El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-01-30
LAWSON SSAILS
ROCKEFELLER, JR
Leader Holds Mag.
nate Responsible For Con
ditions in Colorado.

New York. Jan. 3O.-John R. Lawson,
executive board member for Colorado
of the United Mine Workers Of
America. who on Friday denounced
conditions in Colorado mining camps
in his testimony before the federal
industrial relations commission ana
sharply arraiEned John d. Rockefeller,
jr., for his alleged failure to inform
himself as to conditions there, con-
tinued his testimony today.
There is no social life in the
CAMPS" Lawson said. The companies
own all the houses, ground. schools.
churches and stores. Complete despot-
ism exists in tce mining camps"
Mr.. Lawson read into the record a
long list of the various accidents in
coal mines and a list of the men Killed
by violence in the Colorado mining
camps in 1913. Tt was done, he said,
so that the company might know now
many widows and fatherless children
there were in Colorado
"And they get an average Of S3O5.4O
if the father and husband is killed.
he said. What can they do in life
with S305.5O? What chance have they
gote'
Men worked in the mines, the wit
ness said. because they were forced
not because they wanted to.
IF they complain it is down the
canyon for theirs" he said. And II
the man who does work is hurt, he IS
AGhAAA ~ q ItANAEAHa
dies. a company coroner onduc the
inquest over the bOGy-as long as L
can remember, only two verdlcts uh-
favorable to the Colorado Fuel ana
Iron company have been Iouno-aho
I think the company furnishes tne
cemeteries. The OrOners have a haDlJ
OF giving a verdict of suicide or death
due to carelessness. one coroner
wrote. in a certain case. that the VIC
tim of an accident had no relatives
,-T Ia-,n1T Faw- friends
Refers TO Ludlow Mnssncre.
Lawson called the commission S atleH-
zion to a statement which ne sald vas
made by John d. Rockefeller, Jr., April
6. 1914. in which Mr.. Rockefeller was
quoted as saying that the colorado
Fuel and Iron company would never
recognize the United Mine workers OF
America and that it was a fight 10 the
finish.
came the Ludlow massacre Lawson
said. 'I do not know whether there
was any connection between these Two
things. I hope A man like M
Rockefeller should be careful OF INC
things he says. however"
Men Paid In Scrip.
The witness discussed the payment
of Workmen in scrip, redeemaOie lot
merchandise at company stores, anu
the employment Of check weiShmen
maid by the miners to see that the com
panv did not cheat the men in weigh
ing coal on the tipple. There was a
law I'm Colorado, Lawson said, proEiu-
ing for check weighmen, but the law
was frequently violated by the opera
tors. When weighmen are selected, ne
continued, the companies see to it that
safe men, from their viewpoint, are
chosen.
BIamcs Corrupt Policy.
Mr.. Lawson, t~estifyinG Friday after
noon, compared Mr.. Rockefeller testi-
mony with that givep by Henry Ford,
who testified that he kept in close
touch with labor conditions among his
whatever appearance of poverty
cliugs to the cOmuany is not due TO
anything but its own stupid and cor
rupt policy. Had it taken the money
it has spent in controlling officials and
the electorate, in purchasing machine
guns. the employment of gun men and
crushing the aspirations of human
Beings. and spent it in wages and the
Improvement of working conditions,
they would have had rich returns in
increased productivity.
philanthropy ". Justice.
There is another cause of indus
trial discomfort and this, too, flows
from a Rockefeller source. This IS the
skilfuf attempt that is being made to
substitute philanthropy for justice.
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 related ONE of Mr..
Rockefeller's testimony concerning the
activities of the Rockefeller founda-
ton.
Many Wish They Were BelEinns.
"A wave of horror swept over me
during that reading and L say the same
wave is now rushing over the entire