Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 27, 1902 “The Anthracite Coal Strike” by Comrade William Mailly, Part I
From the International Socialist Review of August 1902:
The Anthracite Coal Strike.
[-by William Mailly] ———-
[Part I of II]
Scranton Tribune September 26, 1902
There is only one issue in the present struggle between the anthracite coal miners and the mine and railroad owners. That issue is the right to organize. There were other issues when the strike began—wages, hours, dockage, weighing, etc., but they have all been subordinated to this one. The coal trust wants to get rid of the union; the miners want to preserve it. No other question will be settled, or will even be considered, until this one is disposed of: The right of the miners to organize—that is, the issue. The mine owners refuse to arbitrate because that will mean recognizing the union. This they will not do, unless forced to it. The miners, having exhausted every other means, say they will compel recognition.
In order to fully understand how much the preservation or the destruction of the miners’ union means to both sides, one has to be right on the ground and hear direct testimony. For twelve years, following upon the failure of the Hazleton and Panther Creek Valley strike in 1887, there were practically no unions in the anthracite region. Strikes broke out spasmodically, but were soon crushed. Lattimer became famous through one of these in 1897. The operators had everything their own way, and that way was simply one of extortion and oppression. There are no gentler names for it—and these are too mild. The miners were discouraged, cowed and spiritless. Those among them who tried, secretly or openly, to organize were “spotted” and blacklisted out of the region. I met several such men, who had returned after the strike of 1900. During this time the mine owners were organizing. Untrammeled by any resistance from their employes, they had free scope to fight one another in the market. Inevitably combination resulted. Small owners were wiped out or absorbed, until now the coal trust controls the anthracite output, the transportation facilities and dictates prices to the consumer. There are individual operators, but they are dependent, more or less, upon the trust, and their position makes them even harder task masters than the trust companies.
In 1899 the Vanticoke [Nanticoke] miners succeeded in organizing, and in winning a strike which lasted five months. Wages were increased, docking regulated, hours reduced and several minor grievances adjusted. This victory awoke the miners of the whole region. A clamor for organization arose from various quarters. President Mitchell answered the cry by sending “Mother” Jones and other organizers into the field. They worked all winter. Every corner of the region was invaded. The capitalists fought them tooth and nail. At some places the miners themselves, goaded on by their bosses, mobbed and jeered the agitators. There are exciting stories told of those time, but this is not the place to tell them.
Out of those feverish days and nights of dangerous and difficult work came the strike of 1900. Not all the miners responded immediately to the call. Persuasion was required to get some, exhibition of numbers to get others. After six stormy weeks the strike was settled. It was won, whether politics had anything to do with it or not. True, the union was not directly recognized, but it was established. And that was the main point.
From that time, organization spread and strengthened. Every mine in the region has its local and the districts are well organized. Last year, when the mine owners refused to consider the miners’ demands, a strike was avoided through the advice of President Mitchell. He counseled peace, told the men they were not ready to strike, the organization was not compact enough and that they lacked resources. They should accept the situation and prepare for decisive action later. The advice was taken. The men continued to organize and they did prepare. And the present strike is the result.
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.
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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.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 6, 1909
Alexander Berkman on Creation & Purpose of Pennsylvania Cossacks
From Miners Magazine of September 30, 1909:
THE PENNSYLVANIA CONSTABULARY AND
THE McKEES ROCKS STRIKE.
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By Alexander Berkman.
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Even before the memorable days of the Homestead strike, of 1892, there was a law on the statute books of Pennsylvania forbidding the importation of armed men from other states. Heavy penalties were attached to the offence.
However, when the Carnegie Steel Company was preparing to destroy the Association of Amalgamated Iron, Steel and Tin Workers, the then chairman of the company, H. C. Frick, imported armed Pinkertons from Chicago and New York to intimidate and shoot down the locked-out men. The history of that great struggle is well known. But when the strike was finally settled, public sentiment forced the district attorney of Allegheny county to bring charges of murder against Frick and other officials of the Carnegie company, they being legally responsible for the atrocious deeds of their imported myrmidons.
Naturally, the authorities felt too much respect for the Carnegie-Frick millions to press the charges of murder. It was feared that a jury of citizens might possibly send the Carnegie officials to prison. The cases were therefore never permitted to come to trial. But the popular outcry against the importation of armed ruffians became so strong that the Pennsylvania legislature was forced to action. The already existing statute was amended, making the importation of armed men treason against the state, punishable with death.
The industrial Tsars of Pennsylvania were not at all pleased with the situation. The new law expressly forbade the employment of Pinkertons, foreign or local. The people execrated their very name. It would be risky to face a charge of treason. The local Iron & Coal police were not sufficient to “deal effectively” with great strikes; nor was it financially advisable to keep a large private standing army who would have to be paid even When there were no strikers to be shot.
