Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 14, 1920 Mingo County, West Virginia – Report from Miners’ Tent Colonies
From The Nation of December 8, 1920:
Labor’s Valley Forge
By NEIL BURKINSHAW
DRIVEN from their homes at the point of a gun for the crime of joining the union , more than four hundred miners and their families are camping in tents on the snow-covered mountains in Mingo County, West Virginia. To add to their difficulties federal troops have been summoned to play the ancient game of keeping “law and order.” But it will take more than the cold clutch of winter and the presence of soldiers to make the miners surrender in their fight for recognition of their right to unionize.
Across the Tug River, a narrow stream dividing Mingo County from Kentucky, is the union workers’ “No Man’s Land” held by the gunmen of the Kentucky coal operators who waylay, beat, and sometimes kill anyone even suspected of union affiliations. The same condition obtains in McDowell County of West Virginia just south of Mingo. The region was settled in pre-Revolutionary days by pioneers who crossed the mountains from Virginia and North Carolina, a hardy stock of Welsh, English, and Scotch from whom the miners are descended. One rarely encounters a foreigner there so that the industrial war now raging can not be ascribed-as is the convenient practice-to the agitation of the foreign element .
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 11, 1920 Mother Jones News for October & November 1920 “Veteran Organizer” Found in West Virginia and Washington D. C.
From The Charleston Daily Mail of October 2, 1920:
COAL COMPANIES AFTER RESTRAINT ON MINERS ———- Petition Federal Court for Injunction to Prevent Officials Organizing. ———-
The United Mine Workers have made defendants in two injunction suits brought in the southern district federal court by the Red Jacket Coal company of Red Jacket, Mingo County, and the Pond Creek Colliery to restrain them from interfering with employes of the two companies in efforts to unionize the mines operated by the coal concerns. Notices were reported as served yesterday evening from the United States marshal’s office, and arguments will be heard October 11, at Huntington.
John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America; William Green, secretary and treasurer of the United Mine Workers; C. F. [Frank] Keeney, president of district No, 17, United Mine Workers; Fred Mooney, secretary and treasurer of the district; Harold W. Houston, attorney; Mary Harris, (“Mother Jones“), J. A. Baumgardner, president of Local Union, No. 4804, at Williamson; C. L. McShan, secretary of the local union; Dock Wolford, president of Local Union No. 4181 and Bud Auzier, secretary of the union, and a score of others are named in the petition.
Petitions in both cases are said to be based on the allegation that activities of agents and organizers of the mine workers interfere with contracts which the companies have made with the miners and would prevent the delivery of coal to customers. The further charge is made that the purpose of the United Mine Workers in organizing is illegal.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 7, 1920 Mingo County, West Virginia – Fred Mooney Reports on Miners’ Struggle
From the United Mine Workers Journal of December 1, 1920:
Figures About Mingo County Are Juggled
Editor The Journal-One B. C. Clarke, supposed to be a representative of the New York Herald, in its issue of Sunday, November 7, says in part, that the “strike” in Mingo county, West Virginia, has cost $24,200,000.00 and a loss in tonnage production of five million tons. We do not know what prompted Mr. Clarke to juggle figures as he did in this article, but anyone with any intelligence whatever, can readily see that the article is a gross misrepresentation of facts.
In the first instance, Mr. Clarke leaves the impression that the “strike” in Mingo county is a continuance of the Hatfield-McCoy feuds. Nothing could be further from the truth, as there is no feud in this territory now, nor has there been any marks of one for years. The economic aspect of the struggle now going on in Mingo county is a struggle of a group of crushed wage slaveswho have been robbed from their birth of from 35 to 50 per cent of the wages rightfully earned by them and that portion of their wages of which they were robbed was paid out to private armies of “gunmen” to club the miners into submission.
Let us review the figures quoted by Mr. Clarke. He says that 700 miners are on “strike”, which is a fabrication manufactured of whole cloth. Let us see if the loss in tonnage production is 5,000,000 tons. The miners were locked out on July 1, 1920. Four months they have been out of employment, 26 days to each month. If every miner had worked full time, each would have had to produce in round figures, 68 tons per day; or take his total number of employees thrown out of employment, which was 3,500 and they would have had to produce 13.73 tons per day, which is impossible, as the highest average of production per employe was reached in 1918, and for that year, the average production per employe, was 4.20 tons. The average production per miner for the year of 1918 in the State of West Virginia, was 7.65 tons. This average was the highest in the history of the state.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 23, 1920 Mother Jones News for September 1920, Part I “Famous Woman Leader of Miners” Found in Missouri and Illinois
From the United Mine Workers Journal of September 1, 1920:
Labor Day Speakers
Notice of the following assignments of speakers for celebrations of the United Mine Workers of America on Labor Day have been received at the office of the Journal:
Philip Murray, International Vice President, New Kensington, Pa . William Green, International Secretary Treasurer, Cambridge, Ohio. Ellis Searles, Editor of the United Mine Workers Journal, Ernest, Pa. Samuel Pascoe, President of District 30, Novinger, Mo. Andrew Steele, International Board Member from District 25, South Fork, Pa. William Turnblazer, International Organizer, Spadra, Ark. Mother Jones, Kirksville, Mo. William Feeney, International Organizer, Midland, Ark
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 17, 1920 Tug River Field, W. V. – Scabs Arrive as Lick Creek Tent Colony Prepares for Winter
From the United Mine Workers Journal of October 15, 1920:
Bringing in Strike Breakers in the Tug River Field
The Butte Daily Bulletin September 24, 1920
Dispatches from Williamson, W. Va., say that coal operators in the Tug River strike field have begun the importation of strike breakers on an extensive scale. It is said that 125 men, recruited mainly from factories in Akron, O., and other points in that region, have been sent to Williamson to be distributed throughout that district, and across the river in Pike county, Ky.
