Tag: Fred Merrick

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: W. H. Thompson Replies to Debs Regarding Report on West Virginia

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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HdLn re WV SPA NEC Investigation Fail, Lbr Str p1, June 13, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 12, 1913
Comrade Thompson Responds to Debs Regarding Socialists’ Report on West Virginia

From the International Socialist Review of August 1913:

A Reply to Debs

[-by W. H. Thompson
Editor of Huntington Socialist and Labor Star]

WV Kanawha County Jail, ISR p16, July 1913

Editor of the Call:

In your issue of June 28 appears an article by Comrade Eugene V. Debs, headed “Debs Denounces Vilifiers of West Virginia Committee Report.” As one of the parties referred to as “vilifiers,” I would like to answer a few of the points made in the article.

The Socialist and Labor Star bitterly condemned the committee’s report; it did not publish it, but it did give an explanation for suppressing it, in the following words: “We have never, and will never, devote any of our space to whitewashing a cheap political tool of the capitalist class, not even when the whitewash is mixed by a committee representing our own party.”

From Comrade Debs’ own words I will endeavor to prove that our condemnation of the report was justified. Our charges against the report were that it was a “weak mass of misstatements and a sickening eulogy of Dictator Hatfield.” The truth of the last clause of the charge is plainly apparent to everyone who has read the report. The truth of the first clause is well known to all who have taken the trouble to inform themselves regarding the trouble in this state.

Comrade Debs says that when the committee arrived in West Virginia more than sixty of our comrades were in jail and two of our papers were suppressed. All true. Now pay particular attention to dates. The committee arrived in West Virginia on May 17. Hatfield was inaugurated governor on March 4, something over two months previous. These comrades had been held in-or put in-jail at Hatfield’s orders, and the papers had been suppressed at his command. Mother Jones, Editor Boswell, National Committeeman Brown, and forty-six other Socialists were placed on trial before a military drumhead court-martial on March 7. On March 9, the Circuit Court of Kanawha County issued a writ forbidding the trial of these prisoners by the militia. The sheriff went into the military zone to serve this writ, only to be met by the Provost Marshal, who, acting under orders from Hatfield, forcibly prevented the serving of the papers, and the drumhead trial proceeded in defiance of the civil courts.

The report of our committee says: “It was under the administration of Glasscock, and not Hatfield, that Mother Jones, C. H. Boswell and John Brown were court-martialed and convicted.”

On April 25, the Charleston Labor Argus was confiscated, suppressed, and those suspected of being connected with it were thrown into jail. On May 9 the Socialist and Labor Star was confiscated, its plant destroyed and five of its owners jailed by order of Governor Hatfield.

Our committee’s report referring to these outrages says: “In this connection it, is but fair to say that the governor and his friends disavow knowledge of these outrages!”

According to Comrade Debs’ article, it did not take him long to discover “that a certain element was hostile to the United Mine Workers.” Apparently, however, he failed to discover that there were numerous elements hostile to Socialism. There was an element hostile to the United Mine Workers’ officials who had just leagued themselves with Hatfield and agreed upon a “settlement” of the strike, which was odious to the strikers and which they have since totally repudiated. Comrade Debs uses this “element” that was hostile to the United Mine Workers as a shield to hide behind when we attack him for whitewashing Hatfield. Then he pours out this vial of wrath upon us:

The whole trouble is that some Chicago I. W. W .-ites, in spirit, at least, are seeking to disrupt and drive out the United Mine Workers to make room for the I. W. W . and its program of sabotage.

Speaking for myself, I will say that I have never seen a real live I. W. W.-ite. If there is or has ever been such an animal in West Virginia I am blissfully unaware of the fact. However, I have heard considerable of this new species from the capitalistic press and I note that the capitalists are very hostile toward it. I consider that a good recommendation for a labor organization and will certainly not speak slightingly of it or condemn it as long as the parasites fear it, but as for the I. W. W. being responsible for the attack on the Mine Workers’ officials, who deliberately attempted to betray the Kanawha strikers, I think Comrade Debs’ fear was father to the thought.

