Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1898-04-22

Tho Origin Of the Molly Maguires'-
Strikes Were Responsible for the
bringing in Of Miners from Austria
Hungary and Italy.
The current number Of The Century
has group of papers on the coal re-
gions of Pennsylvania. Mr.. Henry Ed
ward Rood. writing OF "A Polyglot
Community says:
When anthracite came into general
Use, the original miners quickly cstab-
l:shed themselves in their adopted
homes, and ceased to speak regretfully
of childhood associations in Wales or
in England. They had an abundance
of work here, and wages that would
seem fortune in the old country. In
those days Pennsylvania miner deem
ed it an unlucky month if he and his
two brawny sons failed to earn 5000 or
more. They were not always paid at
regular intervals before and during the
civil war, for money was not plentiful
in this region. But they We're credited
fully on the books of the company, and
they were permitted, if not encouraged
to purchase goods at the company
store, where could be obtained food,
clothing, toys, furniture--in fact, about
all the necessaries and comforts and
luXuries the miner had learned to use.
Prices We're high. but wages CORE
sponded, and work was steady. But
after the terrible struggle between
north and south came period of de-
preston In business. Selling prices
dropped lower and lower, and wages
felt the result. But the average miner
did not understand this. He saw that
the operator of the colliery took wife
and children to Philadelphia or New
York as often as in previous years, aud
as costly as ever. He forgot that while
he had been spending his wages every
month, and often exceeding his account
at the company store, the operator and
other officials had been saving at least
portion, if not the greater portion, of
their earnings. The miners grew dis
contented, and talked the matter over.
AS the panic drew near, they had more
idle hours than ever; and their COM
plants reached the ears Of smooth
tongued rascals who "organized' them
into band ready to resist any further
oppression" as the business changes
were termed. And right at this point
let it be said that the old-time profess
sional agitatOrs referred to were wholly
different from the responsible. intelli
gent men who have performed such
good service during recent years by or
ganizing and directing trades-uniors
like those which embrace the printers
and locomotive engineers and firemen.
If the anthracite miners Of Pennsyl-
vania had been wisely led and firmly
controlled in the early seventies, the
keystone state would now be spared
many black chapters in her history.
But such happiness was not foreor-
dained. Owing in some degree to the
troublous times, and in greater de-
| gree to a group of beings more devilish
| than human, there sprang into active
| control of a portion of the common
wealth the most brutal, vindictive, ter
| rible conspiracy that ever a civilized
community had been cursed with in
| recent times-the Molly Maguires; and
! it required the genius Of Franklin 3.
| Gowen of the Reading railroad, and the
marvellous courage of James McPar-
land, a Pinkerton detective, to break it
up, and hang it's leading spirits, not
~, civ Int
within few years, came the long
strike" in the Lehigh region. when the
old hands refused to work under any
consideration. Week after week and
month after month dragged by. The
colleries remained idle; the men, wo-
men and children almost starved. For
tunes we're lost in flooded mines and in
burning breakers. And at last one of
the greatest Of the operators sent
abroad to Austria-Hungary and
brought thence to his mining-patch in
Pennsylvania the first of the for
eigners," who have long ago succeed
ed, by their very presence, in driving
out all of the English-speaking min
ers who could obtain work elsewhere
and who had the means to remove their
families. 1t is an old story now, how
the first Of the Slovaks. Polacks, Jtali-
ans and Sicilians who came here were
comparatively intelligent, and learned
readily, in the course Of few years,
the work OF mining coal. And we all
know that year by year the immi-
grants Of such nationalities decreased
in the scale of civilization until those
who have come to the anthracite fields
during the first half Of the present de-
cade are as rule, much more danger
Gus to the body polite than the ex-
cluded Chinese; for not only are they
eager to work for wages on which an
Engish-speaking family would starve,
but they are superstitious and MUIR
derous, and do not hesitate to use dy-
Mantle if they desire to blow up the
home of one whom they particularly
hate. Also, unlike the average China
man, each of these foreign miners in.
sists on voting as soon as possible
Bid for Bachelors.