enough chaps to those who are not "undesirable," and they are, for the
most part, intelligent. But they are in the mines for a definite
purpose. They understand what that purpose is and they have no hesitancy
about "delivering the goods." They seem to have no illusions about their
work. It pays well and if brutality is required, why, brutality "goes."
Whenever possible they are clothed with some semblance of the authority
of the law, either by being sworn in as railroad detectives, as
constables or deputy sheriffs.
But for all that a number have been indicted for offenses ranging from
common assault to murder. In every case, however, bail has been ready
and it is rare that charges against them have been brought to trial.
Some of the assault cases in which they have figured have been of great
brutality, yet rarely has any serious trouble resulted for the guards.
They go about their work in a purely impersonal way. If a worker becomes
too inquisitive, if he shows too much independence, or complains too
much about his condition, he is beaten up some night as he passes under
a coal tipple, but the man who does the beating has no feeling against
him personally; it is simply a matter of business to him.
Just what the services of the guards cost the coal companies is
difficult to learn. The companies contract with the Baldwin-Felts agency
for them and the sum they pay is kept a secret. It is generally
understood that the guards get about $5 a day, or between $100 and $125
a month. A man in the mines who knows one of them intimately told me he
"picked up his gun" for $105 a month. When a man joins the Baldwins he
"picks up his gun," and that stamps him forevermore with his former
associates if they were of the laboring class as an enemy and a man who
has turned his back on his class and his kind.
[Illustration: _Courtesy of the United Mine Workers' Journal_
A GROUP OF STRIKERS' CHILDREN]
Unless the miners are beaten in this fight, and utterly and completely
beaten, there will never be a settlement of the difficulty here until
the mine guards are driven from the region. "The mine guards must go,"
is the slogan of the striking miner everywhere. His going is of more
importance than an increase in pay. There will be no lasting peace in
the region until they are gone. All over the state when the situation in
the Kanawha valley comes up for discussion you are told that the mine
guards are at the bottom of the trouble. They are the Ishmaelites of the
coal regions for their hands are supposed to be against every miner, and
every miner's hand is raised against them. They go about in constant
peril--they are paid to face danger and they face it all the time. But
they are afraid, for they never know when they may get a charge of
buckshot or a bullet from an old Springfield army rifle that will make a
hole in a man's body big enough for you to put your fist in. A number of
guards have been killed since the trouble began, and it is generally
understood that some of these were buried by their fellows and nothing
said about it, there being a disposition down in the mines not to let
the other side know when either side scores and gets a man.
_Beginning of Hostilities_
Preparations for the warfare, which began in April of last year, had
been going on for months before the actual opening of hostilities. The
miners on Paint Creek began buying old Springfield rifles which the
government had discarded and which were offered in quantities by junk
dealers and department stores in Charleston. There had been rumors of
trouble, and the Paint Creek miners who were organized had received
intimations that Cabin Creek conditions would be established in their
operations. There had been no mine guards on Paint Creek for they are
seldom seen in union operations. The miners had received information
that the operators would not sign the scale for the new year but would
repudiate the union and bring in the guards.
Their information proved correct. When the Kanawha Operators'
Association met to consider the scale, the Paint Creek operators
declined to sign it and withdrew from the association. The miners struck
and the guards appeared over night. A big fight took place at Mucklow
when the first blood was spilled in the trouble. It has been spilled in
quantities since with more or less regularity.
The companies immediately prepared for a long fight. Miners were evicted
from their homes and many of them have since been living in tents
furnished by the United Mine Workers. Machine guns were imported and
mounted in concrete fortifications that were hurriedly built on the
roofs of the company stores and mounted in positions of vantage in the
hills. Whisky, cartridges, rifles and machine gun ammunition were
brought in in large quantities.
The strike spread at once to Cabin Creek and from the beginning the
warfare has been more serious on Cabin Creek than it has been on Paint
Creek. More machine guns were established on Cabin Creek than had been
planted in Paint Creek. The situation grew so threatening that Governor
Glasscock ordered out the militia early last August at the solicitation
of the mine owners. By that time almost every man on Cabin Creek had his
rifle and ammunition, hidden but where he could get at it without
trouble. For the most part the arms were smuggled in over the hills. The
mine owners informed Governor Glasscock that the miners were armed and
were threatening to wipe out the mine guards, one of the guards, William
Stringer, having been slain in a most brutal manner. The miners did not
ask for protection, saying they could protect themselves. It is
generally believed that they were waiting for some particularly bad move
on the part of the guards, when they proposed to exterminate them if
possible. The mine owners expected that when the troops came they would
disarm the miners but allow the guards to retain their rifles, in other
words, and to put it very plainly, they expected that the militia would
be used as an additional force against the miners. But when the troops
began disarming the guards as well as the miners they protested most
vigorously. But for every rifle taken away from a guard in the early
days of the trouble, dozens of new ones were brought in.
[Illustration: _Courtesy of the United Mine Workers' Journal_
A TENT VILLAGE OF STRIKERS
The deserted town is in the background]
_Martial Law_
Governor Glasscock's attitude pleased neither the operators nor the
strikers. The miners at the outset wanted him to proclaim martial law,
to search the whole place, run out the guards, take their arms away from
them and take the machine guns out of the improvised forts. They
received the soldiers with open arms--no set of soldiers ever went into
a strike region and received a heartier welcome. In the presence of the
troops, the guards had no terrors for the miners, and even the children
were unafraid.
When martial law was really proclaimed, however, the strikers did not
like it. The law was enforced with vigor and a number of the strikers
were put in prison for violating the law against unlawful assemblages.
The shoe had begun to pinch and it pinched pretty hard before the
soldiers were withdrawn. It was a mistake to take away the troops before
the strike had been definitely settled. It would have cost the state a
good deal to have retained them after things quieted down, but if a
comparatively small force had been kept, it is hardly likely that the
recent trouble would have occurred, and it would not have been necessary
to send the soldiers back and proclaim martial law a second time. Then
many lives would have been saved.
The trouble that followed the withdrawal of the troops could have been,
it seems, foreseen by almost any one. One of the miners said when I was
in the mines:
"Hell is going to break loose here as soon as the troops are
recalled unless the mine guards go out at the same time. They have
it in for us and we have it in for them. As soon as the troops go
out, we fellows who have been working to unionize this region are
going to catch it. But when they start something the fun will
begin.
"If you want to see some hot doings just wait around until the
troops go. Conditions such as prevail here are a disgrace. The like
of them does not prevail in any civilized country on the globe. And
we are not going to stand them any longer. I have never had to kill
a man and hope never to be compelled to kill one, but I would kill
a dozen of these guards as I would kill so many rats if they should
attempt to lord it over us as they have been accustomed to do. And
I would do it with a perfectly clear conscience."
The man who made this statement was killed in one of the recent fights
in the valley. I saw his name in the list of the dead.
One of the things that give the coal operators such complete control of
the men who work for them is the ownership of great tracts of land.
Everywhere you are confronted with a notice that you are on private
property.
_Landlordism_
Because the West Virginia mining villages are nearly all on private
property, the operators owning the highways as well as the houses of the
miners, they can control their going and coming and determine who may or
may not visit them and talk with them. It is idle to say that the men
can come and go as they please, as the operators claim. Each individual
among them has the right to go from his home to the mine and back again
and to travel on the county road, which is merely an excuse for a
highway. But he has not the _right_ to go from his own home to that of a
fellow workman nor has his wife and children. When they do so, it is by
the sufferance of the mine owner, unless they go by the county road and
then half the houses cannot be reached. It is idle to say that this
power is not exercised by the operators. It is. I have seen it
exercised, and this very fact contains a serious menace to the country.
