Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday July 13, 1910
2805 Miners Killed in the United States During 1909
From The Labor Argus of July 7, 1910:
SLAUGHTER OF MINERS
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Nearly 3000 Wafted into Eternity in
the “Model” Mines in 1909
-Thousands Crippled.
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The Cherry Ill. Mine Disaster of November 13, 1909 killed 259 miners. —–
Washington, July 1-The statistics of coal mining casualties in the United States, compiled by the geological survey for the calendar year 1900, show an apparent falling off in fatalities during the year, but since the special bulletin on the subject states that no account is taken of the year’s greatest disaster, that, at Cherry, Ill., in November last, the facts are that 1909 was exceeded only by 1907 as one of heavy catastrophe years.
The report explains that the toll of the Cherry mine disaster is not counted in with the year’s figures because it will not be reported by the Illinois officials until the close of the fiscal year in June.
The government depends for its information in all but four states on the reports of the local officials, and although last year four more states-Georgia, Oregon, Texas and Virginia-were added to the figures through reports received from the operators, the returns are still far from complete, a situation which will be relieved, the report points out, when the newly established bureau of mines is completely organized.
Last year, leaving out the Cherry mine disaster, in which 393 miners and rescuers were burned to death or suffocated, there were 2,412 deaths from coal mine accidents, against 2,450 in 1908 and 3,125 in 1907, the most disastrous year in mining history in this country.
This disaster brings the total of fatalities in 1909 up to 2,805.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 28, 1910
Princeton, Illinois – Jury Reaches Verdict in Great Cherry Mine Disaster
From the Duluth Labor World of May 28, 1910:
PRINCETON, Ill, May 27.-The coroner’s jury, which began last November to investigate the cause of the Cherry mine disaster, which resulted in the death of 265 miners in the St. Paul Coal company’s mine, has reached an agreement, and 250 separate verdicts have been returned.
The jury says the mining laws were broken with the knowledge and consent of the mine inspector.
The verdicts were in three sets, one set fixing the cause of the death of the twelve men in the rescue party who perished on the cage in the mine shaft, another set for the 187 men who were suffocated in the second vein and the third for the 51 men who were trapped in the third vein and died of exposure and suffocation.
The verdict of the coroner’s jury is a vindication of John Cowley, the engineer who was in charge of the cage on which the twelve rescuers lost their lives. The verdict says the twelve rescuers lost their lives “indirectly by a confusion of signals regulating the movements of the cage.”
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 22, 1910
Washington, D. C. – Congressman Wilson on Plan to Establish Bureau of Mines
From the Duluth Labor World of May 21, 1910:
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State to Establish Bureau of Mines Regarded
as Means of Checking Fearful Death Toll
of Those Who Work Beneath the Ground.
Signature of President Only Lacking.
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WASHINGTON, D. C., May. 20.—A death toll of over twenty thousand of human lives, lives of miners sacrificed in the United States in the last ten years, has at last forced congress to take the first tardy and hesitating step towards checking the senseless slaughter by establishing a national bureau of mines. The bill now only lacks the president’s signature to become law.
The Monongah W. V. Mine Disaster of December 6, 1907, 362 killed. —–The Darr (Pa.) Mine Disaster of December 19, 1907, 239 killed. —–
Asked as to the immediate effect which a bureau of mines would have upon the everyday life of the miner, Representative [Wiliam B.] Wilson, former secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America, himself a practical coal miner, first drew attention to the terrible loss of life in the American mines as compared with abroad. He said:
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 30, 1910
Indianpolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Speaks at Mine Workers’ Convention
From Stenographic Report of Convention by Mary Burke East:
[Eighth Day-Wednesday, January 26th, Morning Session]
President [Thomas L.] Lewis—We have with us this morning a person who has visited our convention for a number of years, and who is probably known to a great number of the delegates present. To those who have worked in the non-union districts Mother Jones needs no introduction. To those who have attended our conventions for a number of years she needs no introduction. To the new delegates who are here I may say she has done a great deal of work for this organization, especially during strike periods. I take pleasure in presenting to you Mother Jones.
[Mother Jones]-Mr. President and Fellow Workers—The struggle of the workers down the ages has been that of blood; it has been that of hunger. Today the struggle is reaching its final crisis. The forces are lined up against us. Today we are waiting for the last great battle of man with man, and when this battle is over humanity will be free, there will be no robber class and no working class. I heard a speaker who represented the steel industry portray the conditions of the workers in his organization. It is well to consider where we stand today. We are up against a condition unknown to the industrial bodies of this nation in its past history. Go over to China and you will find 20,000 men working in one mill alone, and for his work each one receives 7 cents a day. You can see they have almost crushed out the organization of steel workers, and they are reaching out to crush other organizations. Therefore it is necessary for us to unite our forces. I agree with the Vice-President of this organization and with the president of Illinois that the time is here when the steel workers, the mine workers and the railroad men must join hands and say to the pirates of the human race that they can no longer rob us and murder us.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 8, 1910
Cherry, Illinois – Scene of Mass Murder of Men and Boys, Part II
From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:
The Cherry Mine Murders.
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Why Four Hundred Workers Were Burned and Suffocated
in a Criminal Fire Trap.
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By J. O. Bentall.
—–
[Part II of II.]
