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NOTE generated from 2026_08_12_22_whose_america_ep_1_rough_extraction.segments.json — do not edit
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<v Speaker 1>what is up everybody this

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<v Speaker 2>is Daryl Cooper this is the Martyr Maid podcast and you are about to listen to who's America episode

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one this one

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<v Speaker 3>is called rough extraction it's

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about the

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<v Speaker 1>West Virginia coal mine wars it happens to be the largest

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and

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<v Speaker 1>most serious uprising in the history of the United States since

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<v Speaker 4>the Civil War. You

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would have had this

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<v Speaker 5>episode a few days sooner. I really wanted to get it out on Labor Day. But, you

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know, this

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<v Speaker 6>story, I love this story. As an American, I love this story as it just...

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<v Speaker 6>And it's really important to me to get it right. I'm still

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<v Speaker 7>not 100% sure that I got it right, but I put the work in, if nothing else. I've

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<v Speaker 8>literally reworked this thing from scratch four

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<v Speaker 9>times. I've tried recording it a couple times. I was trying to fit in all of the context and all of the great stories that I think are necessary to really get underneath the skin of this story and to give

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it the

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<v Speaker 10>dramatic...

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<v Speaker 11>oomph i wanted to give it because i want everybody to love this story as much as i do but every time i tried you

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know i'd get two

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<v Speaker 11>hours two and a half hours into the thing and realize that i haven't even mentioned coal mining

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yet i know

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<v Speaker 12>surprise surprise martyr made podcast takes a long time to get to the point

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But, you

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<v Speaker 11>know, it was just going on too long. And so I would try again. I would try again because I didn't want to give up all this great stuff about, you know, the Hatfield and McCoy feud.

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<v Speaker 13>Most

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<v Speaker 14>famous Klan feud in American history happened just a few decades, a couple decades, actually, before the story I'm telling here in the very same valley there along the West Virginia, Kentucky border.

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And

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<v Speaker 14>telling that story, telling its background The social history, the history of the economic and political changes

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<v Speaker 9>That were happening in southern Appalachia at the time Which in a lot of ways led to the Hatfield-McCoy feud Which shed a lot of light on this story And so I wanted to get that in there I

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wanted to

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<v Speaker 9>talk about the philosophy and politics Behind America's push toward industrialization And

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how

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<v Speaker 15>it came into conflict with

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industrialization

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<v Speaker 15>Those few remaining traditional communities that still existed in the country.

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I wanted to tell you all

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<v Speaker 5>about the history of the Scots-Irish and the English borderers who settled Appalachia.

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And whose

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<v Speaker 15>culture of honor

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the miners

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<v Speaker 15>of West Virginia, wherever they'd come from, were assimilated into.

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Okay.

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in the

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<v Speaker 15>end i had no choice but to drop or abbreviate a lot of that and i am quite sad about

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it i'm

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<v Speaker 6>still not yeah yeah yeah i just can't redo this thing again so

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the good

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<v Speaker 6>news there is a silver lining here the good news is that i've got a sub stack page it's martyrmade.substack.com it's linked

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<v Speaker 9>in the show notes

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<v Speaker 9>And all of that other material that didn't make it into this episode is going to make for some great content that will be appearing there very soon. The

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Hatfield-McCoy

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<v Speaker 16>feud by itself could probably make a series out of that, but I'll at

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<v Speaker 5>least get one hell of an episode out of it. So

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if you want to

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<v Speaker 5>learn how everything you thought you knew about the Hatfield-McCoy feud was probably wrong, head

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on over to the

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<v Speaker 17>Substack and sign up. It'll be over there soon.

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Paid

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<v Speaker 17>subscribers to the Substack have

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<v Speaker 18>access to a whole list of articles and podcasts not available on the main feed, the history feed, including episode three of my series on Jeffrey Epstein. Those

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of you who

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<v Speaker 18>follow the main feed

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<v Speaker 9>have probably heard the first two. It's on there. Well, the final episode can be found on Substack, and I promise you I bring my flamethrower to that one.

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Last but not

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<v Speaker 20>least...

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I want

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<v Speaker 20>to encourage everybody out there to go to originmaine.com That's

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<v Speaker 13>origin, y'all can spell that Maine with an E, like the state, dot com

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That is

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<v Speaker 21>the website for Jocko's company, Jocko Willink My co-host on The Unraveling If you have not checked out that podcast, you really should Oh, and by the way, to answer a question I've been getting a lot lately

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<v Speaker 21>um we will be putting out new unravelings very soon jocko has had

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a busy

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<v Speaker 22>schedule to say the least lately i know that's a

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shock too so i

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<v Speaker 9>want you to go over there to originmain.com and not just because jocko's my buddy they make a whole range of some

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of my

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<v Speaker 9>favorite things

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And they

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<v Speaker 9>make my favorite energy drinks for one I am unfortunately a caffeine addict And these energy drinks

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<v Speaker 12>Jocko Go they're called They're available in some stores now I think Wawa's out on the east coast And hopefully some more soon They're pretty much the only energy

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<v Speaker 24>drinks That don't make me crash and send me back to the well After an hour or two I love

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them They're not

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<v Speaker 24>all packed in with sugar or anything like that Or even artificial sweeteners

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<v Speaker 25>I think they're sweetened with monk fruit They're

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really good

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The

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<v Speaker 25>rift jujitsu gi that they make It's just without question The best gi I've ever rolled in So if you're into that kind of thing

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One of you

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<v Speaker 26>guys out there This was crazy One of you guys was kind enough to Get

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me a

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<v Speaker 27>pair of the buffalo hide boots That Origin makes And I gotta say that by itself

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Probably

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<v Speaker 28>made all the hours doing this podcast Over the years worth it It was a huge surprise And it really

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<v Speaker 29>meant a lot

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But

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<v Speaker 29>then on top of it, I mean, they're easily the best boots I've ever had, just by far.

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They're the kind of things

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<v Speaker 31>that you want to go out and do hard work in, but then they feel so nice that you almost don't want to do that. So I'm

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<v Speaker 28>not exactly sure how to use them yet, whether to wear them out in the fields or just wear them out when I go to a nice dinner, but I'll figure that out.

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And now,

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<v Speaker 11>just now, in fact, they've got gear from Jocko's

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<v Speaker 9>new hunting line.

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And

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<v Speaker 9>so if you're into hunting at all,

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go check

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<v Speaker 9>it out

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<v Speaker 21>I don't know how to describe this stuff exactly

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<v Speaker 9>And I've

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been into

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<v Speaker 9>hunting, you know, off and on my whole life I've never quite seen anything like what Jocko's got going here I don't know how quite to describe it I mean, it looks like you're going hunting while preparing for combat, I guess, maybe But just go check it out Trust me, just go check it out And again, that is originmain.com The link is in the show.

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<v Speaker 9>Okay. Oh, actually, one other thing. Many

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of you guys

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<v Speaker 32>have heard me mention my good friend Daniele Bolelli before. He's the host of one of

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<v Speaker 33>the very best OG history podcasts out there called History on Fire.

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Now, History on

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<v Speaker 34>Fire was one of the biggest and most popular history podcasts out there, which is why the company Luminary, a

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<v Speaker 35>podcast subscription service, made him an offer he couldn't refuse a few years ago. And so he's been behind a paywall for the last few years. But once he was able to, he opted for freedom and he's now back out in the wild. Not everybody knows that yet. And so this is a public service announcement for history.

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<v Speaker 35>Anyone who wants more good history content, check

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<v Speaker 36>out History on Fire.

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For those of you

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<v Speaker 36>who aren't long-time history podcast nerds and haven't been

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<v Speaker 34>introduced to History on Fire, it's a long-form, deep storytelling kind of thing like you're used to with Martyrmaid. Although I will say there are some topics that he covers that, honestly, I think only he can do right.

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<v Speaker 34>the Caravaggio series is one for sure if you want to dip your toe in to see what it's like I recommend the series on Crazy Horse that's one of my favorites for sure or the one on the Conquest

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<v Speaker 24>of Mexico that's an excellent one so it's called History on Fire and I highly recommend it

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like I

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<v Speaker 24>said Martyrmaid taking a long time to get to the point

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<v Speaker 9>surprise surprise but that's about it so again you're

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about to

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<v Speaker 9>listen to Martyrmaid

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<v Speaker 6>number 22

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<v Speaker 6>who's america episode one rough extraction i hope

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you

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<v Speaker 37>enjoy this story as much as i do

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here we

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<v Speaker 37>go i'm

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content to die

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<v Speaker 38>for my beliefs

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so cut off my head and make me a

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<v Speaker 39>martyr

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The people

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<v Speaker 39>will always remember it.

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<v Speaker 40>No. They

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won't forget. Hell does

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<v Speaker 41>exist. God is a thought. God is an idea. It

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is a

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<v Speaker 42>place. It is somewhere. Hell

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does

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<v Speaker 43>exist.

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-

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<v Speaker 43>But its reference is to something that transcends all thinking.

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- I must go. - Why we must tear

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<v Speaker 44>ourselves apart for this small question of religion?

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- Who's

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<v Speaker 45>America? Who is America?

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We

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<v Speaker 20>started asking

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<v Speaker 20>some version of those two questions. When the Pilgrims landed in North America, probably. We're

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<v Speaker 46>still asking those questions, and the answers have changed

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over the years.

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<v Speaker 47>Who does America belong

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to?

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<v Speaker 48>Who is America? Who are the Americans?

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<v Speaker 49>Back during the Civil

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War,

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<v Speaker 49>People went to war against the federal government out

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of

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<v Speaker 26>loyalty to their states.

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People in

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<v Speaker 26>Virginia were Virginians first.

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Their loyalty

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<v Speaker 26>to the United States was born out of that state's participation in the federal system.

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Their grandparents or

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<v Speaker 26>great-grandparents had lived in Virginia before there ever was a United States. And

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so

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<v Speaker 50>when those two loyalties came into conflict...

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And

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<v Speaker 50>the two identities could

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<v Speaker 11>no longer coexist. They held to the older one, the one that to them was closer

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to

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<v Speaker 51>home. Later in the 20th century, the advent

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<v Speaker 9>of post-colonial liberation movements in the third world, a lot of American citizens, whose national origins were in the global south, the formerly colonized

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world.

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have

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<v Speaker 9>often been encouraged to think of themselves as diaspora populations, as Hispanics or Africans or Asians or Middle Easterners who just happen to be residing in the United States. But

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that

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<v Speaker 12>national origin or that ethnic identity, they're told from a certain standpoint, should be their primary mode of identification.

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Marxists

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<v Speaker 12>never got much

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<v Speaker 47>hold in the U.S., but they would have had us understand ourselves in terms of class relations, right?

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<v Speaker 48>A

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bunch of

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<v Speaker 48>bourgeois exploiters and then the real Americans, the workers. Some groups,

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<v Speaker 52>the Catholic immigrants, for example, Jews, Irish, Italians, Slobs, other Europeans, over

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the years

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<v Speaker 9>were castigated for slavery

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Not

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<v Speaker 9>assimilating quickly enough.

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<v Speaker 53>Not assimilating into American society. Being hyphenated Americans, they were called.

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Even as

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<v Speaker 14>their assimilation was resisted and sometimes blocked by important segments of American society.

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<v Speaker 9>So who's

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<v Speaker 54>America?

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The author Colin Woodward

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<v Speaker 54>brought out an interesting formulation in his

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<v Speaker 21>great little book...

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<v Speaker 21>American nations it's called subtitled the history of the 11 regional cultures

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<v Speaker 55>in North America I

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know you've

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<v Speaker 55>heard me mention the book Albion Seed before about the four major British

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<v Speaker 56>migrations into what became America it's a fantastic book and this is actually a great supplement for that book

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and it's

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<v Speaker 49>one for people who want a little bit easier and shorter read

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so

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<v Speaker 9>Woodward

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<v Speaker 9>ignores state and national boundaries altogether and

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he

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<v Speaker 57>gives us a gerrymandered map of the u.s canada and northern mexico that tries to mark the cultural and economic zones

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<v Speaker 20>created by patterns of settlement and migration of successive waves of new americans over the years as

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<v Speaker 18>they come in

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And

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<v Speaker 18>break against geographic and rival cultural barriers and slosh

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<v Speaker 13>around and bump up against each other. As

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the book's title

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<v Speaker 20>says, Woodward identifies 11 of these regions, and he gives them names like Yankeedom,

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which is

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<v Speaker 9>probably pretty self-explanatory you would think, but yes, founded when the Pilgrims hit Plymouth Rock, but then spreading to...

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<v Speaker 9>Eventually encompass New England and

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<v Speaker 58>the northern strips of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa.

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And then the Great

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<v Speaker 9>Lakes region up into Michigan and Wisconsin. And even

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on the other

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<v Speaker 9>side of the Great Lakes, the Canadian shoreline in Windsor, around there, he defines as Yankeedom.

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For

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<v Speaker 59>cultural and economic and historical reasons that he goes over.

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Encompassing

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<v Speaker 60>northern

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<v Speaker 18>Mexico, west Texas.

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<v Speaker 18>The southern parts of the southwest and Baja and southern

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<v Speaker 57>California is the nation he calls El Norte,

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which he reminds us is

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<v Speaker 61>the oldest of the American nations, settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, in which today,

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<v Speaker 9>even in the northern Mexican locales like Chihuahua, Sonora, or Baja,

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<v Speaker 9>has an economy that faces more toward America than it

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<v Speaker 62>does toward Mexico City or anything south of it.

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He points to

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<v Speaker 63>the Deep South, founded by English

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<v Speaker 64>slavers who came from Barbados and brought with them a particularly harsh and despotic racial

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<v Speaker 63>caste

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system.

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He talks

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<v Speaker 63>about the Cavalier Tidewater region of the Virginia Lowlands and Maryland, Southern Delaware, Northeastern North Carolina,

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<v Speaker 65>I guess would be in there. There's

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the

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<v Speaker 66>Midlands, the Far West, the

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<v Speaker 20>Left Coast, and the tiny and short-lived little region of New Netherland, he calls it. And there's New France up in Canada over in

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<v Speaker 11>the east. And then there's the region that I want to talk to you all about today.

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Woodward

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<v Speaker 5>calls

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<v Speaker 67>it Greater Appalachia. Quote, Greater Appalachia was founded in the early 18th century by wave upon wave of rough bellicose settlers from the

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<v Speaker 68>war-ravaged borderlands of Northern Ireland, Northern England, and the Scottish lowlands. Lampooned by writers, journalists, filmmakers, and television producers as rednecks, hillbillies, crackers, and white trash,

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<v Speaker 69>These clannish

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<v Speaker 70>Scots-Irish and North English frontiersmen spread across the Highland South

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<v Speaker 71>and on into the southern tiers of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois,

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<v Speaker 72>the Arkansas and Missouri Ozarks, the eastern two-thirds of Oklahoma, and the hill country of Texas, clashing with Indians, Mexicans, and Yankees as they migrated.

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In the

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<v Speaker 51>British Isles, this culture had formed in a state of near-constant war and upheaval, fostering a warrior ethic and a deep commitment to individual liberty and personal sovereignty. Intensely suspicious of aristocrats and social reformers alike, these American borderlanders

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<v Speaker 73>despised Yankee teachers, Tidewater lords, and Deep South aristocrats.

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In the

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<v Speaker 11>Civil War, much of the region fought for the Union, with secession movements in western Virginia, creating West Virginia, eastern Tennessee, and northern Alabama. The

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<v Speaker 74>Borderlanders' combative culture

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<v Speaker 53>has provided a large portion of the nation's military, from officers like Andrew Jackson, Davy Crockett, and

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<v Speaker 59>Douglas MacArthur, to the enlisted fighting men in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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They

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<v Speaker 53>also gave the continent bluegrass and country music, stock car racing, and evangelical fundamentalism."

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<v Speaker 9>You know, when the federal government sends out census takers to get a read on the demographics of the country

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every ten

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<v Speaker 9>years, one

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<v Speaker 61>of the questions that they always ask is

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<v Speaker 47>about our ethnicity or our national origin.

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And you

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<v Speaker 47>can say Latino or you can say Mexican, you

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can say

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<v Speaker 47>Scottish or British, African or

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<v Speaker 75>Nigerian, whatever you think applies from a broad range of options. Well,

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<v Speaker 62>throughout the greater Appalachia region settled by those Scots, Irish and English borderers who were then joined

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<v Speaker 52>over the years by Southern blacks, Central and Southern Europeans and others.

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The

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<v Speaker 52>vast majority of

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<v Speaker 73>people in that region simply give their ethnicity as American. It's

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the only region in the

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00:18:13.790 --> 00:18:16.370
<v Speaker 76>country where that's the case. And

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today, I want

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<v Speaker 67>to tell you a story about these Americans. In

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the summer of

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<v Speaker 72>1912, in

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the mountains

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<v Speaker 72>of southern West Virginia, in the

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summer of 1912,

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00:18:30.990 --> 00:18:31.450
the

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<v Speaker 77>Americans were near a state of revolution.

302
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Over the

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00:18:37.710 --> 00:18:41.530
<v Speaker 71>course of just a couple decades, they

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had had

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<v Speaker 71>imposed on them a

306
00:18:44.760 --> 00:18:54.380
<v Speaker 73>social, a cultural and political and economic transformation more total and more jarring,

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<v Speaker 78>more rapid than any group

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00:18:57.230 --> 00:18:57.230
ever.

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00:18:57.470 --> 00:18:57.470
Had

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00:18:57.560 --> 00:19:01.720
<v Speaker 78>experienced in American history With the possible exception of the Native Americans

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At the time of the

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<v Speaker 29>Civil War Which at the time is within living memory From any of the residents here

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Southern

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00:19:11.630 --> 00:19:23.890
<v Speaker 53>Appalachia was as isolated Politically, culturally, and economically As any place in the United States I mean, these people were up in the mountains Living their own lives by themselves

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<v Speaker 12>And had

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<v Speaker 26>been for a hundred years

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There

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<v Speaker 26>were parts of it that were not electrified until the 1960s.

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The terrain

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00:19:33.850 --> 00:19:35.660
<v Speaker 26>there, and

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I was there

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00:19:36.560 --> 00:19:41.080
<v Speaker 79>last year for a week, and it is gorgeous country out there, but I've got to

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<v Speaker 61>tell you,

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the terrain, it's

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00:19:43.840 --> 00:19:47.070
<v Speaker 61>rough. It consists of rugged,

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<v Speaker 80>wooded hills interrupted by narrow valleys along numerous creeks and small rivers.

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which makes

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<v Speaker 81>it totally unsuitable for

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<v Speaker 61>large-scale farming or cash crop export. The hillsides, they just jut straight out of the ground, and they're so steep that they can't be cultivated, and they really can't be used for much of anything other than hunting or, depending on the hillside, maybe

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<v Speaker 9>grazing a few livestock. What

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this land could

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<v Speaker 9>support, though, was

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<v Speaker 60>small, self-sufficient family farms.

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And so,

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<v Speaker 20>slowly but surely, the people worked their way south through the hills, following old Indian trails. The

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first arrivals

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<v Speaker 20>would come in and claim the river and

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<v Speaker 9>creek beds where the tillable land was, and the new arrivals and the grown sons of those families would then move down to the next hollow for their plot. And that's how Appalachia

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<v Speaker 58>was largely settled. And

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you couldn't build

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<v Speaker 58>towns there.

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There's no

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<v Speaker 26>room to build them, and no infrastructure to support them.

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In this story, we're going

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<v Speaker 26>to be

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<v Speaker 60>spending a lot of time in the Tug Valley, which

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00:21:00.080 --> 00:21:00.370
cups a

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<v Speaker 60>river for called the Tug that serves as the border

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<v Speaker 26>between West Virginia and Kentucky. Well,

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there were no

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<v Speaker 26>roads into that valley until the 1900s, after Americans had been living there a good hundred years.

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The

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<v Speaker 26>whole community had been up there for a hundred years. There were no roads into that area.

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And trade

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<v Speaker 26>outside the

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<v Speaker 73>region, virtually non-existent.

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Even trade

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<v Speaker 73>from one valley to the next valley was extremely limited because it

359
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<v Speaker 79>was just not a simple matter to get around these mountains, especially with cargo, before the roads and the railroads came. And unlike...

360
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Much of

361
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<v Speaker 79>the eastern United States, with the Ohio River, the Mississippi River, all these navigable rivers that

362
00:21:47.610 --> 00:21:48.020
made it

363
00:21:48.050 --> 00:21:55.000
<v Speaker 79>easy to transport people and cargo and information over large swaths of land, there was none of that. You've got a bunch

364
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<v Speaker 26>of very small and usually

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<v Speaker 9>short rivers running through rugged mountains. If

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you wanted to get a

367
00:22:00.840 --> 00:22:04.210
<v Speaker 9>message to someone in the Tug Valley, you

368
00:22:04.360 --> 00:22:05.150
had to hike

369
00:22:05.150 --> 00:22:07.560
<v Speaker 9>in there and go tell them.

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Each one

371
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<v Speaker 61>of these isolated little valleys Had

372
00:22:13.850 --> 00:22:14.520
its own

373
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<v Speaker 61>little community And

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its

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<v Speaker 58>own little culture Sometimes there were even differences in dialect

376
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<v Speaker 82>There was no division of labor It was a primitive economy in that sense

377
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<v Speaker 61>Every household was a self-sufficient unit

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Up until the day the

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00:22:33.490 --> 00:22:36.370
<v Speaker 61>coal and railroad companies showed

380
00:22:36.630 --> 00:22:36.950
up

381
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<v Speaker 83>These people were still tanning their own leather to make their own shoes. They were making their own thread and wax.

382
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<v Speaker 5>Making their own string and rope and cloth from flax and wool.

383
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They were

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00:22:51.930 --> 00:22:53.490
<v Speaker 5>still carving their own

385
00:22:53.530 --> 00:22:53.530
dishes

386
00:22:54.010 --> 00:22:54.630
<v Speaker 26>in bowls

387
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from cucumber

388
00:22:55.510 --> 00:22:58.110
<v Speaker 26>and poplar wood in the hills around them.

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This is a

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00:22:58.990 --> 00:23:01.870
<v Speaker 26>traditional community.

391
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And

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<v Speaker 84>so outsiders...

393
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And I

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<v Speaker 14>don't just mean people from New York and Philadelphia, but people from the growing towns to the east and north right there in West Virginia or in the other direction in Kentucky looked at them and

395
00:23:14.880 --> 00:23:29.040
<v Speaker 61>saw desperately poor people living a primitive lifestyle, people desperately in need of the uplifting hand of the more educated and reform-minded people in

396
00:23:29.040 --> 00:23:30.160
<v Speaker 85>the cities.

397
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But what

398
00:23:32.230 --> 00:23:37.320
<v Speaker 85>they couldn't see was that there was a real tight-knit community

399
00:23:37.320 --> 00:23:46.080
<v Speaker 11>life there, of a kind that was fading and dying out in the rest of America by that point in our history. And

400
00:23:46.130 --> 00:23:48.420
the poverty, even,

401
00:23:48.420 --> 00:23:51.380
<v Speaker 9>was, you know, sort of in the

402
00:23:51.690 --> 00:23:52.210
eye of

403
00:23:52.210 --> 00:23:54.650
<v Speaker 9>the beholder. I mean,

404
00:23:54.650 --> 00:23:55.380
the people

405
00:23:55.590 --> 00:23:59.560
<v Speaker 9>weren't rich, obviously, by any measure, but...

406
00:23:59.550 --> 00:23:59.830
They

407
00:23:59.950 --> 00:24:03.800
<v Speaker 61>also didn't spend 14 hours a day working like people in the northern

408
00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:04.980
<v Speaker 86>factory cities did.

409
00:24:05.390 --> 00:24:06.580
They didn't

410
00:24:06.580 --> 00:24:11.560
<v Speaker 86>employ slaves. These people were

411
00:24:11.570 --> 00:24:22.090
<v Speaker 61>isolated. They were impoverished from an income standpoint. They were living a primitive lifestyle, traditional lifestyle in many ways. But they were

412
00:24:22.090 --> 00:24:22.630
<v Speaker 9>free.

413
00:24:22.860 --> 00:24:23.870
They were free.

414
00:24:23.860 --> 00:24:24.770
That's

415
00:24:24.970 --> 00:24:30.900
<v Speaker 9>why they had come to America These people more than anyone else Came from a part of England where they had just been run over In one

416
00:24:30.900 --> 00:24:36.040
<v Speaker 62>direction or another by external authority For hundreds, really thousands of years You can

417
00:24:36.040 --> 00:24:40.150
<v Speaker 87>follow it all the way back to Julius Caesar These people have been resisting control

418
00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:41.860
<v Speaker 14>by outside authorities And

419
00:24:41.860 --> 00:24:43.120
when they came

420
00:24:43.210 --> 00:24:46.130
<v Speaker 14>over to America They didn't linger in the cities

421
00:24:46.130 --> 00:24:47.220
<v Speaker 9>on the coast They

422
00:24:47.220 --> 00:24:47.220
didn't linger in the cities on the coast

423
00:24:47.170 --> 00:24:53.990
<v Speaker 9>They didn't want to be around all that. They went straight out over into south-central Pennsylvania and then down into Appalachia and they found their home.

424
00:24:54.280 --> 00:24:55.750
They were free and they

425
00:24:55.750 --> 00:25:00.930
<v Speaker 9>had everything they needed to live and they had plenty of leisure time besides.

426
00:25:01.220 --> 00:25:02.590
In Altina

427
00:25:02.590 --> 00:25:12.000
<v Speaker 9>Waller's great book on the culture of southern Appalachia in the aftermath of the Civil War, she writes,

428
00:25:12.110 --> 00:25:13.670
<v Speaker 67>quote,

429
00:25:13.630 --> 00:25:14.180
If the

430
00:25:14.600 --> 00:25:23.920
<v Speaker 67>importance of land was an 18th century heritage, the Tug Valley social structure was much more egalitarian in practice than that of Tidewater,

431
00:25:23.920 --> 00:25:29.930
<v Speaker 71>Virginia. In the mountainous terrain, it was not possible to imitate the plantation system and

432
00:25:29.930 --> 00:25:38.010
<v Speaker 88>its polarized society, and small farms dominated. In 1850, and I just...

433
00:25:37.980 --> 00:25:38.380
Just

434
00:25:38.550 --> 00:25:40.200
<v Speaker 89>check this part out.

435
00:25:40.200 --> 00:25:46.990
<v Speaker 61>Just think about what this means as far as the type of society we're talking about and the relationship the people there have

436
00:25:47.060 --> 00:25:55.090
<v Speaker 85>to one another. In 1850, more than two-thirds of Pike and Logan counties—those are the two Tug Valley counties

437
00:25:55.090 --> 00:26:01.210
<v Speaker 11>straddling the West Virginia-Kentucky line—more than two-thirds of Pike and Logan County households

438
00:26:01.340 --> 00:26:02.820
<v Speaker 51>owned their own farms.

439
00:26:03.600 --> 00:26:04.070
But even

440
00:26:04.150 --> 00:26:09.720
<v Speaker 51>the one-third of households who reported no land holdings do not represent a pauper class. Many

441
00:26:09.960 --> 00:26:10.020
such

442
00:26:10.020 --> 00:26:10.750
<v Speaker 53>households

443
00:26:10.860 --> 00:26:21.920
<v Speaker 71>consisted of young families living on the larger farm of one or the other spouse's families. Such households were part of the parents' domestic economy until such time as the children obtained

444
00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:22.800
<v Speaker 11>their own land.

445
00:26:23.340 --> 00:26:24.130
Thus, most

446
00:26:24.240 --> 00:26:29.140
<v Speaker 11>residents owned or could soon expect to own

447
00:26:29.140 --> 00:26:29.140
land.

448
00:26:29.350 --> 00:26:37.790
<v Speaker 90>Self-sufficient, small farms of 30 to 35 cultivated acres and 300 acres of unimproved land,

449
00:26:38.010 --> 00:26:42.260
<v Speaker 62>often mountainsides too steep for anything but hunting or perhaps cattle grazing.

450
00:26:42.600 --> 00:26:43.470
Whatever social

451
00:26:43.670 --> 00:26:50.930
<v Speaker 73>differentiation existed, economic activity was virtually the same for everyone, and

452
00:26:51.170 --> 00:26:53.600
<v Speaker 90>poverty was almost unknown.

453
00:26:54.480 --> 00:26:54.740
All

454
00:26:55.160 --> 00:26:57.480
<v Speaker 90>families participated in a domestic,

455
00:26:57.720 --> 00:27:07.920
<v Speaker 72>semi-subsistence economy that included cultivating corn, wheat, oats, tobacco, and vegetables. Men and women tended domestic animals such as cattle,

456
00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:19.790
<v Speaker 53>swine, sheep, horses, and sometimes oxen. Women engaged in home manufactures for family consumption while men supplemented the family diet with the abundant wild game

457
00:27:19.790 --> 00:27:20.600
and fish.

458
00:27:20.540 --> 00:27:26.540
<v Speaker 51>Differences between an average and a wealthy family were not in quality of life,

459
00:27:26.540 --> 00:27:27.410
but simply

460
00:27:27.440 --> 00:27:30.200
<v Speaker 51>in quantity of land, animals, and production

461
00:27:30.400 --> 00:27:30.400
of

462
00:27:30.430 --> 00:27:35.540
<v Speaker 11>home manufactures. The undiversified, subsistence economy of Tug Valley residents

463
00:27:35.540 --> 00:27:42.130
<v Speaker 53>extended up and down the social scale. It sustained a pre-modern lifestyle of hard

464
00:27:42.130 --> 00:27:46.920
<v Speaker 71>work alleviated by seasonal rhythms and individual flexibility.

465
00:27:46.860 --> 00:27:46.940
a

466
00:27:47.240 --> 00:27:50.590
<v Speaker 71>lack of distinction between work and recreation, and

467
00:27:50.630 --> 00:27:54.160
a sense of predictability. This subsistence or

468
00:27:54.210 --> 00:28:03.670
<v Speaker 92>semi-subsistence economy, however, did not preclude economic and social interaction, interactions that fostered a strong sense of community. If

469
00:28:03.880 --> 00:28:04.560
trade beyond

470
00:28:04.660 --> 00:28:12.760
<v Speaker 92>the mountains was almost non-existent, barter and market exchanges within the Tug Valley community itself were extensive,

471
00:28:13.980 --> 00:28:20.010
<v Speaker 92>Families were productive economic units whose tasks were shared with relatives, neighbors, and friends more

472
00:28:20.120 --> 00:28:30.930
<v Speaker 72>frequently than not. Hunting, fencing, planting, harvesting, horse trading, and house building were all tasks shared by the men in the neighborhood. Women got together for

473
00:28:30.930 --> 00:28:34.480
<v Speaker 93>canning, sewing, and quilting. End quote.

474
00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:37.280
There's a Japanese

475
00:28:37.400 --> 00:28:42.840
<v Speaker 67>proverb that goes, Negara Maui Tata

476
00:28:42.840 --> 00:28:42.840
Naga.

477
00:28:42.820 --> 00:28:44.980
<v Speaker 67>Dessa Mauikara, and I know

478
00:28:44.980 --> 00:28:51.970
<v Speaker 21>with 99% certainty that I just annihilated that. Sorry, but that's how it was spelled

479
00:28:51.970 --> 00:28:52.760
<v Speaker 6>in English,

480
00:28:52.760 --> 00:28:53.940
<v Speaker 21>so blame the author of

481
00:28:53.950 --> 00:28:59.700
<v Speaker 94>the book I got it from. What it means is, the capital has its order, the

482
00:28:59.810 --> 00:29:01.880
<v Speaker 16>village, its customs. You

483
00:29:01.990 --> 00:29:03.030
might say the

484
00:29:03.040 --> 00:29:06.320
<v Speaker 16>capital has its laws, the village, its customs.

485
00:29:06.690 --> 00:29:08.300
Well, that had

486
00:29:08.300 --> 00:29:10.920
<v Speaker 16>very much applied to...

487
00:29:10.910 --> 00:29:11.170
<v Speaker 16>the

488
00:29:11.170 --> 00:29:19.270
<v Speaker 62>Scots-Irish and the Borderlanders for well over a thousand years back in the British Isles and it followed them, that tenancy,

489
00:29:19.330 --> 00:29:22.450
<v Speaker 9>to Appalachia when they migrated to North America

490
00:29:22.680 --> 00:29:23.080
The

491
00:29:23.080 --> 00:29:29.970
<v Speaker 95>Mountaineers were far, very far from the

492
00:29:29.970 --> 00:29:39.710
<v Speaker 61>attention of state and federal government authorities and even local government, which they did have county governments, didn't supersede

493
00:29:40.370 --> 00:29:40.740
the

494
00:29:40.880 --> 00:29:46.140
<v Speaker 79>natural and organic community hierarchy. It reflected it

495
00:29:46.160 --> 00:29:55.970
<v Speaker 9>and reinforced it. The heads of the prominent and respected families in the area, in other words, the men who were already looked to as the leaders

496
00:29:55.970 --> 00:30:01.330
<v Speaker 96>in the community, they would hold the government posts like sheriff or judge or what have you.

497
00:30:01.780 --> 00:30:03.270
The majority of

498
00:30:03.270 --> 00:30:09.110
<v Speaker 51>the people in the late 1800s there were still illiterate,

499
00:30:09.100 --> 00:30:09.400
And

500
00:30:09.550 --> 00:30:17.050
<v Speaker 51>they had an oral culture's understanding of customary versus legal culture. They lived in a world where deals were made by

501
00:30:17.050 --> 00:30:18.960
<v Speaker 9>handshakes with eye contact.

502
00:30:18.980 --> 00:30:19.770
Where they

503
00:30:19.770 --> 00:30:21.190
<v Speaker 9>were binding, not

504
00:30:21.190 --> 00:30:22.190
because of the

505
00:30:22.190 --> 00:30:34.660
<v Speaker 9>letter of some abstract law or contract, but because in a tight-knit community, everybody knew everybody else's business. Everybody would have known what the agreement was and outlined. And

506
00:30:34.660 --> 00:30:35.220
so in all

507
00:30:35.220 --> 00:30:36.020
<v Speaker 9>but the most

508
00:30:36.020 --> 00:30:38.980
<v Speaker 59>complicated or difficult cases...

509
00:30:39.310 --> 00:30:39.310
There

510
00:30:39.340 --> 00:30:41.100
<v Speaker 59>tend to be a consensus over

511
00:30:41.100 --> 00:30:43.020
<v Speaker 54>who was in the right or who was in the wrong.

512
00:30:43.340 --> 00:30:44.630
The respected men

513
00:30:44.630 --> 00:30:47.100
<v Speaker 54>serving in local government

514
00:30:47.190 --> 00:30:51.830
<v Speaker 97>positions exercise their authority, in other words, not as representatives of

515
00:30:51.880 --> 00:31:01.120
<v Speaker 67>some distant system or power structure. So, you know, I don't know, not like the U.S. Marshall in Old West stories where he's the lone representative

516
00:31:01.250 --> 00:31:01.250
of

517
00:31:01.290 --> 00:31:05.310
<v Speaker 57>United States law in these here parts. It wasn't like that.

518
00:31:05.300 --> 00:31:05.780
And the

519
00:31:05.920 --> 00:31:09.900
<v Speaker 57>leading men who occupied those local government posts, they exercised

520
00:31:09.960 --> 00:31:12.000
<v Speaker 84>their authority as

521
00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:20.260
<v Speaker 61>fellow members of the community. And their decisions weren't guided by legal technicalities, because they weren't representing some

522
00:31:20.450 --> 00:31:20.830
-- they

523
00:31:20.830 --> 00:31:33.980
<v Speaker 61>weren't representing the laws and decisions of the state legislature or the U.S. Congress. They were there to help lead and manage their community. So they didn't make their decisions by legal technicalities, they made

524
00:31:34.360 --> 00:31:34.840
them by -- they

525
00:31:35.350 --> 00:31:35.770
<v Speaker 61>common

526
00:31:35.770 --> 00:31:38.580
<v Speaker 9>sense and local custom as they perceived it

527
00:31:38.610 --> 00:31:39.490
and of

528
00:31:39.490 --> 00:31:42.170
<v Speaker 57>course modern people hear that by

529
00:31:42.340 --> 00:31:43.700
<v Speaker 98>that I even

530
00:31:43.700 --> 00:31:48.130
<v Speaker 57>mean people from the more developed parts of the country back then heard it and

531
00:31:48.320 --> 00:31:53.690
<v Speaker 26>they think well this is a government of men not a government of laws

532
00:31:54.200 --> 00:32:01.540
<v Speaker 99>why how could objectivity and equality before the law ever exist in a place like that

533
00:32:01.550 --> 00:32:02.110
and the

534
00:32:02.220 --> 00:32:02.890
<v Speaker 99>answer is

535
00:32:02.890 --> 00:32:04.350
<v Speaker 89>it couldn't

536
00:32:05.070 --> 00:32:12.420
<v Speaker 89>Objectivity was not the goal And to outsiders it looked like anarchy and disorder But

537
00:32:12.690 --> 00:32:12.730
it

538
00:32:12.730 --> 00:32:17.960
<v Speaker 61>wasn't that Like any community there were rules And everybody knew what they were If

539
00:32:18.160 --> 00:32:19.710
two men came

540
00:32:20.680 --> 00:32:22.390
<v Speaker 61>in with a dispute A

541
00:32:22.390 --> 00:32:23.090
he said

542
00:32:23.090 --> 00:32:25.940
<v Speaker 61>he said dispute or something happened And one of

543
00:32:26.120 --> 00:32:30.390
<v Speaker 57>them, everybody in the community knows everybody else They all know each other very well

544
00:32:31.090 --> 00:32:31.260
And

545
00:32:31.400 --> 00:32:44.010
<v Speaker 57>they know that this guy over here doesn't lie, is honest in his dealings, is generous and helpful in the community. And this other guy over here is kind of a ne'er-do-well who's always causing problems. And

546
00:32:44.180 --> 00:32:47.710
<v Speaker 14>these guys end up in court, and one of them says one thing, one of them says the other. It's

547
00:32:47.760 --> 00:32:48.350
not going to

548
00:32:48.390 --> 00:32:54.700
<v Speaker 14>come down to a technicality in the law. They're going to look at these two people and...

549
00:32:55.120 --> 00:33:00.980
<v Speaker 14>Everybody's going to kind of know what happened Just like in a very very small group of people Like your friends or family When something

550
00:33:01.060 --> 00:33:10.130
<v Speaker 84>happens You usually don't have to hear all the details Given who's involved You can probably get a pretty good idea A defendant

551
00:33:10.130 --> 00:33:21.940
<v Speaker 61>in a civil or criminal dispute Was not coming in and arguing his case Before some objective standard He was arguing his case To the community in which he lived

552
00:33:22.500 --> 00:33:22.750
Thank you.

553
00:33:22.740 --> 00:33:23.130
and

554
00:33:23.340 --> 00:33:26.090
<v Speaker 61>on which he depended in a court

555
00:33:26.090 --> 00:33:33.910
<v Speaker 2>presided over by a leading citizen everybody in the community agreed was a reasonable and a fair man and so it

556
00:33:33.910 --> 00:33:34.710
was not

557
00:33:34.980 --> 00:33:35.550
<v Speaker 2>anarchy

558
00:33:36.280 --> 00:33:40.780
<v Speaker 14>because decisions that were made through these means were almost always respected for

559
00:33:40.780 --> 00:33:41.990
the simple reason

560
00:33:41.990 --> 00:33:48.600
<v Speaker 58>that anyone who tried to buck the system knew that they would be going against the whole community and it very rarely happened

561
00:33:49.740 --> 00:33:50.780
These were

562
00:33:50.820 --> 00:34:02.560
<v Speaker 61>some of the very last people In America Who were still living in A truly traditional way It was self-sufficient households Organized

563
00:34:02.560 --> 00:34:07.100
<v Speaker 89>Into a community that governed itself By common agreement And it could have

564
00:34:07.240 --> 00:34:11.380
<v Speaker 9>done just fine without any government at all No question about that The

565
00:34:11.700 --> 00:34:18.160
<v Speaker 79>Civil War Gave them the opportunity to prove that And during the Civil War The

566
00:34:18.160 --> 00:34:18.160
Civil War

567
00:34:18.610 --> 00:34:19.730
<v Speaker 79>Civil society just

568
00:34:20.400 --> 00:34:30.880
<v Speaker 12>completely broke down in southern West Virginia in many ways When Union forces under future President James Garfield came in and started burning things down Arresting people, they burned down the

569
00:34:30.880 --> 00:34:31.570
<v Speaker 100>courthouse And

570
00:34:31.570 --> 00:34:32.640
so the courts, for

571
00:34:32.640 --> 00:34:39.850
<v Speaker 100>example, didn't function throughout the Civil War in there The local citizens were out in the forest fighting a guerrilla

572
00:34:39.850 --> 00:34:41.520
<v Speaker 101>war against the northern occupiers

573
00:34:42.130 --> 00:34:43.240
When the war

574
00:34:43.430 --> 00:34:46.220
<v Speaker 102>was over Those leading

575
00:34:46.900 --> 00:34:47.730
<v Speaker 17>citizens We'll be right

576
00:34:47.730 --> 00:34:47.930
back.

577
00:34:47.940 --> 00:34:48.120
In

578
00:34:48.350 --> 00:35:05.170
<v Speaker 17>the county, you know, those natural leaders that everyone looked to without having to be told to. Most of those guys were now excluded from local government by the northern reconstruction regime because of their real or suspected sympathies for the Confederacy. So the civil war ends and

579
00:35:05.170 --> 00:35:11.500
<v Speaker 12>the whole traditional way that these people were used to governing themselves

580
00:35:11.930 --> 00:35:11.930
was.

581
00:35:11.940 --> 00:35:24.910
<v Speaker 17>was completely thrown out and turned on its head those positions were all taken up now by people from the cities people from other walks of life they weren't the natural leaders in the community many many times residents

582
00:35:24.910 --> 00:35:25.180
of

583
00:35:25.200 --> 00:35:30.400
<v Speaker 103>southern appalachia after the war went

584
00:35:30.400 --> 00:35:37.500
<v Speaker 15>to work immediately trying to put their communities back together along lines that they recognized

585
00:35:37.460 --> 00:35:37.910
But even

586
00:35:38.030 --> 00:35:39.010
<v Speaker 104>as they were getting

587
00:35:39.010 --> 00:35:42.680
<v Speaker 62>started with the rebuilding project, there was another war coming their way.

588
00:35:43.250 --> 00:35:44.220
Like many

589
00:35:44.220 --> 00:35:45.380
<v Speaker 62>wars,

590
00:35:45.380 --> 00:35:52.070
<v Speaker 12>this one was first announced by the arrival of refugees driven before the invading force.

591
00:35:52.650 --> 00:35:54.070
See, long

592
00:35:54.070 --> 00:35:55.730
<v Speaker 2>before any

593
00:35:55.780 --> 00:35:56.270
of the

594
00:35:56.270 --> 00:36:03.110
<v Speaker 2>residents had any idea, land speculators from the big cities knew that railroads

595
00:36:03.130 --> 00:36:04.580
<v Speaker 17>and mining companies

596
00:36:05.470 --> 00:36:07.740
<v Speaker 17>Steel concerns and Wall Street firms

597
00:36:08.150 --> 00:36:08.380
Were

598
00:36:08.380 --> 00:36:13.630
<v Speaker 2>gearing up to develop the coal resources in Appalachia It's one of

599
00:36:13.630 --> 00:36:15.710
<v Speaker 105>the richest coal regions in the world

600
00:36:16.090 --> 00:36:18.010
That meant that those

601
00:36:18.010 --> 00:36:30.790
<v Speaker 9>impoverished mountaineers Living up there on their small farms Were sitting on land that was going to explode in value very soon And so, very quietly at first

602
00:36:31.130 --> 00:36:34.500
<v Speaker 18>Out-of-towners started coming in

603
00:36:34.560 --> 00:36:40.070
<v Speaker 18>You know, waiving $100 bills like the song goes to try to get these families to sell out

604
00:36:40.070 --> 00:36:42.610
<v Speaker 20>cheap because they didn't know any better. A few did, but

605
00:36:42.610 --> 00:36:43.240
not very

606
00:36:43.240 --> 00:36:45.210
<v Speaker 20>many, not enough. And

607
00:36:45.210 --> 00:36:46.410
so clever men

608
00:36:46.410 --> 00:36:53.040
<v Speaker 67>went to the county registrars to see which of those mountaineer families' ancestors had failed maybe

609
00:36:53.040 --> 00:36:59.160
<v Speaker 106>to cross every I and dot every T during the Wild West period three or four generations back when the hills were settled.

610
00:36:59.450 --> 00:37:00.140
They

611
00:37:00.140 --> 00:37:02.100
<v Speaker 107>checked to

612
00:37:02.720 --> 00:37:03.100
see...

613
00:37:03.100 --> 00:37:03.390
Who

614
00:37:03.570 --> 00:37:04.180
<v Speaker 107>was fully

615
00:37:04.180 --> 00:37:05.850
<v Speaker 9>current on their property taxes

616
00:37:06.380 --> 00:37:06.700
Going back

617
00:37:06.820 --> 00:37:08.130
<v Speaker 9>a hundred years

618
00:37:08.600 --> 00:37:10.770
These people These

619
00:37:10.770 --> 00:37:17.720
<v Speaker 26>people had never Really thought about government The government had never much thought about them

620
00:37:18.180 --> 00:37:18.510
Their

621
00:37:18.620 --> 00:37:28.890
<v Speaker 14>ancestors settled these places A hundred, a hundred, twenty, a hundred and fifty years ago And they just lived out there in the wilderness Growing and fishing and hunting Just enough food to feed

622
00:37:28.890 --> 00:37:31.000
<v Speaker 55>themselves Taking care of themselves

623
00:37:31.130 --> 00:37:31.130
Not

624
00:37:31.280 --> 00:37:34.090
<v Speaker 55>bothering anybody, not asking anything from anybody.

625
00:37:34.360 --> 00:37:36.540
There was very little

626
00:37:36.540 --> 00:37:41.720
<v Speaker 79>cash money circulating in the area at all. And for the most

627
00:37:41.720 --> 00:37:48.290
<v Speaker 14>part, the furthest thing from any of their minds was that they might owe tribute to some distant government.

628
00:37:48.560 --> 00:37:50.310
Pretty soon, families

629
00:37:50.310 --> 00:37:54.290
<v Speaker 11>started getting served with summons to come to court

630
00:37:54.530 --> 00:37:54.930
and prove

631
00:37:54.930 --> 00:37:59.710
<v Speaker 11>that the land they lived on for generations was really theirs.

632
00:38:00.610 --> 00:38:01.010
And

633
00:38:01.320 --> 00:38:14.420
<v Speaker 11>some rich guy or some corporation from a faraway city would have went and found someone with a discrepancy and said, well, they don't really own this land, so I'm putting a claim down on that land. I'll pay X amount to it for the county, to the county, etc. Those

634
00:38:14.780 --> 00:38:15.330
clever rich men

635
00:38:15.330 --> 00:38:28.370
<v Speaker 9>from the big city who dragged these people into court, once they got there, obviously had massive advantages. Like, for example, I don't know, they had lawyers or they were literate.

636
00:38:28.350 --> 00:38:28.970
They were

637
00:38:29.210 --> 00:38:36.110
<v Speaker 9>dragging these mountain people into a world they didn't understand at all, and they just took advantage of them

638
00:38:36.110 --> 00:38:37.090
<v Speaker 47>hard. There

639
00:38:37.390 --> 00:38:37.990
were many

640
00:38:37.990 --> 00:38:39.890
<v Speaker 47>recorded instances

641
00:38:39.890 --> 00:38:42.120
<v Speaker 14>of outright fraud. In

642
00:38:42.120 --> 00:38:43.140
one case, an

643
00:38:43.170 --> 00:38:49.400
<v Speaker 14>out-of-town businessman signed a contract in the presence of witnesses with

644
00:38:49.590 --> 00:38:49.680
a

645
00:38:49.680 --> 00:38:54.240
<v Speaker 15>local farmer to purchase a piece of his land for such and such amount.

646
00:38:55.070 --> 00:38:55.610
Well, the

647
00:38:55.820 --> 00:38:56.800
<v Speaker 15>farmer put his mark to the

648
00:38:56.910 --> 00:39:07.220
<v Speaker 14>paper. He was an illiterate farmer, put his mark to the paper, and the businessman gave him his down payment, and they went on their way, the farmer expecting to settle up the rest of the payment soon. Well,

649
00:39:07.220 --> 00:39:07.880
when that

650
00:39:07.880 --> 00:39:16.070
<v Speaker 14>wasn't forthcoming, the farmer went to the courthouse to go complain, and he brought his copy of the contract.

651
00:39:17.500 --> 00:39:18.330
it was

652
00:39:18.840 --> 00:39:23.700
<v Speaker 14>only then that this illiterate farmer was made to understand that he had not

653
00:39:24.130 --> 00:39:24.200
signed a

654
00:39:24.210 --> 00:39:26.960
<v Speaker 14>contract to sell part of his land

655
00:39:26.960 --> 00:39:28.650
<v Speaker 9>for such and such an amount, but

656
00:39:28.650 --> 00:39:29.300
had in

657
00:39:29.600 --> 00:39:35.490
<v Speaker 9>fact signed to sell all of it for the amount of the small down payment that he'd already gotten. The

658
00:39:36.370 --> 00:39:36.990
farmer just

659
00:39:36.990 --> 00:39:40.100
<v Speaker 14>did not live in a world where

660
00:39:40.100 --> 00:39:40.600
a trick like

661
00:39:41.000 --> 00:39:44.320
<v Speaker 14>that was really possible, because in his world...

662
00:39:44.610 --> 00:39:50.040
<v Speaker 85>you many people would have been privy to the engagement as there were there were witnesses so when it went

663
00:39:50.150 --> 00:40:03.030
<v Speaker 89>to court the judge who would have been the head of a prominent local family would listen and voice the decision of the entire community the common sense ethical decision as they would understand

664
00:40:03.110 --> 00:40:12.570
<v Speaker 61>it when he said well this businessman obviously what he did wasn't fair you took advantage of this man's illiteracy in front of witnesses no less so i'm

665
00:40:12.560 --> 00:40:12.710
I'm

666
00:40:12.950 --> 00:40:18.640
<v Speaker 9>going to give you protection to get you out of the county safely, but I would not advise a return visit. That's how it would have been handled.

667
00:40:18.640 --> 00:40:22.550
Now, all of a sudden, that's

668
00:40:22.700 --> 00:40:24.390
<v Speaker 89>just not how things were.

669
00:40:24.390 --> 00:40:24.820
All of a

670
00:40:24.880 --> 00:40:29.110
<v Speaker 89>sudden, we had gone very quickly from a customary culture to

671
00:40:29.340 --> 00:40:29.510
a

672
00:40:29.510 --> 00:40:31.130
<v Speaker 61>legal culture.

673
00:40:31.130 --> 00:40:32.280
In the case of this

674
00:40:32.280 --> 00:40:33.960
<v Speaker 61>farmer, it was he who soon

675
00:40:33.960 --> 00:40:36.340
<v Speaker 14>enough received a court summons.

676
00:40:37.070 --> 00:40:37.540
When he

677
00:40:37.640 --> 00:40:43.990
<v Speaker 14>went to court, expecting to confront the man who was trying to steal his family's inheritance, the land they'd settled

678
00:40:43.990 --> 00:40:48.840
<v Speaker 86>for several generations, that man wasn't even there. He lived out of state. It

679
00:40:48.840 --> 00:40:49.670
was just his

680
00:40:49.670 --> 00:40:51.270
<v Speaker 86>lawyers there. The

681
00:40:51.560 --> 00:40:53.270
farmer tried to plead his

682
00:40:53.270 --> 00:40:56.220
<v Speaker 86>case in terms that made sense to him,

683
00:40:56.220 --> 00:40:59.060
<v Speaker 14>in terms of fairness and common sense. He

684
00:40:59.400 --> 00:40:59.640
made a

685
00:40:59.640 --> 00:41:05.070
<v Speaker 14>moral and ethical plea. He was trying to make the point that this just wasn't right.

686
00:41:05.920 --> 00:41:06.440
And the

687
00:41:06.570 --> 00:41:26.060
<v Speaker 14>people in the courtroom may have even agreed with him, but the lawyers just kept saying, well, what does the contract say? What does the contract say? You say our client agreed to different terms verbally, but where's the proof for that? The writing on the page is pretty plain. And that is your mark, is it not? That

688
00:41:26.170 --> 00:41:27.860
farmer lost his

689
00:41:27.860 --> 00:41:29.980
<v Speaker 14>family's land.

690
00:41:29.980 --> 00:41:30.380
And

691
00:41:30.630 --> 00:41:34.940
<v Speaker 61>something like that happened to a lot.

692
00:41:35.500 --> 00:41:35.620
A

693
00:41:35.890 --> 00:41:37.260
<v Speaker 61>lot of families.

694
00:41:37.650 --> 00:41:38.770
Pretty

695
00:41:38.770 --> 00:41:43.920
<v Speaker 85>soon, even the people who could prove clean title and

696
00:41:44.100 --> 00:41:44.100
that

697
00:41:44.170 --> 00:41:46.240
<v Speaker 9>they were documented to be up to date on their taxes

698
00:41:46.570 --> 00:41:47.150
were finding

699
00:41:47.150 --> 00:41:50.400
<v Speaker 9>that the neighborhood wasn't quite what it used to be.

700
00:41:50.400 --> 00:41:51.810
The neighbors to the

701
00:41:51.810 --> 00:41:53.800
<v Speaker 9>left and the neighbors to the

702
00:41:53.800 --> 00:41:55.940
<v Speaker 14>right had both been run off their land.

703
00:41:56.280 --> 00:41:56.920
On both

704
00:41:56.920 --> 00:42:02.540
<v Speaker 14>plots of land, to either side, you're starting to see a lot of people you don't recognize.

705
00:42:03.120 --> 00:42:05.980
<v Speaker 14>A lot of people no one recognizes coming around all

706
00:42:05.980 --> 00:42:06.520
<v Speaker 47>the time.

707
00:42:06.800 --> 00:42:08.020
They start cutting

708
00:42:08.210 --> 00:42:12.800
<v Speaker 47>down all the trees and using the lumber to lay railroad tracks and build buildings.

709
00:42:13.080 --> 00:42:13.880
They start

710
00:42:13.880 --> 00:42:16.260
<v Speaker 47>importing strange machinery

711
00:42:16.760 --> 00:42:19.840
<v Speaker 14>and punching holes into the mountainside.

712
00:42:20.120 --> 00:42:23.180
And then, like a flash

713
00:42:23.180 --> 00:42:24.460
<v Speaker 14>flood,

714
00:42:24.460 --> 00:42:29.590
<v Speaker 51>I mean, that's the only metaphor I can think of that makes sense,

715
00:42:29.590 --> 00:42:29.620
is...

716
00:42:29.840 --> 00:42:33.080
<v Speaker 51>Like a flash flood, they begin importing thousands and then

717
00:42:33.160 --> 00:42:42.190
<v Speaker 9>tens of thousands of workers from big East Coast cities, many of them straight off the immigration boat, speaking any number of mutually indecipherable languages.

718
00:42:42.460 --> 00:42:43.470
This is in a sparsely

719
00:42:43.470 --> 00:42:47.610
<v Speaker 26>populated community, and they are just overwhelming them.

720
00:42:47.610 --> 00:42:48.640
A newspaper

721
00:42:48.750 --> 00:42:50.860
<v Speaker 26>article from a century

722
00:42:50.890 --> 00:42:56.690
<v Speaker 75>ago, written by a visiting New Yorker, read, quote,

723
00:42:56.690 --> 00:42:57.250
Miners

724
00:42:57.450 --> 00:43:03.150
<v Speaker 109>came into the valley with a rush: Welsh coal-diggers from the pits of Kidwelly, Englishmen

725
00:43:03.150 --> 00:43:05.960
<v Speaker 110>from Lancashire, Belgians from the coal

726
00:43:05.960 --> 00:43:22.030
<v Speaker 53>basins of Hainaut and Liège. These mingled with much larger numbers of Italians, Slavs, Austrians, and Poles. The hills of the state resounded to the languages of foreign lands. More than thirty nationalities are represented among the workmen in the mines

727
00:43:22.040 --> 00:43:22.610
today.

728
00:43:22.950 --> 00:43:23.150
American

729
00:43:23.290 --> 00:43:40.110
<v Speaker 53>miners, however, outnumber the foreigners. They have come from the coal fields of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and other states. Negroes from the southern cotton fields have found employment in the mines. And, not the least, the mountaineers of the state themselves.

730
00:43:40.850 --> 00:43:43.220
These men came from all

731
00:43:43.920 --> 00:43:45.900
<v Speaker 55>walks of life.

732
00:43:46.110 --> 00:43:49.100
<v Speaker 55>They weren't screening them when they put them on the train

733
00:43:49.100 --> 00:43:57.200
<v Speaker 111>and sent them down to dig coal. And so a lot of them were unattached men who had questionable backgrounds. And

734
00:43:57.200 --> 00:43:58.750
so now to that

735
00:43:58.750 --> 00:44:03.980
<v Speaker 112>person who hasn't sold out his land and wants

736
00:44:03.980 --> 00:44:06.620
<v Speaker 47>to stay, now he's starting to

737
00:44:06.670 --> 00:44:07.010
see a

738
00:44:07.090 --> 00:44:10.220
<v Speaker 47>new element move into the neighborhood.

739
00:44:10.190 --> 00:44:10.560
your

740
00:44:10.830 --> 00:44:17.000
<v Speaker 20>one mine operator recalled that quote the thousands of men soon tens of thousands who dug that

741
00:44:17.340 --> 00:44:21.730
<v Speaker 113>first coal were a hard-bitten lot they drank and fought and gambled and whored

742
00:44:21.730 --> 00:44:23.160
with the forest

743
00:44:23.200 --> 00:44:26.320
<v Speaker 47>stripped from the mountainsides

744
00:44:26.320 --> 00:44:27.070
<v Speaker 20>the game

745
00:44:27.070 --> 00:44:27.500
<v Speaker 47>that

746
00:44:27.880 --> 00:44:27.880
the

747
00:44:27.960 --> 00:44:35.210
<v Speaker 20>people and their ancestors had hunted for meat for so many years was no longer to be found in abundance

748
00:44:36.180 --> 00:44:36.450
The

749
00:44:36.950 --> 00:44:38.110
<v Speaker 114>rivers were all fished

750
00:44:38.180 --> 00:44:40.400
<v Speaker 26>out by the countless new arrivals. The

751
00:44:40.870 --> 00:44:42.030
people had depended

752
00:44:42.110 --> 00:44:48.190
<v Speaker 26>on hunting and fishing to supplement their diets. It was a necessary, not just important, a necessary

753
00:44:48.210 --> 00:44:54.550
<v Speaker 14>aspect of their lives. And everybody knew that in the community, and that's why it had always been considered not

754
00:44:54.550 --> 00:44:57.660
<v Speaker 26>just unwise, but utterly immoral.

755
00:44:59.060 --> 00:45:05.220
<v Speaker 26>And anti-social For people to cut down their forest To sell as lumber Like really it was looked

756
00:45:05.410 --> 00:45:05.620
at the

757
00:45:05.650 --> 00:45:11.720
<v Speaker 26>way People might look at a drug dealer or a pimp today If you were going around doing Large scale timber operations You'd

758
00:45:11.940 --> 00:45:17.890
<v Speaker 115>cut down a tree here and a tree there To Build a barn or whatever you gotta do But

759
00:45:18.330 --> 00:45:18.330
everybody

760
00:45:18.380 --> 00:45:23.920
<v Speaker 110>understood that we need these forests here To support the herds of game The squirrels, the rabbits, everything else That we all need to live

761
00:45:24.580 --> 00:45:27.750
Make matters worse And

762
00:45:27.710 --> 00:45:30.930
<v Speaker 89>In what forests remained, government agents

763
00:45:31.210 --> 00:45:31.480
were all

764
00:45:31.650 --> 00:45:33.860
<v Speaker 89>of a sudden out there on the prowl for

765
00:45:33.860 --> 00:45:48.350
<v Speaker 100>poachers, a term that in the past meant to these people that you were trespassing to hunt someone else's land without their permission, but which now had acquired the novel meaning of hunting outside the limited parameters defined by the state or federal government.

766
00:45:48.630 --> 00:45:51.260
Now, I'm all for conservation and

767
00:45:51.360 --> 00:45:55.340
<v Speaker 14>conservation laws, but again, these

768
00:45:55.340 --> 00:45:56.620
<v Speaker 102>people...

769
00:45:57.000 --> 00:46:00.100
<v Speaker 102>And this was, this was, they couldn't eat without it.

770
00:46:00.370 --> 00:46:01.890
<v Speaker 116>This was how they lived.

771
00:46:02.090 --> 00:46:03.780
The hills were also all of a

772
00:46:04.130 --> 00:46:06.220
<v Speaker 116>sudden crawling with revenue agents

773
00:46:06.220 --> 00:46:07.060
<v Speaker 63>who were coming

774
00:46:07.210 --> 00:46:07.610
in and

775
00:46:07.610 --> 00:46:13.410
<v Speaker 63>busting the local people for making and trading their own liquor without paying the liquor

776
00:46:13.520 --> 00:46:14.420
taxes.

777
00:46:14.400 --> 00:46:14.920
the

778
00:46:15.300 --> 00:46:23.040
<v Speaker 6>people were just doing what they had always done what their ancestors had always done putting aside a little plot to grow some grain and cobbling

779
00:46:23.040 --> 00:46:31.650
<v Speaker 26>together a makeshift home home distillery these people couldn't exactly go to bevmo and whip out their visa card you know if they wanted

780
00:46:31.780 --> 00:46:32.340
liquor they

781
00:46:32.430 --> 00:46:35.180
<v Speaker 6>made it themselves it's just the only way to

782
00:46:35.180 --> 00:46:35.780
do it they

783
00:46:35.780 --> 00:46:40.290
<v Speaker 6>drank it themselves or they shared it with friends and family

784
00:46:40.460 --> 00:46:40.460
Or

785
00:46:40.490 --> 00:46:44.910
<v Speaker 9>on market days or community gatherings. They might sell or trade some of it to other people.

786
00:46:45.130 --> 00:46:47.910
And nobody cared. Because

787
00:46:47.910 --> 00:46:52.820
<v Speaker 79>nobody cared what these people were doing by themselves up in their hills. But

788
00:46:52.820 --> 00:46:54.340
now, all

789
00:46:54.340 --> 00:46:54.910
<v Speaker 79>of a

790
00:46:54.910 --> 00:47:00.710
<v Speaker 17>sudden, very important people with a lot of resources looked at those hills and saw dollar

791
00:47:00.850 --> 00:47:04.060
<v Speaker 117>signs. And so they cared very much what the

792
00:47:04.060 --> 00:47:07.030
<v Speaker 118>people who lived there were up to.

793
00:47:08.550 --> 00:47:08.550
So

794
00:47:08.560 --> 00:47:10.110
<v Speaker 84>the place...

795
00:47:10.100 --> 00:47:14.510
<v Speaker 84>was just not what it had been, even five or ten years earlier. And

796
00:47:14.710 --> 00:47:15.090
pretty

797
00:47:15.090 --> 00:47:16.040
<v Speaker 14>soon, that

798
00:47:16.040 --> 00:47:25.680
<v Speaker 11>farmer who had the clean title and was all up to date on his taxes, he just decides there's nothing left for him to do, except sell his land and try to move somewhere else.

799
00:47:26.110 --> 00:47:27.590
Many of them headed to

800
00:47:27.860 --> 00:47:30.360
<v Speaker 47>other parts of Appalachia, to

801
00:47:30.360 --> 00:47:31.000
family or

802
00:47:31.030 --> 00:47:33.470
<v Speaker 67>to find a new place to settle. But

803
00:47:33.650 --> 00:47:34.290
they were

804
00:47:34.290 --> 00:47:35.930
<v Speaker 67>already pretty far

805
00:47:35.930 --> 00:47:38.040
<v Speaker 24>south of Appalachia.

806
00:47:37.360 --> 00:47:37.710
On the

807
00:47:37.880 --> 00:47:41.650
<v Speaker 24>path of settlement There wasn't a whole lot of extra room left to move into

808
00:47:42.220 --> 00:47:42.750
Where they

809
00:47:42.750 --> 00:47:49.020
<v Speaker 31>did move They brought with them warnings About this invasion That was heading their way

810
00:47:49.540 --> 00:47:50.570
Many of

811
00:47:50.690 --> 00:47:51.790
<v Speaker 31>them had

812
00:47:51.870 --> 00:47:52.520
<v Speaker 47>nowhere to go

813
00:47:53.040 --> 00:47:53.440
They

814
00:47:53.440 --> 00:48:03.820
<v Speaker 63>either left the state Entirely Or they did the only thing there was to do And so As the same New York

815
00:48:03.820 --> 00:48:05.360
<v Speaker 67>newspaper editorial read

816
00:48:05.880 --> 00:48:05.980
The

817
00:48:06.480 --> 00:48:10.170
<v Speaker 67>watching the mines creep nearer and nearer to their cabins.

818
00:48:10.170 --> 00:48:19.040
<v Speaker 110>Residents have looked with foreboding at first and then, realizing the futility of any efforts to stand aside, they've shouldered picks

819
00:48:19.090 --> 00:48:21.970
<v Speaker 47>and entered the mouths of the black tunnels.

820
00:48:22.450 --> 00:48:24.210
One of the men who

821
00:48:24.210 --> 00:48:25.860
<v Speaker 47>followed that

822
00:48:26.560 --> 00:48:32.870
<v Speaker 55>path was named Frank Keeney. Frank Keeney's family had hunted and farmed the hills

823
00:48:32.970 --> 00:48:35.210
<v Speaker 18>of Clay County, West Virginia,

824
00:48:35.180 --> 00:48:35.470
for a

825
00:48:35.640 --> 00:48:41.760
<v Speaker 18>hundred years when they got word that mining and lumber companies had claimed ownership of their land.

826
00:48:42.220 --> 00:48:42.770
They

827
00:48:42.770 --> 00:48:44.130
<v Speaker 35>lost their

828
00:48:44.140 --> 00:48:52.030
<v Speaker 22>land and some of the family was able to find farmland some distance away and went there to set up until the corporations came for them

829
00:48:52.030 --> 00:48:52.570
<v Speaker 28>as well.

830
00:48:53.040 --> 00:48:54.520
Others went to work

831
00:48:54.560 --> 00:49:00.200
<v Speaker 31>for the timber companies that had taken their land from them because they didn't know what else to do.

832
00:49:00.660 --> 00:49:01.390
Some of

833
00:49:01.410 --> 00:49:03.920
<v Speaker 11>them, Frank Keeney's

834
00:49:04.090 --> 00:49:06.690
<v Speaker 11>parents moved down to

835
00:49:06.790 --> 00:49:15.050
<v Speaker 97>Kanawha County to a place called Cabin Creek and they became coal miners there

836
00:49:15.050 --> 00:49:16.110
this is

837
00:49:16.310 --> 00:49:17.500
<v Speaker 21>the story

838
00:49:17.560 --> 00:49:18.770
of I would say a

839
00:49:18.790 --> 00:49:23.390
<v Speaker 21>lot of people you know just about everybody up in those hills that's their story

840
00:49:23.390 --> 00:49:23.900
in the

841
00:49:23.900 --> 00:49:27.510
<v Speaker 119>late 18 and early 1900s

842
00:49:27.650 --> 00:49:27.810
in

843
00:49:27.810 --> 00:49:29.610
<v Speaker 11>Kanawha County

844
00:49:30.050 --> 00:49:30.050
Frank

845
00:49:30.120 --> 00:49:32.020
<v Speaker 11>Keeney was born there all this happened

846
00:49:32.130 --> 00:49:49.120
<v Speaker 9>two years before he was born and so two years after his family gets to Kanawa he's born and by the time he was a boy he could climb to the top of the highest mountain and look around and all he would lay his eyes on were coal mines as far as the eye could see

847
00:49:49.660 --> 00:49:50.160
in

848
00:49:50.160 --> 00:49:56.880
<v Speaker 18>the earlier quote from Altina Waller's book she mentioned that at the time of the Civil War virtually

849
00:49:56.880 --> 00:49:58.060
<v Speaker 59>everybody

850
00:49:58.060 --> 00:49:58.200
in

851
00:49:58.410 --> 00:50:03.450
<v Speaker 59>these southern counties lived on a self-sufficient farm that either they or their family owned

852
00:50:03.830 --> 00:50:03.970
just

853
00:50:03.970 --> 00:50:06.480
<v Speaker 120>like that I mean just like that

854
00:50:06.480 --> 00:50:15.020
<v Speaker 70>in the blink of an eye the length of one boy's short childhood that number was down from virtually everybody to single digits

855
00:50:15.370 --> 00:50:15.710
the

856
00:50:15.710 --> 00:50:17.800
<v Speaker 110>companies

857
00:50:17.800 --> 00:50:27.380
<v Speaker 95>owned everything they owned all the land they owned the roads that came in and out

858
00:50:27.420 --> 00:50:29.280
<v Speaker 95>and moved around within the land.

859
00:50:29.640 --> 00:50:30.860
They began importing

860
00:50:31.220 --> 00:50:37.160
<v Speaker 9>workers, but there was nowhere for them to live, and so the companies built houses, and they owned all the houses, and

861
00:50:37.320 --> 00:50:37.900
they took the

862
00:50:37.900 --> 00:50:40.000
<v Speaker 9>rent out of the miners' paychecks.

863
00:50:40.360 --> 00:50:41.550
The workers and

864
00:50:41.550 --> 00:50:47.860
<v Speaker 18>their families needed food, and they needed supplies for daily life. There wasn't any market

865
00:50:47.860 --> 00:50:51.790
<v Speaker 12>infrastructure for that, so the company built and stocked up a store and

866
00:50:51.900 --> 00:50:52.780
deducted what

867
00:50:52.780 --> 00:50:54.920
<v Speaker 12>the miners owed to it from their

868
00:50:55.170 --> 00:50:55.960
<v Speaker 47>paychecks.

869
00:50:56.990 --> 00:50:57.300
The

870
00:50:57.900 --> 00:51:02.640
<v Speaker 47>company didn't provide anything to the miners for work They didn't provide boots They

871
00:51:02.640 --> 00:51:11.970
<v Speaker 12>didn't provide helmets They didn't provide picks or shovels Or any other tools or supplies That the miners needed to actually mine the coal

872
00:51:12.030 --> 00:51:17.970
<v Speaker 26>The miners had to buy all of that themselves From the company store Just to work in the mines They

873
00:51:17.970 --> 00:51:18.560
had to pay

874
00:51:18.580 --> 00:51:19.970
<v Speaker 26>the company to sharpen

875
00:51:19.970 --> 00:51:21.160
<v Speaker 9>their tools The

876
00:51:21.680 --> 00:51:22.410
miners even

877
00:51:22.520 --> 00:51:25.100
<v Speaker 9>had to buy the explosives For

878
00:51:25.150 --> 00:51:25.150
the miners

879
00:51:25.120 --> 00:51:25.360
that

880
00:51:25.500 --> 00:51:29.020
<v Speaker 9>they used to break apart the earth from the company store of the company that

881
00:51:29.020 --> 00:51:30.080
<v Speaker 26>they were digging coal for.

882
00:51:30.410 --> 00:51:31.470
Well, since many of

883
00:51:31.470 --> 00:51:37.920
<v Speaker 26>the miners were destitute immigrants or former black sharecroppers or just penniless

884
00:51:37.920 --> 00:51:38.870
<v Speaker 61>locals,

885
00:51:39.430 --> 00:51:40.310
they had to go

886
00:51:40.310 --> 00:51:46.980
<v Speaker 61>into debt to the company store just to get started on their first day as a miner. And

887
00:51:47.100 --> 00:51:47.850
the company

888
00:51:47.850 --> 00:51:52.020
<v Speaker 61>made sure that many of them never, ever got back to even.

889
00:51:53.520 --> 00:51:54.740
The law

890
00:51:54.900 --> 00:51:57.060
<v Speaker 113>said that children had to go to school And

891
00:51:57.060 --> 00:51:57.430
so the

892
00:51:57.430 --> 00:52:03.060
<v Speaker 113>company built the school And hired the teachers The company

893
00:52:03.060 --> 00:52:10.070
<v Speaker 11>controlled the curriculum To prepare the minor's children for their own graduation Into the life of a minor School

894
00:52:10.610 --> 00:52:11.440
only went up

895
00:52:11.440 --> 00:52:14.910
<v Speaker 11>to 8th grade in most places There was no high

896
00:52:14.910 --> 00:52:18.610
<v Speaker 53>school Because after that the boys were expected to be up on the mountain

897
00:52:19.310 --> 00:52:26.140
<v Speaker 121>working as trapper boys, opening and closing the mine's air vents or in some other capacity to prepare them for that life.

898
00:52:26.430 --> 00:52:28.910
The company owned

899
00:52:28.910 --> 00:52:30.810
<v Speaker 53>the church and

900
00:52:30.810 --> 00:52:34.630
hired the minister. His sermons were

901
00:52:34.630 --> 00:52:39.150
<v Speaker 122>monitored and were expected to reinforce company policy.

902
00:52:39.390 --> 00:52:40.030
Many of the

903
00:52:40.030 --> 00:52:41.670
<v Speaker 122>ministers provided

904
00:52:41.670 --> 00:52:45.550
<v Speaker 101>regular reports on what the miners were saying and thinking.

905
00:52:46.690 --> 00:52:47.160
In

906
00:52:47.720 --> 00:52:54.920
<v Speaker 88>fact, company teachers, doctors, store clerks, saloon keepers, preachers, all

907
00:52:55.990 --> 00:53:01.910
<v Speaker 92>the company employees who were not miners, they formed a separate class

908
00:53:02.340 --> 00:53:03.620
above the

909
00:53:03.710 --> 00:53:10.180
<v Speaker 62>miners. They were company people. The miners were a liquid labor force that could come and

910
00:53:10.360 --> 00:53:10.550
go and

911
00:53:10.600 --> 00:53:13.370
<v Speaker 62>every single one of them was replaceable. And

912
00:53:13.370 --> 00:53:15.420
<v Speaker 25>so...

913
00:53:15.410 --> 00:53:15.630
The

914
00:53:15.780 --> 00:53:18.890
<v Speaker 25>company men, the teachers, doctors, et cetera, were

915
00:53:19.460 --> 00:53:19.970
all

916
00:53:20.350 --> 00:53:27.210
<v Speaker 123>expected, as part of their job description, to act as company spies and report on the words and the activities of the minors.

917
00:53:27.580 --> 00:53:29.470
Well, so many workers

918
00:53:29.470 --> 00:53:38.430
<v Speaker 63>coming in from all walks of life, speaking any number of languages, most of them young, single men,

919
00:53:40.210 --> 00:53:41.430
...you

920
00:53:41.660 --> 00:53:48.070
<v Speaker 6>know, that's an environment asking for a little bit of disorderliness......and

921
00:53:48.070 --> 00:53:48.990
<v Speaker 124>so someone had to keep order,

922
00:53:49.020 --> 00:53:52.850
<v Speaker 113>and so the company paid the police force. They bought the police force. Either

923
00:53:52.850 --> 00:53:53.720
by hiring and

924
00:53:53.790 --> 00:54:00.310
<v Speaker 113>arming sheriff's deputies......or by bringing in private mercenaries that they called mine guards. The

925
00:54:00.310 --> 00:54:01.740
mine guards came

926
00:54:01.740 --> 00:54:02.450
<v Speaker 113>from the

927
00:54:02.450 --> 00:54:03.760
<v Speaker 125>Baldwin-Feltz

928
00:54:03.760 --> 00:54:07.750
<v Speaker 47>Detective Agency. Which...

929
00:54:07.760 --> 00:54:16.060
<v Speaker 47>It sounds like some kind of Sherlock Holmes outfit. It ain't that. Like the Pinkerton Detective Agency and other

930
00:54:16.060 --> 00:54:16.240
less

931
00:54:17.440 --> 00:54:28.480
<v Speaker 35>notorious ones from the 19th and 20th century, Baldwin Feltz was more like a domestic version of Blackwater, the private military company we put to

932
00:54:28.480 --> 00:54:28.950
use in

933
00:54:29.190 --> 00:54:30.880
<v Speaker 35>Afghanistan and Iraq.

