Tag: Cabin Creek WV

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: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1912, Part II: Found Speaking at Eskdale, W. V., Unafraid of Brutal Cabin Creek Gunthugs

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Quote Fred Mooney re Mother Jones at Cabin Creek Aug 6, 1912, Ab p27—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 18, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1912, Part II
Found Speaking to West Virginia Miners at Eskdale on Cabin Creek

Circular distributed in Eskdale August 4th through the 6th:

From the Clarksburg Daily Telegram of August 6, 1912:

SPREAD OF MINERS’ STRIKE TO
CABIN CREEK IS FEARED
———-

“MOTHER” JONES BUSY
———-
Big Meeting is Being Held Today for
Purpose of Sympathetic Strike.
———-

CHARLESTON. Aug. 6.-With no threat of an immediate outbreak and with Governor Glasscock conferring with the miners, all is quiet today in the strike zone on Paint creek. The miners insist that until the special guards employed by the coal companies are disarmed there can be no reconciliation. The operators claim that the guards are already disarmed.

Some fear is expressed today that some of the miners on Cabin creek will join the strikers. From the beginning the strikers have attempted to get the Cabin creek miners to join them but have failed. Today a meeting of miners is scheduled to be held at Eskdale and it will be addressed by “Mother” Jones. Many of the strikers have planned to attend in the hope of getting a sympathetic strike.

Several thousand miners are employed on Cabin creek and in case the strike spreads over that section the situation will become more serious, and the proclamation prepared for martial law by the governor will likely be issued. In that event the militia will be recruited to full strength. Already some new enlistments have been accepted.

Representatives of the miners called upon Governor Glasscock here this morning, but the result of the conference was not made public.

From The Fairmont West Virginian of August 7, 1912:

CONFERENCE
———-

CHARLESTON, W. Va., Aug. 7.-The conference with the miners and operators were continued yesterday by Governor Glasscock, but no one had any statement to make for publication, all agreeing that while various phases of the strike situation on Paint Creek were discussed with a view to placing before the governor the issue contended by each side, no definite conclusion was reached, nor did the operators and miners join in any statement or facts. Each held separate conferences with the state’s executive…..

A meeting of eight hundred miners was addressed yesterday [August 6th] by “Mother” Jones at Eskdale, on Cabin Creek, and the miners organized. The aged leader’s advice was far different to that given in her speech in this last week. The miners were unarmed and have promised to return to work tomorrow. They offered to help protect rather than destroy property.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1912, Part II: Found Speaking at Eskdale, W. V., Unafraid of Brutal Cabin Creek Gunthugs” →

Hellraisers Journal: After Speech by Mother Jones, Miners of Cabin Creek Walk Out on Strike to Join the Strike at Paint Creek

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Fred Mooney re Mother Jones at Cabin Creek Aug 6, 1912, Ab p27—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday August 12, 1912
Cabin Creek, West Virginia – 3,000 Miners Walk Out on Strike, Join Paint Creek Strike

From The Cincinnati Enquirer of August 11, 1912:

HdLn Cabin Creek WV Joins Strike, Cnc Enq p6, Aug 11, 1912

SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE ENQUIRER.

 Charleston. W. Va., August 10.-Still more serious became the strike situation in the Kanawha Valley to-day when 3,000 coal miners employed in the nonunion mines on Cabin Creek laid down their picks, bringing the total number of striking miners in the Kanawha coal fields above the 5,000 mark.

In the Cabin Creek field the miners walked out without making any demands upon the coal operators, asserting that they would refuse to longer work under the conditions existing on that creek, but they are expected to insist upon the employers recognizing the United Mine Workers’ organisation, the same demand made by the striking miners on Paint Creek, and the removal of the Baldwin Guards.

In addition to the general strike on Paint Creek, which has been in progress since last April, and the present extension of the strike to the mines on Cabin Creek, 1,400 miners are idle at Boomer, Fayette County, in close proximity to the strike zone. The miners at Boomer walked out Friday because of the refusal of the mine owners to meet their demand in connection with the semi-monthly pay day…..

Says Miners Are Assaulted.

“Mother” Jones, one of the strike leaders, who initiated the strike movement on Cabin Creek when she spoke to 800 miners at Eskdale on Thursday [Tuesday, August 6th], stated to-day that the guards on the Cabin Creek had assaulted a score of the miners since yesterday morning. She said further that the national organization of mine workers would be compelled to care for the 3,000 or 4,000 striking miners and their families from the Cabin Creek section.

The mines on Cabin Creek have been operated on the open shop plan since 1904, when the Miners Union in that field was destroyed. Since that year no efforts have been made to organize the miners on that creek, but the coal operators in the adjoining organized field have complained bitterly against being forced by the miners to compete in the markets with the coal produced by the nonunion labor on Cabin Creak.

The strike on Cabin Creek was a severe disappointment to Governor Glasscock, who has been making an effort to bring together the contending forces on Paint Creek. The action of the Cabin Creek miners further complicates a situation that appeared almost ready for solution…..

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia’s Mine Guard System: “The Hired Thugs of the Capitalists and Coal Operators”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EVD, Law ag Working Class, AtR p1, Apr 29, 1911—————

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:

HdLn re WV Guard System, Gunthugs, Lbr Arg p4, Sept 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.

—————

[Emphasis and paragraph breaks added.]

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