When Miners March - Softcover

Blizzard, William C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1604863005 ISBN 13: 9781604863000

Verlag: PM Press, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

In the first half of the 20th century, strikes and Union battles, murders and frame-ups, were common in every industrial center in the U.S. But none of these episodes compared in scope to the West Virginia Mine Wars.

The uprisings of coal miners that defined the Mine Wars of the 1920’s were a direct result of the Draconian rule of the coal companies. The climax was the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest open and armed rebellion in U.S. history. The Battle, and Union leader Bill Blizzard’s quest for justice, was only quelled when the U.S. Army brought guns, poison gas and aerial bombers to stop the 10,000 bandanna-clad miners who formed the spontaneous “Red Neck Army.”

Over half a century ago, William C. Blizzard wrote the definitive insider’s history of the Mine Wars and the resulting trial for treason of his father, the fearless leader of the Red Neck Army. Events dramatized in John Sayles film Matewan, and fictionalized in Denise Giardina’s stirring novel Storming Heaven, are here recounted as they occurred. This is a people’s history, complete with previously unpublished family photos and documents. If it brawls a little, and brags a little, and is angry more than a little, well, the people in this book were that way.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

William C. Blizzard was a third generation Union agitator and coal miner from WV’s first family of labor. He was a journalist with Labor’s Daily and later fired from his post at the Charleston Gazette for refusing to cross a picket line.

A former Union coal miner, Wess Harris has been a long time educator and activist with Appalachian Community Services.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

When Miners March

By William C. Blizzard

PM Press

Copyright © 2010 Appalachian Community Services
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-60486-300-0

Contents

Foreword, 
Acknowledgments, 
Author's Note, 
Chapter One: Turner Finds Coal, 
Chapter Two: King of the State, 
Chapter Three: Bloody Bull Moose, 
Chapter Four: World War Wedge, 
Chapter Five: Sid Hatfield Indicted, 
Chapter Six: Coal Operators Defy U.S., 
Chapter Seven: Liberty Will Yet Arise, 
Chapter Eight: Call for Federal Troops, 
Chapter Nine: Mother Makes Mistake, 
Chapter Ten: Deputies Shoot Reporters, 
Chapter Eleven: A Witness Squeals, 
Chapter Twelve: W. Va. Operators Stall, 
Chapter Thirteen: An Era Ends, 
Postscript, 
Appendix 1 Original Document Images, 
Appendix 2 A Biographic Sketch of Bill Blizzard, 
Appendix 3 Relevant Literature Review, 

CHAPTER 1

Turner Finds Coal

11/18/1952 (First)

John P. Turner was excited and so might be forgiven for applying his willow switch a bit too hard to the rump of his bay stallion. The stallion quivered and his hoofs struck the rutted road to the salt mill at a frantic gallop. Turner patted the horse's neck and grinned at the speeding scenery. "Sorry, old boy," he said, "I guess I got too anxious. We're on mighty important business."

Turner swung off the foam-flecked animal at the office of the salt mill superintendent. He reached into a saddlebag and brought forth a head-sized chunk of something wrapped in an old sack. For a moment he looked at the chunk, eyes gleaming. Then he turned and strode rapidly into the clapboard office.

The superintendent was startled by the wide grin and flushed face of Turner. "Hell!" he said, "What's up?"

"Plenty," said Turner, holding out his mysterious bundle. "Look!"

"I'm looking," said the superintendent, "and all I see is a sack – a damn dirty sack – that looks like it might have a head of cabbage in it. What is it, Turner?"

Turner said nothing, but walked to the desk and turned his burden upside down. There was a thud as something black and dully gleaming fell out, rolled over on the desktop and stopped.

"My God!" said the superintendent. "It's coal!"

Turner nodded. "That's right. I've got a big seam of it right up the river, and I didn't even know it. I've had a contract to give your salt mills all the wood you burn. I guess you wouldn't object if I sold you coal instead."

"You bet we wouldn't," said the superintendent. "I'll call a conference and we can dicker. And don't look so excited. You make me worry about your terms."

