Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-09-07
WHERE THE BLAME LIES.

| John j. Leary, Jr.. who was one OF
Theodore Roosevelt's personal friends.
and is noted as an authority on In
dustrial conditions, has reported to the
New York World what appears to be
the truth regarding the so-called in
surrection In the West Virginia coal
fields. Leary says succinctly that the
cause OF each faction is as follows.
THE miners--That they are fighting
for rights guaranteed by the Consti-
tuition of the United States. namely.
the right of free assemblage. and of
free speech and of prompt trials by
iuries of their peers when accused of
crime.
''The operators--That they are fight
ing TO protect their property and their
right to mine and sell coal cheaper
than IL can be mined by operators in
the so-called competitive soft coal
fields of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois. and
Central Pennsylvania, whose opera
tors they have accused in court pro-
ceedings and elsewhere of causing
all their troubles"
IL has been no secret TO persons
who have visited the West Virginia
fields that the miners have lived there
in almost state of serfdom. Capital
lists in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore.
New York, Pittsburg and Chicago have
controlled the larger fields. Absentee
landlordism has ruled. Managers were
sent with orders TO produce divi- |
dends. and produce they did. regard |
less of the workers or the methods |
which they had to use to subdue them. |
Those workers, general opinion TO /
the contrary. are about % per cent |
native Americans whose ancestry /
dates back to pre-Revolutionary days. |
They were living the simple lives of |
mountaineers when the fields were OPP /
ened 25 years ago. That brought them
more money than they had ever be-
fore; but as Leary says in his report,
sit also brought new needs and new
expenses until the wages which had |
seemed so generous became too small
Cabins and food that had been good
enough ceased to satisfy. The men
heard Of the higher wages and better
conditions of work under which men
had worked elsewhere and they began
to organize"
In the first decade OF this century
the mine owners placed armed guards
in the coal fields to protect the prop
erty from vandals.
Let Leary tell how their duties
changed.
The guard system rapidly degen-
Grated into one used to prevent the
men from joining together to make
what we now call collective bargain
ing. and the guard became private
selected because of his known
speed with revolver or rifle and that
quality euphemistically called hard
boiled. In this strife civil war
ragged, notably in Paint and Cabin
greeks for several years prior to 1913
when those fields became. as they re-
main, union. In the Paint and Cabin
Creek sections the firing on women
and children living in tents from
guns-later to be a feature of ]
the strife at Trinidad. Col.-figured.
From that time to the present this
civil trouble has continued, with the
mine guards gradually usurping the
duties Of the State forces. There is no
doubt that the unionization of the
mines would cause the operators
profits to shrink some. But it is .
question whether unionization would
ever have been demanded if those
workers had not been held in a virtual
state of subsection.
Those mountaineers. come of a hardy
and an Independent race. 1t was their
who gave much aid to
during the Revolutionary
War, and who virtually won the Battle
Of Kings Mountain. They were well
represented in Jackson's army which
fought the Battle of New Orleans.
others marched with Zachary TayIor
20 Mexico. During the Civil War the :
proved to be a valuable
actor on the Union side. as they were
'agin" the lowlanders, who were wear
ng Confederate Gray.
The folly of absentee Iandlordism
vas never better illustrated than in
his present case. No doubt the owners {
IF the mines believed that the men ,