Tag: Baldwin-Felts Gunthugs

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1912, Part II: Speaks at Wheeling, West Virginia, Thrills Thousands, Grown Men Weep

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Get Rid of Mine Guards, Charleston WV, Aug 15, 1912, Steel Speeches p95—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 22, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1912, Part II
Found Speaking at Wheeling, West Virginia, Thrills Thousands

From the New York Sun of September 11, 1912:

MINERS TO BESIEGE GLASSCOCK.
———-
Will Bring Wives and Children
to West Virginia Capital.
———-

Mother Jones and WV Gov Glasscock, Wilmington DE Eve Jr p6, Sept 13, 1912

CHARLESTON, W. Va., Sept. 10.-Mother Jones announced to-day that the striking miners of the Kanawha district would make another effort to see Gov. Glasscock. Within a week they are to march into the capital again and make a demand for the use of the State House grounds as a meeting place.

[Said Mother Jones:]

The Governor must hear us this time. We want him to hear our story, we want him to see us. The very looks of the men who are fighting for freedom is a tremendous argument for their cause.

We are coming back to our capital again and twice as strong as last week. The men are going to bring their children along and their wives.

—————

[Photograph added.]

From The Wheeling Intelligencer of September 16, 1912:

MOTHER JONES MAKES ADDRESS
———-

TO OVER 1,500 AT FIFTH WARD MARKET HOUSE.
———-
Paints Horrible Picture of Conditions in Strike District
and Flays Coal Barons.

Owing to the rain the mass protest meeting that was to have been held at the wharf yesterday afternoon [Sunday September 15th] was held at the Fifth ward market house, where over 1,500 people assembled to hear Mother Jones, the lady of the mines, and other prominent speakers.

As the old lady with white hair mounted the platform she was greeted with cheers that lasted for over five minutes. She started right in to business, and did not mince words or names when it came down to condemning the conditions in the southern part of the state. Before the meeting closed, Governor William Glasscock and Senators Watson and Chilton came in for their share of flaying, as well as Senators Scott and Elkins. They were classed by her as leeches and blood suckers, and the detective force and mine guards as human blood hounds. She said that right here in the little Mountain State, peonage of the most horrible kind was being practiced, and that Russia and Bulgaria were a paradise compared to it. She said that slavery was nothing compared to it, and that only last Thursday she was forced to cross streams in the strike district in the middle of the night by wading in the water up to her waist.

She claimed that women, children and sick men were thrown out of doors by these hired toughs and compelled to find shelter in the open, and that women were hauled about by the hair if they resisted these insults.

A collection was taken up to be sent to the relief committee which amounted to over $50. It will be used for the purpose of buying food and clothes for the strikers. A large donation was also received from the miners in Cripple Creek, Colo.

Want Legislation.

By unanimous vote it was decided to send a petition to Governor Glasscock demanding him to call a special session of the state legislature to make laws to help the miners. The following legislation is wanted: To do away with the guard system; that all coal dug by the miners shall be paid for by weight; the enforcement of an employer’s liability law; the abolition of the company store; and the payment of the miners every two weeks. She said that the miners would never go back to work until these wishes were complied with, and that the guard system would have to go, and if the governor would not give the citizens their rights, they would be compelled to take the law in their own hands or starve.

Raps Watson.

She also took a rap at the Fairmont district and hit Senator Watson hard. She scorned him as a blot on the state that would take years to wipe off. As she concluded her speech she was madly cheered.

Other speakers were F. C. Harter, also from the southern part of the state, a Confederate soldier, and a well-to-do farmer over 80 years old. He condemned the tactics used by the coal barons as a disgrace to humanity, and a thing that every citizen in the state should be ashamed to tolerate.  “Mother Jones left last evening for Charleston and will stay with the boys, she says, until they get their rights.

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1912, Part II: Speaks at Wheeling, West Virginia, Thrills Thousands, Grown Men Weep” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1912, Part I: Found Speaking at Mass Meeting of Striking Miners at Charleston, W. Va.

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Rather sleep in guard house, Day Book p2, Sept 9, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 21, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1912, Part I
Found Speaking at Mass Meeting of Striking Miners at Charleston, W. Va.

From the Baltimore Sun of September 1, 1912:

TROUBLE AT CABIN CREEK.

Mother Jones, Rock Isl Argus p8, Sept 12, 1912

Trouble broke out afresh tonight at Cabin Creek Junction. Just what caused it cannot be learned at this time, but it is said it was started by the miners, who opened fire on the mine guards, seriously wounding two of them. If any or the miners were killed or wounded it is not known at this time. The wounded guards were hurried off to the hospital and their names are kept secret. Several of the guards who have been here for a long time have been marked by the miners, and it is possible that the injured men are of that number.

MILITIA RUSHED TO SCENE.

As a result of the battle tonight, five companies of militia which had been ordered home were rushed to the scene of the trouble.

