Category: Southern Colorado Coalfield Strike 1913-1914

Hellraisers Journal: The Testimony of John D. Rockefeller Jr., Monday April 6, 1914, Before the House Committee Investigating Conditions in the Coal Mines of Colorado

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Quote John D Rockefeller Jr, Great Principle, WDC Apr 6, 1914, US House Com p2874—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 12, 1914
Washington D. C. – John D. Rockefeller Jr. Testifies Before House Committee

John D. Rockefeller Jr. made his appearance on Monday, April 6th, in Washington D. C., before the Subcommittee of the House Committee on Mines and Mining which is investigating conditions in the coal mines of Colorado. During his four hours of sworn testimony, Mr. Rockefeller stated that the “Open Shop” is a “Great Principle” worth the loss of all of his property in the state of Colorado and the lives of all of his employes. 

During his four hours of sworn testimony, Mr. Rockefeller had this exchange with Chairman Foster:

THE DEATH SPECIAL, MACHINE GUNS, AND MINE GUARDS

Baldwin-Felts Death Special

The CHAIRMAN. Do you know about an automobile being armored-built of armor plate being built in your company?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. It sounds interesting, but I have not heard of it.
The CHAIRMAN. It was built in the shops of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co.
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I did not know they produced automobiles as well.
The CHAIRMAN. They put on it machine guns, going around through that country.
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I thought the idea referred to by Mr. Bowers, of having a number of searchlights was an excellent one, helping to prevent disorder. They could see the country all around.
The CHAIRMAN. Do you know this, that it was testified during the disturbances before the militia was called into the field, the mine guards were then in existence, and trouble took place between the striking miners and the mine guards or deputy sheriffs? Were you informed of that?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I did not know that was so, but it is usual where a strike occurs for the company to undertake to protect its men with the local officials, and add to that number before the the militia is called out. I think that is customary.
The CHAIRMAN. Now, then, when the militia was called out, a great many of these mine guards or deputy sheriffs, it was said, were sworn into the service of the State, and they were kept on the pay rolls of the company; for instance, the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. What is your idea of that? Do you think that makes the militia a nonpartisan preserver of the peace?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I should simply say that if the local authorities in any community were unable to or did not render adequate protection to the workers of that district it was the duty of the employers of the labor to supplement that protection in any way they could.
The CHAIRMAN. Well, but if the militia had been called into the field and then the mine guards and deputy sheriffs who had been sworn into the militia were still on the pay roll of the company, drawing their pay from the State and from the company, too, is it your opinion that they would be a nonpartisan protector of the peace of the community?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Of course, that is a very extensive country. There are mines in many different places. I do not know that in any case the militia has been sent there in sufficient numbers to cover the entire country.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Rockefeller Jr. Testifies Before House Investigating Committee, States He Is Willing to Lose All in Colorado, Including Lives of His Employes, in Pursuit of the “Great Principle” of Open Shop

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Quote John D Rockefeller Jr, Great Principle, WDC Apr 6, 1914, US House Com p2874—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 11, 1914
Washington, D. C. – John D. Rockefeller Jr. Testifies Before Federal Investigators

From The New York Times of April 7, 1914:

Lives to be Sacrificed for Rockefeller’s
“Great Principle”

The Times featured Rockefeller’s testimony in a long article which began with a full column on the front page and continued with two and a half columns on the second page. The headlines reveal that The Times considered Rockefeller’s stand for the open-shop to be a just stand against “union rule”:

ROCKEFELLER, JR., DEFIES UNION RULE
———–
Will Sacrifice All in Colorado Rather Than
Subject Miners to Union Dictation.
———-

FIRM FOR “OPEN SHOP”
———-
Americans, He Tells Congressmen, Must Have
Right to Work Where They Please.
———-
SAYS HE DOES HIS DUTY
———-
Is a Director, but Must Trust Details to Trained Officers
-Testifies for Four Hours.
———-

Special to the New York Times.

John D Rockefeller Jr, Brk Dly Egl p1, Apr 6, 1914

WASHINGTON, April 6.-John D. Rockefeller, Jr., testifying to-day as a Director of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in the inquiry which the House Committee on Mines is conducting into the Colorado coal strike, declared unequivocally for the principle of the “open shop,” and assented that he and his associates would prefer that they should “lose all of their millions invested in the coal fields than that the American workingmen should be deprived of the right under the Constitution to work for whom they pleased.”

Mr. Rockefeller said that he thought his chief duty as a Director was to place honest and capable officers in control of the business. He said he would rather relinquish his interests in Colorado and close down the mines than to recognize the unions under the circumstances. He was not opposed to unions as such, he said, but he did object to unions which tried to force men to join them and which deprived men of the liberty of working for whom they pleased. He said that a recognition of the mine workers’ union would mean the repudiation of the employes who had been faithful enough to remain with company during the strike…..

