The Ludlow Massacre
April 20th, 1914, coal miners working for the Rockefeller family continued their struggle for their rights to work for a fair wage, for a full eight hour shift and for fair treatment for them and their families. A militia was created with soldiers from the Colorado National Guard and guards from the fuel and iron company, employed by Rockefeller Jr, who surrounded the miners camp, and proceeded to gun them down, killing 25 people.
“This is not a labor war, this is a slave revolt”, an excerpt from a periodical posted in The New Leader newspaper, about the Massacre 6 years later. At this time, people were starting to realize just who the Rockefellers are.
The event attracted the attention of the nation, showing that the labor movement had really begun. Upton Sinclair, author of the mukracking book revealing the horror of the meat packing industry (The Jungle), took issue with what Rockefeller Jr had done.
Sinclair Wrote; "I came from Colorado, where you make your money, to Tarrytown, where you spend it; and I found coincidences and resemblances so extraordinary that it seems to me impossible that you would not be interested to have them pointed out to you".
These "coincidences" that Sinclair was pointing out were clearly more than just that. Both men knew it, and it was only a matter of time before the public knew it too.