Damn!
Shooting coal
Danny
- what in God's name are you doing? - I got a shot set up back there.
Word's come down from Turley.
The tonnage rate?
They've brought it down to 90 cent a ton.
Down!
Those dagos are holding fast in No. 3.
He says, "Take it or leave it."
Sephus, what we going to do?
It was 1920 in the Southwest Field and things were tough.
The miners were trying to bring the union to West Virginia
and the coal operators and their gun thugs were set on keeping them out.
They were hand-loading days.
They paid you by the ton
and they didn't care any more for a man than they did for a draft mule.
They were hard people, your coal miners then.
They weren't anybody you wanted to cross.
So push come to shove, and pretty soon we had us a war down there in Mingo County
which in those days was known as "bloody Mingo".
And that's where it all came to a head: there on Tug Fork
in the town of Matewan.
We did it. mama. We're going to have the union.
I've just got to stop for a little repairs. Sorry for the inconvenience.
They shifted Italians in, right off the boat
so they're still bringing coal out of there.
I'd sure hate to get a whiff of that mine!
What the hell are we stopping for?
Step down gentleman. This here will be your new home.
How come, we aren't getting off in town?
Just get in line.
I'm going to kill him!
Get on the train. Get on.
Come on, Bill.
Give me your hand, man.
Get out of here.
When do we get to Matewan?
You don't want to go there, mister. It's nothing but crazy people.
Hi.
Everybody was here.
Then they got word and they went on up the line a ways:
some kind of union business.
Yeah. I saw.
You'd best steer clear of it.
My name's Bridey Mae Tolliver.
uh Joe Kenehan.
uh Do you know
Radnor's Boarding House?
The big white house
right on, past the coal dock.
She's a real sourpuss, though
Elma Radnor.
Thank you.
Are you going to be in town long?
That depends.
I'll see you around.
I hope so.
These picks and shovels are to be considered a loan
from the Stone Mountain Coal Company.
Their costs will be deducted from your first month's pay.
Tool-sharpeners provided by the Company are 25 cents a month.
Use of the wash house is 75 cents a month.
The medical doctor provided by the Company is 2 dollars a month
special procedures: extra.
Your train ride here provided by the Company will be deducted
from your first month's pay.
Your pay will be issued as Company script
redeemable for all goods and services at the Stone Mountain
Company Store.
Purchases of any items available at the Company Store
from outside merchants
will result in firing without pay.
What's to keep you from jacking up them prices at your store?
Name?
Johnson.
They call me 'Few Clothes'.
Powder, fuses, lamps, head gear
all appropriate clothing will be available at the Company Store
and Stone Mountain will generously advance you
a month's supply of these items
payment to be deducted.
I'm going to take you over to camp now, where you'll be living.
There are some Italian gentlemen that are very eager to meet you.
Rentals will be for one room: $2.50 a month.
The Company rule:
no more than two people to 1 room, children included.
Electricity, where that is feasible
will be 1 dollar a month.
Mrs. Radnor?
Yes.
My name is Joe Kenehan.
I'm going to be in town for a bit and your place here was recommended.
What do you do?
uh
I guess I'm looking for work.
Are you with the Company?
The Company?
If you aren't with the Company there isn't any work.
Look mister. Don't act the lamb with me.
- What's your business here? - Mama
Mama, it's Hillard.
Those scabs did it, up the line a mile.
They were all colored this time. They busted his nose.
Have you got any ice?
There's some in the back.
Go and fetch me two chunks about this big and a piece of rag.
Are you a doctor?
No but I've seen my share of broken noses.
Just put it up in the air, buddy, just like you're watching the clouds.
We'll get that bleeding stopped.
I ga my liggid
Say what?
He said, he's got his licks in.
It seems to be all the men around here care about.
Wives and kids are starving, so as long as they've got their licks in...
It's just frustration. That's all.
When you can't take care of those you care about
I know. It isn't their fault.
Here you go.
This freezes up all those little veins inside.
It's just so that they close up and they don't let any more blood out.
Are you a doctor?
No.
I'm just a guy looking for a place to stay.
5 dollars a week cash.
That includes dinner and clean sheets.
I hope I'm not making a mistake.
The name is Joe Kenehan.
Well, mostly I work for the railroads, laying track.
Kansas, Missouri...
I went out west for a bit and worked in a lumber camp
a little of whatever pays an honest dollar.
I'm a coal miner.
At least until we came out I was.
I had me over in Section 3... I was a trapper boy.
Aren't you a little young?
I'm almost 15.
There are some in there younger than me.
Of course with the strike now I mostly work on running this place.
I help a little, don't I?
It's going to be a long one.
That superintendent at Stone Mountain said
he'd go broke before he let one union son of a bitch
so much as step into his coal-mine.
- Danny - Sorry, madam
but that's what he said.
Daniel is a preacher.
Is that so?
You ought to hear him testify.
What church are you with?
Well, around here there's the missionary folks.
They're Hardshell Baptists. And then there's the Free-Will folks
which is your Softshell Baptists.
Right now I preach for both.
I'll get it.
Daniel is going to preach tonight over at the missionary.
I never was religious myself.
It's Sephus, mama.
Hello, Elma.
Mrs. Knightes...
Hello, Sephus.
I've come to have a word with your new boarder
if he doesn't mind.
Excuse me.
He claims, he's the fellow the union sent us.
Can you prove it?
It doesn't take anything to have a card printed up.
I guess you'll just have to trust me.
Who wrote The Iron Hill?
Jack London.
Where's Joe Hill buried?
All over the world. They scattered his ashes.
Which eye is Big Bill Hayward missing?
His right one.
How did Frank Little die?
Butte, Montana: they hanged him from a railroad trestle.
