Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 8, 1914 Denver, Colorado – J. F. Welborn Testifies Before Walsh Commission
J. F. Welborn
The testimony of J. F. Welborn, President of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, before the Commission on Industrial Relations, which was begun on Friday afternoon, continued all day Saturday. Welborn was grilled by Chairman Walsh regarding telegrams he had received from John D. Rockefeller, Jr, concerning the conduct of the strike and was requested to bring such telegrams forward.
The telegram from Mr. Rockefeller to Mr. Welborn, released by John R. Lawson to the press on the Friday, was identified by Welborn and entered into the record of the Commission by Chairman Walsh.
Pamphlets issued by the “Committee of Coal Mine Managers,” which contain errors regarding the salaries of U. M. W. of A. officials, including that of Mother Jones, were discussed. Welborn admitted that the pamphlets were prepared for the coal operators by a hired “press agent” whose identity has not, thus far, been revealed.
From The Cincinnati Enquirer of December 6, 1914:
ADVICE ———- On Strike in Colorado ————
Received From Rockefeller in New York, Welborn Testifies. ———- Coal Company Says “Press Agent” From Outside State Prepared Operators’ Pamphlets. ———-
SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE ENQUIRER.
Frank P. Walsh
Denver, Colo., December 5.-“Is there anyone you communicate with in New York except John D. Rockefeller, Jr.?” Chairman Walsh, of the Federal Industrial Relations Commission, asked J. F. Welborn, President of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, who resumed his testimony to-day in the investigation of the Colorado mine strike.
Welborn said he had heard from George J. Gould and others of the seven New York Directors of the company.
“To save time I shall ask you to file with us all the telegrams you have received from Rockefeller, Star J. Murphy and Jerome Green,” said the Chairman.
“I will bring all the telegrams I have,” replied Welborn.
The witness then identified a telegram from John D. Rockefeller, Jr., made public yesterday by John R. Lawson of the United Mine Workers. “But I should not care to have the telegrams given out as this was yesterday,” he said.
[Note: the telegram, from Rockefeller to Welborn, was entered into the record by Chairman Walsh during his grilling of Mr. Welborn.]
Welborn said the company had thirteen Directors, seven living in New York, and six in Denver, that the meetings were held in Denver, and communication held with the Rockefeller interests as represented by Rockefeller, Murphy and Green.
Welborn was questioned regarding pamphlets entitled “The Truth About Colorado,” and “Facts About the Colorado Struggle.” He said he would assume responsibility for the document, the writer of which did not wish his name known.
The company, he said, had spent about $12,000 printing the bulletins, and had distributed about 40,000 copies to educators, legislators, ministers and the general public.
Questioned by Walsh, the witness admitted that some statements in the bulletin might not be strictly accurate.
The writer, Welborn said, was not in Colorado.
“Does he expect compensation for his work?”
“I don’t know,” said Welborn, “when his work is completed, I shall have to audit his bill.”
“Who contracted his employment?”
“There was no contract. There was an oral understanding that he was to be compensated later. He is still making statements for us. His work is not finished. I don’t know whether the company or some one interested in the company is going to pay him.”
Walsh called the attention of the witness to a table appearing in a pamphlet, giving the sums alleged to have been paid to national officers of the United Mine Workers. According to this table sums paid out in nine weeks were as follows:
Frank J. Hayes $4,502, plus $1,667 for expenses. John McLennan $2,683, plus $1,469 for expenses. John R. Lawson, $1,773. Mary Jones, $2,668.
“Do you accept the personal responsibility for this?” asked Walsh.
“For as much of the published statement as has not been denied,” replied Welborn.
“If it is true that McLennan gets $4 a day will you correct it?”
“Just as soon as I believe it is wrong.”
Commissioner O’Connell said that the figures given were from the report of William Green, secretary of the United Mine Workers, and covered total salary and expenses for one year, not nine weeks. The statement in the pamphlet, which alleged that the delegates to the Trinidad convention that called the strike were selected and sent there by the officers of the union, Welborn declared he could not substantiate.
