The Gem worker and the Idaho labor herald. (Boise, Idaho) 1914-1917, 1916-07-27
INFAMY OF COLORADO
Supreme Court Cleans Out County Controlled
by Rockefeller
By George p. West

within such election precincts, and
likewise the right of free or open dis
cussion of public questions therein.
"They denied the right to circulate
election literature or the distribution
of the cards of candidates within such
precincts. They secured the selec-
ton of their own employees exclu-
sively as judges and clerks of cleo
ton, and by the location of precinct
boundaries no other than their em-
ployes could so serve. They appar-
emily made the registration lists from
their pay rolls. They kept such lists
in their private places of business and
in charge of their employees.
They prohibited all public investi-
cation within such election precincts
as to the qualification of the persons
so registered as electors of the pre-
cinct.
Through their employees acting as
election officials, they assisted num-
erous non-English speaking persons
to vote by marking their ballots for
them, in plain violation of the law.
They provided other non-English
speaking persons with a fraudulent
device by which such persons might
be enabled to vote the Republican tic
ket, without being able to read either
the name of the candidate or the party
ticket for which they so voted.
They coerced and intimidated
their employees in many instances.
eve find no such example of fraud
within the books, and must seek the
letter and spirit of the law ina free
government, as a scale in which to
weigh such conduct.
This is the courts summing up of
review of the evidence which bris-
ties with amazing instances of corrup-
ton and intimidation perpetrated by
the company in close cooperation
with Sheriff Jeff Farr, known as the
king of Huerfano county. This is
the same Farr who deputized strike
guards who, he admitted, might have
been, for all he knew "red-handed
murderers."
Most amazing of all is the admis-
sion of the attorneys for the Rookie
feller-Farr combination, in their brief
quoted by the Supreme Court, that:
1T is a matter of present. or of
only recently past history, that the
Republican party of the whole state,
from the candidate for governor
down, and particularly those in Huer-
fano county, ran on what they were
pleased to call law and order plat
form. This meant or was taken to
mean that the Republicans sided
against the strikers. Indeed this was
the open attitude of the Republican
party in the strike district"
This is brazenly offered as justifi-
cation for the -Farr meth
DDS.
Every judge, clerk or officer of
election with the exception of a sa-
loon keeper was an employe of the
coal companies, the court finds. The
one exception was a saloon keeper
and partner of Sheriff Farr. Remem-
Der that Rockefeller and his agents
protested that their interest in the |
was Prohibition.
After describing the process bv |
which economic mastery was used to
seize political control, the Supreme
Court says:
Thus were the public election dis
tricts and the public election machin-
cry turned over to the absolute dom
nation and imperial control of private
coal corporations, and used by them
as absolutely and privately as were
heir mines, to and for their own pri-
sate purposes.
Now for a specific instance of how
industrial absolutism accomplishes
political absolutism. The court says:
Again, it appears that the ballots
we're printed so that the first letter
of the name of each political party
was printed in unusually large type.
The coal company employees provid-
edvoters not familiar with the Eng
ish language, card upon which was
printed large capital ar" corre-
with the letter "R" on the
ballot in the word Republican" and
he testimony in relation to the use
Continued to Page Four)