right to work. That's just a play on fucking words

work. That's just a play on fucking words. That's bullshit. Anyway. And are you ready for the quiz? I'm on strike. No, I'm right. I'm alright. Noah, things have changed. And this could never happen again, except a everywhere that makes everything you buy now. Or there's almost nothing you can do but feel shitty about knowing. Oh, secret answer C. If you buy organic and lie about medicine, you're allowed to not even feel shitty. Correct, I guess. Yeah.

Yeah. There was the first question. That one's always correct. I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. There was the first question. That one's always correct. All right. No, they made, the made for TV series of this massacre is called a enemy mine. Oh, B shaft. Damn right. C. Rockefeller strikes bad. Seeks of strike. It's the strike. Or D call minor slaughter.

Oh, they might actually run with the no, okay, just in case anybody failed to fully appreciate it. I want to answer a enemy mind. Thank you. Thank you. Absolutely right. All right, Noah, which of the following should be the title of this episode? A, Anthros citation needed. Puss. Puss. Puss.

Puss. B, mine comp. Pna. Pna. Oh, let's get one. All lungs matter. Yes. All right, well, I believe that's our first. All lungs matter. Yes. Ha ha ha.

All right, well, I believe that's our first, first anthracite joke, so I'm gonna go A, anthracitation. That is correct. I'm on a roll. All right, no, obviously, we all want to know, what is the best way to establish unions in the still greatly under-collectivized United States?

Is it A, punching people till they let you work human hours. She's a beast. Kicking people till they pay you a living wage. C, stabbing people who think health insurance is a bugging tool. Oh, okay. Or D, all of the above, you fucking pussy. Okay, she's a scurrying.

I think it's probably better if I don't answer that one. So you win just sort of by default Eli I can see I think it's that question was for you grandpa I think it's that question was you like the Notre Dame Cathedral on fire. Yeah, I might be down I guess the winner is Eli Relations, whoo. I'm on a Tom essay next week. All right. Let's do it Tom. You're up Relations, woo, I'm on a Tom SA next week. Alright, let's do it. Tom you're up.

Alright, well for Noah, Cecil Eli and Tom, I'm Heath. Thank you for hanging out with us today. We'll be back next week and by then Tom, we'll be an expert on something else. Between now and then you can hear from Tom and Cecil on Cognitive Distance and you can hear from Eli, Noah and myself on God off of movies, The Skating Atheist and The Skeptocrat. And if you'd like to compensate us for the long tons of free podcasts we keep putting out, you can make a crop episode of Donation at patreon.com slash citation pod.

And if you'd like to get in touch with us, listen to past episodes, connect with us on social media, or take a look at the show notes. Be sure to check out citationpod.com. No longer than eight hours in a day. There. Look good. Let me see, sir. Yes, looks good to me, sir. All right.

And then they won't eat our dicks then, right? No guarantees, sir. Damn it. Yeah, the three conglomerates of call. Yeah, the three conglomerates of call. Yeah, the three conglomerates of Colorado. Yeah, the three conglomerates of Colorado today being weed, hacky, sacks, and bad restaurants in case anyone's wondering. Well, some, what they got going on today.

Now okay, so even today, I just think mining is some super dangerous shit. Really? But leave this just. So fake. Yeah. That's fucking Christ. Yeah Little fucking podcast laugh gentlemen We explain what camping was before the record to hate for

You never left Okay, okay, I see how it gonna be All right, all right Eli Eli go back and try it three more time Is I ruined the surprise cuz I can't Glomerates otherwise it would have killed everyone all of Colorado at the end. No that's tough All right Conglomerates of Colorado today being weed hackie sacks and bad You're just with your eyes! Get it! I'm so good! I'm so good! You're just with your eyes! I'm so good!

I'm so good! I'm so good! I'm so good! I'm so good! I'm so good! I'm so good! I'm so good! I'm so good!

I'm so good! I'm so good! I'm so good! I'm so good! I'm so good! I'm so good! I'm so good! I'm so good!

I'm so good! I'm so good! I'm so good! I'm so good! I'm so good! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha