Tag: Deputized Company Gunthugs

Hellraisers Journal: Coal Companies Paid Westmoreland County Sheriff to Employ Private Army of Deputized Gunthugs

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote fr Westmoreland Strike by James Cole, ab Aug1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 7, 1911
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania – Sheriff Paid to Recruit  Private Army

From the Appeal to Reason of February 4, 1911:

A PRIVATE ARMY.
———-

PA Miners Strike, Family of J Potlar, ISR p142, Sept 1910

Investigations at Greensburg, Pa., showed that the coal companies paid Sheriff Shields $143,147.42 for deputy service during the coal strike. Deputies were paid from $3 to $15 a day each. While the constitution says that no private army shall be maintained, these coal companies hired a private army and gave it official sanction by hiring it through the sheriff. The deputies were all thugs from the outside, hired like Hessians, used as Hessians, and they acted like Hessians.

Had the coal miners wisdom enough to elect a Socialist sheriff, that sheriff would have protected the property of the mines, yes-but he would have hired every striking miner, paying them three dollars a day each, armed them, and kept them so long as the strike lasted. The miners, getting three dollars a day could have waited a long time for the strike to end-as long as the operators. But the working people votes for the capitalist sheriff and judges, and they get just what they vote for.

How long, O Lord, how long will you workers vote to be the beasts of burden for corporation. Socialism will give you freedom, will give you a living that free men deserve, will make you masters instead of wage slaves. Wake up. 

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Hellraisers Journal: Correspondent for Duluth Labor World Describes “Starvation Camp” of Irwin Field Miners’ Strike

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Brutal Ruling Class, Cnc Pst p7, May 31, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 4, 1910
Irwin Coal Field, Pennsylvania – Report from Strikers’ “Starvation Camp”

From the Duluth Labor World of October 1, 1910:

Keystone State Awakens to Hunger-Driven Peonage
Practiced Within Its Confines

PA Miners Strike, Woman n Children Starving, LW p1, Oct 1, 1910

PITTSBURG, Pa., Sept. 30—Thousands of Pittsburg women, influential club women as well as the wives of storekeepers and mechanics, are signing a petition to Governor Edwin S. Steuart asking that he intervene and compel the coal companies to arbitrate the strike in the Erwin [Irwin] and Greensburg coal fields.

Piloted by the “Angel of the Camp,” Miss Emmeline Pitt, committees from various women’s clubs have visited the frail tents in which are huddled the thousands of miners’ wives and children, and, after hearing the stories of eviction and brutality committed by the deputies, have gone back to their organizations burning with indignation against the coal barons and determined to force action from the state authorities.

[Asserts Francis Feehan, president of district No. 5:]

The operators could settle this strike, settle it and give the miners all that they demand and then operate their mines at 20 per cent less than it is costing them now. It’s the strike-breakers that cost. They’re paying them $2.50 and $3 a day with rations—and that’s more than the skilled union miners ask.

Experienced miners say that the United Coal company is paying at the rate of $3 a ton to have its coal mined, while the market price is just half that amount.

Three things the striking miners want:
1. Recognition of the union.
2. Check-weighmen on the tipples.
3. Payment of the Pittsburg Scale.

And these three things the miners will win, coal barons or no coal barons, for the entire power of the United Mine Workers of America is gathering behind them.

————

GAUNT MOTHERS, THEIR BABES STARVING, HERE
——-

Special Correspondence of Labor World.

NEW ALEXANDRA, Pa., Sept. 30.—Three hundred puny babies, thinly clad and underfed by half-starved mothers who have nothing to give, live beneath canvas roofs and within canvas walls these chilly days and shivery nights in the Erwin coal regions of western Pennsylvania.

A thousand other little children, barefoot and almost barebacked, “live” on bread and water in that starvation camp among the foothills of the Alleghenies.

PA Miners Strike, Starvation Camp, LW p1, Oct 1, 1910

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Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: Class War in Irwin Coal Field by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Brutal Ruling Class, Cnc Pst p7, May 31, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 23, 1910
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania – Cossacks Terrorize Irwin Coalfield Strike

From the International Socialist Review of September 1910:

PA Miners Strike, HdLn Class War by TF Kennedy, ISR p141, Sept 1910

Cossacks vs. “Black Hundreds.”

Brutal as the state constabulary have shown themselves on numerous occasions the testimony on all sides is overwhelming that compared with the thugs and bums engaged as deputies by the coal companies the State Police are gentlemen.