[Emphasis added]

Thus, Rockefeller was portrayed as a great hero willing to sacrifice the family fortune in order to “protect” the working men and women of America from the evils of collective bargaining!

How Rockefeller Maintains Absolute Control in Colorado:
-The Death Special, Constructed at CF&I plant in Pueblo, Colorado.

Baldwin-Felts Death Special

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Hellraisers Journal: Hell Hounds of the Colorado Militia Slowing Killing Mother Jones in Damp Cellar Cell at Walsenburg

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Mother Jones Quote, Let My Friend Villa Know, Cold Cellar Cell, Walsenburg CO, Mar 31, 1914, AtR p2, Apr 18, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 6, 1914
Walsenburg, Colorado – State Militia Slowly Killing Mother Jones

From The Wheeling Majority of April 2, 1914:

HdLn Killing Mother Jones Cold Cellar Cell, Wlg Maj p1, Apr 2, 1914

“The Charge on Mother Jones” by Henry M. Tichenor”

POEM Charge on Mother Jones by Henry Tichenor, Wlg Maj p5, Apr 2, 1914

THE CHARGE ON MOTHER JONES

The patriotic soldiers came marching down the pike,
Prepared to shoot and slaughter in the Colorado strike;
With whiskey in their bellies and vengeance in their souls,
They prayed that God  would help them shoot the miners full of holes.

In front of these brave soldiers loomed a sight you seldom see:
A white-haired rebel woman whose age was eighty-three.
“Charge!” cried the valiant captain, in awful thunder tones,
And the patriotic soldiers “CHARGED” and captured Mother Jones.

‘Tis great to be a soldier with a musket in your hand,
Ready’ for any bloody work the lords of earth command.
‘Tis great to shoot a miner and hear his dying groans
But never was such glory as that “charge” on Mother Jones!

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Held in Cellar Cell “Surrounded with Sewer Rats, Tin-Horn Soldiers, and Other Vermin.”

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Mother Jones Quote, Let My Friend Villa Know, Cold Cellar Cell, Walsenburg CO, Mar 31, 1914, AtR p2, Apr 18, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 5, 1914
Walsenburg, Colorado – Mother Jones Smuggles out Letter from Cold Cellar Cell

From the Chicago Day Book of April 3, 1914:

Letter from Mother Jones to Public, Cold Cellar Cell, Let Pancho Villa Know, Day Book Last p3, Apr 3, 1914

March 31, 1914-from the Cold Cellar Cell, Walsenburg, Colorado,
Letter to Friends of Mother Jones and to the Public Generally:

                                                                                            Military Bastile
Walsenburg, Colo.
.                                                                                           March 31, 1914
To My Friends and the Public Generally:
     I am being held a prisoner incommunicado in a damp, underground cell, in the basement of a military bullpen at Walsenburg, Colorado. Have been here since 5:30 a.m. of the 23rd of March, when I was taken from the train by armed soldiers as I was passing through Walsenburg. I have discovered what appears to be an opportunity to smuggle a letter out of prison, and shall attempt to get this communication by the armed guards which day and night surround me (me, a white-haired old woman eighty-two years of age).
     I want to say to the public that I am an American citizen. I have never broken a law in my life, and I claim the right of an American citizen to go where I please so long as I do not violate the law. The courts of Las Animas and Huerfano are open and unobstructed in the transaction of business, yet Governor Ammons and his Peabody appointee, General Chase, refuse to carry me before any court, and refuse to make any charge against me.
     I ask the press to let the nation know of my treatment, and to say to my friends, whom, thank God, I number by the thousands, throughout the United States and Mexico, that not even my incarceration in a damp, underground dungeon will make me give up the fight in which I am engaged for liberty and for the rights of the working people.
     Of course, I long to be out of prison. To be shut from the sunlight is not pleasant, but John Bunyan, John Brown and others were kept in Jail quite a while, and I shall stand firm. To be in prison is no disgrace. In all my strike experiences I have seen no horrors equal to those perpetrated by General Chase and his corps of Baldwin-Feltz detectives that are now enlisted in the militia.
     My God–when is it to stop? I have only to close my eyes to see the mourning of the broken hearts and the wailing of the funeral dirge, while the cringing politicians whose sworn duty is to protect the lives and liberty of the people crawl subserviently before the national burglars of Wall Street who are today plundering and devastating the State of Colorado economically, financially, politically and morally.
     Let the nation know, and especially let my friend General Francisco Villa know, that the great United States of America, which is demanding of him that he release the traitors he has placed under arrest, is now holding Mother Jones incommunicado in an under ground cell surrounded with sewer rats, tinhorn soldiers and other vermin.
Mother Jones
[As written, without correction; paragraph break added.]
Mother Jones is not forgotten in her cold cellar cell, the same damp cell which led to the death of striking miner Kostas Marcos. 

