Oklahoma Leader (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 2, No. 17, Ed. 1 Monday, September 5, 1921 Page: 8 of 8
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Editorial
Oklahoma Leader
Features
«S
OKLAHOMA LEADER
Successor to The Oklahoma Leader (weekly).
Published every day except Sunday by The Oklahoma leader Co.
HIS JOB ON LABOR DAY, 1921!
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Wm. MncLaren
Oscar Amerlnger |
Dan Hogan
John Hagel
By Mail:
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17 West Third Street Oklahoma City, Okla.
P. O. Box 777. Telephone Maple 7600.
Latered as second class mail mattei June 1, 1918, at the Post Office
st Oklahoma City Oklahoma, under the Act of March 3. 1879.
NATIONAL UNEMPLOYMENT MEET
Since the shameless congress adjourned without doing
anything about the six millions of unemployed, there seems
to be a slight awakening at Washington to the seriousness of
the situation—not on the part of congress, however.
It is announced that Secretary of Commerce Hoover will
call a conference on unemployment, and that it has the sanc-
tion of the president.
The delegates will represent the country geographically
and by industries. The department of labor will help to select
the labor representatives and labor will probably have a small
group that can easily be outvoted on anything of importance
—while most of the delegates will represent the employing
class.
The objects of the conference, as outlined by Hoover, are
not very startling.
They include an inquiry into the volume and distribution
of unemployment — the making of recommendatibns as to
measures that can properly be taken in co-oi limited speeding
up of employment by industries and public bodies during the
winter—and a "broad study" of the economi measures desir-
able to ameliorate the unemployment situation and give im-
pulse to the recovery of business and commorce to normal.
In brief, the object is to get as many jobs as possible in
the ordinary way, to coax business back to normalcy, and
perhaps to relieve some of the distress due to unemployment.
This is not at all suflicient.
Nevertheless, we are very glad that the conference is to
be called. It will at least afford some publicity on the sub-
ject of unemployment. Pitiless publicity is what it needs.
If publicity — commensurate with the seriousness of the
tragedy—could be given, the American people never would
stand for the wrecking of twenty-five or thirty million human
lives in this country.
Employment Irns got to be guaranteed to all willing work-
ers, of both sexes.
That—as we have said before and will say again until
it is heeded—is the minimum demand.
TERRIFIC SAC RIFICE FOR NOTHING
Unless a still louder protest is made between now and
November 11, the disarmament conference will be held be-
hind closed doors.
One of the numerous things we were told we were fight-
ing for in 1917 and 1918, was open diplomacy.
There were various wonderfully fine things which the
American people were told they were fighting for—ami none
of them have materialized.
Meanwhile many thousands of American young men gave
their lives for these things which have not materialized. Many
thousands more gave their limbs or their health. The people
as a whole gave about fifty billion dollars. Every now and
then we read of some discouraged, sick or unemployed sol-
dier committing suicide. Thus we keep on paying—and pay-
ing—and paying—for the things we did not get.
But open diplomacy is one thing that could still be
realized. Our country could insist that the disarmament con-
ference—and all other diplomacy—should be carried on in
the open where all can see.
It is indisputable that this would help to preserve the
peace of the world. Diplomats would not dare to do in the
open what they do in secret.
It is pretty safe to predict, however, that even this small
compensation for the priceless sacrifices in the great war
will be denied to the American people.
"SUICIDE DAY"
Suicides have more than doubled.
During the first six months of 1920, there were 2,996
suicides in the United States.
During the first six months of 1921, there were 7,016.
Investigators say that many of these suicides are due
to lives broken by the war—but most of them are due to un-
employment.
It has actually come to pass that they have a "suicide
day" in New York City.
Tuesday of each week is suicide day. There are more
suicides on Tuesday than any other day of the week.
At first blush, you are mystified. Why should men,
women, boys and girls—for all of these figure in the suicide
list—choose one day of the week, rather than another, to
V.ske away with themselves? ,
There is a good explanation.
