Owners also forced workers to sign yellow dog contracts which bend them from joining unions.

If they did join, they might be thrown out of the company owned housing.

A company lawyer explained the system like this.

It is like a servant who works in your house.

If the servant leaves employment, if you discharge him, and you ask him to get out of the servant

quarters.

It is a question of master and servant.

With these conditions in mind, the United Mine workers began organizing in West Virginia

in 1912, resulting in the paint creek, cabin creek strike of 1912-13.

Company enforcers fired into strikers homes, martial law had to be declared,

and union supporter Mother Jones became a well-known figure.

The 1912-1913 strike in West Virginia made clear that violence was becoming the norm

in appellation labor relations.

And violence in West Virginia often meant the Baldwin Felt's detective agency.

Baldwin Felt's detectives incorporated was a private security firm founded by William Baldwin

and Thomas Felt's.

By the time of the paint creek, cabin creek strike, they were America's top union busters.

The agency hired a mix of men, including former police, soldiers, criminals, and minors.

They worked as mine guards, informants, and were sometimes deputized within local police forces.

Journalist Howard E. West wrote that in spite of appearances, they were under no illusions about their work.

They are in the mines for a definite purpose.

They understand what that purpose is, and they have no hesitancy about delivering the goods.

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