Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 27, 1914 Washington, D. C. – Judge Lindsey and Women of Ludlow Visit the White House
From the Washington Evening Star of May 21, 1914:
LINDSEY HAS PLAN TO MEDIATE STRIKE ———- Discusses Colorado Situation With President Wilson This Afternoon. ———-
FAVORS KEEPING TROOPS IN THE TROUBLE DISTRICT ———- “Survivors of Ludlow Massacre” To Tell of Sufferings at National Rifles’ Armory Tonight. ———-
Rep. Keating, Judge Ben Lindsey, Rep. Kent, Mrs. Lindsey, Pearl Jolly, Mary Petrucci, Mary Thomas, Mrs. Lee Champion, Rachel and Olga Thomas
With a plan to mediate the Colorado coal fields strike, which he believes will be successful if fathered by the President,Judge Ben B. Lindsey, who came to Washington with a delegation of women and children refugees from Ludlow, called at the White House this afternoon by appointment.
Judge Lindsey stated he is emphatically in favor of keeping the troops in the strike district. He hopes the President will hear the stories of the women “survivors of the Ludlow massacre” who can tell him what they personally suffered during the battle and fire.
Judge Lindsey declares that the people of the country are guaranteed a republican form of government; that no such government exists in Colorado at this time, and that it is fully within the power of the President, backed by public sentiment, to force a settlement of the troubles.
Judge Lindsey urged the President to keep the federal troops in the coal strife region under all circumstances, asserting that if they are not retained there bloodshed will continue and that there will be nothing like law in all that region.
Suggests U. S. Close Mines.
Judge Lindsey declined to go into details as to what his plans are, but in a general way he hinted that public opinion would justify the President, under the guarantee of a republican form of government to all citizens, to close down the mines and practically assume charge of them by federal troops, compelling the mine owners and the striking miners to mediate their differences. He recalled the steps taken by President Roosevelt in the great Pennsylvania coal strike some year ago, and believes it within the power of the President to do almost anything he wants in Colorado.
“The President may not think he has power to settle the strike, but we think he has,” declared Judge Lindsey. “He has gigantic powers under the law and under the reign of public opinion.”
Judge Lindsey bitterly criticized Gov. Ammons, declared him incompetent, and hinted that Ammons and Rockefeller are in agreement as to how the fight should be resolved.
Judge Lindsey has asked an interview with John D. Rockefeller, jr. He didn’t know today whether Mr. Rockefeller would grant this interview, in which he will seek to have the New York millionaire accept some plan of medication, but he intended to try. He was asked if the party with him would also see Mr. Rockefeller.
“I do not know,” he answered, “but Mr. Rockefeller is no bigger than the President of the United States. Mr. Wilson has seen us-all of us-and I think Mr. Rockefeller can afford to do the same thing.”
Judge Lindsey persisted in his view that the President should bump the heads of both sides together and bring about a settlement.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 26, 1914 Washington, D. C. – Judge Lindsey and Survivors of Ludlow Warn of Seething Volcano
From The Tacoma Times of May 25, 1914:
Colorado a Seething Volcano, Says Judge Lindsey, Ready to Errupt Into Flaming Civil War
WASHINGTON, D. C. May 25-“President Wilson will let loose war in Colorado, and that will mean civil war throughout the nation, if he withdraws the federal troops from the strike district!”
So spoke Judge Ben Lindsey, who has led a pilgrimage of woman and children, survivors of the Ludlow massacre. They went to the nation’s capital, sent by the people of Colorado, to tell the president of the United States the TRUTH about the war in Colorado.
“Colorado today,” exclaimed Judge Lindsey, “is the seething crater of a great volcano. If the federal troops are withdrawn, that volcano will explode in the most terrific eruption of outrage and butchery that this nation has ever seen. And the eruption may set the entire country in the flames of civil war!
