John D. Rockefeller was the world’s first billionaire when he uttered the above words in 1905. He controlled an era along with other capitalists known as Robber Barons during an age of laissez-faire capitalism known as the Gilded Age. Rockefeller was the founder of the Standard Oil Trust, before it was broken up by strike-buster Theodore Roosevelt, into companies we know today: Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Amoco, etc. Like other Robber Barons, Rockefeller’s wealth was amassed during an age of rapidly expanding industrialization, and it was built on the backs of laborers who were often paid low wages for extremely hazardous working conditions.
Such were the pay and conditions when on September 23, 1913, nine thousand miners walked out of Rockefeller-owned mining camps of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (Millies 1). Strikers moved into a tent city at Ludlow, Colorado, while National Guard units were called in to keep the “peace”. Many claimed the Colorado state militia (among them Rockefeller employees) was carrying out the orders of Rockefeller when they sprayed Ludlow with machine-gun fire. In the barrage of gunfire and fires set to the tents, more than 40 miners and their family members, including women and children, were murdered (Millies 1).
Huge coal deposits lay buried beneath the hills and mountains of Colorado. The Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation (CFI) had acquired mineral rights to a great deal of land in Colorado and established mining towns. These towns were controlled by CFI, including schools, churches, and stores. Workers often worked for little more than a dollar a day, putting in long hours in deplorable conditions. Many were paid with script which could only be used at company stores. Miners largely consisted of immigrants desperate for work, but the low pay and harsh work made them begin to rebel against CFI. To their credit, the actions of the miners and the Ludlow massacre would result in un...