The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1920-06-11

mediate Federal intervention to restore
constitutional liberty to the coal miners
Of West Virginia was filed with Pres.
ident Wilson by John l.. Spivak, re-
presenting the United Mine Workers
of West Virginia, the West Virginia
State Federation of Labor and the
American Civil Liberties Union.
Spivak's letter to the President,
made public June 8, reads as follows:
"In response to Secretary Tumulty s
request that I present you with a
summary of conditions in West vir-
einia, and what the miners and all
other crafts wish of you, submit the
following:
"Thore exist in certain sections Of
West Virginia, notably Logan, Mingo,
Mercer and Mcdowell conties, con-
ditions closely akin to peonage. These
conditions, which have been tolerated,
if not tacitly assisted, by the state
officials, at two distinct periods, have
threatened to throw the state into
civil war. At the present moment they
bave become SO intolerable, and the
utter indifference of the state officials
to the enforcement Of state and na-
tional laws 50 open, that it has become
urgent that the President or Congress
intervene and avert imminent open
strife.
"For the purpose of brevity, Ishail
take Logan county as an example.
Briefly, the conditions there are as
follows:
"This country, better known as the
Guyan Valley is practically outside
the pale of American laws. The Con-
stitution of the United States has
never been enforced. The inalienable
rights of all Americans to free speech
and peaceable assemblage-are for
biddcn upon penalty of death. This
penalty has been executed by private
gunmen until reign of black terror
exists which is almost unbelievable on
the American continent, and which can
no longer be suffered.
"Logan, the county seat of Logan
county, cannot be entered by an Amer
lean citizen. To enter Logan without
pass, endangers ones life. Even
newspapermen cannot enter that town
without passes and even then not with
out danger.
"There are hundreds of heavily
armed gunmen, paid by the coal opera
tors whose sole work is to guard the
town against anyone who might even
attempt to claim the rights of free
cpeech or peaceable assemblage. Be
tween twenty and twenty-five machine
guns, 5000 high powered rifles and
two carloads of cartridges, approxima-
tely one million are kept by this
private army to enforce their reign.
These arms and munitions are stored
in the Logan country court house,
ready for instant use In addition there
are from 1900 to 1000 gallons of
whiskey also stored in the court house.
Illegal traffic in liquor is open and
unchecked in this country, sales being
made in the court house by these
private guards.
"The attention of Governor John
j. Cornwell, of West Virginia, has re-
ipeatedly been called to the existence
Of these conditions. The only thing ne
has ever done was to "deplore" them.
Never was he made an effort to check
assaults and murders. Killings aecur
with irregular regularity and no ef-
forts are made to arrest the murderers.
"The roads leading into Logan are
heavily guarded by machine guns and
armed men on continuous patrol. In
Logan there are about $50 gunmen al.
ways lounging about the railroad sta.
tion and the town proper prepared 20
svict forcibly any citizen, who, in
their opinion, is undesirable.
"in September, 1919 the beatings,
brutality and murders to which miners
wore subjected, and the cold indiffe.-
onee Of tho governor, so enfuriated