The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-12-24
DENVER PLUTES
WITHOUT SHAME

AS evidence that the declarations
of the Federated Churches of Christ
in America and the Catholic Well
fare Council didn't confine their SYM
pathy for labor and the public to
resolutions and mere talk the fol-
lowing report of the action of the
Denver clergy should be recorded.
The churches did not mince words
in their condemnation of the United
States Steel Corporation in the great
steel strike, and now it handles the
Denver street car strike in a similar
manner. Read it:
Colorado's method of breaking
down strikes and penalizing earners
who make efforts to secure humane
working conditions is castigated in
150-page report made by a COM
mittee of Investigators consisting of
prominent clergymen and laymen. 1t
deals with the Denver tramway
strike which occurred last August.
The report was made public in Den
yer the first of the month by rep
resentatives of the committee at
two concurrent meetings, one at the
Denver Civic and Commercial As
sociation attended by 300 business
men, and the other of 1000 church
men and plain citizens. This in
vestigation and report, under aus
pices of the Federal Council of the
Churches of Christ in America and
the National Catholic Welfare Coun-
Gil. promises to attract nationwide
attention, second only to the report
of the Interchurch survey of the steel
industry and strike.
Representing the national church
forces conducting the investigation
were Dr.. Edward T. Devine, asso-
ciate editor of The Survey, repre-
senting the Federal Council of
Churches of Christ; Father John A.
Ryan, professor of Moral Theology
in the Catholic University of Amer
lea, and DR.. John A Lapp manag-
ing editor of Modern Medicine and
secretry of the National Catholic
Welfare Council.
Local Churches Cooperate
Members of the investigating COM
mission representing the religious
forces of Denver comprised James
H. Causey, chairman, leading bust
ness man of the city; Rev. Orrin w.
Auman, D. D., Methodist; Rev. j.
w. Bailey Phi. D., Baptist; Rev. H.
Nutting Bascomb, D. D., Congrega-
tionalist; Mrs. Ray S. Davis, Jew
ish; Rev. David H. Fouse, D. D.,
Reformed; C. S. Lambert, Presby-
terian; Hugh Mclean Espicopalian,
and Father William Organ, Roman
Catholic.
The report dealt with the situa-
tion leading up to the strike of the
street car employees against a re-
strikebreakers and the fatal rioting
in Denver during the first week in
August.
The report shows that the men
made every endeavor to reach a sat
isfactory settlement before quitting
work to resist reduction in wages
from SO to 48 cents an hour.
Strikers Are ExOnerated
"The Tramway Union is not a
body of radicals or reds, OF groups
of persons possessed of bolshevistic
ideas. They are not foreigners, but
are men of your own country, most
of whom were born in Colorado.
They are as fine a body of Ameri
cans as you will find in any Ameri-
can city; the union membership in
number of them owned their own
homes according to oul informa-
ton" says the report.
Speaking of the tragedy at the
car barns which resulted in the
death of five persons and the wound
ing of fifty others, the investigators
say:
''The killing was done by the
strikebreakers, although not a single
strikebreaker has been indicted in
the courts. The courts and state
officials have a definite obligation
to perform in that connection.
State Supplied the Rifles
'The killing was done with arms
furnished the strikebreakers, and OBJ
tanned frcm the state armOry. These
men had no right to those arms"
The report recommends that the
Denver tramways be municipality
owned and operated.
"There is an untitled obligation
upon the courts and public officials
of Denver charged with the tasks of
discovering the authors and perpe-
traitors of these unwarranted as
saults upon the lives of innocent per-
sons"
1t is shown that for two months
preceding the strike the tramway
company officials treated its en-
ployes unfairly in fining or other
wise disciplining them for petty in
fringements of rules to which ordi-
narily little or no attention is paid.
One employe who had not been rep
rimanded in l9 lays of service was
fined for neglecting to unfasten the
chain on the entry door. Another
was docked for leaving open his rear
car window; another for opening his
rear car window half a block be-
fore reaching the end of the line in
stead of at the end of the run. Other
employees were reprimanded for
smoking when approaching the end
of the run with no passengers on the
car. One was called up for putting
his feet on the conductors stool
while waiting at the end of the line.
1t is charged that inspectors hid in
vacant houses at the end of the line
or followed the cars in automobiles,
and were even known to watch from
distance through field glasses.
Corporation Judge Rebuked
A large section in the report is de-
voted to the work of John ("Black"
jack") Jerome, leader of the strike
breakers, imported from California,
who was called into conference by
Governor Shoup and Mayor Bailey
and soon thereafter issued 100 rifles
and 1000 rounds of ammunition
from the state armory.
Judge Greedy Whitford, who is
sued an order commanding the men
to return to work, and later SEN