If he owed $70 and he only had $60 coming to him, they would take the whole $60 and wouldn't give him any money.

Commissioner BALLARD. Did you have to pay in the company store more than in the ordinary stores in Trinidad and Ludlow?

Mrs. THOMAS. Yes. In these company stores they would give you scrip and they would say on the scrip-it would say you could purchase anything in the company's stores in the mining camp; but not at the same store belonging to the same company at Trinidad, because in Trinidad they had to compete with other stores.

Commissioner BALLARD. Cheaper in Trinidad than up at the mines?

Mrs. THOMAS. Yes, sir.

Commissioner BALLARD. This day that you went to town, was it Pueblo or Ludlow where you were arrested?

Mrs. THOMAS. Trinidad.

Commissioner BALLARD. And that day there was trouble?

Mrs. THOMAS. Yes, sir

Commissioner BALLARD. What was this parade?

Mrs. THOMAS. They were protesting against Mother Jones being in the San Juan Hospital without any charge whatever.

Commissioner BALLARD. That is all; thank you, Mrs. Thomas.
Chairman WALSH. Call your first witness, Mr. Thompson.

NEW YORK CITY, Thursday, May 28, 1914-10 a. m. Present: Chairman Walsh, Commissioners Ballard, O'Connell, Lennon, Garretson, and Harriman.

Chairman WALSH. The commission will please be in order. You may proceed now. Mr. Thompson.

Mr. THOMPSON. Mr. Boughton.

TESTIMONY OF LIEUT. COL. EDWARD J. BOUGHTON.

Mr. THOMPSON. Mr. Boughton, will you please give us your full name and spell it?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Edward J. Boughton.

Mr. THOMPSON. And your address?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Denver, Colo.

Mr. THOMPSON. Your occupation or profession?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Attorney at law.

Mr. THOMPSON. How long have you been practicing law and where?

Mr. BOUGHTON. In Colorado wholly; at Cripple Creek, Colo., and at Denver, Colo., since August, 1899.

Mr. THOMPSON. 1899?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Fifteen years next August.

Mr. THOMPSON. And wholly in Colorado?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Wholly in Colorado; yes, sir.

Mr. THOMPSON. How old a man are you?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Thirty-five years old.

Mr. THOMPSON. You have some position, have you not? First, are you a married man?

Mr. BOUGHTON. I am, sir; I have a wife and three children.

Mr. THOMPSON. Are you an American citizen?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes, sir.

Mr. THOMPSON. Born in this country?

Mr. BOUGHTON. In this State-New York State.

Mr. THOMPSON. How long have you been in the State of Colorado?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Since 1892.

Mr. THOMPSON. Do you have some position with the Militia of the State of Colorado?

Mr. BOUGHTON. I hold a commission in the National Guard of Colorado. Mr. THOMPSON. What is that commission?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Major of infantry.

Mr. THOMPSON. How long have you been a major of infantry of the State of Colorado?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Since the 10th of September, 1910, before which I held a commission as captain of infantry. I have been connected with the National Guard

of Colorado intermittently since 1903, just preceding another industrial conflict where the militia was used in that State.

Mr. THOMPSON. That was the industrial conflict at Cripple Creek?
Mr. BOUGHTON. At Cripple Creek; yes, sir.

Mr. THOMPSON. Where, at that time, were you practicing law in Colorado? Mr. BOUGHTON. I chanced to be practicing for a short interval in the northern part of the State at a small town.

Mr. THOMPSON. What was the name of the town and where was it with reference to Cripple Creek?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Its name was Loveland. That is about 50 miles north of Denver, where Cripple Creek is about 75 miles south of Denver. This was an agricultural community from which I came.

Mr. THOMPSON. When did you first practice law in Cripple Creek?

Mr. BOUGHTON. About a year after the conclusion of the strike in 1903.

Mr. THOMPSON. That is, 1904 you commenced practicing law in Cripple Creek? Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes, sir; in the spring.

Mr. THOMPSON. Prior to that time you had acted with the militia in the struggle at Cripple Creek?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes, sir; and then I returned to Loveland, and was there part of the year, and then from there to Denver, and from there to Cripple Creek, where I stayed until I moved to Denver quite recently.

Mr. THOMPSON. Where were you stationed at that time as a member of the militia?