934
00:54:30.880 --> 00:54:31.100
And

935
00:54:31.190 --> 00:54:33.110
<v Speaker 59>their primary purpose, from

936
00:54:33.110 --> 00:54:33.660
the steel

937
00:54:33.660 --> 00:54:37.000
<v Speaker 59>mills of Pennsylvania to the factories of Chicago,

938
00:54:37.760 --> 00:54:37.910
In

939
00:54:38.100 --> 00:54:41.830
<v Speaker 59>the minds of West Virginia and Colorado and Montana and all the rest of the

940
00:54:41.830 --> 00:55:01.660
<v Speaker 63>country, their purpose was to make sure that no one mentioned the words labor union in the same sentence. In 1892, Pinkertons, and if you don't know about them, you will before this series is over. As an American, you should spit whenever you say that name.

941
00:55:02.210 --> 00:55:02.350
In

942
00:55:02.670 --> 00:55:12.270
<v Speaker 63>1892, Pinkerton's opened fire on a crowd of people during the homestead strike at Andrew Carnegie's steel mill, killed and wounded more than a dozen people. The

943
00:55:12.450 --> 00:55:13.920
journalist I was just

944
00:55:13.980 --> 00:55:19.760
<v Speaker 50>quoting, he toured many of these company towns, and he provided a maybe

945
00:55:20.020 --> 00:55:28.940
<v Speaker 11>surface-level outsider's account, but it's an insightful one, one that bears insight into the effects that this kind of

946
00:55:29.020 --> 00:55:29.740
<v Speaker 50>life has.

947
00:55:30.050 --> 00:55:30.300
can

948
00:55:30.590 --> 00:55:33.000
<v Speaker 113>have on the people who live it quote

949
00:55:33.590 --> 00:55:34.190
less than

950
00:55:34.190 --> 00:55:37.970
<v Speaker 113>20 years ago parts of those just again i

951
00:55:37.970 --> 00:55:46.900
<v Speaker 20>just want to drive that home again i'm sorry to interrupt but this all happened less than 20 years just imagine the level of transformation

952
00:55:46.900 --> 00:55:48.540
<v Speaker 12>we're talking about here less

953
00:55:48.750 --> 00:55:49.350
than 20

954
00:55:49.350 --> 00:55:54.960
<v Speaker 12>years ago parts of those vast stretches of low mountains that cover so much of west

955
00:55:55.030 --> 00:55:57.310
<v Speaker 11>virginia slumbered in solitude

956
00:55:57.350 --> 00:55:57.530
The

957
00:55:57.740 --> 00:56:06.100
<v Speaker 11>traveler rode horseback up the stony beds of mountain streams and sought shelter at night in a lonely settler's hut or on the slope of an inhospitable mountain.

958
00:56:06.190 --> 00:56:07.090
Bears lumbered

959
00:56:07.090 --> 00:56:07.850
<v Speaker 11>through the

960
00:56:08.030 --> 00:56:10.620
<v Speaker 90>wilderness, and wildcats howled at night.

961
00:56:10.670 --> 00:56:11.530
No railroad

962
00:56:11.530 --> 00:56:14.050
<v Speaker 90>had yet penetrated the region.

963
00:56:14.250 --> 00:56:15.090
People lived in

964
00:56:15.090 --> 00:56:16.950
<v Speaker 53>small groups here and there in

965
00:56:16.950 --> 00:56:18.430
<v Speaker 51>the valleys. Life

966
00:56:18.430 --> 00:56:19.030
on the

967
00:56:19.030 --> 00:56:25.320
<v Speaker 51>whole was simple and devoted chiefly to agriculture. The earth reposed peacefully.

968
00:56:26.420 --> 00:56:27.280
Today, in

969
00:56:27.440 --> 00:56:32.540
<v Speaker 126>traversing this region, you pass coal mining village after coal mining village,

970
00:56:32.540 --> 00:56:48.670
<v Speaker 67>as you ride up the valley of the Guyandot River, or through McDowell, Mingo, and other counties, where the hills stood in untouched quietness two decades ago. Evidences of the transformation are on every hand. The houses of those who work in the mines are never

971
00:56:48.750 --> 00:56:49.100
out of

972
00:56:49.100 --> 00:56:53.560
<v Speaker 67>sight. Large mouths gape blackly at you from the hillsides.

973
00:56:53.500 --> 00:56:55.960
<v Speaker 67>Gaunt tipples, headhouses, and other

974
00:56:55.960 --> 00:57:01.310
<v Speaker 127>buildings stare at you from the slopes of the mountains. Railroads send their sightings

975
00:57:01.310 --> 00:57:09.360
<v Speaker 71>in many directions. Long lines of squat minecars run along their narrow-gauge tracks and disappear around the curves of the hills.

976
00:57:09.920 --> 00:57:09.920
The

977
00:57:09.940 --> 00:57:16.480
<v Speaker 5>earth is scraped and ugly. The blackness of coal is over everything.

978
00:57:16.480 --> 00:57:16.760
And

979
00:57:16.770 --> 00:57:23.400
<v Speaker 71>mounds of fine coal stand about. Peacefulness and quiet have departed.

980
00:57:23.380 --> 00:57:23.970
and let us

981
00:57:24.090 --> 00:57:32.420
<v Speaker 71>see what kind of civilization has resulted the typical coal mining town is not a town in the ordinary sense at

982
00:57:32.560 --> 00:57:33.120
all the

983
00:57:33.420 --> 00:57:40.640
<v Speaker 71>place where the town stands is the point at which a seam has been opened buildings have been erected and machinery has been installed

984
00:57:41.090 --> 00:57:41.270
The

985
00:57:41.440 --> 00:57:47.960
<v Speaker 128>dwellings that cluster about the tipple or straggle along the bed of the creek are not occupied by self-dependent citizens

986
00:57:47.960 --> 00:57:54.210
<v Speaker 100>of a community which gives many opportunities for employment and presents a variety of facets to the world at large.

987
00:57:54.530 --> 00:57:54.770
They are

988
00:57:54.770 --> 00:57:58.210
<v Speaker 14>occupied solely by the men who work in the mines.

989
00:57:58.520 --> 00:57:59.330
The town is the

990
00:57:59.460 --> 00:58:01.450
<v Speaker 14>adjunct and necessary

991
00:58:01.450 --> 00:58:08.080
<v Speaker 9>convenience of an industry. If the mines should disappear, it too would cease to exist. The town is

992
00:58:08.080 --> 00:58:08.610
the adjunct and necessary convenience of an industry.

993
00:58:08.560 --> 00:58:08.920
It is

994
00:58:09.070 --> 00:58:12.290
<v Speaker 9>not even called a town in the language of the locality.

995
00:58:12.300 --> 00:58:14.010
<v Speaker 11>It is called a camp.

996
00:58:14.020 --> 00:58:15.540
No one owns his

997
00:58:15.540 --> 00:58:20.880
<v Speaker 11>own house. He cannot acquire so much title to property. No one runs a

998
00:58:20.960 --> 00:58:26.280
<v Speaker 68>store, operates a garage, or sells groceries or haberdashery to his fellow townsmen. No

999
00:58:26.530 --> 00:58:27.020
one amuses

1000
00:58:27.020 --> 00:58:28.000
<v Speaker 53>them in a movie

1001
00:58:28.000 --> 00:58:28.880
<v Speaker 88>theater.

1002
00:58:29.630 --> 00:58:35.960
<v Speaker 88>There is no main street of small independent businesses owned by different people and making up that mosaic of commercial life

1003
00:58:35.960 --> 00:58:38.040
<v Speaker 71>that is typical of villages everywhere.

1004
00:58:38.390 --> 00:58:39.430
There is little, if

1005
00:58:39.430 --> 00:58:41.980
<v Speaker 71>any, participation in common group

1006
00:58:41.980 --> 00:58:43.300
<v Speaker 67>activities. No

1007
00:58:43.490 --> 00:58:43.790
body of

1008
00:58:43.790 --> 00:58:47.710
<v Speaker 67>elected councilman ever passes on repairs for roads.

1009
00:58:47.720 --> 00:58:55.440
<v Speaker 126>No group of people ever gets together and decides that the old schoolhouse is too ramshackle for the children or that the old church needs repainting.

1010
00:58:55.940 --> 00:58:56.090
No

1011
00:58:56.380 --> 00:59:05.300
<v Speaker 71>family physician builds up a successful practice by competing with other physicians. No lawyer settles disputes over property rights among his neighbors.

1012
00:59:05.310 --> 00:59:05.530
<v Speaker 88>It

1013
00:59:05.740 --> 00:59:07.250
is not accurate to

1014
00:59:07.250 --> 00:59:13.520
<v Speaker 88>say that no one does these things. The coal company does them all.

1015
00:59:13.520 --> 00:59:14.460
It owns all the

1016
00:59:14.540 --> 00:59:24.800
<v Speaker 53>houses and rents them to the miner. Even in the more enlightened company towns, the company owns the store, the pool room, the movie theater, the school, and the church.

1017
00:59:25.340 --> 00:59:25.460
The

1018
00:59:25.630 --> 00:59:28.980
<v Speaker 53>company employs the physicians and collects a small monthly sum from each

1019
00:59:29.020 --> 00:59:30.080
<v Speaker 71>minor to help pay him.

1020
00:59:30.240 --> 00:59:31.220
The company owns

1021
00:59:31.290 --> 00:59:52.760
<v Speaker 71>all the land and everything upon it. It therefore controls the life and activities of the little community. It is responsible for the sanitation. The company's ownership sometimes extends to the roads so that it can control ingress and egress. In some counties, the company is the employer of the deputy sheriffs and is therefore responsible for police supervision.

1022
00:59:53.310 --> 00:59:53.470
In

1023
00:59:53.670 --> 01:00:00.010
<v Speaker 71>Logan County, the mine operators paid out $61,000 last year in salaries for deputy sheriffs.

1024
01:00:00.180 --> 01:00:01.160
Miners in West

1025
01:00:01.160 --> 01:00:05.610
<v Speaker 71>Virginia are not paid as workers elsewhere are paid.

1026
01:00:05.800 --> 01:00:06.280
They do not

1027
01:00:06.280 --> 01:00:09.030
<v Speaker 71>receive in cash all that they have earned.

1028
01:00:09.070 --> 01:00:09.630
On their

1029
01:00:09.630 --> 01:00:15.550
<v Speaker 71>semi-monthly paydays, they are given statements showing how much they owe the company and how much the company owes them.

1030
01:00:15.720 --> 01:00:16.300
Among the items

1031
01:00:16.300 --> 01:00:21.410
<v Speaker 71>charged against them in this account is the indebtedness incurred at the company's store. for.

1032
01:00:21.650 --> 01:00:21.960
<v Speaker 71>Other items

1033
01:00:21.960 --> 01:00:22.820
<v Speaker 129>are rent for their

1034
01:00:22.820 --> 01:00:31.170
<v Speaker 130>houses, lighting, heating, doctor's services, use of a hospital, and even the sharpening of tools and the use of a company

1035
01:00:31.190 --> 01:00:33.980
<v Speaker 70>wash house in which to clean up after a day's work.

1036
01:00:34.140 --> 01:00:34.850
The law of West

1037
01:00:34.850 --> 01:00:39.210
<v Speaker 70>Virginia prohibits companies from issuing scrip in payment of wages,

1038
01:00:39.530 --> 01:00:43.940
<v Speaker 130>specifying that if such scrip is issued, it shall be held to be a promise

1039
01:00:43.940 --> 01:00:47.620
<v Speaker 110>to pay the sum specified therein in lawful money.

1040
01:00:47.780 --> 01:00:47.780
But

1041
01:00:47.880 --> 01:00:52.120
<v Speaker 110>the law is never enforced, and the companies generally issue the script. I'll

1042
01:00:52.120 --> 01:00:53.290
read one last

1043
01:00:53.290 --> 01:01:02.430
<v Speaker 106>paragraph here from this. This is from Winthrop D. Lane about 100 years ago in the New York publication called Survey. Quote, this

1044
01:01:02.430 --> 01:01:03.050
is an important

1045
01:01:03.550 --> 01:01:03.940
<v Speaker 131>part,

1046
01:01:03.940 --> 01:01:05.570
<v Speaker 88>that's why I broke here.

1047
01:01:06.030 --> 01:01:07.140
What began

1048
01:01:07.140 --> 01:01:13.830
<v Speaker 88>as a means of taking care of the emergent needs of workers became a settled condition

1049
01:01:14.330 --> 01:01:15.300
<v Speaker 51>everywhere.

1050
01:01:16.430 --> 01:01:23.440
<v Speaker 51>Today, 400,000 men, women, and children in West Virginia are living this subservient existence.

1051
01:01:23.970 --> 01:01:24.350
They are

1052
01:01:24.960 --> 01:01:25.680
<v Speaker 51>caught up

1053
01:01:25.710 --> 01:01:26.020
in a

1054
01:01:26.020 --> 01:01:27.330
<v Speaker 51>civilization

1055
01:01:27.340 --> 01:01:28.940
<v Speaker 132>within a civilization, an

1056
01:01:29.250 --> 01:01:29.640
alien order

1057
01:01:30.240 --> 01:01:32.860
<v Speaker 132>embedded in a democracy.

1058
01:01:33.390 --> 01:01:39.210
<v Speaker 133>So, since

1059
01:01:39.220 --> 01:01:40.250
the company

1060
01:01:40.380 --> 01:01:42.520
<v Speaker 133>houses were property,

1061
01:01:43.190 --> 01:01:43.190
the

1062
01:01:43.290 --> 01:01:45.520
<v Speaker 101>workers...

1063
01:01:45.790 --> 01:01:51.540
<v Speaker 101>had no right to privacy they had no right to personal space it wasn't their personal or private space they

1064
01:01:51.900 --> 01:01:52.050
didn't

1065
01:01:52.050 --> 01:01:58.900
<v Speaker 59>even have tenants rights you know the kind of thing you would think of normally if you were paying rent on a house you would get certain rights that go at

1066
01:01:59.160 --> 01:01:59.760
<v Speaker 5>that house none

1067
01:01:59.950 --> 01:02:01.440
of that applied the company

1068
01:02:01.440 --> 01:02:04.340
<v Speaker 5>decided which visitors you were allowed to have

1069
01:02:04.630 --> 01:02:05.240
homes could be

1070
01:02:05.600 --> 01:02:11.950
<v Speaker 53>searched and were searched at any time they could wake you up in the middle of the night march your family out and go tear

1071
01:02:11.950 --> 01:02:14.210
<v Speaker 11>your place up if they wanted to without warning

1072
01:02:14.700 --> 01:02:14.890
the

1073
01:02:15.050 --> 01:02:17.920
<v Speaker 11>way corrections officers would do a cell inspection.

1074
01:02:18.270 --> 01:02:19.720
Among the items that

1075
01:02:19.720 --> 01:02:29.940
<v Speaker 11>were most commonly searched for were any books and pamphlets that were considered contrary to the company's interests because the company decided what books and what newspapers and

1076
01:02:29.970 --> 01:02:32.080
<v Speaker 9>other media was allowed on its property.

1077
01:02:32.370 --> 01:02:33.240
Very often the only

1078
01:02:33.240 --> 01:02:38.620
<v Speaker 9>newspapers allowed were the ones that the coal mine operators themselves had set up.

1079
01:02:40.120 --> 01:02:44.480
<v Speaker 76>anybody found with unauthorized reading material was just fired on the spot.

1080
01:02:44.490 --> 01:02:45.590
If he had a

1081
01:02:45.750 --> 01:02:50.400
<v Speaker 53>family, he and his family were given notice to get out of their company house and get out of town.

1082
01:02:51.140 --> 01:02:52.400
Anybody who

1083
01:02:52.400 --> 01:03:02.030
<v Speaker 123>was fired was also blacklisted because the coal companies worked together to keep track of people that they considered troublemakers. And so a fired worker couldn't

1084
01:03:02.030 --> 01:03:02.350
just

1085
01:03:02.420 --> 01:03:07.320
<v Speaker 9>move over to the next mountain or the next coal field. He would find that he was not welcome anywhere.

1086
01:03:07.970 --> 01:03:08.350
And so

1087
01:03:08.480 --> 01:03:09.860
<v Speaker 53>this destitute worker

1088
01:03:10.370 --> 01:03:10.620
With no

1089
01:03:10.620 --> 01:03:13.950
<v Speaker 53>money Because he's not paid in cash He's paid in company script

1090
01:03:13.990 --> 01:03:14.370
For a

1091
01:03:14.500 --> 01:03:17.110
<v Speaker 53>company store That he's no longer allowed

1092
01:03:17.170 --> 01:03:24.610
<v Speaker 63>to use Would take his meager belongings He'd just have to leave the region All together with his family I mean literally leave the whole region

1093
01:03:25.840 --> 01:03:32.020
<v Speaker 26>Ownership of the company's store and any saloons or other facilities the miners

1094
01:03:32.020 --> 01:03:37.500
<v Speaker 113>used would give the company a way to reduce the miners' pay kind of through the back door. They

1095
01:03:37.500 --> 01:03:38.840
didn't want to cut

1096
01:03:38.840 --> 01:03:40.110
<v Speaker 124>their wages maybe

1097
01:03:40.290 --> 01:03:42.040
<v Speaker 51>and start a big fight,

1098
01:03:42.040 --> 01:03:46.940
<v Speaker 124>so they would just raise prices on the supplies that they sold the miners that they needed to actually go up

1099
01:03:46.950 --> 01:03:47.930
<v Speaker 11>and mine. They

1100
01:03:47.930 --> 01:03:49.560
would raise the prices on

1101
01:03:49.560 --> 01:03:52.920
<v Speaker 11>food or other supplies that they needed at home.

1102
01:03:55.030 --> 01:03:59.920
<v Speaker 134>Sometimes when the miners Would successfully negotiate a pay raise The

1103
01:04:00.390 --> 01:04:00.610
coal

1104
01:04:00.610 --> 01:04:06.980
<v Speaker 6>companies would argue And fight about it And act like they were trying to put it off And then

1105
01:04:06.980 --> 01:04:13.080
<v Speaker 9>they would give them a little compromise pay raise And then they would just raise prices in the company store Accordingly to make up

1106
01:04:13.080 --> 01:04:15.730
for it Company mine

1107
01:04:15.730 --> 01:04:22.210
<v Speaker 13>guards Would patrol voting stations During elections And

1108
01:04:22.700 --> 01:04:23.940
<v Speaker 13>intimidating workers to make

1109
01:04:23.940 --> 01:04:32.920
<v Speaker 12>sure they voted the way the company wanted, or just not vote at all. And sometimes workers were just handed out ballots from the company that had already been filled out for

1110
01:04:33.030 --> 01:04:34.770
them. Anybody, anybody

1111
01:04:34.930 --> 01:04:41.280
<v Speaker 26>who was heard promoting political candidates or policies that were not favored by the company was just

1112
01:04:41.400 --> 01:04:43.890
<v Speaker 9>immediately fired and evicted from the town. And

1113
01:04:44.060 --> 01:04:45.410
so in this way,

1114
01:04:45.420 --> 01:04:47.680
<v Speaker 9>the coal companies...

1115
01:04:47.730 --> 01:04:47.950
with

1116
01:04:48.020 --> 01:04:58.030
<v Speaker 9>control of this whole population of miners like they had, were able to fill up the sheriff's offices, fill up the county courts and other offices, even a lot of the state government with its own hired men.

1117
01:04:58.240 --> 01:04:59.840
When a miner was hurt

1118
01:04:59.840 --> 01:05:01.770
<v Speaker 57>or killed on the job,

1119
01:05:01.810 --> 01:05:02.540
the question

1120
01:05:02.540 --> 01:05:05.840
<v Speaker 57>of whether the mine operator was responsible went before

1121
01:05:05.840 --> 01:05:14.770
<v Speaker 61>adjudicators who were chosen and paid by the company. When accusations of abuse were made against the mine guards or other company officials,

1122
01:05:15.690 --> 01:05:15.690
Those

1123
01:05:15.740 --> 01:05:16.960
<v Speaker 61>reports had to be made

1124
01:05:16.960 --> 01:05:23.030
<v Speaker 135>to sheriffs who were elected and very often just simply paid by the company. They

1125
01:05:23.150 --> 01:05:23.750
were heard by

1126
01:05:23.830 --> 01:05:27.200
<v Speaker 115>judges who were approved and elected by the company. I

1127
01:05:27.510 --> 01:05:28.410
mean that quite

1128
01:05:28.410 --> 01:05:29.780
<v Speaker 115>literally. The

1129
01:05:29.980 --> 01:05:36.840
<v Speaker 113>historian David Allen Corbin writes, quote, The Logan County Coal Operators Association formed its police bulwark

1130
01:05:36.840 --> 01:05:42.530
<v Speaker 88>from a local source. It simply hired the county sheriff, Don Chafin, and his deputies.

1131
01:05:43.040 --> 01:05:43.230
The

1132
01:05:43.380 --> 01:05:50.580
<v Speaker 90>treasurer of the Logan County Coal Operators Association testified that the association had paid Chafin $2,725

1133
01:05:50.580 --> 01:05:52.750
<v Speaker 67>a month to work for it.

1134
01:05:53.220 --> 01:05:53.490
That is

1135
01:05:53.490 --> 01:05:56.840
<v Speaker 67>$40,000 a month today.

1136
01:05:57.190 --> 01:05:57.940
Sheriff Chafin

1137
01:05:58.000 --> 01:06:11.710
<v Speaker 62>only had an official salary from the department of several hundred dollars a month. I think it was like $365 a month is what he made. And when he was already in his mid-30s, he already reported over a million dollars in

1138
01:06:11.710 --> 01:06:12.380
<v Speaker 67>assets.

1139
01:06:12.980 --> 01:06:13.280
So,

1140
01:06:13.290 --> 01:06:16.100
<v Speaker 67>it gives you an idea of the scope of this. The

1141
01:06:16.150 --> 01:06:16.670
deputy

1142
01:06:17.040 --> 01:06:22.930
<v Speaker 71>sheriffs, like the county sheriff, were paid by personal checks from the coal operators. In

1143
01:06:23.080 --> 01:06:30.460
<v Speaker 88>one year, the association paid out $61,517 to these deputies for protection against the union. The

1144
01:06:30.510 --> 01:06:31.030
anti-union

1145
01:06:31.400 --> 01:06:38.630
<v Speaker 67>activities of the Logan County sheriffs and his deputies became a national disgrace and part of the region's folklore.

1146
01:06:38.990 --> 01:06:39.220
more.

1147
01:06:39.170 --> 01:06:39.380
Two

1148
01:06:39.530 --> 01:06:52.370
<v Speaker 67>deputies were stationed at each railroad depot and on each train to prevent union organizers from entering Logan County. All strangers, upon coming into the county, were searched and forced to identify themselves. When

1149
01:06:52.490 --> 01:06:52.970
the clerk

1150
01:06:52.970 --> 01:07:00.040
<v Speaker 67>for the West Virginia Department of Mines, Toby Heiser, arrived in Logan, he was accosted by several deputies in order to

1151
01:07:00.040 --> 01:07:07.370
<v Speaker 50>identify himself. He refused to do so, and the deputies dragged him off the train, beat him, and forced him to leave the county.

1152
01:07:08.060 --> 01:07:08.120
A

1153
01:07:08.620 --> 01:07:11.220
<v Speaker 50>newspaper reporter from Washington, D.C., after

1154
01:07:11.220 --> 01:07:12.750
<v Speaker 53>a visit to Logan County, wrote,

1155
01:07:32.360 --> 01:07:32.360
of

1156
01:07:32.440 --> 01:07:38.060
<v Speaker 5>the kingdom of Logan, he reigns supreme by virtue of a state machine blocked by the power of the operators.

1157
01:07:38.260 --> 01:07:40.270
The American Civil

1158
01:07:40.410 --> 01:07:48.140
<v Speaker 20>Liberties Union declared that Logan County had become a national scandal, and a U.S. Senate investigating committee

1159
01:07:48.140 --> 01:07:52.210
<v Speaker 63>denounced the Logan deputy sheriff's system as vicious and un-American. He said

1160
01:07:52.210 --> 01:07:52.830
it was contrary

1161
01:07:53.340 --> 01:07:56.800
<v Speaker 63>to the genius and spirit of our institutions.

1162
01:07:57.000 --> 01:07:57.900
Okay.

1163
01:07:58.060 --> 01:07:58.570
A United

1164
01:07:58.820 --> 01:08:04.920
<v Speaker 126>Mine Workers of America official told the U.S. Senate committee, I would just love to see this committee go down

1165
01:08:04.920 --> 01:08:06.880
<v Speaker 136>to Logan County without anybody knowing

1166
01:08:07.040 --> 01:08:07.040
who

1167
01:08:07.060 --> 01:08:15.340
<v Speaker 5>they were. And Senator Burton K. Wheeler responded, They'd probably throw the Senate committee in jail, end quote.

1168
01:08:15.530 --> 01:08:18.000
So that's what's

1169
01:08:18.120 --> 01:08:24.980
<v Speaker 76>going on. Okay? That's what's going on. The companies run everything.

1170
01:08:26.290 --> 01:08:28.070
<v Speaker 76>Everyone works for the company,

1171
01:08:28.630 --> 01:08:35.060
<v Speaker 123>including the government, and most of the company employees who weren't miners were expected to

1172
01:08:35.060 --> 01:08:46.790
<v Speaker 75>be involved with keeping the miners under control. Again, company teachers, preachers, doctors, store clerks, saloon keepers, all those type of employees, they were all expected to

1173
01:08:46.910 --> 01:08:48.450
<v Speaker 137>act as company spies.

1174
01:08:49.740 --> 01:08:50.180
The

1175
01:08:50.780 --> 01:08:56.960
<v Speaker 72>company owned and ran the post office and all the miners' incoming and outcoming mail was monitored.

1176
01:08:58.000 --> 01:08:59.500
Anyone heard

1177
01:08:59.500 --> 01:09:06.920
<v Speaker 128>complaining about any of this was fired and evicted

1178
01:09:06.980 --> 01:09:08.420
<v Speaker 100>and blacklisted

1179
01:09:08.630 --> 01:09:08.630
and

1180
01:09:08.680 --> 01:09:10.440
<v Speaker 12>sometimes beaten. Now

1181
01:09:10.940 --> 01:09:12.440
all of this was

1182
01:09:12.440 --> 01:09:18.860
<v Speaker 12>done, of course, according to the companies, to protect the miners from the predations of those

1183
01:09:18.860 --> 01:09:19.640
<v Speaker 20>radicals,

1184
01:09:19.740 --> 01:09:19.740
at

1185
01:09:19.800 --> 01:09:27.720
<v Speaker 20>the united mine workers union had already gotten its claws into the coal fields of ohio pennsylvania and other states

1186
01:09:27.720 --> 01:09:28.070
was even

1187
01:09:28.180 --> 01:09:31.580
<v Speaker 20>making inroads into the northern parts of west virginia

1188
01:09:31.800 --> 01:09:32.380
but the

1189
01:09:32.380 --> 01:09:36.000
<v Speaker 20>operators were determined that

1190
01:09:36.000 --> 01:09:36.370
the

1191
01:09:36.370 --> 01:09:40.900
<v Speaker 59>union would never under any circumstances be allowed to

1192
01:09:40.900 --> 01:09:43.260
<v Speaker 50>infect their coal fields in southern

1193
01:09:43.430 --> 01:09:44.460
west virginia

1194
01:09:44.580 --> 01:09:45.430
Give

1195
01:09:45.920 --> 01:09:48.730
<v Speaker 50>you some idea of the scope of this thing

1196
01:09:49.320 --> 01:09:50.690
Everybody can

1197
01:09:50.690 --> 01:09:52.190
<v Speaker 50>kind of understand

1198
01:09:52.200 --> 01:10:00.040
<v Speaker 138>When you go to work each day You're at the store, the office Or wherever it is that you work That the company runs the show It's their

1199
01:10:00.050 --> 01:10:02.780
<v Speaker 137>property It's their rules But

1200
01:10:02.780 --> 01:10:03.570
in West

1201
01:10:03.720 --> 01:10:10.330
<v Speaker 137>Virginia alone The operating coal fields Were larger than the states of Rhode Island

1202
01:10:10.460 --> 01:10:13.640
<v Speaker 13>Massachusetts And Delaware combined end.

1203
01:10:14.610 --> 01:10:14.610
And

1204
01:10:14.640 --> 01:10:25.020
<v Speaker 113>94% of the miners there lived this way that I'm describing in company towns. So that's an area the size of three states in which the laws

1205
01:10:25.020 --> 01:10:28.790
<v Speaker 139>and constitution of the United States and the state of West Virginia were

1206
01:10:28.790 --> 01:10:29.090
not the

1207
01:10:29.460 --> 01:10:32.350
<v Speaker 139>day-to-day practical ruling authority. In

1208
01:10:32.640 --> 01:10:34.540
which, as Winthrop Lane

1209
01:10:34.540 --> 01:10:43.440
<v Speaker 140>wrote, represented a civilization within a civilization. An alien order embedded in a democracy.

1210
01:10:43.970 --> 01:10:44.180
It

1211
01:10:44.320 --> 01:10:47.870
<v Speaker 141>was an industrial dictatorship, like really a

1212
01:10:47.870 --> 01:10:54.620
<v Speaker 142>dictatorial government the size of three states in West Virginia alone just planted right here in the middle of America.

1213
01:10:55.020 --> 01:10:57.410
The president of the American

1214
01:10:57.600 --> 01:10:59.510
<v Speaker 143>Federation of Labor,

1215
01:10:59.860 --> 01:11:00.790
Samuel

1216
01:11:00.850 --> 01:11:05.280
<v Speaker 51>Gompers, wrote in 1913...

1217
01:11:05.340 --> 01:11:05.420
A

1218
01:11:05.900 --> 01:11:09.140
<v Speaker 51>powerful and subtle conspiracy between organized capital

1219
01:11:09.140 --> 01:11:17.760
<v Speaker 126>and the governmental agents of the state of West Virginia gives indications of the existence of an invisible government that steals from the workers the liberty they are told they have.

1220
01:11:17.860 --> 01:11:19.670
A U.S. congressman

1221
01:11:19.670 --> 01:11:23.670
<v Speaker 123>visiting the coal fields from Wisconsin said, One

1222
01:11:23.970 --> 01:11:24.220
cannot

1223
01:11:24.220 --> 01:11:34.230
<v Speaker 67>imagine the power of the mining companies. It elects senators and judges. It owns both the Republican and Democratic parties in the state.

1224
01:11:35.350 --> 01:11:43.730
<v Speaker 144>All laws are made to suit the mine owners. All the judges are elected through their influence, even up to the judges of the state Supreme Court.

1225
01:11:44.260 --> 01:11:47.010
Maybe the thing that

1226
01:11:47.860 --> 01:11:49.530
<v Speaker 144>gets me more

1227
01:11:49.530 --> 01:11:52.090
<v Speaker 145>than just about anything

1228
01:11:52.090 --> 01:11:55.080
<v Speaker 146>in this whole story, this whole

1229
01:11:55.080 --> 01:11:59.120
<v Speaker 11>sequence of events, for some reason, the one that just gets me the most is

1230
01:11:59.450 --> 01:11:59.800
that most

1231
01:11:59.800 --> 01:12:02.210
<v Speaker 11>of these coal operations...

1232
01:12:02.720 --> 01:12:03.310
that

1233
01:12:03.520 --> 01:12:04.400
<v Speaker 11>exerted

1234
01:12:04.400 --> 01:12:09.000
<v Speaker 52>so much social and political and economic control over the lives of the

1235
01:12:09.090 --> 01:12:10.740
<v Speaker 90>people in West Virginia were

1236
01:12:11.130 --> 01:12:11.360
owned by

1237
01:12:11.440 --> 01:12:16.720
<v Speaker 90>people who had never set foot in the state, would never set foot in the state.

1238
01:12:16.720 --> 01:12:17.880
Some were

1239
01:12:17.880 --> 01:12:25.000
<v Speaker 62>owned by men in Charleston, the capital of West Virginia, or other cities closer to home, little towns,

1240
01:12:25.000 --> 01:12:25.700
but most

1241
01:12:25.790 --> 01:12:28.170
<v Speaker 12>were not. Most were owned by out-of-state

1242
01:12:28.170 --> 01:12:28.840
<v Speaker 147>interests.

1243
01:12:29.730 --> 01:12:31.380
<v Speaker 147>Big out-of-state corporate interest.

1244
01:12:31.380 --> 01:12:35.500
<v Speaker 67>J.P. Morgan's U.S. Steel Company owned or operated 150,000

1245
01:12:35.500 --> 01:12:41.130
<v Speaker 13>acres in West Virginia. The Norfolk and Western Railway conglomerate

1246
01:12:41.140 --> 01:12:44.940
<v Speaker 9>ran the Pocahontas Coal & Coat Company, owned just about all of it. At

1247
01:12:45.150 --> 01:12:45.520
the time of

1248
01:12:45.570 --> 01:12:50.220
<v Speaker 9>purchase in 1902, I think, it was about 300,000 acres.

1249
01:12:50.610 --> 01:12:51.280
Those are

1250
01:12:51.280 --> 01:12:56.480
<v Speaker 12>just two. There's many more like that. Giant, distant corporations

1251
01:12:58.780 --> 01:12:59.280
Thank you.

1252
01:12:59.250 --> 01:12:59.650
A

1253
01:12:59.750 --> 01:13:03.780
<v Speaker 12>chunk of a U.S. state The size

1254
01:13:04.050 --> 01:13:04.840
of Rhode

1255
01:13:06.060 --> 01:13:07.580
<v Speaker 12>Island Delaware and

1256
01:13:08.160 --> 01:13:14.010
<v Speaker 126>Massachusetts And running them as Dictatorships And police states really It

1257
01:13:14.130 --> 01:13:15.260
comes to

1258
01:13:15.660 --> 01:13:22.280
<v Speaker 76>very much Resemble, actually Very much resemble The economic relationship Between the core and

1259
01:13:22.280 --> 01:13:26.190
<v Speaker 148>the periphery Under colonialism Under traditional colonialism Thank

1260
01:13:26.250 --> 01:13:26.520
you.

1261
01:13:26.900 --> 01:13:27.480
West

1262
01:13:27.870 --> 01:13:30.060
<v Speaker 149>Virginia had essentially been

1263
01:13:30.060 --> 01:13:32.450
<v Speaker 150>reduced To an economic colony Of

1264
01:13:33.080 --> 01:13:37.430
<v Speaker 124>Wall Street and other out-of-state financiers and corporations It really,

1265
01:13:37.550 --> 01:13:43.000
<v Speaker 151>really does resemble that system Under colonialism, the colonies had two

1266
01:13:43.000 --> 01:13:49.320
<v Speaker 11>primary economic roles They were to provide cheap labor To extract natural resources

1267
01:13:49.320 --> 01:13:49.600
<v Speaker 12>That

1268
01:13:49.600 --> 01:13:50.370
would then be

1269
01:13:50.370 --> 01:13:54.680
<v Speaker 12>shipped back to the mother country And then the mother country

1270
01:13:54.920 --> 01:13:54.920
would

1271
01:13:54.950 --> 01:13:59.090
<v Speaker 12>use those natural resources to manufacture the higher-value-added finished

1272
01:13:59.190 --> 01:13:59.870
<v Speaker 87>products for

1273
01:13:59.990 --> 01:14:00.470
which the

1274
01:14:00.470 --> 01:14:04.230
<v Speaker 87>colony then served as a market. That was its secondary function.

1275
01:14:04.570 --> 01:14:05.890
In that

1276
01:14:05.900 --> 01:14:10.200
<v Speaker 62>system, the colonies would be forbidden

1277
01:14:10.300 --> 01:14:22.400
<v Speaker 135>or prevented from using the resources that they extract to create higher-end finished products themselves. They performed the low-end work of resource extraction,

1278
01:14:22.490 --> 01:14:22.490
so

1279
01:14:22.580 --> 01:14:38.970
<v Speaker 135>that the imperial core could profit from the manufacturing part actual ownership of all the resources remains with the core the people in the place where the resources are extracted they might receive

1280
01:14:38.970 --> 01:14:41.310
<v Speaker 152>wages but not profits

1281
01:14:41.500 --> 01:14:42.870
it's a system that

1282
01:14:42.870 --> 01:14:43.980
<v Speaker 152>prevents the

1283
01:14:44.190 --> 01:14:50.090
<v Speaker 11>colonized territories from ever truly developing economically

1284
01:14:50.780 --> 01:14:51.070
It's

1285
01:14:51.290 --> 01:14:53.000
<v Speaker 9>actually designed to prevent that

1286
01:14:53.550 --> 01:14:54.340
Because a

1287
01:14:54.340 --> 01:14:56.560
<v Speaker 9>colony is not perceived

1288
01:14:57.030 --> 01:14:57.730
By the

1289
01:14:57.730 --> 01:15:02.080
<v Speaker 9>core as a society It's perceived as an operation

1290
01:15:02.160 --> 01:15:02.370
<v Speaker 21>As

1291
01:15:02.670 --> 01:15:03.210
one of the

1292
01:15:03.220 --> 01:15:06.500
<v Speaker 153>quotes said It's an appendage to an industrial

1293
01:15:06.720 --> 01:15:18.040
<v Speaker 88>operation And so things like economic development These things just don't play a role It's not a society The fact that children are born

1294
01:15:18.040 --> 01:15:20.010
<v Speaker 70>And families live their whole lives there

1295
01:15:20.590 --> 01:15:36.840
<v Speaker 25>Thank you so much for having me

1296
01:15:37.960 --> 01:15:43.740
<v Speaker 35>here.

1297
01:15:20.670 --> 01:15:20.900
for

1298
01:15:21.200 --> 01:15:38.850
<v Speaker 25>multiple generations, it's all incidental. The miners were viewed as a liquid commodity. Fungible labor. Easily replaceable, faceless people. You just could be swapped out with the next batch of clueless immigrants

1299
01:15:39.070 --> 01:15:42.150
<v Speaker 35>that just arrived, desperate and hungry from Central or Eastern Europe.

1300
01:15:42.640 --> 01:15:44.020
More than one person

1301
01:15:44.870 --> 01:15:48.800
<v Speaker 154>over the years has expressed in one

1302
01:15:49.070 --> 01:15:49.190
way or

1303
01:15:49.250 --> 01:15:49.840
<v Speaker 154>another I'll

1304
01:15:49.840 --> 01:15:50.300
see you next

1305
01:15:50.300 --> 01:15:50.670
<v Speaker 154>time.

1306
01:15:50.680 --> 01:15:55.290
<v Speaker 154>bewilderment or outrage that industrial

1307
01:15:55.290 --> 01:16:03.690
<v Speaker 155>civilization at the time ran on coal coal heated virtually all the homes and businesses around the country

1308
01:16:03.980 --> 01:16:13.530
<v Speaker 79>it powered the country's railroads and and its power grids through coal-fired power plants even the US Navy

1309
01:16:14.100 --> 01:16:15.260
ran on coal

1310
01:16:15.250 --> 01:16:16.020
And so if

1311
01:16:16.230 --> 01:16:18.100
<v Speaker 116>you were an alien from Mars Who

1312
01:16:18.100 --> 01:16:26.170
<v Speaker 156>was coming and hovering over the planet Earth And looking down and seeing a whole civilization That runs on this one precious resource

1313
01:16:26.170 --> 01:16:26.420
<v Speaker 102>You

1314
01:16:26.420 --> 01:16:27.010
could be

1315
01:16:27.150 --> 01:16:35.040
<v Speaker 102>forgiven for thinking That the people who lived where those resources were And dug it out of the ground Were probably some of the richest people on the planet But

1316
01:16:35.330 --> 01:16:35.500
in

1317
01:16:35.500 --> 01:16:37.910
<v Speaker 54>fact they were poor as dirt

1318
01:16:37.910 --> 01:16:38.280
And

1319
01:16:38.880 --> 01:16:41.710
<v Speaker 157>living under I mean

1320
01:16:42.490 --> 01:16:45.220
<v Speaker 157>what is honestly what would approach slave like conditions

1321
01:16:45.220 --> 01:16:55.990
<v Speaker 62>in many ways it's taken on different guises over the years from direct conquest and enslavement of the natives like

1322
01:16:55.990 --> 01:17:02.240
<v Speaker 50>in the early days of new world colonization to the more familiar style mastered by the Dutch and the British and

1323
01:17:02.240 --> 01:17:11.590
<v Speaker 52>against which the American colonies fought a violent rebellion you know all of this core periphery stuff I'm talking it's all in the declaration of independence

1324
01:17:11.610 --> 01:17:11.620
and

1325
01:17:11.600 --> 01:17:12.280
All the

1326
01:17:12.600 --> 01:17:19.040
<v Speaker 123>way up to the more modern post-World War II version, where, you know, I don't know, the CIA overthrows a populist leader

1327
01:17:19.040 --> 01:17:20.330
<v Speaker 62>in Africa and replaces

1328
01:17:20.330 --> 01:17:20.880
him with a

1329
01:17:20.960 --> 01:17:27.880
<v Speaker 62>dictator who gives good terms to ExxonMobil and then uses the money from that to kill his challengers and stuff his Swiss bank

1330
01:17:27.880 --> 01:17:31.180
<v Speaker 76>account, you know, modern colonialism. Well,

1331
01:17:31.720 --> 01:17:31.980
nowadays, we

1332
01:17:31.980 --> 01:17:40.690
<v Speaker 76>usually think colonialism and we think of the traditional terms of European imperialists colonizing less developed countries in the global south.

1333
01:17:41.550 --> 01:17:41.680
In

1334
01:17:41.930 --> 01:17:49.000
<v Speaker 76>very large countries, there's a reason that a country like the Netherlands or a country like England did that. It's because they didn't have a lot

1335
01:17:49.000 --> 01:17:49.410
<v Speaker 158>of land.

1336
01:17:49.790 --> 01:17:50.550
They wanted to

1337
01:17:50.550 --> 01:17:55.810
<v Speaker 158>open new markets or develop more resources, they had to go do it somewhere else. But

1338
01:17:55.930 --> 01:17:56.370
in very

1339
01:17:56.370 --> 01:17:58.030
<v Speaker 158>large countries like

1340
01:17:58.030 --> 01:18:02.060
<v Speaker 62>the United States, like Russia, like China, you

1341
01:18:02.360 --> 01:18:03.210
often see

1342
01:18:03.210 --> 01:18:05.690
<v Speaker 62>similar dynamics...

1343
01:18:05.660 --> 01:18:10.700
<v Speaker 62>I mean, really similar dynamics that emerge within the borders of the country itself.

1344
01:18:10.980 --> 01:18:11.910
You have

1345
01:18:11.910 --> 01:18:14.660
<v Speaker 62>internal colonialism,

1346
01:18:14.970 --> 01:18:17.260
<v Speaker 52>internally colonized populations.

1347
01:18:17.550 --> 01:18:18.440
And so

1348
01:18:18.440 --> 01:18:24.000
<v Speaker 35>again, to repeat this point one more time because I really want to drill it in there,

1349
01:18:24.280 --> 01:18:24.880
the hills of

1350
01:18:24.990 --> 01:18:29.700
<v Speaker 159>southern West Virginia over the course of about 20 years

1351
01:18:29.980 --> 01:18:30.490
were

1352
01:18:30.490 --> 01:18:33.300
<v Speaker 97>transformed into

1353
01:18:33.300 --> 01:18:33.470
by

1354
01:18:33.770 --> 01:18:41.060
<v Speaker 97>outside financial interests from a society of self-sufficient yeoman

1355
01:18:41.060 --> 01:18:41.520
<v Speaker 160>farmers

1356
01:18:42.010 --> 01:18:42.210
into an

1357
01:18:42.270 --> 01:18:47.440
<v Speaker 160>economic colony wholly owned by faraway corporations. It

1358
01:18:47.700 --> 01:18:48.930
all happened more

1359
01:18:48.930 --> 01:18:55.930
<v Speaker 161>quickly than the people affected by it could react. Before they were able to wrap their heads around what was

1360
01:18:55.930 --> 01:18:58.300
<v Speaker 162>happening, it had already happened.

1361
01:18:59.330 --> 01:18:59.590
The

1362
01:19:00.340 --> 01:19:05.030
<v Speaker 162>communities that used to exist there were completely shattered by the transformation.

1363
01:19:05.030 --> 01:19:05.750
It wasn't

1364
01:19:05.750 --> 01:19:12.110
<v Speaker 104>an easy task to rebuild any kind of community under conditions where people spoke a dozen

1365
01:19:12.110 --> 01:19:18.670
<v Speaker 154>or more languages, and where the coal companies were suspicious of any collective activity on the

1366
01:19:18.760 --> 01:19:20.010
part of their

1367
01:19:20.010 --> 01:19:26.470
<v Speaker 9>miners. The power of the operators depended on their ability to negotiate as a

1368
01:19:26.470 --> 01:19:28.250
<v Speaker 136>monolith with miners

1369
01:19:28.440 --> 01:19:28.440
who

1370
01:19:28.510 --> 01:19:35.600
<v Speaker 136>could only negotiate as individuals. Every individual miner is immediately

1371
01:19:35.600 --> 01:19:36.720
<v Speaker 83>replaceable.

1372
01:19:36.970 --> 01:19:37.640
You'd be the

1373
01:19:37.640 --> 01:19:38.010
<v Speaker 83>best

1374
01:19:38.010 --> 01:19:40.660
<v Speaker 163>coal miner in the whole wide world,

1375
01:19:40.910 --> 01:19:41.310
and they

1376
01:19:41.310 --> 01:19:47.830
<v Speaker 163>could replace you with a guy who's just learning the job, and the whole operation is not going to be affected

1377
01:19:47.830 --> 01:19:48.400
<v Speaker 20>1%.

1378
01:19:48.650 --> 01:19:49.480
And so, no

1379
01:19:49.480 --> 01:19:55.040
<v Speaker 20>matter who you are, Mr. Miner Man, if you don't like the working conditions,

1380
01:19:55.090 --> 01:19:57.060
<v Speaker 53>or you don't like the pay...

1381
01:19:57.060 --> 01:19:57.290
If you

1382
01:19:57.430 --> 01:20:02.700
<v Speaker 53>don't like the attitude of the mine guards or the rules in the company town, no problem.

1383
01:20:03.080 --> 01:20:03.320
There are

1384
01:20:03.320 --> 01:20:05.040
<v Speaker 53>thousands of other people

1385
01:20:05.040 --> 01:20:10.130
<v Speaker 67>who can be plugged into your slot. The only way that

1386
01:20:10.130 --> 01:20:10.370
the

1387
01:20:10.450 --> 01:20:11.780
<v Speaker 92>miners could ever

1388
01:20:12.160 --> 01:20:12.410
hope to

1389
01:20:12.410 --> 01:20:13.980
<v Speaker 92>meet on something

1390
01:20:13.980 --> 01:20:15.460
<v Speaker 63>like equal terms,

1391
01:20:15.840 --> 01:20:16.880
really meet

1392
01:20:16.880 --> 01:20:20.660
<v Speaker 63>with the men who ran these companies as fellow human beings,

1393
01:20:21.040 --> 01:20:21.920
was to do it

1394
01:20:21.920 --> 01:20:23.490
<v Speaker 66>together.

1395
01:20:25.580 --> 01:20:31.890
<v Speaker 66>Because a miner is easily replaceable But the miners Are not replaceable

1396
01:20:32.840 --> 01:20:34.050
United Mine

1397
01:20:34.050 --> 01:20:37.120
<v Speaker 164>Workers of America Our

1398
01:20:37.400 --> 01:20:42.600
<v Speaker 33>branch of the International Union Was founded in Ohio In 1890 And

1399
01:20:43.120 --> 01:20:43.310
right

1400
01:20:43.340 --> 01:20:53.490
<v Speaker 91>away began making inroads Into coal fields in the Midwest During the business depression of 1894 Operators

1401
01:20:54.000 --> 01:20:54.000
pretty

1402
01:20:54.070 --> 01:21:01.090
<v Speaker 35>much everywhere, started cutting the pay of their miners without warning or negotiation, and so the UMW called for a nationwide strike. It was

1403
01:21:01.190 --> 01:21:01.780
their first

1404
01:21:01.780 --> 01:21:04.170
<v Speaker 35>major strike that they had called for.

1405
01:21:04.560 --> 01:21:05.320
There were a lot of

1406
01:21:05.320 --> 01:21:14.890
<v Speaker 100>British and German miners up in the Midwest, and these men understood the goals and purpose of a labor union, and so the Midwestern coal

1407
01:21:14.990 --> 01:21:16.780
<v Speaker 158>miners walked off the job. But

1408
01:21:16.910 --> 01:21:18.240
the coal fields of

1409
01:21:18.240 --> 01:21:20.190
<v Speaker 158>southern West Virginia

1410
01:21:21.220 --> 01:21:21.780
places

1411
01:21:21.940 --> 01:21:33.350
<v Speaker 158>only very recently developed and built up you know there were some of the last ones to be built up they were worked by locals or recently arrived central and southern europeans

1412
01:21:33.730 --> 01:21:40.510
<v Speaker 100>and southern blacks who had no union experience whatsoever and so they didn't walk out and they kept

1413
01:21:40.920 --> 01:21:41.470
working and so

1414
01:21:41.530 --> 01:21:41.890
<v Speaker 100>as all

1415
01:21:41.890 --> 01:21:45.780
<v Speaker 70>those mines up in the midwest and the northern areas shut down

1416
01:21:46.170 --> 01:21:46.170
the

1417
01:21:46.240 --> 01:21:56.160
<v Speaker 70>ones in southern west virginia kept going and as a result business from those striking midwestern coal fields was taken up by the non-union west virginia mining operations

1418
01:21:56.390 --> 01:21:58.360
did a lot of damage to those

1419
01:21:58.360 --> 01:22:05.580
<v Speaker 70>midwestern coal companies and it completely failed to get the umw anything that they had wanted and eventually

1420
01:22:05.580 --> 01:22:06.060
the operators

1421
01:22:06.500 --> 01:22:08.850
<v Speaker 70>up there just came to him and said look we're

1422
01:22:08.850 --> 01:22:11.530
<v Speaker 165>we're gonna all go bankrupt here if you keep this up because

1423
01:22:12.260 --> 01:22:17.020
<v Speaker 165>There's this other region down here that's just taking all the business, and so the UMW just had to call it off.

1424
01:22:17.450 --> 01:22:19.250
Well, after

1425
01:22:19.250 --> 01:22:22.820
<v Speaker 166>operators continued to cut wages,

1426
01:22:23.230 --> 01:22:24.280
three years later,

1427
01:22:24.280 --> 01:22:26.710
<v Speaker 57>the UMW called another strike.

1428
01:22:26.790 --> 01:22:29.650
This time, 1897. And this

1429
01:22:29.650 --> 01:22:33.200
<v Speaker 97>time, they were better prepared

1430
01:22:33.610 --> 01:22:34.180
and met

1431
01:22:34.180 --> 01:22:36.990
<v Speaker 97>with unprecedented

1432
01:22:36.990 --> 01:22:39.860
<v Speaker 167>success in coal fields everywhere in the country.

1433
01:22:40.650 --> 01:22:40.650
tens

1434
01:22:40.720 --> 01:22:42.060
<v Speaker 167>of thousands of

1435
01:22:42.620 --> 01:22:45.050
<v Speaker 168>union and non-union miners walked

1436
01:22:45.150 --> 01:22:46.740
<v Speaker 11>off the job en masse

1437
01:22:46.740 --> 01:22:53.310
<v Speaker 145>everywhere in the country that is except for southern west virginia

1438
01:22:53.310 --> 01:22:53.600
<v Speaker 9>and

1439
01:22:53.600 --> 01:22:54.280
so labor

1440
01:22:54.280 --> 01:23:03.860
<v Speaker 9>organizers from all over the united states pour into west virginia to get these miners there organized explain to them what a union is and what it's for and why they need

1441
01:23:03.860 --> 01:23:04.090
one

1442
01:23:04.090 --> 01:23:06.450
<v Speaker 57>and just to get them organized and

1443
01:23:06.940 --> 01:23:13.160
<v Speaker 57>Samuel Gompers, the head of the AFL He came in and he said The success of this strike depends This is a nationwide

1444
01:23:13.160 --> 01:23:15.090
<v Speaker 9>strike He said it depends on one factor

1445
01:23:15.310 --> 01:23:15.670
That the

1446
01:23:15.670 --> 01:23:20.060
<v Speaker 9>miners of West Virginia Will suspend operations Gompers

1447
01:23:20.140 --> 01:23:20.600
was

1448
01:23:20.600 --> 01:23:26.960
<v Speaker 52>joined by a whole bunch of Well known labor activists at the time Eugene Debs was

1449
01:23:26.960 --> 01:23:27.880
<v Speaker 59>there A whole bunch of people

1450
01:23:28.110 --> 01:23:29.290
But the coal

1451
01:23:29.290 --> 01:23:33.150
<v Speaker 63>companies in West Virginia Were very well prepared

1452
01:23:33.690 --> 01:23:39.070
<v Speaker 63>Company police and mine guards Rode the trains and patrolled the train stations They turned back any

1453
01:23:39.070 --> 01:23:45.950
<v Speaker 47>labor organizer That tried to enter into those southern counties Not just onto their property by the way But into the counties, period

1454
01:23:46.470 --> 01:23:46.570
The

1455
01:23:46.570 --> 01:23:53.230
<v Speaker 50>organizers who got through anyway And were discovered Were thrown in jail

1456
01:23:53.750 --> 01:23:53.880
They

1457
01:23:53.880 --> 01:24:01.070
<v Speaker 27>were fined Very often they were beaten Sometimes they were shot at By company guards or police

1458
01:24:01.590 --> 01:24:02.350
Thank you.

1459
01:24:02.320 --> 01:24:02.980
John

1460
01:24:03.440 --> 01:24:12.610
<v Speaker 67>Mitchell, who was vice president of the United Mine Workers of America at the time, he was chased and shot at by company guards and had to flee for his life by swimming across a

1461
01:24:13.540 --> 01:24:14.140
mountain

1462
01:24:14.140 --> 01:24:17.030
<v Speaker 169>stream. The operators went to their

1463
01:24:17.030 --> 01:24:24.240
<v Speaker 47>pet judges and got rubber-stamped injunctions against the labor organizations, ordering them to cease all efforts to organize the miners of West

1464
01:24:25.360 --> 01:24:28.030
<v Speaker 71>Virginia. The state very

1465
01:24:28.380 --> 01:24:31.170
<v Speaker 170>quickly became a focal point of the whole nationwide labor

1466
01:24:31.170 --> 01:24:31.960
movement.

1467
01:24:32.660 --> 01:24:32.660
The

1468
01:24:32.710 --> 01:24:41.580
<v Speaker 57>AFL, the Knights of Labor, the UMWA, 28 other national and international unions sent representatives to convene a council in Wheeling, West Virginia to

1469
01:24:41.580 --> 01:24:42.030
try to

1470
01:24:42.190 --> 01:24:45.420
<v Speaker 171>coordinate and publicize their efforts. Mass

1471
01:24:45.900 --> 01:24:46.020
meetings

1472
01:24:46.020 --> 01:24:54.360
<v Speaker 172>were held all over the country by workers to express indignation at the court's interference with the constitutional rights of the organizers and minors

1473
01:24:54.520 --> 01:24:54.680
in West

1474
01:24:54.750 --> 01:24:55.140
<v Speaker 172>Virginia.

1475
01:24:55.920 --> 01:24:58.420
<v Speaker 62>Still,

1476
01:24:58.950 --> 01:25:02.340
<v Speaker 62>Southern West Virginia was impenetrable to the Union. One

1477
01:25:02.480 --> 01:25:03.560
organizer

1478
01:25:03.900 --> 01:25:08.050
<v Speaker 158>reported that he'd managed to establish a local at a mine in McDowell

1479
01:25:08.050 --> 01:25:15.420
<v Speaker 100>County, but that it soon dissolved because the miners there were unwilling to participate for fear of being fired, evicted, and blacklisted.

1480
01:25:15.990 --> 01:25:17.380
David Alan Corbin,

1481
01:25:17.440 --> 01:25:21.630
<v Speaker 91>in his great study, it's called Life, Work, and Rebellion in the

1482
01:25:21.730 --> 01:25:27.100
<v Speaker 11>Coalfields, The West Virginia Miners, 1880-1922, by David Alan Corbin, great book,

1483
01:25:27.730 --> 01:25:27.950
He

1484
01:25:28.170 --> 01:25:31.060
<v Speaker 11>writes: "The miners knew their

1485
01:25:31.060 --> 01:25:36.180
<v Speaker 67>operators. When local unions were formed and miners took offices in the locals,

1486
01:25:36.180 --> 01:25:44.790
<v Speaker 126>the coal companies reacted swiftly and harshly. The truth is, an organizer wrote, that as fast as men organize, the companies are discharging them

1487
01:25:44.920 --> 01:25:44.920
and

1488
01:25:45.000 --> 01:25:46.100
<v Speaker 144>turning them out of their

1489
01:25:46.490 --> 01:25:51.850
<v Speaker 25>houses. The coal companies also reacted against the organizers when they became successful.

1490
01:25:52.070 --> 01:25:53.010
<v Speaker 25>Most of the organizers

1491
01:25:53.090 --> 01:25:59.810
<v Speaker 67>were threatened, some of them were beaten, and nearly all of them had their efforts halted by injunctions or were jailed, often on

1492
01:25:59.850 --> 01:26:05.870
<v Speaker 11>charges such as holding meetings on Sunday, and thereby violating the Sabbath. Well, despite

1493
01:26:05.870 --> 01:26:07.440
all that, the

1494
01:26:07.440 --> 01:26:08.230
<v Speaker 173>strike

1495
01:26:08.230 --> 01:26:12.260
<v Speaker 50>overall was still a huge success.

1496
01:26:13.250 --> 01:26:17.030
<v Speaker 50>membership in the umwa increased tenfold and

1497
01:26:17.230 --> 01:26:22.810
<v Speaker 59>the union dues from that refilled the union's empty treasury and gave him a sense of confidence

1498
01:26:23.290 --> 01:26:23.290
going

1499
01:26:23.320 --> 01:26:28.820
<v Speaker 12>forward into the future because for the first time minor solidarity had been put on display

1500
01:26:29.020 --> 01:26:31.520
<v Speaker 135>in large sections of the country and

1501
01:26:31.520 --> 01:26:32.360
so the

1502
01:26:32.360 --> 01:26:35.890
<v Speaker 174>operators associations up in

1503
01:26:35.970 --> 01:26:38.920
<v Speaker 174>ohio and illinois indiana and western pennsylvania

1504
01:26:38.960 --> 01:26:42.710
<v Speaker 113>great big giant coal field called the central field up there

1505
01:26:42.710 --> 01:26:43.640
finally broke

1506
01:26:43.640 --> 01:26:46.860
<v Speaker 113>with precedent and agreed to sit down and negotiate

1507
01:26:46.970 --> 01:26:50.770
<v Speaker 106>with united mine workers regarding wages and working conditions

1508
01:26:50.770 --> 01:26:57.950
<v Speaker 60>the result was the central competitive field agreement which made the unionization of the midwestern

1509
01:26:58.030 --> 01:26:59.730
<v Speaker 63>coal fields official

1510
01:27:00.530 --> 01:27:00.930
They

1511
01:27:01.220 --> 01:27:07.510
<v Speaker 63>recognized the UMWA as the miner's instrument for collective bargaining. The wage increases and other

1512
01:27:07.510 --> 01:27:12.900
<v Speaker 70>accommodations were really secondary to getting their union recognized. Without

1513
01:27:12.900 --> 01:27:13.740
a union, wage

1514
01:27:13.740 --> 01:27:22.770
<v Speaker 70>increases and other accommodations can always be rolled back tomorrow. You need a union. Critically, those Midwestern

1515
01:27:22.770 --> 01:27:23.210
coal

1516
01:27:23.210 --> 01:27:27.350
<v Speaker 115>companies that made this agreement...

1517
01:27:27.300 --> 01:27:27.610
They

1518
01:27:27.820 --> 01:27:28.690
<v Speaker 115>extracted a very

1519
01:27:28.690 --> 01:27:32.020
<v Speaker 100>important promise from the United Mine Workers of America.

1520
01:27:32.020 --> 01:27:33.980
They told them that

1521
01:27:33.980 --> 01:27:38.710
<v Speaker 100>the concessions they were making in the agreement were going to

1522
01:27:38.710 --> 01:27:41.280
<v Speaker 136>drive up their operating costs

1523
01:27:41.280 --> 01:27:51.260
<v Speaker 57>and would allow the non-union fields to the south in West Virginia to undercut and out-compete them like they had before. And

1524
01:27:51.400 --> 01:27:51.690
so as

1525
01:27:51.780 --> 01:27:54.120
<v Speaker 62>part of the agreement...

1526
01:27:54.060 --> 01:27:54.270
the

1527
01:27:54.280 --> 01:27:59.090
<v Speaker 62>United Mine Workers committed themselves to unionizing southern West

1528
01:27:59.090 --> 01:28:01.220
<v Speaker 100>Virginia come hell or high water.

1529
01:28:01.360 --> 01:28:02.190
And the coal

1530
01:28:02.190 --> 01:28:08.480
<v Speaker 100>companies there, though, were not going to observe any limits to prevent that from happening.

1531
01:28:08.700 --> 01:28:11.260
As far as the coal

1532
01:28:11.740 --> 01:28:20.890
<v Speaker 47>companies of southern West Virginia were concerned, a unionized workforce was a threat to their very existence.

1533
01:28:22.020 --> 01:28:22.770
You know, the

1534
01:28:22.970 --> 01:28:23.770
<v Speaker 70>coal fields in West

1535
01:28:23.770 --> 01:28:33.300
<v Speaker 175>Virginia were further away from the major coal-consuming regions on the eastern seaboard or the Great Lakes or even the Mississippi Valley. West

1536
01:28:33.910 --> 01:28:34.820
Virginia didn't really

1537
01:28:34.820 --> 01:28:36.240
<v Speaker 176>consume a lot of coal,

1538
01:28:36.400 --> 01:28:36.400
so

1539
01:28:36.410 --> 01:28:43.440
<v Speaker 70>it all had to be sold out of state for the most part, whereas the coal fields in Ohio and Pennsylvania...

1540
01:28:43.460 --> 01:28:43.720
They

1541
01:28:43.760 --> 01:28:45.030
<v Speaker 70>sold a lot of coal to their

1542
01:28:45.030 --> 01:28:50.070
<v Speaker 67>own states, very short distance away, which meant that the transportation costs for them were a lot lower,

1543
01:28:50.250 --> 01:28:50.250
so

1544
01:28:50.250 --> 01:28:52.780
<v Speaker 50>the built-in costs in West Virginia were

1545
01:28:52.870 --> 01:28:54.950
going to be higher, and the only

1546
01:28:55.000 --> 01:28:58.800
<v Speaker 50>lever that they had to keep themselves competitive was oil.

1547
01:28:59.330 --> 01:29:00.530
<v Speaker 50>wages like the cost of

1548
01:29:00.650 --> 01:29:05.910
<v Speaker 100>extracting the coal was the labor to do it was the only other major cost besides transportation

1549
01:29:06.060 --> 01:29:06.500
and since

1550
01:29:06.500 --> 01:29:07.870
<v Speaker 100>their transport costs were

1551
01:29:07.870 --> 01:29:13.470
<v Speaker 35>higher there was just a constant downward pressure on the wages of west virginia miners a lot of corner cutting a

1552
01:29:13.630 --> 01:29:13.940
lot of

1553
01:29:13.940 --> 01:29:18.210
<v Speaker 35>things that became more advanced in the northern

1554
01:29:18.210 --> 01:29:24.420
<v Speaker 47>mines as far as safety and things like that that didn't make it to the southern mines in west virginia

1555
01:29:24.670 --> 01:29:24.820
Because

1556
01:29:24.870 --> 01:29:27.990
<v Speaker 47>they cost money. And so as a result, the West Virginia mines were

1557
01:29:27.990 --> 01:29:29.230
<v Speaker 146>the most dangerous in the country.

1558
01:29:29.690 --> 01:29:31.650
The West Virginia

1559
01:29:31.650 --> 01:29:32.290
<v Speaker 146>mine

1560
01:29:32.290 --> 01:29:43.090
<v Speaker 160>operators, they actually, they were really paranoid. They actually saw the United Mine Workers of America as a tool that was being used against them

1561
01:29:43.500 --> 01:29:43.770
In a

1562
01:29:43.820 --> 01:29:52.190
<v Speaker 113>conspiracy, they really believed that this was happening, by the Midwestern coal companies to try to cripple their operations and steal their business.

1563
01:29:52.220 --> 01:29:56.360
<v Speaker 13>That's what they thought. So they were determined to keep the union out at all costs. As

1564
01:29:56.370 --> 01:29:57.540
far as the union was

1565
01:29:58.120 --> 01:30:03.010
<v Speaker 71>concerned, southern West Virginian mines had to be unionized, or else they would always

1566
01:30:03.010 --> 01:30:03.240
and

1567
01:30:03.450 --> 01:30:09.510
<v Speaker 92>forever make it mathematically untenable for other mines around the country to accept the union.

1568
01:30:11.250 --> 01:30:12.590
<v Speaker 92>to irreconcilable

1569
01:30:12.590 --> 01:30:22.350
<v Speaker 61>positions. The UMWA had not made headway into southern West Virginia so far. And part

1570
01:30:22.360 --> 01:30:22.780
of

1571
01:30:22.780 --> 01:30:28.890
<v Speaker 5>that was because of the efforts of the coal mine operators. But a big part of it had to

1572
01:30:28.890 --> 01:30:35.000
<v Speaker 123>do with the fact that they had so far consistently failed to understand or really address the concerns

1573
01:30:35.090 --> 01:30:40.120
<v Speaker 125>of the West Virginia miners, which were different from people in other parts of the country.

1574
01:30:40.160 --> 01:30:40.440
And

1575
01:30:41.060 --> 01:30:45.080
<v Speaker 177>whether it was because the immigrant black and local

1576
01:30:45.080 --> 01:30:56.060
<v Speaker 60>miners were kind of accustomed to being poor and were isolated from the temptations of civilization, maybe it was that, or maybe it was because a portion of the miners saw the

1577
01:30:56.060 --> 01:31:08.240
<v Speaker 124>job as a part-time supplement to a mixed lifestyle that included hunting and fishing and small-scale gardening, whatever the reason was, the miners in southern Appalachia were simply not

1578
01:31:08.820 --> 01:31:11.390
<v Speaker 124>that concerned about how much they were being paid

1579
01:31:11.700 --> 01:31:12.380
not that they

1580
01:31:12.380 --> 01:31:23.070
<v Speaker 165>didn't care at all it just was not a priority negotiating higher wages was how the union sold itself to miners everywhere else it's how it tried to sell itself

1581
01:31:23.070 --> 01:31:26.590
<v Speaker 12>to the West Virginians but for the most part they were not receptive

1582
01:31:26.820 --> 01:31:27.550
it took

1583
01:31:27.550 --> 01:31:28.830
<v Speaker 12>the UMWA a

1584
01:31:28.830 --> 01:31:35.410
<v Speaker 5>long time to figure out that the highest priority in West Virginia

1585
01:31:35.680 --> 01:31:36.810
<v Speaker 35>the central issue

1586
01:31:37.200 --> 01:31:38.870
<v Speaker 35>For the miners of West Virginia

1587
01:31:39.190 --> 01:31:39.690
Was the

1588
01:31:39.690 --> 01:31:40.680
<v Speaker 35>oppressive

1589
01:31:41.040 --> 01:31:41.730
<v Speaker 61>conditions

1590
01:31:41.970 --> 01:31:42.330
Of the

1591
01:31:42.330 --> 01:31:49.670
<v Speaker 61>company town And especially The abuses of the private security forces Hired by the companies

1592
01:31:50.050 --> 01:31:51.540
That's what

1593
01:31:51.710 --> 01:31:57.960
<v Speaker 136>they wanted help with The UMWA didn't really get this at first And so it hindered their organizing

1594
01:31:57.960 --> 01:32:01.230
<v Speaker 35>efforts But they were soon to learn the hard

1595
01:32:01.450 --> 01:32:01.690
way Just

1596
01:32:01.770 --> 01:32:06.930
<v Speaker 35>what the miners of southern West Virginia Had been dealing with Corbin writes Quote

1597
01:32:06.900 --> 01:32:07.370
The coal

1598
01:32:07.420 --> 01:32:08.960
<v Speaker 35>operators were determined

1599
01:32:08.960 --> 01:32:16.070
<v Speaker 67>to prevent the UMWA from again invading the state, believing, as did Justin Collins, that if the coal operator

1600
01:32:16.070 --> 01:32:20.310
<v Speaker 71>undertakes to fight the Union, he will have to fight force with force. More

1601
01:32:20.360 --> 01:32:20.780
and more

1602
01:32:20.780 --> 01:32:30.850
<v Speaker 88>operators formed police barricades against these invaders by hiring mercenaries from the Baldwin-Feltz Detective Agency. By 1910, Baldwin-Feltz guards could be

1603
01:32:30.850 --> 01:32:34.020
<v Speaker 71>found in nearly every company town in southern West Virginia.

1604
01:32:34.460 --> 01:32:34.640
The

1605
01:32:34.790 --> 01:32:42.100
<v Speaker 71>principal work of these guards, according to the head of the agency, Tom Feltz, was to protect the operators against organized labor. In

1606
01:32:42.290 --> 01:32:43.010
protecting the

1607
01:32:43.100 --> 01:32:49.280
<v Speaker 67>coal establishment from union agitators, the Baldwin-Feltz guards were effective and brutal.

1608
01:32:49.930 --> 01:32:56.740
<v Speaker 67>Whereas in earlier years, during quiet periods, national organizers moved relatively unmolested around the state,

1609
01:32:56.740 --> 01:32:56.870
by

1610
01:32:56.870 --> 01:33:04.910
<v Speaker 154>1907 they were surrounded and harassed by Baldwin-Feltz guards from the time they boarded a train in Cincinnati headed for West Virginia.

1611
01:33:05.190 --> 01:33:06.360
The arrival of UMWA

1612
01:33:06.360 --> 01:33:12.740
<v Speaker 53>organizers often meant headlines for local labor newspapers. The February 10,

1613
01:33:12.740 --> 01:33:15.630
<v Speaker 71>1910 issue of the Labor Argus read, All

1614
01:33:15.750 --> 01:33:15.900
right.

1615
01:33:15.890 --> 01:33:19.270
<v Speaker 71>Horrible Butchery of Representatives of United Mine Workers

1616
01:33:19.270 --> 01:33:29.820
<v Speaker 11>by Brutal and Bloodthirsty Guards in the New River Field. The September 8, 1910 edition of the paper headlined, Guards Brutally Assault Union Men, Two Members

1617
01:33:29.970 --> 01:33:36.070
<v Speaker 71>of the International Executive Board of United Mine Workers of America, Beaten Up by Coal Company Thugs.

1618
01:33:36.310 --> 01:33:37.110
The United Mine

1619
01:33:37.110 --> 01:33:42.370
<v Speaker 71>Workers Journal stigmatized West Virginia as the Black Belt, clarifying,

1620
01:33:42.800 --> 01:33:43.020
We do

1621
01:33:43.070 --> 01:33:48.940
<v Speaker 71>not mean that they employ nothing but colored men, but that it is a region where it is not safe for an organizer to

1622
01:33:48.950 --> 01:33:58.100
<v Speaker 136>let his business be known. By 1912, UMWA officials openly admitted that they no longer encouraged organizers to enter the state of West

1623
01:33:58.100 --> 01:34:00.910
<v Speaker 35>Virginia because of the danger posed by

1624
01:34:00.910 --> 01:34:10.840
<v Speaker 72>the Baldwin Feltz guards. The vigilance of the Baldwin Feltz guards against Union agitators carried over into the everyday internal affairs of the company town.

1625
01:34:10.790 --> 01:34:10.970
If a

1626
01:34:11.120 --> 01:34:21.980
<v Speaker 72>miner showed too much independence or became inquisitive or complained, he was suspected of being a union agitator and might be beaten and driven out of town. The guards forcibly prohibited

1627
01:34:21.980 --> 01:34:31.060
<v Speaker 67>the assembly of more than three miners at night, a practice they called bunching for fear that one of the miners might be an organizer preaching unionism.

1628
01:34:31.110 --> 01:34:32.110
Describing the

1629
01:34:32.110 --> 01:34:39.580
<v Speaker 70>guards' activities, a miner recollected, they rode horses and wouldn't let anyone they didn't like walk on the railroad tracks.

1630
01:34:39.950 --> 01:34:40.790
<v Speaker 70>Worse, though, you

1631
01:34:41.170 --> 01:34:47.050
<v Speaker 116>couldn't go into the office and tell about mistakes or complain about the store. The guards would just kick you

1632
01:34:47.050 --> 01:34:48.350
off the porch.

1633
01:34:48.610 --> 01:34:49.120
<v Speaker 116>These guards

1634
01:34:49.120 --> 01:34:58.060
<v Speaker 67>gained a national reputation for their beating, maiming, and murdering of union miners and organizers. In fact, Edward Levinson, in his book "I

1635
01:34:58.060 --> 01:35:04.390
<v Speaker 20>Break Strikes," a general study of industrial spy and strike-breaking agencies throughout the United States,

1636
01:35:04.570 --> 01:35:07.890
<v Speaker 20>awarded the Baldwin-Felts agency the blue ribbon for

1637
01:35:07.890 --> 01:35:09.930
<v Speaker 5>wanton, cold-blooded murders.

1638
01:35:10.140 --> 01:35:11.330
Miners throughout the

1639
01:35:11.330 --> 01:35:14.930
<v Speaker 5>country reported that they were appalled by the activities of

1640
01:35:14.930 --> 01:35:17.090
<v Speaker 136>the Baldwin-Felts guards in West Virginia,

1641
01:35:17.280 --> 01:35:17.540
and they

1642
01:35:17.540 --> 01:35:22.410
<v Speaker 136>made it known that they would not permit themselves to be subjugated in such a manner.

1643
01:35:22.630 --> 01:35:23.170
Indeed, in

1644
01:35:23.180 --> 01:35:25.990
<v Speaker 136>the speech that precipitated the massacre

1645
01:35:25.990 --> 01:35:27.230
<v Speaker 88>by miners of 19

1646
01:35:27.230 --> 01:35:29.610
<v Speaker 13>mine guards at Heron, Illinois,

1647
01:35:30.000 --> 01:35:35.620
<v Speaker 13>A miner had declared, we must show the world that this ain't West Virginia. The

1648
01:35:35.620 --> 01:35:37.520
southern West Virginia

1649
01:35:37.520 --> 01:35:42.840
<v Speaker 13>miners hated the Baldwin-Feltz guards more than did any other group of miners.

1650
01:35:43.050 --> 01:35:43.440
During one

1651
01:35:43.440 --> 01:35:53.970
<v Speaker 67>strike, when the miners finally unleashed their wrath against these guards, a miner told a journalist, I never had to kill a man and hope never to be compelled to kill one.

1652
01:35:54.180 --> 01:35:54.250
But I

1653
01:35:54.280 --> 01:35:56.840
<v Speaker 67>would kill a dozen of these guards as I would kill

1654
01:35:57.000 --> 01:36:02.510
<v Speaker 178>a dozen rats if they should attempt to lord it over us as they've been accustomed to do. End quote.

1655
01:36:02.820 --> 01:36:06.110
<v Speaker 179>Oh, story

1656
01:36:06.210 --> 01:36:06.720
gets me

1657
01:36:06.730 --> 01:36:08.270
<v Speaker 179>worked up, guys.

1658
01:36:08.580 --> 01:36:08.920
Take a

1659
01:36:08.930 --> 01:36:15.350
<v Speaker 179>breath here and settle down a little bit. All right.

1660
01:36:15.660 --> 01:36:17.650
So it

1661
01:36:17.650 --> 01:36:21.870
<v Speaker 180>took until 1912

1662
01:36:22.180 --> 01:36:22.770
to...