The unemplpyed scan the Sunday papers for jobs. On
Monday they go to the places where jobs were offered in
the Sunday help-wanted columns. They find the places
already filled. They spend the night in blank despair—and
in hunger. Next day—Tuesday—they kill themselves.
It is very simple. Just another worker taking his or her
flight from a world that is so cruel that they cannot stand
it to stay here any longer.
And congress takes a vacation and tells them to go to hell.
The importance of the Shawnee meeting of September 17
cannot be overestimated. If your local union has not elected
delegates it should do so at once. If no regular meeting'is
to take place before that date a special meeting should be
called for that jpurpose.
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• 101
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States, nevertheless the act does
| not contemplate that none of the debt
of the United States shall be set off,
but, on the contrary, assumes that it
McAdoo Assails Railroad Relief Bill
A letter .written by William (J. J about this jugglery, and the doors
McAdoo, opposing the administra- j were shut in the face of labor."
tiou's railroad relief bill, was read i* Senator Stanley*then presented Mr.
in the senate by Senator Stanley of McAdoos letter, which, he said,
Kentucky, one of the group who: "threw a flood of light upon this
wanted Mr. McAdoo called before subject."
the interstate commerce committee Says (Government Was Not Obligated,
when hearings were being held and : The government, Mr. McAdoo con-
protested when the request was re- tended, was 'under no obligation
Jected. ( whatever" to advance to the rail-
Henator l<a Follette, represents- roads money for capital expendi-
tlves of labor and other interests tures.
protested against the bill when it i "In fact," he said, "the federal qon-
was before the committee, alleged trol act, approved March 21, 1918, ex-
that it was being "railroaded" pressly required that in every agree-
through without giving its opponents inent between the United States and
u chance to bo heard. Senator Stan- I the railroads It should be stipulated
ley referred to these charges in pre- that 'the United States may, by de
satisfactory security as the law re-
quires.
"Of this vast debt the United States
has pi ready extended, for a long
period, the tlfhe for payment of $381,-
000,000, representing new 'locomo-
tives and cars' furnished to the rail-
roads. This leaves now due for 'ad-
ditions and betterments' the sum of
approximately $763,00i>,000.
"While it Is true that the trans-
portation act seems to cpnfer upon
the president discretion to determin:
within certain limitations, how much
of the debt the United States owes
the ralroads may be set off against
the debt the railroads owe the United
1 will be, because in express terms it
: provides for funding only 'the re-
' maining indebtedness of the carrier
to the United States.'
Says President Was Misled.
"At any rate, it is indubitably
clear that under tl\e law and the
contract between the parties, the
United States is not 'morally and
legally bound to fund,' as stated by
the president in his message, the
$763,000,000 of debt the railroads
owe the treasury for 'additions and
betterments.' The president must
have been misled into making such a
statement. All that the Uniteft States
is required to do. legally and morally,
is to fund for ten years 'any remaln-
mg indebtedness of the carriers to
| the United States' after a balancing
of accounts."
This "remaining indebtedness" was
calculated by tMr. McAdoo at $263,-
000,000. Payment of this balance,
he held, might be deferred ten years
by the railroads, provided satisfac-
tory security were given and 6 pep
cent Interest were pajd.
"This is the kind of settlement the
law now authorizes and contem-
plates." Mr. McAdoo said, adding
that when the road J were returned
to private control they owed the gov-
ernment $1,114,000,000 for additions
and betterments, of whidh $381,000,-
000 already has been extended for a
long period. He urged that before
any further advances were made the
railroads be required to abandon the
"inefficiency of labor" claims,
amounting, he estimated, to about
$500,000,000.
"1 suppose you realize that in ad-
dition to the $1,144,000,000 the rail-
roads owe the government for 'ad-
ditions and betterments' they have
received additional loans under the
Esch-Cummins bill of about $300,-
000,000, making a total of $1,444,-
000,000," Mr. McAdoo's letter said.
