Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1914-09-10


heaped series of wrongs, real or ian.
cied, floating in the minds of the
miners like gas, coating memory
thickly with explosive dust that flared
up with the fiery words of the aeita.
tor, there would have been no strikts"
We need not look far for the rs .
and dust.
Let us take, first, Che political on
preston of the miners. For years Mo
Colorado Fuel & Iron Company and
other large corporate interests have
absolutely dominated the politiSe Of
{FlEsaaeRfaae and Las Animas COUNT
These interests have placed i'm Of.
flee whom they thought would serve
them best. They have influenced .he
courts and legislatures They Aaye
made Justice unknown to him who did
not belong to their political gang. 7Ie
Colorado Fuel s& Iron Company has
.uit or convict, to. send its enemies 10
he penitentiary or to let its friends 90
ffree.
Personal political freedom has been.
unknown in these counties since as far
back as 1884.
Judge Jesse G. Northcutt, Of Trint
dad, than whom there Is probably none
better acquainted with conditions in i
Huerfano and Las Animas counties
counties, and who is now general .coun.
sci for the coal corporations of Colo
RADIO, told in a speech at Lamar, Colo
RADIO, in 1912, how the political par,
les could nominate no man unless he
was acceptable to the officials of the
| Colorado Fuel & Iron Company He
denounced the political domination Of
| his company and told how the miners
were driven to the polls like SO many
sheep.
A federal grand jury sitting in Pae6-
70, Colorado, found, December 6, 1918,
| hat MANY camp marshals whose ap-
pointments and salaries are controlled
| by the local companies have exercised =
| 4 system espionage and have TesQTed
/ o arbitrary powers of police control,
acting in the capacity of judge and
Jury and passing the sentence, Down
The canyon for you,' upon miners who
had incurred the enmity of the super
intendent or pit boss for having conn
planned of real grievances, or for ether
! cause. These, taken with brutal as
saults by camp marshals upon miners
have produced general dissatisfaction
among the miners,
This is one of the dangerous gases
that has been coating the minds of
the miners with explosive dust for
thirty years.
And then let US take the matter OF
weights. Witnesses appearing before
the Congressional Investigating Com.
mittee testified that they had always
been robbed Of from 700 to 11,4OO
pounds of coal on every car they
mined. When they complained to the :
superintendent they were either dis
charged or told that '4tawas orders"
Coal miners have learned from long
experience that the only way they can
secure the just weight to which they
are entitled is by. employing one Of
their number as a acknowledgment.
1 The right Of the men to have this
check-weighman has been a state law
of Colorado for seventeen years, but
whenever the men asked for this legal
right, they told the Congressional Com
mittee, they were discharged.
A law forbidding the paying of men
with scrip in lieu of lawful money,
making it Illegal to compel men TO
trade at the company stores or live at
country boarding houses, was passed
in 1899. Company men testified before
the Congressional Committee that
scrip is being used by the operators
today.i= Men who refused. to trauc at
1.-THE company sterefo live at tie com
pany boarding house were either dis
charged or given such a poor place in
the mine that they were forced to-
leave on account Of not being able to
make living.
Another gas that added force to, the
explosion of discomfort and ended in
the present strike.
In that same year, 1899, another law
was passed making it unlawful for an
employer to prohibit his employe from
Joining labor organization When
he strike of 1904 was called off, six
thousand miners who belonged to the
United Mine Workers were blacklist.
cd, Many OF these men have never
been able to obtain a job. 1t Is com.
mon knowledge that whenever a miner
was found to have Joined the union or
70 even sympathize with its purposes,
ne was not ONLY sent "down the can
m" but blacklisted, which meant that
he could not obtain work in any coal
mine in Colorado.
In 1901, the semi-monthly PAYDAY
law was passed by the State Legisa.
ture. The Colorado Fuel & Iron Com.
pany started the semi monthly pay.
day February /, 1918, or thirteen years
later, according to the testimony Of
the president of this company before
the Congressional Committee.
More gas and more dangerous dust I
i Since 1901 the eight-hour question
las been demanded by the miners and
other citizens of the state. By refer
ring bills and introducing flake" meas.
ures, the coal Interpretations prevented
an eight-hour law until 1913, when the
supreme Court cleared up the matter.
These and many other things Great.
ed the gas and dust In the minds Of
he. 1882 coal miners, which the
"agitors" ignited into the greatest
explosion Of Industrial discomfort 10
the history of labor struggles,