The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-09-22
SENATE INVESTIGATION OF WEST VIRGINIA MINING WAR RECALLS
 SIMILAR PROBE 8 YEARS AGO

Washington, Sept. 22.-'"The inves- l togation disclosed that large quanti- ties of ammunition, pistols, shotguns, rifles and machine guns were brought into the district by both parties to the controversy and freely used The condition existing for many months were deplorable There was much violence and some mur- ders- Pitched battles were fought by the contending parties. Law and or der disappeared and life waas inse- cure on both sides Business pract1- cally ceased"
 | the civil war in the West Virginia coal fields, which recently compelled the intervention of Federal armed troops because of the helplessness of the state government.
 l It is from the report of the condi- tfons found in West Virginia in 1913 by a Senate Investigating committee which was submitted by it's chairman, Senator Swanson, Democrat, of Vir- ginia, to the Seate in March, 1914 l Eight years ago this Senatorial in i veStigauon, centerinng around the l Cabin Creek and Paint Creek mines. l in the wooded Kanawha Valley, re- vea1ed conditions similar to those which another Senate committee is now engaged :n uncovering in Mingo, 1 Logan and other turbulent West Vir- | ginia counties
 | Battles have ragged about mine and mountain, Tuces have been arranged, | only to be broken. disputes have been | settled with the rife and the revolver, and violence and sudden death have 1 always lurked across the path of men, | women and children-Since the min | CTS and operators 'fbroke'' on the first day of April, 1912. more than nine years ago.
 FeudaIism In Reality
 | A state of feudalism amazingly like l that of the Dark Ages has prevailed in the rough mining region of West Virginia, where men stalk men to kill them and whole. families are the ten antry of the welathy who own every strip of thjckly-tinbered mountain side and every patch of richly-veined coal land.
 Before the first Senate Investigating committee that sought an answer tc the perennial question. What is the matter with West Virginia ?" it was testified on October 29. 1913. thal | "fur-iners owned large tracts of ricf mining land, on which the people oi the state were permitted to live only | if they obeyed the mandates Of tht lords of the domain"
 One of these "fur'iners" was Georg' P. Wetmore, formerly United State three-eights of the stock of a com pany of "outsiders" which acquired 21,OOO acres of rich coal deposits il West Virginia for S300,000 in 1901 It's value in 1913 had jumped tt
 A Brooklyn, N r., member of tn company was grilled by the commit tee
 are verita'ble domain; if you tell man to get off your premises, if h happens to be in the middle or them
 it would be practically like telling hin to get off the earth ?'' the witness wa asked would it meet with your ap probation if notices were posted, Fri vate Property and TrespaSserS For
 bidden' over a tract of BLOOD acres?
 I@ o4 xH-ha TnSao
 would conclude was wise for them
 do,'' was the reply. 'SThey would prob
 ably have the right to Do As The
 Pleased"
 owa, chairman of the Senate commit
 tee now engaged in probing West Vii
 ginia'S sore spots. sat as member C 1 the former committee when it Hstene wealthy New Workers and New Eng
 flanders bought up these 21.OOO acre
 and. through hired agents and over Seers, ruled the people who had live
 upon them for years.
 Perennial Question
 '"The average man cannot go ou
 and buy 21,0o0 acres" Senator Ken
 yon remSFl1ed at that time. "But
 wealthy Evaporation buys them an
 then sits back and says, Our respon | sfbility is ended in merely getting ou
 dividends and seeing that thinss ar
 done in an orderly way I have n l warfare with honest wealth, but sim
 ply to say, We purchase these grea
 tracts of land, and all we want is ou
 royalty. and that is all our respons
 bility,' it seems to me there is a great
 CT responsibility than that. and gres wealth has got to wake up to it. TIT
 welfare of the men who leases Ian
 and of the men who work for him, (
 who live in the land, is involve'
 There is something the matter in tn l country when the employer arms hin
 self and goes out shooting his me -l and the men arm themselves and g l& out shooting him. That cannot epdul E forever. What is the matter?" H The question Senator Kenyon aske then he and his Senatorial col1eagu E are asking today. In the light what has taken place in West Virgin S recently the report Kenyon VITO E eight years ago was lately dug fro E dusty Senatorial achives and referrt z to the present committee as ev1den @ that Kenyon's original question st E remains unanswered.
 ,E It was in January, 1914, that ke ,& you informed the Seante that: 'HThe committee was directed to | lH vestigate the causes leading up to u iN conditions in the Paint Creek al F# Cabin Creek coal fields of West Vi & ginia- The. conditions found by | &@ committee-the employment or mil