Mr. BOUGHTON. My actual service did not extend beyond a couple of months. The company was returned to its home station.

Mr. THOMPSON. What position did you occupy with the militia at that time? Mr. BOUGHTON. I was a captain, sir.

Mr. THOMPSON. When you finally returned to Cripple Creek about a year later and opened up a law office there, if you can tell and if you remember, whom were your clients there?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Well, I had a general practice there.

Mr. THOMPSON. Did you specially take up the question of mining law?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes, sir. Yes, sir; that has been my pursuit almost exclusively in Colorado.

Mr. THOMPSON. In your practice as a lawyer and making a specialty of mining laws you deal mostly with the mine owners or their representatives, do you not?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes, sir. My own peculiar practice has been rather confined to the mine owners of Cripple Creek. That, however, is the gold-mining law. The gold-mining law and gold-mining practice and gold-mining clientele is altogether distinct from any other clientele.

Mr. THOMPSON. The industrial struggle at Cripple Creek was a very severe one, was it not?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes, sir.

Mr. THOMPSON. And caused a great deal of comment in Colorado, did it not? Mr. BOUGHTON. Oh, naturally.

Mr. THOMPSON. And throughout the country?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes; I believe so.

Mr. THOMPSON. During that struggle a large number of labor men were deported without the State, were they not?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes, sir; in 1904. That was after the military occupation was over, you know. It was after the 6th of June, 1904, the day of the riot at Victor. On that day a considerable number of nonunion men were destroyed by an explosion at the Independence depot. The citizenry of that community then rose, and while they had the cooperation of the National Guard unit at that point, still the expulsion of the remaining union mining men was carried forward by the citizenry itself largely.

Mr. THOMPSON. You say by the citizenry itself largely. What are we to understand by that answer?

Mr. BOUGHTON. It was their initiative. They organized, as I recall it nowthough I was not there at the time.

Chairman WALSH. If he was not there, please don't go into that.

Mr. THOMPSON. I was assuming he was there.

Chairman WALSH. Well, I had that idea, too; but he says

Mr. BOUGHTON (interrupting). I served about two months actually at Cripple Creek in 1903, and then opened an office about a year later, you know.

Mr. THOMPSON. And before you came to Cripple Creek?

Mr. BOUGHTON. And before I moved to Cripple Creek I was in Loveland and Denver.

Mr. THOMPSON. In regard to the late trouble in the State of Colorado, did you serve with the militia in any districts where trouble had occurred, for instance, at Ludlow?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes, sir.

Mr. THOMPSON. How long did you stay there, and when did the service end, and in what capacity did you serve?

Mr. BOUGHTON. On the 26th of October, 1913, his excellency the governor of Colorado issued an executive order calling out all troops of the National Guard to the occupation of the disturbed regions of the State. That order was executed on the 28th of October by the sending of an incomplete brigade of the State troops to the southern fields where they occupied a line of about 120 miles long through the counties of Las Animas and Huerfano, with expeditions into other and remote fields of the State. That occupation continued until the 14th of April, 1914. During all of that time I served in the field with my command, and later I detached from my command as judge advocate of the military district, which the commanding general established by order of the governor. Chairman WALSH. When did that service begin and when did it end? Or are you still detailed.

Mr. BOUGHTON. I am still in the service at this time.

Chairman WALSH. How long have you been continually in the military service?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Since the 28th of October, with one short furlough.
Chairman WALSH. In 1913?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes, sir.

Chairman WALSH. For how long was the furlough?

Mr. BOUGHTON. A week, I think.

Mr. THOMPSON. Where first did you take the field when you were called out in October?

Mr. BOUGHTON. I entrained at Denver and proceeded to Trinidad in Las Animas County, where I arrived on the 29th of October early in the morning. I remained in Trinidad until the 20th of November, at which time I was detailed as judge advocate, when the judge advocate's department was created. From that time, with headquarters at Trinidad, I moved about the whole district in the discharge of my work, in the conduct of my investigations and accumulation and accretion of evidence and information to be submitted to the military commission, or for the compilation of the reports to the governor. That was the work of the judge advocate.

Mr. THOMPSON. What would these investigations that you would make, as judge advocate, cover? What kind of trouble? What manner of trouble?