A man believed to be Anton Skilba, of Cleveland, is at the tent colony of strikers on Lick creek, two miles up the Tug River from Williamson, suffering from a fractured skull, received in one of the numerous clashes in the mountains.
The Lick creek colony contains sixty-two tents housing 107 men, women and children. Preparations are being made to put board floors in the tents, presaging an intention to cling to the makeshift homes and continue the strike into the winter. Living conditions there are of the most primitive type. Food in many cases is cooked on stoves made of rocks and mud.
None of the children wear more than one garment. The men and women are shabby. Food is scarce and what there is of a very coarse variety.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 7, 1920 Mingo County, West Virginia – Mine Owners’ Gunthugs Maintain “Law and Order”
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of September 29, 1920:
West Virginia Mine Owners Take Steps to Get More U. S. Regulars —————
By PAUL HANNA. (Staff Writer, the Federated Press.)
Washington, Sept. 29.-West Virginia mine owners have acted quickly to overcome the complaint of Mingo county miners against the anti-labor conduct of federal troops in that district.
The detailed charges against federal troops made by Fred Mooney, district president [secretary-treasurer] of the United Mine Workers was printed in Federated Press newspapers on the morning of Sept. 24. That same afternoon the following “news” dispatch was sent out from Charleston, W. Va., and widely printed in the capitalist press:
A reign of terror and lawlessness still prevails in the Williamson and Pocahontas coal fields, according to reports sifting through from various sources and reaching here today.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 25, 1920
-Mother Jones News for August 1920, Part I
Found in Princeton, West Virginia, Speaking Near Baldwin-Felts HQ
From The Richmond Daily Register of August 6, 1920:
“Mother” Jones has reached the West Virginia mines and is said to be responsible for much of the recent trouble started there.
August 15, 1920 – Princeton, West Virginia
-Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting:
[Part I]
My friends, in all the ages of man the human race has trod, it has looked forward to that mighty power where men could enjoy the right to live as nature intended that they should.
We have not made millionaires, but we have made billionaires on both sides of the house. We have built up the greatest oligarchy that the world has ever known in history.
On the other side, we have the greatest slaves the world has ever known. There is no getting away from that.
I am not going to abuse the operators nor the bosses for their system. The mine owners and the steel robbers are all a product of the system of industry. It is just like an ulcer, and we have got to clean the ulcer.
(Hissing from the audience.)
God—they make me sick. They are worse than an old bunch of cats yelling for their mother.
Today, the world has turned over. The average man don’t see it. The ministers don’t see it and they don’t see what is wrong. They cannot see it. But the man who sits in the tower and his fortune of clouds clash, knows there is a cause for those clouds clashing before the clap of thunder comes. All over the world is the clashing of clouds. In the office, the doctor don’t pay attention to it. The man who watches the clouds don’t understand it. People want to watch the battle.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 31, 1920 Mingo County, West Virginia – U. S. Troops Arrive to End Mine War
From the Baltimore Sun of August 30, 1920:
U. S. TROOP BATTALION TAKES OVER MINE AREA ———- Soldiers From Camp Sherman, Ohio, Arrive At Scene Of Clashes In West Virginia. —–
WILL HOLD 50-MILE “FRONT” —– Riot Equipment Carried-Trials Of Those Accused Of Killing 10 Men At Matewan To Be Held September 6. —–
(By the Associated Press.)
Washington Times August 29, 1920
Williamson, W. Va., Aug. 29.-A battalion of United States Infantry, numbering between 400 and 500, under command of Col. Samuel Burkhardt, Jr., arrived here this morning from Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio.
A detachment of soldiers will be stationed at each mine in the strike zone from Kermit East to Delorme, a distance of 50 miles, it was announced.
Colonel Burkhardt was met by T. M. Davis, adjutant-general of West Virginia, representing Gov. John J. Cornwell, who yesterday asked the Government for troops because of disorders in connection with the coal strike in the Mingo Field during the summer. They visited a number of points in the district and mapped out distribution of the troops. Of the 65 mines in the district 20 or more have remained open during the strike, according to operators.
The troops were armed with regulation riot equipment, including rifles and machine guns, and carried one-pound cannon. Five trucks. one ambulance, and several motorcycles were also unloaded from the troop train.
The situation throughout Mingo county was reported quiet today. Martial law has not been proclaimed yet in the strike district, nor will it be, Colonel Burkhardt said, until occasion for such action arises.
The residents of Matewan and Williamson are said to have been relieved considerably by the arrival of the United States troops, owing to the frequent disturbances in the region during the strike. Their presence was welcomed particularly, according to local authorities, in view of the approach of the trials of 24 men indicted for the killing at Matewan May 19 of seven detectives, the Mayor of the town and two other men in a battle between miners, citizens and private detectives.
———-[There follows a long account of the Battle of Matewan.]
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———-The United Mine Workers have made defendants in two injunction suits brought in the southern district federal court by the Red Jacket Coal company of Red Jacket, Mingo County, and the Pond Creek Colliery to restrain them from interfering with employes of the two companies in efforts to unionize the mines operated by the coal concerns. Notices were reported as served yesterday evening from the United States marshal’s office, and arguments will be heard October 11, at Huntington.
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