Tag: Frank W Snyder

Hellraisers Journal: Rev. John E. Wilburn Will be Witness for Defense at Trial of Miners at Charles Town, West Virginia

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
Share

Quote Re Wilburn, Miner n Preacher, WVgn p11, Apr 28, 1922—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 29, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – Rev. John E. Wilburn to be Witness at Trial of Miners

From The West Virginian of April 28, 1922:

PASTOR ACCUSED OF TREASON
MAIN MINERS’ WITNESS
———-
Kept in Solitary Confinement More Than
a Month and Then Handcuffed.
———-

By C. C. LYON

 

WV Rev John Wilburn, WVgn p11, Apr 28, 1922

CHARLES TOWN, W. Va., April 27.-Counsel for the hunreds of West Virginia miners on trial here for alleged treason and murder in connection with their armed March to Logan county last August are only waiting a chance to put the Rev. John E. Wilburn, for five years pastor of the Baptist church at Blair, Logan county, on the stand as their star witness.

Rev. Wilburn himself has been held without bail, he was brought in handcuffs to Charles Town from Logan. He is now in jail here.

In court he is the center of all eyes.

Reign of Terror

On the witness stand the Reverend Mr. Wilburn will tell a story of the reign of terror in the Logan and Mingo county coal fields of the “‘battle of Blair Mountain” where men died on both sides, of the alleged mistreatment of miners and their families by the deputies said to have been hired by the coal operators, and of his own mistreatment in the Logan county jail following his arrest.

A round-shouldered, tired little man, with kindly blue eyes, a soft voice and an almost saintly manner-that’s Mr. Wilburn.

Not a word of complaint against anybody has passed his lips.

His Experiences

Mr. Wilburn told me his story here in the Charles Town jail.

 [He said:]

I am 45 years old and was born in the mountains of Tennessee. I received a common school education and at 16 I was converted to Christ and joined the Baptist Church.

The ambition of my life was to become a minister, but we were very poor, so I went to work in the coal mines to earn a living while I studied. 

I was miner and student for nine years before I was ordained a minister. That was 22 years ago.

I saw that my field of usefulness lay with my own people in the mining camps. But they were too poor to maintain their churches so I went on working in the mines to support my family while I preached.

Family Prayer Daily

I am the father of five sons and three daughters and never has there passed a day at our home that we haven’t had our family prayers.

Five years ago I became pastor of the Baptist Church at Blair, Logan county. At the same time got a job as track-layer in a union mine. My three sons also worked in this mine.

I was put in solitary confinement [because of?] all the trouble there.

In September I went back to my old home in Tennessee to conduct a series of revival services and it was not until January that I learned that the Logan County grand jury had indicted me for alleged participation in the “battle of Blair Mountain.”

I immediately wrote Sheriff Don Chafin that I would come back if he wanted me, but, not hearing from him, I continued my revival meetings. When I returned to Logan County in March I was dumbfounded to learn that I was under indictment for murder and treason.

I was jailed at Logan. My two sons, John 18, and Frank 16, had been in jail without bond since December 31. A third son, Isaac, had been in jail but was admitted to bond. 

The authorities offered me many inducements to turn state’s evidence and testify against the miners but I spurned their offers.

I was put in solitary confinement in the Logan jail on March 14 and remained in solitary confinement until Saturday, April 22, when I was handcuffed to another miner and brought to Charles Town.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Rev. John E. Wilburn Will be Witness for Defense at Trial of Miners at Charles Town, West Virginia” →

Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Miners Resent Treason Charge; Declare They Are as Patriotic Citizens as Anybody

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
Share

Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 26, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – Miners Resent Treason Charge

From the Baltimore Sun of April 25, 1922:

(From a Staff Correspondent.)

Charles Town, W. Va., April 24.-Attacking directly the indictment charging treason, attorneys for the defense in the big industrial trials which opened here this morning began their fight to clear more than 100 men, mostly members of the United Mine Workers of America, of charges growing out of the armed march from Marmet, Kanawha county, to Logan county last August and September.

Entering a demurrer to the treason indictment, which covers 23 defendants, had been expected, and from the legal point of view is regarded as purely a routine move. From the moral point of view, however, and particularly , considering the effect it may have on public pinion, the outcome of the maneuver is regarded by the defense as of paramount importance.

Treason Charge Resented.