1663
01:36:22.770 --> 01:36:23.330
for the

1664
01:36:23.380 --> 01:36:25.020
<v Speaker 180>coal miners of southern West

1665
01:36:25.050 --> 01:36:27.430
<v Speaker 20>Virginia to finally rise up. In

1666
01:36:27.770 --> 01:36:28.690
the end, it

1667
01:36:28.730 --> 01:36:33.870
<v Speaker 20>was the very measures the coal companies took to prevent that from happening that

1668
01:36:34.140 --> 01:36:34.420
ended up

1669
01:36:34.490 --> 01:36:36.540
<v Speaker 57>ensuring that it did happen.

1670
01:36:36.730 --> 01:36:37.570
The West

1671
01:36:37.570 --> 01:36:44.140
<v Speaker 57>Virginia miners had shown little interest in striking for higher wages or better working conditions.

1672
01:36:44.860 --> 01:36:44.860
Very

1673
01:36:44.940 --> 01:36:53.000
<v Speaker 67>little interest in the Union, but the paranoid operators used subversion and brute force just to make sure, and that was what drove the miners to

1674
01:36:53.110 --> 01:36:53.860
<v Speaker 66>rebellion.

1675
01:36:54.200 --> 01:36:55.780
It began at a place

1676
01:36:56.170 --> 01:36:59.700
<v Speaker 66>called Paint Creek in Kanawha

1677
01:36:59.750 --> 01:37:01.120
<v Speaker 181>County.

1678
01:37:01.400 --> 01:37:03.430
Miners there at Paint Creek

1679
01:37:03.510 --> 01:37:09.530
<v Speaker 50>had been some of the few in southern West Virginia who had managed to negotiate a collective

1680
01:37:09.930 --> 01:37:11.280
<v Speaker 57>agreement with their operators.

1681
01:37:12.020 --> 01:37:12.420
But on

1682
01:37:12.490 --> 01:37:14.470
<v Speaker 57>March 31, 1912,

1683
01:37:14.620 --> 01:37:22.820
<v Speaker 67>that contract expired, and negotiations between the miners and the Kanoa Coal Operators Association began. The

1684
01:37:22.970 --> 01:37:25.170
miners were asking for a pay

1685
01:37:25.440 --> 01:37:34.720
<v Speaker 67>raise of two and a half cents per ton of coal dug. Miners, by and large, were not paid by the hour. They were paid according to how much coal they delivered. And

1686
01:37:34.870 --> 01:37:36.100
the miners also

1687
01:37:36.100 --> 01:37:39.760
<v Speaker 67>demanded recognition of their union.

1688
01:37:40.180 --> 01:37:40.180
And the miners also demanded recognition of their union.

1689
01:37:40.180 --> 01:37:40.310
<v Speaker 145>Of

1690
01:37:40.420 --> 01:37:42.120
<v Speaker 67>their right to bargain collectively.

1691
01:37:42.360 --> 01:37:42.860
But the

1692
01:37:42.970 --> 01:37:48.120
<v Speaker 113>operators refused. They said they couldn't remain profitable if they accommodated

1693
01:37:48.210 --> 01:37:53.790
<v Speaker 11>that two and a half cent pay raise. So the miners compromised. They said, OK, fine, we'll accept another contract on the

1694
01:37:53.790 --> 01:37:54.860
<v Speaker 50>existing pay scale.

1695
01:37:55.100 --> 01:37:55.850
Just accept

1696
01:37:55.850 --> 01:37:56.910
<v Speaker 50>our union.

1697
01:37:57.180 --> 01:37:57.890
And still the

1698
01:37:57.890 --> 01:37:59.530
<v Speaker 50>operators refused.

1699
01:37:59.760 --> 01:38:01.380
And so the miners cleaned up

1700
01:38:01.380 --> 01:38:06.690
<v Speaker 33>their work areas and walked off the job on April 19th, 1912.

1701
01:38:08.030 --> 01:38:10.510
Well, soon, the more

1702
01:38:10.510 --> 01:38:20.930
<v Speaker 113>skittish operators, worried about maintaining their downstream relationships, hurried back to the table and agreed to concessions, and their mines were opened up again by early May. That

1703
01:38:20.930 --> 01:38:22.300
was in much Oconomowoc

1704
01:38:22.450 --> 01:38:27.050
<v Speaker 154>County, but the operators at Paint Creek refused to compromise and

1705
01:38:27.050 --> 01:38:32.950
<v Speaker 35>instead imported 300 Baldwin Feltz mine guards to watch over their property and

1706
01:38:32.950 --> 01:38:34.660
<v Speaker 182>be their enforcers.

1707
01:38:36.290 --> 01:38:36.540
The

1708
01:38:36.540 --> 01:38:37.310
<v Speaker 183>guards.

1709
01:38:38.000 --> 01:38:42.170
<v Speaker 183>well they did what they knew how to do from corbin quote the

1710
01:38:42.170 --> 01:38:52.750
<v Speaker 67>baldwin felt guards built iron and concrete forts that they equipped with machine guns throughout the strike districts then evicted striking miners from their company houses

1711
01:38:52.770 --> 01:38:56.690
<v Speaker 184>destroying forty thousand dollars worth of miners furniture in the process

1712
01:38:57.580 --> 01:38:58.060
The guards

1713
01:38:58.210 --> 01:39:04.890
<v Speaker 71>then began to intimidate the strikers in their tent colonies at Holly Grove and Eskdale. The guards often prevented the

1714
01:39:04.890 --> 01:39:16.610
<v Speaker 67>strikers from leaving their tent colonies and prohibited the use of company-owned bridges, forcing the strikers and their families at gunpoint to wade through waist-high streams. They

1715
01:39:16.610 --> 01:39:17.300
also stopped

1716
01:39:17.300 --> 01:39:20.970
<v Speaker 67>the strikers and their families from using the passenger trains into

1717
01:39:20.970 --> 01:39:21.960
<v Speaker 185>Charleston,

1718
01:39:22.110 --> 01:39:22.320
The

1719
01:39:22.490 --> 01:39:27.210
<v Speaker 185>son of a miner who attempted to do so was kicked in the face and warned, Get off, you damn son of

1720
01:39:27.210 --> 01:39:28.950
<v Speaker 186>a bitch, or I will shoot your brains

1721
01:39:29.080 --> 01:39:29.660
<v Speaker 76>out. He

1722
01:39:29.890 --> 01:39:30.200
was then

1723
01:39:30.200 --> 01:39:32.710
<v Speaker 76>literally thrown off the train. The

1724
01:39:32.850 --> 01:39:33.570
mine guards

1725
01:39:33.570 --> 01:39:48.550
<v Speaker 185>also began to kill the striking miners, both individually, for example, a black miner chasing his stray cow, and collectively. On June 5th, the guards launched a surprise attack on one of the tent colonies, wounding several people.

1726
01:39:49.630 --> 01:39:57.050
<v Speaker 185>"...thereafter, according to a local union leader, every day or two they would sneak into the hills and sprinkle the canvas tent cities with showers

1727
01:39:57.050 --> 01:40:02.300
<v Speaker 187>of lead and pellets, caring not if their bullets hit men, women, or children." About

1728
01:40:02.380 --> 01:40:04.250
two years after

1729
01:40:04.900 --> 01:40:10.220
<v Speaker 188>this strike, mine guards from Baldwin Feltz and the Colorado

1730
01:40:10.920 --> 01:40:17.940
<v Speaker 67>National Guard, which was being manned and funded by a Rockefeller mining company...

1731
01:40:17.900 --> 01:40:23.360
<v Speaker 47>indiscriminately attacked a miner's tent city in Ludlow, Colorado and

1732
01:40:23.670 --> 01:40:24.260
sprayed it

1733
01:40:24.260 --> 01:40:26.960
<v Speaker 47>with machine gun fire and then burned it

1734
01:40:26.960 --> 01:40:37.200
<v Speaker 13>down with people hiding in little pits under the tents from the gunfire. They got burned to death. Twenty people, twelve children and two women, some men, were massacred in one night.

1735
01:40:37.200 --> 01:40:38.740
The full story of the

1736
01:40:38.760 --> 01:40:39.880
<v Speaker 13>Ludlow massacre

1737
01:40:40.090 --> 01:40:40.710
<v Speaker 125>is in the

1738
01:40:40.710 --> 01:40:43.580
<v Speaker 94>prologue to this podcast series.

1739
01:40:44.960 --> 01:40:45.520
The

1740
01:40:46.110 --> 01:40:49.160
<v Speaker 94>guards were very callous in carrying out the evictions

1741
01:40:49.160 --> 01:40:51.850
<v Speaker 113>Most of the time They would surprise

1742
01:40:51.870 --> 01:40:56.690
<v Speaker 125>families in the morning March them out of their homes at gunpoint if necessary And

1743
01:40:56.690 --> 01:40:57.620
one or two

1744
01:40:57.670 --> 01:40:59.130
<v Speaker 189>would guard the

1745
01:40:59.130 --> 01:41:05.940
<v Speaker 32>family While the rest of them carried the family's furniture And their other belongings outside and dumped it by the creek

1746
01:41:05.940 --> 01:41:07.680
They forced

1747
01:41:08.070 --> 01:41:12.100
<v Speaker 67>their way into the home of Charlie and Ed Fish And

1748
01:41:12.230 --> 01:41:14.710
<v Speaker 67>and found Ed's wife, Willie Fish, holding a sick

1749
01:41:14.810 --> 01:41:15.170
<v Speaker 138>newborn.

1750
01:41:15.370 --> 01:41:16.400
They marched

1751
01:41:16.400 --> 01:41:22.880
<v Speaker 138>her and her newborn outside, deposited the crib along with the rest of the furniture on a wagon out there.

1752
01:41:23.010 --> 01:41:24.580
They told Willie's

1753
01:41:24.710 --> 01:41:31.540
<v Speaker 113>sister-in-law that they used to hate doing this kind of work, but chuckled and said they'd gotten used to it.

1754
01:41:31.850 --> 01:41:32.260
On

1755
01:41:32.260 --> 01:41:40.250
<v Speaker 63>Wednesday, May 29th, 1912,

1756
01:41:40.930 --> 01:41:41.190
for

1757
01:41:41.430 --> 01:41:45.170
<v Speaker 63>the first time the miners struck back

1758
01:41:45.170 --> 01:41:46.800
that morning a

1759
01:41:47.000 --> 01:41:50.920
<v Speaker 50>group of mine guards had poured themselves some coffee and

1760
01:41:50.970 --> 01:41:52.920
<v Speaker 113>they were walking by the company

1761
01:41:52.920 --> 01:41:53.420
store to

1762
01:41:53.540 --> 01:41:57.230
<v Speaker 113>get some breakfast when shots rang out from the nearby hillside

1763
01:41:57.230 --> 01:41:58.270
started peppering

1764
01:41:58.400 --> 01:42:01.960
<v Speaker 35>around them so they rushed back to their barracks and shots start coming

1765
01:42:01.980 --> 01:42:03.250
<v Speaker 12>down from another hillside

1766
01:42:03.610 --> 01:42:04.240
the guards

1767
01:42:04.650 --> 01:42:10.630
<v Speaker 12>grab their rifles as shots are hitting the

1768
01:42:10.580 --> 01:42:14.970
<v Speaker 12>Guards in another larger bunkhouse nearby rushed out with weapons and began firing at

1769
01:42:15.060 --> 01:42:16.480
<v Speaker 11>puffs of smoke on the hillsides.

1770
01:42:16.750 --> 01:42:18.190
The attack was wild and

1771
01:42:18.190 --> 01:42:20.350
<v Speaker 11>poorly planned, and nobody

1772
01:42:20.350 --> 01:42:20.530
<v Speaker 21>on

1773
01:42:20.530 --> 01:42:22.450
<v Speaker 174>either side was hit, but

1774
01:42:22.590 --> 01:42:28.170
<v Speaker 21>the psychological impact was large. The mine guards were shaken

1775
01:42:28.170 --> 01:42:30.800
<v Speaker 113>by the fact that the miners had actually come at them.

1776
01:42:31.100 --> 01:42:31.370
And so a

1777
01:42:31.370 --> 01:42:37.260
<v Speaker 113>swivel-mounted Gatling gun was stationed in front of the company store.

1778
01:42:38.520 --> 01:42:38.520
covering

1779
01:42:38.580 --> 01:42:44.030
<v Speaker 125>the whole hillside with its field of fire. Next to the machine gun was a giant searchlight which

1780
01:42:44.240 --> 01:42:47.330
<v Speaker 190>would sweep the trees in the cabins from dusk till dawn.

1781
01:42:47.940 --> 01:42:49.200
Early the next

1782
01:42:49.240 --> 01:42:58.560
<v Speaker 35>morning, a guard patrol spotted a group of miners making their way through the woods and took off after them, gunfire going in both directions.

1783
01:42:59.440 --> 01:42:59.920
It was a

1784
01:43:00.140 --> 01:43:07.060
<v Speaker 62>group of Italians, and one of the miners was shot and killed, and the black miner, who was just out looking for his cow,

1785
01:43:07.060 --> 01:43:08.100
<v Speaker 142>was also hit. The

1786
01:43:08.550 --> 01:43:09.510
leader of this group of

1787
01:43:09.510 --> 01:43:11.900
<v Speaker 142>guards who was chasing them up into the

1788
01:43:11.900 --> 01:43:16.970
<v Speaker 12>hills was a man named Ernest Galgeau. He was one of the most notorious of all the guards. This

1789
01:43:16.980 --> 01:43:17.270
is a

1790
01:43:17.290 --> 01:43:22.590
<v Speaker 12>guy who was a known murderer before he was ever hired to Baldwin Feltz. He

1791
01:43:22.590 --> 01:43:24.220
was known by all the

1792
01:43:24.300 --> 01:43:28.220
<v Speaker 35>Paint Creek miners as one of the meanest bullies employed by the company.

1793
01:43:28.940 --> 01:43:29.360
his

1794
01:43:29.510 --> 01:43:39.710
<v Speaker 62>posse is tearing through the hills, kicking in the doors of cabins, looking for miners, any miners they can find, really. And they come up on the home of Ed and Charlie Fish, who

1795
01:43:39.980 --> 01:43:40.290
had not

1796
01:43:40.290 --> 01:43:42.860
<v Speaker 62>been involved in the shooting.

1797
01:43:43.000 --> 01:43:46.000
<v Speaker 113>Ed was sick in bed. Only their wives were there.

1798
01:43:46.570 --> 01:43:47.570
And so

1799
01:43:47.570 --> 01:43:54.340
<v Speaker 135>Ed's wife, Willie Fish, is a girl who's just about 18 years old.

1800
01:43:54.340 --> 01:43:56.100
<v Speaker 5>She remembered what happened. Quote,

1801
01:43:56.610 --> 01:44:03.100
<v Speaker 5>They, meaning the miners, came through my yard, jabbering in Italian, but I couldn't understand half of what they said.

1802
01:44:03.130 --> 01:44:03.390
I was

1803
01:44:03.570 --> 01:44:03.950
<v Speaker 5>telling them

1804
01:44:04.270 --> 01:44:04.270
to

1805
01:44:04.290 --> 01:44:05.630
<v Speaker 88>go on and scatter. As

1806
01:44:05.930 --> 01:44:06.190
quick as I

1807
01:44:06.190 --> 01:44:18.050
<v Speaker 88>got them out, I turned my chickens out. I had about two or three hundred chickens, and put them in the yard so they would scratch out as much of the tracks as they could. The guards came and asked, "'How long you been out here?'

1808
01:44:18.050 --> 01:44:18.690
"'I've been

1809
01:44:18.690 --> 01:44:25.780
<v Speaker 88>out here about an hour feeding my chickens.' They said, "'Have you seen anybody?' I said, "'I haven't seen a soul.'

1810
01:44:25.740 --> 01:44:25.920
I'd

1811
01:44:26.060 --> 01:44:29.260
<v Speaker 88>look them right in the eye and lie like a sailor, end quote.

1812
01:44:29.620 --> 01:44:30.750
Then the guards

1813
01:44:30.750 --> 01:44:36.150
<v Speaker 59>came to the cabin of Tony and Janina Sevilla, another Italian family.

1814
01:44:36.530 --> 01:44:37.480
Tony was away out

1815
01:44:37.480 --> 01:44:43.170
<v Speaker 59>of state looking for another job, and so Janina and the children were the only ones there.

1816
01:44:43.180 --> 01:44:45.410
<v Speaker 12>She remembered what happened, quote, I

1817
01:44:45.660 --> 01:44:46.080
heard this

1818
01:44:46.080 --> 01:44:50.000
<v Speaker 116>shooting, and I went to the door to see what was the matter. I

1819
01:44:50.230 --> 01:44:50.480
saw the

1820
01:44:50.480 --> 01:44:52.520
<v Speaker 116>guards coming down the hill.

1821
01:44:52.880 --> 01:44:52.900
Those

1822
01:44:52.900 --> 01:44:58.190
<v Speaker 128>guards were going into the other neighbor houses there and they began to pick up the men they could find in the houses.

1823
01:44:58.460 --> 01:44:58.940
They came to our

1824
01:44:59.060 --> 01:45:03.330
<v Speaker 128>house and they opened the door and then they came in and looked under the bed

1825
01:45:03.600 --> 01:45:03.750
and on

1826
01:45:03.800 --> 01:45:06.430
<v Speaker 128>the bed was my baby and it was asleep

1827
01:45:06.430 --> 01:45:06.950
and I told

1828
01:45:07.030 --> 01:45:08.940
<v Speaker 128>the guards to let the baby alone.

1829
01:45:09.320 --> 01:45:10.040
They struck me

1830
01:45:10.040 --> 01:45:15.070
<v Speaker 88>and I fell down and they kicked me in the stomach and they hit me with their fists here.

1831
01:45:15.260 --> 01:45:15.840
She's pointing

1832
01:45:15.890 --> 01:45:17.210
<v Speaker 88>to where they hit her.

1833
01:45:17.480 --> 01:45:17.590
And

1834
01:45:17.590 --> 01:45:21.410
<v Speaker 128>then they knocked me down again."

1835
01:45:21.360 --> 01:45:22.130
When the

1836
01:45:22.370 --> 01:45:22.800
<v Speaker 128>guards

1837
01:45:22.800 --> 01:45:31.260
<v Speaker 136>left, Janina Sevilla was on her knees, weeping, and praying that the five-month-old baby in her belly was okay. Six

1838
01:45:31.260 --> 01:45:32.650
of the Italian

1839
01:45:32.650 --> 01:45:35.150
<v Speaker 136>miners were rounded up and

1840
01:45:35.560 --> 01:45:36.440
marched out of the

1841
01:45:36.510 --> 01:45:38.180
<v Speaker 9>hills at gunpoint. One

1842
01:45:38.180 --> 01:45:39.310
of them, named

1843
01:45:39.360 --> 01:45:46.330
<v Speaker 9>Frank Russi, was released after a few days and made his way home to take care of his sick and pregnant wife. And

1844
01:45:46.330 --> 01:45:46.920
then ten

1845
01:45:47.090 --> 01:45:47.900
<v Speaker 9>days later, mine

1846
01:45:48.600 --> 01:45:49.710
<v Speaker 191>guards broke down his

1847
01:45:49.710 --> 01:45:50.330
<v Speaker 9>door...

1848
01:45:50.530 --> 01:45:50.630
He

1849
01:45:50.800 --> 01:45:54.410
<v Speaker 11>wasn't around. They found the wife there alone, pregnant and sick.

1850
01:45:54.650 --> 01:45:55.050
And so she

1851
01:45:55.050 --> 01:46:02.900
<v Speaker 11>runs to the home of a nearby friend whose husband was the mine foreman while the guards cleaned out her house and dumped everything they had out in the dirt.

1852
01:46:03.180 --> 01:46:03.900
And then a few

1853
01:46:03.900 --> 01:46:05.300
<v Speaker 12>days after that,

1854
01:46:05.310 --> 01:46:11.590
<v Speaker 192>the friend's husband, the one that took her in, the mine foreman, was fired from his job because his wife had helped Rusey's wife.

1855
01:46:11.860 --> 01:46:12.610
Having

1856
01:46:12.610 --> 01:46:18.250
<v Speaker 160>adopted this strategy of cruel...

1857
01:46:18.490 --> 01:46:22.570
<v Speaker 160>Really cruel brutality against the miners. You know, there was nothing business-like about it.

1858
01:46:22.850 --> 01:46:23.400
These

1859
01:46:23.400 --> 01:46:26.460
<v Speaker 50>Baldwin-Felz guys that they would hire,

1860
01:46:26.750 --> 01:46:27.380
you know,

1861
01:46:27.380 --> 01:46:32.610
<v Speaker 50>sure, some of them would be former cops and maybe those guys would be the leaders that everybody else had to follow,

1862
01:46:32.800 --> 01:46:32.860
but a

1863
01:46:32.890 --> 01:46:36.830
<v Speaker 50>lot of their ranks were just manned up by thugs from the

1864
01:46:36.830 --> 01:46:40.290
<v Speaker 12>cities. Guys, I mean, Ernest Gaugeau was a known murderer.

1865
01:46:40.550 --> 01:46:41.680
And they're hiring

1866
01:46:41.680 --> 01:46:47.070
<v Speaker 12>him and giving him a gun and saying, go up there and throw these people out of their homes, go do this, go do that.

1867
01:46:47.940 --> 01:46:58.700
<v Speaker 12>These are hard men, and they had to be hard men, because they're going up there to go against coal miners, to throw them out of their houses and chase them away from the mine. The coal miners are tough people,

1868
01:46:58.700 --> 01:46:59.230
and so the

1869
01:46:59.230 --> 01:47:05.070
<v Speaker 12>guys who got sent up there against them had to be tough people, but they weren't always the most savory

1870
01:47:05.070 --> 01:47:10.030
<v Speaker 160>bunch, and there was really a cruel streak to how the operators in southern

1871
01:47:10.070 --> 01:47:10.360
West

1872
01:47:10.360 --> 01:47:12.720
<v Speaker 193>Virginia handled these things.

1873
01:47:13.970 --> 01:47:14.900
And so the

1874
01:47:15.130 --> 01:47:22.150
<v Speaker 50>company then set about Replacing the miners Started bringing in train loads of scab labor From other parts of the country

1875
01:47:22.150 --> 01:47:22.980
And

1876
01:47:23.310 --> 01:47:29.840
<v Speaker 100>this The miners were not prepared to tolerate Because that was the one way That they could truly defeat their strike

1877
01:47:29.870 --> 01:47:30.650
Now

1878
01:47:31.030 --> 01:47:36.270
<v Speaker 106>these poor Replacement workers Most of these guys had no idea What

1879
01:47:36.270 --> 01:47:43.090
<v Speaker 194>they were walking into They were walking into something that was becoming a war zone Very quickly The story of Lawrence O'Brien

1880
01:47:43.090 --> 01:47:43.930
<v Speaker 195>-

1881
01:47:43.930 --> 01:47:43.930
Amen.

1882
01:47:43.890 --> 01:47:44.390
who was a

1883
01:47:44.500 --> 01:47:49.580
<v Speaker 195>replacement worker brought in from New York City and his story

1884
01:47:49.580 --> 01:47:57.310
<v Speaker 121>provides an illustrative example Lawrence O'Brien is this guy who lives in New York City he's a skilled machinist

1885
01:47:57.310 --> 01:47:59.340
O'Brien gets laid

1886
01:47:59.530 --> 01:48:12.530
<v Speaker 35>off from his job and he's out looking for work and he sees an ad they're looking for machinists and boilermakers and other skilled workers to get on a train and go down to West Virginia to work on motors and other gear at the mines

1887
01:48:13.370 --> 01:48:13.370
And

1888
01:48:13.370 --> 01:48:27.530
<v Speaker 35>so he signs up on the spot, along with several of his Irish buddies, a whole bunch of Italian and Polish immigrants who literally just got off the boat. I mean, they are still trailing their luggage behind them from their trip. They came straight from the docks.

1889
01:48:27.730 --> 01:48:28.650
And they don't even

1890
01:48:28.650 --> 01:48:32.620
<v Speaker 35>have time to go home for a change of clothing. He calls his

1891
01:48:32.690 --> 01:48:33.650
wife.

1892
01:48:33.650 --> 01:48:34.570
Tells

1893
01:48:34.740 --> 01:48:46.670
<v Speaker 192>her that he's found a good job It's in West Virginia But they pay $5 a day He has to leave right now And he'll write for his suitcase when he gets there And so he's on the train 200 other guys Right

1894
01:48:47.020 --> 01:48:47.560
away he

1895
01:48:47.560 --> 01:48:52.510
<v Speaker 196>notices the guards And he thinks, huh, that's interesting

1896
01:48:53.600 --> 01:48:53.810
Huh

1897
01:48:53.810 --> 01:48:54.680
no food

1898
01:48:54.950 --> 01:49:03.480
<v Speaker 36>was served and so when they change trains in Washington he tries to go into the station to buy a sandwich but the guards won't let him leave when

1899
01:49:03.650 --> 01:49:05.180
they get

1900
01:49:05.180 --> 01:49:06.430
<v Speaker 36>to the

1901
01:49:06.430 --> 01:49:08.120
<v Speaker 109>Paint Creek area guards

1902
01:49:08.510 --> 01:49:08.620
take

1903
01:49:08.620 --> 01:49:13.450
<v Speaker 36>out their rifles start patrolling the cars and they tell everyone,

1904
01:49:13.470 --> 01:49:14.320
<v Speaker 197>order everyone

1905
01:49:14.410 --> 01:49:20.910
<v Speaker 36>to pull down the blinds on their windows so Brian's starting to worry maybe he made a little mistake here

1906
01:49:21.730 --> 01:49:22.310
The train

1907
01:49:22.480 --> 01:49:22.840
<v Speaker 36>stops at

1908
01:49:22.840 --> 01:49:30.950
<v Speaker 35>different mining camps along the way and each time deposits a few workers in the hands of some guards who march them off.

1909
01:49:30.950 --> 01:49:32.120
When O'Brien and

1910
01:49:32.120 --> 01:49:34.940
<v Speaker 198>his friends get to their destination,

1911
01:49:34.940 --> 01:49:35.870
they're told

1912
01:49:35.870 --> 01:49:37.660
<v Speaker 198>by the mine superintendent

1913
01:49:38.150 --> 01:49:38.170
that

1914
01:49:38.170 --> 01:49:41.750
<v Speaker 196>they're going to be digging coal first thing in the

1915
01:49:41.750 --> 01:49:42.530
morning.

1916
01:49:43.400 --> 01:49:45.610
<v Speaker 196>Again all these guys are machinists And

1917
01:49:45.610 --> 01:49:54.230
<v Speaker 199>other skilled workers So they're like huh No sir we're machinists Not miners We were hired to come down And

1918
01:49:54.230 --> 01:50:00.720
<v Speaker 36>do machinist work And they're told We don't need machinists You're going to go into the mines And

1919
01:50:00.720 --> 01:50:01.690
they decide

1920
01:50:01.690 --> 01:50:10.750
<v Speaker 34>they have no choice None of them have any money And so they're at least going to go Work in the mines long enough To pay for their trip

1921
01:50:10.980 --> 01:50:11.330
home

1922
01:50:11.280 --> 01:50:11.910
O'Brien

1923
01:50:12.170 --> 01:50:12.900
<v Speaker 36>works there a

1924
01:50:12.900 --> 01:50:13.570
<v Speaker 200>full month

1925
01:50:13.720 --> 01:50:14.840
And then he

1926
01:50:14.840 --> 01:50:21.630
<v Speaker 192>goes in to collect his wages For digging coal from morning till night Six days a week For a month And

1927
01:50:21.630 --> 01:50:22.290
they give

1928
01:50:22.290 --> 01:50:24.620
<v Speaker 192>him just over three dollars He's

1929
01:50:25.150 --> 01:50:25.520
supposed to

1930
01:50:25.520 --> 01:50:36.580
<v Speaker 192>be making five dollars a day But they said that's all he was owed After they took out the cost of his trip down there And his supplies And his rent And every other expense O'Brien got off

1931
01:50:36.830 --> 01:50:37.660
<v Speaker 12>easy

1932
01:50:38.580 --> 01:50:38.940
many

1933
01:50:39.460 --> 01:50:45.000
<v Speaker 12>others who were lied to about the jobs that waited for them down in West Virginia were kept under guard and not

1934
01:50:45.000 --> 01:50:45.980
<v Speaker 9>allowed to leave.

1935
01:50:45.980 --> 01:50:47.550
They owed the company

1936
01:50:47.550 --> 01:50:56.100
<v Speaker 9>money for the train ride down there and the food they'd been fed. And so, at the very least, they were going to have to work that off. And they were not allowed

1937
01:50:56.100 --> 01:50:59.340
<v Speaker 192>to leave. Two men who had come in with O'Brien from

1938
01:50:59.340 --> 01:50:59.960
New York...

1939
01:50:59.900 --> 01:51:00.160
They

1940
01:51:00.520 --> 01:51:01.010
<v Speaker 192>escaped on foot

1941
01:51:01.010 --> 01:51:09.360
<v Speaker 109>and appeared after a long journey in Charleston, the capital of the state, saying that they had been told by guards that they would be shot if they tried to leave. Three

1942
01:51:09.520 --> 01:51:11.030
other workers signed

1943
01:51:11.030 --> 01:51:21.180
<v Speaker 109>a letter to the State Labor Commission stating that at least 150 men were being held by guards captive at Kayford and forced to work.

1944
01:51:21.180 --> 01:51:24.160
<v Speaker 10>They'd been working for three weeks without pay,

1945
01:51:24.140 --> 01:51:30.240
<v Speaker 10>and the company said they still owed money and wouldn't get back to even for several more weeks at least, so they were being held and forced to work.

1946
01:51:30.240 --> 01:51:32.280
Oconomowoc

1947
01:51:32.280 --> 01:51:37.900
<v Speaker 201>County, West Virginia, was a powder keg.

1948
01:51:38.240 --> 01:51:40.450
And all it needed was

1949
01:51:40.450 --> 01:51:41.820
<v Speaker 202>a spark.

1950
01:51:42.160 --> 01:51:43.380
And that spark

1951
01:51:43.380 --> 01:51:45.070
<v Speaker 202>rolled in on the

1952
01:51:45.070 --> 01:51:46.890
<v Speaker 33>morning train on

1953
01:51:47.000 --> 01:51:47.840
the 9th

1954
01:51:47.900 --> 01:51:50.620
<v Speaker 33>of June, 1912.

1955
01:51:51.700 --> 01:51:52.190
Her

1956
01:51:52.600 --> 01:52:07.000
<v Speaker 36>name was Mary Harris Jones. Better known by her affectionate nickname, Mother Jones. 75 or 80 years old at the time, thereabouts. No one was ever quite sure

1957
01:52:07.000 --> 01:52:17.340
<v Speaker 201>exactly what year she was born. Mother Jones was all five feet tall at the very most and cut the figure of your great-grandmother

1958
01:52:18.240 --> 01:52:19.580
<v Speaker 203>and

1959
01:52:19.580 --> 01:52:20.010
Well,

1960
01:52:20.180 --> 01:52:22.630
<v Speaker 178>she lit powder kegs for a living. She

1961
01:52:22.770 --> 01:52:23.410
wore a

1962
01:52:23.410 --> 01:52:28.980
<v Speaker 178>full-length black dress, this little old lady, with a black shawl

1963
01:52:28.980 --> 01:52:34.730
<v Speaker 83>and a little white bonnet, lace around her neck. Her eyes sat behind

1964
01:52:34.730 --> 01:52:40.790
<v Speaker 123>rimless glasses and ringlets of white hair surrounded her little old face, every

1965
01:52:41.040 --> 01:52:41.040
inch

1966
01:52:41.090 --> 01:52:41.990
<v Speaker 204>the grandmother.

1967
01:52:42.720 --> 01:52:44.710
But she moved

1968
01:52:44.960 --> 01:52:46.060
<v Speaker 204>well.

1969
01:52:47.010 --> 01:52:47.040
She

1970
01:52:47.040 --> 01:52:47.530
<v Speaker 204>had

1971
01:52:47.540 --> 01:52:49.090
<v Speaker 192>limitless energy,

1972
01:52:49.160 --> 01:52:50.000
even into her

1973
01:52:50.300 --> 01:52:53.030
<v Speaker 192>80s, everybody says that. Her voice was

1974
01:52:53.500 --> 01:52:59.370
<v Speaker 35>loud and strong, and it still carried that Irish lilt she learned in the country of her birth. Her

1975
01:52:59.610 --> 01:53:00.540
grandfather had

1976
01:53:00.580 --> 01:53:03.020
<v Speaker 35>been hanged by the British for Irish

1977
01:53:03.020 --> 01:53:06.830
<v Speaker 205>revolutionary activity, so this was in her blood. Her

1978
01:53:07.100 --> 01:53:08.300
father took the family to

1979
01:53:08.300 --> 01:53:14.000
<v Speaker 33>Canada and then to the United States during the Great Potato Famine when she was a girl,

1980
01:53:14.000 --> 01:53:14.000
and

1981
01:53:14.020 --> 01:53:14.050
And

1982
01:53:14.230 --> 01:53:16.110
<v Speaker 33>in America, she'd married a union

1983
01:53:16.110 --> 01:53:17.440
<v Speaker 36>man, a union worker.

1984
01:53:17.670 --> 01:53:18.620
And they were

1985
01:53:18.620 --> 01:53:23.760
<v Speaker 192>living a typical family life down in Memphis, Tennessee, until during a

1986
01:53:23.760 --> 01:53:30.820
<v Speaker 113>yellow fever epidemic in 1867, she watched her husband and all four of her children,

1987
01:53:31.050 --> 01:53:35.980
<v Speaker 12>three girls and a boy, all under five years old, die within one week of each other.

1988
01:53:36.210 --> 01:53:37.290
And so this

1989
01:53:37.290 --> 01:53:41.830
<v Speaker 12>woman, alone, she moves herself to Chicago.

1990
01:53:42.590 --> 01:53:46.140
<v Speaker 12>and opens a dress shop, tries to start

1991
01:53:46.260 --> 01:53:47.630
<v Speaker 206>rebuilding

1992
01:53:47.640 --> 01:53:49.400
<v Speaker 109>her heart and her life. But

1993
01:53:49.460 --> 01:53:50.220
a short

1994
01:53:50.220 --> 01:53:57.160
<v Speaker 109>time later, the great Chicago fire of 1871 burns down most of the city, including her shop. And

1995
01:53:57.160 --> 01:53:58.620
then something

1996
01:53:59.660 --> 01:54:00.820
<v Speaker 207>happened. You

1997
01:54:00.880 --> 01:54:02.210
can leave it to

1998
01:54:02.270 --> 01:54:08.120
<v Speaker 207>legend to say exactly what it was, but something happened. Because after the great

1999
01:54:08.130 --> 01:54:10.690
<v Speaker 67>fire, this woman...

2000
01:54:11.250 --> 01:54:12.000
<v Speaker 190>who had no

2001
01:54:12.000 --> 01:54:12.870
<v Speaker 67>one and had

2002
01:54:12.870 --> 01:54:13.410
<v Speaker 190>nothing.

2003
01:54:13.760 --> 01:54:15.310
She began to

2004
01:54:15.310 --> 01:54:19.300
<v Speaker 190>speak out on behalf of laboring men and women

2005
01:54:19.430 --> 01:54:20.140
<v Speaker 36>in America. By

2006
01:54:20.360 --> 01:54:23.010
the time of the trouble in

2007
01:54:23.010 --> 01:54:31.810
<v Speaker 36>Kanawha County, Mother Jones had been at the forefront of the American labor movement for many years. She was recognized all over the country.

2008
01:54:32.860 --> 01:54:33.440
And she

2009
01:54:33.810 --> 01:54:48.040
<v Speaker 192>helped, as Lon Savage writes, quote, organize copper miner unions in Michigan and streetcar strikes in New York. She organized chemical workers in New Jersey, as well as women bottlers in Milwaukee breweries and shirtwaist makers in Philadelphia.

2010
01:54:48.040 --> 01:54:53.610
<v Speaker 207>She spoke to Finnish iron ore miners and Polish steel workers at Gary. She

2011
01:54:53.610 --> 01:54:54.300
led an army

2012
01:54:54.330 --> 01:54:58.020
<v Speaker 207>of little children from Philadelphia to New York and on to

2013
01:54:58.020 --> 01:55:02.300
<v Speaker 192>Teddy Roosevelt's home at Oyster Bay to protest child labor.

2014
01:55:02.300 --> 01:55:02.510
She

2015
01:55:02.720 --> 01:55:08.820
<v Speaker 184>walked the halls of Congress and conferred with presidents and millionaires. But coal miners were her

2016
01:55:09.100 --> 01:55:09.980
<v Speaker 192>boys. No

2017
01:55:10.030 --> 01:55:10.620
one could

2018
01:55:10.750 --> 01:55:24.590
<v Speaker 192>match her in bringing America's attention to the horrors of the coal digger's life. She gazed down into the black hole of Ludlow, where miners' wives and children were burned to death. She'd stood before gunmen and dared them to shoot.

2019
01:55:25.100 --> 01:55:25.260
She

2020
01:55:25.420 --> 01:55:38.720
<v Speaker 192>led miners' wives, carrying mops and beating tin pans like cymbals, through Pennsylvania's mountains to dramatize their husbands' grievances. Colorado coal operators feared her so much, they held her under military

2021
01:55:38.720 --> 01:55:41.500
<v Speaker 10>confinement for weeks without charge or hearing.

2022
01:55:41.880 --> 01:55:44.780
End quote. In an

2023
01:55:44.780 --> 01:55:49.190
<v Speaker 208>interview, she was quoted saying,

2024
01:55:49.200 --> 01:55:50.340
I am simply a

2025
01:55:50.340 --> 01:55:52.900
<v Speaker 72>social revolutionist.

2026
01:55:52.880 --> 01:55:52.930
I

2027
01:55:53.230 --> 01:55:55.770
<v Speaker 72>believe in the collective ownership of the means of wealth.

2028
01:55:56.040 --> 01:55:56.570
At this

2029
01:55:56.570 --> 01:56:00.940
<v Speaker 72>time, the natural commodities of this country are cornered in the hands of a few. The

2030
01:56:01.110 --> 01:56:01.750
man who owns

2031
01:56:01.860 --> 01:56:07.810
<v Speaker 72>the means of wealth gets the major profit, and the worker who produces the wealth takes what he can get. I

2032
01:56:08.030 --> 01:56:09.350
do not believe in

2033
01:56:09.350 --> 01:56:12.130
<v Speaker 72>socialism by a party name. It

2034
01:56:12.330 --> 01:56:12.800
has been the

2035
01:56:12.800 --> 01:56:16.820
<v Speaker 72>rule of the centuries to sound a name until it acquires a magic power.

2036
01:56:17.170 --> 01:56:17.880
Sooner or

2037
01:56:17.920 --> 01:56:21.340
<v Speaker 72>later, and perhaps sooner than we think,

2038
01:56:22.020 --> 01:56:26.790
<v Speaker 72>Evolution and revolution will have accomplished the overturning of the system under which we now live,

2039
01:56:27.040 --> 01:56:27.290
and the

2040
01:56:27.290 --> 01:56:34.980
<v Speaker 72>worker will have gained his own. This change will come as the result of education. My work, my life

2041
01:56:35.000 --> 01:56:35.670
<v Speaker 209>work,

2042
01:56:35.910 --> 01:56:36.240
has been

2043
01:56:36.240 --> 01:56:41.770
<v Speaker 209>to try to educate the worker to a sense of the wrongs he has had to suffer, and does suffer,

2044
01:56:42.040 --> 01:56:42.540
and to stir

2045
01:56:42.580 --> 01:56:50.910
<v Speaker 209>up the oppressed to a point of getting off their knees and demanding that which I believe to be rightly theirs. When force...

2046
01:56:50.880 --> 01:56:51.010
is

2047
01:56:51.250 --> 01:56:55.050
<v Speaker 209>used to hinder the worker in his efforts to obtain the things which are his, he

2048
01:56:55.250 --> 01:56:55.980
has the right

2049
01:56:55.980 --> 01:56:58.190
<v Speaker 209>to meet force with force. He

2050
01:56:58.350 --> 01:56:59.540
has the right to

2051
01:56:59.540 --> 01:57:02.000
<v Speaker 209>strike for what is his due, and

2052
01:57:02.150 --> 01:57:02.520
he has no

2053
01:57:02.520 --> 01:57:04.720
<v Speaker 209>right to be satisfied with less.

2054
01:57:05.090 --> 01:57:06.410
The people want

2055
01:57:06.410 --> 01:57:10.100
<v Speaker 209>to do right, but they've been hoodwinked for ages. But

2056
01:57:10.220 --> 01:57:11.010
now they're

2057
01:57:11.020 --> 01:57:13.910
<v Speaker 72>awakening. Oh yes, they're awakening. And

2058
01:57:14.030 --> 01:57:14.570
the day of

2059
01:57:14.570 --> 01:57:18.920
<v Speaker 72>their enfranchisement is near at hand. End quote.

2060
01:57:20.560 --> 01:57:21.690
Mother

2061
01:57:22.070 --> 01:57:29.100
<v Speaker 210>Jones had been there She'd been through it On her first ever visit to

2062
01:57:29.100 --> 01:57:39.810
<v Speaker 35>West Virginia During the 1897 organizing drive John Mitchell, the leader of the UNW at the time When he got there, he found her in jail She was eventually

2063
01:57:39.810 --> 01:57:40.970
<v Speaker 192>released And

2064
01:57:40.970 --> 01:57:48.050
<v Speaker 36>straight from the jail, she walked right back up into the hills And into the hollows, knocking on the doors of miners'

2065
01:57:48.050 --> 01:57:48.780
cabins

2066
01:57:49.260 --> 01:57:55.010
<v Speaker 201>finding them there, finding them here, even going down into the mines to speak to them

2067
01:57:55.010 --> 01:57:56.090
<v Speaker 47>if she had to. And

2068
01:57:56.280 --> 01:57:57.130
she just walked

2069
01:57:57.560 --> 01:58:00.280
<v Speaker 47>the hills talking to these men about their situation.

2070
01:58:00.800 --> 01:58:01.690
Another time she was

2071
01:58:02.080 --> 01:58:02.830
<v Speaker 47>giving a speech

2072
01:58:03.130 --> 01:58:08.850
<v Speaker 36>to West Virginia miners when shots rang out. Everybody scatters for cover, and

2073
01:58:09.040 --> 01:58:13.390
<v Speaker 192>so she hops on the back of her friend who carries her across a creek off into the wilderness.

2074
01:58:13.900 --> 01:58:14.350
And,

2075
01:58:14.320 --> 01:58:14.880
She had

2076
01:58:15.000 --> 01:58:18.830
<v Speaker 192>tended miners' wounds after gunfights with guards. Once,

2077
01:58:18.940 --> 01:58:19.790
when she was

2078
01:58:19.790 --> 01:58:31.840
<v Speaker 192>arrested for calling on miners to strike, she sent the courtroom into a tizzy and berated the judge as a company scab while he lectured her that her behavior was entirely unworthy of a good woman. Her

2079
01:58:32.020 --> 01:58:34.320
previous trips to

2080
01:58:34.400 --> 01:58:36.750
<v Speaker 192>West Virginia had

2081
01:58:36.830 --> 01:58:36.830
really

2082
01:58:37.500 --> 01:58:41.060
<v Speaker 109>radicalized her against the coal operators.

2083
01:58:41.970 --> 01:58:42.270
On a

2084
01:58:42.640 --> 01:58:44.550
<v Speaker 109>visit in 1907, she

2085
01:58:44.870 --> 01:58:53.470
<v Speaker 211>visited a miner's camp, going to each ramshackle cabin to speak with the families, as she always did, and she describes it in her autobiography. Quote, I

2086
01:58:53.470 --> 01:58:54.430
sent two boys

2087
01:58:54.430 --> 01:58:56.920
<v Speaker 211>across a little gully to a log cabin

2088
01:58:56.920 --> 01:58:58.910
<v Speaker 72>to get a cup of tea for me.

2089
01:58:58.910 --> 01:58:59.470
The miner

2090
01:58:59.580 --> 01:59:01.920
<v Speaker 72>came out and beckoned me to come over. I

2091
01:59:01.920 --> 01:59:02.780
went, and

2092
01:59:02.780 --> 01:59:09.550
<v Speaker 72>as I entered the door, my eyes rested on a straw mattress on which rested a beautiful young girl.

2093
01:59:10.140 --> 01:59:10.520
"'She

2094
01:59:10.660 --> 01:59:14.500
<v Speaker 72>looked at me with the most gentle eyes "'I had ever saw in a human being. "'The

2095
01:59:14.610 --> 01:59:15.160
wind came

2096
01:59:15.160 --> 01:59:18.000
<v Speaker 72>in through the cracks of the floor "'and would raise the

2097
01:59:18.000 --> 01:59:19.180
<v Speaker 192>bedclothes a little. "'I

2098
01:59:19.410 --> 01:59:20.040
said to the

2099
01:59:20.040 --> 01:59:21.360
<v Speaker 192>father, "'What

2100
01:59:21.360 --> 01:59:21.970
is wrong

2101
01:59:21.970 --> 01:59:35.810
<v Speaker 35>with your girl?' "'Consumption,' said he. "'I couldn't earn enough in the mines "'and she went to work in a boarding house. "'They worked her so hard she took sick. "'Consumption. "'Around a fireplace sat a

2102
01:59:35.810 --> 01:59:39.200
<v Speaker 212>group of dirty children, "'ragged and neglected-looking.'

2103
01:59:39.150 --> 01:59:52.110
<v Speaker 212>"'He gave us tea and bread.' "'A great crowd came up the mountainside that afternoon. "'The superintendent sent one of his lackeys, a colored fellow. "'When the miners told me who he was "'and that

2104
01:59:52.110 --> 01:59:59.960
<v Speaker 88>he was sent there as a spy, I said to him, "'See here, young man, don't you know that the immortal Lincoln, "'a white man, gave you freedom from slavery? "'Why

2105
01:59:59.960 --> 02:00:00.290
do you

2106
02:00:00.310 --> 02:00:05.780
<v Speaker 88>now betray your white brothers "'who are fighting for industrial freedom?' "'Mother,' said

2107
02:00:05.780 --> 02:00:06.310
<v Speaker 33>he,

2108
02:00:06.690 --> 02:00:06.760
I

2109
02:00:06.980 --> 02:00:12.550
<v Speaker 33>can't make myself scarce, but you know something? My hearing and my eyesight ain't so good today.

2110
02:00:12.870 --> 02:00:14.300
That afternoon, up

2111
02:00:14.300 --> 02:00:15.310
<v Speaker 33>there on the

2112
02:00:15.310 --> 02:00:18.420
<v Speaker 72>mountainside, we organized a strong union.

2113
02:00:18.680 --> 02:00:19.010
The next

2114
02:00:19.010 --> 02:00:23.350
<v Speaker 72>day, the man who gave me food, his name was Mike Harrington,

2115
02:00:23.650 --> 02:00:24.210
went to the

2116
02:00:24.290 --> 02:00:28.550
<v Speaker 192>mines to go to work, but he was told to go to the office and get his pay. No

2117
02:00:28.710 --> 02:00:29.110
man could

2118
02:00:29.130 --> 02:00:34.310
<v Speaker 20>work in the mines, the superintendent said, who entertained agitators in his home.

2119
02:00:35.300 --> 02:00:35.810
"'Mike

2120
02:00:36.070 --> 02:00:43.000
<v Speaker 20>said to him, "'I didn't entertain her. "'She paid me for the tea and bread. "'It makes no difference,' said he. "'You had Mother Jones

2121
02:00:43.000 --> 02:00:44.460
<v Speaker 53>in your house, and that is

2122
02:00:44.810 --> 02:00:45.860
enough.' "'He went

2123
02:00:46.110 --> 02:00:48.290
<v Speaker 53>home, and when he opened the door, "'his

2124
02:00:48.290 --> 02:00:52.280
<v Speaker 71>sick daughter said, "'Father, have you lost your job?'

2125
02:00:52.280 --> 02:00:52.650
"'She

2126
02:00:53.050 --> 02:01:02.450
<v Speaker 192>started to sob. "'That brought on a coughing fit, "'from which she fell back onto the pillow exhausted. "'That little girl died shortly thereafter.'

2127
02:01:02.560 --> 02:01:02.880
that

2128
02:01:03.340 --> 02:01:10.840
<v Speaker 192>afternoon he was ordered to leave his house as it was owned by the company they buried the little girl and moved to an

2129
02:01:10.840 --> 02:01:12.230
old barn mike was later

2130
02:01:12.610 --> 02:01:18.630
<v Speaker 184>made an organizer for the united mine workers and he made one of the most faithful workers i've

2131
02:01:18.630 --> 02:01:19.200
<v Speaker 213>ever seen

2132
02:01:19.200 --> 02:01:19.780
<v Speaker 184>end quote

2133
02:01:19.780 --> 02:01:20.310
she

2134
02:01:21.150 --> 02:01:24.430
<v Speaker 213>describes another visit in 1903

2135
02:01:24.430 --> 02:01:24.820
<v Speaker 109>quote

2136
02:01:24.820 --> 02:01:25.740
i went to stanford

2137
02:01:26.090 --> 02:01:28.540
<v Speaker 109>mountain where the men were on strike i

2138
02:01:28.540 --> 02:01:28.880
went

2139
02:01:28.850 --> 02:01:29.010
The

2140
02:01:29.160 --> 02:01:39.950
<v Speaker 36>court had issued an injunction forbidding the strikers from going near the mines. A group of miners walked along the public road nowhere near the mines. The next morning they held a meeting in front of their own hall,

2141
02:01:39.950 --> 02:01:48.090
<v Speaker 209>which they themselves had built, and a United States Deputy Marshal came into the meeting with warrants for 30 members for violating the injunction.

2142
02:01:48.380 --> 02:01:55.150
<v Speaker 90>The men said, "We did not break any law. We did not go near the mines and you know it. We were on the public road."

2143
02:01:55.140 --> 02:01:58.150
<v Speaker 90>Well, said the deputy, we're going to arrest you anyway.

2144
02:01:58.650 --> 02:01:59.870
They defied him to

2145
02:02:00.180 --> 02:02:04.050
<v Speaker 88>arrest them, insisting they had not violated the law. They

2146
02:02:04.170 --> 02:02:04.470
gave him

2147
02:02:04.700 --> 02:02:07.320
<v Speaker 88>25 minutes to leave the town. They

2148
02:02:07.470 --> 02:02:08.020
sent for his

2149
02:02:08.040 --> 02:02:08.690
<v Speaker 88>brother, who

2150
02:02:09.000 --> 02:02:11.830
<v Speaker 209>was a company doctor, and told him to take him out. That

2151
02:02:11.950 --> 02:02:13.420
night, I went to hold a

2152
02:02:13.480 --> 02:02:22.030
<v Speaker 209>meeting with them. They told me what had happened. I said, boys, it would have been better if you had surrendered, especially as you had the truth on your side

2153
02:02:22.030 --> 02:02:23.960
<v Speaker 72>and you had not been near the mines.

2154
02:02:24.820 --> 02:02:25.350
After the

2155
02:02:25.510 --> 02:02:41.040
<v Speaker 72>meeting, I went to the nearby camp, Montgomery, and there was a little hotel and the railway station. Before leaving, the boys, who came to the edge of the town with me, said, "Will you be coming back soon, Mother?" I had no idea how

2156
02:02:41.040 --> 02:02:47.200
<v Speaker 209>soon it would be. The next morning, I went to the station to get an early train, and the agent says to me,

2157
02:02:47.200 --> 02:02:47.640
"Did you

2158
02:02:47.640 --> 02:02:50.430
<v Speaker 53>hear what trouble they had up in Stamford Mountain last

2159
02:02:50.550 --> 02:02:51.260
night?"

2160
02:02:51.200 --> 02:02:51.570
I think

2161
02:02:51.750 --> 02:02:55.930
<v Speaker 53>you're mistaken, young man, I answered, for I just came down from there myself

2162
02:02:55.930 --> 02:02:56.460
<v Speaker 70>last night.

2163
02:02:56.540 --> 02:02:57.690
Well, he said,

2164
02:02:57.750 --> 02:03:10.740
<v Speaker 70>they've had some trouble there all the same. Anyone hurt? Yes. I was taking railway messages and couldn't get all the details. Some shooting. I said, take back my ticket. I must go up

2165
02:03:11.020 --> 02:03:12.370
there. I took the short

2166
02:03:12.370 --> 02:03:20.500
<v Speaker 209>trail up the hillside to Stanford Mountain. It seemed to me as I came toward the camp as if those wretched shacks were huddling closer in terror.

2167
02:03:21.490 --> 02:03:21.990
<v Speaker 209>everything was

2168
02:03:22.010 --> 02:03:22.920
<v Speaker 72>deathly still as

2169
02:03:23.040 --> 02:03:24.000
i came near

2170
02:03:24.290 --> 02:03:27.980
<v Speaker 72>the nearer the miners homes i could hear sobbing

2171
02:03:28.510 --> 02:03:28.890
then i saw

2172
02:03:28.890 --> 02:03:29.860
<v Speaker 72>between the

2173
02:03:29.860 --> 02:03:35.010
<v Speaker 109>stilts that propped up a miner's shack the clay red with blood i

2174
02:03:35.330 --> 02:03:36.040
pushed the

2175
02:03:36.040 --> 02:03:44.330
<v Speaker 109>door open on a mattress wet with blood lay a miner his brains had been blown out while he slept

2176
02:03:44.450 --> 02:03:44.980
his shack

2177
02:03:45.220 --> 02:03:47.470
<v Speaker 209>was riddled with bullets

2178
02:03:47.470 --> 02:03:48.110
in five

2179
02:03:48.110 --> 02:03:50.070
<v Speaker 209>other shacks men lay dead

2180
02:03:50.990 --> 02:03:50.990
and

2181
02:03:51.070 --> 02:03:54.400
<v Speaker 209>one of them a baby boy and his mother sobbed over the father's corpse.

2182
02:03:54.690 --> 02:03:55.700
The coroner

2183
02:03:55.700 --> 02:04:04.380
<v Speaker 209>came. He found that these six men had been murdered in their beds while they peacefully slept, shot by gunmen in the employ of the coal company.

2184
02:04:04.670 --> 02:04:07.330
The coroner went. The men were

2185
02:04:07.330 --> 02:04:13.820
<v Speaker 109>buried on the mountainside, and nothing was ever done to punish the men who had taken their lives."

2186
02:04:16.430 --> 02:04:17.360
well it

2187
02:04:18.040 --> 02:04:24.320
<v Speaker 113>doesn't take but a few experiences like that to set anybody on the war path and

2188
02:04:24.320 --> 02:04:27.790
<v Speaker 214>mother jones had more than a few of those experiences she

2189
02:04:27.790 --> 02:04:29.230
was the patron

2190
02:04:29.230 --> 02:04:35.040
<v Speaker 36>saint of miners across the country but mother jones was no mascot

2191
02:04:36.290 --> 02:04:36.930
she had

2192
02:04:37.250 --> 02:04:43.030
<v Speaker 36>been organizing machinists in butte montana when she saw a note in the local newspaper about the trouble

2193
02:04:43.030 --> 02:04:49.240
<v Speaker 35>in west virginia and so she decided on the spot to cut her work short and caught the east to appalachia

2194
02:04:49.240 --> 02:04:50.750
when she pulled

2195
02:04:50.750 --> 02:04:52.710
<v Speaker 63>in that june morning

2196
02:04:52.710 --> 02:04:53.750
even in the

2197
02:04:53.750 --> 02:04:58.010
<v Speaker 63>capital there in charleston the tension was thick in the

2198
02:04:58.010 --> 02:04:59.190
air taxi drivers

2199
02:04:59.260 --> 02:05:02.410
<v Speaker 113>approached to give her a lift to town and

2200
02:05:02.540 --> 02:05:07.450
<v Speaker 113>but she turned him down. She said she's perfectly capable of walking a mile or two to the business district. And

2201
02:05:07.450 --> 02:05:08.860
so she does. She

2202
02:05:08.860 --> 02:05:11.140
<v Speaker 113>gets there, goes to a hotel,

2203
02:05:11.220 --> 02:05:17.110
<v Speaker 35>washes herself up, eats some breakfast. Again, this is the morning that she arrived. And just after

2204
02:05:17.110 --> 02:05:18.980
<v Speaker 33>washing up and eating breakfast,

2205
02:05:19.010 --> 02:05:19.610
no rest for

2206
02:05:19.610 --> 02:05:25.730
<v Speaker 33>the weary, she's back on the move again to the train station to take a smaller train up to Kanawha County.

2207
02:05:27.090 --> 02:05:28.180
Well, on the

2208
02:05:28.320 --> 02:05:32.930
<v Speaker 88>train, she meets the Union's district president, who hadn't expected to see her. And

2209
02:05:32.930 --> 02:05:33.940
so he invites her

2210
02:05:33.940 --> 02:05:37.460
<v Speaker 47>with him to a mass meeting. And so that's where they went. They

2211
02:05:37.460 --> 02:05:38.900
get off the train

2212
02:05:38.900 --> 02:05:40.120
<v Speaker 47>at Paint Creek

2213
02:05:40.120 --> 02:05:46.510
<v Speaker 146>Junction. And she looks around, and the first thing she notices are gunmen everywhere.

2214
02:05:46.510 --> 02:05:47.620
<v Speaker 196>Everything

2215
02:05:47.740 --> 02:05:50.360
<v Speaker 20>was still, she remembered.

2216
02:05:51.280 --> 02:05:51.710
And no

2217
02:05:51.910 --> 02:05:54.970
<v Speaker 20>one would know the bloody war that was raging in those silent

2218
02:05:54.970 --> 02:05:59.620
<v Speaker 52>hills except for the sight of those guns and the strange, terrified look on everyone's faces.

2219
02:06:00.250 --> 02:06:01.290
So she

2220
02:06:01.290 --> 02:06:10.180
<v Speaker 35>got on another train from the junction, a smaller, even smaller one, and took Yed up into the hollow, running parallel with a creek and a busted-up

2221
02:06:10.180 --> 02:06:11.160
<v Speaker 55>road. She's

2222
02:06:11.220 --> 02:06:12.200
passing by

2223
02:06:12.200 --> 02:06:19.580
<v Speaker 55>the dilapidated homes of miners with their little gardens off to the side. She was passing through

2224
02:06:19.580 --> 02:06:20.520
<v Speaker 109>areas...

2225
02:06:20.700 --> 02:06:26.540
<v Speaker 109>entirely devoted to mining so that the landscape looked like you know Mordor

2226
02:06:26.740 --> 02:06:28.290
finally they arrived

2227
02:06:28.320 --> 02:06:37.800
<v Speaker 12>to their destination and word gets around that Mother Jones has come to help the miners and so the people start to stream in start to assemble

2228
02:06:37.800 --> 02:06:38.170
one of

2229
02:06:38.170 --> 02:06:44.660
<v Speaker 206>them was the friend who had carried her across the creek on his back those years ago he told her he wasn't able to carry her anymore since the

2230
02:06:44.960 --> 02:06:47.720
<v Speaker 35>Baldwin Feltz guards had thrown him off a train and injured

2231
02:06:47.930 --> 02:06:48.580
<v Speaker 57>his back

2232
02:06:49.900 --> 02:06:51.130
about half of

2233
02:06:51.230 --> 02:06:57.840
<v Speaker 57>the miners were europeans italians poles hungarians mostly

2234
02:06:57.840 --> 02:07:05.180
<v Speaker 36>another 25 were black men who had come up from the south to get out of the fruitless toil of the sharecropper and

2235
02:07:05.180 --> 02:07:05.740
then the

2236
02:07:05.740 --> 02:07:09.800
<v Speaker 146>other 25 were men from right there in west virginia and

2237
02:07:09.800 --> 02:07:10.700
so she went

2238
02:07:10.830 --> 02:07:14.540
<v Speaker 109>around and worked the crowd shook their hands

2239
02:07:14.540 --> 02:07:14.540
and

2240
02:07:15.070 --> 02:07:17.950
<v Speaker 109>speaking to them as individuals or small groups and

2241
02:07:18.270 --> 02:07:18.840
<v Speaker 212>listening to

2242
02:07:18.840 --> 02:07:22.680
<v Speaker 79>their tales of abuse at the hands of the Baldwin-Felz guards. When

2243
02:07:22.900 --> 02:07:23.160
all the

2244
02:07:23.160 --> 02:07:30.020
<v Speaker 79>people were assembled who were going to come, she starts talking. She starts exhorting the

2245
02:07:30.020 --> 02:07:31.030
<v Speaker 175>miners. She

2246
02:07:31.030 --> 02:07:40.130
<v Speaker 36>knows exactly how to rile these men up. She would challenge them. She would condemn them and make fun of them for failing to have not already fought back.

2247
02:07:40.500 --> 02:07:40.690
The

2248
02:07:40.850 --> 02:07:44.700
<v Speaker 109>whole thing would be laced with her trademark profanities. The miners loved that.

2249
02:07:44.990 --> 02:07:46.140
She went for a full

2250
02:07:46.150 --> 02:07:57.180
<v Speaker 36>90 minutes, and the crowd was wrapped the entire time, laughing when she wanted him to laugh, cheering or jeering as she conducted him, crying or shouting with rage like on cue.

2251
02:07:57.180 --> 02:08:03.640
<v Speaker 47>A news account of the event later reported that she put all the other speakers, most of whom were half her age, in the shade.

2252
02:08:03.730 --> 02:08:06.590
So she settles into her hotel

2253
02:08:06.590 --> 02:08:08.960
<v Speaker 3>back in Charleston.

2254
02:08:09.470 --> 02:08:13.930
<v Speaker 3>settles in for the long haul and shuttles back and forth to minors camps

2255
02:08:13.970 --> 02:08:15.730
<v Speaker 13>in Kahnawauk County all summer long.

2256
02:08:15.740 --> 02:08:16.500
She made

2257
02:08:16.510 --> 02:08:23.110
<v Speaker 72>speeches on a daily basis and mass meetings sprung up anywhere that she was rumored to be headed.

2258
02:08:23.200 --> 02:08:24.650
Ginny Savage

2259
02:08:24.650 --> 02:08:38.530
<v Speaker 5>Ayers writes, quote, Her voice rocked people with its power, its clarity, its command, its hint of Irish brogue and feminine charm. Poet Carl Sandburg called it a singing voice.

2260
02:08:38.510 --> 02:08:38.940
It was

2261
02:08:38.940 --> 02:08:42.910
<v Speaker 130>low and pleasant, UMWA leader John Brophy once said, with

2262
02:08:43.270 --> 02:08:49.930
<v Speaker 11>great carrying power. And when she got excited, the intensity of it became something you could almost feel physically.

2263
02:08:50.320 --> 02:08:51.370
Well, come July

2264
02:08:51.500 --> 02:08:53.300
<v Speaker 11>4th, she speaks

2265
02:08:53.300 --> 02:08:53.570
to a

2266
02:08:53.660 --> 02:09:01.410
<v Speaker 35>crowd at a Beckley courthouse and tells the people there to stop thinking in terms of political

2267
02:09:01.770 --> 02:09:02.510
<v Speaker 83>parties.

2268
02:09:03.310 --> 02:09:03.600
Stop

2269
02:09:03.940 --> 02:09:07.020
<v Speaker 83>thinking in terms of elections, and start thinking in terms

2270
02:09:07.020 --> 02:09:08.810
<v Speaker 36>of labor and capital. Later

2271
02:09:08.970 --> 02:09:10.110
in the month, she

2272
02:09:10.110 --> 02:09:18.000
<v Speaker 36>spoke to striking miners on the Coal River, and we're not exactly sure what she said there, but it was enough that the Charleston

2273
02:09:18.000 --> 02:09:24.620
<v Speaker 215>newspaper reported that it had provoked a great deal of enthusiasm, as well as unrest in the neighborhood. The

2274
02:09:24.910 --> 02:09:27.040
very next day, a group of

2275
02:09:27.110 --> 02:09:30.490
<v Speaker 13>those miners armed themselves.

2276
02:09:31.110 --> 02:09:31.110
and

2277
02:09:31.150 --> 02:09:34.750
<v Speaker 13>assembled on coal company land to protest the use of scab labor.

2278
02:09:34.950 --> 02:09:35.350
Most, if

2279
02:09:35.350 --> 02:09:38.690
<v Speaker 13>not all of them, had seen Mother Jones the day before,

2280
02:09:38.870 --> 02:09:38.870
and

2281
02:09:38.890 --> 02:09:39.910
<v Speaker 62>they were fired up,

2282
02:09:39.960 --> 02:09:41.590
she says, for I

2283
02:09:41.610 --> 02:09:49.610
<v Speaker 53>had told them their jobs were their bread and butter, and that they should fight for that at any and all times, for the comfort of their wives and their babies depended on it.

2284
02:09:49.810 --> 02:09:51.570
The deputy sheriff went

2285
02:09:51.570 --> 02:09:54.370
<v Speaker 53>up there to disperse the minors,

2286
02:09:54.570 --> 02:09:59.720
<v Speaker 109>but when he got there, he found that the minors numbered at least 150, and he was by himself.

2287
02:10:00.370 --> 02:10:00.670
and so

2288
02:10:00.770 --> 02:10:12.410
<v Speaker 113>they approached him and said that sheriff we're gonna disarm you now and so he starts to raise his gun at them and from somewhere in the crowd he was shot five times not killed though

2289
02:10:12.420 --> 02:10:12.700
<v Speaker 146>well

2290
02:10:12.810 --> 02:10:13.900
the county sheriff

2291
02:10:14.030 --> 02:10:17.310
<v Speaker 146>puts in an emergency call to the governor's office he

2292
02:10:17.560 --> 02:10:17.580
says

2293
02:10:17.580 --> 02:10:24.370
<v Speaker 201>that things are now growing beyond the ability of local law enforcement to control law enforcement's being attacked

2294
02:10:24.480 --> 02:10:24.690
the

2295
02:10:25.240 --> 02:10:27.260
<v Speaker 12>governor must send the national guard immediately

2296
02:10:27.320 --> 02:10:27.830
and

2297
02:10:27.780 --> 02:10:28.150
And so

2298
02:10:28.400 --> 02:10:31.660
<v Speaker 12>soon, a company of soldiers and a machine gun squad, who

2299
02:10:31.890 --> 02:10:31.890
were

2300
02:10:31.910 --> 02:10:38.590
<v Speaker 36>supposed to be leaving for training in Pennsylvania, turned around, canceled those plans, they're going to Boone County, West Virginia. Mother

2301
02:10:38.740 --> 02:10:40.220
Jones was blamed for that

2302
02:10:40.220 --> 02:10:49.140
<v Speaker 72>violence, she didn't deny responsibility. I not only advised the miners to buy rifles, but personally raised the money which paid for them.

2303
02:10:49.140 --> 02:10:49.450
If the

2304
02:10:49.760 --> 02:10:55.900
<v Speaker 72>state of West Virginia allows the coal companies to hire and arm such thugs as the Baldwin-Felds detectives for the purpose of

2305
02:10:55.900 --> 02:10:57.520
<v Speaker 209>shooting down the miners...

2306
02:10:57.760 --> 02:10:57.760
then

2307
02:10:57.770 --> 02:11:01.940
<v Speaker 209>I would not be fit to live under the flag of this country if I let my boys go empty-handed.

2308
02:11:02.170 --> 02:11:03.320
Winchester and

2309
02:11:03.320 --> 02:11:08.980
<v Speaker 109>Springfield's rifles and stacks of ammunition were flowing into

2310
02:11:09.040 --> 02:11:09.640
<v Speaker 202>Paint Creek

2311
02:11:09.870 --> 02:11:10.760
and the rest of

2312
02:11:10.880 --> 02:11:17.580
<v Speaker 202>Kahnawa County, headed for both the miners and the Baldwin-Feltz guards. People were gearing up for war.

2313
02:11:17.880 --> 02:11:18.780
Miners who had more

2314
02:11:18.910 --> 02:11:22.140
<v Speaker 202>than one gun gave one to miners who didn't have one.

2315
02:11:22.880 --> 02:11:23.420
The miners

2316
02:11:23.560 --> 02:11:27.360
<v Speaker 202>weren't being permitted to bring or transport guns, so they had to be smuggled.

2317
02:11:27.440 --> 02:11:28.470
Even miners'

2318
02:11:28.540 --> 02:11:30.580
<v Speaker 36>wives got in on the act.

2319
02:11:30.580 --> 02:11:31.550
Willie Fish,

2320
02:11:31.550 --> 02:11:35.050
<v Speaker 36>the miner's wife who covered the tracks of the fleeing

2321
02:11:35.180 --> 02:11:37.960
<v Speaker 47>Italians by releasing her chickens into the yard, she

2322
02:11:37.960 --> 02:11:38.960
smuggled guns and

2323
02:11:38.960 --> 02:11:43.220
<v Speaker 47>ammunition for the miners under her tea gowns and her big linen coat. I

2324
02:11:43.700 --> 02:11:44.900
said I'd get them

2325
02:11:44.900 --> 02:11:51.640
<v Speaker 72>off the hill. They said, how? And I said, you just have somebody meet me at Banner and I'll get the guns off.

2326
02:11:52.100 --> 02:11:52.360
and I

2327
02:11:52.520 --> 02:11:54.810
<v Speaker 72>slipped one down my dress on this side. I had

2328
02:11:55.180 --> 02:12:05.420
<v Speaker 90>one gun on either side of me, and I had a pocket full of shells. I could hardly walk, and I'd go right down past the store. They didn't think about me carrying anything like that.

2329
02:12:05.420 --> 02:12:05.810
I'd go up

2330
02:12:05.880 --> 02:12:11.440
<v Speaker 90>to banner a little piece, and then a man would pop out of the bushes, and I'd give him a countersign.

2331
02:12:11.440 --> 02:12:11.490
The

2332
02:12:11.880 --> 02:12:13.040
<v Speaker 192>miners were all using call

2333
02:12:13.040 --> 02:12:15.860
<v Speaker 3>and response passwords to identify each other.

2334
02:12:15.860 --> 02:12:16.330
I'd give

2335
02:12:16.350 --> 02:12:18.600
<v Speaker 66>him a gun and a handful of shells, and

2336
02:12:18.710 --> 02:12:18.710
And

2337
02:12:18.770 --> 02:12:22.950
<v Speaker 66>he would take back to the bushes. Then I'd go a little further, and another man would pop out of

2338
02:12:22.950 --> 02:12:29.910
<v Speaker 90>the bushes. Usually I carried two at a time. Sometimes I'd take bags of shells instead of guns. And I carried all the

2339
02:12:29.910 --> 02:12:31.190
<v Speaker 196>guns off the hill.

2340
02:12:31.380 --> 02:12:32.610
Rumors were

2341
02:12:33.130 --> 02:12:38.900
<v Speaker 216>circulating that miners from other areas were making their way to Paint Creek to

2342
02:12:38.900 --> 02:12:39.780
<v Speaker 36>join the strike.

2343
02:12:40.020 --> 02:12:40.670
And

2344
02:12:40.660 --> 02:12:41.000
One

2345
02:12:41.280 --> 02:12:51.820
<v Speaker 35>evening in late July, two Baldwin-Feltz guards from Fayette County were coming through the area called Holly Grove on their way up to Paint Creek Junction. They were riding one of these old

2346
02:12:51.820 --> 02:12:57.460
<v Speaker 123>two-seater pedal-powered bicycles that rode on railroad tracks. You don't really see those anymore.

2347
02:12:57.460 --> 02:13:01.440
<v Speaker 75>Well, the guards' names were Bill Phalp and Robert Stringer.

2348
02:13:01.500 --> 02:13:02.500
And as they made

2349
02:13:02.500 --> 02:13:08.990
<v Speaker 75>their way through Holly Grove, all of a sudden shots broke out and Robert Stringer went down, shot in

2350
02:13:08.990 --> 02:13:09.920
<v Speaker 10>the head.

2351
02:13:10.430 --> 02:13:10.600
The

2352
02:13:10.870 --> 02:13:18.480
<v Speaker 10>other one, Bill Fout, pulls his revolver and starts shooting back, but he was hit in the back in the arm and he goes flying off the railroad bike down an embankment. He

2353
02:13:18.770 --> 02:13:19.910
tore his shirt and tied

2354
02:13:19.910 --> 02:13:23.010
<v Speaker 109>up his injured arm and then shed his blood-soaked

2355
02:13:23.030 --> 02:13:29.060
<v Speaker 35>coat and ran away, managed to get away through the woods to a hospital a few miles out. When

2356
02:13:29.140 --> 02:13:30.510
Fout and Stringer don't

2357
02:13:30.520 --> 02:13:33.190
<v Speaker 182>arrive as expected, the other mine guards

2358
02:13:33.190 --> 02:13:33.630
who are

2359
02:13:33.630 --> 02:13:36.050
<v Speaker 182>waiting for him become concerned.

2360
02:13:36.860 --> 02:13:37.580
And so the

2361
02:13:37.600 --> 02:13:40.100
<v Speaker 182>murderous guard that I mentioned earlier,

2362
02:13:40.100 --> 02:13:44.990
<v Speaker 206>Ernest Gaozhou and two others, arm themselves and head in the direction of Holly Grove. And

2363
02:13:44.990 --> 02:13:57.310
<v Speaker 35>when they get there, they find Stringer's body. They figured Fowlp was likely dead as well, and there were probably hostiles all around, so they didn't linger. They went back to get reinforcements. And then the next morning,

2364
02:13:57.460 --> 02:14:00.010
<v Speaker 20>Gaozhou leads a posse back there. When

2365
02:14:00.270 --> 02:14:00.820
they get

2366
02:14:00.830 --> 02:14:04.260
<v Speaker 20>there, they find two young teenage girls and they find two young teenage girls

2367
02:14:04.420 --> 02:14:12.040
<v Speaker 20>who were kind of edging up some distance away from stringer's corpse they'd just never seen a dead body before and their curiosity got the

2368
02:14:12.040 --> 02:14:13.510
best of them when the girls

2369
02:14:13.510 --> 02:14:19.810
<v Speaker 178>see the guards they try to retreat across a bridge but the guards catch up with them and put guns in their faces in

2370
02:14:19.810 --> 02:14:23.320
<v Speaker 109>order to get off the bridge and go wade through the creek and

2371
02:14:23.320 --> 02:14:23.810
so they do

2372
02:14:23.890 --> 02:14:25.970
<v Speaker 109>that and the guards are pointing guns

2373
02:14:25.990 --> 02:14:28.190
<v Speaker 55>at them and directing curses at them the

2374
02:14:28.190 --> 02:14:28.770
whole time

2375
02:14:28.830 --> 02:14:29.440
And the

2376
02:14:29.640 --> 02:14:36.700
<v Speaker 55>guards then burst into the tents in the homes of the sleeping miners, sticking guns in people's faces. They round up 22 men, abuse

2377
02:14:36.700 --> 02:14:41.150
<v Speaker 136>them, make them get close and stare at the corpse. The

2378
02:14:41.650 --> 02:14:42.660
miners in the hills

2379
02:14:42.750 --> 02:14:49.350
<v Speaker 88>around saw these captive men being led away, and so they start to take pot shots at the guards from the trees. So

2380
02:14:49.400 --> 02:14:49.630
the

2381
02:14:49.880 --> 02:14:51.800
<v Speaker 67>guards...

2382
02:14:52.020 --> 02:14:52.020
put

2383
02:14:52.040 --> 02:14:58.550
<v Speaker 67>their captives, the miners, between them and the direction of the gunfire to use them as hostages and human shields as they made their escape.

2384
02:14:58.760 --> 02:15:00.190
They got Stringer's

2385
02:15:00.190 --> 02:15:03.920
<v Speaker 9>body and then headed back to Mucklow from where they'd come.

2386
02:15:04.100 --> 02:15:05.020
But when they got

2387
02:15:05.120 --> 02:15:11.060
<v Speaker 12>to Mucklow, the four guards that they had left there were already engaged in their own gun battle with miners in the hills.

2388
02:15:11.820 --> 02:15:12.170
One of

2389
02:15:12.440 --> 02:15:14.740
<v Speaker 12>those four had managed to get the Gatling gun,

2390
02:15:14.960 --> 02:15:14.960
and

2391
02:15:15.020 --> 02:15:24.440
<v Speaker 13>he was using it to strafe the hillsides, but the miners managed to mitigate its effects, somewhat at least, by aiming at the ammunition belt, feeding bullets into the gun, and severing it.