Little Albert Buckle, 15 years old November 28, who escaped on the last car up, and his mother and sister stood at the ropes all day watching for “Rich,” who was 16 years the 21st of last June, and who had worked in the mine ever since his father was killed three years ago, but poor Richard was not brought up that day. On Monday I went to see the broken-hearted mother but I could not comfort her.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 7, 1910
Cherry, Illinois – Scene of Mass Murder of Men and Boys, Part I
From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:
[Part I of II.]
AS your brother one of the four hundred who perished in the Cherry coal mine November 13th? Or was it your father? Your husband? Your son? My brother was there. My father. My son. I helped carry them out. They were cold in death. They were covered with coal dust and swollen from black damp.
I am telling you this story from what I have seen with my own eyes. Not from hearsay.
I went from Chicago right to Cherry. With thousands of others I stood and looked from the outside. Then I broke through the line and joined the volunteer rescuers. I put on overalls, jacket, cap and lamp and went down into the tomb that contained over four hundred victims—a few living, most of them dead.
I helped plug the entries to prevent the fire from spreading. I had a hand in timbering where the roof was loose, or where collars were breaking. I cut legs off the dead mules so we could get them through the passageways and clear the track for bringing out the men. I was with the gang that found nineteen dead in one pile and twenty-one in another, thirty-seven in a third and one hundred and sixty-two in a fourth.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 10, 1909
“A Boy Mine Worker,” Like Those Who Perished in the Cherry Mine-Fire
From the International Socialist Review of December 1909:
“A Boy Mine Worker”
Note: Photograph is by Lewis Hine of Trapper Boy in a West Virginia Coal Mine, see Survey of October 2, 1909.
From the Editor’s Chair
The Murder of Illinois Miners
On Saturday, Nov. 13, fire broke out in the mine of the St. Paul Coal Company at Cherry, Ill., where 708 miners were at work. Next morning 125 men responded to roll call. A few more may have escaped, but the actual number dead in the mine is probably close to 500. The newspaper reports of the fire were so conflicting, and so obviously toned down in the interests of the mine owners, that the Review sent its own representative to Cherry, in order that we might make an accurate statement of the facts before commenting on them. He found the reporters of the capitalist papers snugly housed in Pullman cars, wined and dined by St. Paul officials. He found the surviving miners unanimous in the opinion that the death of their comrades was directly due to the action of the mine officials in keeping the men at work long after the fire started. Direct evidence that this is the case is not wanting. Our representative asked President Earling of the St. Paul Railway at what hour the fire started. He replied, “One thirty.” To the question, “Why weren’t the men notified?” his only answer was an eloquent gesture indicating that he had nothing to say.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 29, 1909
Cherry, Illinois – Heartbreaking Scenes Described by Luella Twining
From the Appeal to Reason of November 27, 1909:
From page 5:
MINERS MURDERED.
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Owners of St. Paul Mine Guilty of Manslaughter.
-Cherry Under Martial Law.
—–
BY [LUELLA] TWINING
Special Correspondence to the Appeal.
Cherry, Ill., Nov. 17.-To stay in Cherry, Ill., one half an hour is to be convinced that the miners entombed there were murdered as surely as though the mine owners had taken them into the road and shot them down one by one.
“Why were the miners kept at work two hours after the fire had broken out in the mine?” is the question asked by the bereaved widows. It is not put in that form. I heard it asked in many different ways. A German woman looked at me wildly and asked, “What for they no tell my man? He work two hours by the fire. Now he die. They murder my man.” These poor women do not wait for the mine owners to answer. “They care for mine and no for man,” a Lithuanian said to me and indeed one is forced to believe it. They do not state the question as clearly as Karl Marx’s exposition of the profit system, but it is equally as illuminating. If the United Mine Workers should murder 500 mine owners would they not be punished?
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 17, 1909
Cherry, Illinois – Nurses Arrive from Chicago to Bring Comfort
From The Rock Island Argus of November 15, 1909:
[…..]
Thousands Come to Scene.
Thousands of people came to the mine this morning. Special trains bearing weeping relatives summoned by telegraph arrived at the station and heart-rending scenes were enacted as they met other relatives and were told the worst, which appears to be the only possible outcome of the disaster.
[…..]
Nurses Comfort Bereaved Ones.
A party of nurses from Chicago, who arrived last night, today were turned into comforters of the families probably bereft. Throughout the hamlet were scattered cottages in various stages of completion. It seems likely many cottages never will be finished…..
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 16, 1909
Cherry, Illinois – Horror, Heroism and Heartbreak at Scene of Great Disaster.
Heartbreaking Scene at Cherry Mine Fire.
At the entrance of the shaft a scene was enacted such as is witnessed only at a disaster of this kind. Hundreds of screaming women, weeping children and frantic but helpless men crowded about the place.
A few survivors were surrounded by groups of the women, and the answers of these men to the shrieked inquiries only added to the terror of the women. Almost to a man the survivors declared that there was no hope for those still in the mine. Nearly two hundred of the men imprisoned, they declared, were in the third vein, the only entrance to which was from the second vein, almost five hundred feet from the main shaft of the pit.
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AS your brother one of the four hundred who perished in the Cherry coal mine November 13th? Or was it your father? Your husband? Your son? My brother was there. My father. My son. I helped carry them out. They were cold in death. They were covered with coal dust and swollen from black damp.
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