United labor bulletin., 1915-01-02
sPHILANTHROPY'IS
UNDER The PROBE
Rockefeller Foundation Must
Meet the Radium Test
Frank P. Walsh and Samuel Gompers
Make Caustic Statements Concern
ing Methods to Hide the Truth

A searching investigation of the
Rockefeller Foundation and other So
called philanthropic funds will open in
New York next Tuesday, conducted by
the federal commission on industrial re-
lations, which recently held a hearing
on the Colorado coal strike in Denver.
The effect upon industries and wages
of working people through the tieing up
of vast sums after the manner pursued
by Rockefeller, Carnegie and others un-
der the cloak of public philanthropy Is
to be ascertained-
In speaking of the New York hear
ing Frank NJ. Walsh, chairman of the
commission, had this to say the other
day in Kansas City:
1T is the purpose of the commission
to bring before it in New York men and
women whose names are most closely
connected with our great basic indus
tries, and through this means to obtain
a full, frank discussion of the relation
that exists between the centrniization
of wealth and power in their hands and
feeling Of unrest among wage earn
erB-
Arouses Workers' Suspicious
"a large number of wage earners COM
plain that their interests are prejudiced
| by the fact that the industries in which
| they are employed are owned and con-
| trolled by men who live at a distance
and have no personal knowledge of con-
ditions under which the employees work
| and live
Large employers and stockholders In
| industrial corporations are more and
more turning their attention to organ
! lied efforts toward social betterment
| The commission will seek to find out
| whether or not these efforts are under
taken because their authorities feel a
responsibility for the conditions which
create a need for such effort, and. if SO,
whether or not the various schemes of
welfare work and philanthropy can be
considered adequate to meet the needs" I"
Gompers Demands the Truth.
In this connection Samuel Gompers,
| president of the American Federation
| of Labor, has a leading editorial in the
| December Federationist under the head
| ing OF -Rockefellers Condemned and
| Doomed by Themselves in which he
| demands the truth about the activities
and expenditures of the Rockefeller
| Foundation. He vigorously condemns
the attempt made to corrupt and cor
/ rode public opinion through privately
| employed press agents, as disclosed by
testimony brought out in the Denver in
vestigation. Gompers says:
| "A free press is the great safeguard
of Justice Testimony recently adduced
| before the federal commission on indus
trial relations shows how the coal op-
| orators under the leadership of John d.
Rockefeller corrupted the very springs
of public opinion and disseminated mis-
information in regard to the striking
miners of Colorado.
Financed by Private Money.
why should one of the most power
full research institutions in the world
be financed by private moneys and pri.
vate boards and its financial interests
Identified with those of ruthless exploit
ing corporationsi Can the researches and
the spirit Of an Institution under the
domination OF the Standard Oil billions
be that of search for truths regardless
of all else-each for absolute truthsy
Because of the way they were made,
| the Rockefeller millions carry suspicion
| with them for whatever purpose they
are used Publicity to all such rela-
tions is necessary for the protection of
| public opinion. The bulletins intended
to create prejudice against the miners
have brought additional disgrace upon
those who managed the fight of the op-
orators to defeat the strike; discredit
because of INSCRIPTIONS methods and
dissemination of falsehoods-
e. III Dill