Denver labor bulletin., 1917-07-28

lINeS anu q redl regard 1Or the leglcl-
mate aims of organized labor knowing
Lawson as | was privileged to know
him all thru the Colorado strike and
not admiring him.
He's so honest, so clean, so devoted
to his fellow workers, so blessed with
a vision and so big and broad in every
way, that to know him at all is to
respect him.
1t was my privilege to know him
quite intimately during the strike
when he showed that he was ready
to die for a just cause. As a news
paper man it was my business to learn
what ! could of the strike and re-
port what l found. And it was to
Lawson l went many times to get at
the heart of the situation.
l remember quite well when Lawson,
at the inception of the strike back in
1913, came to me with the first letter
written TO the coal operators. The
letter asked for a conference. Later
formal demands for correction of long
recognized evils in the coal mining in
dustry were prepared. Lawson again
came to me with them and explained
how all demands except the one for an
increase in wages, were for the en-
torcement of wise and reasonable
laws of the state.
He directed my attention to the
wording of the laws and told me some
thing of the struggle it had been to
get them passed by legislatures re-
luctant to offend organized capital
recall quite clearly how l was i'm
pressed because he didn't show the
least sign of bitterness toward the
operators. He didn't call them any
names but he did express regret that
they seemed so needless of the well
fare OF their employees as the law had
defined it
Miners Disfranchised.
He convinced me then that the min
ers were in reality disfranchised:
that control of the government of the
coal camps and counties had robbed
them of their inalienable right to So
cial. industrial and economic freedom.
At first it seemed an impossible sit
uation. / expressed doubt. He asked
me to examine state records. / did
so. l found all Lawson said about the
condition of the miners recorded there
and in far less moderate language
than he used in explaining the situa-
ton.
| remember comparing that situa-
ton with the one in which NV fore
fathers found themselves at the time
of the American Revolution And it
SeSllSu TSdSOudple TO ME In2I Lawson
and others should strive for the liberty
| thought my ancestors had helped
establish for all posterity in this coun-
try.
Frank Hayes, and as l remember it,
and McLennan We're present at the
talk, and l was particularly struck
with the statement of Hayes who said:
As a matter of fact, the chief trou-
bic the Colorado miners have in get
ting justice from their employers is
that all the principal owners of the
mines live outside the state. Absen-
tee landlordism is often the root of
industrial evil"
Yet l now hear that Hayes and Nc
Lehman are in accord with the policy
of absentee bossism for Colorado min
ers who so recently struck against the
evils of absentee landlordism. 1t
seems incredible.
In such crisis, if l had a union
law in Colorado l would certainly eN-
ercise my rights under it to voice a
protest against such action. I'd do
it for two reasons: first, because
feel this is a more dangerous blow at
unionism in Colorado than any ever
delivered by the Northcutts or the
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