You know your stuff!
- I was with the Wobbley's. - Me too
back when it meant something.
One big union!
Not around here buddy.
C.E. Lively...
This is my restaurant.
Fellows are waiting.
They don't give a damn whether we live or die
just as long as they get the coal out of the ground.
They had us pulling pillars and the roof was working
you know, like it does before it's going to fall down.
If I say I'm not dying in here, and walk away
they'll put me down in some damn puddle
in a two foot seam
and no air to breathe.
A man can't mine coal that way.
They're just pushing us further than we can go.
The check wayman, he'll take 50 pound off your load for slate
when there isn't a pebble in it.
It's down in the bottom, he'll say, where there isn't any looking for it.
Then they raise the prices at the Company store
the same God damned week that they lower the tonnage rate
and they still haven't rock-dusted that damned hole.
- Who am I talking about? - Jesus!
- I can't hear you! - Jesus!
I still can't hear you!
Jesus Christ our Lord! Do you know His name?
Hallelujah! Say, "Yes, Glory"!
Have you felt the warming comfort of His precious love?
Praise Jesus!
Praise His holy name!
Praise His blessed spirit!
Praise His everlasting love! Jesus Christ our Lord!
Listen to me now.
The Prince of Darkness
is upon the land.
Amen.
Now, in the Bible
his name is Beelzebub
Lord of the Flies.
Right now on earth today
his name is bolshevist!
socialist!, communist!, union man!
Lord of Untruth, Sower of Evil Seed!
Enemy of all that is good and pure!
And this creature
walks among us.
Now, what are we going to do about it?
The first thing we've got to have
is all of these niggers and all these dagos
that came in here to take our jobs
thrown out of the mines.
Mines, hell! They've got them in our houses!
They're sitting at our tables right now
and they're sleeping in our beds
while we're out living under a piece of canvas
at the back of the hollar.
I've been a union man my whole life.
I know the story with these coal operators and their gun thugs.
The only thing they understand is the bad end of a bullet
and if we show them
we'd just as soon blow up their damn mines
as see them worked by a bunch of scabs
then they're going to listen.
Someone is coming.
It's Alex. He's got someone.
Where did you find him?
He came right up on the steps.
They told me that C.E. Lively's is where the union men meet.
So?
I've got business with the union.
Is that so?
What's your name, son?
They call me "Few Clothes".
I didn't come here looking for any trouble.
A man's got to eat.
So why don't you go and eat back where you came from?
They told me that there were jobs here.
- Go home, nigger. - God damned scab!
You watch your mouth, Peckerwood.
I've been called, "nigger"
and I can't help it that that's the way white folks are
but I've not ever been called a scab
and I'm not fixing to start up now.
I'll go ton for ton, loading coal with any man here
and when I do, I expect the same dollar for the same work.
You get out of this hollar alive son, and you be doing good for yourself.
"Union men", my ass!
Do you want to be treated like men?
Do you want to be treated fairly?
Well, you aren't men to that coal company.
You're equipment
like a shovel, a gondola car
and a hunk of wood brace.
They'll use you till you wear out or you break down
or you're buried under a slate fall and then they'll get a new one
and they don't care what color it is or where it comes from.
It doesn't matter how much coal you can load
or how long your family has lived on this land.
If you stand alone
you're just so much shit to those people.
Do you think this man is your enemy?
huh?
This is a worker.
Any union that keeps this man out isn't a union.
It's a God damned club!
Now they've got you fighting white against colored
native against foreign, hollar against hollar
when you know, there aren't but two sides to this world:
those that work and those that don't.
You work.
They don't.
That's all you've got to know about the enemy.
You say, you've got guns.
Well I know that you all are brave men
and I know you could shoot it out with the company if you had to
but the coal company don't want this union
and the state government don't want it.
The federal government don't want it.
And they're all of them just waiting for an excuse to come down
and crush us to nothing.
Fellows, we're in a hole full of coal gas here.
The tiniest spark at the wrong time is going to be the end of us.
So we've got to pick away at this situation, slow and careful.
We've got to organize and build support.
We've got to work together.
Together!
Till they can't get their coal out of the ground without us!
Because we're a union!
Because we're the workers damn it! And we take care of each other!
How can we shut the mines down if we don't dynamite them?
The men walk out
all of them...
Fat chance!
And every man that walks out on his own steam
we take into the union.
All the dagos and all the coloreds?
That's what a union is, fellows.
You'd better get used to it.
So this fellow owns a vineyard.
He goes out first thing one morning and he hires some workers.
He says he'll give them a dollar for the day
which was decent wages in biblical times.
Well, then he's at the marketplace
and he sees some other fellows and he hires them
and some more at noon and some at 2 and some at 5
and every time, it's the same deal: a dollar for the day.
And he's hiring all day long, right up till 1 hour before quitting time.
Look. We're really sorry to barge in on you like this
but it's come to a point where we've got to talk to you.
Now I know you people have got it hard, coming to a new country.
You don't know the rules.
You don't know how things work.
They don't know shit about mining coal. That's for sure!
They've been dying like flies in that No. 3 hole.
But how it is:
you don't have a whole lot of choice in this thing.
Do you know what a union is?
- Sindacato. - "Sindacato"?
What the situation is
- we need every - If we join the union
they'll shoot us.
If we don't join the union, you'll shoot us.
Well, that's one way of looking at it.
That dago's just driving me crazy.
- Now what's he playing - sh
Now who's that?
Peckerwood's gone past.
A union man will be up in a few minutes.
What are we talking to him for?
Do you want to walk back to Alabama?
The sun goes down and he sends for his foreman and he says to
go and pay off the workers
starting with the ones he picked up just an hour ago
and to pay every one of them the same dollar a day.
