Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1914-04-09

| Denver, Colo, April Especially
If the congressional investigating COM
mittee accomplishes nothing more, it
has done the people of Colorado
great service by exposing the oul
RACES which the coal operators have
practiced on the coal miners for
years. -
They stand convicted of every
charge made by the United Mine
Workers
For twenty years these vuItures of
greed have picked at the bones of the
coal diggers whom they drove into
their SAFE mines like cattle. For
twenty years they have fixed" cor
oners' juries which absolved them
from all blame for the slaughter of
hundreds of their workmen.
Since mining became one of the
large industries of the state, the coal
diggers have been robbed of 500 to
800 pounds of coal on every car they
endangered their lives to produce.
Laws were passed giving the men the
right to employ a. acknowledgment to
prevent this highway robbery, but
when the men sought to take advan-
tage Of this law, they were promptly
discharged or given such a poor room
in the mine that they were forced to
quit. 'NThe law de d" said. the op-.
orators. g We are greater than 1.-THE
laws, for we own theecourts."
Robbed and Starved.
Robbed Of their coal and paid star
walton wages for that with which they
were credited, the miners faced even
a more grave problem, being able to
get nothing but script, good only at
the company stores for their work.
Estate wide indignation at this injus-
tice brought into being another sta
tute abolishing thes cript system. And
the operators, owning the government
of the state, sneered at this effort to
give the miners their rights and kept
on using script. They put on a pious
face and announced through their
prostituted press that they were obey
ing the law.
But, all this deception went for
Inaught when witnesses before the in
vestigating committee swore that they
have been denied checkweighmap
and discharged when they asked for
one; when they and superintendent
swore that the script system is now
and always has been used by the op-
orators; when these coal diggers and
superintendent took oath to their
statements that the company demand
ed that the men be robbed of 500 to
800 pounds of coal on each car
Deny Constitutional Rights.
But with all these outrages on these
men, it is doubtful if the coal barons
have done anything more infamous
than to deny the men their eonStitu-
tional rights to belong to au Mon.
Colorado laws were passed providing
for this right and the prostituted press
again deceived the people by announc-
ing that the men were allowed this
right. Witnesses fairly and squarely
put the lie to this statement when
they swore before the congressional
committee that 5000 men, blacklisted
in the 10000 strike, have never been
able to get work since that time;
when they proved that any man be-
longing to the union was refused work
and if he Joined while he was work
ing, he was promptly discharged.
Charges Substantiated.
The charge of the United Mine
Workers that the miners have been
denied their constitutional and politi-
cal rights for twenty years was abso-
lutely substantiated. Witnesses told
the committee how they were given in
structions how to vote: If they did
not follow, the superintendent state
they were discharged. That Jesse
Northcuttj chief counsel for the opera
tors, knows this, was shown by
speech he made at Lamar in 1912.
At that time he told his audience that
the mining communities were driven
like hedr of sheep and that the men
had no political rights. The commit
tee was given proof Of Northcutt's
statement by witnesses who showed
how they have been victims of poll
teal slavery" since they became en-
ployes of the 'fBig Three" coal opera
tors.
For years the good citizenship Of the
state has been kept ignorant of the
terrible unsafe conditions of the mines
by glowing stories, printed in the
kept" papers, concerning the large
amount Of money spent for safety de-
vices. While these lying stories were
being spread broadcast. hundreds of
poor miners were being slaughtered In
the mines. and agin the writers for
] the prostituted papers, their eyes bulg-