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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 19, 1914
Washington, D. C. – John D. Rockefeller Jr. Pledges Millions to Crush Colorado Miners
From the Duluth Labor World of April 18, 1914:
YOUNG ROCKEFELLER CHIP OFF OLD BLOCK
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Declares Before Industrial Commission He Has
Millions to Crush Miners’ Union.
———-SOME MORE “DIVINE RIGHT” PHILOSOPHY
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Refused to Arbitrate Colorado Coal Strike
-Trusts Everything to Managers.
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John D. Rockefeller, Jr., son of the world’s richest man, testified Monday [April 6th] before the House Mines Committee in Washington about the question of his moral responsibility for the industrial strife which has kept the coal fields of southern Colorado in turmoil for six months.
After more than for hours of cross-examination Rockefeller had told the committee:
That he and three other directors represented his father’s interest of about 40 per cent in the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, the central figure in the big coal strike.
That as a director he had fulfilled all his interest and responsibility in the company when he placed the officers, “competent and trusted men,” in charge of the company’s affairs.
That he knew nothing of conditions in the strike district except from reports of the officers of the company.
He “Protects” “Free” Labor.
That the strike had become a fight for the “principles” of freedom of labor, and that he and his associates would rather the present violence continue and that “they lose all their millions invested in the coal fields than that American working men should be deprived of their right under the constitution to work for whom they pleased.”
This was accepted as an indication that the Rockefeller millions are opposed to the unions in Colorado.
That he favored arbitration in Industrial disputes-generally, but that in the present instance he supported the officers of the company in their refusal to submit the question of unionizing the mines to arbitration.
In support of these conclusions Rockefeller was kept busy for hours explaining defending and arguing. He asserted that employer and employe were “fellow men and should treat each other as such,” but could see no analogy between the unionization of workmen and the combination of capital….
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
WILL DEFEND OPEN SHOP AT ANY COST, PROPERTY OR LIVES
During his testimony this exchange took place between Rockefeller and the Chairman of the Subcommittee, M. D. Foster:
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.
[Emphasis added.]
From the Rocky Mountain News of April 19, 1914
-Mother Jones Makes Statement Before Leaving Denver for Washington:
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SOURCES
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Apr 18, 1914
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1914-04-18/ed-1/seq-1/
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1914-04-18/ed-1/seq-2/
Conditions in the Coal Mines of Colorado.
Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Mines and Mining
House of Representatives, Sixty-Third Congress, Second Session
Pursuant to H. Res. 387, a Resolution Authorizing and Directing
the Committee on Mines and Mining to Make an Investigation of
Conditions in the Coal Mines of Colorado.
Washington, DC, Government Printing Office, 1914
–Hearings of Feb. 9-April 23, 1914, Martin D. Foster, Chairman.
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011159608
-p2841-2916-Rockefeller Testimony, WDC, Apr 6, 1914
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=msu.31293006718120&seq=825
Rocky Mountain News
(Denver, Colorado)
-Apr 19, 1914
https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2:12C601A5C4B97518@GB3NEWS-14935DC5E0C1CDA0@2420242-148E18EEB94529D0@4-148E18EEB94529D0
IMAGE
John D Rockefeller Jr, Brk Dly Egl p1, Apr 6, 1914
https://www.newspapers.com/image/685845264/
See also:
United Labor Bulletin
(Denver, Colorado)
-Apr 18, 1914
“Governor Recalls Troopers, Martial Law Comes to End
-Mother Jones Released From Prison
-Gun Men Sworn In as Deputies by Sheriff”
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91052295/1914-04-18/ed-1/seq-1/
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 18 1914
Denver, Colorado – Mother Jones Resting After Release from Cold Cellar Cell
Tag: Military Despotism Colorado 1914
https://weneverforget.org/tag/military-despotism-colorado-1914/
Tag: Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-1914
https://weneverforget.org/tag/colorado-coalfield-strike-of-1913-1914/
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