Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1937-04-20
HARLAN BEAT|NCS
TOLD TO PROBERS
La Toilette Group Informed
Presence of C. C. C. Saved
Co|ored Miners Life.
BY JOHN c. HENRY.

Presence Of c. C. c. truck and
some workmen on lonely Pine Noun
tain, in Harlan County, KY, probably
saved the life OF John Smith, colored
U. M. w. miner in 1894, it was testi-
fed today before the La Follettee Civil
Liberties Committee.
Smith. it was said, was taken to the
mountain by Deputy Sherif1s Merle
Middleton, Frank White and George
Lee, and was told by Middleton:
Il am going to Kill you. You are
trying to organize Harlan County and
it can't be done, and Bob Long told
me he would give me $500 If I killed
you"
AS they reached the mountain, it
was testified, they discovered the
c. c. c. truck and the workers, so
they took Smith into the woods and
beat him with 5-foot hickory stick
while they threatened him with guns.
Smiths experience was brought out
by testimony of M. A. Musick and
James Westmoreland, miners, and by
transcript Of testimony taken by a
Kentucky commission in 1885.
Smith, crippled by the beating, left
Harlan County permanently, because
OF fear he later would be killed.
Westmoreland, recounting the
unions experience with the Cornett-
Lewis Co., where Smith worked, testi-
fed the miners voted a strike after
wholesale union discharges, but
armed deputies routed some of the
miners from their homes and per
suaded" them to go back to work.
R. E. Lawson, Cornett-Lewis super
intendent, later took the stand to deny
the company had violated its union
contract by the discharges. He said
union workers ''intimidated" the non
union ones by visiting their homes and
telling them not to return to work.
Lawson Claims Ignorance.
Questioned about the arrest OF
MuSick, lawson said he didn't remem-
Der swearing out a warrant, didn't
know what criminal syndicalism is,
and didn't remember Judge Saylor's
calling him up about disposition Of the
case.
1T absolutely did not take place,
Lawson said Of Westmoreland's testi-
mony that miners were driven to work
at gun point.
Lawson testified that he held a
Secret vote in his mines on whether
workers wanted U. M. w. membership,
AS part. of the procedure, he said, the
ballots were signed by those voting.
The polls were located in = building
owned by Lawson
Lawson took occasion to voice 4
broad defense Of conditions in Bloody
Harlan" claiming wages there are as
high as in other coal fields, that COM
pany houses are attractive and that
profits on company stores don't usually
run to ITS per cent as shown in one
case last week The Cornett-Lewis
Co., Lawson said, makes only about 18
to II per cent.
Knocked Down and Kicked.
On one occasion in 1884, when q
group Of miners tried to walk to q
nearby town to hear 4 speech by for
mer Gov. w. P. Morrow, they were
stopped on the highway by a score
OF heavily-armed deputies, Musick
testified. and many were beaten
Musick said he was knocked down by
Deputy George Lee and kicked by
Deputy Merle Middleton Musick said
he saw another miner knocked down
and jabbed in the face by the muzzle
OF shotgun welded by = deputy.
As q field representative of the U.
M. w., Musick said, on several oc-
casions he disguised himself by taking
out his false teeth and backing his
face in order to slip through traps set
for him by the deputies and return to
his home.
Musick told of being arrested in
May. 1884, by Deputy Sheriff Ben
Unthank and several others After
being held in jail for nearly 10 hours,
ne was released on bond. It was not
until the arraignment that he learned
the charge on which he WIS arrested
criminal syndicalism-and he had to
60 home to look up in . dictionary
what 1t meant.
When brought in for trial, Musick
said County Judge Morris Saylor called
the superintendent Of the Cornett-
Lewis Mine to ind out what he wanted
done in the case. He was finally re-
leased.
The Jail where he was held in
Louellen, Musick said, was cage"
under the steps of = theater building.
James Westmoreland, now An en-
ploye Of the Virginia State Highway
Department and formerly president
OF the A. U. M. w. local in the
Cornett-Levis mines, took the stand
next to tell how Mine Supt. Lawson
had discharged S. union members IN
violation Of an agreement with the
union because they had asked for Q
check-oh. r
Decision h ths committee q