United labor bulletin., 1914-09-12
Agitators and the
Colorado Coal Strike

4
, trial Freedom" takes up the subject OF
"Agitators" which has been so strongly
advertised in bulletins sent broadcast
I. by the mine owners publicity bureau.
Following is the full text of Bulletin
No. 4:
Much has been said about the activity
| of "agitators" and their responsibility
| for the Colorado coal strike.
1t has been said that these -'agita-
tors" called the convention of miners
held in Trinidad, Colorado, September
l6. 1913, and demanded a strike.
Let us admit that the "agitators" did
call the convention
Speaking of this phase of the strike,
Peter Clark Macfarlane, in Golfers
Weekly, issue OF June 6, says:
NO scientist has ever been able to
| agitate a vacuum.
Now for our illustration: Let us
| take single instance OF one of those
mine explosions. Its cause was unde
| termined. One theory was that Japa-
the match that fired the gas that ex-
ploded the mine and slew some scores
of men, tearing many bodies so far
| from human semblance that they We're
| scarcely recognizable as such Now. in
| that hypothesis, the match OF the JAP
was the mouth of the agitator. But if
there had been no gas or dust there
would have been no explosion
The same is true of the present strike.
As Macfarlsne says: 'sIf there had been
no long-continued no high-heaped series
of wrongs, real or fancied. floating in
| the minds of the miners like gas. coat
| ing memory thickly with explosive dust
| that flared up with the fiery words of
the agitator. there would have been no
| strike"
We need not look far for the gas
and dust.
Let US take. first, the political op-
| preston of the miners. For years the
Colorado Fuel & Iron Company and
other large eorporate interests have ab-
solutely dominated the politics of
Huerfano and Las Animas counties.
These interests have placed in office
whom they thought would serve them
best. They have influenced the courts
and legislatures They have made JUS
tiee unknown TO him who did not be-
long 10 their political gang. The Colo
rado Fuel & Iron Company has for
thirty years had the power to aequit
or convict. TO send its enemies to the
penitentiary or to let its friends 90
| free.
J Personal political freedom has been
unknown in these counties since a far
back as 1854.
Judge Jesse G. Northcutt Of Trinidad
than whom there is probably none bet
ter acquainted with conditions in Huer-
fano and Las Animas counties, and who
is now general counsel for the coal cor
| porations of Colorado, told in speech
at Lamar. Colorado. in 1912. how the
political parties could nominate no man
unless he We're acceptable to the Of
ficials of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Com.
pany. He denounced the political DOM
| nation of this company and told how
the miners were driven TO the polls like
so many sheep.
A federal grand jury sitting in Pu.
eblo, Colorado. found, December @, 1918.
that Many camp marshals whose ap-
pointments and salaries are controlled
by the local companies have exercised a
system of espionage and have resorted
to arbitrary powers Of police control.
acting in the capacity of judge and
| jury and passing the sentence. Down
| the canon for YOU upon miners who had
incurred the enmity of the superintend-
ent or pit boss for having complained
| of real grievances, for other cause.
\ These, taken with brutal assaults by
camp marshals upon miners. have pro-
duced general dissatisfaction among the
latter"
Il
| that has been coating the minds of the
miners with explosive dust for thirty
| years.
4 And then let us take the matter of
weights. Witnesses appearing before
the congressional Investigating commit
tee testified that they had always been
robbed of from 100 10 400 pounds o,
coal on every car they mined When
they complained to the superintendent
1 al. =. j ...11 -
| 1T was orders"
Coal miners have learned from long
experience that the only way they can
secure the Just weight 10 which they
are entitled is by employing one of
| their number as a check-weighman The
| right of the men to have this check
weighman has been state laweof Colo
RADIO for seventeen years. but whenever
the men asked for this legal right. they
told the congressional kommittee. they
were discharged.
A law forbidding the paying Of men
with scrip in lieu of lawful money, max
ing il Illegal to compel men to trade at
the company stores or live at company
| boarding houses. was passed in 1899.
Company men testified before the con-
gressional committee that scrip is being
used by the operators today. Men who
refused to trade at the company stores
or live at the company boarding house
were either discharged or given such
poor place in the mnc that they were
forced TO leave on account of not being
able to make a living.
Another gas that added force to the
explosion of discomfort and ended i'll the
present strike.
In that same year 1890. another law
was passed making Il unlawful for an
employer TO prohibit his employe from
joining labor organization. When the