Thursday October 6, 1921. Winners and Losers.

On this day in 1921, the New York Yankees beat the New York Giant 3 to 0 in game 2 of the 1921 World Series.

California Here I Come, April Showers and Toot, Toot, Tootsie were introduced in the musical Bombo at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre.  The songs were popular enough that I actually learned the lyrics to all three as a kid somehow, probably from the Lawrence Welk Show.  The production was one of the popular, weird, racist black face musicals of that era.

The dog funeral of Buster Snook, a Spanish poodle, owned by, Selma Snook, of Washington D.C., took place.

A photographer examined the schools and students of West Virginia.

Little Levels High School, Hilsboro West Virginia.

"On the way to school. Country children en route to the Buckeye Grades School, near Marlinton, W. Va. These come from some of the poorer farms and walk from 2 to 3 miles each way. One walked 4 miles all winter."

"The "East Side" of Pocahontas Country. The Aldrich home, - Buckeye, near Marlinton, W. Va. This is one of the worst homes in the county. Note the duck-coop, made out of an old trunk, - in front yard. Mother said "The colt kicked the winders out." She is a no-'count mountaineer from Kentucky and her husband is a shiftless farmer who has let this farm run down to worthlessness. His father ran a prosperous farm here and owned hundreds of acres but the son has run thro[ugh] it all. Typical of worst conditions in the country. Oct. 6, 1921. Location: Pocahontas County--Marlinton, West Virginia."

A Product of the 4 H. Club. Gradie Walton, 17 yrs. old, - is very deficient in most school branches (except in mathematics where he shines). He is much handicapped physically, - lost one eye in an accident and the other is weak. This year he raised 135 bushels of corn on one acre"

Saturday September 4, 1921. Hemingway nuptuals.

 

Leyendecker portrayed an unhappy returning student in his September 3, 1921 illustration for the Saturday Evening Post.

Earnest Hemingway and Elizabeth Hadley Richardson married in Bay Township, Wisconsin.  They'd divorce in 1927 after she learned of Hemingway's affair with Pauline Pfeiffer, who had been a friend of hers.

They had one son, Jack, who in spite of having not grown up in his father's household, after his early years, perhaps somewhat reflects his interest in was famous for his interests in fishing.  A resident of Idaho, he was the father of the acting Hemingway's.

Hemingway would marry Pfeiffer in 1927, and they'd divorce in 1940.  In spite of the affair, Pfeiffer was a devout Catholic.  How they were able to validly marry, in that light, is unknown to me, but Hemingway converted to Catholicism as a result fo the marriage.  Interestingly, Pfeiffer was a supporter of the Nationalist cause in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, due to her views, whereas Hemingway famously supported the Republicans.

Their son Patrick, who is still living, was a wildlife conservationist.

That marriage ended due to an affair as well, after having produced two children.   This time the affair was with Martha Gelhorn, a journalist, with a subsequent marriage lasting from 1940 to 1945.  Gelhorn nonetheless had an affair with Gen. James Gavin while married to Hemingway.  Shortly after that marriage ended, Hemingway married Mary Welsh Hemingway, to whom he remained married until his death in 1961.  Their other son Gregory became a physician, but had a variety of personal problems that troubled him throughout his adult years.

The U.S. Army intervened in the Battle of Blair Mountain with 400 of 4,000 armed miners laying down their arms.  Most of the remainder fled.

Friday, September 2, 1921. Famine

Houston Texas, September 2, 1921.

On this day in 1921 food aid from Western countries arrived in Riga, Latvia for transport to the Soviet Union as famine relief.  The US was the largest contributor.

The famine was human induced, caused by the incompetence and stupidity of the communist economic system in multiple ways.

On the same day, Federal troops arrived in West Virginia, but President Harding declared they would not be used to impose martial law as long as civil law continued to function.  The threat, of course, was the private warfare between union coal miners and non-union/company forces.

Japanese dignitaries were photographed in Washington, D.C.

 

Baron Kyuro Shideharu

Belle Case LaFollette, wife of Sen. Robert LaFollette, was photographed walking their dog.

Tuesday August 30, 1921. Private Warfare.

