The Washington socialist. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1914-1915, 1914-06-11
What Can Their
Agent Do?
CANNOT COMPEL ARBITRA
TON.
UTOPlANS APPEAL TO PRESl
DENT WILSON.

gedy was the effect produced upon
utopian reformers of the Judge Lind
sey type. The Denver judge made
personal call upon the president and
asked him to use the military forces
of the United Staes to compel the
mine operators in Colorado to submit
to arbitration in the strike contro-
versy
President Sees Victims of the Gunmen
Judge Lindsey was accompanied to
the White House by delegation OF
Women and two children victims of
the horrors of the recent civil war
in Colorado. Clothed in black, some
of those women were there to speak
of husbands and children shot down
or burned by the militia and mine
guards.
Judge Lindsey was bitter in his de-
nunciation of the mine operators and
condemned John d. Rockefeller, Jr,
for his refusal to agree to arbitration.
President Roosevelt had done in the
Pennsylvania coal strike when the ex-
ecutlve, backed by public opinion,
forced the operators to agree to
terms of peace.
Wilson Questions Powers.
While expressing great interest in
the miners plight and giving assur-
ances that he would use every means
in his power to bring about a settle
ment, the president indicated some
doubt as to his constitutional powers
to compel arbitration.
AS he talked to the delegation the
president carried one OF the Colorado
strikers children in his arms and
held the hand OF the other. Seated
about him were Judge and Mrs. Lind
sey, Mrs. Mary Petrucci, who had
seen her three small children burned
to death by the fire of the state mi
litia; Mrs. Lee Champion, wife OF
former Colorado judge, and Mrs. Pearl
Jolly, ''the heroine of Ludlow" So
called because of the part she played
in caring for other women and child
rem during the fighting.
Interests Control Officials.
The delegation did not spare Gov
ernor Ammons or members Of the
state legislature. They flatly told the
president that the Rockefeller inter.
ests, which own the mines, controlled
the state officials in southern Colo
RADIO and were responsible for the
failure of the state legislature to pass
legislation requiring the operators to
submit to arbitration. They declared
a state of feudalism existed in south
ern Colorado. Magistrates and other
public officers and even the schools
they said, were controlled by the coal
companies.
There is no republican government
N Color ado" declared Judge Lindsey.
"The governor is incompetent.
Can Close Every Mine.
'Tf the president has any right to
retain the troops in the state, as we
desire him to, he has equal rights to
compel the operators to agree to arbi-
tration. He could close down every
mine until such an agreement was
made"
Judge Lindsey declared that he and
the members of his party would pro-
coed to New York in an effort to see
John d. Rockefeller, Jr. He said that
they had no intention of appealing to
the elder Rockefeller, but thought that
the younger man could see things in
better light.
eff" said Judge Lindsey, "the presi-
dent consents to see us, certainly Mr..
Rockefeller should. We do not think
that public opinion is ready to admit
that Mr.. Rockefeller is more powerful
than the president"
Would Not See Presidents Represen-
tatives.
We take it that when President
Wilson sent his man Foster to call
upon the son of the richest man on
earth, the pious or" expressed the
thought of one Gould when he said:
"The public be damned"
Rockefeller being a very religious
man, it is likely that he would not
use cuss words. Such monsters of
selfishness are sticklers for form
and religion. Anyhow. Foster and
Judge Lindsey and the public got the
reality of some such evidence of the
rich young mans 'peace-on-earth-good
will-toward-men" doctrine as was verb
ally expressed by the railroad mag
nate
Were it not for his class instincts
and class interests Judge Lindsey
would wake up some day to the fact
that while a reformed and deOdorized
capitalism is a beautiful dream" we
shall have to wait until we can
"change human nature" before it can