The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1890-09-12

ViAliiR lOI GLc Suffering peuple, DuU III
deliberately tried to poison the
minds Of the public by a campaign
of SANDER against the miners, and
to a great extent 1T succeeded in cut
ting off supplies from the outside
world: 1t represented the miners as
being on a strike, when they had
not struck at all, but were locked out
OF the mines without cause. 1t rep
resented Jnem as more willing to beg
than to work, when the fact was that
the children concealed their
starving condition, and food was
almost forced upon hungry people be-
fore they would accept il.
that the miners were sufficiently
starved, when they had succeeded BY
their campaign of SANDER in cutting
off supplies from a generous public.
they posted an offer of work in the
window of their Office. The offer was
that men should break up their
unions andapply to the company as
individuals for work at t%hirty-tlvc
cents q ton for the mining Of cn;;l.
which would have yielded about Ten
dollars a month in wagcs-the Lowest
wages eve offered to miners in this
country. LII a manifestily impossi-
bic for men to work for such wages,
and the Company very We'll knew that
the offer would not be accepted. 1t
was made to brighten the men by a
ghost of nor starvation. Yet the
company declared that it was all it
could afford to ply, Notwithstanding
that mines all about were paving
more than double those wages.
By and by, the offer was raised to
seventy-two and a half cents a ton,
although that offer convicted the
company of deliberately lying when
it made the first offer. Under the
second offer, the men yer to apply
for work as individuals, were to cut
all connections with their union in
dealing With the company, and on
entering the mines for work We're to
sign what the company called Il Stree
contract" This contract was drawn
up by the company with the help of
shrewd lawyers. 1t bound theminers
to many things but the company to
nothing. except to pay wages that net
the miner about twenty dollars a
month.
The men fell over each other to
sign this contract. 1t covers two
pages of fOOlscap paper printed in fine
type. Many of the foreign miners
could not read it, and few Of all who
signed it could understand it if they
did read it and they all knew that if
they did not like it they could not
get it changed. and any hesitation on
their part to Sign it would only result
in putting them on the black list,
thus throwing them out of work in
all the mines in the country. When
the men went to sign the contract
and go TO work, all the leaders in the
union, and all who had busted them
selves on the relief committee that
distributed food to the starving peo-
pie, were told that there was no
place for them, and they had to leave
Spring Valley or die in the streets.
The men at work in the Spring
Valley mines now are actual slaves.
working for less than is required on
which to live, and as completely under
the lash OF their bosses as ever were
the Southern slaves. This is not a
figure of speech. 1t is literally true.
Some of the men offered to work for
the company if the company would
give them food and clothes, and send
their children to school, but the COM
pany refused, for the reason that they
now get them to work for less than
subsistence, the miners wives and
children helping them to exc ont a
living.
have given you the bare bones Of
the story, which could be paralleled
by many another that might be writ
ten of other mines, a story so merci-
less, so inhuman, so infamous. that
many of you will find it hard to be-
lieve, and yet Mr.. Lloyd has COM
pletely proved its truth in every par.
ticular.
Now, the interesting question
arises: Who is to blame for this case
OF wholesale starvation in a land OF
plenty? Certainly not tho miners
themselves. The priest, the minister,
and the newspapers Of Spring Valley,
witnesses, who for motives of self.
interest, would be inclined toward the
company, all agree that the men were
unjustly treated. Father Hunting,
ton, who went to the place and in.
v~estigated for himself, concurs in
their testimony. The superinten-
dent of the mines, who was a part
owner OF them, resigned his position,
sold out his stock. and, with horror
at the brutality Of his superiors in
the company, abandoned the place.
When the soldiers We're ordered to
Spring Valley to be ready to shoot
the miners when the company
wanted them shot, they saw the true
state of affairs and went away. send
ing back provisions for the starving
people when they reached their
homes. We thus have the best of
witnesses to the worthiness Of the
miners as a sober and industrious
and peaceful set Of persons. The
miners were not to blame.
Who was to blame? l will tell you:
The social system is to blame.
All the laws on our statute
own the coal mines. Everything
that was done was done according to
law. The Governor of Illinois, when
| appealed to, sided with the company.
Our legislatures are owned by rail
roads and contemporaries. Our whole
social system is so constructed that
men may do what was done at Spring
Valley, and for what they do be all
the more respected. And when I say
the social system is to blame. 7 also
mean that everyone who upholds that
system is to blame. Every business
man, lawyer, doctor, workingman,
preacher, or other, who does not
raise his voice against the infamous
arrangement by which laboring peo-
pie can be legally sent into mines in
a state of slavery, is to blame for the
starvation at Spring Valley. You
may decide for yourselves whether
this arrangement includes you OF
not.
But it will not do to place the
whole blame on so mythical a thing
as a social system. The stockholders
and officers of the Chicagoand North
western Railroad, the Spring Valley
Mining Company, and the Town Site
Company are directly to blame.
They deliberately used their $500, OOO,.
600, with its incalculable power, tc
rob five thousand industrious per.
sons by starvation. The whole thing
was carefully planned and brutally
carried out, and these stockholders
and officers reaped in dollars and
cents their price OF blood, more hate,
full because obtained by darker vii.
lianly than that which Judas earned
,~l PfAry- ,l- l,l 49, IL