Tag: Company Gunthugs

Hellraisers Journal: From the Duluth Labor World: Gatling Guns for West Virginia Miners-Peonage, Bullets and Bloodshed

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones to Wayland fr WV Wind Blows Cold, AtR p4, Nov 1, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 27, 1903
West Virginia Miners Face Gatling Guns, Company Guards & Peonage

From the Duluth Labor World of May 23, 1903:

GATLING GUN FOR THE MINERS
———-

RIDDLES GREAT TREES IN FOREST
IT IS TRAINED UPON.
———-

WORKMEN HELP PRISONERS
———-
Will Resort to More Bloodshed If It Becomes
Necessary to Coerce the Miners.
———-

HdLn Strikers Murdered, Evans Reports re Stanaford, Raleigh Co WV, NY Worker p1, Mar 15, 1903

Labor conditions in West Virginia mines are not enviable. Besides reports of Gatling guns mounted on fortifications to command approaches to the mines, comes the further news that the mining camps are surrounded by armed guards ready to shoot down any of the workers who try to reach the outside world. So, between the guns and the guards, the wage workers of one of the naturally rich states of the Union cannot be said to pass very happy lives.

Though so rich in natural resources-for there are coal and iron mines and virgin forests that have never yet been touched-West Virginia is cursed by monopoly. As a result, the wage workers are not free to employ themselves, but must accept the conditions of those who control the source from which all must draw their subsistence-the land.

For no other reason do the inhabitants of that state submit. Those who are enticed into its boundaries under false pretences, as evidenced by the affidavits of the miners published in the organ of the Mine Workers’ Union; have hard work to get away. They are subdued by their poverty and fear of the armed guards.

The necessity for organizing West Virginia is so apparent that it is a wonder the American Federation of Labor does not flood the state with “agitators” for human freedom and human rights. What the wage workers there need is the knowledge that their own efforts to improve their own condition will be supplemented by the good will and financial assistance of organized labor everywhere. It is a hard proposition, to be sure, to go into territory dominated by such powerful social and political interests, but greater tasks have been accomplished, and it only needs the united power of an aroused commonwealth to bring about great and good industrial changes in that section of the country.

[Newsclip and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: “The Last Day of the Paint Creek Court Martial” by Cora Older, Part II: Wives and Children Stand Outside

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones fr Military Bastile, Cant Shut Me Up, AtR p1, May 10, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 19, 1913
“The Last Day of the Paint Creek Court Martial” by Cora Older, Part II

From The Independent of May 15, 1913:

Title Paint Creek Trial, Court Martial of Mother Jones, by Cora Older, Idpd p1045

[Part II of II]

Mother Jones, Cora Older, at Military Bastile WV, Colliers p26, Apr 1913

During the recess I had a few minutes’ conversation with Mother Jones. Her eighty years were as nothing—she became a rollicking, irrepressible girl. She liked everyone, even the military court. She told me she was not against the judges, but their jobs. As for the young officer appointed against her wishes her counsel, like an affectionate mother she said, “He’s a nice fellow, only, you know, he’s not my attorney.” She turned to one of the judges who was passing: “Don’t dare find against me. If you do, I’ll——” she shook her fist with a touch revealing coquetry.

When I returned for the evening session, already a crowd had gathered in the street before the court room. Prisoners’ wives with shawls over their heads, leading children, had walked a mile or more. They knew there was no chance to enter the court room, but they stood in the streets, hoping to catch echoes of speeches thru the open windows. One woman flung at a soldier: “Scabs at a dollar and a half a day.” In West Virginia, women fight side by side with men.

Eight or ten sympathizers of the prisoners had already filled the benches in the gas-lit hall. “Everybody’s Dearest Friend” had preceded me. Again he gave me water and a newspaper. The prisoners filed into the room.

“A bad-looking lot of fellows,” he offered.

“Badly dressed,” I answered.

“No, bad men. You ought to know what these miners are. If you had seen and heard what I have.”

A sympathizer with the strikers seated on a bench behind me touched my arm. “Do you know you are talking with Smith, a Burns detective?”

