Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 1, 1920 New Kensington, Pennsylvania – Monument Erected for Mine Workers’ Martyrs
From the United Mine Workers Journal of October 1, 1920:
A beautiful monument was unveiled in memory of the late Fannie Sellins and Joe Starzeleski at their graves in Union Cemetery, New Kensington , Pa., Sunday, September 12, 1920.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 22, 1920 -Mother Jones News for July 1920, Part II Speech at Williamson, W. Va., Described; Found in Indianapolis
From the Buffalo Labor Journal of July 8, 1920:
MOUNTAIN MEN AROUSED —–
Williamson, W. Va. [June 20, 1920]-“The motto of West Virginia, ‘Mountainers are always free,’ will be made effective,” declared Mother Jones in an address to over 5,000 miners of Mingo county. A drenching rain did not deter the workers from coming out of the mountains, the tent colonies of evicted strikers and neighboring towns. Mayor Porter of this place assured the meeting that he was in perfect sympathy with their efforts to rid the state of Baldwin-Feltz detective thugs, employed by the coal owners.
Secretary Pauley of the West Virginia Federation of Labor told the miners that trade unionists through out the state are behind them in this fight for law and order.
The recent murder of the mayor of Matewan and other citizens by the Baldwin-Feltz detective thugs, who were attempting to evict miners without due process of law, has aroused organized labor to greater activity against these private armies of the coal owners. The same condition prevails in Logan and McDowell counties. Governor Cornwell ignores these outlaws while delivering lectures and issuing statements on the need for “100 per cent. Americanism.”
Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 20, 1920
Mingo County, West Virginia – District 17 Defends Sheriff Blankenship
From the United Mine Workers Journal of August 15, 1920:
-from page 7:
Pointed Letter Sent
to West Virginia Governor
The reconvened scale convention of District 17, which was held at Charleston, W. Va., July 15, 16 and 17, for the purpose of dealing with certain differentials, voted unanimously to send the following communication to Governor Cornwell, of that state:
Charleston, W. Va., July 19, 1920.
Hon. John J. Cornwell, Governor of West Virginia,
Charleston, W. Va.
Dear Sir—In its issue of July 17, 1920, The Charleston Gazette carries copies of a telegram and letter alleged to have been sent by you to Sheriff Blankenship of Mingo county, West Virginia, relating to disorders along the Tug River in that county.
These letters do an injustice to our officials and membership by carrying the imputation that they have failed to co-operate with the civil authorities in the preservation of law and order. They also carry the inference that the officials of this district have appealed to the federal government for federal troops to be sent into Mingo county and other sections of this state. You must certainly know that neither of these imputations is true.
Sheriff Blankenship and the other peace officers of Mingo county will no doubt gladly testify to the fact that the officials of our district have at all times consulted and cooperated with him in an effort to protect the citizens of that county from the lawless gang of gunmen and thugs turned loose upon them by the coal operators, who have endeavored to supersede the civil authorities by the introduction of a private army of their own. In marked contrast to your attitude toward the lawless invasion of that county by private gunmen of the operators, Sheriff Blankenship and his deputies have attempted to uphold the law and to throw its protecting folds around the peaceful and law-abiding citizens of that section. In all of his efforts he has the earnest and whole-hearted support of our officials and membership.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday July 16, 1920
Southern West Virginia – Union Organizing Campaign Continues Despite Gunthugs
From United Mine Workers Journal of July 15, 1920:
Organization Campaign in West Virginia Continues
to Spread in Spite of Gunmen and Other Obstacles
(Special to the Journal)
Charleston, W. Va., July 8—The situation in Mingo county is firm. The county is tied up tight. Before Fred L. Feick, of Indiana, and L. R. Thomas, of Pittsburgh, mediators for the Department of Labor, came to Williamson a letter arrived from Joseph P. Tumulty, secretary to President Wilson, conveying news of a conference between the President and Secretary Wilson and conveying the hope of the President for a peaceful and harmonious settlement of the differences.
The operators of the Williamson coalfields refused to recognize the union or have anything to do with the United Mine Workers of America. The strike is continuing peacefully.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday July 5, 1920
Gompers Demands Investigation of Government by Gunthug in West Virginia
From the United Mine Workers Journal of July 1, 1920:
Asks Investigation of Killing at Matewan
When Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, heard of the killing of ten men in a battle between coal company gunmen and coal miners at Matewan, W. Va., he sent a letter to Senator Kenyon, chairman of the Senate committee on labor and education, asking him to have his committee make an investigation of the case. His letter was as follows:
The men were shot and killed by an armed band of men sent into the state by the order of and in the pay of private interests. The men who were killed were interested only in seeing that the statutes and the constitution of the state and of the United States were respected, according to the newspaper reports of the outbreak. I am of the opinion that the invasion of West Virginia by an armed band of men in the pay of absentee owners of West Virginia mining property constitutes a suspension of the constitutional guarantees.