With Judge Lindsey on this pilgrimage are three women survivors of the Ludlow fight. They are Mrs Mary Petrucci, who spent nearly twelve hours in the frightful death hole where twelve babies, including her own, and nine [two] women perished; Mrs. Pearl Jolly, who helped hundreds of the frightened women to escape, and Mrs. Mary Thomas, who stood beside one of the strikers throughout the fight, loading his gun and pistol alternately for him, while he fired. With her are her two babies, Rachel and Olga, who survived that day of carnage only through the courage of their mother, who fled with them from the ruined camp as soon as darkness fell.
“We felt that President Wilson did not appreciate how ominous the situation is.
“But there is one man in the nation who can handle it. AND THAT MAN IS PRESIDENT WILSON HIMSELF!
“If the federal troops are with drawn no man can control the ruthless rioting and wholesale murder that will follow. Governor Ammons can’t. He has proved his inability to all the nation.
“There are TWO things that the president can do. One of them HE HAS GOT TO DO! He must keep the federal troops in Colorado.”
The other thing was graphically explained by Mrs. Pearl Jolly, the Ludlow heroine.
“We demand that President Wilson close down the mines! He can do it. He can do it on grounds of military necessity. He can do it to preserve peace and order, under his police powers. HE MUST do it, on the ground that the rights of men are higher than the rights of property, and that the good of humanity comes before the paying of dividends.
“If he doesn’t do it, there’s going to be war. The miners will get guns all right. Never mind how, but we will! Our husbands are re-establishing the Ludlow camp now. And there won’t be only 90 men, with but 40 guns, in it this time! And we won’t be asleep, either, like we were when they attacked us last.
“We know now what to expect from those mine guards. They’re boasting now what they’ll do to us when the troops are gone. Well, we’re going to be ready for them. And since they burn and kill us women, anyway, we’ll fight alongside of our men next time. And there are thousands of sympathizers from all over the country who will come to help us.”
Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 25, 1914 Rockefeller Safe in New York; Ludlow Survivors with President at White House
From The Washington Times of May 21, 1914:
Upper left to right: Judge Lindsey, Mary Thomas, Pearl Jolly, Mary Petrucci, Thomas Daughters. Lower left to right: Mrs. Lindsey, Frank Hayes, Mrs. Lee Champion
In Trinidad, Colorado, 1200 men, women and children, the Ludlow refugees, left homeless and with all of their earthly possessions destroyed, are being cared for by the United Mine Workers of America. While in New York City, we are pleased to report, Mr. John D. Rockefeller Jr. is, at long last, safely back at work, his “tormenters” vanquished.
From The Fort Wayne Sentinel of May 20, 1914:
JOHN D. JR., IS BACK AT HIS JOB ———-
He Emerges from Retirement to Find Tormenters Silenced. ———- THE COLORADO CASE ———-
New York, May 20.-John D. Rockefeller, jr., has returned to work after twenty days spent at the country estates of his father at Pocantico Hills. Since May first when he went into retirement most of his tormenters under the leadership of Upton Sinclair, have been silenced, several by being sent to jail.
Sinclair is in Colorado and Marie Ganz and the Rev. Bouch [Bouck] White are serving sentences on Blackwell’s Island, the latter for having broken up the services at the Calvary Baptist church ten days ago.
“Mother” Jones alone remains in the lecture field and denounces the Rockefeller interests in the Colorado coal district. Mr. Rockefeller’s secretary said yesterday that he was making no investigation of the conditions in Colorado. He was only a minority stockholder in the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, it was said, and whatever recommendations he could offer might not influence the officials of the company in dealing with the miners.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 24, 1914 Chicago, Illinois – Judge Lindsey and Survivors of Ludlow Speak at Hull House
From The Fort Wayne Sentinel of May 20, 1914:
Judge Ben Lindsey; Women left to right: Mary Thomas, Pearl Jolly, Mary Petrucci; Thomas Daughters.
Five survivors of the Ludlow Massacre stopped off in Chicago, as guests of Miss Jane Addams of Hull House, on their way to Washington D. C. where they met with President Wilson. Mary Petrucci whose children were all killed in the fire, Mary Thomas and her two little daughters who hid from machine gun bullets throughout that terrible day, and Pearl Jolly, the heroine of Ludlow, who spent the day under fire as she assisted the women and children to escape: they are all being escorted to Washington by Judge Lindsey and Mrs. Lee Champion. The Judge’s wife was, unfortunately, hospitalized yesterday soon after their arrival in Chicago, and will not be able to accompanied the party further.