And of course the fellows that went out first
are roped off about this
so they get to agitating
complaining so loud that the owner comes up
and he says, "Look."
"We dealt for a dollar and that's what you get"
"and what I pay anybody else is none of your look-out. So there!"
Now that's all the gospel story says
except for the moral Jesus drew out of it.
And so Jesus says
"Thus it will be in the kingdom of heaven."
"The first will be last and the last will be first."
Now it's clear from this parable
that Jesus hadn't heard anything about the union.
If he was walking the earth today and had seen the situation we've got
with these coal operators, he would have changed his tune.
"A man deserveth an hourly wage," he'd say
"for though the pit be gassy and the face full of slate"
"a man still toileth by the sweat of his brow"
"and wants a better deal here on earth"
"no matter what I've got in store for him in the hereafter."
Praise Jesus!
Kenehan
out kind of late, aren't you?
I met some people and we got to talking.
Talking?
Yeah.
Who are you?
The name is Sid Hatfield.
I'm chief of police around here.
It isn't against the law to talk, is it?
It depends.
I take care of my people.
You bring them trouble, and you're a dead man.
Sleep tight, Kenehan.
Hi.
Well, look at this, Griggsy.
They've got up a little reception committee for us.
What is your name, honey?
Bridey Mae Tolliver.
Do you like to watch the trains come and go, Bridey Mae?
Yeah.
And the people that come into town.
Have there been a lot of new people coming here lately?
A few.
Did a fellow named Joe Kenehan show up?
Maybe.
Are you married, Bridey Mae?
I was.
He got killed in the mine.
That's too bad.
Did you hear that, Griggsy? He got killed in the mine.
It's a shame.
Was your husband a union man while he was living?
No. He said, it wouldn't ever take hold down here.
He sounds like a smart fellow.
I think that you are really pretty. Do you know that, Bridey Mae?
Thank you.
Don't you think she's pretty, Griggsy?
You are the best looking mountain trash
I've seen in a long while.
We'll see you around.
Let's roll, Griggsy.
The sooner we get out of this shit hole the better.
I was putting up blackberries when Tremel Blankenship come
shouting up the hollar that the No. 5 had blown.
I remember I took the pot off the stovetop
and washed up my hands before I went down.
It took 2 days to dig through.
Then when they brought them up, you couldn't tell which was which.
They found blood on the walls from fellows trying to claw their way out.
Mrs. Elkins, Mrs. Mounts, Bridey Mae, me
we all lost our men in that fire.
Danny was seven then.
Now he's back in that same hole.
How did it start?
Coal dust gets hanging in the air down there and there's a spark.
They could spray the walls down
but the company says that'd cost too much.
Hey. Was
was Sid Hatfield ever a miner?
Not for long. He doesn't like to be closed in, Sid.
He's always really friendly, smiling Sid.
Then the war came.
Cabell Testerman got to be the mayor.
He made Sid, chief of police and then the girl that Cabell married
Well
I don't want you using Danny on any crazy union business.
A man has to stand up for what he believes in.
Danny isn't any man.
Look, mister. You're going to be moving on.
Win or lose, you're going to walk on out of this hollar
and we've got to stay here.
I intend to leave a union when I go.
My husband used to talk union.
I saw where it got him.
Mama! People out the front, mama.
Sorry, mister. We're full up.
Not any more, you're not, sonny.
Stone Mountain sent us down here.
We're still full up.
Can I help you gentleman?
These two are trying to push their way in here.
I told them there wasn't any use.
I don't see where you've got any say in the matter.
If my mama says you can't stay here then you can't, that's all.
Danny
Keep out of this.
Look. I've only got one room left.
Well then, somebody is going to have to move, aren't they?
Let me see your register.
You aren't seeing anything.
Lady, we're here as guests of the Stone Mountain Coal Company.
They own this house.
Good morning.
Are you fellows moving in?
- Yeah. - No.
Well, you won't find a better night's sleep anywhere else in town.
It's a shame I've got to move over to the hotel. It's business, you know.
So would you mind if I settle my bill, madam?
Danny, you sign these two gentleman in.
Don't think the Company isn't going to hear about this!
Boy, sometimes you've got to bend so that you don't break.
The food's awful at the hotel.
The mattresses have got lumps
probably cooties, too.
I'll be all right.
I'll get my things.
Thank you.
Now, if you want to stay alive down here
you've got to listen up, get a hold of something solid
and give the top a little poke.
Now, if you get a nice ringing sound, you're all set.
You've got a nice solid top over your head.
You get a kind of hollow sound
like a drum: that's slate sagging a bit
and you've got to put in another post.
Have you dug coal a long time?
Since I was 10. And you?
We make a shoe. Everybody in the same fabricca in Milano
make a shoe.
Shoes.
You make-a shoes.
As soon as they get that union they'll send us back.
It could be
but you try and head out of here now
and you'll be owing all that money. Like they say
The company will shoot you for a thief.
We're just some slaves up here. They own our black asses.
Gentleman...
Hey, Few. I've got a question for you.
Yes?
Now suppose they let us in this union, like they say.
Are we going to have to work with those Italian people?
Come on, babies.
Come on and get it now. Come on.
Come on now.
Oh, boy.
All right.
Taking a walk?
Hi.
I'm going up to the coal camp
to meet those new fellows when they come off their shift.
You're doing union business, aren't you?
How do you like Mrs. Radnor's?
Well there wasn't room.
I'm at the hotel now.
Isn't she a sourpuss though?
Mr. Kenehan
They're evicting in town, Mr. Kenehan.
It's Baldwin.
It's those Baldwin thugs.
This is town property.
Who are you?
I'm the mayor.
Well, pleased to meet you!
My name is Bill Hickey.
