VINDICATION
It
is unlikely that Donald MacGregor was aware at the time of his death in Mexico
that Colorado miners and leaders who were indicted for murder in 1914, as was
he, were either acquitted or otherwise untried. Labor journals and newspapers
reported the sad news of MacGregor’s murder by Villistas and recounted his efforts on behalf of the striking
miners and families at Ludlow.
Muckraker Upton Sinclar published a book in 1919 about his investigation of corruption in journalism, the influence of money interests in politics, and the “miniature revolution in Colorado.” About the same time, in 1918, Carl Sandburg published Cornhuskers, in which he included his poem about Don MacGregor, “Memoir of a Proud Boy.” Lines of the poem refer to famous silent film producer and director D. W. (David Wark) Griffith and composer and conductor Victor Herbert. Both were well known for high drama in the movies. In his poem, Sandburg said of MacGregor, “He lived on the wings of storm.” The dramatic last years of Donald MacGregor’s life illustrate a stormy period during world history.
Muckraker Upton Sinclar published a book in 1919 about his investigation of corruption in journalism, the influence of money interests in politics, and the “miniature revolution in Colorado.” About the same time, in 1918, Carl Sandburg published Cornhuskers, in which he included his poem about Don MacGregor, “Memoir of a Proud Boy.” Lines of the poem refer to famous silent film producer and director D. W. (David Wark) Griffith and composer and conductor Victor Herbert. Both were well known for high drama in the movies. In his poem, Sandburg said of MacGregor, “He lived on the wings of storm.” The dramatic last years of Donald MacGregor’s life illustrate a stormy period during world history.
Left: “Don McGregor Reported Killed by Villa.” The United Mine Workers Journal 25, no. 48 (1915): 13.
Right: “Acquittal for Colorado Miners,” The Survey, March 25, 1916, 740. Upton Sinclair, “A Governor and His Lie,” in The Associated Press and Labor: Being Seven Chapters from the Brass Check a Study of American Journalism (Pasadena, Cal.: Upton Sinclair, 1919), 154. |
Villa, 1914. D. W. Griffith was the supervising producer of the film, The Life of General Villa, produced and distributed by Mutual Film Co. in 1914. The film was a fictional story based on Francisco “Pancho” Villa’s life and included Villa portraying himself as the president of Mexico and actual scenes filmed during combat. This photograph shows Villa in the general’s clothing that Mutual Film provided him. Film prints and negatives of the 95-minute The Life of General Villa were lost, possibly destroyed to recover the valuable silver from the celluloid. Re-edits of the film appeared later as The Outlaw’s Revenge (1915) and The Revenge of Pancho Villa (1936). Bain News Service, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ggbain-15645).
D. W. Griffith, undated. Griffith produced and directed numerous silent-era films and today is possibly best known for the film Birth of a Nation (1915). In 1916 he wrote and directed Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages, later reedited for The Mother and the Law (1919), which may have been influenced by the Ludlow strike. Bain News Service, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ggbain-34046).
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Victor Herbert, undated. Herbert composed songs, operas, and motion picture scores during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He collaborated with D. W. Griffith on the score for Griffith’s Fall of a Nation (1916), the sequel to Birth of a Nation. Harris & Ewing, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-hec-15674).
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