Before they could arrive, however, a company from headquarters at Camp Pratt, on Paint creek, was rushed to Cabin Creek Junction…

Unless the situation improves materially within the next 48 hours martial law probably will be declared….It is admitted in official circles that the situation is more critical now than at any time since the miners went on strike in the Kanawha field last April. In case martial law is declared more troops will be needed.

MORE OUTBREAKS EXPECTED.

Further outbreaks between strikers and guards are expected at any or all of a dozen places on Paint and Cabin creeks as a result of the tense feeling which exists. In every instance the arrival of the militia has been sufficient to restore order.

Up to the present the strikers have been friendly to the militia, although a change may occur at any time.

“Mother” Jones has sent out word that the militia provost must be removed from the trains on the two creeks, but this guard will not be abandoned. As a result an attack on the passenger trains on either creek would cause little surprise. Close watch is being kept on the railway tracks to prevent the dynamiting of trains.

“Mother” Jones is scheduled to speak at Kingston tomorrow and orders have been issued to the militia to prevent such meeting. 

[…..]

Dogged Mother Jones’ Footsteps.

[T]he statement that the operators, or their agents, the mine guards, would prevent one individual from visiting another may seem to be overdrawn. It is not. Here is a case to illustrate:

About 10 days ago Mother Jones went to Kayford to hold a meeting. An account of that meeting was given in THE SUN of last Sunday [Aug 25th]. It was held after considerable trouble. She arrived at Kayford in the early afternoon and had tramped a good distance up the road before she reached the place. At every step she took she was followed by mine guards. She had had nothing to eat from the time she had an early breakfast and she was hungry. One of the miners, Lawrence Dwyer, the man who had arranged the meeting, asked her and the correspondent of THE SUN to go to his cabin for a cup of tea and a bite to eat. The invitation was accepted and we started to Dwyer’s house. No sooner had we stepped off the road and started up the lane leading to the cabin than Mayfield, the chief of the guards, ordered us off with an oath, threatening to arrest us if we took another step. His manner was rough in the extreme, especially to the white-haired old woman who really needed her cup of tea.

Dwyer remonstrated, saying he thought he had the right to take anyone he pleased to his house. He was told, with an oath, that he thought too much. Perhaps that is true. He is not fat. Like Cassius, “he hath a lean and hungry look,” and be certainly “thinks too much” for the peace of mind of the guards. However, Mother Jones went without her tea and she kept off private property.

Felts Blames Her For Trouble.

Later she came to a place where the road ran through the bed of the creek and she attempted to leave the county road on which she had been trudging and walk along the railroad track. Again she was ordered off. Even the railroad track was private property. This time the correspondent of THE SUN protested to Detective Felts. Felts was pleasant enough, but he was firm.

“That woman is old enough to be your grandmother,” he was told, “and no matter how much you may be opposed to her, remember that she is an old woman.”

“That makes no difference,” was the reply. “She is responsible for all the agitation and trouble that is taking place in these mines, and even though she is an old woman we do not propose to allow her any privileges here, or to show her any courtesies. She has got to keep to the public road, and keep off private property.“

That is the point. It would have been a “privilege” if she had been permitted to walk on the railroad track; it would have been a “courtesy” to have permitted her to go to Dwyer’s for her cup of tea. She might have done either, or both, by the grace and the favor of the company, but she could do neither as a matter of right.

[Photograph added.]

From the Baltimore Evening Sun of September 5, 1912:

3,000 MINERS TO MARCH IN
PROTEST TO CHARLESTON
———-
“Mother” Jones Will Lead Delegation
Before Governor Glasscock.
———-

MAYOR OF ESKDALE PLACED UNDER ARREST
———-
Court-Martial Disposing Of Cases Rapidly
-All Civil laws Suspended.
———-

Charleston, W. Va., Sept. 5.-Three thousand miners of that part of the Kanawha coal district which is not under martial law are coming to the State House at Charleston tomorrow to make a demonstration against the guard system in behalf of the men who are striking.

They will march through the streets of Charleston led by “Mother” Jones.

“Martial law is all right, but what after martial law?” is the legend to be displayed on a banner in the parade.

Governor Glasscock will be urged to come out and answer that question. “Mother” Jones will make a direct appeal to Glasscock.

Could Have Been Settled Long Ago.

[Said Mother Jones:]

The guard system will come back as soon as the soldiers are withdrawn. Months ago Governor Glasscock could have settled all difficulties by declaring that there shall be no guards. He did nothing at all; now the State and the miners are paying heavily.

Mayor And Miners Looked Up.

Martial law reached out last night and caught 20 miners and guards, including the Mayor of Eskdale, in the strike zone. The men were charged with disorderly conduct. They occupy joint jail quarters in the railroad station at Paint Creek Junction, which, has been turned into a prison.

Court-Martial Working Quickly.

The court-martial is working as quickly as a city court. In two days the military judges have tried 15 men. The verdicts were sealed and sent to Governor Glasscock for approval. The court can fix any penalty within its discretion. All statutory penalties are suspended.

