1914.05.01: SAY ROCKEFELLER WORKS ON NEW PLAN

May 1, 1914

SAY ROCKEFELLER WORKS ON NEW PLAN

HOPES TO RELIEVE HIMSELF OF BURDEN OF CRITISISM.

Retires to Home in Pocantico Hills--disturbed By Ordeal Through Which He Has Passed.

 (Associated Press Leased Wire.)

New York, N.Y., May 1.--John D Rockefeller, Jr., it was said at his office today, feeling that he has been forced to bear the brunt of the criticism growing out of the mine strike in Colorado, hopes soon to devise a plan by which he may relieve the situation, so far as the demonstrations against him are concerned. What he purposes to do was not made clear.

Mr. Rockefeller spent today at his home in Pocantico Hills, transacting all his business over the telephone. His secretaries said he was not ill but was much disturbed by the ordeal he had passed through.

"Mourners" were again marching up and down in front of the Standard Oil building at 26 Broadway. A threat to keep a hearse on the scene did not materialize during the forenoon.

Among the marchers were Sarah Greenwood and Elizabeth Freeman, English suffragettes. Miss Freeman was released this morning from the Tombs prison, against her will. With Upton Sinclair and another woman, she had gone to a cell rather than pay the $3 for disorderly conduct. Some one paid the fine.

At Mulberry Bend park, several blocks from the Standard Oil building, a great crowd assembled to attend a meeting of the anti-militarist league. Alexander Berkman, the anarchist, who shot Henry C. Frick, called the meeting to order. Among the banners displayed was one bearing a skull and crossbones, with the caption "No. 26 Broadway."

Marie Ganz was the first speaker. She reiterated threats of personal violence to John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 

Police Commissioner Woods said that he considered her utterances a violation of the law.

Statement By Rockefeller.

For more than an hour Berkman and other speakers bitterly denounced Rockefeller, Singing French and Italian airs, the crowd then marched toward Union Square, hooting the capitalist's name. Banners marked "I.W.W." were conspicuous in line.

Last night Mr. Rockefeller issued a statement characterizing as "infamous" any allusion to conditions in Colorado as "Rockefeller's war." The conflicts in Colorado were not between mine owners and strikers, he declared, but between the strikers and the state troop.