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Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 26, 1910
“The Irwin Coal Strike” by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part II
From the International Socialist Review of August 1910:
[Part II of III]
While they were not immediately successful in every instance, the operators viewed these peaceful demonstrations with dread and alarm. They rushed to the court, demanded and secured immediately a temporary injunction forbidding the marching on the public highways of Westmoreland county. After listening to testimony from both sides, and after the operators had been compelled to admit that all the disorder had been caused by the thugs who were acting as deputies, the judge made it permanent.
The contest in the county court over the granting of the permanent injunction together with several brutal murders committed by agents of the operators and the thugs employed as deputies gave the strike wide publicity. The injunction trial and the murders created more sentiment in favor of the strike amongst all classes than could weeks of preaching and marching.
The injunction was so sweeping, all inclusive and all embracing that when one of their number died the “injuncted” miners who wished to walk on the public highways to attend his funeral to avoid being thrown into prison for contempt of court, had to get a special dispensation.