The total loss to the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company caused by the strike was $800,000, Welborn said.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 15, 1914 Forbes Tent Colony of Las Animas County, Colorado, Destroyed by Militia
From The Indianapolis Star of March 12, 1914:
ASK FEDERAL INTERVENTION IN COLORADO MINE STRIKE
WASHINGTON., March 10-Chairman Foster, of the House mines committee, which investigated the Colorado coal mine strike, today received the following telegram from officers of the United Mine Workers’ Union in Colorado:
“Twenty-three militiamen, under orders of Adj. Gen. John Chase, this morning demolished strikers’ tent colony at Forbes, Col. Men, Women and children are homeless in a blinding snowstorm. Inhabitants of the upper tent colony ordered by militiamen to leave their home within forty-eight hours or be deported.”
Chairman Foster said the committee stood ready to report drastic recommendations to Congress as soon as it could assemble its data.
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Declaring that Federal intervention is sorely needed in Colorado, officers of the United Mine Workers of America sent a telegram to President Wilson yesterday demanding the release of Mother Mary Jones. The telegram follows:
“We again protest against the outrageous treatment accorded Mother Jones and demand her release from Colorado military prison, where she has been confined for more than two months.
“Federal intervention is sorely needed in Colorado. We can ill afford to talk about protecting the rights of American citizens in Mexico, as long as a woman, 80 years old, can be confined in prison by military authorities without any charge being placed against her, denied trial and refused bond, her friends prevented from communicating with her, her request for proper medical attendance denied and every right guaranteed by the constitution of the United States set aside.
“Colorado militia yesterday tore down tents of striking miners at Forbes, leaving miners and families without shelter and causing great suffering. Let us hear from you.”
The telegram is signed by John P. White, president of the miners; Frank J. Hayes, vice president , and William Green, secretary-treasurer.
[Photographs and emphasis added.] [Caption to Photographs: “Views of the tent colony at Forbes, Colo., destroyed by order of General Chase last Tuesday [March 10th] in the Trinidad coal strike district. The lower photograph is a view of a tent and the strikers and their families before the soldiers took charge. The upper is a view of the colony dwellers and their destroyed homes, showing the strikers and their children eating the food found in their wrecked tents.]
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 20, 1913 Denver, Colorado – News from Special Convention of State Federation of Labor
Thursday December 18, 1913-Denver, Colorado – News from Special Convention of the Colorado Federation of Labor
Louie Tikas with Flag of Ludlow
Louis Tikas was released by the military three days ago from the cold, unheated cell with the broken window through which blew the bitter winter wind and snow. Yesterday, the Trinidad Free Press printed this letter from Louie to the paper’s editor:
Dear Sir,
In regards to calling you up by phone I have changed my mind, so I will write you a few lines of information. I arrived at Ludlow about 3 P.M. The most people of the tent colony were waiting for me, and after visiting the colony tent by tent and shaking hands with most the people, I find out that all was glad to see me back…
I am leaving tonight for Denver to attend the state Federation of Labor convention and believe that I will be called to state before the delegates of the convention anything that I know concerning the militia in the southern field. While I stay a few days at Denver I will return to Ludlow again.
LOUIS TIKAS Ludlow, Colorado
[Emphasis added.]
The special convention of the Colorado Federation of Labor was called by President McLennan and Secretary W. T. Hickey:
The strike of the miners has grown to a real war in which every craft and department of organized labor is threatened with annihilation unless they take a positive and decided stand for their rights. The uniform of the state is being disgraced and turned into an emblem of anarchy as it was in the days of Peabody. In the southern fields, military courts, illegal and tyrannical, are being held for the purpose of tyrannizing the workers. Leaders of labor are being seized and arrested and held without bail. The homes of union miners have been broken into by members of the National Guard and property stolen. In order, that members of organized labor in every part of the state, whether affiliated or not, may become familiar with conditions in this struggle, a convention is hereby called to meet in Denver Tuesday December 16, 1913, at 10 o’clock. The purpose of the convention is the protection of the rights of every worker in this state and the protection of the public from the unbridled greed and outrages of the coal operators.
