Woodrow Wilson to Jesse Floyd Welborn

As you know, the Department of Labour of the federal government is empowered by act of Congress to exercise its good offices in trade and labour disputes for the purpose, if possible, of bringing about a just and amicable settlement. The attention of the Department having been called, as, indeed, the attention of the whole country has been, to the distressing situation in the mines of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, Mr. Ethelbert Stewart, a trusted representative of the Department, was deputed to attempt to bring about conferences between the operators and the miners that would lay the basis for a settlement. His efforts were not welcomed or responded to in the spirit in which they were made, and he reports that he has met with complete failure.

I feel that the efforts of the Department are of so much importance to the country in matters of this kind, and I am personally so deeply disappointed that the Department’s suggestions should have been rejected, that I now take the liberty of asking from the responsible officers of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company a full and frank statement of the reasons which have led them to reject counsels of peace and accommodation in a matter now grown so critical. It will probably be my duty to report upon the case to the Congress and I do not wish to speak without full information.