W.L. Mackenzie King:
Rockefeller’s Other Public Relations Counselor

Kirk Hallahan
Colorado State University

Download Paper: http://lamar.colostate.edu/~pr/king.doc
Accepted for publication in Public Relations Review

Abstract -- This study profiles William Lyon Mackenzie King's role as a counselor to John D. Rockefeller Jr. in the aftermath of the bitter 1913-1914 Colorado coal strike. Mackenzie King—not his more recognized counterpart, publicist Ivy Lee—provided many of the modern public relations ideas that Rockefeller eventually adopted to alleviate tensions and improve labor relations. These included the development of the Colorado Industrial Representation Plan, a prototype company union structure that was designed to facilitate employee communications. Mackenzie King, who later served 22 years as prime minister of Canada, also advised Rockefeller on a wide range of public relations activities, including testimony before government hearings, meetings with union leaders, community philanthropy in Colorado, and Rockefeller's historic visit to Colorado in September-October 1915. (Photo: King circa 1910).

King's Role in Responding to the "Ludlow Massacre"

Both Ivy Lee and Mackenzie King were hired by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in early June 1914 -- six weeks after a strike-provoked gun battle broke out in a remote coal mining tent camp in southern Colorado. The "Ludlow Massacre" resulted in the deaths of several strikers and state militiamen--as well as the suffocation deaths of 11 women and children hiding in an earthen pit enveloped by smoke after a fire broke out in the camp. Nationwide outrage ensued across the United States as union agitators leveled blame for the entire incident squarely on the Rockefellers. Lee's focus was primarily to tell the coal operators' side of the story to the public; King was hired to help resolve the core labor issues.

King was a knowledgeable, savvy and outgoing politician who had served as Labor Secretary in Canada from 1909 to 1911. After King's Liberal Party was turned out of office in a raucous election in 1911, King worked in several low-level party roles until he was recommended as an experienced labor negotiator to the Rockefellers by Charles Eliot, president of Harvard University. King quickly endeared himself to his client and expanded his role to become a key adviser, confidant and friend to JDR, Jr.

Among activities related to the coal strike, King:

• Advised JDR Jr. on how to deal with various government officials. He set up meetings for JDR Jr. with officials and confered on his client's behalf with many others.
• Assisted in the preparation (with Lee and others) of JDR Jr. 's testimony before the U.S. Industrial Relations Commission. King also coached his client on key issues and critiqued JDR Jr.'s performance as a witness.
• Arranged personal meetings between JDR Jr. and labor leaders, including the colorful "Mother Jones," the so-called "Guardian Angel of the Coal Mines"
• Visited Colorado to collect first-hand information about labor conditions. While in the state, King served as a personal representative for JDR Jr. and also gave out several press interviews.
• Recommended and coordinated with local officials (including Governor George Carlson) a program of philanthropy to improve economic conditions in the economically-depressed state.
• Orchestrated and accompanied JDR Jr. on his triumphant October 1915 trip to Colorado, where two men donned miners' outfits and went into the coal shafts.
• Provided ongoing advice to Rockefeller about labor matters until 1919, when King was elected head of Canada's Liberal Party (and thereafter became Prime Minister in 1921).

King's Importance in Public Relations

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Creator of the "Company Union"
Mackenzie King is best known as the creator of the Colorado Industrial Relations Plan, a prototype model for improving organization-labor relations by creating a system of communication and a mechanism for negotiation between employers and workers. Company unions played an important intermediate step in the maturation of U.S. labor relations in the early 20th century. King's model served as the prototype for more than 300 so-called "company unions" that thrived the United States until 1935. Today, company unions have enjoyed a resurgence of interest.

An Early Public Relations Theorist
Based on his two decades of experience in labor relations, Mackenzie King wrote Industry and Humanity in 1918. This little-remembered and clumsily-written tome was panned by critics and only politely acknowledged by JDR Jr., who had underwritten the work while King continued to serve as a consultant. Many of the tenets found in the book were strikingly innovative in their day, 85 years ago, but have become conventional wisdom advocated by modern public relations counselors today. As an unheralded forerunner of modern public relations theory, King argued:

• Organizations depend on and serve multiple stakeholders. King contended that four parties were critical in industry: capital (investors), management, labor (unions and workers), and the community.
• An organization's success is based on cooperation. He wrote, "An industrial system characterized by antagonism, coercion and resistance must yield to a new order based on mutual confidence, real justice, and constructive good-will."
• The public should be informed about an organization's activities. King believed that broadly disseminated information -- publicity -- was critical to inform citizens of opposing contentions as well as to redress injustices and social wrongs.
• Personal interaction between an organization and other parties (in this case, labor) are critical -- an early articulation of the importance of two-way symmetrical communication.