Hellraisers Journal: Strikebreakers Brought to Virden and Pana from Alabama Were Threatened by Company Guards

Men in a locked car are not free men, but prisoners.
These men were prisoners without authority of law.
They were under no criminal charge, had not been tried,
and were entitled to go and come at their pleasure.
-Governor John Riley Tanner
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 15, 1898
Birmingham, Alabama – Miners Recruited as Scabs Were Deceived

Virden Massacre, Wanted Colored Miners, Poster ab Sept 19, 1898

That the miners recruited in Birmingham, Alabama, to mine coal in Virden and Pana, Illinois, were deceived by the coal operators into becoming strikebreakers is made plain by the fact that the men were transported into Illinois in locked cattle cars, many of them, and were kept under the watchful eye of armed company guards. When the Alabama miners became aware of the situation, most of them resisted being turned into scabs. However, according to reports, the company guards threatened to shoot down any who attempted escape.

From the the the Chicago Public
-of August 27, 1898

The sheriff of Christian county, Ill., seems to think it his duty not only to threaten to shoot white miners who try to reach the imported negroes at Pana to explain the trick that has been played upon them by the operators, but also to threaten to shoot the negroes if they attempt to leave the operators’ employment. It is the business of the sheriff to preserve order, but it is not his business to act as a private detective for coal operators, which is a distinction that the sheriff of Christian county ought to know, and one which, if he doesn’t know it, he ought to be made to learn.

Serious Trouble at Pana:

Serious labor troubles are brewing at Pana, Ill., a coal mining town in the southeastern corner of Christian county at the junction of the C., C., C. & St. L., and the Illinois Central railroads, about 200 miles southwest of Chicago. A strike for some time in progress at that place, has been so far successful that the operators have sent into Alabama and engaged 1,000 negroes to come north and work in the Pana mines. They were expected to leave Birmingham, Ala., on the 22d and to arrive at Pana on the 24th. This expectation was the cause of much excitement at Pana, and indignation meetings were advocated. As an indication of the sympathy of the town with the miners, the sheriff’s summons to 100 citizens to appear at the city hall on the morning of the 22d to act as deputies in protecting the imported negroes, was responded to by only 10 persons. On the 23d the sheriff summoned as deputies members or employes of nearly every business house in the town. He had received a consignment of Springfield rifles with which to arm the deputies. The first consignment of negroes arrived on the 24th. When they learned the situation they complained that they had been deceived by the operators, and most of them refused to go to work. Deputies stationed at the grounds are charged with threatening to shoot negroes who attempt to leave.

From the the the Chicago Public of of September 3, 1898

The labor question in the United States has come to the front during the current week in different forms at different places. At Pana, Ill., the strike which we noted last week is still on. Several car loads of negroes have been imported by the operators to take the place of the strikers. They are guarded by armed deputy sheriffs, who prevent the strikers and all other persons from conferring with them. It is charged also that they prevent the negroes from escaping….

On the 31st at Galveston a strike of negro stevedores for higher wages developed into a riot when other negroes were imported to take their places. The strikers were fired upon by the police. One white spectator was killed and some negroes were wounded.

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From the the the Chicago Public of of September 10, 1898

At Pana, Ill., the labor situation remains practically unaltered. As our past reports have explained, the coal miners at Pana are striking against a reduction, of wages, the employers refusing even to submit the question to the arbitration of the arbitration authorities of the state. To break the strike the employers sent to Alabama to contract with negro miners, and carloads of these have been brought on.

There appears to be good reason for believing that the negroes were deceived. Some of them say, at any rate, that they were told that work was abundant at Pana, and contracted to go there upon that supposition. They had no idea that a strike was in progress. It is very difficult, however, to get much information from the negroes, as most of them are kept in the mines under guard, few persons being allowed to see them at all, and nobody except in the presence, of foremen. Such information as has come from them has been given by some who escaped and by others who were intercepted before they reached Pana.

On the 1st, a mob of the strikers seized two employers and held them in custody, for what purpose is not very apparent, though no personal harm seems to have been done to them or attempted. When this had been done, the sheriff telegraphed to the governor [Governor John Riley Tanner] for troops, but gave no facts to show the necessity for his call, and the governor responded with a request for facts. The answer he got was unsatisfactory. The governor said that the sheriff seemed more intent upon protecting imported miners than the property and lives of its citizens. He ordered a battery to Springfield, however, and sent David Ross, the secretary of the labor bureau of the state, to Pana to make a personal investigation for him into the situation. Mr. Ross was unable to learn whether the negroes are under restraint or not; the operators would not accord him a private interview with the negroes.

