The sun., 1915-10-03


Ter industrial plan was approved by
unanimous vote at meeting OF Colo
rado Fuel and Iron Company officers
ana miners representatives here to-day.
The plan will be submitted to the di-
rectors OF the company and to a refer
ehdum vote Of the miners at all the
camps before 1t Is finally adopted.
John ID. Rockefeller, Jr. sat in the
workmen's clubhouse at the Minnequa
steel Plant this morning and explained
to group of miners from the eighteen
camps OF the company the plan by which
ne hopes to bring about permanen in
uustrial peace to Colorado.
In the group facing Mr.. Rockefeller
were negroes. Italians. Austrians, Poles.
Hungarians, Welshmen, Scotchmen--in
all nearly score OF nationalities
THESE men were the elected representa-
tives OF all the miners in Mr.. Rockefel.
iers employ. They were chosen by Sc
cret ballot without interference or In.
fiuence on the part Of the company.
The meeting was entirely Informal
Mr. Rockefeller sat amcng the miners
and talked with them as man to man.
lie first stated his own position and
that of the stockholders, directors and
officers OF the company. Then he out
has come to be known as the Rockefel-
ler industrial plan.
All "F~lIow M~mbcrs."
Mr.. Rockefeller addressed the gather
ing as mir. President and fellow menu
bers of the Colorado Fuel and Iron
Company He said:
This is the first time have had an
opportunity to meet the employees and
officers together. I shall remember
this occasion to my dying day. Two
weeks ago l would have been a stranger
to most Of you. hut now l feel that
through my trip to your homes in the
coal camps we are well acquainted.
we meet to-day as friends. 1t 10
only by your courtesy I am here. for
1 am neither representative of the
employees nor an officer OF the COM
panN | am only director.
81 want TO say "A few words outlining
my views as to what constitutes a cor
poration. The first one Is the stock
holders. They put up the money to
build and operate the plant. The Sec
ond part is the directors. whose busi-
ness 1t Is to see that the chief off,
GERS are wisely selected and to see that
! large policies are formed in the right
manner.
The third part is the officers They
are chosen to see to the current opera
tion OF the business on the ground.
Last but by no means least comes the
employees-you men-who furnish the
, skill and work to uphold all the rest.
IAN four parts OF the corporation
have common interest. No one can
be sacrificed TO the other. When any
| OF the four considers its selfish inter-
ests alone. disaster must follow
Illustrates with a Table.
Mr.. Rockefeller pointed to a miniature
wooden table about six inches square.
He went on TO say:
This table is a useful thing. only
when IL il complete. II has four legs.
! which correspond To the four parts OF
the corporation which have mentioned.
Take away any one of those legs and
the table will collapse. This table Is
square. Every corporation to be sue
cessful must be on the square, must
give a square deal to every man in
each OF its four parts In the CORPORA
tion equal responsibility rests on all the
men. no matter what their work
Mr.. Rockefeller piled a quantity OF
| silver money upon the miniature table.
III the corporation Is run right and
is on the level YOU can commence piling
UP the earnings Just as | am piiing this
money here" he said. Now then. who
gets the first crack at the earnings OF
! the corporation? You working men, OF
| course. You get your salaries first Of
all every two weeks. That never fails.
| The officers get their pay after yours.
The directors come next"
As he talked Mr. Rockefeller re-
moved the portions OF money from the
table until nothing was left, Then he
! went on TO say:
You see, mer. nothing rema ins. This
| evidently is not an ideal corporation.
| This must he the Colorado Ntiel and
Iron Company. Not one year since my
father and took hold of this concern.
about twelve or fourteen years ago. has
one dollar OF earnings gone to the own
ers OF the common stock.
| The whole country has been told
that the Rockefellers-the greatest
| scandal on earth-have skinned millions
out Of Colorado and you men and have
| ground YOU down to the bone. | have
heard men in New York say. II you see
that crook Of John -, Rockefeller. Jr,.
shoot him down like a dog Is not that
the truth? Have you men heard people
| say that?
NO sigma Of Oppression.
| But there Is another side to the mat
ter. For the s34.OO0,0o0 that the COM
|
company not one dollar mas been paid
back. That does not look like oppres-
sion. does II? I want you 10 put that in
your pipe and smoke IT, The stock
| holders have been very patient. They
| have taken a lot of abuse simply because
the public did not know the facts
III we men had gotten together in a
| meeting like this months or years ago
and had talked over these facts as man
to man, | am confident there never
| would have been any trouble between
U.S. am not here to seek sympathy for
the stockholders. but simply square
deal for every one Interested promise
you and every man working in any ca :
| pacity for this company square deal.
l will personally see that YOU get 1t.
Those stockholders are wanting to
know why ! build clubhouses. bath
houses. model homes, &c. for you men.
when they don't get returns on their
investment That IL the sort OF criti-
cism | am getting from the other side.
have to explain to these stockholders
| lust as am explaining to you.
"The officers feel that the men under
them are their friends and partners
and that what concerns one concerns
all. The directors feel just the same
Way. The stockholders must be patient
while longer. I am sure they Will
be patient II they feel assured that
we are sincerely striving to work out