Mr. Smith conferred with the provost marshal, also Associated Press correspondent. Word was sent to the judges’ table. The judge advocate rose and advised all women except me to leave the court room. The women obeyed. A smile played round the lips of Mr. Smith, flirted in the provost marshal’s eyes, and lighted up the table where the judges sat.

The smile died when M. F. Matheny, an attorney for the defendants, rose and said: “These women are friends of the prisoners. They are as much interested in the trial as the men themselves. This man Smith has no right in the court room. He should be excluded if the women are. The court has ruled that no witness after testifying shall remain.”

The court blithely overruled itself and then went on dealing out justice to “criminals.” I was proud to know Mr. Smith. He had invented a new misdemeanor; to mention his name was lèse–Smith. This great court he dominated. William J. Burns was his visible employer. I speculated much about his invisible employer.

I was not to speculate long. An attorney’s speech disclosed that Smith, the gentle overlord of the room, was in the employ of the mine operators. The attorney also revealed that Smith was an excellent detective. He had gone to the strikers, pretended to be in need, had eaten their bread when they had only strike rations. On one occasion his life had been saved by one of the prisoners. The detective had recorded the many violent words uttered and had become chief witness for the state.

While the first speeches were being made, Mr. Smith, the mine operators’ representative, unrebuked by the court, noisily used the telephone. Apparently the judges and Mr. Smith agreed that it was a noble duty to interrupt a dull speech. The prisoners watched Smith with more perturbation than they followed the judges. As the hour grew late, they moistened their lips; their eyes were glassy; even Mother Jones seemed about to faint. Back of Smith was the specter, the guard system, peonage, gatling guns.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks in Washington, D. C., Scores Inhumane Treatment of West Virginia Coal Miners

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Howling Anarchy, Cton WV, Sept 6, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 13, 1913
Washington, D. C. – Mother Jones Speaks on Behalf of West Virginia Miners

From the Washington Evening Star of January 11, 1913:

TELLS OF INHUMANITY
———-
“Mother” Jones Scores Treatment of
the West Virginia Coal Miners.
———-

Mother Jones, NE State Jr p2, Sept 19, 1912

“Mother” Jones, the “angel” of the  United Mine Workers and a prominent figure in the coal mining regions for the last forty years, was the principal speaker at a meeting at National Rifles’ Armory last night, the meeting being held under the auspices of the Central Labor Union.

In her address Mother Jones pronounced conditions in the coal mining regions of West Virginia worse than that of the slaves in the darkest days of the antebellum period. She declared that she had seen twenty-one innocent men out of a party of thirty miners slain while they slept by a posse made up of deputy sheriffs and detectives, and that of her own knowledge women and children of striking miners had been thrown out of their cabins, in evil weather, by the hired officers of the mine owners and forced to seek shelter under trees and in eaves of the mountains, without food for four days and nights.

“Were these things to occur in Russia or Mexico,” declared Mother Jones, “the American people would rise up in protest, as they have done on several occasions, forcing Congress to take action to prevent further murders and violence.”

Representative W. B. Wilson of Pennsylvania, for many years a high official of the United Mine Workers, presided at the meeting, and declared that he knew personally that the things of which Mother Jones told were actually true. Other speakers were J. W. Brown of the U. M. W., and Frank Hayes, a vice president of that organization. Resolutions were adopted reciting at length the alleged conditions in the West Virginia coal fields and petitioning Congress to rectify them by adopting a pending of Representative Wilson’s calling for a thorough investigation.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Striking Miners of Southwestern Counties of Pennsylvania, Evicted for Joining UMWA, Live in Tents

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Coming of the Lord, Cnc Pst p6, July 23, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 17, 1922
Evicted Miners of Southwestern Counties of Pennsylvania Survive in Tents

From the United Mine Workers Journal of December 15, 1922:

SW PA UMW Strike, Mendak Family in Tent Fayette Co, UMWJ p9, Dec 15, 1922

—–

UMW Strike SW PA, Tent Denbo Miners Wife Milks Cow, UMWJ p16, Dec 15, 1922

—–

UMW SW PA Strike, Uniformed Gunthugs, UMWJ p14, Dec 15, 1922

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Hellraisers Journal: Armed Guards Returning to Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike Zone; Miners Remain Disarmed

