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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 19, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – Brother Gerald Lippiatt Shot Down by Gunthugs
From the Trinidad Chronicle-News of August 18, 1913:
From The San Francisco Call of August 18, 1913:
Tag: Deputized Company Gunthugs
Hellraisers Journal: From the Miner’s Bulletin: Two Strikers Shot Down by Gunthugs in Michigan’s Copper Country
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday August 18, 1913
Seeberville, Michigan – Deputies and Waddell Gunthugs Kill Two at Boarding House
From the Miner’s Bulletin of August 16, 1913:
Strikers Murdered by Deputies in Cold Blood
Will they be Punished?Two men were murdered at a mine location near Painesdale known as Seeberville, Thursday afternoon August 14. Two others were shot, one of whom may die.
Louie Tijan was shot and instantly killed at his boarding house, by secret service men last night. Steve Putrich shot through the breast, died from his wounds in the hospital about noon Friday. Stanko Stepic in hospital shot through left wrist and wounded in body, may die.
John Stimac, shot in the stomach while sitting at table. The above outrages came as the crimes to the reign of organized thuggery under the direction of James Waddell. These killings are among the fruits harvested in this district from the importation of man-killers. The morning lyer [liar?] of the operator [the Mining Gazette?] stated that the killing was the result of resisting arrest.
Here are the facts.
John Kalem and J. Stimac came from South Range yesterday afternoon, to their home in Seeberville following the railroad track till near the bridge when they took a by-path leading to a mine shack, and on the property of the mining company, although in general use. While near the shaft, a secret service man ordered them back. They replied: “We always go this way, it’s closer,” and went on. They had scarcely reached the house, when Deputy Sheriff, Henry James, trammer boss, and six secret service men arrived. The trammer boss pointed out Kalem as the man. The leader of the secret service man says: “come with me.” He replied: “I guess not.” At that the leader sprang upon him and began clubbing him. All the men ran into the boarding house. Upon command from the leader, the secrete service man, two at each window, began firing into the little home, and James shot one of the party, shooting from the doorway, with the results indicated above.
The tragedy occurred in an Austrian boarding house. The wife of the proprietor has four children, the oldest four years old, the youngest a baby of six months, in her arms, was burned by powder smoke from the shots of the secret service men shooting into the room where she and her children were. Almost at once after the shooting, deputies and soldiers arrived. They searched the house, even going through the trunks of the men. They found no weapons of any kind. There was no resistance to the officers. There was no call upon the men to surrender. The secret service men [Waddell men, many of them sworn in as deputies] came to murder, and they accomplished their infamous purpose.
Then, as if to afford some justification for their murder, they went around the houses of the location picking up all old broken bottles, the product of years and gathered them up, claiming they had been thrown at them. It was too late to manufacture evidence. There were too many witnesses to the crime, who knew what the thugs were doing.
It is reported that the Prosecuting Attorney twice requested that the Sheriff serve warrants upon the murders. He has not done so yet. He divides honors(?) with other accessories before the facts.
Let the reader put down these facts as against the statements of the Mining Gazette, the advocate of deportation, and constantly inviting to assassination.
Seeberville Murders of August 14, 1913:
Two men were gunned down Thursday August 14th in a small hamlet just south of Calumet when deputies and Waddell gunthugs opened fire on a boarding house. Inside the house were men, women and children. Several other men were seriously injured and a baby was burned on the face by gunpowder.
The trouble started when two strikers took a well worn shortcut across mine property. This had long been their route home, and little did they think it would be cause for arrest, much less a murderous barrage of bullets upon their home.
The dead are Steve Putrich and Alois Tijan.
Funeral for Brothers Tijan and Putrich, August 17, 1913:
Mourners arrived in Calumet by train from all over the Keweenaw August 17th for the funerals of Alois Tijan and Steve Putrich. Services were held at the Croatian Catholic Church, St. John the Baptist, with Father Medin presiding. The mourners than marched two miles to Lake View Cemetery lead by the Finnish Humu Band.
After the funeral, 5,000 gathered for a demonstration of solidarity. Joseph Cannon spoke. He blamed the “sultans of industry” for murdering these two men. He named Governor Ferris “as an accessory before the fact of this lamentable double murder.” He pointed out Sheriff Cruse whose “hands dripped with blood.” And to the mine owners, he said:
Boston coppers, long have you boasted of your mines of wealth untold. Long have you grown fat by keeping us lean.