2392
02:15:24.440 --> 02:15:25.650
Guards from a

2393
02:15:25.650 --> 02:15:27.960
<v Speaker 12>nearby station heard the

2394
02:15:27.960 --> 02:15:30.280
<v Speaker 36>gunfire. They rushed to the scene. On

2395
02:15:30.280 --> 02:15:31.350
their way, they ran

2396
02:15:31.350 --> 02:15:39.660
<v Speaker 36>up on a group of miners who had been firing down into the camp, and they all spun on each other, and one of the men with the guards was killed. Okay.

2397
02:15:39.630 --> 02:15:40.630
<v Speaker 36>it's

2398
02:15:40.630 --> 02:15:47.460
<v Speaker 12>becoming a full-scale battle. Well, finally, Gaujo returns with his posse and those 22 captured men, and

2399
02:15:47.460 --> 02:15:55.620
<v Speaker 47>the prisoners are forced to sit down in front of the Gatling gun to act as human shields as the automatic sprays over their heads into the hills. The

2400
02:15:55.950 --> 02:15:56.620
battle went on

2401
02:15:56.620 --> 02:16:02.090
<v Speaker 62>for about an hour. Thousands and thousands of rounds fired. Several people killed. After

2402
02:16:02.250 --> 02:16:02.490
it was

2403
02:16:02.490 --> 02:16:06.270
<v Speaker 26>over, the guards continued to abuse the prisoners.

2404
02:16:06.960 --> 02:16:07.230
One

2405
02:16:07.340 --> 02:16:08.900
<v Speaker 26>of the things about the

2406
02:16:08.900 --> 02:16:16.010
<v Speaker 62>miners in all these stories, and actually on the guard side as well it was true, but certainly more so with the miners, it seemed to have been

2407
02:16:16.010 --> 02:16:20.210
<v Speaker 113>a point of principle not to ever admit the number of their own who were hit or killed.

2408
02:16:20.320 --> 02:16:21.270
They didn't want

2409
02:16:21.360 --> 02:16:22.690
<v Speaker 113>to give the guards the

2410
02:16:22.690 --> 02:16:27.760
<v Speaker 35>satisfaction, and so very often the number of casualties is a bit fuzzy.

2411
02:16:27.730 --> 02:16:27.920
And

2412
02:16:28.060 --> 02:16:31.810
<v Speaker 35>the estimates can vary widely, but reports here

2413
02:16:31.810 --> 02:16:36.690
<v Speaker 213>were that between 8 and 12 men were killed and about 20 were wounded that morning.

2414
02:16:37.000 --> 02:16:38.190
The night before,

2415
02:16:38.190 --> 02:16:42.010
<v Speaker 217>telephone wires had been cut by miners throughout

2416
02:16:42.010 --> 02:16:42.990
<v Speaker 196>the area.

2417
02:16:43.250 --> 02:16:43.620
They'd also

2418
02:16:43.700 --> 02:16:47.860
<v Speaker 196>intercepted and wrecked a freight train hauling for the coal company. At

2419
02:16:47.960 --> 02:16:49.200
Mucklow, they

2420
02:16:49.210 --> 02:16:54.730
<v Speaker 12>sabotaged a tipple, which, if you're not familiar with it,

2421
02:16:54.740 --> 02:16:55.010
with

2422
02:16:55.150 --> 02:17:13.850
<v Speaker 12>mining equipment a tipple is a ubiquitous site at mining operations in quarries if you've ever seen a miner a quarry driven by one or something and there's a big structure with a long ramp descending from it that's the tipple coal cars would deliver coal from the mountainside down to the tipple

2423
02:17:13.910 --> 02:17:14.920
it would be dumped

2424
02:17:14.920 --> 02:17:21.580
<v Speaker 12>into the tipple and then directed down the ramp into the full-size freight cars waiting on the main railroad that's how they got it

2425
02:17:21.590 --> 02:17:21.940
out

2426
02:17:21.940 --> 02:17:22.100
So

2427
02:17:22.320 --> 02:17:23.950
<v Speaker 12>every mine had one, and without the

2428
02:17:23.950 --> 02:17:30.240
<v Speaker 11>tipple, no mine could operate, and so they became frequent targets of the striking miners. The miners were verging on full-scale

2429
02:17:30.330 --> 02:17:31.220
<v Speaker 12>rebellion.

2430
02:17:31.560 --> 02:17:33.030
That night, the first

2431
02:17:33.030 --> 02:17:36.840
<v Speaker 12>National Guardsmen arrived and began patrolling the hills.

2432
02:17:37.220 --> 02:17:38.000
Before long, three

2433
02:17:38.080 --> 02:17:43.030
<v Speaker 206>more companies of soldiers were ordered to Paint Creek with another battalion on the way. So

2434
02:17:43.240 --> 02:17:43.640
with the

2435
02:17:43.640 --> 02:17:47.310
<v Speaker 206>soldiers in town, both the miners and the guards

2436
02:17:47.720 --> 02:17:48.240
stepped back

2437
02:17:48.240 --> 02:17:49.660
<v Speaker 206>and took a breath.

2438
02:17:50.540 --> 02:17:51.240
Things

2439
02:17:51.420 --> 02:17:59.040
<v Speaker 11>quiet down a bit, and people even expressed optimism that maybe the worst was over. There was still tension

2440
02:17:59.040 --> 02:17:59.770
thick in

2441
02:17:59.790 --> 02:18:02.130
<v Speaker 11>the air. You could cut it with a knife. The

2442
02:18:02.130 --> 02:18:04.590
next day, Mother Jones went

2443
02:18:04.650 --> 02:18:09.920
<v Speaker 11>up to Hollygrove, the site of Stringer and Fowlp shootings, and spoke to a mass meeting

2444
02:18:10.940 --> 02:18:11.340
there.

2445
02:18:12.180 --> 02:18:14.970
<v Speaker 47>Someone had found Phalp's bloody coat that he had

2446
02:18:14.970 --> 02:18:21.760
<v Speaker 67>left behind when he fled and brought it back to Hollygrove. And Mother Jones, in top form, is waving it over her head and

2447
02:18:21.760 --> 02:18:30.590
<v Speaker 218>shouting, This is the first time I ever saw a goddamn mine guard's coat decorated to suit me! The crowd goes insane. They

2448
02:18:30.590 --> 02:18:31.630
cut that bloody

2449
02:18:31.630 --> 02:18:36.970
<v Speaker 67>coat up into small scraps and pin pieces of it onto their lapels as souvenirs.

2450
02:18:38.320 --> 02:18:39.260
rumors

2451
02:18:39.450 --> 02:18:44.050
<v Speaker 12>of more armed miners were making their way into Paint Creek continued

2452
02:18:44.240 --> 02:18:44.240
to

2453
02:18:44.290 --> 02:18:49.960
<v Speaker 11>circulate many of these miners who were coming in headed to the capital Charleston

2454
02:18:49.960 --> 02:18:51.830
<v Speaker 36>to rendezvous before heading down

2455
02:18:52.100 --> 02:18:52.900
there so Mother

2456
02:18:53.230 --> 02:18:54.820
<v Speaker 36>Jones went to that city

2457
02:18:54.820 --> 02:19:05.360
<v Speaker 12>and word went out across the coal fields that Mother Jones would be addressing a mass meeting on the levee in Charleston Ginny Ayers describes the scene quote

2458
02:19:06.000 --> 02:19:06.240
The

2459
02:19:06.240 --> 02:19:06.830
<v Speaker 12>Elk Ridge

2460
02:19:06.920 --> 02:19:11.080
<v Speaker 109>Band came marching smartly down Capitol Street, played a march in front

2461
02:19:11.080 --> 02:19:21.960
<v Speaker 90>of the state capitol, then moved out toward the river. People smiled and followed. A few blocks away, miners from Kelly's Creek and Boomer Branch, Longacre, Ward, Smithers, and a

2462
02:19:21.960 --> 02:19:29.720
<v Speaker 184>dozen other camps along the northern side of the Kanawha poured off a train at the Kanawha and Michigan Depot and marched down Capitol Street toward the river.

2463
02:19:30.340 --> 02:19:30.730
On the

2464
02:19:30.820 --> 02:19:39.250
<v Speaker 90>river's south bank, miners swarmed off the morning local from paint and cabin creeks and streamed across the bridge into the music and the excitement. Down

2465
02:19:39.400 --> 02:19:39.620
at the

2466
02:19:39.620 --> 02:19:42.180
<v Speaker 10>river itself, at the foot of the levee,

2467
02:19:42.180 --> 02:19:49.310
<v Speaker 72>the stern-wheeled valley bell steamed into dock. Its gangway came down and miners filed out onto the cobblestones. In

2468
02:19:49.600 --> 02:19:50.370
overalls and

2469
02:19:50.370 --> 02:19:51.020
<v Speaker 72>muslin,

2470
02:19:51.450 --> 02:19:57.140
<v Speaker 184>battered hats and suspenders, the miners roamed through town, talking and calling. All right.

2471
02:19:57.260 --> 02:19:57.880
<v Speaker 184>peering into

2472
02:19:57.960 --> 02:20:04.070
<v Speaker 53>store windows admiring the buildings biding their time at noon they gathered on the levee

2473
02:20:04.070 --> 02:20:04.740
they had

2474
02:20:04.740 --> 02:20:06.590
<v Speaker 67>come to hear mother jones

2475
02:20:06.930 --> 02:20:07.220
at one

2476
02:20:07.220 --> 02:20:13.670
<v Speaker 67>o'clock walter deal union organizer mounted a dray wagon near the top of the sloping levee and tried

2477
02:20:13.930 --> 02:20:14.490
to speak few

2478
02:20:14.490 --> 02:20:14.770
<v Speaker 67>paid

2479
02:20:14.770 --> 02:20:15.360
<v Speaker 52>attention

2480
02:20:15.710 --> 02:20:16.280
then mother

2481
02:20:16.360 --> 02:20:20.640
<v Speaker 52>jones appeared at the top of the levee and began moving toward the

2482
02:20:20.850 --> 02:20:21.120
wagon

2483
02:20:21.420 --> 02:20:22.860
<v Speaker 52>dressed as always in black

2484
02:20:22.920 --> 02:20:29.450
<v Speaker 85>silk that reached to the ground, white lace at the neck, the silver curls of her hair tucked neatly into place. She

2485
02:20:29.610 --> 02:20:29.860
made her

2486
02:20:29.940 --> 02:20:32.580
<v Speaker 85>way through the crowd, exchanging quips.

2487
02:20:32.590 --> 02:20:41.020
<v Speaker 88>If you would just use your brains instead of your mouths, she said to someone, but you do not. A miner responded kindly, take your time,

2488
02:20:41.020 --> 02:20:50.290
<v Speaker 218>mother. Don't you give me any advice, she snapped back. I will attend to you. I will stay with you. I believe you are right, someone called.

2489
02:20:51.020 --> 02:20:51.460
With her

2490
02:20:51.650 --> 02:20:59.040
<v Speaker 126>customary agility, she climbed into the back of the dray wagon and looked out over more than a thousand faces, stretching down the levee to the river.

2491
02:20:59.040 --> 02:20:59.810
Behind her,

2492
02:20:59.810 --> 02:21:04.480
<v Speaker 72>beneath the city's towering new office building, hundreds of townspeople, moving

2493
02:21:04.480 --> 02:21:09.790
<v Speaker 77>through the business district, surged forward to look and listen. The crowd hushed.

2494
02:21:09.800 --> 02:21:10.610
Her voice,

2495
02:21:10.670 --> 02:21:12.960
<v Speaker 126>strong but sympathetic, boomed

2496
02:21:12.960 --> 02:21:20.220
<v Speaker 219>out over the levee and the river. Every movement made in civilization has had an underlying purpose.

2497
02:21:20.880 --> 02:21:20.880
You

2498
02:21:20.950 --> 02:21:23.320
<v Speaker 219>have reached the century in human civilization

2499
02:21:23.320 --> 02:21:26.700
<v Speaker 130>when the charge of human slavery must forever disappear. And

2500
02:21:26.700 --> 02:21:27.770
that was all

2501
02:21:27.770 --> 02:21:29.890
<v Speaker 130>it took. The miners erupted

2502
02:21:29.920 --> 02:21:33.970
<v Speaker 126>into a loud, prolonged applause, cheering, yelling, telling the

2503
02:21:33.970 --> 02:21:38.340
<v Speaker 71>world they loved her. The feeling was mutual, and she responded to them.

2504
02:21:38.570 --> 02:21:38.870
You, my

2505
02:21:38.870 --> 02:21:39.870
<v Speaker 71>friends, in my

2506
02:21:39.870 --> 02:21:43.070
<v Speaker 218>estimation, have stood this insult too long.

2507
02:21:43.400 --> 02:21:44.070
You have borne

2508
02:21:44.070 --> 02:21:50.000
<v Speaker 218>the master's venom, his oppression. You have allowed him to oppress you.

2509
02:21:50.580 --> 02:21:50.870
she

2510
02:21:51.090 --> 02:21:52.010
<v Speaker 218>was warming up

2511
02:21:52.040 --> 02:21:52.650
when we

2512
02:21:52.770 --> 02:21:54.720
<v Speaker 220>said a little more bread he

2513
02:21:54.850 --> 02:21:55.430
set out

2514
02:21:55.530 --> 02:21:58.140
<v Speaker 220>to get the human bloodhounds to murder you

2515
02:21:58.140 --> 02:21:58.730
your governor

2516
02:21:59.020 --> 02:22:05.040
<v Speaker 220>has stood for it he went off to chicago and left two gatling guns with the bloodhounds to blow your

2517
02:22:05.270 --> 02:22:05.870
brains out the

2518
02:22:05.880 --> 02:22:12.810
<v Speaker 220>crowd was electrified a voice shouted that is what he has done mother yes that is what he has done but

2519
02:22:12.810 --> 02:22:13.200
what did

2520
02:22:13.440 --> 02:22:17.910
<v Speaker 220>you elect him for another voice that is the question

2521
02:22:18.030 --> 02:22:18.390
Then

2522
02:22:18.510 --> 02:22:25.910
<v Speaker 220>you elected a sheriff that began to shake like a poodle dog the night of the trouble on Pink Creek, and she was off again. The crowd was in her

2523
02:22:25.910 --> 02:22:32.610
<v Speaker 85>hands as she swayed her hearers, apparently as the wind sways the grass, as one witness said. Charleston

2524
02:22:32.610 --> 02:22:42.840
<v Speaker 90>citizens, many of whom had heard of Mother Jones but not actually heard her speak, stood around the edge of the crowd. Sometimes a buggy or automobile stopped while the passengers listened.

2525
02:22:43.530 --> 02:22:43.530
From

2526
02:22:43.610 --> 02:22:44.950
<v Speaker 90>his position in the crowd,

2527
02:22:45.000 --> 02:22:52.970
<v Speaker 67>stenographer S.P. Richmond, hired by the coal operator, scribbled down her words verbatim with Greg's shorthand. This industrial warfare is on, she

2528
02:22:53.060 --> 02:22:58.460
<v Speaker 71>resumed after another round of applause. It can't be stopped. It can't be put back.

2529
02:22:58.550 --> 02:22:58.740
It is

2530
02:22:58.740 --> 02:23:00.540
<v Speaker 218>breaking out all over the nation.

2531
02:23:00.780 --> 02:23:01.120
The whole

2532
02:23:01.200 --> 02:23:03.820
<v Speaker 218>machine of capitalism realizes for the

2533
02:23:03.820 --> 02:23:11.040
<v Speaker 221>first time in history that there is an intellectual awakening of the dog below, and he is barking.

2534
02:23:11.660 --> 02:23:11.970
have

2535
02:23:12.100 --> 02:23:14.200
<v Speaker 221>you been barking on paint creek and

2536
02:23:14.220 --> 02:23:15.150
from there she

2537
02:23:15.220 --> 02:23:28.380
<v Speaker 221>turned her wrath against the baldwin felt guards when a corporation which is bleeding you to death would go and hire human bloodhounds to abuse your wife your child it is time every man in the state should

2538
02:23:28.380 --> 02:23:28.780
rise

2539
02:23:28.780 --> 02:23:35.160
<v Speaker 70>mother jones was where she wanted to be doing what she did best her boys were there adoring

2540
02:23:35.160 --> 02:23:37.510
<v Speaker 12>cheering laughing responding

2541
02:23:37.520 --> 02:23:40.840
<v Speaker 12>She drew them out, started them cheering, quieted them,

2542
02:23:40.840 --> 02:23:49.340
<v Speaker 90>softened them, enraged them, and then drew them out again. I am 80 years old. I have passed the 80th milestone in human history.

2543
02:23:49.340 --> 02:23:49.410
<v Speaker 218>I

2544
02:23:49.670 --> 02:23:50.260
will be 80

2545
02:23:50.260 --> 02:23:55.790
<v Speaker 218>more, for I've got a contract with God Almighty to stay with you until your chains are broken.

2546
02:23:56.010 --> 02:23:56.260
And they

2547
02:23:56.260 --> 02:23:57.100
<v Speaker 218>cheered again.

2548
02:23:57.370 --> 02:23:58.750
With the crowd now

2549
02:23:58.750 --> 02:24:05.300
<v Speaker 71>fully in her control, she spoke of what many, including the coal operators, listened to hear.

2550
02:24:05.250 --> 02:24:05.420
the

2551
02:24:05.530 --> 02:24:06.750
<v Speaker 71>possibility of continuing

2552
02:24:06.750 --> 02:24:10.670
<v Speaker 90>violence. Her words were deliberately ambiguous. Don't

2553
02:24:10.730 --> 02:24:11.210
get into

2554
02:24:11.210 --> 02:24:12.050
<v Speaker 90>conflict with

2555
02:24:12.050 --> 02:24:22.450
<v Speaker 218>the boys in the state militia, she urged them, and they answered, amen, amen. Don't you let me hear that you have ever injured a single mine. These mines belong to you.

2556
02:24:22.450 --> 02:24:23.190
But then she

2557
02:24:23.190 --> 02:24:30.800
<v Speaker 218>added, I am not going to say that you don't molest the operators. It is they who hire the dogs to shoot you.

2558
02:24:30.800 --> 02:24:31.600
And when that

2559
02:24:31.940 --> 02:24:34.790
<v Speaker 218>applause died down, I'm not asking you to do it.

2560
02:24:35.230 --> 02:24:35.230
But

2561
02:24:35.270 --> 02:24:38.840
<v Speaker 218>if he is going to oppress you, deal with him. I'm

2562
02:24:38.840 --> 02:24:39.770
not going to

2563
02:24:39.940 --> 02:24:44.060
<v Speaker 218>take back any water because I'm here in the capital. No backwater for me.

2564
02:24:44.270 --> 02:24:44.580
No man

2565
02:24:44.580 --> 02:24:49.920
<v Speaker 218>lives on the face of God's earth that is oppressing my class that I am afraid of.

2566
02:24:50.150 --> 02:24:50.400
And the

2567
02:24:50.400 --> 02:24:52.320
<v Speaker 218>applause erupted again.

2568
02:24:52.530 --> 02:24:53.020
But hints of

2569
02:24:53.020 --> 02:25:03.160
<v Speaker 218>violence sprinkled throughout. I will say, Mr. Operators, the day is going to come when you will say you wished you had never seen the face of a mine guard.

2570
02:25:03.570 --> 02:25:06.210
<v Speaker 218>We are law-abiding citizens. We will destroy

2571
02:25:06.210 --> 02:25:15.260
<v Speaker 222>no property. We will take no life. But if a fellow comes to my home and outrages my wife, by the eternal he will pay the penalty.

2572
02:25:15.310 --> 02:25:16.940
<v Speaker 221>I will send him to God in the

2573
02:25:16.940 --> 02:25:17.970
<v Speaker 130>repair shop.

2574
02:25:18.240 --> 02:25:18.820
And again,

2575
02:25:18.820 --> 02:25:26.810
<v Speaker 130>the miners surged forward, cheering and applauding as she went on, The man who doesn't do it has a drop of revolutionary blood in his veins.

2576
02:25:27.120 --> 02:25:27.220
End

2577
02:25:27.220 --> 02:25:28.290
<v Speaker 223>quote.

2578
02:25:31.860 --> 02:25:33.880
<v Speaker 75>When the major in charge of the

2579
02:25:34.000 --> 02:25:41.460
<v Speaker 62>state militia there in Charleston Decided things had gone far enough He sent word up to Mother Jones While she was speaking that she was under arrest And

2580
02:25:41.460 --> 02:25:42.250
so she

2581
02:25:42.480 --> 02:25:43.030
<v Speaker 62>wraps

2582
02:25:43.030 --> 02:25:44.880
<v Speaker 71>it up And finishes with

2583
02:25:44.880 --> 02:25:53.720
<v Speaker 222>Goodbye boys I'm under arrest I may have to go to jail I may not see you for a long time Keep up this fight Don't surrender And

2584
02:25:53.720 --> 02:25:54.360
she was

2585
02:25:54.360 --> 02:25:58.420
<v Speaker 224>led off to jail For what was probably the 100th time in her life

2586
02:25:59.660 --> 02:26:00.310
after

2587
02:26:00.710 --> 02:26:08.560
<v Speaker 123>the event one gun store in Charleston reported selling 300 guns that afternoon another sold 350

2588
02:26:08.590 --> 02:26:15.220
<v Speaker 225>another one just said it sold all the guns it had and it put out a sign saying that they had more on order the

2589
02:26:15.490 --> 02:26:16.190
next

2590
02:26:16.290 --> 02:26:24.810
<v Speaker 123>day the state governor picks up the newspaper and sees the headline Mother Jones stirs up minors and they purchased

2591
02:26:24.810 --> 02:26:26.280
<v Speaker 64>750 rifles levels.

2592
02:26:27.420 --> 02:26:28.140
well of

2593
02:26:28.540 --> 02:26:31.980
<v Speaker 75>course she was out of jail soon she always managed to get out

2594
02:26:31.980 --> 02:26:38.970
<v Speaker 146>of jail soon and she heads right back up into the hills to keep on agitating this time she

2595
02:26:38.970 --> 02:26:40.880
<v Speaker 47>was headed up to nearby Cabin Creek

2596
02:26:40.880 --> 02:26:42.200
a creek that

2597
02:26:42.200 --> 02:26:47.780
<v Speaker 47>ran parallel to Paint Creek and a lot of the action that we're going to be talking about here takes place

2598
02:26:47.780 --> 02:26:53.080
<v Speaker 136>between the two this place was known to be even more hostile to unionization than Paint Creek

2599
02:26:53.080 --> 02:26:54.190
and she went

2600
02:26:54.200 --> 02:26:56.860
<v Speaker 136>up there at the invitation of a minor and

2601
02:26:57.020 --> 02:27:07.070
<v Speaker 63>who worked up there, named Frank Keeney. I mentioned Keeney a while ago. His family had been run off their land by speculators to make way for the railroads and coal mines.

2602
02:27:07.250 --> 02:27:08.670
When his father died,

2603
02:27:08.870 --> 02:27:15.240
<v Speaker 63>Keeney began working in the mine when he was just 12 years old to support his mother and two

2604
02:27:15.430 --> 02:27:16.920
<v Speaker 26>sisters. Now he's 30

2605
02:27:17.570 --> 02:27:18.260
years old,

2606
02:27:18.260 --> 02:27:22.020
<v Speaker 26>and Frank Keeney, he's an impressive looking guy, but

2607
02:27:22.080 --> 02:27:25.090
<v Speaker 113>he's small and he's supposed to be soft-spoken, but...

2608
02:27:25.240 --> 02:27:28.670
<v Speaker 113>Quick-tempered and certainly not a man to be trifled with

2609
02:27:28.940 --> 02:27:29.210
His

2610
02:27:29.210 --> 02:27:34.260
<v Speaker 47>great-grandson is actually a history professor out in West Virginia today

2611
02:27:34.460 --> 02:27:34.860
Last year

2612
02:27:34.930 --> 02:27:38.940
<v Speaker 47>I was out there at an event when he was present And an older

2613
02:27:38.950 --> 02:27:47.520
<v Speaker 59>man whose father had known Frank Keeney Gave the introduction to our little event And to the great-grandson

2614
02:27:47.720 --> 02:27:48.670
He looked to

2615
02:27:48.670 --> 02:27:54.380
<v Speaker 9>him and he said One of the things he said was When he asked his dad what Frank Keeney was like

2616
02:27:54.440 --> 02:27:54.440
I'll see you

2617
02:27:54.440 --> 02:27:54.500
<v Speaker 9>next week.

2618
02:27:55.090 --> 02:27:55.090
That

2619
02:27:55.120 --> 02:27:55.960
<v Speaker 9>his dad paused for

2620
02:27:56.140 --> 02:27:58.630
<v Speaker 226>a moment and then just said,

2621
02:27:58.710 --> 02:27:59.360
when he

2622
02:27:59.630 --> 02:28:01.400
<v Speaker 226>spoke, people listened.

2623
02:28:01.680 --> 02:28:02.540
And so that kind

2624
02:28:02.720 --> 02:28:06.900
<v Speaker 226>of stuck with me a little bit, because I think that does say a lot without saying very much

2625
02:28:07.150 --> 02:28:08.600
at all. Frank Keeney had

2626
02:28:08.780 --> 02:28:12.930
<v Speaker 72>emerged as a leader among the miners because the union was

2627
02:28:13.280 --> 02:28:14.030
perceived

2628
02:28:14.070 --> 02:28:19.740
<v Speaker 136>to be moving slowly, even reluctantly, as this conflict continued to spiral.

2629
02:28:20.940 --> 02:28:21.640
one

2630
02:28:21.980 --> 02:28:25.860
<v Speaker 57>day Frank Keeney walked into the union headquarters and demanded help from

2631
02:28:25.990 --> 02:28:35.370
<v Speaker 13>the UMW to arrange mass meetings in the strike district but the union officials refused to send anybody and so Frank Keeney reads him the riot act and basically

2632
02:28:35.520 --> 02:28:40.520
<v Speaker 12>from that point on took the reins of the paint creek and soon the cabin creek strike himself well

2633
02:28:40.520 --> 02:28:42.160
Keeney had been in

2634
02:28:42.160 --> 02:28:49.100
<v Speaker 11>Charleston trying to get some more union leaders to come up to cabin creek to help organize his miners couldn't get anybody to come

2635
02:28:49.720 --> 02:28:49.720
The

2636
02:28:49.810 --> 02:28:55.500
<v Speaker 26>National Union had put down word that it was too dangerous. Their organizers were to avoid the area.

2637
02:28:55.750 --> 02:28:56.730
And so when Keeney

2638
02:28:56.730 --> 02:29:01.360
<v Speaker 79>heard that Mother Jones was in town, he sought her out to see if she would come.

2639
02:29:01.360 --> 02:29:02.100
I'll come

2640
02:29:02.100 --> 02:29:05.110
<v Speaker 9>up, she says. I've been thinking of invading

2641
02:29:05.110 --> 02:29:06.640
<v Speaker 227>that place for some time.

2642
02:29:06.930 --> 02:29:07.920
And so she

2643
02:29:07.940 --> 02:29:14.600
<v Speaker 47>told Frank Keeney that she would be there Tuesday night and to spread the word that there was going to be a mass meeting.

2644
02:29:14.890 --> 02:29:15.600
Mother Jones

2645
02:29:15.600 --> 02:29:16.680
<v Speaker 47>tells the rest

2646
02:29:16.680 --> 02:29:18.580
<v Speaker 88>herself, quote,

2647
02:29:18.540 --> 02:29:18.760
The

2648
02:29:19.080 --> 02:29:25.480
<v Speaker 88>night before I was to speak at Cabin Creek, a fellow by the name of Ben Morris, a national board member with the union,

2649
02:29:25.520 --> 02:29:38.470
<v Speaker 90>came to me and said, "'Mother, I understand you're going to Cabin Creek tomorrow. Do you think that is wise?' "'It's not wise,' said I, "'but necessary.' "'Well, if you go, I'll go,' he said. "'No,

2650
02:29:38.550 --> 02:29:38.880
I think

2651
02:29:38.980 --> 02:29:45.370
<v Speaker 90>it's better for me to go alone. You represent the national office. I don't. I'm not responsible to anyone.'

2652
02:29:45.410 --> 02:29:45.510
If

2653
02:29:45.670 --> 02:29:49.560
<v Speaker 90>anything happens and you were there, the operators might sue the union for damages. I

2654
02:29:49.710 --> 02:29:49.710
go

2655
02:29:49.750 --> 02:29:54.270
<v Speaker 209>as a private citizen. All they can do is put me in jail, and I'm used to that.

2656
02:29:54.450 --> 02:29:55.620
He left me and went

2657
02:29:55.620 --> 02:30:02.050
<v Speaker 209>directly to the governor and told him to send a company of the militia up to Cabin Creek as Mother Jones was going up there.

2658
02:30:02.310 --> 02:30:02.850
Then he got the

2659
02:30:02.850 --> 02:30:06.500
<v Speaker 71>sheriff to give him a bodyguard, and he sneaked up behind me.

2660
02:30:06.530 --> 02:30:06.900
At any

2661
02:30:06.900 --> 02:30:12.120
<v Speaker 71>rate, I did not see him or the militia on the train, nor did I see them when I got off.

2662
02:30:12.390 --> 02:30:12.970
That night,

2663
02:30:13.070 --> 02:30:14.370
<v Speaker 71>we held a meeting.

2664
02:30:14.940 --> 02:30:15.300
When I

2665
02:30:15.350 --> 02:30:22.490
<v Speaker 53>got up to speak, I saw the militia that the national organizer had had the governor send. That board member was there, too. He

2666
02:30:22.540 --> 02:30:22.980
had made

2667
02:30:22.980 --> 02:30:25.990
<v Speaker 53>arrangements with the local chairman to introduce

2668
02:30:25.990 --> 02:30:32.110
<v Speaker 51>him. He began speaking to the men about being good and patient and to trust the justice of their cause.

2669
02:30:32.110 --> 02:30:40.520
<v Speaker 9>I rose. Stop that silly trash, I said. I motioned him to a chair. The men hollered, sit down, sit down.

2670
02:30:40.790 --> 02:30:42.870
He sat. Then I

2671
02:30:42.870 --> 02:30:43.640
<v Speaker 218>spoke.

2672
02:30:44.450 --> 02:30:44.890
You men

2673
02:30:45.040 --> 02:30:45.980
<v Speaker 218>have come over the

2674
02:30:45.980 --> 02:30:57.170
<v Speaker 220>mountains 12, 16 miles Your clothes are thin Your shoes are out at the toes Your wives and little ones are cold and hungry You

2675
02:30:57.440 --> 02:30:58.010
have been

2676
02:30:58.020 --> 02:31:03.590
<v Speaker 220>robbed and enslaved for years And now Billy Sunday comes here to tell

2677
02:31:03.910 --> 02:31:03.910
you

2678
02:31:04.020 --> 02:31:14.090
<v Speaker 218>to be good and patient and trusted justice What silly trash to tell men whose goodness and patience is cried out to a deaf world Someone screamed Organize us mother And

2679
02:31:14.130 --> 02:31:14.340
we'll see you

2680
02:31:14.340 --> 02:31:14.610
<v Speaker 218>next time.

2681
02:31:14.080 --> 02:31:14.310
"'And

2682
02:31:14.380 --> 02:31:18.050
<v Speaker 218>they all began shouting, "'Organize us! Organize us!'

2683
02:31:18.060 --> 02:31:20.350
<v Speaker 53>"'March over to that dark church on the corner,

2684
02:31:20.570 --> 02:31:20.620
and I

2685
02:31:20.630 --> 02:31:26.670
<v Speaker 53>will give you the union obligation,' said I. "'The men started marching. In the dark, the spies could not

2686
02:31:27.180 --> 02:31:31.020
<v Speaker 228>identify them. "'You can't organize those men,' said the board member, "'because

2687
02:31:31.060 --> 02:31:39.090
<v Speaker 116>you don't know the ritual.' "'The ritual hell,' I said. "'I'll make one up.' "'Well, they have to pay $15 for their charter,' he said."

2688
02:31:39.100 --> 02:31:41.970
<v Speaker 116>I'll get them their charter. Why, these poor wretches haven't

2689
02:31:41.970 --> 02:31:47.100
<v Speaker 229>fifteen cents for a sandwich. All you care about is your salary, regardless of the destiny of these men.

2690
02:31:47.260 --> 02:31:48.340
On the steps of the

2691
02:31:48.340 --> 02:31:54.600
<v Speaker 67>darkened church, I organized those men. They raised their hands and took the obligation of the union.

2692
02:31:54.820 --> 02:31:55.540
Go home from

2693
02:31:55.540 --> 02:31:57.070
<v Speaker 67>this meeting, said

2694
02:31:57.070 --> 02:32:00.010
<v Speaker 229>I. Say nothing about being a union man.

2695
02:32:00.230 --> 02:32:00.610
Put on your

2696
02:32:00.710 --> 02:32:05.080
<v Speaker 229>overalls in the morning, take your dinner buckets and go to work in the mines.

2697
02:32:05.320 --> 02:32:05.670
And get

2698
02:32:05.770 --> 02:32:08.160
<v Speaker 229>the rest of the men out."

2699
02:32:08.420 --> 02:32:11.400
End quote. And from that

2700
02:32:11.400 --> 02:32:14.040
<v Speaker 76>day, the miners of Cabin Creek and Paint Creek

2701
02:32:14.040 --> 02:32:15.280
<v Speaker 36>were in common rebellion.

2702
02:32:15.490 --> 02:32:16.120
A week

2703
02:32:16.250 --> 02:32:21.120
<v Speaker 36>later, she's up at Cabin Creek again. She gives another speech.

2704
02:32:21.410 --> 02:32:21.710
After she

2705
02:32:21.710 --> 02:32:24.080
<v Speaker 36>finishes, a miner approaches her.

2706
02:32:24.080 --> 02:32:30.890
<v Speaker 13>He had come with 40 others from the Red Warrior Coal Camp up the creek, and they were there to ask if she would

2707
02:32:30.900 --> 02:32:32.580
<v Speaker 113>help them organize a union local.

2708
02:32:32.860 --> 02:32:34.350
And so she goes with him

2709
02:32:34.350 --> 02:32:36.300
<v Speaker 113>right then and there.

2710
02:32:37.410 --> 02:32:37.860
she

2711
02:32:38.380 --> 02:32:39.040
<v Speaker 113>climbs into

2712
02:32:39.040 --> 02:32:44.010
<v Speaker 109>a buggy that they had brought, and they started the three miles toward Red Warrior, with the other

2713
02:32:44.140 --> 02:32:56.740
<v Speaker 9>40 trailing behind on foot. As they went, other people came out and joined the march, so that soon there were over a hundred people walking behind Mother Jones in this buggy. And as they come up on

2714
02:32:56.740 --> 02:33:05.230
<v Speaker 228>Leawood, suddenly they find themselves confronted on their path by at least 50 Baldwin Feltz guards, armed with rifles, pistols,

2715
02:33:05.240 --> 02:33:06.350
<v Speaker 230>and shotguns.

2716
02:33:06.690 --> 02:33:07.420
<v Speaker 230>blocking their way

2717
02:33:07.490 --> 02:33:08.510
and a.c

2718
02:33:08.780 --> 02:33:13.910
<v Speaker 230>felt of the felt's family of the baldwin felt detective

2719
02:33:13.910 --> 02:33:16.800
<v Speaker 13>agency one of the bosses the big boss men stood in the

2720
02:33:16.910 --> 02:33:19.220
<v Speaker 20>middle of his men behind a mounted machine

2721
02:33:19.660 --> 02:33:19.980
gun with

2722
02:33:20.010 --> 02:33:21.900
<v Speaker 20>a belt of ammunition fed into

2723
02:33:22.030 --> 02:33:22.940
it they ordered

2724
02:33:22.940 --> 02:33:25.220
<v Speaker 138>mother jones to stop where she was

2725
02:33:25.470 --> 02:33:26.210
the guards moved

2726
02:33:26.400 --> 02:33:28.580
<v Speaker 138>and surrounded the people moved

2727
02:33:28.670 --> 02:33:29.260
into the

2728
02:33:29.380 --> 02:33:35.190
<v Speaker 12>crowd and began searching people for their guns so mother jones jumps out of the buggy without

2729
02:33:35.800 --> 02:33:36.210
assistance

2730
02:33:36.220 --> 02:33:36.570
Ran up

2731
02:33:36.870 --> 02:33:42.150
<v Speaker 160>the tracks to where the machine gun was She grabs the muzzle of the machine

2732
02:33:42.260 --> 02:33:49.580
<v Speaker 90>gun And looks back at her people Says nothing to the guards And just nods her head to tell her followers to get going past them

2733
02:33:49.580 --> 02:33:50.540
And so they

2734
02:33:50.540 --> 02:33:53.030
<v Speaker 90>start moving And A.C. Feltz, the

2735
02:33:53.040 --> 02:33:57.370
<v Speaker 218>Baldwin Feltz commander, yells at her Take your hands off that gun, you hellcat And

2736
02:33:57.430 --> 02:33:57.900
Mother

2737
02:33:57.900 --> 02:34:02.180
<v Speaker 170>Jones uses the opportunity to launch into one of her most famous rants

2738
02:34:02.980 --> 02:34:03.620
In front

2739
02:34:03.670 --> 02:34:13.900
<v Speaker 218>of 150 witnesses. Sir, my class goes into the mines. They bring out the metal that makes this gun. This is my gun. My

2740
02:34:14.330 --> 02:34:14.790
class melt

2741
02:34:14.790 --> 02:34:23.720
<v Speaker 220>the minerals in furnaces and roll the steel. They dig the coal that feeds the furnaces. My class is not fighting you. Not you. They

2742
02:34:23.720 --> 02:34:23.940
are

2743
02:34:24.110 --> 02:34:29.400
<v Speaker 218>fighting with bare fists and empty stomachs the men who rob them and deprive their children of childhood.

2744
02:34:29.950 --> 02:34:30.190
It is

2745
02:34:30.350 --> 02:34:33.630
<v Speaker 218>the hard-earned pay of the working class that your pay comes from.

2746
02:34:34.030 --> 02:34:35.140
Commander said he

2747
02:34:35.140 --> 02:34:44.050
<v Speaker 88>didn't give a damn. And he threatened to kill her and every one of those people before he would let them pass. And she looks him in the eye and says, Young man, I want

2748
02:34:44.160 --> 02:34:44.870
to tell you

2749
02:34:44.880 --> 02:34:51.830
<v Speaker 218>that if you shoot one bullet out of this gun at those men, if you touch one of my white hairs,

2750
02:34:52.150 --> 02:34:52.540
that creek

2751
02:34:52.570 --> 02:34:56.310
<v Speaker 218>will run with blood and yours will be the first to crimson

2752
02:34:56.310 --> 02:34:58.990
<v Speaker 110>it. And he...

2753
02:34:59.300 --> 02:35:05.040
<v Speaker 110>looks at her skeptically and says well how you gonna manage that and then she bluffs she points up to the hills and

2754
02:35:05.160 --> 02:35:15.860
<v Speaker 72>says up there in the mountains i have 500 miners they were all marching armed to the meeting i'm going to address right now if you start shooting they will finish the game

2755
02:35:16.120 --> 02:35:17.570
and so ac felt step back

2756
02:35:17.950 --> 02:35:21.300
<v Speaker 217>and the men let her and her people pass

2757
02:35:21.970 --> 02:35:22.260
And

2758
02:35:22.530 --> 02:35:24.990
<v Speaker 217>people who were there spread that story far and

2759
02:35:24.990 --> 02:35:28.310
<v Speaker 214>wide And Mother Jones legend just grew another few inches

2760
02:35:28.790 --> 02:35:29.270
This is an

2761
02:35:29.270 --> 02:35:30.670
<v Speaker 214>80, 85

2762
02:35:31.060 --> 02:35:34.480
<v Speaker 231>year old woman Tiny little thing looks like your great grandmother

2763
02:35:35.080 --> 02:35:35.970
Well after she

2764
02:35:36.130 --> 02:35:39.750
<v Speaker 232>gets up there She swears in the men of Red Warrior And she

2765
02:35:39.890 --> 02:35:42.090
<v Speaker 75>returns to Charleston the capital Where

2766
02:35:42.210 --> 02:35:47.390
<v Speaker 233>she had just one day to prepare For what would become arguably her most famous speech

2767
02:35:47.950 --> 02:35:48.970
Jenny Savage

2768
02:35:48.970 --> 02:35:50.270
<v Speaker 233>airs again

2769
02:35:50.780 --> 02:35:51.550
Quote

2770
02:35:51.490 --> 02:35:51.760
the

2771
02:35:52.210 --> 02:36:02.010
<v Speaker 184>excitement seemed beyond control the violence the presence of soldiers on the creek mother jones speeches and the breaking of cabin creek bringing a whole new dimension to the

2772
02:36:02.050 --> 02:36:10.980
<v Speaker 90>controversy had stirred things to such an extent that the event generated stories all over the front pages of charleston's two main newspapers for two

2773
02:36:10.980 --> 02:36:11.390
days

2774
02:36:11.480 --> 02:36:11.700
Men from

2775
02:36:11.900 --> 02:36:14.010
<v Speaker 90>the closed mines at Paint and Cabin

2776
02:36:14.010 --> 02:36:16.060
<v Speaker 88>Creeks had begun arriving in Charleston the

2777
02:36:16.060 --> 02:36:23.540
<v Speaker 53>night before, and next morning bought many rifles from the hardware stores and carried them around town waiting for things to start.

2778
02:36:23.640 --> 02:36:24.230
Miners from

2779
02:36:24.230 --> 02:36:28.060
<v Speaker 53>Boomer and other Union mines across the river from Paint and Cabin

2780
02:36:28.060 --> 02:36:35.230
<v Speaker 67>Creeks arrived too, in such numbers that the mines there were closed for the day as well. Everything seemed to have been planned.

2781
02:36:35.810 --> 02:36:36.180
Under a

2782
02:36:36.260 --> 02:36:43.010
<v Speaker 88>bright sun that sent temperatures into the 80s, Cabin Creek miners assembled at the levee. Pink Creek miners on Capitol

2783
02:36:43.010 --> 02:36:49.840
<v Speaker 71>Street and the others on Kanawa Street. At one o'clock, two marching bands blasted out patriotic music to set the

2784
02:36:49.840 --> 02:36:52.680
<v Speaker 90>pace. Hundreds of miners paraded through town.

2785
02:36:53.100 --> 02:36:53.300
in

2786
02:36:53.440 --> 02:36:59.040
<v Speaker 90>bib overalls and corduroys, some carrying rifles, old and young, native mountaineers,

2787
02:36:59.370 --> 02:37:08.440
<v Speaker 136>former slaves and the children of slaves, eastern Europeans and Italians. They marched to the beat, waving to friends. They carried huge banners stretching across

2788
02:37:08.770 --> 02:37:08.770
the

2789
02:37:08.820 --> 02:37:18.820
<v Speaker 218>street, held on each side by marching miners, with red letters proclaiming, no Russia for us, to hell with the guard system. Mountaineers are always free, out of the

2790
02:37:18.820 --> 02:37:21.220
<v Speaker 220>state with the Baldwin murderers.

2791
02:37:21.790 --> 02:37:22.210
We are

2792
02:37:22.250 --> 02:37:27.550
<v Speaker 220>the Cabin Creek peons. Kick out the guards. The nation's workmen

2793
02:37:28.090 --> 02:37:35.990
<v Speaker 218>cannot be submerged without submerging the nation. Down with the human bloodhounds. And more. A thousand strong,

2794
02:37:35.990 --> 02:37:41.730
<v Speaker 67>they poured into the Capitol grounds, where they were herded off to one side, well away from the entrance. The

2795
02:37:41.980 --> 02:37:49.050
<v Speaker 90>audience listened politely to the lead-up speakers until the moment all awaited. Walter Deal called on Mother Jones.

2796
02:37:49.910 --> 02:37:56.850
<v Speaker 90>everyone looked around but she was not there then they spotted her she stood triumphantly atop a dry

2797
02:37:57.010 --> 02:38:01.530
<v Speaker 130>goods box directly in front of the steps to the capital entrance where no one could fail to see her

2798
02:38:01.530 --> 02:38:01.860
as she

2799
02:38:01.860 --> 02:38:16.790
<v Speaker 71>knew they would miners stampeded across the grounds surrounding her and filling the walkways and lawn effectively blocking the entrance to the state capital she smiled triumphantly from the improved vantage point told the children to be quiet

2800
02:38:16.960 --> 02:38:16.960
and

2801
02:38:17.020 --> 02:38:17.780
<v Speaker 71>began what was to

2802
02:38:17.880 --> 02:38:25.600
<v Speaker 35>become her most famous speech, as stenographer Richmond leaned against a pillar and took down every word. This, my

2803
02:38:25.610 --> 02:38:31.970
<v Speaker 90>friends, marks, in my estimation, the most remarkable move

2804
02:38:31.970 --> 02:38:34.060
<v Speaker 72>ever made in the state of West

2805
02:38:34.060 --> 02:38:35.220
Virginia. It

2806
02:38:35.340 --> 02:38:39.240
<v Speaker 72>is a day that will mark history in the long ages to come. What is

2807
02:38:39.240 --> 02:38:40.130
it? It

2808
02:38:40.220 --> 02:38:42.730
<v Speaker 72>is an uprising of the oppressed against

2809
02:38:43.070 --> 02:38:44.690
<v Speaker 90>the master class.

2810
02:38:44.640 --> 02:38:44.840
Her

2811
02:38:45.120 --> 02:38:55.030
<v Speaker 90>voice thundered out across the Capitol Square, as around her the crowds cheered her words and the citizens on the streets stopped, entranced. Behind her, well-dressed state leaders and

2812
02:38:55.030 --> 02:38:56.060
<v Speaker 67>bureaucrats listened

2813
02:38:56.370 --> 02:38:57.160
in the entrance

2814
02:38:57.330 --> 02:39:01.590
<v Speaker 67>to the Capitol, while others crowded forward in the hallways to hear.

2815
02:39:01.860 --> 02:39:06.020
<v Speaker 67>Still farther inside the Capitol, the governor listened unhappily as he carried

2816
02:39:06.020 --> 02:39:14.020
<v Speaker 184>on appointments and a heavily scheduled and trying day. At one point, he emerged from his office, listened for a few minutes through the window to Mother

2817
02:39:14.020 --> 02:39:22.800
<v Speaker 71>Jones' speech, then hurried back to his schedule. Acknowledging the governor's plea that he did not have the power to remove the mine guards, she told her audience, You

2818
02:39:22.900 --> 02:39:28.860
<v Speaker 218>are asking the governor of the state to do something he cannot do without betraying the class he

2819
02:39:28.860 --> 02:39:29.520
<v Speaker 71>belongs

2820
02:39:29.520 --> 02:39:29.790
to.

2821
02:39:29.970 --> 02:39:30.280
From

2822
02:39:30.470 --> 02:39:58.550
<v Speaker 71>time to time, she turned around and spoke directly to the well-dressed state officials who peered from the capital entrance or stood on the steps around her, and they shifted their weight uneasily. Using powerful biblical imagery, she compared the miners to the Israelites that were called out of Egypt, saying God formed them into a union so they could escape from bondage. She reminded them of their social position, referring to the recent sinking of the Titanic, where the wealthy saved themselves and while many of the lower class perished.

2823
02:39:58.930 --> 02:39:59.070
in

2824
02:39:59.250 --> 02:40:01.930
<v Speaker 71>this way she built up to her pivotal statement laying

2825
02:40:02.450 --> 02:40:04.220
<v Speaker 185>down the gauntlet to the governor

2826
02:40:04.550 --> 02:40:05.690
and you fellows

2827
02:40:05.690 --> 02:40:08.650
<v Speaker 185>have stood it entirely too long

2828
02:40:08.760 --> 02:40:09.530
it is now

2829
02:40:09.660 --> 02:40:12.270
<v Speaker 185>time to put a stop to it

2830
02:40:12.450 --> 02:40:13.250
the crowd was

2831
02:40:13.250 --> 02:40:16.640
<v Speaker 185>fully in her hands as she breathed defiance we

2832
02:40:16.770 --> 02:40:17.030
will

2833
02:40:17.030 --> 02:40:20.270
<v Speaker 218>give the governor until tomorrow night

2834
02:40:20.270 --> 02:40:20.850
to take

2835
02:40:20.850 --> 02:40:22.800
<v Speaker 218>them guards out of cabin

2836
02:40:22.820 --> 02:40:23.390
<v Speaker 221>creek

2837
02:40:24.140 --> 02:40:24.310
here

2838
02:40:24.440 --> 02:40:33.330
<v Speaker 221>on the steps of the capital of west virginia i say that if the governor won't make them go then we will make them go end

2839
02:40:33.330 --> 02:40:34.960
<v Speaker 234>quote a

2840
02:40:34.960 --> 02:40:36.120
charleston

2841
02:40:36.620 --> 02:40:44.500
<v Speaker 109>reporter wrote one could not listen without being thrilled by the eloquence of the aged orator and the intense earnestness of her hearers

2842
02:40:45.490 --> 02:40:45.750
He

2843
02:40:46.260 --> 02:40:57.820
<v Speaker 109>wrote that the men were filled with the feeling of bitter injustice. Most of them were prepared to fight and give their lives fighting to end the guard system, which they hate. Mother Jones was the spark that lighted the

2844
02:40:58.010 --> 02:41:00.890
<v Speaker 235>smoldering fires of resentment into action.

2845
02:41:01.660 --> 02:41:03.450
Another person

2846
02:41:03.450 --> 02:41:05.650
<v Speaker 12>who was there.

2847
02:41:05.800 --> 02:41:11.570
<v Speaker 12>This is a fantastic character Who you'll hear more of in this series Named Ralph Chaplin

2848
02:41:11.600 --> 02:41:19.990
<v Speaker 113>Who was a socialist activist From the industrial workers of the world The Wobblies And he was there at The Paint

2849
02:41:19.990 --> 02:41:25.260
<v Speaker 12>Creek, Cabin Creek strike Throughout much of it And he also spoke on the levee that day Now

2850
02:41:25.950 --> 02:41:26.350
he's a

2851
02:41:26.510 --> 02:41:28.920
<v Speaker 12>very experienced socialist agitator.

2852
02:41:28.930 --> 02:41:35.670
<v Speaker 20>He speaks in front of meetings and to crowds all the time. He knows how to get people riled up, but he describes the scene in his autobiography. Quote, I

2853
02:41:36.130 --> 02:41:36.400
spoke at

2854
02:41:36.400 --> 02:41:38.180
<v Speaker 20>scores of socialist

2855
02:41:38.180 --> 02:41:46.890
<v Speaker 192>meetings in Huntington and nearby towns. The largest of these was Charleston. There must have been a couple of thousand people on the riverfront when I spoke after

2856
02:41:47.190 --> 02:41:49.070
<v Speaker 11>Mother Jones at a mass meeting one Sunday.

2857
02:41:49.630 --> 02:41:50.000
Winter was

2858
02:41:50.000 --> 02:41:53.670
<v Speaker 71>coming on, and Miner's children had been going barefooted.

2859
02:41:53.660 --> 02:41:53.900
I was

2860
02:41:53.940 --> 02:41:57.200
<v Speaker 71>happy to help Mother Jones in launching a drive to buy shoes for them.

2861
02:41:57.220 --> 02:41:58.110
I made a strong

2862
02:41:58.110 --> 02:42:00.600
<v Speaker 71>appeal from the platform for industrial

2863
02:42:00.600 --> 02:42:04.880
<v Speaker 130>solidarity. I urged everyone to vote for Eugene V. Debs. I

2864
02:42:05.080 --> 02:42:05.920
denounced the

2865
02:42:05.920 --> 02:42:11.540
<v Speaker 71>smugness of churches and conventional people generally for their indifference to human injustice and suffering.

2866
02:42:11.810 --> 02:42:12.770
No words of

2867
02:42:12.770 --> 02:42:19.800
<v Speaker 11>mine, however, could compare with the vitriolic wrath of Mother Jones on the same subject.

2868
02:42:20.430 --> 02:42:20.610
She

2869
02:42:20.750 --> 02:42:23.120
<v Speaker 11>might have been any coal miner's wife ablaze

2870
02:42:23.160 --> 02:42:32.930
<v Speaker 88>with righteous fury when her brood was in danger. Her voice shrilled as she shook her fist at the coal operators, the mine guards, the union officials, and all the others responsible for

2871
02:42:32.950 --> 02:42:42.020
<v Speaker 219>the situation. She prayed and cursed and pleaded, raising her clenched and trembling hands, asking heaven to bear witness. She wore very long, very

2872
02:42:42.020 --> 02:42:43.770
<v Speaker 88>full skirts and a black

2873
02:42:43.770 --> 02:42:48.020
<v Speaker 130>shawl, and her tiny bonnet bobbed up and down as she harangued the crowd.

2874
02:42:48.700 --> 02:42:48.700
The

2875
02:42:48.780 --> 02:42:54.910
<v Speaker 130>miners loved it and laughed, cheered, hooted, and even cried as she spoke to them, end quote. A

2876
02:42:55.140 --> 02:42:57.120
newspaper man managed to

2877
02:42:57.120 --> 02:43:04.960
<v Speaker 12>get an interview with Mother Jones after the speech. And at the end of the interview, he asked her, what did she think

2878
02:43:04.960 --> 02:43:07.460
<v Speaker 50>would happen in the end of all this?

2879
02:43:07.810 --> 02:43:09.020
And she looks at him

2880
02:43:09.020 --> 02:43:10.770
<v Speaker 50>and says, we will have

2881
02:43:10.770 --> 02:43:11.790
<v Speaker 236>revenge.

2882
02:43:12.120 --> 02:43:12.960
That's what she

2883
02:43:12.960 --> 02:43:13.720
<v Speaker 236>told him.

2884
02:43:14.240 --> 02:43:14.810
And so he

2885
02:43:14.810 --> 02:43:15.830
<v Speaker 236>says, then

2886
02:43:16.170 --> 02:43:17.070
<v Speaker 93>what?

2887
02:43:17.680 --> 02:43:18.160
And she

2888
02:43:18.280 --> 02:43:23.550
<v Speaker 93>looks over at him and raises an eyebrow and says, Isn't that a lot to get in one lifetime? So

2889
02:43:23.760 --> 02:43:26.110
things have been

2890
02:43:26.950 --> 02:43:27.870
<v Speaker 93>turned up

2891
02:43:27.950 --> 02:43:33.430
<v Speaker 237>to 11. And a lot of that is thanks to Mother Jones. And

2892
02:43:33.700 --> 02:43:34.510
now the miners

2893
02:43:34.510 --> 02:43:37.890
<v Speaker 62>on the north side of Kanawha County. These

2894
02:43:38.020 --> 02:43:38.410
are the

2895
02:43:38.450 --> 02:43:40.390
<v Speaker 62>ones who are unionized.

2896
02:43:41.150 --> 02:43:42.570
They're looking

2897
02:43:42.570 --> 02:43:45.100
<v Speaker 62>down south and watching all this happen.

2898
02:43:45.580 --> 02:43:45.590
<v Speaker 62>And

2899
02:43:45.680 --> 02:43:48.020
<v Speaker 125>they are getting more and more agitated.

2900
02:43:48.270 --> 02:43:49.140
Some of them

2901
02:43:49.140 --> 02:43:51.050
<v Speaker 125>are saying that they're leaving their

2902
02:43:51.050 --> 02:43:53.600
<v Speaker 130>brothers down in Peyton Cabin Creeks out to dry.

2903
02:43:53.770 --> 02:43:55.450
So at the end of

2904
02:43:55.640 --> 02:43:56.640
<v Speaker 130>August, a

2905
02:43:56.810 --> 02:43:57.520
few more

2906
02:43:57.520 --> 02:44:11.740
<v Speaker 52>miners were killed and another was shot through the lung and survived by mine guards. And the union miners in Kanawha County had seen enough. The organized men were going to go help their brothers.

2907
02:44:11.910 --> 02:44:13.340
<v Speaker 88>They held meetings and,

2908
02:44:13.460 --> 02:44:13.460
to

2909
02:44:13.520 --> 02:44:17.030
<v Speaker 88>decide what to do, and Frank Keeney, failing to get any

2910
02:44:17.030 --> 02:44:23.190
<v Speaker 72>direct assistance from the National Union, made a direct plea to the men of Kanawha County to stand with his beleaguered minors.

2911
02:44:23.400 --> 02:44:23.760
And so,

2912
02:44:23.760 --> 02:44:30.170
<v Speaker 53>without coordination from some central authority, these men came together on their own,

2913
02:44:30.380 --> 02:44:31.230
men who already

2914
02:44:31.230 --> 02:44:31.880
<v Speaker 53>had their

2915
02:44:31.880 --> 02:44:36.310
<v Speaker 73>union contract, okay, who had nothing to gain individually,

2916
02:44:36.620 --> 02:44:37.490
nothing to gain

2917
02:44:37.490 --> 02:44:41.160
<v Speaker 73>individually from sticking their noses in somebody

2918
02:44:41.160 --> 02:44:41.650
<v Speaker 85>else's

2919
02:44:41.650 --> 02:44:42.410
<v Speaker 136>fight.

2920
02:44:43.230 --> 02:44:43.860
except

2921
02:44:43.980 --> 02:44:46.230
<v Speaker 136>it wasn't somebody else's fight. They

2922
02:44:46.540 --> 02:44:47.090
knew that

2923
02:44:47.130 --> 02:44:50.890
<v Speaker 136>the coal miners would stand together or they would all

2924
02:44:50.890 --> 02:44:53.330
<v Speaker 76>die alone, and every one of them knew that.

2925
02:44:53.330 --> 02:44:55.120
So on their

2926
02:44:55.120 --> 02:45:05.220
<v Speaker 76>own, on September 1st, 1912, the Union miners of Kanawha County, 5,000 or 6,000 of them, grabbed their rifles

2927
02:45:05.220 --> 02:45:10.080
<v Speaker 203>and assembled and then crossed the river to march on Paint Creek to drive out the mine

2928
02:45:10.160 --> 02:45:10.600
<v Speaker 231>guards.

2929
02:45:12.240 --> 02:45:12.840
Now, the

2930
02:45:13.270 --> 02:45:17.510
<v Speaker 231>governor, you know, the poor governor, he's in a very difficult spot. The

2931
02:45:17.510 --> 02:45:19.240
coal operators all

2932
02:45:19.330 --> 02:45:26.080
<v Speaker 13>but ran his state, including the state government, and they represented the economic

2933
02:45:26.180 --> 02:45:33.180
<v Speaker 59>core of West Virginia. I mean, coal mining was far and away the leading economic activity in the state. These

2934
02:45:33.320 --> 02:45:35.250
men drew a lot

2935
02:45:35.250 --> 02:45:37.160
<v Speaker 27>of water.

2936
02:45:37.340 --> 02:45:41.040
<v Speaker 27>And they had a lot of power, just period. They had real power that he had to

2937
02:45:41.040 --> 02:45:41.820
<v Speaker 5>contend with.

2938
02:45:42.040 --> 02:45:42.470
And these

2939
02:45:42.470 --> 02:45:48.520
<v Speaker 5>men were absolutely refusing to even be in the same room as the miners. Refusing.

2940
02:45:48.750 --> 02:45:49.870
Company spies

2941
02:45:49.870 --> 02:45:50.880
<v Speaker 5>provided a

2942
02:45:50.880 --> 02:46:01.940
<v Speaker 184>report to the governor telling him about the 5,000 or 6,000 miners who were arming themselves in Kanawha County and preparing a full-on attack against the Baldwin Feltz guards at Paint Creek.

2943
02:46:02.160 --> 02:46:02.750
And so he's

2944
02:46:02.750 --> 02:46:04.960
<v Speaker 126>trying to placate both sides.

2945
02:46:05.090 --> 02:46:05.090
But

2946
02:46:05.160 --> 02:46:10.420
<v Speaker 126>he's just finding that there is no compromise available here. These men had been killing each other for months.

2947
02:46:10.640 --> 02:46:11.650
And more than

2948
02:46:11.650 --> 02:46:13.930
<v Speaker 90>that, you know, this had been building for years.

2949
02:46:14.160 --> 02:46:14.850
These men had

2950
02:46:14.850 --> 02:46:18.020
<v Speaker 90>seen their families abused by the mine guards for

2951
02:46:18.020 --> 02:46:18.810
<v Speaker 116>years. A

2952
02:46:18.960 --> 02:46:19.930
lot of people were

2953
02:46:19.930 --> 02:46:23.460
<v Speaker 116>demanding that the governor declare martial law, but he

2954
02:46:23.460 --> 02:46:32.830
<v Speaker 154>was reluctant to take that final step. And so in lieu of that, he issued what became known as the Peace Proclamation. All persons...

2955
02:46:33.180 --> 02:46:33.180
who

2956
02:46:33.260 --> 02:46:33.960
<v Speaker 154>were not members

2957
02:46:33.960 --> 02:46:34.880
<v Speaker 67>of the National Guard,

2958
02:46:35.120 --> 02:46:35.960
that included

2959
02:46:35.960 --> 02:46:42.770
<v Speaker 67>both Miner and Mine Guard, were ordered to lay down their arms and to refrain

2960
02:46:42.810 --> 02:46:53.080
<v Speaker 88>from assembling or marching as armed bodies and from obstructing the public highways and from uttering inflammatory speeches calculated to incite riot, violence, or injury to persons and

2961
02:46:53.090 --> 02:46:53.640
<v Speaker 130>property.

2962
02:46:53.880 --> 02:46:54.760
The Peace

2963
02:46:54.760 --> 02:46:57.320
<v Speaker 130>Proclamation gave...

2964
02:46:57.580 --> 02:46:57.580
The

2965
02:46:57.620 --> 02:47:02.890
<v Speaker 130>militia, the authority, to use force to put down violence and disorder and to disperse

2966
02:47:03.110 --> 02:47:06.140
<v Speaker 125>any unauthorized assemblies, violent or not.

2967
02:47:06.380 --> 02:47:09.430
But it made little difference. The

2968
02:47:09.430 --> 02:47:10.870
<v Speaker 125>operators were not

2969
02:47:10.870 --> 02:47:13.420
<v Speaker 231>prepared to back down one inch.

2970
02:47:13.660 --> 02:47:14.330
They began

2971
02:47:14.550 --> 02:47:17.800
<v Speaker 231>bringing in more strike breakers,

2972
02:47:17.940 --> 02:47:17.970
<v Speaker 231>And

2973
02:47:17.970 --> 02:47:26.920
<v Speaker 53>more mine guards Evicting more miners from their homes Now under the protection of the National Guard Who would drive off the miners If they tried to interfere with the process

2974
02:47:27.120 --> 02:47:27.630
One

2975
02:47:27.630 --> 02:47:35.000
<v Speaker 51>family was kicked out of their home In the evening And so a neighbor offered to let that family Sleep that night on

2976
02:47:35.000 --> 02:47:46.230
<v Speaker 89>his porch Until they figured out what to do the next day Well before nightfall Before everybody falls asleep A guard comes around to the house And tells them to get off the porch Because that porch is company property

2977
02:47:46.230 --> 02:47:46.540
too

2978
02:47:46.530 --> 02:47:46.930
And so

2979
02:47:47.110 --> 02:47:48.930
<v Speaker 56>the family goes and sleeps in an open

2980
02:47:48.930 --> 02:47:56.490
<v Speaker 71>field And these stories are being shared around by people all the time Everybody has had something like this happen to them Or knows somebody who has That

2981
02:47:56.610 --> 02:47:57.520
same guard

2982
02:47:57.520 --> 02:48:04.930
<v Speaker 50>was killed by miners two days later As he was trying to march a captured striker off to the Baldwin Feltz clubhouse

2983
02:48:05.510 --> 02:48:08.460
And then, just after

2984
02:48:08.600 --> 02:48:15.900
<v Speaker 13>the peace proclamation was issued Just a couple days after it was issued Janina Sevilla, that Italian miner's pregnant wife

2985
02:48:16.010 --> 02:48:16.170
<v Speaker 113>Thank you.

2986
02:48:16.680 --> 02:48:16.730
that I

2987
02:48:16.770 --> 02:48:23.040
<v Speaker 113>mentioned earlier, who had been punched in the face and kicked in the stomach by Baldwin Feltz guards, went in for an

2988
02:48:23.180 --> 02:48:29.180
<v Speaker 20>emergency procedure to have her baby, which had been dead for some time, taken out of her.

2989
02:48:29.720 --> 02:48:30.850
And word of that

2990
02:48:30.850 --> 02:48:34.840
<v Speaker 76>spread, and the miners went ballistic.

2991
02:48:35.600 --> 02:48:35.830
The

2992
02:48:36.130 --> 02:48:36.860
<v Speaker 76>next morning,

2993
02:48:36.860 --> 02:48:40.940
<v Speaker 238>mine guards came under fire from miners in multiple locations, with

2994
02:48:40.940 --> 02:48:49.240
<v Speaker 57>National Guard troops hurrying over to one location, only to find that the shooting had died down and men scattered into the forest and shooting erupted somewhere else. Now

2995
02:48:49.430 --> 02:48:50.140
it was the

2996
02:48:50.140 --> 02:49:02.150
<v Speaker 26>Union itself that was urging the governor, you gotta declare martial law. They figured at least the military had to abide by some kind of code of conduct. Anything would be better...

2997
02:49:02.130 --> 02:49:02.420
then

2998
02:49:02.560 --> 02:49:04.050
<v Speaker 26>the terror of the mine guards

2999
02:49:04.100 --> 02:49:09.370
<v Speaker 47>and whatever the miners did in retaliation and so finally the governor gave in over the

3000
02:49:09.370 --> 02:49:10.390
objections of

3001
02:49:10.390 --> 02:49:10.960
<v Speaker 47>the coal

3002
02:49:10.960 --> 02:49:17.380
<v Speaker 12>operators who didn't want to see their mine guards disarmed by the regular military the governor declared

3003
02:49:17.380 --> 02:49:26.850
<v Speaker 85>the area around paint and cabin creeks to be in a state of war and he appointed a military commission and declared it to be the sole law in the strike

3004
02:49:27.150 --> 02:49:30.200
<v Speaker 130>zones judge jury and if necessary executioner

3005
02:49:30.990 --> 02:49:31.630
Arrests

3006
02:49:31.750 --> 02:49:39.930
<v Speaker 130>could be made without warrants, without judicial review. Trials could be held without the traditional rights accorded to defendants, no habeas

3007
02:49:39.980 --> 02:49:40.930
<v Speaker 109>corpus. Men

3008
02:49:40.930 --> 02:49:41.440
could be

3009
02:49:41.470 --> 02:49:45.720
<v Speaker 109>jailed without ever standing before an actual judge or jury. The

3010
02:49:46.170 --> 02:49:47.170
constitutional

3011
02:49:47.170 --> 02:49:54.290
<v Speaker 67>historian Robert Rankin, in his study of the use of martial law in U.S. history, he wrote...

3012
02:49:54.260 --> 02:49:59.470
<v Speaker 67>In the history of the United States, martial law has never been used on such a broad scale,

3013
02:49:59.860 --> 02:50:08.050
<v Speaker 53>in so drastic a manner, nor upon such sweeping principles, as in West Virginia in 1912 and 1913 during the Paint Creek Trouble.

3014
02:50:08.270 --> 02:50:08.820
Here is the

3015
02:50:08.820 --> 02:50:09.870
<v Speaker 53>climax of the use

3016
02:50:10.110 --> 02:50:14.850
<v Speaker 10>by the state of its power to declare and carry into effect martial law

3017
02:50:14.850 --> 02:50:16.540
<v Speaker 233>with all its force.

3018
02:50:16.760 --> 02:50:18.960
David Alan Corbin

3019
02:50:18.960 --> 02:50:20.600
<v Speaker 233>writes, quote,

3020
02:50:21.470 --> 02:50:22.080
Instructed by

3021
02:50:22.260 --> 02:50:38.950
<v Speaker 123>the governor and their commanding officers, the soldiers arrested hundreds of striking minors and their leaders without warrants and detained them in makeshift jails called bullpens without the right of habeas corpus. In flagrant disregard of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in ex parte milligan, the

3022
02:50:38.950 --> 02:50:45.150
<v Speaker 52>soldiers then established military tribunals and court-martialed over 100 civilian minors.

3023
02:50:45.490 --> 02:50:45.490
There

3024
02:50:45.560 --> 02:51:01.150
<v Speaker 52>was no pretense of balanced justice in this unconstitutional proceeding. The coal operators and Baldwin-Feltz guards, who were known by all to have engaged in violence, were never even questioned, while a striking miner was sentenced to five years in prison for telling an army officer to go to hell.

3025
02:51:01.350 --> 02:51:01.790
With true

3026
02:51:01.790 --> 02:51:10.890
<v Speaker 52>military efficiency, the miner was arrested on Tuesday, court-martialed on Wednesday, and was in prison on Thursday. End quote.

3027
02:51:12.580 --> 02:51:13.180
The

3028
02:51:14.140 --> 02:51:19.690
<v Speaker 50>military did make a genuine effort To disarm everybody And stabilize

3029
02:51:20.120 --> 02:51:28.650
<v Speaker 123>things They took all the weapons they could find From both the miners and the mine guards They even disarmed the local justices of the peace They

3030
02:51:28.650 --> 02:51:29.320
went to

3031
02:51:29.320 --> 02:51:37.620
<v Speaker 123>the sheriffs and the justices of the peace Took their guns and said they weren't needed right now They had no authority until martial law was over Go home

3032
02:51:38.910 --> 02:51:39.500
but

3033
02:51:40.110 --> 02:51:47.990
<v Speaker 50>still the companies were bringing in scab labor and still they continued evicting the miners' families from their homes as the military

3034
02:51:47.990 --> 02:51:50.550
<v Speaker 9>stood by to make sure it all went smoothly and

3035
02:51:50.550 --> 02:51:51.740
the feeling

3036
02:51:51.740 --> 02:51:54.710
<v Speaker 9>among the miners who had initially

3037
02:51:54.710 --> 02:51:55.210
had some

3038
02:51:55.250 --> 02:52:00.660
<v Speaker 9>positive feelings toward the soldiers were starting to change they were thinking the

3039
02:52:00.720 --> 02:52:05.180
<v Speaker 116>soldiers hadn't come after all to restore peace but just to help the operators

3040
02:52:05.180 --> 02:52:06.190
<v Speaker 67>break their strike

3041
02:52:06.860 --> 02:52:07.260
And

3042
02:52:07.460 --> 02:52:10.980
<v Speaker 67>so a few began exchanging gunfire with the soldiers now.

3043
02:52:10.980 --> 02:52:12.520
Coal tipples

3044
02:52:12.520 --> 02:52:13.780
<v Speaker 67>were set on

3045
02:52:13.780 --> 02:52:16.820
<v Speaker 184>fire, along with barns and other structures. Mobs

3046
02:52:17.000 --> 02:52:17.460
of women

3047
02:52:17.460 --> 02:52:18.200
<v Speaker 184>attacked

3048
02:52:18.200 --> 02:52:21.310
<v Speaker 240>strikebreakers with broom handles.

3049
02:52:21.920 --> 02:52:23.020
Mother Jones urged

3050
02:52:23.040 --> 02:52:24.010
<v Speaker 20>the miners

3051
02:52:24.090 --> 02:52:31.850
<v Speaker 52>not to engage directly with the government forces, but even she was pushing up on the limits of her restraining power.

3052
02:52:32.180 --> 02:52:32.780
Thank you.

3053
02:52:32.770 --> 02:52:33.200
In one

3054
02:52:33.520 --> 02:52:38.760
<v Speaker 154>incident, she was barely able to restrain a mob of miners from murdering someone they thought was a scab. It

3055
02:52:38.760 --> 02:52:39.130
was a

3056
02:52:39.320 --> 02:52:46.350
<v Speaker 154>black man named Felix Salmon, and he had gotten off the train at Cabin Creek Junction, and as he walked into the ticket office,

3057
02:52:46.350 --> 02:52:46.680
a local

3058
02:52:46.680 --> 02:52:50.760
<v Speaker 154>miner approached him and said he didn't recognize him. Where'd you come from? So

3059
02:52:51.200 --> 02:52:51.750
Salmon

3060
02:52:51.750 --> 02:52:53.030
<v Speaker 67>says, I came

3061
02:52:53.100 --> 02:52:54.230
<v Speaker 113>from up the creek.

3062
02:52:54.230 --> 02:52:55.010
And so the miner

3063
02:52:55.010 --> 02:52:56.810
<v Speaker 113>accused him of strike breaking.

3064
02:52:57.800 --> 02:52:58.550
salmon

3065
02:52:58.670 --> 02:53:03.550
<v Speaker 113>denies it but the miner wasn't going to be put off so he hit salmon and knocks him down salmon

3066
02:53:03.930 --> 02:53:04.080
jumps up

3067
02:53:04.080 --> 02:53:09.810
<v Speaker 53>and runs away and now a whole group's chasing him hitting him and kicking him yelling scab scab and so he

3068
02:53:09.810 --> 02:53:10.410
runs to the

3069
02:53:10.410 --> 02:53:12.790
<v Speaker 53>other side of the train depot where he finds

3070
02:53:12.790 --> 02:53:21.110
<v Speaker 11>himself cornered and the crowd closes in on him but he manages to break away and tries to run out of the depot and at the door he sees mother jones little old mother

3071
02:53:21.110 --> 02:53:24.880
<v Speaker 156>jones standing there by herself mother he says

3072
02:53:25.420 --> 02:53:30.260
<v Speaker 156>my god i'm not guilty of this i'm not guilty of this save me god knows i'm not guilty

3073
02:53:30.540 --> 02:53:31.240
and so mother

3074
02:53:31.240 --> 02:53:33.720
<v Speaker 156>jones says to him god has nothing to

3075
02:53:33.930 --> 02:53:33.930
do

3076
02:53:33.960 --> 02:53:36.960
<v Speaker 12>with this the miners are running this part of it

3077
02:53:36.960 --> 02:53:38.200
and so as the crowd

3078
02:53:38.590 --> 02:53:44.730
<v Speaker 12>runs up on him she puts her hand up they all stop and she tells him they gone far enough and

3079
02:53:44.840 --> 02:53:45.480
some of the crowd

3080
02:53:45.750 --> 02:53:46.030
<v Speaker 12>wanted

3081
02:53:46.130 --> 02:53:53.580
<v Speaker 67>to defy her but most of them were not prepared to do that and so she led the man by the arm up onto a train and got him out of there

3082
02:53:54.170 --> 02:53:54.170
but

3083
02:53:54.170 --> 02:53:54.770
<v Speaker 5>barely with

3084
02:53:56.810 --> 02:53:58.180
<v Speaker 241>martial law in effect and

3085
02:53:58.310 --> 02:53:58.620
the

3086
02:53:58.980 --> 02:54:02.980
<v Speaker 34>guards and the miners mostly disarmed or if not

3087
02:54:03.010 --> 02:54:06.790
<v Speaker 35>disarmed at least unable to bear their arms out in public they had to keep them hidden

3088
02:54:07.090 --> 02:54:07.580
the situation

3089
02:54:07.780 --> 02:54:09.320
<v Speaker 35>seemed to stabilize

3090
02:54:09.730 --> 02:54:10.630
hundreds of men

3091
02:54:10.740 --> 02:54:13.740
<v Speaker 35>had been rounded up and held some for

3092
02:54:13.740 --> 02:54:16.170
<v Speaker 75>quite some time without trial

3093
02:54:16.260 --> 02:54:16.260
and

3094
02:54:16.260 --> 02:54:16.590
Many

3095
02:54:16.730 --> 02:54:23.890
<v Speaker 75>of them faced military tribunals, which heard their case and pronounced a verdict and a sentence right there on the spot, and they were just let off. No

3096
02:54:24.170 --> 02:54:24.850
lawyer, no

3097
02:54:24.850 --> 02:54:27.980
<v Speaker 20>nothing. Dozens of people were thrown to prison that way. But

3098
02:54:28.210 --> 02:54:28.930
the guards and

3099
02:54:29.070 --> 02:54:33.270
<v Speaker 20>the miners wanted to show that they were the good guys here. And

3100
02:54:33.550 --> 02:54:34.210
anyway, they all

3101
02:54:34.210 --> 02:54:40.870
<v Speaker 113>knew that for all their toughness and bluster, the U.S. Army was still the U.S. Army. And so, for the most part, they

3102
02:54:40.870 --> 02:54:42.000
<v Speaker 206>tried to keep their heads

3103
02:54:42.090 --> 02:54:42.390
<v Speaker 123>down.