Mr. BOUGHTON. At first, in factions, interfering with a solution of the peace problem. I can illustrate that perhaps vividly in this way: It would be reported that at one of the detached posts, of which there were 32 over that line of 120 miles, an incipient riot had occurred, which was produced by a speech, we will say, of some individual connected with one side or the other of the industrial conflict. The evidence concerning that episode would be taken. The utterances of the man in question would be ascertained, all of that would be submitted to the commission, by whose collective judgment it would then be determined whether it was wise or necessary to detain that individual for a while as a peace measure. Afterwards, of course, we had assignments from the governor, where we were required to invesitgate and report to him the facts of particular assigned instances.

Mr. THOMPSON. Were you requested by the governor to examine into the causes of the battle at Ludlow?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes, sir.

Mr. THOMPSON. On Monday, April 20?

Mr. BOUGHTON, Yes, sir.

Mr. THOMPSON. Of this year?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes, sir.

Mr. THOMPSON. In what capacity did you act there? In the same capacity? Mr. BOUGHTON. In the same capacity.

Mr. THOMPSON. Did you have with you a board?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes, sir; a board of officers.

Mr. THOMPSON. Of whom did that board consist? How many and what kind of people?

Mr. BOUGHTON. It consisted of Capt. W. C. Danks, a practicing attorney of Denver, a member of my judge advocate's office, and Capt. Phillip S. Van Cise, a practicing attorney, who, however, was not a member of the judge advocate's office, but in command of his company. That board proceeded to Ludlow, within a few days after the episode inquired into. It made an exhaustive examination of the militia, of all those who took part in it, examining them under oath. The examination of citizens and noncombatants in the neighborhood; the examination of prisoners that had been participants; the examination of the coroner, and reviewed all of the evidence furnished to the coroner's jury, and arrived at a conclusion of fact, which it forwarded to the governor, and which was published in Colorado. Editorial comment upon all sides of the industrial conflict was that it was a fair and honest relation of the actual occurrence which, perhaps, had been distorted by each side of the industrial conflict up to that time.

Mr. THOMPSON. Where did Mr. W. C. Danks, who was one of your board, where did he practice law?

Mr. BOUGHTON. In Denver.

Mr. THOMPSON. Do you know how long he had been practicing law there? Mr. BOUGHTON. Not accurately. He has been there for a number of years. He is an ex-supervisor of the city and a very highly respected gentleman. Mr. THOMPSON. How long had Mr. Phillip S. Van Cise?

Mr. BOUGHTON. He is a young man.

Mr. THOMPSON. Where is he practicing law?

Mr. BOUGHTON. He has not been practicing, I should not say, over three or four years at the most.

Mr. THOMPSON. Where?

Mr. BOUGHTON. At Denver.

Mr. THOMPSON. Now, Mr. Boughton, I would like you to make a statement to the commission of the Ludlow incident-as you know of your own information and as a member of this board.

Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes, sir; as we discovered it to be.
Chairman WALSH. Were you personally at Ludlow? ▲

Mr. BOUGHTON. At the time the incident occurred?

Chairman WALSH. Yes.

Mr. BOUGHTON. Oh; no, sir.

Chairman WALSH. Proceed.

Mr. BOUGHTON. But I have the evidential, demonstrable authentication of anything I state to be the facts that was derived, as I say, from an official examination under oath of the participants and noncombatants.

Chairman WALSH. Before what body?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Before the board of officers appointed by the governor for that purpose.

Chairman WALSH. And you were what on it?

Mr. BOUGHTON. I presided over that board.

Chairman WALSH. Then, as briefly and concisely as you can, give us the facts in connection with the Ludlow matter.

Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes, sir. May I ask leave to use a drawing which I have which will expedite, perhaps, the explanation I can make of the incident? Chairman WALSH. Just give it to the stenographer and he will mark it. (Blue print of drawing received, but not printed.)

Mr. BOUGHTON. This drawing was prepared by the engineers.
Chairman WALSH. Have you two of those drawings?

Mr. BOUGHTON. Yes, sir.

Chairman WALSH. You might pass one to the commission for them to examine.

