Matewan Page #2

when there ain't a pebble in it.

It's down in the bottom he'll say

where they ain't no looking for it.

Then they raise the prices at

the company store the same god

damn week that they lower the

tonnage rate.

And they still ain't rock dusted

that damn hole.

Who'm I talking about?

- Jesus

I can't hear you!

- Jesus!

I still can't hear you!

- Jesus!!

Jesus Christ our lord!

Do you know His name?

Hallelujah, say yeah!

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, listen to me.

The prince of darkness

is upon the lion!

Amen!

Now in the bible his name is

Beelzebub

Lord of the flies.

Right now on earth today

his name is bolshevick

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.

What are we gonna do about it?

First thing we got to have is

all of these n*ggers and all

these dagos that come

in here to take our jobs

thrown out of the mines.

Mines, hell! They got 'em in our

houses, they're setting 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 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.

If we show 'em, we just as soon

blow up their damn mines than

seen them worked by a bunch of

scabs and then they gonna listen.

- Someone is coming, it's Alex.

He got someone.

Where did you find him?

He come right up on the steps

They told me that C.E. Lively's

is where the union mens meet.

So?

I got business with the union.

That so?

What's your name, son?

They calls me "Few Clothes".

I didn't come here

looking for no trouble.

A mans got to eat.

- So why don't you go eat,

back where you come from?

They told me that they was jobs here.

- Go home n*gger.

- God damn scab.

You watch your mouth peckerwood!

I been called n*gger and I can't

help that's the way white folks is...

but I ain't never been called no scab!

And I ain't fixin' to start up now.

I'll go ton for ton loading coal

with any man here.

And when I do, I expects the

same dollar for the same work.

You get out of this hollar alive son,

you be doin' good for yourself.

Union men my ass.

You want to be treated like men?

You want to be treated fair?

You ain't men to that coal company.

You're equipment

like a shovel, a gondola car,

a hunk of wood brace.

They'll use you til you

wear out or you break down,

or your 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 just so

much sh*t to those people.

You think this man is your enemy?

Huh?

This is a worker.

Any union keeps this man out

ain't a union,

it's a god damn club.

Now they got you fighting white

against colored,

native against foreign,

hollar against hollar,

when you know there ain't but

two sides to this world...

them that work and them that don't.

You work,

they don't.

That's all you got to

know about the enemy.

You say you 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 nothin'.

Fellas, 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 got to pick away

at this situation

slow and careful.

We got to organize

and build support.

We got to work together.

Together!

Til they can't get their coal

out of the ground without us

cuz we're a union!

Cuz 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 'em?

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 fellas.

You better get used to it.

So this fella owns a vineyard,

goes out first thing one morning

and he hires some workers.

Says he'll give 'em a dollar for

the day which was decent wages

in biblical times.

Well then he's at the

marketplace and he sees some

other fellas 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

til 1 hour before quitting time.

Look we're real sorry to barge

in on you like this,

but it's come to a point where

we got to talk to you.

Now I know you people got it

hard coming to a new country.

You don't know the rules.

Don't know how things work.

They don't know sh*t about

mining coal that's for sure.

They been dying like flies

in that #3 hole.

- But how it is,

you don't have a whole lot of

choice in this thing.

You know what a union is?

Sindacato.

- Sindacato?

What the situation is,

we need every...

- We join the union they shoot us.

We no join the union you shoot us.

Well, that's one way of

looking at it.

That dago's just driving me crazy

Now what's he playing?

-Shhhh

Now who's that?

Peckerwood's gone past.

Union men will be up

in a few minutes.

What we talking to him for?

-You want to walk back to Alabama?

The sun goes down and he sends

for his foreman and he says to

go pay off the workers starting

with the ones he picked up just

an hour ago and to pay everyone

of them the same dollar a day.

And of course the fellas that

went out first

is roped off about this.

So they get to agitating,

complaining so loud that the

owner come up and he says,

"Look it,

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 nothin'

about the union.

If he was walking the earth

today and seen the situation we

got with these coal operators

he'd a changed his tune.

A man deserveth an hourly wage.

He'd say for those

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 got in store

for him in the hereafter?

Praise Jesus!

- Kenehan.

Out kinda late, aren't you?

I met some people and

we got to talking.

Talking?

Yeah.

Who are you?

Name is Sid Hatfield.

I'm chief of police around here.

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