John P. Turner had a right to be excited. Of course it had been known for years that coal was in the hills. It was even being mined commercially in what is now West Virginia, and had been since 1810 by Conrad Cotts. But that was at far-away Wheeling. And no one else had bothered with the coal deposits in the Kanawha Valley. Most everybody burned wood, even for large operations such as the salt mills which dotted the area. John Turner and those who followed him changed that.

For his discovery in 1817 was important not only for himself. The fact that coal was present in the Kanawha Valley was to affect the way of life of thousands of people, give impetus and strength to great organizations, be the basis of huge fortunes and grinding poverty, force some men to become merciless rulers and others rebellious slaves. Over this black bone of contention men were destined to fight with fist and guile, batter with club and blackjack, kill with rifle and machine gun. John Turner had made a portentous discovery.

The conflict over coal in the Kanawha Valley is interesting in itself, but it becomes much more so when it is appreciated that in this struggle can be found all the elements present in the many battles which coal miners and other workingmen have fought. The fight is unceasing, and it continues today. But it progresses in an uneven manner, at times outwardly calm, then exploding volcanically. The major explosion in this particular industrial battle happened in 1921. Both periods will be treated herein in some detail.

West Virginia Fight Typical

Certain features of the West Virginia battle, which are typical, are as follows: Huge combines of capital move from exploited to unexploited territory. Coal operators of one section war among themselves, then combine to fight coal operators of another section, then all together make a common front against the coal miners' Union. The coal miner attempts to build himself an organization so that he can have something to say about his own life – and is beaten, jailed, starved and shot.

It sounds like war, and it is. The only time this battle ceases, oddly enough, is when the United States Government is at war. Then a halt of sorts is called and it becomes a violation of the law for the coal miner to engage in any sort of industrial battle to improve his conditions, no matter how serious the provocation.

Pledged not to strike, the miner sees his plight worsen because of increased prices, while the coal operator wallows in super profits and bathes in the blood- money which flows into his coffers during every foreign war.

The coal operators like to have the technical state of war exist as long as possible, so that the miners' Union is powerless. This was true after both World War I and World War II, when the United Mine Workers of America was subjected to censure and penalty because the "war" was still going on. This was a silly state of affairs, as not a shot had been fired in many months, and "business as usual" was being resumed. But it happened – twice.

Always the Same

In a passage of touching beauty, Mother Mary Jones, the miners' great champion of another era, had this to say. "The story of coal is always the same. It is a dark story. For a second's more sunlight, men must fight like tigers. For the privilege of seeing the color of their children's eyes by the light of the sun, fathers must fight as beasts in the jungle. That life may have something of decency, something of beauty – a picture, a new dress, a bit of cheap lace fluttering in the window – for this, men who work in the mines must struggle and lose, struggle and win."

And a life of danger and struggle it was for the men born and yet unborn who were destined to burrow into the earth for the great natural resource which John Turner had discovered. But the great giant of energy which lay sleeping beneath the round green hills of West Virginia was not to be awakened until over his head was heard the whistle-toot and rumble of the locomotive. Coal, except for slow river shipments from convenient points, could not be sent to market until there were rails to ship it over.

And the rails came. In 1873 the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway was completed to Huntington and made steady progress toward tidewater. The Capitol City of Charleston, then a thriving village of about 3,200 population, had a wagon bridge across the Kanawha connecting it to the railway. The Kanawha & Ohio Railroad came to Charleston in 1884, while the Coal & Coke Railroad, later bought by the B. & O. was built to Sutton in 1893. The West Virginia Central Pittsburgh (later the Western Maryland), was built to Davis in Tucker County in 1884 and extended to Elkins by 1891.

Production, however, remained relatively small scale until shortly before the turn of the century. In 1875 there were only nine mines in the Great Kanawha Valley. But in the following twenty-five...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: PM Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1604863005
• ISBN 13: 9781604863000
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 400
• Herausgeber: Harris Wess
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar