The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-01-05
BY JOHN I. MOUTOUX
Times stan Correspondent

county, Kentucky, center Of recent
coal mine disorders, again are ex-
posed in a nine-volume report or
conditions in the mine area by a
commission appointed by former
Governor Elem d. Sampson.
INC report consists of some 1000
pages Of testimony obtained by the
commissioners, j. Smith Hays OF
Winchester and A. A. Bablitz of Lex
ington at the scene of the trouble
Both are leading members of the
Kentucky bar.
In addition to the many atrocitie:
the report discloses an amazing dis
regard OF civil liberties and de-
mand5 that those who Outraged
common decency be prosecuted"
Wholesale raids were made on the
homes Of miners, many of the min
ers lodged in jail without oppor-
tunity TO make bond, and kept there
for days and weeks before being
given an examining trial.
The report was presented the day
before Governor Sampson left Of
fee, yielding to Governor Ruby Laf-
foon No action has been taken
on IT..
Sheriff Is the Law
The law" as it is known in
Harlan county, is Sheriff John
Henry Blair and his more than two
hundred deputies. Blair himself
I'D not tNarticipofo -, anu If fJo
clubbing9 administered by the depu-
ties, but in a statement to the COM
mission he takes full responsibility
Tor their acts.
During the recent trials at Mt.
Sterling, of William Burnett, for
murder, and w. B. Jones, for muir
der conspiracy, much evidence was
introduced by the commonwealth
on the whipping of one Charlie Car
penter, strike breaking miner.
There is no doubt that the whip
ping occurred and that it was q
brutal affair, but that incident was
unimportant compared with the
beatings which miners have re-
ceived at the hands of the deputies
and Evarts policemen, and revealed
in the commissions report
Here is a typical case from the
report:
Mrs. Viola Grace. 37-year-old
wife of the Rev. j. M. Grace, 60
year-old Southern Methodist
preacher, told of the kidnapping of
her husband and the beating he
received
Beat Preacher
He was taken out of the jail at
Neon, KY turned over to the
jenkins bunch, who turned him
over to the Harlan county bunch,
she said.
They took him to Lynch, took
him up the mountain on the Vir-
ginia side, and beat him on the
head with a pistol till his head was
as black as your suit. His cheek
bones we're busted, both his eyes
were bruised up where they hit him
with a blackjack or something;
they kicked him across the back,
over the kidneys, until he spit blood
three days
He finally got away and fifty
shots were fired at him as he ran.
He went to Middleboro, KY, and
Joined the National Miners Union.
They sent him to New York to get
aid"
Later. the commissioners asked
Sheriff Blair about this incident
and all the other atrocities they
had uncovered.
AT the time this happened I
was in Grand Rapids" the sheriff
said.
Men Wore ArmOr
Peg Did your posse have anything to
do with that?" he was asked.
They say not; 1 am sure they
did not" Blair replied.
Mrs. Grace also described the sur
rounding of her boarding house at
Wallins Greek by deputies.
John Henry Blair sent out fifty
or sixty gunner who surrounded
my house with machine guns" she
said. They had a tripod planted
right under my window. All the
men had from one, two, three and
four guns on them; had ammuni-
ton in their belts buckled around
them; had breast plates on front
and back"
You saw the breast plates?" she
was asked by one of the commits
-sioners.
Sure you could see them. George
Lee had one on; it looked like a
q baseball outfit. This little three
foot gangster-nobody in Harlan
county ever saw him before; they
say he is from Chicago-he was
plated until ne creaked."
Negro Is Victim
George Lee is chief peace officer
at Black Mountain camp. The man
referred to as "three-foot gangster"
is George Haywood of Chicago, one
of the Black Mountain mine guards.
He formerly vas a salesman of
riot equipment and was taken on as
a mine guard. During the Jones
trial he brought $4,000 SANDER
suit against j. M. Robson, former
: United States senator and chief
OF the defense counsel in the min
erS' trials, because Robson referred
to him in the trial as the man
nicknamed AlphonSe Capcne."
: The commissioners asked Sheriff
Blair about this. He said:
we had information that there
were arms at Mrs. Grace's house.
a lot OF literature, lot of guns. l
sent thirty men. They took guns
sufficient to handle any situation
that might arise. They took a
Browning or two, some machine
guns, some automatic guns"
Henry Thornton, 4S-year-old
Negro miner, said one night a party
OF eleven deputies headed by Bob
Blair came to his house.
Q-What did they do?
A-They ierked me out of bed.
: took me out on the road, and
Knocked me in the head.
Odd they say why they were