In many ways Kentucky had a more brutal anti-labor regime than their more notorious neighbor, West Virginia, with some of the most marginalized and exploited communities in the country; the non-union coal fields in the mountains of East Kentucky. Abandoned by the official U.M.W.A. in 1931 to fight on their own, the strike in ‘Bloody Harlan’ stays with us today through the song ‘Which Side Are You On?’ written during the struggle by miner’s wife Florence Reece.

‘Legal Terror in Kentucky’ by Arnold Johnson from Labor Age. Vol. 20 No. 8. August, 1931.

WHEN Sheriff J.H. Blair declared war against the union organizers with the order, “Shoot to kill,” his small army of deputized gunmen were ready. For a period of years operators and officials had prepared to crush any last stand of unions to establish themselves in the Harlan County field. Notorious gunmen and fearless murderers who came up for trial were watched by operators with an eye to their future usefulness. Short term sentences and pardons sold these men to the powers in control when the crisis came. According to a local official, two men were pardoned from the West Virginia penitentiary, and bond was put up for a murderer to come to Harlan County to break any solidarity of the workers.

Brutalities, however, such as jabbing workers with guns, ordering them away from public places such as the post office, and intimidating threats, soon created a rebellious attitude among the miners against the officials and operators and their deputized gunmen. They now began to realize that their only hope from complete serfdom was organization and concerted action. Sheriff Blair, seeing that the men were going to fight back, purchased nine machine guns, a number of steel vests and other implements of capitalistic justice, and deputized a Chicago gunman to teach his rustic thugs how to use them. But Kentucky miners are not easily frightened with guns.

Hence when one coal company fired 300 men for belonging to the United Mine Workers of America or for showing union sympathy, and proceeded to drive them out of their homes and the mining camp in violation of State law and human decency the miners began to rebel. Thousands walked out on strike with literally “nothing to lose but their chains.”

But hunger and oppression, failure of aid to come from the outside, and continued threats from officials drove the miners into desperate straits. Shelter was provided by friends, but food was scarce. Stores were pilfered. Organized bands went out begging for food which was not an easy task, but was easier than listening to crying children and watching flesh waste away. Scabs were imported from surrounding areas to threaten the union men with permanent loss of work. Houses were burned, some say by the striking miners, but those acquainted with tactics used by the bosses in the class struggle say the deputies did it in order to create trouble. Homes of union men were riddled with bullets. Harlan County became the scene of a reign of terror.

Miners Fight Back

Then the miners began to fight back. A group of deputies, without a warrant, attempted to arrest a union man. Not knowing what the deputies were going to do to him and believing in his right to see a warrant, he opened fire on the deputy who approached him, then ran. The deputy was killed and the miner was shot in the legs by the other deputies shooting under a railroad car.

The Evarts battle, in which three deputies were killed, one miner killed and two deputies wounded, is another of the events of this historic struggle not yet closed. Threats by the deputies to bring scabs through Evarts to break the union, and the brutal treatment of miners by deputies incited this outbreak. About who was in the battle, little is known. But it is known that Daniels, one of the deputies killed, was the most brutal and hated man in Harlan County. Operators and officials defend him but business men, a minister, one official and the miners condemn him as a low brute.

Violence and the action of the deputized gunmen caused the union leaders to join with professional and business men to send in the National Guard, under the impression that the State would be “impartial”. With their entry under the banner of “preserving the peace” and “impartiality”, local officials of the U.M.W. of A. thought that now they would be freed from the oppression of officers and operators, would be able to organize, and would not have to combat the importation of scabs. This, despite the innumerable times in the past that the militia have acted as strike-breakers.

Impartiality in the struggle between the workers and the bosses is obviously futile. Although the soldiers have been condemned by both sides, now the condemnation comes only from the miners. Under the protection of the soldiers, wholesale arrests of union leaders have been made. Five thousand men have been forced back to work, hungry, depressed—but quietly sullen. The deputies continue brazenly forth; scabs are imported, the operators paying their transportation; miners demonstrations are broken up with tear gas bombs, and the strike is practically broken. But the trouble is not over!

“Get Out of Harlan County”

Operators displayed their attitude when I entered the office of their association as a representative of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and asked them to consider the formation of a conciliatory board of representative operators, miners and others agreeable to both factions, to investigate the whole situation and to come to an agreement based on justice, not on oppression or compromise. One operator said, “This man should be held and investigated at once.” The secretary of the Operators Association said, “You have been misinformed. There is no trouble here…The best thing you can do is to get out of Harlan County.” At another time, a mine superintendent said, “You can’t reconciliate with rattlesnakes! Miners are like n***s; they must be told what to do and what not to do. If unions come into this field we will close down.” One operator who fired 35 of his 70 men said that he had no trouble; that he only hired and fired as he pleased which is in accord with “impartial” State law.

Judge D.C. Jones, millionaire, handsome churchman, with vast mining interests, elected by the power of the operators, selected a grand jury to “investigate” the lawlessness in Harlan County. One official states that the grand jury was selected to do just what it did—bring indictments* against the leaders of the miners. Evidence against the deputies was disregarded by the jurors. Judge Jones was eloquent and insistent as he urged that indictments for murder be brought against 29 men; for “banding and confederating” against 30; and for “criminal syndicalism” against five.