It will be remembered that a public official, testifying in the investigation of 1912-13 before the committee of which you are now chairman, swore that the constitution of the United States did not apply in West Virginia. It was brought out that miners had been kidnapped and given long sentences by drumhead court martial. This official was not rebuked by West Virginia for his testimony as to its lawlessness. On the contrary, he was appointed by the governor of the state to be the impartial investigator of crime against the miners, their wives and their children, in the mining camp of Guyan Valley, and this within the year.
For a generation the only law in the mining camps of West Virginia, save in those few instances where the power of organized labor and outraged public opinion has forced a return to constitutional methods, has been the law of the thug and the gunman disguised as deputy sheriffs and usurping the police power of the land. The blackjack and the pistol, the high-powered rifle and the machine gun have been substituted for statute law, judges and juries.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 4, 1920
Williamson, West Virginia – Mine Workers Hold First Mingo County Convention
From the United Mine Workers Journal of July 1, 1920:
Every coal miner in Mingo county, W. Va., is now a member of the United Mine Workers of America.Mingo county, up to this time, has been one of the worst hotbeds of anti-unionism in the entire state of West Virginia. It was only a few weeks ago that a gang of Baldwin-Felts gunmen undertook to clean out the union from that field, and as a result there was a battle in the streets of Matewan, Mingo county, in which seven of the gunmen, Mayor Testerman and two miners were killed. This battle seemed to mark the end of the reign of the vicious gunmen system of terrorism in Mingo county, for soon afterward the remainder of the thugs disappeared from that county.
The international union and the District 17 organization sent a number of organizers into Mingo county at once and instituted an intensive campaign of organization. The miners were ready and anxious to join the union, but they had been prevented from exercising this right by the brutality of the Baldwin-Felts thugs in the employ of the coal companies. Once these outlaws were out of the way there was a great rush for membership in the union.
Mingo county is now 100 per cent organized. Approximately 6,000 new members have been taken in in that county since the Matewan battle.
The first convention of the United Mine Workers of America ever held in Mingo county was held at Williamson, the county seat, on June 23. The sessions were held in the court house, the purpose of the convention being to formulate a set of demands as to wages and working conditions to be presented to the operators. The above photograph was taken on the court house steps, and it shows the delegates, some of the officials of District 17, and also some of the international organizers who were active in effecting the organization.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 3, 1920
Coal Strike Affects 5,000 Miners in Mingo County and 1,000 in Pike County
From The Charleston Daily Mail of June 30, 1920:
WILLIAMSON DISTRICT MINERS
TO QUIT TONIGHT
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About 5,000 mine workers of Mingo county W. Va., and 1,000 in Pike county, Ky., will be affected by a strike order issued from the Summers street headquarters of District 17, United Mine Workers to take effect at midnight tonight, according to officials of that organization, who that virtually all the miners of Mingo county and those employed on Kentucky side of the Tug river, and along Pond creek in Pike county, will strike.
United Mine Workers Journal of June 1, 1920 Note Mother Jones at center front. —–
Many of the Kentucky mine workers, it is said, live in Mingo county and only recently joined the miners’ union. The recent affiliation with the union of the men affected by the strike order, it is said, is the cause of the present situation.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 8, 1920
Matewan, West Virginia – Miners and Citizens Battle Company Gunthugs
From the United Mine Workers Journal of June 1, 1920:
Ten or twelve men were killed in a battle between Baldwin-Felts gunmen and citizens of the town of Matewan, W. Va., on May 19. The exact number of deaths has not been learned, because it is said that one or more bodies were lost in the Tug river when some of the men attempted to swim across. The battle was the result of activities of the gunmen who were in the employ of the Stone Mountain Coal Company. It has been impossible also to obtain a correct list of the names of the dead.
Matewan is in the very heart of the Tug river field, one of the most notorious hotbeds of nonunionism in West Virginia. Coal operators in that field have for years resisted with all of their power the efforts of the miners to organize and join the United Mine Workers of America. They have employed all of the bloody tactics that have prevailed in such fields for many years, including the use of gunmen and thugs, the blackjack and other methods of repression.
A short time ago the miners employed at a mine owned by the Stone Mountain Company undertook to form an organization. The company immediately applied the usual remedy. It discharged the men from its employ. Then the company decided to evict the men and their families from the houses in which they lived and which were owned by the company. It was the thought of the company that this would help to break up the movement for the organization of a local union.
A large force of “detectives” was hired from the Baldwin-Felts agency at Bluefield, W. Va., and sent to Matewan to evict the miners and their families. An Associated Press dispatch from Matewan told the story of the battle as follows:
The shooting, in which Baldwin-Felts detectives clashed with citizens and the police, followed the eviction of a number of miners from Stone Mountain Coal Company houses yesterday, according to the authorities. Two mines were closed recently when it became known that an effort was being made to unionize them. The miners claim that the detectives were sent to dispossess families of workers who had been discharged.