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Hellraisers Journal: From Chicago Day Book: “Mother Jones at Eighty-Two, I Toss Up My Hat for You” by Edmund Cooke

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Quote Mother Jones, Ladies Women, NYT p3, May 23, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 4, 1914
“Mother Jones, at eighty-two, I toss up my hat for you.” by Edmund Vance Cooke

From the Chicago Day Book of April 1, 1914:

Mother Jones I Toss My Hat, Poem by Edmund Vance Cooke, Day Book Noon p21, Apr 1, 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “Mother Jones” by Paint Creek Miner, “Have you seen this aged fighter?”

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Quote Paint Creek Miner, Ralph Chaplin, ISR p604, ISR Apr 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 1, 1914
“Mother Jones…Fearless, Dauntless, Trusted, True”

From the International Socialist Review of April 1914:

Mother Jones Poem by Paint Creek Miner, Ralph Chaplin, ISR p604, Apr 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Denver United Labor Bulletin: Old Mother Jones Held Incommunicado in Dark Cellar Cell

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Quote Mother Jones re Walsenburg Cellar Cell, Mar 22, 1914 x26 days, Ab Chp 21, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 31, 1914
Walsenburg, Colorado – Mother Jones Confined in Dark Cellar Cell

From Denver’s United Labor Bulletin of March 28, 1914:

Mother Jones Held in Dark Cellar Cell at Walsenburg CO, ULB p1, Mar 28, 1914

Note: Mother was arrested at Walsenburg by the Colorado militia on Monday March 23rd, at about 5:30 a. m. She has been confined, since that time, in the same dark cold cellar cell that was the cause of the death of striking miner Kostas Marcos.

—————

From The Masses of February 1914: Mother Jones by Art Young

Mother Jones Hell Hounds by Art Young, Masses p7, Feb 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: Covington Hall and Eugene V. Debs Pay Tribute to Mother Jones, Miners’ Angel, by Poem and Prose

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Quote Mother Jones, WV Court Martial, No Plea to Make, Ptt Pst p3, Mar 8, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 27, 1914
Poem for Mother Jones, Held in Cold Cellar Cell at Walsenburg, Colorado

From The Voice of the People (New Orleans) of March 26, 1914:

“The Soul of Mother Jones” by Covington Hall

Poem Soul of Mother Jones by C Hall, Vc of Ppl p1, Mar 26, 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Held Incommunicado on Orders of Gen. Chase in a Cold Cellar Cell at Walsenburg, Colorado

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Walsenburg Cellar Cell, Mar 22, 1914 x26 days, Ab Chp 21, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 25 1914
Walsenburg, Colorado – Mother Jones Held in Cold Cellar Cell

From The Rocky Mountain News of March 24, 1914:
“Mother Jones Held Prisoner in Dingy Jail”

Mother Jones Held by Military in Dingy Walsenburg Cell, RMN p7, Mar 24, 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Taken From Southbound Train at Walsenburg, Colorado, and Once Again Held by Militia

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Quote Mother Jones re Soldiers Bayonets Constitution, Day Book Noon p32, Mar 23, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 24 1914
Walsenburg, Colorado – Mother Jones Taken from Train and Arrested by Militia

From The Hutchinson News (Kansas) of March 23, 1914:

“MOTHER” JONES AGAIN HELD
BY THE MILITARY
———–
She Was Arrested at Walsenburg
Upon Her Return There From Denver.
———-

Mother Jones w Lawson n Hawkins at Denver CO Mar 16-20, 1914
John Lawson, Mother Jones, Horace Hawkins

Walsenburg, Colo., March 23-After a week’s freedom “Mother” Mary Jones is again a military prisoner in the strike zone. The aged strike leader was taken from a southbound Colorado and Southern train here this morning by Captain H. C. Nickerson, acting under orders of Adjutant General John Chase, and lodged in the county hospital under military guard. She is being held incommunicado.

Captain Nickerson left Trinidad last night under orders to arrest “Mother” Jones at Walsenburg when the announcement was made that she was leaving for Trinidad. The militia officer boarded the train at Pueblo and as it neared Walsenburg, ordered “Mother” Jones to alight with him at that point.

“I protest against such treatment,” declared the strike leader, “but I am not surprised.”

“I am acting under orders,” replied the officer.

“Well, I’ll get off,” she retorted.

John Brown, an organizer of the United Mine Workers of America, and known as “Mother” Jones’ body guard, who accompanied the aged strike leader, also left the train but was not placed under arrest.

Calls It Kidnapping.

Trinidad, Colo., March 23-“It’s a plain case of kidnapping,” declared John R. Lawson, International board member of the United Mine Workers, when advised that “Mother” Jones had been taken from a train at Walsenburg by the military authorities while on her way to Trinidad.

“Mother Jones was going through the place and as far as I know there is absolutely no charge against her. I hope that the supreme court will act in the matter at once.”

Mr. Lawson and John McLennan, president of District No. 15, United Mine Workers of America, left today for Walsenburg.

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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