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 30, 1912
Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike Zone – Company Gunthugs Allowed to Return

From The Pittsburg Daily Headlight (Kansas) of October 28, 1912:

From Mine Workers Journal.
———-

HdLn UMW Biggest Union in World, LW p1, Oct 26, 1912
Duluth Labor World
October 26, 1912

The strike in West Virginia remain unchanged. Everything is quiet on Cabin and Paint Creeks. After many of the strike leaders had been evicted with the aid of the militia, martial law was discontinued. The miners are camped on the hillsides in tents. There is much suffering but no complaints. The strikers are grateful for what assistance the organization has been able to give them and determined to fight on until they win. Armed guards have been allowed to return to the strike fields, while the weapons given up by the strikers have, so far, not been returned to them; it looks like a neat case of “double cross.”

However, the eyes of the civilized world is on West Virginia. All workers of the State are watching; the farmers are with us, also the small dealers when they dare to express themselves. Victory is sure. Miners in all parts of the country are expressing themselves favoring a continuation of the struggle and will render such aid, both morally and financially as may be within their power, until they have accomplished their purpose and rights as an American sovereign people are recognized. 

—————

[Emphasis and newsclip added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “Strike Violence That Doesn’t Get Into the Newspapers”-Strikers and Families Evicted

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 13, 1922
Coal Miners and Families Brutally Evicted from Company Towns

From The Liberator of September 1922:

National Coal Strikes, Violent Evictions by Russell, Lbtr p4, Sept 1922

From the United Mine Workers Journal of September 1, 1922:

-Tent Colony of Evicted Miners at Buck Bottom, West Virginia

Tent Colony Bucks Bottom WV, UMWJ p9, Sept 1, 1922

-Families Forming Tent Colony at Gray’s Landing, Pennsylvania

National Coal Strike, Tent Colony Garys Landing PA, UMWJ p11, Sept 1, 1922

-Evicted Miner George Walker of West Brownsville, Pennsylvania, Age 60

National Coal Strike, Evicted Miner George Walker, age 60, UMWJ p14, Sept 1, 1922

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “Timber Workers and Timber Wolves” by William D. Haywood, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH re Industrial Freedom BTW LA, ISR p , Aug 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 3, 1912
Brotherhood of Timber Workers Organizing Campaign in Louisiana

From the International Socialist Review of August 1912:

Timber Workers by BBH, ISR p105, Aug 1912

[Part II of II]

Before the campaign of organization [Brotherhood of Timber Worker] now inaugurated by the Industrial Workers of the World is closed the lumber barons of Dixieland will have learned that it is impossible to fell trees with rifles and saw lumber with six shooters.

It should be mentioned here that of the nine men arrested four are non-union men, two of them, John and Paul Galloway, being owners of the Lumber Company. All are charged with murder. This, perhaps, indicates that the Trust has not entirely corralled the officialdom of Louisiana. It is certain that they are in bad repute with the business element in nearly all of the towns as their commissaries have been the means of controlling nearly the entire earnings of their employees, who are compelled to trade with the companies or lose the only means they have of making a living.

To maintain their absolute control of the camps the lumber companies, with the aid of their thugs, patrolled the towns, in some places inclosures were built around the mills and shacks. Notices were posted warning away union men, peddlers and Socialists.

Only a few days ago, H. G. Creel, one of the Rip-Saw editors on a lecture tour, was roughly handled at Oakdale and DeRidder, La. He was compelled to leave the first-named place, being threatened and intimidated by gun-men.

The small merchant realizes that if the workers are allowed to trade where they choose some of their money would pass over their counters and they know if wages are increased there would be a corresponding increase in their day’s receipts. This will account for the fact that the small business man and farmer have given their sympathy and a measure of support to the growing union of timber workers.