"Stripped of confusing non-essen-
tials, what is now proposed is that
the government shall wait ten years
for $763,000,000 the railroads owe it
for betterments and improvements,
and pay immediately $500,000,000 to
the railroads on account of claims for
alleged under-malntenance, etc., tak-
ing from the 180 or more railroads
involved, with their varying degrees
of financial responsibility, such se-
curities as they may be able to pro-
vide—securities which in many in-
stances may not be adequate to pro-
tect the government against loss.
"Thig is not a question of 'legal
and moral obligation' on the part of
the United States to lend the rail-
roads $500,000,000 more for ten years.
It is a question of policy and should
be considered from that'standpoint
! only. For the adoption of such a
| policy the administration must, of
course, take the responsibility, but
it should be candid about it. The
public mind should not be confused
by juggling of figures, manipulation
of accounts or securities, or govern-
'ment agencies."
senting the Mt^Vdoo letter, and as-
serted that to carry out the provi-
sions of the bill would "lick up the
last dollar made available to the war
finance corporation in thirty days.
"The so-called Townsend bill is
doubly objectionable," said Senator
Stanley. "I protest both against the
subject matter and the methods em-
ployed to force this thing through
the federal congress and compel the
senate to accept this thing 'sight un-
seen,' upon the O. £. of the presi-
dent of the United States, and of a
few powerful appointees who alone
seem to understand his purpose and
to share his confidence."
Criticizes Committee Methods.
Mr. tSanley declared the bill was
the work solely of G. C. Henderson,
counsel for the war finance corpora-
tion, and was delivered In person by
the president to the chairman of the
interstate commerce committee, and
that only the director general of raiT-
roads and the managing director of
the corporation were permitted to
appear before the committee for or
against the measure.
"I assert here and now, without
the fear of successful contradiction,"
the senator exclaimed, "that this bill
proposes to fund a debt of hundreds
of millions which does not exist,
which is not due, and which cannot
be paid In this way without a fraud
upon the government and an intoler-
able burden upon the taxpayer.
"I assert that ufider t^e terms of
the 'standard contract' entered into
with the railroads, a balance struck
now between the indebtedness of the
railroads to the government and of
the government to the railroads will
leave the railroads at this very mo-
ment owing to the federal govern-
ment over $200,000,000.
"I assert that the fabulous claim of
nearly $800,000,000 now made by the
carriers against the government Is
composed principally of claims for
'maintenance of way.' and that from
70 to 75 per cent of that claim is
based on the so-called 'inefficiency
of labor.' a claim repudiated by the
interstate commerce commission and
by the director general of railroads
as so speculative and contingent in
character as to warrant no consider-
ation whatsoever.
"The alleged Inefficiency of labor
is denounced by labor as gratuitous
and unwarranted, and the represen-
tatives of labor day after day clam-
ored for an opportunity to be heard,
but, after hearing only those who
conceived and created this thing, the
seal of silence was placed upon the
lips -of the ex-dlretcor general and
of all others wLo knew anything
ductions from the just compensation
(rental to be paid the railroads), or
by other proper means and charges,
be reimbursed for the cost of any ad-
ditions, repairs, renewals and better-
ments to such property (railroad
property not justly chargeable to
the United States.' "
Mr. McAdoo cited the standard
contract made with various railroads
providing for annual rentals to the
carriers equal to the average of the
net earnings of the best three years
of their history, from July 1, 1914,
to June 30, 1917, and said:
"In these contracts (Section 7) it
was expressly agreed that the United
States should have the right to de-
duct from such rentals 'all amounts
required to reimburse the United
States for the cost of additions and
betterments made to the property of
the company not justly chargeable
to the United State-..., unless such
matters are financed or otherwise
taken care of by the company to the
satisfaction of the director general
The director general agreed, how-
ever, not to deduct for additions or
betterments in such a way as to pre-
vent the railroads from paying the
fixed charged 'they had theretofore
regularly paid.'"
