Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 23, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for the Year 1899
-Part II: Found with Striking Coal Miners of Arnot, Pennsylvania
From the Philadelphia Times of October 9, 1899:
Elmira Gazette of October 7, 1899
MINERS EVICTED
FROM THEIR HOMES
—–
Blossburg Miners Are Facing
Starvation by Reason
of Their Strike.
—–
WILL NOT YIELD A POINT
—–
Special Telegram to The Times.
Arnot, October 8.
The strike situation hereabouts is becoming serious, and the sufferings of the miners will be severe if an agreement is not soon reached with the Blossburg Coal Company. During the past week the company has discharged its superintendent, ordered the mules sold and made preparations to close down the mines permanently.
Although the strikers have been out sixteen weeks, and are facing certain starvation, they are as determined as ever not to “cave in” to the company, as they term it. The action of the miners in deciding to return to work, and then changing their minds after hearing the harangues of Mrs. Mary Jones, a woman labor agitator of Pittsburg, has apparently aroused the ire or the officials of the company.
Evicted Their Tenants.
As soon as the intention of the miners to remain out became known the company took steps to evict the men who occupied houses belonging to the company for non-payment Thus far thirty-six families have been forced from the houses which they have occupied for years. The evictions were effected by Sheriff Johnston and a force of deputies from Wellsboro. There was no show of force. Those who had no place to go were taken in by neighbors who own their own houses, and are therefore out of reach of the company’s eviction process.
Tho miner of the region have the sympathy of everybody in Northern Pennsylvania, for they have always been law abiding. Through the strike there has been no serious demonstration, and at no time was there any damage done to the property of the company.
———-
From The Wilkes-Barre Record of October 10, 1899:
STRIKE MAY WIPE OUT A TOWN
The strike situation at Arnot. Pa. where thirty-six families were evicted from company houses during last week, remains as far from settlement as it was last July, when inaugurated. The Erie company, owners of the mines there, has made formal discharge of all its employes, including the mine superintendent, and directed the sale of all the mules and the dismantling of the tipples. Whether this is the “bluff” that the striking miners believe it is, in order to frighten them into returning to work, remains to be seen. The company officials declare that the order is bona fide. Arnot is now a veritable place of desolation and despair.
A year ago it was a hustling mining town of 2,500 population. There had been occasional questions of difference between the miners and the Erie company, but up to last July no serious trouble ensued. Early in that month a strike was inaugurated, after the company declined an advance of 10 per cent. in the men’s wages. The men were not in a financial condition to strike, but, nevertheless, they stood out determinedly.
About a week ago their appeared ready to give in, but just then Mrs. Mary Jones, a labor agitator from Pittsburg, appeared on the scene. At a meeting last Sunday (October 8th) she made a speech, and women in the audience cheered her. As a result the men reconsidered their decision to return to work. The next day Sheriff Johnson began serving the processes of eviction. Most of those turned out of the company houses took refuge with other families in the village.
———-
From Pennsylvania’s Mansfield Advertiser of October 18, 1899:
The long, bitter fight between the Erie Company and their men at Arnot over whether the miners shall or shall not have a ten per cent increase in their wages, has nearly reached the climax. Today will probably settle the matter once for all. Various meetings have been held at which a majority of the men agreed to return to work at the old scale of wages, but just as the strike was apparently at an end, something happened to change the minds of some, while others kept good their faith with the company. One of the last of these meetings took place last Sunday afternoon, when between 300 and 400 signed an agreement to return to work.
A demonstration Monday morning [October 16th] by the extremists among whom were many women, led by Mrs. Jones, of Pittsburg, resulted in only 132 going to work. These were hooted and jeered as they passed along the street on their way to the mines. A report that the men were stoned is not true. So intense was the feeling, however, during the day, that Sheriff Johnson was sent for to be on hand should there be any show of lawlessness. He arrived toward evening with a posse of deputies and remained over night.
The number who reported for work yesterday was somewhat less than on Monday. A joint meeting was to have been held during the day of the opposing factions with no women present or boys under 21, but when the hour arrived there was a split. Those in favor of returning to work met in the hall, those opposed in the hollow back of the village. No final agreement was reached.
General Superintendent C. R. Fitch, of the Erie, with his stenographer and other attendants arrived in Blossburg last night in a special car attached to the evening train, and this morning went on to Arnot, where he is to meet and have a conference with Mr. [William B.] Wilson, the labor agitator who planned and ordered the strike. The outcome of this meeting is awaited with the most intense interest, as on it hinges the future of Arnot.
LATER.
Arnot 1:30 p. m; The great strike is off. The increase of wages asked for by the miners has been granted and operations will be resumed at once, probably tomorrow morning.
———-
From New York’s Elmira Gazette of October 19, 1899:
THE STRIKERS MAY RETURN
—–
Intense Excitement Prevailed in Arnot, Pa., Yesterday.
—–
A DECISIVE CONFERENCE
—–
Will Be Held To-day and a Settlement Is Expected
-This Is Good News All Along the Line.
—–
(Special Dispatch.)
Blossburg, Pa., Oct. 19.-The great Arnot miners’ strike, which was inaugurated June 14th last and has continued ever since with slight prospects of settlement, is on the verge of its finish. Upon the result of a meeting to be held at 3 o’clock this afternoon depends the settlement of this strike and the return to work of about 900 men. Dependant upon the return to work and employment of these men are hundreds of families.
There is also another very important question hanging in the balance-the future of the town of Arnot. The business of this place depends upon the miners. With the mines shut down it means the practical abandonment of the town. Stores and nearly all of the business of Arnot depend upon the work of the mines. With the mines shut down the miners sooner or later would be compelled to move away and the town would be about deserted. To-day will probably settle the matter once and for all…..
