The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-06-16
MINERS ON STRIKE
With Senate Committee on
Grounds WaIkOut Called.
Claim Operators Fail to Keep
Their Agreements.
FEELING Is RUNNING HIGH
Even Attorneys Mutter and
Exchange Angry Chances.
Operators Present Their Side of
Strike War Today.

Charleston, June 16.-with indus
| trial war again declared in West Vir-
ginia, the senate coal strike investi-
eating committee, today faced a sit
uation critical and complicated. Word
from the isolated sections of Paint
Creek and Cabin Creek, that the
strike was again on, drifted into
Charleston from half dozen sources,
and representatives of mine operators,
miners and state officials sought in
vain for definite word from the little
camps along the creeks. The union
attorneys, appearing before the COM
m1ttee, said they were certain that the
men had declined to go back to work
today at meetings held yesterday, but
they were unable to make any esti-
mate of the number of men who
struck.
There were comparatively few I'M
ion men in the field, they said, but
they believed both union and non
union men decided to quit. With the
New River district few miles away
from the creeks awaiting only the
match to set off conflagration of ex-
element, the state officials today
watched the situation with fear and
trembling. For days the New River
miners numbering 200 have threat
ened trouble and it was feared the
new outbreak on Paint and Cabin
Creeks would precipitate the struggle
The miners meeting at EIskdale and
Kayford yesterday, according to re-
ports reaching Charleston voted to re-
new the strike on the ground that the
operators had not lived up to their
agreement to take the strikers back
to work without discrimination. This
claim and the story that mine guards
had beaten up" four men on Cabin
Greek on Saturday caused the decis-
ion.
With feeling between miners and
mine operators again keyed up to a
high pitch, the senate committee de-
cided to call upon the mine operators
for their side of the controversy. Ex-
agents and keen-eyed miners and union
organizers thronged the lobby of the
hotel where the committee was in ses-
sion, and crowded the room where the
hearing was being held.
Contradiction and explanation of the
stories told all last week by the men
and women who lived through what
former Governor Glasscock called a
reign of terror" in the strike district,
was the program of the operators and
they had 20 witnesses on hand to prove
their case. The committee urged that
the number of witnesses be held down
to the lowest possible figure, but the
attorneys for the operators insisted
that their case called for a great mass ,
of testimony Only Senators Swanson,
begin today's hearing, Senators Borah |
and Shields having returned to Wash |
ington last week.
Chances of bitter resentment and an |
occasional muttered word among the |
scores of rough men gathered about |
the committees hotel today bore wit
ness to the smouldering ill-feeling |
that still prevails here. The SenSa-
tionaI stories of Lee Calvin, ex-mine |
guard, relating to the shooting up of |
Ill n
have crystallized much of the ill-feel-
ing, and even among the attorneys
before the committee an occasional |
glance of bitterness shows the under
current of resentment
The presence in Charleston of John
P. White, president of the United |
Mine Workers of America, today re-
suited in several conferences among
union officials. He was in Charles
ton principally to make an appear
ance and give bail in the criminal
cases brought against the mine Off
ciaIs in the federal courts for con-
spiracy under the Sherman antitrust
alw.
Before the case for the operators to-
day began, attorneys for the miners
were permitted to call witnesses. w.
H Adkins said he saw guards climb
the hill above Holly Grove the morn
ing of February and a few minutes
later, he said, shots were fired from
Grove. Under cross examination Ad-
kins admitted he was given gun by
]. H. Pike, the night of February 8,
and was later arrested by the militia
with the gun in his possession.
Zed D. Seller, who was in Holly
Grove when the shooting began, re-
peated the story of the clash, and
GUNNER Biggs, another Holly Grove
miner, described the attack on the
town from the armored train.
Guards Drive Girls in Creek.
A. H. Honaker, a merchant of Holly
Grove, said he was arrested by fifteen
mine guards and taken from his house. |
He had allowed miners to erect tents on
his property he said, after they had been
elected from the company's houses.
Guards, he declared, had dumped the fur
n-~ure of 10 or 50 miners on his land, and
he had allowed it to remain. Elizabeth
Fish said she and May Claypool in COM
pany with another mountain girl, were
met by nine mine guard who ordered them
TO wade the creek, enforcing the order by
their guns One of the girls tried to re-
move her shoes and stockings before en-
-ering the water, which at that point was
waist deep, but when she got one shoe on
the guards told her she was too darn
Slow and drove her into the water.