—————
Hellraisers Journal –Wednesday October 16, 1912
“This Is War and War Is Hell” by John W. Brown, Part II
From The Coming Nation of October 12, 1912:
[Part II of III]
Making and Breaking Contracts
On May 1st [1912], a compromise was reached in which the miners agreed to accept one-half of the Cleveland scale and the recognition of their union. This was accepted by a joint commission composed of representatives of the operators and the miners’ union.
On May 2d, the Paint Creek Collier Co., one of the parties to the contract, repudiated the agreement, thereby forcing their men either to scab or go on strike. The men chose the latter and on the 8th of May the first detatchment of “Baldwin guards” was sent to Paint Creek and following their arrival there, a reign of terror was established which has no parallel outside of barbarous Mexico or darkest Russia.
A chronicle of the crimes committed by these licensed and merciless cutthroats would fill a volume in itself. On June the 5th, eight of them were indicted before a grand jury and held for murder in the first degree, and were released on a bond of $3,000 each. A wholesale merchant and beneficiary of the coal barons acted as their bondsman.
The miners at Mucklow, Burnwell and several other camps were dispossessed under the “master and servant” decision of Judge Burdett. The miners made application for an injunction to restrain the operators from evicting them but Judge Burdett after a week or more of judicial jugglery refused to issue the order, notwithstanding such an order had been granted in Fayette county which is in the same mining district.
Battle for Tented “Homes”
The dispossessed miners secured tents and settled at Holly Grove at the mouth of Paint Creek. The coal barons and their hired assassins determined to break the union spirit and to drive the union men out of the district and opened fire on the tents at Holly Grove, July 25th. This was more than human endurance could stand and to this last outrage the miners retaliated and fought back with such weapons as they had and for two days the battle raged in and around Mucklow and just how many lives were lost will never be known.
About this time “Mother Jones,” the avenging Nemesis of the miners, appeared on the scene and with her came a new hope, a new courage and a new consciousness to the coal miners. There is something powerful about this old gray haired woman. When the coal barons hear her name they tremble. Barehanded and alone, Mother Jones walked up to the mouth of the gattling guns on Cabin Creek and demanded of the hireling that turned the crank that she be allowed to see her boys. Mother saw her boys and held a mass meeting in the Cabin Creek district and organized the miners and on August 7th the miners of Cabin Creek walked out on strike with their brothers of Paint Creek.
On August 29th a Baldwin guard drunk and disorderly shot a man by the name of Hodge at Dry Branch. This precipitated a general fight in which Hines, the instigator, was killed and several others wounded. On September 1st, Governor Glasscock ordered out the militia and declared martial law and just what the end will be it is hard to say at this time.
Governor Glasscock, in an interview with the newspaper reporters a few days ago admitted that he is not the governor of West Virginia, that the government of the state is controlled by an “infernal legislative lobby” and an “invisible power.”
Progressive Governor and “Invisible” Power
This invisible power is wielded by Clarence M. Watson, United States senator from West Virginia. He is the power behind the throne that makes the laws of West Virginia; that kills every bill aimed to restore to the miners something of their rights. He, Watson, represents that “invisible power” that has maintained the guard system as its ally and dragged the state of West Virginia to the verge of a civil war and is the one man more than all others who is responsible for the conditions that exist in West Virginia.
Senator Watson is West Virginia’s uncrowned plutocratic king who carries his crown in his pocket. His gilded palace is at Fairmont, but his sway is co-extensive with the state.
Senatorial Slave Drivers
The Cincinnati Post after an investigation of the conditions said that: “He is master of men and millions.”
Until he became United States senator he was president of the Consolidated Coal company, of Fairmont, the largest corporation of the kind in West Virginia. He employs 15,000 non-union men. He is master of 100,000 acres of coal land. He makes dividends on $12,000,000 worth of stock. He employs a private army of mine guards. He has besides a retinue of dukes who do the more “respectable work” of the lobby at the state capitol.
His prime minister is William E. Chilton, also a United States senator from West Virginia. Chilton is the sole owner and manager of the Charleston Gazette. He is the most prominent corporation lawyer in the state. He lives in Charleston. His firm represents traction, coal, oil and gas and railroads as well, and his proud boast is that his law firm represents four-fifths of the corporate interests of the state, the interests that at times need certain legislation and at other times are anxious that certain bills be killed.
Republicans and Democrats Together
Chilton’s law partner is W. M. McCarkle, Democrat leader of the State senate. On the other hand, the Republican leader of the senate is Wm. Hatfield, a coal operator and at present republican candidate for governor of the state. Behind Watson are the coal barons allied as “The West Virginia Coal Operators association.” This association refuses to recognize the righteousness of the union and collective bargaining, yet exact to themselves the right to organize themselves for collective strike-breaking.
This in short is the line-up in the greatest industrial battle West Virginia ever saw, and while the battle rages children are starving in the mine camps, some are living in tents while others again have been driven from their homes entirely. Their cries are echoed in the thunderous din from all over the state demanding that the governor shall call a special session of the legislature to correct the evils in the mining industry, to abolish the guard system; to establish minimum wage; to establish just liability laws; to abolish the black list; to abolish the “fellow-servant” law and the “master and servant” judge-made law and to put into effect the initiative and referendum by which the people will be able to take the law making power out of the hands of the coal barons and their hirelings.
Investigating to See if Hell is Hot
At this writing, September 25th, a commission appointed by the governor to investigate the situation is taking evidence. This commission is composed of a Catholic bishop, a military captain and a politician. Many are the grewsome stories told the commission by the miners, their wives and children and while nobody believes there will be any permanent good come out of such a commission, yet the world is learning of the horrors that surround the daily lives and homes of the 70,000 coal miners and their families of West Virginia.
The evidence submitted and sworn to relates how babies were born in the woods amid showers of bullets. Notable is the testimony of John Estep and his family who were fleeing from the guards and took shelter in an old shack where a baby was born on the bare floor. This baby was born while bullets were flying and the red law of the coal barons and their allies reigned supreme.
[Emphasis added.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones re Get Rid of Mine Guards,
Charleston WV, Aug 15, 1912, Steel Speeches p95
https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735035254105/viewer#page/116/mode/2up
The Coming Nation
(Girard, Kansas)
-Oct 12, 1912, pages 5-7
https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/488968721/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 15, 1912
“This Is War and War Is Hell” by John W. Brown, Part I
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday July 31, 1912
Mucklow, West Virginia – Striking Miners Battle Company Gunthugs
Report of West Virginia Mining Investigation Commission
Appointed by Governor Glasscock on 28th Day of August, 1912
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101058831577&view=2up&seq=4
Tag: Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike of 1912-1913
https://weneverforget.org/tag/paint-creek-cabin-creek-strike-of-1912-1913/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They’ll Never Keep Us Down – Hazel Dickens