Volume 14 , Issue 41

West Virginia Civil War Near End

In The Day Book, dated 22 April 1913, page 34, we found the following article concerning "West Virginia Civil War Near End." Charleston, W. Va., April 22, 1913 -- West Virginia's civil war seemed to be near an end today.

The bituminous coal miners' convention was called to order early. Gov. Henry D. Hatfield was ready to present his peace proposals to the convention. The civil war had been going on for over twelve months. It began, like the great industrial strike going on in Belgium (1913) over a matter of principle.

The coal miners were denied the right to organize by the owners; they were forced to live in company-owned and company-built chacks, for which they were charged an exorbitant rental. And when the men went on strike to emphasize their demands, the owners called in the militia to shoot them down like dogs.

Three times the militia were called in, and the lives of 100 men paid toll. The district under martial law was twenty miles square. All but one acre of it was owned by the mine owners. On the corner of that one acre stood a Catholic church, and the balance of the plot was owned by an old Irish woman.

The old Irish woman turned her property over the striking miners. There they had lived in tents pitched so close together that the sanitary conditions had been unspeakable since the war began. But that Irish acre was the only ground in the district from which the mine owners could not order the miners away and had them shot down if they did not move away.

Before the strike began the miners were forced to buy their tools, their food, their clothing, their furniture, their tobacco and everything from company stores. The women never handled money. The company gave them coupon books, and then company storekeepers encouraged them to buy more than their books called for. Thus the miners always were kept in debt.

The company shacks in which the miners were forced to live were two-room, clapboard, foundation less huts, which cost less than $150 to build, and for which the company charged in rental every year $96.

The men demanded the right to organize, better schools for their children, better homes for themselves, proper sanitation, more reasonable company stores, and the right to purchase elsewhere than in company stores if they please.

If the men did not accept Gov. Hatfield's peace proposals an extra session of the legislature would be called and another effort made to end the civil war that had been disgracing the entire country.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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