Tag: Kanawha County WV

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Ralph Chaplin on Military Violence Against Striking Miners, Part III

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 3, 1913
Ralph Chaplin Travels with Comrade Rumbaugh to West Virginia Strike Zone

From the International Socialist Review of April 1913:

WV Paint Creek Strike by Ralph Chaplin, ISR p729, Apr 1913

[Part III of III.]

When the Leaves Come Out by Ralph Chaplin, ISR p736, Apr 1913

A brief account of a trip made by Comrade Rumbaugh, of Hurricane, W. Va., and myself to the danger zone, might be of interest to readers of the REVIEW. We rode into Charleston “on the front end” and found that city to have the appearance of a place preparing for a siege. Martial law had been declared but a short time previously and the streets were full of soldiers. Yellow-legged sentries were stationed in front of the state house and the governor’s residence. It was rumored that machine guns were mounted in the upper windows of the former building, commanding both entrances to the capitol grounds.

A sentry was also stationed in front of the office of the Labor Argus to guard Comrade W. H. Thompson, who is editing that paper while Comrade Boswell is being “detained” in the bull pen. Comrade Thompson is an ex-Kanawha county coal miner and is unblushingly ”red.” He is the editor of the Huntington Socialist and Labor Star and he has put up as staunch a fight for the cause of the miners as any man in the state. At the city jail we witnessed the interesting spectacle of a bunch of “tin horns” bringing a prisoner from the military district to the city lockup. As the great iron gates swung open to receive them, the spectators commenced hissing the soldiers, calling them “scab herders” and other expressive names. Some of the “yellow legs” glared at these people brazenly but, may they be given due credit, others of the soldiers hung their heads with shame, as if such condemnation from members of their own class was more deadly to them than bullets.

From Charleston we took the labor train that was to carry us into the martial law zone. At Cabin Creek we were almost arrested with a bunch of miners in the car who were poking fun at the grave and ludicrous antics cut by some of the would-be man-killers in khaki. At the Paint Creek junction we remained for several hours, ostensibly to visit some soldier boys of our acquaintance, but in reality to secure information and photographs for the REVIEW and the Labor Star. Comrade Rumbaugh was afterwards arrested and relieved of his camera for attempting to take photographs to illustrate this article. We spoke with dozens of the soldiers, and one of them, an ex-mine guard, admitted that the guards use dum-dum bullets against the miners. He told of two miners who had been killed with these proscribed missiles, one man who had the top of his head completely shot off and another who received a death wound in the breast large enough to “stick your fist into.”

The freight house at Paint Creek has been converted into a bull pen, and over fifty men are now incarcerated there, only three of whom are not native West Virginains. The interior of this place would make a Siberian prison pen look like a haven of refuge. The sleeping accommodations are inadequate, ventilation poor and the floors filthy beyond description. Even with two or three men sleeping in the coal-bin there is no room for the others. The only papers the prisoners are permitted to read are the reactionary local rags and the National Socialist. Mother Jones, Charles Boswell and John Brown have somewhat better quarters elsewhere in town. A sentinel is constantly measuring his paces before the door of each. Dear old Mother Jones in the bull-pen and guarded by armed mercenaries of the Mine Owners! The very thought of it makes blood boil, here in West Virginia.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Ralph Chaplin on Military Violence Against Striking Miners, Part II

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

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 2, 1913
Ralph Chaplin on the Attack by the Bull Moose Special Upon Strikers’ Colony

From the International Socialist Review of April 1913:

WV Paint Creek Strike by Ralph Chaplin, ISR p729, Apr 1913

[Part II of III.]

The operators, realizing that violence has always been their big trump, thought they would have everything their own sweet way when trouble started. Everything was in their favor-armed guards and regiments of militiamen-so why should they not feel confident? But it is evident that the miners have fooled them. The miner knew the hills better than the blood-hounds that were sent to track them down. After a few months of it, the odds are just about even, and the fight is not half over. Soldiers in the strike zone are becoming uneasy and are using the slightest excuse to make a getaway. Many of the guards have deserted their posts of duty in a panic. One hundred and fifty of them have paid for treason to their class with their lives! They are in mortal fear of the time when the bleak hillsides will be covered with greenery-when “the leaves come out!“

The miners have been hounded into the using of violence. Just an instance in which the above-mentioned armored train figures conspicuously: This train is called, for some reason or other, the Bull Moose Special. Needless to state, it is thoroughly hated by the miners. The engineer and fireman and others of the train crew are reported to be extremely proud of the union cards they carry. This hellish contraption was a lovely plaything to put into the hands of the cut-throat, coyote-hearted guards and, like children with a new pop-gun, they were simply aching for an opportunity to use it against the strikers. The opportunity soon presented itself. Just how it came about nobody seems to know. The guards claim that some of the miners had fired into an ambulance carrying wounded mine-guards to the hospital. The strikers claim that the train was first used to avenge the death of a couple of guards who had been held to account for insulting some of the girls in the tent village. I, myself, have spoken with miners who claim to have been eye-witnesses to the insulting of these girls.

Mine guards are noted for their inhuman and brutal treatment of the women of the miners. Their authoritative positions often gave them advantages over the helpless women, especially in the absence of the men, and the full record of their unrestrained animal viciousness will never be written. Between the miners and the guards there is an open war to the knife. More than once these Kanawha cossacks have evicted mothers, in the pangs of childbirth, from company houses, and children have been born in the tents of the strikers while the murderous bullets of the guards were whistling and zipping through the canvas. At all events these cut-throats of the coal operators had the long wished for chance to use the Bull Moose special. They would have their revenge.

So in the dead of night, and with all lights extinguished, the Death Train drew up over the sleeping tent village at Holly Grove and opened fire with machine gun and rifle. Miners’ huts were torn to splinters and tents were riddled with bullets. One woman had both legs broken by the murderous rain of lead; and a miner, holding an infant child in his arms and running from his tent to the shelter of a dugout, fell, seriously wounded. The baby was, by some miracle, unhurt, but three bullet holes had tattered the edge of its tiny dress. Men, women and children ran hastily through the dark night seeking the cold security of the woods. The miners, as could be expected, were desperate enough to do most anything and returned the fire as best they could. Bonner Hill, sheriff of Kanawha county, who was only elected by a small and suspicious majority over Tincher the Socialist, candidate, was on the train, and it is claimed by the train crew that it was he who gave the order to fire the first murderous volley.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Ralph Chaplin on Military Violence Against Striking Miners, Part I

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

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 1, 1913
Ralph Chaplin on Striking Miners and Military Despotism in West Virginia

From the International Socialist Review of April 1913:

WV Paint Creek Strike by Ralph Chaplin, ISR p729, Apr 1913

[Part I of III.]

“THEY got my gun when they run me out of the creek, but I done borried my buddy’s, and I’m goin’ back.” This is what a slender, grimy lad of sixteen told me one night in the freight yards of a town not far from the martial law zone. He was picking coal for his mother and sisters at “home” in the tent. His father was in the bull-pen at Pratt. The boy had a bullet wound on his shoulder and numerous bayonet holes in the seat of his ragged breeches. “Took seven of them to run me out,” he boasted, with a grin.

“What are they doing to you all down there?” I asked.

“It isn’t what they’re doin’; it’s what they’re trying to do. If they had their way about it, they’d give us hell-but we won’t let ’em. It’s a whole lot better living in a tent than in a company shack, and we’re just goin’ to stick there until we win. Just wait till the leaves come out, so they cain’t see us. Buddy, we’ll show ’em!”

After spending four or five days in the strike region and talking with hundreds of miners, I can say that the boy summed up the entire situation in his few words. The strikers have “kicked over the traces” and have made up their minds to win at all costs. They are determined to do this all by themselves, if necessary-and in their own way.

In spite of the “heart throb” articles in some of the daily papers, these people are not objects of pity. They are doing pretty well in their tents. There is no atmosphere of martyrdom about these fighting West Virginians-nothing but a grim good humor and an iron determination. There is no pretense about them-no display. They are in deadly earnest, and they mean business. Lots of kind-hearted people who would shed tears for the “poor miners” living in tents would probably think these same miners in their right places if they were picking away at a coal bank in some black pit. The fact that many of the strikers seem to rather enjoy the situation and rest from the mines makes some of the local respectables furious with rage. It isn’t just what one would expect of a striker to see him holding his head high and walking around as if he owned the whole valley.

Of course, there are sufferings and hardships. Many men wear mourning on their hats and many women have husbands, brothers or fathers in the bullpens-but they are going to win this strike; they are sure of it, and this fact makes them feel equal to anything.

It is true that they have tasted of hell since the strike began, but before that time they lived in hell all the time. Conditions in West Virginia are and have been without parallel in the United States. Peonage and serfdom have flourished under the most brutal forms. West Virginia is the one state that has tried to make abject slaves of its miners-that has herded them in peon pens without a vestige of “constitution” liberty, with cut-throat mine guards to protect them from the contaminating influence of organizers and agitators.

For many years the grisly vampire of Greed has fluttered its condor wings and fattened on the very heart’s blood of these men-helpless for want of effective organization. Miners are working in company towns who seldom see money-nothing but paper script-men who dare not speak a word of criticism of the intolerable conditions under which they labor, or even hint that organization is desirable. The blacklist and the brutal mine guards are every ready to punish such indiscretions.

Women have been beaten on the breasts and kicked into convulsions while in a state of pregnancy-men have been shot up and man-handled, all because they had dared to raise their voices in protest. Indignity after indignity has been heaped upon the workers in the hell-holes of this state,  until they have united into one big Brotherhood of Revolt. They are standing shoulder to shoulder with the only weapons available in their hands, fighting to overthrow the dismal industrial despotism that is crushing them. These miners are remarkable in many ways. In spite of all they have endured, their spirits have not been broken. They have been hoarding their hate for many years and biding their time. At present they are waiting for the leaves to come out.

WV Tent Colony, ISR p730, Apr 1913

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Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Supreme Court Affirms Martial Law and Military Commission in Case of Mother Jones, Editor Boswell, and UMW Organizers

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Quote Mother Jones, Willing to Die for Miners Cause, WDC Tx p14, Mar 12, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal -Monday March 24, 1913
Charleston, West Virginia – State Supreme Court Upholds Martial Law

From The New York Times of March 22, 1913:

COURT AFFIRMS MARTIAL LAW
———-
West Virginia Judge Reject Miners’
Plea Against Gov. Hatfield.

WV Militia v Miners n Mother Jones, Missoulian p6, Feb 21, 1913

CHARLESTON, West Va., March 21.-In an opinion handed down late to-day the Supreme Court of Appeals affirms the right of the Governor to declare martial law and appoint a military commission.

The opinion was rendered in the case of “Mother” Mary Jones, Charles H. Boswell, Paul J. Paulson [Paulsen], and Charles Bartley [Batley] against Gov. Hatfield and members of the military commission, asking for a writ of habeas corpus to compel the Governor and military authorities to turn the petitioners over to the civil authorities. The petitioners denied the right of the Governor and the military commission to try persons apprehended outside the military zone of the Kanawha County coal fields.

The opinion, which was written by Judge  Poffenbarger, President of the court, holds that the Governor has the right to arrest out of military district all persons who shall give aid, support, or information to persons within the zone who break the laws. It further states that the Governor and military commission have the right to detain or imprison persons apprehended outside the martial law section. The court does not think the declaration of martial law or the creation of a military commission contravenes the Constitution of the Stale or of the United States.

Martial law will be continued indefinitely in the Kanawha coal field. Gov. Hatfield so announced to-day at the close of his personal investigation of conditions in the district.

He intimated that a rebellious spirit was being fomented by persons outside the district and threatened to arrest the agitators. He said:

“I am satisfied that by doing this I shall be well within the limits of the executive power and authority, and at the same time I will in this way obtain a further knowledge of the purpose of those who are rebellious for use in the determination of the question of the wisdom of resort to more extreme measures as a means of restoring the supremacy and due administration of civil laws…..”

Gov. Hatfield late to-day released four prisoners held by the military authorities in connection with the strike troubles. This makes a total of twenty-nine prisoners held by the military authorities who have been freed by the Executive within two days. Most of these, it is said, have never been tried, but several have important evidence against other prisoners. 

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Very Ill; Her Fate and that of Strikers Now in Hands of Militia Jury of Six Soldiers-Verdict Soon

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Quote Mother Jones, Willing to Die for Miners Cause, WDC Tx p14, Mar 12, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 14, 1913
Pratt, West Virginia – Mother Jones Seriously Ill, Awaits Verdict of Militia Jury

From The Hinton Daily News and Leader of March 13, 1913:

MOTHER JONES IS NOW SERIOUSLY ILL
———-
The Fate of the 49 Strikers Are Now
In the Hands of the Militia Jury
of Six Soldiers-Verdict Soon
———-

Mother Jones WV, ISR Mar 1913
Mother Jones in West Virginia
with Children of Striking Miners

Charleston, March 13.-Mother Jones is reported to be seriously ill at the Military Camp at Pratt. She broke down completely and had to be carried out of the court this morning. She is getting the best of attention. Repeated adverse decisions seems to have the best of the labor worker and the condition may be serious.

The fate of the forty-mine miners and others, who are charged with violating the rules of the militia in the strike zone, are now in the hands of the military jurors, six in number. The last of the evidence for the prosecution was given yesterday and later there appeared two witnesses for the defense. With the close of their testimony, the cases then went to the soldier jurors.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Mother Jones Arrested in West Virginia by Leslie H. Marcy

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Quote Mother Jones My Life Work, Cton Gz June 11, 1912, ISR p648, Mar 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 2, 1913
Kanawha County, West Virginia – Mother Jones Arrested, Charged with Murder

From the International Socialist Review of March 1913:

Mother Jones Under Arrest
-by L. H. Marcy

Mother Jones Shoes for WV Strikers Children, ISR Cv, Mar 1913

Mother Jones Arrested and Jailed in a Box Car

Last June, when “Mother Jones” traveled across the states from Butte, Mont., to aid the West Virginia miners in their fight, a reporter on the Charleston Gazette interviewed her. The following is quoted from this paper June 11th.

Mother Jones…from the stump and through the press has shown a desire only to do something for the betterment of the great American laboring class. She is 80 years old. On the day of her arrival here she addressed a miners’ mass meeting for an hour and a half-and unassisted she climbed a steep hill to the speakers’ stand and made a stronger effort and a more telling address in every way than that of any of the others whose names appeared on the list of speakers, and most of whom were only half her years.

Some people never get old, and Mother Jones is one who, no matter how long she be spared to her stormy career, will be gathered to her ancestors in the bosom of youth.

The reporter had heard a lot about the woman he was about to interview-and seen her pictured everywhere-had heard of her making fiery speeches in places where her life was in danger, and he expected to encounter a cyclone.

The reporter, however, was wrong.

What he really found was a kindly-faced woman of apparently 50 years-the only evidence of her four score years being an abundance of snow-white hair. She gave the reporter a kindly greeting-a greeting that reminded him at once of the name that had attached itself to the woman he had come to see-the name was that of “mother”-and the reporter knew whence the name had come.

“Mother” was right.

A few brief questions, and as many brief answers and the interview was over-for “Mother” Jones does not seek to be featured in the daily press.

[She said:]

I am simply a social revolutionist. I believe in collective ownership of the means of wealth. At this time the natural commodities of this country are cornered in the hands of a few. The man who owns the means of wealth gets the major profit, and the worker, who produces the wealth from the means in the hands of the capitalist, takes what he can get. Sooner or later, and perhaps sooner than we think, evolution and revolution will have accomplished the overturning of the system under which we now live, and the worker will have gained his own. This change will come as the result of education.

My life work has been to try to educate the worker to a sense of the wrongs he has had to suffer, and does suffer-and to stir up the oppressed to a point of getting off their knees and demanding that which I believe to be rightfully theirs. When force is used to hinder the worker in his efforts to obtain the things which are his, he has the right to meet force with force. He has the right to strike for what is his due, and he has no right to be satisfied with less. The people want to do right, but they have been hoodwinked for ages. They are now awakening, and the day of their enfranchisement is near at hand.

That, in substance, is what Mother Jones had to say about her mission on earth. She bowed the reporter from the room. He had seen “Mother Jones.”

For eight months “Mother Jones” has been working, speaking and fighting with the West Virginia miners. In spite of her eighty years she has suffered with the miners, their wives and children, sharing every hardship, the cold of winter in the mountains, the coarse food and the insults and brutality of the “guards” and militiamen.

Many were the speeches she made and every one a battle cry for class solidarity. The most weary and disheartened group gathered courage and inspiration when she addressed her “Boys.”

But it became evident to the mill bosses that the beautiful, white-haired woman was a militant figure that it would be well to eliminate. So, on February 13th, “Mother Jones” was arrested on a charge of murder. It is claimed that she advised the strikers to arm themselves. Many times the mine “guards” crept up upon strikers in their mountain retreat, and coldly murdered them. Several “guards” were discovered and shot by the miners in self defense. An attempt will be made to hold “Mother Jones” responsible. Evidently the true Progressive believes in murder only where the gun is in the hands of a servant of the owning class and directed against working men.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Coal Miners’ Fight for Union in West Virginia by Leslie H. Marcy

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Quote Mother Jones Buy Guns, Ptt Pst p1, Feb 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 1, 1913
Kanawha County, West Virginia – Coal Miners’ Continue Long Fight for Justice

From the International Socialist Review of March 1913:

The Fight in West Virginia
-by L. H. Marcy

WV Militia Escort Prisoner Miners, ISR p391, Nov 1912

The Fight in the Mountains

Two months ago it looked as though the West Virginia miners would win their long fight against the operators. As cold weather came on and troops and police drove the families of the miners off company property, they were not permitted to stop on public land. So the miners secured tents and took their families and few belongings up into the mountains.

And all through the cold of winter, they have gathered together to talk unionism and Socialism and to weld the group into a band that would hold out until the strike was won.

The company-employed trouble-makers have been always on the ground looking for an opening to start something. Children have been kidnapped; women have been assaulted. Men have been deliberately picked off and shot by brutes hiding in ambush.

There occurred many clashes between “guards” and strikers. It seems to be the business of the “guards” to kill a few miners now and then to stir the others into violence.

The miners who have withdrawn from the property district of the mine owners, who have taken refuge for their families in the mountains ARE NOT TO BE ALLOWED ANY PEACE.

Sheriff Hill of Kanawha County, with a posse of twenty-five deputies was unable to enter the strikers’ camp. The miners declared he was going too far to try to take armed men into their peaceful camps after the mine owners’ thugs had virtually driven them into the mountains by actual murder. All approach to the miners’ camps were carefully guarded by strikers who occupied commanding positions on the mountain sides.

The mine owners were at their wits end. The United Mine Workers promised the strikers aid. The strikers swore they would GAIN something or stay out forever.

Then came His Honor, Governor Glascock, the colleague of Theodore Roosevelt, the vaunted PROGRESSIVE-the “friend of the workingman.” Five companies of militia were ordered to the scene and a sixth company called from Mucklow. Martial Law will probably be declared again.

Put this where you will never forget it. This Progressive Governor has shown himself more surely the servant of the mine owners than any old time politician could possibly have done. He has sent troops into the mountains who will SEARCH OUT and shoot innocent women and children and miners who have been persecuted in their retreat.

Telephone and telegraph wires have been cut. More troops are on their way to the mountains. February 11, at the first encounter, the long range rifles of the militia killed thirteen miners and wounded fifteen more. The capitalist papers report that “three mine guards were also killed.”

If there has ever been any doubt in your mind before, this strike ought to be an eye-opener, as to the functions of capitalist governors and the militia.

The CHIEF FUNCTION OF THE ARMY IS TO BREAK STRIKES. Gov. Glasscock seems to feel it his chief duty to serve the mine owners in their efforts to crush the mine WORKERS. This was the consistent attitude of the First Progressive Leader in all troubles between capitalists and laborers.

Report comes in that several hundred miners, employed in a union mine near the Kanawha District, have armed themselves and started for Paint Creek, declaring they will avenge the death of their comrades who were shot by paid thugs, hiding in ambush.

The United Mine Workers have promised a $200,000 monthly benefit assessment for the striking miners.

The strikers have learned to fight, in and for, One Big Union. They are learning, in this strike, that they must put their own men in office to USE THE TROOPS IN THEIR BEHALF NEXT TIME.

[Emphasis added. Photograph added from ISR of November 1912]

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Wheeling Majority: “Coal Barons Maim and Murder” Mother Jones Arrested; Industrial War Rages in Kanawha County, West Virginia

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Quote Mother Jones Buy Guns, Ptt Pst p1, Feb 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 21, 1913
Kanawha County, West Virginia – Mother Jones Arrested; Class War Rages

From The Wheeling Majority of February 20, 1913:

Mother Jones Arrested, WV Class War, Wlg Maj p1, Feb 20, 1913

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Hellraisers Journal: “The Cabin Creek Victory” by James Morton & Photos of Life in Tent Colonies by Paul Thompson, Part I

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Quote Mother Jones, Rather sleep in guard house, Day Book p2, Sept 9, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 3, 1913
Cabin Creek, West Virginia – Miners’ Victorious, Is Report from Strike Zone

From the International Socialist Review of January 1913: 

THE CABIN CREEK VICTORY

By JAMES MORTON

Photographs by Paul Thompson.

[Part I of II]

Cabin Creek Miners Wives w Guns Defend Tents, ISR p541, Jan 1913

THERE is rejoicing after many months in the Kanawha district in West Virginia. In spite of the subserviency of the Big Bull Moose governor to the interests of the coal barons, in spite of the steady flux of scabs into the coal district, the plutocracy has gone down to ignominious defeat before the splendid solidarity shown by the striking miners.

Twice the REVIEW has attempted to give its readers word pictures of the terrible brutalities of the thugs that have faithfully served the interests of the mine owners. But words fail to convey any idea of the conditions in the Kanawha district.

 More than once the women and children were openly attacked and an attempt made to drive them off company grounds and into the river. It was thought such methods would drive the men into overt acts that would justify the soldiers in shooting down the rebels. And the miners did not sit down tamely and permit their wives and children to be murdered before their eyes. In some instances, it is reported, they started a little excitement all their own so that the troops might be drawn off to protect the property of their masters. We have even read that some mine guards mysteriously disappeared.

Then, with wonderful dispatch, tents began to appear and were flung up in nearby vacant lots and the miners and their families settled down in grim determination to “stick it out” and win. They say that many women were provided with guns in order to protect themselves and their children from the armed thugs that came to molest them.

Every train brought hosts of scabs and again recently martial law was declared. The troops were on hand to protect the scabs and incidentally to see that they remained at work. But the rosy promises of soft berths made to the scabs failed to materialize. They found coal mining anything but the pleasant pastime they had expected. They found they were required to dig coal and work long hours for low pay, and one by one, as the opportunity arose, they silently faded away for greener fields and pastures new.

The miners showed no signs of yielding. In spite of low rations constant intimidation and cold weather the strikers gathered in groups to discuss Socialism and plans for holding out for the surrender of the bosses. During the fall election the miners voted the Socialist party ticket almost unanimously. The strike brought home to these men the truth of the class struggle in all its hideousness.

And the scabs came and went. Individually and collectively they struck by shaking the dust of the Kanawha district from their feet. Probably the mine owners discovered that it would cost a great deal more for a much smaller output of coal than it would to yield all the demands of the strikers.

It is reported that the men are to go back after having secured a nine-hour workday and a 20 per cent increase in wages.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “The Cabin Creek Victory” by James Morton & Photos of Life in Tent Colonies by Paul Thompson, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Coming Nation-Alfred Segal: Striking Miners Are Winning the Fight at Eskdale, West Virginia

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Quote Mother Jones, Revolution Is Here, Speech Cton WV, Sept 21, 1912, Steel Speeches p116—————

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
———-

WV Eskdale Tents Flag, Cmg Ntn p5, Dec 7, 1912

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.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Coming Nation-Alfred Segal: Striking Miners Are Winning the Fight at Eskdale, West Virginia” →