Dewey County advocate. [volume] (Timber Lake, S.D.) 1910-1913, 1913-06-27
STRIKE COMMITTEE
. QUITS CHARLESTON
COMMITTEE FINISHES WORK AND
RETURNS TO WASH
lNCTON.
SHOW "MOTHER" JONES' PART
Witnesses Claim She Told Men NOT
to Fire Until She Gave Order
--Martine's Attitude Is
Resented,

Charleston, w. Va, June 2O.-Tne
senate mine strike investigating COM
mittee has ended it's work in
Charleston for the present and re-
turned to Washington.
The committee took under advise
ment a request made by attorneys
for the West Virginia coal operators
that a subcommittee be allowed to
return to Charleston at later time
to complete taking of evidence which
the operators desire to submit. The
investigation will be resumed in Wash
ington within the next few weeks, Sen
ator Swanson, chairman of the COM
mittee, announced.
Operators controlling the mines on
Paint Creek and Cabin Creek, where
the troubles of the past year have
resulted in riot and bloodshed, con-
tinued the presentation of their side
of the controversy up to the time
that the committee left.
Contradictions Are Made.
Witnesses we're called who contra
dicted the contention of the miners
that the presence of the mine
guards" in the district was the cause
of the trouble. Other witnesses, men
working in the mines on Paint and
Cabin Creeks told the committee that
wages paid and the conditions of work
and life on the creeks were salts
factory.
When the committee resumes ses-
sions in Washington a controversy will
begin over the attitude of Senator
MARITIME of New Jersey, one of the
members of the committee, toward
the investigation
The operators attorneys asked that
following Tuesdays near fist fight
between Senator MARITIME and Witness
Quinn Morton, one of the operators,
they be allowed to place in the record
newspaper articles, one of them in
Guiding written statement by Sena-
tor MARITIME criticizing the operators.
Postponement Is Asked.
The request was made to Senators
Swanson and Kenyon, but both ar
gued with the operators and persuad-
ed them to postpone action until the
committee return to Washington. A
serious controversy over Senator
Marines activities here probably win
result
Several of the employees Of the
Baldwin-Feltz detective agency, who
| acted as mine guards in the strike
district, were called by the opera
tors. All of them defended the action
of the guards. asserting that the orig
inal trouble was started by the miners
and that they used their guns only
when forced to do so to protect them
selves, the people under their charge,
and the company's property.
Say Agitators Urged Arms.
The operators put on witnesses to
show the activities of armed miners
throughout the strike district and
called several witnesses who testified
that Mother" Jones and other labor
agitators, at the beginning of the
trouble, urged the miners at union
mines in the Kanawha district near
the strike zone to arm themselves and
aid the strikers.
| F. H. Study, superintendent of I'm
ion Mine at Boomer, in the Kanawha
field, said that an Italian killed in
one of the first battles on Paint Creek
was employed in his mine. He told
of speech delivered by Mother"
Jones at his mine, in which she urged
the miners to keep their guns and to
save money to buy more.
James Claggett, coal inspector at
Boomer, told hearing Mother"
Jones speak. He said her speech was
''inflammatory."
C. C. Woods, negro miner at Boom
er, said that he heard the same
speech and that Mother" Jones told
the men that IF necessary she would
take a gun and 60 with them"