I talked it over one day with Governor Glasscock in the early days of
the trouble.
"How can it be remedied?" he asked. "The whole situation bristles with
problems like this. In this case you are up against a man's
constitutional right to control his property as he sees fit and to keep
trespassers off it."
Such a situation offers a serious problem in government. Take Cabin
Creek alone, with its branches to Kayford and Decota. There are more
than twenty square miles of territory in which live ordinarily about
12,000 persons. In all that territory there is scarcely a place in which
a man may go without being under surveillance, and except at the little
"free" or incorporated town of Eskdale, hardly a house into which a
friend may be invited for a drink of water except by the grace of the
coal companies.
The miners say that such a condition is un-American. They want it solved
and they do not care how it is to be solved. While this matter is not
put in the list of their demands, it is one of their serious grievances.
Here are the things they are demanding:
Abolition of the mine guard system.
A reform in the system of docking.
The employment of check-weighmen on the tipples to represent the
miners and to be paid by the miners. The law provides for these
check-weighmen, but this law is ignored by the coal companies.
Permission for the men to trade where they please without
discrimination against them for so doing.
The payment of wages in cash every two weeks and not in script or
credit cards.
Improved sanitary conditions, with the requirement that the
companies remove garbage and keep the houses in condition.
Payment for mining coal on the basis of the short ton on which the
coal is sold and not on the basis of the long ton, on which it is
at present mined.
Rentals of houses based on a fair return on their cost with
allowance for upkeep and electric lights on the same basis.
The nine hour day--the men now work ten hours.
Recognition of the union. This implies, in the bituminous districts
of the middle West, the check-off system by which the companies
deduct from the pay envelopes of individual miners not only the
charges for powder, rent, medical attention, store accounts, etc.,
but also for union dues which are turned over to the union
treasuries direct. This method of recognizing the union has been
most vigorously opposed by the operators in the anthracite
district.
An increase in pay. This last the miners regard as the least vital
of all their demands as a present issue.
_Charges as to Peonage_
It has been charged that a condition of peonage exists in some of the
mining districts of the state. This is a subject on which the operators
are very sensitive. They deny vehemently that such a thing is possible.
Peonage, as it is usually understood, means compelling men to work under
duress until debts they may owe are paid. It is a violation of state and
federal laws.
Men who come into the mines usually have little or no money. Sometimes
their transportation into the mines is paid and they are charged with
the cost of it on the books of the companies employing them. They are
given a cabin to live in and if they have no money when they start and
seem to want to go to work in good faith they are given credit for small
amounts at the company stores. Accordingly, unless the miner is an
unusually thrifty fellow, he is usually in debt at the start.
Miners have told me that in the Cabin Creek region they are paid only
once a month, but when they start in, they are not paid any cash for
sixty days, the first month's pay being held back. In the meantime,
however, after they have earned sufficient money to pay the rent and
other charges in connection with their cabins, their school tax, burial
tax of twenty-five cents a month, their assessment for the maintenance
of the mine physician, and sometimes an item for "protection" which is
an assessment for the pay of the mine guards they will, "on
application" be given a "script card" entitling them to purchase from
the company store goods to the amount indicated on the card. On the
edges of the card are figures and the amounts purchased are punched out
very much as the waiters in a quick lunch restaurant punch out the
amount of a customers order on his check.
[Illustration: _Courtesy of the New York Sun_
SOLDIERS IN CAMP AT CABIN CREEK JUNCTION]
These script cards will not, it is said, be given to a miner for the
total amount which stands to his credit on the books of the mine
company, but is usually for $2 or $3 if the man has that amount due him
after deductions are made for rent in advance and other charges. If a
man is very anxious however, to have some cash, a clerk in the store,
will, it is said, discount his script card, charging him 25 per cent.
