Hellraisers Journal – Monday August 25, 1913
Cleve Woodrum, Martyred Union Miner by Cabin Creek Striker
From the Shawnee County Socialist of August 23, 1913:
CLEVE WOODRUM AN HUMBLE MARTYR
TO THE CAUSE OF LABOR.
———-
The Washington Herald July 26, 1913
There are some who would wish us to believe that the West Virginia outrages have ceased since the Senate Committee and the Socialist Party Committee have made their report, but they still go on.
Cleve Woodrum was picking berries for his sick wife, but had with him his rifle, when two hired murderers of the mine owners attacked him. Woodrum killed both of them, and was himself wounded.The other hired assassins, finding the two did not return from their murder, hunted and found one of the guards mortally wounded and the other dead.The wounded guard, Don Slater, they sent to the Hospital where he died, but, [finding] Woodrum, these [gunthugs] tortured the wounded man and then mutilated his body and left it in the bush where it was afterward found by his friends.
This was a cowardly assassination and then a brutal savagery of which only [gunthugs] are capable, and yet no paper but a few labor papers will mention it.
Read this letter from a Cabin Creek striker and remember that the mine owners, whose money hires these [gunthugs] are mostly pious church members, and they pay some of this blood money to the preachers to preach as they the mine owners demand.
This may be Christianity, but it has nothing to do with the gentle and loving Jesus.
Our Comrade, Cleve Woodrum. Eskdale, West Virginia.
Cleve Woodrum, the martyr to the cause of human liberty, born October 12, 1884, killed July 24, 1913, entered the coal mines at the early age of 11, denied an education by the same class that hired the gunman to kill him. The departed comrade leaves a father, mother and eight brothers and sisters, an invalid wife with six little children, the eldest being eight years old and Mrs. Woodrum soon to become a mother. Cleve met his death while just out of hearing from home and was picking berries for his sick wife who had just returned from the hospital after undergoing surgical treatment. A plot between the coal operators and the military thugs to put Slater out of the way as Slater knew too much about the dirty work, murders and sluggings the coal operators had ordered and which had been carried out to the letter and the operators taking the advantage of the jealousy existing between the old line of Baldwins and the military Baldwins and Slater was ambushed by his own crowd.
Comrade Woodrum immortalized this great fight for the cause of justice and the freedom of his class from wage slavery, as much so as the John Brown martyrdom immortalized the scaffold for his opposition to chattel slavery.
I knew the deceased when he was a little trapper boy in the mines years ago. Standing in water cold as ice up to his knees while the young bones were trying to develop and powder smoke so thick you could hardly see. Long weary hours of toil, and food that was kept in a dinner pail closed in tight for several hours which was not nutritious or fit to eat. Even at that Cleve was manly, honest, upright, square, hard working man.
He had been in the Socialist movement about two years when he saw the light, his honest heart just responded to the working class’s philosophy of reason that the worker should receive the full product of his labor just like the rose to a spring shower.
This was his creed, this was his religion. He professed the religion of humanity, the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man and to attain that end he had the highest of motives first taught by a union carpenter and Social Revolutionist by the name of Jesus, put to death by the ruling class for his radical teachings and would not recant one iota.
The union miners of this field should place suitable shaft over his tomb and ae well provide for his widow and little helpless children. Why not? The capitalist class pension their uniformed hired murderers for shooting down their own class and calling them heroes. So it is to the Socialist and union miners to provide for these widows and keep the grave green of working class heroes, as the coal barons forgot Slater as soon as the last breath went out.
A CABIN CREEK STRIKER.
This is the class war. Comrade Woodrum’s tortured and mutilated body is the dumb witness to the class war, and should rouse us slaves to class consciousness.
We should resolve over the mutilated body of this humble and faithful comrade to unite, organize and resolve that this class war shall end in the coming Co-Operative Commonwealth.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday July 4, 1913 West Virginia Coal Miners’ Victory Turned into “Settlement”-Part I
From the International Socialist Review of July 1913:
[Part I of III]
To those who have been actively engaged in the epochal struggle of the coal miners in this state the present status of affairs is anything but optimistic.