The military authorities today ordered a Socialist paper that has been circulating in the “war” district suppressed as inflammatory. Free speech is one of the constitutional guarantees suspended by martial law.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1912, Part I: Found Speaking at Mass Meeting of Striking Miners at Charleston, W. Va.” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Wheeling Majority: “Soldiers Evict Miners’ Families” by G. H. Edmunds-Militia Aids Operators

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Better to Die Fighting, Sac Str p1, June 3, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal –Friday October 18, 1912
West Virginia Militia Aids Coal Operators in Evicting Miners’ Families

From The Wheeling Majority of October 17, 1912:

SOLDIERS EVICT MINERS’ FAMILIES
———-
(By G. H. Edmunds.)
—–

WV Militia Escort Miners to Court Martial, Cmg Ntn p2, Oct 12, 1912

In commenting on the troubles in the strike fields of Kanawha county, Gov. Glasscock mentioned the “invisible government” as being largely responsible for the troubles existing, and many of the citizens of this state have wondered what the “invisible government” was, but on Monday last, every one was brought face to face with this “Gila monster.” We beheld a monster with one head but two faces, a second Janus, too subtle for description.

Remember, Baldwin guards were driven out under the martial law proclamation, and everything went fine in the strike zone so far as peace and quiet was concerned, but, on Monday what do we find.

We find the militia of the state of West Virginia being used by the coal operators to evict miners from their homes, without any process of law whatsoever.

Never before has anything of the kind happened in any of the strikes of the country. Result: More than 100 families, aggregating 500 men, women and children are sitting by the roadside in the mountains of West Virginia with no place to lay their heads but on the hard rocks of the mountains, and absolutely no redress whatsoever. The governor has been appealed to, and his reply to the appeal was that the miners had redress in the civil courts, yet this same governor has suspended the civil courts and instituted martial law in their stead, and yet he tells the miners to go to the civil courts.

Yes, the government of West Virginia is “invisible.”

There seems to be a “power behind the throne” in this fight. Soldiers being used as strike breakers, and putting hundreds of women and children out in the cold to live in the open air in October, without any semblance of law. These people had a right to remain in the houses occupied by them until legally dispossessed, because, in law the fact that they were in the houses, and entered legally, gave them the right of remaining in said houses until legally dispossessed. The miners of West Virginia are being wrongfully treated by the governor, who is the commander in-chief of the state militia.

Strike breaking militia! Oh, shame on the fair name of West Virginia! The way that the militia is being used to evict the miners is done in this wise: The coal company sends several men to a miner’s house to put his household goods into the road. If the miner objects to having his goods put out without due process of law, the militia will arrest him and put him in the guard house. A squad of soldiers follows the evicting army and sees that no miner resists the process.

Yet in the face of all of this, and the hardships that the miners are being put into by the attitude of the governor of the state with their children half clad, hungry and barefooted, sickness in almost every home, no doctor, no money, only the charity of the Miners’ union to look to, and with a cold winter almost upon them, yet these hardships are more to be desired than peonage under the guard system. We are hoping that the governor will soon see the error of his way and do something to redeem the fair name of the great state of West Virginia.

[Photograph, emphasis and paragraph break added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: John W. Brown on Coal Miners’ Strike in West Virginia: “This Is War and War Is Hell”-Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Get Rid of Mine Guards, Charleston WV, Aug 15, 1912, Steel Speeches p95—————

Hellraisers Journal –Wednesday October 16, 1912
“This Is War and War Is Hell” by John W. Brown, Part II

From The Coming Nation of October 12, 1912:

WV Mine War by JW Brown, Cmg Ntn p5, Oct 12, 1912

[Part II of III]

Making and Breaking Contracts

On May 1st [1912], a compromise was reached in which the miners agreed to accept one-half of the Cleveland scale and the recognition of their union. This was accepted by a joint commission composed of representatives of the operators and the miners’ union.

On May 2d, the Paint Creek Collier Co., one of the parties to the contract, repudiated the agreement, thereby forcing their men either to scab or go on strike. The men chose the latter and on the 8th of May the first detatchment of “Baldwin guards” was sent to Paint Creek and following their arrival there, a reign of terror was established which has no parallel outside of barbarous Mexico or darkest Russia.

A chronicle of the crimes committed by these licensed and merciless cutthroats would fill a volume in itself. On June the 5th, eight of them were indicted before a grand jury and held for murder in the first degree, and were released on a bond of $3,000 each. A wholesale merchant and beneficiary of the coal barons acted as their bondsman.

The miners at Mucklow, Burnwell and several other camps were dispossessed under the “master and servant” decision of Judge Burdett. The miners made application for an injunction to restrain the operators from evicting them but Judge Burdett after a week or more of judicial jugglery refused to issue the order, notwithstanding such an order had been granted in Fayette county which is in the same mining district.

Battle for Tented “Homes”

WV Mine War, Miners Homes National, Cmg Ntn p6, Oct 12, 1912

The dispossessed miners secured tents and settled at Holly Grove at the mouth of Paint Creek. The coal barons and their hired assassins determined to break the union spirit and to drive the union men out of the district and opened fire on the tents at Holly Grove, July 25th. This was more than human endurance could stand and to this last outrage the miners retaliated and fought back with such weapons as they had and for two days the battle raged in and around Mucklow and just how many lives were lost will never be known.

