“Resolved, that copies of this resolution be presented the mayor and the business men’s association and given the press.”
The miners were out to make friends and they passed up few opportunities. The 200 men, with their wives and children, divided into three groups and attended church services at the Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist Churches. The miners formed a baseball team to play the Charles Town boys, and they were rather careful not to beat the hometown team too often. The composition of this baseball team is probably one of he most interesting on record and was as follows, including name, charge of crime committed, if any, and bail set:
Dewey Bailey, center field, treason, $10,000.
W. Lacey, third base, defense witness Joe Rhodes, shortstop, murder, $1,000. Okey Burgess, second base, murder, $2,500. William Chapman, catcher, defense witness.
A.C. McCormik, left field, murder, $5,000. Cecil Sullivan, first base, murder, $1,000. William Blizzard, right field, treason, murder, etc., $33,000. Okey Johnson, pitcher, treason, $5,000.
J.A. Neff, first base, treason, $5,000 (substitute). Frank Stump, catcher, murder, $2,500 (substitute). Ray Williams, fielder, murder, $2,500 (substitute). Bert Adkins, shortstop, murder, $2,500 (substitute). Frank Snyder, manager, treason, $10,000. Dee Munsey, umpire, treason, $10,000.
This team, which had never played before, beat the Charles Town nine in the first tilt, 7 to 3. The proceeds went to a hospital fund. These miners were rather clever players.
2/11/1953 (Fifty-ninth)
But the munching of popcorn and the yelling of a baseball crowd could not eradicate the grim facts that the coal operators were attempting to stretch the necks of many individual members of the UMW, and through perfectly legal process, annihilate the United Mine Workers of America as an organization.
The trials at Charles Town took place against a rather grim national backdrop. As we have indicated briefly, hard times had come to workers all over the United State in mid-1921, a depression which was a harbinger of the debacle of 1929. Millions were unemployed, among them some 242,000 coal miners. The Republicans had come to power in 1920, and it was their fate to hold the reins of power during the period of the worst economic cyclical crisis in world history.
On April 1, 1922, the UMW in both the anthracite and bituminous fields called a national strike, four months after UMW President John L. Lewis had announced his now famous “no backward step” policy. The essence of the policy was simply that the Union would not bind its members to live as did the nonunion miner, and that there would be no wage reductions. The 1922 strike was a lockout in the sense that the coal operators refused to negotiate or discuss a new wage agreement. It was a violent and bitter struggle even in West Virginia, where so much Union strength was tied up in court battles.
For instance near Cliftonville, W. Va., in July, 1922, there was the old situation of mine guards and evictions of miners, and “transportation” men to take the jobs of strikers. This industrial witches’ brew culminated in a battle in which seven Union men, 13 strikebreakers and the county sheriff were killed. The UMW won victory at the national level in about 5 ½ months, insofar as the unionized districts were concerned. In John L. Lewis’ words: “The mines reopened with wages and working conditions intact.”
Treason Charges Preferred
The above sketches briefly the national scene during the trials of the miners who had participated in the Armed March. The State of West Virginia (represented by coal operator lawyers A.M. Belcher. Charlie Osenton, and John Chafin, among others) decided that 24 of the miners, including District 17 and Subdistrict officers, organizers, members of the executive board, and Frank Snyder, editor of a labor paper called the Federationist, published in Charleston, would be tried on treason charges. The defense (headed by Harold W. Houston and Thomas C. Townsend) of course filed a demurrer, which was overruled by Judge J.M. Woods, who based his action on a decision of one Judge Story in a Rhode Island case in 1842. William Blizzard, president of Subdistrict No. 2 of the UMW, was selected as the first defendant, and a jury, consisting of 10 farmers, one merchant, and a miller was finally selected.
Both John L. Lewis and Philip Murray were present at Charles Town, the latter as an important defense witness. The trials, it might be noted, were a heavy drain on the Union treasury, estimates of the cost running from $1,000 to $2,000 a day. The proceedings got off to an exciting start with charges by defense attorneys that company gunmen, well-armed, were seated in the courtroom, and the refusal of the operator-attorneys to divulge names of their intended witnesses. One of the first witnesses to testify for the coal operators was Gov. Ephraim F. Morgan. He did not, however, make an impressive witness against the miners, from such evidence as may be procured at this date.
In fact, the one-sided West Virginia industrial situation was eliciting comment from the national press. The New York Tribune said: “In his testimony in the West Virginia ‘treason’ trial Governor Morgan made the extra-ordinary admission that a private government, whose army consists of the notorious ‘mine guards,’ exists in his state, and that though opposed to it he is powerless to end it.
“If this condition exists it would seem that the treason prosecution should be against the organizers and maintainers of this private government rather than against the citizens of the state who went on the warpath to suppress it.”
Private Operator Government
The Washington, D.C., Daily News commented:
“So far as the law is involved, some coal miners are on trial at Charles Town, West Virginia, on a charge of treason. At the same time, however, the State of West Virginia itself is on trial before the bar of public opinion throughout the entire United States. The state might be indicted in this court of public opinion on several charges, and one of them would be contempt of justice.
