The bee., 1901-12-26


to the indianapolis scale of prices
and thus effectuate the agreement,
made hy the union miners with the
operators at Central City and else
where in the Western coal fields. In
order TO compel (for that is not too
strong n word the miners ia the
Hopkins county district to join the
Ui.ited Nine Workers, and the oper-
ators there to consent to their so do
ing, and thus bring about the adop-
tion and secure the maintenance of
the indianapolis scale of wages,
which neither the employers nor en-
ployes in the Hopkins county dis
trict desired, and which was proba-
bly, not suitable to the conditions
there, the United Mine Workers,
and particularly the defendants, in
vaded the Hopkins county district
in large force, and forming an armed
camp, occasionally sailed forth to
threaten and sometimes to do much
worse to persons who refused to JOIN
their organization and to those who
refused TO employ laborers who did
Join it. This conduct upon their
part naturally saperinduced meas
llitS VI utltilSc anu NRDI
the other side, and there has result
ed from these circumstances and
conditions the very remarkable state
OF affairs TO which reference has
been made-a condition of things
which has certainly brought dIscred-
it upon the State. To tolerate such
a condition is to encourage it, and
without hesitation the Judge of this
court granted the restraining order
when it was asked in this case, and
one gratifying thing disclosed by
the evidence offered on this motion
is that much good has probably re-
suited from that action, although it
did not prevent the assault by the
United Mine Workers upon property
and citizens In Webster county inn
mediately afterward.
A great number of affidavits were
filed at the hearing, and have been
read, and while much very positive
conflict of statement has been found
In them, enough appears to warrant
the conclusion that as direct result
of their agreement with the Ceutral
City operators and others, the Unit
ed Mine Workers organization de-
termined to make what is somewhat
remarkably called "a striking dis
trict' out of that portion of the ter
ritory of Hopkins. Christian and
Webster counties, where coal min
ing is carried on, and to force the
operators there to yield to their de-
mands by means of the terror in
spired by the tactics adopted and
tenaciously pursued of having a
large force encamped in the imme-
diate neighborhood of the mines in
that territory, and, by the feeling to
be thus excited and the terrors to be
thus inspired, to compel non-union
labor employed there to join the
after to strike if the Indianapolis
scale OF prices was not adopted by
their employers. There was no
strike then or since pending at any
of the mines in the Hopkins county
district. There appears to have
been little or no discomfort among
the laborers employed there. The
scale of prices under which they
were working was satisfactory to
most. If not all, of them and TO those
who employed and paid them. They
did not at that time IN any large
numbers appear to desire to join any
union, and the subsequent presence
of the armed camp could in no way
benefit them. The whole scheme
was to benefit another certain class
of miners not resident in that dis
trict and who worked elsewhere, by
forcing the operators in the Hopkins
county district to do what neither
themselves nor their employees de-
sired to do.
If we agree that the mine owners,
in what we may briefly call the Cen
tral City district, were not particeps
criminis to all the troubles in the
Hopkins county district and respon-
sible equally with their co-contract-
ors for the results of the eneamp-
ments,. and of the armed and unlaw-
ful operations there, we must never
theless conclude that their contract
with the labor unions, to which we
have referred, was the direct cause
of the invasion of that district, and
the terrorizing attempt made there
to put that agreement into effective
operation, they, in the meantime,
being exempt alike from similar as
saults, and from the Indianapolis
scale of wages.
AS before stated, there was little
or no discomfort in the Hopkins
county district. There was no re-
quest nor desire, so far as the evil
dence shows, for the aid of the labor
association known as the United
Mine Workers. On the contrary, it
was undesired and vigorously re-
PEELED both by the employers and a
vast majority of the employees. New
ertheless, the defendants, and those
associated with them, determined to
bring these unwilling persons to the
terms the defendants desired to die
tate, and, with that sole object in
view, organized the armed camp
near Madisonville, and one near
complainant's mines, and in this
way sought to accomplish their own
selfish objects at any cost. This, as
already intimated, was mostly done
before the complainant owned its
property, but the object was not ac-
complished and the effort was con-
tinued in the same way and by the
same means until this suit was ac-
tually brought.
1t cannot be that this course was
not meant to be an attempt to COM
pei the complainant by force and in