This was on the 2d. On the same day the battery ordered out, reported at Springfield. Meantime, proceedings for an injunction were instituted to restrain the negroes from working in the mine, the state bureau having reported that with a few exceptions they were incompetent under state laws. On the 6th the battery had not yet been sent to Pana, and the sheriff had sworn in 300 deputies with, whom he was guarding the town, the mayor, a son of one of the coal operators, having requested him to take entire charge. At this time fears of a pestilence have arisen, in consequence of the unsanitary condition of the negroes’ camp.

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From the the the Chicago Public of of October 8, 1898

The labor situation at Pana, Ill., of which we have given accounts from time to time as it developed, is at the present writing more threatening than ever. As we reported last week, the negro miners who had been imported from Alabama by the Pana operators, in order to defeat a local strike, were being marched armed through the streets of Pana on the 28th, when a collision with strikers occurred, during which shots were exchanged but no one was hurt. The excitement growing out of this disturbance was made the foundation for a call for troops.

Troops were accordingly sent to Pana on the 30th, with instructions from the governor to arrest all persons carrying arms and to protect citizens and their property and maintain order, but to lend no assistance in operating mines with imported labor. On that night the militia took possession of the town, and according to the press dispatches the utmost quiet prevailed.

This condition continued until the 4th, when the town became excited by the action of Capt. Craig, in command of the troops. Saying that “the best way to put down a riot is to prevent it,” he sent a detachment of 50 soldiers along the Illinois Central railroad to a switch of one of the coal companies north of the city, to serve as a guard for two carloads of Alabama negroes whom the operators had just imported and were unloading. This action was regarded by the strikers as being intended not to preserve the peace but to assist the operators in importing labor, and the press reports at the time indicated that public opinion in Pana was in harmony with that view of the matter.

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From the the the Chicago Public of of October 15, 1898

The coal strike or lockout in central Illinois culminated on the 12th in a riot, in which many persons were killed and wounded. The number has not yet been ascertained. This riot was not at Pana, the principal seat of the difficulty, but at Virden, in the northeast corner of Macoupin county, a little north of west from Pana, and about 35 miles away. The coal mines at Virden are operated by the Chicago-Virden Coal company. As at Pana, the strike, or more properly the lockout, has been on since last April, and the operators have been importing negroes from Alabama to take the places of the local miners. This importation of labor was the immediate cause of the riot.

—–

The Virden riot will be better understood if we begin the story at the beginning. For mining coal in Illinois, the joint convention of operators and miners had agreed upon a state scale of 40 cents per gross ton. This rate the Virden and Pana operators declared they could not pay, as their mines were unfavorably situated with reference to the coal market. Acknowledging the justice of the operators’ claim, the local miners offered to take 35 cents. But the operators were still dissatisfied, and on the 1st of last April they closed their mines.

Thereupon the miners appealed to the state board of arbitration to determine a fair scale. The operators refused to join in the appeal. Nevertheless the board investigated the matter and decided that a fair scale would be 33 cents. This decision had no legal value, however, as the operators had refused to join in the arbitration. Neither did it produce any moral effect upon the operators, for they continued to keep the mines closed.

Affairs were thus at a standstill and peaceable, until the operators began to import negroes from Alabama, upon representations that mining labor was in great demand at Pana and Virden.

—–

This movement on the part of the operators excited the local miners, the more especially as it was attended with hostile preparations on the part of the operators. A stockade was built around the Virden mines, and armed private detectives were hired and quartered there. From this time on the village of Virden was in a ferment. The local miners armed themselves and declared that the imported negroes should not be taken into the stockade, while the operators, appealing to the sheriff for a posse and to the governor for troops, declared that the negroes should be brought in at any cost.

During the present week F. C. Loucks, president of the Virden Coal company, made a specific demand upon the governor for troops. He did this nominally through the sheriff, but the conversation, which was by telephone, was carried on between himself and Gov. Tanner personally. The governor offered to send troops, in case of a breach of the peace, for the purpose of preserving the peace and protecting property, but refused to send any for the purpose of assisting the company to bring in laborers from other states. To this the president of the company replied that he would work his mines in his own way and defend himself if the governor wouldn’t defend him.

Immediately following that interview, and on the 11th, the governor wrote Mr. Loucks to the effect that if the company undertook to bring in imported labor they would do so with full knowledge that they were provoking riot and bloodshed, and that therefore they would be morally responsible if not criminally liable for what might happen.

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That was the condition at Virden when, on the 12th, near noon, a train loaded with negroes from Alabama, and carrying a heavily armed guard of private detectives, rolled into the village, and, passing the station with out stopping, went on toward the stockade. The remainder of the story is the substance of the Associated press dispatches. As the train passed the depot, its character was recognized by the miners, and a gun was fired in the air by one of them as a signal to their associates nearer the stockade, half a mile away, that the imported laborers had arrived. Instantly shots were fired from the train itself into the crowd of miners. Then the miners fired at the train, and were fired at in turn both from the train and from the stockade. The train stopped at the stockade only two minutes, when it pulled out for Springfield; but its departure did not stop the firing from the stockade. Eye-witnesses assert that most of the miners were killed after the departure of the train.