" Vdditioiis and Betterments.**
"While I was director 'general
(year 1918" Mr. McAdoo wrote, "and
Walker D. nines was director gen-
eral (January, 1919, to March, 1920)
the railroads were not required to
pay for additions and betterments'
out of the rental due them at the ex-
pense of dividends, nor to sell bonds
or stocks, as they had heretofore
done, to reimburse the government
for these expenditures. The cost of
such 'additions and betterments' was
generously' advanced by the United
States, so that, on March 1, 1920,
when the railroads were returned to
private control, they owed (and still
owe) $1,144,000,000. These addi-
tions and betterments' include 'mo-
tive power and equipment.'
"These expenditures were not
forced upon the railroads. The rail-
roads needed them and were glad
to have th^ government lend them
the money at 6 per cent, which was
less than the market rate. Congress
had to appropriate this $1,144.000,00U
out of the taxes levied on the peo-
ple, and these very appropriations
for loans to the railroads have been
used by unfriendly critics as a basis
for the charge that federal control
was wasteful of government money
whereas the debt the railroads owe
the governmenUon this account is i
valuable asset IT those charged with
the execution of the law insist upon
More Truth Than Poetry
By James J. Montague
(Copyright, 1921, The Bell Syndicate, Inc.)
ONE WAY'S AS GOOD AS ANOTHER
THE MURDER OF SID HATFIELD
Solon De Leon, in Advance.
A pistol 8hot rang out from the J bankers closer together for their
court house steps. own interests, and had given him a
Slipping from the arm of his wife .similar Invitation to preserve hia
of hardly a year, Sid Hatfield, chief health by going elsewhere—what a
of police of the village of Matewan, different air my nice young banker's
and friend of the miners, lay dead
upon the close-cropped lawn.
Another shot spilt the air.
Ed Chambers. Hatfield's tried com-
panion, dropped the arm of his owfl
wife and toppled lifeless beside the
body of his friend.
American capitalism had paid off
two of its grudges.
To understand how these grudges
arose, so terrible that they had to
be wiped out in human Mood, it Is
helpful to recall that forty years ago I
coal was practically unknown in 1
West^Virglnia. The people who lived
on toe hill sides or along the gentle
water courses of the Little Mountain
state were for the most part peaceful
farmers. Their energy went Into
corn, hay and tobacco.
Coal Is Found.
Then somebody discovered coal
soft coal—under the farms and the
daughter would have told the story
with!
Matters in the non-union counties
of West Virginia grew worse and
worse. Wages were lower; there
were no check weigh men, engaged
by the miners to check up on the
company clerks to sec that the men
got credit for all the coal they dug;
the harrasslng of union men and
their families continued in mors
violent form.
"Yellow Dog** Contracts.
Meanwhile the United States su-
preme court had put another weapon
in the hands of the mine owners.
By the famous decision in the caso
of the Hitchman Coal and Coke Co.
against Mitchell, handed down in
1917, the court declared that whers
an employer has compelled all his
employes to sign a contract that they
will not join In a labor union, it is
grazing grounds. The oltMlme fami-
lies were bought off and shoved off.
Northern corporation, sometimes
with and sometimes without the
sanction of the anti-trust laws, came
to own vast tracks of land.
By 1892 more than 9,738,000 tons
of coal were dug in West Virginia.
By 1918' the output had increased to
more than 91,350.000 tons or nearly
ten times as much. In 1918 the
whole amount of soft coal mined in
the United States was about 597,385.
forever thereafter illegal to make any
attempt to organize them.
Soon after this sweeping decision,
what were known as "yellow dog"
contracts began to be presented to
all men working or seeking to work
in the mines of the non-union
counties.
The gist of this document is that
the miner will never, either while
employed by the company or there-
after, join a union. Any attempt to
have him do so is illegal. It is
Ron im « i , | backed up in many cases with In-
, ri1 , J,ln,'ti"ns *h"'h f'-Wd union or-
Th y H„ ',n , , ° "? or any ordinary miner for
nnlon w ', v, , . h j' Ith"' ' "*•< > • to mention the tact that
union. West Virginia stands second, 1
only Pennsylvania exceeding It in
It Tommy takes the chicken broth,
And, with a howl of indignation
Upsets it on the table cloth.