About this time “Mother Jones,” the avenging Nemesis of the miners, appeared on the scene and with her came a new hope, a new courage and a new consciousness to the coal miners. There is something powerful about this old gray haired woman. When the coal barons hear her name they tremble. Barehanded and alone, Mother Jones walked up to the mouth of the gattling guns on Cabin Creek and demanded of the hireling that turned the crank that she be allowed to see her boys. Mother saw her boys and held a mass meeting in the Cabin Creek district and organized the miners and on August 7th the miners of Cabin Creek walked out on strike with their brothers of Paint Creek.

On August 29th a Baldwin guard drunk and disorderly shot a man by the name of Hodge at Dry Branch. This precipitated a general fight in which Hines, the instigator, was killed and several others wounded. On September 1st, Governor Glasscock ordered out the militia and declared martial law and just what the end will be it is hard to say at this time.

Governor Glasscock, in an interview with the newspaper reporters a few days ago admitted that he is not the governor of West Virginia, that the government of the state is controlled by an “infernal legislative lobby” and an “invisible power.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: John W. Brown on Coal Miners’ Strike in West Virginia: “This Is War and War Is Hell”-Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: John W. Brown on Miners’ Strike in Paint Creek/Cabin Creek, West Virginia: “This Is War and War Is Hell”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Get Rid of Mine Guards, Charleston WV, Aug 15, 1912, Steel Speeches p95—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 15, 1912
“This Is War and War Is Hell” by John W. Brown, Socialist and U. M. W. Organizer

From The Coming Nation of October 12, 1912:

WV Mine War by JW Brown, Cmg Ntn p5, Oct 12, 1912

[Part I of III]

WV Mine War, Text Coal Miners Story, Cmg Ntn p5, Oct 12, 1912—–

“COD walks on sea and land, but the devil reigns in the coal fields of West Virginia.” This was uttered by Gen. C. D. Elliott and the reference was to the civil war now going on in the Kanawha valley where the coal miners and the coal barons have grappled in a life and death struggle which can only end in the surrender of either one of the contending forces. “And the devil is greed,” says General Elliott. Greed personified in a handful of mercenary plutocrats who know no more, care no more for the rights of humanity than do the lean dogs who lick their grimy hands.

The details of this terrible struggle do not differ from that which could be written of all the other coal fields, and forms but another page in the development of American capitalism.

A Long Story of Stealing

First comes the usual questionable and fraudulent land titles, then corrupt legislation, then the usurpation of the courts and finally the general debauchery and degradation of the whole body politic. The Moloch of capitalism is never satisfied. It has no heart, no soul, no conscience. It has but one object, one purpose, and that is to make profit. It stands with open mouth crying, “give, give,” and the people of West Virginia have given, given and given again, first their lands, then their labor, and now the insatiable beast demands the half starved babes. The present strike in the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek districts has a shadowy background reaching back some ten years or more.

In 1902 the coal miners of West Virginia organized under the auspices of the United Mine Workers of America. Immediately following, the coal barons began their present fight against the union and a general strike followed. During this strike of 1902, Judge Jackson and Judge Keller issued their nefarious injunctions which if obeyed by the miners would have been nothing short of wholesale suicide. Naturally, the miners refused to bow to these injunctions and there followed a reign of rapine and legalized murder such as is seldom found in the pages of human history. Among which is recorded what is now known as the Stanford city massacre [Stanaford Massacre.].

An American Pogrom

WV Mine War, Mother Jones Speaks at Mass Meeting, Cmg Ntn p5, Oct 12, 1912

Dan Cunningham, at that time a United States deputy marshall armed with injunction and eviction papers and preceded by an army of professional murderers went to Stanford city in the night and at daylight made a murderous attack upon the helpless and defenseless miners, murdering them as they slept. Unarmed, old age, fathers and mothers, youths and even suckling babes were shot down like wild beasts and not even the prayers of pregnant mothers could prevail against this thirst for human blood.

There is always a point beyond which lies desperation and revolt. This point was reached during the strike of 1902 and for the time being both the federal authorities and the coal barons were baffled. But not for long. The Baldwin-Felts detective agency, an organization composed of ex-convicts and professional strike-breakers entered the field and agreed by contract to break the strike and from that day until this there has existed in West Virginia, a state of guerrilla warfare that beggars either pen or tongue to portray.