One of the odd developments is the cordial dislike of the State Police for the deputies. The State Police are not backward about declaring that practically all of the rioting and killing has been caused by the deputies. You must understand that economic interests are at the bottom of this feeling of these two forces for each other. The rank and file of the Police get $60.00 a month and board, no matter what is doing. When all is quiet they get their pay for patroling some country road on a well groomed saddle horse. If there must be a strike they would much rather see a nice quiet orderly one where there are no riots.

But the deputies are in a different boat. If all were quiet they would have no occupation. So to make their jobs secure they must keep something doing all the time. They explode a charge of dynamite under the corner of an unoccupied house, fire a lot of shots some night or when they meet an unarmed striker on the highway slug him or arrest him. When there is any real duty to perform, when there is a batch of strike breakers expected who must be prevented from talking to the strikers the first thing they do is fill up with whiskey. At one hotel where a bunch of them stopped, six drinks of whiskey in their stomachs and a half pint in their pockets was the regular ration, before going out on any special duty.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: Class War in Irwin Coal Field by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: Arthur Gleason on Industrial Feudalism in Logan County, W. V., “Company-Owned Americans”

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Organize Logan Co, Nation p724, May 29, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 15, 1920
Logan County, West Virginia – Bastion of Industrial Feudalism

From The Nation of June 12, 1920:

Company-Owned Americans

By ARTHUR GLEASON

Montani semper liberi
(Motto of West Virginia)

WV UMW D17 50 Orgzrs v Don Chafin Logan Co, Hbrg PA Tph p7, Oct 16, 1919
Harrisburg Telegraph
October 16, 1919

THE attorney of the Mine Workers has filed suits against the coal companies who have evicted miners. Each suit is for $10,000 damages for unlawful eviction. This touches the heart of the West Virginia trouble. In the non-union counties, houses are owned by the coal companies. Justice is administered by the coal companies. Constitutional rights are interpreted by the coal companies. Food and clothing are sold (though not exclusively) in company stores. The miners worship in a company church, are preached at by a company pastor; play pool in the company Y. M. C. A.; gain education in a company school; receive treatment from a company doctor and hospital; die on company land. From the cradle to the grave, they draw breath by the grace of the sometimes absentee coal owner, one of whose visible representatives is the deputy sheriff, a public official in the pay of the coal owner. As a worker under similar conditions once said: “We work in his plant. We live in his house. Our children go to his school. On Sunday we go to hear his preacher. And when we die we are buried in his cemetery.”

The employees live in company houses. Everything belongs to the mine owners, and home ownership is not permitted. The lease of the Logan Mining Company reads that when the miner’s employment ceases, “either for cause or without cause the right of said employee and his family to use and occupy premises shall simultaneously end and terminate.” The miners generally pay $8 a month for a four room house, a dollar for coal, 50 cents to a dollar for lights. Fulton Mitchell, deputy sheriff, states:

My understanding is that most of the companies have a form of lease, and when they lease to miners they reserve the right to object to any person other than employees coming on their possessions.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the United Mine Workers Journal: Deadly Battle Fought by Company Gunmen and Miners at Matewan

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 8, 1920
Matewan, West Virginia – Miners and Citizens Battle Company Gunthugs

From the United Mine Workers Journal of June 1, 1920:

Matewan v Gunthugs, HdLn UMWJ p5, June 1, 1920

Ten or twelve men were killed in a battle between Baldwin-Felts gunmen and citizens of the town of Matewan, W. Va., on May 19. The exact number of deaths has not been learned, because it is said that one or more bodies were lost in the Tug river when some of the men attempted to swim across. The battle was the result of activities of the gunmen who were in the employ of the Stone Mountain Coal Company. It has been impossible also to obtain a correct list of the names of the dead.

Matewan is in the very heart of the Tug river field, one of the most notorious hotbeds of nonunionism in West Virginia. Coal operators in that field have for years resisted with all of their power the efforts of the miners to organize and join the United Mine Workers of America. They have employed all of the bloody tactics that have prevailed in such fields for many years, including the use of gunmen and thugs, the blackjack and other methods of repression.

A short time ago the miners employed at a mine owned by the Stone Mountain Company undertook to form an organization. The company immediately applied the usual remedy. It discharged the men from its employ. Then the company decided to evict the men and their families from the houses in which they lived and which were owned by the company. It was the thought of the company that this would help to break up the movement for the organization of a local union.

A large force of “detectives” was hired from the Baldwin-Felts agency at Bluefield, W. Va., and sent to Matewan to evict the miners and their families. An Associated Press dispatch from Matewan told the story of the battle as follows:

The shooting, in which Baldwin-Felts detectives clashed with citizens and the police, followed the eviction of a number of miners from Stone Mountain Coal Company houses yesterday, according to the authorities. Two mines were closed recently when it became known that an effort was being made to unionize them. The miners claim that the detectives were sent to dispossess families of workers who had been discharged.

