St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-01-08
A Long Strike.

The strike of the coal miners in the
Hooking Valley region of Ohio has been
one of the most important, most extern
sive, and most costly that the country
has ever seen. 1t began early in June
of last year, and has only now come to
iii end not by the surrender of the
strikers, but by their replacement by
other men, and the complete victory
of the operators. The story of the
strike as told by the strikers when
they applied to the Central Labor
Union in this city was II pitiful one,
and though 1T appears from good evil
dence to have been exaggerated, it
showed IA very great amount of suffer
ing According to this, there were
some 5000 men out of work for from
five to six months. The savings of
such us had saved anything were soon
used up, and from the funds collected
by the Miners Union there was given
out as early rs September only seven
ty five cents Il week to each family.
In addition to the strikers themselves
some 1000 to 1900 men engaged on the
railways and in work dependent on
mining were also thrown ont of en-
ployment.
The facts as they have been brought
ont by the Investigations of the press
do not sustain the account of the trade
union committee rs to the origin of
the trouble. The following is state
meut of the matter as neatly correct as
it can be made. The Hooking Valley
coal mines are unusually favored. The
coal is of rich and partly btuminOus
character, between the soft anthracite
of the Schuylkill Valley in Pennsylva-
MIA and the famous "block" coal of
Indiana in point of hardness. This
coal lies in veins varying from nine to
thirteen feet in thickness. This fact,
with the comparative sOftness of the
coal, makes it very easy to mine, as
the men can work at it in an erect pos
ture, and not, us III many of the
Pennsylvania mines, cramped on
their hands and knees. 1t also favors
the use OF machinery, steam drills, and
steam cars for drawing out. But the
Miners Union has from the start been
a very powerful and close org nizatiOn
in the Hooking Valley, and it has
steadily resisted all propositions to in
trOduce machinery. The Union HAS,
limited the amount of coal
that any one man could dig TO three
aud half tons per day, and has been
very extcting IN the same spirit in
other regards. The pay has been pref
ty uniformly seventy cents il ton. The
owners of the mines have therefore not
only had but little profit from their
natural advantages, but have had to
keep the price of coal SO high through
out the valley that the iron furnaces in
the region have been unable to com
pete with those of other regions, aud a |
number of them have on this account |
closed down within the past year. |
In June last the Columbus and I
Valley Coal Company, the
owner of the coal mines, re-
solved to force IA decisive fight with |
heir men. They announced cut in I
wages from seventy cents to sixty |
:ents, and the men went out on strike. |
The company Immediately suspended /
Ri work, and as rapidly as possible put /
into their mines. They had |
pretty well completed this work before /
he miners realized what was going on. |
Then the company won over the |
bank BOSSES" from among the strikers
a act as instructors, and brought in a
OF of new men. They were obliged
% have them guarded by Pinkerton's
detectives, heavily armed The sttik
,rs became violent, fired into train