The fatigue shown by the long-hour shift workers was very pronounced and in instances the examining physician, to whom the power had delegated, ordered the suspension from work until a healthful condition was restored.

The fierce nervous strain on the human frame to keep pace with modernized machinery, which produces today many times the product in a given shift over the old time methods, is forcing for health's sake the reducing of the working hours. It however, seems hard indeed for some employers to understand in a year's time as much will be turned out and better made under the Eight-hour Day than under the ten-hour day. From his point of view an employe is only a unit in the labyrinth of mechanical production. The machine costs money, but an employe's waiting list costs nothing. The machine must be kept running and the employe must run it. If one cannot do it, another on the waiting list is there to take his or her place.

Let us keep the Eight-hour campaign going at its full speed until it is genarally applied in all vocations, and as new mechanical methods improve and increase production we will lessen the working hours accordingly, as the greater production the greater the strain on the human frame and mind.

Hasten the coming of the Eight-hour Day.

The Snuff Workers in Memphis, Tenn., have just organized under a charter from the Tobacco Workers' International Union No. 134. For some time the employes of the Memphis branch of the American Snuff Company have felt the need of protection from organization, as the conditions of their employment was not what it might be, and as individuals they felt severely their importance, and in figuring the question up they found that the only way that they could get any remedy was through the concentration and centralizing the power of the many individuals through one central force. This being the only successful way in their minds, they consulted organizers 'Kennedy and Merker. A small number contributed the money for the charter, forwarding it to the International Office.

Request was made for an International representative. International President being away the International Secretary took up the matter, and on August 12th an organizing meeting was held, at which about twenty persons were present and initiated. On motion adopted permanent organization was established and officers elected and installed. Addresses were made by organizers Kennedy and Merker and Secretary Evans.

It was decided that each member present was constituted a committee of one, whose duty was to bring one or more of the employes to a meeting to be held on Tuesday, the 15th. The committee's work was well done, as the Tuesday meeting had an attendance of eighty-five. Addresses were made on the value of organization, its aim and objects for accomplishment. About half of those present were of the gentler sex and when it came to signing up applications it was found that all present had given in their applications. The initiation ceremony was carried through and again a motion was passed constituting that those present should each be a committee of one whose duty was to bring at least one new member to a meeting called for Thursday, August 17th. This meeting was also a success, as the enrollment reached one hundred and forty-one. More addresses were made on the subject of organization, to which the closest attention was given, despite the terrible heat of the evening. The same plan of organization work on the part of the members was adopted and to be kept up until the entire list of employes in the shop were enrolled in under the charter.

A good set of officers was elected and were given good instructions as to their duties. The new union will affiliate with the Central Body at once and become an active unit in the Memphis movement, which is moving at a lively pace just now, so much so that organizers Kennedy and Merker are having a difficulty in keeping abreast of the work in hand.

Within the last month there have been organized the Street Carmen, the Ice Wagon Drivers and Tobacco Workers, and others are on the way. The Retail Clerks, Millwrights and several other trades, going at the rate they have been

for some time, Memphis will soon be well organized.

PRESS ABSTRACT OF REPORT

ON THE COLORADO STRIKE.

Continued from page 7

stations to mines were forced to pass near them. The history of strikes shows that workmen on strike feel that they have a property interest in their jobs, and that other workmen who take their places and thus aid their employers to defeat are fit subjects for abuse, ridicule and violence.

"It is only by ostracising and intimidating strike breakers that organized workmen can hope to discourage the practice and thereby win in a struggle for higher wages or for industrial democracy. For after negotiation fails, their only means of exerting a compelling influence on the employer is to stop production by quitting work and to prevent a resumption of operations by keeping out strike breakers. And society, if it wishes to prevent violence in industrial disputes, has only two courses open: to prohibit strikes, and in so doing to establish involuntary servitude; or to prohibit the importation of strike breakers at least until the employers consent to meet officials of the strikers' union."

The report gives an account of the various riots and disorders and says:

"In all discussion and thought regarding violence in connection with the strike, the seeker after truth must remember that government existed in Southern Colorado only as an instrument of tyranny and oppression in the hands of the operators; that, once having dared to oppose that tyranny in a strike, the miners' only protection for themseives and their families lay in the physical force which they could muster.

"It remains to be seen how even the supreme authority of the State failed to protect them in their struggle for the right to work and live as free men and to bring up their children in an atmosphere where law and order was not synonymous with the anarchistic will of a lawless corporation.”

One chapter of the report is devoted to the part played in policing the strike by

the Colorado militia. It states that Governor Ammons when he called out the militia issued orders that they should not be used to escort imported strike-breakers from the railroad station to the mines. The report says:

"That this policy of Governor Ammons was not out of line with the correct theory of policing strikes is indicated by the fact that when the Federal troops entered the field seven months later similar orders were issued to them by the Secretary of War.