This is Tom Griggs.
We're carrying out an eviction for Stone Mountain.
You can do what you want up at the coal camp
but this is town property.
Stone Mountain holds the deeds on these houses, Cabell.
You need a writ for an eviction.
Are you the law around here?
Well, good!
Then you can help us.
Now these people are trespassing on Company property.
They all signed a contract that they wouldn't join any union.
Are you...
are you Baldwin-Felts Agency?
That's right
presently employed by the Stone Mountain Coal Company.
This is from Mr. Turley here
and this is from our boss
Mr. Thomas Felts.
I've met Mr. Felts.
Well, good! We won't have any problem.
I wouldn't pee on him if his heart was on fire.
Neither of these will do for a writ.
You'll have to see a judge in Charleston.
What if we haven't got time to go to Charleston?
Then you'd better find some.
Now I can't do anything about what you pull outside town limits
but you bother these people under my jurisdiction
and I'll put you under arrest.
Yeah?
You and whose army?
All you men who own a gun
go home and get it.
You're deputies as of now.
The rest of you people, stick close.
We'll need witnesses.
I'm giving you 10 minutes
to get those people's belongings back in the house.
If the rest of the boys were here you wouldn't be so cocky.
If the rest of the boys were here, I'd give you 5 minutes.
Now move it.
You can't win, you know.
This is going to happen with you or without you.
You can't stop it.
All right boys.
Let's put it back in.
This isn't our day!
That a boy, Sid!
I've never seen a law man buck a company gun before.
He's mostly a really nice fellow, is Sid.
I may be mayor of the town but I'm going to be mayor of a cemetery.
Contention makes him nervous, though.
We've got a motion on the floor here
and this is coal miners only.
All those in favor of keeping those scabs out of the mines
tomorrow morning, using whatever force it looks like is necessary
raise your hands.
It's settled then.
Pass those peas, boy.
Pass the peas, Danny.
Is your boy deaf or dumb or what?
Daniel isn't dumb. Daniel's a preacher.
Is that right, boy? Are you a preacher?
What do you preach to, boy? Squirrels?
Daniel preached at the meeting last night.
It was a good number of souls there.
Are you a soul-saver, boy?
You want to have a go at me and Griggsy here. We ought to be be a real challenge.
He's a squirrel preacher, is what
stands up on a stump out in the woods and
testifies to the holy rodent.
Danny
are you in a hurry to meet your maker, boy?
There aren't any guns allowed at table.
You sit down, Danny.
You do what your pretty mama says, preacher.
You put that away now, mister.
Pack it away, Griggsy.
Look.
We're going to be here a while, little lady.
You can have it the easy way or the hard way.
Now, how about those peas?
The boy's getting on my nerves.
Oh Lord.
They told me they would talk to the fellows.
I saw their faces last night, Joe.
They weren't buying it.
We're playing right into the company's plans.
The men voted, Joe. What more do you want?
I've seen the lights on the hill.
They're sneaking them in for a night shift.
Let's go, fellows.
Keller told me, you're sent from the union.
uh-huh
I bet you've seen hundreds of strikes.
Yeah.
I got thrown clear out of the missionary the other night
talking the union from the pulpit.
Are we getting close?
Up there...
They're down the hill.
Over here...
When our fellows put their lanterns out
you just hit the dirt.
I think, this belongs to you.
I'm with him.
All of you union men
let's welcome our new brothers.
From now on
Stone Mountain doesn't move one piece of coal
unless it's a union man that moves it.
Let's get out of here.
Glad you could join us!
In those days the coal company owned your camp houses.
They owned your land. They owned most of the town
and the people who ran it.
If you weren't for the company
there weren't too many places you could go that were still on the map.
The union didn't have too much
they could give to the people back then.
"All we've got in common is our misery"
Joe Kenehan used to say
"and the least we can do is, share it."
She's got the evil eye, that one.
Oh, mama.
Don't you let me catch you peeking over there.
She's got the evil eye if I've ever seen it.
Well, what have we got here?
We've brought you some food. Mama stole it from the company.
Quiet, Danny.
Well, we can use everything you've got.
You people are crazy! You aren't ever going to win this thing.
Then what are you helping us for?
I've got work to do.
We appreciate your help.
I've not ever seen everybody all together like this.
The company doesn't stand a chance.
Jessie
what's the pitch?
Well I was just saying to the mayor here how
we're all trying to do our jobs
you, and me and him
and nobody is paying us enough to be dodging any bullets for it.
um Now
Mr. Felts has authorized me to
make it more attractive for you gentleman to cooperate.
The town isn't for sale, mister.
What about you?
Now, I figured that
little show you were putting on out there the other day was
just for bargaining power.
Or are you going to be stupid, too?
If either of you shit hogs lift a finger in town limits
I'll put you away.
Damn hillbillies! They've always got to do it the hard way.
You boys are going up against some
pretty big people.
Don't push your luck.
How's Jessie these days?
Oh she's OK, Sid.
Do you think, they're bluffing?
No.
Neither am I.
Now, the way the relief fund works is kind of tricky
because with all the different situations we've got going around the country
we're stretched really thin.
There's a lot of strategy to who gets what and when.
I report to the strike committee.
They evaluate the progress we're making here
and the political situation
and then they release the strike fund to us.
Do you mean, they'd cut us off?
No. The amount we get is based on
What if they think we're going to lose?
Look. The strike committee considers what's best
for the union as a whole but that doesn't mean
Politics, boys!
If you're going to play union, you've got to play politics.
I'm sure Joe doesn't like that any more than you do.
I don't like it one damn bit.
Me either. I didn't get into this thing so that I could have
one more boss to tell me what to do.
The union isn't your boss. It's you.
