The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-09-23
A Prisoner from a
Harlan Jail Tells
of the Terror

EI@H ACANAN' AeRA4AAy do InB11-IldIUSu aS LLldG
~ practced by 18th century monarchs is en-
forced by coal company operators against the
miners OF Harlan County, KY, according to Ar
mold johnson, rs, who has just returned to New
York
The second day after arriving in Harlan Sohn-
son was ordered to clear out of the county by the
Operators Association. The following day, upon
attempting to interview Judge D. G. Jones, who
has imprisoned scores of miners on criminal syn
dicalism charges johnson declares that he was
damned thoroughly" and told that nobody
from New York was going to tell Harlan county
officials how to treat their prisoners"
After several weeks of investigation during
which time he was threatened with shooting and
dynamiting, Johnson himself was jailed on
charge of criminal syndicalisn. Together with
miners held on the same charge, for murder or
for possession of prohibited literature, John
son was not allowed to see reporters or friends
He was fed on a diet of corn bread and beans.
While in JAIL his room was raided and searched
Constant Terror.
Miners are subjected to constant reign of
terror" declares Johnson. "They can hold their
National Mine Workers Union meetings only
when they are able to mass enough men together
to COW gunner with machine guns and armor to
stay away Soup kitchens have been raided and
relief supplies destroyed. The miners are, de-
spite all this terror still fighting for militant
union, because those who work in the Harlan
mines are starving just like those who are not
working"
johnson tells of one case in which black
listed miners family was driven off the cemetery
in which daughter was buried, because the
cemetery is company ground"
Company Money.
Most of the miners live in company houses and
can trade only in company stores, he declares.
THE miners are paid in script In the company
stores, prices are anywhere from two to four
times those Of other stores. Script may be used
at other stores-at discount of Is to so per
cent
Beans that sell in independent stores for five
cents pound, cost Is cents in company store.
-Four cent potatoes sell for 8 cents II cent bacon
for 80 cents, AZ cent flour for $110 % cent cof-
fee for SIS cents, IS cent meat for cents 30 cent
butter for 10 cents One company which earns
$4,000 year on its coal, cleared $4,000 from
its company store.
The Deduction Robbery
Il know one miner who earned SASS in two
weeks by working every day. From this amount,
no matter how impoverished the family may be-
the coal company deducts the following items
every month: Doctor $1.85, coal $3.50 month,
whether they use coal or not, and rs cents extra
Tor each load if they use any, burial fund 81,
hospital 81, school fund 80 cents, blacksmith 81
cents, insurance $3.50, church so cents, and rent
ranging from $3.50 to SIS month for a four
room house with a pump in the back yard.
These deductions are made regardless OF the
amount OF wages the miner receives"
Those who organized in the National Miners
Union to fight this industrial tyranny were inn
mediately blacklisted, their homes raided, their
families terrorized and the miners thrown in Jail
in criminal syndicalism or murder charges Sen
fences for criminal syndicalism run up to 81
years.
Pellagra and flux, starvation diseases, have
been playing havoc with the imprisoned miners
families and their children, johnson reports. In
ternational Labor Defense representatives in
their work of providing food and milk to these
families have been threatened and thrown in Jail.
In one instance an International Defense relief
car was dyamted
johnson represented the American Civil Lib
critics upion in Harlan County.
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