Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 2, 1921 West Virginia’s State Militia Serves Interest of Coal Operators
From the United Mine Workers Journal of August 1, 1921:
[-from pages 3 & 4]
General View of the Miners’ Tent Colony, Lick Creek, W. Va.
More complete details of the raid which was made upon the headquarters office of the United Mine Workers at Williamson, W. Va., by the so-called military authorities of that state have been received at the Journal office, and they are of even a more harrowing and outrageous character than was at first suspected or realized. The raid was a down-right act of brutal disregard for all of the constitutional rights that are supposed to be enjoyed by every American citizen, but which seem to belong only to coal operators in West virginia. More and more it becomes apparent that the military raid on the union headquarters was merely another part of the plan of the Williamson coal operators to run the United Mine Workers out of that field. Of course, they will not succeed in doing this, but their failure to accomplish this end will not be through any fault of the West Virginia military establishment.
The last issue of the Journal contained the bare facts of the raid on the office of the Union and the arrest of David B. Robb, International Fiscal Agent; Ed Dobbins, International Board Member, from District 12; International Organizers, John W. Brown, Robert Gilmour, Jasper Metzger and Herbert Halls; J. B. Wiggins and Henry Koop, local workers; Claude Mahoun, Charles Lee, Whetrell Hackney and J. H. Reed, striking miners. A squad of the improvised militia, led by Major Davis, invaded the office and ordered the men to line up on the sidewalk in front. Next they marched the twelve men to the Williamson City jail and locked them up. The twelve men suffered terribly from the intense heat and close confinement, but even this fact did not appear to satisfy the authorities, for two days later they handcuffed the men in pairs, loaded them on a train and took them to Welch, county seat of McDowell county, and placed them in the McDowell county jail.
McDowell county is the very heart of the enemy’s county. McDowell county is completely under the domination of the anti-union forces. It is over-run with Baldwin Felts thugs and gunmen, whose exclusive business it is to assault, beat and even murder union miners. It would be impossible for the military authorities to find a worse place in the state of West virginia, in which to incarcerate these twelve union. In no other county is West Virginia would these twelve men be subjected to more brutal treatment greater neglect and danger than in McDowell county. Whether this fact entered the minds of the military authorities when they took the twelve men to Welch we can not say, but it is safe to assume that the authorities were aware of these conditions.
[…..]
Thugs and gunmen, with every instinct of the seasoned, professional criminal, continue to roam through the mining fields of Mingo county in the employ of private coal companies. They commit such crimes as are conjured up in their moonshine-soaked minds, and they are not molested by the authorities. The whole aim and object of the authorities appears to be to help the coal operators to break down the union.
The last issue of the Journal told how a gang of state police ran wild through the miners’ tent colony at Lick Creek, and how they cut and slashed many of the tents and destroyed the food supplies of the miners’ families. In this issue are published pictures of the Lick Creek tent colony and the wreckage of some of the tents. These pictures tell their own gruesome story better than words can hope to do.
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[from page 5]
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[-from page 10]
Dishonorable Tactics of Mingo County Operators Disclosed
Aroused by a description of methods used by private detectives in obtaining information about activities of union miners, Senator McKellar of Tennessee, Democrat, at today’s hearing before the committee investigating disorders in the Mingo, W. Va., field declared it was not “right” for men to work themselves into the confidence of union officials and then report to detective agencies as to what was going on.
C. E. Lively testified that while a member of the United Mine Workers, he served as a Baldwin-Felts agency operative in behalf of mine owners. During the past nine years, he said, he attended union meetings, was vice-president of a local and attended conventions as a delegate, all the while making regular reports to the detective agency.
“Do you think it was right and proper to do as you did?” inquired Senator McKellar. When Lively replied he thought it was justifiable, the Tennessee senator asked whether the miners would have let him into their meetings if they had known he was a detective.
” Let me in,” Lively retorted, “They would have turned me over to the undertaker.”
S. D. Avis, counsel for the operators, remarked that the Department of Justice resorted to the practice of having its agents join unions and other organizations to report developments.
“I don’t care if it does,” declared Mr. McKellar . “I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. Conduct like that doesn’t fit in with my idea of American honor. No wonder you’re having trouble in West Virginia, if you’re doing things like that.”
Senator McKellar pressed Lively for information as to whether, when he attended conventions of union miners, he collected expenses from both the miners and the detective agency. Lively declared he never collected from both, but made it a rule to divide the expense.
“Oh, I see, you had a delicate sense of right and wrong,” put in Senator Kenyon, Republican, Iowa.
Lively testified he kept the fact he was a detective a secret both from coal operators, for whom he worked, and from union miners, with whom he associated until after the gun-battle at Matewan, W. Va., in May, 1920, during which ten men, among them seven Baldwin-Felts detectives, were killed.
The day of the shooting, Lively told the committee, he was at United Mine Workers’ headquarters in Charleston, W. Va. When news of the affray was received, the witness declared, almost all “union men at the headquarters agreed it was a pretty good thing and seemed to enjoy it.”
One man , the committee was told, “shook hands with himself and said it was the best news he had heard in a long time.”
Lively testified that during the coal strike troubles in Colorado, he had gone there as a miner-detective. He said he killed a man in self-defense , surrendered, and for sixteen months remained in jail, “not wanting a trial.”
While in prison, he talked to men jailed for disorder in connection with the strike and made regular reports to his agency. After sixteen months, he added, he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was released.
For more on Lively’s role in Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-14, see: Blood Passion The Ludlow Massacre and Class War in the American West by Scott Martelle Rutgers University Press, 2008 (search: charles e lively) https://books.google.com/books?id=sH5oOK3MKqUC
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