Arizona republican., 1913-06-13
Governor of West Virginia Declines to Submit Mine Strike Information to the Senate Investigating Com mittee
MINERS CABINS
 ARE VISITED
There is Little Evidence Found of the Conditions Said to Have Existed While the Great Strike Was in Progress
ASSOCIATED PRESS D1sPATCH1

CHA IO\, June 1-.--OF FONtIIlOi Hatfield of West Virginia declined to- night to submit to the senate mine strike committee the records of trial before the military committee which took charge of the strike ridden dis trict of the state during the trouble this spring.
 Tn letter to the committee the gov ernor said the findings of the commis sion in these cases had never been ap- proved. the men had been released and he desired to keep the records for use in seeking indictments in civil courts. To make them public a this time he said. would be prejudicial to the public peace"
 Hatfield's letter was presented to the committee at tonight's session by the clerk of the committee. My attention has been called by the adjutant gener- al' said the letter to a subpoena de- manding the military records and com mission reports.
 With reference to the strike, I was inducted into office March 1 and to the conditions prior to that time, have knowledge oIiYv through the newspaper. Under my predecessor, military law was established in the strike district three times. The commission was in existence when I came into office and about eighty prisoners were in jail. | wanted peace and harmony as the sit uation seemed threatening.'
 The governor wrote that he carefully considered each of his actions in the strike situation and that in reference to the power now in his hands he never approved of them and ordered all pris- oners released. despite the fact that I in ba of voluntary confessions in the cases 1 of some. But for reasons of prudence, I ordered the discharge of all. The ob- ject was to restore law and order and it has been successful. as both sides made mutual concessions.
 T would respectfully suggest con cluded the letter. that it would be pre- judicial to the quiet and peace to make records you want public at this time. I want to keep them so that they can be brought about without danger of infIaming public opinion to present them in the civil courts to secure the indictments and trials of those accused by this evidence"
 The committee will probably coincide with the views of the governor and make no further efforts to secure the records at these trials.
 Hatfield issued tonight proclama- | ton raising martial law in the strike | district. The last few soldiers left in | the field were recalled. At a confer ence between the govrnor and officials i of the Kanawha company it was decid- 1 ed the district is quiet enough to war rant the Iiftinf of military rule. which 1 was instituted by former Governor | Glasscock on February 10.
 A C.p0roa l Wallace who is the legal authority of the military commission in the strike l zone. defended the conduct of the com mission under military law before the l committed He said he believed under l the authority of the governor the com 1 mission in the martial law zone had
 plenty of powers.
 | Under cross examination, Wallace said he had been paid a $5000 fee for defending the military commission in
 a case taken to the supreme court of appeals of the state.
 Warden L. Brown of the state peni- tentiary stated that military prison CTS were treated no differently than
 civil court prisoners. The committee then heard several miners who said they had been prevented from getting
 mail by the mine guards
 Among the miners Illle CetDlil9
 tucked away in the hooks and crannies of the West Virginia mountains the
 committee sought today the truth
 about the strike.
 All day long q special train carrying
 the senators visited the mining camps in the Paint and Cabin Creeks. The
 businesslil1e company stores" gave to 1 the senators the lists of high prices
 given as one of the strike causes and , the dust -begrimed miners bound to and , from the pits were halted and ques- ) l toned on the road.
 AS a method of securing definite tes-
 timony the all-day trip proved unpro- ductive, but the committee was enabled
 to secure a first hand view of the con
 ditions in the field.
 Bucolic quiet reigned throughout the
 entire district, so lately the scene of
 constant violence.
 Throughout the entire trip the com mittee did not. see a single disturbance | or sign of disorder and not an armed
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