Hellraisers Journal: Editor Pew Wires Governor Morgan, Demands Explanation Concerning Arrest of Mildred Morris

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Editor Pew of INS to WV Gov re Mildred Morris Held Captive at Logan, UMWJ p8, Sept 15, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 17, 1921
Editor Marlen E. Pew Wires Protest to Governor Morgan of West Virginia

From the United Mine Workers Journal of September 15, 1921:

DEMANDS AN EXPLANATION

Battle of Blair Mt, Mildred Morris re Taken to Logan, WDC Hld p1, Sept 5, 1921
The Washington Herald
September 5, 1921

NEW YORK, Sept. 3.—The shooting and arrest of newspaper correspondents in the West Virginia reign of terror, which included a woman reporter, has aroused members of the press throughout the country.

An indignant protest was sent to the governor of West Virginia tonight by Marlen E. Pew, of the International News Service. Mr. Pew wired as follows:

Hon. E. F. Morgan, Governor,
Charleston, W. Va.
 

Sir: Miss Mildred Morris of our Washington staff, one of the best known, most accomplished and conscientious reporters in this country, assigned to Logan because of her special knowledge of industrial affairs, wires me tonight that she was slightly injured, arrested and submitted to indignities today by state guards. Miss Morris weighs, I should  say, about 100 pounds, but I do not believe that all the thugs in the livery of your state can terrorize or intimidate her when she is sent on a mission for the press.

I think I am justified in asking you if there is a censorship of terror in your state. If the state guards of West Virginia, their native sense of chivalry dead and buried, are of the belief that they can prevent the publication of the truth concerning not only the surface, but the underlying facts of this private war, by insults and injury to a woman representing some 600 newspapers and equipped with credentials from the commander of the federal forces in your state, I am here to tell you that they are mistaken. Please advise me by telegram tonight what you propose doing to redress this wrong to this lady, and whether we may expect some respect for the constitutional right of the press from the government of West Virginia, if indeed West Virginia still has a government in the meaning of the original democratic institution.

I am indignant and I want your blood to boil as a man as well as a governor and punish this particular infamy.

MARLEN E. PEW,
Editor and Manager, International News Service.

—————

[Emphasis and newsclip added.

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Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Journal: “Newspaper Reporters Fired on by State Police” by Mildred Morris

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Quote Mildred Morris, re Reporters Held in Logan WV, UMWJ p4, Sept 15, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 16, 1921
Mildred Morris Describes Her Sojourn into the Battle Zone of West Virginia

From the United Mine Workers Journal of September 15, 1921:

HUNTINGTON , W. Va .– Four newspaper correspondents who have the memorable experience of penetrating the mountainous regions where war between the miners and state police has been raging for nearly two weeks and being the first to obtain an eye-witness picture of the firing line, are alive tonight by the grace of God.

As a member of the party I arrived here after escaping from Logan, where the four of us had been placed under guard.

Under a shower of bullets from both sides we convinced ourselves that war–real war-has been going on in West Virginia.

Three times a fusillade of steel bullets poured on us from the Springfield rifles of the state gunmen and three times we were fired on by the miners.

And after it was all over we were taken with our wounded to Logan, under guard.

Boyden Sparkes, of the New York Tribune, was shot through the leg and a bullet all but penetrated his scalp. One of the miners whom we had persuaded to act as a guide was shot in the ankle and is seriously wounded. When we were able to convince the state police, whose lines we had penetrated, that we were non-combatants merely on a sightseeing tour all military operations ceased while officers stared at us in amazement and asked:

“How in h–-l we had got there and what we meant?”

Military passes we presented from General Bandholtz, representative of the War Department, and commander of the United States troops now in the war zone were scorned.

“We don’t know nothing about him. Nobody has told us federal troops are here and we haven’t seen them, so we don’t know nothing about them,” the young officer in charge informed us.

Charged with being spies and “red necks” we were taken to state military headquarters in Logan and after an insulting examination by Sheriff Don Chafin of Logan county, we were ordered taken to a hotel. Each of us, including the wounded members of our party, was placed in charge of a guard, who was given orders to accompany us wherever we went.

For more than three hours I was subjected to indignities by this guard and other members of the state police.

Only after frantic appeals Mr. Sparkes was permitted to communicate with his office in New York in order that his wife might know he was not seriously injured. None of the rest of us was permitted to establish our identity and our passes from General Bandholtz were received with the same scorn by Sheriff Chafin and his attaches as the officers of the state police on the battle front had shown. My guard, an insolent youth, insisted on going with me into the bedroom assigned to me. When I objected he said he was acting under orders. To avoid this indignity, I was compelled to sit in the hotel lobby while more insolent and youthful members of the state police made insolent queries and threatened me if I refused to answer.

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Hellraisers Journal: News from Battle of Blair Mountain: 400 Miners Surrender to U.S. Troops; Reporter Shot, Sticks on Job

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 5, 1921
West Virginia’s Mine War Wanes as Miners Surrender to U.S. Troops

From the New York Tribune of September 4, 1921:

Battle of Blair Mountain, 400 Miners Surrender, Boyden Sparkes Article, NY Tb p1, Sept 4, 1921

Battle of Blair Mountain, Boyden Sparkes Shot Twice, NY Tb p1, Sept 4, 1921

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Hellraisers Journal: Fight Resumes on the Tug; Regulars Push Up to Scene of Battle on Spruce Fork Ridge at Blair Mountain

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

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 4, 1921
West Virginia – Regulars Pushing Up to Scene of Battle at Blair Mountain

From The West Virginian of September 3, 1921:

Battle of Blair Mountain, HdLn Fight on Tug, Spruce Fork Ridge Quiet, WVgn p1, Sept 3, 1921

Battle of Blair Mountain, Regulars on Way to Scene, WVgn p1, Sept 3, 1921

Battle of Blair Mountain, Fight on Tug KY Border, WVgn p1, Sept 3, 1921

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Hellraisers Journal: Fighting Continues at Blair Mountain; Nurses Accompany Redneck Miners’ Army, Troops on Move

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

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 3, 1921
Fighting Continues at Blair Mountain, West Virginia

From The West Virginian of September 2, 1921:

Battle of Blair Mountain, HdLn, WVgn p1, Sept 2, 1921—–

Battle of Blair Mountain, Nurses, WVgn p1, Sept 2, 1921
Nurses Accompany Redneck Miners’ Army

—–

Battle of Blair Mountain, Fighting Today, Troops Coming, WVgn p1, Sept 2, 1921—–

Battle of Blair Mountain, Miners at Madison Keeney Speaks, WVgn p1, Sept 2, 1921

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Hellraisers Journal: Armed West Virginia Miners Seize Trains, Advance on Logan by Way of Jeffrey, Sharples and Blair

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

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 2, 1921
Armed West Virginia Miners Advance Through Logan County

From The West Virginian of September 1, 1921:

Battle of Blair Mt HdLn, WVgn p1, Sept 1, 1921Battle of Blair Mt, WVgn p1, Sept 1, 1921

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Hellraisers Journal: Redneck Miners’ Army Confronts Sheriff Chafin’s Deputized Gunthugs at Blair Mountain

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 1, 1921
Blair Mountain, West Virginia – Miners’ Army Battles Chafin’s Gunthugs

From The West Virginian of August 31, 1921:

Battle of Blair Mt HdLn, WVgn p1, Aug 31, 1921Battle of Blair Mt HdLn, WVgn p1, Aug 31, 1921

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

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Quote Mother Jones, Organize Logan Co, Nation p724, May 29, 1920———-

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

From The Nation of May 29, 1920:

Private Ownership Of Public Officials

By ARTHUR GLEASON

[Part II of II.]

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

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

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

I said “Yes.”

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

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

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