The Caldwell watchman. (Columbia, La.) 1885-1946, 1914-07-24
BLOODY BATTLE
At COAL MINES
STRIKE AT MAMMOTH VEIN Gull,
INMATES IN ARMED
STRIFE.
SEVERAL REPORTED KILLED
Property Damage Heavy-Each Side
Seeks to Fasten Responsibility
Upon the Other Faction.
stern Newspaper Union News Service

| Western Newspaper Union News Service
Fort Smith.-The trouble that has
| been brewing in the Mammoth Vein
Coal COmpany's mines since last April
eliminated Friday in riots in which
mines Nos. /, 3. and at Prairie Creek
were destroyed by fire and dynamite.
1t was reported that several were
killed, among them Joe Baskins, Bill
Sylesberry, and Sylesberry's son.
Guards and officials of the company
insist that between 10 and Is of their
men are missing and guards assert
that they are positive that a number
of the union men were killed and that
they saw them throw up their arms
and drop to the ground. The guards
were largely outnumbered and had to
flee for their lives.
Between 60 and 100 men employed
at Mine No. were driven away in a
battle with union miners and their
sympathiZers, said to number several
hundred. between 4 o'clock Friday
morning and noon. Three tipples were
destroyed, the farmhouse at No. 4 was
burned, the company houses at the
same place shared a like fate, as did
two company houses at Mine No. 3.
The mouth of the shaft of this mine
also was caved in or destroyed by
dynamite, which was applied to ma
chinery, such as boilers and engines,
to hasten their destruction. The dam
age is heavy. Practically every build.
ing at the three plants, except com.
pany houses, were reduced to ashes.
This is the climax to the strike of
union miners that has been in prog
ress at Mine No. since April, when
the company substituted the open shop
for union labor.
AS they retreated, the attacking
force swarmed onto the property and
set fire to the tipple The farmhouse
and company houses, the former about
quarter of mile from the tipple,
and the latter, short distance above
the farmhouse, had been previously de-
stroyed.
All telephone wires leading in and
,outsof the strike district, and connect
ing with half-dozen towns, were cut
long before hostilities began.
According to Superintendent Moore,
he received information Thursday
afternoon that an effort was to be
made that night to clean up No. a."
About daybreak Friday morning, he al
leges, a force of about IS union miners
and their sympathizers, all heavily
armed, approached the men. They
fired about GO shots, he said. All were
aimed wild. The company employees
did not return the fire. The men dis.
appeared into nearby hills. he said,
and shortly afterward it was seen that
they were being rapidly reinforced.
Following the first volley all was
quiet until about or Z o'clock. Moore
said. Then the battle broke loose.
From behind the edges of sides Of the
hills, in the timbered places and from
other points of vantage the attacking
force poured volley after volley into
the stockade, Moore asserts. About
noon the ammunition of the company
employees became exhausted and they
were compelled to give up the fight.
According to one report, the trouble
started with an alleged attack on
Frogtown, a camp inhabited by union
men and located near Prairie Creek
Mine No. 4. This report said that an
attacking force was routed by large
number of armed citizens and that the
former was driven to Mine No. 4. The
report was stoutly denied by the mine
company. On Sunday night Frogtown
was shot up" and on Wednesday
night similar affair was staged, it
was reported. In both instances the
union men blamed the nonunion men
at Mine No. for the outbreak. The
latter in return denied they were re-
sponsible and asserted the union men
were spreading the reports for the
purpose of creating sentiment against
the nonunion men.