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Hellraisers Journal: “The Battle Ground of Coal” by James M. Cain-Union Organization and the Miners’ War in West Virginia

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 8, 1922
“The Battle Ground of Coal” by James M. Cain

From The Atlantic Monthly of October 1922:

THE BATTLE GROUND OF COAL

BY JAMES M. CAIN

I

Battle of Blair Mt, WV Today by Bushnell, Guards, Gunthugs, Spies, UMWJ p5, Sept 15, 1921

As you leave the Ohio River at Kenova, and wind down the Norfolk and Western Railroad beside the Big Sandy and Tug rivers, you come into a section where there is being fought the bitterest and most unrelenting war in modern industrial history. The country furnishes a suitable setting. Rocky hills, small mountains, rise on each side. They are gashed by ‘creeks’; looking up these, you see that the wild region extends for miles back from the railroad. There is no soft, mellow outline about these hills. They are sharp and jagged; about their tops grows a stunted, scraggly forest. Their color is raw: glaring reds and yellows, hard, waterstreaked grays. Here and there you see the blue-black ribbon of coal.

In this untamed section of West Virginia two tremendous forces have staked out a battle ground. These are the United Mine Workers of America and the most powerful group of nonunion coal-operators in the country. It is a battle to the bitter end; neither side asks quarter, neither side gives it. It is a battle for enormous stakes, on which money is lavished; it is fought through the courts, through the press, with matching of sharp wits to secure public approval. But more than this, it is actually fought with deadly weapons on both sides; many lives have already been lost; many may yet be forfeited.

As the train carries you southeastward, you see some signs of it. You pass many coal mines, and some of these are closed down. At the stations, pairs of men in military uniform scrutinize all who alight. These are the West Virginia State Police; a strong force of them is on duty here, for bloodshed became so frequent that one of these counties, Mingo, was placed under martial law. You pass occasional clusters of tents-squalid, wretched places, where swarms of men, women, and children are quartered. Everywhere you are sensible of an atmosphere of tension, covert alertness, sinister suspicion. It is not by accident that these State policemen appear always in pairs.

If you get off the train at Williamson, county seat of Mingo, you will be at the fighting front. People there will tell you that this struggle has been going on for three years. They will tell you of the bloody day at Matewan, May 1920, when ten men, including the mayor of the town, fell in a pistol battle that lasted less than a minute.They will tell you of guerrilla warfare that went on for months; how Federal troops had to be called in twice. They will tell you of the ‘three days’ battle,’ which resulted, in May, 1921, in the declaration of martial law. Union partisans will tell you of the exercises on May 30 last, when the graves of a score of union fallen were decorated with all the ceremony accorded soldiers who have died for the flag. The operators will tell you of attacks from ambush: how their men have been shot down from behind; how witnesses for trials were mysteriously killed before they could testify. The atrocity list and quantity of propaganda give this war quite an orthodox flavor. It is very hard to sift out the truth.

II

Back in 1898, when the coal industry was quite as unsettled as it is now, the union and the big operators evolved a working plan to stabilize conditions and equalize opportunity. This was the conference in the Central Competitive Field, whereby a wage scale was arrived at for this region, and scales in all other union districts were computed by using this scale as a basis and making allowances for different operating conditions, freight rates, and so forth. This was in order to give all districts an equal chance at the market. Coal is probably the most fluid commodity sold: coal from one section competes with coal from another section remote from the first. It is not analogous to a trade-marked article, for which an arbitrary price can be obtained by advertising campaigns and kindred methods. No amount of advertising can make coal of a given grade from one section outsell the same grade from another section at a higher price. This peculiarity of the coal market was the reason for the basic wage-scale arrangement which gave all districts as nearly equal chances as possible, and precluded the possibility that a miscalculated rate might put whole mining fields out of business altogether.

The plan worked fairly well for a time. Within a few years, however, it was discovered that large new areas of coal lands had been developed, and that most of these were being worked with nonunion labor. They had been left out of the original calculation, largely because the existence of such large virgin fields was not known until after the opening of the present century. Some of them were in Pennsylvania, but most, and by far the largest, were in southern West Virginia. Employing nonunion labor, they worked at a lower wage-scale than the union areas, and had become a formidable factor in the industry, for they were underselling union coal constantly. In the years just preceding the war, their effect on the market-and particularly the greater number of days their labor worked during the year-had become definitely noticeable. During the war, there was demand for everybody’s coal, and there was no pinch then. The pinch came, however, in the year following the peace.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “The Battle Ground of Coal” by James M. Cain-Union Organization and the Miners’ War in West Virginia” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Battling Miners of West Virginia” by Edward H. Kintzer, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Red Flag of Socialism, ISR p303, Oct 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 3, 1912
“The Battling Miners of West Virginia” by Edward H. Kintzer, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of October 1912:

The Battling Miners of West Virginia

By EDWARD H. KINTZER
Socialist Candidate for State Auditor of West Virginia.

[Part II of II]

WV Miners State Courthouse, ISR p295, Oct 1912

———-

Send the Politicians Here.

In this situation the pure and simple politicians could learn a lesson in tactics. It is one of the unusual conditions in America’s industrial wars, in which are engaged men who understand the importance of political action, but who feel how hopelessly lost they would be to depend solely upon this in the present crisis. Many of these strikers are members of the Socialist party. To suggest to them that sabotage or other than political acts or taking a timely vacation from work would exclude them from the sacred circle where politics is crowned king, would cause them to question your sanity.

