Evening star., 1922-08-20
NEW M|NGO TRIAL
OPENS TOMORROW
Over 100 Witnesses Called
as Walter Allen Faces
Charge of Treason.
RESULT OF UNION MARCH
Blizzard Acquitted in Similar Case.
Sharp Legal Battle
Anticipated.
RESULT OF UNION MARCH
Snecial nisnatch TO The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
CHARLES TOWN. W. Va. August
fa-With more than 100 witnesses,
mostly from the bituminous fields IN
the s;uthern part of the state IN town
tonight arrangements have peen
completed for the second treason
trial growing out of the grand march
of 5000 union miners on Logan ana
Mingo counties late last summer
which begins Monday.
Walter Allen, frequently referred to
in other trials here as one OF the
leaders of the hastily recruited army
of coal diggers, who according TO
their pass word went creeping
across fifty miles of rough mountain
Gus roads until they reached the Lo-
gan county border where state forces
halted the threatened INVASION ana
engaged the miners in battle over
a front of twenty-five miles IN the
thickly wooded Appalachian range, Is
facing charge of joining a move
to overthrow the government OF the
little mountain state.
Allen is not an officer of the United
Mine Worker, as was William Biz
zard first to be tried here on trea-
son charge and acquitted. He was
however, according to ATTORNEYS toI
the state. active as an organizer iot
the miners union, played prominent
part in the formation of the insur-
rection and is directly accused OF
supplying most of the ammunition
for the attempted invasion of nom
union coal territory.
One of Over 100 Cases.
The case of Allen is one of more
than a hundred indicted in Logan
county and transferred here on a
change of venue by agreement OF all
concerned. Twenty of these cases are
for treason against the state ana the
remainder are murder and conspiracy.
Three trials have already been held
since the Blizzard case began In April.
In two of them convictions foT the
murder of three Logan county deputy
sheriffs on Blair mountain were OBJ
tanned against father and son. Rev.
James E. Wilburn and John Wilburn.
both members of the United Mine
Workers of America. They are now in
the Jefferson county Jail here await
ing sentence of from five to eighteen
years
Attorneys for the state assert that
during the interum since the Blizzard
trial twenty-five additional men have
been arrested for alleged participa-
tion in the march in other states. and
that virtually all of them have turned
states evidence and will testify
against Allen.
Lawyers for the United Mine
Workers, however. who are conduct
equally as confident that there will
again be a verdict Of acquittal as in
the Blizzard case. They expressed
tho hope today that "the verdict of
acquittal in this case will settle these
treason charges for all time to come"
Judge Woods to Preside.
Judge John Mitchell Woods of the
circuit court here Is presiding in the
armed march cases.
Attorneys for both sides predict
that the Allen case will cover about
one month, as compared with five
weeks consumed by the Blizzard trial.
Because of the unusualness OF the
case, legal questions involved were
argued at length in the Blizzard trial
and precedents which will be followed
in the Allen trial were established.
Immediately following the Allen
trial, attorneys for the state have
announced that they will try c. Frank
Keeney, president of district No. II,
United Mine Workers of America:
Fred Mooney, secretary-treasurer, and
William Blizzard, president Of sub
district No. 2, on indictments charging
them with being accessories before
the fact in the murder of the three
Logan county deputy sheriffs on Blair
mountain early on the morning of last
August 81.