[Emphasis added]
More than 500 delegates answered the call and assembled at the Eagle’s Hall on Tuesday December 16th. They included national officers from United Mine Workers, President White, Vice-President Hayes and Secretary Green. John Lawson and Louie Tikas arrived from the strike zone in the southern field. There was outrage as the Convention learned of the disaster at the Vulcan mine. This is the same mine which the union had called a death trap just months before. Many delegates made it plain that they are in favor of a statewide general strike should one be called by union leaders.The Convention demands that Governor Ammons remove General Chase from command and immediately transfer all military prisoners to the civil courts.
Mother Jones made her way to the convention in spite of military orders that she stay out of the state.It is said that sympathetic trainmen assisted her in slipping into Denver. She made her opinion of Governor Ammons clear by calling for him to be hanged.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 5, 1921 United Mine Workers of America to Support Matewan Defendants
From the United Mine Workers Journal of February 1, 1921:
Union Will Support the Twenty-four Mountaineers
WASHINGTON, January 23.-The twenty four mountaineers who go on trial on a charge of first-degree murder Wednesday at Williamson, W. Va., will have the complete support, moral and material, of the United Mine Workers of America, according to an announcement here tonight by William Green, national secretary and treasurer of the organization.
The trial is the result of a sensational gun battle in the main street of Matewan on May 19th last, which resulted in ten deaths, including the mayor of the city and seven Baldwin-Felts guards. The fight is said to have had its origin in the attempts of the guards to arrest Sid Hatfield, chief of police of Matewan. Hatfield, a descendant of the feudists of Hatfield-McCoy fame, is the most prominent in the group of defendants, which includes special police deputies of Matewan and members of the miners’ union.
In his statement here tonight Mr. Green declared:
The United Mine Workers of America are prepared to afford full support, both moral and material, to the twenty-four defendants in the murder trial at Williamson, W. Va., this week. This trial is a direct result of the barbarous warfare waged on members of the United Mine Workers by the coal operators of Mingo county. And, so long as lives of members of our organization are at stake, we intend to put at their disposal every means for establishing their innocence of the charge. The court, of course, will determine their fate. But we will offer the defense every facility in our power.
The United Mine Workers are determined to see justice done the locked-out miners of Mingo county. These men and their families were evicted from their homes for the “crime” of joining the union. The operators employed professional gunmen to hasten the evictions. We are insistent that the use of gunmen in West Virginia mining areas shall cease. It is time that a republican form of government, as ordained by the constitution, should be restored in Mingo county and the arbitrary rule of the coal barons brought to an end.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 20, 1921 U.M.W. of A. Supports Fighting Miners of West Virginia and Alabama
From the United Mine Workers Journal of January 15, 1921:
Official Notice of Assessment Indianapolis
Indianapolis, January 4, 1921.
To the Officers and Members, United Mine Workers of America:
Brothers—For many months about three thousand miners in the Mingo county coal section of West Virginia have been locked out by their employers. In Alabama twelve thousand miners have been on strike for many months because the coal operators, who employed them, refused to negotiate an agreement based upon the award of the Bituminous Coal Commission. The locked-out and striking miners in these two fields, together with their families, who are dependent upon them, have been cared for and supported by the International Union of the United Mine Workers of America. All together about fifty thousand men, women and children have been and are now being clothed, fed and cared for by the International Union of the United Mine Workers of America.
Evicted Miners and Families Live in Tents in Mingo County, W. V.
Since the beginning of the lock-out in West Virginia and the strike in Alabama the International Union has supplied $ 1,345,000 out of the International treasury, for the support of our striking brothers and their families. The suffering which the men, women and children living in both these coal fields have undergone challenges the admiration of every member of our union. They have been thrown out of their homes; have been denied the right of free assemblage; have been subjected to the brutal treatment of a private army of gunmen, guards and thugs employed by the coal operators, and to the repressive military regulations which have been established by state and federal troops ordered into these mining communities.
