The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-06-10
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Buredu
FREDERIC }. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington. ID. @.
LABOR WAR IN WEST VIRGINIA.


conflicting testimony has been brought
out in the West Virginia treason trials,
which have been dragging along at
Charles Town for weeks, that the gen.
eral public is more mystified than
ever as to the facts in this great labor
conflict Today the average man
knows little about the situation other
than that there has been prolonged
controversy between West Virginia
miners and mine operators, that there
have been disorder, lawlessness and
loss of life and property. that condi-
lions approxtmaung civil war nave
existed, and that it has been necessary
to send in federal troops to restore
and to maintain order
Growing out of all this have come
almost countless injunction proceed
ings and lawsuits in the courts. and
the indictment of several hundred
miners on treason and murder charges
Viewed from any angle it is an ugly
mess.
Opinions as to which side is right
and which side is wrong are based
largely upon prejudices. Information
and evidence upon which to FORM a
conclusion are subject to the same
bias. 1t is possible, however to pre-
sent a background for the current
news from West Virginia. Thanks to
the investigation conducted by the
senate committee of which former Sen
ator Kenyon was chairman. we can
get at just what each side contends
for and seeks to establish as the facts
in the case.
The contentious of the operators as
shown by the record of this investi-
CATION have been summarized as fol-
lows: THE operators have a constitu-
tionaI right to operate their mines on
a non-union basis, to substitute the
individual contract for collective bar
gaining in their relations with their
employees. to prevent all efforts to
unioniZ0 their employees, to bar union
members from the mining camps and
properties and even from the counties
in which those properties are situated,
and to refuse to deal directly or in
directly with the union. Their en-
pIoyes are contented and do not desire
to join the union. and therefore, there
is no controversy between them and
their employees
''All the trouble in the nonunion
fields has been due to the efforts of
the union to organize the workers
therein.
''Unionization means frequent
strikes for ina ginary causes, with re-
sultant increased costs of production,
loss of efficiency and higher prices for
coal
The union has resorted to violence
and to the destruction of property in
an effort to intimidate the operators
and force their employees to join the
union.
Claim Union Is Unlawful.
1.-THE United Mine Workers of
America is an unlawful organization
because it aims, as shown by its con-
stitution. to appropriate the properties
of the operators.
There is a conspiracy between the
union and the mine owners and oper-
ators of the central competitive field
to uniOnize the nonuniOn fields of
West Virginia in order to handicap or
70, T.
competitors in the markets which they
now reach, and where by reason of
their lower production costs and
greater efficiency they now have an
advantage over the unionized central
competitive field
Turning from these contentious of
the operators we have the claims of
the miners as epitomized by Vice
President Murray of the union, as fol-
lows: The miners have the cOnsti-
tutional rights of free speech and free
assemblage in which they should be
protected. They have also the right of
collective bargaining. the right to join
the union and the right to engage in
legitimate trade union activities.
Their rights, if not specifically guar
anteed by the organized law of the
nation, are contemplated by the fun
damental guarantees of the constitu-
ton, and have the highest sanction of
all law, organic or statutory, namely
the approval of enlightened public
opinion and common practice in all
industries in all civilized countries
The problem in West Virginia is
not 4 question of unionism versus non
unionism, but is a question of the es-
adjustment, acceptance and obserV-
ance of fundamental principles and
practices which are essential to peace
ana orderly progress in all industry
The trouble is due solely to the
denial by the operators of the right
of their employees TO join the union.
and to the methods adopted by the
operators to enforce that denial
methods that were coercive and in
timidating and resulted in the inva-
sion of the constitutional and eco
homie rights Of the workers.
Menace to Public Welfare.
Conditions of the West Virginia
ronunion fields and the controversy
there are menace to the public well
fare. prevent the sta Utilization and or
derly development of the entire btu
minous coal industry, and tend to To-
ment discord and unrest in all other
industries.
Recognition of the rights of the
workers TO join the union will not re-
suit necessarily in the unionizatien of
the nonunion fields.
THE United Mine Workers of
America is a lawful organization, it
does not seek the appropriation of
private property, and it is not in a
conspiracy with the operators of the
Viii POLAtANS AAeLh dSdlnSl AHS
nonunion operators in West Virginia.
The nonunion operators of West
Virginia are in a conspiracy with the
| United States Steel corporation, the
Pennsylvania railroad, and closely at
filiated financial and business inter
ests, IN the sO-called open shop move
ment which aims to break down and
destroy all trade unions"
Both sides advance solutions of the
difficulty which are quite as much at
variance as their general contentious
According to the operators the only
solution is to give them a free hand
in conducting their business and oper-
ating their mines on their own terms