The Molly Brown House Museum
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Three big events happened in 1914 which affected Margaret's Life:

• Mexican American Tensions
• The Ludlow Massacre
• Margaret's Run for Senate

Mexican American Tensions, 1914
Margaret whole-heartedly believed that if men and women were to truly be equals they should serve their countries together on the battlefield. As tensions grew on the Mexican/American border, Margaret advocated that the United States, and Colorado in particular, should send women to the frontlines. Margaret claimed that the tough pioneering women of the west would be perfectly suited for war, and was first to offer her services as a nurse to Senator Shafroth of Colorado. Margaret also pledged $1000 per month to help organize other nurses to go to the front. Although her offer to serve on the front-line was met with controversy from other women, Senator Shafroth appointed Margaret to a regiment of Colorado women who would be serving the Red Cross.

While organizing nurses for the Red Cross, Margaret received word that there were an increasing number of incidents occurring in Ludlow, Colorado. Believing that she was needed closer to home, Margaret changed her plans to go to the front-line and returned to Colorado.

Ludlow Massacre, 1914
The mining camps in southern Colorado had been plagued with labor disputes between the mine owners and the laborers for many years. According to Colorado state law, miners should have been receiving benefits such as 8-hour days and safe working conditions. In reality, these laws were not being enforced. The miners and their families were forced to live in company-owned housing and to buy their food and clothing from the company-owned stores. Additionally, there were no schools for their children. The Miner's Union held a series of conferences to address these issues but the mine operators refused to attend.

On September 23, 1913 over 11,000 miners went on strike. The mine operators immediately evicted families of the striking miners from their homes. With winter just ahead, the Miner's Union set up camps to house nearly 1,000 people who had been evicted. In April of 1914 the Colorado National Guard arrived in Ludlow and the situation began to escalate out of control.

The National Guard wanted the Miner's Union to surrender two Italian men who were accused of a petty crime. The Union president refused to honor the request without an official warrant for the men's arrest. The National Guard sent a signal bomb into the crowd followed by a spray of bullets that killed five men. Later that evening, the National Guard, accustomed to looting local saloons for liquor, set fire to the tent colonies with oil soaked torches and burned them to the ground. In a dugout under the largest tent were found the bodies of eleven children and two women - one of whom was pregnant.

The state of Colorado was horrified and demanded action. Margaret arrived in Denver shortly after the massacres and firmly stated, "It makes no difference to me where I go; I am ready to go where I am needed." No matter how much the media pressured her, Margaret refused to take sides in the matter.

Margaret arranged for nurses to be sent to Ludlow, believing her strength was better put into fundraising. Margaret personally sent 200 pairs of shoes and other basic clothing for the miners and their families. She then organized a benefit to raise money for clothing and other supplies. She also organized a formal investigation committee to be sent to the scene to investigate the situation. In a series of public lectures she spoke out to bring awareness of the strike and the horrible working conditions of the miners.

Finally, she packed up her camping gear and went down to Ludlow herself. Because of her efforts, John D. Rockefeller, head of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, set plans in motion to ensure miner's safety, health, sanitation and education policies.

Margaret's Run for Senate
The Titanic publicity made Margaret a national celebrity and helped foster her career in politics. Margaret Brown once stated that the US Senate offered the widest possibilities for an intelligent and mature woman. Feminists also supported this ideal stating that true change could only happen when a woman had political power.

Margaret first ran for the US Senate in 1909 and then again in 1911, both before women had the right to vote nationally. Encouraged by Alva Belmont and Judge Ben Lindsey, and momentum from the The Marble House Conference. Margaret decided to run again in 1914. Her bid was undertaken by the Congressional Union and endorsed by the President of the National Women's Suffrage Association of New York. In Colorado, the Democrats in Denver and the Progressives supported her campaign.

Like everything Margaret did, this too sparked controversy. Margaret was set to run against another feminist, Helen Ring Robinson. Some feminist groups believed it was wrong for one woman to run against another who was loyal to the suffrage movement. Additionally, East Coasters saw Westerners as uncultured and unsophisticated, and they wanted to dismiss Margaret as a candidate. In the West, people were uneasy about the amount of time Margaret spent on the East Coast. The Denver Post reported that Margaret's candidacy "has started a lively tilt among the local suffragists and the national suffragettes that may result in a nationwide split of the feminist party."

Still, Margaret believed she could win. She claimed, "If I go into this fight I am going to win." She believed Colorado to be a progressive state where men never questioned a woman's right to vote. Margaret earned the reputation of being a woman who could "show the iron hand beneath the glove of glistening silk."

Her bid for Senate looked as if it were a go. However, on the international front things were heating up; WWI was breaking out in Europe. Margaret received a telegram from her sister Helen, the Baroness Von Reitzenstein in Germany, stating that her husband had been sent to the frontlines, and she was being forced to stay in Pottsdam, Germany until further notice. Margaret's political advisors pushed her to postpone her bid.

On August 11, 1914 Margaret finally agreed and wired Helen Ring Robinson stating she would not be attending the Congressional Primaries. She made it clear, however, that she was only postponing her bid for Senate. She had already been approached by the Vanderbilt family to help them establish medical relief facilities in France. Margaret gave use of her Newport cottage to the Red Cross and set sail for France with medical equipment and nurses in hand.

Content from Kristen Iversen's book, Molly Brown, Unraveling the Myth , published by Johnson Books in 1999.