The miners after having put up a fight that won the admiration of the entire working class the country over, have lost their strike and are being driven sullenly back to the Coal Trust’s subterrean hells to produce coal for their brutal masters under the same conditions which have prevailed in the West Virginia coal fields for years, and against which these miners revolted over a year ago.
It is not my intention to give a recapitulation of the stirring events of the Paint Creek strike, but rather a hurried sketch of the manner in which a well earned victory was turned into an empty and meaningless settlement, by a combination of forces against which the miners found themselves helpless.
The coal diggers of the Kanawha valley have proven themselves to be as brave and loyal a set of men as ever established a picket line. They have stoically and uncomplainingly borne the barbaric and inhuman treatment to which they were subjected by the Coal Trust and its political creature-the state government. They had by the sheer force of solidarity, and in spite of the weakness of the antiquated tactics taught them by the officials of the United Mine Workers of America, brought the coal barons to their knees. The state government, too, had exhausted its ingenuity and failed to break the strike. There remained but one hope for the masters of the mines. That was to enlist in their behalf the United Mine Workers of America.
When in the course of these remarks I use the expression ”U. M. W. of A.,” it is meant to apply, not to the men who actually dig coal, but rather to the official oligarchy known as the National Executive Board, members of which were handling the strike in this state.
Overtures were evidently made to these representatives by Governor H. D. Hatfield, acting for the coal autocracy. An agreement was reached, and the three organizations, viz: the Coal Trust, the State government and the U. M. W. of A., acting co-operatively, played the last card which won for the mine owners that which they would have never gained unaided by their last ally.
Everything being “understood” and agreed upon, Hatfield made public what he termed a “proposal for the settlement of the Kanawha strike.”
The proposalmade no mention of the three cardinal demands of the miners the elimination of the hated guard system, the right to belong to a union and the payment of the “Kanawha Scale” of wages. In fact it offered absolutely nothing in the way of concessions from the operators-merely insisting-when sheared of its luxuriant verbosity-that the miners return to work under the same conditions that existed before they struck-if the mine owners would let them.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 23, 1912
American Flag Stands Tall Over Miners’ Tent Colony at Eskdale, West Virginia
From The Coming Nation of December 7, 1912:
Winning the Fight at Eskdale ———-
By Alfred Segal
———-
THERE was a tremendous excitement in the little village of Eskdale, W. Va.
An American flag waves over the main street of Eskdale (perhaps to give assurance that Eskdale is really in America and not in Russia); but on the same street you see little children barefoot, now in November, because they haven’t any shoes, and you see the families of striking miners, evicted and driven into the highways by the Coal Dukes, living under tents because they have no homes. You are ashamed to enjoy the meager comforts of your hotel room after you have lived a day with the misery of Eskdale.
Two rods from the tents stand the coal hills with their fabulous wealth-the fine tables set by nature for all her children and yet within sight of the feast they are starving.
Well, the heart of Eskdale was beating like a trip-hammer. Word had come down through the hills that the governor had declared martial law over the strike district and that the soldiers were coming.
The echoes of gun-shots were rolling down into the valley. They came into Eskdale like the rumble of cannon. Somewhere up in the hills there was another battle on between miners and mine guards-one of those fights that make the quickly-dug, rude graves that you can find in lonely places in the coal hills.
Oh, yes, it’s lawlessness all right. But you can see it and hear it and some people can understand it. For years and years West Virginia has been ruled by respectable, invisible lawlessness which controlled courts, ran the legislatures and elected United States senators and is now responsible for the barefoot little children and the homeless exiles in the tents.
The soldiers were coming.
It runs through Eskdale’s mind that what it wants is a living wage, justice and fair-dealing and here the governor was sending the soldiers.
