The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1913-04-18

and asked through their attorneys for
uiunctiuns to prevent guards from I'm.
vodinr their homes and thclr towns
iu violation of the state law. Judge
Burdette very graciously informed tho
petitioners that as he was Interested
I'm some of the companies he could
not act and referred the matter to an
other Judge i'm Greenbrior county,
where the matter lay indefinitely and
the miners could get no satisfaction
regarding the enforcement of this po-
ltical law.
Petition Governor.
Their next political" step was to
appeal to Gov. Glasscock repeatedly
through committees, but he either re-
fused TO see the committees or would
make sudden flights to the incurable
asylum at Huntington to evade meet
ing these citizens who simply demand
ed the enforcement of the mining
laws. On one occasion when he learn
ed that committee was Unexpectedly
in the city he caused the Charleston
authorities to sound the riot call and
the night police were rushed on the
run to the state capitol, where they
sacredly guarded the august person
of the chief executive from desecra-
ton by association with the common
voting rabble from the mountains.
On three different occasions great
protest meetings were held in Charles
ton at which Mother Jones and 9th
ers spoke, on one occasion Glasscock
calling out the state militia to keep
the miners off the Capitol grounds.
Is it strange that after having en-
ployed every form of political &C
ton" known to them and within their
power and having employed the
strongest weapon known to them in
the arsenal of craft unionism-the
strickland still being robbed by the
long ton, denied the right guaranteed
by political laws of a check weigh
man, seeing their homes invaded by
armed thugs-illegal guards-seeing
pregnant women inhumanly beaten,
evicted from their homes where their
wives bore children in the midst of
winter on the frozen earth-denied
the right of petition to the legally
constituted authorities-is it any Won
der that these hardy mountaineers
after untold suffering and persecution
and having made every political and
economic appeal they were acquaint-
ed with finally decided to employ
force as the mine operators did and
climbing the mountain sides of their
beloved valleys made sweet by gen.
erations of traditions, grasping their
trusty rifles in their hands like the
farmers of Concord, began to fire the
shots which should drive the Hessian
Baldwin thugs and invaders out of
the state to modest them no more?
All honor to the independence and
virility of these men in an age of
decadence. Like the immortal strik-
ers of Homestead, who laid down
their lives in defense of their homes
in the battle with Henry G. Tricks
Hessian Pinkertons the battles they
have fought in the West Virginia hills
will inspire labor in future struggles
to greater deeds of heroism and is as
important to the winning of victories
as the food that goes into the stom-
achs of strikers during an industrial
struggle.
Sabotage of the Gun.
Let the parlor Socialist who wishes
to theorize about the ethical niceties
of tactics when the workers are fac
ing death and starvation prate his
criticism of the West Virginia miner,
but let him. remember that so notable
a n-political-actionis as Ber-
ger has said, Back up your ballot
with the bullet" AS an industrialist
| am convinced that the miners here
have to make their choice between
the gun and sabotage. AS the Social
lists here are prohibited from adVo-
eating sabotage by the party and the
U. NJ. w of A. is opposed to sabotage
as an industrial tactic the miners have
used the only alternative at their dis
posal If they choose the gun, it was
forced upon them.