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Under orders from Gov. Tanner, a detachment of militia arrived at Virden in the evening. It was under orders to disarm everybody, to preserve the peace, and to protect life and property, but to give no aid in the importation of non-resident laborers. Coming first in contact with the stockade guards, the officer in command ordered them to throw up their hands, but instead of doing so, they backed into the stockade, holding their revolvers menacingly. The order was repeated but was still disobeyed, when one of the stockade guards was shot, though whether by the troops or not is uncertain. The miners when ordered by the troops to hold up their hands did so, and surrendered their firearms. At the present writing there are no further developments.

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(Map added.)

Note: paragraph breaks added to articles above.

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SOURCES

Annual Report of the State Bureau of Labor Statistics
Concerning Coal in Illinois, 1898
-15th Annual Reports of the State Inspectors of Mines
–David Ross, Secretary
Springfield, 1899
https://books.google.com/books?id=yxYAAAAAMAAJ
Review of the Mining Situation-1898
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=yxYAAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA1
“cattle cars”
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=yxYAAAAAMAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA7
“Men in a locked car are not free men, but prisoners.”
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=yxYAAAAAMAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA10

REVIEW OF THE MINING SITUATION-1898.

The prolonged suspension which occurred last year throughout the principal bituminous coal districts of the country, supplemented this year by a local reign of terror at Pana, and the more unfortunate tragedy at Virden, in this State, has attracted widespread and interested attention to the new conditions surrounding the mining industry, and the influences, whether for better or worse, that have quietly but effectively operated to change its character……

Great—misapprehension existed concerning the status of the difficulty at Virden. It was represented that the miners were striking against a reduction of wages, and those who were willing to accept the terms offered by the company should be protected from molestation. The facts are, the miners were not on strike. They were willing to resume at the rate fixed for that ﬁeld by the convention at which their employers were represented. They were locked out because the mine owners refused to pay the advanced mining rate conceded by their competitors.

Again, those who attempted to take the place of the locked-out miners did not move of their own volition, but came as an army, some of them in cattle cars, and all under the protection of Winchesters in the possession of men disqualified to perform police duty under the laws of this State.

Governor Tanner, in a speech delivered at Trenton, November 7, 1898, reviewing the situation and assigning reasons warranting the action taken, spoke in part as follows:

…..Did these negroes come here as free men? Or were they brought here as slaves? Free men, on a lawful and peaceable errand, need no arms and no hired protection upon any foot of soil covered by the American Flag. Men in a locked car are not free men, but prisoners. These men were prisoners without authority of law. They were under no criminal charge, had not been tried, and were entitled to go and come at their pleasure. The men who, under the guise of their protectors, were in fact their jailers, had no legal authority to bear or use arms. They were outlaws. A lawful purpose can be carried out under the protection of law without the aid of hired thugs and assassins. Who hired these assassins? What right had they to hire them? They were not even citizens of this State, but armed invaders of its soil-fifty or sixty of them, armed with repeating Winchester rifles loaded with powder and ball, invading our State for the purpose of shooting-and they did shoot down-our citizens.

I am a man of peace, but there is one thing which I value more highly than the public peace, and that is public justice.

IMAGES

Virden Massacre, Wanted Colored Miners, Poster ab Sept 19, 1898
http://www.motherjonesmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Virden-keiser-Union-Miners-Cemetery.pdf

Virden Massacre, Map of Area, Intr Ocn -p2, Oct 13, 1898
https://www.newspapers.com/image/34196404/

See also:

Tag: Battle of Virden 1898
https://weneverforget.org/tag/battle-of-virden-1898/

John Riley Tanner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Riley_Tanner

Organized Labor and the Black Worker, 1619-1981
-by Philip S. Foner
International Publishers, 1982
https://books.google.com/books?id=SB5HAAAAMAAJ

According to Foner (page 77):

The Afro-American Labor and Protective Association of Birmingham opposed the recruiting of Negro strike-breakers for the Chicago-Virden Company in its struggle with the United Mine Workers, but labor agents began to recruit the blacks over its opposition.

Note: The Afro-American Labor Sentinel (1896-?) of Birmingham, AL, was published by the Afro-America Labor and Protective Association.
https://archive.org/details/africanamericanne00dank/page/24

“The Virden and Pana Mine Wars of 1898”
-by Victor Hicken
https://archive.org/details/journalofillinoi52illi/page/n271
re: Afro-American Labor and Protective Association
https://archive.org/details/journalofillinoi52illi/page/n275
From:
Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society
-Spring 1959
https://archive.org/details/journalofillinoi52illi/page/n5

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