Judge Jones speaks in terms of “we” when referring to the operators. He freely denounces “outsiders”, although he fails to say anything about the Chicago gunmen on the sheriffs force. His condemnation of the American Civil Liberties Union was emphasized with “damns”. He joins with the operators in saying to all those trying to help the miners, “The best thing you can do is to get out of Harlan County.”

Because they have dared to protest against the brutality and criminality of the coal operators 20 leaders of the miners are held in jail on triple murder charges without bond, and exorbitant bonds have been placed on others to hold them in jail. Testimony against nearly all of these men is virtually worthless. But such men cannot be allowed among the workers, for only operators shall tell the miners what to think and do.

Although the first strikes here were called by United Mine Workers of America officials, and the miners were made promises of National support by their leaders, thus far not a particle of aid has come from the U.M.W. of A. Ever since 1910 the miners in this section have been contributing to the coffers of the U.M.W. of A. Turnblazer, the president of this district of the U.M.W. of A., is said to have been bought off by local operators, but the operators say that he is only an exploiter of the miners and has been sent here by northern operators to create trouble. Anyhow, before leaving Harlan, he paid off a large mortgage and purchased an expensive car. However, some miners continue to remain loyal to him and the U.M.W. of A. But then some miners actually believe that the President of the U.S.A. will come to their aid in their fight for justice.

Legal Thugs Attack Conners

Defenders of these miners do not have an easy lot. Tom Conners of the General Defense Committee came here from Chicago a few weeks ago. After consulting with attorneys he was chased out of town and told never to come back again. But he came back and again consulted attorneys and defendants.

When sitting on the porch of a miner in Evarts on June 20, two deputies arrested him without a warrant. They turned him over to Sheriff Blair in Harlan at about 2 p.m. Blair snatched off Conners’ glasses, crushed them under foot, and proceeded to slug him, while two deputies stood by with guns. Conners attempted to defend himself and was then ordered to sit down by the gunmen. Whereupon Blair slugged him on the head, knocking him off the chair and severely cutting his scalp. Then the brute, Blair, placed a gun against Conners’ head and said: “Now say your prayers.”

Attorneys came to the Sheriff’s office at 2:30 and remained for three hours trying to see Conners. They were told that he was not in Blair’s office. Deputies continued to watch over him until after dark, then took him out to the Virginia state line, threatening to kill him if he ever came back. Conners struggled 12 miles to Appalachia and had his wounds dressed by a doctor who signed an affidavit describing them. When I saw Conners on June 23, outside of Harlan County, he was still suffering from the beating by the legal thugs of Harlan County.

But broken heads, brutalities, starvation, injustices at the hands of officials, the failure of the U.M.W. of A., prison bars, nor the seemingly unbreakable power of the operators can defeat the determination of these miners. They are in revolt and the end is not yet. Some months ago the operators damned the U.M.W. of A. But now that the miners agree the operators are asking, “Why have you deserted the U.M.W. of A.?”

Determined that the miners of Harlan County shall not be betrayed and those in jail sent to the electric chair or to long prison terms, the General Defense Committee is providing the best available defense attorneys, and relief as well. The International Labor Defense provides relief and stands ready to bring in further counsel if necessary. The Socialist Party is making a nation wide appeal for relief. The American Civil Liberties Union has entered the defense in the big cases, especially on the “banding and confederating” and “criminal syndicalism” cases, and is bringing damage suits against the sheriff and his gunmen for $70,000 for their brutality and violation of the civil rights of Tom Conners.

Yet relief and defense funds are low. Hungry thousands have not had a square meal in months. The prosecution, in the name of the State, is attempting to make this case so expensive that witnesses cannot be had to testify for the defense, and framed evidence will go unchallenged.

But existing throughout an excessively hot summer in a jail built for 60 but packed with 135 is not going to cool the temper of these workers or calm their bitterness. The Blairs and the Jones may be all powerful today—but tomorrow is another day.

Gunmen Shoot Noted Editor

Bruce Crawford, well known southern editor, who was shot recently when he went to Harlan to make an investigation writes:

“There is no law to speak of in the Harlan coalfield. The ‘law’ is itself the most lawless. Mine-owner tyranny and mine-guard thuggery have terrorized the town of Harlan, where labor leaders are held without bail, cars are being dynamited, and every stranger is hounded by bestial deputies.

“Local police officers admit helplessness. Citizens not on the side of mine owners are cowed with fear. Threat of worse terror adds to the tenseness of the situation…

“About 30 additional gunmen were imported last week (Aug. 1) after the withdrawal of national guardsmen…

“Meanwhile Governor Sampson bellows to Legionaires…that they should “not stack arms until the last red has been put out of the state.”

Labor Age was a left-labor monthly magazine with origins in Socialist Review, journal of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. Published by the Labor Publication Society from 1921-1933 aligned with the League for Industrial Democracy of left-wing trade unionists across industries. During 1929-33 the magazine was affiliated with the Conference for Progressive Labor Action (CPLA) led by A. J. Muste. James Maurer, Harry W. Laidler, and Louis Budenz were also writers. The orientation of the magazine was industrial unionism, planning, nationalization, and was illustrated with photos and cartoons. With its stress on worker education, social unionism and rank and file activism, it is one of the essential journals of the radical US labor socialist movement of its time.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/laborage/v20n08-Aug-1931-Labor%20Age.pdf