When martial law was really proclaimed, however, the strikers did not like it. The law was enforced with vigor and a number of the strikers were put in prison for violating the law against unlawful assemblages. The shoe had begun to pinch and it pinched pretty hard before the soldiers were withdrawn. It was a mistake to take away the troops before the strike had been definitely settled. It would have cost the state a good deal to have retained them after things quieted down, but if a comparatively small force had been kept, it is hardly likely that the recent trouble would have occurred, and it would not have been necessary to send the soldiers back and proclaim martial law a second time. Then many lives would have been saved. The trouble that followed the withdrawal of the troops could have been, it seems, foreseen by almost any one. One of the miners said when I was in the mines: "Hell is going to break loose here as soon as the troops are recalled unless the mine guards go out at the same time. They have it in for us and we have it in for them. As soon as the troops go out, we fellows who have been working to unionize this region are going to catch it. But when they start something the fun will begin. "If you want to see some hot doings just wait around until the troops go. Conditions such as prevail here are a disgrace. The like of them does not prevail in any civilized country on the globe. And we are not going to stand them any longer. I have never had to kill a man and hope never to be compelled to kill one, but I would kill a dozen of these guards as I would kill so many rats if they should attempt to lord it over us as they have been accustomed to do. And I would do it with a perfectly clear conscience." The man who made this statement was killed in one of the recent fights in the valley. I saw his name in the list of the dead. One of the things that give the coal operators such complete control of the men who work for them is the ownership of great tracts of land. Everywhere you are confronted with a notice that you are on private property. _Landlordism_