His mother beams her admiration.
His instincts she would not repress,
As many mothers do, by scolding, .
She says it isn't naughtiness
It's just his little mind unfolding.
When Willie, sending up his kite
Attached his sister's kitten to it,
And cried with infantile delight,
"That's how the bombing airplanes do it!"
His mother did not interfere;
She murmured: "IIow can we expect him
To make himself a great career
If people hamper and correct him?"
When Polly wouldn't go to bed
As she was told to, with the chickens,
And stamped her feet and shook her head
And acted like thp very dickens,
Her mother steadily declined
A general request to spank her.
Said sjie: "We must not fill her mind
With thoughts of bitterness and rancor!"
When you 'and I were little chaps,
On discipline our folks were keener.
They made no bones of using straps
For every childish misdemeanor.
Our smallest pranks they sternly chid.
They gave us fits for thoughtless blunders,
And yet, in spite of all they did,
We are not such a lot of wonders!
yearly tonnage.
Meanwhile, what was happening
to the West Virginians—those men
"who used to be mountaineers out-
side of the mountains, and then be-
came mountaineers inside the moun-
tains?"
.Mine Accidents.
Most of the West Virginia coal
lies near tho surface. It Is rich and
easily worked. The average produc-
tion for a man's working day is more
than three and a half tons, or nearly
1,000 tons a year. Yet the West
Virginia miners, in their shallow,
easily worked seams, steadily pro-
vide about a fifth of all the deaths of
soft coal miners in the country,
more than any other state. In 1917
they made up 384 of the total of 2,-
114 bituminous miners killed In the
United States; tho following: year
they made 437 of the total of 2,028.
The Monongab explosion on De-
cember 6, 1907, which snuffed out 361
miners, the Eccles explosion on April
28, 1914, in which 181 died; and the
Layland explosion on March 2, 1915,
in which 112 were killed.
Operators Own the Kiirth.
The operators not only own the
mines; they own the roads, the
houses, the stores, the movies, the
schools, the churches, the Y. M. ('.
A.'s, and to a large exentt the pub-
lic officials of the thirty-six coal
counties. In spite of state laws,
wages are paid in "scrip," or com-
pany notes which are good nowhere
but at the company stores or movies.
Charges for rent, powder, and
other items are taken from the min-
er's pay before he sees it, the men
find in their pay envelopes only
slips telling how much in debt they
are to the company. To a degree
hardly realized In a large city, the
miner's existence is embraced in the
curt command, "Put up and shut up."
The natural answer to these con-
ditions Is organization, and the men.
about 1890, began to organize. In
that year the United Mine Workers
of America was established, and four
years later locals of the union ap-
peared in West Virginia. A few of
the coal producing counties, includ-
ing Logan, Mingo, Mercer and Mc-
Dowell counties in the southern part
of the state, remained non-union.
Owners Fought Unionism.
It must not be supposed that the
mine owners sat idly by and
watched this progress of unionism.
I The-, fought it with every species
| of intimidation and thuggery. Union
| members or sympathizers were dis-
charged and blacklisted, organizers
were shown out of the counties at
the point of a gun. Every one re-
members how in 1912, about the
time of the Ludlow affair in Colo-
rado, the ownerfe backed an armored
railroad car down the track to Paint
Creek and Cabin Creek, and bom-
; barded the union miners' homes
with machine guns.
IU comes natural to a large em
a strike is on anywhere.
The "yellow dog" contract i:i
backed up by still another powerful (
weapon tfle mine companies' own-
ership of the only shacks available
for the miners to live in. If a man
plucks up courage enough to join a
union in spite of ull the obstacles,
he is at once discharged. The dis-
charge is mads all the more terrible
since the companies have established
the legal theory that a man's right
to inhabit one of their houses ceases
as soon as he is no longer employed
by them. Thus the tenderest mem-*
bers of the miner's family are mad*
to suffer along with him for any
show of independence on his part.