A shot, said by the authorities to have been fired from the coat pocket of Albert Felts, a detective, and which ended the life of Mayor Cabell Testerman, started the battle. An instant later Felts, according to authorities, was killed by “Sid” Hatfield, chief of police. The shooting then became general, and when the battle ended seven detectives, the mayor, and four miners were dead and three other persons badly wounded. Felts, it is said, had a warrant for the arrest of Chief Hatfield on a charge that he had taken a prisoner from detectives some time ago. The mayor was reading the warrant when he was killed.
It was said that the gunmen wore badges as deputy sheriff’s of Harlan county, Ky., and that they had been imported from there to Matewan.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 25, 1920
Matewan, West Virginia – Correspondent Russ Simonton on “Yaller Dog”
From the Harrisburg Evening News of May 24, 1920:
—–
MATEFAN [Matewan], W. Va., May 24.-State police patrol this coal town because Americans refused to sign away their rights as citizens.
Here is the history of the events which led a few days ago to the killing of Mayor Testerman, it is said, in cold blood, by mine private detectives [Baldwin-Felts gunthugs], and a battle between citizens and detectives that cost a total of twelve lives.
Fighting Union
Matewan miners want to affiliate with the United Mine Workers of America. Mine operators of the Tug Creek District are opposed to any labor organizations.
Organizers were sent here last April. They held street meetings. A few miners joined them, then right and left those who joined lost their jobs. These men became organizers themselves. Obviously that sort of thing could not continue long. There are 6000 miners in this district and two-thirds or more live in company houses and buy food from company stores.
“Yaller Dog” Appears
The “Yaller Dog” soon made its appearance. It is a marvelous document. In part It reads:
In consideration of my employment I agree that I will not affiliate with or give assistance to any union or labor organization without first giving you notice. Should I fall to comply with this agreement, our relations shall be terminated. I will leave your premises and will surrender without notice any house occupied by me, it being understood that such house is incident to my employ.
The “Yaller Dog” made no favorable impression with these drawling, slow-moving hill miners.
Not half a dozen signed the agreement.
Wholesale firing began and man after man was discharged and several mines boarded up their drifts and loaded the miners out.
Then Hughie Coombs, Methodist minister and one of the first men discharged for joining the union, arranged, he said, that if dispossession proceedings should be started, the sheriff [George Blankenship] of Mingoco [Mingo Co.] should serve the papers.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 14, 1920
Harlan County, Kentucky – Company Gunthugs Shoot Down Miners
From the United Mine Workers Journal of May 1, 1920:
Reports which have reached the Journal indicate a terrible condition of affairs in the Harlan coal field of Kentucky. Gunmen and thugs in the employ of the coal companies run wild in that section, without fear or hindrance. They are shooting down innocent and helpless miners and members of miners’ families. Three members of the United Mine Workers were shot down in cold blood by these ruffians and murderers on March 20 at the Banner Fork Coal Corporation Mine No. 2. The following are the names of the victims:
K. S. TAYLOR, instantly killed. Leaves a widow and seven children without any means of support.
JAMES BURK [John Burkes], deputy sheriff, fatally wounded. Died the next day in a hospital at Harlan, leaving a widow and family without support.
GENERAL GIBSON, fatally wounded. Died on an operating table in a hospital at Harlan, leaving a family without support.
One of the gunmen, Jim Hall, was severely wounded and was sent to a hospital at Harlan [has since died]. Banner Fork Local Union No. 3319 has adopted resolutions of condolence to the families of the deceased brothers, all of whom were good men and highly respected. They gave their lives to uphold the principles of the United Mine Workers of America.
Since the shooting the membership of Banner Fork local union has reached 100 per cent, and the coal company has locked out its employes.
According to reports from Harlan county, Jim Hall, the thug, beat up and disfigured a young son of K. S. Taylor, afterward locking him up in a boarding house. When attempting to give bond for the release of his son the father was shot down. The thugs suddenly appeared from the office of the coal company and ordered the miners to throw up their hands. There was a hailstorm of bullets for ten minutes. Hall is said to boast that he kills a miner a month. He and five other thugs are said to receive $10 a day for their bloody work. Hall wore a steel breast plate as a protection against bullets, but it did not save him.
Following the shooting, the sheriff searched the company boarding house and another house and found three machine guns and two cases of high-power rifles with an ample supply of ammunition ready for instant use.
[One of the reports said:]
This is what they use on American citizens whose only offense is their effort to protect themselves and their families. Everything is peaceful at present, but the miners are greatly stirred up over the outrage.
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