Arthur L. Emerson and Jay Smith, both Southern born, are the men around whom interest centers. They are the men who organized the Brotherhood of Timber Workers. Emerson had made two trips to the West-one to the Lumber District to the Southwest and the other to the Northwest. It was during the time that he worked with the lumber jacks of the Pacific Coast that he learned the need of organization. This thought was especially developed when he came in contact with the Lumber Workers’ Union of St. Regis and other points in the Bitter Root Range of Mountains. Being a practical lumber jack and saw mill hand and mill-wright himself, he saw at once the discrepancy in wages between the Pacific Coast and the Gulf States and upon his return to Dixieland he immediately took up the burden of organizing the workers as the only possible means of bringing up their wages and conditions to the level of the already too-low Western scale.

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “Timber Workers and Timber Wolves” by William D. Haywood, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 2, 1912
Lake Charles, Louisiana – A. L Emerson, President of B. T. W., in Jail

From the International Socialist Review of August 1912:

Timber Workers by BBH, ISR p105, Aug 1912

[Part I of II]

A. L. EMERSON, President of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers, is in jail at Lake Charles, La. He was arrested following the shooting at Grabow, La., where three union men and one company hireling were killed outright and nearly two score of men were more or less seriously wounded.

The shooting is the outcome of the bitter war waged against the members of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers by the Lumber Trust for the last eighteen months. The scene of the tragedy that occurred on Sunday, July seventh, is a typical Southern lumber camp. The mill at this place is operated by the Galloway Lumber Company. In common with all others, it is surrounded by the miserable houses where the workers find habitation, the commissary store of the Company being the largest place of business in the towns. A strike has been on at this place since the middle of last May. The single demand on the part of the union men was for a bi-weekly pay day. Heretofore the pay days have been at long intervals-usually a month apart.

During the intervening weeks, when the men were in need of money to meet the necessities of life, they could secure advances on their pay but not in real money. They were compelled to accept Company Scrip payable only in merchandise and exchangeable only at the company commissary. If accepted elsewhere it is uniformly discounted from 10 to 25 per cent on the dollar.

Timber Workers LA Scrip, ISR p106, Aug 1912

In the commissary stores where the cash prices are always from 20 to 50 per cent higher than at the independent stores, the company has established another means of graft by making two prices-the coupon or scrip price being much higher than that exacted for real cash.

The conditions at Grabow can be used as an illustration of nearly all of the other lumber camps of the South.

The commissary store is not the only iniquity imposed upon the Timber Workers. For miserable shacks they [are] compelled to pay exorbitant rents; sewerage there is none; there is no pretense at sanitation ; the outhouses are open vaults. For these accommodations families pay from $5 to $20 a month. In one camp worn-out box cars are rented by R. A. Long, the Kansas City philanthropist, for $4 a month. Insurance fees are arbitrarily collected from every worker, for which he receives practically nothing in return, but whether his time be long or short-one day or a month-with the company, the fee is deducted. The same is true of the doctor fee and the hospital fee, which, in all places, is an imaginary institution. The nearest thing to a hospital that the writer saw was an uncompleted foundation at DeRidder, the place visited a few days prior to the Grabow tragedy. The gunmen and deputy sheriffs are an expensive innovation in the manufacture of lumber. These miserable tools are to be found everywhere and are used to browbeat and coerce the workers.

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Hellraisers Journal: Battle at Mucklow Between Miners and Company Gunthugs Leaves One Dead, Many Injured

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Quote Fred Mooney re July 1912 Battle of Mucklow, Ab—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday July 31, 1912
Mucklow, West Virginia – Striking Miners Battle Company Gunthugs

From The Wheeling Intelligencer of July 27, 1912:

HdLn re Battle of Mucklow, Wlg Int p1, July 27, 1912

From The Pittsburgh Post of July 30, 1912:

Photos re Mucklow WV, Ptt Pst p3, July 30, 1912

Top, left to right:
Troop train arriving at Mucklow, W. Va. Every man on Paint Creek goes armed, and the excitement is intense.
General view of Mucklow, showing the company store and tipple on the left, and troops beginning their encampment on the right.

Bottom, left to right:
Prisoners accused of murdering mine guards. Twenty-two of these were taken on Saturday by Baldwin men, who surrounded them with an armed guard.
Tent and family of one of the destitute and evicted miners.

