Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 30, 1912 Charleston, West Virginia – President White Issues Statement
From The Farmer and Mechanic (Raleigh, N. C.) of September 24, 1912:
MEETING TO PLAN PACIFIC OUTCOME MET WITH REBUFF ———- Mine-Workers’ Organization Officials Refused to Participate In It ———-
CONFERENCE IS POSTPONED ———- Excitement Attended Gathering to Settle Mine Labor Dispute in West Virginia ———-
STATEMENT TO GOVERNOR
(By the Associated Press.)
Lake County Times Hammond, Indiana September 26, 1912
Charleston, W. Va., Sept 21.-Excitement attended the meeting here today of representatives of the commercial and civic bodies of West Virginia, called by Gov. Glasscock, to consider the labor situation.
International President John P. White, of the United Mine-workers of America, with Vice-President Hayes, announced early in the day that they would have nothing to do with the conference because they had learned that it was not the purpose of those in charge of the meeting to permit a discussion of the strike situation in the Kanawha coal field, where 2,200 West Virginia militiamen are maintaining martial law.
Why It Was Twice Postponed.
The meeting was postponed in an effort to bring the leaders of the miners and the operators together, and later in the day it was postponed again, but when it finally convened there was nothing to indicate that an agreement had been reached by which a discussion of existing labor difficulties might be taken up.
President White’s Statement.
President White prepared a statement for presentation to the governor in which he said:
We were led to believe that the conference called by the governor was for the purpose of discussing the present strike, and to find some method by which it might be amicably adjusted, but in a preliminary conference in the governor’s office which brought to our attention by the parties who appealed to the governor to call the conference, that its purpose was solely for the discussion of an industrial dispute act to be submitted to the next legislature and it was not contemplated in any way to enter into a discussion of the real problem of the problem of the present hour, an honorable solution of the difference existing at this time between miners and operators. We are much disappointed that this conference does not contemplate such discussion and in view of this fact we have nothing to discuss at this time.
Hayes Addresses Strikers.
This statement did not change the situation so far as White was concerned and while efforts were being made to outline a course of action for the conference, Vice-President Hayes addressed a large number of striking miners and their sympathizers and Mother Jones talked to another audience almost with the shadow of the state capitol.
Belated Conference Short One.
When the governor called the conference to order late in the afternoon the house of delegates in the capitol building was crowded. The governor stated that the conference would consider the question of a minimum wage, high cost of living and settlement of future labor troubles by arbitration but the miners strike on Paint and Cabin Creeks would not be discussed.
Adjourned in Confusion.
C. Burgess Taylor of Wheeling, was introduced as chairman and the question of who had a right to sit in the meeting arose, it having been given out that only West Virginians could take part. A statement presented by coal operators of the State that their “presence in this conference is not to be taken as recognition of the United Mine Workers of America,” finally created such confusion that a motion to adjourn was put and carried.
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