Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1921-09-09

union, they would be given the oppor-
tunity.
These instructions were carried
out. Again the committees were re-
turned and about eight hundred min
ers allied themselves with the union
at once. Following this the miners
flocked into the union and as a result
were all discharged and served with
eviction notices.
The discomfort had become very
acute in the month of April, 1920 BY
this time the Baldwin-Feltz detectives
appeared in Matewan to eyict the
miners. their wives and children. At
this time practically all the miners
had Joined the union.
In the report of the last senatorial
investigation of which there is public
record, that of 1914, Senator Shields
in his section of the report refers to
the mine guards as generally lawless
and desperate men,"
Inasmueh as the conditions then
under investigation exist today in an
intensified form, it is informing to
read from the report of Senator Ken
yon the following extract:
ut is well to inquire as TO the
reasons for such deplorable conditions.
Many things appear on the surface
which might be deemed causes, but
they are only surface indications of
deeper trouble. A reading of the
record will lead one to the belief that
there were many causes for the condi-
tons existing.
Among them might be related the
employment of mine guards, high
prices charged the miners at company
stores. mine guards acting as deputy
sheTiffs, post offices located in com
pany stores, private roads to the
schools and stores, no opportunity to
purchase homes, cemeteries upon
company grounds, attempts to union
ize the miners. alien ownership Of
large tracts of land-in one instance
21.000 acres. All of these various
things appearing in the testimony
might be cited as causes leading up
to the conditions which the commit
tee investigated However, it is the
opinion of some of the committee thai
the cause of all this trouble is deeper
and more fundamental, The basic
cause is the private ownership of
great public necessities, such as coal:
this coupled with human greed, Incl
dent to such ownership, has brought
about the deplorable and nn-American
conditions in the West Virginia coal
fields under investigation
In relation To the hired gun men
who have brought the administration
of law in West Virginia to the point
of absolute collapse and whose recent
activities have been brutal and law
less belond description, Senator Mar
tine reported:
I'm no spirit of malice or hatred,
but with a view that the country.
through knowledge of the true condi
tions, may right the wrong, | charge
that the hiring of armed bodies of
men by private mine owners and other
corporations and the use of steel ar
mored trains, machine guns, and
| bloodhounds on defenseless men, wo-
men and children is but a little way
removed from barbarism.''
The 1914 senatorial committee
found complete breakdown of civil
law in depicting the lengths to which
coal mine autocracy was carried of.
ficially reported that during the per.
iod of martial law the court martial
before which offenders were tried
deemed itself bound only by the or.
ders of the commander in chief, the
governor OF the state, and in no sense
bound to observe the constitution of
the United States or the statutes of
West Virginia relative to the trial and
punishmnt of parties charged with
crime" The senators found that dur.
ing this high-handed reign the civil
courts were open and holding their
| the court martial inflicted punish
the court martial Unlisted punish.
ments unknown to the statutes or in
excess of the punishment provided
for such offenses under the laws of
the state"
The report OF the most recent sena-
torial committee has not been print.
ed and | understand is not to be for
reasons OF which | am unaware. 1t
is fact, however, that this recent
investigation strengthened the find
ings of the earlier inquiries and sus-
tains every contention as to the con.
duct of the mine owners of West Vir.
ginia and their complete disregard
for the constitution of the United
States and the laws of their own,
state.
The trouble in West Virginia will
not be cured by forcing men into sub.
mission while allowing continuance of
the evils against which they have so
desperately protested. | join with all
Americans in deprecating the vio-
lenee in that state, but il is worse
than useless to deal with the surface
manifestations while allowing the
deep, underlying putocratic criminal.
ity 10 continue uninterfered with and
unchecked.
The United States government can
do great earuicn h,, hnrtrnr-i,,.r -.