Then why have we got to wait
for some hunkies up in Pittsburgh to give us the word to move?
Because it's a democracy.
It's like the United States:
a democracy.
That's a joke.
Quiet.
Get down. They're shooting.
Just keep your head down, son.
They're going to make a night of it.
Sarah, you come over here.
I think you've just got a little piece of bullet left in there.
The company doctor said he wouldn't come out
but there's a fellow in Pikeville on the Kentucky side
that'll treat union men on the sly.
He'll be here by noon.
Will he treat colored?
If he treats union, he'll treat colored.
- More water, Danny. - Yes, madam.
You just hold this up there against that, really gently.
- Don't press hard. - Hey, Elma.
Have you seen any of the men?
Only those that are wounded.
How's she doing?
Not bad.
At least nobody got killed.
No thanks to you!
Take it easy, buddy.
Good morning, Joe.
Hey, Bridey.
Have you seen any of the fellows?
Not a one.
He's really nice looking.
He likes me. I can tell.
How?
I just know men. That's all.
That'd make a cat laugh.
If you want to make that kind of slop
for dinner, you go back home and make it.
This is the United States here and we do things differently.
Listen to me. You can learn something here.
Come on ladies. What's the problem here?
I thought she was going to make up some cornbread with it.
Well, you should see the slop she came up with!
Miss Elkins
these people have got their own way of doing things.
Well, that is a waste of good corn meal, if you ask me.
She makes up this porridgy kind of mess...
I wouldn't feed it to the pigs!
Ascoltate
where have all the men gone to?
That changes the whole picture.
What I'm saying is, unions are fine for some things
but for other things a man's got to go on his own.
Of course that's up to you.
Roscoe
you make sindacato
you do what the sindacato say.
I listen to Joe.
Few Clothes?
We're going to be shooting white folks, right?
That's the idea.
If people hear about black folks shooting white folks
no matter what it's for
there's going to be hell to pay.
You've got a point.
Well then
if you gentleman will excuse us
andiamo.
You people
have been put out of Stone Mountain Mine housing
and some of you have seen fit to take along certain items
of food, furniture and clothing
that don't belong to you but belong to the Company.
As of the day of the strike
your script ceased to be legal tender, meaning
that any item of food, clothing, and furniture
not paid for in cash money
must be turned over to me
and my deputies
and I suggest that you all cooperate.
You see... my boys
they didn't get much sleep last night
so they're kind of jumpy.
Besides
we've got the law on our side.
You aren't any law! You've got to slip around the real law.
You've just got guns. That's all.
You're just thugs.
Yeah. Maybe your right, sonny.
We've just got guns
and you've still got to hand in those goods.
You yellow scab-herder, you!
Hillard, you get up from there.
Have you got a list of goods?
I don't need one.
How you going to know what belongs to the company and what doesn't?
He's the red, Hickey.
He's the agitator.
Everybody, you see. I haven't got a gun on me.
What good do you think that's going to do you, red?
You shoot me, and folks will know, it was murder.
Well, that's some cold comfort.
Now you listen to me, red.
We were hunting.
You folks are making an awful lot of commotion.
You scared all the game away.
Is this your machine?
I heard it last night, too.
It's an offense to the ear.
Hold it pops. You're talking to the law here.
Did he ask you anything?
Where did you get that thing, pal?
The Spanish war?
No.
The war between the states.
You all, get in this machine and get back into town where you belong.
There isn't but one law out here and that's the law of nature.
Let's get the hell out of here.
You folks try and keep the noise down and you'll do fine.
Help yourself to the bird and the rabbit.
If you see any hogs, they're probably ours.
We'd appreciate it if you'd leave them be.
Good day to you.
Are you OK, Joe?
Yeah. I'd be all right if it weren't for my ribs.
Who were those people?
Rossums, mostly
and a Shuttleworth.
- Are they miners - No. You'll never find those folks near a hole.
They've had most of their land stolen by the company.
- They're hill people. - Foothill people, really.
Your genuine hill people
can be dangerous.
Now the thing you've got to remember, son
is, your fuse burns one foot per minute.
Make it too long, and they might see it.
Make it too short
and we'll all be meeting you on the other side.
Damn it!
Air shaft No. 4.
Go out the back way.
Where are all our other friends tonight, Miss Elma?
Did they get tired of the chuck, or what?
I think that old bitty went on strike
and laid down her teeth in protest.
They're just particular about who they eat with.
What about you, Miss Elma?
Are you particular?
If Stone Mountain didn't hold the lease here, you two
if Stone Mountain didn't hold the lease here, you'd be peddling puntang
down in Cinder Bottom, so just shut your mouth about it.
Where's your little preacher tonight?
The bitch has got no table manners.
Elma
do you know where Danny is?
No. I don't know where anybody is
and nobody wants to tell me either.
Are you OK?
Yeah, just tired. That's all.
I've been working all day. This place
I've been working
the day they burned my husband, I started and I've been working and
it doesn't ever stop.
I get so tired
and
- there isn't anybody. - Look. It's hard.
It's hard being on your own.
You don't know anything about it.
We're in business, buddy. Let's get going.
What is it?
It sounds like dynamite up at the mine.
It might be that No. 5 shaft.
It might be some shooting.
Hillard!
Have you seen my boy?
Has anybody seen my boy: Hillard?
That'll be the Baldwins.
Hillard!
Has anybody seen my Hillard?
It's the Baldwins up the hill
Shoot low, boys! Cut them down.
You fellows get on out of here. I'll hold them back.
Reese! Reese, get up.
Sephus, come on.
OK, boys. Let's spread out. He's here somewhere.
- I've got him. He's over here. - Hold it boys. It's me.
Hold your fire, boys. It's C.E.
Are you all right?
You'd better get back to camp.