President Harding intervened in the West Virginia Coal Wars and declared that if miners did not disperse near Logan, where they were fighting a much smaller force led by a local sheriff but equipped with machine guns and aircraft, that he would deploy Federal troops to the area.

A battle did ensue that day when 75 miners led by Reverend John Wilburn probed the operators/sheriffs line, resulting in a confused small battle and several deaths.

The entire matter was a dispute between union and non-union miners, and the owners of the mine.  One badly wounded non-union miner was flatly executed by a union miner.

This is interesting in part as people who imagine that the past was better than current times often omit things like this.  It's impossible to imagine private warfare of this type today.

Tuesday, April 28, 1914. President Wilson orders Federal troops into the Colorado Coalfield War.

On this day in 1914, President Wilson ordered Federal troops to Colorado at the request of Gov. Eliam M. Ammons following days of fighting (the Ten Day War) between miners, Colorado National Guardsmen and mine owners that had broken out with the April 20 Ludlow Massacre, which we should have covered but managed to omit, occured.

Tensions had been high since the summer of 1913 between miners of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) and the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I) due to low pay and dangerous working conditions.  Colorado's mine accident rate was much higher than elsewhere in the US at the time.  The UMW had started making demands to address the situation without success and adopted demands on September 16, 1913, calling for a seven-step plan of improvements and recognition of the UMW.

On September 23, they went on strike during a rainstorm.  Soon, 20,000 miners were evicted from their company housing. The union supplied tents, and tent cities resulted.  80.5% of the miners went on strike, far higher than the company's had expected. Mary J. Harris, "Mother Jones", spoke on September 23 in Trinidad, stating:

Rise up and strike! If you are too cowardly, there are enough women in this country to come in here and beat the hell out of you.

The companies brought in strike-breaking forces, and law enforcement was generally aligned with the companies.  They also had influence in the Colorado National Guard, which would soon be deployed, which was extremely unfortunate as the Guard had been working since the early 20th Century to escape this role specifically, and had made progress in that regard with the passage of the Dick Act, which made them the official reserve of the Army.  In classic Western form, gunmen were recruited from Texas and New Mexico, some of whom became National Guard "recruits".  Colorado's National Guard CO, Gen. John Chase, had, additionally, played a role in suppressing strikes at Cripple Creek in 1903-04, making him literally a pre Dict Act figure, as the Dick Act, which officially established the Guard system, came into effect in 1903.

In October 1913 the Colorado National Guard was called out, but six months later the financial drain on the state caused all but two companies to be withdrawn.  When more fully deployed miners had welcomed it, as it was a neutral party, but the change, with quite a few of the Guardsmen deployed in that period being imported strikebreakers with no military experience, changed things considerably.  Strikebreakers were additionally brought in by the mines in the form of Baltwin-Felts detectives, who had experience in the same from West Virginia.

Clashes occured all winter long, with the Guard sometimes acting as strikebreakers and sometimes acting as intervening parties between strikers and private strikebreakers.  Things had largely calmed down by early 2014, but the death of a strikebreaker near Ludlow caused increased tension once again.  Mother Jones returned in late March and was detained in dank conditions.

On Orthodox Easter, April 20, 1914, many of the miners were Greek immigrants, fighting broke out after early morning negotiations between the parties, the miner's UMW representative Louis Tikas being among those participating in discussion. The negotiations were brought about by rising tensions and threads the prior day.  Perhaps ironically, Tikas, who had initially refused to meet, was encouraged to do so by Colorado National Guard Major Patrick J. Hamrock, who had been with the Army at Wounded Knee.

UMW rep John McLennan and Patrick Hamrock.  Hamrock would be charged with murder for his actions at Ludlow, but was acuitted.  He later went on to command the Colorado National Guard.

The two parties nonetheless began to move for position and fighting broke out.  

The remaining Guard companies attacked the camp and fighting went on all day long. At some point Lt. Karl "Monte" Linderfelt, a notable figure in the actions locally, butt stroked Tikas in the head, although later examinations showed Tikas, who was a Cretan immigrant, to have multiple gunshot wounds. Linderfelt's unit had been kept some distance from Ludlow as he was so inclined to violence. Thirty-two strikers or their families, including women and children, were killed, and thirty-seven Guardsmen lost their lives. Four Hundred miners were arrested, and the camp was destroyed.

