Tag: United Mine Workers Journal

Hellraisers Journal: Striking Miner Alex Breedlove Shot Down in Raid on Lick Creek Tent Colony, Mingo County, W. V.

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 16, 1921
Lick Creek Tent Colony of Mingo County – Striker Alex Breedlove Shot Down

From The New York Herald of June 15, 1921:

ONE KILLED, TWO HURT IN NEW MINGO FIGHT
————— 
47 in Tent Colony of Idle Miners Are Arrested.
———-

Mingo Co WV, Tent Colony, Map, WVgn p1, May 19, 1921

WILLIAMSON, W. Va., June 14.-One men was killed, two others were wounded and forty-seven residents of the Lick Creek tent colony of idle miners near Williamson are held in the county jail as the result of the fight to-day at Lick Creek between authorities and the colonists.

Alex Breedlove is dead, while James A. Bowles, State trooper, was wounded and Martin Justice, in charge of the colony, received wounds in the cheek and leg.

The fight started after Major Tom Davis, commanding Mingo under martial law proclamation, had returned to Lick Creek with reinforcements of citizen State troopers to arrest about two-score of the idle miners, as his forces had been fired on in the vicinity earlier in the day. Trooper Bowles, in charge of a party of citizen State police [deputized company gunthugs], encountered several men near the colony. Orders from Bowles to throw up their hands brought shots, it was said, resulting in Breedlove’s death and in the wounding of Bowles.

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Blacklisted Alabama Coal Miners and Their Families Are Without Food, Continue to Live in Tents

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EVD, Starve Quietly, Phl GS Speech IA, Mar 19, 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 29, 1921
Alabama Coal Miners Continue to Live in Tents, Are Without Food

From the Duluth Labor World of May 28, 1921:

RUN ‘AGITATORS’ OUT OF ALABAMA!
—————
Governor of State Joins With Mine Owners in
Attempt to Crush Miners’ Union.
———-

Alabama Miners n Families in Tents bottom, UMWJ p9, Mar 15, 1921
-from the United Mine Workers Journal of March 15, 1921

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., May 26.—It is estimated that 40,000 men, women and children in the coal district of Alabama are without food. They are housed in tents furnished by the United Mine Workers of America. To relieve this situation, trade unionists are contributing funds and the [Minnesota] state federation of labor has forwarded $500. The coal owners deny that starvation exists, while they force miners to make oath that they are not, and never will be, members of the United Mine Workers.

A statewide blacklist is being conducted against the union miners with the approval of Governor Kilby. The state executive acted as arbitrator in the recent mine strike, and supported the coal owners in every point.

Governor Kilby also ruled that the coal owners are under no obligation to re-employ these miners. The governor has been called upon to relieve the distress that his decision cre­ated, but refuses to act, and has pub­licly declared that he “sympathized with the miners.” This statement has brought a withering reply from Van R. Bittner, representative of the United Mine Workers, who tells the official that “such hypocrisy makes men wonder.” The trade unionist refers to a public statement by the governor when the strike was on, wherein the people of Alabama were called upon to “run the agitators out of our state.”

———-

[Detail from above photograph.]

Alabama Miners n Families in Tents bottom crpd, UMWJ p9, Mar 15, 1921

[Photographs and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the United Mine Workers Journal: Fred Mooney Reports on Trip to Mexico City with Mother Jones

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones PAFL Congress, p72, Jan 13, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 2, 1921
Secretary-Treasure Fred Mooney Reports on Trip to Mexico City

From the United Mine Workers Journal of April 1, 1921:

Circular Sent Out by Secretary-Treasurer Mooney

UMW D17, Fred Mooney, Lbtr p9, Aug 1920

Fred Mooney, secretary-treasurer of District 17, has sent a circular letter to all local unions of that district entitled, “An Open Declaration of War,” in which he tells of the great attack that is being made on organized labor by that element of employers opposed to labor unions. He shows that the declaration of these employers in favor of the open shop is a declaration of war against labor. He calls upon organized labor everywhere to stand together in this crisis. He urges more thorough organization of workers into unions, so that they may be in position to meet the attack and defeat the effort that is being made to destroy labor unions.

Another circular which Secretary Mooney has sent out deals with his recent trip to Mexico City as representative of District 17 to the Pan-American Labor Congress. Among the interesting passages in this circular is the following:

Progress was reported from every quarter of Mexico and for many independent countries of South America. Four states of Mexico reported the election of Socialist or Labor Party Governors; in four different states of Mexico it constitutes a violation of law for an employer to hire non-union labor when union men are on strike to better their conditions. The federal constitution of Mexico provides that any employer who discharges an employe for union activities shall pay the employe three months’ wages in advance.

Mexico today has one of the most liberal and friendly governments towards the workers that is in existence on the Western Hemisphere, and the workers are building up a strong labor movement, their chief desire is to be let alone to work out their own destiny. The Mexican Regional Confederation of Labor has a membership of 450,000, among which are 82,000 railroad men, 7,000 munition workers, 18,000 carpenters, 3,000 miners, the remainder is composed of different trades. Luis N. Morones, president of the Confederation of Labor, is also chief of Military Commissariat, and one of the reservations made by him when accepting government appointment was that his service to his government should not interfere with his activities in the Federation of Labor, and that every employe under him must be permitted to join the Federation of Labor if they so desired; this was granted. Every member of the Federation of Labor who is elected or appointed to any government position must pay one-sixth of his salary each month into the treasury of the Federation of Labor. Morones is well educated, a born leader, knows no fear when fighting for his class—he was sentenced to be shot four different times during the revolution.

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Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers of America Will Support Mountaineers on Trial at Williamson, West Virginia

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920, Steel Speeches, p230———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 5, 1921
United Mine Workers of America to Support Matewan Defendants 

From the United Mine Workers Journal of February 1, 1921:

Union Will Support the
Twenty-four Mountaineers

CRTN BF Thugs Law n Order in WV, BDB p1, Sept 29, 1920

WASHINGTON, January 23.-The twenty four mountaineers who go on trial on a charge of first-degree murder Wednesday at Williamson, W. Va., will have the complete support, moral and material, of the United Mine Workers of America, according to an announcement here tonight by William Green, national secretary and treasurer of the organization.

The trial is the result of a sensational gun battle in the main street of Matewan on May 19th last, which resulted in ten deaths, including the mayor of the city and seven Baldwin-Felts guards. The fight is said to have had its origin in the attempts of the guards to arrest Sid Hatfield, chief of police of Matewan. Hatfield, a descendant of the feudists of Hatfield-McCoy fame, is the most prominent in the group of defendants, which includes special police deputies of Matewan and members of the miners’ union.

In his statement here tonight Mr. Green declared:

The United Mine Workers of America are prepared to afford full support, both moral and material, to the twenty-four defendants in the murder trial at Williamson, W. Va., this week. This trial is a direct result of the barbarous warfare waged on members of the United Mine Workers by the coal operators of Mingo county. And, so long as lives of members of our organization are at stake, we intend to put at their disposal every means for establishing their innocence of the charge. The court, of course, will determine their fate. But we will offer the defense every facility in our power.

The United Mine Workers are determined to see justice done the locked-out miners of Mingo county. These men and their families were evicted from their homes for the “crime” of joining the union. The operators employed professional gunmen to hasten the evictions. We are insistent that the use of gunmen in West Virginia mining areas shall cease. It is time that a republican form of government, as ordained by the constitution, should be restored in Mingo county and the arbitrary rule of the coal barons brought to an end.

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Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Issues Notice of Assessment for Support of West Virginia and Alabama Miners

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 20, 1921
U.M.W. of A. Supports Fighting Miners of  West Virginia and Alabama 

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

Official Notice of Assessment Indianapolis

Indianapolis, January 4, 1921.

To the Officers and Members, United Mine Workers of America:

Brothers—For many months about three thousand miners in the Mingo county coal section of West Virginia have been locked out by their employers. In Alabama twelve thousand miners have been on strike for many months because the coal operators, who employed them, refused to negotiate an agreement based upon the award of the Bituminous Coal Commission. The locked-out and striking miners in these two fields, together with their families, who are dependent upon them, have been cared for and supported by the International Union of the United Mine Workers of America. All together about fifty thousand men, women and children have been and are now being clothed, fed and cared for by the International Union of the United Mine Workers of America.