Judas
hold his leg.
Hold it.
Hold.
Now I'm just going to pull this back from your leg, boy.
Give me back that knife, Hillard.
Hey. What happened?
We were sold.
Those Baldwins came up from behind.
They knew right where we were laying out.
They knew when the men were out of camp today too.
How's she feeling, buddy?
You made it.
We thought we'd lost you back there.
Well, I got off a couple of rounds
and buried myself in the leaves.
I saw Reese Hadley go down, though.
Did Sephus get back?
I don't think so.
You see what happens when you pick up a gun!
All I see is, those niggers and dagos weren't there tonight
and we were sold and somebody's going to pay.
Something bad is happening out there:
those guns.
A hunting party. That's all.
Now, where was I?
"Time to put all shyness"
"time to put all shyness aside"
"and admit"
"to our heartfelt"
"attraction."
I'm not sure how you spell "attraction".
How about
"heartfelt"
"desires"?
Are you sure you want to do this?
"heartfelt desires"
"dearest"
"Joseph"
Look at that: just covered with gore.
Dogs didn't do all that.
Are you drawing breath, son?
The Baldwins!
We were sold.
What's your name?
Bosephus
Sephus Purcell.
Kin to Nimrod Purcell?
That's daddy's uncle.
You say, some Baldwin agents took you?
From behind.
None of those Purcells ever was too bright.
Grab his ankles, missus, and mind your dress.
He's bleeding like a stuck pig.
I've found him boys. He's here.
It's Reese.
You've got yourself a martyr.
I tried to stop this.
See any sign of Sephus?
We'll maybe smell him before we see him.
Have they found somebody?
Just stay right here, honey. You don't want to look at that mess.
But I've got something for Mr. Kenehan.
I don't think he's in any mood to be bothered right now.
I'll see he gets it.
Who is it?
Oh, just some poor miner whose troubles are finally over.
Don't look, honey.
I talked to Ellix.
He says your phonograph machine is
going to be fixed in a couple of days now.
It's awfully nice of you to do, Everett.
Well, we've got to take care of our favorite lady now, haven't we?
You've been so generous
thinking about me when that Mr. Kenehan
had got you all so busy with the union.
That Mr. Kenehan is what I've come to talk to you about, Bridey.
I've got a suspicion, he
might not be what he says he is.
What do you mean?
Bridey
did you send Kenehan some sort of letter?
What do you want?
No.
He wouldn't.
There was a whole crowd of fellows standing around him.
I saw Kenehan laughing and waving that letter.
So I
came over to see what was so funny.
A lot of fellows?
Do you mind if I have another drink, honey?
It isn't pretty, what I've got to say.
He said some things, Bridey,
"She's been following me around ever since I got here"
"trailing after me like a dog in heat"
"sniffing around my legs like a brood bitch."
"She doesn't wear any drawers", he says
"so she can be ready for whatever"
"stumbles down the pathway."
He didn't
he didn't
he said you did it with one of the coloreds.
The lying bastard!
Bridey
I think it might be worse than that.
I think, he might be a spy
in with the coal operators.
Well, he's got the fellows so turned around with all his talk!
I need for you to help me, Bridey
and sometimes you've got to tell a little bit of a lie
just to get the truth across.
If we fight them with guns
we lose.
That's the whole damn story.
I'm not going to bullshit you fellows
and tell you there won't ever come a time
when the people that own this state
send the word down to have us all murdered
but if we don't stand together now
as workers
we've got no hope at all.
Help me up.
Are you going somewhere?
This is miner's business
and you aren't any miner.
You two come along.
So
last night he came up here and
he was all drunk and everything and I said how
I didn't want to have anything to do with him
and I would call some of you fellows
for help and
he said that all of you were
taken care of.
"Taken care of", huh?
When I saw that there wasn't any help
he kind of
forced me
he forced me
Si...
That's OK.
You'd better hear this first hand.
Go ahead, honey, What happened then?
And afterwards he
he threw money on the bed
like I was some kind of a whore.
You did just fine, honey.
Now why don't you go and sit outside for a minute
while we figure out what we're going to do about this.
So he doesn't have any sense with women...
So what?
You know how Bridey builds things up!
Take a look at this
that our friend left lying on the floor last night.
"Baldwin Felts Agency."
What's it say?
It's a death warrant. That's what.
For Mr. Joseph Kenehan.
So it's, "Goodbye Mr. Kenehan", tonight.
Miners?
How'd you manage that?
That tramp that goes to meet the passenger train
it seems she's got the eye for Kenehan.
So he put it in her head that Kenehan has been
bad mouthing her all around town.
He's got her down there right now, crying to the miners
and he's got these papers from Bluefield.
I didn't leave my Colt like this.
You spying little bastard!
What did you hear?
- What did you hear? - Nothing.
Horseshit! Hit him, Bill.
See this medal?
Do you know how I won this, preacher boy?
I was sitting alone in a ditch in France
and this kraut jumps in right next to me
and I took my bayonet
and I stuck him right in the face
and then another jumps in and I stick him too
and another and another
and another... They just kept coming
one at a time, all night long
and a little bit
I got worried that they weren't all dead, so
I stuck them all again a couple of times, just to make sure
and in the morning
they said that I was a war hero!
Well, I'm going to stay close to you tonight, preacher boy
and you let one wrong word fly
and I'm going to put one in your skull
and I'll do the same for your pretty mama.
You know I'm not lying, don't you, boy?
Yes, sir.
The man who draws the short straw gets to do the job
and word doesn't travel beyond this room about who it is.
The rest of us will want a good alibi.
I figure on that prayer meeting tonight
right under the preacher's nose.
Welcome to the union, son.
What's the story?
Ludie heard that the Baldwins were coming after you tonight
and I'm supposed to
stick by you.
You got the shit detail again, huh?
Are you all right, Danny?
have you got your sermon memorized?
I'll bet he doesn't know any more scripture than I do.
And that isn't a whole hell of a lot, is it, Griggsy?
Do you know any?
I never got any further than
"In the beginning was the Word..."
I guess we're both doomed to the hot place.
If the Lord relies on little shits like this one to spread His word
I don't want any truck with heaven
and as for hell
well, we've been to West Virginia.
Ah
What in god's name are you doing, son?
I'd just got your leaks all stopped up
and here you're trying to bust them open again.
I've got to get down there. They've got to know.
You aren't going anywhere
unless it's in a pine box.
Where's your sense?
I've got to.
I wish those fellows would get here.
Huh?
If they're coming I wish they'd hurry up.
I don't want any more shooting in the woods.
Did you ever use one of those?
The 10th Cavalry
in Cuba, back in '98:
San Juan Hill.
Pretty rough down there?
I did what I had to.
Is it true, you're a red?
Yeah. I suppose it is.
Then how come, you don't carry a gun?
Well, we carry little round bombs.
Don't you read the papers?
I want to tell you tonight
about the blackness in the heart of man.
I'm going to warn you
about the many and devious ways
in which Satan will hide from you the truth
of who your real friends are.
I'm going to do it with a story from the Patriarchs.
Now, we all know about Joseph
and how out of all Jacob's 12 children
he was the smartest and the smoothest
and how his brothers got so jealous
they pulled off his coat of many colors and
whooped on him and left him out to be sold into slavery.
But Joseph was not your ordinary fellow, even for biblical times.
He had a special way with him
a way of looking at the grand scheme of things.
So when this fellow, Potiphar bought him for a slave
Joseph just smiled and vowed he was going to be a good one.
Making the best of a bad situation
he put his heart to his work
and was honest and friendly in his dealings
and before you knew it, he was just about running Potiphar's
households and fields and all his businesses for him.
The only trouble
was Potiphar's wife.
Now she was what you might call, a loose woman.
When I was in Leavenworth there was a bunch of Mennonites
mainly because they wouldn't fight in the war.
It's against their religion.
It's also against their religion to shave their beards or
wear buttons on their clothes and
they were being forced to do both by the prison guards.
So they refused to work
and they went on a strike right there in Hell's Half Acre.
They were handcuffed to the bars of a cell house
8 hours a day, for 2 full weeks.
They were put with their arms up, like this
so that they had to stand on their toes
or those cuffs would cut into their wrists.
There can't be anybody who'd stay on their toes eight hours.
So pretty soon
their fingers would start to swell up.
They turned blue and then they'd
crack open.
Blood would run down their arms
8 hours a day
day after day
but still they wouldn't work.
Still they tore the buttons off their uniforms
every time they were sewn back on.
They tore them with their teeth
because their hands wouldn't close any more.
So now I don't claim a thing for myself
but those fellows
haven't ever lifted a gun in their lives
and you couldn't find any braver, in my book.
I wish those fellows would get here.
Also in Potiphar's employ at this time
were a couple of spies from one of his enemies
fellows that wanted to bring him down in the world
and get their hands on his fields and houses.
They'd seen the want and lust in Mrs. Potiphar
and seen, it would be good for their purposes
to get shed of the young Joseph.
So they came to Potiphar's wife.
She called Joseph in and she asked him one more time
"Joseph will you lie with me?"
and he said, "No madam. I won't."
And she set up a ruckus and grabbed hold of the garment he was wearing
and rent it in two before he could get clear.
Potiphar runs in with his guards
and she's bawling her eyes out and shaking like a leaf.
"Your servant Joseph", she says
"he come in here and tried to make me lie with him."
"Only when I called out, he fled"
"leaving this here garment as evidence."
"And not only that", she says
"he's been spying and plotting against you with your enemies."
"He means to take over here and have you killed."
Potiphar had no reason to misbelieve his wife.
Joseph was a slave and a foreigner.
So he gathered up his servants
and household workers and they went and slew Joseph dead
cut him from gut to gizzard and left him bleeding in the street.
And lo! They never learned of Mrs. Potiphar's lies and
went to their maker, unrepentant, with innocent blood on their hands.
Draw your own conclusions.
- It's getting awful late. - shh
Did you hear something?
No. You?
Yeah. I think I did
like somebody moaning.
Maybe it's the fellows.
I think we should go out there and have a look.
Who's that?
That's Hillard.
The meeting's been called off.
Well, we'd better get back to camp, huh?
Wait a minute.
Well, at least we didn't waste a trip.
- Shouldn't we do something? - No way. It won't spread.
Is C.E. inside?
No such luck.
Find that son of a bitch.
How come, they waste more food in one day
than a poor worker's family has on their table in a week?
Now let me ask you!
Who's sweat was it that went into building those mansions?
Once they'd seen how they'd almost done an innocent man
it was like Joe couldn't say any wrong.
We moved out into the Mango County then
spreading the word about the union
spreading like wildfire over to Red Jacket
to Ragland and Delbarton all up and down the Tug Fork river
bringing the union out to all the folks that needed help
putting the spirit into them and trying to shut down
the whole southwest field
helping themselves to our land and our labor for too damn long.
Joe Kenehan said how there was a new day coming
and sometimes I could just about see it
but it was a dangerous living for a union man
and you didn't dare turn your back.
It was hard times and it was hungry times too.
The union relief was spread thin and with the hope of a new day
can feed your soul
but leave your belly rumbling.
Scoot.
Lady...
since there are just me and Hillard
and you've got all these little ones
well
do you know what to do with this?
Hillard brought it in.
It's for you.
