FRANK WALSH ASKS YOUNG ROCKEFELLER
TO PLAY A FAIR GAME
Herewith are presented a letter
written by Frank P. Walsh, chair
man of the United States committee
on industrial relations to John D.
Rockefeller, Jr., regarding the epoch
making decision just handed down
by the supreme court of Colorado in
the Colorado election cases, as well
as young RockefeJIer's telegraphic
reply to Walsh from his summer
home in Maine. Walsh calls upon
Rockefeller to repudiate the impli
cated'officials, and it is of great in
terest to await the oil king's son's
action, as promised in his telegram
printed here.
WALSH'S LETTER
July 11, 1916.
Mr.. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 26
Broadway, New York City, N. Y.:
Sir The committee on industrial
relations has just received from the
supreme court of Colorado, which is
the court of last resort of that state,
its opinion and judgment In the Colo
rado election cases, in which your
conduct and that of your associates
is branded an anarchistic, fraudulent
and destructive of free institutions.
Thus far you seem to have paid no
attention to that judicial condemna
tion. The court in its judgment found
that the notorious Sheriff Jeff Fan
was your agent
The court placed the direct respon
sibility for the most revolting polit
ical and industrial corruption direct
ly at the door of the company. It
declared that the public election ma-
) chlnery "had been turned over to
line uusunuu aominauon ana imperial
control" of your company, and was
"used by them as absolutely and pri
vately as were their mines, to and
for their own private purposes."
The situation thus created was de
clared by the court to be "so repug
nant to the spirit of free government
as to be inconceivable," and that "its
$er(ain result would be tfie destruc
tion of popular government."
Among other crimes found by the
court to have been committed by this
organization were the throttling of
public opinion, the denial of the ex
ercise of choice by sovereign elect
ors, the dictation and control of all
election officers, the stifling of pub
lic discussion, the imperial designa
tion as to what citizens could or
could not peacefully enter upon pub
lic territory, the prostitution of the
ballot; and the court adjudged that
such corrupt practices absolutely de
stroyed the "free, open and fair elec
tion as contemplated by the constitu
tion." '
All of these offenses, you will note,
were committed after you had as
sumed charge in Colorado by send
ing your associates there, and after
you -had hired Mr. W. L. MacKenzie
King to formulate a plan that would
"protect" the rights-of the men in
your cqalcamps, whose liberties at
that very moment were being ruth
lessly destroyed.
Of the plea that what your com
pany did in Colorado was on account
of "industrial necessity" the court
said: "It is sufficient to cause every
liberty-loving American citizen to
shudder in contemplation of the pos
sibility that the private 'industrial ne
cessity of some industrial company
or corporation, employing large num
bers of men, may thus determine the
policies or the fa'te of the republic."
The learned judges of the court
close their opinion with this ominous
warning:
"The links in the chains of tyranny
are usually forged singly and silent
ly, sometimes unconsciously, by those
who are destined to wear them."
The findings of the court were
based upon the sworn testimony of
the general manager in charge of all
the Rockefeller mining properties in
Colorado, who still retains control
and thereby your authority, and