A demonstration Monday morning by the extremists, among whom were many women, led by Mrs. Jones of Pittsburg, resulted in only 132 going to work. These were hooted and jeered as they passed along the street on their way to the mines…..
The outcome of yesterday’s meeting, gives every promise that the strike will be settled to-day and that by to-morrow or by next Monday morning at the latest the men will be back at work again.
The men that went to work Monday morning only worked until Tuesday noon when they had a meeting and finally conferred with the remainder of the strikers. All then agreed to stand together, and not work unless the increase was granted.
A meeting was called for 3 o’clock yesterday with the officials and at that time Superintendent Lincoln stated that he could not make a definite proposition at that time, but that he was conferring with the higher officials of the road and would be able to say definitely what the company would do at 3 o’clock to-day. There seems to be little doubt but that the advance insisted upon by the men will be granted this afternoon and the strike will be ended. It was in 1893 that the reduction of ten per cent, from seventy-five cents a ton was made. Since that time the men have been fighting for the old price and now seem about to receive it.
From the Harrisburg Star Independent of October 23, 1899:
AGAINST CANDIDATE MITCHELL.
—–
The Republican Nominee for Superior Court
Unpopular With Organized Labor.
Wellsboro, Pa. Oct. 23.-The candidacy of Judge Mitchell for the superior court will be unpopular with organized labor throughout the state, especially among the members of the United Mine Workers of America, because of the part he played in an official capacity in the eviction of fifty miners’ families, at Arnot, this county, three weeks ago.
The families turned out of their homes were those of men at the Blossburg coal company mines, who ate on strike. That the evictions from the company houses were for the purpose of coercing the men into returning to work is evident, for the properties have been vacant ever since.
The Arnot miners, many of whom had lived in the houses for thirty years, and in that time paid enough rent to buy the properties five times over, complain that Judge Mitchell’s authorization of the eviction process was in behalf of the corporation. The evictions have been condemned by the United Mine Workers throughout the state, as all the evicted are members of that organization.
From the Elmira Gazette of October 23, 1899:
ERIE COMPANY WILL PROSECUTE
—–
Those Persons Who Coaxed Out Its Miners.
—–
THE STRIKE AGITATORS
—–
Detectives for the Railroad Attended Meetings
and Have Made Affidavits Declaring That
Leaders Threatened Employes.
—–
(Special Dispatch.)
Ridgway, Pa., Oct. 23.-There promises to be a unique prosecution in Elk and Jefferson counties, as the result of the strike at the Dagus mines and an the Toby Valley, where the men of the Northwestern Mining and Exchange company went out three weeks ago in sympathy for the miners who are on strike at Arnot, Tioga county. At the latter place the Blossburg Coal company conducts the mines, but the miners contend that both the Northwestern and the Blossburg companies are auxiliaries of the Erie Railroad company, hence the reciprocal relations of the miners employed by both.
The men employed by the Northwestern company admit that they had no grievances of their own, they having been granted an advance in wages last July. Officials of the company declare that the men were intimidated and coerced by Messrs. [William B.] Wilson, Haggerdy [Thomas Haggerty], [Edward] McKay, McTaggert [Michael McTaggart] and Mrs. Mary Jones, labor leaders, who, in behalf of the Tioga men, spent nearly six weeks in the Toby Valley and at Dagus agitating the sympathy strike which three weeks ago tied up all the Northwestern nines The company had detectives at the meeting held by these leaders, and affidavits made by three detectives declare that the leaders threatened the miners that unless they struck they (the leaders) would bring down the entire 800 Tioga miners and make them come out.
This, in the judgment of the company, was intimidation, but the leaders declare that what they meant by the declaration was that the Tioga men would be brought into their midst to plead their own cause. The company alleges, too, that at the meeting at Dagus, where the men first declared for strike, the result of the vote was illegally and fraudulently manipulated, in the face of protests from many of the men, to show a majority for strike, when in reality there was a minority on that side. This, the company says, is conspiracy, and the leaders of the strike movement will be prosecuted under that charge. The Erie company, through inability to mine coal, caused by the strike, is losing thousands of dollars daily, just when the market is brisk, and, as it had acceded to the demand for an increase in the Toby Valley, the officials of that company are determined to punish the agitators, whom they blame for inaugurating the strike among their men. [Their men? Do not these men own themselves?]
From the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette of November 6, 1899:
BIG PITTSBURGH LABOR DAY.
—–
Early Start to Arrange It
-Mary Jones Working for Strikers
of Central Coal Field.
The first move for a monster Labor Day celebration in Pittsburgh next year was taken by the United Labor league last night. A committee of 11 was appointed to go ahead with preliminary work, the object belong to prepare for a general demonstration of organized labor. The central labor organization of New Castle is to co-operate with the Pittsburgh organization. On Thursday night the committee will meet at Knights of Labor hall to organize and meet representatives from the various national and local organizations in Pittsburgh to lay out the preliminary work.
Mrs. Mary Jones of Chicago, a conspicuous figure here during the last national miners’ strike, addressed the meeting of the league in the interest of the striking miners of Arnot, Tioga county. She said that 1,500 men are out there for an advance of 10 cents per ton on the mining rate, the strike being directed against the Blossburg Coal Company; that the strike has been on for five months and that in this time the men have offered to arbitrate and also to return to work if a 5-cent advance were given. Both propositions were ignored by the company, which, she says, has evicted 50 families from their habitations during the contest. The men are now standing for the original demand. Mrs. Jones sought information as to when and where she could meet the various Pittsburgh labor organizations, to ask them to aid the striking miners, she was furnished with this information.
The league received four delegates last night. Two were from the local No. 62 of the machinists, and one each from local No. 51 of the electrical cranemen and local No. 6 of the painters.
———-
