Martinsburg journal. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1920-1977, 1921-09-22
SENATE INVESTIGATION or west VA.
MINING WAR RECALLS SIMILAR PROBE
MADE IN THIS STATE EIGHT YEARS AGO
Government Ownership Recommended On That Occasion In
Committee Rcport-PreSent Warfare Worse
Than Decade AGO.

the committee-the employment OF
mine guards and the arntng Of
employees likewise to SO out end kill
their employers--is a condition that
cannot continue 10 exist in a free
Republic"
But Kenyon realizes noN that the
condition he described and con.
demned in hts report of nearly eight
years ago has continued TO exist
in a cree Republic" and the testt
mony already given before the
present committee has disclosed
the same kind OF a condition which
startled the country when the Paint
Creek aud the Cabin Creek irvestt
CATION Was made,
Federal Ownership Solution
1t was Senator Swanson. chair
man Of the first Senate committed
who wrote in 1914:
God has blessed West Virginia
with a topography grand to contem,
plate; wealth unparalleled in coal
iron and oil, her hills fairly groan
with undeveloped resources and all
these at the very threshold of the
great marts OF trade and commerce
Of our country. Here should peace
plenty and happiness reign supreme.
On tho contrary your committee
found disorder. riot, bitterness and
bloodshed in their stead. In no
shirt of malice or hatred, but with
a view that the country. through
knowledge of the true conditions,
may right tho wrong, | charge that
the hiring of armed bodies of men
by private mine owners and the use
of steel armored trains, machine
guns and bloodhoupds on defdense-
less men. women and children IS
but a little way removed from bar
barism. Asked what is my solution
of this and similar unhappy condi-
lions | would state. A millionaire
owner of a great section OF West
Virginia calmly admitted on the
witness stand that SO long as ne
got his per ton lease he never IN
uuired further. Our duty under the
premises Is: Coal, under our civil
izatlon. is necessity. This great
commodity cannot be Increased
fraction OF a pound, yet our popula
ton is multiplying by leaps ant
bounds each year, thereby increas
ing the demands for this article
With this condition existing. ant
with avarice as tho dominating cha
acteristic IN man, |, at tho risk o
criticifm by many of my friends
and chuntrymen, unhcsitatingly say
that Government ownership of the
mines is the only hope or solution
for those who may come after us
Did Swanson's words fall on deal
ears? They were hea71 ~ the Sen
ate on January 10. 1914. They refer
red to conditions now seven on
eight years old. but they appear
equally applicable TO similar condi
tions existing lately in West Vir
ginia.
Recently Government control Of
the West Virginia coal fields was
given serious consideration by the
present Senate committee The sa-
utary effect the intervention of the
Federal Government in the mine
war had was regarded rs an object
lesson by the committee members.
Bat will the recommendations of
the present committee have any
more lasting place in Senatorial
history and in the blodddy annals
of West Virginia than did those OF
the cid committec2
VIII still another Senatorial in
veslipation mercy follow in the fu-
ture when again the mines and hills
Of West Virginia are town with ci-
vi Mar2