You have the power. Set out to right conditions and you can.
But there must be solidarity of action and unity of purpose.
Do not grovel at the feet of Gold, but arise like men
to crush the men and systems whose deeds cause crimes
like those of Ludlow and Calumet.
-Mother Jones
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Tuesday July 13, 1915
Chicago, Illinois: Monster Mass Meeting Protests Against Conviction of John R. Lawson
John Lawson with Mother Jones
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The mask of hypocrisy was torn from the weazened face of John D. Rockefeller by Frank P. Walsh, chairman of the U. S. commission on industrial relations, who spoke at a mass meeting held yesterday to protest against the conviction of John R. Lawson, head of the United Mine Workers, who was sent to a Colorado prison for life on a charge of murder.
Walsh cited reams of testimony given before the commission. He said that the Rockefeller family was responsible for the outrages which took place in Colorado. And he exposed the flaw in the act which created the commission on industrial relations.
[Walsh said:]
This commission is empowered to compel witnesses to appear before it but was not granted the power to punish witnesses for contempt when they refused to answer pertinent questions...If the next congress represents the people, their first act upon reading the report of the commission will be to cite Jon D. Rockefeller and his son and Mackenzie King, Canada's labor commissioner and Rockefeller's hired tool, to appear before the bar of the house of representatives to answer certain questions which they refused to answer at the public hearings of this body. Then if they still refuse to answer they should be tried for crime against the government and sent to the penitentiary.
Mere handclapping could not show the appreciation of the crowd, so they stood up and yelled. It was some minutes before order could be restored.
[Continued below.]
[Continued from above.]
In introducing Walsh, John W. Fitzpatrick, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, told him he had been the victim of underhand attacks in the trust press and how attempts had been made to intimidate him.
[Walsh said:]
Frank Walsh
`````
The last thing I want to do is to pose as a martyr...The year has been the happiest of my life. I have been enjoying myself tremendously and the comments I make here are made by a free American citizen.
The conviction of Lawson is but an incident in this struggle for the principle of a government for the people. Lawson's case is the case of the American working people.
Lawson was not sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of John Mimo [Nimmo]. He was sentenced for his defiance of the Rockefeller interests.
Rockefeller does not only own the mining property of that state, but he owns the courts the legislature, the governor and the majority of the people.
Before me his son called him "the largest retired investor n the world." This was proven untrue by correspondence between Lemont Bowers, head of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co., and himself.
A telegram, given this commission by a union operator in Denver, exposed a chain of letters which proved conclusively that Rockefeller took a deep and active interest in everything which occurred during the strike. I want to say to the editors of the trust press who have attacked me that if they will read these letters and still deny that Rockefeller did not take an active interest in the strike and conviction of Lawson that they would pay $5 for a bottle of hair restorer to a bald-headed barber.
I am not animated by a personal enmity against Rockefeller. I pity him from the bottom of my heart. On his 76th birthday he doubled the guard about his home at Pontico Hills and erected a new barrier inside of the old one. There he lives in a prison of his own making.
Look at Mother Jones here. An agitator, loved and respected by thousands and then think of Rockefeller.
Whether or not the congress of the U. S. is representing the people or are the hirelings of our industrial overlords will be proven by the action they take upon the reports of this commission.
John Fitzpatrick
`````
Are we doing our best to bring about a better state of society? Let's hope so. I would that I will live to see the day when the workingman gets what he earns. When the law will be so broad that tremendous fortunes will not go from father to son. When it will be impossible to accumulate these fortunes which are a menace to the free people. And when a free people will awaken and establish a great democracy which will stand before the world true to the first principles of its creation.
John W. Fitzpatrick, president of the federation, presided as chairman of the big meeting.
[He said:]
This is a regular meeting of the federation to discuss the outrages perpetrated against organized labor in Colorado...It happens to be the Lord's day, so it is fitting that we have James Lord, president of the Mining Department of the A. F. L., to address us.
Lord rehearsed the events which led up to the conviction of Lawson. He told how the miners were so oppressed that every ten years an industrial revolution swept the mines of Colorado.
James Lord
`````
[Lord said:]
Lawson had as much chance before that venue jury, picked from the streets in front of the courthouse, as Christ had before Pontius Pilate...Lawson was miles away when the man he was accused of murdering died. Nevertheless he was convicted.
John D. Rockefeller was miles away when babies were burned and smothered to death in Ludlow. Could he not be convicted on the same charges?
The courts of Colorado are rotten. It has been our experience that they are for sale and that we haven't the price to buy them. Judge Hillyer is as rotten as Governor Ammons and he is as rotten as any man who walks the earth . It is the opinion of the miners I represent that Gov. Ammons will perform his first decent act when he dies.
A few days ago I read of the attempt on the life of J. P. Morgan. I was not surprised and I do not think that you were very much surprised. Violence breeds violence, and if the present industrial conditions continue I predict a lot of these captains of industry will bite the dust.
[Continued Lord:]
There never was a mine strike...that did not within a week become a strike for constitutional rights. The state has always turned against the men, denying them their rights as citizens. The courts are always prejudiced toward the operators for we have not the money to pay their price.
Mother Jones gripped the hearts of the audience. There were dimmed eyes when she told the story of Ludlow, of how eleven babes with their mothers were roasted alive in a pit into which they have been driven by machine guns.
Mother Jones at Ludlow
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You men are cowards to permit to exist a condition by which such atrocities can be committed. You are moral cowards, all of you.
Awaken! Fight! Not among yourselves, as you now do, but against the common enemy, who is pressing you to earth and offering you as a sacrifice to the god, Gold.
You have the power. Set out to right conditions and you can. But there must be solidarity of action and unity of purpose. Do not grovel at the feet of Gold, but arise like men to crush the men and systems whose deeds cause crimes like those of Ludlow and Calumet.
[Photographs added.]
~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCE
The Day Book
(Chicago, Illinois)
-July 12, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
John Lawson & Mother Jones,
Wichita Beacon, Kansas, Apr 22, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
Frank P. Walsh
from Harpers Weekly of Sept 27, 1913
http://books.google.com/...
John Fitzpatrick
of Chicago Federation of Labor
https://archive.org/...
James Lord of the UMWA,
head of AFL Mining Department
http://www.flickr.com/...
Mother Jones at Ludlow
http://www.socialwelfarehistory.com/...
Ludlow Massacre, Crucified
http://john-adcock.blogspot.com/...
See also:
E. N. Nockles, Secretary Chicago Federation of Labor,
reports on the meeting.
https://books.google.com/...
WE NEVER FORGET
Ludlow and Calumet
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Angel Band - The Peasall Sisters
For Pedro Valdez who lost his wife and children
in the Ludlow Massacre, April 20, 1914
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