He honored the Martyrs:
Their lips are sealed in death, but they spoke in a thousand tongues the victory which is coming and for which they have not worked in vain.
Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part IV
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 19, 1913
Akron, Ohio – Big Bill Haywood Visits City, Speaks to Strikers
From the International Socialist Review of April 1913:
800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike
By Leslie H. Marcy
[Part IV of IV]
On Friday, Feb. 28, Haywood stopped off a day at Akron and several thousand strikers met him at the train and paraded through the factory and business districts of Akron. Haywood spoke to two immense strike meetings. He said in part:
The greatest weapon you can use against the rubber robbers just now is to keep your hands in your pockets. When you have your hands in your pockets, the capitalist can’t get his there, and unless the capitalist has his hands in your pockets, he has got to go to work. So during the time of this strike, let there be no violence on your part, not the destruction of one cent’s worth of property, not one cross word. You have got this strike won if you will but stand together in One Big Union.
If the boss starves you back to work then you know how to win this strike on the inside of the factory. Don’t use the speeding up, but the slowing down process. This is an up-to-date organization, and we are fighting with modern weapons. The workers who understand the program and the policy of the I. W. W. will never again be defeated. We are organized now and fighting this battle for an eight-hour day.
As I said to you this morning, if you work only eight hours that is going to make room for more men and more women, and as the unemployed come into work, then the wages are going up. Your wages are going up anyway, because you are going to stand together until we force them up. Four dollars per week, or four and one-half is altogether too little for a girl to try and live on, and live decently, and. every girl, or a large per cent of them, would live decently if they got wages enough. But it is not a question of girlhood or womanhood with the rubber trusts. What they want is cheap labor. Cheap labor means to them more profits.
Just remember, men that we are the working class and it doesn’t make any difference what our nationality may be. My father was born in this state, I was born in this country and am an American.
There are no foreigners in the working class except the capitalist. He is the fellow we are after and we are going to get him. We are going to get Mr. Seiberling. If he is too old to work, we will get his son, and put him right in the rubber factory alongside the rest of ’em.
You simply get back enough to keep alive and in shape to work. If any of you fall by the wayside, and the undertaker visits your home, it doesn’t make any difference to Mr. Seiberling. Now workingmen, it is for you to organize. This strike is your strike. The success of this strike depends on you. There is no one else to fight.
If you had a picket line out every morning representing a crowd as big as this there would not be anybody going to work. You can influence enough to prevent them going to work. Get on the job in the morning in the picket line and visit these friends of yours at night in their homes.
Get this organization so that it will be 100 per cent strong. We will try, as we did at Lawrence, to raise money enough to carry you through.
[He further said:]
I have a warning to issue here. Those in authority must forget this proposition of wearing out their clubs on the strikers’ heads. They made the laws and there are proper processes for them to follow. Let them live up to it. If a striker violates law, let them arrest him and bring him before the court.
But I want to appeal to you strikers to conduct this strike along the peaceful lines you have been. You built this city and the rubber barons are realizing that you are necessary to its prosperity. They are realizing that until you are getting better pay and better hours, their profits won’t increase.
Hellraisers Journal: From The Wheeling Majority: The Rights of West Virginians Must Be Restored Peacefully Or…..!
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 6, 1913
Kanawha County, West Virginia – Rights of West Virginians Must Be Restored
From The Wheeling Majority of April 3, 1913:
Hellraisers Journal: From The Wheeling Majority: “Coal Barons Maim and Murder” Mother Jones Arrested; Industrial War Rages in Kanawha County, West Virginia
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 21, 1913
Kanawha County, West Virginia – Mother Jones Arrested; Class War Rages
From The Wheeling Majority of February 20, 1913:
Hellraisers Journal: “The Battle Ground of Coal” by James M. Cain-Union Organization and the Miners’ War in West Virginia
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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
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.
Hellraisers Journal: From The North American Review: “The Miners and the Law of Treason” by James G. Randall, Part II
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 4, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – Miners on Trial for Treason Against the State, Part II
From The North American Review of September 1922:
THE MINERS AND THE LAW OF TREASON
BY JAMES G. RANDALL
[Part II of II]
Turning to the case of the miners, we find that the offense for which they (or rather a selected number of them) are held is treason against the State of West Virginia. In the Constitution of the State of West Virginia there is the following provision:
Treason against the State shall consist only in levying war against it, or in adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. Treason shall be punished, according to the character of the acts committed, by the infliction of one or more of the penalties of death, imprisonment or fine, as may be prescribed by law.
