Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 17, 1921 Editor Marlen E. Pew Wires Protest to Governor Morgan of West Virginia
From the United Mine Workers Journal of September 15, 1921:
DEMANDS AN EXPLANATION
The Washington Herald September 5, 1921
NEW YORK, Sept. 3.—The shooting and arrest of newspaper correspondents in the West Virginia reign of terror, which included a woman reporter, has aroused members of the press throughout the country.
An indignant protest was sent to the governor of West Virginia tonight by Marlen E. Pew, of the International News Service. Mr. Pew wired as follows:
Hon. E. F. Morgan, Governor, Charleston, W. Va.
Sir: Miss Mildred Morris of our Washington staff, one of the best known, most accomplished and conscientious reporters in this country, assigned to Logan because of her special knowledge of industrial affairs, wires me tonight that she was slightly injured, arrested and submitted to indignities today by state guards. Miss Morris weighs, I should say, about 100 pounds, but I do not believe that all the thugs in the livery of your state can terrorize or intimidate her when she is sent on a mission for the press.
I think I am justified in asking you if there is a censorship of terror in your state. If the state guards of West Virginia, their native sense of chivalry dead and buried, are of the belief that they can prevent the publication of the truth concerning not only the surface, but the underlying facts of this private war, by insults and injury to a woman representing some 600 newspapers and equipped with credentials from the commander of the federal forces in your state, I am here to tell you that they are mistaken. Please advise me by telegram tonight what you propose doing to redress this wrong to this lady, and whether we may expect some respect for the constitutional right of the press from the government of West Virginia, if indeed West Virginia still has a government in the meaning of the original democratic institution.
I am indignant and I want your blood to boil as a man as well as a governor and punish this particular infamy.
MARLEN E. PEW, Editor and Manager, International News Service.
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