Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1913-06-19
Evidence Shows Peonage
Practiced BY Coal Corpor-
atoms In West VIRGINIA

against the coal companies of West
Virginia have been substantiated be-
fore the senate investigating commit
tee in Charleston. Witnesses by the
score testify to all points that 1the
workers have made, and the senators
have shown their surprise at the bru-
tai and illegal methods of which the
coal companies of the state, their hired
thugs and state official tools resorted
to crush out all power of resistance
from among their employees and make
and keep them slaves Senator Mar
tine was particularly incensed at the
things that were brought to light in
the evidence and took evident pleasure
in shutting up some of the corporation
apologists such as Congressman Avis,
whe-tried, by petty legal tricks, to
keep the truth from getting before the
committee.
Shameless Brutalities.
The Saturday night session of the
sub committee of the United States
senate, carrying on an investigation
of mining conditions in West Virginia,
was all that those who atteded 1t could
have desired-if they hoped for reve-
iations of the shameless brutalities OF
the coal corporations of the state, and
of the armed hireling engaged to carry
their orders into effect.
The witnesses put on the stand by
the miners told straightforward sto-
ries of the treatment they had been
forced to undergo, and counsel for the
operators were unable to shake the
evidence of any of them.
Among the witnesses was Leo Cal
vim, a foreign mine guard who was
one of the army of so men who were
on the Bull Moose" train that shot
up Holly Grove the night of February
Z, and whose evidence tended to show
that the attack on the little mining
town by the men employed by the coal
companies was nothing short of an at
tempt to massacre. Counsel for the
operators did everything in their pow
er to tangle up the witness, but he
stuck to his story in detail.
Three of the other witnesses told
of being brought to the Kanawha
county coal fields in locked cars and
under guard, and held in a state OF
peonage. Their testimony was SEN
sational to the extreme.
1t was midnight when the commit
tee adjourned. 1t will re-convene this
morning at $50 o'clock.
Thomas Cairns, president of Dis
trict No. II, United Mine Workers OF
America, said to a KanaWha Citizen
representative yesterday that wrong
unprecedented resulted from the pub
LEGATION of the testimony of witnesses
living at Eskdale. He desired to make
it plain that the guards accused of
these acts were not in the employ of
The National Bituminous Coal and
the company which operates there.
Coke company's mines there are union
operations, and have not felt the need
o employing Baldwin-Fel men to use
the Winchester and the blackjack un-
der a union contract The National
Bituminous bought the poreations of
the Holly-Stevenson Coal company
after the beginning of the Cabin Creek
stnike. / /
Inez L. Smith, of Eskdale, is a
miners wife. She testified Saturday
night. Last June she took her hus-
bands time statement to the company
store at Acme, to be corrected, the
statement being out of accord with
the tally sheet posted in the store
Her husband could neither read nor
write. As mine guard caught the wo-
man by the arm and elected her from
the store
Get the hell out of here" he said.
eve never make mistakes"
Mr. and Mrs. Smith we're thrown out
Of their home by the guards. They ate
their dinner from table set in the
highway. Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Muck
oils went to the porch of company
shack to sleep. The guards came and
elected them from thep orch. They fl
nally found secret shelter under a
neighbours roof and were not troubled
again that night The witness said
that the rent on the shack in which
she lived with her husband was paid
ahead when they were elected.
Mrs. Smith told of being interfered
with in going to and from the post
ofice which is in the company store
building.
Under cross-examination by Mr.,
Jackson, representing the operators,
Mrs. Smith told story indicating a
practical case of peonage. She said
her husband never drew enough money
to enable them to move from that Sec
ton.
This Bubble "Busted",
Lee Carson was brought to the
stand by the operators to prove that
there is a conspiracy between the
operators of other states and the Uni
ted Mine Workers to cripple the Goa
trade of West Virginia Carson had
come from Ohio and worked in non
union mine in West Virginia. He was
fined for the offense. It. developed
that he would also have been fined i
he had committed the same offense IL
his own state.
Ebert pierce, who was put on the
stand by the same side and for the
same purpose, testified to the same
facts.
Then the bottom dropped out of the
conspiracy proposition.
W. F. Cameron, of Holley Grove
was another man who was at tha-
place when the town was shot up. HI
told the same story as the other wit
nesses, except that. he was nearer anC
had to run for his life. He said mum
Der of Shots were returned from thu
town
Williams Man