Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-06-15
|STORY Of MINERS
| AROUSES MARITIME
Senator Indignant When Told
Order Was Given to Repeat
Shots With eating Gun.
ALLEGED INHUMAN PHASE
OF WEST VIRGINIA STRIKE
Committee at Charleston Probing
Conditions Prior to and During
Armed Conflict.

| CHARLESTON. w Va, June IA
About a single battle during the mining
troubles in the Paint Creek and Cabin
Creek districts centered today's inquiry
by the Senate committee investigating
the coal mine strike Almost all day the
committee heard statements of the at
tack on Holly Grove, a strikers camp,
from an armored train. which was run
up into the strike district February 4.
The committee sat back astounded at
the testimony presented by Lee Calvin,
an examine guard. who was one of the
men in the armored train when the strik-
ers' camp was fired on. Cisco Estep,
miner. was killed, and Mrs. Annie Hall
wounded. Calvin, called by the attorneys
for the miners. told a sensational story
of the Holly Grove attack. He testified
that he had been a "chief guard on
Cabin creek, and had left the district be-
cause of the shootings there. He said
that Sheriff Bonner Hill and Quinn Nor
ton, mine operator. had met him in
Charleston and prevailed upon him to
join a party going up Paint creek in the
armored train.
There We're ten or twelve men in the
armored car attached to the train," said
Calvin, and when 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 l 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 T. shoot
right through the windows.
Stream of Fire From Baggage Car.
dow, and as We came up to Holly
Grove / saw a stream of fire start out
Of the baggage car just ahead, where
the machine guns were mounted. The
stream kept up as we went through
Holly Grove.
LAS we passed I saw three or four
flashes of fire from the tents
Were there any shots from the tents
before the shooting began from the
train?" asked Attorney Belcher for
the miners.
II didn't see any," said the witness.
II just heard the engine whistle blow
toot, toot, and the shooting from the
ing first began from the baggage car"
The witness said that Quinn Morton,
one of the operators. was on the train,
When the train had passed the miners
Mucklow, he said, Mr.. Morton same
running back through the car.
What did he say?" asked Attorney
Belcher.
will give them another round" an
swered the witness He was talking
to the sheriff and I'm not sure. but L
think the sheriff told him something
up in those tents and he wouldn't
shoot"
Senator MARITIME Excited.
At this statement Senator MARITIME
of New Jersey almost leaped from his
chair
What sort of a man is this man,
Paul Norton mean Quinn Morton?'
he shouted. rs he an ordinary Ameri-
can citizen that he could order such
thing?"
The attorneys for the coal operators
\ were on their feet in a moment, and
for time the committee room was in
confusion.
Mr.. Morton will be brought before
your committee" shouted Attorney
Jackson, and you will see him and
God help me, then" remarked SEN
ator MARITIME.
The attorneys for the operators pro-
tested vigorously against Senator
Marines remarks, and after some ar
gument they were told by the commit
tee that they would be given oppor-
tunity to cross examine Calvin. and to
| place witnesses on the stand in re-
buttal.
"The senator ought not to say that"
insisted Mr.. Jackson.
Il just can't help it, said Senator
MARITIME.
Under examination by Mr. Belcher
the witness repeated the statement
that Quinn Morton came through the
car hollering. Back up the train and
we'll give them another round" He
|
Mucklow, just above Holly Grove. the
men in the armoured car remained
there for three days until after the
last battle Of Mucklow"
Calvin told the committee that he
warned the company bookkeeper
named Bobbett who was killed in the
battle, not to go up into the hills that
day.
Il was there when they brought him
back on a stretcher." he said, him and
others who were shot in the battle
The witness declared that Chesapeake
and Ohio detectives had "slugged him"
in Charleston hotel because he had
quit the coal company.
Miners Side of Controversy.
Pale-faced women and men who show
ed the traces of years of the arduous
toll of digging coal from the West Vir-
ginia mountains today told the commit
tee their side of the controversy.
1t was a tale of a peaceful community
of happy. contented people transformed
into theater Of war. and the members
of the Senate committee sat back, with
startled glances. as witness after wit
ness told the story of the strike.
The attorneys for the striking miners
presented their case and then called
| about a dozen men and women of the
hills to tell the committee of the attack
the men and women of Holly Grove.
Although the attorneys for the mine
! operators insisted that they would show
that the train was fired on from the town
j before the machine guns in the armored
1 car were turned loose, the committee re-
ceived into the record the testimony Of
the the men and women of Holly Grove
! The advent Of the death special" as
the miners termed 1t. or the bull moose"
train. as It was called by the operators
was the principal subject of the inquiry
this afternoon, following a general con-
q domination by witnesses of the mime
b guards" who We're brought into the dis
trict by the operators, and who former
d Gov. Gasscock said he considered the
principal cause of the trouble, when he
declared martial law.