Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 17, 1920 Tug River Field, W. V. – Scabs Arrive as Lick Creek Tent Colony Prepares for Winter
From the United Mine Workers Journal of October 15, 1920:
Bringing in Strike Breakers in the Tug River Field
The Butte Daily Bulletin September 24, 1920
Dispatches from Williamson, W. Va., say that coal operators in the Tug River strike field have begun the importation of strike breakers on an extensive scale. It is said that 125 men, recruited mainly from factories in Akron, O., and other points in that region, have been sent to Williamson to be distributed throughout that district, and across the river in Pike county, Ky.
A man believed to be Anton Skilba, of Cleveland, is at the tent colony of strikers on Lick creek, two miles up the Tug River from Williamson, suffering from a fractured skull, received in one of the numerous clashes in the mountains.
The Lick creek colony contains sixty-two tents housing 107 men, women and children. Preparations are being made to put board floors in the tents, presaging an intention to cling to the makeshift homes and continue the strike into the winter. Living conditions there are of the most primitive type. Food in many cases is cooked on stoves made of rocks and mud.
None of the children wear more than one garment. The men and women are shabby. Food is scarce and what there is of a very coarse variety.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 7, 1920 Mingo County, West Virginia – Mine Owners’ Gunthugs Maintain “Law and Order”
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of September 29, 1920:
West Virginia Mine Owners Take Steps to Get More U. S. Regulars —————
By PAUL HANNA. (Staff Writer, the Federated Press.)
Washington, Sept. 29.-West Virginia mine owners have acted quickly to overcome the complaint of Mingo county miners against the anti-labor conduct of federal troops in that district.
The detailed charges against federal troops made by Fred Mooney, district president [secretary-treasurer] of the United Mine Workers was printed in Federated Press newspapers on the morning of Sept. 24. That same afternoon the following “news” dispatch was sent out from Charleston, W. Va., and widely printed in the capitalist press:
A reign of terror and lawlessness still prevails in the Williamson and Pocahontas coal fields, according to reports sifting through from various sources and reaching here today.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 26, 1920
Pike County, Kentucky – Miners Marched in Chains by Company Gunthugs
From The Buffalo Labor Journal of June 24, 1920:
EVICTED MINERS IN CHAINS
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Charleston, W. Va.-When Pike county (Ky.) miners joined the union they were evicted from company houses, chained together and marched in mud and rain 30 miles by armed guards.
This is one of the sensational statements made in a report to President Keeney, district No. 17, United Mine Workers’ union, by Thomas West, attorney, who investigated Pike county mining troubles. Pike county is opposite Matewan, where several persons were recently killed by Baldwin-Feltz detectives.
[Said the investigator:]
The miners were chained together and were walked in a pouring rain to Pike, 25 or 30 miles away. Mud was almost knee deep. Pike county deputies shot a man’s hands off on the Kentucky side of Borderland. About 30 of them were terrorizing both sides of the river. The Pike county deputies were all drunk. In my opinion they constitute one of the most dangerous gangs of men I ever came in contact with.
[Newsclip added from Ellsworth County Leader of Kansas of June 24, 1920.]
From the Duluth Labor World of June 26, 1920:
MINERS HAVE NO TIME FOR
W. VA. PRIVATE POLICE
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Protest Against Continued Use-
Demand That U. S. Senate
Make Investigation.
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., June 25.— Every possible effort is being made by the United Mine Workers of America to bring about a full and thorough investigation of conditions in West Virginia under which coal miners are employed. The recent battle between coal miners and coal company gunmen at Matewan, W. Va., in which 10 men were killed, has caused the officials of the union to redouble their efforts to induce congress to make a sweeping probe of the situation.
Operating under the guise of private detectives, hundreds of gunmen and thugs, nearly all with criminal records, are employed by coal operators of some fields of West Virginia, and these men enforce a reign of terror among the miners and their families. Miners are beaten, slugged and shot. They are arrested and thrown in prison on no valid pretext whatever.
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