The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-08-19

Washington. - Miss Josephine Roche. the little lady who has been urging John D. Rockefeller, Jr, to cancel the 20 per cent wage cut order in his Colorado coal mines, is all set to show him why high wages and liberal labor poli- cies in coal mines are sound busi- ness practice.
 Rockefeller controls the Cobra do Fuel & Iron Co, producing more coal than anyne else in the state. The c. F. & I. proposes to cut It's daily wage rate from $6.25 to $5.25. Miss Roche Is president of the Rocky Mountain Fuel Co, sec ond largest coal prodcer in Color ado, and pays her miners basic wage of $7 a day.
 Besides paying the high wage scale for the last three years Miss Roche's company has been beset by price wars, discrimination and other tactics employed by business and industrial groups out of sym pathy with her policy.
 But within two years Miss Roche's miners, with their average annual income raised about $500, had increased their production per man per day by one and one-quar- ter tons and are now producing nearly two tons per man per day more than the average for all Colorado coal mines.
 The achievement in the face of a constantly declining Colorado coal production, Miss Roche says. can hardly be attributed to anything tho n nV'Q Inhnr policy.
 "For three years we have not only had efficient union labor and our present wages rates,. but also have gone along without secret re- bates, discriminations and other unfair practices prevalent In the coal industry" Miss Roche says. We have had no labor waste. NO turnover and none of the abuses in the hiring and firing of men who have no union to protect them. our men work with confidence that grievances will be promptly ad- justed, that they won't be cheat ed on the weight of their coal, that they won't be discharged ana blacklisted by other mines. We don't have worry about the econo- mic waste and the waste or h1e and property which always follows strikes in Colorado. Nor do we have to infiict expense on the tax payers by calling for the militia 10 protect private property rather than the public interest.
 "Men work better when they realize that their employers con slider them as important as any other part of the business. our union group Is more skilled ana efficient than the employees or mines which appear willing to hire anyone who will work for a dollar or two less a day. We have many splendid, upstanding, intelligent men who were brave ana 'nue- pendent enough to protest uniair treatment in other mines and con seauently were fired and black listed"
 Union men outside the mines have also come to the aid or MISS Roche in meeting the tactics oi connections. "Union-mined coal III every union coal bin" is one or the slogans union locals have used Tn organizing labor purchasing power and lately the local lodges or tne railroad brotherhoods have Joined the movement. This assistance Tn the marketing war waged against her company. Miss Roche says, has been an important factor in piac- ing 1t in a stronger position than ever before.
 A graduate of Vassar, Denver.s first policewoman and former of- ficial of Judge Ben Lindsays 1u- venile court, Miss Roche Is prac- tical as well as devotee of en- frightened industrial justice. When she inherited much Rocky Noun tain stock she at once bought con trol. disctarded reactionary meth ods and officials, said she would