As the attorney for the miners satd
on one occasion, the companies iu
this way "struck at the vital spot \i\
the miners' lives by atrlking at what
they work and slave for—their
homes."
To carry out these evictions and
to chase union organizers out of the
district, the companies have at their
beck and call what amounts to a
private army, in the so-called "depu-
ties" or deputy sheriffs. These
worthies are public officials, chosen
by the sheriff, and appointed linger
bond by the county court. But iu
spite of repeated and violent denials,
it has been shown that their wages
arc paid by the mine companies. The
Logan County Coal Operators' asso-
ciation paid $32,700 a year for tho
salaries of twenty-five deputies,
"flattie of Matewan.**
It was one of these wholesale evic-
tions of union miners which led to
•the "battle of Matewan," on May 19,
1920. Seven families were turned
out ol house and home by a squad
of thirteen Baldwin-Felts detectives,
including Albert C. Felts, a partner
in the firm. As the detectives hung
around the town waiting for their
train out, they encountered Sid Hat-
field, the chief of police, who sided
with the miners, who had a warrant
for the leader of the detectives. Felts,
who was in the gang, had on his
person, it is reported, a letter tell-
ing him to "put Hatfield out of tho
way. At any rate, the detectives
opened fire on Hatfield, on the mayor
of the town, Caleb C. Testeripan. who
was also on the miner's side, and on
a number of miners who were stand-
ing around. The miners returned
the fire, and when the smoke of bat-
tle lifted, seven of the company de-
tectives were dead, and three towns-
people, including the mayor.
For thus defending themselves
against unprovoked violence. Hat-
field and twenty-two miners were
indicted, and brought to trial at Wil-
liamson on January 26. Their ac-
quittal on May 21 was the signal for
a jubilant holiday to welcome them
home. "It is the happiest day Mate-
wan ever knew," cried one grizzled
mountaineer. The people crowded
around the train at the station until
it took Hatfield an hour to cover
the 300 feet between the tracks and
his house. As he stood at his door
from the coal region of the neigh-
boring state of Maryland, who told
me with the keenest relish, once, of
the way a young mine owner of her
acquaintance had handled a union
organizer. "He went right down to
the station where this organizer was
coming in," she said, "and he asked
j him: 'Are you that agitator who's
going around stirring up discontent
& ■
ployer, or even a small one, to battle feeling his hand, swollen from much
against every attempt at unionism, clasping and shaking, he said, "It's
I knew a very sweet and gentle «ood to know you have so many
young lady, a banker's daughter' Mends."
Sid Hatfield was acquitted by a
jury of his peers. But he had of-
fended the private'interests of the
West Virginia coal operators, and
what the law refused J)o do, they
did themselves. They lured him out
of the county, to "Welch, to answer
charges of starting a "shooting up"
at Mohawk a year ago. Weaponless,
without a chance for his life, he and
NOT TOO LATE
We who were young are now old, but we still sort of think
we shall see William Jennings Bryan elated to something or
other before we die. i
in the mining towns? 'Cause if you bis friend Chambers were murdered
jare, the healthiest thing you-all can in cold blood at the side of their
do is to climb right back on that 'ere 1 wives as they were about to enter
train and don't let us see you aroun' the court house. The governor of
here again? ' And he went!" But the state had promised to give the
suppose a stalwart miner had met at dead men protection, but had failed
the station a lawyer or promoter | to give It. Perhaps he wished to en-
who was going around fomenting force on the miners the lesson that
merchant's and manufacturers' as- the trust of the working class must
sociattons or trying to draw the i be placed in the working ctyss itaelC
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MacLaren, William. Oklahoma Leader (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 2, No. 17, Ed. 1 Monday, September 5, 1921, newspaper, September 5, 1921; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc109534/m1/8/: accessed May 2, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.