"The wisdom of prohibiting the importation of strike-breakers as a means of maintaining order has been amply demonstrated, but this policy rests on a firmer basis than its mere expediency. The record in Colorado shows that in 1903 and 1904, and again during the strike under discussion, the coal operators had no scruples in taking steps to displace men who for years had been attached to the mining communities by ties of family, friendships and love of State, with homeless and penniless immigrant workmen from distant states.

"The record shows that strike-breakers were imported in carload lots under the guard of private detectives who recruited them in distant cities, and that both on the train and after their arrival in Colorado they were treated more as chattels than as free men. Contracts in the possession of the Commission made by detective agencies engaged in such work show that these agencies guarantee against the escape of strike-breakers en route by providing guides for the front and rear entrances of the railway coaches. So extensive are the organizations of such agencies that strike-breakers can be supplied within a short time in any numbers.

"If employers and strike-breaking agencies are to be permitted to operate in this fashion without let or hindrance, it means that entire communities of homemaking and home-loving citizens can be displaced almost over night by an army of homeless vagabonds, drawn from the scum of the labor markets of widely scattered cities. This practice makes wanderers of hard-working and homeloving men whose only offense is that they have taken part in a strike. It fills

strikers with hatred and leads inevitably to violence and finally it has a disastrous effect on the community and the State by working a deterioration in the quality of the citizenship."

The report charges that several weeks after the troops entered the field the mine owners coerced Governor Ammons into countermanding his orders and permitting the use of the militia to escort strike-breakers. On this point the report

says:

"In spite of the occasional acts of violence the strike zone remained comparatively quiet so long as Governor Ammons' orders against the use of troops to escort imported strike-breakers remained in effect. The Governor's policy in this respect had been vigorously opposed by the operators, and immediately after the calling out of the troops they began a campaign to coerce the Governor into withdrawing his original orders and directing the troops to act as escorts for imported strike-breakers. Letters already quoted from Mr. Bowers, the highest executive official of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, to Mr. Rockefeller in New York show the methods pursued by the large companies. On November 18, 1913, he

wrote:

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'You will be interested to know that we have been able to secure the co-operation of all the bankers of the city, who have had three or four interviews with our little cowboy Governor, agreeing to back the State and lend it all the funds necessary to maintain the militia and afford ample protection to men who are anxious to come up here from Texas, New Mexico and Kansas, together with some from states farther east. Besides the bankers, the Chamber of Commerce, the Real Estate Exchange, together with a great many of the best business men, have been urging the Governor to take steps to drive these vicious agitators out of the State. Another mighty power has been rounded up in behalf of the operators by the gathering together of fourteen of the editors of the most important newspapers in Denver, Pueblo, Trinidad, Walsenburg, Colorado Springs and other of the larger places in the State. They passed resolutions demanding that the Governor bring this strike to an end, as

they found, upon most careful examination, that the real issue was the demand for recognition of the union, which they told the Governor would never be conceded by the operators as 90 per cent. of the miners themselves were non-union men, and therefore that issue should be dropped.

"Still the Governor hobnobs with Hayes, Lawson, McLennan and the rest of the gang, and either refuses or begs for more time to bring the strike to an end or to amply protect the operators in bringing in outsiders to take the places of those who have left the State and those engaged in these murderous assaults whom we refuse to take back under any circumstances. Yet we are making a little headway.

"There probably has never been such pressure brought to bear upon any Governor of this State by the strongest men in it as has been brought to bear upon Governor Ammons.'

"On December 22, 1913," says the report, "Mr. Bowers announced the success of this campaign of coercion in the following letter to Mr. Rockefeller:

"If the Governor had acted on September 23 as he has been forced to act during the past few weeks, the strike would have never existed ten days.

"We used every possible weapon to drive him into action, but he was glovein-hand with the labor leaders and is today, but the big men of affairs have helped the operators in whipping the agitators, including the Governor.

"Now these fellows are cursing him without regard for common decency, so everybody is giving him more or less taffy to keep him from backsliding. The enclosed is a sample of the resolutions being sent to him besides any number of personal letters.'"

The testimony of former United States Senator Thomas M. Patterson is quoted to show that the countermanding of this order by Governor Ammons resulted in throwing the militia entirely on the side of the operators and that they very soon after the original order had been rescinded the State troops, under General Chase, began to disregard the civil rights of the miners by imprisoning them without a

hearing and by exercising arbitrary power in controlling their movements.

The report states that the economic dependence of the State troops on the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company and other operators has been fully established. President Welborn testified that his company had paid militiamen from $75,000 to $80,000 on certificates of indebtedness.

Mine guards and company employes were enlisted by the militia and paid by the companies and the troops became, in every sense, allies of the operators against the strikers. One troop of mine guards and company employes which took a prominent part in the so-called Ludlow massacre was enlisted with the knowledge and approval of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company and of Mr. Rockefeller only a week before the massacre.