From The Daily Capital Journal (Salem, Oregon) of May 19, 1914:
LUDLOW’S STORY IS
TOO HORRIBLE TO PUT IN PRINT ———-
Details Equaled Only by the Burning and Sacking of Ancient Rome ———- COLORADO SITTING ON VOLCANO’S EDGE ———- Father Saluted with Child’s Corpse When He Went to Militia’s Camp ———-
Chicago, May 19,-“The true story of what transpired at Ludlow is too horrible to print.” said Judge Ben Lindsey here today. The famous Denver jurist is en route to Washington, accompanied by Mrs. Pearl Jolly, Mrs. Mary Petrucci and Mrs. M. Thomas, all Ludlow survivors.
“The details of the Ludlow affair are almost unbelievable,” said Judge Lindsey. “They are equaled only in the stories of the sacking of Rome, the pillaging of Carthage and the inhumanities of the Balkan war.
“We are going to Washington to beg President Wilson to not withdraw the federal troops. My own interests are neutral. I want law and order and the citizens of Denver have asked me to help get order.
“The Ludlow story is a black mark on the nation’s history. I can only suggest it and fill in the outlines with the direct testimony of these women who have suffered. As one instance of what occurred-and I have affidavits to back it up-a father went to a militia camp for his boy who had been missing. He was saluted with the child’s corpse. The boys’ head had been shot off and the body half burned. A soldier threw it over a tent to the father, saying: ‘Here, take the _ thing.’
“Mothers who went to rescue their babies were shot down and mutilated. Children only a few years old were killed. Barbarians in even the most unholy days could not have been more cruel than some of the militiamen at Ludlow.”
The party visited Hull House and related the story to Jane Addams. The latter broke down as the women told of the cruelties practiced on helpless women and children by the militiamen. Mrs. Lindsey, a victim of nervous prostration as a result of Denver’s high altitude, was taken to a Chicago hospital and will await her husband’s return from Washington.
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 ———- Declares Before Industrial Commission He Has Millions to Crush Miners’ Union. ———-
SOME MORE “DIVINE RIGHT” PHILOSOPHY ———- Refused to Arbitrate Colorado Coal Strike -Trusts Everything to Managers. ———-
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:
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
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.
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.
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.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 1, 1914 Indianapolis, Indiana – President Moyer Speaks at Mine Workers’ Convention
From The Indianapolis News of January 26, 1914:
Charles Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners gave a long speech at the Convention of the United Mine Workers now in progress in Indianapolis. In his speech, President Moyer described the ongoing violations of Constitutional Rights in both the Colorado and the Michigan strikes:
…..What is being done in the state of Colorado in the miners’ strike, is being done in the state of Michigan. I don’t think it is any worse. In the state of Colorado men and women have been mistreated by the military, by the armed thugs of the mine owners’ association; they have been arrested without warrant; they have been sent to jail; they have been deprived of all of those rights that are supposed to belong to an American citizen, or one living under this government, the same as they have in Colorado.
Mother Jones has been deprived of her liberty by the military, and is now confined in the custody of the military of that state, without any warrant, absolutely deprived of her constitutional rights.
In the state of Michigan representatives of organized labor have been assaulted, ordered from the state, deprived of every right that we are supposed to enjoy under this great Constitution of ours, and yet, after months of effort we are at this time uncertain as to whether our national government, our representatives down at Washington, are going to make an investigation: are going to inquire into the facts as whether or not these things that we claim and that we believe we furnished them a preponderance of evidence of, are in violation of our American citizenship. They say, I believe, as an excuse for their hesitancy in acting, that they do not want to interfere with state rights, and in answer to that we say that the Constitution of the United States gives the right to every American citizen to meet in peaceable assembly, to freely express himself in speech…..
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