I wonder who the military hero was mentioned in your post.
Billy Mitchell was involved in the use of the military against American civilians. The show of force was such that it succeeded without the airplanes using their machine guns or bombs, but I think there is no doubt that Mitchell and the men under him would have used both if it had been deemed necessary.
I hate to say that I have ever agreed with CTB but he may be correct on this.
I believe I mentioned the trouble in W.Va. between the miners and the mine owners when the UMW was organizing the mine workers on an earlier thread. There was a movie made of this conflict called "Matewan". I cannot attest to the truthfulness of either the movie or the articled referenced by CTB. I do know that there was a lot of violence in the effort of the UMW to organize the miners. I do know that the national guard was called out in W.Va. and ultimately the Army. It is my understanding that the miners would not fire on the army.
I do know that miners were generally treated worse than the slaves in the old south. The mines in the region where I lived were all operated by the union workers when I came along but there was still much violence back there. I have told of one family I knew.
There was an incident during WWII that caused some ill will toward the UMW. Unless you know something about the coal mines in the mountains you cannot appreciate the problem the miners faced. In order to get to the mine face where coal was being removed the miners had to ride the mine cars . It was impossible to walk to your worksite because the distance from floor to roof in the mines was in the neighborhood of 3-4 ft. Then of course there were the hot wires. Giving the mine owners the benefit of the doubt I will assume that to maximize production they did not haul the miners out when their shift was over. They were hauled out at the convenience of the operator which could be a matter of hours. The miners struck and the settlement was "portal to portal" pay. The mine workers were paid from the time they entered the mine until they left the mine entrance. Obviously the miners did not cool their heels for hours inside the mine. An example of where the mine owner shafting the miner backfired.
I am not anti union. I am not pro union. I believe that most of the unions leaders today are corrupt. But I have no illusions about many of the people who control the wealth in this country. Does anyone on this forum believe that a Wall Street banker making $30+million a years gives a tinker's dam about someone working for minimum wage or for that matter $30-$40 thousand per year.
