Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 3, 1920
Coal Strike Affects 5,000 Miners in Mingo County and 1,000 in Pike County
From The Charleston Daily Mail of June 30, 1920:
WILLIAMSON DISTRICT MINERS
TO QUIT TONIGHT
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About 5,000 mine workers of Mingo county W. Va., and 1,000 in Pike county, Ky., will be affected by a strike order issued from the Summers street headquarters of District 17, United Mine Workers to take effect at midnight tonight, according to officials of that organization, who that virtually all the miners of Mingo county and those employed on Kentucky side of the Tug river, and along Pond creek in Pike county, will strike.
United Mine Workers Journal of June 1, 1920 Note Mother Jones at center front. —–
Many of the Kentucky mine workers, it is said, live in Mingo county and only recently joined the miners’ union. The recent affiliation with the union of the men affected by the strike order, it is said, is the cause of the present situation.
When questioned about the possibility of sympathetic strikes in other fields, Secretary Mooney, of the mine workers, said that the strike order affected only the miners of Mingo county, W. Va., and Pike county, Ky. Counties and districts in which wage agreements have already been made, will not likely be affected by the strike, it was said…..
An effort to prevent the strike was made yesterday by Charles Kerwin, of the United States department of labor. C. F. Keeney, president of District 17, however, after explaining the reasons that caused the strike, declined to rescind the strike order.
According to the records at the headquarters of District 17, 185 miners’ families have been evicted from their homes since the work of organization of the miners began in and Mingo and Pike county. This action was taken by the companies, it is alleged, without due process of law. The evictions include, it is claimed by the miners, 22 families by the Black Jim Coal Co. at Goody, Ky.; 123 families by the Borderland Coal Co., Nos. 1 and 2, of Borderland, W. Va., with operations on the Kentucky side; three families by the Hatfield Mining Co., of Hatfield, W. Va.; two families on the Kentucky side by the West Virginia By-Products Co.; three families Kermit; four families at Naugatuck, and 26 families at mines operated by the Burnwell Coal Co. and the Crystal Block Supply Co. at Rawl and Sprigg, W. Va.
Establish Tent Colonies.
To take care of the families evicted from their homes by the operators tent colonies have been established by District 17, United Mine Workers, 26 families being cared for by two camps at Sprigg, 22 families at Lick creek, and 85 families at Nilan…..
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Quote Mother Jones, Doomed, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel p213