page_title: John C. Osgood
section_title: Strike
hierarchical_section_title: John C. Osgood / Biography / Strike
caption_attribution_description: English: Ruins of the Ludlow Colony near Trinidad, Colorado, following an attack by the Colorado National Guard. Forms part of the George Grantham Bain Collection at the Library of Congress.
context_page_description: John Cleveland Osgood was a self-made man who founded the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company and Victor-American Fuel Company but has been referred to as a robber baron. He also created Redstone, Colorado.
context_section_description: There was a general mine strike throughout Colorado from 1913-14. By this time, John D. Rockefeller Jr. controlled CF&I, but for the most part, he was an absentee owner.
  The three largest mining companies involved, Colorado Fuel and Iron, Victor American, and Rocky Mountain Fuel, had a joint committee for establishing policy concerning the strike, but Osgood was the dominant voice. Osgood organized a publicity campaign to discredit the workers and union. He pressured Colorado Governor Elias M. Ammons to deploy the National Guard to the mines. Following the  strike, he used his influence to persuade the judiciary to prosecute strikers. The reforms proposed by Rockefeller were delayed at Osgood's insistence. Rockefeller speculated that Osgood was trying to embarrass Rockefeller into selling his ownership of CF&I back to Osgood.
  Based on principle, the mine operators steadfastly refused to negotiate with the union or agree to government arbitration. Over the course of a year, frustration and anger on both sides grew and led to the Ludlow Massacre in 1914.
  The Hastings Mine disaster occurred in 1917, killing 121.
caption: Burned tent city, where women and children died
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