You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Wednesday September 23, 1914
Washington, D. C. - Colorado Fuel and Iron Company Rejects President's Plan for Truce
President Woodrow Wilson
John D Rockefeller Jr
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From today's edition of The Washington Herald:
MINE OPERATORS WON'T SURRENDER
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Upheld by Rockefeller, jr.,
They Reject President's Truce Offer.
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CONFERENCE HERE TODAY
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Owners Tell Mr. Wilson that Principles Asserted by Him in Mexico
Apply to Strike Situation.
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The Colorado mine operators have demurred against accepting in its entirety President Wilson's plan for ending the big strike. In this stand the officers of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company are backed up publicly by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who is supposed to represent a controlling stock interest in the company.
The portions of the plan rejected by the mine operators are regarded here as the vital ones, and there is little likelihood of any settlement as the result of President Wilson's suggestions, unless a compromise is reached on the points of difference.
The President's Plan.
The President's plan contemplated a three-year truce, with the re-employment of all striking miners who had not been found guilty of violating the law, and the creation of grievance committees to settle points of difference between the miners and the operators. Appeals not settled by the grievance committees were to be carried to a commission to be appointed by President Wilson.
President Wilson appealed both to the operators and the miners on patriotic grounds to accept this plan. He alluded to the European war and the needs that "all untoward and threatened circumstances be taken out of the light of the people of the United States at this time." Representatives of the striking miners accepted the plan, and their action later was ratified by the United Mine Workers of America.
In their reply to President Wilson the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company people still show a determination to stand unswervingly by the men who have stood by them through the months of disorder and bloodshed and who have continued to work in the mines. They insist upon defending their rights and the open shop idea to the end, and they take exception to one or two features of the President's plan as bearing on this phase of the situation.
President J. F. Welborn, of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, in his reply to president Wilson, which is publicly indorsed by John D. Rockefeller, jr., calls to Mr. Wilson's attention the principles asserted by him in Mexico as applying to the present situation.
Won't Surrender.
[Says President Welborn:]
If men are determined..to attain their ends by violence, it is axiomatic that government can not make concessions of principle merely to induce such men to refrain from riot. The United States government refused to purchase peace with Huerta in Mexico at the expense of sound political morality: for a similar reason no surrender, merely for temporary peace, should be made to those who incited and directed the lawlessness which has taken place in Colorado. To make such surrender would but sow the wind against inevitable whirlwind.
The operators suggest that they themselves have a plan under contemplation which they would like to have the President consider. A conference will be held at the White House today between representatives of the operators and President Wilson. The President will make a supreme effort to bring about some agreement which will be acceptable to the miners. Failing in this, he may feel compelled to withdraw the Federal troops and call upon the State of Colorado again to undertake its normal functions. In submitting his plea to the operators and miners, the president intimated that the Federals troops had served as long as they ought to serve.
The CF&I and the Death Special
And thus we see that Jesse Welborn, President of the CF&I, the company which built the Death Special in one of its own plants, now dares to lecture the President of the United States about negotiating with men who are willing "to attain their ends by violence." Readers of
Hellraisers will
remember the attack upon the Forbes Tent Colony by company gunthugs using the Death Special for cover and to mount the company machine gun which sprayed the striking miners with bullets. Luca Vahernick died in that attack, and his death goes unpunished to this day.
Other examples of company-sponsored violence, including violence sponsored by the CF&I, are too numerous to list, but include the murders of the women and children of Ludlow. The state militia was known to be infested with company gunthugs on that terrible day.
WE NEVER FORGET
Luca Vahernick
Who lost his life in Freedom's Cause
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SOURCES
The Washington Herald
(Washington, District of Columbia)
-of Sept 23, 1914
Out of the Depths
The Story of John R. Lawson, a Labor Leader
-by Barron B. Beshoar
(1st ed 1942)
CO, 1980
Images
President Woodrow Wilson
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
John D Rockefeller Jr
http://en.academic.ru/...
The Death Special
http://www.du.edu/...
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Coal Miner's Grave-Idaho Silver Hammer Band
So, is this little marker his only memorial today,
For a man who gave his life for the U. M. W. of A?
Is this how we remember all the sacrifices he made,
To let the briers and weeds take over his Union and grave?
-Hazel Dickens, (pdf!)
Written to honor Francesco/Francis Estep, used here
to honor both Brother Estep and Brother Vahernick.