A shot, said by the authorities to have been fired from the coat pocket of Albert Felts, a detective, and which ended the life of Mayor Cabell Testerman, started the battle. An instant later Felts, according to authorities, was killed by “Sid” Hatfield, chief of police. The shooting then became general, and when the battle ended seven detectives, the mayor, and four miners were dead and three other persons badly wounded. Felts, it is said, had a warrant for the arrest of Chief Hatfield on a charge that he had taken a prisoner from detectives some time ago. The mayor was reading the warrant when he was killed.

It was said that the gunmen wore badges as deputy sheriff’s of Harlan county, Ky., and that they had been imported from there to Matewan.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the United Mine Workers Journal: Deadly Battle Fought by Company Gunmen and Miners at Matewan” →

Hellraisers Journal: Arthur Gleason on Logan County, West Virginia: “Private Ownership of Public Officials” -Part II

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Organize Logan Co, Nation p724, May 29, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 31, 1920
Logan County, West Virginia – Coal Operators Own Public Officials, Part II

From The Nation of May 29, 1920:

Private Ownership Of Public Officials

By ARTHUR GLEASON

[Part II of II.]

WV Coal Fields Witnesses on Gunthug Terror, Wlg Int p1, Oct 1, 1919
Wheeling Intelligencer
October 1, 1919

There is only one incorporated town in Logan County, and that is the town of Logan, with a population of 3,500. Unidentified strangers are not wanted in Logan. The train that carries you the three hours from the city of Huntington into Guyan Valley is used by men who make it their business to find out yours. Deputies meet the train, as you pull into Logan—Dow Butcher, Buck White, Squire White, and Pat Murphy. You are sized up. This affectionate interest is directed for one purpose—to detect organizers and to invite them to go home. Commercial travelers, social workers, business and professional men pass in and out. Order is well kept; all the decencies are observed. Logan is a prosperous, busy little city. I stayed over night, received a welcome, and met a group of excellent sincere local folks, nurses, teachers, health experts, coal magnates. They are busy in every good work. They draw the line in this one matter alone: Logan County is not to be unionized. This led to an amusing mistake some time previous to my own visit. Mr. J. L. Heizer told me of it; it was his own experience in Logan. Mr. Heizer is chief clerk of the Department of Mines for the State of West Virginia. He is also Grand Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias for the State. He went to Logan to induct certain brethren. Mr. Heizer said on the train to Mr. Wayne Chafin that he had heard a lot about Don Chafin, and wanted to meet him. In the middle of the night, Mr. Heizer said,

When I went to the hotel room, two men were standing at the door, and one of them stepped forward and said: “I understand you want to meet Don Chafin?”

I said “Yes.”

He said, “By God, you’ve met him now.”

A young man with me, E. R. Dalton of Huntington, tried to pacify Mr. Chafin, who stuck a gun into the stomach of Mr. Dalton and said, “Young man, you get to bed, and get there quick. I can kill both of you in this room.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Arthur Gleason on Logan County, West Virginia: “Private Ownership of Public Officials” -Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: Arthur Gleason on Logan County, West Virginia: “Private Ownership of Public Officials” -Part I

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 30, 1920
Logan County, West Virginia – Coal Operators Own Public Officials, Part I

From The Nation of May 29, 1920:

Private Ownership Of Public Officials

By ARTHUR GLEASON

[Part I of II.]

WV UMW D17 50 Orgzrs v Don Chafin Logan Co, Hbrg PA Tph p7, Oct 16, 1919
Harrisburg Telegraph
October 16, 1919

WEST VIRGINIA has started in again on the organized killing which every few years breaks loose in the mining districts. On May 19, eleven men were shot to death in the town of Matewan, Mingo County. Seven of them were detectives, three were miners and one was an official. This skirmish is the first in the 1920 war between the coal operators of the State and the United Mine Workers of America. Mingo is one of the counties in the southwest of the State which have been held against organized labor by detectives, armed guards, and deputy sheriffs.