It will be noticed that the provisions in the West Virginia Constitution resemble those of the Federal Constitution in the definition of the offense and the requirements as to evidence sustaining the overt act, but that the State Constitution goes farther than that of the United States in that it specifies the general nature of the punishment. An examination of the West Virginia code shows that the punishment, as further defined by the Legislature, shall be death, or, at the discretion of the jury, confinement in the penitentiary not less than three nor more than ten years and confiscation of the real and personal estate. Withholding knowledge of treason, attempting to justify armed insurrection by written or printed words, or engaging in an unlawful assemblage, are punishable by lesser penalties, thus indicating that these offenses are regarded as distinct from treason itself. As to what constitutes “levying war” against the State, this is largely a matter for interpretation by the court, and it appears that Judge Woods has made considerable use of Federal as well as State decisions in determining his rulings.
The acts for which the miners are on trial took place in connection with the serious outbreak of August, 1921. As a climax of years of growing hostility, during which the United Mine Workers had made repeated efforts to unionize the mine fields of Logan and Mingo counties, several hundred men assembled on August 20 at Marmet, West Virginia, with the intention of making some kind of demonstration or attack, the exact purpose of which is disputed. An important feature of the case is that the Governor had previously proclaimed martial law in Mingo County, and had sent State troops into that county to preserve order. It is the contention of the prosecution that the acts of the miners constituted a defiance of this martial law, and an intention to resist the troops.
An appeal by “Mother Jones”, a well-known leader among the miners, failed to disperse them, and the armed force, picturesquely uniformed in blue overalls and red bandanna handkerchiefs, proceeded on their march. The first violence occurred at Sharples in Boone County, where a small force of State police was resisted by the miners while seeking to serve warrants upon men wanted by the Logan County authorities. Several miners were killed and from this time the march assumed much more alarming proportions. By the time the Boone-Logan county line was reached the invaders numbered about eight thousand. Don Chafin, sheriff of Logan County, raised a defending force of approximately two thousand which he commanded until, after some delay, Governor Morgan commissioned Colonel Eubanks to take charge with State troops. For over a week the opposing “armies” confronted each other over an extended mountainous battle-front in the neighborhood of Blair, and there was considerable detached fighting. On the defending side three deputy sheriffs were killed, and it was for their deaths that the indictments for murder were drawn. Probably more than twenty of the invaders lost their lives.
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones at Charleston, West Virginia: “To me the conditions mean industrial war.”
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 13, 1912
Charleston, West Virginia – Mother Jones Arrives, Visits Holly Grove at Paint Creek
From The Cincinnati Post of June 11, 1912:
CHARLESTON, W. VA., June 11.–(Spl.)—Mother Jones, who has devoted half of her 80 years to an effort to soften the lot of the coal miners, is here to remain until the miners of the Paint Creek section get some redress from the conditions which have made it necessary for them to appeal to Governor Glasscock.
Paint Creek is 18 miles long and is flanked by a score of mine operations, which usually employ thousands of miners. Idleness has reigned in the district since April 1. Now the operators have 100 guards patrolling the creek in an effort to crush out unionism among the West Virginia miners. It is only in this section that the miners have been strong enough to organize.
Condemns the System
“I am going to stay here all week and dig down to the bottom of this trouble,” said Mother Jones, who arrived Sunday from Colorado.
She began by addressing a mass meeting of miners Sunday at Holly Grove.
[She declared:]
It is not the individual we are after, it is the system.
In West Virginia the “system” has been to crush out organized labor by the bludgeon and rifle in the hands of guards, paid by the operators and sworn in by the State as Deputy Sheriffs.
[Said Mother Jones:]
To me the conditions mean industrial war. You may beat a slave, but after a time a slave will revolt. Sane men do not undertake to violate property law, but sane men may be driven insane when hunger comes, if they are forced to fight. They reach the stage where they feel they might as well die as try to live under the conditions they are forced to submit to.