Mr. BOUGHTON. Only one-half of the drawing is the map of that vicinity. At the point Ludlow, on the point of the Colorado Southern Railroad, which is the artery of commerce north and south between Trinidad and Denver, the two canyons converge at that point and enter the plains or prairies. That is where the hills end and the plains begin. Up those two canyons are the largest coal mines of the State. At the point where the canyons converge and the wagon roads from each cross the railroad tracks was located the Ludlow tent colony. That point is commonly called in that vicinity the "crossroads." Across the railroad track and to the west, about 550 yards away from the tent colony, was established a detached post of the militia where there had been in the field a couple of companies of infantry and a troop of so-called mounted infantry.

On the 14th of April all of these militiamen were withdrawn, together with all other militiamen all over the State, except that there were left to do police duty merely at that immediate point of Ludlow 34 men. Of that 34 men there were 12 who occupied the tents that I speak of across the railroad track from the tent colonies, the other 22 occupying a detached camp about a mile and a half away and out of sight of the two groups of tents. The tent colony was inhabited by a good many hundred people, among whom there were 22 languages used, indistinguishable and not understood one of another.

Sunday, April 19, was, according to the Greek Church, the Greek Easter; it did not come when our Easter comes. It had been anticipated that so soon as the troops were withdrawn some sort of disturbance would occur by reasons of a clash between the remaining militiamen and the occupants of some tent colony, not particularly this one. The clash occurred within one week after the withdrawal of the troops. We learned from certain prisoners of war, using that term for want of another one, who were inhabitants of the tent colony, that the attack had been planned for Sunday, the Greek Easter. It was postponed, however, until the next morning. This tent colony had been searched by direction of the governor for concealed arms four different times, each time with increasingly angry resentment of the inhabitants of the colony, quite emphatically expressed.

It was not supposed, Mr. Thompson, it was not known to contain any arms whatever at the time the troops were withdrawn. On the morning of April 20, a Monday morning, there came to the tents of the commander of the National Guard a woman who claimed that her husband was detained against his will in the tent colony and asked help to obtain his release. At that time there were occupying the five remaining tents of the militiamen only the 12 men of whom I spoke, of whom 10 were absent on ordinary camp duty, some were quartering their horses at a considerable distance from the camp, almost a mile, and others were upon the train detail. The train detail is a detail of three or four men who are kept constantly at the depot to protect incoming and outgoing passengers upon the trains against a police infraction by the inhabitants of the tent colony. There were only two men, the commanding officer, Maj. Hamrock, and a cripple, in the tent at the time the woman called and for some considerable time afterwards and untal after the battle, so called, started. The commanding officer telephoned to his train detail at the depot to go to the tent colony and ask for the woman's husband, which was done.

Each nationality in the tent colony had its own leader, but the Greeks of the colony were the force of that population. We learned that a considerable portion of them had returned from service in the Balkan wars; they were regarded, perhaps, by their fellows as men of experience and heroes. At any rate, the head of the Greek contingent was the head of the colony. His name was Tikas, commonly called Louie the Greek in that vicinity. He it was who was killed afterwards in the day. The Greek leader answered the train contingent that he understood the troops had been withdrawn from the field and asked him if he had a civil warrant calling for the production of any prisoner that they might have. There were some words passed, heated words between the soldiers, enlisted men, and Tikas, and I think it safe to say that the militiamen said to Tikas, "We will come back later in force and get that man. We know you have him."

The train detail returned to the depot and telephoned to the commanding officer of the tents that they were unable to get the man and that Tikas denied having him and denied the right of the militia to make a search for him. Maj. Hamrock then telephoned to Tikas himself and asked Mr. Tikas to come to his tent-that is, the tent of the National Guard, which Tikas, for the first time, flatly refused to do. It had been a matter of daily occurrence for Tikas to come to the tent of the commanding officer of the guard or the commanding officer to go over to his tent and discuss the peace problem.

I may say for this Tikas that his presence in the tent colony was for good. He was a restraining influence among his own people.

Chairman WALSH. How old a man was Mr. Tikas?

Mr. BOUGHTON. That is hard to say. I should judge him to be about 40 or 45 years of age, but he was a man, rather dark, sallow complexion, and hard to judge his age.

Chairman WALSH. That is all right.

Mr. BOUGHTON, He was not a coal miner. He lived in Denver and was at one time the head of a combination of bootblacks of that city. Chairman WALSH. Had he never been a coal miner?