With the beginning of May, the miners formed local unions, and brought in 2,000 members. As fast as the miners join the union, the coal companies are evicting them from the company-owned houses. I saw the typewritten notice of the Stone Mountain Coal Company on the window of the company-owned grocery store. It stated that the houses of the miners were owned by the company, and that the miners must leave the premises at once if they join the union. Ezra Frye, the local organizer, acting for the United Mine Workers, had leased land, and was erecting tents for the evicted families. He had ordered 300 tents on the first allotment. Matewan lies on the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River. It is run politically by the Hatfield clan, who for generations have had a feud with the McCoy clan. The economic struggle is making a new alignment across the old feudist divisions. No stranger is safe just now in these unorganized counties. We had a spy who trailed us from Charleston to Matewan. In the town, we were kept under constant guard.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Arthur Gleason on Logan County, West Virginia: “Private Ownership of Public Officials” -Part I” →

WE NEVER FORGET the Men, Women and Little Children Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925———-

WE NEVER FORGET WNF List of Ludlow Martyrs ed———

Sept 15, 1913 – Trinidad, Colorado
Convention of District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America

The delegates opened their convention by singing The Battle Cry of Union:

We will win the fight today, boys,
We’ll win the fight today,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union;
We will rally from the coal mines,
We’ll fight them to the end,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union.

The Union forever, hurrah boys, hurrah!
Down with the Baldwins and up with the law;
For we’re coming, Colorado, we’re coming all the way,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union.

The miners faced the grim prospect of going out on strike against the powerful southern coalfield companies, chief among them, John D Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. The coal operators had steadfastly refused to recognize the Union and had ignored all attempts at negotiation.

The miners had had their fill of dangerous working conditions, crooked checkweighmen, long hours, and low pay. They lived in peonage in company towns, were paid in company scrip, and were forced to shop for their daily needs in high-priced company stores which kept them always in debt. But, mostly they hated the notorious company guard system. Every attempt to organize had been met with brutality on the part of the coal operators.

Mother Jones addressed the convention for over an hour, urging the men to:

Rise up and strike! …Strike and stay with it as we did in West Virginia. We are going to stay here in Southern Colorado until the banner of industrial freedom floats over every coal mine. We are going to stand together and never surrender…

Pledge to yourselves in this convention to stand as one solid army against the foes of human labor. Think of the thousands who are killed every year and there is no redress for it. We will fight until the mines are made secure and human life valued more than props. Look things in the face. Don’t fear a governor; don’t fear anybody…You are the biggest part of the population in the state. You create its wealth, so I say, “Let the fight go on; if nobody else will keep on, I will.”

Continue reading “WE NEVER FORGET the Men, Women and Little Children Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914” →

Hellraisers Journal: 24 Steel Unions Strike at Midnight; May Prove to be Greatest Industrial Battle Nation Has Ever Known

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Judge Gary Cup of Rice, Clv UMWC p540, Sept 16, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 22, 1919
Nationwide Steel Strike to Commence at Midnight

From The Washington Times of September 21, 1919:

GSS 24 Steel Unions to Strike, WDC Tx p1, Sun Eve Sept 21, 1919
———-

GSS 24 Steel Unions Named, WDC Tx p3, Sun Eve Sept 21, 1919

ONLY MIRACLE ABLE TO STOP WALKOUT,
SAY ALL OFFICIALS
—–

BY FRED S. FERGUSON.
United Press Staff Correspondent.

PITTSBURGH, Pa., Sept. 21–Plans are complete for what may prove the greatest industrial battle this country has ever known, according to officials of the twenty-four steel workers unions, which will strike at midnight.

They declared it would be a fight to the finish for the right of collective bargaining, an eight-hour day, and an increased in wages.

The reports from all steel centers indicated that nothing short of a miracle would stop the strike.

Leaders of both sides declared President Wilson had taken no steps thus far to persuade steel corporation officials to meet the strikers committee.

Posses Sworn In.

State and municipal officials have taken every precaution to guard against public disorders. Posses of deputy sheriffs [deputized company gunthugs] have been sworn in many towns and cities ready for instant action. The state constabulary [Pennsylvania Cossacks] in the Pittsburgh district has been mobilized and given explicit orders.

William B. Wilson, Secretary of Labor, who is vacation at Bloomsburg, Pa., declared he had received no communication from President Wilson regarding a settlement of the steel strike.

Leaders of the steel workers’ unions reiterated their statements that they will close up every mill owned by or subsidiary to the U. S. Steel Corporation. Officials of the steel company were equally confident the strike would be a failure and declared so small a number of workers were unionized that there will be little suspension of work. They said, however, that wherever any widespread disloyalty to the company was evident, plants would be closed.

Prepared to Hold Out.

Union leaders said the men were prepared for as long a strike as was necesary to win the demands. Finances, according to W. B. Rubin, general counsel for the workers, have been provided to take care of a long drawn out fight.

Hundreds of women have begun the work of stiffening the morale of the wives and children of the workers.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: 24 Steel Unions Strike at Midnight; May Prove to be Greatest Industrial Battle Nation Has Ever Known” →