The coal miners of Colorado are not seeking charity, they want justice.
-John R Lawson
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Wednesday October 6, 1915
From The New York Times: John R Lawson Condemns the Rockefeller Plan
A statement released by John R. Lawson makes clear the opinion of the imprisoned labor leader regarding Rockefeller's industrial plan. From
The New York Times of October 3rd:
LAWSON CONDEMNS PLAN.
-----
Lacks Essentials of Real Collective Bargaining, He Says.
TRINIDAD, Col., Oct. 2.-John R. Lawson, international board member of the United Mine Workers of America, confined in the county jail here awaiting decision of the Supreme Court on his application for a new trial on the charge of murder, made a statement tonight relative to the Rockefeller industrial plan.
[He declared:]
The plan is not practical...and will not prove the factor to promote industrial peace in Colorado, because it does not contain the essentials of collective bargaining, but rather attempts to substitute paternalism for democracy, or philanthropy for justice.
The coal miners of Colorado are not seeking charity, they want justice. They are only asking the same rights that the officials of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company claim for themselves, the right to join the organization of their choice, which is provided for by statute in Colorado. They demand the privilege of selling their labor through the medium of collective bargaining. They desire an organization on each side equal in strength, with a sense of equity to govern a contract that is binding on both sides.
This new plan of labor union, built along the lines of the old Provincial Workmen's Association of Canada, now defunct, will not do in Colorado. Without an organization there is amassed on one side all the wealth and power, on the other are grouped the partially organization employes, without any real organization behind them.
Referring to that part of the plan which says that the company will pay the expenses of miners' representatives to the conferences and reimburse them for time lost, Mr. Lawson said:
It will be a hopeless task, indeed, if safe representatives cannot be found under this benevolent plan. No intelligent person is going to be deceived by this subterfuge.
-----
[Photograph added.]
MOTHER JONES SPEAKS IN OHIO
Soon after the arrival, of John D. Rockefeller Jr. in Colorado Mother Jones gave a speech in Akron, Ohio, in which she opposed the efforts of United Mine Workers officials to have Rockefeller arrested and charged with murder in Colorado.
From Missouri's Kansas City Star of September 21, 1915:
SHOULD NOT ARREST JOHN D., JR.
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Mother Jones Against Proposed Action
of the Miners.
Akron, O., Sept. 21.-"Mother" Jones, on whose suggestion John D. Rockefeller, jr., is in Colorado on a mission that may end mining labor wars there, frowned today on the proposed plan of United Mine Workers of America to cause Rockefeller's arrest while in Colorado on a charge of responsibility for the Ludlow massacre.
"Mother" Jones stopped in Akron a day on her way to Cleveland from Warren, where she conducted a protest mass meeting in protest against the conviction of John Lawson, Colorado labor leader, on a murder charge.
[Said Mother Jones:]
I don't hold Rockefeller responsible as a personality for the terrible conditions...It is his viewpoint that is at fault. I believe Rockefeller wants to better conditions, I believe he will do it if he can raise above the high class burglars and economic leeches that surround him.
The question in my mind is whether he is strong enough to do that.
"Mother" Jones said Rockefeller made a poor start Monday when he visited the miners accompanied by a mine superintendent and officials of his mining company.
If Rockefeller is going to accomplish any good in Colorado he must go alone to the mining camps and call the miners into mass meetings...Then he should invite every miner to speak up without fear and tell of the horrible oppression.
"Mother" Jones does not expect to return to Colorado while Rockefeller is in the state.
-----
[Photograph added.]
A few days later, Mother gave a rousing speech in Cleveland, Ohio, in which she declared that "the people are awake" and warned Rockefeller and his fellow capitalists that:
..if he [Rockefeller Jr.] returns without knowing the facts about Colorado and his workmen there he has already signed his death warrant or, what is the same thing-the death warrant of capitalism.
From Oklahoma's Muskogee Times-Democrat of September 25, 1915:
"JOHN D., JR., MUST BE BORN AGAIN OR DIE"
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Such is Mother Jones' Opinion of the Visit of the Mine Owner
to the Colorado Region--Most Serious Thing He Has
Ever Done, But He Doesn't Know Much
About the Real Situation.
-----
Staff Special.
Cleveland,-Ohio, Sept. 25.-"John D. Rockefeller, Jr., must either be born again or he will die!"
Mother Jones, more old and crumpled than ever but flaming with the same fire with which she swept hounded, capital ridden Colorado, trumpeted the startling defi with conviction as ringing as Joshua's. It represented the climax of her convictions as to the significance of the visit of the oil king's son to the miners of Ludlow.
[Mother Jones exclaimed:]
This visit of young Rockefeller is the most serious undertaking of his life...but I fear he does not even guess it! But if he returns without knowing the facts about Colorado and his workmen there he has already signed his death warrant or, what is the same thing-the death warrant of capitalism.
For, at last, from the American people, so far the most indifferent in the world to the injustices heaped upon them by capital, some great leaders are emerging! Their tongues are to prove the whips that will lash us masses into sudden molten action. And this means but one thing-that things have got to changed-that if things don't change from the inside, capital's side, they will be changed from the outside, our side!
We are watching John D. Jr. in Colorado. It is his test. He has started out with the wrong escorts-the capitalists. He should go alone among the miners and listen to them and their wives. He would stand more chance of being converted to truth and justice.
In other words he might be born again. If he should be, then our newfound leaders, such as Frank P. Walsh, will not have to head the great clash that seems to be on the cards of the future. The potential enemies will meet as common workers-as patriots and friends.
But if John D.'s visit is not an excursion in truth-hunting and proves a social white wash-if he is not born again into the light-he seems destined to die. For the unconvinced exploiters of the American masses carry unsigned death warrants in their own hands today. And today, if they realize it, is doomsday for them! The people are awake!
In other words, Mother Jones means there must be bloodless reform or bloody revolution.
~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-Oct 3, 1915
http://query.nytimes.com/...
The Kansas City Star
(Kansas City, Missouri)
-Sept 21, 1915
http://newspaperarchive.com/...
Muskogee Times-Democrat
(Muskogee, Oklahoma)
(Also source for photo within article.)
-Sep 25, 1915
http://newspaperarchive.com/...
IMAGES
John Lawson Denied New Trial,
Coshocton Morning Trb, OH, July 14, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
The Masses, JDR Jr Caught Red-Handed,
John Sloan, July 1914
http://dlib.nyu.edu/...
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I Hate the Capitalist System-Barbara Dane
I hate the company bosses,
I'll tell you the reason why:
They cause me so much suffering
And my dearest friends to die.
-Sarah Ogan Gunning
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