3104
02:54:43.500 --> 02:54:44.310
And as soon as

3105
02:54:44.410 --> 02:54:49.150
<v Speaker 123>it was practical, the governor, who did not like this business, he was getting a lot of pressure

3106
02:54:49.150 --> 02:54:55.840
<v Speaker 12>from civil liberties groups in the state and around the country. He said, mission accomplished. And he ends the period of military rule. And

3107
02:54:55.960 --> 02:54:57.400
the fighting resumed

3108
02:54:57.610 --> 02:54:57.780
<v Speaker 12>almost

3109
02:54:57.870 --> 02:55:02.770
<v Speaker 52>immediately. And within months, martial law was declared once again.

3110
02:55:03.380 --> 02:55:03.590
and

3111
02:55:03.610 --> 02:55:15.700
<v Speaker 52>again the fighting died down and again civil liberties groups took the governor to the woodshed and so again he soon ended martial law and again the guards and the miners were back at each other

3112
02:55:16.170 --> 02:55:19.300
that winter was cold

3113
02:55:19.300 --> 02:55:24.930
<v Speaker 235>and it was violent striking miners waited it

3114
02:55:24.950 --> 02:55:27.600
<v Speaker 53>out in tent cities and

3115
02:55:27.610 --> 02:55:28.240
living

3116
02:55:28.350 --> 02:55:33.050
<v Speaker 53>on donated food and whatever they could hunt or fish or grow or scrounge

3117
02:55:33.050 --> 02:55:35.410
<v Speaker 113>up. Snowfell. One

3118
02:55:35.410 --> 02:55:36.480
of these tent

3119
02:55:36.480 --> 02:55:45.300
<v Speaker 113>cities was set up on Holly Grove, which was the site of the attack on those two Baldwin Feltz guards, Fowlp and Stringer earlier. It

3120
02:55:45.300 --> 02:55:46.060
was one of

3121
02:55:46.060 --> 02:55:51.800
<v Speaker 50>the few places where the miners could actually set up their tents to live because it was on private land, not owned by the

3122
02:55:51.800 --> 02:55:52.320
<v Speaker 20>companies.

3123
02:55:53.070 --> 02:55:53.650
Well,

3124
02:55:53.650 --> 02:55:56.340
<v Speaker 242>that February...

3125
02:55:56.300 --> 02:55:56.780
and

3126
02:55:57.110 --> 02:56:07.690
<v Speaker 20>company guards rolled out a new weapon. Ralph Chaplin, that socialist wobbly who spoke on the levy with Mother Jones, he was still around, and

3127
02:56:07.930 --> 02:56:08.450
he had

3128
02:56:08.450 --> 02:56:17.150
<v Speaker 20>gotten word that an armored train was being built up at the Chesapeake and Ohio rail yard in Huntington for use down in the Kanawha County strike. They

3129
02:56:17.480 --> 02:56:18.610
were calling it the

3130
02:56:19.020 --> 02:56:23.820
<v Speaker 243>Bull Moose Special. And in addition to the armor,

3131
02:56:23.960 --> 02:56:30.310
<v Speaker 20>Slits were being cut to allow riflemen to fire out from the inside of the train without putting themselves in danger.

3132
02:56:30.570 --> 02:56:31.590
Room was made

3133
02:56:31.690 --> 02:56:34.660
<v Speaker 244>for machine gun mounts on the train.

3134
02:56:34.890 --> 02:56:36.680
So Chaplin and his

3135
02:56:36.680 --> 02:56:50.050
<v Speaker 90>wobbly friends go to the workers who are rigging this thing up. And Chaplin says, quote, We appealed to the railroadmen and shopmen who were unionized to lay down their tools rather than proceed with work on this deadly contraption.

3136
02:56:50.080 --> 02:56:50.280
This

3137
02:56:50.410 --> 02:57:05.040
<v Speaker 90>seemed fair enough to the machinists, but the boilermakers and Carmen, members of a local holy roller cult, informed us that they had taken the matter to Jesus in prayer and had been told to go ahead and put it on the armored plates. The armored train was spirited away under

3138
02:57:05.040 --> 02:57:10.750
<v Speaker 20>cover of darkness. Our hearts sank when we discovered that it was no longer at the nearby C&O shop.

3139
02:57:10.780 --> 02:57:11.390
We spread a

3140
02:57:11.390 --> 02:57:14.740
<v Speaker 20>warning to the hills and waited anxiously for newspaper

3141
02:57:14.740 --> 02:57:19.090
<v Speaker 22>headlines announcing new atrocities. We didn't have to wait long.

3142
02:57:19.610 --> 02:57:20.070
<v Speaker 22>And so

3143
02:57:20.110 --> 02:57:22.410
with their shiny

3144
02:57:22.650 --> 02:57:28.830
<v Speaker 64>new toy ready to go, the guards decided to try out the bull moose special.

3145
02:57:29.050 --> 02:57:30.100
After some

3146
02:57:30.100 --> 02:57:35.940
<v Speaker 67>trouble around Hollygrove, a few operators along with

3147
02:57:35.940 --> 02:57:42.720
<v Speaker 20>some hired men and several deputy sheriffs loaded onto the train and started making their way in that direction.

3148
02:57:42.700 --> 02:57:43.230
Several

3149
02:57:43.300 --> 02:57:50.450
<v Speaker 20>of the deputies had been deputized just that night for the purpose, and one of them was an Irishman named Lee Calvin.

3150
02:57:50.900 --> 02:57:52.200
Calvin had worked the

3151
02:57:52.200 --> 02:57:55.110
<v Speaker 20>previous fall for the mine guards,

3152
02:57:55.350 --> 02:57:56.280
when some of his

3153
02:57:56.290 --> 02:58:01.580
<v Speaker 20>men, who were afraid of being laid off for lack of action at the time,

3154
02:58:02.090 --> 02:58:12.020
<v Speaker 20>staged a false flag attack of gunfire to try to blame the striking miners, he found out about it and he tried to fire the leader of the men who had done it, but the company overruled him and so he quit.

3155
02:58:12.150 --> 02:58:13.730
After that, he went

3156
02:58:13.730 --> 02:58:18.950
<v Speaker 245>to work for a railroad guarding trains that were carrying scab labor into the area.

3157
02:58:19.140 --> 02:58:19.930
But when one

3158
02:58:19.930 --> 02:58:25.910
<v Speaker 10>day he was given orders to shoot anybody who threw rocks or yelled at the scabs, he quit that job.

3159
02:58:26.030 --> 02:58:27.810
And so it's early

3160
02:58:27.810 --> 02:58:29.270
<v Speaker 10>February.

3161
02:58:29.450 --> 02:58:30.070
<v Speaker 123>February.

3162
02:58:30.030 --> 02:58:30.310
He's

3163
02:58:30.510 --> 02:58:33.670
<v Speaker 123>back in Charleston, he's out of work, he's been out of work for a while,

3164
02:58:33.940 --> 02:58:37.100
<v Speaker 48>and a coal operator recruits him to go up with a group

3165
02:58:37.170 --> 02:58:39.810
<v Speaker 20>of men to Mucklow on Paint Creek. And

3166
02:58:40.090 --> 02:58:41.380
first he says no, he doesn't

3167
02:58:41.380 --> 02:58:49.250
<v Speaker 20>want anything more to do with these people, but he had been out of work for a month, and so when the county sheriff, who was going to go on a trip,

3168
02:58:49.320 --> 02:58:50.230
came up and asked

3169
02:58:50.230 --> 02:58:51.890
<v Speaker 20>him to join, he said he would.

3170
02:58:53.510 --> 02:58:53.830
And so

3171
02:58:53.990 --> 02:58:59.370
<v Speaker 20>Lee Calvin finds himself on the Bull Moose Special as he's pulling out to head up toward Paint Creek.

3172
02:58:59.970 --> 02:59:00.330
At nine

3173
02:59:00.380 --> 02:59:01.320
<v Speaker 20>o'clock at night.

3174
02:59:01.720 --> 02:59:02.760
And looking around

3175
02:59:03.120 --> 02:59:09.200
<v Speaker 20>the train, he noticed his rifles and machine guns and boxes of ammunition stacked everywhere. The

3176
02:59:09.360 --> 02:59:10.300
train climbed up

3177
02:59:10.360 --> 02:59:14.060
<v Speaker 20>the tracks to Paint Creek at 15 miles an hour with

3178
02:59:14.060 --> 02:59:16.590
<v Speaker 246>the train lights all turned out.

3179
02:59:16.660 --> 02:59:21.200
It's pitch dark. Looking out the window,

3180
02:59:21.200 --> 02:59:23.090
<v Speaker 247>the men saw a small cabin

3181
02:59:23.090 --> 02:59:28.180
<v Speaker 20>that was brightly lit up with women and children visible in the doors and windows looking out.

3182
02:59:29.250 --> 02:59:29.840
The night

3183
02:59:30.140 --> 02:59:42.970
<v Speaker 20>before, several miners had gathered to play games and sing songs and have a little party at the fish residence. Everybody had such a great time that one of the partiers, Francis Francesco Estep, who was

3184
02:59:42.990 --> 02:59:42.990
called

3185
02:59:43.460 --> 02:59:45.130
<v Speaker 184>Cesco by his friends, invited

3186
02:59:45.130 --> 02:59:45.800
everybody up

3187
02:59:45.880 --> 02:59:50.190
<v Speaker 184>to his cabin for some more fun the following night, and so they all came.

3188
02:59:50.830 --> 02:59:50.830
There

3189
02:59:50.850 --> 02:59:52.900
<v Speaker 184>were nine people there, not including the children,

3190
02:59:52.930 --> 02:59:58.300
<v Speaker 248>and those were the people seen through the windows of the Bull Moose Special as it rolled by that night.

3191
02:59:58.560 --> 03:00:00.840
Lee Calvin saw the cabin full

3192
03:00:00.840 --> 03:00:07.040
<v Speaker 18>of women and children. The operator saw it, and the operator on board announced that they

3193
03:00:07.040 --> 03:00:14.100
<v Speaker 113>must have been put there for safekeeping by the men to get them out of the attack zone, and they were all about to have a fight. And so the men start loading their weapons,

3194
03:00:14.340 --> 03:00:14.340
and

3195
03:00:14.370 --> 03:00:17.320
<v Speaker 9>the last of the lights are put out on the train,

3196
03:00:18.190 --> 03:00:18.710
Calvin

3197
03:00:18.920 --> 03:00:25.950
<v Speaker 20>doesn't like any of this They try to give him a weapon He refuses to take it Goes over to the right side of the train To just lean out the window and smoke a

3198
03:00:25.950 --> 03:00:26.400
<v Speaker 47>cigarette

3199
03:00:26.410 --> 03:00:26.840
As the

3200
03:00:27.140 --> 03:00:36.030
<v Speaker 47>train rides by the main tent city There at Hollygrove The train all of a sudden gives two short blasts Of the whistle in the pitch darkness And at

3201
03:00:36.040 --> 03:00:38.170
<v Speaker 35>that signal gatling guns and rifles

3202
03:00:38.170 --> 03:00:43.810
<v Speaker 20>Just open up on the tents in the cabins Ginny Ayers writes Quote Moving

3203
03:00:43.980 --> 03:00:46.670
<v Speaker 113>quickly to the left side of the train

3204
03:00:46.880 --> 03:00:49.620
<v Speaker 113>Sheriff Hill saw instantly that they were all shooting,

3205
03:00:49.840 --> 03:00:50.490
<v Speaker 90>everybody shot.

3206
03:00:50.690 --> 03:00:51.340
He could hear

3207
03:00:51.340 --> 03:01:02.770
<v Speaker 90>the rapid fire of a machine gun. Looking out into the blackness of the night, he could see nothing except flashes of the shots, which had come from the miners' positions after the train had begun firing, according to Calvin. It

3208
03:01:02.900 --> 03:01:03.450
looked like a

3209
03:01:03.500 --> 03:01:04.630
<v Speaker 90>bunch of fireflies,

3210
03:01:04.850 --> 03:01:07.020
he remembered. The coal operator on

3211
03:01:07.020 --> 03:01:15.630
<v Speaker 113>board later described the battle that ensued after the initial shots. Something crashed through the window from the left-hand side of the train about two feet in front of

3212
03:01:15.710 --> 03:01:16.000
me.

3213
03:01:15.950 --> 03:01:16.260
He was

3214
03:01:16.270 --> 03:01:20.340
<v Speaker 116>sitting near Tom Stacey, who felt a bullet whiz by us. It tore a hole through

3215
03:01:20.390 --> 03:01:21.290
<v Speaker 72>the crown of my hat.

3216
03:01:21.520 --> 03:01:22.150
The operator

3217
03:01:22.150 --> 03:01:28.270
<v Speaker 72>fired from the window into the tents and into the houses, and he could see the flashes of the fire directed at the train.

3218
03:01:28.570 --> 03:01:29.210
With each flash

3219
03:01:29.240 --> 03:01:29.820
<v Speaker 72>of the men

3220
03:01:29.820 --> 03:01:35.210
<v Speaker 180>shooting from the village, he could see the man, his entire person, outlined, end

3221
03:01:35.370 --> 03:01:35.870
<v Speaker 20>quote.

3222
03:01:36.100 --> 03:01:37.090
And so the engineer

3223
03:01:37.090 --> 03:01:43.760
<v Speaker 20>keeps the train moving at 15 miles an hour as the shooting continues, just unabated. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

3224
03:01:44.000 --> 03:01:44.460
When the

3225
03:01:44.650 --> 03:01:52.160
<v Speaker 99>train gets clear of Hollygrove, the coal operator on board shouts to back up the train. We'll give him another round. Thankfully, the sheriff

3226
03:01:52.190 --> 03:01:59.480
<v Speaker 11>on board, who had just sort of watched dumbly as this whole thing went down so far, finally intervened and ordered the engineer to keep going. The

3227
03:01:59.790 --> 03:02:01.450
people who were gathered

3228
03:02:01.870 --> 03:02:04.150
<v Speaker 11>at Chesko Estep's party

3229
03:02:04.190 --> 03:02:13.300
<v Speaker 113>and many other families who had just put their kids down for bed, they were startled by the two blasts of the train whistle and the gunshots that immediately followed.

3230
03:02:13.700 --> 03:02:14.020
And the

3231
03:02:14.070 --> 03:02:17.040
<v Speaker 113>men put their women and children behind cover as best they could,

3232
03:02:17.040 --> 03:02:21.130
<v Speaker 18>and then those who had them grabbed rifles and tried to run outside to return fire. A

3233
03:02:21.430 --> 03:02:22.210
woman ran to her

3234
03:02:22.210 --> 03:02:31.900
<v Speaker 18>children's room and tried to get them to safety as bullets were crashing through the walls and the windows. Her husband was following along trying to shield her and the kids from the rounds,

3235
03:02:31.900 --> 03:02:34.390
<v Speaker 53>but one got by and hit his wife in the foot. Chesko

3236
03:02:34.390 --> 03:02:35.420
Estep had run

3237
03:02:35.420 --> 03:02:37.420
<v Speaker 53>outside to see what was the

3238
03:02:37.590 --> 03:02:38.420
<v Speaker 142>matter.

3239
03:02:39.150 --> 03:02:39.500
as one

3240
03:02:39.560 --> 03:02:43.990
<v Speaker 142>of the women at the party ran outside with her children toward the cellar. And so Chesco yells for

3241
03:02:44.060 --> 03:02:47.360
<v Speaker 152>all the women to hurry up and get in the cellar with the children right quick.

3242
03:02:47.860 --> 03:02:49.250
When the shooting

3243
03:02:49.250 --> 03:02:55.700
<v Speaker 53>seemed to have moved on past them, Maud Estep, Chesco's wife, calls for her

3244
03:02:55.700 --> 03:02:58.560
<v Speaker 67>husband, and there's no answer. And

3245
03:02:58.700 --> 03:02:59.010
so she

3246
03:02:59.010 --> 03:03:00.020
<v Speaker 67>ventures out

3247
03:03:00.020 --> 03:03:05.820
<v Speaker 11>and finds him with a small hole in his face and a great big hole in the back of his

3248
03:03:05.820 --> 03:03:06.890
<v Speaker 65>head, dead on the

3249
03:03:07.340 --> 03:03:07.630
floor,

3250
03:03:07.580 --> 03:03:07.980
And so

3251
03:03:08.000 --> 03:03:11.140
<v Speaker 192>she grabs her husband's rifle and goes out and starts shooting at the train.

3252
03:03:11.560 --> 03:03:13.660
This all might have

3253
03:03:13.660 --> 03:03:19.030
<v Speaker 52>been the result of paranoid and keyed up guards on the

3254
03:03:19.280 --> 03:03:29.970
<v Speaker 47>train misinterpreting the situation and overreacting. But to the striking miners, the attack of the bull moose special on Holly Grove was nothing short of an attempted massacre. Most

3255
03:03:30.130 --> 03:03:31.840
of the residents of Holly

3256
03:03:31.840 --> 03:03:35.820
<v Speaker 249>Grove had been driven out of the village into the forest

3257
03:03:36.320 --> 03:03:36.320
and,

3258
03:03:36.310 --> 03:03:37.940
<v Speaker 249>and spent the night out there and so

3259
03:03:37.940 --> 03:03:45.110
<v Speaker 72>the next morning when they tried to make their way back to assess the damage mine guards were waiting and opened fire on them again when

3260
03:03:45.110 --> 03:03:45.650
a group

3261
03:03:46.250 --> 03:03:46.790
<v Speaker 72>of miners

3262
03:03:46.840 --> 03:03:54.070
<v Speaker 109>tried to dig a grave for chesco estep they were fired upon by guards from a nearby hillside they tried again they were driven back

3263
03:03:54.070 --> 03:03:55.040
<v Speaker 9>again by gunfire

3264
03:03:55.040 --> 03:03:56.320
most of these

3265
03:03:56.330 --> 03:04:00.950
<v Speaker 9>miners had their weapons and so a battle broke out and it continued off and on for a full

3266
03:04:00.990 --> 03:04:02.000
<v Speaker 20>day and

3267
03:04:02.100 --> 03:04:02.610
When they

3268
03:04:02.840 --> 03:04:10.450
<v Speaker 20>finally fought their way back in and drove the guards off, they saw that bullet holes had turned their tents and the walls of their cabins into Swiss cheese. Up

3269
03:04:10.450 --> 03:04:11.680
in Mucklow, where the

3270
03:04:11.920 --> 03:04:17.250
<v Speaker 250>Bull Moose Special had arrived, the guards and the scab miners and their families

3271
03:04:17.250 --> 03:04:23.180
<v Speaker 184>heard what had happened, and they were terrified that the miners were now going to descend on the city and massacre them.

3272
03:04:24.050 --> 03:04:31.490
<v Speaker 184>Telegraph wires were cut by the miners, isolating the town, and the railroad refused to run any more trains up into the war zone.

3273
03:04:31.490 --> 03:04:32.910
Some women went

3274
03:04:32.970 --> 03:04:38.120
<v Speaker 184>out and sabotaged train tracks to prevent the train from coming back their way. A

3275
03:04:38.120 --> 03:04:40.040
few days later, miners

3276
03:04:40.040 --> 03:04:44.510
<v Speaker 184>launched a nighttime raid on Mucklow and at least two people were killed.

3277
03:04:45.200 --> 03:04:45.900
After the

3278
03:04:45.900 --> 03:04:48.970
<v Speaker 251>attack on Holly Grove,

3279
03:04:49.550 --> 03:04:49.820
ralph

3280
03:04:49.940 --> 03:04:56.510
<v Speaker 211>chaplin the wobbly he rushes to the scene with a camera and notebook to get details for a story so he can spread the word of what

3281
03:04:56.510 --> 03:04:57.350
happened and he

3282
03:04:57.490 --> 03:04:59.700
<v Speaker 211>heads back to charleston to the office to

3283
03:04:59.930 --> 03:05:00.430
<v Speaker 252>write it

3284
03:05:00.430 --> 03:05:01.270
up he says

3285
03:05:01.270 --> 03:05:18.460
<v Speaker 67>the state capitol when he got there was an armed camp martial law was in evidence everywhere the streets were full of soldiers and sentries were stationed in front of the state house and the governor's residence from the upper windows of both of these buildings jutted the muzzles of machine guns

3286
03:05:18.430 --> 03:05:18.540
At

3287
03:05:18.680 --> 03:05:22.020
<v Speaker 67>the city jail, we saw a squad of militiamen bringing a group of

3288
03:05:22.020 --> 03:05:24.410
<v Speaker 88>prisoners from the strike zone to the city lockup.

3289
03:05:24.530 --> 03:05:24.850
As the

3290
03:05:24.900 --> 03:05:30.160
<v Speaker 184>great iron doors swung open to receive them, the spectators started to hiss at the militiamen.

3291
03:05:30.440 --> 03:05:30.590
Calls of

3292
03:05:30.720 --> 03:05:32.580
<v Speaker 184>scab herders were heard.

3293
03:05:32.860 --> 03:05:33.030
Some of

3294
03:05:33.140 --> 03:05:37.920
<v Speaker 184>the guardsmen brazenly glared back at the crowd. Others hung their heads.

3295
03:05:38.320 --> 03:05:40.330
Well, Chaplin managed to get some

3296
03:05:40.330 --> 03:05:41.780
<v Speaker 184>firsthand accounts of

3297
03:05:41.930 --> 03:05:45.930
<v Speaker 12>the conditions in which the jailed miners were being kept.

3298
03:05:46.630 --> 03:05:46.870
The

3299
03:05:47.200 --> 03:05:48.970
<v Speaker 12>interior of the bullpen at Paint

3300
03:05:49.050 --> 03:06:08.520
<v Speaker 90>Creek was described as vile, with sleeping quarters inadequate, sanitation unspeakable, and floors filthy beyond description. We learn that 50 miners were being held there, only three of whom were not native West Virginians. Even with two or three men sleeping in the coal bin, many were forced to spend the night standing upright in the corners.

3301
03:06:08.530 --> 03:06:08.750
<v Speaker 88>And

3302
03:06:08.750 --> 03:06:10.140
so chaplains rushing

3303
03:06:10.140 --> 03:06:15.440
<v Speaker 88>around from scene to scene reporting on this labor conflict in West Virginia.

3304
03:06:16.130 --> 03:06:16.470
In every

3305
03:06:16.660 --> 03:06:23.730
<v Speaker 88>town we passed, miners were gathered in anxious little groups. Feeling was running high. I heard miners saying on every

3306
03:06:24.070 --> 03:06:27.020
<v Speaker 126>side, just wait until the leaves come out.

3307
03:06:27.030 --> 03:06:27.660
The remark

3308
03:06:27.660 --> 03:06:33.120
<v Speaker 126>puzzled me until the desperate implications became apparent. The leafless hillsides

3309
03:06:33.120 --> 03:06:41.730
<v Speaker 90>made the miners targets for enemy fire and exposed their movements when they were seeking points of vantage from which to take potshots at guards and militiamen.

3310
03:06:41.700 --> 03:06:42.060
On the

3311
03:06:42.140 --> 03:06:46.070
<v Speaker 126>way to Dickinson, we had the opportunity to survey the whole panorama of the

3312
03:06:46.070 --> 03:06:51.810
<v Speaker 72>danger zone. At two roadway junctions, we could plainly see the yellow wigwams of the militiamen, with

3313
03:06:52.020 --> 03:06:59.620
<v Speaker 71>stacked rifles glistening beside them. Several times, we caught glimpses of machine guns overlooking the frail tent colonies of the miners.

3314
03:06:59.970 --> 03:07:00.510
While we were

3315
03:07:00.550 --> 03:07:06.900
<v Speaker 71>on our way back home, hell broke loose in the entire Kanoa Valley. We were caught in the midst of it.

3316
03:07:07.420 --> 03:07:07.910
<v Speaker 71>Armed miners

3317
03:07:07.910 --> 03:07:22.840
<v Speaker 70>from all parts of the state were on the march with the avowed purpose of destroying the hated death train. Terrible passions were aroused. There were hundreds of incidents. Vengeance stalked the green valleys of West Virginia. We passed through a district where, in a

3318
03:07:22.840 --> 03:07:30.980
<v Speaker 253>single engagement, 16 men had been killed, or, as the strikers put it, four men and 12 gun thugs. End

3319
03:07:30.980 --> 03:07:32.740
<v Speaker 150>quote.

3320
03:07:32.740 --> 03:07:34.000
One resident

3321
03:07:34.080 --> 03:07:38.110
<v Speaker 150>of a company town at the time remembered: "Not a week

3322
03:07:38.390 --> 03:07:40.540
<v Speaker 53>passed, but that tragedy touched some

3323
03:07:40.540 --> 03:07:41.290
home. When a

3324
03:07:41.290 --> 03:07:48.040
<v Speaker 53>housewife chanced to glance through the window and see a group of minors bearing an improvised stretcher between them, she spread the

3325
03:07:48.280 --> 03:07:48.890
alarm, and in

3326
03:07:48.950 --> 03:07:56.960
<v Speaker 71>a twinkling women were on the porches, wiping hands on aprons, calling to one another. And before the grim-faced bearers were halfway to the doctor's

3327
03:07:56.980 --> 03:07:59.720
<v Speaker 126>office, a multitude of folk trailed in their

3328
03:07:59.720 --> 03:08:00.060
wake.

3329
03:08:00.060 --> 03:08:03.020
<v Speaker 126>Anxious, distraught women and children, uncertain of

3330
03:08:03.020 --> 03:08:06.340
<v Speaker 90>the fate of their loved ones, demanded to know the identity of the victim.

3331
03:08:06.650 --> 03:08:06.900
When the

3332
03:08:06.900 --> 03:08:12.440
<v Speaker 90>dreaded news was revealed, the women gathered around their hysterical sister and offered comfort.

3333
03:08:12.850 --> 03:08:14.850
Striking minors

3334
03:08:14.930 --> 03:08:23.940
<v Speaker 184>were not only evicted from their homes, as I said earlier, they were also banned from all company facilities and services, which were the only

3335
03:08:24.050 --> 03:08:26.880
<v Speaker 12>facilities and services in the whole region.

3336
03:08:26.880 --> 03:08:27.020
and

3337
03:08:27.110 --> 03:08:30.130
<v Speaker 12>so when someone was sick or wounded, they went without a doctor.

3338
03:08:30.410 --> 03:08:31.460
Women gave

3339
03:08:31.570 --> 03:08:36.180
<v Speaker 20>birth to babies in dirty tents without medical supervision. Six

3340
03:08:36.210 --> 03:08:37.840
more companies of the

3341
03:08:37.840 --> 03:08:43.800
<v Speaker 11>National Guard were ordered into the area, and for the third time in eight months, the

3342
03:08:43.800 --> 03:08:53.250
<v Speaker 75>governor declared martial law. On February 13th, Mother Jones was placed under arrest and charged in military court with inciting a

3343
03:08:53.330 --> 03:08:53.700
riot against

3344
03:08:54.000 --> 03:09:02.140
<v Speaker 109>literally for reading from the declaration of independence to an assembly later on conspiracy to commit murder was added to her docket

3345
03:09:02.470 --> 03:09:02.940
and for

3346
03:09:03.060 --> 03:09:13.790
<v Speaker 67>her part she refused to even recognize the legitimacy of a military tribunal held on u.s soil against u.s citizen so she wouldn't even make a plea or a statement

3347
03:09:13.900 --> 03:09:14.950
and so without

3348
03:09:14.950 --> 03:09:20.950
<v Speaker 215>any due process whatsoever the old lady was sentenced to 20 years in the state

3349
03:09:20.950 --> 03:09:22.140
penitentiary

3350
03:09:22.100 --> 03:09:23.110
with

3351
03:09:23.560 --> 03:09:32.940
<v Speaker 67>all this turmoil many people really everybody on both sides knew that the governor had lost control of the situation and that the only way it

3352
03:09:32.940 --> 03:09:34.360
could be hoped to

3353
03:09:34.400 --> 03:09:46.400
<v Speaker 62>be gotten back was if they got new leadership and fortunately it was an election year so Governor Glasscock was his name Mother Jones liked to call him Governor Crystalcock

3354
03:09:47.860 --> 03:09:49.180
<v Speaker 12>he was

3355
03:09:49.120 --> 03:09:49.270
he

3356
03:09:49.430 --> 03:09:58.500
<v Speaker 12>was a seemingly well-intentioned and serious man uh but he was in a situation that maybe nobody could have managed and so he was defeated and he was replaced by a new governor who

3357
03:09:58.500 --> 03:10:03.030
<v Speaker 157>promised to end the mine war as his first priority

3358
03:10:03.030 --> 03:10:03.580
the new

3359
03:10:03.650 --> 03:10:05.090
<v Speaker 254>governor was sworn

3360
03:10:05.090 --> 03:10:13.650
<v Speaker 113>in on march 4th 1913 and that very day he traveled up to paint creek to see the situation for himself now this new guy

3361
03:10:14.390 --> 03:10:21.020
<v Speaker 163>governor hatfield governor henry hatfield was his name very interesting guy very colorful figure

3362
03:10:21.130 --> 03:10:22.580
he was the youngest

3363
03:10:22.580 --> 03:10:31.010
<v Speaker 67>governor in west virginia history at least at the time and he was a nephew of devil ants hatfield who was the leader of

3364
03:10:31.010 --> 03:10:32.860
<v Speaker 35>one of the two clans involved in

3365
03:10:33.120 --> 03:10:33.120
the

3366
03:10:33.310 --> 03:10:33.660
<v Speaker 67>famous

3367
03:10:33.910 --> 03:10:35.200
<v Speaker 12>hatfield and mccoy

3368
03:10:35.200 --> 03:10:36.370
feud governor

3369
03:10:36.370 --> 03:10:42.560
<v Speaker 12>hatfield was born down on mate creek near the border in the heart of coal country in mingo

3370
03:10:42.930 --> 03:10:43.260
county

3371
03:10:43.250 --> 03:10:43.550
he

3372
03:10:43.820 --> 03:10:44.790
<v Speaker 12>was a tough man

3373
03:10:45.360 --> 03:10:53.030
<v Speaker 66>especially for a governor he was known to fight he beat the hell out of at least two men in his governor's office for disrespecting him

3374
03:10:53.600 --> 03:10:55.690
his branch

3375
03:10:55.740 --> 03:10:55.960
<v Speaker 66>of the

3376
03:10:55.960 --> 03:11:03.880
<v Speaker 63>Hatfield family had moved out of that area after the feud wound down and he and some others in his family had gone into education and become professionals

3377
03:11:03.890 --> 03:11:06.680
<v Speaker 35>obviously he's the governor of the state but he wasn't so

3378
03:11:06.790 --> 03:11:08.830
<v Speaker 163>distant from the lives of those minors

3379
03:11:09.400 --> 03:11:10.610
in fact

3380
03:11:11.070 --> 03:11:11.240
<v Speaker 163>he

3381
03:11:11.640 --> 03:11:13.010
<v Speaker 67>still had cousins he

3382
03:11:13.010 --> 03:11:13.010
still had cousins

3383
03:11:13.010 --> 03:11:16.830
<v Speaker 67>i mean distant cousins uh not ones he was in any regular contact with

3384
03:11:16.830 --> 03:11:16.830
i

3385
03:11:16.920 --> 03:11:19.440
<v Speaker 12>mean you understand these are big families like

3386
03:11:19.440 --> 03:11:20.350
that families

3387
03:11:20.350 --> 03:11:27.920
<v Speaker 12>like the hatfields are huge they call them clans and that fits just fine every other person it seems like in southern west virginia back then

3388
03:11:27.920 --> 03:11:31.840
<v Speaker 255>carried the name of hatfield or was married to or had an in-law who did

3389
03:11:32.110 --> 03:11:32.680
and so he

3390
03:11:33.020 --> 03:11:35.250
<v Speaker 255>wasn't close to these cousins but

3391
03:11:35.300 --> 03:11:35.780
he knew

3392
03:11:35.780 --> 03:11:37.150
<v Speaker 255>they were down there

3393
03:11:37.150 --> 03:11:37.880
<v Speaker 13>mining coal

3394
03:11:38.130 --> 03:11:39.070
and

3395
03:11:39.040 --> 03:11:39.800
a younger

3396
03:11:39.990 --> 03:11:45.130
<v Speaker 13>cousin named Sid Hatfield will be along in this story very shortly well

3397
03:11:45.570 --> 03:11:46.640
this governor

3398
03:11:46.660 --> 03:11:48.700
<v Speaker 67>Henry Hatfield was

3399
03:11:48.700 --> 03:11:49.440
a doctor

3400
03:11:49.440 --> 03:11:57.250
<v Speaker 67>before he was governor and so after he takes office he decides he's going down to Kanawha County to see things for himself all

3401
03:11:57.250 --> 03:11:57.670
of his

3402
03:11:57.950 --> 03:12:04.020
<v Speaker 9>advisors say no the hell you're not those miners are likely to murder you if you go down there you're not going anywhere

3403
03:12:04.740 --> 03:12:08.760
<v Speaker 9>Well, he's skeptical of that, and he's not taking no for an answer, and this was not a man who

3404
03:12:09.050 --> 03:12:10.500
<v Speaker 67>lacked physical courage.

3405
03:12:10.730 --> 03:12:10.730
And

3406
03:12:10.790 --> 03:12:18.990
<v Speaker 184>so rather than going down there with the governor's armed security detail, he went down there by himself, not as the governor, but as a doctor.

3407
03:12:19.270 --> 03:12:20.590
Didn't tell anybody who

3408
03:12:20.640 --> 03:12:21.250
<v Speaker 184>he was.

3409
03:12:21.250 --> 03:12:29.370
<v Speaker 9>Brought his doctor's bag and everything and went down to the coal camps anonymously to see the people and provide some medical care to anyone who needed it.

3410
03:12:29.650 --> 03:12:30.690
And he found a

3411
03:12:30.690 --> 03:12:33.090
<v Speaker 9>lot of people who needed

3412
03:12:33.090 --> 03:12:33.710
it.

3413
03:12:33.660 --> 03:12:34.140
In fact,

3414
03:12:34.180 --> 03:12:44.620
<v Speaker 52>that's how Mother Jones actually met Governor Henry Hatfield He was walking through a camp on the Kanawha River And saw a hut with a soldier

3415
03:12:44.620 --> 03:12:50.950
<v Speaker 126>Marching smartly back and forth in front of it with his weapon So he goes up to the soldier He tells him who he is And

3416
03:12:50.950 --> 03:12:51.370
he says,

3417
03:12:51.410 --> 03:12:52.050
<v Speaker 126>what's in that

3418
03:12:52.050 --> 03:12:52.440
<v Speaker 184>hut?

3419
03:12:52.870 --> 03:12:53.300
And the

3420
03:12:53.300 --> 03:12:59.100
<v Speaker 184>soldier says Well, sir, Mother Jones is in the hut And I'm set here to guard her

3421
03:12:59.100 --> 03:12:59.780
So the

3422
03:12:59.780 --> 03:13:01.530
<v Speaker 54>governor goes in

3423
03:13:02.370 --> 03:13:10.430
<v Speaker 54>and these are his words i found her lying on a straw tick on the floor carrying a temperature of 104 a very rapid respiration

3424
03:13:11.020 --> 03:13:13.810
<v Speaker 185>and a constant cough she had pneumonia so

3425
03:13:13.810 --> 03:13:14.260
the

3426
03:13:14.260 --> 03:13:18.040
<v Speaker 256>governor orders her put on the next train

3427
03:13:18.040 --> 03:13:19.000
<v Speaker 230>to charleston

3428
03:13:19.140 --> 03:13:19.560
to go to a

3429
03:13:19.560 --> 03:13:23.010
<v Speaker 230>hospital he says that he thought for sure she was going

3430
03:13:23.230 --> 03:13:23.710
to die but

3431
03:13:23.710 --> 03:13:27.950
<v Speaker 146>mother jones ain't so easy to kill so she survived and

3432
03:13:27.920 --> 03:13:28.460
He also

3433
03:13:28.550 --> 03:13:31.090
<v Speaker 146>saw the pitiful state of the thousands of

3434
03:13:31.100 --> 03:13:38.930
<v Speaker 5>miners living in those snow-covered tent colonies. He saw and treated sick children and pregnant women. Now,

3435
03:13:39.080 --> 03:13:40.490
he knew these kind of

3436
03:13:40.490 --> 03:13:44.010
<v Speaker 92>men well enough to have no illusions about the

3437
03:13:44.030 --> 03:13:44.560
sort of

3438
03:13:44.830 --> 03:13:47.060
<v Speaker 92>trouble miners could get up to, and

3439
03:13:47.060 --> 03:13:52.320
<v Speaker 257>he knew that they'd played their part in this whole mess, but he'd seen enough.

3440
03:13:53.020 --> 03:13:53.650
He ordered

3441
03:13:53.710 --> 03:14:00.090
<v Speaker 258>the release of dozens of strikers being held by the military authorities. Word spread throughout the camps

3442
03:14:00.190 --> 03:14:00.770
<v Speaker 53>who the

3443
03:14:00.770 --> 03:14:10.550
<v Speaker 20>doctor was who had been treating sick miners and their families, and that, and the fact that he was born down on May Creek, gave the governor some credibility with the miners.

3444
03:14:11.380 --> 03:14:12.030
Governor Hatfield

3445
03:14:12.030 --> 03:14:17.740
<v Speaker 20>then sat the miners and the operators down and told them that this fight was over.

3446
03:14:18.530 --> 03:14:18.930
and he

3447
03:14:19.170 --> 03:14:20.110
<v Speaker 20>instructed them

3448
03:14:20.110 --> 03:14:26.760
<v Speaker 35>both regarding the settlement his office had drawn up, and they were both going to accept it or they would face his wrath. The

3449
03:14:27.070 --> 03:14:28.320
agreement contained

3450
03:14:28.770 --> 03:14:35.010
<v Speaker 72>some concessions to the miners, and so on May 1st, the National Union agreed to the conditions. But

3451
03:14:35.350 --> 03:14:35.810
they hadn't

3452
03:14:35.890 --> 03:14:39.110
<v Speaker 72>taken the temperature of the miners in Kanawha

3453
03:14:39.110 --> 03:14:41.450
<v Speaker 11>County, and they rejected the agreement, prepared to

3454
03:14:41.730 --> 03:14:41.880
renew the

3455
03:14:41.910 --> 03:14:44.260
<v Speaker 11>strike. So the governor gets word of

3456
03:14:44.710 --> 03:14:45.930
that and says,

3457
03:14:46.510 --> 03:14:46.230
And

3458
03:14:46.510 --> 03:14:51.150
<v Speaker 53>really, the miners had called his bluff because despite his threats, he knew that the eyes of the national

3459
03:14:51.190 --> 03:14:57.280
<v Speaker 109>media, not to mention now a U.S. Senate investigative committee, were watching his every move. And

3460
03:14:57.280 --> 03:14:57.970
he really did

3461
03:14:58.070 --> 03:14:59.040
<v Speaker 109>not want to start his

3462
03:14:59.040 --> 03:15:05.730
<v Speaker 236>administration off by calling in troops to renew the fighting in Kahnawa County. So he tells the coal operators,

3463
03:15:05.730 --> 03:15:06.850
<v Speaker 201>not this time.

3464
03:15:06.960 --> 03:15:07.410
I'm not

3465
03:15:07.410 --> 03:15:08.450
<v Speaker 201>coming. You

3466
03:15:08.450 --> 03:15:09.330
guys are on your own

3467
03:15:09.650 --> 03:15:13.210
<v Speaker 201>out there, and there will not be another round of martial law.

3468
03:15:14.720 --> 03:15:15.450
Well I

3469
03:15:16.170 --> 03:15:23.490
<v Speaker 3>figured that was probably a bluff too I'm sure it was If it got bad enough I'm sure he'd have sent them in But it was a good enough bluff that the mine operators

3470
03:15:23.640 --> 03:15:25.020
<v Speaker 35>Finally blinked

3471
03:15:25.020 --> 03:15:25.680
And so

3472
03:15:26.470 --> 03:15:34.970
<v Speaker 35>finally The miners of Paint and Cabin Creek Were able to extract from the operators An agreement to all of their demands Including the most

3473
03:15:35.470 --> 03:15:42.560
<v Speaker 160>important one To officially recognize The union and the coal fields At Paint and Cabin Creek And

3474
03:15:42.510 --> 03:15:43.470
now the

3475
03:15:43.660 --> 03:15:51.890
<v Speaker 62>boys at Cabin Creek caused a little trouble for some time longer but then they accepted the deal as well and they agreed to go back to work the miners had

3476
03:15:51.890 --> 03:15:53.210
<v Speaker 13>won one

3477
03:15:53.480 --> 03:15:54.390
year

3478
03:15:54.390 --> 03:16:03.040
<v Speaker 136>after the Paint and Cabin Creek strike had finally ended by the way the union had to transport many

3479
03:16:03.040 --> 03:16:10.930
<v Speaker 192>of those tents that had been used by the striking miners many of them covered with patched up bullet holes out to southern Colorado for years

3480
03:16:11.100 --> 03:16:11.820
<v Speaker 192>used by striking

3481
03:16:11.900 --> 03:16:13.510
<v Speaker 35>miners and their families out there.

3482
03:16:13.690 --> 03:16:14.370
Those tents

3483
03:16:14.370 --> 03:16:16.850
<v Speaker 35>wouldn't make the return trip.

3484
03:16:17.040 --> 03:16:17.620
This was the

3485
03:16:17.620 --> 03:16:24.750
<v Speaker 35>incident where the Colorado National Guard, armed and paid for by Rockefeller's Colorado Fuel and Iron Company,

3486
03:16:24.940 --> 03:16:24.990
and

3487
03:16:24.990 --> 03:16:29.960
<v Speaker 75>augmented by criminals and other dregs from Denver, as well as mine guards who were

3488
03:16:29.970 --> 03:16:31.530
<v Speaker 15>wearing military uniforms,

3489
03:16:31.710 --> 03:16:32.920
just massacred

3490
03:16:32.920 --> 03:16:36.150
<v Speaker 253>people at the Ludlow Tent Colony.

3491
03:16:37.000 --> 03:16:37.000
Just

3492
03:16:37.090 --> 03:16:39.070
<v Speaker 253>attacked and massacred these

3493
03:16:39.070 --> 03:16:48.140
<v Speaker 47>people Sprayed them with machine guns for hours And then burning down the tent city As the people cowered in holes That they had dug in the ground Under their tents for cover

3494
03:16:48.560 --> 03:16:52.490
Back in West Virginia The Paint

3495
03:16:52.670 --> 03:16:55.910
<v Speaker 144>Creek Cabin Creek strike Had really changed

3496
03:16:56.330 --> 03:16:56.890
The whole

3497
03:16:57.070 --> 03:16:58.960
<v Speaker 144>situation It changed everything

3498
03:16:59.370 --> 03:16:59.890
There was

3499
03:17:00.070 --> 03:17:03.080
<v Speaker 144>no way for the miners Or the operators in the state

3500
03:17:03.100 --> 03:17:05.300
<v Speaker 55>To go back to the way things

3501
03:17:05.300 --> 03:17:06.040
had been

3502
03:17:06.020 --> 03:17:07.030
A new sense

3503
03:17:07.070 --> 03:17:14.850
<v Speaker 55>of solidarity and confident militancy emerged among the miners of Kanawha County. They had fought and

3504
03:17:14.850 --> 03:17:21.260
<v Speaker 136>won, and had even won a better deal after the National Union had capitulated on their behalf.

3505
03:17:21.260 --> 03:17:23.210
Miners in the region had a

3506
03:17:23.210 --> 03:17:26.280
<v Speaker 53>new sense of independence, because they

3507
03:17:26.280 --> 03:17:26.770
not only

3508
03:17:26.770 --> 03:17:28.800
<v Speaker 53>stood up to the companies, but had

3509
03:17:28.800 --> 03:17:29.160
defied

3510
03:17:29.160 --> 03:17:32.360
<v Speaker 13>the state government and even their own union leadership.

3511
03:17:33.470 --> 03:17:34.050
And so

3512
03:17:34.350 --> 03:17:44.490
<v Speaker 13>local miners like Frank Keeney and Fred Mooney and Bill Blizzard, these guys now carried more water in southern West Virginia coal

3513
03:17:44.610 --> 03:17:45.070
fields

3514
03:17:45.230 --> 03:17:48.330
<v Speaker 11>than anyone at the National Union office. They

3515
03:17:48.330 --> 03:17:50.160
came out of the experience

3516
03:17:50.590 --> 03:17:53.540
<v Speaker 136>convinced more than ever that violence

3517
03:17:53.540 --> 03:17:54.100
was sometimes

3518
03:17:55.250 --> 03:18:00.560
<v Speaker 113>necessary and justified, and more importantly, that it could work.

3519
03:18:01.390 --> 03:18:02.000
And that

3520
03:18:02.110 --> 03:18:07.090
<v Speaker 113>was a lesson that would bring them to the brink of disaster just a few years later. Now

3521
03:18:07.490 --> 03:18:09.600
down in the coal fields on the

3522
03:18:09.660 --> 03:18:18.210
<v Speaker 113>southern border with Kentucky, which at this point is the last remaining stronghold of non-union coal mining

3523
03:18:18.210 --> 03:18:19.810
<v Speaker 63>in the state, some

3524
03:18:19.810 --> 03:18:20.530
of the mine

3525
03:18:20.530 --> 03:18:22.700
<v Speaker 63>operators there took the lead in

3526
03:18:22.700 --> 03:18:28.730
<v Speaker 78>improving working conditions and adding amenities to the company towns where the miners

3527
03:18:28.790 --> 03:18:29.550
lived.

3528
03:18:29.550 --> 03:18:29.900
They

3529
03:18:30.170 --> 03:18:35.310
<v Speaker 109>improved the company homes, some of them built playgrounds for the miners' children. Many

3530
03:18:35.510 --> 03:18:35.800
of the

3531
03:18:35.800 --> 03:18:42.370
<v Speaker 109>schools were improved, and the companies raised the pay of the teachers to try to bring in a better class of educator. Mine

3532
03:18:42.590 --> 03:18:43.990
operators brought

3533
03:18:43.990 --> 03:18:44.460
<v Speaker 219>in welfare

3534
03:18:45.130 --> 03:18:56.840
<v Speaker 35>workers to instruct the miners' wives in home management, and cooking, and gardening, and other things. They built recreational facilities to give to the miners' children.

3535
03:18:56.800 --> 03:19:00.000
<v Speaker 35>to give them someplace other than the saloon to spend their off hours.

3536
03:19:00.290 --> 03:19:01.330
David Corbin

3537
03:19:01.330 --> 03:19:02.320
<v Speaker 88>writes,

3538
03:19:02.320 --> 03:19:23.520
<v Speaker 90>quote, These were good-faith attempts to regain the respect and loyalty of the miners. Is it not true, a coal operator asked, that too many coal operators treat their employees as belonging to what they term the mining class? The operator exhorted, Because their occupation is different, does not make them worthy of less consideration.

3539
03:19:24.100 --> 03:19:24.570
It places a

3540
03:19:24.580 --> 03:19:25.970
<v Speaker 90>larger responsibility

3541
03:19:25.970 --> 03:19:28.670
<v Speaker 126>on those possessed of greater advantages.

3542
03:19:28.880 --> 03:19:29.130
The new

3543
03:19:29.130 --> 03:19:35.860
<v Speaker 126>order was not designed to eliminate class differences, but to make them acceptable to the minors. Kinder and more

3544
03:19:35.860 --> 03:19:37.070
<v Speaker 259>benevolent, indeed

3545
03:19:37.070 --> 03:19:53.790
<v Speaker 90>paternalistic, concern on the part of the operator was essential. "Old creeds and old faiths are being discarded. They do not conform with new experiences," a company pamphlet to its store clerks read as it advised a "better consideration of the needs and requirements of its minors."

3546
03:19:53.750 --> 03:19:53.970
The

3547
03:19:54.160 --> 03:20:12.200
<v Speaker 90>trouble in the past, the handout explained, was a failure of cooperation where it should have had it. Instructing the store clerks to give better service to the miners, the pamphlet announced that the company was seeking new ends by new methods, based upon broader, more altruistic foundations. End quote.

3548
03:20:12.620 --> 03:20:14.480
These companies

3549
03:20:14.480 --> 03:20:18.360
<v Speaker 136>claimed that the improvements they were making

3550
03:20:19.120 --> 03:20:19.580
made it so

3551
03:20:19.580 --> 03:20:23.110
<v Speaker 136>that the miners actually had access to

3552
03:20:23.470 --> 03:20:23.780
<v Speaker 136>better

3553
03:20:23.780 --> 03:20:29.990
<v Speaker 217>homes and better facilities, better infrastructure than they ever could have otherwise afforded themselves. And

3554
03:20:29.990 --> 03:20:30.240
that

3555
03:20:30.240 --> 03:20:33.520
<v Speaker 227>actually might have been true in some of the company towns.

3556
03:20:33.790 --> 03:20:35.220
But it was still

3557
03:20:35.430 --> 03:20:37.620
<v Speaker 227>a company town.

3558
03:20:37.620 --> 03:20:37.630
<v Speaker 53>One

3559
03:20:37.960 --> 03:20:39.280
mine operator

3560
03:20:39.280 --> 03:20:45.430
<v Speaker 53>suggested to his fellow owners that it might be advantageous to allow the miners to own their homes.

3561
03:20:46.260 --> 03:20:46.590
When a

3562
03:20:46.860 --> 03:20:48.070
<v Speaker 53>miner has something he can

3563
03:20:48.160 --> 03:20:54.050
<v Speaker 260>call his own, something he can improve, then he's going to appreciate his job more and will take better

3564
03:20:54.490 --> 03:20:55.630
care of it.

3565
03:20:56.020 --> 03:20:57.960
<v Speaker 261>Indeed, mining companies lost

3566
03:20:57.960 --> 03:21:01.140
<v Speaker 9>a tremendous amount of money on company housing.

3567
03:21:01.140 --> 03:21:03.330
<v Speaker 53>They charged rent, but they lost a ton of

3568
03:21:03.340 --> 03:21:03.750
money on

3569
03:21:03.930 --> 03:21:10.380
<v Speaker 53>it. The operators in just one southern West Virginia county lost $422,000.

3570
03:21:10.370 --> 03:21:10.570
on

3571
03:21:11.160 --> 03:21:16.310
<v Speaker 184>company housing in just a three year period and that's in their money it's a lot of money

3572
03:21:17.090 --> 03:21:17.930
allowing the miners

3573
03:21:17.960 --> 03:21:23.260
<v Speaker 184>to own their homes it would make them more loyal to the company since

3574
03:21:23.260 --> 03:21:23.690
it would

3575
03:21:23.760 --> 03:21:28.060
<v Speaker 184>be more difficult to just pack up and move to the next coal field for slightly better pay

3576
03:21:28.060 --> 03:21:29.140
but it would also

3577
03:21:29.140 --> 03:21:35.270
<v Speaker 89>take the maintenance costs of the homes off the company's books and so it made all the economic

3578
03:21:35.270 --> 03:21:37.410
<v Speaker 236>sense in the world and

3579
03:21:37.530 --> 03:21:37.890
But it

3580
03:21:38.170 --> 03:21:40.550
<v Speaker 236>was a step too far for the operators. And

3581
03:21:40.760 --> 03:21:41.060
so the

3582
03:21:41.060 --> 03:21:46.400
<v Speaker 236>proposal was quickly dismissed. There were limits to

3583
03:21:46.400 --> 03:21:47.240
how much

3584
03:21:48.370 --> 03:21:54.800
<v Speaker 26>control they were going to give up. Because if the operators' strategy for stopping the spread of unionism involved carrots,

3585
03:21:54.800 --> 03:22:00.600
<v Speaker 228>it involved sticks as well. They were extremely paranoid.

3586
03:22:01.540 --> 03:22:01.850
They

3587
03:22:02.060 --> 03:22:08.880
<v Speaker 228>really believed that there was this great conspiracy between the United Mine Workers of America, the labor union,

3588
03:22:08.880 --> 03:22:09.450
and all the

3589
03:22:09.470 --> 03:22:14.090
<v Speaker 228>big out-of-state mining companies. There was a grand conspiracy between the two

3590
03:22:14.090 --> 03:22:19.710
<v Speaker 215>to destroy and seize control of the coal industry in West Virginia. That's what they thought.

3591
03:22:19.710 --> 03:22:20.460
They said in

3592
03:22:20.490 --> 03:22:21.590
<v Speaker 215>public and private

3593
03:22:21.640 --> 03:22:30.280
<v Speaker 226>statements that they thought most of the miners were clueless and basically okay, but they were prey to these socialistic and anarchist radicals

3594
03:22:30.290 --> 03:22:32.810
<v Speaker 262>who only wanted to destroy and overturn everything.

3595
03:22:32.810 --> 03:22:34.410
So every time there

3596
03:22:34.480 --> 03:22:38.070
<v Speaker 184>was an accident, any time equipment was damaged,

3597
03:22:38.070 --> 03:22:40.510
<v Speaker 136>the operators assumed it was sabotage. They

3598
03:22:40.890 --> 03:22:41.930
made the case that

3599
03:22:41.930 --> 03:22:46.020
<v Speaker 136>if the UMWA was able to organize their coal fields,

3600
03:22:46.100 --> 03:22:46.470
they would

3601
03:22:46.880 --> 03:22:51.060
<v Speaker 11>bringing virtually all coal production in the United States under union influence, that

3602
03:22:51.180 --> 03:22:52.410
the union could then

3603
03:22:52.490 --> 03:22:54.960
<v Speaker 11>hold the entire country hostage,

3604
03:22:55.380 --> 03:22:55.680
could grab

3605
03:22:55.720 --> 03:23:00.170
<v Speaker 161>110 million people in the United States by the throat. At

3606
03:23:00.390 --> 03:23:02.640
the same time they were making

3607
03:23:02.800 --> 03:23:08.860
<v Speaker 227>improvements to company towns, they were also turning them into police states.

3608
03:23:09.620 --> 03:23:10.010
They

3609
03:23:10.240 --> 03:23:21.140
<v Speaker 88>hired thousands of mine guards who patrolled the towns on foot and horseback, armed with shotguns, rifles, pistols, blackjacks, clubs. Some

3610
03:23:21.320 --> 03:23:21.830
towns were

3611
03:23:22.260 --> 03:23:23.240
<v Speaker 88>surrounded

3612
03:23:23.240 --> 03:23:30.170
<v Speaker 263>with razor wire, and sentries were placed to control who came in and out. Mounted Gatling guns

3613
03:23:30.170 --> 03:23:32.320
<v Speaker 231>became a common sight,

3614
03:23:32.940 --> 03:23:33.330
installed on

3615
03:23:33.330 --> 03:23:34.060
<v Speaker 231>rooftops

3616
03:23:34.060 --> 03:23:36.200
<v Speaker 228>at the first rumor of unrest.

3617
03:23:37.520 --> 03:23:38.680
many of these

3618
03:23:38.770 --> 03:23:43.360
<v Speaker 228>mine guards specialized as going undercover company spies these

3619
03:23:43.800 --> 03:23:43.800
men

3620
03:23:43.870 --> 03:23:51.410
<v Speaker 20>had worked and lived alongside the miners gaining their trust and reporting on their words and activities to the company

3621
03:23:51.420 --> 03:23:52.010
any miner

3622
03:23:52.010 --> 03:23:58.020
<v Speaker 20>who was heard advocating for the union or even complaining about pay or conditions in the camp

3623
03:23:58.020 --> 03:24:02.950
<v Speaker 185>was immediately fired and evicted and often roughed up on his

3624
03:24:02.950 --> 03:24:03.700
way out

3625
03:24:03.680 --> 03:24:04.470
Miners who

3626
03:24:04.660 --> 03:24:12.240
<v Speaker 36>gathered in groups of three or more were broken up unless they were at some company-approved facility, like a church or a movie theater. Their

3627
03:24:12.240 --> 03:24:13.570
homes continued to

3628
03:24:13.570 --> 03:24:16.380
<v Speaker 264>be subject to unscheduled searches.

3629
03:24:16.380 --> 03:24:19.540
<v Speaker 110>Their mail was monitored at the company post office. In

3630
03:24:19.540 --> 03:24:20.980
addition to deciding

3631
03:24:20.980 --> 03:24:21.940
<v Speaker 110>who could go in

3632
03:24:21.940 --> 03:24:28.820
<v Speaker 126>and out of southern West Virginia, the companies decided still which books and other reading materials the miners could have.

3633
03:24:28.820 --> 03:24:31.820
<v Speaker 26>They banned any literature that they didn't approve.

3634
03:24:32.940 --> 03:24:33.790
like I

3635
03:24:33.900 --> 03:24:34.870
<v Speaker 26>said, carrots

3636
03:24:34.990 --> 03:24:43.950
<v Speaker 88>and sticks well everything had changed for the miners as well the families of Kanawha County had been

3637
03:24:44.080 --> 03:24:51.580
<v Speaker 185>through hell and back and they had stuck together and they had won it was this profoundly unifying experience

3638
03:24:52.540 --> 03:24:53.980
in the

3639
03:24:54.450 --> 03:25:01.000
<v Speaker 90>company town there were two, always two identifiable classes of people there were the miners

3640
03:25:01.600 --> 03:25:01.810
And

3641
03:25:01.950 --> 03:25:04.060
<v Speaker 113>the company men, which included all the

3642
03:25:04.150 --> 03:25:09.450
<v Speaker 52>store clerks and the bookkeepers and the doctors, the preachers and the teachers and all the rest.

3643
03:25:09.990 --> 03:25:10.750
What that meant

3644
03:25:11.310 --> 03:25:13.820
<v Speaker 265>was that all of the people who,

3645
03:25:13.820 --> 03:25:14.140
in a

3646
03:25:14.140 --> 03:25:16.150
<v Speaker 265>regular town, usually

3647
03:25:16.150 --> 03:25:16.780
would have

3648
03:25:16.780 --> 03:25:21.150
<v Speaker 152>been able to serve as leaders and figures of respect in communities. You

3649
03:25:21.310 --> 03:25:22.240
know, the doctor,

3650
03:25:22.240 --> 03:25:25.180
<v Speaker 92>the preacher, they were all understood to be company

3651
03:25:25.180 --> 03:25:25.890
<v Speaker 136>men. And

3652
03:25:26.010 --> 03:25:26.340
so they

3653
03:25:26.340 --> 03:25:28.960
<v Speaker 136>couldn't be leaders in the community.

3654
03:25:29.580 --> 03:25:29.950
They

3655
03:25:30.090 --> 03:25:31.080
<v Speaker 136>did their jobs,

3656
03:25:31.080 --> 03:25:34.710
<v Speaker 67>but no miner looked to them as a figure worthy of special consideration. It

3657
03:25:35.010 --> 03:25:36.920
also meant that the usual

3658
03:25:36.920 --> 03:25:42.980
<v Speaker 90>avenues for coming together as a community, especially the church, were

3659
03:25:42.980 --> 03:25:43.200
not

3660
03:25:43.200 --> 03:25:47.220
<v Speaker 53>available for that purpose because they were all in the company payroll. Miners

3661
03:25:47.220 --> 03:25:48.020
knew that

3662
03:25:48.020 --> 03:25:51.080
<v Speaker 53>ministers and teachers and doctors

3663
03:25:51.080 --> 03:25:51.940
<v Speaker 126>and even the

3664
03:25:51.940 --> 03:25:57.740
<v Speaker 53>saloon keepers had as part of their job description to report on them to the company.

3665
03:25:58.210 --> 03:25:58.210
There

3666
03:25:58.240 --> 03:26:06.230
<v Speaker 53>was only one meaningful activity to bring them together on their own terms, and that was their solidarity in organizing

3667
03:26:06.360 --> 03:26:08.380
<v Speaker 63>and working as coal miners.

3668
03:26:08.800 --> 03:26:09.860
One UMWA district

3669
03:26:10.520 --> 03:26:15.930
<v Speaker 136>leader said in a speech that the church has had its place,

3670
03:26:15.960 --> 03:26:21.640
<v Speaker 126>its natural place in our lives. Our various fraternal societies have had their place.

3671
03:26:22.490 --> 03:26:28.080
<v Speaker 126>But, after all, the one organization that has done more for us than all the others combined, I say

3672
03:26:28.210 --> 03:26:43.470
<v Speaker 90>to you, is the union movement. The trade union movement is our very life, because what trade union movement does for us through its strength, power, and influence, determines the kind of life that we and our wives and children are living in this country. The

3673
03:26:43.670 --> 03:26:43.840
union not

3674
03:26:44.310 --> 03:26:44.950
<v Speaker 90>only determines

3675
03:26:45.230 --> 03:26:51.220
<v Speaker 259>what our material life shall be, but it determines to a large degree our spiritual life as well.

3676
03:26:51.180 --> 03:26:51.380
The

3677
03:26:51.580 --> 03:26:58.210
<v Speaker 259>trade union movement gives us that existence that allows us to love our neighbor and worship God as we should, end quote.

3678
03:26:58.530 --> 03:27:00.400
Now with Irishmen and

3679
03:27:00.400 --> 03:27:07.930
<v Speaker 53>Slavs and Hungarians and Italians and Southern blacks and more all mashed up with the

3680
03:27:07.930 --> 03:27:09.940
<v Speaker 126>local West Virginian miners,

3681
03:27:10.220 --> 03:27:10.510
there were

3682
03:27:10.530 --> 03:27:14.880
<v Speaker 126>obviously as many religious denominations as there were people out in the fields.

3683
03:27:15.780 --> 03:27:16.520
The company

3684
03:27:16.540 --> 03:27:24.340
<v Speaker 12>usually only built one church, and it was always the denomination of the operator himself. Corbyn writes, quote,

3685
03:27:24.340 --> 03:27:25.050
Gone were the

3686
03:27:25.100 --> 03:27:25.940
<v Speaker 184>circuit-riding

3687
03:27:25.940 --> 03:27:30.680
<v Speaker 53>ministers and campfire revival meetings that native mountaineers had known. Gone

3688
03:27:30.680 --> 03:27:31.130
were the

3689
03:27:31.180 --> 03:27:35.400
<v Speaker 53>prestige and independence of the black church and the black minister that the southern

3690
03:27:36.260 --> 03:27:36.630
migrant black

3691
03:27:36.640 --> 03:27:37.940
<v Speaker 53>miners had enjoyed.

3692
03:27:38.470 --> 03:27:38.520
And

3693
03:27:38.630 --> 03:27:45.810
<v Speaker 184>gone were the power and prestige of the mainline Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic Church that the European immigrants had known.

3694
03:27:45.910 --> 03:27:46.720
In their stead

3695
03:27:46.720 --> 03:27:52.630
<v Speaker 126>stood the company-sponsored and controlled preacher, the company-built and controlled clergy,

3696
03:27:52.820 --> 03:27:52.820
all

3697
03:27:52.910 --> 03:27:56.390
<v Speaker 184>operating within the confines of the company-controlled town.

3698
03:27:56.730 --> 03:27:59.200
One of the features of the

3699
03:27:59.200 --> 03:28:05.180
<v Speaker 35>West Virginia coal mines over the years was that the miners moved around

3700
03:28:05.180 --> 03:28:05.550
a lot.

3701
03:28:05.550 --> 03:28:06.020
And they

3702
03:28:06.030 --> 03:28:06.830
<v Speaker 35>would work one

3703
03:28:06.830 --> 03:28:13.750
<v Speaker 109>field for a while, and then they would hear that a nearby field was short on men and paying a little more, so they'd pack up and go over there for a while.

3704
03:28:13.770 --> 03:28:15.300
From county to county, hill to

3705
03:28:15.300 --> 03:28:18.890
<v Speaker 11>hill, valley to valley, they would move around a lot like this. And

3706
03:28:19.170 --> 03:28:19.750
since different

3707
03:28:19.850 --> 03:28:20.810
<v Speaker 11>company towns had

3708
03:28:20.810 --> 03:28:22.430
<v Speaker 50>different churches, many

3709
03:28:22.430 --> 03:28:23.080
miners would

3710
03:28:23.500 --> 03:28:28.360
<v Speaker 50>have had occasion to attend church in six, maybe ten or more denominations

3711
03:28:28.510 --> 03:28:30.490
<v Speaker 9>over the course of his life.

3712
03:28:31.340 --> 03:28:31.660
And

3713
03:28:32.110 --> 03:28:36.660
<v Speaker 9>sometimes even miners who stayed put had their denomination Unexpectedly switched

3714
03:28:36.860 --> 03:28:37.000
up on

3715
03:28:37.060 --> 03:28:37.950
<v Speaker 9>them when the coal mine

3716
03:28:38.010 --> 03:28:50.420
<v Speaker 99>changed ownership So while there was some sectarian tension in the early days When operators were importing thousands of new people From all over the place to populate the hills Before

3717
03:28:50.630 --> 03:28:50.790
long

3718
03:28:50.790 --> 03:28:56.700
<v Speaker 54>that was all washed away By the ecumenical nature of the miners' life The Irish Catholic

3719
03:28:57.100 --> 03:29:00.240
<v Speaker 57>and the English Anglican in.

3720
03:28:59.910 --> 03:29:01.920
<v Speaker 57>both had to attend the Baptist church

3721
03:29:02.160 --> 03:29:02.440
and are

3722
03:29:02.500 --> 03:29:03.960
<v Speaker 57>both preached at by a

3723
03:29:03.960 --> 03:29:07.400
<v Speaker 163>company minister so they didn't see much use in fighting over who was right

3724
03:29:07.660 --> 03:29:09.150
this same

3725
03:29:09.150 --> 03:29:12.960
<v Speaker 66>spirit extended to racial and ethnic tensions

3726
03:29:13.200 --> 03:29:14.220
of course no

3727
03:29:14.220 --> 03:29:19.020
<v Speaker 217>place is perfect in that respect but the coal fields of southern West Virginia

3728
03:29:19.270 --> 03:29:20.090
were not only

3729
03:29:20.090 --> 03:29:27.360
<v Speaker 52>some of the most diverse but also some of the most tolerant places you were likely to find anywhere in the country in those

3730
03:29:28.070 --> 03:29:28.430
days

3731
03:29:28.420 --> 03:29:28.680
as

3732
03:29:28.680 --> 03:29:42.080
<v Speaker 26>corbin said the blacks in another community well they would have attended a black church in the black part of town where a black minister would preach the gospel in a manner that is intended for a black audience

3733
03:29:42.080 --> 03:29:42.480
their

3734
03:29:42.480 --> 03:29:48.480
<v Speaker 113>children would go to black schools and the black adults would socialize with other black

3735
03:29:48.700 --> 03:29:49.290
people well

3736
03:29:49.360 --> 03:29:50.500
<v Speaker 113>this was not possible

3737
03:29:50.600 --> 03:29:51.920
<v Speaker 71>in the company town

3738
03:29:51.920 --> 03:29:52.890
and to the

3739
03:29:52.910 --> 03:29:57.730
<v Speaker 53>operators a minor was a minor they came and went

3740
03:29:58.730 --> 03:30:06.570
<v Speaker 53>occupying and vacating the company houses and facilities and then moving on maybe coming back sometime in the future but a minor was a minor

3741
03:30:06.580 --> 03:30:07.850
so there was

3742
03:30:07.850 --> 03:30:10.050
<v Speaker 12>no sense in building separate areas for

3743
03:30:10.350 --> 03:30:19.080
<v Speaker 88>different groups of people black and white usually lived right next to each other in identical houses they ate identical food

3744
03:30:19.070 --> 03:30:19.310
They

3745
03:30:19.430 --> 03:30:27.110
<v Speaker 88>went to the same church, their kids went to the same schools, they socialized at the same saloons or recreational centers, and they bitched about the same

3746
03:30:27.110 --> 03:30:27.990
<v Speaker 113>mine operators.

3747
03:30:28.260 --> 03:30:29.760
In the few towns

3748
03:30:29.760 --> 03:30:42.580
<v Speaker 113>where a separate area was built for black miners, everything was the same quality as the rest of the town. And very often, the black section would be half-occupied with white miners with nowhere else to put them, or

3749
03:30:42.730 --> 03:30:42.980
else

3750
03:30:43.020 --> 03:30:45.970
<v Speaker 154>the black section would overflow

3751
03:30:45.970 --> 03:30:47.230
<v Speaker 153>and there'd

3752
03:30:47.230 --> 03:30:47.490
be...

3753
03:30:47.770 --> 03:30:47.770
black

3754
03:30:47.790 --> 03:30:53.900
<v Speaker 153>families living over in the white section so nobody really thought much of it especially after a while

3755
03:30:53.950 --> 03:30:55.480
because the black miners

3756
03:30:55.790 --> 03:31:00.930
<v Speaker 54>saw that you know they and their ancestors had been through everything in the

3757
03:31:00.930 --> 03:31:08.200
<v Speaker 63>south but here in west virginia the white miner was worked and abused and cheated and harassed and threatened just like he

3758
03:31:08.200 --> 03:31:08.860
was and the

3759
03:31:08.860 --> 03:31:11.620
<v Speaker 72>white miners saw that when the chips were down

3760
03:31:12.210 --> 03:31:12.520
the

3761
03:31:12.680 --> 03:31:18.360
<v Speaker 72>black miner held the line with him against the white operators and their white mine guards. The

3762
03:31:18.480 --> 03:31:19.650
same went for

3763
03:31:19.650 --> 03:31:21.990
<v Speaker 51>the various European ethnicities.

3764
03:31:22.450 --> 03:31:22.860
This was

3765
03:31:22.980 --> 03:31:25.260
<v Speaker 51>totally contrary to

3766
03:31:25.260 --> 03:31:30.820
<v Speaker 72>the intentions of the mine operators themselves. One mine operator told a journalist that

3767
03:31:31.040 --> 03:31:39.860
<v Speaker 90>they'd purposely hired all different kinds of miners, Americans, Dagos, Slavs, Niggers, Hungarians, and Poles,

3768
03:31:40.030 --> 03:31:43.690
<v Speaker 90>They're pretty well mixed, and you bet your life we try to keep them mixed. As

3769
03:31:43.820 --> 03:31:44.120
long as

3770
03:31:44.120 --> 03:31:45.880
<v Speaker 90>you've got them mixed, they

3771
03:31:45.880 --> 03:31:49.250
<v Speaker 266>cannot talk to one another so well, and it keeps them out of mischief.

3772
03:31:49.460 --> 03:31:49.610
You can

3773
03:31:49.720 --> 03:31:52.410
<v Speaker 266>control them better when you've got them mixed.

3774
03:31:52.680 --> 03:31:53.470
Now the

3775
03:31:53.640 --> 03:31:55.330
<v Speaker 267>thing is, it

3776
03:31:55.450 --> 03:31:56.200
might be true

3777
03:31:56.240 --> 03:31:58.190
<v Speaker 267>for a while, but only for a while.

3778
03:31:58.670 --> 03:31:59.770
See, the operators were

3779
03:32:00.070 --> 03:32:06.900
<v Speaker 88>worried that if they didn't mix the minors by race and ethnicity, that people of the same type would be able to come together and

3780
03:32:06.900 --> 03:32:08.610
<v Speaker 226>organize. Okay.

3781
03:32:08.610 --> 03:32:08.920
But if

3782
03:32:08.920 --> 03:32:10.490
<v Speaker 226>they'd kept them separate,

3783
03:32:10.490 --> 03:32:11.140
that might

3784
03:32:11.300 --> 03:32:17.610
<v Speaker 116>have happened But the problem would have been smaller scale, maybe more containable Oh,

3785
03:32:17.610 --> 03:32:18.220
the Polish

3786
03:32:18.220 --> 03:32:27.220
<v Speaker 90>miners are starting to organize over there No problem, tell the Hungarian miners that the Poles are causing problems And get them fighting with each other, then get rid of the Poles The

3787
03:32:27.220 --> 03:32:27.570
black

3788
03:32:27.680 --> 03:32:29.800
<v Speaker 268>miners are organizing over here Tell

3789
03:32:29.800 --> 03:32:30.260
the white

3790
03:32:30.260 --> 03:32:34.810
<v Speaker 268>miners that the Negroes think they're just as good as any white man And let nature take its course

3791
03:32:35.860 --> 03:32:36.500
But that

3792
03:32:36.740 --> 03:32:43.900
<v Speaker 116>didn't work when all the races were mixed together. Over time, people stopped identifying themselves by race or

3793
03:32:44.140 --> 03:32:44.950
<v Speaker 136>religion, which

3794
03:32:44.950 --> 03:32:45.510
would have

3795
03:32:45.520 --> 03:32:52.270
<v Speaker 136>kept the workers chopped up into manageable groups and instead began to identify themselves as coal miners. It was

3796
03:32:52.270 --> 03:32:52.910
the only

3797
03:32:52.910 --> 03:32:58.010
<v Speaker 66>identity that mattered. It was their class, not their religion, not

3798
03:32:58.010 --> 03:33:04.640
<v Speaker 51>their race or ethnicity, that determined their lot in life, determined how they were treated, where they were, everything.

3799
03:33:05.660 --> 03:33:06.370
They knew

3800
03:33:06.530 --> 03:33:12.720
<v Speaker 85>they could expect no solidarity from people of their own race if those people were part of the ownership class. They

3801
03:33:13.120 --> 03:33:13.120
knew

3802
03:33:13.210 --> 03:33:16.960
<v Speaker 72>they could only rely on other minors. Minors

3803
03:33:16.960 --> 03:33:18.110
of all races and

3804
03:33:18.180 --> 03:33:26.970
<v Speaker 219>creeds, they drank together, they socialized together, they fought together, they argued together, they sang the same

3805
03:33:26.970 --> 03:33:33.530
<v Speaker 217>union songs together. And over time, they developed a real spirit of brotherhood.

3806
03:33:34.440 --> 03:33:34.980
Thank you.

3807
03:33:34.990 --> 03:33:35.610
The

3808
03:33:36.330 --> 03:33:45.870
<v Speaker 88>miners being alienated from the people and the institutions that might have provided leadership or solidarity on other people's terms,

3809
03:33:45.950 --> 03:33:47.270
they generated

3810
03:33:47.550 --> 03:33:53.100
<v Speaker 90>their own leaders from among their own number. And because the culture of the mountains

3811
03:33:53.470 --> 03:33:54.470
<v Speaker 52>was what it was,

3812
03:33:54.470 --> 03:33:55.180
they followed

3813
03:33:55.330 --> 03:34:01.990
<v Speaker 52>those men who had put the most on the line and showed the most courage and competence in the fight, local men like Frank

3814
03:34:02.130 --> 03:34:03.950
<v Speaker 71>Keeney and Bill Blizzard.

3815
03:34:04.850 --> 03:34:05.440
and men

3816
03:34:05.580 --> 03:34:07.090
<v Speaker 269>like Sid Hatfield.

3817
03:34:07.820 --> 03:34:07.900
Sid

3818
03:34:07.900 --> 03:34:15.460
<v Speaker 270>Hatfield was born in 1893 in the wilderness on the West Virginia-Kentucky border. Just

3819
03:34:15.760 --> 03:34:16.300
two years

3820
03:34:16.300 --> 03:34:25.890
<v Speaker 217>before he was born, his family, the Hatfields, had been involved in that most famous example of feud violence in American history with the McCoys. Those

3821
03:34:26.060 --> 03:34:26.540
are the

3822
03:34:26.540 --> 03:34:29.600
<v Speaker 136>final days of old Appalachia.

3823
03:34:30.190 --> 03:34:30.630
And the

3824
03:34:30.720 --> 03:34:32.770
<v Speaker 136>leader of the Hatfield clan, Devil Ants

3825
03:34:32.770 --> 03:34:39.310
<v Speaker 11>Hatfield, finally had enough of the bounty hunters and the Kentucky posses that were always coming after him. And he sold his 5,000

3826
03:34:39.310 --> 03:34:43.990
<v Speaker 113>acres of timberland to a corporation and moved his family up out of the area.

3827
03:34:44.050 --> 03:34:45.250
But not all the

3828
03:34:45.250 --> 03:34:51.800
<v Speaker 52>Hatfields left. And there along the Tug River, in a county called Mingo, which didn't actually

3829
03:34:51.920 --> 03:34:57.630
<v Speaker 20>exist earlier in the story. It's part of Logan County, but it's been split off. Now we've got Mingo County there on the border.

