Tag: West Virginia Federationist

Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Miners and Families Are Destitute and Suffering; Committee Seeks Aid in New York

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 13, 1922
West Virginia Miners and Their Families Are Destitute and Suffering

From The New York Times of February 12, 1922:

ASK AID FOR 35,000 STRIKING MINERS.
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West Virginia Labor Committee Here Seeks Food,
Clothes and Medicines for Idle Men.
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WV Battle by Shields, UE by M Becker, Lbtr p16, Oct 1921

Thirty-five thousand striking miners and their families are destitute and suffering in West Virginia, according to a statement yesterday by a committee of West Virginia labor officials who came to New York seeking food, clothing and medical aid for the unemployed workers and their dependents.

The committee said it also would appeal to the national Red Cross organization at Washington and to the convention of the United Mine Workers at Indianapolis next Tuesday for emergency help. The committee consisted of William T. Harris, President of the West Virginia State Federation of Labor; Fred Mooney, Secretary-Treasurer, District 17, United Mine Workers, and Frank W. Snyder, editor of The West Virginia Federationist.

The committee said a survey of conditions showed that more than 70,000 West Virginia miners were out of work, many of them since the signing of the armistice.

WV Battle by Shields, RR demand by M Becker, Lbtr p17, Oct 1921

High wages had nothing to do with the unemployment, the committee said, pointing out that coal was being sold in the unionized Kanawha fields at lower prices than in the non-union Guyan region. Kanawha coal, they said, was selling at $2.15 a ton f. o. b. mines last week, and in Guyan at $2.35.

In the face of the unemployment, the commutes said, the operators were attempting wholesale evictions. Many miners and their families had been forced out of their homes, but these evictions had been checked by the intervention of the Department of Labor at Washington.

“In the mining fields,” said Mr. Mooney, “there are 35,000 destitute families. They are without food and clothing. The bread winners in some of these families have not worked more than three months since the armistice. The families have been living from hand to mouth on charity furnished by their neighbors and friends.”

The committee arranged with the American Civil Liberties Union here to raise a relief fund here in New York.

[Emphasis and drawings by Maurice Becker added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Witnesses to Murder of Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Declare Lively’s Claim of Self-Defense is False

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 – Sunday August 21, 1921
Sworn Statements Show That Neither Hatfield Nor Chambers Had Guns

From the Duluth Labor World of August 20, 1921:

Mingo Sid Hatfield Thugs Story False, LW p1, Aug 20, 1921

(Charleston, West Va., Special to the Labor Press.)

That the statement of Lively, carried in the press to the effect that he acted in self defense, and that Sid Hatfield pulled his gun first, is absolutely false has been sworn to by three reputable citizens of McDowell county, who were present when the shooting took place and they have furnished the names of many others who will substantiate their statements.

One of the men making sworn statements said that “this is one of the most foul and brutal murders he has ever read or heard of.” He also said that he saw Lively run down the steps and pick up the gun that he had thrown over toward Chambers and say “here is his gun and it is empty too.”

Fired Into Dead body.

In the sworn statement of another he says,”I seen men shooting Chambers and saw them come down the steps past Chambers and saw him raise up a little as they passed and at that time saw one of them place a pistol almost against him and fire into him body.”

The affidavits of these men prove conclusively that murder had been carefully planned and arranged beforehand and that it was a deliberate and cold blooded murder and that neither of the victims used or attempted to use  a gun.

The editor of the West Virginia Federationist is in receipt of a letter from an attorney who with others are investigating the murder. Accompanying the letter are three affidavits from eye witnesses, but the names of the witnesses are withheld from publication They will be produced in court and at the trial.

[…..]

Organized labor throughout the state is passing strong resolutions against the reign of terror in West Virginia. The governor of the state is severely condemned for not furnishing protection to Hatfield and Chambers as he had promised to do when informed of the plot to take their their lives.

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[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Federationist: Governor’s Sworn Duty is to Remove Coal Operators’ Private Army

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 – Monday June 27, 1921
West Virginia Federationist Demands Removal of Gunthug Army

From the Duluth Labor World of June 18, 1921:

Thugs Promote Mingo Mine War, Lbr Wld p1, June 18, 1921

CHARLESTON, W. Va., June 16.—In an address to business men in this city Governor Morgan said: “Thank God, the awakening is coming in Mingo county.”

To this statement the West Virginia Federationist replies:

Yes, it is coming, but through no effort of you, the coal masters or any of the state officials.

The awakening will arrive when the federal investigation committee makes public their findings and expose the vicious system of the industrial overlords who have ruled with brute force and crushed a liberty loving people under the iron heel of greed by the usurpation of the constitution and the enforcement of a law of the gun and club in the hands of their thug army, aided and abetted by the public officials whom they own and control.

Governor Morgan was absolutely right when he stated that “the people of West Virginia don’t understand the situation as it exists today.” If they did there would be a mighty roar throughout the entire state demanding that he perform his sworn duty to uphold law and order by removing the private army of coal company thugs from Mingo, Logan and McDowell counties and restore constitutional rights to the citizenship thereof.

If he wanted to acquaint the people with conditions he could have quoted an editorial from the Charleston Mail in openly advocating mob law, said: “What is needed to settle that trouble on Tug river is a few tugs by the sheriff’s assistants at a stout rope.”

In other words, the Mail advocates that the thugs and bums recruited by agents of the coal masters to break the miners’ strike should string up the citizens of Mingo county who are struggling for their American rights and more bread and butter for their families.

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[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1919, Part II: Sissonville Prison Road Camp-Burning Hell Hole of West Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Constabulary n Bread, Ab Chp 23, 1925———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 16, 1919
Mother Jones News for July 1919, Part II
-Found Protesting Conditions at Sissonville Road Camp

Hell Hole in West Virginia: Sissonville Prison Road Camp
-Described by Mother Jones:

Mother Jones Crpd Women in Industry, Eve Ns Hburg PA p2, Jan 6, 1919

With Mr. [Fred] Mooney and Mr. Snyder, organizers, I went to the prison camp of Kanawha County where prisoners were building a county road. It was a broiling hot day.

About forty men were swinging picks and shovels; some old grey haired men were among them, some extremely young, some diseased, all broken in spirit and body. Some of them, the younger ones, were in chains. They had to drag a heavy iron ball and chain as they walked and worked. A road officer goaded them on if they lagged. He was as pitiless as the Bull on their bent backs.

These were men who had received light sentences in the courts for minor offenses, but the road officer could extend the sentence for the infraction of the tiniest rule. Some men had been in the camp for a year whose sentence had been thirty days for having in their possession a pint of liquor. Another fellow told me he was bringing some whiskey to a sick man. He was arrested, given sixty days and fined $100. Unable to pay he was sentenced to five months in the prison camp, and after suffering hell’s tortures he had attempted to run away. He was caught and given four additional months.

At night the miserable colony were driven to their horrible sleeping quarters. For some, there were iron cages. Iron bunks with only a thin cloth mattress over them. Six prisoners were crowded into these cages. The place was odorous with filth. Vermin crawled about…..

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1919, Part II: Sissonville Prison Road Camp-Burning Hell Hole of West Virginia” →