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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 7, 1904
Hastings, Colorado – Mother Jones Exposes Rockefeller’s “Sunday School Methods”
From the Duluth Labor World of February 6, 1904:
MOTHER JONES
Says Rockefeller Oppresses the Coal Miners.
Hastings, Colo., Feb. 5.-[Mother Jones, the miners’ friend, who is now going up and down among the striking miners in Colorado, says:]
Rockefeller’s mining company cleared $39,000 [*] last year, and every dollar of it was wrung form the miners.
At some of these mining camps a miner is not even allowed to bring a pound of butter from the outside. He is compelled to buy everything at the company’s store. Every man who comes to the mines to work must be searched, and when he goes to visit a friend outside the camp an armed guard goes with him.
What would a Chicago workingman think if he had to pay 90 cents for a quart of syrup that cost at wholesale $1.25 a gallon? What would he think if his employer taxed him a dollar a month for a doctor whether he needed one or not? What would he think if he was obliged to pay his employer 50 cents a month for a preacher?
“Yet such are Mr. Rockefeller’s Sunday school methods of conducting his mining business in Colorado,” says Mother Jones.
[Emphasis added. Newsclip added.]
Note: The figure of $39,000 is far too low to be the amount of profit from Rockefeller’s mining interests in Colorado. Perhaps, Mother was referring to the amount of profit generated by the company town at Hastings, for, besides the profit made from coal mining, the operators also expect the company town to turn a profit. The miners are charged high prices at the company store. They are not allowed to shop elsewhere. Rent for the company shack is deducted from their pay in advance.
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM
Autobiography Chp 13, 1925
https://archive.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/13/
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Feb 6, 1904
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1904-02-06/ed-1/seq-4/
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1904-02-06/ed-1/seq-5/
History of the Labor Movement in the United States Vol. 5
The AFL in the Progressive Era 1910-1915
-by Philip S Foner
International Pub, 1980
(Both the 1903-04 & 1913-14 Colorado Coalfield strikes
are covered in this volume.)
https://books.google.com/books?id=vIn-bO2Oe1cC
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 23, 1904
Kate S. Hilliard Defends Mother Jones from Vicious Attack by Polly Pry
The Rocky Mountain News
(Denver, Colorado)
-Feb 6, 1904
Page 3 states: Mother Jones passed through Denver “yesterday,” from the East, having attended the UMWA Convention.
https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2:12C601A5C4B97518@GB3NEWS-146DC5F113C10D78@2416517-146C21E167308FF0@2-146C21E167308FF0
The Indianapolis Star
-Jan 18, 1904
Page 3: Mother Jones unable to attend convention due to illness.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/118569204/
The Industrial Free Press
(Winfield, Kansas)
-Dec 31, 1903
Page 2: article by Herbert N. Casson
re Mother Jones, John D. Rockefeller and the struggle in CO.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/489435116/
Tag: Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1903-1904
https://weneverforget.org/tag/colorado-coalfield-strike-of-1903-1904/
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Coal Miner’s Blues · Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard