Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 7, 1912 West Virginia Miners Play a Waiting Game -by Edward H. Kintzer, Socialist Candidate for State Auditor
From the International Socialist Review of November 1912:
WITH the calmness of seasoned soldiers, with a purpose that presages no good to the operators, with defiance that brooks no interference with that purpose, the battling miners of West Virginia await the coming war-of-the-ballots.
In dealing with the armed mine guards these mountaineers were taught valuable lessons in solidarity and cohesion which made them effective in meeting this force. So, after delivering a blow of direct action against the operators, with equal intelligence they are preparing to strike at the ballot box. They have organized themselves in spirit if not in fact, having learned to do by concerted action whatever is to be done.
They are not living in a fool’s paradise expecting the capitalist orders to collapse because a majority might wish it to. Back of their political action there is something more tangible than a mere expression of choice.
And well there should be, for heretofore no election has gone against the operators. They will stop at nothing to purchase votes and stuff ballot boxes. They have bought legislators like they purchase mine props, “made” governors with impunity, and with open effrontery placed two senators in congress against the wishes of the people.
Frank Bohn, associate editor of the REVIEW, while recently touring West Virginia on a speaking campaign, said: “The situation here regarding Senator Watson ought to receive wide publicity. There is nothing else like it. Other Watsons exist but none of them are in congress.”
It is the coal industry and organized “Big Business” that the miners must oppose-these interests that named Watson and ChiltonUnited States senators.
SOCIALISM IS EASY.
It is not difficult to teach these battling miners the fundamentals of Socialism, for the class struggle to them is very apparent and the hallucination of “dividing up” and “destroying the homes” has no terrors for them. They have nothing to divide and no home to destroy. Having recently been evicted they know that nothing could accomplish these things more effectively than capitalism. Their only assets are experience, hope and determination. This experience suggests action, their hope is Socialism and their determination means victory.
Frank J. Hayes, vice-president of the national organization of the United Mine Workers, in a recent letter states the political situation quite clearly. He said:
We have an excellent chance of electing the entire Socialist ticket in Kanawha county. The miners poll 40 per cent of the total vote in this county and they are practically all Socialists, made so by the present strike.
This is the county [Kanawha] in which Charleston, the capital of the state, is located, and, moreover, if we capture the political power of this big county it will practically insure the success of our strike. It is a great opportunity.
Politicians of the old school are admitting that the Socialist ticket will win. Even last March, before the strike, Adjutant General Elliott, absolute dictator by right of martial law over Paint and Cabin Creek districts, stated to the writer: “Unless Roosevelt is nominated by the Republicans there is some question whether the Socialists will be first or second.” He stated that he had been over the lower section (meaning Kanawha county) and knew. He resides at Charleston.
Thomas L. Tincher, a locomotive engineer, is the Socialist candidate for sheriff. He is making the guard system the issue in the campaign.
[Says Tincher:]
A Socialist sheriff would solve the mine guard problem quickly. All he would have to do would be to enforce the law and the mine guard would become a useless institution.
With exceptional outbreaks of hostility between the mine guards and the miners, the situation in the martial law district is quiet. The operators, mine guards and miners are disposed to play a waiting game.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 4, 1912 Cabin Creek Junction, West Virginia – “More Trouble” -Mother Jones Blamed
From The Hinton Daily News and Leader of November 2, 1912:
MORE TROUBLE IN KANAWHA FIELD ———- With Departure of the Militia Situation Grows More Threatening -Mother Jones at Work
Charleston, W. Va., Nov. 1.-The prediction has been frequently made that as soon as the militia was withdrawn or reduced to a small number the disturbers in the strike district who do not want an adjustment of conditions would arouse the striking miners passions and make necessary the return of the militia.
Yesterday the number of militia-men was reduced to about two score. Immediately the disturbers became busy. In fact; it had been going on for several days in the sections of the district where the militiamen had been withdrawn, where they could move about with rifles on their shoulders, and drink and shoot at will.
This condition was aggravated yesterday when “Mother” Jones held a meeting in a corn field near Cabin Creek Junction and told the miners to shoot down any mine guards found in the district.
That the miners now in tents in tend to stay there for some time is shown by the statement of a number of miners and their wives who were in a local Justice of the Peace court yesterday, charged with throwing stones at persons whom they disliked.
They informed inquirers that they intended to stay in their tents until they got what they were fighting for that the coal mines belonged to them and that nothing could stop them from getting what belonged to them. This indicates the position taken by these persons now idle and who appear to be supplied with sufficient means to roam about, carrying arms and usually are in an intoxicated condition.
The situation warranted Adjutant General Elliott returning to the district this morning, accompanied by several military officers.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 30, 1912 Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike Zone – Company Gunthugs Allowed to Return
From The Pittsburg Daily Headlight (Kansas) of October 28, 1912:
From Mine Workers Journal. ———-
Duluth Labor World October 26, 1912
The strike in West Virginia remain unchanged. Everything is quiet on Cabin and Paint Creeks. After many of the strike leaders had been evicted with the aid of the militia, martial law was discontinued. The miners are camped on the hillsides in tents. There is much suffering but no complaints. The strikers are grateful for what assistance the organization has been able to give them and determined to fight on until they win. Armed guards have been allowed to return to the strike fields, while the weapons given up by the strikers have, so far, not been returned to them; it looks like a neat case of “double cross.”
However, the eyes of the civilized world is on West Virginia. All workers of the State are watching; the farmers are with us, also the small dealers when they dare to express themselves. Victory is sure. Miners in all parts of the country are expressing themselves favoring a continuation of the struggle and will render such aid, both morally and financially as may be within their power, until they have accomplished their purpose and rights as an American sovereign people are recognized.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 23, 1912 Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1912, Part III Speaks at Charleston, West Virginia: “Oppression of the People Must Go!”
September 21, 1912, Charleston, West Virginia -Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting Following Parade of Strikers’ Children:
I want to say to those children, they will be free; they will not be serfs. We have entered West Virginia-I have-and a hundred thousand miners have pledged their support to me, “If you need us, Mother, we will be there.” Five thousand men last Sunday night said, “We are ready, Mother, when you call on us.”
The revolution is here. We can tie up every wheel, every railroad in the State, when we want to do it. Tyranny, robbery and oppression of the people must go. The children must be educated. The childhood will rise to grander woman and grander man in happy homes and happy families-then we will need no saloons. We will need no saloons, nor any of your prohibition. As long as you rob us, of course we drink. The poison food you give us needs some other narcotic to knock the poison out of it. They charge you $2.40 for a bushel of potatoes at the “pluck-me” store. Ten pounds of slate in 9700 pounds of coal and you are docked-then they go and “give for Jesus.” “How charming Mr. Cabell is, he gives us $500.00.”
Let us, my friends, stand up like men. I have worked for the best interests of the working people for seventy-five years. I don’t need any one to protect me. I protect myself. I don’t break the law. Nobody molests me, except John Laing. John is the only dog in West Virginia that attacks a woman. He is the only fellow that would do that. I am not afraid of John Laing. I would give him a punch in the stomach and knock him over the railroad. I don’t know who punched him-he lost his pistol. I put my hand on him and told him to go home to his mother. I gave him a punch in the stomach, and he fell over the railroad track and lost his pistol. He didn’t know he lost it until he reached home.
He said, “You are disturbing my miners.” My slaves! Scabs! Dogs!
[…..]
Shame! Forever shame! on the men and women in the State of West Virginia that stand for such a picture as we have here today-[Referring to the children of the coal camps who marched in the parade]-Shame! When the history is written, what will it be, my friends, when the history of this crime, starvation and murder of the innocents, so they can fill the operators’ pockets, and build dog kennels for the workers. Is it right? Will it ever be right?
Now, I understand Mr. White is going to speak at the court house. He will have something to tell you.
This strike ain’t going to end until we get a check-weighman on the tipple. That is the law. It is on the statute books-that your coal will be weighed….
You miners here have stood for it, you have starved your children, starved yourselves, you have lived in dog-kennels-they wouldn’t build one for their dogs as bad as yours. You have lived in them and permitted them to rob you, and then got the militia for the robbers. You can get all the militia in the state, we will fight it to the finish-if the men don’t fight the women will. They won’t stand for it.
Be good, boys, don’t drink. Subscribe for the Labor Argus. If I was sentenced to sixteen months to jail, and these guys found it out I would be in jail longer. I don’t worry about it. I am down at the Fleetwood when ever they want to put me in jail for violation of the law, come along for me, come. There is coming a day when I will take the whole bunch of you and put you in jail. (Applause.)
[Photograph added.]
From the Baltimore Sun of September 22, 1912:
LABOR CONFERENCE VAIN ———- Refusal To Take Up Kanawha Coal Troubles Keeps Union Men Away. ———-
Charleston, W. Va., Sept 21.-The representatives of the commercial and civic bodies of West Virginia called by Governor Glasscock to consider the labor situation adjourned this afternoon after an exciting session without having accomplished anything.
International President John P. White, of the United Mine Workers of America, with Vice-President Hayes, announced early in the day that they would have nothing to do with the conference because they had learned that it was not the purpose of those in charge of the meeting to permit a discussion of the strike situation in the Kanawha coal field, where 1,200 West Virginia militiamen are maintaining martial law……
Hayes Addresses Strikers.
Vice-President Hayes addressed a large audience of striking miners and their sympathizers, and Mother Jones talked to another audience almost within the shadow of the State Capitol…..
Children Parade Streets.
One of the striking features of the day was the appearance on the streets of 100 children of striking miners, brought down from the mountains by “Mother” Jones.
They paraded the streets to the music of a band and bearing banners with these legends,
We are the babes that sleep in the woods.
We want to go to school and not to the mines.
The children, miners’ leaders say, were among those compelled to live much in the open since martial law was declared.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 22, 1912 Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1912, Part II Found Speaking at Wheeling, West Virginia, Thrills Thousands
From the New York Sun of September 11, 1912:
MINERS TO BESIEGE GLASSCOCK. ———- Will Bring Wives and Children to West Virginia Capital. ———-
CHARLESTON, W. Va., Sept. 10.-Mother Jones announced to-day that the striking miners of the Kanawha district would make another effort to see Gov. Glasscock. Within a week they are to march into the capital again and make a demand for the use of the State House grounds as a meeting place.
[Said Mother Jones:]
The Governor must hear us this time. We want him to hear our story, we want him to see us. The very looks of the men who are fighting for freedom is a tremendous argument for their cause.
We are coming back to our capital again and twice as strong as last week. The men are going to bring their children along and their wives.
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[Photograph added.]
From The Wheeling Intelligencer of September 16, 1912:
MOTHER JONES MAKES ADDRESS ———-
TO OVER 1,500 AT FIFTH WARD MARKET HOUSE. ———- Paints Horrible Picture of Conditions in Strike District and Flays Coal Barons.
Owing to the rain the mass protest meeting that was to have been held at the wharf yesterday afternoon [Sunday September 15th] was held at the Fifth ward market house, where over 1,500 people assembled to hear Mother Jones, the lady of the mines, and other prominent speakers.
As the old lady with white hair mounted the platform she was greeted with cheers that lasted for over five minutes. She started right in to business, and did not mince words or names when it came down to condemning the conditions in the southern part of the state. Before the meeting closed, Governor William Glasscock and Senators Watson and Chilton came in for their share of flaying, as well as Senators Scott and Elkins. They were classed by her as leeches and blood suckers, and the detective force and mine guards as human blood hounds. She said that right here in the little Mountain State, peonage of the most horrible kind was being practiced, and that Russia and Bulgaria were a paradise compared to it. She said that slavery was nothing compared to it, and that only last Thursday she was forced to cross streams in the strike district in the middle of the night by wading in the water up to her waist.
She claimed that women, children and sick men were thrown out of doors by these hired toughs and compelled to find shelter in the open, and that women were hauled about by the hair if they resisted these insults.
A collection was taken up to be sent to the relief committee which amounted to over $50. It will be used for the purpose of buying food and clothes for the strikers. A large donation was also received from the miners in Cripple Creek, Colo.
Want Legislation.
By unanimous vote it was decided to send a petition to Governor Glasscock demanding him to call a special session of the state legislature to make laws to help the miners. The following legislation is wanted: To do away with the guard system; that all coal dug by the miners shall be paid for by weight; the enforcement of an employer’s liability law; the abolition of the company store; and the payment of the miners every two weeks. She said that the miners would never go back to work until these wishes were complied with, and that the guard system would have to go, and if the governor would not give the citizens their rights, they would be compelled to take the law in their own hands or starve.
Raps Watson.
She also took a rap at the Fairmont district and hit Senator Watson hard. She scorned him as a blot on the state that would take years to wipe off. As she concluded her speech she was madly cheered.
Other speakers were F. C. Harter, also from the southern part of the state, a Confederate soldier, and a well-to-do farmer over 80 years old. He condemned the tactics used by the coal barons as a disgrace to humanity, and a thing that every citizen in the state should be ashamed to tolerate. “Mother Jones left last evening for Charleston and will stay with the boys, she says, until they get their rights.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 21, 1912 Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1912, Part I Found Speaking at Mass Meeting of Striking Miners at Charleston, W. Va.
From the Baltimore Sun of September 1, 1912:
TROUBLE AT CABIN CREEK.
Trouble broke out afresh tonight at Cabin Creek Junction. Just what caused it cannot be learned at this time, but it is said it was started by the miners, who opened fire on the mine guards, seriously wounding two of them.If any or the miners were killed or wounded it is not known at this time. The wounded guards were hurried off to the hospital and their names are kept secret. Several of the guards who have been here for a long time have been marked by the miners, and it is possible that the injured men are of that number.
MILITIA RUSHED TO SCENE.
As a result of the battle tonight, five companies of militia which had been ordered home were rushed to the scene of the trouble.
Before they could arrive, however, a company from headquarters at Camp Pratt, on Paint creek, was rushed to Cabin Creek Junction…
Unless the situation improves materially within the next 48 hours martial law probably will be declared….It is admitted in official circles that the situation is more critical now than at any time since the miners went on strike in the Kanawha field last April. In case martial law is declared more troops will be needed.
MORE OUTBREAKS EXPECTED.
Further outbreaks between strikers and guards are expected at any or all of a dozen places on Paint and Cabin creeks as a result of the tense feeling which exists. In every instance the arrival of the militia has been sufficient to restore order.
Up to the present the strikers have been friendly to the militia, although a change may occur at any time.
“Mother” Jones has sent out word that the militia provost must be removed from the trains on the two creeks,but this guard will not be abandoned. As a result an attack on the passenger trains on either creek would cause little surprise. Close watch is being kept on the railway tracks to prevent the dynamiting of trains.
“Mother” Jones is scheduled to speak at Kingston tomorrow and orders have been issued to the militia to prevent such meeting.
[…..]
Dogged Mother Jones’ Footsteps.
[T]he statement that the operators, or their agents, the mine guards, would prevent one individual from visiting another may seem to be overdrawn. It is not. Here is a case to illustrate:
About 10 days ago Mother Jones went to Kayford to hold a meeting. An account of that meeting was given in THE SUN of last Sunday [Aug 25th]. It was held after considerable trouble. She arrived at Kayford in the early afternoon and had tramped a good distance up the road before she reached the place. At every step she took she was followed by mine guards. She had had nothing to eat from the time she had an early breakfast and she was hungry. One of the miners, Lawrence Dwyer,the man who had arranged the meeting, asked her and the correspondent of THE SUN to go to his cabin for a cup of tea and a bite to eat. The invitation was accepted and we started to Dwyer’s house. No sooner had we stepped off the road and started up the lane leading to the cabin than Mayfield, the chief of the guards, ordered us off with an oath, threatening to arrest us if we took another step. His manner was rough in the extreme, especially to the white-haired old woman who really needed her cup of tea.
Dwyer remonstrated, saying he thought he had the right to take anyone he pleased to his house. He was told, with an oath, that he thought too much. Perhaps that is true. He is not fat. Like Cassius, “he hath a lean and hungry look,” and be certainly “thinks too much” for the peace of mind of the guards. However, Mother Jones went without her tea and she kept off private property.
Felts Blames Her For Trouble.
Later she came to a place where the road ran through the bed of the creek and she attempted to leave the county road on which she had been trudging and walk along the railroad track. Again she was ordered off. Even the railroad track was private property. This time the correspondent of THE SUN protested to Detective Felts. Felts was pleasant enough, but he was firm.
“That woman is old enough to be your grandmother,” he was told, “and no matter how much you may be opposed to her, remember that she is an old woman.”
“That makes no difference,” was the reply. “She is responsible for all the agitation and trouble that is taking place in these mines, and even though she is an old woman we do not propose to allow her any privileges here, or to show her any courtesies. She has got to keep to the public road, and keep off private property.“
That is the point. It would have been a “privilege” if she had been permitted to walk on the railroad track; it would have been a “courtesy” to have permitted her to go to Dwyer’s for her cup of tea. She might have done either, or both, by the grace and the favor of the company, but she could do neither as a matter of right.
[Photograph added.]
From the Baltimore EveningSun of September 5, 1912:
3,000 MINERS TO MARCH IN PROTEST TO CHARLESTON ———- “Mother” Jones Will Lead Delegation Before Governor Glasscock. ———-
MAYOR OF ESKDALE PLACED UNDER ARREST ———- Court-Martial Disposing Of Cases Rapidly -All Civil laws Suspended. ———-
Charleston, W. Va., Sept. 5.-Three thousand miners of that part of the Kanawha coal district which is not under martial law are coming to the State House at Charleston tomorrow to make a demonstration against the guard system in behalf of the men who are striking.
They will march through the streets of Charleston led by “Mother” Jones.
“Martial law is all right, but what after martial law?” is the legend to be displayed on a banner in the parade.
Governor Glasscock will be urged to come out and answer that question. “Mother” Jones will make a direct appeal to Glasscock.
Could Have Been Settled Long Ago.
[Said Mother Jones:]
The guard system will come back as soon as the soldiers are withdrawn. Months ago Governor Glasscock could have settled all difficulties by declaring that there shall be no guards. He did nothing at all; now the State and the miners are paying heavily.
Mayor And Miners Looked Up.
Martial law reached out last night and caught 20 miners and guards, including the Mayor of Eskdale, in the strike zone. The men were charged with disorderly conduct. They occupy joint jail quarters in the railroad station at Paint Creek Junction, which, has been turned into a prison.
Court-Martial Working Quickly.
The court-martial is working as quickly as a city court. In two days the military judges have tried 15 men. The verdicts were sealed and sent to Governor Glasscock for approval. The court can fix any penalty within its discretion. All statutory penalties are suspended.
The military authorities today ordered a Socialist paper that has been circulating in the “war” district suppressed as inflammatory. Free speech is one of the constitutional guarantees suspended by martial law.
Hellraisers Journal –Friday October 18, 1912 West Virginia Militia Aids Coal Operators in Evicting Miners’ Families
From The Wheeling Majority of October 17, 1912:
SOLDIERS EVICT MINERS’ FAMILIES ———- (By G. H. Edmunds.) —–
In commenting on the troubles in the strike fields of Kanawha county, Gov. Glasscock mentioned the “invisible government” as being largely responsible for the troubles existing, and many of the citizens of this state have wondered what the “invisible government” was, but on Monday last, every one was brought face to face with this “Gila monster.” We beheld a monster with one head but two faces, a second Janus, too subtle for description.
Remember, Baldwin guards were driven out under the martial law proclamation, and everything went fine in the strike zone so far as peace and quiet was concerned, but, on Monday what do we find.
We find the militia of the state of West Virginia being used by the coal operators to evict miners from their homes, without any process of law whatsoever.
Never before has anything of the kind happened in any of the strikes of the country. Result: More than 100 families, aggregating 500 men, women and children are sitting by the roadside in the mountains of West Virginia with no place to lay their heads but on the hard rocks of the mountains, and absolutely no redress whatsoever. The governor has been appealed to, and his reply to the appeal was that the miners had redress in the civil courts, yet this same governor has suspended the civil courts and instituted martial law in their stead, and yet he tells the miners to go to the civil courts.
Yes, the government of West Virginia is “invisible.”
There seems to be a “power behind the throne” in this fight. Soldiers being used as strike breakers, and putting hundreds of women and children out in the cold to live in the open air in October, without any semblance of law. These people had a right to remain in the houses occupied by them until legally dispossessed, because, in law the fact that they were in the houses, and entered legally, gave them the right of remaining in said houses until legally dispossessed. The miners of West Virginia are being wrongfully treated by the governor, who is the commander in-chief of the state militia.
Strike breaking militia! Oh, shame on the fair name of West Virginia! The way that the militia is being used to evict the miners is done in this wise: The coal company sends several men to a miner’s house to put his household goods into the road. If the miner objects to having his goods put out without due process of law, the militia will arrest him and put him in the guard house. A squad of soldiers follows the evicting army and sees that no miner resists the process.
Yet in the face of all of this, and the hardships that the miners are being put into by the attitude of the governor of the state with their children half clad, hungry and barefooted, sickness in almost every home, no doctor, no money, only the charity of the Miners’ union to look to, and with a cold winter almost upon them, yet these hardships are more to be desired than peonage under the guard system. We are hoping that the governor will soon see the error of his way and do something to redeem the fair name of the great state of West Virginia.
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