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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 14, 1913
Washington, D. C. – Senator Kern Pushes for West Virginia Investigation
-Meets with Mother Jones Who Reports on Brutal Conditions
From The Washington Times of May 13, 1913:
ARMED GUARDS KEPT MINERS FROM MAILS,
AGENTS INFORM KERN
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Indiana Senator Expected to Demand Immediate Investigation by
Postoffice Department. Resolution for Probe of West Virginia
Peonage Charges Comes Up Today.
———-LABOR LEADERS ALSO TELL OF ALLEGED
ABUSES PRACTICED BY MINE OWNERS
Charging that armed guards in many of the West Virginia mining districts, acting on orders, either from the operators or the State officials, have prevented the miners from having access to the United States mails, men, backing the miners in their contentions, today laid before Senator Kern information startling in its nature.
Senator Kern thus far has given no inkling as to what course he now will pursue as a result of the data just placed in his hands. Whether the Federal law was violated by the operators when they prevented the miners from making use of the mails, is the serious question raised by the reports.
There is every reason to believe that the Indiana Senator will lay the charges before the Postoffice Department and demand immediate investigation.
Under the rules of the Senate, the Kern resolution, calling for a Congressional probe of alleged militarism, peonage, and denial of constitutional rights to the miners of West Virginia, will automatically come before the Senate at 4 o’clock this afternoon. Senator Kern is confident of its passage.
Many Features.
The disclosure of alleged undue interference with the right of the miners to get their mail was one of several important happenings of the day with respect to the West Virginia situation.
A delegation of nearly a dozen representatives of the West Virginia Federation of Labor and representatives of other labor organizations saw Senator Kern at his office this forenoon and laid before him affidavits telling of peonage in the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek regions, and of the reign of terror which has prevailed there for a year.
The representatives of the State federation consisted of J. W. Swan, J. W. Holder, and Harry Wright. They went into detail in the audience with Senator Kern about the outrages of which they allege the mining interests have been guilty at the expense of the helpless miners, and told of the wrongs endured, as they charge, at the hands of the militia.
Tell of Abuses.
Destruction of property of miners, abuses of women and girls, the holding of miners in a condition bordering on vassalage-all these representations and others were made to the Indiana Senator.
[Mother Jones Meets with Senator Kern]
Moreover, Mother Jones, who addressed a labor meeting here last night, saw Senator Kern and related to him the substance of what she had already set forth in her letters to him. Mother Jones is temporarily released by the West Virginia authorities. She believes they would be glad if she would leave the State and not return, but she has no intention of doing this. She will go back to do what she can for the relief of the miners.
Mother Jones ascribes her temporary release to the introduction of the Kern resolution for an investigation. She has told Senator Kern of the conditions under which she was arrested and detained and she has a much different story to set forth about the brutality of her treatment than the one told by Governor Hatfield, which described her as detained in a comfortable private home.
Jailed Men Freed.
It has come to the ears of Senator Kern, not only that Mother Jones has been released, apparently with a view to lessening the strength of the demand for the passage of the resolution of investigation, but that miners who have been jailed on slight charges are being turned loose for the same reason.
It Is clear that neither the industrial interests involved nor the State authorities want the Senate to closely probe into conditions, which if most of what is said is true, are nothing [less than] barbarous.
Senator Kern said this afternoon that his resolution would come up at 4 o’clock as unfinished business. He hopes to force its passage at that time. That it will be hard fought is well understood.
Want Time.
The plan of the opposition is not to the resolution directly, but to outflank it. It is to be sidetracked, if possible. Efforts will be made, engineered by Senators Chilton and Goff, to refer the measure to the Committee on Education and Labor, not with the view of ordering an investigation, but of having that committee inquire if an investigation ought to be conducted.
If the opposition to the investigation could accomplish this they would have the situation in good shape.
They would then be allowed time to try to compose things in West Virginia and smooth matters over there in a fashion to lessen the strength of the demand for a senate probe.
From West Virginia today came testimony that not even a Masonic lodge nor a Baptist church could be instituted without the consent of the mine owners. This statement is in a telegram to Senator Chilton of West Virginia from a newly organised district [District 29, New River Field] of the United Mine Workers.
Senator Chilton is roundly scored for his attitude toward the proposed investigation. He is notified that he cannot “be a progressive in West Virginia and a standpatter in Washington and get away with it.”
Possibility of a further strike is told of in a dispatch from West Virginia today telling of the organization of the mine workers. Officers are delegated with authority to declare a strike upon the refusal of operators to accede to a conference or upon denial of the demands of the miners.
Demands made By Miners.
These demands are for a semi-monthly pay, the right to elect and employ check weighmen, a nine-hour day, abolition of the mine-guard system, the right to make purchases elsewhere than at company stores, and the right to organize and affiliate with unions without being discharged or discriminated against.
The miners pledge themselves to return to work under these conditions, and call upon the national organization to support all men discharged because of efforts to obtain these demands.
Protest Chilton’s Attitude.
The following resolution of protest was adopted with reference to the attitude of Senator Chilton:
Resolved, By the New River delegates assembled at Charleston, that the following telegram be sent to Senator William E. Chilton, as voicing the protest of the 20,000 coal miners represented in this convention, and that the same be given out to the press:
Two hundred delegates from the New River mining district are astonished at your opposition to Kern resolution. Senator Goff has lived separate end apart from the people for twenty years, but you have been one of us. You know that conditions are bad. You are aware that coal operators control postoffices, public roads and school houses; that circulation of progressive papers and periodicals is curtailed by company owners and company store postmasters, and that free speech and lawful assembly are not permitted.
You further know that a Masonic fraternity could not be instituted or a Baptist church organized without consent of mine managers. You are further aware that a temporary settlement on Cabin and Paint Creek neither provides a remedy or makes for permanent peace. No Senator can be a progressive at heart and a standpatter at Washington. Stand with us and our friends, or Senator Watson and his allies.
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones to Kern re Sen Investigation, Wlg Int p1, May 6, 1913
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092536/1913-05-06/ed-1/seq-1/
The Washington Times
(Washington, District of Columbia)
-May 13, 1913
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1913-05-13/ed-1/seq-1/
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1913-05-13/ed-1/seq-2/
See also:
May 12, 1913, Indianapolis Star
-District 29, UMW Organized in New River WV Coalfield
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-indianapolis-star-may-12-1913-indi/124722465/
May 14, 1913, The Wheeling Intelligencer
“Postal Authorities May Take a Hand in Mine Investigation”
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092536/1913-05-14/ed-1/seq-1/
Search: Chicago Day Book for May 1913: “mother jones”
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/pages/results/?lccn=sn83045487&dateFilterType=range&date1=05%2F01%2F1913&date2=05%2F31%2F1913&language=&ortext=&andtext=&phrasetext=mother+jones&proxtext=&proxdistance=5&rows=20&searchType=advanced&sort=date
Tag: Senate Investigation of Paint Creek Coal Fields of West Virginia of 1913
https://weneverforget.org/tag/senate-investigation-of-paint-creek-coal-fields-of-west-virginia-of-1913/
Tag: Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike of 1912-1913
https://weneverforget.org/tag/paint-creek-cabin-creek-strike-of-1912-1913/
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Mother Jones, No More Deaths For Dollars – Ed Pickford