The Republican., 1946-05-16
Bonds Are Posted By
Four After Hearing

| TOuI llltII dIIeSltu Oll Clldl yes VI
assault with intent to kill John c..
Keister, president and general man
ager of the Burnwell Coal company,
New Germany, posted bonds of
81 900 each before Magistrate II. A.
Loraditch in Oakland last Saturday
afternoon and will await action by
the September term of the Garrett
county grand jury.
The men waived preliminary
hearing and no testimony was taken
The men are: Woodrow Wilson,
Kitzmiller; ED" Helmck, who lives
in West Virginia near Shallmar;
Hip" Whitefield, who lives between
Oakland and Kitzmller, and Robert
Smith, of Blaine, w. Va. They are
accused of attacking Keister last
Wednesday, May 8, when a band of
! $50 striking miners visited the mine.
J. Fred Graves, company vice
president, had issued formal state
ment in which he declared the mine
would operate as long as the union
mines in the country were closed
Graves stated that the Burnwell
Coal company "believes that every
American citizen has right to work
if he can find an employer who is
willing to hire him, and it also be-
lieves that every American citizen
has a right to join or not to join a
uniOin.
"Where the employees of company
are not unionized, it would seem clear
that no one has a right to prevent
their working, and certainly no one
has any right to assault and injure
them because they try to work. 1t is
also clear that the president and
J general manager of company should
not be subject to a brutal assault be-
cause he agreed to give employment
to men who ask him for work, and
obviously man who has never been
employed by a company should not
be assaulted on the highways.
"Despite the unquestioned sound
ness of these views, the Burnwell
Coal company realizes that the loca-
tion of its operations, which is in the
woods of Garrett county about three
and one-half miles from the National
Pike, renders it extremely difficult
for the county or the state to offer
police protection. Because the COM
pany does not desire to have its en-
ployes assume the risk of bodily harm
because they want to work, and per
haps have some of them actually
killed, it has been decided not to
operate the mine while the union
mines of the country are closed"
Prior to making that statement,
Graves declared, "Our employees are
residents Of Garrett county, and they
have never joined the union, though
the company has never made any eff
fort to prevent their doing so. AS a
matter of fact, Mr.. John C. Keister,
who is president of the company, and
general manager of its mining oper-
ations, was at one time a union of
ficial in District 16, United Mine
Workers of America. and | under
stand that he only left the union
when he went into business for HIM
self.
"When the coal strike started on
April l we closed down our opera
tlons, and remained closed for two or
three weeks. Then few of our en-
ployes asked us to give them some
work and we did so. However, within
a few days Mr.. John T. Jones, presi-
dent of District 16, United Mine
workers of America, and some other
union officials, called at the mine and
suggested that we close down again,
and we did so. Last Monday a num-
ber of the men again asked Mr.. KeiS-
ter to give them work. stating that
their families were suffering and
they needed employment, and as the
men were not members of the union,
and the company had no contact with
the union, we decided to comply with
our employees request and to give
them some work.
"On Wednesday morning, large
number of men, travelling in cars and
a truck, visited the mine and asked
to talk to the men who were working.
and Mr.. (Robert) Ewing, the super
intendent, called the men out and
!, after some conversation with the
| crowd of men who had gathered, our
employees stopped working and went
home.
"On the way up to the mine the
caravan of visitors stopped Mr.. keis-
ter, who was going home to lunch
and some of them pulled him out of
his car and one stuck him over the
head with a piece of iron pipe, and
they left him lying unconscious on
the road, where he was later found by
Officer blair j. Bucket of the state
ipolice and Constable Charles Zeller
of Grantsville, who picked him up and
. placed him in the car and took him
to the doctor in Grantsville
"Some of the men in the caravan
also stopped Mr.. Ray j. Jenkins, a
, farmer and veteran, who not now