New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-24
SAYS He Can Prove Mag
nate Directed Colorado
Labor War.
MINE HEADS CONFER
WITH 26 BROADWAY
Standard, Oil Influence Alleged
to Extend Even to State
House at Denver.
rBy Telegraph to The Tribune. ]

+ ID. Nccke1eIler, Jr, ana oflcla!S OF tne
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. which .
to-day came into the possession Of
Frank p. Walsh, chairman Of the United
States Commission on Industrial Rela-
tions, contain revelations bearing on
the recent Colorado coal strike Of so
startling a nature as to decide Mr..
Walsh to recall Mr.. Rockefeller to the
stand when the commission resumes
its public hearings in Washington,
May a.
The correspondence shows, Mr..
| Walsh said tonight:
That John D. Rockefeller, jr, who
testified before the commission in New
York and also before the Congressional
/ investigating committee that he had
kept his hands off the strike situation
and had no knowledge of conditions in
the coal fields. was in reality the direct
ing mind in the struggle throughout.
That ne exercised a personal infu-
ence which extended even to the State
House in Denver and presumed to die
tate letters that went out to the Presi-
dent of the United States and to the
governors of states over the signature
of the Governor of Colorado.
That he withheld from the Depart
ment Of Labor in Washington informa-
tion asked for when Secretary Wilson
sought to avert the strike before it
began.
That he knew on the admission of
his own agents in the fields that the
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company con-
trolled the prices and fixed conditions
at the mines.
That constant and full telegraphic
reports and long letters of psrticulari-
zstion covering every phrase of the
contest and the proposals for settle
ment were sent to him from the first
and throughout the period Of the
strike.
That be informed the mine execu-
tives that ne had refused Secretary
Wilson's offer of mediation and prom
ised to support them in their stand to
the end.
Had Advance Information.
"The Commission has to-day made
part of its record" Mr.. Walsh said to-
night, "a mass Of correspondence not
only showing that the Rockefellers
were personally in constant touch with
every phase of the Colorado coal strike
situation, but that they knew the strike
was coming and were prepared for 1t.
We have letters of Mr.. Rockefeller, jr.,
of J. F. Welborn, president of the Colo
RADIO Fuel e. Iron Company; of L. NJ.
Bowers, chairman of it's executive COM
mttee; of Starr J. Murphy, personal
representative of John D. Rockefeller,
sr., and of Ivy Lee, his publicity agent,
which make IL plain that every step
taken by the Rockefeller agents in
Colorado in the great strike, in which
men, women and children lost their
lives, was taken with the full knowl-
edge and assent of &c Broadway, New
York.
More than that, these letters show
that, even before the strike began in
September, 1913, the Department OF
Labor at Washington sent Ethelbert
Stewart, Of the Bureau of Labor Sta
tistics, to New York to see Mr.. Rocke-
feller, to try to avert the struggle.
Mr.. Murphy, acting under instructions
from Mr.. Rockefeller, told the govern
ment agent that they could not inter-
fere; that they knew nothing of the
situation in Colorado, and that the
entire matter was in the hands of the
mine executives on the scene.
On the day the interview took place
Mr.. Murphy wrote full account Of 1t
n NJ
Bowers wrote back, highly praising
Mr.. Murphy for his discretion in not
giving the government agent any in
formation.
On the Eve of the Strike.
at is amazing to read the. conf
dences exchanged between Rockefeller
headquarters in New York and the
mine executives on the very eve of the
strike, at the very moment when the
Department of Labor was striving for
Rockefeller's cooperation TO avert the
clash and behind the back OF the de-
partment's representative. Thus in the
letter referred to Mr.. Bowers writes:
"'Your favor was read by both Mr..
Welborn and myself with the greatest
satisfaction. You handled the matter
raised by Mr.. Stewart with exceptional
skill, and it leaves US unhandicspped
in event there is a strike
"Mr. Brown then writes six type
written pages explaining the entire sit
uetion in the coal fields and the mat
ters in contro' ersy between the op-
orators and the miners matters as TO
which Mr.. Rockefeller testified he had
no knowledge.
ave shall show that the very day
/, after the strike began John d. Rookie
feller, IT., sent an ELUSIVE telegram OF
praise 10 Mr.. Bowers thanking him for
the gratifying showing the company
had made for the fiscal year and con-
tanning not one word to indicate any
concern that 5000 men with their fami-
lies had the day before been deprived
of their livelihood.
"Nor does Mr.. Bowers show any con-
Germ for that September 20, 1918.
week after the strike began, he sends a
long report TO Mr.. Rockefeller, in
which he assures his chief that he and
his fellow officials would never recede
an inch from the stand they had taken.
This is his language:
"'The writer. with every official Of
this company, will stand by this decla-
ration until our bones are bleached as
white as chalk in these Rocky Noun
tains.'
To Supply Railroad Friends"
Then he adds this other note of cheer:
Several of our mines are working from
one-half 10 two-thirds capacity, and If
lontInned on page L. column