The Washington times., 1913-05-15
CITES, |NC|D[NTSOF
GUARDS BRUTALITY
W. R. Farley Tells Of Conditions
Existing in West Virginia
Mines.
fcontinued from First PAGE }

Continued from First Page.)
guards backed by mine owners. that I
can say that the conditions are far
worse than Siberia has ever known
1 found only few weeks ago In the
Paint Creek district. the case Of
seventeen-year-old girl, named Clay
pool. forced by the guards 20 wade an
ice-cold stream. rather than take a road
to the bridge a short distanc, away.
Her case is the subject of an affidavit
In the West Virginia State commissions
Investigation.
] saw another woman, whose feet
be cripple for life. She was hidden
behind her own door in a back room.
Her husband, a miner in the Paint
Creek district. had hidden himself in
the cellar. Baldwin guards deliberately
fred on the house. The bullets rico
Bible and q table and finally wounded
the woman. Her husbands offense was
nething. Hers was-the Lord knows
what.
the guards in the Paint Creek district
were beating a husband to death when
the wife interfered. They turned on
her. She was in q delicate condition.
When her child was born, 1t was dead
I know that for years the mine guards
got on the trains throughout the coal
field districts. They asked the visitors
business. II he did not answer, or II
the answer was unsatisfactory, he was
told:
Get back on the train" Or IL the
train had moved on he was ordered to
keep going down the track and to be
d. sharp about it."
The stranger kept going. because
every few miles another guard warned
him that he must continue the journey.
I know the homes of the mine COM
panies are shacks unfit for human
beings to dwell In. / know this be-
cause / have lived in them.
1 know that the guard system. which
is only now coming to light, has been In
force for years. I know that the bru-'
tality OF these guards is, beyond de-
ecription.
that the miners Of west virginia are
earning far less than the miners
of any other section. They are ex-
tremely poor. There is never a penny
left over after the brass checks have
been turned in at the company storee
for food under penalty OF dismissal II
any trading Is, done elsewhere.
j have known of miners who were barred
from going to the postoffices. I believe
that there has been violation Of the Inn
migration law. This Ii especially prob
aole in the Fairmont section. where
most of the laborers are foreigners.
The bane OF West Virginia, aside from
the terrible brutality of the mine owners
and mine guards. is the sub-contract
system Some men are permitted to
hire fifteen or twenty laborers at a
starvation wage The sub-coE:ractor
gets certain price, and swells his own
profit by working the task system on
the slaves" under him.
L have known of wholesale discharges
of men because they sought 10 better
their condition by joining the union.
know that there Is no weight system,
even though the mine owners claim it.
The men get perhaps IS cents q carload
for their coal, and this means that they
must mine two or more short tons.
Cases have come to my attention
where the guards have .biacljacked'
men for taking part In attempts to or
ganize the miners
And all the time the mine owners of
West Virginia are growing rich or of
their infamous system. They are driv-
ing out of business the operators In the
fields OF Indiana and Ohio, for by their
low wage system they can DO business
AT cost OF at least q cents ton less
than the United States average.
They give as an excuse for the board
ehacks that they call miners "homes"
that they are uncertain about the possi-
bilities Of the fields and, therefore, cam
terrible lie. They know In advance
just how much coal is In a mine, and
in West Virginia they only have to pick
II out of the hills. They don't have to
dig down, and drain, and hoist. as in
Pennsylvania and elsewhere Their cost
In practically nothing. They can just
put up shaft on the hillside and start
work.
They have operated through terroriza-
ton. A man who revolted from the iron
rule of the mine owners and the thug
gish guards was slated for discharge or
assault
Men have been barred from entering
the United States postoffices In the
mine companies stores. to my personal
knowledge They have been forced to
trade at the company stores. and when
these stores got through with them
there was no money left
A woman could not bring up a samiiy
or have real home under the system,
no matter what might be her tastes or
education.
The children have been forced TO get
into the mines as breaker boys TO help
out on the support of the family. They
have had or chance at an education.
And all the time they have been the
victims Of brutality that is scarcely to
be imagined in this Land Of Freedom
Siberia and her prisons could not COM
pare with the tortures of the Baldwin
mine guards. hired by the ruine ope-
rators of West Virginia to perpetuate a
system in which low wages is the foun-
dation. and mems souls and bodies the
means of swelling the profits of the big