Big Black Mountain

The dark and bloody ground of Kentucky grew darker and bloodier last week. Union warfare erupted in the Big Black Mountain coal mining district. Months of depression had seeded the rocky ridges of Harlan County for industrial trouble. With more than half the mines in the area closed down, organizers of the United Mine Workers of America circulated persistently among the jobless miners, exhorted them to unionize. Strikes followed. As bitterly opposed as ever to unionization were the politically powerful mine operators who hired small armies of deputy sheriffs to protect their property. Friction between miners, idle and sullen, and guards, armed and tough, generated sparks of hostility. Company commissaries were raided for food. Empty mine cabins were burned. Company property was dynamited. Non-union miners on their way to work were fired upon. Finally a deputy sheriff was shot dead at Evarts, focal point of the discontent.

Early last week Sheriff Johnson Henry Blair of Harlan County, accused of being a hireling of the mine companies, boasted: "We'll handle this thing ourselves. Hell, yes, I've orders to shoot to kill. When ambushers open fire on my men they'll shoot back and shoot to kill. That's what we use guns for here."

These words were hardly out of Sheriff Blair's mouth before three carloads of his men were ambushed from behind piles of railroad ties along the road out of Evarts. Under a rain of lead two deputy sheriffs dropped dead, two others fell severely wounded. A commissary clerk was also killed. Though the deputies sprayed the ambush with their automatic rifles, they got only one of the 100 attackers. Sheriff Blair was alarmed. No longer confident that he could handle "this thing'' alone, he telephoned to Governor Flem Sampson at Frankfort for aid. Not until a petition of 50 substantial citizens was relayed to him would the Governor act. Then, ordering 350 National Guardsmen under Colonel Daniel Carrell into Harlan County. Governor Sampson declared: "A reign of terror has been precipitated. . . . Outsiders from Illinois and other States are responsible. . . . This must stop and stop now. . . . The troops will protect those who behave themselves and take charge of those who don't."

Cheers and flag waving welcomed the militia with its machine guns to Evarts. Col. Carrell set up headquarters in a caboose. The local headquarters of the U. M. W. O. A. ran up an enormous U. S. flag that shrouded the single doorway. Col. Carrell called a citizens' mass meeting, declared his purpose was to maintain peace at any cost, contributed $3 to a collection for destitute miners. The situation, for the time being, was under control.

Responsibility for Harlan County's labor war was hard to fix. Governor Sampson blamed everything on "Reds and Communists," though Col. Carrell later said he could find no evidence to support this theory. Sheriff Blair accused disgruntled "left wing" union miners for the fatal ambush. Evarts' Chief of Police Asa Cusick insisted the deputy sheriffs guarding the mines were really to blame. The mine operators ingenuously pointed to "adverse freight rates" as the ultimate cause of trouble.

After investigating the fatal ambush for four days, a grand jury indicted Chief Cusick, his assistant and the city clerk of Evarts for murder. Arrested and taken before Col. Carrell, Chief Cusick declared: "This is all funny to me. I was in Evarts when the shooting took place and have 50 witnesses to prove it."

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