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Hellraisers Journal: Company Gunthugs Shoot Down Members of Brotherhood of Timber Workers at Grabow, Louisiana

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH re Capitalist Class, Lbr Arg p4, Mar 23, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday July 19, 1912
Grabow, Louisiana – Company Gunthugs Shoot Down Members of B. T. W.

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of July 18, 1912:

Kirby’s Thugs Shed Workers’ Blood

Grabow Massacre, Four Shot Dead, WDC Tx p2, July 8, 1912
The Washington Times
July 8, 1912

Not content with maiming and mangling the peons in their slave camps in the lumber district the Southern Lumber Operators’ Association has turned loose their gunmen to take the lives of those who dare to struggle for better conditions.

As a sequel to the degenerate actions of Kirby’s thugs there are three men lying dead in Grabow, La., and 20 others are wounded. Some of the latter are not expected to live.

Among those placed under arrest as the result of the battle between the scabs and the B T. W. men are A. L. Emerson, president of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers, and J. T. Galloway, president of the Galloway Lumber Co.

The dead are A. T. Vincent, scab; Roy Martin, Cates Hall, and two unidentified men, unionists; the fatal wounded being Ed Brown and J. Tooley, union men, and Bud Hickman, farmer.

The union men were from De Ridder and nearby points. They had gathered under direction of Emerson to hold demonstration in front of the non-union mills. The objective point was Grabow, where the Galloway plant is located.

Following a series of meetings, one of which was held at Carson, amid the jeers of the company thugs and the continual din created by hoodlums hired by the Kirby interests, the band of union men marched to the Galloway mills.

There Emerson commenced to address the non-union men, asking them to be men rather  than peons and to stand up for their class. The beating of tin cans and other noises created by company hirelings drowned out his voice. Suddenly an oath was heard high above all other noises and a shot pierced the body of a union man standing just beside Emerson. The shot came from the company office, it is alleged.

This was a signal for action and the scabs and thugs of the Lumber Trust had access to the guns and ammunition stored close at hand and the shooting became general.

After a battle lasting over ten minutes Emerson and the union men were forced to beak for cover. They gained the woods and made their way to their homes.

It is said that more than a score of arrests have been made upon the charge of murder. The militia has been called out, despite the protests of many persons. Especially strong in denouncing the calling of the troops are Wm. D. Haywood and Covington Hall., who were in New Orleans on business for the B. T. W. at the time of the outrage. It is thought that the presence of troops will add to the tenseness of the situation.

The feeling against Kirby’s hired murderers is growing and its echo is heard in Eastern Texas. In Oakdale, La., the company gunmen shot at H. G. Creel, leading writer for the National Rip-Saw. Creel has been instrumental in exposing Kirby’s blacklist and also is spreading broadcast the story of the shameful conditions in the Southern lumber camps. Along with the leaders of the B. T. W. there is a price upon his head, it is alleged, offered by the Lumber Trust.

The brotherhood was organized about 16 months ago and just recently decided to affiliate with the I. W. W. Organizers from the ranks of the Industrial Workers were sent into the district and were getting results. W. D. Reed, well known Colorado speaker, was also in the Southern lumber district, in the interest of the lumber workers.

The Southern Sawmill Operators’ Association has its headquarters at St. Louis, from which point it has been directing a bitter warfare against the B. T. W. The weapons used have been the boycott of B. T. W. sympathizers, the blacklist of B T. W. men, the mysterious shooting of active union men, the lockout of 5,000 men from their plants, and now open warfare on the B. T. W. and I. W. W. organizers at the hands of hired murderers, while the instigators of these cowardly deeds skulk in their palatial offices.

The B. T. W. is built of the same kind of men as the I. W. W. and against the spirit of revolution that springs alike in their breasts the guns of Kirby’s thugs are powerless.

Instead of breaking up the B. T. W. these damnable actions will awaken the spark of manhood in those who have been mere onlookers and the result will be ONE BIG UNION of toilers which will soon have control of the forests and the mills now being despoiled by Kirby and his breed of degenerate coyotes.

—————

[Newsclip and emphasis added.]

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