It started as negotiation between the United Mine Workers and Midwestern coal companies. Operators not only grew tired of resisting unions, but also competition from cheaper Appalachian coal. They knew that union demands for better salaries and conditions would drive up the costs and struck a bargain. Midwestern mines would allow unions, but only on the promise that Appalachia would end up organized as well.
Appalachia Targeted
In the isolated fields of southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, few towns existed so companies built their own. People living in these communities did enjoy a higher material standard of living than before. They also experienced arbitrary rule caused by complete company control. A few towns had good conditions, but most were poorly constructed. All had company stores offering goods at high prices that allowed no outside competition. Those who advocated for unions faced beatings. Companies operated these towns in a paternal, non-democratic, and non-capitalistic fashion against American tradition.
United Mine Workers' Grow Militant
After World War I, miners in Mingo County rebelled. Many stayed home during the war and enjoyed better times during high demand. Returning veterans who fought for their country brought home a new perspective. A wildcat strike opened up against mine operations, breaking down law and order. Guerilla warfare spasmodically struck the valley as mine guards and miners turned to the tactics used during the Civil War and frontier days. Federal troops restored order, left, and had to return to quiet the county again.
An explosive incident hit the independent town of Matewan. Mine guards from the Baldwin and Felts Detective Agency, a private company that functioned almost like law enforcement, were stopped in Matewan by the chief of police, Sid Hatfield, and the mayor, Cabell Testerman. Agents wanted to traverse the town to remove striking miners from company owned homes, but the law allowed only sheriff’s deputies to carry out evictions. Unimpressed by the town officials, the guards carried out the evictions. When they returned, the train stopped again with Testerman and Hatfield there to arrest them. A shot rang out and rifle fire exploded from the surrounding buildings into the group of agents. Two sons of one of the founders of the agency died in the shootout as well as the mayor. Sid Hatfield, “a tough, diminutive character,” carried the name and romantic reputation, but not the actual blood of the famous Hatfield clan.[1] Avenging gunmen shot him on the courthouse steps in neighboring McDowell County.
Battle of Blair Mountain
The death of their hero caused thousands of miners from around the nation to go to Marmet, a town near the state capital. From there, a road and rail lines led to the hated Mingo County. To get there they had to go through Logan County, led by the staunchly anti-union Sheriff Don Chafin. His five hundred deputies, handful of state police, and countless citizen volunteers would try to halt the miners’ advance at a long ridge called Blair Mountain. Their goal? Overthrow the governments of Logan and Mingo Counties and unionize company operations by force, if necessary.
The miners, numbering somewhere between seven and twelve thousand, drilled in military fashion, tied red kerchiefs around their necks, created a secret code (never revealed) then commandeered vehicles to take them to Logan. They briefly stopped in the Boone County seat of Madison to hear pleas from United States Army General Harry Hill Bandholtz. After reluctantly agreeing to halt, a raid by police on a union household nearby re-energized the march.
Thousands of miners assaulted the natural defensive position of Blair Mountain for three days. They found every pass defended by machine gun nests and trenches. Airplanes equipped by Logan County fruitlessly tried to bomb the miners. World War I correspondents from major newspapers came to cover the attack. Finally federal troops from Kentucky arrived and disarmed the combatants.
The union led by the now furious John L. Lewis, disowned the march. Lewis understood that it could not gain anything for the mine worker movement. The ringleaders found themselves on trial for treason against the state of West Virginia. Two of the defendants faced trial in the same courthouse where John Brown was convicted and sentenced. The union itself could not escape the stigma of violent rebellion in a time only a few years separated from the Bolshevik Revolution. From 1922 until the administration of union friendly Franklin Roosevelt, the UMWA barely functioned.
Most American history books do not mention these events. They do not fit well into the story of boozy prosperity and the emergence of popular culture that most associate with the 1920s. However, they are important in that they are part of America’s attempt to find equilibrium after the dizzying changes to the economy and society wrought in America by the Industrial Revolution.
[1] John Alexander Williams, Appalachia, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002), 271.
 |
