by express contract joined in a combination and conspiracy with a body of organized operators resident in other states to control, restrain, and, to an extent at least, destroy, the coal trade of the state of West Virginia."

Because of a lack of consumers within her own borders, West Virginia has a market at home, so it is said, for less than ten per cent of her total coal output of over eight millions of tons a year. Because of her geographical position, much of the rest, to reach the markets outside, must be hauled through the territory of the four other states, where the operators are alleged to have made use of every possible business expedient in the past to crowd out her competition. This effort of the U. M. W. of A., the West Virginia operators say, is but a further attempt, in response to the importunities of the northern operators, to insert an entering wedge, with the purpose ultimately of unionizing every mine in the state; the owners of those in this particular section were simply unfortunate in having been selected as the first objects of the attack.

Questions Involved.

These West Virginia operators deny that low wages and deplorable conditions prevail in the non-union sections, or that the strike was really instituted to secure any change for the benefit of the miners. In their letters to the Governor they deny emphatically that any demand even has ever been made of them in that respect; the only demand that has been submitted, they protest-and that not by their own employes, but by officers of the U. M. W. of A.-is for recognition of that organization. They admit, however, that its ultimate purpose in trying to unionize the district is to bring about an increase in wages, though with an ulterior motive, the idea being that by effecting such increase, in West Virginia, the ability of the operators there to meet competition in a highly competitive market would be decreased correspondingly. "Had it not been for the unrestrained lawlessness," they say in their published letter of the second of April, "incited by the notorious 'Mother' Jones and other paid agents of the United Mine Workers of

America last summer, our mines would never have lost a day or a man."

And, in this assertion as to wages and conditions, they were unanimously corroborated by the members of a commission appointed by the Governor on the 28th of last August to make full inquiry into the matter-a commission composed of Bishop Donahue, of Wheeling, Captain S. L. Walker, of the State National Guard, and the Hon. Fred O. Blue, a prominent Charleston attorney. After having spent more than two months in inspecting the physical condition of the various plants and examining, on oath,

"The average wage on Paint Creek and Cabin Creek is fully equal to, if not greater, than that of the miners in the very limited number of union plants in the state on the opposite bank of the Kanawha * river. They exceed the average wage obtained in Illinois, a unionized state, which is but $510.86 a year. We have been unable to obtain any figures as to the average annual wage in the unionized states of Indiana, western Pennsylvania and Ohio, but we are informed by experts, and we believe, that the average wage in the two states first mentioned probably falls a little below that prevailing in Illinois, while

Machine Guns, Rifles and Ammunition Taken From the Strikers and Guards in the West Virginia Coal Fields.

the annual wage in Ohio, owing to local mining conditions, falls a little below that of western Pennsylvania.”

Respecting the living conditions, the commission reported that "the general surroundings of the mines on Paint Creek and Cabin Creek, respectively, are very good when compared with those of the miners throughout the state and the nation;" that the commissioners had gone into their homes and carefully examined them, and that "they are above the average in most places;" that the sanitation is as good as can be expected in view. of the environment, for the houses are located near the mines and these are in more or less narrow valleys hedged in by mountains; that there is a hospital, "thoroughly up to date;" that "the physicians along the creeks appear to be competent and conscientious gentlemen, ready always to respond when called upon;" that the schools are as good as the average in the state, "and, moving up and down along either creek, one is impressed with the robustness of the children and the general prosperity reflected in good substantial clothing and household equipment." Yet, the report continues—

"For months before the actual break, union agitators, many of them strangers, attempted to invade Paint Creek and Cabin Creek to persuade the miners to join the union. They called a meeting of the workers and described to them the hardships and injustice of their lot and the oppression under which they suffered. The wildest theories concerning the rights of property and the means of production were propounded and advocated and doctrines closely verging upon anarchy were upheld, with such effect that men who were living peaceably and in comparative prosperity, purchased Winchesters, revolvers, blackjacks and other murderous weapons to shoot down the coal 'barons' and their myrmidons. Mild-eyed men, seventy-five per cent of them with usually cool AngloSaxon blood in their veins and with instincts leading to law and order, inherited down through the centuries, gradually saw red, and, with minds bent on havoc and slaughter, marched from union districts across the river like Hugheston, Cannelton and Boomer, patrolled the woods overhanging the creek beds and the mining plants, finally massing on the ridges at the headwaters and arranging a march to sweep down Cabin Creek and destroy everything before them to the junction. Meanwhile the operators hurried in over a hundred guards heavily

armed, purchased several deadly machine guns and many thousands of rounds of ammunition. Several murders were perpetrated and all who could got away. Men, women and children fled in terror and many hid in cellars and caves. If ever there was a case for some strong measure like martial law, the conditions prevailing on Monday, September 2nd, 1912, the eve of the proclamation, presented it."

The Miners' Side.

It would seem, however, that even before the opening of hostilities, the miners had some substantial reason to be dissatisfied. be dissatisfied. The operators owned nearly all the land in the vicinity of the mines, and, as they refused to sell, it was impossible for workmen. to acquire homes of their own nearby. To be near enough to their places of employment, they were compelled to live in houses also owned by the operators. As there were no other places near enough at which they could buy provisions, they had no practical recourse but to trade at stores that the operators also conducted.

