The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1874-05-30
From the Boston Herald of MAY IS
The Mollie Maguires of Pennsylvania.
A Defence by the President Of the Miners Benevolent
Association.

Of Pennsylvania which originated IN a
Chicago paper
SAINT CLAIR, April %, 1874.
+. Nj. CHAMBERLIN- DEAR SIR ! have
Just returned home from trip through
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and find IN
my mail yours Of the 9th, containing an
article headed ''The Mollie Maguires IF
Pennsylvania Regions their out
RACES on the increase, etc. Now, sir, |
have heard good deal said about the above
organization. Whether such an organiZa-
ton does exist or not it is beyond my
power to say, but | am surprised to find
newspapers such as you have published IN
the city Of Boston 50 far forget themselves
to charge the men of Scranton and Of
Hyde Park with the guilt Of such crime as
is referred to in the article. You cannot
have forgot the troubles that existed some
few years ago in the anthracite coal regions
Of Pennsylvania, when the men If Schuyl-
kill county, Northumberland, Columbia,
Carbon and part of Luzerne, were strug-
CLING with their employers for the right to
hee and belong to any organization they
pleased When the men " Scranton and
Hyde Park were, as they are to-day, as a
rule, outside the pale of a miners organl-
cation, the papers Of your city, and in fact
the subsidized press Of our entire nation,
held up before the public gaze the men Of
Scranton and Of Hyde Park as law-abid-
ing and intelligent citizens, who refused
70 allow themselves to be controlled by
demagogues who set themselves up as lead
ers III trade organizations myself in
those days have been the recipient of such
letters are referred t. IN the enclosed
article, notifying me to immediately qmt
the country Or my life should pay the for
felt But then. as now, | never did believe
that they were ever sent by wurkInginen.
| know too well the stratagems rcsurted
To by some Of the employers, at least, to
bring dlssensIon among workmgmen and
disgrace upon a community, and ] believe
that my experience is the experience Of
every man who has ever SAID or written
anything Ill defence Of the tolllng millions
| have travelled through this entire coun-
try, at all hours, both by day and by night,
and nearly through the the entire coal
helds, and never yet received an injury or
scarcely an insult from any workIngman.
| do not desire To weary your patience with
past lstory, but | ask you to review with
me my ldlt TRIP through llt coal ncluS- 1
find Mr.. Morrell, of the Cambria Iron Co.
Of Pennsylvania, refuses to employ any
man who belongs to a trades union, not
withstandlng that the men had submitted
to a reduction of their wages The men
of Brazil, Ind have also submitted to re-
ductlons, and the employers there have
discharged the men OF three works and
brought negroes and put them in their
places also the employers of Mlnonk, Ill.
And at Nelsonvllle, i'll Ohio, the presidents
Of the coal companies, or their agents, re
fuse to employ any man who belongs to
the Miners Association. The men them
selves told me when / was ON the ground
that those companies had supplied their
superlntendents, clerks and bosses with in
struments of death with the understanding
that they were to shoot down any trades
unlonlsts that might come III their way,
There were two young men living in
Nelsonville who were quietly walking by
night over one If the neighboring hills,
when they were fired on by party lying
i'll ambush, both Of them being members
Of the Miners National Organization. One
of the men, by the name Of Thomas Shep-
herd, received i'll his body eighteen wounds,
for which offence Messrs Brooks and
Longstreet, of the Hooking Valley Coal
Company, i'll company with Mr.. Com
stock, their superintendent, and nineteen
or twenty others, were arrested ON sus
picion Of having been the would-be mur-
derers, and have failed to see a solitary
newspaper say word III denouncing these
men. In addition to the above, our EN-
ployers, particularly in the West, are sub
mlttlng to the men, for their signatures.
some Of the most Infamous articles II
agreement that ever laid an eye upon.
Taking advantage of the present embar-
rassed and depressed condition Of the
country, knowing As they do that the wall
Of their wives and little ones for bread will
make a workingmOn almost sign anything
| do not desire to draw a picture of the
oppression and tyranny practiced by a
goodly number Of the employers, because
1t would be impossible for me to depict a
tithe of the poverty and oppression the
workingmen have got to bear. But | ask
you or any other mpartial-minded man if
such an organization existed, and were
guilty Of the crimes they say the Mollie
Maguires are guilty of and it is said more
particularly by the hireling press that this
society is composed of miners do you
think that such tyrants as have above re-
ferred to and others would be allowed to
desecrate Gods footstOol for twenty four
hours | do not undertake to vindicate
any organization or any man or body Of
men that is guilty Of the violation Of the
law whether he lives in a cabin or palace
If the people and the press who are 50
ready to villify and abuse poor man who
attempts to look for his rights, would only
take the trouble to ascertain facts, they
might then be able to show the other side
Of the picture. While it may be true that
man now and then may lose his life at the
hands Of a ruffian in some portions Of the
coal field, | think in point of morals we
compare favorably with any of our large
cities. What is the difference between a
man losing his life by the bullet, or being
forced by circumstances to see himself,
wife and family starving to death by
inches through the actions of the ruthless
oppressor Let those people come amongst
us and see the truth for themselves all
we ask Is even-handed justice, with the
desire that they cease Iworshiping the
golden calf. The press is, in a great
measure, the moulder Of public opinion,
and am sorry that that mould is fright
fully one sided.
Hoping you will excuse me for so far
wesrying your patience, beg 10 remain
yours respectfully, for right,
JOHN SINEY.