Mingo Co WV, Red Jacket Tent Colony, WDC Tx p12, Dec 12, 1920
Evicted Miners and Families Live in Tents in Mingo County, W. V.

Since the beginning of the lock-out in West Virginia and the strike in Alabama the International Union has supplied $ 1,345,000 out of the International treasury, for the support of our striking brothers and their families. The suffering which the men, women and children living in both these coal fields have undergone challenges the admiration of every member of our union. They have been thrown out of their homes; have been denied the right of free assemblage; have been subjected to the brutal treatment of a private army of gunmen, guards and thugs employed by the coal operators, and to the repressive military regulations which have been established by state and federal troops ordered into these mining communities.

The fact that thousands of men, women and children are living in tents during these bitter cold wintry days and nights, fighting and struggling for recognition, the right to bargain collectively and for justice, excites our most profound sympathy. Such heroic action calls for our full support in the struggle these brave men and women are making against the forces of corporate greed and corporate power.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Literary Digest: “West Virginia’s War” -Miners of Mingo Battle for Right to Unionize

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920, Steel Speeches, p230———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 21, 1920
Mingo County, West Virginia – “Civil War Has Become a Fact”

From The Literary Digest of December 18, 1920:

Mingo County WV, Strikers n Families Lick Creek Tent Colony, Lt Dg p16, Dec 18, 1920

WEST VIRGINIA’S WAR

THE BIGGEST AND BLOODIEST FEUD in the history of West Virginia, say special correspondents on the ground, continues in the vicinity of Williamson, in the bituminous coal-mining district [note: photo above incorrectly states “anthracite field”]. With the private feud on a gigantic scale is combined an industrial war-a strike and lockout. “The issue of the open versus the closed shop is being put to the acid test,” says John J. Leary, Jr., in the New York World, and the scene of the battle between coal-operators and miners is said to be just across the river from the county in which the McCoy-Hatfield feud was waged a generation ago. The strike in the Williamson coal-field began in May with an attempt of the United Mine Workers to unionize the men, we are told by the New York Herald, and the death-toll since that time is thirty-nine. Six hundred men have been wounded. Mine-workers, on one hand, and mine-guards, private detectives, and deputy sheriffs, on the other, have staged a civil war, during which time the estimated loss in production of coal has been 5,000,000 tons and the loss to the miners $3,500,000 in wages, according to the figures of The Herald. Many coal-plants and at least one power-house have been dynamited, declares the New York World, while Mr. Leary continues in that paper:

Murders and killings on both sides have been frequent; hundreds of families have been driven from their poor homes; civil war has become a fact. Back of the mountaineers are the 400,000 union coal-miners of the country. Back of them the sympathy, and, if necessary, the support of the other 3,600,000 members of the American Federation of Labor.

Back of the operators are the open-shop interests. Quietly, but none the less effectively, they are protecting and sustaining the smaller operators who have small resources. They are assisting with advice and with experts in such matters. Likewise they are assisting in Charleston, the capital of the State.

Meantime, the deadlock.

At any time it may flare up again with heavy loss of life on one side or the other, or both.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October & November 1920: Veteran Organizer Found in West Virginia and Washington D. C.

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Doomed, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel, p213———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 11, 1920
Mother Jones News for October & November 1920
“Veteran Organizer” Found in West Virginia and Washington D. C.

From The Charleston Daily Mail of October 2, 1920:

COAL COMPANIES AFTER
RESTRAINT ON MINERS
———-
Petition Federal Court for Injunction
to Prevent Officials Organizing.
———-

Mother Jones, UMWJ p11, July 15, 1920The United Mine Workers have made defendants in two injunction suits brought in the southern district federal court by the Red Jacket Coal company of Red Jacket, Mingo County, and the Pond Creek Colliery to restrain them from  interfering with employes of the two companies in efforts to unionize the mines operated by the coal concerns. Notices were reported as served yesterday evening from the United States marshal’s office, and arguments will be heard October 11, at Huntington.

