You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 8, 1917
Christopher, Illinois – All Bodies Recovered from Old Ben Mine
From the United Mine Workers Journal of December 6, 1917:
Eighteen Men Die in Illinois Explosion
Christopher, Ill.—On the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day an explosion occurred at the Old Ben Mine, four miles north of this town, that wrecked both shifts and all the approaches to the workings.
Eighteen day hands were in the mine at the time of the explosion, and all of them were killed.
Rescue teams worked day and night in the hope that some of the trapped men might be found alive. Timbers had been blown out and all the entries were blocked with rock. It was necessary to establish a ventilating system as the rescuers advanced into the wrecked workings. The bodies of all the victims were recovered.
The immediate cause of the explosion is not determined. It is believed that a fall of rock drove a body of gas that had accumulated on the open lamps of some of the men; coal dust and gas together made for the terrible explosion that ensued. The first party of rescuers that entered the mine were driven back by afterdamp. Some members of this rescue party were overcome; pulmotors were used to revive them.
Some 700 men are employed in this mine. Had the explosion occurred on a working day, the loss of life would have been far greater.
