The Washington times., 1913-06-15
death SPECIAL"
ST|RS SENATORS
investigators After Facts About
Armored Train in Mine
Fields During Strike.

CHARLESTOWN, W. Va. June Is
Senators investigating the, peonag,
charges in the West Virginia coal fieldi
intend to transfer the hearing to Wash
ington, probably Tuesday or wednes
day. At the Capitol the mine operator.
will try to answer the mass of sensa
tional evidence that would show rea
warfare in the heart of the West Vir
ginia mountains.
They were preparing today to refut,
the stories of shooting and suffering
starvation and terror and imprison
-nent, barred to the Senators by earn as
miners and their pale-faced wives.
Facts Already Established.
Today the Senate committee has es
tablished these facts:
That former Gov. w. E. Glasscock
confronted with desperate situa-
ton. set aside the Constitution of the
United States and west Virginia
and substituted a military wartime
rule.
That party Of mine guards. led
by bold, daring detectives and a
much larger force of mine workers,
led by union labor agitators, had
armed themselves and were prepar-
ing for a decisive battle when Gov.
Glasscock declared martial law.
That military commission set
uD under the martial law tried near
ly a hundred men, found them guilty
and imposed sentences ranging from
two to many years, and incarcerat-
ed in the penitentiary fifteen men.
That military rule supplanted the
civil authority in the martial law
: Zone.
Charleston is on the Kanawha and
Elk rivers at the foothills Of
mountains that yield many millions
of tons Of coal annually. Paint and
Cabin creeks, where numerous bat
ties between coal miners and mine
guards, State militiamen and others
took place during all of 1872 and
January, February and March of
1913, run close to the capital of the
State. Their narrow valleys are
thick with mining villages. Branch
es of the Chesapeake and Ohio rail-
road connect the settlements up the
creeks one of the bifterest indus
In the valleys Of Paint and Cabin
Creeks one of the bftterest indus
trial wars ever waged in this section
OF the country took place between
May, 1872, and April of this year. 1t
10 estimated that twenty-five persons
were killed in the fights between the
miners and adherents of the opera
tors. Many more may have been
~. v,aA r.,
10 the death list.
Want Facts About Battle.
What the Senators particularly wani
30 know is why Holly Grove, q
strikers camp. was attacked from an
armored train. which vas run into the
strike district On February F.
The committee sat back astounded
yesterday at the testimony presented
by Lee Calvin, a former mine guard
who was one of the men in the armored
train when the strikers camp was fired
on
Cisco Estep. a miner, was killed, and
Mrs. Annie Hall was wounded.
Calvin, called by the attorneys for the
told a sensational story Of the
Holly Grove attack After relating he
had been a 'chief guard on Cabin
Creek and had left the district because
Of the shootings there, he said Sheriff
Bonner Hill and Quinn Morton, a mine
operator, had met him in Charleston
and prevailed on him to join a party
going up Paint Creek in the armored
train.
Shot Through Windows.
There were ten or twelve men in
the armored car attached to the train,''
said Calvin, land when We got just
above Paint Creek Junction all of them
began getting rifles which were in the
car. They tried to give me a rifle. but
I told them / had no shooting to do.
The brakeman came through the train
and turned down the lights. He told
US not to raise the windows, but to
shoot right through the windows.
was leaning out of an open window.
and as we came up to Holly Grove 1
saw a stream of fire start out of the
baggage car just ahead, where the ma
chine guns were mounted. The stream
kept up as We went through Holly
Grove.
"As we passed l saw three or four
iashes of fire from the tents
Were there any shots from the tents
before the shooting began from the
.rain?" asked Belcher, attorney for the
miners.
II didn't see any," said Calvin. 81
ust heard the engine whistle blow
oot-toot and the shooting from the
rain began. / am positive the shoot
ng first began from the baggage car"
Calvin said Quinn Morton, one of the
operators, was on the train. When the
rain had passed the miners camp at
Holly Grove, on its way TO Mucklow, he
aid Morton came running back to the
ar.
What did he say?' asked Belcher.
He said, Back up the train and we
will give them another round" answer
d the witness. He was talking TO
he sheriff and I'm not sure, but think
he sheriff told him something about
here being women and children up in
hose tents and he wouldn't shoot"
At this assertion Senator MARITIME Of
yew Jersey almost leaped from his
hair.
What sort Of a man in this man,
PAUL Morton-I mean Quinn Morton?"
le shouted. lis he an ordinary Ameri-
an citizen that he could order such a
hing?"
THE ATTORNEYS for the coal operators