The Connecticut labor news., 1921-09-09
Are Defying Govern ment Itself, He Says, When They Employ Armed Thugs to Pre- vent Enforcement of Official Order.


 Federation of Labor, has issued a state ment setting forth the fundamental facts i'll relation to the West Virginia situa- tiOn. He said:
 With the situation i'll West Virginia at a most critical juncture it is almost beyond belief that there has not been placed before the public complete and ac- curate information regarding the events leading up to the position taken by the President of the United States.
 There are certain basic facts which must be considered before there can be fair and proper judgment of the West Virginia situation. These facts have not been presented adequately and in many cases not at all.
 The public press has been negligent and the federal government has been equally so in not presenting to the peo- pie the full underlying truth.
 The great mass of news relating to West Virginia conveys the impression that laWleSs bands ot miners are rov- ing the state without reason except an unJuStihed bitterness against the mine owners. "UneduCated mOuntalneerS" they are called.
 There are four basic facts which are consistently ignored and which 1t IS the duty of government and press to pre- sent These are:
 1. The mines of West Virginia con- stitute the last refuge of autocracy in the mining industry. In these mines an unrestrained, unlimited greed dominates absolutely. Absentee owners hold i'm menSe tracts of rich mining land, de- manding only dividends.
 2 The appetite of this private greed is upheld by a private army of killers the like of which no longer exists in any other state. This private army Is paid by the mine owners and naturally seeks to justify its presence by making business" for itself ill the form of trouble. The Baldwin-Felts detective agency recruits this army, but the mine owners pay the bill. Deputy sheriffs paid by mine owners, form another wing of the private army, equally dangerous }. The present strike Is a direct pro- test against the action of the mine own- CTS of WeI Virginia in refusing to abide by the award of the United States coal commission If the United States government at this time defends the mine owners and does not destroy the private armies of the mine owners the government Is in the position of sus- taining a defiance of an order issued by its own authority.
 4. The state government of West Vlr- ginia has broken down, not because the miners have protested against laWless- ness, but because 1t has failed to stop the mine owners from enforcing law as a private business at the hands of privately paid and privately directed gunmen.
 These four paramount truths have o1.- (TO to present these facts is, i'll my opinion, the integrity of the whole newspaper world must rest its claim to confidence and belief.
 These paramount truths have been found to exist by representatives of the United States government. The govern ment itself, through the United States senate, established these truths. It found them after long and painstaking inquiry. They are indisputable. They are as they have been.
 The Federal Bituminous Commission rendered its report on March 10, 1920. It carried with 1t an award of "A cents flat on pick and machine mining to the bituminous miners of the United States. The coal operators of Mingo County, West Virginia, refused to apply the award and instead they arbitrarily ap- piled five ten, and fifteen cents on each mine car rate, there being no coal weighed throughout that field. The ca pacity of these mine cars varies from two to five tons, and the highest rate paid per car was $140. This price for five tons of coal represented and included all deal work and tonnage rates
 When the award was granted the bltu- minous miners by the Commission, the miners of Mingo County sent committee men to the operators and requested that the award be granted i'll full, and the companies refused 1t. The miners con- tended that the award was granted them by their government and that they were going to insist on it, Every plea to the operators was met with refusal, anc finally the miners of Sprigg, Stone Mountain and Red Jacket went on strike called meetings and sent a committee tc Charleston to interview the officials o1 District Y, U. M. w. of A.
 They were told plainly by the Miners Union that the union would not organize them while they were on strike, to re turn to work, put all the mines II operation, and then if they desired tc become members of the union they would be given the opportunity.
 These instructions were carried out Again the committees were returned ane about eight hundred miners allied them selves with the union at once. Follow ing this the miners focked into the unlo1 and as a result were all discharged anc served with eviction notices.
 The discontent had become very acute in the month of April, 1920. By thi time the Baldwin FeltS detectives appear to in Matewan to evict the miners, thel wives and children. At this time prac tical1y all the miners had joined th' union.
 In the report of the last senatorial i'll vestigation of which there IS public rec ord, that of 1914. Senator Shields in hi: section of4the report refers to the mine guards as generally lawless and desper ate men,
 Inasmuch as the conditions then under investigation exist today in an 1ntens1 fled form, it is informing to read iron the report of Senator Kenyon the tol- lowing extract:
 Tt 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 sur face indications of a deeper trouble, A reading of the record will lead one to the he1ief that there were many causes