Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 8, 1920
Matewan, West Virginia – Miners and Citizens Battle Company Gunthugs
From the United Mine Workers Journal of June 1, 1920:
Ten or twelve men were killed in a battle between Baldwin-Felts gunmen and citizens of the town of Matewan, W. Va., on May 19. The exact number of deaths has not been learned, because it is said that one or more bodies were lost in the Tug river when some of the men attempted to swim across. The battle was the result of activities of the gunmen who were in the employ of the Stone Mountain Coal Company. It has been impossible also to obtain a correct list of the names of the dead.
Matewan is in the very heart of the Tug river field, one of the most notorious hotbeds of nonunionism in West Virginia. Coal operators in that field have for years resisted with all of their power the efforts of the miners to organize and join the United Mine Workers of America. They have employed all of the bloody tactics that have prevailed in such fields for many years, including the use of gunmen and thugs, the blackjack and other methods of repression.
A short time ago the miners employed at a mine owned by the Stone Mountain Company undertook to form an organization. The company immediately applied the usual remedy. It discharged the men from its employ. Then the company decided to evict the men and their families from the houses in which they lived and which were owned by the company. It was the thought of the company that this would help to break up the movement for the organization of a local union.
A large force of “detectives” was hired from the Baldwin-Felts agency at Bluefield, W. Va., and sent to Matewan to evict the miners and their families. An Associated Press dispatch from Matewan told the story of the battle as follows:
The shooting, in which Baldwin-Felts detectives clashed with citizens and the police, followed the eviction of a number of miners from Stone Mountain Coal Company houses yesterday, according to the authorities. Two mines were closed recently when it became known that an effort was being made to unionize them. The miners claim that the detectives were sent to dispossess families of workers who had been discharged.
A shot, said by the authorities to have been fired from the coat pocket of Albert Felts, a detective, and which ended the life of Mayor Cabell Testerman, started the battle. An instant later Felts, according to authorities, was killed by “Sid” Hatfield, chief of police. The shooting then became general, and when the battle ended seven detectives, the mayor, and four miners were dead and three other persons badly wounded. Felts, it is said, had a warrant for the arrest of Chief Hatfield on a charge that he had taken a prisoner from detectives some time ago. The mayor was reading the warrant when he was killed.
It was said that the gunmen wore badges as deputy sheriff’s of Harlan county, Ky., and that they had been imported from there to Matewan.
President John L. Lewis was in Washington at the time of the battle at Matewan, and he sent a telegram of protest to Governor Cornwell of West Virginia. The telegram was as follows:
Press dispatches today tell of another shocking outrage in the long list of such incidents that have been perpetrated in your State by private detectives in the employ of coal corporations. Undoubtedly the American public must be astounded to know that such conditions can exist in any State in this Union.
For years, the terrible evil of this system has been pointed out, but this latest outrage indicates that little or nothing has been done to insure to peaceable citizens the right to live. Twelve human lives have been sacrificed to this system and the blood of those 12 men must be found on the hands of those who could prevent such murders, but who fail to do so.
I desire once more to direct your attention to the failure of the State of West Virginia to afford protection to its citizens in the coal mining districts and to urge that policies be adopted and measures carried out that will prevent further lawless activities by these murderous hirelings of the coal operators.
Commenting further on the Matewan occurrence, President Lewis said:
We have repeatedly called the attention of Governor Cornwell to the terrible conditions existing in the Guyan River, Tug River, Little Coal River, and Pocahontas coal fields of that state.In all of those districts police powers have been assumed by the private detectives in the employ of coal companies, all of which is repugnant to the constitution. They disregard all the constitutional rights of American citizens to equal and fair protection of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There is no warrant in law or justice for the action of private detectives in assuming police powers. That power belongs exclusively to the State.
Secretary-Treasurer Fred S. Mooney of the United Mine Workers of District 17, said that the miners’ union started a short time ago to organize Mingo county, forming thirteen or fourteen locals with a membership of 3,000.
