The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-04-06
The Coke Region Strike.

In ordinary times, II, 900 mon are
employed in the coke works Of Western
Pennsylvania This spring. and dur
ing most Of the winter, 5000 Of these
were thrown completely idle. and the
5000 who were so fortunate as to OBJ
tain work were forced in the great ma
jority of instances to accept wage re-
luctions. The shutting down of fac
Iores everywhere, during the tariff un-
,ertainty developed under Democratic
Jgislation, had robbed the coke in
4-astry of its market the lack Of pros
Iective resumption had made impracH'
2al tie accumulation of surplus stocks
)f coke and there was no other alter
native open to the coke operators but
TO discharge some of their men, and put
the others on small pay. 1t was an IN
pleasant task. at best and it was made
worse by reason of the presence, in tho
coke region. OF many hundreds of
ignorant laborers brought over from
Europe. with q view to underbidding
the native American workers in the
performance of crude duties ldleness,
hunger and general discomfort. famed
as usual by men who derive profit from
industrial disturbances, completed the
causes which have just eliminated in n
widespread strike. bloody riot and
murders that parallel the darkest Incl
dents of war.
The climax was reached, as the dis
patches inform US. when body Of
several hundred strikers marched into
the Davidson works of the H. c. Frick
Coke company at Connellsville, Fay
cite county where men were working.
The strikers had been there in the
morning to get the men out but no
one was working. In the afternoon
when they returned deputies had been
placed to receive them. When the
strikers approached they were ordered
to stop. They came on and tried to
get at the men in the ovens. The depu-
ties fired The strikers returned the
fire and charged driving the deputies
and men from the plant Now note
this sequel: "Cnisf Engin er Paddock
of the Frick company ran up in the
tippls of the works. The strikers fol =
lowed and ahct him in the back Of the
head They beat him and crushed his
head with stones and threw his body
from tipple window to the ovens,
forty feet below. They then attempted
to fire the tipple. but left when they
Saw the deputies returning with a
large force from Connellsville,
Nothing that we could add in any
way of comment would equal the eff
fectiveness of this single statement.
The unadorned facts are peerlessly
eloquent. For such rioters. in the
frenzy which kiudles at sight of blood,
there is only one -tmedy-cold lead
Yet it would be idle to attempt to hold
these ignorant pIrson, responsible for
conditions Of which they are merely
the victims. The system which per-
mits tine immigration under contract
of this particular type of aliens is one
cause; and the politics which gives
honest. upright and respectable for.
eigners, as well as Americans, no ss-
curity again them, is another cause
that need attention Of the most serious
kind. Asan economic experiment cheap
labor, when it means also ignorant and
vicious labor, is failure that amounts
10 crime; and it would be we'll if
public sentiment would punish those
who force that experiment upon the
people of the United States. both at
the ballot. box, in the markets Of COM
merce. at the social functions and in
the sanctuary OF God.