The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-07-29
MINING FIGHT IN WEST VIRGINIA CROWS SERIOUS Question of Wages Takes Second Place In Bitter
 Struggle. Both Sides Insist
 on Complete Victory Recognition of Unions and Employment of Guards
 Cause of Trouble

Cause of Trouble Williamson, w. Va, July 2S.-The | campaign of the United Mine Workers to organize the 5000 miners in the Mingo county biturninous coal field has precipitated a situation which each side declares can only end when it has won complete victory. In the con- ficts growing out of this move 12 or | more persons have lost their lives Wages, apparently, form a. secondary consideration, the battle being waged around recognition of the union and the right of mine owners to employ private detectives in and around the mines.
 'The men and the operators could get together and settle this thing were ! 1t not for the question of the mine guards" said Charles F. Keeney, pres | ident of District No. 1T, United Mine Workers. who Is in command Of the union forces. "But in their present temper these men are not to be fooled with. Right now this situation is a powder mill.''
 There is not a mine guard in Mingo county, and there has not been for years,'' said George Bausewine, secre- 1 tary of the Coal Operators Associa-
 ton, of Williamson. 'Privtte detec- | tives are employed other corpora l tions employ detectives for intelligence l work in and around their properties. They are not used for guarding the mines." I The question of wages hinges on the
 scale paid in the Kanawaha field. The.
 union leaders declare that adoption of this scale would increase the earnings | of the miners in Mingo, while the op- orators insist that their miners, under the scale now in force, are being paid
 more than it Is possible for the Kan awha miners to earn. However, little tattention is being paid to that phase of the controversy. Recognition of the
 union is the big issue.
 Ths Mfngo field includes all of Mingo county and the mines along the Kentucky side of Tug river, a shallow narrow stream which for miles in this region forms the boundary be- tween Kentucky and West Virginia. High mountains rise abruptly on each side of the river, their sides covered
 with a heavy growth Of bushes Along
 the mountain sides are the drift mines
 from which comes the coal, and nest ling in the narrow valley are the little towns where live the miners and their families.
 Fully 75 per cent. of the miners in the region are native borz many of them descendants of pioneers who en- itered the county more than 100 years ago, and who are proud of their lineage. some IOTelSn-DOIn miners can be found in the camps, while
 numbers of negroes are employed. Often the miner owns @ small acreage, for which in the planting and har-
 vesting, he will abandon the mines. v In some places the miners live in
 brick cottages each having it's garden
 plot and front porch. Such a village
 is Bordertown, where early this month
 miners were fired upon from the
 mountainside while going to work. In
 other villages the houses are of frame
 construction, each set in its own gar
 den plot, and for which the miners pay at the rate of two dollars per month per room.
 Williamson, the center of the region, is pleasantly placed in the valley, with
 substantial buildings and good stores. The Mingo county court house Is one
 of the best structures, but the city hall also is a complete office building, while there is in course of construction theater which will cost $250, GOO. The
 s, 600 residents of the town very gen
 orally enjoy the prosperity which has come to the coal trade in the past few years.
 Early in the year the movement to organize the United Mine Workers was inaug7urated by President Keeney
 from district headquarters at Charles ton, and organizers were sent into Mingo county. They met with such success that a demand was made upon
 the operators for the enforcement of
 the Kanawha scale and recognition of 5 the union. This demand the operators . refused, and the union called a strike. The order mine operators say, was
 answered by from 1,500 to 800 miners,
 but the union officials put the figure
 higher.
 The companies through their law yers, took the position that the houses
 built for the miners who had gone on
 strike reverted at once to the owners.
 The miners, in some instances, held that If the companies wanted the ! house of a man they must obtain pos session of 1t by due process of law. Numbers of miners were evicted 3 from company houses and it was for l that purpose private detectives, "rnin @ 8 guards" the miners term them, were
 sent to Matewan, June 19 and where g in the fight which followed the evic- r ton of five families, 10 persons were a killed.
 , Many miners however, moved from = company houses without protest, and g the United Mime Workers esea hhsh d s for such persons tent colonies along I Tug river near the places of their for
 mer employment. There the strikers
 and their families live In army tents,
 and there they declare they will stay
 until the strike has been settled and lL3. .oIt ta Bfar.hr