John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America; William Green, secretary and treasurer of the United Mine Workers; C. F. [Frank] Keeney, president of district No, 17, United Mine Workers; Fred Mooney, secretary and treasurer of the district; Harold W. Houston, attorney; Mary Harris, (“Mother Jones“), J. A. Baumgardner, president of Local Union, No. 4804, at Williamson; C. L. McShan, secretary of the local union; Dock Wolford, president of Local Union No. 4181 and Bud Auzier, secretary of the union, and a score of others are named in the petition.

Petitions in both cases are said to be based on the allegation that activities of agents and organizers of the mine workers interfere with contracts which the companies have made with the miners and would prevent the delivery of coal to customers. The further charge is made that the purpose of the United Mine Workers in organizing is illegal.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Journal: Fred Mooney Reports on Struggle in Mingo County, West Virginia

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 7, 1920
Mingo County, West Virginia – Fred Mooney Reports on Miners’ Struggle

From the United Mine Workers Journal of December 1, 1920:

Figures About Mingo County Are Juggled

Editor The Journal-One B. C. Clarke, supposed to be a representative of the New York Herald, in its issue of Sunday, November 7, says in part, that the “strike” in Mingo county, West Virginia, has cost $24,200,000.00 and a loss in tonnage production of five million tons. We do not know what prompted Mr. Clarke to juggle figures as he did in this article, but anyone with any intelligence whatever, can readily see that the article is a gross misrepresentation of facts.

UMW D17, Mooney Keeney, Lbtr p9, Aug 1920

In the first instance, Mr. Clarke leaves the impression that the “strike” in Mingo county is a continuance of the Hatfield-McCoy feuds. Nothing could be further from the truth, as there is no feud in this territory now, nor has there been any marks of one for years. The economic aspect of the struggle now going on in Mingo county is a struggle of a group of crushed wage slaves who have been robbed from their birth of from 35 to 50 per cent of the wages rightfully earned by them and that portion of their wages of which they were robbed was paid out to private armies of “gunmen” to club the miners into submission.

Let us review the figures quoted by Mr. Clarke. He says that 700 miners are on “strike”, which is a fabrication manufactured of whole cloth. Let us see if the loss in tonnage production is 5,000,000 tons. The miners were locked out on July 1, 1920. Four months they have been out of employment, 26 days to each month. If every miner had worked full time, each would have had to produce in round figures, 68 tons per day; or take his total number of employees thrown out of employment, which was 3,500 and they would have had to produce 13.73 tons per day, which is impossible, as the highest average of production per employe was reached in 1918, and for that year, the average production per employe, was 4.20 tons. The average production per miner for the year of 1918 in the State of West Virginia, was 7.65 tons. This average was the highest in the history of the state.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for September 1920, Part I: “Famous Woman Leader of Miners” Found in Missouri and Illinois

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Doomed, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel, p213———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 23, 1920
Mother Jones News for September 1920, Part I
“Famous Woman Leader of Miners” Found in Missouri and Illinois

From the United Mine Workers Journal of September 1, 1920:

Mother Jones IN Dly Tx p1 crpd, July 15, 1920

Labor Day Speakers

Notice of the following assignments of speakers for celebrations of the United Mine Workers of America on Labor Day have been received at the office of the Journal:

Philip Murray, International Vice President, New Kensington, Pa .
William Green, International Secretary Treasurer, Cambridge, Ohio.
Ellis Searles, Editor of the United Mine Workers Journal, Ernest, Pa.
Samuel Pascoe, President of District 30, Novinger, Mo.
Andrew Steele, International Board Member from District 25, South Fork, Pa.
William Turnblazer, International Organizer, Spadra, Ark.
Mother Jones, Kirksville, Mo.
William Feeney, International Organizer, Midland, Ark

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Strikers at Lick Creek Tent Colony Prepare for Winter as Scabs Brought from Ohio to Tug River Field

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Doomed, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel, p213———-

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

WV Mingo Co Miners Strike, Fed Troops Lick Creek, BDB p1, Sept 24, 1920
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.

—————

[Newsclip and emphasis added.]

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