MATEWAN BEFORE THE MASSACRE: "POLITICS, COAL AND THE ROOTS OF CONFLICT IN A WEST VIRGINIA MINING COMMUNITY"

2. THE PROGRESSIVE ERA?

88 2 THE PROGRESSIVE ERA? “Political strife seems to be perennial in this county.” – Williamson Daily News, February 1917 MINGO COUNTY POLITICS between 1912 and 1919 followed the trend that had begun in 1895. Every election was bitterly contested with charges and countercharges of graft, illegal voting, and wholesale election fraud and theft. In West Virginia during the Progressive Era, reform party movements were led more often by “disgruntled outs trying to get back in” than by genuine reformers. This meant that in Mingo County, the appearance of third-party tickets such as Progressive, Prohibition, and Bull Moose on election ballots merely re-labeled old factions and party splinter groups. An important yet minor exception was the appearance of the Socialist party in the 1912 election. However, primary and ballot “reform” legislation minimized the impact of the Socialist party locally and around the state. County and municipal elections from 1912 through 1919 in Mingo remained extremely fractious contests between the two main parties, the Republicans and Democrats.1 There was one significant difference between the elections of the 1912– 1919 period and previous elections—the pendulum of political power swung farther with each election. The period began with the Hatfield machine in control of Mingo County. However, their abuse of power and flagrant manipulation of the political process led to the Hatfields’ eclipse in 1916. Temporarily united in opposition to the Republican Hatfields, Mingo’s Democratic Party regained control of the county in 1916, only to resume its internecine struggles shortly thereafter. Neither Progressive reform agendas nor the Great War effort inhibited the ongoing faction wars of Mingo County politics. When UMWA organizers arrived in Mingo County in the spring of 1920, their early success depended, in part, on THE PROGRESSIVE ERA? 89 their ability to capitalize on the volatility of the local political scene. The 1912 general election marked the Hatfield family’s triumphant political ascendancy in West Virginia. Native son Henry D. Hatfield, who had migrated to McDowell County and joined the coal operator-backed Republican Party, combined a traditional politicking style, a Progressive reform platform, and the coercive strategies of a machine boss, to win election to the governor’s office. Riding his coattails, Henry D.’s older brother Greenway led the Republican sweep of Mingo’s county offices of sheriff, circuit court judge, prosecuting attorney, assessor, county commissioner , and state delegate. Between 1912 and 1915, Henry D. and Greenway Hatfield shrewdly co-opted the language of reform to strengthen their control over state and county politics. At the same time, the Hatfield brothers ’ bald abuse of power fractured Henry D.’s syncretistic powerbase and inspired a united front of Hatfield opponents who toppled the Republicans from power in 1916.2 Henry D. Hatfield oversaw the enactment of more reform legislation than any other West Virginia governor in the Progressive Era. During his tenure as the president of the West Virginia senate and his four-year term as governor, Hatfield championed primary and ballot reform, prohibition, bills that called for the eradication of the much hated mine guard system, the establishment of West Virginia’s workmen’s compensation fund, and Public Service Commission. Hatfield’s success in achieving the passage of these measures emerged largely from his unique political style, which allowed him to elicit support from all segments of West Virginia society, from rural and urban areas and from the working class to the industrial elite.3 Running for the governor’s office in the midst of the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek Strike of 1912–1913, Hatfield, who hailed from McDowell, West Virginia’s most operator-controlled county, won the support of West Virginia’s laboring classes by publicly committing himself to addressing the issues that mattered most to them, including strengthening West Virginia’s laws against the use of private guards. One incident that revealed how Hatfield convinced miners of his sincerity also exposes his canny use of traditional mountain politicking. During a campaign stop in Williamson, Hatfield spotted in the crowd A. D. Lavinder, a childhood friend who had become one of southern West Virginia’s leading Socialist miner activists. MATEWAN BEFORE THE MASSACRE 90 Lavinder later recalled that after concluding his speech, Hatfield called him aside and told him that together they “could run these mine guards out of here.” True to his word, once in office Hatfield shepherded the Wertz mine guard bill through the West Virginia legislature. However...