Then Debs dramatically points to Mother Jones and John Brown as evidence that the Mine Workers’ officials are straightforward and honest, or these two class-conscious comrades would not work for them. And I come right back with the assertion that both Mother Jones and Brown have worked, not for these officials whom he so vigorously defends, but for the rank and file of the workers.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: W. H. Thompson Replies to Debs Regarding Report on West Virginia” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: W. H. Thompson on the Strike “Settlements” in West Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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HdLn re WV SPA NEC Investigation Fail, Lbr Str p1, June 13, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 10, 1913
W. H. Thompson Opines on Strike Settlements in West Virginia

From the International Socialist Review of August 1913:

Strike “Settlements” in West Virginia

By W. H. Thompson

[Editor of Huntington Socialist and Labor Star]

W. H. Thompson, ISR p12, July 1913

IN an article in the July REVIEW I detailed at some length the manner in which the odious Hatfield-Haggerty “settlement” of the Kanawha strike was ”put over” on the workers by the coercion of Hatfield and the trickery of the United Mine Workers’ officials. I have received numerous letters from persons prominent in the Socialist party and in the mine workers organization severely criticizing my statements and intimating in very forceful language that I knew not of what I wrote. In justice to these writers I will say that in every instance they were citizens of other states, and, with few exceptions, have never been in West Virginia.

As proof of the accuracy of my statements made in that article I wish to chronicle the happenings in the affected zone since it was written.

The coal miners of Paint Creek and Cabin Creek have unanimously repudiated the agreement entered into for them by Hatfield-Haggerty & Co., and are again on strike. Furthermore, they have compelled Haggerty and the other compromising officials of the U. M. W. of A. to retreat from their former position as absolute dictators, and to grant to their strike a tardy official recognition.

These leaders were placed in a rather peculiar position in thus being compelled to endorse a strike against the agreement they themselves had forced upon the miners, and to “save their face” they loudly proclaimed that the coal barons had violated the provisions of the holy Hatfield Proposition and thus justified the strike.

This brought forth a hot reply from the coal operators’ association, which proved another assertion of mine, to the effect that there was nothing in the Hatfield proposition demanding any changes in their attitude toward the miners. They said in part:

“There was never any promise or agreement on our part to take back strikers or to surrender our rights of hiring or discharging men as we saw fit. We entered into no agreement with the United Mine Workers. We promised the Governor that we would do certain things toward ending the violence on Paint and Cabin Creeks. We have kept this promise in the strictest good faith and there is no foundation for any statement to the contrary.”

In regard to this Dean Haggerty made a public statement in which he said:

“Owing to my absence from the city on important business I have as yet been unable to prepare a detailed reply to the statement of the operators’ association. But I shall do so shortly and show that the Governor’s proposition has been grossly violated.”

The Dean made this promise of a “detailed statement” on June 22, but as yet he has failed to make the statement or show wherein the operators had grossly violated the Hatfield proposition. No one knows better than Haggerty that there was nothing in the proposition that the operators would have any call to violate.

In the meantime the strike in the Paint and Cabin Creek district grows in intensity, and conditions are rapidly approaching the guerilla warfare stage. The criminal mine guards are again in evidence and are using the same old tactics to stir up violence. Already one battle has taken place. This called forth from Governor Hatfield a long open letter to Sheriff Bonner Hill, he, of “armored train” fame, in which he declared that if the civil authorities could not preserve peace in the strike zone they should resign. He also intimated that he might summarily remove such officials as were lax in their duties. When it is remembered that Hatfield tried to “preserve peace” up there with the entire state army and failed, and that he has not as yet resigned his office, his advice appears a little premature, to say the least.

The New River “Settlement”

It would seem to the casual observer that Haggerty & Co. would have learned a few things from their failure to “put over” the now infamous Kanawha Settlement, but, alas, they belong to that specie of old line craft union leaders who never learn and never change. At the very time the Kanawha miners were repudiating the agreement entered into for them by these gentlemen, Haggerty, Hatfield and the New River operators were concocting another settlement prescription to be used upon the restless and dissatisfied New River miners.

This proposition, which was agreed upon by the gentlemen who drew it up, was meant for no other purpose than to chloroform the growing spirit of unrest among the miners in this field and to keep them producing coal to fill the contracts of the Kanawha operators whose mines are closed by the strike there.

The New River agreement is a replica of the infamous Hatfield proposition to settle the Kanawha strike. The workers realize absolutely nothing from its acceptance. And to effectually prevent the miners from ever gaining any concessions under it the following clause is appended:

“Sixth-All matters of dispute, with reference to the above proposition, as between the individual operator and miners in each mine in the New River and Virginia districts, to be referred to a commission of four, two of whom are to be selected by the operators and two by the miners neither of whom are to be interested in mines or mining, either directly or indirectly, and that where a controversy arises, both operator and miner may appear before the said board, and the board, after hearing the evidence from both sides, shall render a decision, and any decision signed by any three of said board shall be final and binding on both operators and miners. Should said board be unable to reach a majority decision, then they shall take the matter to the governor of the state, who shall act as umpire and whose decision shall be final and binding on both operators and miners, and there shall be no appeal therefrom.”

See any chance for the real interested parties, the coal miners, having any say in matters of dispute?

Bear in mind, please, that this agreement, contract, settlement or whatever it is, was never submitted to the miners for their acceptance or rejection. It was accepted for them by the wise Christian leaders whom God and the United Mine Workers of America sent here to act for them. And their interests are further protected Umpire Hatfield from whose decision no appeal can be taken.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: W. H. Thompson on the Strike “Settlements” in West Virginia” →

Hellraisers Journal: “The Betrayal of the West Virginia Red Necks” by Fred Merrick, Editor of Pittsburgh Justice, Part II

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, WV Miners Longing for the Spring, Leaves, Paint Creek Miner, ISR p736, Apr 1913————–

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 8, 1913
Socialist Editor Fred Merrick on the Betrayal of the West Virginia Miners, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of July 1913:

HdLn WV Betrayal by SPA by Merrick, ISR p18, July 1913

[Part II of II]

The National officials of the union called a convention April 22, 1913, at Charleston, of delegates from Paint and Cabin Creeks and Coal River strike zones. When this convention was convened it was found that more than 90 per cent of the delegates and two officials of the union were bitterly opposed to the governor’s proposition, which was simply the bare ultimatum of the operators. These delegates for days arose and rehearsed the year of bitter suffering as conclusive argument why they should not go, back on such a basis of compromise.

Day after day the officials argued and coaxed and threatened. The “pay-roll” worked the streets and hotel lobbies at night like ward heeling politicians, recalcitrant delegates were doped in saloons and every dirty trick known to labor union politics was attempted. On Wednesday evening Harold W. Houston, at that time Secretary of the Socia]ist party of West Virginia and attorney for the U. M. W. of A. made a radical Socialist speech which was applauded vigorously by the miners. He won their confidence.

WV Brotherhood Union Scabs Who Agreed to Run Bull Moose Special ag Holly Grove, ISR p21, July 1913

But Friday, April 25th, rolled around and the “God damn red necks couldn’t be controlled,” a prominent official put it. The miners wouldn’t accept the compromise. Hatfield became impatient over the inability of Haggerty, Vasey & Company to deliver the goods, and he issued his ultimatum of April 25. With this as a club the officials tried to scare the “red necks,” but men who had fought Baldwin guards and faced machine guns and dum-dum bullets weren’t much afraid of the threats of a Hatfield.

So the last trick was pulled from the stacked cards of craft union politics. Harold Houston was approached. He was made to believe that it was the best thing for the miners to go back. He was then told that he was the only one the miners had confidence enough in to listen to and that if he would advocate their acceptance of the proposition the delegates would accede. Houston weakened and agreed that on condition that a communication be sent the governor interpreting “discrimination” to mean that no striker should be refused employment he would advise acceptance. This was done and the miners reluctantly followed the advice of their trusted lawyer “leader” and adjourned April 26th with the distinct understanding that the national officials would stand by them against any discrimination-that “all or none must return to work.”

But the operators saw that the miners had begun to weaken and they gave Hatfield to distinctly understand that the “agitators” would not be taken back. And despite the months of persecution and the imprisonment of many Socialists, there were scores more on the creeks. Hatfield, true to his capitalist interests, immediately issued his now famous 24-hour ultimatum of April 27th threatening deportation to all miners and sympathizers unless every miner in the strike zone was at work Monday morning, April 28th, and in this, distinctly said regarding the re-employment of all the strikers, “It would be presumptuous for me to tell employers whom they should employ.” Everyone understood immediately that the “agitators” would not get back. Hundreds refused to apply for work as being a violation of the action of the convention of April 22nd, and the solemn pledges of the national officials that they would stand by the men and support them in a continuance of the strike if they did not all get back.

Despite the governor’s outrageous and unconstitutional conduct which was in addition a violation of his own flowery promises, Joe Vasey, who had been conveniently left in charge of the situation by Haggerty, issued a statement to the press which was published Monday morning as follows: “At 9:30 p. m. Governor Hatfield called up the President at Clarksburg.” Yet with the villain responsible for these outrages present, Vice President Hayes, whose “Socialism” has been used as a bait for the radical miners for years, introduced Hatfield to the miners in a disgustingly laudatory fashion and the governor then proceeded to make a speech characteristic of the finished politician, in which he said he was the laboring man’s governor and that “By God the interests don’t control me.”

Following this was the advent of the Socialist National Investigating Committee. This committee’s report should be reviewed at length, but that is impossible here. Harsh terms must be used in dealing with it, but ample proof can be adduced for every charge including personal witnesses if necessary.

The writer charges that when Debs says that the conduct of the committee was received with rejoicing and enthusiasm he either ignorantly or intentionally misrepresents the facts as scores of witnesses can be produced to prove the contrary.

The writer further brands as absolute falsehood the statement that the court martialing of “Mother” Jones, Brown, Boswell, Parsons and others occurred under Glasscock. Hatfield was inaugurated on March 4th. The Governor had full control of martial law and under Hatfield’s administration the drumhead court martial sat on March 7th and placed on trial 51 persons. The sessions of this court continued until March 12th. More than this, it can be proven that the committee’s attention was called to this error before they left Charleston and yet they deliberately returned to Chicago and sent broadcast to the country a statement they had been informed was unqualifiedly false. Witnesses can be produced to prove this also.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “The Betrayal of the West Virginia Red Necks” by Fred Merrick, Editor of Pittsburgh Justice, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: “The Betrayal of the West Virginia Red Necks” by Fred Merrick, Editor of Pittsburgh Justice, Part I

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, WV Miners Longing for the Spring, Leaves, Paint Creek Miner, ISR p736, Apr 1913————–

Hellraisers Journal – Monday July 7, 1913
Socialist Editor Fred Merrick on the Betrayal of the West Virginia Miners, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of July 1913:

HdLn WV Betrayal by SPA by Merrick, ISR p18, July 1913

[Part I of II]

IT WILL be hopelessly impossible within the narrow confines of this brief article to give the reader more than a skeleton of the real “inside” story of the great strike raging in West Virginia, which the greed of coal operators, subserviency of political officials, especially the courts and sheriffs, brutality of heartless degenerates known as “Baldwins” or “mine guards,” drum-head court martial of the militia, duplicity of their own attorneys, misrepresentation by newspapers, treachery of many officials of their own union and the crowning act of all, the betrayal or misrepresentation of their cause to the Socialists of America by a committee elected by the National Committee to investigate conditions in West Virginia-all have utterly failed to break.

WV Gunthugs w Machine Gun, ISR p18, July 1913

To all the horrors which a strike of a year’s duration in tents on the bleak winter mountains of “Little Switzerland” means, was added the base conduct of those labor and so-called “Socialist” parasites who today make their living as advisors of the toilers without themselves undergoing the privations incident to toil and revolution. Volumes could and undoubtedly will yet be written on this phase of the West Virginia struggle which is far more vital than the spectacular battles which have been described again and again.

It is not unfair to say that the facts merely suggested here will never find publicity through the orthodox labor or Socialist press, but if the reader has his class conscious curiosity sufficiently aroused by this brief resume to thoroughly investigate the sordid tale of the betrayal of the West Virginia “red necks” as many of the officials and organizers of the U. M. W. of A. contemptuously refer to the West Virginia miners, the purpose of this story will have been accomplished. Before passing judgment on the harshness of some of the terms used in this article examine each statement of fact carefully and see if such conduct should not be described in terms calculated to arouse the militant toilers of America, whether the object be our formerly “beloved ‘Gene,” who seems to have fallen by the wayside, or our genial friend from Milwaukee.

The West Virginia strike may roughly be divided into three distinct stages:

1. The unorganized strike stage when the miners aided by the local Socialists made their valiant fight at a time when the officials of the U. M. W. of A. did absolutely nothing to help. Towards the latter part of this period “Mother” Jones appeared and helped her “boys” to “fight like hell.” The method of breaking the strike employed during this time was confined entirely to the physical brutality of Baldwin mine guards and the less efficient National guard or militia. The miners were able to handle this sort of “suppression” with some first-class “direct action.” During this period the miners scored a decisive victory.

WV Child of Martyr Estep, ISR p19, July 1913
[Correction: The orphan child of Cesco Estep
was a son, not a daughter. ]

2. Immediately following election in November different tactics were employed. Certain treacherous officials of the union deliberately asked for martial law. Following this they attempted to compromise the strike which the militia was unable to break alone. The climax of this period dominated by the officials of the U. M. W. of A; came with Hatfield’s notorious deportation ultimatum of April 27th, which was endorsed and supported enthusiastically by the officials of the U. M. W. of A. from President White down through Frank Hayes, Thomas Haggerty and Joe Vasey. However, the tactics employed of attempting to break the strike with the machine of the U. M. W. of A. failed miserably and another trick was employed.

3. This period is marked by the advent of the Socialist National Investigating Committee which endorsed the conduct of Governor Hatfield for the most part thereby giving a clean bill of health to the officials of the U. M. W. of A. who had accepted Hatfield’s “settlement,” thereby becoming the agents through whom the operators hoped to accomplish a “settlement” which police brutality, the diplomacy of Hatfield and the treachery of U. M. W. of A. officials had failed to accomplish. Due to the splendid common sense education on Socialism the miners had received for two years through the columns of the Charleston Labor Argus, edited by fearless Charles H. Boswell, the miners and local Socialists received the committee not as heroes, but as ordinary human beings. They refused to accept the “settlement” because its sponsor had been whitewashed by the committee, just as before.

The first period has been adequately dealt with by the capitalist magazines where it received more attention than was ever given it by the Socialist press, who seemed afraid of it for some reason.

The second period is marked by successive steps of compromise which are a disgrace even to the black record of the U. M. W. of A., who have so often betrayed the West Virginia miners that it has become an old story. Let us get a birds-eye view of how the machine of this organization pulled the sting out of the demands of the miners so gradually that the miners themselves did not realize that it was being done. 

1. In the early Spring of 1912, a convention of miners was called at Charleston, here it was understood the demands of the miners would be the same as elsewhere in the United States and were to include an EIGHT-HOUR DAY. As West Virginia coal is mined cheaper per ton than any other coal there is less reason for working more than eight hours than there is in other states.

2. Another convention of miners was held in Charleston in April, 1912. In the interim the Cleveland scale had been adopted and at this convention the local officials, with the acquiescence of the national organization, persuaded the miners to modify their demands to ONE-HALF the Cleveland scale and, from an EIGHTHOUR to a NINE-HOUR DAY. Following the strike, the miners kept up such a hot fight that the union officials were apparently afraid to attempt any more compromises until following the court martialing of “Mother” Jones, Brown, Boswell and other Socialists.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “The Betrayal of the West Virginia Red Necks” by Fred Merrick, Editor of Pittsburgh Justice, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: How the Coal Miners’ Victory in West Virginia Was Turned Into a “Settlement” by W. H. Thompson, Part II

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, WV Miners Longing for the Spring, Leaves, Paint Creek Miner, ISR p736, Apr 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 5, 1913
West Virginia Coal Miners’ Victory Turned into “Settlement”-Part II

From the International Socialist Review of July 1913:

How a Victory Was Turned Into
a ”Settlement” in West Virginia

-by W. H.Thompson,
Editor Huntington Socialist and Labor Star

[Part II of III]

WV Rome Mitchell, Brant Scott, Parsons Lavender, ISR p13, July 1913

Realizing that laudatory speech-making and persuasion were not going to induce these hard-headed delegates to sell the blessing of victory for a mess of burned pottage, they were compelled to resort to downright trickery and deceit.

A committee was appointed from among the delegates to draw up a counter-proposition, setting forth the terms upon which they would be willing to return to work, this to be submitted to the governor in answer to his proposal. The committee drew up the proposition which was presented to and endorsed by the convention. It was then turned over to the officials with instructions that they present it to His Highness.

The following day the convention was given to understand that Hatfield had accepted their proposal as an amendment to his proposition. The two documents were then read and a vote was taken upon what the delegates afterwards, and now, claim they believed was the acceptance of their own proposal. However, the two propositions had been juggled in such a manner, by those who are adepts in such arts, that the miners-necessarily untrained in the gentle ways of parliamentary legerdemain, had in reality voted for and accepted the original odious Hatfield offer, their own proposition having been promptly turned down by that gentleman with the remark that he “could not force the mine owners to comply with it.” 

These things were not made public, of course, until after the convention had adjourned. You can imagine the surprise and chagrin of the miners upon being informed by the daily papers that they had tamely submitted to the dictator’s demands after he had spurned their own offer of a basis of settlement.

This information was followed by orders from headquarters at Charleston to the effect that the miners return to work at once. This they refused to do. Then the officials, escorted by detachments of the governor’s hated yellow-legs, visited the tented villages in the mountains and bluntly informed the rebellious strikers that their relief would be cut off at once and the tents burned over their heads if they did not submit to the settlement and return to work.

Under these circumstances there was nothing to do but obey and the strikers began to apply for work at the mines. All those known to have been most active during the strike were refused employment. These to the number of 400 are still idle, for the good and simple reason that they are very effectively black-listed at every coal mine in the valley. All others are working under the same, or worse conditions than existed before the strike began. 

Of course it was thoroughly realized by the powers that be that there was one remaining obstruction in the way of a complete establishment of their neatly planned “settlement.” That was the Socialist press.

Editor C. H. Boswell, of the Charleston Labor Argus, had been approached some months before and it was insinuated that a “settlement” might be arranged. He promptly and forcefully informed the “approachers” that The Argus was fighting for victory for the rank and file and that if any crooked work was attempted something would drop. Boswell was arrested a few days later and safely planted in the bull pen. The Argus, however, had continued, and the Huntington Socialist and Labor Star had also begun to show an inquisitive interest in the happenings affecting the strikers. These two agencies must be silenced, temporarily at least; decided the three-armed combination most interested in the success of the settlement. No sooner said than done. Martial law was in effect in the coal field, so the commander-in-chief simply dispatched a detail of yellow-legs to Charleston to confiscate The Labor Argus and “jug” Fred Merrick, who was suspected of being editor pro tem. The same gentle methods of suppression were used on the Huntington Star.

With all those who would doubtless make an effective protest against the deal being put over on the fighting miners by the unholy trinity, safely “jugged,” the settlement proceeded apace. The coal operators, the prostituted press and the U. M. W. of A. officials all joined in singing hosannas of praise for the highly satisfactory manner in which His Highness, Hatfield, had settled the strike.

But the last act of despotism on the part of the trinity, the confiscation of the Socialist papers, brought on unexpected complications. The Socialist and labor papers, and hundreds of the capitalist papers throughout the country severely condemned this blundering attack upon the rights of a free press. The National Socialist organization was at last shocked into action and decided to send a committee into West Virginia to find out if we really were having a fight down here. The committee arrived, established headquarters at the most expensive hotel in the capitol city and immediately went into conference with the leaders of the U. M. W. of A.

From conferences with this branch of the triumvirate the committee naturally drifted into conferences with the other branches, Hatfield, the local politicians and the coal barons.

WV Debs Berger Germer Craigo Nantz, ISR p15, July 1913

After a week devoted exclusively to these secretive but doubtless instructing conferences, and before they had visited the mining camps or talked with the local Socialists, members of the committee began talking-to the capitalist papers.

The sayings attributed to them had a familiar sound. They were practically the same sentences that the U. M. W. of A. officials had used, and that the newspapers themselves had used, and that Hatfield himself had used, to justify existing conditions and official anarchy.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: How the Coal Miners’ Victory in West Virginia Was Turned Into a “Settlement” by W. H. Thompson, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Challenge to West Virginia’s Socialist Party by L. H. Marcy, Part III

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, WV Miners Longing for the Spring, Leaves, Paint Creek Miner, ISR p736, Apr 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 6, 1913
Clarksburg, West Virginia – Comrade Kintzer’s Plea for Help 

From the International Socialist Review of June 1913:

Hatfield’s Challenge to the Socialist Party

By Leslie H. Marcy

[Part III of III]

The National Committee received the following plea for help at its meeting held in Chicago, May 10th, and it is up to the rank and file of the party to force immediate action in this crisis. The conditions are so well known that investigating committees are only an insult to the intelligence of the comrades in West Virginia and elsewhere. What they ask for is regular or volunteer organizers. Why should not their request be granted immediately?

The Plea for Help

Clarksburg, W. Va., May 9, 1913.