[Commented Mr. Mooney:]
This terrible affair may prove a blessing in disguise. I firmly believe that it will mark the beginning of the end of thug rule in some of the mining counties.
When coal companies were_ serving their notices Sheriff Blankenship called together the miners who had been organized and inquired whom they preferred as the instruments of their eviction—the sheriff’s office or the detectives. The workers assured the sheriff that they would interpose no obstacle to the execution of the law by Sheriff Blankenship.
The sheriff then told the miners that he would protect them from unlawful acts of the detective agency. In making his word good, he ordered the arrest on due complaint, I believe, of twenty-seven of the detectives for arbitrarily evicting workers in advance of the trial of their cases in court.
Albert C. Felts, one of the “detectives” killed in the battle, was one of the chief gunmen employed by the operators in the Ludlow strike troubles in Colorado in 1913. At a congressional investigation held at Denver in 1914 Felts testified that he had been employed by coal operators for four years and that he brought a machine gun from West Virginia to be used against the Ludlow strikers. Before going to Colorado, he said, he was employed by coal operators in West Virginia.
[Emphasis added.]
From the Editorial Page:
Another Outrage
THE killing of ten more men at Matewan, W. Va., a few days ago proves again the terrible consequences of the continuance of murderous thugs and gunmen by coal operators of that and some other states. Time after time, year after year, the United Mine Workers have called on the authorities of the State of West Virginia to wipe out this curse, but the curse remains and the name of a great state continues to be disgraced. Ten men are dead who might yet be living had it not been for this vicious system with which those coal operators seek to enslave their workers.
What can be in the minds of men who resort to such savagery and brutality as that which is practiced in these places? Where is their humanity and their feeling for their fellow men? Where is that essence of civilization with which the very life and existence of every man ought to be tempered? There is something lacking in the make-up of any man that will do the things and commit the outrages that come out of these West Virginia mountain fastnesses.
For many years the United Mine Workers of America have held out the light of hope to the poor creatures who are under the cruel domination of the thug and gunman system. The union has been and still is the ship that will carry them from such deplorable conditions to the haven in which men are free to labor in their own way and under acceptable conditions. In all of the years that the United Mine Workers have sought to help these workers and to bring them to a fair level of justice and right these men have been anxious to enter the fold and reap the benefits of union organization, but the blackjack, the pistol and the high-power rifle have been used against them and they have not been permitted to call themselves free American citizens.
It is not the fault of the coal miners of Matewan and the other places that they are in their present plight. They are the victims of circumstances and environment that the public knows but little about. If the great American public understood fully the conditions under which these men and their families are compelled to live; if the public knew one-half of the truth about their condition there would be a wave of indignation that would sweep the terrible system out of existence. And it is only a question of time until the public will know. A few more such outrages as the one at Matewan will spread the information from ocean to ocean.
Of course, gunmen and thugs cannot stop the progress of the United Mine Workers of America. The union will continue its march of progress in spite of them. It always has done so and it will continue to do so. Men may be murdered by the lawless gangs, but that will not deter the union from its purpose of breaking down the barriers that keep men from the fruits of liberty and bringing them into the possession of their rights under the laws of the land. The coal mining districts of West Virginia will be organized and the organization will live and flourish, doing good for humankind, long after those responsible for the present brutal system have passed out. West Virginia will yet become a state in which men may live in safety and enjoy the full rights of American citizenship.
[Emphasis added.]
U. M. W. A. Districts 17 and 29:
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Officers of U. M. W. District 17 Charleston, West Virginia
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Officers of U. M. W. District 29 Beckley, West Virginia
The Devil Is Here in These Hills
West Virginia’s Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom
by James Green
New York, Feb 3, 2015
(search: “chapter 10”) https://books.google.com/books?id=tDojBQAAQBAJ
From page 2 of UMWJ of June 1, 1920:
Official Roster of the United Mine Workers of America
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