coal trade bulletin - Clpdigital.org

26 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
strike, and ourselves, at which you presided; as
a result of which, you addressed us a letter containing
your suggestions for a termination of the
strike, which we promptly accepted; and we particularly
call your attention to tbe statements of
Secretary Wilson on page 251 of tbe records.
"Until your proposal for a settlement of tbe
strike has been submitted to tbe miners now on
strike in accordance with the conference understanding,
we think that you will agree with us
that no other plan should be presented or considered.
"Sincerely,
"J. F. WELBORN,
"D. W. BROWN.
"J. C. OSGOOD."
After receiving the above letters Gov. Ammons
and Secretary Wilson held a conference and the
latter sent a letter to the miners and operators
withdrawing the joint
PROPOSITION FOR ARBITRATION
of the strike situation, pending a referendum vote
by the miners on the proposition of the governor.
On the same date, at Pueblo. Col., an attempt to
secure a monopoly of labor was charged in indictments
returned by the federal grand jury against
national officers of the United Mine Workers of
America. The men named are:
J. P. White, president: Frank* J. Hayes, vice
president, and William Green, secretary and treasurer.
Conspiracy in restraint of interstate commerce
in violation of the federal anti-trust law, was
charged in indictments against officials of tbe
United Mine Workers of America, as follows:
Frank J. Hayes. John R. Lawson, Adolph Gernier.
Robert Uhlrieh, A. B. McGary, James Morgan,
Charles Batey and Edgar Wallace, editor of
the United Mine Workers Journal.
Several other indictments were returned against
miners for alleged depredations against property.
The jury prepared a long report in which mining
conditions are reviewed. It ends with recommendations
that the mining laws be more diligently
enforced, that the governor should be empowered
by tbe legislature to regulate or suspend
the sale of ammunition and explosives during
strike trouhles, that in cases of dispute both parties
should be required by law to operate the mines
pending settlement.
Methods of the United Mine Workers are severely
condemned, the report saying:
"The methods pursued by tbe United Mine Workers
of America in their endeavors to force recognition
of their union by the coal mine operators
in this state are an insult to conservative and lawabiding
labor. They have brought experienced
strike agitators and have armed hundreds of irre­
sponsible aliens, who have become a menace to the
peace and prosperity and even the lives of citizens.
They created open insurrection in Southern
Colorado and have resorted to measures which
all fair-minded labor organizations repudiate. The
officers in charge of many of the tent colonies confess
their inability to control the men whom they
have armed and aroused.
"Evidently no qualification is necessary for membership
in the United Mine Workers of America.
other than a promise to pay dues, which are apparently
used to support insurrection and lawlessness
when necessary to
FORCE THEIR DEMANDS
by intimidation and fear whenever strikes are
called."
The referendum vote of the miners on Gov.
Amnions' proposition to end the strike was begun
Dec. 2.
The same date the military commission announced
that Robert Uhlrieh, president of the
Trinidad local of the United Mine Workers, had
confessed to supplying strikers at the Ludlow
tent colony with arms and ammunition on Oct. 27,
the day preceding the fatal battle at that place.
Uhlrieh told the commission he was of German
birth and an unnaturalized resident of the United
States and that be would not become naturalized
because he did not approve of many things for
which the American government stands. The
military commission continued its investigation of
the strike situation.
The formal call for a convention of representatives
of every labor union in Colorado, to meet in
Denver Dec. 16, was issued Dec. 3 by John Mc­
Lennan, president, and W, T. Hickey, secretary of
the State Federation oi Labor. The convention
will consider the question of calling a state-wide
sympathetic strike in support of the ITnited Minp
Workers on strike in the Colorado coal fields. In
this connection the operators have issued an ultimatum
in which the striking miners are given until
Jan. 1 to return to work.
The ultimatum of the operators is addressed to
the "Coal Employes of the Rocky Mountain Fuel
Co.. tlie Victor-American Fuel Co. and the Colorado
Fuel & Iron Co." It follows:
"The coal companies have arranged to secure
men outside of the strike district with which to
operate their mines to capacity, and confidently
expect within 30 days to have all the men required.
Tt is the desire of the operators that the
old employes return to work before the mines are
filled with other workers, and preference will be
given to tbe men now- on strike who have not
been guilty of violence, up to Jan. 1, 1914, after
which date no more men will be required. Some
of the mines are now working with a full force,
fCONTINUED ON PACE 58)