Denver labor bulletin., 1915-10-02

IL employers and strike breaking
agencies are to be permitted to operate
III this fashion without let or hindrancc,
it means that entire communities of
home making and home-loving citizens
can be displaced almost over night by an
army of homeless vagabonds, drawn from
the scum of the labor markets of widely
scattered cities. This practice makes
wanderers of hard working and home
loving men whose only offense is that
they have taken part in a strike. 1t
fills strikers with hatred and leads in
evitably to violence and finally it has
a disastrous effect on the community
and the state by working IA deterioration
in the quality OF the citizenship"
The report charges that several weeks
after the troops entered the field the
mine owners coerced Governor Ammons
into countermanding his orders and per
mitting the use OF the militia to escort
strike e-breakers. On this point the re-
port says:
In spite of the occasional acts of
violence the strike zone remained com
paritively quiet SO long as Governor
Ammons' orders against the use of
troops to escort imported strikebreak-
ers remained in effect The governors
policy in this respect had been vigor
ously opposed by the operators. and i'm
mediately after the calling out of the
troops they began campaign to coerce
the governor into withdrawing his orig
inal orders and directing the troops to
act rs escorts for imported strike-break-
ers. Letters already quoted from Mr..
Bowers, the highest executive official OF
the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, TO
Mr.. Rockefeller in New York show the
methods pursued by the large companies.
on November Is. 1913. he wrote:
Handling the Cowboy Governor.
You will be interested to know that
We have been able to secure the CO.
operation OF all the bankers of the city.
who have had three or four interviews
with our little cowboy governor. agree.
ing to back the state aud lend it all
the funds necessary to maintain the
militia and afford ample protection 30
that our miners could return to work, or
give protection to men who are anxious
to come up here from Texas, New Mex
leo. and Kansas, together with some
from states farther east. Besides the
bankers, the Chamber OF Commerce, the
Real Estate Exchange, together with a
great many OF the best business men,
have been urging the governor to take
steps to drive these vicious agitators
out OF the state. Another mighty power
has been rounded up in behalf of the
operators by the gathering together of
fourteen of the editors of the most inn
portant newspapers in Denver, Pueblo,
Trinidad, Walsenburg, Colorado Springs
and other OF the larger places in the
state. They passed resolutions demand
ing that the givernor bring this strike
to an end. as they found, upon most
careful cNamina tion. that the real issue
was the demand for recognition of the
union. which they told the governor
would never be conceded by the opera
tors as 90 per cent of the miners them
selves were nonunion men. and there
fore that issue should be dropped.
Bowers Tells of Success.
I" Still the governor hobnobs with
Hayes, Lawson. McLennan and the rest
OF the gang ard either refuses or begs
for more time to bring the strike to an
end or to amply protect the operators in
bringing in outsiders to take the places
of those who have left the state and
those engaged in these murderous as
sauts whom we refuse to take back un
der any circumstances. Yet we are max
ing a little headway.
There probably has never been such
pressure brought to bear upon any gov
crnor OF this state by the strongest men
in it ~ has been brought to bear upon
Governor Ammons
"On December %. 1918" says the re-
port. MIR. Bowers announced the sue.
cess of this campaign of coercion in the
following letter to Mr.. Rockefeller;
III the governor had acted on Sep
tcmber % as he has been forced to act
during the past few weeks, the strike
would have never existed ten days.
We used every possible weapon to
drive him into action. but he was glove
in-hand with the labor leaders and is
today, but the big men of affairs have
helped the operators in whipping the
agitators, including the governor.
" Now these fellows are cursing him
without regard for common dccency so
everybody is giving him more or less
taffy to keep him from backsliding The
enclosed is a sample of the resolutions
being sent to him, besides any number of
personal letters
Patterson Testifies to Travesty.
The testimony of former United
States Senator Thomas NJ. Patterson is
quoted to show that the countermanding
OF this order by Governor Ammons re-
suited in throwing the militia entirely
on the side of the operators and that
very soon after the original order had
been rcscinded the state troops. under
General Chase, began to disregard the
civil rights OF the miners by imprisoning
them without hearing and by eXercis-
ing arbitrary power in controlling their
movements.
dependence of the state troops on the
Colorado Fuel and Iron company and
other operators has been fully estab-
lishcd. President Welborn testified that
his company had paid miltiamen from
S75 900 to $4,000 on certificates of In.
debtedness.
Mine guards and company employees
were enlisted by the militia and paid by
the companies and the troops became,