Homes Are Saddened
[The aged friend of the toiler continued:]
We hear a great deal about the right of women to vote. You can’t improve such conditions as exist here by extending the ballot to women. One of the great troubles is the loss of sunshine in the home. When a man gets home from work he should be greeted by a smile, but the women can’t smile under these conditions. It’s no wonder the criminal class is chiefly made up of young people.
Sheriff Smith, under instructions from Governor Glasscock, is keeping in close touch with Paint Creek, where it is believed a crisis is at hand.
It is believed Governor Glasscock will order out the militia if there is further loss of life. One miner was killed and another seriously shot last week. Many have been beaten.
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[Emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Jack Sellins, Seeks Justice for His Mother, Martyred Mine Workers’ Organizer, Fannie Sellins
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 2, 1922
Jack Sellins Seeks Justice for Murder of Fannie Sellins and Joseph Starzeleski
From the United Mine Workers Journal of April 1, 1922:
SON SEEKS JUSTICE
———-ASKS THAT SLAYER OF HIS MOTHER,
MRS. FANNIE SELLINS,
BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE
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Editor of the Journal: I am writing you concerning the bringing to justice the persons responsible for the death of Fannie Sellins and Joseph Starzeleski, who were murdered in wanton cold blood over two and a half years ago.
For this length of time every effort has been made to find the persons responsible for this crime, and on January 26, last, three deputy sheriffs were arrested for the murder. Even on the information on which the arrests were made the court granted them their liberty on bail, which was only $2,500. However, on February 14, the grand jury returned an indictment against the three, and we are now waiting for a date for the trial to be set.
The three men indicted are: Edward Mannison, John Pierson and James Reilly, former deputy sheriffs.
A copy of a resolution is herewith enclosed asking that the two attorneys we have employed be appointed as special district attorneys. I would like to see this resolution adopted by local unions over the country and be sent to president judge of the Allegheny County courts.
Fraternally yours,
JACK SELLINS.The writer of the above is a son of Mrs. Fannie Sellins, so brutally murdered by deputy sheriffs in the Brackenridge mine strike. He has had a heroic effort to have the slayers of his mother brought to justice, and says he is taking no chance of a failure of prosecution in the hands of the district attorney’s office.
The resolution is as follows:
Whereas, The District Attorney of Allegheny County has failed to proceed with the prosecution of the murderers of Fannie Sellins and Joseph Starzeleski, or to take any action to bring these offenders to trial, said murders having been committed at West Natrona, Pa., on Aug. 26, 1919;
Be it Resolved, That we believe that private counsel should be employed for that purpose, and that the court be asked to appoint two attorneys as special deputy district attorneys to take charge of said prosecution, and, further, we recommend that the court appoint John S. Robb, Jr., Esq., of Pittsburgh, Pa., and Victor B. Benton, Esq., of New Kensington, Pa., as such special deputy district attorneys, and that a copy of this resolution be mailed to the president judge of Allegheny County courts.
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Forty-Two Striking Miners Arrested in Raid on Lick Creek Tent Colony, Mingo County, West Virginia
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 10, 1921
Mingo County – Lick Creek Colony Raided; Striking Miners Arrested
From The New York Times of June 6, 1921:
ARREST FORTY IN MINGO.
—–
Military Authorities Accuse Them of
Violating Martial Law.
WILLIAMSON, W. V Va., June 5.-Forty-two men, residents of the Lick Creek Tent Colony of idle miners, near Williamson, were arrested today and locked up in the county jail charged with violating the proclamation of martial law recently imposed following disorders in the Mingo coal fields.
The purpose of the raid, said Captain U. R. Brockus of the State Police, was an attempt to bring to justice those who had fired upon motorists in the vicinity of the tent colony during the past few weeks. Decision to make the raid, it was said, followed when reports reached State Police Headquarters that an automobile in which five persons were riding was fired upon this morning. Five bullets struck the car, according to the reports, but no one was injured.
The arrests were made by State Police and deputy sheriffs, headed by Captain Brockus and Sheriff Pinson, and consisted of about forty men, all heavily armed. No resistance was offered, but the authorities declared that eight armed men fled into the mountains when the posse reached the camp. One was captured after an exciting chase. The prisoners will be examined tomorrow.
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[Emphasis added. Photograph added from Literary Digest of Dec. 18, 1920.]
[Note: “deputy sheriffs” often means deputized company gunthugs.]