Indictments for murder and conspiracy were more or less expected in the circumstances by the United Mine Workers, but the indictment for treason always rankled. It is their contention that they are as patriotic citizens as anybody, and that they never for an instant contemplated war on the constituted authorities of the United States or West Virginia.

The arguments today, therefore, were followed with more interest than was usual at such a stage  an ordinary trial, and many of those accused betrayed not a little tenseness as the attorneys held forth.

The arguments on which the demurrer was based were largely technical, fault being found in one instance with the language of the indictment, and in another with the alleged general character of the offenses charged. The tediousness of the arguments, however, never for an instant acted to break attention with which the case was followed by the crowd in the courtroom.

Judge J. M. Woods, of Martinsburg, who is presiding, reserved his decision on the demurrer until the morning, and court adjourned about 3.30 this afternoon.

Crowd Has Holiday Air.

The crowd in front of the Courthouse this morning, far from presenting the grim aspect you might expect from men about to go on trial for their lives, were rather a holiday air. The defendants had been provided with ribbons reading “U. M. W. A. – Defendant,” which made them look more like a lot of delegates to a fraternal order convention than men accused of the most serious crimes on the statute books.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Miners Resent Treason Charge; Declare They Are as Patriotic Citizens as Anybody” →

Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Miners and Families Are Destitute and Suffering; Committee Seeks Aid in New York

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote EVD, Starve Quietly, Phl GS Speech IA, Mar 19, 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 13, 1922
West Virginia Miners and Their Families Are Destitute and Suffering

From The New York Times of February 12, 1922:

ASK AID FOR 35,000 STRIKING MINERS.
———-
West Virginia Labor Committee Here Seeks Food,
Clothes and Medicines for Idle Men.
———-

WV Battle by Shields, UE by M Becker, Lbtr p16, Oct 1921

Thirty-five thousand striking miners and their families are destitute and suffering in West Virginia, according to a statement yesterday by a committee of West Virginia labor officials who came to New York seeking food, clothing and medical aid for the unemployed workers and their dependents.

The committee said it also would appeal to the national Red Cross organization at Washington and to the convention of the United Mine Workers at Indianapolis next Tuesday for emergency help. The committee consisted of William T. Harris, President of the West Virginia State Federation of Labor; Fred Mooney, Secretary-Treasurer, District 17, United Mine Workers, and Frank W. Snyder, editor of The West Virginia Federationist.

The committee said a survey of conditions showed that more than 70,000 West Virginia miners were out of work, many of them since the signing of the armistice.

WV Battle by Shields, RR demand by M Becker, Lbtr p17, Oct 1921

High wages had nothing to do with the unemployment, the committee said, pointing out that coal was being sold in the unionized Kanawha fields at lower prices than in the non-union Guyan region. Kanawha coal, they said, was selling at $2.15 a ton f. o. b. mines last week, and in Guyan at $2.35.

In the face of the unemployment, the commutes said, the operators were attempting wholesale evictions. Many miners and their families had been forced out of their homes, but these evictions had been checked by the intervention of the Department of Labor at Washington.

“In the mining fields,” said Mr. Mooney, “there are 35,000 destitute families. They are without food and clothing. The bread winners in some of these families have not worked more than three months since the armistice. The families have been living from hand to mouth on charity furnished by their neighbors and friends.”

The committee arranged with the American Civil Liberties Union here to raise a relief fund here in New York.

[Emphasis and drawings by Maurice Becker added.]

—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Miners and Families Are Destitute and Suffering; Committee Seeks Aid in New York” →

Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Federationist: Governor’s Sworn Duty is to Remove Coal Operators’ Private Army

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
Share

Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920, Steel Speeches, p230—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 27, 1921
West Virginia Federationist Demands Removal of Gunthug Army

From the Duluth Labor World of June 18, 1921:

Thugs Promote Mingo Mine War, Lbr Wld p1, June 18, 1921

CHARLESTON, W. Va., June 16.—In an address to business men in this city Governor Morgan said: “Thank God, the awakening is coming in Mingo county.”

To this statement the West Virginia Federationist replies:

Yes, it is coming, but through no effort of you, the coal masters or any of the state officials.

The awakening will arrive when the federal investigation committee makes public their findings and expose the vicious system of the industrial overlords who have ruled with brute force and crushed a liberty loving people under the iron heel of greed by the usurpation of the constitution and the enforcement of a law of the gun and club in the hands of their thug army, aided and abetted by the public officials whom they own and control.

