The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1921-10-21

From time to time this newspa-
per has called attention to the law
lessness in Logan, McDsowell and
Mingo counties and cited known
cases of assaults and murders COM
mitted by the so-called deputies
employed by the coal operators, but
the officials have refused to take
notice.
Early in September our attention
was called to sworn affidavit made
by an eX-service man declaring that
union bricklayer of Huntington
was killed in the Logan Jail on
September LIST, but we refrained
from making mention of the fact as
we knew it was to be filed with
the Senate probe committee, and
also to see if the officials would
take any action in the matter, but
as yet we have never heard of
word uttered by them in that re-
gard or line in the "kept" press.
But the October issue of The Ma
ton, magazine of nationwide cir
culation has given it to the people
in special article prepared by Ar
thur Warner, who made a personal
investigation of industrial conditions
in Southern West Virginia, in which
he exposes the coal company deputy
and guard systems.
In discussing the above murder he
has the following to say:
Floyd d. Greggs, sworn before
notary public at Montgomery, w.
Va, on September 6, declares that
he arrived in Logan on August "a,
looking for work. Two minutes
later he was arrested by deputy
sheriff and taken to Jail. Gregg
then states:
"On August 10Th about 1890 a. m.
armed deputies and taken to the
county court house and into the
presence of Don Chafin, sheriff of
Logan county, who pinned white
band around my left arm, and was
then conducted by the aforesaid Don
Chafin into another room of the
court house which was filled with
arms and ammunition and told to
go to the front and fight.
II told him that | carried a rifle
for eighteen months in the Fifth
Regiment, United States Marines
and that did not intend to go out
there and fight against working
man as | was a working man my.
self. He then drawed a As calibre
revolver and putting the muzzle in
my face, told me that | would either
fight or die. / told him to shoot
as l was not going to fight. He
then ordered me sent back to Jail.
"On Thursday, September list,
about p. M, l saw union brick
layer from Huntington, w. Va,
shot down in cold-blood murder in
the corridor of the Jail not three
feet from my cell. Two shots were
fired Two deputies then took
the man that was shot, by the feet
and dragged him from the Jail and
across the c. o. R. R. tracks toward
the river"
"Greggs concludes by saying that
on the night of September 2, he was
released by Don Chafin personally,
who gave him fifteen minutes to get
out of town and until daylight to
get out Of the county cor get my
head blown off, The affidavit of
Greggs is corroborated by one made
by Clomar Stanfield, another inmate
of the jail at the time, who adds the
details that the murdered man was
union bricklayer from Huntington
and that he was shot because he
refused to fight against the march
ing miners. Both affidavits name
the man to the gravity of the charge
and the absence of an indictment l
omit it."
Is it any wonder that Governor
McCray of Indiana refused to deliver
a citizen of his state over to the
officials of state that allows such
brutality as the above to exist and
such cold-blooded murderers to go
unpublished? And yet Governor
Morgan says that Governor McCray
was "misled"