The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1898-10-13
ORIGIN OF TuF RATTLE.
Governor and Company In Conflict as
to the states Duty.

Governor ana Company In Conflict as
to the states Duty.
Chicago, Oct. 13.-The difficulty at the
Virden mines originated April I, 1885,
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 2S cents Actual disturbances at
Virden began Sept. 25, when the Chi
cagO-Virden company, the principal
mine owner at that point, imported
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. 8 Sheriff Davenport neti-
fed Governor Tanner that there would
certainly be trouble, and that state
troops were needed to preserve the
peace. The governor asked If it 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 its mines
in it's 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
penltentiaries 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 1t 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
mines would be run at all hazards-that
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 II they had to do it at
the point of the bayonet and the muzzIe
of the Winchester No troops were
sent.
The next day Mr.. Loucks notified the
governor that his mines would be
operated, and demanded the protec
tion 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
a 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 ex-convlcts
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 an1
| their capacity to become good citizens.
They also said they were willing to
take back the strikers at the scale of
| 2S cents a ton, but that they could not
| open lnelr MINES az the SAoi pitiiit ue
| mand of 40 cents. The mines, 1t is
claimed, are all operated in accord
ance with the state law.
Sheriff Davenport has been in SYM
pathy with the governor, and says he
does not want to enforce laws that will
bring negro labor into the state, and
offered to resign rather than undertake
the task.
one hundred Springfield miners re-
inforced the Virden strikers Oct. 10
armed and determined to prevent th'
negroes from going to work. Armed
msn hsys EipQN bAen practically In Dos