Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1922-02-03
Mine WAR
SENATE COMMITTEE REPORTS
RESULT OF PROBE
Testimony Shows Coal Lands are Con-
trOlled or Owned by Steel Cor
poratiOn or the Pennsylva-
.nia Railroad
(By Federated Press)

by Fe0eraCeQ PfeSS)
Total collapse of the state govern
mental machinery, and imperative
necessity for immediate federal in
tervention honestly and fearlessly de-
signed to bring about peace and
liberty in the non-union coal fields Of
West Virginia, are the outstanding
features of the published Senate COM
mittee hearings on the causes of in
dustrial war in that state.
The testimony shows that the state
governmental machinery collapsed be-
cause of the ownership or control OF
coal lands and operations by the
most unscrupulous and lawless anti
union force in America-the United
States Steel Corporation and the
Pennsylvania Railroad, either directly
or through their subsidiaries.
The police power of the state has
been handed over to, or usurped by
the courts of the state through the
Interpretation of certain laws which
make the mine worker in fact if not
in name chattel slave.
The testimony before the committee
showed that in Mingo county fifteen
hundred miners have been locked out
for more than year and half.
These locked-out miners and their
wives and children have been living
in tent colonies supplied to them by
the United Mine Workers Of America.
This organization has sent more than
$2,000,000 in supporting these locked
out mine workers and their families.
Mingo county has been invaded
three times by federal troops. On
each of these three occasions, the SEN
ate committee was shown, the state
authorities appealed for federal SOL
diers while it was still within their
power to have brought about condi-
tiOns which would have resulted IN
conferences between representatives
of the miners and the mine owners.
This they refused to do.
The leaders of the union miners in
West Virginia are under heavy bonds
on charges of treason" and "inciting
to riot" In this most recent attempt
to strangle the miners union BY
framing" it's leaders, the hand of the
same group of men is visible who sub
sidize and direct the army of oeputy
sheriffs in Logan and the other anti
union strongholds.
The Senators found that the mine
owners did not want the issue peace
ably settled, and that the miners do
want is peaceable settled.
They learned that the fifteen hun
dred men living with their families in
tent colonies were evicted from their
homes because they joined the United
Mine Workers local.
The miners in Mingo, Logan end
the other non-union West Virginia
counties do not ask for union recogni-
ton. They have not asked higher
wages, shorter hours, or even i'm
proved working conditions, much as
these things are justified.
Nevertheless the record shows that
the operators and their spokesmen
realize the truth and justice of the
miners contentious. The fact is made
clear by the following:
The most influential operator in the
unorganized field where the lockout is
in effect, w. H. Coolidge, admitted
frankly to the committee that the is
sue was whether a miner had right
to join the union.
The operators chief counsel, z. T.
Vinson, told the Senators that that
was the issue, and declared point
blank: "We will not permit organi-
zation in southern West Virginia"
The attorney general of the state,
E. T. England, told the committee
that union man or organizer was
persona non grata" in Logan county,
and when discovered is ordered out of
the county at once by the subsidized
deputy sheriffs under Sheriff Don
Chain.
During the hearings Samuel Inter
myer, acknowledgement lawyer and
one of the largest personal stockhold-
ers in the United States Steel Corpo-
ration, brought out the influence Of
the Steel Corporation and the Penn
sylvania Railroad in maintaining The
anti-union policies of the West V;r-
ginia coal operators.
Senator Sterling asked Vinson, the
operators counsel whether any ere
strictions" are placed upon miners
who come back and seek work in the
mines.
"Only the restriction of being nom
union," Vinson replied. "They must
not affiliate with the union."
Now, who is Coolidge, the biggest
operator in the anti-union field? It
was Coolidge who during the hearings
referred to miners who have Joined
the union as "highwaymen and rob-
bers," who hurled epithets at the
miners and fatty refused to consider
any proposition whereby the contro-
versy may be peaceably settled. Cool
idge's attitude pretty accurately rep
resents that of the combined oper-
ators' associations.
Union miners wishing to come to
Logan county must first get a permit
from Coolidge. Coolidge maintains
that the First Amendment to the Com