You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Saturday April 18, 1914
From The Labor World: Young J. D. Rockefeller Jr. Protects "Free" Labor in Colorado
John D Rockefeller Jr
This week's
Labor World discusses the testimony of J. D. Rockefeller Jr. before the House Investigating Committee which took place last week in Washington D. C.
YOUNG ROCKEFELLER CHIP OFF OLD BLOCK
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Declares Before Industrial Commission He has Millions to Crush Miners' Union.
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SOME MORE "DIVINE RIGHT" PHILOSOPHY
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Refused to Arbitrate Colorado Coal Strike-Trusts Everything to Managers.
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John D. Rockefeller, Jr., son of the world's richest man, testified Monday before the House Mines Committee in Washington about the question of his moral responsibility for the industrial strife which has kept the coal fields of southern Colorado in turmoil for six months.
After more than for hours of cross-examination Rockefeller had told the committee:
That he and three other directors represented his father's interest of about 40 per cent in the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, the central figure in the big coal strike.
That as a director he had fulfilled all his interest and responsibility in the company when he placed the officers, "competent and trusted men," in charge of the company's affairs.
That he knew nothing of conditions in the strike district except from reports of the officers of the company.
He "Protects" "Free" Labor.
That the strike had become a fight for the "principles" of freedom of labor, and that he and his associates would rather the present violence continue and that "they lose all their millions invested in the coal fields than that American working men should be deprived of their right under the constitution to work for whom they pleased."
This was accepted as an indication that the Rockefeller millions are opposed to the unions in Colorado.
That he favored arbitration in Industrial disputes-generally, but that in the present instance he supported the officers of the company in their refusal to submit the question of unionizing the mines to arbitration.
In support of these conclusions Rockefeller was kept busy for hours explaining defending and arguing. He asserted that employer and employe were "fellow men and should treat each other as such," but could see no analogy between the unionization of workmen and the combination of capital....
WILL DEFEND OPEN SHOP AT ANY COST, PROPERTY OR LIVES
During the testimony this exchange took place between Rockefeller and the Chairman of the Subcommittee, M. D. Foster:
The CHAIRMAN. And you are willing to go on and let these killings take place—men losing their lives on either side, the expenditure of large sums of money, and all this disturbance of labor—rather than to go out there and see if you might do something to settle those conditions?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. There is just one thing, Mr. Chairman, so far as I understand it, which can be done, as things are at present, to settle this strike, and that is to unionize the camps; and our interest in labor is so profound and we believe so sincerely that that interest demands that the camps shall be open camps, that we expect to stand by the officers at any cost. It is not an accident that this is our position.
The CHAIRMAN. And you will do that if it costs all your property and kills all your employees?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. It is a great principle.
Mother Jones at the Ludlow Tent Colony
MOTHER JONES MAY SOON TESTIFY IN WASHINGTON
It appears likely that Mother Jones will be the next witness to come before the House Subcommittee on Mines and Mining which is investigating conditions in the coal mines of Colorado. From today's Indianapolis Star:
MINERS WOULD REOPEN CASE TO PRESENT 'MOTHER' JONES
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DENVER, Col, April 17-A movement was started here tonight by the policy committee of District No. 15 of the United Mine Workers of America, to reopen in Washington the congressional investigation of the Colorado coal miners' strike by seeking to place before the committee the testimony of "Mother" Mary Jones, the aged strike leader who was released from military imprisonment at Walsenburg on Thursday.
"Mother" Jones who came to Denver immediately on her discharge, probably will leave tomorrow for Washington.
Telegrams were sent tonight to Representative M. D. Foster, chairman of the recent investigating House mines committee, and to Representative Keating of Colorado, urging a hearing for "Mother" Jones.
SOURCES
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin)
-of Apr 18, 1914
Conditions in the coal mines of Colorado: Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on mines and mining, House of Representatives, Sixty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to H. res. 387, a resolution authorizing and directing the Committee on Mines and Mining to make an investigation of conditions in the coal mines of Colorado, Volume 2
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Mines and Mining
Govt. print. off., 1914
http://books.google.com/...
Rockefeller testimony: p. 2841-2916
Above exchange with Foster: p. 2872-2874
(search preview with page number)
The Indianapolis Star
(Indianapolis, Indian)
-of April 18, 1914
See also: "Hellraisers Journal: Rockefeller Declares Open-Shop
a "Great Principle," Is Ready to Sacrifice Lives"
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Photos:
1). John D Rockefeller Jr, 1915
http://en.academic.ru/...
2). Mother Jones at Ludlow Tent Colony
http://motherjonesmuseum.org/...
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In the arms of an angel - Sarah McLachlan
In the arms of an Angel fly away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of an Angel; may you find some comfort here
-Sarah Mclachlan
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