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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 10, 1902
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – Great Anthracite Strike Likely to be Long Siege
From the New York Tribune of June 9, 1902:
Top: Section of Mine Stockade and Guards’ Shanty.
Coal and Iron Police Lined Along the Stockade.
Bottom: Crowd of Strikers with “SCAB” Banner at Parsons.———-
CAN KEEP MOST MINES DRY
———-ANTHRACITE SITUATION INDICATES THAT
BOTH SIDES EXPECT LONG SIEGE.(BY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE.)
Wilkesbarre, Penn., June 8.-News of the strike in Virginia, and West Virginia, is coming slowly to President Mitchell at his headquarters here, and to-night he said: “I cannot yet give out a statement, because I do not know enough of the situation. My reports are arriving slowly. Probably I shall have them completed late to-night, and will make a statement to-morrow. As to the situation in the districts I have heard from, I do not now desire to say anything.” There is much anxiety among the officers at the headquarters on account of this new strike [in the Virginias], because it is understood the response is not as large as was expected. Even President Mitchell’s conservative estimate of eighteen thousand may be too high when all the districts are in. In charge of the strike on the scene are National Treasurer W. B. Wilson and a force of twenty organizers and national officers. The success of this strike means much toward the success of the anthracite strike, and Mitchell is anxious to make certain that there is a chance of it succeeding. The operators here say that the strike is a fizzle, and that it will be all over in a couple of weeks.
To-morrow will begin the fifth week of the [Pennsylvania anthracite] strike, and there is not the slightest sign of the operators or the miners weakening. President Mitchell believed that by the end of May he could have the entire region tied up and nearly all the engineers, firemen and pumpmen out on strike with the miners. He has succeeded, except in the Lackawanna district. The operators, despite their sanguine statements, knew a month ago what the situation would be at the end of the month, and everything is as planned except the outbreaks……
It is estimated to-night that since the strike began forty-eight thousand mine workers have left this region, or about one-third of the number who went on strike. If the mines were to resume work to-morrow there would be only enough men in the region to get out about half the normal output.
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[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, UMWC, Indianapolis, July 19, 1902
https://cuomeka.wrlc.org/items/show/860
https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735035254105/viewer#page/40/mode/2up
New York Tribune
(New York, New York)
-June 9, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1902-06-09/ed-1/seq-1/
See also:
The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902
-Volume XXI in the 24-volume history of
the Delaware and Hudson Gravity Railroad
and the Delaware and Hudson Company
-by S. Robert Powell
Carbondale PA, 2018
https://archive.org/details/21TheAnthraciteCoalStrikeOf1902/mode/2up
Minutes of Special Convention to Consider the Anthracite Strike,
Indianapolis, July 17, 18, and 19, 1902
United Mine Workers of America, 1902
http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/documents/Minutes_special_convention_Anthracite_Indianapolis_July_1902.pdf
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=msu.31293107141826&view=2up&seq=1
Tag: Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902
https://weneverforget.org/tag/great-anthracite-coal-strike-of-1902/
Tag: West Virginia Coalfield Strike of 1902-1903
https://weneverforget.org/tag/west-virginia-coalfield-strike-of-1902-1903/
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Never Cross A Picket Line – Billy Bragg