The coke, coal, and steel interests of Pennsylvania (practically the Same concern) faced a difficult problem. They were preparing to wage a bitter war against organized labor, fully determined to annihilate the last Vestiges of unionism among their employes. It was to be done effectively, yet economically. A very difficult problem. At last the solution was found. A high priced steel lawyer struck the right key. It was quite simple. Why risk popular wrath, possible prosecution for treason and murder, by employing Pinkertons? Why even go to the expense of hiring an army of private guards? It would be far cheaper and safer to have the great state of Pennsylvania act as their Pinkerton. What is the state for if not to protect the lords of money and subdue grumbling labor? The good taxpayers will do the paying.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 4, 1909
“The Strikes in Pennsylvania” by Louis Duchez, Part II
From the International Socialist Review of September 1909:
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[Steel Trust Bulls and Pennsylvania Cossacks]
The steel trust “bulls” and “Pennsylvania Cossacks” were rushed in by the hundreds to club the laborers to death. One poor Hungarian while on the run was shot twenty-four times in the back. Comrade J. W. Slayton has the coat and every bullet hole shows up. The victim is lying in the hospital at the point of death. Another one, an Italian, looked through a knot hole in the fence surrounding the company’s property and two “bulls” ran out with drawn revolvers. One of them kept him covered while the other beat him so badly that he had to be dragged away by his fellow strikers and carried to the hospital. It would take volumes to relate in all its detail the brutality and boldness and lawlessness of the Pressed Steel Car Company.
It is no wonder that the country was aroused over the matter. No one with human feeling and a cent to give could refrain from offering it to the poor, starving men and children and sick women, who were treated a thousands times worse than the serfs of the Middle Ages or the black chattel slaves of the South.
In Butler the strikers were treated about the same as in McKees Rocks. Before the “Cossacks” came all was quiet, aside from the fact that the company “bulls” did everything to start a riot.
When the “Cossacks” came into town, naturally, the striking men and their families would crowd along the main streets. Hundreds of them got out in the middle of the streets of the little village of Lyndora, the Standard Steel Car Company’s town, and the mounted constabulary rushed into them without warning.
WE NEVER FORGET
Fannie Sellins & Joe Starzeleski
Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause
August 26, 1919 at West Natrona, Pennsylvania
From The Woman Today of September 1936:
Fannie Sellins
-by Lillian Henry
Gold flows down the Alleghany [Allegheny] and Monongahela Rivers and up the Ohio river to coffers in tall buildings in downtown Pittsburgh. There is a steady stream from the coal mines and steel mills-from the coal mines and the steel mills-from the plants of Jones and Laughlin, Bethlehem Steel, Carnegie, U. S. Steel, Alleghany Steel, Alleghany Valley Coal. These and many other sources fill the banks and strong boxes in Pittsburgh.
Blood has flowed along these rivers-shed at the command of the owners of the strong boxes in tall buildings, and one of their victims was Fannie Sellins, mother of four children.
Fannie Sellins’ grave stands in New Kensington on the Alleghany River. The tombstone, erected by the United Mine Workers of District No. 5, stands as a monument to those “killed by the enemies of organized labor”.
We went to see Fannie Sellins’ daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Broad, to learn about the life of this heroic woman.
[Said the former
Dorothy Sellins:]
My father died when I was two years old, and mother went to work in a garment factory in St. Louis to support her four children. We all come from the South.
Grandfather was a painter-had a regular job painting Mississippi River boats. He used to take mother and the children around to union meetings. I’ve heard union talk ever since I was a baby.
Mother worked hard to organize, not only the men, but also their women. She used to go around to the women to tell them how important it was for them to organize. She was jailed for six months in West Virginia for doing that.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 28, 1919
West Natrona, Pennsylvania – Fannie Sellins & Joe Starzeleski Murdered
From the Pittsburgh Gazette Times of August 27, 1919:
Note: We caution our readers to remember that the enemies of organized labor, through the kept press, are often the first to tell the story of labor disturbances. Already, the day after the murders of Mrs. Sellins and Joe Starzeleski, we find the kept press charging that the two died in a “mine riot.” Other accounts, from the strikers side, indicate that there was no riot until Deputized Coal and Iron Gunthugs attacked Miner Starzeleski. When Fannie attempted to save him, she was beaten and shot. We will continue to report on this story that the truth may be told of the deaths of these two labor martyrs.
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Two persons, one of them Mrs. Fannie Sellins, organizer for the United Mine Workers of America, secretary of the Allegheny Valley Trades Council and a woman labor worker of national repute, were shot to death and five others wounded in a strike riot at the entrance of the Allegheny Coal and Coke Company near Brackenridge late yesterday.
THE DEAD
Mrs Sellins, aged 49, of New Kensington: shot in the head and instantly killed.
Joseph Strzelecki [Starzeleski], aged 58, of West Natrona, a miner: shot in the head and instantly killed.
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