John R. Lawson

Lawson in 1915

John R. Lawson (died May 12, 1945[1]) was a Colorado union leader and businessman. He was the leader of District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America at the time of the Ludlow Massacre which resulted in the death of 20 strikers and supporters, many of them children. He was convicted on May 3, 1915 of the murder of a deputy sheriff who died at Ludlow during the massacre at a trial held in Trinidad, Colorado and sentenced to life at hard labor[2] but freed on appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court in June, 1917. He served as president of the Colorado Federation of Labor and on the International Executive Board of the United Mine Workers. He was a vice-president and director of the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company.[3]

Commission on Industrial Relations

In 1915 Lawson testified before the Commission on Industrial Relations castigating John D. Rockefeller, Jr. for his ignorance regarding conditions at his coal mines and camps in Colorado describing local elections in the Rockefeller-controlled company towns in Colorado where election judges counted the votes of sheep, mules, and even box cars.[4][5]

He also testified that on the night of December 17, 1903 his home in Newcastle, Colorado, and those of 4 other union organizers had been dynamited.[5]

Notes

  1. ↑ Out of the Depths. p. 367.
  2. ↑ "FIND LAWSON GUILTY OF STRIKE MURDER; Labor Leader Gets Life Imprisonment for Killing of Deputy Sheriff in Colorado. JURY OUT SINCE SATURDAY Labor Unions Defended Prisoner, Who Is a Member of Executive Board of United Mine Workers". The New York Times. May 3, 1915. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
  3. ↑ "J.R. Lawson Dies; Labor Row Figure: Colorado Federation Ex-Head Freed of Murder Charge" (Obituary). The New York Times. May 12, 1945. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
  4. ↑ "LAWSON ARRAIGNS ROCKEFELLER FOR ENSLAVING LABOR; Leaving Capitalist, the Miners' Leader Denounces Him Before Industrial Commission. UNREST LAID TO FOUNDATION Witness Says Millions Given with "Showy Generosity" Are Withheld from Workers. SCORNS INQUIRY PROMISES Treatment of Men as "Human Chattels" and Absenteeism Must End, He Asserts. DR. ELIOT UPHOLDS UNIONS Opposes Boycott and Limitation of Output and Defends Philanthropies -- Hammond Testifies". The New York Times. January 30, 1915. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
  5. 1 2 "SHEEP AS VOTERS IN MINE ELECTIONS; Box Cars Also Counted by the Bosses, Lawson Tells Industrial Commission". The New York Times. January 31, 1915. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
  • Beshoar, Barron B., Out of the Depths: The Story of John R. Lawson, A Labor Leader, The Colorado Labor Historical Committee of the Denver Area Labor Federation (1st edition, April, 1942; 4th printing Golden Bell Press, Denver, 1980), trade paperback, 372 pages
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