The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1914-01-08
CLASS WAR IN COLORADO
ANARCHISTS ARE
DESPERATE


the capitalist class, that sent out by
the coal operators to the effect that
the disaster at the Vulcan mine, New
Castle. Colo. was the result of labor
plot. was nailed by the coroners jury
which found that violation of the state
coal mining laws by the Rockefeller
coal interests of the state caused the
death OF thirty-seven men.
The horrible catastrophe had no
sooner happened than officials of the
corporations started the story that the
explosion was caused by sympathizers
with the coal miners who have tied up
the mines by strike
The strike of the Colorado coal
miners conducted by the United Mine
Workers of America under the super
vision of International Vice President
Frank J. Hayes, has been so success
ful that the Wall street interests were
able to produce but 20 per cent of
their normal tonnage of coal in No
vember This was the highest percent
age reached since the strike began,
September %, and the coal barons are
desperate.
No despicable act has been left UNI
done to break the spirit of the men.
Hundreds of Baldwin-Feltz thugs and
gunner were brought into the state to
intimidate and tyrannize the miners
Although they murdered striking min
ers in cold blood the men stuck and
the operators were forced to have the
state militia sent to the field to com
nit greater outrages. Strikers were
arrested by the wholesale without
cause or right. Guards kept them
awake five and six nights at stretch
in the hope that, driven almost insane,
these men would sign fake confessions
to crimes they knew nothing about
Baldwin-Feltz gunner were enlisted in
the militia and the soldiers began loot
ing houses, insulting women and as
climax perpetrated the fiendish out
rage of making Andrew Colnar,
humble Croatian, dig his own grave.
But with all of this the spirit of the
miners was not to be broken.
Real GAUGE of Vulcan Mine Disaster.
Driven Transportation, the coal op-
orators have risked the lives of hun
dreds of men in their effort to get out
coal. Cotton pickers, free lunch
grabbers and hundreds of others who
knew nothing about mining coal were
sent into the mines. These men vio-
lated all of the laws of the state re-
garding practices within the mine.
This fact and the utter disregard of
the laws by the coal corporations, sent
thirty-seven men to their death in an
explosion at the Vulcan mine at New
Castle two weeks ago.
Knowing full well that the lack of
experience of their men and their own
disregard of state laws caused the ex-
plosion, these moral coward corpora
ton tools of Wall street started a re-
port that the explosion was the result
of a plot of union sympathizers. Sci
dom if ever has more iniquitous at
tempt to discredit labor been made by
capital But it was one attempt in
which they failed. An impartial coro-
ner's jury fixed the blame and fixed
it where it belonged.
The jury summoned at Glenwood
Springs by Coroner G. A. Hopkins re-
turned a verdict charging that the
blast was due to the negligence of the
Coryell Leasing company, subsidiary
of the Rocky Mountain Fuel company.
The verdict recites that the opera
tors were negligent in that they did
not sprinkle the mine properly, that
they permitted the use of open lights,
that smoking by the men was per-
mitted, and that the firing of shots
while the men were on duty in the
mine was a common practice.
Mine Owners LaWless.
The verdict further recites that the
recommendations made by Deputy
State Mine Inspector Oberdine on Oct
ober "a were not complied with.
Throughout the inquest the evidence
indicated that the men were in the
habit of smoking cigarettes and pipes
and that because they were not ex-
perienced coal miners they violated
many laws of the state, regarding prac-
tises within the mine.
Under the law the men should have
been provided with copies of the state
mining statutes. This the company,
the verdict says, failed to do.
A further requirement of the law is
the posting of notices printed in the
various languages represented in the
mine This, the jury found, was not
done.
The utter disregard of capital for
human life and the belief that they
can milk the working man of his very
heart and soul as long as he DrOduces