3830
03:34:58.620 --> 03:34:59.240
was where

3831
03:34:59.430 --> 03:35:00.760
<v Speaker 20>Sid Hatfield grew up.

3832
03:35:00.800 --> 03:35:02.470
The first coal mine

3833
03:35:02.840 --> 03:35:11.850
<v Speaker 11>opened around the time Sid was born, and he watched the industry grow up and his home transform as he grew into a teenager. He

3834
03:35:12.470 --> 03:35:13.410
learned to read in a

3835
03:35:13.410 --> 03:35:14.130
<v Speaker 11>one-room

3836
03:35:14.180 --> 03:35:22.820
<v Speaker 20>schoolhouse, but by the time he came of age, there was only one path available to anyone who didn't want to leave the region, and

3837
03:35:22.960 --> 03:35:22.960
so

3838
03:35:22.990 --> 03:35:27.260
<v Speaker 191>along with everybody he knew Sid Hatfield went to work in the mines.

3839
03:35:28.620 --> 03:35:29.840
with

3840
03:35:30.510 --> 03:35:36.200
<v Speaker 271>the other men he rode coal cars on his belly deep into the mountain worked all day

3841
03:35:36.200 --> 03:35:48.350
<v Speaker 20>on his hands and knees in three foot shafts tapping support posts into place laying new rail for the mine cars as they went deeper and deeper into the earth drilling

3842
03:35:48.350 --> 03:35:55.080
<v Speaker 5>holes with hand operated augers into the walls and then placing dynamite that blasted their

3843
03:35:55.300 --> 03:35:55.300
way

3844
03:35:55.350 --> 03:35:57.360
<v Speaker 75>to the next stop and

3845
03:35:58.030 --> 03:35:57.780
They

3846
03:35:58.030 --> 03:36:00.030
<v Speaker 75>shoved the coal into cars that

3847
03:36:00.030 --> 03:36:07.430
<v Speaker 177>rode out on the rails to dump their cargo into the tipple. They went into the hole when it was still dark in the morning. They

3848
03:36:07.430 --> 03:36:07.700
ate

3849
03:36:08.120 --> 03:36:09.470
<v Speaker 13>their lunch in the dark

3850
03:36:09.470 --> 03:36:10.220
and they

3851
03:36:10.530 --> 03:36:10.960
<v Speaker 13>crawled

3852
03:36:10.970 --> 03:36:15.040
<v Speaker 136>back out with black faces and sooty lungs when it was dark in the evening. And

3853
03:36:15.040 --> 03:36:15.670
they did

3854
03:36:15.830 --> 03:36:17.390
<v Speaker 136>that six days a week.

3855
03:36:17.410 --> 03:36:18.940
Sid was a

3856
03:36:18.950 --> 03:36:22.610
<v Speaker 5>young man in 1912 when...

3857
03:36:22.810 --> 03:36:27.460
<v Speaker 5>Paint Creek and Cabin Creek exploded in violence, just three counties to the northeast of where he lived.

3858
03:36:27.690 --> 03:36:28.110
And he

3859
03:36:28.110 --> 03:36:34.530
<v Speaker 26>heard, like everyone heard, that the miners in Kanawha had won their fight for the union.

3860
03:36:34.810 --> 03:36:36.050
The police state

3861
03:36:36.130 --> 03:36:39.660
<v Speaker 11>conditions I was describing just a few minutes ago,

3862
03:36:39.860 --> 03:36:40.200
and these

3863
03:36:40.200 --> 03:36:42.980
<v Speaker 11>southern West Virginia counties that were still not

3864
03:36:43.050 --> 03:36:50.980
<v Speaker 72>unionized after Paint Creek and didn't intend to be, right here in the Tug Valley, Sid Hatfield's home, it was right in the heart of that.

3865
03:36:52.030 --> 03:36:52.910
Sid was a

3866
03:36:53.090 --> 03:36:56.300
<v Speaker 67>little guy Wiry though,

3867
03:36:56.300 --> 03:37:05.050
<v Speaker 9>maybe 150 pounds He had short hair and big old jug handle ears And he was one of those guys who smiled and laughed very easily With

3868
03:37:05.050 --> 03:37:12.040
<v Speaker 5>his whole face and body He would just burst out laughing, double over He's got gold teeth and they're flashing out for everybody to see Sid

3869
03:37:12.040 --> 03:37:13.050
gained a good

3870
03:37:13.050 --> 03:37:13.780
<v Speaker 5>reputation

3871
03:37:13.960 --> 03:37:19.160
<v Speaker 64>as a hardworking miner And also as a reliable friend

3872
03:37:19.170 --> 03:37:19.380
he

3873
03:37:19.780 --> 03:37:21.040
<v Speaker 246>made friends and he kept

3874
03:37:21.170 --> 03:37:22.780
<v Speaker 114>them they said eventually

3875
03:37:22.780 --> 03:37:22.980
he

3876
03:37:23.190 --> 03:37:28.310
<v Speaker 12>was promoted to work as a blacksmith and so he was able to come out of the mines into the

3877
03:37:28.310 --> 03:37:28.900
fresh air

3878
03:37:28.900 --> 03:37:34.270
<v Speaker 53>but as lawn savage writes he never forgot the underground miners or that he

3879
03:37:34.270 --> 03:37:35.980
was one of them instead

3880
03:37:35.980 --> 03:37:37.950
<v Speaker 53>was a young man he saw one of

3881
03:37:37.960 --> 03:37:45.050
<v Speaker 20>his friends killed in the mines and then the man's wife and children put out of their home by the company without aid or compensation

3882
03:37:45.050 --> 03:37:46.230
and that's the kind

3883
03:37:46.230 --> 03:37:48.610
<v Speaker 47>of thing that radicalizes a young man

3884
03:37:49.310 --> 03:37:50.570
<v Speaker 47>Savage continues, quote,

3885
03:37:50.910 --> 03:37:51.980
From high on the

3886
03:37:51.980 --> 03:37:52.810
<v Speaker 47>Kentucky

3887
03:37:52.850 --> 03:38:02.810
<v Speaker 53>mountaintop, Sid could look across the tug to Matewan on the West Virginia side. Matewan was a town of 800 people, a block of businesses, a

3888
03:38:02.810 --> 03:38:12.840
<v Speaker 136>main street lined by maples with whitewashed trunks, big wooden houses behind the maples, miners' cabins along Mate Creek and the railroad, and a high rock cliff behind

3889
03:38:12.960 --> 03:38:13.530
<v Speaker 184>it all.

3890
03:38:14.430 --> 03:38:14.430
There

3891
03:38:14.490 --> 03:38:21.410
<v Speaker 184>were a depot, a bank, a company store, a hotel, a hardware, two drug stores, and the Dew Drop Inn.

3892
03:38:21.880 --> 03:38:22.220
There was

3893
03:38:22.220 --> 03:38:32.860
<v Speaker 90>also Testerman's Jewelry, run by the town's Natalie-dressed mayor and his attractive young wife, offering musical instruments, tobacco, patent medicine, eyeglasses, and

3894
03:38:32.960 --> 03:38:41.800
<v Speaker 184>ice cream from a marble-topped soda fountain, as well as jewelry. Pool rooms, saloons, and prostitutes prospered from the miners' trade.

3895
03:38:41.870 --> 03:38:44.110
<v Speaker 184>Moonshine, shooting, and fighting abounded.

3896
03:38:44.110 --> 03:39:04.870
<v Speaker 90>Corruption was expected, and votes were bought and sold. Coal operators in the area paid deputy sheriffs and private detectives to enforce the laws they liked. Company spies circulated secretly among the miners to learn of any union activity, and most people believed public officials took graft from gamblers and prostitutes. It was a frontier

3897
03:39:04.870 --> 03:39:07.680
<v Speaker 126>town as wild as the west. Maitwan,

3898
03:39:07.780 --> 03:39:12.050
<v Speaker 126>some of the town's leading citizens once said, was the worst governed town in the state.

3899
03:39:12.180 --> 03:39:12.510
Sid

3900
03:39:12.510 --> 03:39:23.180
<v Speaker 88>liked it. He played pool, poker, and slot machines, chewed, smoked, drank at the Blue Goose Saloon, and chased the women. He fought often,

3901
03:39:23.220 --> 03:39:27.220
<v Speaker 71>and he beat one opponent so badly that they had to hospitalize the

3902
03:39:27.220 --> 03:39:27.930
man. He shot

3903
03:39:28.150 --> 03:39:28.760
<v Speaker 71>guns along the

3904
03:39:28.880 --> 03:39:35.250
<v Speaker 90>riverbank, and they still say in Mingo that Sid could throw a potato in the air, draw his pistol, and split it open.

3905
03:39:35.960 --> 03:39:36.130
After

3906
03:39:36.220 --> 03:39:43.960
<v Speaker 88>he became famous, he told a group of congressmen he once had a little shooting match with a fellow by the name of Wilson in the Auburn mines.

3907
03:39:44.500 --> 03:39:44.920
Wilson was the

3908
03:39:45.020 --> 03:39:52.840
<v Speaker 219>mine foreman. Sid didn't finish the story except to say he, Sid, was arrested, tried, and found clear.

3909
03:39:53.940 --> 03:39:54.530
These

3910
03:39:54.930 --> 03:40:04.150
<v Speaker 136>were the qualities that won respect in Matewan, and they caught the eye not only of Mingo's miners. C.C. Testerman, the mayor, appointed Sid Hatfield as the town's

3911
03:40:04.160 --> 03:40:06.120
<v Speaker 61>first chief of police, end quote.

3912
03:40:07.110 --> 03:40:13.980
<v Speaker 9>See, Matewan was a bona fide incorporated town. It was not a company town.

3913
03:40:14.000 --> 03:40:14.880
<v Speaker 68>It was a real town.

3914
03:40:14.880 --> 03:40:15.510
It had a

3915
03:40:15.870 --> 03:40:18.700
<v Speaker 68>mayor, not a manager or a supervisor. And

3916
03:40:18.700 --> 03:40:19.460
it had a

3917
03:40:19.460 --> 03:40:20.190
<v Speaker 68>police

3918
03:40:20.260 --> 03:40:23.350
<v Speaker 77>department, not mine guards patrolling the place.

3919
03:40:23.360 --> 03:40:23.730
There

3920
03:40:23.910 --> 03:40:25.120
<v Speaker 77>was nothing the operators

3921
03:40:25.120 --> 03:40:31.300
<v Speaker 192>could do about that Except to try to bribe or otherwise compromise the people in charge

3922
03:40:31.850 --> 03:40:33.090
There was a

3923
03:40:33.130 --> 03:40:35.000
<v Speaker 272>town up the way

3924
03:40:35.010 --> 03:40:41.810
<v Speaker 12>near Cabin Creek that was like that A place called Eskdale This was an incorporated town right in the middle of land Owned on all sides by the coal

3925
03:40:41.890 --> 03:40:49.120
<v Speaker 20>companies And the miners could hold rallies and mass meetings there Organize their union there There was nothing the coal companies

3926
03:40:49.150 --> 03:40:50.050
could do about that

3927
03:40:50.210 --> 03:40:50.590
The

3928
03:40:51.260 --> 03:40:52.010
<v Speaker 20>miners voted

3929
03:40:52.010 --> 03:41:00.070
<v Speaker 67>in a union-friendly mayor up there in Eskdale, and he was so hated by the operators that he couldn't even leave town, since every way out was company property.

3930
03:41:00.070 --> 03:41:03.040
<v Speaker 211>He was literally imprisoned in that town. Well,

3931
03:41:03.280 --> 03:41:06.520
in Sid Hatfield, the miners had

3932
03:41:06.520 --> 03:41:10.050
<v Speaker 51>a police chief in Matewan that they could call their own,

3933
03:41:10.050 --> 03:41:10.480
and he

3934
03:41:10.480 --> 03:41:12.050
<v Speaker 51>understood them. He

3935
03:41:12.050 --> 03:41:15.110
<v Speaker 5>was one of them. He still thought of himself as one of them, and

3936
03:41:15.110 --> 03:41:15.960
he did things in a

3937
03:41:15.990 --> 03:41:17.830
<v Speaker 5>way that they could appreciate.

3938
03:41:18.720 --> 03:41:19.360
when guys

3939
03:41:19.500 --> 03:41:20.640
<v Speaker 5>were fighting he'd

3940
03:41:20.690 --> 03:41:22.620
<v Speaker 115>pull them apart and send them on their way

3941
03:41:22.700 --> 03:41:23.790
when they were too

3942
03:41:23.790 --> 03:41:25.390
<v Speaker 115>drunk he'd bring them home

3943
03:41:25.460 --> 03:41:25.760
<v Speaker 54>and

3944
03:41:25.770 --> 03:41:26.650
he would openly

3945
03:41:27.080 --> 03:41:28.500
<v Speaker 54>take their side

3946
03:41:28.500 --> 03:41:29.340
and he even got

3947
03:41:29.340 --> 03:41:30.800
<v Speaker 54>him in trouble himself in

3948
03:41:30.940 --> 03:41:36.830
<v Speaker 59>the winter of 1919 for possessing illegal whiskey and for fighting but that just endeared him to the

3949
03:41:36.900 --> 03:41:40.930
<v Speaker 62>miners more and so testerman kept his popular police chief on

3950
03:41:40.930 --> 03:41:41.300
the job

3951
03:41:41.810 --> 03:41:42.610
<v Speaker 62>before long

3952
03:41:43.260 --> 03:41:43.260
Sid

3953
03:41:43.370 --> 03:41:45.940
<v Speaker 62>Hatfield's popularity was such that he decided

3954
03:41:45.940 --> 03:41:50.060
<v Speaker 243>to declare as a candidate for Constable of the whole Mate 1 District.

3955
03:41:50.350 --> 03:41:52.370
It was just at

3956
03:41:52.370 --> 03:41:53.200
<v Speaker 127>that

3957
03:41:53.280 --> 03:42:04.930
<v Speaker 11>time that the United Mine Workers began a concerted effort to finally bring the Union to Mingo County. World War I had provided a brief respite from the tension

3958
03:42:04.930 --> 03:42:07.900
<v Speaker 35>between the miners and the mine operators.

3959
03:42:07.860 --> 03:42:08.280
Coal

3960
03:42:08.460 --> 03:42:09.230
<v Speaker 35>was needed

3961
03:42:09.230 --> 03:42:15.500
<v Speaker 67>more than ever during the war Not only to fuel the U.S. effort once we got involved But to supply the Entente powers before that

3962
03:42:15.500 --> 03:42:16.600
The U.S.

3963
03:42:16.600 --> 03:42:18.820
<v Speaker 273>Navy still ran on coal And

3964
03:42:19.080 --> 03:42:19.500
needed

3965
03:42:19.500 --> 03:42:25.060
<v Speaker 11>the cleanest, purest coal possible for its ships And that coal was to be found in West Virginia And

3966
03:42:25.310 --> 03:42:26.350
the quality of

3967
03:42:26.350 --> 03:42:32.460
<v Speaker 12>West Virginia's coal Was the major reason that the government built our largest Navy base

3968
03:42:32.490 --> 03:42:35.720
<v Speaker 11>Nearby there, in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1917

3969
03:42:36.290 --> 03:42:36.980
And

3970
03:42:36.930 --> 03:42:37.350
The

3971
03:42:37.770 --> 03:42:40.500
<v Speaker 11>miners could have used this opportunity to

3972
03:42:40.580 --> 03:42:41.130
press

3973
03:42:41.380 --> 03:42:45.950
<v Speaker 50>their demands. There's never a better opportunity to do it. The federal government would

3974
03:42:46.380 --> 03:42:48.260
<v Speaker 5>almost certainly get involved, and

3975
03:42:48.260 --> 03:42:48.660
the coal

3976
03:42:48.930 --> 03:42:51.640
<v Speaker 5>operators would have no choice but to negotiate with them.

3977
03:42:51.710 --> 03:42:53.430
They could have crippled the

3978
03:42:53.520 --> 03:42:55.000
<v Speaker 5>military effort. They

3979
03:42:55.000 --> 03:42:55.690
could have

3980
03:42:55.690 --> 03:43:06.370
<v Speaker 63>forced the nationalization of the mines if they had decided to strike in 1918. But they didn't. Word went out from the National Union that

3981
03:43:06.370 --> 03:43:06.370
the miners could have used this opportunity

3982
03:43:06.340 --> 03:43:13.900
<v Speaker 63>And from Frank Keeney, personally, in southern West Virginia, that there would be no strikes and no labor unrest for the duration of the war. Coal

3983
03:43:13.970 --> 03:43:15.550
miners were exempted from

3984
03:43:15.550 --> 03:43:21.090
<v Speaker 47>military service because they were doing a job that was so central to the war effort, but

3985
03:43:21.090 --> 03:43:21.500
many of

3986
03:43:21.500 --> 03:43:27.120
<v Speaker 47>them volunteered anyway, so many of the miners had friends or brothers or cousins over there in France.

3987
03:43:28.530 --> 03:43:29.730
And before you

3988
03:43:29.780 --> 03:43:38.130
<v Speaker 5>think the coal miners got off easy avoiding the war, I should tell you that during those years, coal miners in West Virginia experienced a higher casualty

3989
03:43:38.130 --> 03:43:42.030
<v Speaker 67>rate on a man-for-man basis than the American expeditionary force in

3990
03:43:42.030 --> 03:43:45.510
<v Speaker 11>Europe. I know that sounds crazy, but I've seen it in multiple sources.

3991
03:43:46.830 --> 03:43:47.660
When union

3992
03:43:47.900 --> 03:43:52.980
<v Speaker 57>leaders gave speeches, it was to encourage the miners to do their duty to the country, to

3993
03:43:53.160 --> 03:44:02.930
<v Speaker 26>dig as much coal as possible, make sure it was cleaner and freer of impurities and dirt than it ever was before. Although the coal companies were reaping

3994
03:44:02.930 --> 03:44:11.930
<v Speaker 53>record profits shipping coal out to Europe and supplying the US military, many of them used the excuse that the government had put a ceiling on the price to justify cutting

3995
03:44:12.250 --> 03:44:13.270
<v Speaker 88>miners' wages.

3996
03:44:13.260 --> 03:44:13.510
But

3997
03:44:13.700 --> 03:44:16.230
<v Speaker 88>even still, the miners did not go on strike.

3998
03:44:16.760 --> 03:44:17.590
These men had their

3999
03:44:17.900 --> 03:44:24.780
<v Speaker 88>problems with the coal barons. They had their problems with the county sheriffs and the state legislatures and their governors.

4000
03:44:25.190 --> 03:44:25.640
But they

4001
03:44:25.790 --> 03:44:28.210
<v Speaker 50>were American patriots,

4002
03:44:28.210 --> 03:44:34.500
to the core. But now the war was over. And for

4003
03:44:34.500 --> 03:44:40.600
<v Speaker 274>years, the miners had been inundated with government propaganda, telling them...

4004
03:44:40.630 --> 03:44:40.880
That

4005
03:44:40.990 --> 03:44:47.130
<v Speaker 114>they were serving their country every day when they went to work. In the most important way, in the most critical industry.

4006
03:44:47.510 --> 03:44:49.260
They've been told, as all

4007
03:44:49.270 --> 03:44:52.220
<v Speaker 275>the American people had been told,

4008
03:44:52.570 --> 03:44:53.000
that their

4009
03:44:53.010 --> 03:44:55.850
<v Speaker 275>service and their sacrifices, not to

4010
03:44:56.030 --> 03:45:06.700
<v Speaker 55>mention the killing and dying, were necessary to end tyranny and make the world safe for democracy. That violence was sometimes necessary to end tyranny and free people.

4011
03:45:07.650 --> 03:45:08.480
The irony

4012
03:45:08.500 --> 03:45:14.970
<v Speaker 55>was not lost on them when they came back to the dreary and oppressive life of a coal miner in a company town. And

4013
03:45:14.970 --> 03:45:16.320
so they sent men from

4014
03:45:16.320 --> 03:45:23.080
<v Speaker 55>unionized districts down to Mingo County to get them organized. Frank Keeney, who by this

4015
03:45:23.080 --> 03:45:23.560
point

4016
03:45:23.560 --> 03:45:27.180
<v Speaker 228>was the UMWA District 17 president, he

4017
03:45:27.190 --> 03:45:28.070
comes down,

4018
03:45:28.070 --> 03:45:31.440
<v Speaker 228>pistol on his hip, to supervise the operation.

4019
03:45:31.510 --> 03:45:36.130
<v Speaker 215>Billy Blizzard's another one, the union local president...

4020
03:45:36.390 --> 03:45:36.390
gave

4021
03:45:36.440 --> 03:45:39.880
<v Speaker 215>speeches to the miners in pouring rain nobody went anywhere it

4022
03:45:39.880 --> 03:45:40.360
was a

4023
03:45:40.430 --> 03:45:45.960
<v Speaker 48>real moment you had you had men of all races and ethnicities coming together as miners in mingo

4024
03:45:45.960 --> 03:45:47.470
<v Speaker 247>county in 1920

4025
03:45:47.800 --> 03:45:48.240
there was one

4026
03:45:48.240 --> 03:45:49.840
<v Speaker 247>gathering where 500

4027
03:45:49.850 --> 03:45:55.040
<v Speaker 228>miners prayed and sang songs together and then a black miner stands up this is mostly

4028
03:45:55.050 --> 03:45:55.890
<v Speaker 90>a white crowd

4029
03:45:55.890 --> 03:45:56.220
he says

4030
03:45:56.350 --> 03:46:01.640
<v Speaker 90>if i wouldn't be a union man i'd go home and ask my wife to chain me in the yard with the

4031
03:46:01.640 --> 03:46:01.750
dog

4032
03:46:02.130 --> 03:46:02.130
And

4033
03:46:02.180 --> 03:46:06.740
<v Speaker 90>everybody, white, black, immigrant, didn't matter. Laughed together, slapped them on the back.

4034
03:46:07.000 --> 03:46:07.960
<v Speaker 276>They were minors.

4035
03:46:08.240 --> 03:46:09.850
Mother Jones came in

4036
03:46:09.850 --> 03:46:14.680
<v Speaker 277>and gave a speech in May 1, about 100 yards from the Kentucky border there.

4037
03:46:14.940 --> 03:46:16.170
Frank Keeney had

4038
03:46:16.180 --> 03:46:18.960
<v Speaker 72>warned the operators that

4039
03:46:18.960 --> 03:46:29.300
<v Speaker 209>in their present temper, the Mingo miners are not to be fooled with. They will oppose to the last any use of private armies enlisted by the coal companies.

4040
03:46:30.370 --> 03:46:30.620
The

4041
03:46:31.280 --> 03:46:38.600
<v Speaker 153>operators, of course, paid no attention to that And they just imported more and more Baldwin-Feltz guards And

4042
03:46:38.750 --> 03:46:39.870
so the

4043
03:46:39.880 --> 03:46:42.620
<v Speaker 247>miners begin going on strike

4044
03:46:42.630 --> 03:46:44.260
Many of them left

4045
03:46:44.260 --> 03:46:52.000
<v Speaker 247>their company homes voluntarily Taking up with their families on land rented by the Union And tents provided by the

4046
03:46:52.000 --> 03:46:52.870
<v Speaker 55>Union Within

4047
03:46:53.150 --> 03:46:53.620
the early

4048
03:46:53.620 --> 03:46:55.870
<v Speaker 55>months of 1920 The

4049
03:46:56.440 --> 03:46:56.550
miners

4050
03:46:56.530 --> 03:46:56.900
Some

4051
03:46:57.150 --> 03:47:09.290
<v Speaker 55>3,000 miners in the Tug Valley had signed up for the United Mine Workers of America. They're making massive headway, but the operators were going to fight back with everything they had.

4052
03:47:09.290 --> 03:47:10.980
Figuring Sid for an

4053
03:47:10.980 --> 03:47:16.150
<v Speaker 215>impulsive hillbilly, the Baldwin-Felts agency tried to bribe Sid Hatfield,

4054
03:47:16.150 --> 03:47:19.390
<v Speaker 20>offered him $300 a month to work for them, which

4055
03:47:19.390 --> 03:47:20.220
was a hell of

4056
03:47:20.250 --> 03:47:20.730
<v Speaker 20>a lot of

4057
03:47:20.730 --> 03:47:21.450
<v Speaker 178>money.

4058
03:47:22.200 --> 03:47:22.200
For

4059
03:47:22.200 --> 03:47:30.070
<v Speaker 178>a poor kid from the Tug Valley back then. There's a hell of a lot of people today who would call that a pretty helpful dose of money in their lives.

4060
03:47:30.400 --> 03:47:31.330
Well, Sid told

4061
03:47:31.630 --> 03:47:32.920
<v Speaker 178>them to get bent.

4062
03:47:33.340 --> 03:47:34.600
Then they tried to pay

4063
03:47:34.600 --> 03:47:39.750
<v Speaker 114>him just to let them install a machine gun on the roof of a building in May 1.

4064
03:47:39.790 --> 03:47:40.150
He told

4065
03:47:40.150 --> 03:47:43.110
<v Speaker 114>them again to back off and they better get out of town. So

4066
03:47:43.260 --> 03:47:44.190
the operators

4067
03:47:44.490 --> 03:47:51.030
<v Speaker 55>started cracking down on the union organizing and the miners' strike began to pick up.

4068
03:47:51.220 --> 03:47:51.220
And

4069
03:47:51.290 --> 03:47:52.010
<v Speaker 55>like clockwork,

4070
03:47:52.010 --> 03:47:54.860
<v Speaker 203>Baldwin-Feltz guards were everywhere.

4071
03:47:55.090 --> 03:47:57.060
<v Speaker 278>Intimidating working miners and

4072
03:47:57.060 --> 03:48:08.490
<v Speaker 10>driving the striking ones out of their homes. One wet and cloudy day in May, 1920, 13 Baldwin-Feltz men,

4073
03:48:08.490 --> 03:48:12.060
<v Speaker 55>including two brothers of Tom Feltz, the president of the company,

4074
03:48:12.300 --> 03:48:12.860
came in

4075
03:48:12.990 --> 03:48:16.060
<v Speaker 55>to mate one on a train.

4076
03:48:16.290 --> 03:48:16.450
Most

4077
03:48:16.450 --> 03:48:19.480
<v Speaker 215>of them were big men with a very serious

4078
03:48:19.980 --> 03:48:20.060
look.

4079
03:48:20.020 --> 03:48:20.180
In

4080
03:48:20.460 --> 03:48:23.000
<v Speaker 215>dark suits and carrying cases that everyone

4081
03:48:23.000 --> 03:48:24.990
<v Speaker 20>who saw them knew contained guns. They

4082
03:48:25.090 --> 03:48:26.320
get off the train

4083
03:48:26.320 --> 03:48:31.330
<v Speaker 20>and they go to Mate One's hotel for a quick lunch and then as soon as they arrived,

4084
03:48:31.330 --> 03:48:31.960
they climbed

4085
03:48:31.960 --> 03:48:39.650
<v Speaker 20>into three cars and headed up along Mate Creek to a company town where there were several striking miners who were still living in their company homes. And the

4086
03:48:39.750 --> 03:48:42.120
<v Speaker 55>people in town knew exactly what that meant.

4087
03:48:42.750 --> 03:48:46.110
<v Speaker 55>before long they got confirmation word starts coming

4088
03:48:46.110 --> 03:48:52.570
<v Speaker 53>back that the detectives have already kicked one family out into the rain they've got plans a whole list for many more and

4089
03:48:52.570 --> 03:48:58.790
<v Speaker 114>so the men in the town decided they were not going to let this happen and so they headed back to their homes and got their

4090
03:48:58.790 --> 03:49:00.340
guns Sid Hatfield

4091
03:49:00.340 --> 03:49:01.570
<v Speaker 114>was in town and

4092
03:49:01.570 --> 03:49:04.310
<v Speaker 20>he was more angry than any of them

4093
03:49:04.400 --> 03:49:04.540
He

4094
03:49:04.590 --> 03:49:12.060
<v Speaker 20>goes to the mayor and tells them what's going on, and together they go up to the side of the houses to go talk to Al Feltz, one of the brothers directing these

4095
03:49:12.060 --> 03:49:12.880
<v Speaker 109>evictions. When

4096
03:49:13.020 --> 03:49:13.510
they get

4097
03:49:13.510 --> 03:49:18.060
<v Speaker 109>there, they see a husband and a wife standing in the road in the rain.

4098
03:49:18.060 --> 03:49:18.690
The wife had

4099
03:49:18.760 --> 03:49:19.000
<v Speaker 109>been

4100
03:49:19.000 --> 03:49:23.480
<v Speaker 20>washing clothes out back when they came in holding guns and told her to get out. So

4101
03:49:23.520 --> 03:49:24.390
she asked, can

4102
03:49:24.390 --> 03:49:28.150
<v Speaker 20>I finish my laundry and wait until my husband gets back? But

4103
03:49:28.280 --> 03:49:28.430
they

4104
03:49:28.430 --> 03:49:32.200
<v Speaker 64>said, no, get out. They start dumping her furniture outside in the dirt.

4105
03:49:32.960 --> 03:49:33.280
her

4106
03:49:33.640 --> 03:49:42.000
<v Speaker 113>husband arrived just as Sid and Mayor Testerman were getting there and so Sid marches up to the leader, Al Feltz he demands to know what's your legal authority

4107
03:49:42.000 --> 03:49:51.100
<v Speaker 109>for making these evictions Feltz tells him first of all, this is not within Mate One city limits, so it's not your jurisdiction and second anyway,

4108
03:49:51.300 --> 03:49:56.980
<v Speaker 113>sure, I've checked with the courts I've got all the authority in the world and so Sid says, well let me see it and Al just blows

4109
03:49:56.980 --> 03:50:01.130
<v Speaker 35>him off he says, go back to Mate One and make some calls and figure it out yourself

4110
03:50:01.180 --> 03:50:01.560
Well,

4111
03:50:01.770 --> 03:50:02.380
<v Speaker 35>Sid's getting

4112
03:50:02.380 --> 03:50:08.920
<v Speaker 47>pretty heated by this point, so the mayor comes in and intervenes, pulls him back from the escalating situation, and they go back to town

4113
03:50:08.920 --> 03:50:10.950
<v Speaker 9>with a big crowd of miners following behind him.

4114
03:50:11.150 --> 03:50:11.840
When they get

4115
03:50:11.840 --> 03:50:14.940
<v Speaker 9>there, they make some calls, and they find

4116
03:50:14.940 --> 03:50:21.570
<v Speaker 59>out that, in fact, the Baldwin-Felz guys were not acting under any legal authority whatsoever, and so Sid announces, with great

4117
03:50:21.770 --> 03:50:27.640
<v Speaker 9>satisfaction, that this gives him the power to arrest them for unlawfully throwing people out of their homes.

4118
03:50:28.770 --> 03:50:29.280
And so he

4119
03:50:29.300 --> 03:50:31.040
<v Speaker 9>asked the deputy sheriff

4120
03:50:31.040 --> 03:50:37.840
<v Speaker 35>over the phone to write up and send arrest warrants for the guards. The deputy said they'd be on the next train to make one that afternoon.

4121
03:50:37.990 --> 03:50:39.140
Somewhere in the

4122
03:50:39.140 --> 03:50:45.980
<v Speaker 35>conversation, Sid is supposed to have said that he'd like to kill the Baldwin-Feltz men, which may have been a figure of speech at

4123
03:50:45.980 --> 03:50:52.650
<v Speaker 113>the time he made it, but which would acquire importance as the day proceeded. Okay.

4124
03:50:53.620 --> 03:50:53.900
Just to be

4125
03:50:53.900 --> 03:51:01.040
<v Speaker 59>short, Sid asked the mayor to write up his own arrest warrants on the authority of the town so that for the time being, until

4126
03:51:01.130 --> 03:51:06.960
<v Speaker 9>the county warrants arrived, he could hold the men for illegally brandishing firearms within town limits. And so the mayor did that.

4127
03:51:06.960 --> 03:51:07.860
And by now,

4128
03:51:08.250 --> 03:51:10.840
<v Speaker 199>everybody had heard what's going on.

4129
03:51:10.840 --> 03:51:11.570
Miners were

4130
03:51:11.570 --> 03:51:14.410
<v Speaker 206>out in the streets, most of them carrying.

4131
03:51:15.220 --> 03:51:15.480
The

4132
03:51:15.540 --> 03:51:26.160
<v Speaker 206>rain started to pick up, and more stories started trickling in. Families with all their belongings set out in the weather. There was one story of a pregnant woman, a sick child, and a baby in its crib,

4133
03:51:26.160 --> 03:51:27.890
<v Speaker 279>set out in the rain with nowhere to go.

4134
03:51:27.940 --> 03:51:28.940
And so by the time

4135
03:51:29.060 --> 03:51:32.780
<v Speaker 279>the detectives roll back into town, just after four o'clock,

4136
03:51:32.780 --> 03:51:35.610
<v Speaker 280>the miners were in an excitable mood.

4137
03:51:37.120 --> 03:51:37.690
The

4138
03:51:37.780 --> 03:51:43.930
<v Speaker 256>guards went back to the hotel for dinner And afterward they came out into the street to catch the 5

4139
03:51:43.930 --> 03:51:46.790
<v Speaker 281>o'clock train The one with the county warrants coming

4140
03:51:46.790 --> 03:51:48.400
in Well Sid

4141
03:51:48.400 --> 03:51:50.030
<v Speaker 282>Hatfield

4142
03:51:50.040 --> 03:51:50.560
<v Speaker 64>goes

4143
03:51:51.080 --> 03:51:55.120
<v Speaker 283>and steps directly to Al Feltz The leader of the men

4144
03:51:55.120 --> 03:51:56.860
Both of them had

4145
03:51:56.920 --> 03:51:58.700
<v Speaker 283>holstered pistols

4146
03:51:59.100 --> 03:52:02.020
<v Speaker 20>This is a scene straight out of an old west movie

4147
03:52:02.000 --> 03:52:02.200
The

4148
03:52:02.320 --> 03:52:07.640
<v Speaker 20>champion of the miners standing nose to nose with the chief of the Baldwin Feltz detectives.

4149
03:52:07.960 --> 03:52:09.820
They're outside a

4150
03:52:09.820 --> 03:52:12.090
<v Speaker 284>hardware store and

4151
03:52:12.090 --> 03:52:18.990
<v Speaker 175>the tension was thick as armed miners are peeking through the doors and windows to see what's going to happen here. Nobody knows exactly what's

4152
03:52:18.990 --> 03:52:26.960
<v Speaker 184>going to happen. And so Sid, right now Feltz's face tells him, I've got warrants to arrest you all.

4153
03:52:27.250 --> 03:52:31.990
<v Speaker 184>and Al Feltz just shrugs and says, oh, I'll return the compliment so happens I've got a warrant

4154
03:52:31.990 --> 03:52:38.760
<v Speaker 227>to arrest you and so one of the miners runs to fetch the mayor saying, hey, they've got Sid under arrest and

4155
03:52:38.760 --> 03:52:49.230
<v Speaker 113>so the mayor comes to the scene and he says, let me see the warrant you supposedly got and so he's handed a piece of paper and he takes a look at it and he says, this is bogus he goes to throw it back and

4156
03:52:49.250 --> 03:52:56.670
<v Speaker 215>just then and the people still argue over who started it shots rang out

4157
03:52:56.850 --> 03:52:56.850
And

4158
03:52:56.870 --> 03:52:58.660
<v Speaker 64>the mayor went down, shot in the belly.

4159
03:52:58.860 --> 03:52:59.490
Sid

4160
03:52:59.560 --> 03:53:06.170
<v Speaker 18>drew pistols and fired back, and he shot Al Feltz, the brother of the Baldwin Feltz president, in the head, killing him.

4161
03:53:06.420 --> 03:53:07.000
Then, just

4162
03:53:07.000 --> 03:53:11.050
<v Speaker 59>gunfire was general up and down the street, as the other detectives

4163
03:53:11.050 --> 03:53:20.990
<v Speaker 62>and the armed miners stationed about the square just opened up. And immediately, the detectives realized, oh no, they were outnumbered and outgunned, and so they started scattering for cover.

4164
03:53:21.180 --> 03:53:22.320
One of them made it to the

4165
03:53:22.320 --> 03:53:26.370
<v Speaker 62>river, jumped in, and escaped across into Kentucky, and,

4166
03:53:26.340 --> 03:53:26.520
Two

4167
03:53:26.790 --> 03:53:29.020
<v Speaker 62>detectives who were brothers hopped a fence and

4168
03:53:29.020 --> 03:53:34.760
<v Speaker 59>ran inside a house, but inside there were miners, and then there was gunfire, and then they

4169
03:53:34.810 --> 03:53:35.280
ran out

4170
03:53:35.280 --> 03:53:41.700
<v Speaker 59>bleeding. Both of them managed to make their way to the train station where they hid until the next one pulled in and they got

4171
03:53:41.700 --> 03:53:43.040
on board and they

4172
03:53:43.040 --> 03:53:47.030
<v Speaker 211>escaped. One of the guards who used to be a police chief in Virginia before signing

4173
03:53:47.060 --> 03:53:53.160
<v Speaker 18>on with Baldwin Feltz tried to run when the shooting started, but a miner with a rifle drew a bead on him and put him

4174
03:53:53.240 --> 03:53:53.980
down.

4175
03:53:53.940 --> 03:53:55.780
Lee Feltz, the

4176
03:53:55.820 --> 03:53:56.930
<v Speaker 18>other Feltz brother who was

4177
03:53:56.930 --> 03:54:11.760
<v Speaker 84>there He draws two guns, starts shooting when he sees his brother Al go down While Miner draws on him and empties his.32 toward Lee Feltz Misses with every shot So Lee Feltz turns toward him and empties his pistol at the Miner And he misses with all his shots And

4178
03:54:11.760 --> 03:54:12.080
then

4179
03:54:12.320 --> 03:54:19.660
<v Speaker 113>just then a man with a rifle took aim at Lee Feltz The youngest brother of the family And the second Feltz brother to die that day

4180
03:54:20.560 --> 03:54:21.200
And the

4181
03:54:21.340 --> 03:54:24.880
<v Speaker 12>miner who had missed Feltz with all those shots was not going to let his day end on a

4182
03:54:24.880 --> 03:54:30.250
<v Speaker 109>note like that, so he grabs one of Lee Feltz's pistols, reloads it, and runs to the bank,

4183
03:54:30.660 --> 03:54:33.430
<v Speaker 228>where he sees a wounded detective, another former

4184
03:54:33.470 --> 03:54:43.460
<v Speaker 18>Virginia police chief, limping for cover. And this miner, his name was Art Williams, he walks right up and executes that Baldwin Feltz man on the spot.

4185
03:54:45.070 --> 03:54:45.540
The

4186
03:54:46.520 --> 03:54:52.090
<v Speaker 55>detective who was third in command behind the Feltz brothers, a man named C.B. Cunningham, was standing right next

4187
03:54:52.090 --> 03:55:02.630
<v Speaker 47>to Al Feltz when the bullet went through his head. And so Cunningham had... this is a serious operator with a checkered past. He had been at the Ludlow Massacre seven

4188
03:55:02.640 --> 03:55:09.650
<v Speaker 18>years back in Colorado, manning the machine gun that was raining the bullets down on helpless miners and their families.

4189
03:55:09.620 --> 03:55:10.110
when

4190
03:55:10.230 --> 03:55:19.040
<v Speaker 47>Feltz got shot Cunningham Drew starts shooting into the hardware store where he could see several miners with guns Sid and several others turned on him

4191
03:55:19.040 --> 03:55:20.060
<v Speaker 114>and they took his life

4192
03:55:20.620 --> 03:55:21.470
by the

4193
03:55:21.470 --> 03:55:27.890
<v Speaker 114>time the gunfight drew to a close seven of those 13 Baldwin Feltz men

4194
03:55:27.900 --> 03:55:31.810
<v Speaker 285>had been killed along with two miners and Mare Testament

4195
03:55:32.460 --> 03:55:32.620
five

4196
03:55:32.720 --> 03:55:35.090
<v Speaker 22>others had gunshot

4197
03:55:35.090 --> 03:55:35.860
wounds

4198
03:55:35.810 --> 03:55:36.210
Mayor

4199
03:55:36.530 --> 03:55:44.430
<v Speaker 20>Testerman took some time to die, and with his dying breaths, he just kept repeating, Why did they shoot me? I can't see why they shot me.

4200
03:55:45.180 --> 03:55:46.520
Depending on who you

4201
03:55:46.520 --> 03:55:55.060
<v Speaker 209>talk to, even to this day, you'll hear it called either the Battle of Matewan or the Matewan Massacre. Tom

4202
03:55:55.060 --> 03:55:56.160
Feltz, the

4203
03:55:56.160 --> 03:55:59.160
<v Speaker 286>president of the agency, whose

4204
03:55:59.160 --> 03:55:59.700
brothers

4205
03:56:00.340 --> 03:56:03.980
<v Speaker 18>were now dead, he had no hesitation in calling it a massacre.

4206
03:56:04.620 --> 03:56:04.930
When he

4207
03:56:05.050 --> 03:56:09.020
<v Speaker 18>heard what happened, he formed up a posse of heavily armed men and took the night train

4208
03:56:09.020 --> 03:56:10.200
<v Speaker 55>straight to Mingo County.

4209
03:56:10.630 --> 03:56:11.270
Someone called

4210
03:56:11.270 --> 03:56:19.660
<v Speaker 14>ahead to Maitwan to warn the men there, so Sid and the Mingo County Sheriff deputize 100 miners, make sure they all have guns,

4211
03:56:20.000 --> 03:56:20.920
and prepare them to

4212
03:56:20.920 --> 03:56:23.170
<v Speaker 59>fight off this attack when it comes.

4213
03:56:23.940 --> 03:56:24.350
When

4214
03:56:24.580 --> 03:56:29.190
<v Speaker 59>the train is bearing down on Mate Juan The engineer, who apparently was a very wise

4215
03:56:29.190 --> 03:56:34.740
<v Speaker 114>man Wanted no part of what was about to happen He just gunned the engine and tore right through town onto Williamson

4216
03:56:34.740 --> 03:56:39.860
<v Speaker 100>As Tom Feltz and all his men were screaming and threatening him Probably the right move

4217
03:56:40.470 --> 03:56:41.380
To the

4218
03:56:41.380 --> 03:56:50.500
<v Speaker 278>miners The battle of Mate Juan Made Sid Hatfield a folk hero

4219
03:56:50.500 --> 03:56:50.700
You

4220
03:56:50.960 --> 03:56:58.090
<v Speaker 278>know, Baldwin Feltz men had harassed and bullied and beaten and killed miners and their families for

4221
03:56:58.090 --> 03:57:04.300
<v Speaker 275>years. Stories of their atrocities were well known to miners all over the country, not just in West Virginia. And

4222
03:57:04.300 --> 03:57:05.020
now Sid

4223
03:57:05.020 --> 03:57:13.290
<v Speaker 67>Hatfield, their popular leader, a police chief who had spent his youth down in the hole with the rest

4224
03:57:13.410 --> 03:57:14.160
of them, had

4225
03:57:14.300 --> 03:57:19.640
<v Speaker 55>thrown down with the Feltz brothers themselves and sent their detectives scurrying for their

4226
03:57:19.640 --> 03:57:20.060
lives.

4227
03:57:20.060 --> 03:57:20.240
You

4228
03:57:20.390 --> 03:57:21.120
<v Speaker 55>know, the miners

4229
03:57:21.120 --> 03:57:28.840
<v Speaker 13>before would take pot shots at them. They would hit and run. But when it came to a face-to-face confrontation, they would scatter. They would try to avoid

4230
03:57:28.840 --> 03:57:31.320
<v Speaker 27>that. Sid got right in their face and

4231
03:57:31.320 --> 03:57:33.060
<v Speaker 287>threw down and he won.

4232
03:57:33.390 --> 03:57:35.730
There's always been conflicting

4233
03:57:35.730 --> 03:57:40.060
<v Speaker 113>accounts about who shot Mayor Testerman or why. Sid

4234
03:57:40.170 --> 03:57:40.620
and the

4235
03:57:40.620 --> 03:57:42.040
<v Speaker 113>miners say that Al

4236
03:57:42.040 --> 03:57:47.890
<v Speaker 47>Feltz shot the mayor and that that's how the whole thing started, followed by Sid drawing his pistol

4237
03:57:47.890 --> 03:57:49.010
<v Speaker 275>and killing Al

4238
03:57:49.010 --> 03:57:49.820
Feltz.

4239
03:57:50.260 --> 03:57:50.270
Tom

4240
03:57:50.270 --> 03:57:58.890
<v Speaker 275>Feltz spread the story that it was actually Sid himself who shot the mayor. A story that Sid helped to get around a little bit when, just a few

4241
03:57:58.890 --> 03:58:03.050
<v Speaker 63>weeks after the killing, he married the mayor's young widow. Tom

4242
03:58:03.050 --> 03:58:04.690
Feltz said that Sid

4243
03:58:04.690 --> 03:58:06.240
<v Speaker 63>had shot the mayor

4244
03:58:06.240 --> 03:58:11.950
<v Speaker 20>to get him out of the way, and then shot his brothers in cold blood in a calculated ambush. Sid

4245
03:58:11.950 --> 03:58:12.390
and his

4246
03:58:12.510 --> 03:58:18.450
<v Speaker 18>supporters shot back that if he'd really wanted to kill the mayor, there were better ways to do

4247
03:58:18.450 --> 03:58:18.840
it.

4248
03:58:18.830 --> 03:58:19.090
than

4249
03:58:19.270 --> 03:58:20.030
<v Speaker 18>starting a massive

4250
03:58:20.110 --> 03:58:24.810
<v Speaker 211>gunfight in broad daylight with 13 heavily armed Baldwin felt detectives in

4251
03:58:25.070 --> 03:58:25.790
fact Sid said

4252
03:58:25.790 --> 03:58:33.860
<v Speaker 84>and other people backed him up on this he and the mayor were very close and the mayor had asked him to take care of his wife should anything ever

4253
03:58:33.860 --> 03:58:34.180
<v Speaker 47>happen to

4254
03:58:34.340 --> 03:58:36.140
him six days after the

4255
03:58:36.140 --> 03:58:43.630
<v Speaker 13>fight at mate one in statewide elections the effect of the incident on Sid's reputation was pretty clear

4256
03:58:44.210 --> 03:58:48.700
<v Speaker 33>because he carried all six precincts in his district and became the Democratic nominee for constable.

4257
03:58:48.950 --> 03:58:51.360
The action in

4258
03:58:51.360 --> 03:59:00.480
<v Speaker 55>May 1 gave the union movement a burst of renewed energy. It didn't have anything to do directly with the union, but everybody was buzzing about it.

4259
03:59:00.710 --> 03:59:01.180
The UMWA

4260
03:59:01.180 --> 03:59:10.930
<v Speaker 114>announced that all the coal operations along the southern West Virginia border, east of McDowell County, had all been organized, all of them except for two, and those were

4261
03:59:11.020 --> 03:59:11.300
<v Speaker 62>next.

4262
03:59:12.610 --> 03:59:18.910
<v Speaker 62>mother jones she's 85 years old now she comes storming back into town in full form cursing and swearing about

4263
03:59:19.160 --> 03:59:21.900
<v Speaker 225>the mine owners and their pet politicians with

4264
03:59:22.150 --> 03:59:22.570
all their

4265
03:59:22.570 --> 03:59:29.020
<v Speaker 225>usual wit and sarcasm on display condemning and mocking the miners to go to maw and that was one of her favorite

4266
03:59:29.020 --> 03:59:31.740
<v Speaker 209>tactics with the men quote you have stood and seen

4267
03:59:31.740 --> 03:59:40.380
<v Speaker 222>yourself robbed of every ton of coal you mine so much was taken out and professional murderers were hired to keep you in subjection

4268
03:59:40.610 --> 03:59:55.910
<v Speaker 222>and you paid for it. Damn you. You were not fit to live under the flag. You paid professional murderers with that money you were robbed of, and you never said a word. You stood there like a lot of cowards robbed by the mine owners, and you let them do it.

4269
03:59:55.910 --> 03:59:56.420
And then

4270
03:59:56.420 --> 03:59:56.980
<v Speaker 222>you go about

4271
03:59:57.630 --> 04:00:04.970
<v Speaker 288>shaking your rotten head. Not a thing inside. You call yourself Americans. Let me tell you, America need not feel proud of you.

4272
04:00:06.510 --> 04:00:07.520
well the

4273
04:00:07.960 --> 04:00:12.690
<v Speaker 55>miners might have rioted and killed any man who said that to him but from mother jones they ate it up

4274
04:00:12.790 --> 04:00:14.060
inmate one she met and

4275
04:00:14.140 --> 04:00:18.570
<v Speaker 55>spent time with sid hatfield and the two became friends miners

4276
04:00:18.630 --> 04:00:19.430
swarmed to

4277
04:00:19.450 --> 04:00:28.410
<v Speaker 55>mass meetings in mingo and williamson about 90 percent of mingo county miners had taken the union oath by the end of june 1920

4278
04:00:29.430 --> 04:00:33.050
<v Speaker 55>Frank Keeney said that was more than enough to justify a demand for

4279
04:00:33.050 --> 04:00:46.930
<v Speaker 35>official recognition by the operators. And so a resolution was made that all the miners would go on strike on July 1st, unless the operators of the holdout districts agreed to negotiate. The operators were not about

4280
04:00:46.940 --> 04:00:53.860
<v Speaker 20>to do that, but instead doubled down on breaking the union movement. And so on July 1st, 1920, the

4281
04:00:53.990 --> 04:00:55.290
<v Speaker 13>strike was really on.

4282
04:00:55.590 --> 04:00:56.130
Thank you.

4283
04:00:56.080 --> 04:00:56.430
More

4284
04:00:56.840 --> 04:01:01.760
<v Speaker 13>Baldwin-Feltz mine guards and operator-funded deputy sheriffs were brought in to put an end to it.

4285
04:01:01.760 --> 04:01:02.510
Within days,

4286
04:01:02.520 --> 04:01:06.840
<v Speaker 114>there were reports of skirmishes and gun battles between the miners and them.

4287
04:01:06.840 --> 04:01:07.970
Workers in the

4288
04:01:07.970 --> 04:01:08.810
<v Speaker 114>non-union

4289
04:01:08.810 --> 04:01:13.890
<v Speaker 55>mines were warned by the strikers not to go to work, told to come join the

4290
04:01:13.890 --> 04:01:17.170
<v Speaker 36>strike or they would not be safe from the consequences. Because

4291
04:01:17.480 --> 04:01:17.730
there were

4292
04:01:17.730 --> 04:01:20.240
<v Speaker 36>miners who just didn't want to join the union.

4293
04:01:20.240 --> 04:01:21.040
Why?

4294
04:01:21.010 --> 04:01:21.360
They

4295
04:01:21.690 --> 04:01:22.140
<v Speaker 36>perceived

4296
04:01:22.230 --> 04:01:30.040
<v Speaker 75>their wages as fair enough and had a positive relationship with management because there were some operators that were pretty

4297
04:01:30.050 --> 04:01:39.020
<v Speaker 13>solid and they saw no reason to invite the trouble or even to pay the union dues. Fair enough from the standpoint of the individual worker, but the union's

4298
04:01:39.020 --> 04:01:41.210
<v Speaker 59>position was that it had to be all or

4299
04:01:41.210 --> 04:01:42.020
nothing.

4300
04:01:42.020 --> 04:01:42.700
If any coal

4301
04:01:42.880 --> 04:01:58.980
<v Speaker 55>fields were left without a union, it would always undercut unionized fields and make the union's position in those fields untenable. Some non-union miners received pay hikes or other benefits every time union organizers came around, on the condition that

4302
04:01:58.980 --> 04:01:59.980
<v Speaker 110>they refused

4303
04:01:59.980 --> 04:02:01.240
to hear the union

4304
04:02:01.240 --> 04:02:10.970
<v Speaker 110>out. The union told them that those gains would be temporary, because every individual miner is expendable. Sure, they raise your pay now, but what are you going to do when they claw that raise back in six months?

4305
04:02:11.160 --> 04:02:11.160
You

4306
04:02:11.200 --> 04:02:12.440
<v Speaker 110>won't be able to do a thing,

4307
04:02:12.540 --> 04:02:13.400
because no

4308
04:02:13.680 --> 04:02:23.790
<v Speaker 110>miner can stand on equal terms with the owners. But the miners, the miners collectively, as one, decide whether or not coal gets dug in this country.

4309
04:02:23.970 --> 04:02:26.410
No individual miner has any effect

4310
04:02:26.490 --> 04:02:28.910
<v Speaker 110>whatsoever on that question.

4311
04:02:29.980 --> 04:02:30.630
The goal

4312
04:02:30.870 --> 04:02:40.000
<v Speaker 110>was that any time any coal mine operator in the country needed workers, he would have to negotiate not with individual men, but with the mine

4313
04:02:40.000 --> 04:02:41.830
<v Speaker 70>workers of America. Miners

4314
04:02:41.830 --> 04:02:42.740
who resisted

4315
04:02:42.740 --> 04:02:46.370
<v Speaker 20>unionization were seen as a wedge that the companies

4316
04:02:46.370 --> 04:02:51.030
<v Speaker 13>could use to splinter and break up the whole movement, and so they were not

4317
04:02:51.030 --> 04:02:54.520
<v Speaker 24>looked on kindly very often by the miners who were trying to organize.

4318
04:02:55.280 --> 04:02:55.730
and of

4319
04:02:55.790 --> 04:02:56.900
<v Speaker 24>course scabs as

4320
04:02:56.900 --> 04:03:02.080
<v Speaker 75>sympathetic as many of their stories were and the miners were aware

4321
04:03:02.080 --> 04:03:05.370
<v Speaker 36>that most of the scabs were just poor schmucks looking for

4322
04:03:05.370 --> 04:03:06.070
a job but the

4323
04:03:06.070 --> 04:03:10.050
<v Speaker 36>miners viewed them like soldiers in the enemy trench

4324
04:03:10.080 --> 04:03:14.210
<v Speaker 136>you're not bad men necessarily and in more peaceful

4325
04:03:14.210 --> 04:03:20.100
<v Speaker 35>days they could have all been friends like the french and german boys freezing a hundred yards from each other in

4326
04:03:20.110 --> 04:03:21.050
belgium but

4327
04:03:21.220 --> 04:03:25.160
<v Speaker 209>there was a higher principle at stake and if fate

4328
04:03:25.160 --> 04:03:25.160
is

4329
04:03:25.180 --> 04:03:25.400
and

4330
04:03:25.500 --> 04:03:30.840
<v Speaker 114>history had arrayed those men among the forces brought to bear by the operators, then so be it.

4331
04:03:30.940 --> 04:03:32.730
But as determined as they

4332
04:03:32.740 --> 04:03:33.620
<v Speaker 114>were to gain

4333
04:03:33.620 --> 04:03:35.180
<v Speaker 285>recognition of their

4334
04:03:35.180 --> 04:03:40.190
<v Speaker 20>union, the operators were equally determined to stop it. Corbyn writes, quote, The

4335
04:03:40.290 --> 04:03:41.070
Mingo County

4336
04:03:41.070 --> 04:03:49.300
<v Speaker 20>operators were not about to surrender to the institution that they hated, and that they claimed would cause the downfall of the United States.

4337
04:03:49.860 --> 04:03:50.100
They

4338
04:03:50.230 --> 04:03:52.840
<v Speaker 20>brought in trainloads of strikebreakers from the south

4339
04:03:53.000 --> 04:03:58.780
<v Speaker 75>in New York and Chicago to run the mines and imported more and more guards to protect their plants and the strikebreakers.

4340
04:03:58.930 --> 04:03:59.380
Like their

4341
04:03:59.380 --> 04:04:08.030
<v Speaker 136>union brethren in Raleigh and Fayette counties, the Mingo County miners would not settle for a war of attrition. They were prepared to fight for their

4342
04:04:08.030 --> 04:04:14.610
<v Speaker 285>union, and they too took the offensive to stop production. The Mingo County strike had now become the

4343
04:04:14.780 --> 04:04:16.320
<v Speaker 20>Mingo County War.

4344
04:04:16.990 --> 04:04:17.250
The

4345
04:04:17.550 --> 04:04:21.090
<v Speaker 20>miners brought in and distributed guns. They attacked,

4346
04:04:21.090 --> 04:04:30.710
<v Speaker 136>beat, and sometimes killed mine guards and strikebreakers at mines all over the non-union zone. With so many Baldwin-Feltz guards and state police in the area, these

4347
04:04:31.020 --> 04:04:37.930
<v Speaker 70>attacks could not be haphazard. On several occasions, the striking miners placed material across the tracks of the mine cars.

4348
04:04:37.930 --> 04:04:38.260
When the

4349
04:04:38.490 --> 04:04:39.130
<v Speaker 70>driver of the

4350
04:04:39.130 --> 04:04:43.600
<v Speaker 67>car stopped to remove the obstacle, the miners ambushed the strikebreakers.

4351
04:04:43.760 --> 04:04:43.760
The

4352
04:04:43.890 --> 04:04:45.930
<v Speaker 67>striking miners also blocked and

4353
04:04:45.930 --> 04:04:52.080
<v Speaker 90>shot up trains that were importing potential strike breakers into the county, sending the passengers fleeing back to

4354
04:04:52.080 --> 04:04:52.760
New York. The

4355
04:04:52.890 --> 04:04:54.690
<v Speaker 90>miners also stopped production by

4356
04:04:54.690 --> 04:05:01.610
<v Speaker 109>destroying Coal Company property. The tipple at Rose Siding was blown up, the railroad tipple at Thacker was dynamited,

4357
04:05:01.680 --> 04:05:07.620
<v Speaker 90>the drum house at Ajax was dynamited and the head house gutted, and the head house at War Eagle was dynamited.

4358
04:05:07.610 --> 04:05:24.130
<v Speaker 90>Fires of incendiary origin destroyed the head house of Stone Mountain Coal Company and the company store at Lynn. The striking miners also attacked the superintendents, foremen, plant managers, and other company officials who attempted to keep these mines running. The striking miners of Mingo County

4359
04:05:24.130 --> 04:05:34.800
<v Speaker 53>aggressively, and at times ruthlessly, attacked anything or anyone standing between them and their union. Casually, a Mingo County miner wrote of the new means of responding to the

4360
04:05:34.800 --> 04:05:36.700
<v Speaker 70>activities of the mine guards.

4361
04:05:37.090 --> 04:05:40.950
<v Speaker 70>A thug was killed last week on the Mingo County line. He had just driven

4362
04:05:40.950 --> 04:05:48.000
<v Speaker 71>two union men out of the county. Our people want no trouble, but the thugs can sure get it if nothing else will do them.

4363
04:05:48.280 --> 04:05:49.420
Neither did the striking

4364
04:05:49.520 --> 04:05:50.700
<v Speaker 71>miners tolerate the

4365
04:05:50.700 --> 04:06:01.450
<v Speaker 90>strike-breaking activity of the state police, who were sent into Mingo County to keep the mines from closing. They shot and killed at least three state policemen at Vulcan and Nolan. We

4366
04:06:01.570 --> 04:06:02.100
are going to

4367
04:06:02.180 --> 04:06:05.520
<v Speaker 90>fight until the last ditch, declared Frank Keeney.

4368
04:06:05.760 --> 04:06:13.080
<v Speaker 90>There will be no abatement of effort, and neither time nor money will be spared to protect the lawful and statutory rights of the mine workers in Mingo County.

4369
04:06:13.300 --> 04:06:13.820
Those who are

4370
04:06:13.820 --> 04:06:19.040
<v Speaker 90>wondering whether they will be organized may rest assured that this means the organization

4371
04:06:19.040 --> 04:06:20.630
<v Speaker 53>of the coal miners of Mingo.

4372
04:06:21.030 --> 04:06:21.890
Gun battles between

4373
04:06:21.970 --> 04:06:30.070
<v Speaker 53>striking miners and the mine guards and state police became frequent occurrences. At Nolan in June 1920, at Freeborn in July and

4374
04:06:30.070 --> 04:06:34.390
<v Speaker 71>September, at Merrimack in Chatteroy in November, to name only four.

4375
04:06:35.300 --> 04:06:38.100
<v Speaker 71>Several of the battles lasted hours and resulted in numerous

4376
04:06:38.210 --> 04:06:39.360
<v Speaker 53>deaths," end quote.

4377
04:06:39.470 --> 04:06:39.880
And now

4378
04:06:39.880 --> 04:06:48.700
<v Speaker 53>from Lon Savage, quote, Bullets peppered down on working non-union miners at the Borderland Mine near Williamson. One hundred miners opened fire on

4379
04:06:48.700 --> 04:06:58.820
<v Speaker 71>non-union miners at Freeburn, Kentucky, shooting from the West Virginia mountains across the Tug Valley. An operator of the mine's cable cars fell wounded, and women and children ran

4380
04:06:59.300 --> 04:06:59.960
<v Speaker 90>screaming from the camp.

4381
04:07:00.530 --> 04:07:26.640
<v Speaker 90>Kentucky's governor dispatched 200 National Guardsmen to the Kentucky side of the river, and West Virginia's ordered state police back to Mingo. Violence only increased. On August 4th, riflemen shot down from the West Virginia mountains at Kentucky Guardsmen opposite Mate 1. A horse was shot out from under one Guardsman, and a bullet ripped through another's campaign hat. When strikers attacked at Freeburn again, Kentucky Guardsmen drove them back with

4382
04:07:27.100 --> 04:07:30.100
<v Speaker 71>machine gun fire. Freeburn was attacked a third time.

4383
04:07:30.100 --> 04:07:36.820
<v Speaker 71>a gun battle broke out at mohawk a rail car was torpedoed deputies beat a black striker with clubs

4384
04:07:37.010 --> 04:07:37.010
and

4385
04:07:37.060 --> 04:07:38.440
<v Speaker 90>dumped him semi-conscious

4386
04:07:38.440 --> 04:07:48.020
<v Speaker 136>from an automobile a baseball game turned into a free-for-all between union and non-union sympathizers everybody bought guns coal operators ordered rifles and

4387
04:07:48.020 --> 04:07:54.850
<v Speaker 90>machine guns as part of their standard mine equipment state police rushed from one outbreak to another end

4388
04:07:54.850 --> 04:07:56.490
<v Speaker 225>quote now back to corbin

4389
04:07:56.660 --> 04:07:56.830
The

4390
04:07:56.990 --> 04:08:07.160
<v Speaker 225>destruction of company property and the guerrilla warfare involved more than the miners' hatred of the mine guards and their vindictiveness toward the coal companies. There was a purpose to their violence,

4391
04:08:07.160 --> 04:08:07.220
to

4392
04:08:07.350 --> 04:08:14.460
<v Speaker 71>close the non-union mines. The coal company at Mohawk, for example, attempted to continue operations with imported

4393
04:08:14.470 --> 04:08:22.060
<v Speaker 53>strikebreakers. The UMWA sent an organizer into the town to talk to those miners. He was run out of town by the company's mine guard.

4394
04:08:22.480 --> 04:08:22.550
A

4395
04:08:22.840 --> 04:08:30.340
<v Speaker 53>second organizer was sent in, and he was accompanied out of town by the mine's superintendent, a mine guard, a deputy sheriff, and three state policemen.

4396
04:08:30.400 --> 04:08:31.040
The strikers

4397
04:08:31.110 --> 04:08:32.910
<v Speaker 53>tried a third time to organize the

4398
04:08:32.910 --> 04:08:36.180
<v Speaker 90>miners and to persuade the company to cease operations.

4399
04:08:36.560 --> 04:08:37.000
Several hundred

4400
04:08:37.140 --> 04:08:44.060
<v Speaker 62>of them then gathered in the hills surrounding Mohawk and shot down into the town until the company officials agreed to close the mines.

4401
04:08:46.020 --> 04:08:46.270
a

4402
04:08:47.200 --> 04:08:52.930
<v Speaker 64>group of armed miners intercepted a patrol of deputy sheriffs and state police under the command

4403
04:08:52.930 --> 04:08:56.660
<v Speaker 13>of a man named Captain Brockus real hothead didn't

4404
04:08:56.860 --> 04:08:57.070
get

4405
04:08:57.070 --> 04:09:05.810
<v Speaker 70>violent but the miners disarmed them and humiliated them and then chased them off and Captain Brockus took the whole matter very

4406
04:09:05.810 --> 04:09:06.840
<v Speaker 184>personally and his

4407
04:09:06.840 --> 04:09:09.480
<v Speaker 24>vendetta will come back to haunt us very soon

4408
04:09:09.480 --> 04:09:10.160
the

4409
04:09:10.660 --> 04:09:15.260
<v Speaker 225>miners overwhelmed the mine guards they overwhelmed the state

4410
04:09:15.260 --> 04:09:15.780
<v Speaker 63>police

4411
04:09:15.760 --> 04:09:20.720
<v Speaker 63>And they gained control of most of Mingo County. Now, rather

4412
04:09:20.890 --> 04:09:21.430
than

4413
04:09:21.430 --> 04:09:25.070
<v Speaker 24>mine guards patrolling the streets of company towns, it

4414
04:09:25.300 --> 04:09:25.530
was the

4415
04:09:25.530 --> 04:09:31.660
<v Speaker 206>miners who were posting sentries to watch out for scabs or for Baldwin-Feltzmen. They controlled the streets.

4416
04:09:32.040 --> 04:09:33.800
When the telephone company

4417
04:09:33.830 --> 04:09:39.890
<v Speaker 52>wanted to repair downed telephone lines, they had to request permission from the miners to do it.

4418
04:09:41.180 --> 04:09:41.910
Tom

4419
04:09:41.910 --> 04:09:47.140
<v Speaker 154>Feltz, president of Baldwin Feltz He knew he had to strike back And he had to strike

4420
04:09:47.320 --> 04:09:54.030
<v Speaker 87>back hard Or else risk his agency losing any hold they had whatsoever In the West Virginia coal fields He

4421
04:09:54.030 --> 04:09:55.000
decided to

4422
04:09:55.070 --> 04:09:59.830
<v Speaker 87>strike directly at the head of the snake Or at least that was the way he saw it He had

4423
04:09:59.830 --> 04:10:06.170
<v Speaker 275>personal reasons, obviously For hating Sid Hatfield Who had killed his two brothers in the Mate 1

4424
04:10:06.170 --> 04:10:07.040
gunfight

4425
04:10:06.990 --> 04:10:07.600
He and the

4426
04:10:07.790 --> 04:10:15.720
<v Speaker 55>operators used their influence to secure murder indictments on Sid and 22 of the minors purported to have been with him that

4427
04:10:15.720 --> 04:10:16.920
<v Speaker 90>day in May 1. They

4428
04:10:17.450 --> 04:10:18.420
instantly all became local

4429
04:10:18.500 --> 04:10:26.420
<v Speaker 90>celebrities, to the point that 500 people came to try to get into the overflowing Williamson courthouse to see their arraignment.

4430
04:10:27.730 --> 04:10:28.640
the people

4431
04:10:28.650 --> 04:10:32.690
<v Speaker 90>of mate one came together and paid the bail for every single one of them and soon

4432
04:10:33.070 --> 04:10:39.250
<v Speaker 87>enough sid was back walking the streets of mate one pistols on his hip police chief badge on his chest

4433
04:10:39.350 --> 04:10:40.490
but when the hotel

4434
04:10:40.490 --> 04:10:45.500
<v Speaker 11>owner who had fed the baldwin felt's guards on the day of the gun fight this

4435
04:10:45.570 --> 04:10:45.940
is a man

4436
04:10:45.940 --> 04:10:46.900
<v Speaker 11>who was known to

4437
04:10:46.900 --> 04:10:52.010
<v Speaker 20>oppose the union and be sympathetic to the guard's cause when he was shot and killed

4438
04:10:52.010 --> 04:10:53.570
<v Speaker 9>sid was blamed for that too

4439
04:10:54.300 --> 04:10:54.730
He had

4440
04:10:54.970 --> 04:11:00.050
<v Speaker 9>witnesses backing an alibi that put him somewhere else, but he was indicted for that murder. Behind

4441
04:11:00.250 --> 04:11:00.900
the scenes,

4442
04:11:00.900 --> 04:11:09.190
<v Speaker 59>Tom Feltz and the operators were doing everything they could to make sure that Sid's fate was sealed before his trial even started. Finally,

4443
04:11:09.190 --> 04:11:10.170
admitting that

4444
04:11:10.220 --> 04:11:16.150
<v Speaker 59>the state's forces were completely overmatched by the enraged miners of Mingo County, the

4445
04:11:16.610 --> 04:11:17.060
<v Speaker 47>governor, now

4446
04:11:17.060 --> 04:11:17.970
a man by the name

4447
04:11:17.970 --> 04:11:22.920
<v Speaker 47>of John Cornwell, called Washington, D.C. and asked for federal troops.

4448
04:11:23.940 --> 04:11:26.530
In late August, as the

4449
04:11:26.660 --> 04:11:31.850
<v Speaker 18>leaves were beginning to turn, federal troops came in and occupied Mingo County. Now,

4450
04:11:31.980 --> 04:11:32.690
the miners

4451
04:11:33.340 --> 04:11:39.530
<v Speaker 24>were tough and they were resourceful and they were able to stand up to bullies, but they were no match for U.S. soldiers. The

4452
04:11:39.530 --> 04:11:40.250
ones that

4453
04:11:40.250 --> 04:11:40.900
<v Speaker 24>didn't get

4454
04:11:40.900 --> 04:11:47.900
<v Speaker 109>the word that Daddy was in town and tried to continue their attacks were dealt with quickly by trained men using well-honed infantry

4455
04:11:48.070 --> 04:11:48.640
<v Speaker 90>tactics.

4456
04:11:49.470 --> 04:11:49.990
Throughout the

4457
04:11:49.990 --> 04:11:53.460
<v Speaker 90>fall, the operators in Baldwin-Feltz

4458
04:11:53.640 --> 04:11:53.640
hung

4459
04:11:53.670 --> 04:11:58.120
<v Speaker 90>back and watched the soldiers do their work. Several mines reopened

4460
04:11:58.120 --> 04:11:59.770
<v Speaker 109>under the protection of federal troops.

4461
04:12:00.010 --> 04:12:01.050
The operators

4462
04:12:01.050 --> 04:12:02.870
<v Speaker 109>were content to wait,

4463
04:12:03.130 --> 04:12:03.320
knowing

4464
04:12:03.320 --> 04:12:06.250
<v Speaker 9>that one of their best weapons would be deployed in a few months.

4465
04:12:06.530 --> 04:12:06.990
That weapon

4466
04:12:07.160 --> 04:12:08.920
<v Speaker 9>was the Mountain Winter.

4467
04:12:09.170 --> 04:12:10.410
Miners' wives and

4468
04:12:10.410 --> 04:12:13.870
<v Speaker 9>children were living with them in the freezing tent

4469
04:12:13.870 --> 04:12:14.300
<v Speaker 20>cities.

4470
04:12:14.590 --> 04:12:15.290
Those who got

4471
04:12:15.290 --> 04:12:20.830
<v Speaker 20>sick or those who had wives scheduled to give birth would have to do so without medical care.

4472
04:12:21.760 --> 04:12:22.560
The Union

4473
04:12:22.610 --> 04:12:27.720
<v Speaker 59>had to provide for all the people well enough to keep them going, and that cost a lot of money. In

4474
04:12:27.720 --> 04:12:28.570
the past, the

4475
04:12:28.570 --> 04:12:34.120
<v Speaker 59>winter had broken probably more strikes than a thousand Baldwin-Feldt's guards. As it

4476
04:12:34.290 --> 04:12:34.970
began to get

4477
04:12:34.970 --> 04:12:38.930
<v Speaker 59>cold, and things seemed to have calmed down, the Federal

4478
04:12:39.010 --> 04:12:42.240
<v Speaker 55>troops were pulled out, but fighting resumed almost immediately

4479
04:12:42.240 --> 04:12:47.760
<v Speaker 246>as miners went on the offensive against the working mines, and the strikebreakers brought in to work them.

4480
04:12:48.430 --> 04:12:48.620
On

4481
04:12:49.030 --> 04:12:58.030
<v Speaker 136>November 27th, the governor declares Mingo County to be in a state of insurrection and places the entire county under the dictatorship of the commanding general of the 5th Corps.

4482
04:12:58.030 --> 04:12:58.640
When the

4483
04:12:58.640 --> 04:12:59.950
<v Speaker 136>soldiers arrived

4484
04:12:59.950 --> 04:13:00.900
<v Speaker 62>again, many

4485
04:13:00.900 --> 04:13:01.420
of them

4486
04:13:01.420 --> 04:13:01.770
<v Speaker 62>were

4487
04:13:01.770 --> 04:13:08.050
<v Speaker 13>shocked to see the desperate state of the striking miners. Savage writes, quote,

4488
04:13:08.740 --> 04:13:09.150
Rain,

4489
04:13:09.330 --> 04:13:22.000
<v Speaker 52>snow, and wind swept across the Appalachian range, tearing the last leaves from the hardwoods and exposing the rocks and brown compost of the mountains. In the tent colonies, miners built fireplaces of rock and mortar,

4490
04:13:22.000 --> 04:13:33.400
<v Speaker 90>and many floored their tents. Families of five lived on $10 a week. Barefoot children played in the snow. Women gave birth in tents. Children died in the tents.

4491
04:13:33.920 --> 04:13:34.130
In a

4492
04:13:34.320 --> 04:13:46.020
<v Speaker 90>widely published story, one reporter told of following a barefoot child through the snow to a tent near Maitwan. You know, he's quoting the article. Inside, on a cot improvised of bricks and sand, a woman

4493
04:13:46.020 --> 04:13:52.040
<v Speaker 71>was writhing in pain. By her side sat a skeleton-like man, coughing desperately. On

4494
04:13:52.260 --> 04:13:52.690
the bare,

4495
04:13:52.690 --> 04:13:59.840
<v Speaker 215>frozen ground, these barefoot children sat huddled together holding hands over a miserable little wood fire.

4496
04:14:00.010 --> 04:14:03.500
<v Speaker 215>The tent sagged and strained under the whipping of the wind, end quote. A

4497
04:14:03.630 --> 04:14:04.910
New York Times

4498
04:14:04.910 --> 04:14:13.190
<v Speaker 175>reporter who was there on scene saw the degradation on the faces of the children living in a tent colony near Williamson.

4499
04:14:13.350 --> 04:14:14.730
He had brought several

4500
04:14:14.730 --> 04:14:16.810
<v Speaker 175>pounds of candy to distribute to

4501
04:14:16.900 --> 04:14:22.880
<v Speaker 248>the children, and they accepted it and they thanked him, but he noted that there was no laughing or squeals of delight.

4502
04:14:23.110 --> 04:14:24.090
Only the downcast

4503
04:14:24.090 --> 04:14:27.970
<v Speaker 164>faces of children who were grateful for the calories.

4504
04:14:28.940 --> 04:14:29.620
some of

4505
04:14:29.740 --> 04:14:30.100
<v Speaker 164>them

4506
04:14:30.100 --> 04:14:40.160
<v Speaker 35>asked about santa claus one boy said his brother was too sick to come get his candy and so the reporter and the crowd of children went to the tent where he was resting and

4507
04:14:40.160 --> 04:14:40.620
when he

4508
04:14:40.720 --> 04:14:47.370
<v Speaker 35>raised his hand up to get a piece lawn savage writes that the others nearly buried the little boy in candy

4509
04:14:47.380 --> 04:14:49.180
one thing that i suppose

4510
04:14:49.180 --> 04:14:57.520
<v Speaker 12>is worth mentioning because i probably have not emphasized it enough is that the coal operators were not monolithic

4511
04:14:58.510 --> 04:14:58.890
They

4512
04:14:59.260 --> 04:15:07.120
<v Speaker 12>were not uniform in their ruthlessness. They were all opposed to the union, but they weren't all the same. When the weather got so bad that people began

4513
04:15:07.120 --> 04:15:07.690
<v Speaker 59>to die,

4514
04:15:07.690 --> 04:15:14.930
<v Speaker 62>one mine owner opened up his empty houses to let the strikers' families live in them until the weather moderated. But

4515
04:15:15.400 --> 04:15:15.880
others went

4516
04:15:15.880 --> 04:15:21.110
<v Speaker 225>far in the other direction. One of them forced a family out of their home on Christmas

4517
04:15:21.110 --> 04:15:21.530
<v Speaker 13>Eve.

