The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-01-30
LAWSON ATTACKS
THE TEST|MONY0F
JOHN ROCKEFELLER
Executive Member of Mine
Workers Union Appears
as Witness in Industrial
Probe in New York

New York. January 29.-John r. Law
son, executive member for Colorado of the
United Mine Workers of America, testi-
flying today before the industrial rea-
lions commission, attacked the testimony
of John d. Rockefeller. Jr., and the meth
DDS and purposes of the Rockefeller foun-
dation.
Mr.. Lawson told of the shooting of
striking miners in Colorado and the shat
tering of miners homes, and of how hun
dreds We're turned out into the desert in
1908 without food or water, while others
were driven over the snow-covered noun
tains. He vigorously arraigned Mr. Rock
efeller for his confessed lack of knowledge
of conditions among the workers of the
Colorado Fuel and Iron company.
The philanthropy of the Rockefellers.
Mr.. Lawson referred to as follows:
Health for China, refuge for birds,
food for. the Belgians. pensions for New
York widows, university training for the
elect, and never a thought or a dollar
for thousands of men, women and children
who starved in Colorado. for the widows
iopbtd VI lluSDdHuS, tillluTtH VI their
fathers. There are thousands of Mr.. Rock
efeller's employees in Colorado who wish to
God they were in Belgium to be fed, or
bird to be tendery cared for
Reviewing that part of Mr.. Rockefeller s
testimony in which he said he had re-
ceived only s37l,0Oo in dividends in all on
his stock in the Colorado company, he
said:
Had Received Bonds
1T was only under questioning that he
confessed that his father had received
goo from his bonds. and that the as
sets of the company were s2S, 600 900 in ex-
cess of liabilities. and that this item did
not take in property values of some 49,
600, O0o Nor did he mention the vast hold
ngs that the company refuses to de-
velop.
Whatever appearance of poverty clings
to the company is not due to anything but
its own stupid and corrupt policy Had it
taken the money it has spent in con-
trolling officials and the electorate pur-
chasing machine guns, employing gunner
and crushing the aspirations of human be-
ings, and spent it in wages and the i'm
provement of working conditions, it would
nave ietu ilCll TtlulIlS.
These are vital causes of industrial dis
content; an employer who never is seen
and whose power is handed down from
man to man until there Is chain that
no individual can climb; our lives and
our liberties passed over as a birthday
gift or by will; our energies and futures
capitalized by financiers in distant cities;
Iour masters, too often men who never
have seen us, who care nothing for us and
M nr nlp hao 90
our despair.
= There Is not one of these foundations
now spreading their millions over the
world In snowy generosity, that does not
draw those millions from some form of
industrial injustice 1t is not their money
that these lords of commercial virtue are
spending. but the withheld wages of the
American working class"
Mr.. Lawson referred to the Rockofeller
foundations appropriation of 81 100000 for
investigation into the causes of Industrial
unrest as what this commission was an
pointed to do"
Who are the directors of this founda-
ton out of which comes this investiga-
tion?'' Mr.. Lawson asked.
1.-THE two Rockefellers, their professional
advisers, Murphy, Gates, Green & Heydt:
their secretaries. Flexner and Rose, on the
Rockefeller pay roll, and three others,
Eliot. Hepburn and Judson, who furnished
an outward appearance of independence
the same control that has directed affairs
of the Colorado Fuel and Iron company;
the same voice that declared through
young Rockefeller that the defeat of the
union in Colorado was a great American
principle for which he was willing to sac
rifice his money and the lives of his work.
ers. And they ask the laboring class to
believe that what they will feel as coal
company directors they will not feel as d.
rectors Of the foundation.
who Is the man chosen to conduct
this million dollar Investigation into
Industrial unrest? One Mackenzie King
an alien. whose contribution to the
Industrial problem is law that pre-
scribes a jail sentence for the work or
who dares to lay down his tools RI
labor had any doubt as to his real
intent. that doubt was removed by the
letter read at this hearing"
Quotes From Letter
Here Mr.. Lawson quoted what pur-
ported to be copy of letter writ
ten by Mr.. King. August 16, 1914, to
John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in which Mr.
King said:
at will not be long before the in
evitable effects of the European war
are certain to make themselves felt,
and once this becomes apparent the
unions will have to revise consider
ably some of their present policies.
Looking at the ultimate, rather than
the immediate. effect there is, gener-
ally speaking, going to be a large
amount of unemployment as a conse-
quence of the warm certain indus
tries 1t is going to be easy for em-
ployers to find all the labor they de-
sire. and unions will be. confronted
with new problem. Here, 1t seems
to me. lies a possible revenue of APP
proach toward restoring normal con-
ditions in Colorado"
Mr.. Lawson continued:
..Mr. Rockefeller. ST., II quoted as
saying that God must be brought to
New York. In Colorado there IL 2
suffering multitude that asks only for