I'm not going to watch no babies go hungry.
Now here... You go on. You take it.
Here are some navy beans
and these here are ramps.
Now, you can cook with these.
They put a taste in your stew.
Anyhow
well, I
figure, we're all in this together.
You've sure got some pretty babies!
- Who's your favorite pitcher? - Hod Eller.
He's from Logan county.
Did you get to play ball much?
When the mines were open.
Joe...
Yeah?
Did you ever kill anybody?
What brought that up?
I'll bet Sid has.
He were in the war.
All I saw was workers killing workers
and there wasn't any point in it.
They thrown you in jail because you wouldn't go?
Those 2 years kept me from killing some poor stiff that got
pushed out on a battlefield by rich folks and politicians
and they were worth it.
It's getting dark, Danny.
You'd better go and get that coal.
Do you see there, right there by the railroad trestle?
That's where Cap Hatfield and his boy Joe Glenn killed 3 men.
Th boy wasn't but 13.
He used a Winchester.
Do you think it hurts much, a bullet?
It beats dying in a damn coal mine!
The boy wasn't but 13 years old, Joe Glenn.
He must be in there.
He always sleeps with the lights on.
We've just got to be quiet. That's all.
Let's get the little bastards.
Over here...
Grab him. Cut him off.
Well, well... What have we got here?
Smarts a little, doesn't it boy?
"Hillard", right?
Now
how about, you give us the names of your ring leaders up in Logan...
Give us 5 names boy. That's all: 5 names and we'll let you go.
That's fair isn't it?
Never!
Griggsy
talk to us boy.
Talk to us.
I'll rot in hell first.
Have it your way.
Mr. Lively
Boy
I sentence you to death for the crime of stealing Company property
and being a dirty bolshevist union man.
You've got 10 seconds to talk.
Talk.
What a smell!
The boy dirtied his diapers.
We want names, son.
I can't. I swore on a Bible.
Then we're going to have to get down to it son.
Use the razor.
Hold him boys.
Just a little nick, boy.
Get it off your chest, son.
Plyant Mount, Bill Mahan, Asa Radnor, J.T. Keadle
5!
Give us 5, boy.
And Harley Shilton.
- Kill him. - No.
So where do those fellows he named live?
Clay Hill.
Where's that?
It's a cemetery.
They are all fellows that were killed in a gas fire
5, 6 year ago.
There's nothing like a young boy dying
to stir things up!
Baldwin's coming into town tomorrow, Kenehan.
Do you fellows have any idea what's waiting for us?
You mean, they didn't tell you?
No. I just saw a line in the papers about
"opportunity for red-blooded American men"
"immediate openings"
"high pay, travel, chance for advancement."
"Apply Baldwin Felts and write your own ticket."
When the natives get restless someplace they put that out
and hook some more cannon fodder.
Ever hear of the Hatfields and McCoys, son?
Yeah. Of course, I have.
This Matewan is their stomping grounds.
They'll put a bullet in your brain as soon as they look at you.
Sid
we have authorization to put these miners
off Company property here in town.
Not from me, you don't.
And we've also got a warrant for your arrest
if you give us any trouble.
This isn't worth shit and you know it.
One way or another we're going to carry out these evictions
tomorrow morning.
Gentleman
they came to kill me.
Hillard was my friend.
When I first came down to the mines, it was Hillard
who'd show me what to do.
He was a good coal miner, a good union man
and he always took care of his mama.
I don't know how they could have done him like they did.
All he wanted to do was live decently. That's all.
Sometimes people say how God willed it
how everything is His plan.
Well
I don't think He planned on
Hillard lying here amongst all these Elkinses.
Not this young in his life!
I think all God plans is, we get born
and we've got to take it from there.
So you rest in peace, Hillard.
You rest easy because we're going to take up where you left off.
Amen.
Are you going to tell us to turn the other cheek, still?
Shooting is what they want now.
Maybe it's what we want, too.
You expect too much of people, Joe.
You're still after that one big union, but most of us
we can't see past this hollar.
I need to talk to the men.
It wouldn't be decent now.
I'll call a meeting in the morning
first thing.
Pass the word to stay out from town tomorrow.
Is something up?
I've got a feeling.
You know how white folks are when they get all excited...
Nothing's going to bring Hillard back, you know.
Danny, I came here to help.
Sure you did.
First people come here to help us with some money.
Next we know we've got no land.
Then they say they're going to help us with a job
and a place to live
and they stick us in some damn coal camp
and let us dig out their mines.
Now you come here to help us bring in the "new day".
Well, Hillard isn't going to see any new day.
We had about as much help as we can stand.
We've got to take care of ourselves.
We've got to take care of each other.
Joe!
The men go to town.
See it?
There's no need for you to be in on this.
It's my town too.
They're my people.
You have no right to come to this here town
with all these people and drawing guns and terrorizing them.
The writs you have are not valid for this town.
- You can't get one - No.
No. Wait.
Jesus! Don't shoot me.
I just wanted to talk.
I can't feel my legs.
There was a trial
but there wasn't anybody going to pass guilty
on Sid Hatfield in Mingo County.
Sid got married to Mayor Testerman's widow
and then the Baldwins caught him unarmed
walking up the steps of the McDowell county court house.
They shot 15 bullets into him
right in broad daylight
and C.E. Lively stepped in and put one right through his skull.
There wasn't even a trial on that one.
That was the start of the great Coalfield War and
us miners took the worst of it, like Joe said we would.
"It's just one big union the whole world over"
Joe Kenehan used to say
and from the day of the Matewan massacre
that's what I preached.
That was my religion.
We buried Joe Kenehan with our own.
My mama thought he wouldn't ever stay
but now he's with us for always
lying up here in these West Virginia hills.