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Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 12, 1921
Charleston, West Virginia – Miners Mass Rally Sends Resolutions to Governor
From The New York Times of August 8, 1921:
DRAFT MINGO PEACE TERMS
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Miners Adopt Resolutions and Present
Them to Governor.CHARLESTON, W. Va., Aug. 7.-Resolutions setting forth terms for a settlement of the industrial controversy in Mingo County were adopted here to-day at a mass meeting of union miners and presented to Governor Morgan. The Governor requested time to consider them, and said that he would send his reply to C. F. Keeney, President of District 17, United Mine Worker of America.
More than 1,000 miners were at the meeting, held in the open near the site of the Capitol, recently destroyed by fire. They were addressed by “Mother” Jones, labor organizer, and other speakers.
The resolutions suggest these point for a settlement:
Appointment of a commission of six, three to represent the and three the operators, to adopt rules and methods for adjustment of any disputes arising between the two parties.
Creation of a board of arbitration, consisting of one to be selected by the miners, one by the operators and these two to select a third who shall be a non-resident of the State. This board will settle questions on which the commission fells to agree, and their decisions shall be binding and final.
That employers involved agree that all employes return to work without discrimination against any one belonging to a labor union.
Establishment of an eight-hour working day.
That employes shall have the right to trade where they desire.
That employee shall have the right to elect check weighers, and that 2.000 pounds shall constitute a ton.
That where coal is not weighed on a standard scale and the miner is paid by the car or the measure, the weight of each car shall be stamped thereon.
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920,
Steel Speeches, p230
https://books.google.com/books?id=vI-xAAAAIAAJ
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-Aug 8, 1921
https://www.newspapers.com/image/26754098/
IMAGE
UMW D17, Mooney Keeney, Lbtr p9, Aug 1920
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/culture/pubs/liberator/1920/08/v3n08-w29-aug-1920-liberator.pdf
See also:
Tag: Mingo County Coal Miners Strike of 1920-1922
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mingo-county-coal-miners-strike-of-1920-1922/
When Miners March
-by William C. Blizzard
PM Press, 2010
-see pages 236-7 (search: “word was passed to all locals”)
-or google: “word was passed to all locals in mingo”
https://books.google.com/books?id=dm37BgAAQBAJ
Word was passed to all local unions, including those in Mingo, that a great mass meeting was to be held on the capitol grounds at Charleston on Sunday, August 7. At this meeting the Governor would once more be asked to intercede on behalf of the miners.
The response to the call for the mass meeting was impressive. A great crowd of miners thronged the capitol grounds, where a series of speakers reviewed the long list of grievances which had led to the present situation. Frank Keeney and Fred Mooney spoke, as did a number of lesser District 17 officials. Frank Ingham the Negro who had ben beaten and left for dead in McDowell County, retold his blood story to an angry and attentive audience. Mother Jones added her own special brand of speaking to the swelling tide of accusing voices.
Beautiful Sally Chambers, young widow of Ed Chambers, described how her husband and Sid Hatfield were murdered before her eyes just a week before, and how she had pluckily struck C. E. Lively with her umbrella. And many were the anonymous miners who rose to give their own stories of brutal coal company oppression…..
They submitted to the Governor a series of resolutions…
[Blizzard also includes Resolutions, essentially the same as those above, with the exception of one more: “That the miners get the semi-monthly pay-day.”]
[Emphasis added.]
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They’ll Never Keep Us Down – Hazel Dickens