“That the coal operators appear to be the real government of West Virginia has been charged for years. Investigations have shown that they wield an extraordinary power in all three branches of the state government. Moreover, it has appeared from time to time that in the state constabulary and the so-called mine guards, the operators have a privately-owned and privately-operated army.
“The attitude of sheriffs toward coal miners was shown, to the amazement of the country, when the indicted miners were brought to Charles Town in manacles and chains. Then when the trial of the miners started the country witnessed the astounding and shocking spectacle of the regularly elected prosecuting officials of the state stepping aside to permit the hired lawyers of the coal companies to take charge of the prosecution and conduct the case.
“It is reasonable to assume, in the light of this spectacle, that the hired lawyers of the coal companies not only produced the indictment themselves with the expectation of doing what they now are doing – prosecuting the cases.
“It looks as if the entire machinery of government in the state of West Virginia had been turned over to the coal operators, to be used as the operators see fit to use it, in their private war on the coal miners of that benighted state. West Virginia may earn the title of The Outlaw State.”
West Virginia was not, of course, alone among states in being bossed by huge capital combines, but it was certainly a murderously horrible example.
Chapter Eleven: A Witness Squeals
2/12/1953 (Sixtieth)
The “treason” trial of William Blizzard continued at Charles Town during the early days of May, 1922, but there was comparatively little information given that was not already common knowledge in southern coal fields. Nor did it appear that anything new would develop despite a reputed 1,600 witnesses summoned by both sides. The coal operators did not charge, in either this or a later murder trial, that Blizzard actually shot anyone, or was present when anyone was shot. The allegation was that as a leader of the miners he was responsible for their acts and was, therefore, guilty of murder and treason against the state.
In the treason trial they hammered steadily at this point, although the procuring of witnes
ses for the prosecution, except for state police, military men, Don Chafin, and their own coal operators representatives, was not an easy task. Just how they got witnesses was interesting, this writer is certain, although at the moment their procedure is rather difficult to prove. We shall cite a statement which may give a clue. However it was done, the operators found a star witness in one Ed Reynolds, of Dana, Kanawha County, who swore that he, along with Blizzard, helped lead the Armed March. The star dimmed somewhat when defense counsel Harold W. Houston put the following question, and received the following answers:
“Where you ever at Fayetteville?
“Yes, sir. I was in jail there.
“You were arrested, were you not, for obtaining money – about $600, under false pretenses?
“Yes, sir.
“Who had you arrested?
“Mr. Keeney, the president, and Mr. Mooney, the secretary of District No. 17, United Mine Workers.”
Without making any charges that Reynolds was paid well by the coal operators to testify in their behalf, we merely comment that Reynolds was evidently not above taking money under false pretenses. The other major witness for the State of West Virginia was John (or Jack) Brinkman, a carnival employee who said that he was pressed into service by the miners and made to take part in the Armed March. He said that he had seen Blizzard not exactly praising the Lord, but very definitely passing the ammunition to a group of miners.
This was the most criminal act with which Blizzard was charged by any witness, unless swearing at Federal officers, while not in the presence of such officers, might be considered a hanging crime.
That Blizzard did this was testified to by Dick Benton, then Sunday editor of the Huntington, W. Va., Advertiser. Also a prosecution witness was Charles E. Frampton, a reporter for the same newspaper. Just who had strong ties with the “free” press in Huntington was made pretty obvious by this trial.
We have said that the prosecution seemed to have trouble getting witnesses, aside from people from their own ranks, and we have intimated that it was possible that they had great persuasive powers or they would have obtained even fewer. We quote briefly from a statement made in Lewisburg, W. Va., by Charles F. Basham, a miner that the operators tried to talk into being a witness against Blizzard in a murder trial also growing out of the Armed March. If the operators followed such policies there it is not unlikely that they did the same at Charles Town.
“Q. How much money did you receive and from whom?
“A. I received the first $20 from Belcher (chief counsel for the operators –Ed.). I received the second money, $25, from A.M. Belcher, by check. I received the next money from J.A. Scott, $50 – no, $30 it was, before we started to Berkeley Springs. When we got to Berkeley Springs he gave me $10, J.A. Scott did. When we got back at Charleston, on the next day, he give (sic) me $30 more. I went up there again in a few days and he wanted me to go to Logan. I said, ‘Yes. I will go over to Logan if you furnish the finance.’ He sat down and wrote me a check for $50. I didn’t go that day. I went up Cabin Creek and I come (sic) back in two days. Belcher give (sic) me $20. Scott give (sic) me $25 in Logan. When I come back the next check was $50 and the next was $75 and the last one was $50. Last Monday evening he wired me $25.
“Q. What was the money for?
“A. For me to have a good time on, I reckon. To tell you the plain truth, he was giving it with the expectation of hiring me to swear to suit them. When I am out on the ground walking around I will talk any way to a man but when I am on the stand swearing I won’t.”
“Q. Who was Belcher?
“A. The attorney.
“Q. Who is Mr. Scott?
“A. That is J.A. Scott, financial agent and, I suppose, paymaster for the Logan Coal Association, for he had always been the man that paid me.”