The shot echoes crashed without pause down the valley, waking sleeping babies under the tents and arousing strange stirrings in the hearts of the men and women of Eskdale, needing bread, but hungering only for freedom.
And then the distant toot of the engine which was pulling the martial law special and the soldiers, broke upon the village. Eskdale crowded to the railroad track. The train rumbled past toward the depot.
In the first car were the soldiers, guns held firmly in front of them, ready for work.
And in the second car-
“Scab, scab,” cried a boy, shrill-voiced.
He pointed at a window in the second car-at a face, soiled, weary-eyed, unshaven, crowned with a battered hat. And behind this face there was another and another-a whole car-load of such faces.
“Scab, scab”-the men and women took up the cry. They could not understand that these men were like themselves the dupes of the system.
Martial law had come into the strike zone with a shipment of strike-breakers whom it was protecting, with orders to shoot to kill if one of them was molested. The state of West Virginia had become a strike-breaking agency.
And to the inhabitants of its hills, the state had given so little protection through all these years. They had asked for laws that would emancipate them from the tyranny of the mine guard system-and had been denied. They had asked for compensation laws that would protect their families against the consequences of fatal accident in the mines-and had been denied.
And here were the strike-breakers come to take their jobs and to live upon their hills under protection of their militia.
“Scab, scab,” they jeered.
[Hunger Squad Pitched Against Hunger Squad]
I was there and spoke to the strike-breakers-men and boys recruited from the hunger squads of the East Side of New York, none of them miners, weary with the futile search for work at their trades, and desperate enough to throw themselves at adventure as strike-breakers for the sake of a job.
The despair of hunger, you see, knows no state lines. It recruits the strike-breaker in New York. It scourges to violence the striking miner of West Virginia. Hunger squad is pitched against hunger squad.
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.
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 EveningSun 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.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 20, 1912 Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1912, Part IV
Found on the Ground in West Virginia Strike Zone, Shadowed by Mine Guards
From The Wheeling Majority of August 15, 1912:
Kanawha Miners Still on Strike
———-
[Mother Jones on the Ground.]
(By G. H. Edmunds.)
Charleston. W. Va., Aug. 15.—(Special.)-The great strike of the miners of the Kanawha valley is still on, and is spreading daily. When this strike started it was confined to the mines along Paint Creek and Little Coal river and Briar creek, but it now embraces the entire Cabin Creek and Big Coal river district. The miners of this section voluntarily organized themselves into local unions and then applied to the district organization to admit them into the district of West Virginia, which is District No. 17, U. M. W. of A. In all, there are close to 4,000 miners and 40 mines affected. The miners are demanding the right to organize, and also are demanding the doing away with the mine guard system. The guard system has become unbearable, and it has been definitely decided among the miners that it must go…..
The Demands.
The demands in brief are:
1. The recognition by the operators of their right to organize.
2. The abolition of the guard system.
3. The recognition of the union as in affect on the Kanawha river between the operators and miners.
4. The short ton of 2,000 pounds in lieu of the long ton of 2,240 pounds.
5. Nine hours to constitute a work day in lieu of a 10-hour day.
6. Semi-monthly pay. [State law, but unenforced.]
7. The right to purchase goods at any place desired.
Demands Reasonable.
Now, anyone can see that these demands are reasonable, and should not be refused to any body of workmen. There has been all kinds of trouble since the strike started. Miner after miner has been shot, killed and beaten up by the guards, until the governor was compelled to send the militia to Paint Creek. Cabin Creek is now the battle ground, and all eyes are looking in that direction.
“Mother” Jones is on the ground, and the miners are organizing daily. By next Monday not a mine on the Creek will be operating…..
[Photograph and paragraph break added.]
From the Baltimore Sun of August 20, 1912:
1. Sentry on guard at Mucklow, W. Va. More than a hundred bullets struck this house on the morning of July 26, when strikers shot up the town. 2. Striking miner’s family living at Holly Grove, on Paint Creek, W. Va., in tent furnished by United Mine Workers’ organization. At the time the picture was taken the husband and father had walked 12 miles to hear “Mother” Jones speak. Several hundred miners live in the Holly Grove Camp. 3. View of miners’ camp at Holly Grove, W. Va.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 19, 1912 Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1912, Part III Found Speaking to West Virginia Miners from Steps of Capitol at Charleston
August 15, 1912, Charleston, West Virginia -Mother Jones Speaks to Striking Miners, Demands Removal of Mine Guards
This, my friends, marks, in my estimation, the most remarkable move ever made in the State of West Virginia. It is a day that will mark history in the long ages to come. What is it? It is an uprising of the oppressed against the master class.
From this day on, my friends, Virginia–West Virginia–shall march in the front of the nation’s states. To me, I think, the proper thing to do is to read the purpose of our meeting here today–why these men have laid down their tools, why these men have come to the State House.
To His Excellency, William E. Glasscock, Governor of the State of West Virginia:
It is respectfully represented unto your Excellency that the owners of the various coal mines doing business along the valley of Cabin Creek, Kanawha County, West Virginia, are maintaining and have at present in their employ a large force of armed guards, armed with Winchesters, a dangerous and deadly weapon; also having in their possession three Gatling guns, which they have stationed at commanding positions overlooking the Cabin Creek Valley, which said weapons said guards use for the purpose of brow-beating, intimidating and menacing the lives of all the citizens who live in said valley, and whose business calls them into said valley, who are not in accord with the management of the coal companies, which guards are cruel and their conduct toward the citizens is such that it would be impossible to give a detailed account of.
Therefore, suffice it to say, however, that they beat, abuse, maim and hold up citizens without process of law, deny freedom of speech, a provision guaranteed by the Constitution, deny the citizens to assemble in a peaceable manner for the purpose of discussing questions in which they are concerned. Said guards also hold up a vast body of laboring men who live at the mines, and so conduct themselves that a great number of men, women and children live in a state of constant fear, unrest and dread.
We hold that the stationing of said guards along the public highways, and public places is a menace to the general welfare of the state. That such action on the part of the companies in maintaining such guards is detrimental to the best interests of society and an outrage against the honor and dignity of the State of West Virginia. (Loud applause.)
As citizens interested in the public weal and general welfare, and believing that law and order, and peace, should ever abide, that the spirit of brotherly love and justice and freedom should everywhere exist, we must tender our petition that you would bring to bear all the powers of your office as Chief Executive of this State, for the purpose of disarming said guards and restoring to the citizens of said valley all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States and said State.
In duty bound, in behalf of the miners of the State of West Virginia.
I want to say with all due respect to the Governor–I want to say to you that the Governor will not, cannot do anything, for this reason: The Governor was placed in this building by Scott and Elkins and he don’t dare oppose them. (Loud applause.) Therefore, you are asking the Governor of the State to do something that he cannot do without betraying the class he belongs to……
I still unfurl the red flag of industrial freedom, no tyrant’s face shall you know, and I call you today into that freedom, long perched on the bosom (Interrupted by applause).
I am back again to find you, my friends, in a state of industrial peonage–after ten years absence I find you in a state of industrial peonage.
I am not afraid of jails. We build the jails, and when we get ready we will put them behind the bars. That may happen very soon–things happen overnight.
Now, brothers, not in all the history of the labor movement have I got such an inspiration as I have got from you here today. Your banners are history, they will go down to the future ages, to the children unborn, to tell them the slave has risen, children must be free……
I want to show you here that the average wages you fellows get in this country is $500.00 a year. Before you get a thing to eat there is $20.00 taken out a month, which leaves about $24.00 a month.
Then you go the the “Pluck-me” stores and want to get something to eat for your wife, and you are off that day, and the child comes back and says, “Papa, I can’t get anything.” “Why,” he says, “There is four dollars coming to me,” and the child goes back crying, without a mouthful of anything to eat. The father goes to the “Pluck-me” store and says to the manager, “There is four dollars coming to me,” and the manager says, “Oh, no, we have kept that for rent!” “You charge six dollars a month, and there are only three days gone.” “Well,” he says, “it is a rule that two-thirds of the rent is to be kept if there is only a day.”
