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Show LAWSON STILL BEF0REB0ARD Explains Conditions in Colorado Colo-rado No Social Life in Camps Complete Despotism. ALLOW NO COMPLAINTS Workmen Paid in Scrip Redeemable Re-deemable in Merchandise $305.40 Paid Families of Miners Killed. New York. Jan. 30. John R. Law-son, Law-son, executive board member for L Colorado of the United Mine Workers I , of America, who yesterday denounced conditions in Colorado mining camps in his testimony before the Federal ( Industrial Relations Commission and sharply arraigned John D Rockefeller, Ir , for his alleged failure to Inform himself as to the conditions there, continued his testimony there. "There is no social life In the camps," .Mr lawson said. The companies own all the houses, gTound, schools, churches and stores. Complete despotism exists in the mining min-ing camns." Many Widows and Fatherless. I Mr Lawson read into the record a long list of the various accidents in I coal mines and a list of the men killed by violence in the Colorado mining camps In 1913. This was done, he said, so that the commission might know how many widows and fatherless father-less children there were in Colorado. "And they get an average of $305.40 if the father and husband is killed," he said "What can the do In life with $30,". 40? What chance have they got?" Men worked in the mines, the witness said, because they were forced, not because they wanted to. "If they complain it is down the canyon for theirs," he said Coroners Are Biased. "And if the man who does work Is hurt he is taken to a company hos- j pital. If he dies, a company coroner conducts the inquest over the body : as long as I can remember, only two verdicts unfavorable to the Colorado ( 1 l-iol & Iron company have been i found. and I think the company furnishes the cemeteries. The coro- j ners have a habit of giving the verdict of suicide or denth due to careless-neBB. careless-neBB. One coroner w rote, in a cortain case that the victim of an accident had 'no relatives and damn few friends ' " No cal miner, Mr Law son said, has pver shirked liis duty in protecting his life and the interests of the op-j op-j orators Company detectives and gun men constantly spieel on the men to i j see that they did not get together. This applied to the camps where there I were no unions. In union camps Mr i Lawson testified, condition were en tirely different No Amusements or Recreations. The University of Colorado, he said, had promised the United Mine Workers Work-ers of America that It would extend ts work into the coal camps so that the men might have an opportunity to educate themselves In the nonunion non-union camps there was occasionallv a J dance, the witness said, but no other ! amusements or recreations Mr. Lawson called the commission's attention to a statement which he said was made by John D Rockefeller. Jr.. April G. 1014. in which Mr Rockefeller was quoted as saying that the Colorado Colo-rado Fuel & Iron company would never recognize the United Mine Workers of America and that It was a fight to the finish Rockefeller's Statement. "Two weeks after that to the dav. came Ludlow," Mr. Lawson said "T do not know whether there was any connection between these two things. I hope not A man like Mr Rocke-' Rocke-' feller should be careful of the things he says, however." I The witness discussed the payment of workmen in scrip, redeemable fr ' merchandise at company stores, and the employment of check welghmen who are paid hv the miners to see that the comnan does not cheat the men in weighing coal on the tinple There Is a law In Colorado. Mr. Law-son Law-son said, providing for check weigh- men, n spite of that the law was fro-quently fro-quently violated by the operators When welghmen are selected, he continued con-tinued the compnnles "see to It that safe men" from their viewpoint are chosen Mr. lawson thought It was a mis-! mis-! take on the part of organized labor to re-elect union officials who had been convicted of ioleuce or the use I of dvnamile. ! List of Laws Violated. The witness read a list of the laws . of Colorado which he said the corporations cor-porations m that state had violated. The list included laws providing for Welshmen, an eight-hour day and the right to join labor organizations. Commissioner Weinstock asked if it were a fact that the Colorado Fuel & Iron company had refused to treat with the United Mine Workers of ! America on the grounds that the mine workers were law breakers. "That was one of the charges," replied re-plied the witness Commissioner Weinstock read a n-.tice distributed by the United Mine Workers oT America calling upon the mine workers to form into companies anrl arm themselves. He asked the witness if that action did not constitute consti-tute a defiance of the laws of Colorado, Colo-rado, or tieing a call to arms, a rebellion. re-bellion. That is no violation of the- law," Mr. Lawson replied. "I defy anyone to prove that we violated the law. If my neighbor called to me and asked me to get my rifle or revolver and help him defend bis property ami the lives of his family, would that be a violation of the law?" "It would if you got a thousand men together, that way," replied Mr. Weinstock. Wein-stock. "Yes, you would be violating the law against blocking the traffic," the witness replied. When questioned by Mrs. J, Borden Harriman, a member of the commission, commis-sion, as to the details of the arming of the men, Mr. Lawson asked to be excused from replying as hp was one of those indicted In connection with the trouble 1n Colorado. The so-called so-called "call to arms." he said, was Issued Is-sued to the miners two days after the shooting at Ludlow. Mr. Ludlow was questioned as to statements alleged to have been made by operators asserting; that the United Mine Workers of America were contract con-tract breakers, In connection with strikes in District No 2, which includes in-cludes a part of Pennsylvania Mr. Lawson replied that if the complaints had been taken up with the executive hoard the miners would either have gone back to work under the contracts con-tracts or would have been put out of the union. If a group of miners In j one mine went on a strike on their own account, that did not constitute j a violation of contract by the United I Mine Workers of America, he said, j although many operators so considered it. |