The fact that thousands of men, women and children are living in tents during these bitter cold wintry days and nights, fighting and struggling for recognition, the right to bargain collectively and for justice, excites our most profound sympathy. Such heroic action calls for our full support in the struggle these brave men and women are making against the forces of corporate greed and corporate power.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 21, 1920 Mingo County, West Virginia – “Civil War Has Become a Fact”
From The Literary Digest of December 18, 1920:
WEST VIRGINIA’S WAR
THE BIGGEST AND BLOODIEST FEUD in the history of West Virginia, say special correspondents on the ground, continues in the vicinity of Williamson, in the bituminous coal-mining district [note: photo above incorrectly states “anthracite field”]. With the private feud on a gigantic scale is combined an industrial war-a strike and lockout. “The issue of the open versus the closed shop is being put to the acid test,” says John J. Leary, Jr., in the New York World, and the scene of the battle between coal-operators and miners is said to be just across the river from the county in which the McCoy-Hatfield feud was waged a generation ago. The strike in the Williamson coal-field began in May with an attempt of the United Mine Workers to unionize the men, we are told by the New York Herald, and the death-toll since that time is thirty-nine. Six hundred men have been wounded. Mine-workers, on one hand, and mine-guards, private detectives, and deputy sheriffs, on the other, have staged a civil war, during which time the estimated loss in production of coal has been 5,000,000 tons and the loss to the miners $3,500,000 in wages, according to the figures of The Herald. Many coal-plants and at least one power-house have been dynamited, declares the New York World, while Mr. Leary continues in that paper:
Murders and killings on both sides have been frequent; hundreds of families have been driven from their poor homes; civil war has become a fact. Back of the mountaineers are the 400,000 union coal-miners of the country. Back of them the sympathy, and, if necessary, the support of the other 3,600,000 members of the American Federation of Labor.
Back of the operators are the open-shop interests. Quietly, but none the less effectively, they are protecting and sustaining the smaller operators who have small resources. They are assisting with advice and with experts in such matters. Likewise they are assisting in Charleston, the capital of the State.
Meantime, the deadlock.
At any time it may flare up again with heavy loss of life on one side or the other, or both.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 11, 1920 Mother Jones News for October & November 1920 “Veteran Organizer” Found in West Virginia and Washington D. C.
From The Charleston Daily Mail of October 2, 1920:
COAL COMPANIES AFTER RESTRAINT ON MINERS ———- Petition Federal Court for Injunction to Prevent Officials Organizing. ———-
The United Mine Workers have made defendants in two injunction suits brought in the southern district federal court by the Red Jacket Coal company of Red Jacket, Mingo County, and the Pond Creek Colliery to restrain them from interfering with employes of the two companies in efforts to unionize the mines operated by the coal concerns. Notices were reported as served yesterday evening from the United States marshal’s office, and arguments will be heard October 11, at Huntington.
John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America; William Green, secretary and treasurer of the United Mine Workers; C. F. [Frank] Keeney, president of district No, 17, United Mine Workers; Fred Mooney, secretary and treasurer of the district; Harold W. Houston, attorney; Mary Harris, (“Mother Jones“), J. A. Baumgardner, president of Local Union, No. 4804, at Williamson; C. L. McShan, secretary of the local union; Dock Wolford, president of Local Union No. 4181 and Bud Auzier, secretary of the union, and a score of others are named in the petition.
Petitions in both cases are said to be based on the allegation that activities of agents and organizers of the mine workers interfere with contracts which the companies have made with the miners and would prevent the delivery of coal to customers. The further charge is made that the purpose of the United Mine Workers in organizing is illegal.
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The United Mine Workers have made defendants in two injunction suits brought in the southern district federal court by the Red Jacket Coal company of Red Jacket, Mingo County, and the Pond Creek Colliery to restrain them from interfering with employes of the two companies in efforts to unionize the mines operated by the coal concerns. Notices were reported as served yesterday evening from the United States marshal’s office, and arguments will be heard October 11, at Huntington.