The Washington times., 1921-03-17
.M|NG0 MINERS
.THREATENWAR.
Armed Men Likely to March on
Courthouse As Trial hears
Conclusion.
By s. ID. WEYER


| Copyright. 1921. by International News
Service. Inc)
INGO UNITY COURT
HOUSE. Williamson, w. Va. March
17.-Now it MUST be told The
last act Of the trigger trial drama
is on and the stage on which it is
being enacted is a powder barrel.
Arguments to the jury began this
morning.
MINERS THREATEN WAR
| 1t is time that the curtain of
secrecy that has hidden the true sit
uation here from the view of the
outside public was lifted. A news-
paper mans first duty is to TRUTH.
| Things are stirring in Mingo coun-
ty-mysteriously, ominously. Miners
are threatening to come into Will
Hanson by the hunreds and march
on the courthouse armed to their
teeth. The saner counsels of The
United Mine Workers of America
have prevailed thus far. but the
movement for a sympathetic demon
stration for the sixteen miners on
Albert Felts is powerful. For one
thing, its prime movers insist upon
having enough men here to offset
the presence Of "Felts men"
Rumors are adding to the, trigger
tension. One persistant report has 1t
that at least two score Baldwin
Felts detectives have quietly slipped
into town the last few days.
| FELTs DENIES REPORT.
Tom Felts. head of the agency, |
vigorously denies this. He further
avers there Ia not a scintilla of
truth In reports that strong squads
OF detectives. or mine guards as
they are more often referred to. are
held at nearby points ready to pour
into this town At a moments .notic,. |
There are not more than q dozen
known Felts men in town. That
there are others. working "under
cover" Is admitted by Tom Felts.
1t should be said In all fairness that
the Felts men who have been here
since the trial began have strictly
minded their business: they have
gone out Of their way to avoid trou-
Bile. Some Of them have been States
witnesses. Five of them arc to be
tried next month for the murder Of
others in the Matswan gun battle
others In the Matewan gun battle.
TEN MEN MARKED.
| Tnere are at least ten men here
whose lives common talk holds, are
not worth a pinch of snuff from the
moment the verdict is in. 1t matters
not which way the verdict goes.
| Williamson, for seven weeks the
4 town OF fearful suspense, has over
night changed into a town of trigger
dread" People who have gone about
their business tight -mouthed for
nearly year are beginning to talk.
And all the talk revolves around the
intangible yet omnipresent dread Of
trouble which everybody believes will
follow the verdict as inevitably as
night follows the day.
FEW STATE POLICE.
And. in the event of trouble. this
town has no more protection than
some two score State police and
handful of deputy sheriffs. Every
hour makes II more apparent why
court and counsel tried so frantically
a month ago to prevail upon the then
lGovernor Cornwell and and the War
Department to keep the Federal
troops here.
The slightest provocation by either
preaching its climax is bound to
bring on a tragedy which any one
familiar with the subsurface situa-
tion here shudders to contemplate.
Protection is due to the people of
Williamson, as peaceful and law
abiding community as one can find
anywhere in the United States, a
community sick at heart over the
shadows cast upon their town by a
blood orgy with which they have had
absolutely nothing to do, but which is
having its dramatic legal aftermath
here simply because this is the seat of
Mingo county.
WANT NORMAL TIMES.
The people Of Williamson are ach- |
ing for the end. They want to be
left alone and go back to work under |
normal conditions. Yet the end Is not |
| in sight, for this, as the county seat,
is now the center Of a feud infinitely |
more bitter and far-reaching and |
dangerous than the now almost legen- |
Diary feud between the Hatfield and |
Mccoy clan. |
1t is the feud between the ''B. F."
and the M W."-the men of the |
Baldwin Felts Detective Agency and |
the United Mine Workers of America. |
And the dread in all minds and on all |
lips Is lest this feud, smouldering for |
| ten months, break into flame when |
the twelve men who are to decide the |
fate of the sixteen defendants in the |
Matewan gun battle case return their |
verdict.
Six hundred thousand union mine |
workers throughout America are
vitality interested in that verdict. |
Four thousand of them live In Mingo |
county and are watching for II In |
| feverish tension. The great majority |
of these have been on strike for many |
| months. |
There are innumerable new faces In |
town. and every train brings more. |
Every new face Is a sub-surface sen
sation. For this town is saturated
with system of espionage and
counter espionage such as would put
to shame the boldest dreams OF secret
service wizards. Every step OF every
body of consequence is shadowcd by
one side or the other-or both.
Each side has its watchers" in
every imaginable sort of job. in all
walks of life. The watchers are sup.