To the National Committee, Socialist Party, Chicago:

Edward H Kintzer of WV SP, ISR 886, June 1913

Dear Comrades-Owing to the temporary absence of State Secretary Houston, the State Executive Committee motion following was instituted by myself, asking that the four comrades send their vote upon the motion to Executive Secretary Work, so that in the event it carries it may be properly put before you at the annual convention. The committeemen are widely scattered, and there is a possibility that their votes upon the motion will fail to arrive in time.

Following is the motion and comment by myself:

“That the National Committee, in session of May 11, be requested to furnish a number of regular or volunteer organizers to be routed through West Virginia, for the purpose of apprising the people of the outrages upon life, liberty and constitutional right, perpetuated and practiced by government officials, with Hatfield’s consent. That the financial deficit, if any, be borne by the national organization.”

COMMENT:

Comrade John W. Brown, National Committeeman, is now held incommunicado, in the county jail at Clarksburg, by order of Governor Hatfield. When I last saw him we spoke of this plan of reaching the people of West Virginia.

We all are aware of the subsidy of our state press, and now that Governor Hatfield has set the gauge of battle for the Socialists, having eliminated every other element, we must accept the fight or be conquered.

“In this state issue is involved the greatest violation of constitutional guarantees the American labor movement ever experienced. If we submit tamely we deserve the galling chains of slavery. If we fight as a united working class, we mark another mile post on the road to economic freedom.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Challenge to West Virginia’s Socialist Party by L. H. Marcy, Part III” →

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Challenge to West Virginia’s Socialist Party by L. H. Marcy, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, WV Miners Longing for the Spring, Leaves, Paint Creek Miner, ISR p736, Apr 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday June 4, 1913
Charleston, West Virginia – Governor Hatfield Vows to Jail or Deport Socialists

From the International Socialist Review of June 1913:

Hatfield’s Challenge to the Socialist Party

By Leslie H. Marcy

[Part I of III]

SPA Emblem, ISR p881, June 1913

Governor Hatfield has declared that every active Socialist in West Virginia shall be jailed or deported. Wholesale arrests of Socialists without warrants have already been made; trials by jury denied; our papers confiscated; presses wrecked and Editors jailed. Shall we stand for our comrades being absolutely within the power of this tool of the Coal Trust and the tin soldiers whom he commands?

AFTER a reign of terror and absolute lawlessness on the part of the mine owners and some of the constituted authorities in West Virginia for many months, the United Mine Workers of America have signed a truce with Governor Hatfield.

The representatives of the miners on Paint and Cabin Creeks and Coal River, after a stormy session, acceded to the Governor’s recommendation as a basis for a settlement of the strike.

Lawrence Peggy Dwyer, ISR p881, June 1913

The convention roll was made up of ninety-three delegates, of which eighty-five were native West Virginians. At no time until the fourth day could those who favored the Governor’s recommendation have secured a majority vote. In fact, many of the delegates came to the convention instructed to vote against the recommendation. On the final ballot a number of the delegates requested to be recorded as having voted against adoption, despite the fact that the sixteen representatives of the United Mine Workers, both state and national, with the exception of two, exerted their influence in favor of the recommendation, as did the attorneys of the organization. They yielded to the Governor’s demands with great reluctance.

In accepting the proposition of the Governor, the miners called his attention to the fact that each of the promises made by him, with the exception of the nine-hour day and semi-monthly payday, to which the operators acceded, are statutory rights granted the miners by law.

The Governor promised that the guard system should be abolished under his administration.

The recommendations were as follows:
Rights of miners to select check weighman.
Nine-hour day, at same scale of wages as now paid.
No discrimination.
Prices at commissary stores same as elsewhere.
Semi-monthly payday.

There are many who do not believe the Governor will carry out his promises, but in the meantime the miners have gone back to work.

War on the Socialist Party.

Socialists in West Virginia write that nearly all of the imprisoned striking miners, who are not active in the Socialist Party, have been released. Mother Jones also has been set at liberty.

In writing Senator Kern, she says:

I do not yet know that I am free, but I am inclined to think it was none of his (the Governor’s) good wishes.

In the meantime Governor Hatfield has waged a relentless war against all active Socialists. No other one has been released. The Governor has sworn to DRIVE SOCIALISM from the state.

John F. Parsons, A. D. Lavender, E. B. Vickers, Tom Miskel, Charles Kenney, Cleave Vickers, John Sachrist, G. W. Lavender, Nelson Treadway, John Brown, National Committeeman of the S. P ., Charles H. Boswell, editor of the Labor Argus, all Socialists, are still held incommunicado.

