Evening star., 1912-09-13
Strikers in West Virginia Turn
to InCendiariSm.
TROOPS FIRE MANY SHOTS
Some Vandals Wounded in Outbreak
at Dawn, Is Belief.
GREAT BITTERNESS DEVELOPS
One Coal Company Gets Threat That
Property Will Be Dynamited
if Work Starts.

| CHARLESTON, W. Va, September IS.
The expected outbreak in the Cabin
creek district of the Kanawha coal field.
where 1.200 West Virginia militiamen,
| under command of Maj. James Pratt,
j are maintaining martial law, came
with dawn today. when the stables of
the Ohley Coal Company at Ohley were
destroyed by fire and an attempt was
made to fire the tipple of the same COM
pany. Twenty-Five militiamen from the
! Clarksburg company, under command
| of Lieut.. Cochrane. drove off the men,
wounded in the fight.
| The company's property is located in
a lonely part of the district, and it was
/ deemed advisable some time ago to
place force within striking distance
of the mine. Striking miners in that
! Immediate vicinity have been quiet, and
no trouble was anticipated. Soon
after o'clock this morning a picket
/ saw sheet of flame leap from the
stables, where eleven mules and four
horses were known to have been placed.
/ II fired his rife and called the guard.
| Lieut.. Cochrane and his men fought
| the flames for half an hour, but the
! building had been fired at SO many points
! that it was impossible to save it or it's
| contents.
| Men Move on Tipple.
| While the soldiers were fighting the
| fire at the stables half dozen men
crept along the railroad tracks in the
| shadow of a cut and, knocking in the
head of barrel of oil, poured it's con-
| tents on the company's tipple. Striking
a match and applying it to the inflam-
mable structure. the men scampered for
cover, but not before they had been seen
| by a sentry posted near the tipple. He
j fired at their retreating forms, and the
alarm thus spread brought Lieut.. Coch-
| rane and his men to the scene.
| Quickly dividing his force, he sent
J part of it under a sergeant to the tipple
/ to fightthe fire while he and the others
pursued the incendi aries. But the lieu
tenant was at a disadvantage: the fee
| ing men knew the country and he did not
Although the woods in the vicinity were
carefully searched and many, shots were
| fired, it is not definitely known today
| that any one was hurt, and certainly
| none was captured.
Flames Extinguished.
The ss,diers at the tipple had better
success and soon extinguished the flames
Over on Paint creek. where the trouble
first began, and where the feeling has de-
veloped great bitterness. the soldiers have
| maintained strict guard, but, in spite of
their vigilance a party of men last night
succeeded in leaving letter at the office
of the Mucklow Coal Company, and in the
houses of number of employees notifying
| them that if the mine was started or If
| the men attempted to go to work the
buildings would be dynamited and the
workings blown up.
| No effort had been mace to start the
mine. but it was stated here that the
company had inquired as to the mea-
, sure of the protection the state could
give If it decided to resume work.
| Gov. GIasscock,s commission. investi-
eating conditions in the Pant creek and
Cabin creek sections, resumed it's labors
| here today, with Bishop j. G. Donahue of
Wheeling presiding.
| A number of leaders of the striking
miners and some of the more prominent
operators are scheduled to testify before
the commission during the day.