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Saturday February 12, 1916
From The Day Book: A Life for a Life?

A story now being published in newspapers across the nation recently received some attention from the Chicago Day Book:

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Can the Rockefeller millions give a "life for a life?"

John D. Rockefeller, Jr., thinks so. He is trying to obtain the freedom of Herman Coppes, branded the "worst boy in the country" and under life sentence in Joliet penitentiary, educate him and offer him to society in restitution for the life of Harry [Frankie] Snyder, victim of the Ludlow mine riots called the "best little lad in Ludlow."

A bullet a state militiaman sent into the heart of the 13-year-old Snyder boy [Frankie Snyder was killed at age 11] at Ludlow, April 21, 1913 [April 20, 1914], may be the force that will open prison doors to Coppes, a farm lad in Illinois, who on the day of Snyder's death confessed to a triple murder.

Coppes, at 14, was convicted for the murder of Mrs. Maude Sleep, wife of the man for whom he worked on a farm at Piano, Ill. The two Sleep children shared their mother's fate and died at the hands of their playmate. Herman was convicted on his own confession.

On the Plano farm Coppes toiled from 5:30 o'clock in the morning until 8 o'clock at night. Medical experts say he was not very bright, that he inherited bad tendencies and there were no good influences in the boy's home to offset his heritage. The claim was made that hard work deranged the boy's mind.

The boy whose life the "Money King" would gain never heard of the lad who died at Ludlow. Rockefeller never heard of either boy, but "Mother" Jones "mother of miners" and friend of the oppressed everywhere, knew the history of both.

When the "best little lad in Ludlow" was murdered "Mother" Jones openly charged the fuel interests with responsibility for the murder; she later told John D., Jr., himself that he ought to help reimburse society with a 'life for a life."

Now "Mother" Jones is to supervise the reclamation of Herman Coppes, to give the boy murderer a chance to live the life the Ludlow boy might have lived. Young Rockefeller has told her to spare no expense in the education of the boy.

"Mother" Jones, with Rockefeller's aid, has started the official machinery in Illinois which she hopes will liberate Coppes before Feb. 27, his 17th birthday anniversary.

If Gov. E. F. Dunne signs Herman's pardon, "Mother" Jones will send him, at Rockefeller's expense, to a farm in Nevada. He will be in charge of a teacher who will study his mental and his moral possibilities and limitations with a view to directing his activities according to his capacity.

"Mother" Jones' experiment, it is said, is the first practical "dollars and cents" effort to establish the new social law that will give a "life for a life."

[Photograph added.]

SOURCE
The Day Book
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Feb 10, 1916
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1916-02-10/ed-1/seq-1/

IMAGES
Day Book Headline, Mother Jones, JDR Jr, Young Slayer, Feb 10, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/77808319/
Herman Coppes, Mother Jones, Rockefeller, Evansville Press, IN, Feb 11, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/140040787/

See also:

Names on back of Ludlow Monument
WE NEVER FORGET

Note: the Snyder boy is William Snyder Jr, age 11, on the Ludlow Monument. He was also known as Frankie Snyder:
http://www.dailykos.com/news/FrankieSnyder

DK search: ludlow snyder jayraye
http://www.dailykos.com/search?story_type=&search_type=search_stories&te...

Newspaper. com search:
"Mother Jones" Rockefeller Coppes for February 1916 brings 23 matches.
https://www.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22mother+jones%22+rockefeller+...

And from The New York Times of Feb 6, 1916
ROCKEFELLER ASKED TO AID BOY SLAYER;
"Mother" Jones Seeks Help of Oil Magnate for Young Joliet Convict.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C06E6D9153BE233A25755C0A...

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Mama Tried - Merle Haggard