The report describes the destruction of the Ludlow tent colony with the deaths of thirteen women and children and five strikers, three of whom were murdered by the militiamen and mine guards while being held defenseless prisoners. It describes the virtual rebellion that followed. In closing its discussion of the militia the report says:

"It seems of vast importance that it should be understood how nearly the situation in Colorado approached a condition of absolute prostration of government and of actual revolution. This is apparent not so much in the record of battles and skirmishes fought and lives lost, as in the evidences given above of the state of public feeling. It was apparent in the frankness with which strike leaders admitted that they were gathering and distributing arms, in the open admissions made by many strikers that they or others whom they named had taken part in one or the other of the various attacks, and in the refusal of the District Attorney of Las Animas County to take official notice of the killings which followed Ludlow. The rules of 'civilized warfare' formed the early criterion for public criticism of acts on either side during this period.

"Enlightened public sentiment existing in Denver and other Colorado communities found itself helpless of effective expression. That expression, of course,

should have come through the State. This leads to the direct causes of the failure of government and of all the horrors that resulted from it. Their consideration is vitally important because there is no guarantee that the same cause may not operate again in Colorado or other states, and that some day they may produce a situation far more serious even than that under discussion.

"The State of Colorado through its military arm was rendered helpless to maintain law and order because that military arm had acted, not as an agent of the Commonwealth, but as an agent of the parties in interest, as an agent, this is, of the coal operators, as against the strikers.

"Only those who hope and pray for bloody revolution can contemplate the record of the Colorado National Guard and fail to see the need of measures that will make this branch of the government as representative of the people and as subservient to the people's will as other governmental agencies. Today there is ample evidence in Colorado to prove that the national guard is an instrument of oppression maintained for the purpose of intimidating and crushing workmen who go on strike in an effort to improve the conditions of life for themselves, their women and children, and to secure for themselves a larger measure of freedom from arbitrary power."

The report quotes at length from the testimony of the Reverend Eugene S. Gaddis, Superintendent of the Sociological Department of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, to show that the company's store system, its method of renting property to liquor dealers, and its hospital system, contributed to the unrest of the miners, and to the intolerable situation existing in the camps.

The companies are scored for their use of political power to control coroner's juries and other officials dealing with cases of personal injuries in the mines, in order to prevent miners from recovering damages for personal injuries in the

courts.

The testimony of a former undersheriff is quoted to show that the mine superintendent is always consulted in making up a coroner's jury, and that the

sheriff of Huerfano County boasted of being a Colorado Fuel & Iron Company

man.

Records are quoted to show that personal injury suits against the companies are practically unknown.

Testimony and letters by officials of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company are quoted to show that the companies control the churches in its camps and exercise a censorship over the sermons of the

ministers.

On the subject of permitting the miners to employ checkweighmen, the report

says:

"No more substantial cause for resentment could be imagined than this denial to the miners of any means to insure honest payment of wages. And in denying the right to organize, the companies must be convicted of doing just this. It is impossible to conceive of the citrus fruit growers in California sending their oranges and lemons to the Eastern market unweighed or unnumbered, and accepting the figures of the jobbers in the East as a basis of payment. Yet the situation would be analagous to that endured by the Colorado miners."

The reasons assigned by the operators for refusing to deal with the United Mine Workers are discussed at length. None of these reasons are declared to have been sufficient to justify the operators' refusal, and the animating reason isdeclared to have been merely the operators' unwillingness to brook any interference with their power.

Discussing concessions granted to the men, prior to the strike, by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, the report points out that all of these consist of rights already required by the laws of the State, several of which the company had previously violated. It declares that the company, in granting concessions, was animated not by respect for law or by desire to improve the conditions of their employes, but by the wish to forestall agitation by union organizers, and thus minimize the danger of a successful revolt. Letters from Mr. Bowers, Mr. Rockefeller's agent in Colorado, are quoted to substantiate this charge.

Mr. Bowers is also quoted at length to prove that political activity and domina

tion by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company still exist in the mining communities. It calls attention to Mr. Bowers' admission that men, whom he himself characterized as cut-throats, were employed by the company as spies on their employes.

Discussing the use of political power, the report says:

"Most important of all benefits enjoyed by the companies as a result of their political control was the aid of subservient public officials in denying agitators or union officials access to the camps, during peace, and in intimidating, arresting, imprisoning and killing strikers and their leaders during strikes. This use of political control by the companies is more important than their use of it to ignore mining laws or to prevent the collection of damages for personal injuries, for the reason that it has effectually prevented the unionization of the mines. This unionization would have given the miners an economic weapon with which they themselves could have forced compliance with the law and by which they could have speedily broken the hold of the companies on government, by limiting the power of discharge, and thus establishing free speech, a free press and free assembly, and encouraging healthy discussion and agitation."

The report takes up at great length the five causes of the strike as set forth by the strikers, as follows:

1. Ignorance of the owners of the great coal producing properties concerning actual conditions under which their employes live and labor.

2. The lack of any proper sense of personal responsibility on the part of those owners, for what is wrong in those conditions.

3. The maintenance by the coal-mining operators of a modern system of monopolistic feudalism, with many of the evil features of the old feudalism, but without many of those features which made it somewhat beneficient.

4. Insistence by the operators upon their right to conduct a vast coal-producing business-a business in reality affected with a public interest—regardless of how their conduct may affect society at