Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1898-10-15
oRIG1N or TnE pArrLE.
Governor and Company In Conflict rs
to the states Duty.


Governor and Company In Conflict as
to the states Duty.
Chicago, Oct. 1S.-The difficulty at the
Virden mines originated April l. 1898,
when the miners of the fourth district
of Illinois went out on strike insti-
tuted by the United Mine Workers.
Troubles followed at once at Pana, but
the Virden mines remained quiet
through the summer. The strikers had
asked for 40 cents a ton, and were Of
fered IS cents. Actual disturbances at
Virden began Sept. rs. when the Chi
cago-Virden company the principal
mine owner at that point, imported a
hundred negroes from Birmingham,
Ala.
When the train arrived with them on
board it was met by a large body of
armed union men, who threatened to
shoot the first negro that stepped from
the cars. The negroes were finally pre-
vailed upon to return to the south, and
the mines were not operated.
President T. c. Loucks, of the Chi
cago-Virden company, then proceeded
to make preparations to get other
miners. Oct. Sheriff Davenport notf
fled Governor Tanner that there would
certainly be trouble, and that state
troops were needed to preserve the
peace. The governor asked If 1t was
the purpose of the coal company, in the
event of troops being sent, to import
miners from other states to take the
places of the strikers. Superintendent
-Lukens, who was with the sheriff at
the time the request was made by tele-
phone for the militia, said that the
company proposed to operate it's mines
in its own way, and that they ex-
pected to import labor, both white and
colored, from the southern states.
The governor told him that the best
class of miners got employment at
home and only the criminal class would
come, men who would soon quit work
and get into the poorhouses jails and
penitentiaries and become a burden
on the taxpayers of the state-that he
was opposed to the system-that while
there was no law to keep them out of
Illinois, he did not feel it to be his
duty as governor to use the arm of the
state to give protection to mine owners
in operating their mines with this class
Of employees Lukens. according to
Governor Tanner, replied that the
|. the company would employ such labor
as they saw fit-that they would i'm
port this labor, and operate the mines
with it. even if they had to do it at
the point of the bayonet and the muzzfe
of the Winchester No troops were
sent. '4
The next day Mr.. Loucks notified the
governor that his mines would be
ND lam nd
ton of the state. The matter had been
brought, before the state board of ar
bitration, and that board decided in
favor of the miners, but also held that
an injustice had been done the Chicago
Virden company.
From this point the trouble has been
dispute between Governor Tanner
and the mine operators, carried on by
telegraph and other communications.
The governor steadily refused to call
out the state troops, and charged the
operators with importing ex7convicts
and an undesirable class of workmen.
The operators declared that the men
they desired to bring to their mines
had been chosen for their ability and
their capacity to become good citizens.
Manager Lukens said last night:
THE blood of every man shed at Vir-
den is on the governors head. Most
of the strikers were ignorant enough to
believe that they had a right to do as
the governor said they had. His state
ment that the miners had the same
right to fight for his property, which
was his labor, as the mine owner did
to protect his property. inspired these
men to the action which they took in
firing on the train"