The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1909-03-25

custom, When mining disasters
occur in West Virginia, to organ
lze relief committees among the
''best citizens of the striken com.
munIty and begin country wide
begging campaign for funds.
When the great Nonongah
horror occurred over year ago
money was solicited and obtained
from all over the nation for the
purpose of assisting the widows
and orphans to return to Europe
or IND new protectors in this
country.
Now the plutes who control or
depend upon the Lick Branch mine
at Switchback, w. Va, have
organized themselves into Il re.
lief committee and are following the
Monongah explosion Of circularizing
the country and appealing to the
charitab!y inclined to contribute
$4,000 to aid the widows and
orphans created by the two recent
explosions in the Lick Branch mine
because" West Virginia cannot cope
with the situation unaided -
West Virginia cannot cope with
anything except to raise up the
rottenest gangs of politicians and
plutocrats outside OF Colorado, to
give away the state to the Ell
klnses, Davises and SCOTS, and to
smash up trade unions and impose
Il condition of slavery upon the
workers
The circular issued by the
click Branch Relief Committee
is headed by all the practical plu-
tocrats, and politicians in
that district. who braZenly ad.
nit, black on white, that there
were two explosions in the same
mine Gone Dec. 80, 1905, and the
other Jan. :, 1900. in which 81
employees were killed in the first
disaster and 66 in the second.
The circular says:
''Switchback has normally,
population of 1000 and is
typical mining village, consisting
of Il store and houses, all owned
by the company. The employees of
the Lick Branch mine and those of
other mines of the same company.
located nearby, rent these houses
and live in them with their
families, or as boarders."
The brazcnncss of the admission
evidently did not dawn upon the
stupid authorities of the circular.
and perhaps its shame will not be
appreciated by many of it's re-
clpientS. But it is nevertheless a
fine illustration of the infamous
conditions that exist throughout
the West Virginia mining dis
trictS.
There thousand ofmincrS are herd
ed together in novels that are
hardly fit for dogs to live in. and
those workers toll year in and year
out for barely sufficient to keep
body and soul together The
wages are scandalously low, the
hours are long, and what little
money they receive for moiling and
toiling in, the the bowels of the
earth is stolen from the miners
through the pluck me stores and
III eXhorbitant rents for living in
the company shacks.
If the miners attempt to organ
iZc they are threatened. bullieG
and lackliSted, and the companies
and their dirty political imps drive
the organizers from the district
and throw Il few ''agitatorS' and
their families upon the highways
to starye rs "a solemn lesson tC
others who might have had
thoughts of being ''disloyal' ;:
Complaints regarding dangerous
mines are not tolerated or go I'M
needed as far as the operators are
concerned, and if they are brought
to the attention of the authorities
by outsiders an ''inspection' is
made. Il wad of Doodle is passed
and that is the end to the com
plIint.
Fortunes reaching into the
hundreds of millions of dollars
have been made by the handful
of modern rannibalS who control
the Industrial resources and pc
litical affairs of West Virginia and
turned that state into living hell
for the workers.
Yet these selfish hogs cannot
even care for the victims of their
own criminal greed, and have the
audacity to call upon the country
to pay for their murderouS
methods. 1t is hard thing to
turn Il deaf ear to the suffering