That is honesty! Do you wonder these women starve? Do you wonder at this uprising? And you fellows have stood it entirely too long. It is time now to put a stop to it. We will give the Governor until tomorrow night to take them guards out of Cabin Creek. (Very loud applause, and cries of: “And no longer.”)
HERE ON THE STEPS OF THE CAPITOL OF WEST VIRGINIA, I SAY THAT IF THE GOVERNOR WON’T MAKE THEM GO THEN WE WILL MAKE THEM GO……
I want to tell you that the Governor will get until tomorrow night, Friday night, to get rid of his blood-hounds, and if they are not gone we will get rid of them. (Loud applause.)
Aye, men! Aye, men, inside of this building, Aye, women! Come with me and see the horrible pictures, see the horrible condition the ruling class has put these women in. Aye, they destroy women. Look at those little children, the rising generation; yes, look at the little ones; yes, look at the women assaulted…..
It is freedom or death, and your children will be free. We are not going to leave a slave class to the coming generation, and I want to say to you that the next generation will not charge us for what we have done, they will charge and condemn us for what we have left undone…..
Now, my boys, guard rule and tyranny will have to go, there must be an end. I am going up Cabin Creek. I am going to hold meetings there. I am going to claim the right of an American citizen……
This fight that you are in is the great industrial revolution that is permeating the heart of men over the world. They see behind the clouds the Star that rose in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago, that is bringing the message of a better and nobler civilization. We are facing the hour. We are in it, men, the new day, we are here facing that Star that will free men, and give to the nation a nobler, grander, higher, truer, purer, better manhood. We are standing on the eve of that mighty hour when the motherhood of the nation will rise, and instead of clubs or picture shows or excursions she will devote her life to the training of the human mind, giving to the nation great men and women.
I see that hour. I see the Star breaking your chains; your chains will be broken, men. You will have to suffer more and more, but it won’t be long. There is an awakening among all the nations of the earth……
I know of the wrongs of humanity; I know your aching backs; I know your swimming heads; I know your little children suffer; I know your wives, when I have gone in and found her dead and found a babe nursing at the dead breast, and found the little girl eleven years old taking care of three children. She said, “Mother, will you wake up, baby is hungry and crying?” When I laid my hand on mamma she breathed her last. And the child of eleven had to become a mother to the children.
Oh, men, have you any hearts? Oh, men, do you feel? Oh, men, do you see the judgement day on the throne above, when you will be asked, “Where did you get your gold?” You stole it from these wretches. You murdered, you assassinated, you starved, you burned them to death, that you and your wives might have palaces, and that your wives might go to the sea-shore……
Some women get up with five dollars worth of paint on their cheeks, and have tooth brushes for their dogs, and say, “Oh, them horrible miners. Oh, that horrible old Mother Jones, that horrible old woman.”
I am horrible, I admit, and I want to be to you blood-sucking pirates. I want you, my boys, to buckle on your armor. This is the fighting age. This is not the age for cowards, put them out of the way……
This day marks the forward march of the workers in the state of West Virginia. Slavery and oppression will gradually die. The national government will get a record of this meeting. They will see men of intelligence, that they are not out to destroy but to build. And instead of the horrible homes you have got, we will build on their ruins homes for you and your children to live in, and we will build them on the ruins of the dog kennels which they wouldn’t keep their mules in. That will bring forth better ideas than the world has had. The day of oppression will be gone. I will be with you whether true or false. I will be with you at midnight or when the battle rages, when the last bullet ceases, but I will be in my joy…..
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.
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:
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…..
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1. Sentry on guard at Mucklow, W. Va. More than a hundred bullets struck this house on the morning of July 26, when strikers shot up the town. 
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