4518
04:15:22.210 --> 04:15:23.150
Media reports

4519
04:15:23.290 --> 04:15:26.830
<v Speaker 13>made the story widely known around the country.

4520
04:15:27.670 --> 04:15:33.080
<v Speaker 52>And other unions as well as charity groups and many regular people on their own volition started

4521
04:15:33.080 --> 04:15:35.310
<v Speaker 11>shipping food and supplies to Mingo County.

4522
04:15:35.410 --> 04:15:36.650
Seeing American

4523
04:15:36.650 --> 04:15:38.560
<v Speaker 11>families in this kind of

4524
04:15:38.700 --> 04:15:44.290
<v Speaker 12>desperation, other Americans stepped up on their own to help them.

4525
04:15:44.290 --> 04:15:45.140
As Christmas

4526
04:15:45.500 --> 04:15:46.930
<v Speaker 12>approached, a train came

4527
04:15:46.930 --> 04:15:55.630
<v Speaker 18>in with 2,000 hams, followed by loads of candy and nuts and fruit and toys for the children sent by the people of America.

4528
04:15:56.750 --> 04:15:57.450
with the

4529
04:15:57.720 --> 04:16:01.260
<v Speaker 175>soldiers back in town violence ceased almost immediately many

4530
04:16:01.570 --> 04:16:02.040
of the

4531
04:16:02.040 --> 04:16:07.950
<v Speaker 53>miners and their families at this time were actually welcoming the federal troops when they came in this

4532
04:16:08.050 --> 04:16:15.020
<v Speaker 289>time they actually staged a little parade for them or treated the soldiers like they were on a parade they all lined

4533
04:16:15.030 --> 04:16:17.550
<v Speaker 73>up on the road the soldiers were coming in on

4534
04:16:17.540 --> 04:16:17.980
and they

4535
04:16:17.980 --> 04:16:26.980
<v Speaker 290>passed out little American flags, and they had all the kids waving those, and everybody was dressed in their Sunday clothes, waving and singing songs for the soldiers to welcome them in.

4536
04:16:27.350 --> 04:16:28.440
They knew that the

4537
04:16:28.440 --> 04:16:38.160
<v Speaker 18>county sheriff and the state police and the West Virginia state government was beholden to the coal operators. They knew they couldn't hope for fair treatment from them, but

4538
04:16:38.250 --> 04:16:42.120
<v Speaker 5>they still believed that the nation at large...

4539
04:16:42.060 --> 04:16:42.400
And the

4540
04:16:42.480 --> 04:16:48.980
<v Speaker 5>federal government to which they were all loyal, for which many of them had fought in the trenches of France in 1918, that

4541
04:16:49.030 --> 04:16:50.090
when the federal

4542
04:16:50.100 --> 04:16:51.060
<v Speaker 5>government saw

4543
04:16:51.060 --> 04:16:52.390
<v Speaker 13>their situation, and

4544
04:16:52.480 --> 04:16:53.640
saw that they were

4545
04:16:53.650 --> 04:16:57.700
<v Speaker 50>only asking for the basic right of freedom of association, to gather

4546
04:16:58.070 --> 04:16:59.950
<v Speaker 25>and organize themselves, and

4547
04:16:59.950 --> 04:17:00.620
to negotiate

4548
04:17:00.750 --> 04:17:05.860
<v Speaker 25>with their employer with a collective voice, that they would be treated fairly by the U.S. government.

4549
04:17:07.820 --> 04:17:09.280
Well, the soldiers

4550
04:17:09.540 --> 04:17:13.160
<v Speaker 291>themselves did their part to justify the miners'

4551
04:17:13.160 --> 04:17:17.860
<v Speaker 13>hope. An army truck went up into the hills and came back with a big Christmas

4552
04:17:17.860 --> 04:17:27.880
<v Speaker 100>tree, which was set up in Williamson and covered with colored lights, and the Union even circulated a document around Christmas time instructing the miners to

4553
04:17:27.880 --> 04:17:29.310
keep within the law.

4554
04:17:29.520 --> 04:17:31.950
<v Speaker 100>The soldiers put out Christmas trees at their

4555
04:17:32.070 --> 04:17:34.140
<v Speaker 59>encampments, and on Christmas night,

4556
04:17:34.140 --> 04:17:34.310
they

4557
04:17:34.500 --> 04:17:34.720
The

4558
04:17:35.040 --> 04:17:39.150
<v Speaker 59>martial law injunction against large assemblies was temporarily suspended. And in

4559
04:17:39.150 --> 04:17:39.540
a scene

4560
04:17:39.540 --> 04:17:45.960
<v Speaker 59>that kind of calls up memories of the Christmas truce in 1914, you had strikers, non-union

4561
04:17:45.960 --> 04:17:53.110
<v Speaker 70>miners, soldiers, and local Williamson citizens all gathered around the big tree to sing Christmas carols together.

4562
04:17:53.310 --> 04:17:55.300
But the amity was

4563
04:17:55.300 --> 04:18:00.250
<v Speaker 59>short-lived. In January, the trial of Sid Hatfield

4564
04:18:00.250 --> 04:18:01.940
<v Speaker 67>and his friends began.

4565
04:18:02.850 --> 04:18:03.330
Tom

4566
04:18:03.340 --> 04:18:10.930
<v Speaker 67>Feltz had hired seven high-powered lawyers to assist the prosecution to make sure that Sid Hatfield was convicted and executed. Feltz

4567
04:18:11.100 --> 04:18:11.330
wanted

4568
04:18:11.330 --> 04:18:15.440
<v Speaker 84>nothing to do with the prison sentence. He wanted Sid Hatfield dead. One

4569
04:18:15.440 --> 04:18:16.760
of the lawyers that

4570
04:18:16.760 --> 04:18:21.750
<v Speaker 100>he hired to assist the prosecution, a practice which even by itself seems

4571
04:18:21.810 --> 04:18:27.840
<v Speaker 12>pretty inappropriate, I think. Imagine you're accused of a crime and the wealthy brother of the alleged victim

4572
04:18:27.840 --> 04:18:30.710
<v Speaker 292>hires a bunch of lawyers to go to work for the prosecution.

4573
04:18:31.440 --> 04:18:31.770
Well,

4574
04:18:31.890 --> 04:18:34.680
<v Speaker 292>one of those lawyers he hired was named James Dameron,

4575
04:18:34.760 --> 04:18:35.690
who had been

4576
04:18:35.720 --> 04:18:35.780
<v Speaker 292>a

4577
04:18:35.780 --> 04:18:46.090
<v Speaker 57>judge until the previous August, when he handed down the indictments on Sid and the others and then immediately resigned his position and went to work prosecuting them for Tom Feltz.

4578
04:18:46.300 --> 04:18:46.470
<v Speaker 13>It

4579
04:18:46.760 --> 04:18:48.230
seemed like everybody in

4580
04:18:48.290 --> 04:18:51.930
<v Speaker 13>West Virginia showed up to watch that trial. The

4581
04:18:52.180 --> 04:18:52.770
miners came in

4582
04:18:52.770 --> 04:18:54.030
<v Speaker 13>wearing their working

4583
04:18:54.100 --> 04:18:59.030
<v Speaker 177>overalls or corduroys, all of them except for Sid, who was marked off as the group's

4584
04:18:59.130 --> 04:19:00.720
<v Speaker 11>leader by a brown suit.

4585
04:19:01.340 --> 04:19:01.590
Fit

4586
04:19:01.590 --> 04:19:05.240
<v Speaker 11>for a Maitwan police chief now seeking higher office. Not

4587
04:19:05.430 --> 04:19:06.410
long into

4588
04:19:06.410 --> 04:19:12.060
<v Speaker 293>the trial, there was an uproar when it was discovered that Sid had two guns on him,

4589
04:19:12.180 --> 04:19:12.870
and he said that

4590
04:19:12.880 --> 04:19:17.700
<v Speaker 35>he'd been threatened with assassination, but he willingly surrendered his weapons. In

4591
04:19:17.700 --> 04:19:18.980
the courtroom,

4592
04:19:18.980 --> 04:19:21.620
<v Speaker 35>Sid was loose, smiling, hamming

4593
04:19:21.620 --> 04:19:30.400
<v Speaker 20>it up for reporters. When he was surrounded by a dozen of them looking for a quote, he said, "'I reckon you thought I had horns.'

4594
04:19:30.370 --> 04:19:30.660
They

4595
04:19:30.870 --> 04:19:32.870
<v Speaker 20>got a kick out of that, and headlines

4596
04:19:32.870 --> 04:19:40.990
<v Speaker 13>went out calling him Smiling Sid and the boy leader of the mountains, since he looked younger than his 28 years. He's an only 28-year-old man. Asked

4597
04:19:41.110 --> 04:19:42.840
about the Matewine gunfight

4598
04:19:42.840 --> 04:19:51.050
<v Speaker 177>by a reporter from Philly, Sid told him it was a life or death matter. He did only what everybody would have done in the circumstances. The

4599
04:19:51.290 --> 04:19:52.280
judge surprised

4600
04:19:52.280 --> 04:19:59.050
<v Speaker 294>everyone and revoked bail for the whole group, and so after the day was done, they were moved to the jail.

4601
04:19:59.840 --> 04:20:00.090
But

4602
04:20:00.470 --> 04:20:07.890
<v Speaker 294>while the judge might have been more sympathetic with the owners, the men closer to the ground favored the minors, and that included the jailer. The jailer's wife

4603
04:20:07.890 --> 04:20:11.470
<v Speaker 70>invited Sid's wife to stay in their house during the trial. The

4604
04:20:11.470 --> 04:20:12.450
jailer gave the

4605
04:20:12.450 --> 04:20:13.760
<v Speaker 70>minors their own wing

4606
04:20:13.840 --> 04:20:17.840
<v Speaker 229>and left their cell doors unlocked so that they could circulate

4607
04:20:17.840 --> 04:20:20.380
<v Speaker 295>and socialize with each other. When

4608
04:20:20.730 --> 04:20:21.310
their wives and

4609
04:20:21.310 --> 04:20:25.610
<v Speaker 292>girlfriends and other relatives were allowed to come visit them, they

4610
04:20:25.630 --> 04:20:26.160
turned it

4611
04:20:26.160 --> 04:20:28.960
<v Speaker 292>into a full-fledged party right there in the jail.

4612
04:20:29.650 --> 04:20:29.950
While

4613
04:20:30.090 --> 04:20:32.170
<v Speaker 5>everyone was singing and dancing inside,

4614
04:20:32.220 --> 04:20:38.030
<v Speaker 260>Sid went to the window and shouted out to a gaggle of reporters that this wasn't jail, it's the Maitwan Hotel.

4615
04:20:38.470 --> 04:20:40.100
That was a tough task

4616
04:20:40.100 --> 04:20:46.040
<v Speaker 113>finding a jury that could even pretend to be impartial, not

4617
04:20:46.140 --> 04:20:52.940
<v Speaker 26>least because it was hard to find people who weren't related in one way or another to any of the 22 defendants.

4618
04:20:52.990 --> 04:20:53.240
The

4619
04:20:53.780 --> 04:20:55.900
<v Speaker 26>charges on two of them were dropped Almost as soon

4620
04:20:55.900 --> 04:20:55.900
as

4621
04:20:56.060 --> 04:21:07.770
<v Speaker 292>the trial began And both of them were super upset about it They demanded to stand trial with their friends And they stormed out when the judge told them That it wasn't up for discussion Well the lawyers for the minors Knew

4622
04:21:07.770 --> 04:21:09.990
<v Speaker 184>their audience In both the jury

4623
04:21:09.990 --> 04:21:21.410
<v Speaker 35>and the gallery And they played the songs that they knew Those people wanted to hear They were asking Baldwin-Feltz witnesses How many women, children, and sick people They'd evicted from their homes that day

4624
04:21:22.260 --> 04:21:22.680
As it

4625
04:21:23.050 --> 04:21:31.950
<v Speaker 12>became clear that the trial was going pretty well for the defendants, the prosecution's hired lawyers tried a different strategy. Isaac Brewer,

4626
04:21:32.050 --> 04:21:33.320
one of the

4627
04:21:33.320 --> 04:21:38.940
<v Speaker 266>miners who had been standing behind Sid Hatfield when the shooting started, had taken one in the

4628
04:21:38.940 --> 04:21:50.130
<v Speaker 13>chest and had his gun shot out of his hand, and he was able to make his way to safety, and he survived to be indicted and tried with the rest of them. The operator's men got word to the defendants

4629
04:21:50.870 --> 04:21:51.000
that...

4630
04:21:50.960 --> 04:21:51.200
they

4631
04:21:51.420 --> 04:21:58.140
<v Speaker 13>thought might be vulnerable to compromise, that they would pay $1,000 to anyone who switched sides and witnessed for the prosecution.

4632
04:21:58.140 --> 04:22:03.090
<v Speaker 292>Brewer was initially rock solid, but a Baldwin-Felds spy set

4633
04:22:03.090 --> 04:22:11.460
<v Speaker 36>up in Mate One as the owner of a restaurant where the miners regularly gathered. He worked Brewer over for months.

4634
04:22:12.140 --> 04:22:12.920
<v Speaker 36>This is a very

4635
04:22:12.930 --> 04:22:21.070
<v Speaker 52>skilled undercover operative. Been working for a long time. He was telling them that Sid and the others were planning on framing him and putting the whole thing on him

4636
04:22:21.260 --> 04:22:22.040
and that they were

4637
04:22:22.040 --> 04:22:25.240
<v Speaker 70>going to leave him hanging to get themselves out of trouble.

4638
04:22:25.500 --> 04:22:26.880
Again, these labor

4639
04:22:26.880 --> 04:22:29.900
<v Speaker 70>spies were snakes, but they were good at their job.

4640
04:22:30.160 --> 04:22:30.180
This

4641
04:22:30.180 --> 04:22:32.460
<v Speaker 290>man, his name was Charles Lively. At

4642
04:22:32.580 --> 04:22:32.930
least we

4643
04:22:32.930 --> 04:22:37.270
<v Speaker 290>think that was his name. He gave so many different ones over the years it can be hard to track.

4644
04:22:37.510 --> 04:22:38.740
He made Brewer

4645
04:22:38.740 --> 04:22:41.130
<v Speaker 290>think he was his friend.

4646
04:22:41.140 --> 04:22:41.330
Come

4647
04:22:41.500 --> 04:22:47.400
<v Speaker 296>into the restaurant, he'd feed him steaks and free liquor as he whispered this poison into Brewer's ears. Lively

4648
04:22:47.400 --> 04:22:47.980
later

4649
04:22:48.080 --> 04:22:53.840
<v Speaker 35>said that it was the toughest assignment in terms of difficulty that he ever

4650
04:22:53.920 --> 04:22:56.800
<v Speaker 36>had as an undercover agent. It took months.

4651
04:22:57.160 --> 04:22:57.830
There were times

4652
04:22:57.830 --> 04:23:02.730
<v Speaker 36>when his prodding pushed Brewer to the point of rage and he was close to giving Lively a beating.

4653
04:23:03.180 --> 04:23:04.090
One night,

4654
04:23:04.090 --> 04:23:07.700
<v Speaker 90>Lively told an interviewer later...

4655
04:23:07.700 --> 04:23:20.150
<v Speaker 90>one night brewer ate in my place and i decided to turn him for good i told him it means your life for theirs they're gonna swear you fired the first shot are you gonna swear you fired the first shot and be the goat

4656
04:23:20.330 --> 04:23:20.960
he got up and

4657
04:23:20.960 --> 04:23:25.420
<v Speaker 90>started to go out i said come into the kitchen i got something nice i

4658
04:23:25.740 --> 04:23:26.060
gave him a

4659
04:23:26.060 --> 04:23:27.020
<v Speaker 90>drink of white

4660
04:23:27.020 --> 04:23:35.250
<v Speaker 53>lightning moonshine whiskey and talked i gave him another and kept talking finally he said well what do you want me to do

4661
04:23:35.450 --> 04:23:35.990
we had another

4662
04:23:36.520 --> 04:23:37.000
<v Speaker 91>drink

4663
04:23:37.620 --> 04:23:37.620
Then

4664
04:23:37.640 --> 04:23:42.640
<v Speaker 91>I said, get in touch with one of the state's lawyers and tell them you're ready to tell the straight of it.

4665
04:23:43.070 --> 04:23:43.390
Those boys

4666
04:23:43.410 --> 04:23:45.910
<v Speaker 91>are going to sacrifice you. Go and save

4667
04:23:45.910 --> 04:23:46.730
<v Speaker 126>yourself.

4668
04:23:46.960 --> 04:23:47.640
The next thing I

4669
04:23:47.710 --> 04:23:51.030
<v Speaker 126>knew, Isaac Brewer had turned state's witness.

4670
04:23:51.350 --> 04:23:54.250
The jury and the townspeople seemed

4671
04:23:54.250 --> 04:23:58.130
<v Speaker 13>skeptical of Brewer's story, though.

4672
04:23:58.390 --> 04:23:58.520
Many of

4673
04:23:58.520 --> 04:24:00.810
<v Speaker 13>them were just outright hostile to him.

4674
04:24:01.080 --> 04:24:01.840
And in any case,

4675
04:24:01.960 --> 04:24:04.710
<v Speaker 192>he couldn't say for certain...

4676
04:24:04.690 --> 04:24:05.030
that

4677
04:24:05.150 --> 04:24:10.940
<v Speaker 192>he'd seen who fired the initial bullet that had killed the mayor that question was very quickly becoming the crux of the

4678
04:24:10.940 --> 04:24:11.920
<v Speaker 177>whole dispute and

4679
04:24:12.090 --> 04:24:13.500
so worried that things

4680
04:24:13.500 --> 04:24:21.350
<v Speaker 177>were really turning against him Baldwin Feltz reluctantly, very reluctantly put their top labor spy, Charles Lively on

4681
04:24:21.570 --> 04:24:22.420
the stand

4682
04:24:22.420 --> 04:24:24.580
<v Speaker 59>to testify, they blew his cover

4683
04:24:25.060 --> 04:24:26.140
among all the other

4684
04:24:26.140 --> 04:24:31.150
<v Speaker 59>ways you could describe him one thing that Charles Lively was,

4685
04:24:31.240 --> 04:24:31.680
<v Speaker 18>was a murderer

4686
04:24:32.240 --> 04:24:32.410
He

4687
04:24:32.620 --> 04:24:37.380
<v Speaker 18>had killed a man in Colorado just before the Ludlow Massacre there, in cold blood.

4688
04:24:37.380 --> 04:24:37.520
<v Speaker 203>He

4689
04:24:37.750 --> 04:24:37.750
was

4690
04:24:37.760 --> 04:24:39.070
<v Speaker 18>arrested and did time

4691
04:24:39.090 --> 04:24:40.000
<v Speaker 203>for it. Then

4692
04:24:40.120 --> 04:24:40.930
he had worked as a

4693
04:24:40.930 --> 04:24:43.310
<v Speaker 203>spy and a strikebreaker for Baldwin-Felts

4694
04:24:43.310 --> 04:24:45.220
<v Speaker 13>all over the country. Lively

4695
04:24:45.220 --> 04:24:46.640
was transferred out to

4696
04:24:46.640 --> 04:24:49.850
<v Speaker 13>West Virginia when trouble looked like it was on the

4697
04:24:49.850 --> 04:24:54.930
<v Speaker 59>horizon, and he went to work in one of the mines to embed himself among the miners and start to

4698
04:24:54.960 --> 04:24:55.910
<v Speaker 70>gain their trust. He

4699
04:24:56.100 --> 04:24:57.240
joined the Union

4700
04:24:57.240 --> 04:24:59.480
<v Speaker 70>local at Stone Mountain.

4701
04:24:59.940 --> 04:25:01.800
<v Speaker 70>Became one of its most active members.

4702
04:25:01.990 --> 04:25:02.310
He was

4703
04:25:02.310 --> 04:25:11.090
<v Speaker 70>organizing meetings and recruiting members, giving speeches. Very often the speeches were laced with violent rhetoric. He was encouraging people

4704
04:25:11.160 --> 04:25:12.460
<v Speaker 9>to go out and do violent things.

4705
04:25:12.630 --> 04:25:13.420
He could work

4706
04:25:13.420 --> 04:25:14.930
<v Speaker 9>for the FBI today.

4707
04:25:15.130 --> 04:25:15.920
Anyway, like

4708
04:25:16.000 --> 04:25:18.800
<v Speaker 9>I said, this guy was good at his job.

4709
04:25:18.990 --> 04:25:20.170
And the miners

4710
04:25:20.170 --> 04:25:22.380
<v Speaker 202>really trusted him.

4711
04:25:22.570 --> 04:25:23.520
They had no

4712
04:25:23.520 --> 04:25:24.390
<v Speaker 202>idea.

4713
04:25:25.220 --> 04:25:25.610
Well,

4714
04:25:25.900 --> 04:25:32.250
<v Speaker 63>eventually he hatched another plan, and Baldwin Feltz set him up in the east end of Maitwan with a restaurant. Better

4715
04:25:32.250 --> 04:25:33.000
yet, it was on

4716
04:25:33.020 --> 04:25:38.620
<v Speaker 72>the lower floor of a building that contained the offices of the United Mine Workers there. Well,

4717
04:25:38.630 --> 04:25:39.960
Lively was already

4718
04:25:39.960 --> 04:25:43.220
<v Speaker 72>a popular figure with the miners, so the restaurant

4719
04:25:43.230 --> 04:25:43.950
<v Speaker 109>became a popular

4720
04:25:43.950 --> 04:25:51.840
<v Speaker 55>place for them to gather. The men would go there and speak freely. Sometimes he would catch bits of conversation from Union men coming down the stairs.

4721
04:25:52.540 --> 04:25:52.740
And

4722
04:25:52.990 --> 04:25:55.010
<v Speaker 297>every night, Charles Lively sent out

4723
04:25:55.120 --> 04:25:57.750
<v Speaker 13>coded reports to his superiors at Baldwin Feltz.

4724
04:25:58.250 --> 04:25:58.850
Nobody, I

4725
04:25:58.850 --> 04:26:02.180
<v Speaker 13>mean nobody, had any idea Lively

4726
04:26:02.270 --> 04:26:03.580
<v Speaker 84>was a spy. So

4727
04:26:03.870 --> 04:26:04.090
when the

4728
04:26:04.090 --> 04:26:07.130
<v Speaker 84>prosecution announced the addition of a surprise

4729
04:26:07.140 --> 04:26:10.020
<v Speaker 100>witness and Charles Lively walked into the room,

4730
04:26:10.200 --> 04:26:10.590
the whole

4731
04:26:10.590 --> 04:26:19.360
<v Speaker 13>courtroom went into an uproar. Miners glared at him. They watched and listened to Lively give his testimony with murder in their eyes.

4732
04:26:20.910 --> 04:26:21.950
but the

4733
04:26:22.320 --> 04:26:29.120
<v Speaker 217>move turned out to be another misstep for the prosecution and the defense knew exactly how to parry it

4734
04:26:29.150 --> 04:26:30.320
nobody

4735
04:26:30.560 --> 04:26:35.980
<v Speaker 5>likes a sneak nobody likes a liar and nobody likes a snitch and

4736
04:26:35.980 --> 04:26:36.530
all of

4737
04:26:37.050 --> 04:26:40.830
<v Speaker 5>those things were part of Charles Lively's job description Lively

4738
04:26:41.390 --> 04:26:41.750
told the

4739
04:26:41.800 --> 04:26:43.090
<v Speaker 5>courtroom

4740
04:26:43.090 --> 04:26:50.250
<v Speaker 109>about conversations he said he'd heard which had the miners bragging about their role in the massacre but in the end it was just

4741
04:26:50.250 --> 04:26:50.860
hearsay

4742
04:26:50.850 --> 04:26:51.300
Under

4743
04:26:51.580 --> 04:26:58.930
<v Speaker 53>cross-examination, Lively, the sociopath, was so tone-deaf to how he was coming across to regular people That he just made

4744
04:26:58.980 --> 04:27:02.110
<v Speaker 209>the defense's job easy They asked him,

4745
04:27:02.110 --> 04:27:02.850
so when you

4746
04:27:02.850 --> 04:27:04.930
<v Speaker 209>became a member of the union,

4747
04:27:04.930 --> 04:27:05.410
did you

4748
04:27:05.410 --> 04:27:15.550
<v Speaker 209>not raise your hand and swear a solemn oath? And he said he had So the defense says, well, that oath didn't mean much to you,

4749
04:27:15.550 --> 04:27:16.070
did it?

4750
04:27:16.020 --> 04:27:16.520
So why

4751
04:27:16.810 --> 04:27:17.930
<v Speaker 209>would we believe

4752
04:27:17.940 --> 04:27:21.780
<v Speaker 298>that you value the oath you took today in this courtroom any more highly? Have

4753
04:27:21.780 --> 04:27:22.240
you not

4754
04:27:22.270 --> 04:27:28.430
<v Speaker 298>already proven yourself willing to betray your oath as part of your obligation to the men who pay you? The

4755
04:27:28.430 --> 04:27:28.930
same men

4756
04:27:29.010 --> 04:27:31.940
<v Speaker 298>who today are paying the state's lawyers? The

4757
04:27:32.420 --> 04:27:32.600
defense

4758
04:27:32.600 --> 04:27:40.540
<v Speaker 226>smelled blood. Press the advantage. He asked what he knew about the attempt by Baldwin Felt to bribe Sid Hatfield.

4759
04:27:41.410 --> 04:27:42.010
and the

4760
04:27:42.130 --> 04:27:44.050
<v Speaker 286>usually calm and collected lively

4761
04:27:44.050 --> 04:27:47.830
<v Speaker 209>shifts in his seat he says he said something about an offer

4762
04:27:47.840 --> 04:27:48.530
he turned

4763
04:27:48.530 --> 04:27:50.090
<v Speaker 209>down the offer didn't

4764
04:27:50.090 --> 04:27:51.040
he now that was

4765
04:27:51.130 --> 04:27:53.740
<v Speaker 209>the substance of it was anything else

4766
04:27:53.950 --> 04:27:55.150
<v Speaker 67>said on the subject

4767
04:27:55.150 --> 04:27:55.900
well he said

4768
04:27:55.900 --> 04:27:59.610
<v Speaker 67>something about being offered a thousand dollars in a monthly

4769
04:28:00.350 --> 04:28:01.550
salary and that

4770
04:28:01.550 --> 04:28:02.470
<v Speaker 67>got him

4771
04:28:03.860 --> 04:28:03.860
Charles

4772
04:28:04.010 --> 04:28:14.640
<v Speaker 67>Lively was an admitted liar and an oath breaker while Sid Hatfield had turned down a $1,000 bribe rather than betray his friends or his job as police chief Nothing

4773
04:28:14.640 --> 04:28:18.300
<v Speaker 52>Lively was going to say after that was going to register with the jury By

4774
04:28:18.300 --> 04:28:19.060
the time of

4775
04:28:19.060 --> 04:28:20.940
<v Speaker 52>the closing statements the

4776
04:28:20.940 --> 04:28:25.040
<v Speaker 83>defense was just strutting in front of the jury They knew they'd won They wanted to

4777
04:28:25.040 --> 04:28:28.160
<v Speaker 298>buy Sid Hatfield like they did Isaac Brewer

4778
04:28:28.160 --> 04:28:31.770
<v Speaker 222>and Charles Lively If Hatfield could have been bought

4779
04:28:32.140 --> 04:28:39.010
<v Speaker 222>He would have been in the place of Brewer and Lively today, but he could not be bought. And he stands trial for his life. I

4780
04:28:39.160 --> 04:28:39.540
am proud

4781
04:28:39.540 --> 04:28:47.600
<v Speaker 222>to know that Matewan elected such unimpeachable men to office. Poor, perhaps, but men who will not sell their manhood.

4782
04:28:48.010 --> 04:28:48.910
They tried not

4783
04:28:48.910 --> 04:28:59.000
<v Speaker 222>only to buy Sid Hatfield, but offered to pay $1,000 to bring a machine gun into Matewan. And what for? To shoot down that little band of union men.

4784
04:29:00.580 --> 04:29:01.270
the

4785
04:29:02.040 --> 04:29:02.820
<v Speaker 299>trial lasted

4786
04:29:02.820 --> 04:29:11.950
<v Speaker 35>43 days and by the time it came to a close it was nearly springtime the jury convened to discuss the fate of the men but no sooner

4787
04:29:11.950 --> 04:29:13.010
<v Speaker 75>had they closed the

4788
04:29:13.010 --> 04:29:20.570
<v Speaker 11>door to the deliberation room than one of them, a farmer who had ridden into town from his wilderness home on horseback looks

4789
04:29:20.570 --> 04:29:21.150
out the

4790
04:29:21.540 --> 04:29:24.000
<v Speaker 177>window into the distance he

4791
04:29:24.720 --> 04:29:27.310
<v Speaker 13>says, when this trial started

4792
04:29:27.840 --> 04:29:28.050
The

4793
04:29:28.270 --> 04:29:30.170
<v Speaker 13>mountains out there were green and bare.

4794
04:29:30.570 --> 04:29:30.900
Now the

4795
04:29:30.980 --> 04:29:33.300
<v Speaker 13>trial was ending, and the

4796
04:29:33.830 --> 04:29:35.990
<v Speaker 249>mountains were turning green, and the dogwood and

4797
04:29:35.990 --> 04:29:38.010
<v Speaker 136>laurel were about to bloom, he says. He

4798
04:29:38.250 --> 04:29:38.880
says he was

4799
04:29:38.880 --> 04:29:49.520
<v Speaker 136>prepared to sit there in that room until the mountains turned brown again and the dogwoods bloomed again before he would vote to convict a single Matewan boy.

4800
04:29:50.720 --> 04:29:50.720
There

4801
04:29:50.800 --> 04:29:56.150
<v Speaker 294>was no point in arguing it, if anybody had wanted to. So the jury quickly returned a verdict

4802
04:29:56.150 --> 04:29:58.050
<v Speaker 13>of not guilty on all the men. People

4803
04:29:58.170 --> 04:29:58.430
in the

4804
04:29:58.440 --> 04:30:05.370
<v Speaker 13>courtroom signaled to the people in the lobby, and the people in the lobby informed the assembled crowd outside, and a great cheer went up.

4805
04:30:05.510 --> 04:30:06.280
When the men

4806
04:30:06.280 --> 04:30:14.920
<v Speaker 59>returned on the 5 o'clock train into Mate One, the entire town turned out to welcome them back like war heroes. Charles Lively,

4807
04:30:14.920 --> 04:30:19.010
<v Speaker 9>the coward, did not go back to Mate One.

4808
04:30:19.010 --> 04:30:19.250
even

4809
04:30:19.380 --> 04:30:21.340
<v Speaker 9>though his wife and children were still there

4810
04:30:21.340 --> 04:30:30.940
<v Speaker 64>later his son who did not retain a positive memory of his father wrote that he had abandoned his family to whatever the outrage minors might have in store for them

4811
04:30:30.940 --> 04:30:31.500
he said his

4812
04:30:31.500 --> 04:30:31.880
<v Speaker 64>mother

4813
04:30:31.880 --> 04:30:40.020
<v Speaker 75>kept the children inside and pulled the curtains closed fearing that there was going to be a knock on the door from the men that her husband had

4814
04:30:40.410 --> 04:30:41.730
<v Speaker 63>betrayed and tried

4815
04:30:41.730 --> 04:30:43.590
to hang when the knock

4816
04:30:43.810 --> 04:30:46.820
<v Speaker 175>finally came she creeps to the door

4817
04:30:46.820 --> 04:30:46.820
and

4818
04:30:47.020 --> 04:30:51.960
<v Speaker 175>And she answers, and it's a bunch of Union men standing out on the porch. This is all from her son.

4819
04:30:52.160 --> 04:30:53.400
And they told her they

4820
04:30:53.410 --> 04:30:54.190
<v Speaker 300>had nothing

4821
04:30:54.190 --> 04:30:56.520
<v Speaker 136>to fear from them or anyone else.

4822
04:30:56.720 --> 04:30:57.040
And they

4823
04:30:57.040 --> 04:31:00.650
<v Speaker 136>helped her get her things together and loaded onto a wagon

4824
04:31:00.900 --> 04:31:00.900
and

4825
04:31:00.900 --> 04:31:06.840
<v Speaker 292>took her to a train and saw her off back to Bluefield, where Baldwin Feltz was headquartered and where their father had fled.

4826
04:31:07.040 --> 04:31:08.590
So Sid was free and

4827
04:31:08.590 --> 04:31:15.760
<v Speaker 24>back in Mate 1, among friends, but everybody knew that Tom Feltz was not through with them.

4828
04:31:16.150 --> 04:31:19.970
<v Speaker 24>and that he was a marked man. Sid even said so.

4829
04:31:19.970 --> 04:31:23.300
<v Speaker 299>He admitted they'd probably get him one day, sooner or later.

4830
04:31:23.300 --> 04:31:24.130
He still had

4831
04:31:24.140 --> 04:31:26.730
<v Speaker 299>another murder charge ahead of him,

4832
04:31:26.730 --> 04:31:27.230
the one

4833
04:31:27.230 --> 04:31:28.570
<v Speaker 10>for the hotel owner,

4834
04:31:28.710 --> 04:31:29.070
and this

4835
04:31:29.070 --> 04:31:32.500
<v Speaker 10>time Tom Feltz was not going to leave anything to chance.

4836
04:31:32.760 --> 04:31:33.350
One of the

4837
04:31:33.410 --> 04:31:37.880
<v Speaker 52>lawyers that he had hired to assist the prosecution also happened to be a state senator in

4838
04:31:37.980 --> 04:31:38.530
<v Speaker 35>West Virginia,

4839
04:31:38.870 --> 04:31:39.520
and during

4840
04:31:39.520 --> 04:31:46.600
<v Speaker 35>the trial he rushed through a bill that would allow the prosecution in criminal cases - Thank you.

4841
04:31:46.320 --> 04:31:46.320
to

4842
04:31:46.410 --> 04:31:48.480
<v Speaker 35>draw a jury from outside the area.

4843
04:31:48.760 --> 04:31:49.600
Now, it's long

4844
04:31:49.650 --> 04:31:51.660
<v Speaker 35>been the practice to allow the

4845
04:31:52.160 --> 04:31:53.180
defense to request a

4846
04:31:53.180 --> 04:31:58.260
<v Speaker 175>change of venue if they feel like the local community is too involved in a case to be impartial,

4847
04:31:58.440 --> 04:31:58.440
but

4848
04:31:58.530 --> 04:32:05.340
<v Speaker 59>this was spinning that on its head. Now, it would be the prosecution complaining that the local community wouldn't be impartial and

4849
04:32:05.340 --> 04:32:06.820
<v Speaker 12>demanding...

4850
04:32:06.800 --> 04:32:06.950
In

4851
04:32:07.100 --> 04:32:15.270
<v Speaker 12>flagrant violation of the right to be tried by one's peers, I'm no lawyer, that's how it looks to me, to get a jury that will be more likely to convict. In

4852
04:32:15.380 --> 04:32:16.810
the meantime, the

4853
04:32:16.810 --> 04:32:22.350
<v Speaker 9>federal troops pulled out of Mingo again as springtime opened, and

4854
04:32:22.350 --> 04:32:22.950
again,

4855
04:32:22.950 --> 04:32:29.510
<v Speaker 136>almost immediately the fighting resumed, on May 12th, when half a dozen towns came under fire.

4856
04:32:30.300 --> 04:32:35.090
<v Speaker 136>Guards and the non-union miners grabbed their guns and started firing back And

4857
04:32:35.090 --> 04:32:44.390
<v Speaker 9>there were battles up and down the Tug Valley The state police came in on a passenger train with sniper rifles Firing them from the train into the hills Lon

4858
04:32:44.650 --> 04:32:52.100
<v Speaker 71>Savage writes, quote That night, families slept on floors, under beds, in cellars And the

4859
04:32:52.480 --> 04:32:52.480
shooting

4860
04:32:52.530 --> 04:32:57.350
<v Speaker 90>continued Lighted windows drew gunfire until, one by one, they blinked

4861
04:32:57.350 --> 04:32:57.620
out

4862
04:32:57.620 --> 04:32:57.740
At

4863
04:32:57.740 --> 04:33:05.130
<v Speaker 90>Maitwon, streetlights were extinguished. The battle resumed full fury at dawn Friday and raged all day.

4864
04:33:05.130 --> 04:33:05.550
A woman

4865
04:33:05.550 --> 04:33:12.980
<v Speaker 90>walking across a clearing with her baby drew fire in Maitwon. She ran for safety, clutching her child as bullets kicked up dust

4866
04:33:12.980 --> 04:33:20.640
<v Speaker 10>around her. A teamster jumped from his wagon and fled amid a hail of bullets as his mule stampeded aimlessly, the wagon bouncing behind him.

4867
04:33:21.220 --> 04:33:21.640
two more

4868
04:33:21.670 --> 04:33:23.860
<v Speaker 10>persons were killed ambrose gooseland

4869
04:33:23.860 --> 04:33:30.910
<v Speaker 90>16 was hit in the stomach on a railroad bridge near mate one and lay there all day alive as bullets hit around

4870
04:33:30.910 --> 04:33:31.310
him he

4871
04:33:31.310 --> 04:33:38.810
<v Speaker 90>died two days later dan witt of mate one was killed the same morning when he left his family to go for water 40 miners

4872
04:33:38.930 --> 04:33:45.010
<v Speaker 185>were hemmed in at a mine by heavy fire stray bullets killed half a dozen cattle

4873
04:33:45.010 --> 04:33:45.490
and a mule

4874
04:33:45.470 --> 04:33:45.880
At one

4875
04:33:45.890 --> 04:33:48.020
<v Speaker 185>mine, a bookkeeper was driven

4876
04:33:48.020 --> 04:33:53.790
<v Speaker 138>back by gunfire each time he left his building to retrieve a pile of groceries that were spoiling by the railroad. Like

4877
04:33:53.960 --> 04:33:54.280
running a

4878
04:33:54.280 --> 04:33:55.800
<v Speaker 138>gauntlet, passenger trains

4879
04:33:55.800 --> 04:33:57.920
<v Speaker 88>roared through the valley at full speed,

4880
04:33:57.930 --> 04:34:06.830
<v Speaker 70>their passengers lying on the floors. In Maitwan, businesses closed, school was canceled, and non-union miners abandoned their cabins and fled.

4881
04:34:07.280 --> 04:34:07.490
Sid

4882
04:34:07.670 --> 04:34:13.870
<v Speaker 225>walked through the largely deserted town with his friends, heavily armed, and found the superintendent of the Stone

4883
04:34:13.870 --> 04:34:31.840
<v Speaker 301>Mountain Coal Company supervising a group of men unloading a rail car. They quarreled, and Sid hit the superintendent. Some said Sid struck him down with his rifle. Sid admitted only that he slapped him down. The superintendent was hospitalized nine days, and another criminal charge, the 10th, was

4884
04:34:31.940 --> 04:34:34.600
<v Speaker 71>filed against the young constable of Magnolia District.

4885
04:34:35.410 --> 04:34:36.880
On Friday, a

4886
04:34:36.960 --> 04:34:41.950
<v Speaker 71>deputy sheriff waving a piece of white muslin made contact with Union riflemen in the mountains

4887
04:34:41.960 --> 04:34:48.950
<v Speaker 53>behind Mate 1, and they promised to stop shooting if their opponents would do so too. Acting on that promise, the commander of

4888
04:34:48.950 --> 04:34:57.090
<v Speaker 71>the state police sent a prominent physician into the Kentucky mountains to negotiate with the non-Union miners there. The physician crawled a half-mile under

4889
04:34:57.090 --> 04:35:04.090
<v Speaker 72>fire and, standing among bullet-riddled buildings, obtained a promise that the non-Union miners would cease their firing.

4890
04:35:04.070 --> 04:35:04.250
The

4891
04:35:04.400 --> 04:35:11.970
<v Speaker 10>doctor returned triumphantly Saturday night to Matewan, where an elated state police commander welcomed him. As the word spread,

4892
04:35:11.980 --> 04:35:16.330
<v Speaker 215>the three days' battle slowed and stopped, end quote.

4893
04:35:16.540 --> 04:35:18.870
Well, by this point, the governor

4894
04:35:18.870 --> 04:35:21.910
<v Speaker 292>of West Virginia is in full panic mode. He

4895
04:35:22.080 --> 04:35:22.520
calls on

4896
04:35:22.520 --> 04:35:27.700
<v Speaker 292>President Harding to send in federal troops, saying nothing

4897
04:35:27.780 --> 04:35:32.160
<v Speaker 238>short of 100% federal martial law,

4898
04:35:32.450 --> 04:35:33.110
<v Speaker 238>with regular

4899
04:35:33.110 --> 04:35:39.190
<v Speaker 275>army troops could restore order to mingo county and the unrest was spreading now

4900
04:35:39.590 --> 04:35:39.890
miners in

4901
04:35:39.960 --> 04:35:41.810
<v Speaker 13>other counties up to central

4902
04:35:41.810 --> 04:35:42.130
west

4903
04:35:42.130 --> 04:35:49.100
<v Speaker 293>virginia near the capital were holding their own mass meetings the boys up at conawa county were

4904
04:35:49.100 --> 04:35:50.220
<v Speaker 302>getting riled

4905
04:35:50.220 --> 04:35:50.950
up many of

4906
04:35:50.950 --> 04:35:57.260
<v Speaker 293>them wanted to form up their ranks and march down to mingo to unionize the tug valley miners once and

4907
04:35:57.260 --> 04:35:57.830
for all

4908
04:35:57.790 --> 04:35:58.280
these

4909
04:35:58.470 --> 04:35:59.800
<v Speaker 293>meetings these were wildcat

4910
04:35:59.860 --> 04:36:03.720
<v Speaker 301>meetings they weren't coordinated by the union and in fact bill blizzard the

4911
04:36:03.720 --> 04:36:09.960
<v Speaker 229>sub-district president who was not some pussycat afraid of a little action was doing his best to calm everybody

4912
04:36:09.960 --> 04:36:11.690
down now the state of west

4913
04:36:11.690 --> 04:36:12.870
<v Speaker 229>virginia had a big

4914
04:36:12.950 --> 04:36:16.930
<v Speaker 116>problem i should have mentioned this before

4915
04:36:17.120 --> 04:36:17.660
actually the

4916
04:36:17.720 --> 04:36:21.070
<v Speaker 116>state's national guard had been federalized during world

4917
04:36:21.070 --> 04:36:22.810
<v Speaker 192>war one and sent off to fight

4918
04:36:23.540 --> 04:36:23.870
The

4919
04:36:24.190 --> 04:36:25.880
<v Speaker 192>problem was when the war was over

4920
04:36:25.880 --> 04:36:34.810
<v Speaker 52>Nobody had taken the time to reestablish it The legislature hurried through a measure to get it going But that was going to take some time The governor had only

4921
04:36:34.810 --> 04:36:38.060
<v Speaker 59>100 men on the state police force That was it And

4922
04:36:38.060 --> 04:36:38.500
so he's

4923
04:36:38.510 --> 04:36:40.060
<v Speaker 59>pleading with President

4924
04:36:40.060 --> 04:36:48.100
<v Speaker 13>Harding Please send federal troops, I need the army But the president said that West Virginia needed to take care of its own problems for once

4925
04:36:48.100 --> 04:36:52.960
<v Speaker 113>instead of calling for help from the White House every time it popped up Well

4926
04:36:53.140 --> 04:36:55.690
<v Speaker 113>commander of the state police there in mingo captain

4927
04:36:55.690 --> 04:36:56.700
<v Speaker 59>brockus he'd

4928
04:36:56.820 --> 04:37:02.710
<v Speaker 78>taken that humiliation of his men that happened very personally like i said and he was determined to pay the miners back

4929
04:37:02.930 --> 04:37:03.190
but he

4930
04:37:03.190 --> 04:37:05.330
<v Speaker 78>lacked the forces to really

4931
04:37:05.330 --> 04:37:06.330
do it and so in

4932
04:37:06.350 --> 04:37:09.370
<v Speaker 78>desperation he took a step that kind of

4933
04:37:09.630 --> 04:37:11.090
really shows how

4934
04:37:11.090 --> 04:37:12.030
<v Speaker 78>the class

4935
04:37:12.040 --> 04:37:16.890
<v Speaker 59>antagonism at play here went far deeper than just the miners and the mine

4936
04:37:17.090 --> 04:37:17.370
<v Speaker 100>owners.

4937
04:37:18.050 --> 04:37:18.300
he

4938
04:37:18.710 --> 04:37:23.870
<v Speaker 100>called on the better people of mingo county those are his words they were the better people

4939
04:37:24.520 --> 04:37:36.440
<v Speaker 301>doctors and lawyers preachers insurance brokers merchants and shopkeepers you know people who worked indoors and wore smooth-soled shoes to work every day

4940
04:37:36.440 --> 04:37:37.800
he called them to

4941
04:37:37.810 --> 04:37:37.890
<v Speaker 301>a

4942
04:37:37.890 --> 04:37:40.600
<v Speaker 87>meeting in the courthouse at williamson

4943
04:37:40.600 --> 04:37:43.190
<v Speaker 70>the same one that recently hosted the miners

4944
04:37:43.190 --> 04:37:43.590
trial

4945
04:37:43.650 --> 04:37:43.980
and he

4946
04:37:43.980 --> 04:37:44.970
<v Speaker 70>said he needed

4947
04:37:44.970 --> 04:37:48.250
<v Speaker 136>men who were prepared to stand up for law and order in Mingo County.

4948
04:37:48.380 --> 04:37:49.330
Everybody knew

4949
04:37:49.330 --> 04:37:53.500
<v Speaker 136>what he meant. He needed men prepared to fight the minors. The

4950
04:37:53.550 --> 04:37:54.660
office dwellers

4951
04:37:54.660 --> 04:37:55.990
<v Speaker 136>were enthusiastic

4952
04:37:55.990 --> 04:37:57.360
<v Speaker 215>in their support, and

4953
04:37:57.370 --> 04:37:57.590
they

4954
04:37:57.830 --> 04:38:01.500
<v Speaker 20>declared their readiness to clean up the scum in Mingo County. The

4955
04:38:01.610 --> 04:38:02.210
next

4956
04:38:02.210 --> 04:38:06.160
<v Speaker 35>day, the governor issued a harsh declaration of martial law.

4957
04:38:06.200 --> 04:38:07.060
He banned

4958
04:38:07.060 --> 04:38:09.430
<v Speaker 35>all public gatherings and

4959
04:38:09.430 --> 04:38:11.670
<v Speaker 217>suspended the Second Amendment,

4960
04:38:11.660 --> 04:38:12.010
And he

4961
04:38:12.130 --> 04:38:12.720
<v Speaker 217>ordered that

4962
04:38:12.970 --> 04:38:12.970
no

4963
04:38:13.120 --> 04:38:19.010
<v Speaker 71>publication, either newspaper, pamphlet, handbill, or otherwise, reflecting in any way upon the United States or

4964
04:38:19.010 --> 04:38:23.460
<v Speaker 303>the state of West Virginia, may be published, distributed, or circulated on

4965
04:38:23.510 --> 04:38:26.680
pain of imprisonment. There were no troops

4966
04:38:26.680 --> 04:38:32.300
<v Speaker 177>to enforce martial law, so the militia, newly formed from the better people of the county, did it.

4967
04:38:32.300 --> 04:38:33.050
Well, they

4968
04:38:33.050 --> 04:38:33.350
<v Speaker 177>sort

4969
04:38:33.350 --> 04:38:37.640
<v Speaker 13>of did it. From day one, martial law was only enforced against the minors.

4970
04:38:38.080 --> 04:38:38.610
Other people

4971
04:38:38.610 --> 04:38:40.820
<v Speaker 13>continued to assemble freely,

4972
04:38:41.440 --> 04:38:52.490
<v Speaker 13>conduct parades, hold political rallies, but inmate Juan, if more than two minors stopped to talk on the streets for more than a moment, they were confronted by armed state police or militia volunteers and told to scatter.

4973
04:38:52.680 --> 04:38:53.400
The jails

4974
04:38:53.400 --> 04:38:54.980
<v Speaker 304>overflowed with

4975
04:38:55.100 --> 04:38:56.070
<v Speaker 70>minors.

4976
04:38:56.240 --> 04:38:57.190
So arrested men

4977
04:38:57.190 --> 04:39:00.090
<v Speaker 70>were sent to other counties to be held,

4978
04:39:00.280 --> 04:39:00.540
and then

4979
04:39:00.540 --> 04:39:09.270
<v Speaker 110>eventually those jails filled up. Captain Brockus openly admitted that many of them had been put in jail for carrying unauthorized literature.

4980
04:39:10.840 --> 04:39:10.490
Many

4981
04:39:10.840 --> 04:39:16.430
<v Speaker 229>minors were arrested, jailed, and then eventually released without ever having any kind of a hearing

4982
04:39:16.690 --> 04:39:21.020
<v Speaker 303>whatsoever. The union filed a lawsuit complaining

4983
04:39:21.020 --> 04:39:27.040
<v Speaker 292>that the military dictatorship was unconstitutional, and the judge agreed, since the citizens' militia was

4984
04:39:27.040 --> 04:39:29.090
<v Speaker 13>not an armed instrument of the state. The

4985
04:39:29.530 --> 04:39:30.000
governor got

4986
04:39:30.000 --> 04:39:33.860
<v Speaker 13>around that quickly enough by signing an edict inducting the state

4987
04:39:33.860 --> 04:39:38.220
<v Speaker 125>militia, or rather inducting this non-state militia, into the service of the state.

4988
04:39:40.020 --> 04:39:42.230
The miners fought back, sabotaged

4989
04:39:42.360 --> 04:39:46.480
<v Speaker 175>more mine equipment, fighting with the state police and militia. The

4990
04:39:46.480 --> 04:39:47.330
police and

4991
04:39:47.330 --> 04:39:50.640
<v Speaker 175>militia retaliated on June 3rd. After

4992
04:39:50.640 --> 04:40:01.660
<v Speaker 62>a report of a shot from near one of the tent colonies, Captain Brockus and 40 of his men stormed the camp, arresting every miner they could lay their hands on. 42 random miners were thrown in jail.

4993
04:40:02.540 --> 04:40:03.030
When the

4994
04:40:03.250 --> 04:40:04.580
<v Speaker 62>militia commander was

4995
04:40:05.000 --> 04:40:15.800
<v Speaker 59>shot at from near the same colony ten days later, he ordered his troops to spray the tents with machine gun fire to force the families in the colony undercover so that he could come back until he came back with more

4996
04:40:15.880 --> 04:40:16.510
<v Speaker 175>men. And

4997
04:40:16.520 --> 04:40:17.390
so he comes back

4998
04:40:17.390 --> 04:40:22.580
<v Speaker 175>with 70 militiamen and more state police back to the scene and all the people are ducking

4999
04:40:22.580 --> 04:40:23.800
down because they've

5000
04:40:23.800 --> 04:40:24.770
<v Speaker 175>been ducking machine

5001
04:40:25.210 --> 04:40:31.060
<v Speaker 24>gun fire and then on a signal they all storm the tents and go in and just take everyone they can catch.

5002
04:40:31.860 --> 04:40:32.180
The

5003
04:40:32.510 --> 04:40:36.130
<v Speaker 137>order given was to shoot any armed miner on sight. A

5004
04:40:36.140 --> 04:40:37.410
group of them was

5005
04:40:37.410 --> 04:40:38.970
<v Speaker 137>spotted in the woods

5006
04:40:38.970 --> 04:40:45.390
<v Speaker 301>nearby and a squad of militia opened up on them. The miners fired back and a state trooper was shot in the stomach. The

5007
04:40:45.770 --> 04:40:46.290
militia and

5008
04:40:46.290 --> 04:40:58.340
<v Speaker 70>the police cleared that camp and then rampaged through the place, slashing all the tents with their knives, destroying the furniture, destroying the food, destroying all the supplies that the miners needed to live out there.

5009
04:40:59.170 --> 04:41:04.500
<v Speaker 18>Forty-eight men were brought in, many of them wounded, and they were stuffed into a single jail cell.

5010
04:41:04.510 --> 04:41:06.020
Next, Captain Brockus

5011
04:41:06.020 --> 04:41:09.290
<v Speaker 109>raided the offices of the United Mine Workers. He

5012
04:41:09.290 --> 04:41:09.840
held them

5013
04:41:10.020 --> 04:41:12.770
<v Speaker 109>hostage until they agreed to leave the state.

5014
04:41:12.770 --> 04:41:14.020
Soon, it was

5015
04:41:14.100 --> 04:41:17.700
<v Speaker 125>time for the miners' next trial. The

5016
04:41:17.700 --> 04:41:18.220
first time

5017
04:41:18.360 --> 04:41:20.530
<v Speaker 113>around, that prosecution, they'd

5018
04:41:20.530 --> 04:41:21.070
been very

5019
04:41:21.070 --> 04:41:23.650
<v Speaker 113>careful in how they structured it. That was

5020
04:41:23.660 --> 04:41:24.310
only for the

5021
04:41:24.310 --> 04:41:26.350
<v Speaker 64>murder of the two Feltz brothers.

5022
04:41:27.090 --> 04:41:27.090
They

5023
04:41:27.140 --> 04:41:29.980
<v Speaker 64>wanted to keep their powder dry in case they needed another

5024
04:41:29.980 --> 04:41:30.550
<v Speaker 297>shot. So

5025
04:41:30.700 --> 04:41:31.640
even though it was

5026
04:41:31.640 --> 04:41:35.070
<v Speaker 297>from the same incident, I guess technically it wasn't double jeopardy.

5027
04:41:35.360 --> 04:41:36.260
This trial was for

5028
04:41:36.260 --> 04:41:38.000
<v Speaker 297>the murder of the other six

5029
04:41:38.000 --> 04:41:43.970
<v Speaker 70>Baldwin-Felts men. And so as this day approaches, Sid gets word that he's been indicted again.

5030
04:41:44.260 --> 04:41:44.810
And this

5031
04:41:44.900 --> 04:41:48.290
<v Speaker 59>one was a little more ominous.

5032
04:41:48.240 --> 04:41:48.710
He was

5033
04:41:48.890 --> 04:41:55.920
<v Speaker 59>accused of leading an attack on a mine at Mohawk, which was well outside his stomping grounds, and he was ordered

5034
04:41:55.920 --> 04:42:02.330
<v Speaker 100>to appear in court in Welch, West Virginia, which was a stronghold of the operators and their allies.

5035
04:42:02.990 --> 04:42:03.810
Everybody told

5036
04:42:03.810 --> 04:42:05.560
<v Speaker 100>him not to go. They

5037
04:42:05.560 --> 04:42:05.770
told

5038
04:42:05.840 --> 04:42:07.350
<v Speaker 301>him it was a setup. Frank

5039
04:42:07.360 --> 04:42:08.170
Keeney wrote

5040
04:42:08.260 --> 04:42:15.560
<v Speaker 301>to ask the governor to provide protection for Sid and Welch. The governor refused, but he assured Frank that...

5041
04:42:15.750 --> 04:42:15.990
<v Speaker 301>Steps had

5042
04:42:16.040 --> 04:42:22.420
<v Speaker 215>been taken to ensure his safety. Sid's lawyer wrote the judge who was assigned to the case,

5043
04:42:22.540 --> 04:42:22.610
and he

5044
04:42:22.640 --> 04:42:22.940
<v Speaker 215>said that

5045
04:42:22.940 --> 04:42:25.180
<v Speaker 5>he was concerned for his client's safety in Welch.

5046
04:42:25.390 --> 04:42:26.300
But the McDowell

5047
04:42:26.300 --> 04:42:26.780
<v Speaker 26>County

5048
04:42:26.780 --> 04:42:29.960
<v Speaker 5>Sheriff assured the judge that everything was taken care of,

5049
04:42:30.140 --> 04:42:30.420
and there

5050
04:42:30.460 --> 04:42:31.740
<v Speaker 5>was no trouble coming.

5051
04:42:31.960 --> 04:42:33.340
Well, when the day

5052
04:42:33.340 --> 04:42:41.800
<v Speaker 5>came for Sid to appear in court, that sheriff took an out-of-town vacation paid for by the Baldwin-Felts detective agency.

5053
04:42:42.020 --> 04:42:44.600
<v Speaker 13>Sid...

5054
04:42:44.840 --> 04:42:44.840
His

5055
04:42:44.890 --> 04:42:53.100
<v Speaker 13>wife and his good friend Ed Chambers, who was charged with him, along with Ed's wife, rode the train into Welch, along with the Mingo

5056
04:42:53.100 --> 04:42:54.530
<v Speaker 79>County Sheriff. Of

5057
04:42:54.650 --> 04:42:55.530
all people,

5058
04:42:55.530 --> 04:43:01.900
<v Speaker 79>Charles Lively boarded and came and sat near them, even tried to make small talk

5059
04:43:01.900 --> 04:43:02.600
<v Speaker 13>with them. It

5060
04:43:02.750 --> 04:43:03.720
may have been only

5061
04:43:03.720 --> 04:43:09.190
<v Speaker 13>the sheriff on board in the presence of his wife that kept Sid from tearing his throat out with his teeth.

5062
04:43:09.550 --> 04:43:10.510
Yes.

5063
04:43:10.460 --> 04:43:11.290
In Welch,

5064
04:43:11.560 --> 04:43:19.180
<v Speaker 175>they rented a hotel room across the street from the courthouse, and there they sat to discuss the case with the union lawyer

5065
04:43:19.180 --> 04:43:20.800
who was sent to defend

5066
04:43:20.800 --> 04:43:22.000
<v Speaker 175>them. Sid had

5067
04:43:22.010 --> 04:43:32.270
<v Speaker 59>brought two pistols with him, as he always did, and his lawyer warned him that you need to leave the guns here in the hotel room, this time to avoid creating another scene like you did

5068
04:43:32.420 --> 04:43:32.830
last

5069
04:43:32.830 --> 04:43:36.270
<v Speaker 192>time. The sheriff was there, and so Sid handed the guns off

5070
04:43:36.270 --> 04:43:36.810
to him.

5071
04:43:36.800 --> 04:43:37.330
And then it

5072
04:43:37.330 --> 04:43:39.840
<v Speaker 192>was the Mingo Sheriff who looked out the window and spotted

5073
04:43:39.840 --> 04:43:42.000
<v Speaker 91>Charles Lively standing on the courthouse lawn.

5074
04:43:42.180 --> 04:43:42.800
And he

5075
04:43:42.800 --> 04:43:46.660
<v Speaker 91>says, he's keeping pretty close track of us this morning, isn't he? Sid

5076
04:43:46.930 --> 04:43:47.690
looked out the

5077
04:43:47.720 --> 04:43:53.940
<v Speaker 11>window, and the street was buzzing with activity, much of it having to do with the upcoming trial.

5078
04:43:54.030 --> 04:43:54.980
Charles Lively was

5079
04:43:54.980 --> 04:43:58.900
<v Speaker 12>standing at the top of the courthouse steps, and he wasn't alone. At

5080
04:43:59.270 --> 04:43:59.520
least six

5081
04:43:59.530 --> 04:44:02.660
<v Speaker 290>other Baldwin-Felz men were there with him.

5082
04:44:03.820 --> 04:44:04.680
sid and

5083
04:44:04.760 --> 04:44:08.980
<v Speaker 305>ed chambers and their wives and lawyers

5084
04:44:08.980 --> 04:44:12.240
<v Speaker 63>left the room and headed to the courthouse

5085
04:44:12.280 --> 04:44:15.560
<v Speaker 294>unarmed each of them with his wife on his arm

5086
04:44:15.560 --> 04:44:16.530
it's from rg

5087
04:44:16.600 --> 04:44:20.130
<v Speaker 294>yoho's biography of charles lively quote as

5088
04:44:20.130 --> 04:44:20.420
sid

5089
04:44:20.880 --> 04:44:26.310
<v Speaker 306>started up the steps he smiled waved at the crowd and said hello boys those

5090
04:44:26.310 --> 04:44:26.870
were the

5091
04:44:27.020 --> 04:44:29.440
<v Speaker 306>last words that ever came from his lips

5092
04:44:30.080 --> 04:44:38.940
<v Speaker 229>Charles E. Lively, Buster Pence, Bill Salter, and perhaps other Baldwin-Feltz men assembled there, sprang upon the pair of Matewan boys, firing their

5093
04:44:38.940 --> 04:44:49.340
<v Speaker 301>guns as they charged forward upon their two helpless victims. Their furious shooting, and the barrage of slugs coming from the guns, somehow missed the two innocent wives accompanying them.

5094
04:44:49.590 --> 04:44:50.180
But it did,

5095
04:44:50.180 --> 04:44:52.540
<v Speaker 5>however, wound a bystander.

5096
04:44:52.530 --> 04:44:58.980
<v Speaker 5>Lively, firing a pair of guns, shot Sid Hatfield first, spinning Hatfield's body around and knocking him

5097
04:44:58.980 --> 04:45:08.290
<v Speaker 88>from the grasp of his wife, who fled in fear. While she ran to the purported safety of the office of the vacationing sheriff, her husband's lifeless body tumbled down the stairs,

5098
04:45:08.290 --> 04:45:19.080
<v Speaker 67>blood streaming onto the concrete sidewalk below. Although the former Matewan police chief died almost instantly, the detectives continued firing shots into his body.

5099
04:45:19.130 --> 04:45:19.400
As the

5100
04:45:19.570 --> 04:45:21.810
<v Speaker 67>fellow agents concentrated their efforts on

5101
04:45:21.810 --> 04:45:27.860
<v Speaker 90>killing Hatfield and Chambers, one of the Baldwin Feltz men emptied his revolver into the blocks of the granite courthouse.

5102
04:45:28.060 --> 04:45:28.460
This was

5103
04:45:28.460 --> 04:45:34.830
<v Speaker 90>obviously part of a well-coordinated attempt to persuade others and also to lend credibility to the agent's

5104
04:45:34.830 --> 04:45:45.640
<v Speaker 71>future claims of self-defense by making it appear that these shots came from the guns which were then deliberately placed in or near the lifeless hands of Hatfield and Chambers, a fact admitted to by the man

5105
04:45:45.980 --> 04:45:46.310
<v Speaker 297>later.

5106
04:45:47.200 --> 04:45:47.820
Almost as

5107
04:45:47.930 --> 04:45:54.700
<v Speaker 306>soon as Hatfield was hit, the Baldwin-Felts gunmen turned their weapons on Ed Chambers, shooting him multiple times. Chambers

5108
04:45:54.750 --> 04:45:57.930
<v Speaker 70>fell in a crumbled heap on his side, with his back

5109
04:45:58.160 --> 04:45:59.400
<v Speaker 90>still facing the steps.

5110
04:45:59.410 --> 04:46:00.340
They advanced on

5111
04:46:00.390 --> 04:46:13.700
<v Speaker 90>his body, continuing to trigger gunshots into both Chambers and Hatfield. Ed Chambers' wife stayed at her husband's side when the shooting started. She followed his wounded body down the steps, begging the detectives to leave him alone.

5112
04:46:14.000 --> 04:46:16.930
<v Speaker 90>Charles Lively rushed down toward the fallen Chambers as Mrs.

5113
04:46:16.940 --> 04:46:21.780
<v Speaker 218>Chambers pleaded with him. Oh, please, Mr. Lively, don't shoot him anymore. You've killed him now.

5114
04:46:21.860 --> 04:46:22.410
But seeing

5115
04:46:22.460 --> 04:46:27.920
<v Speaker 162>Chambers was still breathing, Lively placed a gun behind Ed's ear and administered a

5116
04:46:27.920 --> 04:46:36.380
<v Speaker 90>final killing shot into his skull. Brokenhearted and infuriated by the detective's merciless act, Mrs. Chambers clubbed Lively with her umbrella.

5117
04:46:36.820 --> 04:46:37.970
<v Speaker 90>Lively pointed the

5118
04:46:37.980 --> 04:46:42.310
<v Speaker 71>hot barrel of his gun At her and said Don't you hit me with the umbrella again You dirty devil

5119
04:46:42.560 --> 04:46:42.690
Or I

5120
04:46:42.690 --> 04:46:44.800
<v Speaker 71>will shoot you End quote

5121
04:46:45.070 --> 04:46:48.600
So Mrs. Chambers is screaming For

5122
04:46:48.670 --> 04:46:58.620
<v Speaker 62>men standing around watching To come and search her husband's body To see that he was unarmed But the Baldwin Feltz men Held guns on everybody And told him to get away

5123
04:46:58.830 --> 04:46:59.290
And then they

5124
04:46:59.440 --> 04:47:02.030
<v Speaker 62>took Mrs. Chambers by force And led her away from

5125
04:47:02.180 --> 04:47:03.250
<v Speaker 293>the scene Into the courthouse

5126
04:47:03.670 --> 04:47:04.880
All of

5127
04:47:04.880 --> 04:47:06.140
<v Speaker 293>them Thank you.

5128
04:47:06.660 --> 04:47:14.740
<v Speaker 293>would go before a friendly jury and they would all be acquitted on grounds of self-defense for what was a pure, cold-blooded assassination in broad

5129
04:47:14.740 --> 04:47:15.620
<v Speaker 297>daylight,

5130
04:47:15.860 --> 04:47:17.160
sponsored by some of

5131
04:47:17.160 --> 04:47:22.200
<v Speaker 297>the wealthiest men in the state and carried out with the connivance of the local authorities.

5132
04:47:22.440 --> 04:47:23.600
Word went out

5133
04:47:23.600 --> 04:47:25.900
<v Speaker 297>across the mountains.

5134
04:47:26.140 --> 04:47:26.190
Sid

5135
04:47:26.190 --> 04:47:30.080
<v Speaker 307>Hatfield had been murdered by Baldwin Felt's thugs.

5136
04:47:30.400 --> 04:47:31.940
2,000

5137
04:47:31.940 --> 04:47:35.800
<v Speaker 160>people showed out for the funeral procession.

5138
04:47:35.760 --> 04:47:36.120
But when

5139
04:47:36.290 --> 04:47:37.230
<v Speaker 160>that was complete,

5140
04:47:37.300 --> 04:47:38.150
the time for

5141
04:47:38.290 --> 04:47:41.860
<v Speaker 67>mourning was over. Now it was time for war. Coal

5142
04:47:42.030 --> 04:47:42.970
miners from around

5143
04:47:43.280 --> 04:47:54.920
<v Speaker 33>South and Central West Virginia began to assemble at Lenz Creek up by Paint and Cabin Creeks, about 10, 15 miles from the state capitol, just up the Kahnawa from Paint and Cabin Creeks. It's

5144
04:47:55.110 --> 04:47:55.580
where the

5145
04:47:55.580 --> 04:47:58.480
<v Speaker 207>state's most militant miners worked.

5146
04:47:59.020 --> 04:47:59.950
There were thousands

5147
04:48:00.350 --> 04:48:02.140
<v Speaker 207>of them coming in.

5148
04:48:02.230 --> 04:48:03.230
They came on

5149
04:48:03.280 --> 04:48:04.760
<v Speaker 209>every train.

5150
04:48:05.230 --> 04:48:05.230
Not

5151
04:48:05.320 --> 04:48:09.200
<v Speaker 209>only filling the seats, but the aisles, the vestibules, sometimes the roofs.

5152
04:48:09.480 --> 04:48:10.630
Others came in on

5153
04:48:10.700 --> 04:48:15.420
<v Speaker 71>cars, some on horses or in wagons, and a lot of people just hiked in.

5154
04:48:15.680 --> 04:48:16.520
Some of them wore the

5155
04:48:16.520 --> 04:48:19.770
<v Speaker 71>steel helmets they'd kept from their service in the war.

5156
04:48:20.050 --> 04:48:20.680
But they wore a

5157
04:48:20.680 --> 04:48:22.010
<v Speaker 13>different uniform.

5158
04:48:22.320 --> 04:48:22.970
They wore blue

5159
04:48:22.970 --> 04:48:26.680
<v Speaker 308>overalls with a red neckerchief tied around the neck.

5160
04:48:26.870 --> 04:48:27.460
And virtually

5161
04:48:27.460 --> 04:48:29.750
<v Speaker 308>every single one of them was carrying a gun.

5162
04:48:30.260 --> 04:48:31.330
They gunned him

5163
04:48:31.330 --> 04:48:33.030
<v Speaker 309>down in cold blood.

5164
04:48:33.950 --> 04:48:33.950
Shot

5165
04:48:33.970 --> 04:48:35.240
<v Speaker 309>him down like a dog, one

5166
04:48:35.510 --> 04:48:36.080
of the

5167
04:48:36.590 --> 04:48:37.560
<v Speaker 309>miners said.

5168
04:48:37.870 --> 04:48:39.040
They killed him in front

5169
04:48:39.370 --> 04:48:41.310
<v Speaker 309>of their wives, another

5170
04:48:41.310 --> 04:48:42.000
<v Speaker 129>said.

5171
04:48:42.310 --> 04:48:43.480
Frank Keeney said

5172
04:48:43.710 --> 04:48:45.920
<v Speaker 52>that it had become apparent

5173
04:48:46.730 --> 04:48:46.950
that the

5174
04:48:46.950 --> 04:48:50.960
<v Speaker 52>only way to get justice in West Virginia was with a high-powered rifle.

5175
04:48:51.190 --> 04:48:52.480
If the governor was

5176
04:48:52.770 --> 04:49:00.360
<v Speaker 52>going to empower a middle-class militia and hired mercenaries to murder miners under cover of martial law,

5177
04:49:00.930 --> 04:49:01.220
then

5178
04:49:01.390 --> 04:49:04.860
<v Speaker 52>the miners had no choice but to put an end to it themselves all

5179
04:49:04.860 --> 04:49:05.600
up and

5180
04:49:06.120 --> 04:49:22.280
<v Speaker 293>down the rivers and the creeks and coal camps all over the region men gave speeches and they took votes and they all resolved to march on mingo county free the miners who were being imprisoned under martial law and hang the corrupt sheriff who ran the place if

5181
04:49:22.280 --> 04:49:23.320
the better

5182
04:49:23.320 --> 04:49:28.370
<v Speaker 293>people of mingo county wanted a fight now they're gonna get one

5183
04:49:29.020 --> 04:49:31.160
<v Speaker 293>this time from miners who had been through

5184
04:49:31.160 --> 04:49:33.890
<v Speaker 301>it before during the paint and cabin creek strikes

5185
04:49:34.240 --> 04:49:35.320
the khanawah

5186
04:49:35.320 --> 04:49:42.290
<v Speaker 301>sheriff saw what was happening he went and warned the governor but the governor said he didn't have any more power to stop it than the sheriff did

5187
04:49:42.620 --> 04:49:43.780
so the word

5188
04:49:43.780 --> 04:49:44.970
<v Speaker 301>went out

5189
04:49:44.970 --> 04:49:46.090
<v Speaker 36>on to mingo

5190
04:49:46.450 --> 04:49:47.170
miners went

5191
04:49:47.170 --> 04:49:56.750
<v Speaker 36>through the mining camps warning any stragglers that if they didn't get up and join the marks they better not be there when the rest of them got back but pretty much everybody went with enthusiasm

5192
04:49:57.630 --> 04:49:58.110
Many of

5193
04:49:58.130 --> 04:50:04.850
<v Speaker 36>them walked or piled into cars or wagons, while others commandeered trains and ordered the engineers at gunpoint to take them

5194
04:50:04.850 --> 04:50:05.960
<v Speaker 52>south to Mingo. The

5195
04:50:06.240 --> 04:50:06.980
marchers were not

5196
04:50:07.090 --> 04:50:11.830
<v Speaker 52>black, they were not white, they were not immigrant, they were coal miners.

5197
04:50:12.280 --> 04:50:13.400
They formed up in

5198
04:50:13.400 --> 04:50:14.990
<v Speaker 52>military-style

5199
04:50:14.990 --> 04:50:20.780
<v Speaker 193>units. War veterans from the First World War were identified and put in positions of leadership. Some

5200
04:50:20.780 --> 04:50:21.400
of them were

5201
04:50:21.400 --> 04:50:24.000
<v Speaker 20>actually Spanish-American war veterans. They formed

5202
04:50:24.010 --> 04:50:24.450
up in military-style units.

5203
04:50:24.750 --> 04:50:24.750
Along

5204
04:50:24.810 --> 04:50:31.020
<v Speaker 20>the way, these guys gave crash courses in weapons handling and basic tactics to the miners who had never been in combat.

5205
04:50:31.330 --> 04:50:32.020
They raided the

5206
04:50:32.020 --> 04:50:42.320
<v Speaker 67>company stores at the towns they passed along the way, taking food and supplies, weapons and ammunition, but merchants at the independent towns were not bothered. One

5207
04:50:42.500 --> 04:50:43.600
group of miners fell in

5208
04:50:43.600 --> 04:50:47.160
<v Speaker 150>with a Gatling gun in 5,000 rounds, and more machine

5209
04:50:47.160 --> 04:50:50.880
<v Speaker 62>guns were reported stolen from several company camps. The miners

5210
04:50:50.980 --> 04:50:51.300
were destroyed.

5211
04:50:51.280 --> 04:50:56.880
<v Speaker 62>Wives of Union miners, who were trained as nurses, accompanied their men wearing nurses'

5212
04:50:56.880 --> 04:51:03.010
<v Speaker 13>white uniforms and caps, but with their local Union number on the cap instead of the usual Red Cross. They

5213
04:51:03.150 --> 04:51:04.490
expected there to be

5214
04:51:04.490 --> 04:51:08.030
<v Speaker 310>wounded, and they were prepared for that. At

5215
04:51:08.030 --> 04:51:09.060
one point, people

5216
04:51:09.070 --> 04:51:15.060
<v Speaker 123>in the capital thought that the miners were marching on the city of Charleston, and the place flew into a panic

5217
04:51:15.060 --> 04:51:17.260
<v Speaker 13>until the reports were disproven.

5218
04:51:17.740 --> 04:51:18.100
Okay.

5219
04:51:18.050 --> 04:51:18.270
The

5220
04:51:18.660 --> 04:51:20.800
<v Speaker 13>authorities went to Frank Keeney and the Union

5221
04:51:20.800 --> 04:51:23.870
<v Speaker 100>headquarters there in Charleston and told him, you've got to call this off. And

5222
04:51:23.870 --> 04:51:24.270
he told

5223
04:51:24.280 --> 04:51:26.860
<v Speaker 100>them, this is not a Union operation. This

5224
04:51:26.860 --> 04:51:27.240
is the

5225
04:51:27.240 --> 04:51:31.960
<v Speaker 100>miners, on their own. And neither he nor anyone was going to stop them. I've

5226
04:51:32.200 --> 04:51:32.830
interfered

5227
04:51:32.890 --> 04:51:35.590
<v Speaker 149>again and again, he said. This time

5228
04:51:35.790 --> 04:51:42.940
<v Speaker 209>they can march Domingo as far as I'm concerned. The Union local at Blair...

5229
04:51:42.910 --> 04:51:43.730
Having been

5230
04:51:43.890 --> 04:51:45.620
<v Speaker 209>given prior instructions,

5231
04:51:45.980 --> 04:51:53.210
<v Speaker 13>ran out ahead of the rest of the army to the base of Blair Mountain, where they expected a fight, and dug trenches in preparation. An advanced

5232
04:51:53.460 --> 04:51:53.790
patrol of

5233
04:51:53.790 --> 04:52:03.210
<v Speaker 62>500 to 800 miners went ahead, cut down telephone and telegraph wires, and cleared a 65-square-mile area of Baldwin Feltzguards.