Miners Exhibit Bombs
It is plain that the operators were not above using methods of suasion which might have been frowned upon by presiding Judge J.M. Woods.
Blizzard’s defense counsel was clever and alert. For instance, the prosecution put Adj. Gen. J.H. Charnock on the witness stand and asked if he had any of the rifles the miners were carrying when they surrendered to federal troops. In an obvious attempt to impress the jury, Charnock had three rifles brought in, whereupon he proceeded to snap triggers and manipulate bolts until he was sure that jury and audience were convinced that the miners had been possessed of deadly weapons in good operating order.
The defense immediately topped Charnock’s exhibition. It was admitted by the state forces that they had dropped explosive bombs on the miners from airplanes, and it seemed that one of these bombs had failed to explode. Fred Mooney, Sec.-Treas. of District 17, in the middle of the courtroom removed this dud from a suitcase and handed it to Charnock. The latter was directed by defense counsel to take it apart to see what was in it.
The whole courtroom, including jury and judge, was tense. For the bomb was an ugly looking homemade contraption, as an eyewitness describes it: “It consisted of an iron pipe about six inches thick and two feet long, with caps screwed on each end and a foot-long detonator sticking out of one of the caps.”
Charnock obediently began to twist the ends of the bomb, until one of them loosened and came off. The Adjutant General poured out the contents of the bomb on the floor for the benefit of the jury.
2/13/1953 (Sixty-first)
When Adjutant-General J.H. Charnock tilted the pipe-like bomb which the state had dropped on the miners, out rolled the following:
One ratchet wheel from some kind of machine.
Seven bolts, 15 nuts, an indeterminate number of screws, nails and minor pieces.
Several pieces of metal that looked like souvenirs from the Baltimore fire.
What looked like the hindquarter of a flivver, although it was afterward denied that any such thing was a bomb.
The vicious nature of this bomb, which the State of West Virginia had thought necessary to drop on its coal miners, made a perceptible impression upon the jury. Compared with it, and the knowledge that it had been dropped from a state-hired airplane, the clacking of rifle bolts seemed rather mild. The defense had scored a point.
Don Chafin himself testified, as did Elbert Gore, 22-year-old son of Deputy Sheriff John Gore who was killed on Blair Mountain, but they had nothing to add to the testimony against Blizzard, unless, as the coal operators contended, Blizzard could be held responsible for the acts of all miners who participated in the Armed March. On May 17, 1922, the State of West Virginia (read coal operators) rested its first treason case against the coal miners. If they were successful in hanging Bill Blizzard they would have an excellent chance of metaphorically stringing up the whole United Mine Workers of America, and were almost certain to eliminate the organization in West Virginia.
It was unfortunate for the coal operators that the principal defendant had to be Blizzard. For he was quite young, a family man with two children, and had the appearance of anything but a wild-eyed desperado. He underwent the trial by jury, along with that old American custom, trial by newspaper, with a cheerfulness which made some think that he had forgotten that his neck was at stake. This writer, however, is in a position to know that such was not the case. Here was the impression of Blizzard received by James M. Cain, then reporting for The Baltimore Sun:
Treason, They Said
“Blizzard is a young boyish-looking fellow, with a rather boyish outlook, apparently. How he ever acquired the title of ‘generalissimo of the insurrection’ is a mystery. Charleston newspapermen say they got hard up for cut lines to go over a picture one time and stuck it on him. This seems about as plausible an explanation as any.”
The coal operators based their case largely on the fact that men had assembled at Marmet, which constituted an overt act, and that Blizzard was responsible for all acts of those who participated in the March thereafter. Defense attorneys denied that the charge of treason was allowable in the case, that no overt act of Blizzard had been shown, and that in th
e Aaron Burr case the idea of “constructive” treason was killed for all time. A “constructive” crime is one in which no overt act on the part of a defendant is alleged: it needs to be proven only that defendant is a member of a group which “conspired” to commit a crime, whereupon he also is supposedly as guilty as if his hands were dripping with blood.
The defense moved to dismiss the treason charges for the reason that no treason existed. T.C. Townsend, last of four defense attorneys to speak in argument which consumed most of two days, ended on this note:
“The big question involved is whether we are going to turn back the hands of the clock 200 years, resurrect the tyrannical doctrine of constructive treason and constructive presence, and furnish a ready tool for the hands of one class with a powerful backing which wants to destroy another class. This case ought to stop now, because the state has miserably failed to make even a semblance of a prima facie case of treason.”
Judge J.M. Woods, however, refused to dismiss the treason charge. His remarks, in part, were as follows:
“If war is levied by citizens of this state against the state, without aiming at entire overthrow of the government, I think those guilty of levying the war may be guilty of treason.
“The aim does not have to be entire overthrow of the state in all treason.
Judge’s Ruling Adverse
“An attempt to coerce the state government by force of arms would be treason. The evidence naturally has taken this wide range in establishing the body of proof in this case.
“The evidence before the jury is sufficient for their consideration, I believe, to prove an act of levying war.
“The constitution of this state recognized levying of war as an act of treason….
When Miners March Page 23