The Lamar register. [volume] (Lamar, Colo.) 1889-1952, 1915-03-31

lllft TOOK Professor Sellgman to some
mining camps to show him how the
miners needed to be protected in their
rights, as citizens, to live and to have
freedom to work for the support of
themselves and their families. Pro-
fessor Seligman then wrote a distinct
ly different article for Leslie's Week
ly in which, among other sensible
things, he remarked as follows:
'The operators themselves repre-
sent, as is natural, all kinds of men;
but those at the head of the largest
companies and not a few of the small
er operators are men of the highest
grade. 1t has rarely been my good
fortune to meet finer, more sympo-
thetic, more broad-minded or more
philanthropic men than some of the
mine operators in Colorado. So far
as can learn, instead of the la -ge
operators being brought down to the
level of the more unscrupuloGs, the
tendency is just the reverse.
"a personal inspection of some Of
the mines brought home vividly the
state of warfare in which there is now
Ionly a truce. Around the bed of ev-
iery miner there is a thick, steel plate
about four inches high to protect
him from the bullets of snipers; and
the bullet holes above these steel
sheets are gruesome reminders of
what has been and what may be
again.
"a northern operator whose mine I
visited and who is himself a mild,
broad-minded and entirely admirable
gentleman, informed me that while
John Mitchell was at the head of the
Organization things went on fairly
well, but that Immediately after his
deposition the petty and arbitrary ac-
tions of the local multiplied to such an
extent that not only was the mine no
longer on a paying basis but the man
agement Of the mine was practically
taken out of his hands. (This de-
scribed a situation when the northern
mines were unionized) Both he and
the superintendent gave me details of
the pin pricks which made the situa-
ton, in their judgment, intolerable,
and which caused them, although or
liginally friendly to the unions, to con-
clude that effective cooperation with
the United Mine Workers in Colorado.
as then organized, was impracticable.
after an extended conversation
with Governor Ammons / came to the
conclusion that he, like some of the
mine operators, was misunderstood in
the East The governor is an able,
energetic, high-minded and thorough
ly sincere man. He started out with
all presuppositions in favor Of the
strikers-a fact that made him very
unpopular with the operators. The re-
suit Of the strike was to convince him
Of the unreliability Of the majority of
the strike leaders in Colorado and to
breed in him a bitterness against the
strikers which seems to be justified
by some Of the confidential docu-
ments which he showed me-"
lnebe statements lEOH ITOltSsOI
Seligman are practically the sort Of
statements which unprecedented men
always make after a personal inspec-
ton Of conditions in the coal camps
Of Colorado.
The fact is that Colorado is as good
state as any in the union in the NOR
al nuality of its people. The schools
and the churches and the courts are
efficiently and ably managed. have
no idea that Professor Ward will dis
continue making his filings at Colo
RADIO or his specious pleas for the So
cialistic state. merely wish to pro-
test, as one who has had opportunity
to know all about Colorado, that these
misrepresentation are unworthy Of
men of truth and candor.