Fred Merrick, editor of the Pittsburgh Justice, who was filling Boswell’s place on the Argus, was seized, thrown into prison by the Governor’s orders and the paper confiscated.

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Challenge to West Virginia’s Socialist Party by L. H. Marcy, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: Clippings from The Wheeling Majority: Governor Releases Prisoners; UMWA Supports West Virginia Strike Settlement and Senate Investigation

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Quote Mother Jones to Kern re Sen Investigation, Wlg Int p1, May 6, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 24, 1913
West Virginia’s Class-War Prisoners Released

From The Wheeling Majority of May 22, 1913:

Governor Hatfield Releases Prisoners from West Virginia’s Military Bastile

WV Gov H Releases Military Prisoners, Wlg Maj p1, May 22, 1913

Executive Board of U. M. W. A. on West Virginia Strike Settlement

UMWA International EB re WV Strike Settlement, Wlg Maj p1, May 19122

United Mine Workers Journal Supports Federal Investigation of W. V. Strike

UMWJ Supports Senate Investigation of WV, Wlg Maj p4, May 22, 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Clippings from The Wheeling Majority: Governor Releases Prisoners; UMWA Supports West Virginia Strike Settlement and Senate Investigation” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Writes from the West Virginia Military Bastile to Tom Hickey, Editor of the Texas Rebel

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Quote Mother Jones, Letter to Hickey from Military Bastile, OK Sc Dem p1, May 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 17, 1913
Mother Jones Writes from West Virginia Bastile to Tom Hickey, Editor of The Rebel

From the Oklahoma City Social Democrat of May 14, 1913:

OK Sc Dem p1, May 14, 1913Mother Jones to Tom Hickey, OK Sc Dem p1, May 14, 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Writes from the West Virginia Military Bastile to Tom Hickey, Editor of the Texas Rebel” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “A Stirring Letter from Mother Jones”-Pratt W. Va., Military Bastile

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones fr Military Bastile, Cant Shut Me Up, AtR p1, May 10, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 11, 1913
From Pratt, West Virginia, Military Bastile: “Stirring Letter from Mother Jones”

From the Appeal to Reason of May 10, 1913:

Letter fr Mother Jones fr WV Military Bastile, AtR p1, May 10, 1913

———-

A Stirring Letter from Mother Jones

(The following letter to Appeal readers from Mother Jones was sent to Mrs. Ryan Walker who is now in New York City, and by her forwarded to us. Had the letter been addressed to the Appeal to Reason it would never have reached its destination. This letter proves that prison bars, even death itself, has no terrors for this brave heroine of more than a hundred fiercely fought battles on the industrial field. Mother Jones is your mother, and I appeal to you to help us raise such a mighty protest that the outrages against the working class in barbarous West Virginia will cease. You have helped the Appeal win many a contest with plutocracy. We are now engaged in the biggest fight of all its career-a fight the outcome of which is of vital concern, not only to our imprisoned comrades in West Virginia, but to every man, woman and child in America. Read Mother Jones, letter-read it from the housetops, in the mines, in the shops, read it aloud wherever men congregate to work.)

Pratt, W. Va., Military Bastile, April 25, 1913.-This is a very serious situation we have here and is not grasped by the outside world and God knows when it will be. I have been in here about eleven weeks. There are twelve of we poor devils, eleven men and myself, one of them the editor of the Socialist paper in Charleston, and another one of our speakers, John Brown. His wife and three children are left to perish outside. We hear the cry of these little ones for their father; we hear the groans and sobs of his beautiful wife, but the dear, well-fed people don’t care for that. I don’t care much for myself, because my career is nearly ended, but I think of my brave boys who are incarcerated in Harrison county jail in Clarksburg and not a voice of protest raised in their behalf. They have been brave and true. They are now paying the penalty for having dared to fight for right and justice; but it matters not, this fight will go on, and the workers themselves will have to take hold of the machinery and pick out the skypilots and lawyers and quit feeding them and giving them jobs. I have been fighting this machine for years with scarcely any help. I am still in the fight and the pirates can’t shut me up even if I am in jail watched by the bloodhounds.

Mother Jones.

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “A Stirring Letter from Mother Jones”-Pratt W. Va., Military Bastile” →