The Connecticut labor news. (New Haven, Conn.) 1921-1925, 1921-09-30
GUNNER TRAILED
SENATORS ON VISIT
TO MINCO BAD LANDS
of Conditions in the Tur-
bulent District.

Washington, Sept 29.-An ''informal
investigation" Of the West Virginia coal
mine controversy was under way last
week. A formal investigation was de-
ferred at request of the mine operators
until the trials of miners indicted in M lin
go county have been completed. Mingo
county is still under martial law by proc
lamation of Governor Morgan, with
State cOnstables as the supreme power
there. No Federal troops have thus far
entered that county. The REGULARS" I'M
der command of Col. Carl A. Martin, are
stationed in Boone and kanawha coun-
ties. No further disturbances are re-
ported from any section of the mining
district
In Logan county, where most of the
recent trouble occurred, special hand
picked grand jury has spread blanket
Indictment covering 325 union miners and
other citizens, charging them with con
spring to fement revolution and insur-
reCtion." Judge Robert Bland of the Lo-
gan county court authorized the issuance
of caplases for arrest of the indicted men
wherever found" The cases will be
taken up at the October term of court.
Don Chatin is the high sheriff of Logan
county and has ordered his deputies to
go get EN-
A trial of union miners in Logan
country, the little kingdom of King
Chahin,' where the labor batting oper-
ators pay the salaries of the sheriff and
his deputies, would prove a lynching-
bee. For several years it has meant
death to a union man or All advocate of
unionisn to enter that territory.
Report reached Washington early this
week that Charles F. Keeney and Fred
Mooney, president and secretary, re-
spectively, of District II, United Mine
Workers of America, indicted for being
implicated in shooting at Merrimac
last May, had voluntarily surrendered to
the State authorities in the office of
Governor Morgan at Charleston. They
were taken to Williamson and placed in
the Mingo county Jail, where they are
at this writing being denied bond.
keeney and Mooney had been hiding
out since their indictment two weeks pre-
vious, knowing that if they were taken
into Mingo by county officers they would
suffer the same fate as Sid Hatfield and
Ed Chambers, who were murdered while
going into courthouse to answer a SIM
liar indictment.
1t is said the surrender of the two
union officials had been previously ar
ranged, after Governor Morgan had
promised the two men police protection
to Williamson, the seat of Mingo county.
When the shooting occurred at Mer-
rimac, in which Keeney and Mooney are
charged with being implicated they were
$50 miles away attending a State labor
convention. Their names are also in
cuded in the blanket indictment issued
in Logan county.
Senator Kenyon and Shortridge ar
ing and Immediately proceeded with their
informal investigation. The Senators are
accompanied by stenographers and staff
of assistants to record testimony and ar
range conferences. The camp colony,
or "Blackberry City," as it is called, on
the bank of Lick Creek near Tug River,
was first visited.
Here the wives and children of the
elected miners were introduced to the
Senators by Mother" Jones, and they
RELATED tragic story of the raid made
upon their tented homes three months
ago by the Baldwin-Felts gunner, and
deputy sheriffs of Mingo and Logan
counties The Senators had to pass
through a Gordon of State constables to
get to the tent colony.
When Senator Kenyon visited the
courthouse at Williamson on Monday,
where a trial of Mingo miners is in
progress, he was stopped at the door
and not permitted to enter until he hid
been searched for concealed weapons.
A written memorial reciting the crinli-
nal acts of mine operators, guards and
Baldwin-Felts detectives, was presented
to Senator Kenyon, chairman of the Sen
ate committee on education and labor, by
Harold w. Houston, attorney for the
union miners, and William Petry, acting
president of Distrilt II. The Senators
travelled over much of the district in au-
tomobiles, and interviewed operators and
miners alike. l will be determined later
whether a formal investigation is to be
resumed by the whole committee either
in Washington or West Virginia.
Nothing has been said about recalling
the Federal troops, and they are likely
to remain in the field for some time, be-
cause the State government is either I'M
able or unwilling to guarantee protection
to citizens residing within the State.