It may be true, as the Commission reported, that the rents of these houses. were not exorbitant; that the plots of land on which they were located were large enough to enable the householders to raise good supplies of vegetables; that, as the operators contend, the stores are maintained only for the convenience of the employes, and that the charges are only sufficiently large to yield a profit of about ten per cent. Nevertheless, one can understand how it would be a source of irritation to have to be dependent on employers for almost everything, with no opportunity for choice.

The men objected, besides, to the docking system that is, deductions from the weights with which they were credited for slate and other impurities in the coal-though, in justice to the operators, it ought to be said that this is not peculiar to the mines in that section. Only clean coal is marketable.

And there is little doubt too that after trouble began, the operators did. much, by means of their conduct of the guard system they necessarily established for the protection of their property, to fan the flame.

At

first there were only a few of these guards-six on Paint Creek, so the Commission reported, and, on Cabin Creek, four or five-but they were armed, and prepared to resist attacks, and, from time to time after the fights at Mucklow on the 28th of May and the 4th of June, when large forces of strikers concealed themselves in the bushes on the hills and fired into the shanty where the guards were sleeping, hundreds of others were employed, mostly residents of the neighborhood, against whom feeling on the part of the strikers ran high because they were regarded as traitors to the cause. These men are accused by the strikers of having themselves organized a reign of terror, with unlawful searches and seizures and innumerable brutalities. "From the cloud of witnesses and the mass of testimony figuring in the hearings had by us," said the Commission

"There emerges clearly and unmistakably the fact that these guards, while personally brave men, openly, recklessly and flagrantly violated, in respect to the miners on Paint Creek and Cabin Creek, the rights guaranteed them by natural justice and the constitution to every citizen howsoever lowly his condition and estate. Some allowance should be made for them in view of the intense excitement and the physical and mental strain under which they bore themselves. Many crimes and outrages laid to their charge were found, upon careful sifting, to have had no foundation in fact; but the denial of the right of peaceable assembly and freedom of speech, and many and grievous assaults on unarmed miners, show that their main purpose was to overawe the miners and their adherents.

Though their forces were added to by the swearing in of many of the guards as deputies, the local authorities soon became utterly unable to cope with the situation. Conflicts between individuals and between small parties were incessant. Pitched battles were fought between large bodies of men. Three times the Governor was obliged to send troops and place parts of the district, and finally the

whole district, under martial law. For a while the whole National Guard of the state was required to restore some semblance of peace. In execution of an order to disarm the combatants, 6 machine guns, 1,155 rifles, 761 shotguns and 482 revolvers were captured, with 177,300 rounds of ammunition; yet it was said that both strikers and guards had plenty to fight with hidden away in reserve.

In these districts martial law is still in force. in force. Recently, in a letter addressed by Mr. John P. White, President of the U. M. W. of A., to Governor Hatfield, a proposal of settlement was made, but it has not been concurred in by the operators because they still decline to recognize the union or deal with any other than their own employes for the reasons above stated. They could not, they say, without running the risk of financial ruin, unless the union would obligate itself not to compel them to place the wages on any but a fair competitive basis, and, if the union should so agree, it would not be an agreement that could be enforced. At any moment, therefore, a fresh armed conflict may break out, and it is to prevent this that it is proposed that the federal government shall interfere, as far as it can at least with due regard for the sovereignty of the state.

For Federal Aid

President John L. Voll, of the Ohio Federation of Labor, recently went to Washington to present an appeal for federal aid for the workmen who were made homeless by the recent flood. "They are not asking for charity," he said. "All they want is an opportunity to get on their feet again, and we are of the opinion that it would be a better policy, not only for the gov ernment but for the men themselves. to pass some special legislation by which small amounts could be loaned them at two or three per cent interest."

Not two years ago, ably as it was presented by some few who had become familiar with the conditions, the idea of the public interposing to such an extent as is now advocated between employers and their employes-at least those not engaged in public service was regarded as revolutionary, as too radical for serious consideration. Today, chiefly because of the moral question involved-for it is charged that the low wages now paid a vast number of the female employes have made of them the principal source from which commercialized vice draws its victims-public opinion has forced its consideration, in some form or other, by the legislatures of nearly all of our great industrial states.

posed of representatives of the employers, employes and the public, to investigate and report whatever minimum wage, if any, a majority consisting of two-thirds of the members may conclude to be fair, and further provides that the Commission shall then hold a public session at which the employers, employes and the public may be heard, and that, if the findings of the investigating board that a minimum wage in the industry under consideration ought to be determined shall be confirmed, such wage as the Commission shall prescribe in its decree shall be established as the mini

mum.

This is admittedly, however, but an experiment. Publicity is the only penalty for failure of employers to comply. In Illinois, a body known as the Senatorial Welfare Commission, has been appointed to inquire into the conditions in that state, but the only states other than Masssachusetts that yet have any law on the subject are Oregon and Utah. In Utah a minimum of $4.50 a week during the first year and $7.50 a week thereafter has been fixed by the statute. In New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, California and perhaps one. or two other states, bills providing for commissions of some sort or other are pending.

The principal theories on which the Massachusetts legislation was based are that the establishing of minimum wages would tend to promote the general welfare, particularly in respect of future generations, in that they would relieve the distress that leads to impairment of health; that they would tend to prevent the