Governor Morgan was absolutely right when he stated that “the people of West Virginia don’t understand the situation as it exists today.” If they did there would be a mighty roar throughout the entire state demanding that he perform his sworn duty to uphold law and order by removing the private army of coal company thugs from Mingo, Logan and McDowell counties and restore constitutional rights to the citizenship thereof.

If he wanted to acquaint the people with conditions he could have quoted an editorial from the Charleston Mail in openly advocating mob law, said: “What is needed to settle that trouble on Tug river is a few tugs by the sheriff’s assistants at a stout rope.”

In other words, the Mail advocates that the thugs and bums recruited by agents of the coal masters to break the miners’ strike should string up the citizens of Mingo county who are struggling for their American rights and more bread and butter for their families.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Federationist: Governor’s Sworn Duty is to Remove Coal Operators’ Private Army” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1919, Part II: Sissonville Prison Road Camp-Burning Hell Hole of West Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Mother Jones Constabulary n Bread, Ab Chp 23, 1925———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 16, 1919
Mother Jones News for July 1919, Part II
-Found Protesting Conditions at Sissonville Road Camp

Hell Hole in West Virginia: Sissonville Prison Road Camp
-Described by Mother Jones:

Mother Jones Crpd Women in Industry, Eve Ns Hburg PA p2, Jan 6, 1919

With Mr. [Fred] Mooney and Mr. Snyder, organizers, I went to the prison camp of Kanawha County where prisoners were building a county road. It was a broiling hot day.

About forty men were swinging picks and shovels; some old grey haired men were among them, some extremely young, some diseased, all broken in spirit and body. Some of them, the younger ones, were in chains. They had to drag a heavy iron ball and chain as they walked and worked. A road officer goaded them on if they lagged. He was as pitiless as the Bull on their bent backs.

These were men who had received light sentences in the courts for minor offenses, but the road officer could extend the sentence for the infraction of the tiniest rule. Some men had been in the camp for a year whose sentence had been thirty days for having in their possession a pint of liquor. Another fellow told me he was bringing some whiskey to a sick man. He was arrested, given sixty days and fined $100. Unable to pay he was sentenced to five months in the prison camp, and after suffering hell’s tortures he had attempted to run away. He was caught and given four additional months.

At night the miserable colony were driven to their horrible sleeping quarters. For some, there were iron cages. Iron bunks with only a thin cloth mattress over them. Six prisoners were crowded into these cages. The place was odorous with filth. Vermin crawled about…..

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1919, Part II: Sissonville Prison Road Camp-Burning Hell Hole of West Virginia” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Charleston Labor Argus: Trade Unions Are Toilers Only Hope for Protection and Safety

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Don’t Mourn, Organize!
-Joe Hill

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 26, 1908
National Elections Pass into History; Hardships Continue for Toilers

From the Charleston Labor Argus of December 24, 1908:

Trade Union Are Toilers Only Hope
—–

Only Protection and Safety for the Working
Masses is Organized Labor
-Politicians Are But Tools of the Trusts.
—–

Labor Argus p4, Frank W Snyder, Charleston WV, Dec 24, 1908

Now that another national contest has, passed into history and the working people can take a sober view of the economic situation, the Cleveland Citizen calls attention to the fact that the labor problem was not solved on Nov. 3, 1908.

While the unsuccessful politicians are now in the dumps and the victors are celebrating their acquaintance of the spoils of office, the workingmen are confronted by exactly the the same conditions that they were to face the day before election.

The problem of unemployment for some and overwork for others, the evils for cheap women and child labor, the introduction of labor-displacing machinery, the threats of wage reductions, the attacks of union smashing open shoppers and similiar questions are here today just as they were here last week, and they must and considered for the reason that they cannot lie dodged.

Since there is no likelihood that the victorious politicians will establish the millennium week after next or next year or the year following, what are the working people going to do for their own betterment? Sit on their haunches and suck their thumbs. Go into a trance and give up the few advantages that they still possess?

We believe not. Down in their hearts the workingmen and women know that their only protection and safety lies in organizing-in combining the toilers into trade unions for offensive and defensive purposes.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Charleston Labor Argus: Trade Unions Are Toilers Only Hope for Protection and Safety” →