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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 23, 1911
West Virginia’s Mine Guard System, Brutal Thugs Hired by Coal Operators
From The Labor Argus of September 21, 1911:
The blackest spot that stains the pages of the history of West Virginia is the damnable guard system, employed by the coal barons of our state. Such conditions as exist on Cabin Creek, New River and other non-union coal fields of the state, are a disgrace to civilization, and an outrage on American manhood. The brutalities of the hired thugs of the capitalists and coal operators, surpass that of the Cossacks of Russia. The peonage practiced by Barbarous Mexico, of which we read with horror, is practiced here in our own county and state.
Russianized West Virginia, where the law-abiding citizens are subject to brutalities and outrages equaled only by those endured by the oppress, ignorant and brow-beaten peons of Mexico. Every crime known to criminality has been committed by these hired convicts of the coal barons.
These men will stop short of no crime. Men have been murdered by these desperados, for no other offense than belonging to a Labor Union. To go into Cabin Creek or New River districts and declare yourself a labor organizer, is to invite death. All the excuse these guards want is to slug and murder a workingman, is to know that he is a union man. To even be known as a union sympathizer is all the provocation necessary to become the object of a brutal attack by the gun-men.
[…..]
Governor Glasscock in his address on Labor Day said he believed in organized labor. But his actions when he commissions and legalizes these outlaws, belie his words. In the first place, these men are not commissioned as coal company guards, but as railroad detectives. But the railroads don’t pay them a cent, as they draw their salaries from the coal companies. This is a fraud on the face of the transaction. We can show that these guards are maintained by the coal companies, and commissioned by the Governor, for the sole purpose of fighting organized labor; in other words, the United Mine Workers. If this is not so, why do they not need guards in the organized field? If they are railroad detectives, why do they assault and murder men for belonging to the Miner’s Union?
These men are retained for no other purpose than to keep the miners from organizing, and to brow-beat and brutalize them into humble submission to the coal barons. They were commissioned for that purpose only and the Governor knew it when he commissioned them.
If the words spoken by Governor Glasscock on Labor Day to the effect that he believed in organized labor that the workers had a right to organize for mutual protection were true, why does he commission these brutal guards at the behest of the coal barons to fight the organization? Why does he not protect the working men in the exercise of their rights?
Our governor is nothing but a spineless jellyfish, and a tool of the corporations. A man nominated and elected by the special interests. According to Governor Glasscock’s own words, he is either a coward or a liar. He either don’t believe in the right of labor to organize, as he said he did, or he is too big a coward to protect them in the exercise of these rights.
Next week we will take up the crimes committe by these guards and show that they have been given protection by the officials.
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[Emphasis and paragraph breaks added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote EVD, Law ag Working Class, AtR p1, Apr 29, 1911
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/110429-appealtoreason-w804.pdf
The Labor Argus
(Charleston, West Virginia)
-Sept 21, 1911
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85059855/1911-09-21/ed-1/seq-4/
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85059855/1911-09-21/ed-1/seq-6/
See also:
Tag: West Virginia Government by Gunthug
https://weneverforget.org/tag/west-virginia-government-by-gunthug/
Tag: Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike of 1912-1913
https://weneverforget.org/tag/paint-creek-cabin-creek-strike-of-1912-1913/
Conditions in the Paint Creek District, West Virginia: Hearings…..
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Education and Labor
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1913
(Search: “maud estep”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=HQM9AAAAYAAJ
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WE NEVER FORGET
Francis Estep and all other Union Men, Women and Children
shot down by West Virginia gunthugs.
Coal Miner’s Grave – Hazel Dickens