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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 22, 1921
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1921
Found in Washington, D. C., at Senate Hearings on Conditions in W. V. Coal Fields
From The Cincinnati Enquirer of July 15, 1921:
Unionization Back of Strife,
Senate Mingo Inquiry Shows
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SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE ENQUIRER.
Washington, July 14.-In the opening hour of its investigation to-day the select Senate committee investigating conditions in the West Virginia coal fields, elicited from spokesmen for operators and for the miners the admission that the virtual warfare there centers about unionization of the fields.
At the prompting of Senator William S. Kenyon, of Iowa, the committee Chairman, both agreed that unionization is “the issue.”
[…..]
A distinctly West Virginia atmosphere permeated the committee room.
Attorneys for both factions were powerful man, husky voiced and tanned. Others present were: Sid Hatfield, former Chief of Police of Matewan, who participated in the gun battle there; Frank Keeney, President of the district organization; Samuel B. Montgomery, state labor leader; Sheriff Jim Kirkpatrick and Mother Jones, silvery haired matriarch of labor welfare.
Secretary Mooney described general conditions in the mining region and paralleled them with the situation there in 1913 when a Senate Committee investigated.
[…..]
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[Photograph added.]
From The Scranton Times of July 16, 1921:
Sid Hatfield Describes Pistol Battle In Mingo
—————Takes Stand In Senate Committee’s Probe of Strike Trouble
-Denies He Took Credit For Killing Detectives.Washington, July 16.-“Sid” Hatfield, ex-chief of police of Matewan, W. Va., today took the stand in the senate labor committee’s investigation of the Mingo mine war.
Word that the member of the famous West Virginia family was testifying spread through the capitol and the room soon was soon crowded.
“Mother” Jones pitched her chair closer to the witness table to catch what the man who is under indictment on charge of shooting Baldwin Felts detectives would say.
Without the slightest sign of nervousness the lanky, blonde mountain youth described the pistol battle in which he was the central figure. His suit was neatly pressed and a Masonic charm dangle from his watch chain. His quick gray eyes watched the members of the committee intently and he frequently gave a sneering laugh at questions from counsel for the operators…..
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From the Pittsburg (Kansas) Workers Chronicle of July 22, 1921:
West Va. Conditions Investigated By Senate
————-[…..]
By LAWRENCE TODD
Washington.-If you are a coal miner in a non-union mining district in West Virginia, your relation to the mine operator is the relation of the most servile of bondmen to its master. If the operator finds that you have joined a union he dismisses you not merely from your job but from the place you foolishly called home. His gunmen come, on three day’s notice, and throw you and your family and your few belongings out of the company shanty upon which you have paid the two weeks rent. They call it “delivering you to the outside.”
C. F. Keeney, president of District 17 of the United Mine Workers of America, and W. E. Hutchinson organizer in Mingo county, told the Senate committee investigating the Mingo strike, all about this eviction feature at today’s hearing. They had both been evicted for having joined the union. Thousands of others in the same region had paid the same penalty for daring to stand up and declare their manhood.
“You see, senators,” smoothly explained Attorney Avis for the Mingo County Operators’ Association, “our West Virginia courts have decided that the relation of the miner to the company is that of servant to master, and not the relation of tenant to landlord, even though a definite rent is paid to the company for the house. It is just as though you, senator, should dismiss a domestic servant and order her to vacate a room in your house.”
Sen. Kenyon, presiding, got the idea. But he did not seem to like it. After a while he asked about the issue in the West Virginia struggle.
“It seems to be an issue of the right of the miners to belong to a union,” he said. “That’s it, isn’t It? The miners insist that they have the right to belong to the union, and the companies refuse to employ them or permit them to stay in company houses if they join?”
Counsel agreed, and the witness agree, that that was the issue.
Kenyon of Iowa, Sterling of South Dakota, Shortridge of California, McKellar of Tennessee and Caraway of Arkansas comprise the committee. Sterling and Shortridge, at least, are anti-union. Kenyon and Caraway are not, apparently, prejudiced against the miners.
In the hearing room sat Mother Jones and T. V. Powderly, once head of the Knights of Labor, listening eagerly. Keeney and Fred Mooney, secretary-treasurer of District 17, with Sid Hatfield of Matewan and other stalwarts of the union ranks, sit with their lawyers Houston and Birkenshaw [Burkinshaw]. Across the room are bunched seven or eight lawyers and mine officials, eagerly whispering over the moves to be made in defense of West Virginia mine-despotism.
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From the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger of July 29, 1921:
MINE ORGANIZERS TO BRAVE MARTIAL LAW AT MINGO
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Hundred, Including Mother Jones, Not Afraid of ArrestCharleston, W. Va., July 29.-(By A. P.)-One hundred members of the United Mine Worker of America from the Cabin Creek and Paint Creek fields will start for Mingo County, according to C. F. Keeney, president of District 17. “Mother Jones,” labor organizer, is expected to arrive here tonight, Keeney said, and also will leave for the Mingo fields immediately.
Decision to send the union men into the district, which is under martial law, was made after C. H. Workman, an organizer, was reported arrested in Mingo recently. Keeney claimed that Workman had permission from State authorities to return to the fields to wind up personal business.
Keeney stated that if the organizers were arrested he would send more men into the district until every jail was filled, and that if they were not arrested he said he would prove that organizers “can go into a strike zone and conduct themselves in an orderly manner.”
Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel
https://books.google.com/books?id=vI-xAAAAIAAJ
https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735035254105/viewer#page/1/mode/2up
The Cincinnati Enquirer
(Cincinnati, Ohio)
-July 15, 1921, p1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/34529841/
The Scranton Times
(Scranton, Pennsylvania)
-July 16, 1921, p1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/534189244/
The Workers Chronicle
“Official Organ of District No. 14, United Mine Workers of America”
(Pittsburg, Kansas)
-July 22, 1921, p1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/484386471/
Evening Public Ledger
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
-July 29, 1921, p1
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045211/1921-07-29/ed-1/seq-1/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, ed WDC Tx p2, Aug 29, 1920
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1920-08-29/ed-1/seq-2/
See also:
Pittsburg KS, Workers Chronicle, July 22, 1921
-“West Va. Conditions Investigated by Senate” (for entire article)
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/90929951/pittsburg-ks-workers-chronicle-july/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/90930311/pittsburg-ks-workers-chronicle-july/
Hellraisers Journal: Mine Organizers Will Brave Martial Law at Mingo County, West Virginia, Including Mother Jones
From the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger of July 29, 1921
Tag: Senate Investigation of West Virginia Coal Fields of 1921
https://weneverforget.org/tag/senate-investigation-of-west-virginia-coal-fields-of-1921/
Tag: Mingo County Coal Miners Strike of 1920-1922
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mingo-county-coal-miners-strike-of-1920-1922/
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 21, 1921
Mother Jones News Round-Up for May and June 1921
Found in Mexico City, Standing for Organization of Mexican Workers
West Virginia Coal Fields
Hearings Before the Committee on Education and Labor
U.S. Senate, 67th. Congress
-Senator William S. Kenyon of Iowa, Chair
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and Labor
WDC, 1921
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008610716
https://books.google.com/books?id=EQQ9AAAAYAAJ
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Sid Hatfield-The Southern West Virginia Coal Wars
Written by David Grubb and Alan Johnston
Sung by Alan Johnston and Jessi Shumate