The Republican., 1922-04-27
WHY LABOR UNIONS
ARE TABOOED AT DAVIS
Those Who Hewed Town Out of
Wilderness, Say Organizations
Have Been Its UndOing


town over on the Western Mary
land Railway, thirty miles south Of
Oakland, which has been reduced in
three years from a thriving indus
trial town to a community in which
not manufacturing plant is turning
a wheel.
For thirty years, "men who hewed
the town out of the woods of West
Virginia" found a comfortable living
and prosperity in the plant of the
Luke Paper Mills, the mills of the
Badcock Lumber Company and the
tanneries of the Union Tanning Com.
pany. Today with the exception Of
small operations in the lumber mills
not one of these industries is work.
ing; the Union Tanning Company
tanneries stand idle, huge piles of
leather being stored in long rows Of
sheds ;the paper mills have been dis
mantled and the machinery moved to
Luke, where they have been included
in the huge operations there The in
dustry which gave this town its start
and provided it's livelihood is no more
and the residents point with resent
ment to the fact that until the organ.
izations of labor unions in the COM
munity every wage controversy had
been amicably settled, and peace and
prosperity went hand in hand with
demand for the products of the man.
ufacturies. What better evidence
than that almost without exception,
every man owned his home.
The Luke Paper Mills were refer
red to as the 'old mems home" En-
ployer and employe cooperating in
making the most of the industry.
But organizers succeeded in estab-
fishing unions. The plant was closed
when the men were called out on a
strike of sympathy. There were no
grievances against the wages and
treatment of the workers by the ownt
ers. Men who had been in the em-A
ploy Of the company since its found
ing went out, some of them within
one month of drawing lifetime PEN
The owners after repeated efforts
at settlement dismantled the mills.
The Union Tanning Company shut
down soon after and the Badcock
Lumber Company necessarily cur
tailed operations.
Residents are openly opposed to
further activities of labor organizers.
That they are, was strongly I'M
pressed on more than 200 miners who
last week marched in a body from
Pierce and Thomas in an effort to
influence miners employed in the
Blackwater Mines and Mines No. 81
and 35 of the Davis Coal and Coke
Company.
On Monday the striking miners
picketed the town and three of their
number were arrested. Before day
break Tuesday morning more than
200 attempted to repeat their action
of the previous day. AS they ap-
peared on the road leading up the
mountain from Thomas they were
met by more than twenty-five citizens
of the town who in company with
four state constabulary warned the
miners that any attempt to cross the
city line would be met with imme-
diate action. The presence of ma
chine gun manned by the constab-
ulary and the emphatic stand of the
Davis citizens turned the marchers
back toward Pierce without trouble.
No further attempts have been made
to intimidate men employed in the
mines here which are working on al
most normal basis.
The taking of means of livelihood
from Davis proper has caused the
men to seek employment elsewhere
and many of them can be found at
work as strikebreakers in the en-
ploy of the railway company, while
still more are at work in the mines
through this section particularly at
the Culpepper mines of the Emmons
Coal Company at Bayard. They are
dissatisfied with unionized labor. It
has taken from their employment
and, while they are in sympathy with
the strikers personally, they refuse to
pass up the opportunity to make
living because the unions have order.
ed the miners out.
Davis has taken its stand against
organized labor and municipal au-
thorities are firm in their determine.
tion to prevent any attempt on the
part of strikers to interfere with the
employment of residents. eve are
the men who hewed this place out of
the hills and woods of West Virgin
ia" one official declared, "and while
the unions have made 1t as barren as
the hills around it they have made
their last stand here. Well govern
Davis in the future"