West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1902-07-24
THE TUNNELTON TROUBLE.
IHJUECTI0ES AT $500 PER HAD
TIE FEDERAL OFFICIALS REAP
ING A RICH HARVEST OVER
TIE COAL STRIKE.
The Merchants Coal Company Having
Hard Time Of II and Playing
. Losing Game.

In this issue we publish special
report from Tunnelton on the trou-
BILE there between the citizens and
the Deputy Marshals. who have
taken possession of the town and
are making themselves so obnoxious
to the peaceful people OF that place.
The article is written by one of the
most prominent and most reliable
citizens of that town, and from pei
sonal investigation, we have every
reason to believe that 1t is strictly
true and correct statement. The
town is over-run with lot OF Dcpu-
ties who are entirely unnecessary,
as there has never been any trouble
whatever except as caused by the
Coal Company or some of their rep
resentatives. They have the United
States Deputy Marshals there guard.
ing their property when their sole
duty there is to see that the injunc-
ton of the Court is not violated,
and to arrest any violators. These
officials are loaded down with a lot
of printed copies OF the injunction,
issued by the Clerk of the Federal
Court, who merely places the seal
of the Court on them and sends
them out to the Marshals and Depu-
ties by the hundreds of copies.
They keep a good stock of them on
hand and serve them out right and
left on all possible pretexes, since
they get So each for every copy
they hand out. They report, of
course, to the Clerk of the Court,
and he gets big fee for each case.
So that the injunction business is a
harvest for the officials of the Fed
eral Court and the army OF Deputy
Marshals, who are swarming over
the coal regions. They get S. per
day and expenses, and the Chief
MarshaIs get $40 per day.
There has never been any real
need of single one of them at
Function. The miners have be-
haved remarkably we'll and observed
the injunction to the letter. But
two arrests have been made, and no
one has been able to find out what
these men were arrested for. Geo.
Morris, the Coal Company Supt.,
seems to be about the sassiest and
most obstreperous individual of the
whole outfit, as will be seen by the
special report from Tunnelton, al
though the half of his conduct has not
been told. The Company has been
having very hard time of it ever
since they locked the miners out.
They have made repeated efforts to
started up again, but failed misera-
bly,. They have sent away several
times and brought in foreigners at
heavy expense, only to have them
leave at the first opportunity. Re.
Gently they imported about a hun
dred raw foreigners and put them at
work at 81. so per day and expenses,
but they knew nothing whatever
about mining our coal and could
not average little coal car of coal
per day, besides killing several
mules and Gripping others and dam
aging the mines and the machinery.
These last men are packing their kits
and taking sneak, twenty leaving
in one day. A very few men from
around the country went to work,
and one man was lectured for il by
a woman living mile out in the
country, and Deputy Marshal
hearing of it, went out after her and
served an injunction on her. The
people of the town and vicinity do
not dare discuss the matter or ex-
press their opinion without being
served with an injunction at 81 per
head and charges of arrest. They
claim they have to leave town when
they want to talk about the matter.