5234
04:52:04.130 --> 04:52:04.600
mother

5235
04:52:04.600 --> 04:52:16.680
<v Speaker 62>jones drops what she's doing comes back to west virginia and as soon as she arrives it becomes clear that this was something much different than she had ever seen something much more dangerous so

5236
04:52:16.680 --> 04:52:22.900
<v Speaker 294>she met with the governor and both of them expressed concern about where this was headed and so with the governor's

5237
04:52:22.900 --> 04:52:29.380
<v Speaker 169>blessing she went down to mingo to talk to the miners there she could feel their

5238
04:52:29.380 --> 04:52:29.990
rage and

5239
04:52:29.940 --> 04:52:30.210
and

5240
04:52:30.210 --> 04:52:34.060
<v Speaker 169>fearing what was to come she hurried back to lens

5241
04:52:34.060 --> 04:52:35.950
<v Speaker 60>creek to try to talk the

5242
04:52:35.950 --> 04:52:43.150
<v Speaker 62>miners down this old fire-breathing radical mother jones is urging the miners to go home

5243
04:52:43.160 --> 04:52:44.600
she even pretended to

5244
04:52:44.600 --> 04:52:50.140
<v Speaker 11>have a telegram from president harding himself ordering the miners to disperse

5245
04:52:50.140 --> 04:52:51.420
the miners weren't

5246
04:52:51.750 --> 04:52:54.640
<v Speaker 90>buying it she even pretended to read from

5247
04:52:54.820 --> 04:52:54.840
it

5248
04:52:54.800 --> 04:52:55.010
"'I

5249
04:52:55.280 --> 04:52:58.030
<v Speaker 90>request that you abandon your purpose and return to

5250
04:52:58.030 --> 04:53:05.470
<v Speaker 220>your homes, "'and I assure you that my good offices will be used "'to forever eliminate the gunman system from the state of West Virginia.'"

5251
04:53:05.740 --> 04:53:06.510
It was the best

5252
04:53:06.510 --> 04:53:09.160
<v Speaker 146>she could come up with on short notice. Frank

5253
04:53:09.280 --> 04:53:09.810
Keeney and

5254
04:53:09.810 --> 04:53:15.820
<v Speaker 175>the other union leaders were there, and they asked to see the telegram themselves. Mother Jones wouldn't give it to them. And

5255
04:53:15.820 --> 04:53:16.220
so they

5256
04:53:16.220 --> 04:53:20.150
<v Speaker 175>went back to Charleston and got confirmation that no telegram had been sent.

5257
04:53:20.650 --> 04:53:21.940
"'I'm sorry.

5258
04:53:21.900 --> 04:53:22.610
even

5259
04:53:23.070 --> 04:53:24.870
<v Speaker 175>mother jones had

5260
04:53:24.870 --> 04:53:33.560
<v Speaker 164>lost control of the miners already they had begun to march in columns of hundreds across the ridge toward mingo county more

5261
04:53:33.590 --> 04:53:38.300
<v Speaker 13>miners joined them as they made their way through boone and toward logan

5262
04:53:38.310 --> 04:53:38.990
county when

5263
04:53:38.990 --> 04:53:43.140
<v Speaker 13>the miners made camp their army went on for 20 miles along

5264
04:53:43.140 --> 04:53:43.710
a creek

5265
04:53:43.760 --> 04:53:44.640
<v Speaker 225>there were

5266
04:53:44.640 --> 04:53:45.530
<v Speaker 71>thousands

5267
04:53:45.540 --> 04:53:46.540
of them more

5268
04:53:47.130 --> 04:53:48.830
<v Speaker 71>showing up every hour guns in

5269
04:53:49.120 --> 04:53:49.360
hand

5270
04:53:49.330 --> 04:53:52.960
<v Speaker 71>Miners hijacked a train with three empty flat cars and loaded it up

5271
04:53:53.020 --> 04:53:55.050
<v Speaker 73>with minors and supplies and ran on ahead.

5272
04:53:55.420 --> 04:53:55.890
Each night

5273
04:53:55.890 --> 04:54:02.150
<v Speaker 73>when they made camp, the mood was serious. They weren't clowning, they weren't drinking.

5274
04:54:02.570 --> 04:54:04.240
Men gave speeches

5275
04:54:04.240 --> 04:54:07.860
<v Speaker 73>and everybody spoke of Sid Hatfield and Ed

5276
04:54:07.860 --> 04:54:11.490
<v Speaker 136>Chambers and how they'd been shot down like dogs in front of their wives.

5277
04:54:12.140 --> 04:54:12.470
In the

5278
04:54:12.640 --> 04:54:19.360
<v Speaker 136>evenings and on the way, war veterans continued to try to impart some basic military training on this ragtag redneck army. To

5279
04:54:19.640 --> 04:54:21.020
get to Mingo, the

5280
04:54:21.020 --> 04:54:25.580
<v Speaker 136>miners first had to get through Logan County.

5281
04:54:26.050 --> 04:54:26.520
Logan was an

5282
04:54:26.520 --> 04:54:32.130
<v Speaker 136>anti-union fortress, ruled over by that sheriff I mentioned before,

5283
04:54:32.220 --> 04:54:34.090
<v Speaker 164>Sheriff Don Chafin.

5284
04:54:34.720 --> 04:54:35.200
The one

5285
04:54:35.250 --> 04:54:41.700
<v Speaker 164>who made $300 a month but somehow had a million dollars in his bank account because he was paid a fortune by the coal

5286
04:54:41.700 --> 04:54:45.180
<v Speaker 13>companies to keep the union from spreading any further south

5287
04:54:45.180 --> 04:54:46.620
<v Speaker 67>in West Virginia. In

5288
04:54:46.930 --> 04:54:47.720
Logan, all

5289
04:54:47.720 --> 04:54:52.020
<v Speaker 67>anybody spoke of was the miners' march. Chafin

5290
04:54:52.130 --> 04:54:52.510
had sent

5291
04:54:52.510 --> 04:54:53.930
<v Speaker 67>out word to those better

5292
04:54:53.930 --> 04:55:02.690
<v Speaker 235>people of his county, the bankers and the clerks and the lawyers and merchants and insurance salesmen, and of course the mine officials and the non-miner

5293
04:55:02.690 --> 04:55:03.410
<v Speaker 125>employees.

5294
04:55:04.030 --> 04:55:07.770
<v Speaker 125>to be ready to muster at the courthouse at the sound of the town fire alarm.

5295
04:55:08.030 --> 04:55:08.730
And so as the

5296
04:55:08.730 --> 04:55:15.250
<v Speaker 50>miners approached Logan, the fire alarm blares. And it's very, very early in the morning.

5297
04:55:15.250 --> 04:55:26.960
<v Speaker 13>It was like 2 in the morning. And so all the better people of Logan County prepared to fight off the invasion of these dirty, ignorant coal miners from the hills. This motley army made up of the deplorables of their day.

5298
04:55:27.190 --> 04:55:29.570
<v Speaker 263>Immigrants, Negroes, hillbilly white

5299
04:55:29.570 --> 04:55:30.210
<v Speaker 293>trash.

5300
04:55:30.990 --> 04:55:31.240
The

5301
04:55:31.640 --> 04:55:37.330
<v Speaker 293>rifles were handed out, and the bankers and the lawyers and the insurance salesmen of Logantown

5302
04:55:37.330 --> 04:55:39.560
<v Speaker 235>went up to fight the miners. He

5303
04:55:39.990 --> 04:55:41.160
took cars up to the

5304
04:55:41.160 --> 04:55:46.100
<v Speaker 235>ridge of Blair Mountain, where breastworks and trenches were being set up to

5305
04:55:46.130 --> 04:55:46.470
make a

5306
04:55:46.750 --> 04:55:46.830
<v Speaker 235>stand

5307
04:55:46.970 --> 04:55:49.390
<v Speaker 70>against the oncoming rednecks. Chafin

5308
04:55:49.580 --> 04:55:49.960
had been

5309
04:55:49.980 --> 04:55:56.110
<v Speaker 70>preparing since the miners had begun to gather at Lens Creek. He anticipated this.

5310
04:55:56.660 --> 04:55:57.000
He set

5311
04:55:57.160 --> 04:56:05.680
<v Speaker 70>up a commissary to supply his middle class militia and had workers start building the defense on Blair Mountain before the miners even started heading south. His

5312
04:56:05.900 --> 04:56:06.940
men cut down trees,

5313
04:56:06.940 --> 04:56:18.570
<v Speaker 301>they blocked roads, they built up restworks of boulders and dirt and logs that stretched for 10 miles across the path that he knew the miners would have no choice but to cross. He

5314
04:56:18.820 --> 04:56:20.080
had a fleet of cars set

5315
04:56:20.080 --> 04:56:25.400
<v Speaker 9>aside for dedicated use, running men and supplies up to the front line.

5316
04:56:26.130 --> 04:56:26.690
He'd even

5317
04:56:26.830 --> 04:56:34.300
<v Speaker 9>gotten his hands on three airplanes, along with pilots, to observe and possibly attack the miners. Remember,

5318
04:56:34.300 --> 04:56:35.020
this is only

5319
04:56:35.020 --> 04:56:36.040
<v Speaker 12>1921,

5320
04:56:36.040 --> 04:56:43.810
<v Speaker 175>so there's no airfield available, and the biplanes were parked on a baseball field with enough room for them to gather speed and take off. As

5321
04:56:43.810 --> 04:56:45.620
the alarms continued

5322
04:56:45.660 --> 04:56:52.430
<v Speaker 136>throughout the morning, the better people of Logan fill the streets and make their way up Blair Mountain.

5323
04:56:53.920 --> 04:56:53.920
Deputy

5324
04:56:53.920 --> 04:57:03.730
<v Speaker 53>sheriffs went to the mining camps that were being worked by scabs and non-union miners waking people up and shouting that anybody who didn't pick up a gun and go fight was fired and

5325
04:57:03.730 --> 04:57:06.150
<v Speaker 123>would be arrested as a potential traitor. By

5326
04:57:06.150 --> 04:57:07.290
the time the

5327
04:57:07.290 --> 04:57:08.780
<v Speaker 123>sun came up over

5328
04:57:08.780 --> 04:57:14.060
<v Speaker 60>Blair, Chafin had 700 armed men dug in atop the ridge. Later

5329
04:57:14.060 --> 04:57:14.890
in the day, one

5330
04:57:14.890 --> 04:57:18.480
<v Speaker 289>of the planes made a reconnaissance flight over the mountain.

5331
04:57:19.130 --> 04:57:22.650
<v Speaker 289>and saw the column of miners stretching back for miles.

5332
04:57:22.980 --> 04:57:23.550
There were

5333
04:57:23.550 --> 04:57:25.340
<v Speaker 87>thousands of them.

5334
04:57:25.700 --> 04:57:26.370
Some miners

5335
04:57:26.380 --> 04:57:32.980
<v Speaker 87>fired on the plane, so he hightailed it back and told Chafin what he'd seen. Corbin writes, quote, A

5336
04:57:33.190 --> 04:57:33.470
sizable

5337
04:57:33.470 --> 04:57:39.050
<v Speaker 90>proportion of the marchers were from out of state. Approximately 2,000 of them were

5338
04:57:39.050 --> 04:57:42.920
<v Speaker 52>World War I veterans, and all of them were from industrialized backgrounds.

5339
04:57:43.300 --> 04:57:43.830
This army was

5340
04:57:43.840 --> 04:57:44.780
<v Speaker 52>organized and

5341
04:57:44.780 --> 04:57:46.230
<v Speaker 67>prepared to fight.

5342
04:57:46.800 --> 04:57:46.800
The

5343
04:57:46.880 --> 04:57:52.630
<v Speaker 67>marchers had their own doctors, nurses, and hospital facilities. They had sanitary facilities.

5344
04:57:52.900 --> 04:57:52.900
The

5345
04:57:52.960 --> 04:57:58.760
<v Speaker 71>marchers were fed three meals a day in mess halls and commissaries. In addition to robbing the local

5346
04:57:59.160 --> 04:58:08.110
<v Speaker 90>company stores for food, the marchers bought every loaf of bread, 1,200 dozen, in Charleston and transported the loaves to their campsites.

5347
04:58:08.100 --> 04:58:08.280
The

5348
04:58:08.520 --> 04:58:33.960
<v Speaker 71>miners were prepared to fight, and they had to be, for they would sustain a week-long battle against Chafin's army of over 2,000 men who were equipped with machine guns and bombing planes. Approximately 2,000 army veterans were the field commanders, and they instructed the other miners in military tactics. A former member of the National Rifle Team of the U.S. Marine Corps and a former captain in the Italian army gave shooting lessons.

5349
04:58:34.280 --> 04:58:40.940
<v Speaker 71>Several former officers, including an ex-major, drilled the miners. After watching several hundred ex-servicemen drill

5350
04:58:40.940 --> 04:58:50.060
<v Speaker 137>the miners until they marched in something like military order, a reporter walked down to another area and heard an ex-serviceman tell a squad of miners how to fight machine guns.

5351
04:58:50.060 --> 04:58:56.690
<v Speaker 129>Lie down, watch the bullets cut the trees, outflank them, and get the snipers. End quote. The

5352
04:58:56.830 --> 04:58:58.360
governor got reports that

5353
04:58:58.360 --> 04:59:01.780
<v Speaker 311>there were no fewer than 7,000 miners on the

5354
04:59:01.780 --> 04:59:02.470
<v Speaker 67>march.

5355
04:59:02.780 --> 04:59:03.300
Thank you.

5356
04:59:03.300 --> 04:59:03.830
He heard

5357
04:59:03.990 --> 04:59:14.110
<v Speaker 67>that Mother Jones had tried and failed to stop them and that they were determined to go to Mingo County to free their friends from jail and avenge the murder of Sid Hatfield. He

5358
04:59:14.200 --> 04:59:14.740
had no

5359
04:59:14.740 --> 04:59:16.960
<v Speaker 67>National Guard. He

5360
04:59:16.990 --> 04:59:17.590
knew that

5361
04:59:17.590 --> 04:59:25.460
<v Speaker 67>Sheriff Chafin's army of deputies and office dwellers and mercenaries could at best only hope to slow the miners down.

5362
04:59:26.560 --> 04:59:27.460
He called on

5363
04:59:27.540 --> 04:59:35.000
<v Speaker 13>the White House and the Secretary of War and he told them that the southern part of his state was in open rebellion

5364
04:59:35.000 --> 04:59:41.980
<v Speaker 67>and that he needed the U.S. Army. And so Washington sent down a brigadier general to determine whether that was

5365
04:59:41.980 --> 04:59:43.190
<v Speaker 312>a necessary step. The

5366
04:59:43.190 --> 04:59:44.460
general took the

5367
04:59:44.460 --> 04:59:49.920
<v Speaker 199>next train down to Charleston. He arrived at 4 a.m. Without stopping

5368
04:59:49.920 --> 04:59:55.540
<v Speaker 13>for breakfast, he goes directly to the governor's residence and wakes him up in bed to get the story.

5369
04:59:56.180 --> 04:59:56.710
as soon as

5370
04:59:56.740 --> 04:59:59.090
<v Speaker 13>he's done with that he sends men to get frank

5371
04:59:59.090 --> 05:00:04.390
<v Speaker 229>keeney and another local union leader named fred mooney out of their beds and bring them before

5372
05:00:04.390 --> 05:00:04.950
him and he

5373
05:00:04.950 --> 05:00:10.780
<v Speaker 229>tells them in no uncertain terms that things cannot get more serious than they are right now

5374
05:00:10.780 --> 05:00:11.710
because the

5375
05:00:11.710 --> 05:00:16.490
<v Speaker 259>next step was to call the u.s army and air service down on their minors

5376
05:00:16.650 --> 05:00:17.580
he told them that

5377
05:00:17.580 --> 05:00:21.460
<v Speaker 70>they would be held personally responsible for whatever happened

5378
05:00:21.600 --> 05:00:26.340
<v Speaker 70>This had to be stopped now, and he ordered them to go to the Miners' Army and make them stop.

5379
05:00:26.580 --> 05:00:27.860
They were on their way

5380
05:00:28.060 --> 05:00:33.010
<v Speaker 52>in a car before 6 a.m. Savage writes, quote,

5381
05:00:33.200 --> 05:00:34.050
Minutes before

5382
05:00:34.050 --> 05:00:46.060
<v Speaker 71>the arrival of Mooney and Keeney, the advance guard of the Miners' Army, marching with near military precision and discipline, had set out for the Logan County line, 12 miles away. They had lined

5383
05:00:46.610 --> 05:00:46.890
up...

5384
05:00:46.850 --> 05:00:47.020
an

5385
05:00:47.230 --> 05:01:06.210
<v Speaker 71>observer reported when their leaders commanded fall in and at the command forward march they swung away on the road to logan with fire and determination in their eyes their guns firmly grasped in their hands keeney made a quick decision at 2 p.m he said that he would have a meeting in a nearby baseball

5386
05:01:06.540 --> 05:01:06.800
park all

5387
05:01:06.950 --> 05:01:13.500
<v Speaker 71>union miners were required to attend he ordered those around him to spread the word and make the arrangements

5388
05:01:13.840 --> 05:01:18.320
<v Speaker 71>Then he and Mooney sped out of town toward Logan to overtake the advance guard.

5389
05:01:18.640 --> 05:01:19.170
They had gone

5390
05:01:19.170 --> 05:01:32.350
<v Speaker 71>only a short distance. The taxi passed the column on the road and swung in front of its head. Keeney jumped out and spoke. The column halted. There was a heated exchange. The miners could not stop. Keeney insisted,

5391
05:01:32.350 --> 05:01:39.110
<v Speaker 67>and he prevailed. The miners agreed to a temporary halt, turned around, and marched back to the rest of the army.

5392
05:01:39.700 --> 05:01:39.880
The

5393
05:01:40.190 --> 05:01:48.170
<v Speaker 71>miners assembled at the ballpark. When Keeney and Mooney approached, they found the bleachers filled with miners, their guns glistening in a bright sunlight.

5394
05:01:48.180 --> 05:01:48.910
Other men lay

5395
05:01:48.910 --> 05:01:56.220
<v Speaker 90>full length on the grass in the shade of the highboard fence. Guards manned the gates, and miners gave a new password.

5396
05:01:56.220 --> 05:02:06.800
<v Speaker 71>I come creeping. They turned away newspapermen, a policy Keeney endorsed. The men were in an angry mood. Keeney spoke from the hood of the taxi.

5397
05:02:07.410 --> 05:02:07.750
a lot

5398
05:02:07.870 --> 05:02:14.640
<v Speaker 71>of you men are going to disagree with me he began but don't interrupt i'm telling you facts and

5399
05:02:14.840 --> 05:02:15.220
you will

5400
05:02:15.220 --> 05:02:17.250
<v Speaker 71>find there is no time to argue

5401
05:02:17.460 --> 05:02:18.710
then kenny

5402
05:02:18.710 --> 05:02:29.620
<v Speaker 71>said i've told you men god knows how many times that anytime you want to do battle against don chafin and his thugs i'll be right there in the front lines

5403
05:02:29.620 --> 05:02:30.160
with you

5404
05:02:30.160 --> 05:02:32.070
<v Speaker 71>i've been there before and you

5405
05:02:32.070 --> 05:02:33.070
know it but this

5406
05:02:33.070 --> 05:02:35.920
<v Speaker 71>time you've got more than Don Chafin against

5407
05:02:35.920 --> 05:02:36.210
you.

5408
05:02:36.210 --> 05:02:36.390
You

5409
05:02:36.550 --> 05:02:39.620
<v Speaker 71>got more than the governor of West Virginia against you. You

5410
05:02:39.750 --> 05:02:40.040
got the

5411
05:02:40.040 --> 05:02:42.880
<v Speaker 71>government of the United States against you.

5412
05:02:42.920 --> 05:02:43.530
Now, I'm

5413
05:02:43.530 --> 05:02:48.230
<v Speaker 301>telling you for your own good and for the good of the cause, and you've got to do it.

5414
05:02:48.570 --> 05:02:48.870
Break up

5415
05:02:48.950 --> 05:02:56.600
<v Speaker 301>this march. Go home. Get back to your jobs. You can't fight the government of the United States.

5416
05:02:57.000 --> 05:02:57.770
Savage

5417
05:02:57.770 --> 05:03:04.000
<v Speaker 313>continues, quote, Mooney followed Keeney. Union men, he said,

5418
05:03:04.010 --> 05:03:05.650
<v Speaker 71>didn't balk federal authority.

5419
05:03:06.130 --> 05:03:26.100
<v Speaker 71>Union men were loyal to their country. It was time to give up the march. Trains would be dispatched to Madison and Danville to take them home, back to their jobs. Others spoke, generally agreeing that the march should be abandoned, at least for now. An aged black miner rose. Boys, he's right, he said of Keeney's warning about federal power.

5420
05:03:26.330 --> 05:03:26.810
You ain't

5421
05:03:26.810 --> 05:03:35.030
<v Speaker 71>fooling no more. This is your daddy talking. It's your real Uncle Sam. The decision emerged. They would go home.

5422
05:03:35.860 --> 05:03:42.200
<v Speaker 52>slowly the men began edging out of the ballpark many started immediately on the long march home others waited

5423
05:03:42.200 --> 05:03:50.350
<v Speaker 225>for the promised trains word spread into the hills and hollows and back along the line of the march as darkness fell miners built

5424
05:03:50.420 --> 05:03:56.880
<v Speaker 177>campfires in the hills and talked of their adventure waiting for the trains the march they

5425
05:03:57.230 --> 05:03:59.400
<v Speaker 292>thought was over end quote

5426
05:04:00.530 --> 05:04:00.950
well

5427
05:04:01.620 --> 05:04:02.330
<v Speaker 292>Sheriff Chafin

5428
05:04:02.330 --> 05:04:10.740
<v Speaker 124>had informants near the miners army who had listened in on events at the ballpark and so they called and said good news boss the miners are disbanding and heading home

5429
05:04:10.750 --> 05:04:11.300
and so

5430
05:04:11.310 --> 05:04:11.970
<v Speaker 124>Chafin

5431
05:04:11.970 --> 05:04:16.900
<v Speaker 70>sends word up to the ridge to recall his troops back to town those

5432
05:04:16.900 --> 05:04:17.580
men come

5433
05:04:17.590 --> 05:04:18.950
<v Speaker 70>back to cheering

5434
05:04:18.950 --> 05:04:21.040
<v Speaker 62>crowds like they're war heroes and

5435
05:04:21.040 --> 05:04:21.820
the Logan

5436
05:04:21.840 --> 05:04:29.650
<v Speaker 62>Banner newspaper sends out a special edition with the front page headline reading attempted invasion fails questions.

5437
05:04:29.620 --> 05:04:29.870
The

5438
05:04:30.310 --> 05:04:34.220
<v Speaker 124>governor was elated, and Washington, D.C. was relieved.

5439
05:04:34.340 --> 05:04:36.080
But not all the miners

5440
05:04:36.200 --> 05:04:38.940
<v Speaker 124>were ready to call it quits, and

5441
05:04:38.960 --> 05:04:39.480
others

5442
05:04:39.480 --> 05:04:48.190
<v Speaker 71>simply hadn't gotten the word. Somehow, rumors started circulating that Chafin's deputies in Logan were killing miners,

5443
05:04:48.340 --> 05:04:56.120
<v Speaker 70>including women and children, and so some of them, at first only a few hundred, grabbed their rifles and set out again toward Logan. Okay.

5444
05:04:56.080 --> 05:04:56.450
that

5445
05:04:56.820 --> 05:05:08.980
<v Speaker 70>night those men went through the nearby mining camps full of men who had not accompanied the march to begin with and told the miners there that the mines would be closed in the morning and called on them to come fight with their brothers and

5446
05:05:08.980 --> 05:05:10.330
most of them did other

5447
05:05:10.330 --> 05:05:20.820
<v Speaker 70>union leaders heard of frankini's speech and at first they didn't believe he'd made it you know frankini of all men was not the one to back down when they found out it was true they decided to

5448
05:05:20.820 --> 05:05:23.400
<v Speaker 314>go past him straight to the miners.

5449
05:05:23.540 --> 05:05:23.540
and

5450
05:05:23.590 --> 05:05:26.880
<v Speaker 314>they sent a delegation to get them fired up and turn them back around.

5451
05:05:27.090 --> 05:05:28.000
The next

5452
05:05:28.000 --> 05:05:29.790
<v Speaker 314>morning, one of

5453
05:05:29.790 --> 05:05:31.650
<v Speaker 184>Chafin's airplanes flies

5454
05:05:31.650 --> 05:05:32.420
up over

5455
05:05:32.490 --> 05:05:34.000
<v Speaker 184>the mountains

5456
05:05:34.160 --> 05:05:34.160
and

5457
05:05:34.210 --> 05:05:36.400
<v Speaker 50>sees that the miners are reforming their lines.

5458
05:05:36.590 --> 05:05:37.360
In his hurry

5459
05:05:37.360 --> 05:05:42.890
<v Speaker 50>to get back, he flew too low and clipped a tree and crashed upside down on the roof of a house.

5460
05:05:43.150 --> 05:05:44.340
The pilot was not

5461
05:05:44.340 --> 05:05:46.060
<v Speaker 52>hurt, but still.

5462
05:05:46.270 --> 05:05:46.600
How many

5463
05:05:46.600 --> 05:05:50.940
<v Speaker 52>insurrections have you been in that resulted in a downed military aircraft?

5464
05:05:51.150 --> 05:05:51.860
Yes.

5465
05:05:51.810 --> 05:05:51.950
In

5466
05:05:51.950 --> 05:05:53.160
<v Speaker 52>Charleston, there

5467
05:05:53.160 --> 05:06:04.200
<v Speaker 70>was an airstrip, and three large Army Air Service combat aircraft, armed with machine guns and bombs, had arrived and were parked as the people of the town showed up to gawk at them. One

5468
05:06:04.200 --> 05:06:05.050
of them was the

5469
05:06:05.050 --> 05:06:10.890
<v Speaker 70>Seagull, which was the aircraft flown by the country's most famous pilot, Billy Mitchell.

5470
05:06:12.080 --> 05:06:18.060
<v Speaker 124>Mitchell was there in Charleston himself, General Billy Mitchell And he stood around the aircraft talking with

5471
05:06:18.070 --> 05:06:24.550
<v Speaker 315>the local officials and the townspeople Billy Mitchell was one of the prophets of air war in the 1920s He was

5472
05:06:25.100 --> 05:06:30.110
<v Speaker 316>dedicated to trying to make the nation's leaders see that aircraft were going to rule the next

5473
05:06:30.110 --> 05:06:30.850
major war

5474
05:06:30.850 --> 05:06:31.480
He had

5475
05:06:31.700 --> 05:06:39.340
<v Speaker 301>just flown in from a training exercise off the coast of Virginia where he was showing how an aircraft had the power to sink an armored ship. When

5476
05:06:39.340 --> 05:06:39.970
he heard what

5477
05:06:39.970 --> 05:06:44.590
<v Speaker 70>was happening in West Virginia, he saw it as another opportunity to show what the planes could do. So

5478
05:06:44.590 --> 05:06:45.610
he developed

5479
05:06:45.610 --> 05:06:48.010
<v Speaker 70>plans to stop the march from the

5480
05:06:48.010 --> 05:06:54.090
<v Speaker 192>air, first by blanketing the miners with tear gas, and if that didn't stop him, then attack with bombs and

5481
05:06:54.090 --> 05:06:56.810
<v Speaker 76>bullets while his aircraft spotted for nearby artillery.

5482
05:06:58.060 --> 05:06:58.940
it took a

5483
05:06:59.130 --> 05:07:00.930
<v Speaker 76>long time to recall all of

5484
05:07:00.960 --> 05:07:02.840
<v Speaker 62>don chafin's men from the ridge most

5485
05:07:02.840 --> 05:07:03.290
of them

5486
05:07:03.590 --> 05:07:07.760
<v Speaker 62>didn't arrive till evening and others didn't come back until it was close to midnight and

5487
05:07:07.760 --> 05:07:08.570
they were dusty

5488
05:07:08.650 --> 05:07:09.920
<v Speaker 62>and exhausted and unaware

5489
05:07:09.930 --> 05:07:15.030
<v Speaker 71>that the miners had actually come back in their direction and so just after midnight they're

5490
05:07:15.030 --> 05:07:21.090
<v Speaker 12>just getting home and the fire alarm blares again and the better men of logan town were out of bed and back

5491
05:07:21.110 --> 05:07:25.790
<v Speaker 34>to the courthouse to muster faster this time than before, having been through it already

5492
05:07:25.830 --> 05:07:26.240
<v Speaker 317>once.

5493
05:07:26.880 --> 05:07:27.380
They got

5494
05:07:27.400 --> 05:07:32.580
<v Speaker 109>their supplies, they hopped in the waiting cars, and they headed back up to the barricades atop Blair Mountain. Some

5495
05:07:32.610 --> 05:07:33.320
of them were

5496
05:07:33.320 --> 05:07:41.420
<v Speaker 164>armed with hand grenades. Sandbags reinforced machine gun nests looking down the mountain toward the path of the miners.

5497
05:07:41.940 --> 05:07:42.510
800 men

5498
05:07:42.510 --> 05:07:44.880
<v Speaker 164>of Logan were there. Keeney

5499
05:07:44.880 --> 05:07:45.520
and the

5500
05:07:45.520 --> 05:07:53.140
<v Speaker 9>others hadn't realized yet that the miners had gone back on the offensive. The trains that they had sent

5501
05:07:53.140 --> 05:07:53.700
<v Speaker 62>down

5502
05:07:53.700 --> 05:07:53.880
had

5503
05:07:54.000 --> 05:07:57.930
<v Speaker 62>come back with some miners on them, and so they took that as confirmation that the orders were being

5504
05:07:57.930 --> 05:07:58.500
<v Speaker 12>followed. But

5505
05:07:58.610 --> 05:07:58.950
all of a

5506
05:07:58.950 --> 05:08:05.470
<v Speaker 12>sudden, the general summons them and shares the reports that he's been receiving that the march was not over after

5507
05:08:05.470 --> 05:08:06.160
all. And so

5508
05:08:06.240 --> 05:08:12.600
<v Speaker 87>Keeney's colleague, Bill Blizzard, rides up with the general so that he can go get a look at the situation for himself.

5509
05:08:12.880 --> 05:08:13.980
When he came to a group

5510
05:08:13.980 --> 05:08:15.140
<v Speaker 87>of miners who were

5511
05:08:15.140 --> 05:08:19.620
<v Speaker 50>coming up on a bridge crossing, the general blocks the

5512
05:08:19.620 --> 05:08:19.830
and

5513
05:08:19.950 --> 05:08:22.000
<v Speaker 50>gets out of his car and stands there waiting

5514
05:08:22.000 --> 05:08:24.230
<v Speaker 62>for the miners to bunch up as a crowd. Now,

5515
05:08:24.230 --> 05:08:25.140
the veterans

5516
05:08:25.140 --> 05:08:28.900
<v Speaker 62>in the miners' army knew a general when they saw one.

5517
05:08:29.210 --> 05:08:29.830
One of them

5518
05:08:29.920 --> 05:08:31.620
<v Speaker 62>shouted, Are you General

5519
05:08:31.630 --> 05:08:32.330
<v Speaker 318>Pershing?

5520
05:08:32.690 --> 05:08:33.090
And he

5521
05:08:33.090 --> 05:08:39.070
<v Speaker 318>says, No, I'm General Bandholz, and I'm here for the United States government.

5522
05:08:39.410 --> 05:08:40.140
And so the

5523
05:08:40.170 --> 05:08:45.900
<v Speaker 169>general pauses to let that sink in, and then with perfect timing, he

5524
05:08:45.900 --> 05:08:46.320
<v Speaker 289>says,

5525
05:08:46.650 --> 05:08:47.100
There are

5526
05:08:47.100 --> 05:08:49.180
<v Speaker 319>servicemen among you.

5527
05:08:49.560 --> 05:08:49.560
You

5528
05:08:49.650 --> 05:08:52.760
<v Speaker 289>know what the army means, what it can do. You

5529
05:08:53.030 --> 05:08:53.480
know that it

5530
05:08:53.480 --> 05:08:53.840
<v Speaker 289>never

5531
05:08:53.840 --> 05:08:56.100
<v Speaker 301>bluffs, but always calls them. I

5532
05:08:56.440 --> 05:08:57.080
don't want

5533
05:08:57.190 --> 05:09:04.140
<v Speaker 301>martial law here. Neither do you. I've seen enough men killed. I don't want to see any

5534
05:09:04.140 --> 05:09:04.900
<v Speaker 176>more die.

5535
05:09:05.320 --> 05:09:05.860
But if it

5536
05:09:05.860 --> 05:09:09.840
<v Speaker 176>must be, then we will go under martial law. I

5537
05:09:10.190 --> 05:09:10.820
don't want

5538
05:09:10.930 --> 05:09:13.640
<v Speaker 176>it, but I must obey orders.

5539
05:09:14.130 --> 05:09:14.190
The

5540
05:09:14.190 --> 05:09:17.040
<v Speaker 320>General...

5541
05:09:17.040 --> 05:09:23.060
<v Speaker 320>like all flag officers understood how to stand before men and awe them and he awed the

5542
05:09:23.060 --> 05:09:25.390
<v Speaker 156>minors especially the veterans

5543
05:09:25.390 --> 05:09:26.220
suddenly a

5544
05:09:26.310 --> 05:09:32.590
<v Speaker 156>minor in the crowd blurted out my god we wouldn't revolt against the national government

5545
05:09:32.590 --> 05:09:33.150
and with that

5546
05:09:33.510 --> 05:09:34.900
<v Speaker 156>the tension broke and some

5547
05:09:34.900 --> 05:09:43.910
<v Speaker 146>of the vets started rushing forward to try to shake his hand and tell the general about their military service and the general stayed there and talked with the men until a train arrived

5548
05:09:44.050 --> 05:09:45.440
<v Speaker 125>and then saw them off on I'll

5549
05:09:45.440 --> 05:09:46.160
see you next time.

5550
05:09:46.380 --> 05:09:47.050
Well, that

5551
05:09:47.380 --> 05:09:50.320
<v Speaker 206>experience had won general bandholes over, too. And

5552
05:09:50.320 --> 05:09:51.110
what he saw

5553
05:09:51.110 --> 05:09:53.790
<v Speaker 206>were not blood-crazed anarchists, but

5554
05:09:53.990 --> 05:09:57.150
<v Speaker 87>good American boys who'd just gotten a little riled up, that's all.

5555
05:09:57.200 --> 05:09:58.050
And so he wired

5556
05:09:58.200 --> 05:09:59.010
<v Speaker 87>Washington,

5557
05:09:59.010 --> 05:10:01.850
<v Speaker 70>D.C. and said, keep the troops on standby. They

5558
05:10:01.850 --> 05:10:02.350
won't be

5559
05:10:02.560 --> 05:10:03.670
<v Speaker 70>needed for now. And

5560
05:10:03.670 --> 05:10:04.470
that night, he

5561
05:10:04.480 --> 05:10:07.160
<v Speaker 70>got on a train and went back to Washington. But

5562
05:10:07.160 --> 05:10:09.360
there were still miners

5563
05:10:09.360 --> 05:10:11.160
<v Speaker 217>headed to Logan.

5564
05:10:11.890 --> 05:10:12.290
And

5565
05:10:12.400 --> 05:10:16.390
<v Speaker 217>still, Chafin's forces were arrayed on the ridge to oppose them.

5566
05:10:16.830 --> 05:10:17.530
There was also

5567
05:10:17.910 --> 05:10:25.320
<v Speaker 50>Captain Brockus, that vengeful commander of the state police whose men had been humiliated by some of the miners. He had

5568
05:10:25.410 --> 05:10:26.100
spent the interval

5569
05:10:26.490 --> 05:10:27.630
<v Speaker 50>getting the names of

5570
05:10:27.630 --> 05:10:33.470
<v Speaker 228>all the men who were supposed to have been involved with that, and was determined to get them back.

5571
05:10:33.470 --> 05:10:34.030
And so he

5572
05:10:34.030 --> 05:10:40.110
<v Speaker 12>took a force of 70 state troopers on an expedition to go arrest them early one morning.

5573
05:10:41.230 --> 05:10:41.680
Thank you.

5574
05:10:41.620 --> 05:10:42.390
and so he

5575
05:10:42.920 --> 05:10:43.990
<v Speaker 12>rendezvoused with

5576
05:10:44.000 --> 05:10:44.610
<v Speaker 321>chafin who

5577
05:10:45.170 --> 05:10:48.880
<v Speaker 206>reinforced him with another 230 men bringing his number up to

5578
05:10:48.880 --> 05:10:53.290
<v Speaker 13>300 and they set out toward a camp where several of their targets are supposed to be holed up

5579
05:10:53.290 --> 05:10:53.750
as they

5580
05:10:54.050 --> 05:10:59.930
<v Speaker 13>made their way up the mountain toward the miners camp they were spotted and the men who spotted them ran

5581
05:10:59.930 --> 05:11:02.370
<v Speaker 62>back to the camp shouting that the thugs were coming so

5582
05:11:02.380 --> 05:11:03.190
the men got

5583
05:11:03.500 --> 05:11:05.000
<v Speaker 62>guns and hid their families

5584
05:11:06.100 --> 05:11:07.870
<v Speaker 62>Bracus' forces were coming

5585
05:11:07.870 --> 05:11:09.120
<v Speaker 305>across small groups

5586
05:11:09.120 --> 05:11:16.740
<v Speaker 290>of miners, and they'd corner them and disarm them and arrest them, and they would set the POWs in front of them as human shields and march them at gunpoint. At

5587
05:11:17.090 --> 05:11:18.220
this point, they

5588
05:11:18.220 --> 05:11:19.210
<v Speaker 290>came across

5589
05:11:19.210 --> 05:11:24.870
<v Speaker 10>two miners, and they had guns, so Captain Bracus approached and demanded to know why

5590
05:11:24.880 --> 05:11:26.200
<v Speaker 266>they were armed. They

5591
05:11:26.450 --> 05:11:26.870
told him it

5592
05:11:26.870 --> 05:11:31.120
<v Speaker 266>was their business, and one of the state police shouted from the crowd that,

5593
05:11:31.570 --> 05:11:39.150
<v Speaker 266>"'They'd come to get you, goddamn miners,' "'and it was then that the shooting started. "'Miners emerged from the trees "'and began firing

5594
05:11:39.170 --> 05:11:50.010
<v Speaker 13>on Brockus's men. "'Three miners went down immediately. "'Another was hit. "'Bullets whizzed through the forest "'and through the walls of cabins and tents. "'Brockus's men are being hit. "'He

5595
05:11:50.240 --> 05:11:54.400
<v Speaker 62>looked around at the chaos. "'He thought maybe this was a mistake, "'and so he orders his men to retreat, "'and

5596
05:11:54.540 --> 05:11:54.610
they go

5597
05:11:54.640 --> 05:11:55.490
<v Speaker 62>tearing down the mountain.

5598
05:11:55.490 --> 05:11:56.500
"'Well,

5599
05:11:56.500 --> 05:11:59.470
<v Speaker 150>word spread that the thugs had attacked.'

5600
05:11:59.440 --> 05:11:59.660
The

5601
05:11:59.790 --> 05:12:05.000
<v Speaker 150>miners were going home, and the thugs attacked anyway. People were dead. Miners came from all

5602
05:12:05.000 --> 05:12:07.520
<v Speaker 123>around and saw the bloody bodies.

5603
05:12:07.870 --> 05:12:08.140
Women and

5604
05:12:08.140 --> 05:12:12.990
<v Speaker 123>children were screaming and crying. The miners saw that, many of them over

5605
05:12:13.060 --> 05:12:14.780
<v Speaker 71>the corpses of their husbands and fathers.

5606
05:12:15.050 --> 05:12:16.010
They told the men that

5607
05:12:16.010 --> 05:12:21.820
<v Speaker 71>the state police had come down in the middle of the night, and hundreds of them had opened fire on their homes.

5608
05:12:22.170 --> 05:12:22.780
They said,

5609
05:12:23.480 --> 05:12:29.870
<v Speaker 71>Terrified women and children fled down the road and as they went spread word among the miners what had happened. This

5610
05:12:29.870 --> 05:12:31.000
time, when the

5611
05:12:31.000 --> 05:12:31.530
<v Speaker 225>miners

5612
05:12:31.530 --> 05:12:34.980
<v Speaker 13>assembled, they would not be turned back.

5613
05:12:34.980 --> 05:12:35.820
Thirteen and

5614
05:12:35.830 --> 05:12:43.490
<v Speaker 13>fourteen-year-old boys stood armed alongside their fathers and older brothers. On Wednesday morning, August

5615
05:12:44.000 --> 05:12:48.460
<v Speaker 312>31, 1921, all the building frustration increased.

5616
05:12:48.630 --> 05:12:50.440
<v Speaker 312>and anger and resentment that

5617
05:12:50.730 --> 05:12:55.200
<v Speaker 206>had bubbled up over the years in the West Virginia coal fields exploded into

5618
05:12:55.200 --> 05:12:56.640
<v Speaker 35>full-scale war.

5619
05:12:56.850 --> 05:12:58.140
The President of

5620
05:12:58.140 --> 05:13:03.020
<v Speaker 35>the United States ordered the U.S. Army to go put down the miners' rebellion.

5621
05:13:03.270 --> 05:13:04.820
Don Chafin calls

5622
05:13:04.820 --> 05:13:09.300
<v Speaker 35>on neighboring McDowell County for reinforcements.

5623
05:13:09.440 --> 05:13:09.950
He asks the

5624
05:13:09.950 --> 05:13:17.540
<v Speaker 35>middle class and professional citizens there to send all the men that they could to fight off the barbarians headed to Blair Mountain.

5625
05:13:17.500 --> 05:13:17.900
And so

5626
05:13:17.980 --> 05:13:20.920
<v Speaker 35>McDowell sent their bankers, their lawyers, their

5627
05:13:21.220 --> 05:13:26.410
<v Speaker 24>businessmen and doctors, 600 more men reinforcing Chaffin's defenses on the ridge. But

5628
05:13:26.410 --> 05:13:27.320
no fewer than

5629
05:13:27.320 --> 05:13:31.010
<v Speaker 24>10,000 miners were headed their way.

5630
05:13:31.040 --> 05:13:31.930
Some estimates

5631
05:13:31.930 --> 05:13:36.180
<v Speaker 266>have the number at 12 to 15 or even 20,000. Two

5632
05:13:36.380 --> 05:13:37.200
or three

5633
05:13:37.200 --> 05:13:39.140
<v Speaker 235>times as many.

5634
05:13:39.260 --> 05:13:47.230
<v Speaker 235>Wives working as nurses and cooks, young boys as supply runners and messengers supported the Army in non-combat roles. The

5635
05:13:47.360 --> 05:13:48.260
word in the capital

5636
05:13:48.270 --> 05:13:52.930
<v Speaker 293>and among the mine owners had been that all the trouble was being caused by the hotheads

5637
05:13:52.930 --> 05:13:58.840
<v Speaker 70>from Kanawha County, the same miners who'd given the state so much trouble a decade before at Paint and Cabin Creeks.

5638
05:13:59.460 --> 05:13:59.640
And

5639
05:13:59.980 --> 05:14:08.100
<v Speaker 70>certainly those miners were a strong element, played a major role in getting the march going. But by the time the army reached Blair Mountain, everybody realized that this

5640
05:14:08.170 --> 05:14:21.010
<v Speaker 301>was way bigger than one county. Miners from Mingo, Logan, Boone, McDowell, and other counties were there. Miners from even further away. It seemed as if all of southern West Virginia had risen up

5641
05:14:21.010 --> 05:14:22.420
<v Speaker 235>in rebellion. As

5642
05:14:22.750 --> 05:14:23.640
Savage says,

5643
05:14:23.640 --> 05:14:29.040
<v Speaker 235>George Washington had fewer soldiers at the Battle of Trenton.

5644
05:14:28.980 --> 05:14:29.180
the

5645
05:14:29.340 --> 05:14:30.170
<v Speaker 235>engagement which

5646
05:14:30.210 --> 05:14:32.460
<v Speaker 20>changed the course of the American Revolution.

5647
05:14:32.820 --> 05:14:33.610
And that

5648
05:14:33.610 --> 05:14:37.680
<v Speaker 20>morning, the miners began their ascent up Blair Mountain.

5649
05:14:38.040 --> 05:14:38.280
Almost

5650
05:14:38.290 --> 05:14:43.790
<v Speaker 175>immediately, rifle and machine gun fire began spraying down the mountainside. Aircraft

5651
05:14:43.790 --> 05:14:46.620
<v Speaker 75>appear overhead and begin dropping bombs.

5652
05:14:46.980 --> 05:14:47.430
These were

5653
05:14:47.430 --> 05:14:51.780
<v Speaker 75>Chaffin's planes dropping improvised bombs that were about

5654
05:14:51.780 --> 05:14:52.210
two and a

5655
05:14:52.290 --> 05:14:54.460
<v Speaker 73>half, three feet long, and maybe...

5656
05:14:54.740 --> 05:14:55.070
six

5657
05:14:55.240 --> 05:14:58.000
<v Speaker 73>to ten inches in diameter i've seen one of them before i

5658
05:14:58.130 --> 05:15:00.390
<v Speaker 62>don't have the measurements exactly in my head but

5659
05:15:00.450 --> 05:15:00.900
they had

5660
05:15:00.900 --> 05:15:09.970
<v Speaker 62>put them together basically giant pipe bombs rigged up and they would fly over and drop these down on the miners and some of these things turned out to be duds and they were captured by the

5661
05:15:09.990 --> 05:15:14.040
<v Speaker 305>miners that's why i've seen one of them it's on display at the blair mountain museum in mate one today

5662
05:15:15.330 --> 05:15:16.220
A few days of

5663
05:15:16.390 --> 05:15:24.980
<v Speaker 13>military training was not enough to turn the minors into a Navy SEAL team So their tactics were sloppy and their coordination was often non-existent But

5664
05:15:24.980 --> 05:15:41.000
<v Speaker 301>they were brave I mean just think Without being given orders from an officer Without just you and your boys Storming up a mountain with dug in machine guns Firing down on you while planes are dropping bombs on you

5665
05:15:41.460 --> 05:15:41.460
And

5666
05:15:41.520 --> 05:15:44.610
<v Speaker 301>you and your friends are storming up this mountain. It's crazy.

5667
05:15:44.820 --> 05:15:46.840
It takes a lot of

5668
05:15:46.840 --> 05:15:56.230
<v Speaker 85>training, a lot of military training to get trained infantrymen to go up a hill like that.

5669
05:15:56.440 --> 05:15:56.820
And these

5670
05:15:56.820 --> 05:15:58.310
<v Speaker 52>miners were doing it.

5671
05:15:58.520 --> 05:16:01.000
Small units made their own way

5672
05:16:01.040 --> 05:16:05.920
<v Speaker 52>up the mountain, fired their weapons, and then attracted fire. And they'd

5673
05:16:05.920 --> 05:16:09.930
<v Speaker 67>retreat and then try to make their way up another way. You know, the whole thing was...

5674
05:16:10.160 --> 05:16:11.900
<v Speaker 67>somewhat disorganized it wouldn't have impressed

5675
05:16:11.900 --> 05:16:13.920
<v Speaker 62>napoleon but the miners

5676
05:16:13.920 --> 05:16:21.060
<v Speaker 11>were brave i just imagine a group of you and your friends tearing up a mountainside with machine guns

5677
05:16:21.060 --> 05:16:27.960
<v Speaker 20>dug in to trenches pouring down on you while planes are dropping explosives on you it takes a lot of

5678
05:16:27.960 --> 05:16:30.050
<v Speaker 25>training to get infantrymen to do

5679
05:16:30.050 --> 05:16:30.720
something

5680
05:16:30.800 --> 05:16:33.280
<v Speaker 11>like that and these miners were doing it

5681
05:16:34.420 --> 05:16:35.190
they did

5682
05:16:35.570 --> 05:16:45.050
<v Speaker 11>have one thing that napoleon would have understood well and that was numbers they swarmed blair mountain like angry bees corbin's account reads quote

5683
05:16:45.070 --> 05:16:45.580
<v Speaker 270>when the

5684
05:16:45.580 --> 05:16:52.960
<v Speaker 53>miners arrived in the battle zone and began to fight they demonstrated preparedness and organization arriving on foot

5685
05:16:52.960 --> 05:16:57.850
<v Speaker 70>and in cars trucks and trains that they had commandeered the miners with cartridge belts

5686
05:16:57.940 --> 05:17:01.300
<v Speaker 301>and packs rolled as neatly and smoothly as a stovepipe

5687
05:17:01.550 --> 05:17:07.420
<v Speaker 301>responded to a bugler's sounding of assembly and their sergeant's shouts of packs and guns fall in

5688
05:17:07.420 --> 05:17:07.820
a coal

5689
05:17:07.830 --> 05:17:10.420
<v Speaker 301>company official later testified that

5690
05:17:10.420 --> 05:17:11.420
i noticed one

5691
05:17:11.420 --> 05:17:18.140
<v Speaker 88>company march up opposite the station face to the front and commanded by a man acting as a captain he

5692
05:17:18.270 --> 05:17:18.900
faced the men

5693
05:17:18.900 --> 05:17:23.150
<v Speaker 88>to the front like the captain of an army would do he called the roll later he

5694
05:17:23.150 --> 05:17:27.080
<v Speaker 219>ordered the men to throw down their tin cups he said they were going into

5695
05:17:27.080 --> 05:17:30.340
<v Speaker 71>action that night and he didn't want anything to rattle

5696
05:17:30.340 --> 05:17:40.840
<v Speaker 71>Sentries were then placed along the mountain ridge. Sharpshooters with telescopic rifles were stationed at strategic locations to clean out Chafin's machine gun nests.

5697
05:17:40.840 --> 05:17:41.480
The other

5698
05:17:41.510 --> 05:17:59.310
<v Speaker 71>miners moved out in flank movements, each under the command of an Army veteran. Harvey Dillon, a veteran of the Spanish-American War and World War I, commanded the Droughty Creek Division. Hewitt Creek Division was led by a former Army colonel, and another high-ranking officer led the charge up Blair Mountain.

5699
05:17:59.280 --> 05:17:59.590
It was

5700
05:17:59.630 --> 05:18:05.760
<v Speaker 137>carefully done, a coal operator later testified, just as well as General Pershing had his army in France.

5701
05:18:06.080 --> 05:18:06.720
The battle

5702
05:18:06.720 --> 05:18:12.060
<v Speaker 137>raged for over a week. A veteran of the Spanish-American War reported that he

5703
05:18:12.060 --> 05:18:15.200
<v Speaker 90>heard about as much shooting at Blair as I did at Manila.

5704
05:18:15.590 --> 05:18:16.280
Planes that the

5705
05:18:16.280 --> 05:18:18.960
<v Speaker 90>Logan County Coal Operators Association

5706
05:18:18.960 --> 05:18:24.200
<v Speaker 71>had rented shelled the miners with gas and crudely made explosive bombs for three days.

5707
05:18:24.850 --> 05:18:25.090
As a

5708
05:18:25.150 --> 05:18:31.040
<v Speaker 62>side note, I think that's probably the first recorded use of poison gas dropped from an aircraft in combat, and

5709
05:18:31.050 --> 05:18:31.800
it was being

5710
05:18:31.800 --> 05:18:34.590
<v Speaker 62>dropped on coal miners in West Virginia.

5711
05:18:34.890 --> 05:18:35.730
Both armies

5712
05:18:35.730 --> 05:18:41.320
<v Speaker 184>took prisoners, and each side was accused of torturing them, and both sides killed. A

5713
05:18:41.550 --> 05:18:42.090
message sent

5714
05:18:42.090 --> 05:18:45.050
<v Speaker 184>out from the headquarters of Chafin's army read,

5715
05:18:45.050 --> 05:18:45.410
As I've

5716
05:18:45.570 --> 05:18:51.310
<v Speaker 71>returned from the front-line trenches, thought I would try to tell you a little something about what has been going on over there.

5717
05:18:51.580 --> 05:18:58.670
<v Speaker 71>We certainly have been doing some honest-to-God fighting the past few days. I lost three men yesterday. Happened about 8 a.m. yesterday.

5718
05:18:58.910 --> 05:18:59.280
Perhaps I

5719
05:18:59.340 --> 05:19:16.120
<v Speaker 71>will stop off and tell you all on my way home, if I don't get bumped off before I get away. Give my regards to the boys and kill all the rednecks you can. A horrified nation sat back in disbelief as newspapers reported on the largest armed conflict in American labor history.

5720
05:19:16.660 --> 05:19:16.660
The

5721
05:19:16.720 --> 05:19:25.120
<v Speaker 71>headlines of an issue at the New York Times read, Fighting continues in the mountains. Planes reported bombing minors. Heavy firing unabated. An

5722
05:19:25.280 --> 05:19:25.730
issue of

5723
05:19:25.730 --> 05:19:32.110
<v Speaker 71>the Washington Evening Star declared in bold letters, Martial law, fighting now ranging on a 20-mile

5724
05:19:32.110 --> 05:19:32.680
<v Speaker 137>front.

5725
05:19:32.910 --> 05:19:33.800
The Charleston

5726
05:19:33.800 --> 05:19:37.780
<v Speaker 137>Gazette headlined, Logan now in a state of siege.

5727
05:19:38.020 --> 05:19:39.910
By the morning of

5728
05:19:39.910 --> 05:19:41.290
<v Speaker 137>September

5729
05:19:41.290 --> 05:19:42.370
<v Speaker 150>1st,

5730
05:19:42.380 --> 05:19:42.580
The

5731
05:19:42.820 --> 05:19:53.010
<v Speaker 150>miners had already captured half of the mountain ridge that was blocking their way, and they were preparing to roll up the rest of Chafin's lines and storm down into Logan and Mingo counties. A

5732
05:19:53.360 --> 05:19:54.070
state police

5733
05:19:54.070 --> 05:20:02.000
<v Speaker 67>captain appeared in Logantown. A machine gun had jammed at one of the mountain passes, and the miners had broken through. Chafin

5734
05:20:02.000 --> 05:20:02.900
hastily tried

5735
05:20:02.970 --> 05:20:09.380
<v Speaker 71>to construct a second line of defense for his men to fall back to, and the people in the town went into a total panic.

5736
05:20:10.050 --> 05:20:10.590
a coal

5737
05:20:10.650 --> 05:20:16.790
<v Speaker 71>operator there in logantown called a congressman that he knew personally and told him that unless troops were sent by

5738
05:20:16.790 --> 05:20:22.760
<v Speaker 136>midnight that night the town of logan was going to be attacked by an army of thousands of miners

5739
05:20:22.760 --> 05:20:23.770
a squadron of

5740
05:20:23.770 --> 05:20:30.070
<v Speaker 136>17 military aircraft were flown in people gathered and cheered when it was time for

5741
05:20:30.070 --> 05:20:37.940
<v Speaker 50>them to take off for the battle but when the third one tried to take off it glanced off a telephone pole and nose down and flipped over in a

5742
05:20:38.270 --> 05:20:38.300
<v Speaker 301>field.

5743
05:20:38.880 --> 05:20:39.090
two

5744
05:20:39.400 --> 05:20:42.660
<v Speaker 301>other of the aircraft had engine problems and couldn't take off at all

5745
05:20:43.170 --> 05:20:43.390
another one

5746
05:20:43.390 --> 05:20:50.830
<v Speaker 301>had engine trouble and made an emergency landing and hit a mound of dirt and blew a tile and tire and broken axle two

5747
05:20:50.830 --> 05:20:51.720
others lost

5748
05:20:52.340 --> 05:20:52.920
<v Speaker 301>their way in

5749
05:20:52.920 --> 05:21:00.880
<v Speaker 50>fog and ended up in tennessee when they tried to return to charleston the next day they hit a storm and when they tried to land one of them hit a ditch and

5750
05:21:00.880 --> 05:21:03.140
<v Speaker 70>took out the landing gear and demolished the plane

5751
05:21:03.390 --> 05:21:03.460
and

5752
05:21:03.440 --> 05:21:03.740
And the

5753
05:21:03.750 --> 05:21:14.900
<v Speaker 70>other one looked for another landing spot until he was almost out of gas, then tried to land on the side of a hill, ran into a fence, and he crashed. So, not the finest hour for America's Air Force.

5754
05:21:15.200 --> 05:21:15.840
Just then, with

5755
05:21:16.000 --> 05:21:21.800
<v Speaker 70>Chafin's forces scrambling back to secondary lines and the people of Logan evacuating the

5756
05:21:21.800 --> 05:21:25.330
<v Speaker 113>town, that's when Daddy showed up.

5757
05:21:26.030 --> 05:21:35.960
<v Speaker 62>U.S. Army regular soldiers, most of them combat veterans from World War I, began rolling into the area in train cars. Thousands of them. When

5758
05:21:35.980 --> 05:21:36.830
the miners

5759
05:21:36.830 --> 05:21:42.790
<v Speaker 70>first saw the soldiers, again, many of them were pleased. They smiled and waved.

5760
05:21:42.790 --> 05:21:44.000
And these men were

5761
05:21:44.000 --> 05:21:48.180
<v Speaker 70>in rebellion against the coal operators in their local government. But

5762
05:21:48.180 --> 05:21:48.630
by and

5763
05:21:48.630 --> 05:21:53.550
<v Speaker 70>large, they were naively loyal American patriots.

5764
05:21:53.540 --> 05:21:53.930
they

5765
05:21:54.300 --> 05:22:03.550
<v Speaker 70>knew the state and local governments were captive to the coal interest but again they just thought if they could just get the attention of the federal government that's all they had to do then their case would be

5766
05:22:03.610 --> 05:22:04.540
heard many of them

5767
05:22:04.540 --> 05:22:07.870
<v Speaker 70>took the arrival of the army as confirmation that they had been

5768
05:22:07.870 --> 05:22:11.730
<v Speaker 301>heard that the federal government was finally sending help they really thought that they

5769
05:22:12.200 --> 05:22:12.440
thought the

5770
05:22:12.440 --> 05:22:16.960
<v Speaker 301>army would settle things down and then as a neutral party force a settlement

5771
05:22:18.050 --> 05:22:18.850
They didn't

5772
05:22:18.940 --> 05:22:24.220
<v Speaker 301>imagine that the army had been sent to take the side of the coal operators and their hired guns. The

5773
05:22:24.830 --> 05:22:25.570
soldiers arrived

5774
05:22:25.570 --> 05:22:32.060
<v Speaker 301>coming up behind Chafin's forces on the Blair Mountain Ridge, told them all to go home. Army

5775
05:22:32.060 --> 05:22:32.840
men manned

5776
05:22:32.840 --> 05:22:35.380
<v Speaker 13>their positions and sent word down

5777
05:22:35.380 --> 05:22:38.910
<v Speaker 164>to the miners that Chafin's forces were gone, and

5778
05:22:38.910 --> 05:22:39.570
from now on it

5779
05:22:39.620 --> 05:22:42.220
<v Speaker 164>would be the U.S. Army that you would be shooting

5780
05:22:42.220 --> 05:22:42.630
<v Speaker 175>at.

5781
05:22:43.340 --> 05:22:43.950
And so

5782
05:22:44.050 --> 05:22:49.540
<v Speaker 175>as word spread that the U.S. Army had arrived, the shooting died down and finally stopped. The

5783
05:22:49.830 --> 05:22:50.590
miners,

5784
05:22:50.710 --> 05:22:58.040
<v Speaker 72>again, many of them were war veterans. And they took that very seriously. And they were

5785
05:22:58.040 --> 05:23:01.900
<v Speaker 87>just, it wasn't just fear. These guys were obviously prepared to die.

5786
05:23:01.900 --> 05:23:10.170
<v Speaker 35>They're charging machine gun nests. But they were not prepared to fight with American soldiers. They just were not prepared

5787
05:23:10.170 --> 05:23:10.610
<v Speaker 13>to do that.

5788
05:23:11.760 --> 05:23:12.250
the

5789
05:23:12.790 --> 05:23:18.780
<v Speaker 13>miners climbed down their side of Blair Mountain and made camp or prepared to make their trip back home the

5790
05:23:19.130 --> 05:23:31.130
<v Speaker 50>miners had sworn an oath of secrecy that held until the oldest of them passed so we don't know exactly how many were killed but there were reports of dozens and some said hundreds dead I

5791
05:23:31.890 --> 05:23:33.320
wish this

5792
05:23:33.320 --> 05:23:35.740
<v Speaker 164>story had a happier ending

5793
05:23:36.660 --> 05:23:37.270
After the

5794
05:23:37.490 --> 05:23:45.330
<v Speaker 164>Battle of Blair Mountain, the miners and the miners' union was pilloried as a bunch of savage Bolsheviks in the nation's business-friendly press. The

5795
05:23:45.330 --> 05:23:45.790
owners

5796
05:23:45.930 --> 05:23:50.100
<v Speaker 299>re-established control of their coal fields, and miners went back

5797
05:23:50.150 --> 05:23:51.550
<v Speaker 13>to work. Hundreds

5798
05:23:51.680 --> 05:23:52.300
of them were

5799
05:23:52.300 --> 05:23:57.540
<v Speaker 13>thrown in prison, and several union leaders were tried for treason. Others,

5800
05:23:57.750 --> 05:23:58.330
including a

5801
05:23:58.330 --> 05:24:02.100
<v Speaker 13>pastor who had taken a gun up to march with the miners, were

5802
05:24:02.130 --> 05:24:02.580
<v Speaker 292>sent up

5803
05:24:02.580 --> 05:24:03.680
<v Speaker 62>for murder.

5804
05:24:04.880 --> 05:24:05.750
There were no

5805
05:24:05.760 --> 05:24:07.680
<v Speaker 63>arrests of the mine guards,

5806
05:24:07.680 --> 05:24:08.040
or the

5807
05:24:08.320 --> 05:24:17.280
<v Speaker 63>citizens' militia from Logan, or any of the state police or sheriffs who had beaten and tortured and killed miners in 1920 and 21. Frank

5808
05:24:17.280 --> 05:24:18.400
Keeney was one of

5809
05:24:18.400 --> 05:24:21.940
<v Speaker 175>the men who were tried for treason in 1922,

5810
05:24:21.940 --> 05:24:31.620
<v Speaker 35>but a sympathetic judge, or one who just wanted the whole thing to be over, moved his trial to a friendlier venue where the charges were dismissed.

5811
05:24:32.450 --> 05:24:32.940
Many other

5812
05:24:33.140 --> 05:24:34.850
<v Speaker 35>cases were also transferred

5813
05:24:34.850 --> 05:24:39.020
<v Speaker 322>to minor-friendly jurisdictions, and most of them were dismissed as well. Old

5814
05:24:39.440 --> 05:24:39.920
Sheriff Don

5815
05:24:39.920 --> 05:24:46.130
<v Speaker 294>Chafin was lauded as a hero by the better people of West Virginia, although a little while

5816
05:24:46.130 --> 05:24:52.240
<v Speaker 35>later, during Prohibition, he was caught up in a bootlegging scheme and ended up doing two years in prison. The

5817
05:24:52.640 --> 05:24:54.470
strike in Mingo dragged on a

5818
05:24:54.470 --> 05:24:59.590
<v Speaker 5>little while longer, but eventually had to be called off.

5819
05:25:00.080 --> 05:25:00.400
The

5820
05:25:00.500 --> 05:25:01.040
<v Speaker 5>cost of

5821
05:25:01.040 --> 05:25:08.480
<v Speaker 175>it had bankrupted Keeney's District 17 of the UMW, and at least 20 people had been killed, not counting the March on Blair Mountain.

5822
05:25:08.810 --> 05:25:09.660
The coal

5823
05:25:09.740 --> 05:25:20.520
<v Speaker 175>operators, the county authorities, the better people of West Virginia, and the U.S. Army had finally crushed the Union in the state of West

5824
05:25:20.520 --> 05:25:24.160
<v Speaker 136>Virginia. In 1920, when

5825
05:25:24.160 --> 05:25:24.890
all this

5826
05:25:24.890 --> 05:25:26.310
<v Speaker 136>began...

5827
05:25:26.560 --> 05:25:30.390
<v Speaker 136>The UMW in West Virginia had nearly 50,000 members, and

5828
05:25:30.390 --> 05:25:30.540
by

5829
05:25:30.960 --> 05:25:35.090
<v Speaker 164>1929, at the end of the decade, it would be down to about 600. The

5830
05:25:35.090 --> 05:25:36.860
miners crawled back to

5831
05:25:36.860 --> 05:25:44.630
<v Speaker 164>their company towns, they kept their heads down, avoided the mine guards, and they did what they were told to do.

5832
05:25:44.840 --> 05:25:46.270
Across the Kentucky

5833
05:25:46.270 --> 05:25:51.230
<v Speaker 175>border, not too far from our story here in Harlan County, the

5834
05:25:51.330 --> 05:25:52.110
miners had

5835
05:25:52.110 --> 05:25:53.050
<v Speaker 175>only begun to

5836
05:25:53.050 --> 05:25:55.710
<v Speaker 36>fight, and they wouldn't stop for another decade.

5837
05:25:56.290 --> 05:25:56.440
It

5838
05:25:56.740 --> 05:25:58.680
<v Speaker 91>wasn't until the 1930s,

5839
05:25:58.680 --> 05:25:59.790
under FDR's

5840
05:25:59.900 --> 05:26:09.270
<v Speaker 91>New Deal legislation giving workers the right to organize themselves as a union, that the coal miners of West Virginia finally had a permanent voice.

5841
05:26:09.710 --> 05:26:11.210
Today, there are less than

5842
05:26:11.210 --> 05:26:16.090
<v Speaker 91>10,000 miners working underground in West Virginia

5843
05:26:16.130 --> 05:26:21.670
<v Speaker 13>coal mines. The industry finds itself under attack immediately.

5844
05:26:21.850 --> 05:26:26.340
<v Speaker 13>Mostly by the same kind of people who signed up to fight the miners in 1921.

5845
05:26:26.570 --> 05:26:27.160
Office

5846
05:26:27.160 --> 05:26:33.970
<v Speaker 323>workers, businessmen, students, middle class professionals, the better

5847
05:26:33.970 --> 05:26:38.100
<v Speaker 324>people of America who wear flannel and other work clothes as a fashion statement,

5848
05:26:38.100 --> 05:26:39.020
but try to avoid

5849
05:26:39.020 --> 05:26:42.030
<v Speaker 324>shaking the dirty hand of an actual miner when they

5850
05:26:42.030 --> 05:26:43.260
<v Speaker 175>come across one.

5851
05:26:43.490 --> 05:26:45.210
Almost 80,000

5852
05:26:45.210 --> 05:26:47.080
<v Speaker 175>American coal miners have

5853
05:26:47.080 --> 05:26:50.140
<v Speaker 70>died of black lungs since 1968.

5854
05:26:50.980 --> 05:26:51.500
and God

5855
05:26:51.530 --> 05:26:57.040
<v Speaker 70>only knows how many of them died before that had a name. The miners'

5856
05:26:57.040 --> 05:27:00.720
<v Speaker 13>march on Blair Mountain may have been ill-considered,

5857
05:27:00.720 --> 05:27:01.490
at times

5858
05:27:01.490 --> 05:27:08.900
<v Speaker 5>chaotic. Certainly it set their cause back a long ways. But these Americans,

5859
05:27:09.450 --> 05:27:10.160
these people

5860
05:27:10.160 --> 05:27:14.050
<v Speaker 25>who identify themselves on census reports

5861
05:27:14.060 --> 05:27:18.660
<v Speaker 50>simply as Americans, and whose sons and daughters

5862
05:27:18.660 --> 05:27:19.250
<v Speaker 325>still

5863
05:27:20.350 --> 05:27:20.620
to a

5864
05:27:20.990 --> 05:27:24.370
<v Speaker 325>disproportionate percentage of the fighting in America's wars.

5865
05:27:25.010 --> 05:27:33.920
<v Speaker 124>There's a joke that goes around the U.S. military that we wouldn't have an infantry if it weren't for Appalachia. I've

5866
05:27:34.250 --> 05:27:34.800
heard the same

5867
05:27:34.920 --> 05:27:35.990
<v Speaker 124>one about Texas and

5868
05:27:36.150 --> 05:27:38.390
<v Speaker 91>Florida, and probably both versions are true.

5869
05:27:38.590 --> 05:27:39.940
Well, these

5870
05:27:39.940 --> 05:27:43.650
<v Speaker 91>people, these Americans,

5871
05:27:44.750 --> 05:27:45.200
who

5872
05:27:45.560 --> 05:27:54.660
<v Speaker 88>went off into battle here at Blair Mountain, who did something that seemed so crazy and so over the top to so many of us, these people were not living under a

5873
05:27:54.660 --> 05:27:56.050
<v Speaker 73>democracy. They

5874
05:27:56.400 --> 05:27:56.940
were living

5875
05:27:57.330 --> 05:28:00.010
<v Speaker 73>under a form of peonage that has

5876
05:28:00.170 --> 05:28:00.170
no

5877
05:28:00.260 --> 05:28:08.180
<v Speaker 91>parallel in American history in its scale and its oppressive nature aside from the institution of slavery itself. And

5878
05:28:08.180 --> 05:28:09.790
so what do you do in a

5879
05:28:09.900 --> 05:28:14.310
<v Speaker 144>situation like that? What do you do when...

5880
05:28:14.320 --> 05:28:26.800
<v Speaker 144>a mine guard beats or kills you or one of your friends or abuses your wife or your children and you go to the sheriff and that doesn't do any good because the sheriff works for the mine company

5881
05:28:27.010 --> 05:28:27.600
okay, well

5882
05:28:27.600 --> 05:28:31.560
<v Speaker 224>you go to the county authority nope, the judges work for the mine company

5883
05:28:31.770 --> 05:28:32.340
go to the

5884
05:28:32.340 --> 05:28:36.560
<v Speaker 224>governor nope what do you do?

5885
05:28:36.770 --> 05:28:39.080
what did the founding

5886
05:28:39.770 --> 05:28:40.950
<v Speaker 224>fathers of the country do?

5887
05:28:41.190 --> 05:28:41.950
okay

5888
05:28:42.780 --> 05:28:42.950
Men don't

5889
05:28:42.950 --> 05:28:50.470
<v Speaker 226>do what these men did just because they got riled up. They do what they did because they saw no other choice. And

5890
05:28:50.470 --> 05:28:51.560
if men like

5891
05:28:51.640 --> 05:29:01.440
<v Speaker 88>these had not fought, even though they lost, if they had not fought and put the fear of God into the better people of this country, if

5892
05:29:01.440 --> 05:29:02.320
you think the

5893
05:29:02.320 --> 05:29:05.990
<v Speaker 88>barons of industry and finance would have, out of the goodness

5894
05:29:06.130 --> 05:29:06.130
of

5895
05:29:06.150 --> 05:29:06.740
<v Speaker 59>their hearts,

5896
05:29:07.350 --> 05:29:12.370
<v Speaker 59>lifted working people off the barrel they had them over in the 19th and early 20th centuries,

5897
05:29:12.580 --> 05:29:13.970
we can agree to

5898
05:29:14.090 --> 05:29:16.000
<v Speaker 326>disagree. And

5899
05:29:16.000 --> 05:29:17.040
so, of

5900
05:29:17.040 --> 05:29:22.690
<v Speaker 150>course, I can't condone violence of any kind.

5901
05:29:22.880 --> 05:29:23.450
No, no,

5902
05:29:23.450 --> 05:29:25.540
<v Speaker 150>no. Can't go that far.

5903
05:29:25.540 --> 05:29:27.890
<v Speaker 227>Cannot condone violence.

5904
05:29:29.070 --> 05:29:30.020
But on the

5905
05:29:30.180 --> 05:29:32.270
<v Speaker 227>other hand...

5906
05:29:33.310 --> 05:29:59.090
<v Speaker 327>I was born on this mountain Long

5907
05:29:59.090 --> 05:29:59.090
time

5908
05:29:59.070 --> 05:30:06.050
<v Speaker 327>time

5909
05:30:06.060 --> 05:30:06.520
ago for

5910
05:30:06.520 --> 05:30:13.420
<v Speaker 328>they knocked down the timber and they stripped

5911
05:30:13.420 --> 05:30:14.840
mine the

5912
05:30:14.840 --> 05:30:17.190
<v Speaker 328>coal when

5913
05:30:17.190 --> 05:30:19.830
<v Speaker 329>you rose

5914
05:30:19.830 --> 05:30:19.830
in the morning

5915
05:30:19.830 --> 05:30:23.030
<v Speaker 329>for it was

5916
05:30:23.040 --> 05:30:26.330
light

5917
05:30:26.320 --> 05:30:27.880
When I'm

5918
05:30:27.890 --> 05:30:34.850
<v Speaker 328>in that dark hole I come back up at night I

5919
05:30:34.860 --> 05:30:37.860
was

5920
05:30:37.860 --> 05:30:47.310
<v Speaker 327>born on a smile A smile in my home

5921
05:30:47.340 --> 05:30:53.520
<v Speaker 330>And she hugs me and keeps me

5922
05:30:53.520 --> 05:30:56.580
<v Speaker 330>For worry

5923
05:30:56.580 --> 05:30:58.510
or woe

5924
05:30:58.520 --> 05:31:06.360
<v Speaker 331>Well it took everything that she gave Now they're

5925
05:31:06.360 --> 05:31:07.850
gone To

5926
05:31:07.850 --> 05:31:15.290
<v Speaker 332>put out down this mountain This mountain's

5927
05:31:15.290 --> 05:31:17.200
not home

5928
05:31:17.180 --> 05:31:20.170
I

5929
05:31:20.170 --> 05:31:28.180
<v Speaker 333>was young on this mountain and I'm old

5930
05:31:28.180 --> 05:31:31.170
and I

5931
05:31:31.170 --> 05:31:36.180
<v Speaker 334>knew every holler

5932
05:31:36.180 --> 05:31:40.140
<v Speaker 335>every cool swimming hole

5933
05:31:40.180 --> 05:31:42.290
till one

5934
05:31:42.290 --> 05:31:46.230
<v Speaker 327>night I lay down

5935
05:31:46.210 --> 05:31:50.590
<v Speaker 327>Woke up to find And

5936
05:31:50.590 --> 05:31:51.660
my

5937
05:31:51.660 --> 05:31:58.780
<v Speaker 334>childhood was over Wind

5938
05:31:58.780 --> 05:32:04.860
<v Speaker 336>down in the mine I was

5939
05:32:04.880 --> 05:32:13.030
<v Speaker 327>born on a smile Smiling up

5940
05:32:13.010 --> 05:32:16.000
<v Speaker 327>my home.

5941
05:32:16.000 --> 05:32:23.340
<v Speaker 330>And she holds me and keeps me from worrying,

5942
05:32:23.340 --> 05:32:34.970
<v Speaker 331>oh. Well, they took everything she gave, now they're gone,

5943
05:32:34.970 --> 05:32:38.810
<v Speaker 332>but I died

5944
05:32:38.810 --> 05:32:38.810
on this man.

5945
05:32:38.780 --> 05:32:40.980
<v Speaker 332>In this mountain's

5946
05:32:40.980 --> 05:33:00.340
my home There's a hole in this

5947
05:33:00.340 --> 05:33:08.600
<v Speaker 337>mountain

5948
05:33:08.590 --> 05:33:09.390
It's

5949
05:33:09.460 --> 05:33:10.090
<v Speaker 330>dark

5950
05:33:10.210 --> 05:33:11.580
<v Speaker 338>and it's

5951
05:33:11.580 --> 05:33:14.420
deep The guy

5952
05:33:14.430 --> 05:33:22.450
<v Speaker 330>only knows all the secrets it keeps There's

5953
05:33:22.450 --> 05:33:22.730
a

5954
05:33:22.730 --> 05:33:30.970
<v Speaker 327>chill in the air Only miners can't feel

5955
05:33:30.970 --> 05:33:32.740
And there's

5956
05:33:32.740 --> 05:33:35.990
<v Speaker 330>ghosts in the tunnels

5957
05:33:36.100 --> 05:33:39.010
<v Speaker 330>and left the company's

5958
05:33:39.010 --> 05:33:42.650
seen wrong I was

5959
05:33:42.650 --> 05:33:51.680
<v Speaker 327>born on a smile, a smile

5960
05:33:51.680 --> 05:33:52.200
<v Speaker 330>in

5961
05:33:52.300 --> 05:33:54.180
my home

5962
05:33:54.300 --> 05:34:01.600
<v Speaker 330>and she holds me and keeps me from worry

5963
05:34:01.600 --> 05:34:03.060
and woe

5964
05:34:03.040 --> 05:34:09.760
<v Speaker 331>Well, they took everything that she gave. Now they're

5965
05:34:09.760 --> 05:34:10.730
<v Speaker 339>gone.

5966
05:34:10.740 --> 05:34:12.540
Well, I'll

5967
05:34:12.540 --> 05:34:20.210
<v Speaker 339>lie on this mountain, this mountain in my home.

5968
05:34:33.040 --> 05:34:34.480
Thank you.