Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-06-16

| OIL excitement, the SIdte OlIiCldlS lOOdS
watched the situation with fear and
trembling. For days the New River min
| ers, numbering 1900. have threatened
trounble, and 1t was feared the new out.
break on Paint and Cabin creeks would
precipitate the struggle.
The miners meeting at Eskdale and
| kayford yesterday, according to reports
reaching Charleston, voted to renew the
| strike on the ground that the operators
| had not lived up to their agreement to
take the strikers back to work without
discriminating. This claim and the story
that mine guards had beaten up four
men in Cabin Creek on Saturday, caused
| the decision.
Senate Committee at Work.
operators again keyed up to high pitch
the Senate committee prepared today to
call upon the mine operators for their
side of the controversy. Ex-mine guards,
detectives and special agents and keen
eyed miners and union organizers
| thronged the lobby of the hotel where the
| committee was in session and crowded
| the room where the hearing was being
| held.
Contradiction and explanation Of the
| stories told ali last week by the men
and women who lived through what
| former Gov 0iasscock called reign
| of terror in the strike district, was the
program Of the operators. and they had
seventy witnesses on hand to prove
their case. The committee urged that
the number of witnesses be held down
to the lowest possible figure, but the
attorneys for the operators insisted
that their case called for a great mass
Of testimony. Only Senators Swanson.
MARITIME and Kenyon were on hand to
| begin today's hearing. Senators Borah
and Shields having returned to Wash
| ington last week.
| Chances of bitter resentment and an
occasional muttered word among the
| scores of men gathered about the COM
mittee's hotel today bore witness to
the smoldering ill-feeling that still pre-
walls here. The sensational statements
| Of Lee Calvin. examine guard, relat-
ing to the shooting-up Of the strikers
camp at Holly Grove have crysta!lized
| much of the lfeeling. and even
among the attorneys before the COM
mittee an occasional word of bitterness
shows the undercurrent of resentment.
Conference of Union Officials.
The presence in Charleston of John
T. White. president of the United Mine
Workers of America, today resulted in
several conferences among union Of
ficials. He was in Charleston princi-
pally to make an appearance and give
bail in the criminal cases brought
against the mine officials in the federal
courts for conspiracy under the Sher-
man law.
was commenced the attorneys for the
miners were permitted to call a num-
Der of witnesses.
w. H. Adkins said he saw a group
Grove the morning of February and
few minutes later he said shots
were fired from the hill into the min
ers' tents in Holly Grove. Under cross
examination Adkins admitted he was
given a gun by J: H. Pike the night
of February and was later arrested
by the militia with the gun in his pos
session.
Zed D. Zelier. who was in Holly Grove
when the shooting began, repeated the
story of the clash. and GUNNER Biggs. an
other Holly Grove miner, described the
attack on the town from the armored
train.
A. H. Honaker. merchant at Holly
Grove W. Va, said he was arrested by
fifteen mine guards and taken from his
home. He had allowed miners to erect
tents on his property, he said, after they
had been elected from the company's
houses Guards. he declared. had dumped
the furniture of forty or fifty miners on
his land and he had allowed them to
remain.
Elizabeth Fish, a pretty olive-skinned
mountain girl, said she and May Clay
pool in company with another girl were
met nv mine guards, who ordered them to
wade the creek, enforcing the order by
their guns. One of the girls tried to
remove her shoes and stockings before
entering the water, which at that point
was waist deep.
She got one shoe off, said the girl,
when the guards told her she was too
darn slow and drove her into the
water
Experiences With Mine Guards.
Several miners told of their experiences
with mine guards
Much cumulative testimony as to con-
ditions in the field before and during the
strike was presented. by several miners
| C. L. Workman. stable boss. said the
guard system was mainly responsible for
| the trouble.