Mr. Rockefeller is a pleasant-spoken young man.
He says he wants to help my boys in Colorado. This is what I want him to do.
I want him to do now what he has always had a chance to do.
-Mother Jones
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Sunday February 28, 1915
From New York Times: Colorado Miners Destitue; Rockefeller Jr. to Come to Their Aid
The New York Times is, this morning, reporting that the younger Mr. Rockefeller is suddenly concerned with plight of the miners and their families in the former strike zone of Southern Colorado:
COLORADO MINERS IN NEED.
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Destitute of Food, Clothing, and Fuel
-Rockefeller, Jr., to Aid.
Special to The New York Times.
DENVER, Col., Feb. 27.-According to reports received here, the condition of the miners and their families in the Southern Colorado coal fields, the scene of the recent strike violence, is pitiable, the families needing food, clothing, and fuel. Many families are practically destitute of food. The situation throughout Trinidad district has become so acute that the civic bodies of Trinidad have taken measures to relieve the distress. Since the benefits of the United Mine Workers of America were stopped last week, the situation has grown much worse, and an appeal has been made to continue the benefits two weeks longer.
An appeal for assistance was telegraphed to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., by a committee of coal miners, and today he wired the Trinidad Chamber of Commerce saying that all former employees of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in need of assistance would be cared for through the company offices. He asked the co-operation of the citizens.
Appeal was wired to Gov. Carlson of Colorado to devise some way to give work to the unemployed or otherwise render assistance.
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Refugees of the Ludlow Tent Colony
in a Trinidad shelter after their homes were destroyed.
On February 18th and 19th newspapers of the nation reported that the United Mine Workers union was ending strike benefits to the former strikers of Colorado. The following is from the February 19th edition of
The Topeka Daily Capital of Kansas:
UNION WILL STOP STRIKE BENEFITS IN COLORADO
Denver, Colo., Feb. 18.-Payment of strike benefits to union miners in Colorado will cease after this week, according to an announcement today by John McLennan, president of district No. 15, United Mine Workers of America.
The last disbursement will be made on Saturday, February 20. After that according to McLennan, the organization will supply the absolute necessities of the most needy of the ex-strikers, but such payments will not be in the form of regular strike benefits.
McLennan said the benefits paid out since April, 1910, has reached a total of approximately $4,000,000.
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WHAT ROCKEFELLER
HAS ALWAYS HAD A CHANCE TO DO
1.) He could have seen to it that his mangers followed the laws of the
State of Colorado
An example of Rockefeller's Gunthugs.
The demands issued at the start of the strike were seven in number:
1. Union recognition
2. 10% increase in wage scales
3. Eight hour day
4. Pay for dead work
5. Union checkweighman
6. Free choice of stores, boarding, and doctors
7. Enforcement of Colorado mining laws and abolition of the company guard system.
All of these demands, with the exception of union recognition and a raise in wages, were already on the law-books of the State of Colorado. However, these laws were blatantly disregarded by the coal operators and unenforced by the state. Had John D. Rockefeller Jr. simply demanded of the men that he hired to manage the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company that they comply with the laws of the State of Colorado, there most likely never would have been a strike.
Rather than obey the laws of the State of Colorado, the Colorado Fuel & Iron hired gunthugs to enforce their own rule of law in the feudal domains of the company towns.
2.) He could have agreed to negotiate with the men who created his wealth.
The Death Special
Rigged out for murder at the CF&I garage at Jansen
with steel plates made at the Pueblo CF&I steel plant.
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Rather than review the demands of the strikers, and sit down with them and negotiate a settlement, Mr. Rockefeller's C. F. & I. Company evicted the strikers and their families from the company towns and prepared for war. More gunthugs and machine guns were shipped into the state.
The Death Special was constructed at the company's garage at Jansen with steel plates made for that purpose at the company's Pueblo steel plant. This was the same Death Special used in the attack on the
Forbes Tent Colony in which Luca Vahernick was killed and the tent colony destroyed.
3.) He could have made a personal investigation of conditions in Colorado when
requested to do so by Chairman Foster of the House Committee:
The Ludlow Tent Colony Destroyed.
Men, women and children killed.
Everything the residents owned was lost.
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A GREAT PRINCIPLE
Not long before the Ludlow Massacre, John D. Rockefeller Jr. testified before the House Committee which was investigating mining conditions in Colorado. In his testimony, Mr. Rockefeller explained how the open shop was a "great principle" of freedom and stated just what he was willing to sacrifice for that great principle:
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.
The CHAIRMAN. And you would do that rather than recognize the right of men to collective bargaining? Is that what I understand?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. No, sir. Rather than allow outside people to come in and interfere with employees who are thoroughly satisfied with their labor conditions—it was upon a similar principle that the War of the Revolution was carried on. It is a great national issue of the most vital kind.
The CHAIRMAN. And yet with all this disturbance, as you say, you have never taken the time personally, nor any of the directors, to find out for yourselves from personal knowledge whether these miners had any grievance or not?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Just the minute that I have the slightest lack of confidence in the man in charge--
The CHAIRMAN. I know; but you have not done that....
[emphasis added]
Of course, it was the miners and their families, and not Mr. Rockefeller, who paid with their lives for that "Great Principle." And thus, perhaps the destitute ex-strikers and their dependents may be excused if proper expressions of gratitude are lacking for any aid that Mr. Rockefeller might now choose to grant them.
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SOURCES
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-Feb 28, 1915
http://query.nytimes.com/...
The Topeka Daily Capital
(Topeka, Kansas)
-Feb 19, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
Blood Passion
-by Scott Martelle
Rutgers U Press, 2008
"WE NEVER FORGET April 20, 1914 The Ludlow Massacre" by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
"Hellraisers Journal: Rockefeller Declares Open-Shop a "Great Principle," Is Ready to Sacrifice Lives" by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
IMAGES
Ludlow Refugees X2
(search with "Class War in Colorado")
http://books.google.com/...
https://www.facebook.com/...
Gunthugs
https://archive.org/...
The Death Special
http://www.du.edu/...
The Ludlow Tent Colony Destroyed
http://www.wsws.org/...
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Fire in the hole-Hazel Dickens
Daddy died a miner and grandpa he did too,
I'll bet this coal will kill me before my working days is through
And a hole this dark and dirty an early grave I find
And I plan to make a union for the ones I leave behind
Stand up boys, let the bosses know
Turn you buckets over, turn your lanterns low
There's fire in our hearts and fire in our soul
but there ain't gonna be no fire in the hole
There ain't gonna be no fire in the hole
-Hazel Dickens
Big H/T to cweinsch
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