Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-05-16
WEST VIRGINIA MINERS
UNDER A FEUDAL YOKE.
Senator Kern Portrays Baronial
Conditions That Make ST.
berian Serfdom Pale.
Star Bureau.
Metropolitan National Bank Bldg,
.HaI 4. nrnAl A.. q

WASHlNGTON, May 10.
Feudalism, in which constitutional
rights of citizens and laws are alike
| ignored. and government becomes
merely a means to terrorize and in
timidate workingmen and force them
to become practically slaves, for the
benefit of the few men who own the
coal mines, is the condition charged
to exist in the coal districts of West
| Virginia. For a week Senator Kern,
| of Indiana, has been fighting TO secure
vote on his resolution for a gov
eminent investiga ton of conditions
in this region. Stories he has told to
the Senate, and narratives of expert
ences of mine workers in the coal
regions, as told by Mother Jones
and other labor leaders now in Wash
ington, sound more like the tales of
Siberia than of a part of the United
States.
Just as New Jersey. for many years.
was politically dominated by the
Pennsylvania railroad, West Virginia
seems to have been governed by and
for the benefit of the coal operators.
Its representation in Congress, for
many years, has been representative
mainly of coal and railroad interests.
Whether Democratic or Republican,
these interests have been equally well
and exclusively represented. Elkins,
coal mine and railroad owner; Scott,
mine owner and land exploiter; Wat
son, mine owner and now Golf, taken
from the Supreme Court bench of the
State and sent to the Senate, where
he has so far figured only as the
apologist and defender of martial law
exercised to browbeat and intimidate
mine workers, are fair samples of
what West Virginia has produced in
the matter of statesmen and repre-
sentatives.
Within the last few days 1 have
talked with men who know personally
of the conditions existing in the mine
regions of West Virginia. Their
stories of how the government of the
State is being used to enable mine
owners to grind the face of labor, are
almost incredible.
Lying on the line between North |
and South. and only just off the most |
travelled highways of the world, West |
Virginia is almost medieval in its |
government and industrial system.
It's vast natural resources-mines,
forests, water powers, oil and natural I
gas fields-are wholly in the posses
sion of a few men. These few men /
are very wealthy Aside from these /
few, the people of the State are very |
poor. There are no roads, few
schools. Taxes are high, but the
average citizen gets little for his
taxes A large part of the revenues
of the State are spent in maintaining
forces and using them to
force the poor people to work for the
rich people for small wages and |
under un-American conditions.
In the mountains of the coal regions
there are no schools or roads. Labor |
unions have been opposed and des- |
troyed or prevented by martial law |
and Imprisonment. Miners are paid
small wages for long hours at hard |
labor, are forced to live in shacks |
owned by the mine-owners, for which |
high rents are charged. They are
to buy supplies at COM |
pany stores, at high prices. Boys are |
driven into the mines and breaker |
pits at an early date. and worked |
long hours for a few cents a day.
When the men have fought and |
struck for better treatment the |
militia has been called out and the |
strikers have been thrown into bull
pens, their families evicted from the
miserable shacks they call home. and |
refused food or shelter. Military |