For the first two months, then, the miner, who starts out in debt, has
to get everything he needs from the company stores. The prices at these
stores are high, much higher than the miner would have to pay elsewhere
for exactly the same grade of stuff. For the most part, the grade of
goods sold at the company stores is much higher than is usually
purchased by laboring men and their wives when they buy where they
please. Here are some of the prices I found prevailing at stores along
Cabin Creek:
Eggs 35 cents a dozen; "white bacon," pure fat and popularly known
as "sow belly" 18 cents a pound; smoked bacon 22 cents a pound;
white sugar 20 cents for a two pound bag; lard 15 cents a pound;
brown sugar 15 cents a pound; coffee 30 cents a pound; tomatoes 15
cents a can; peas 15 cents a can; corn two cans for 25 cents;
cheese 30 cents a pound; bread 5 cents a loaf; flour $7 a barrel,
and salt 5 cents for a two pound bag. Salt is not sold in bulk.
Compelled to buy at high prices, it can be readily seen that a man
cannot save much money, although it is a fact that a few of the very
thrifty ones have rather respectable bank accounts. So when the average
fellow starts out in debt, he usually stays in debt. His work is hard
and he eats heartily when he can. Then the miners' wives have never been
taught how to make much out of little or to conserve their resources, so
there is naturally much waste in cooking, much is spoiled and much is
poorly prepared.
All this tends to keep the man in debt. At the end of his two month's
work he may have couple of dollars coming to him or he may be still in
debt and if he is in his house a day over the first of the month, rent
in advance is charged against the first money he earns even though he
and his family may be in need of food. Sometimes he does not get any
cash for months, and you have to have cash to get out of the mines for
the railroads will not permit the miners and their families to travel
without paying fare.
Most of these people have no one outside on whom they may call for help
in leaving the district, and without money, they must stay in the mines
and work. Heretofore their best means of getting out was to develop
strong union tendencies and to talk about the necessity of organizing.
Then, if they were not beaten up, their fare was sometimes paid, and
their furniture and families moved to some other point. Once out,
however, it would be unpleasant for them to try to get back.
A point is made by the operators that they have offered to pay the fares
of any of their men and of their families, including transportation
charges on their household goods, to Charleston or to fields operating
under union conditions. It is a fact that such offers have been made and
because the miners did not avail themselves of the offer, it is cited
against them as unreasonable, and that they did not care so much about
bettering their condition as about harassing the operators.
As a matter of fact the men do not care to leave the region. They are
engaged in a fight to unionize it and are as anxious to succeed as are
the operators to prevent them from doing so. "Stay where you are and
unionize your district but do not crowd into organized operations," is
the advice given by the union organizers. That is why the unions in the
other districts are supporting the strikers and have been doing so for a
year.
_The Glasscock Commission_
Last summer after the mine companies refused point blank to be a party
to the appointment of a commission by the governor for the investigation
of the situation in the mines, Governor Glasscock appointed one anyway.
Bishop Donahue, the Catholic bishop of Wheeling, S. L. Walker, and Fred
O. Blue were appointed as commissioners. Extracts from the report of
this commission are interesting:
"From the cloud of witnesses and mass of testimony figuring in the
hearings, there emerges clearly and unmistakably the fact that
these guards [the mine guards referred to heretofore] recklessly
and flagrantly violated in respect to the miners on Paint Creek and
Cabin Creek, the rights guaranteed by natural justice and the
constitution to every citizen howsoever lowly his condition and
state.... Many crimes and outrages laid to their charge were found
upon careful sifting to have no foundation in fact, but the denial
of the right of peaceable assembly and of freedom of speech, many
and grievous assaults on unarmed miners show that their main
purpose was to overawe the miners and their adherents and, if
necessary to beat and cudgel them into submission. We find that the
system employed was vicious, strife prompting and un-American. No
man, worthy of the name, likes to be guarded by others, armed with
black jacks, revolvers and Winchesters whilst he is endeavoring to
earn his daily bread.... We are unanimously of the opinion that the
guard system as at present constituted should be abolished
forthwith."