Nor are the miners alone in this fight. There is a bond of sympathy between workers in the region that is worthy of note. It is an example of the class consciousness that is permeating industry all over the world.

WV Mine Guards v Miners, ISR p301, Oct 1912

The railroaders who haul the mine guards understand that they (the mine guards) are not spying upon them; that it is the miners who are being hounded, but their hatred for the guards has precipitated several fatalities.

Dead bodies of two guards were found under a structural steel bridge, apparently having fallen while walking the ties. Yet it is the boast of train crews that they loathe these human bloodhounds. Numerous such circumstances have come to light.

The favorite position of the guards while traveling the coal region is to perch themselves on the pilot of the engine. On one occasion three guards boarded the pilot. The engineer of the freight train was particularly hostile to them. He opened wide the throttle and went at a speed that none of his crew knew the train to make before. But they understood. Anything that could happen was welcome. Sharp curves had no terrors for the engineer. What this mad race meant might only be guessed at. Whether or not what happened was by design or accident, all the miners and most of the railroaders considered it more than just. Rounding a curve, with the complacency of the guards taxed to the utmost, the strain upon the crew being unusual, a cow attempted to cross the track. The guards say there was plenty of time to slow down and allow her to cross. The engineer declared that it was impossible unless he unbuckled his train. Result: Before the bovine could wink her tranquil eye she was unrecognizable, with quantities of her blood, hair and what-not covering the three guardsmen, who were otherwise unharmed. A hasty bath in a nearby creek restored the appearance of the guards, and with knowing winks among the crew, the train moved on.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Battling Miners of West Virginia” by Edward H. Kintzer, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Battling Miners of West Virginia” by Edward H. Kintzer, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Sleep Guard House, ISR p295, Oct 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 2, 1912
“The Battling Miners of West Virginia” by Edward H. Kintzer, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of October 1912:

HdLn WV Miners,ISR p295, Oct 1912———-

[Part I of II]

Mother Jones Sits by Table, ISR p294, Oct 1912

WEST VIRGINIA is living under martial law in the mining war that has been raging in that state for several years. Mother Jones, the veteran of many labor battles, is the central and inspiring figure. In her eightieth year she is today leading the fight in the strike, which started last April. In her characteristic way, she has has more than once defied the military authorities who are making and executing the mine-owner-made laws. When informed that the militia were endeavoring to arrest her for what they called inflammatory speeches, she said:

If they want the chance, I will give it to them. I’d just as soon sleep in a guard house as in a hotel.

At Pratt and Holly Grove Junction guard houses are being filled with miners for the slightest offenses. The militia has taken control, making and executing the laws without regard for the civil code, in all favor to the mine owners, just as have the judicial courts since Capitalism has ruled in the mining industry.

Martial Law Welcomed.

Fierce were the conflicts of 1897 when Eugene V. Debs led the striking miners in the Fairmont district and in 1902, when Mother Jones played a prominent part in that great strike. But never before has any part of the state been under martial law.

When it came it was welcomed by the strikers, for they had suffered such outrages at the hands of a private army in the employ of the coal barons that anything was preferable-even death-to a continuation of the horrors they had perpetrated.

Governor Glasscock appointed a commission to “examine” into the private army system and the wages and working conditions of the miners. The United Mine Workers demanded that the intense over-capitalization of the companies also be considered.

Later the governor issued a proclamation, ordering the mine guards and the strikers to lay down their arms. This was resented by the strikers who claimed that if they obeyed this order the guards would not and they would be helpless before armed thugs. In reply to this proclamation Mother Jones led 10,000 miners to Charleston, where they demanded that the governor order the mine guards out of the region. She declared that he would be to blame for any trouble that might follow if the guards were not sent away. So horrible had been the acts of the guards that the miners were ready to kill on sight.

America has no better example of the conflict between the two important economic classes than this one in the Kanawah coal mining district. Here Capitalism has mocked the sentiment of the founders of the state and by force of a private army abrogated the constitution this new state adopted. Born in the stress of a civil conflict over a question of bondage, the native coal miners of West Virginia have never learned to submit tamely to an interference with their liberties. .

And yet no people have been more thoroughly exploited than the workers of West Virginia. Mine workers that have been on strike since April are desperate over their frightful condition of starvation and disease. Yet every one is loyal and will die rather than submit to the mine guards.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Battling Miners of West Virginia” by Edward H. Kintzer, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1912, Part IV: Found On the Ground in W. V. Strike Zone, Shadowed by Mine Guards

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Get Rid of Mine Guards, Charleston WV, Aug 15, 1912, Steel Speeches p95—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 20, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1912, Part IV
Found on the Ground in West Virginia Strike Zone, Shadowed by Mine Guards

From The Wheeling Majority of August 15, 1912:

Kanawha Miners Still on Strike
———-

[Mother Jones on the Ground.]

(By G. H. Edmunds.)