The violence at Ludlow led to a union call to arms throughout Colorado and a switch to miner sympathy on the part of the press.  The Southwestern Mine Co.'s Empire Mine was laid under siege on April 22, with the miners yielding after 21 hours, a ceasefire being negotiated by a Protestant minister.  An attempt to take Delagua, Colorado, was made by strikers who were republished, but three mine guards were killed in the assaults.  A mine guard was killed at Tabasco and the Las Animas County Sheriff's Department cabled that it had been defeated and requested Federal troops.

Linderfelt, who was also tried for murder but acquitted.  

Linderfelt had served in the Philippine Insurrection and in China with the U.S. Army and Colorado National Guard.  He's also served in the Mexican Army in 1911 and his name was in the Colorado newspapers frequently due to that at the time, usually under his nickname "Monte".  Prior to the 1913 mine labor troubles in Colorado, he's been working as a mine guard.  He was activated again during the Puntive expedition and then again for World War One, during which he rose to the rank of Colonel in the Colorado National Guard in spite of Ludlow.  His name was frequently in the news in the teens, with the papers being very hostile to him at first, but later more sympathetic as the Punitive Expedition and World War One rolled on.  The troops he was in command of did deploy to France, but not until October 1918, making it unlikely that hey saw much, if any, wartime combat.  In 1919 he purchased a farm in Custer County, Colorado.  In 1922, however, he was being foreclosed upon. He died at age 80 in 1957, at which time he was living in Los Angeles.    

While this was going on, the UMW briefly organized a truce, but at the same time the Governor attempt to deploy the National Guard to what had become a 175-mile-long front.  Of the 600 Guardsmen who were expected to answer the call, only 362 men reported showing that the insurrection and public sympathy had passed to the miners, who now had the press's full support nationwide.  One of the cavalry troops of the Colorado Guard, which included two of the Colorado Guard's commander's sons, mutinied and had to be removed from deployment.  Artillery was deployed from Denver, but the miners also secured firearms.

The Chandler Mine near Cañon City was fired upon on April 25, breaking the truce. On the 26th, 1,000 armed miners attacked and took the town.  Residents of Walsenburg's fled.  Greek miners grew unhappy with union officials and began guerilla attacks on the town and attacked the McNally Mine.  Communiques from both sides took on the nature of those from regular combatants.

The Women's Peace Association staged a sit in Denver starting on April 25, which forced Governor Ammons to act, sending his request on the 25th.  On the 26th, protesters in Denver demanded the impeachment of Governor Ammons.  One of the speakers was former Denver Police Commissioner George Creel.

The National Guard deployed in force on April 27 near Trinidad, where Tikas' funeral was scheduled to, and did, take place without incident. There had been plans to retake the town, which was in miner control, but the assault did not occur.

On this day, the Battle of Heclar Mine in Louisville took place, with that mine owned by the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company.  This was considerably further north than the other mine attacks and fairly near Denver.  National Guardsmen that had been rotated off of the southern front were sent to quell that attack.

The Army was on its way.

Ironically, perhaps, on the same day a mine explosion in Eccles, West Virginia, killed over 180 miners.

British suffragettes Hilda Burkitt and Florence Tunks burned down the Felixstow Bath Hotel in Suffolk as part of an ongoing suffragette terror campaign.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, April 26, 1914. No longer in doubt.

1910s, 1914, Cheyenne Wyoming, Exploration, Food, Mexico, Newspapers, Occupation of Veracruz, Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition, Theodore Roosevelt

Friday, April 9, 1909. Establishing Mother's Day.

South Dakota became the first state to officially recognize Mother's Day, with a proclamation by Gov. Robert S. Vessy that designated "the second Sabbath in our national memorial month of May" for the same.

This followed the first church service recognizing the day, which had been in 1907 as prat of Anna Jarvis' effort to establish the holiday, which she had been working on since 1905.  The first service for the day was at Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia.

This brings to mind something we posted last week:

Blog Mirror: Family Values

 

Family Values

Last prior edition:

Thursday, April 8, 1909. Creation of Japanese Corporations

Location: South Dakota, USA