Muhlenberg County Kentucky
Mining
The Messenger 31 Oct 1935
Operators furnish free transportation to miners rally
Many union miners unable to understand why Lewis cooperated with the coal operators.
With 4,200 miners in Muhlenberg and Ohio counties idle and a large number on relief rolls, John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America, in a speech at Pikeville, Monday, told the miners that “the position of all Kentucky mine workers had been bettered and all with the exception of those in Harlan county, have been made free.”
Lewis came to Kentucky to plead for the election of A.B. Chandler for Governor. He was the principal speaker at the rally. Free transportation was furnished by the coal companies of the district, special trains and busses owned by the coal companies bringing the men to the speaking.
This was one of the first instances recalled where coal operators have come out openly for a candidate for governor and insisted that their employes support their candidate.
When Mr. Lewis' visit to Kentucky was brought to this section in news dispatches, many miners here were in hopes that he would come to Western Kentucky and devote his time and efforst to the interest of the United Mine Workers of America and not to the interest of politicians.
The miners and working men in the Western Kentucky coal field are better able to know the true conditions in the State of kentucky than any outsider, and many do not appreciate the fact of outsiders coming into the State in an effort to sway votes and to elect a man who during eight years of service in the Legislature has made a miserable failure.
After all, the result Tuesday will determine whether the voters of Kentucky will be swayed by partisan bigotry, or will use their own good, solid judgment when they go to the polls.
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Citation: “Operators furnish free transportation to miners rally.” The Messenger [Central City, KY], 31 Oct 1935, p.1.
Union miners shot in Hopkins County
Union Coal Miners are wounded and gassed Tuesday afternoon at Mannington.
Machine guns, mounted on the coal tipple and in abandoned houses near the mines at Mannington were used on a delegation of Union Coal Miners when they approached the mine to talk to the miners regarding uniting with the United Mine Workers of America Tuesday afternoon.
From 10 to 15 of the Union Men were wounded or gas burned in the assault which marked the first major outbreak in the campaign of the United Mine Workers of America, the shooting of Union Men occuring in Hopkins, the County known to Muhlenberg Miners as the Scab Coal District of Western Kentucky.
From 700 to 1200 miners were estimated to have been in the march, and according to Muhlenberg county men, a command was made for them to “halt,” and almost at the same instance bullets and tear gas was used, which resulted in seriously wounding three members of their party, one perhaps fatally.
The three wounded men were treated for their wounds at the Madisonville Hospital. They were Enos Martin, 31, of Crofton, wounded in the chest; Henry Hollins, 65, of Martwick, wounded in the back, and Ishmael Brown, shot through the foot.
A member of the party branded the reports that shots were fired by members of their party as a “lie.”
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Citation: “Union miners shot in Hopkins County.” The Messenger [Central City, KY], 31 Oct 1935, p.1.
Updated April 15, 2017