Mother Jones, Tacoma Tx p3, Feb 14, 1912

Charleston. W. Va., Aug. 15.—(Special.)-The great strike of the miners of the Kanawha valley is still on, and is spreading daily. When this strike started it was confined to the mines along Paint Creek and Little Coal river and Briar creek, but it now embraces the entire Cabin Creek and Big Coal river district. The miners of this section voluntarily organized themselves into local unions and then applied to the district organization to admit them into the district of West Virginia, which is District No. 17, U. M. W. of A. In all, there are close to 4,000 miners and 40 mines affected. The miners are demanding the right to organize, and also are demanding the doing away with the mine guard system. The guard system has become unbearable, and it has been definitely decided among the miners that it must go…..

The Demands.

The demands in brief are:

1. The recognition by the operators of their right to organize.
2. The abolition of the guard system.
3. The recognition of the union as in affect on the Kanawha river between the operators and miners.
4. The short ton of 2,000 pounds in lieu of the long ton of 2,240 pounds.
5. Nine hours to constitute a work day in lieu of a 10-hour day.
6. Semi-monthly pay.  [State law, but unenforced.]
7. The right to purchase goods at any place desired.

Demands Reasonable.

Now, anyone can see that these demands are reasonable, and should not be refused to any body of workmen. There has been all kinds of trouble since the strike started. Miner after miner has been shot, killed and beaten up by the guards, until the governor was compelled to send the militia to Paint Creek. Cabin Creek is now the battle ground, and all eyes are looking in that direction.

“Mother” Jones is on the ground, and the miners are organizing daily. By next Monday not a mine on the Creek will be operating…..

[Photograph and paragraph break added.]

From the Baltimore Sun of August 20, 1912:

WV Strike Scenes, Blt Sun p2, Aug 20, 19121. Sentry on guard at Mucklow, W. Va. More than a hundred bullets struck this house on the morning of July 26, when strikers shot up the town.
2. Striking miner’s family living at Holly Grove, on Paint Creek, W. Va., in tent furnished by United Mine Workers’ organization. At the time the picture was taken the husband and father had walked 12 miles to hear “Mother” Jones speak. Several hundred miners live in the Holly Grove Camp.
3. View of miners’ camp at Holly Grove, W. Va.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1912, Part IV: Found On the Ground in W. V. Strike Zone, Shadowed by Mine Guards” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1912, Part III: Found Speaking to Striking Miners from Steps of Capitol at Charleston, W. V.

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, I Will Be With You, Cton WV, Aug 15, 1912, Speeches, Steel, p104—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 19, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1912, Part III
Found Speaking to West Virginia Miners from Steps of Capitol at Charleston

August 15, 1912, Charleston, West Virginia
-Mother Jones Speaks to Striking Miners, Demands Removal of Mine Guards

Mother Jones, Tacoma Tx p3, Feb 14, 1912

This, my friends, marks, in my estimation, the most remarkable move ever made in the State of West Virginia. It is a day that will mark history in the long ages to come. What is it? It is an uprising of the oppressed against the master class.

From this day on, my friends, Virginia–West Virginia–shall march in the front of the nation’s states. To me, I think, the proper thing to do is to read the purpose of our meeting here today–why these men have laid down their tools, why these men have come to the State House.

To His Excellency, William E. Glasscock,
Governor of the State of West Virginia:

It is respectfully represented unto your Excellency that the owners of the various coal mines doing business along the valley of Cabin Creek, Kanawha County, West Virginia, are maintaining and have at present in their employ a large force of armed guards, armed with Winchesters, a dangerous and deadly weapon; also having in their possession three Gatling guns, which they have stationed at commanding positions overlooking the Cabin Creek Valley, which said weapons said guards use for the purpose of brow-beating, intimidating and menacing the lives of all the citizens who live in said valley, and whose business calls them into said valley, who are not in accord with the management of the coal companies, which guards are cruel and their conduct toward the citizens is such that it would be impossible to give a detailed account of.

Therefore, suffice it to say, however, that they beat, abuse, maim and hold up citizens without process of law, deny freedom of speech, a provision guaranteed by the Constitution, deny the citizens to assemble in a peaceable manner for the purpose of discussing questions in which they are concerned. Said guards also hold up a vast body of laboring men who live at the mines, and so conduct themselves that a great number of men, women and children live in a state of constant fear, unrest and dread.

We hold that the stationing of said guards along the public highways, and public places is a menace to the general welfare of the state. That such action on the part of the companies in maintaining such guards is detrimental to the best interests of society and an outrage against the honor and dignity of the State of West Virginia. (Loud applause.)

As citizens interested in the public weal and general welfare, and believing that law and order, and peace, should ever abide, that the spirit of brotherly love and justice and freedom should everywhere exist, we must tender our petition that you would bring to bear all the powers of your office as Chief Executive of this State, for the purpose of disarming said guards and restoring to the citizens of said valley all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States and said State.

In duty bound, in behalf of the miners
of the State of West Virginia.

I want to say with all due respect to the Governor–I want to say to you that the Governor will not, cannot do anything, for this reason: The Governor was placed in this building by Scott and Elkins and he don’t dare oppose them. (Loud applause.) Therefore, you are asking the Governor of the State to do something that he cannot do without betraying the class he belongs to……

 I still unfurl the red flag of industrial freedom, no tyrant’s face shall you know, and I call you today into that freedom, long perched on the bosom (Interrupted by applause).

I am back again to find you, my friends, in a state of industrial peonage–after ten years absence I find you in a state of industrial peonage.

I am not afraid of jails. We build the jails, and when we get ready we will put them behind the bars. That may happen very soon–things happen overnight.

Now, brothers, not in all the history of the labor movement have I got such an inspiration as I have got from you here today. Your banners are history, they will go down to the future ages, to the children unborn, to tell them the slave has risen, children must be free……

I want to show you here that the average wages you fellows get in this country is $500.00 a year. Before you get a thing to eat there is $20.00 taken out a month, which leaves about $24.00 a month.

Then you go the the “Pluck-me” stores and want to get something to eat for your wife, and you are off that day, and the child comes back and says, “Papa, I can’t get anything.” “Why,” he says, “There is four dollars coming to me,” and the child goes back crying, without a mouthful of anything to eat. The father goes to the “Pluck-me” store and says to the manager, “There is four dollars coming to me,” and the manager says, “Oh, no, we have kept that for rent!” “You charge six dollars a month, and there are only three days gone.” “Well,” he says, “it is a rule that two-thirds of the rent is to be kept if there is only a day.”

That is honesty! Do you wonder these women starve? Do you wonder at this uprising? And you fellows have stood it entirely too long. It is time now to put a stop to it. We will give the Governor until tomorrow night to take them guards out of Cabin Creek. (Very loud applause, and cries of: “And no longer.”)

HERE ON THE STEPS OF THE CAPITOL OF WEST VIRGINIA, I SAY THAT IF THE GOVERNOR WON’T MAKE THEM GO THEN WE WILL MAKE THEM GO……

I want to tell you that the Governor will get until tomorrow night, Friday night, to get rid of his blood-hounds, and if they are not gone we will get rid of them. (Loud applause.)

Aye, men! Aye, men, inside of this building, Aye, women! Come with me and see the horrible pictures, see the horrible condition the ruling class has put these women in. Aye, they destroy women. Look at those little children, the rising generation; yes, look at the little ones; yes, look at the women assaulted…..

It is freedom or death, and your children will be free. We are not going to leave a slave class to the coming generation, and I want to say to you that the next generation will not charge us for what we have done, they will charge and condemn us for what we have left undone…..

Now, my boys, guard rule and tyranny will have to go, there must be an end. I am going up Cabin Creek. I am going to hold meetings there. I am going to claim the right of an American citizen……

This fight that you are in is the great industrial revolution that is permeating the heart of men over the world. They see behind the clouds the Star that rose in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago, that is bringing the message of a better and nobler civilization. We are facing the hour. We are in it, men, the new day, we are here facing that Star that will free men, and give to the nation a nobler, grander, higher, truer, purer, better manhood. We are standing on the eve of that mighty hour when the motherhood of the nation will rise, and instead of clubs or picture shows or excursions she will devote her life to the training of the human mind, giving to the nation great men and women.

I see that hour. I see the Star breaking your chains; your chains will be broken, men. You will have to suffer more and more, but it won’t be long. There is an awakening among all the nations of the earth……

I know of the wrongs of humanity; I know your aching backs; I know your swimming heads; I know your little children suffer; I know your wives, when I have gone in and found her dead and found a babe nursing at the dead breast, and found the little girl eleven years old taking care of three children. She said, “Mother, will you wake up, baby is hungry and crying?” When I laid my hand on mamma she breathed her last. And the child of eleven had to become a mother to the children.

Oh, men, have you any hearts? Oh, men, do you feel? Oh, men, do you see the judgement day on the throne above, when you will be asked, “Where did you get your gold?” You stole it from these wretches. You murdered, you assassinated, you starved, you burned them to death, that you and your wives might have palaces, and that your wives might go to the sea-shore……

Some women get up with five dollars worth of paint on their cheeks, and have tooth brushes for their dogs, and say, “Oh, them horrible miners. Oh, that horrible old Mother Jones, that horrible old woman.”

I am horrible, I admit, and I want to be to you blood-sucking pirates. I want you, my boys, to buckle on your armor. This is the fighting age. This is not the age for cowards, put them out of the way……

This day marks the forward march of the workers in the state of West Virginia. Slavery and oppression will gradually die. The national government will get a record of this meeting. They will see men of intelligence, that they are not out to destroy but to build. And instead of the horrible homes you have got, we will build on their ruins homes for you and your children to live in, and we will build them on the ruins of the dog kennels which they wouldn’t keep their mules in. That will bring forth better ideas than the world has had. The day of oppression will be gone. I will be with you whether true or false. I will be with you at midnight or when the battle rages, when the last bullet ceases, but I will be in my joy…..

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1912, Part III: Found Speaking to Striking Miners from Steps of Capitol at Charleston, W. V.” →