Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1911-06-06
PENNSYLVANIA
Miners MURDERED
BY DEPUTIES
NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE THE
STOCKADE IN WESTMORE-
LAND DISTRICT.

Feehan, president of the Mine
Workers Union. startled the house
committee on rules yesterday byl
statements in regard to conditions
in the Westmoreland coal fields |
of Pennsylvania, where strike has
been in progress for a year. Feehan
appeared before the committee in
support of a bill introduced by Rep
resentative Wilson of Pennsylvania
calling for a congressional inves-
tigation of the situation.
Feehan told the committee thai
20 miners had been killed by depu-
ties since the strike began. SOM
of the men, he said, We're shot by
deputies who followed them tc thai
homes
Representative Wilson opened the
hearing by outlining the case of the
strikers. He said the men in the
field were receiving 35 cents tor
for the coal they mined, while in
the Pittsburgh and nearby fields I'M
h'l lllt SAINT tOuulllOIlS men were
paid 60 to 20 cents a ton. The
strike was precipitated by the dis
charge of men for joining the Mine
Workers Union. Then Mr.. Feehan
took the stand.
I'VE expect to prove if you au-
thorize an investigation" he said
that the various companies in the
Westmoreland field are keeping men
in practical slavery. They have
erected stockades and by these and
other methods are keeping mine
workers and foreigners imported to
work in the mines against their
wills. l know hundreds of cases
where men have escaped crossed
the dead lines and have come
and told us stories of being beaten
up and shot at because they tried
to escape. Some have been badly
wounded, Why, men are not al
lowed to go to church without Sc
curing pass to leave the com
pany's property. Men coming from
Europe are met by agents of the
companies and induced to go It
Westmoreland county. They are
allowed no chance to escape and
are hurried from the train to the
mines in carriages and automobiles
guarded by special deputies.
He described the situation at the
Ocean mine, near Greensburg, Pa
where he said a 10-foot fence sur
rounded the company's property and
was guarded by deputy sheriffs. The
sheriffs, he said. sometimes amused
themselves by shooting up the
town"
"A company of deputies became
intoxicated one night he said,
shot up the town and killed cue
Of the townsmen, Frank Ridgeway,
who was in no way involved in the
strike"
Why does no one hear of these
things when they happen?" Feehan
was asked.
'N'eubNb nv lNl'llSd, tilN llCNo
papers in the field are controlled by
the coal operators. Twenty men
have been killed and several hun
dred wounded, in the course of the
strike, by deputies. One deputy
was killed in a fight the deputies
had among themselves. In almost
every case the deputies have pro-
voked the violence. In some cases
they have left the mines and march
ed through the towns looking fol-
trouble. l do not deny that some
of our people have been quarrel
some, but the initiative has prac-
tically been on the side of the depu-
ties"
J. R. Spiegel, counsel for the
strikers in the Westmoreland field
said the present conditions were
the result of the belief of the opera
tors when the men went out that
severe measures would break the
strike at once.
Mr. Spiegel read affidavits to the
effect that mine bosses threatened
strike breakers with death unless
they continued to work in the
mines.
The affidavits also showed that
when these strike breakers escaped
from the mines they We're capture
by the state constabulary and by
special constables employed by rho
coal companies and forced to return
to work until they had earned
enough money to reimburse the com
pany for the cost of transporting
them to the mines and for theil
board. Miners who resisted were
beaten shamefully.