Denver labor bulletin., 1915-10-23
Colorado Notes.

The Industrial Commission continues
to do good work and many of our peo-
pie who looked upon the body with sus-
picion are gradually coming around to
| the opinion that the industrial and COM
pensation bill may eventually prove to
have been a distinct advance of labor.
The proposed coal merger hasn't been
| in quite such prominence this last week
as it has been. Whether this is be-
cause the sources of capital which the
| mergers backed had marked town as
their own particular sucker pond had
gone dry or whether the capitalists who
| owned the particular pond bad suspi-
cions and looked up few personal
records and few public records in the
shape of registers OF mortgages and ex-
amined the chances of scrap with
Uncle Sam for stolen coal and fraud in
obtaining titles, no one knowcth, but
should a merger die u borning' Colo
RADIO need shed no tears over its grave.
Blue Sky laws undoubtedly do a great
deal of good. They cannot hamper le-
gitimate business, If the crook is pre-
vented from Fleeing the public and the
coal Industry itself would be in far
healthier state if the brazen impudencc
of trading in Uncle Sans coal lands
was put AN end to. Only few weeks
ago one company had to cough up about
Sll3,000 for coal they had stolen and
deed back to the government three thou
sand acres OF coal land these distin-
gushed citizens had grabbed from the
public ,lomain.
This coal land swindle has pceoms
quite comman practice. There eve
hundreds of acres in Colorado today
that are in the possession % companies
and who obtained these lands oy tic
-. l.. e a Il.
eral knowledge of those frauds have
undoubtedly tended TO ieprcci9te the
coal lands of the state. Maybe tins
fraudulent land stealing was carscd by
the labor agitator and maybe IL Y'nsn't
Isn't it quite dcc-lightful to hear one
of those land anneNing, coal stealing
coal barons tell narrowing tales Of the
terrible cNCcsses Of the foreign" agi-
tator and how. in the interest Of peace.
this foreign ngitator should be- banished
from the state and see him weep tears
about the .tatc's lost s1vrrciguty- or
some other bunk of like nature. Hun
the same aforementioned coal oarDn only
came to Colorado for the purpose or
stealing coal lands and he would not
stay twenty minutes ii the coal lani
stealing was stopped. The worn steal
ing is not used in polite society ~ uc
it, called 4 patriotic effort to develop
the natural resources of the state" It's
wonderful the difference there Is be-
tween different groups of the same
people.
The worst of this not calling things
by their right names Is that some pco-
Pile have really begun to believe that
they arc what they try 10 make people
believe they are. Many of them have
escaped the peniteItiary cells for 50 long
that they imagine they have n sort o,
right to be at large and to carry on
the same plundering schemes. and really
believe that they nrr by their efforts
Developing the vast resources Of the
Rocky Mountain region and oven 20 20
far a. at times, when their methods are
criticised, to threaten TO go and leave
the state. II this was not 80 seriously
dcmoralizing it would be the most laugh.
able comedy ever staged.
The new Rockefeller union l. going
to work ont better than many expect
ed. II will undoubtedly teach the fresh.
" imported laborer the benefits OF 20.
operation with his fellow laborcr ma
limited rs the representation OF the
miners may be las doubtless they viii
be controlled by the mine official.l the
union will do more for the eIDployc in
every day conditions than the old gang
ever did for him siucc coal has been
mined in the state.
1t would be very interesting to hear
some of the lawandorder crowd which
took much pains to prove that the
miner was treated so munificcntly and
lived under such perfect conditions that
it was absolutely high treason for him
to strive to explain how II il that Mr.
Rockefeller has come to the conclusion
that concessions identical with the min
er- demands dur.Eg the strike arc today,
shall we say advisable or necessary.
Whatever may be said about the con-
duet OF the strike, they cannot now say
IL was unnecessary or that the rincr
has not Won the better conditions that
he asked for.
Conditions reused Mr.. Rockefeller to
action and had he taken the course he
has taken now two years ago. n not
very crcditablc piece of history in Colo.
RADIO would not have had to be written
Conditions which iavc eliminated ur.
fairness in the Colorado Fuel and Iron
company's mines will either rouse that
merger ring OF operators who are still
busy discriminating by every means In
their power against union men, or will
eliminate them by other paths. No
capitalist is going to find money for D
lot fshaky companies TO finance them
lot of shaky companies to finance them
they could borrow money to pay gun
men il over. They have about worked
out their borrowing powers anyway. The
day Of reckoning is at hand. and in the
showdown labor will win an easy vic
tory. It's very doubtful il some. at
least, of these companies could today
sell all their properties for enough real
money to pay so pee cent of the claims
a a. ~
from the public domain. to say nothing
OF their bonded and floating indebted
ness.