Tag: West Virginia Jury Bill of 1921

Hellraisers Journal: Miners’ Tent Colony at Mingo County, West Virginia, Saved, for Now, from Coal Operators’ Injunction Judge

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 30, 1922
Mingo County, West Virginia – Miners’ Tent Colony Saved, for Now

From the Duluth Labor World of April 29, 1922:

TENT-SMASHING JUDGE CHECKED
BY HIGH COURT
———-
Circuit Court Stays Order to Drive Miners
and Families From Tented Homes.
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RICHMOND, Va., April 27.—Federal Judge McClintic’s injunction to smash the Mingo tent colony has been ordered held up by Hon. Martin A. Knapp, judge of the federal court of appeals, fourth circuit.

Mingo County WV Tent Colony, Rock Is IN Argus p14, Apr 17, 1922

Judge Knapp’s decision stays this order until it can be heard by the court of appeals. McClintic is also ordered to scrap his injunction machine until the court of appeals reviews his acts.

Several years ago this federal court of appeals set aside the notorious “yellow dog” decision by Federal Judge Dayton, since deceased. This decision legalized the individual contract whereby each worker ac­cepting employment agreed not to join a trade union. The reasoning of the court of appeals was rejected by the United States supreme court, which upheld the “yellow dog.”

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CHARLESTON, W. Va., April 27. —In holding up Federal Judge Mc­Clintic’s injunction to destroy the Mingo tent colony and stop union organizing, the federal court of ap­peals at Richmond has temporarily clipped the wings of a judge who is openly charged with receiving his present position as a reward for sub­serviency to coal owners while he was a member of the West Virginia state senate.

McClintic is recognized as the au­thor of the West Virginia jury law which permits the prosecution to take a man charged with crime out of his county into another county for trial.

Under this law, which is now in effect, the trial of a striking miner can be transferred to a county like Logan, which is under the complete domination of Baldwin-Feltz gun­men.

When McClintic was appointed last year the A. F. of L. made strong objection because of his bias in fav­or of coal owners. The latest exhi­bition of this bias was shown by his issuance of an injunction that would oust hundreds of miners and their families from the only homes they have and which are located on land leased by the union.

The trade, unionists, made no pro­gress in blocking McClintic’s in­dorsement by the senate because he was supported by the two West Vir­ginia senators-Messrs. Sutherland and Elkins.

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[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Miners’ Tent Colony at Mingo County, West Virginia, Saved, for Now, from Coal Operators’ Injunction Judge” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1921: Found in Washington DC with Gompers, Protesting West Virginia’s Jury Bill

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 – Wednesday May 25, 1921
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1921
-Found in Washington, D. C., Protesting West Virginia’s Jury Bill

From the Washington Evening Star of April 1, 1921:

PROTEST WEST VIRGINIA JURY LEGISLATION
———-
Samuel Gompers and ”Mother” Jones Speak
at Central Labor Meeting.

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

President Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor and “Mother” Jones of the United Mine Workers led the local protest against enactment of the proposed jury legislation for West Virginia at a special mass meeting of Central Labor Union, in Musicians’ Hall, last night.

President Gompers denounced the proposed law as an abrogation of the right guaranteed to a defendant under the Constitution of the United States providing trial by jury and change of venue. He said that a premeditated conspiracy for the destruction of trades unionism was at the basis of the move for the law which will allow a judge to select a jury from any county in the state no matter in which county the trial was being held. He charged that the judiciary, consciously or unconsciously, were aiding in the fight against organized labor.

Mother Jones was vehement in her expressions against the proposed legislation. She flayed local labor for its seemingly supine attitude.

[She said:]

You haven’t any fire in you at all, sitting here with your comfortable air, while tyranny is being wrought in West Virginia, where babes of murdered fathers are starving for their very bread.

At the conclusion of the meeting a resolution was adopted unanimously denouncing the proposed legislation.

The resolution declared that “the legislature of West Virginia has passed a bill which would place the power in the hands of a trial judge in that state to select a jury from counties outside of that in which the trial is being held,” and that if enacted the proposal would mean “the abrogation of the intent of the jury system.”

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[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1921: Found in Washington DC with Gompers, Protesting West Virginia’s Jury Bill” →