The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-06-04
Demands Probe by
Senate Committee of
Matewan Tragedy


killing of 10 men at Matewan, W.
Va, by a murderous band of repre-
sentatives of the Baldwin Felts de-
tective agency, employed for years
by the coal companies of the state
to prevent the miners from organic
ing, commenced their attack on
Mayor Cabell Testman, of that town,
who protested against their attempt
to usurp the laws of the state, and
who fell mortally wounded shot by
the leader of the murderous hire
lings. The shooting resulted in
President John L. Lewis, of the Unit
ed Mine Workers telegraphing Gov
ernor Cromwell, requesting that he
take prompt measures to prevent
further lawless activies by the mur-
derous hirelings of the coal oper-
ators." In his wire he says:
"For years the terrible evils of
this system has been pointed out, but
this latest outrage indicates that lit
tie or nothing has been done to in
sure to peaceable citizens the right
to live. Ten human lives have been
sacrificed to this system and the
blood of these ten men must be
found on the hands of those who
could prevent such murders, but who
fall to do so.
81 desire once more to direct your
attention to the failure of the state
Of West Virginia to afford protec-
ton to its citizens in the coal min
ing districts and to urge that poll
cies he adopted and measurers car
ried out that will prevent further
lawless activities by these murder
Gus hirelings Of the coal operators" !"
President Gompers in letter to
Senator Kenyon, chairman of the
committee on labor and education,
asks that he have his committee in
vestigate the killing of the ten men
at Matewan, w. Va, by the repre-
sentatives Of the Baldwin Felts de-
tectives. His letter in part follows:
''The men were shot and killed by
an armed band of men sent into the
state by the order of and in the
pay Of private interests. The men
who were killed were interested only
in seeing that the statutes and
the constitution of the state and of
the United States were respected,
according to the newspaper reports
of the outbreak. | am of the opin-
ion that the invasion of West Vir-
ginia by an armed band of men in
the pay of absentee owners of West
Virginia mining property consti-
tutes a suspension of the constitu-
tlonal guarantees.
ut will be remembered that a
public official, testifying in the in
vestigation of 1912-13 before the
committee of which you are now
chairman, swore that the constitu-
tion of the United States did not ap-
ply in West Virginia. 1t was brought
out that miners had been kidnapped
and given long sentences by drum
head court-martial. This official was
not rebuked by West Virginia for
his testimony as to it's lawlessness.
On the contrar., he was appointed
by the governor of the state to be
the impartial investigator of crime
against the miners, their wives and
their children, in the mining camp
of Guyan Valley, and this within
the year.
For a generation the only law in
the mining camps of West Virginia,
save in those few instances where
the power of organized labor and
outraged public opinion has forced
a return to constitutional methods
has been the law Of the thug and
the gunman disguised as deputy
sheriffs and usurping the police
power of the land. The blackjack
and the pistol, the high powered
rifle and the machine gun have
been substituted for statute law,
judges and juries."