The commission also found that the company stores overcharged the
miners, that the system of docking was unfair to the miner, and that a
system of blacklisting of miners prevailed.
On the other hand the commission found that in a general way, the miners
in the Paint and Cabin Creek districts were fairly well off, that their
wages were above the average prevailing in the organized fields, that
their cabins were above the average, and that the rent, while "slightly
excessive" was not exorbitant, and that the sanitation was "as good as
can be expected." On the question of wages, the commission found that
the annual wage of miners in West Virginia for the years 1905-1911 was
$554.26 while the average annual wage of miners on Paint and Cabin
Creeks "is from $600 to $700." It will be noticed that in the first
instance a definite, fixed figure is given for the average. In the other
the statement is a general one "between $600 and $700."
The statement is also made that "a minute examination of the pay rolls
discloses the fact that 16 or 17 days' work a month constitutes a high
average and that many engaged in the mines _decline_ (the italics are
mine) to labor more than 12 or 14 days."
There are two sides to this. The "unwillingness" of the miners to work
more than a certain number of days a month is proved to the satisfaction
of the commission by an "examination of the pay roll." As a matter of
fact in most instances the reason the men do not work more days in a
month is due to the system of "crowding" which prevails all over the
non-union districts of West Virginia. This is one of the things the
miner complains about most bitterly. It is worked in this way: An
operation has, say a capacity of 200 men. On the pay roll of that
operation may be anywhere from 300 to 400 men. All these men cannot work
in the mine at one time, but the company always wants to have plenty of
men on hand. So the men are allowed to make but little more than half
time. The advantage to the operators is that the more men they have the
more cottages they will rent, the more mouths there will be to feed from
the company stores, and the more money collected for physicians' fees,
insurance and other things for which the miners have to pay. It is
absolutely true that the men do not work more than from 12 to 17 days a
month, but the pay roll will never tell you the real reason. The men
want to work, but they are not permitted to do so.
As to the cabins being above the average--they may be. I went into some
of them. I would want a more comfortable stable for my horses. The
greater number of the cabins contain four rooms each and are absolutely
without any sanitary or other arrangements for the convenience of the
occupants. Some few are larger and some are smaller but the four room
cabin is the type. They are nearly all alike, built of rough lumber and
roofed with a composition roofing such as is bought by the roll. The
rental is on the basis of $1.50 per room per month. A four room cabin
costs $6 a month, a six room cabin costs $8 or $9. But take the average
four room cabin at $6, the yearly rate is $72. That is interest at 6 per
cent on $1,200. The labor cost on these houses was not more than $40
each on the average. Including the land on which the houses stand they
did not cost the companies more than $300 each. Six per cent on $300 is
$18.
Now, the houses are put up as much for the convenience of the companies
as for the miners. There would be no coal mined unless the miners had
houses in which to live, so a 6 per cent rate on the houses would seem
fair. But even allowing 10 per cent, the rate would be $30 instead of
$72. At the rentals charged these houses have paid for themselves over
and over again and everything the companies get out of them now is pure
"velvet." I would call the rental charges exorbitant rather than
"slightly excessive" as the commission finds.
As a matter of fact, that Glasscock commission report will not bear
close analysis. It is a straddle, made so perhaps in order to protect
"the good name of the state." I do not believe that it is accurate in a
number of particulars. I do not believe that the average wage of the
miners on Paint and Cabin Creeks is between $600 and $700. A good miner
will average $2.50 to $3 a day for the days he works. The impression is
sought to be created that many of the miners have money in bank. Some of
them have, undoubtedly, but they form an exceedingly small percentage of
the whole number. I know that as soon as the strike was called the vast
majority of the miners and their families had to be supported by the
union. I saw wagon loads of provisions sent up to the head of Cabin
Creek to feed those who were hungry and who had nothing coming to them
according to the books of the companies and who could get nothing at the
stores.