The representative., 1900-09-27
MINERS HAD NO WEAPONS
RIOTING AT SHENANDOAH WAS ALL
DONE BY SHERIFFS AND
POLICE.
Not q Member of Either of These Bod
les Was Injured-IntimatiO 1t Was
q Put Up Job to Get the
Militia Out.

HAZLETON, Pa, Sept. PA little
investigation reveals that the Shenan-
doah rioting was nearly all if not all
done by the deputy sheriffs and officers
of the coal and iron police. The first
reports were that terrible struggle had
taken place. It was vividly told how
the poor officers after a desperate fight,
barely escaped with their lives.
The managers of the strike here in
Hazleton have been very earnest in
their efforts to prevent rioting. They
know, as do all others acquainted with
the situation here, that violence will
operate against the strikers. The strike
leaders accepted the news of the rioting
at Shenandoah as nothing short of a
disaster. They suggested that possibly
the strikers had little to do with the
riot.
An impartial investigation at Shenan-
doah seems to bear out the truth Of
this intimatton. Not a deputy sheriff
was injured, and the same is true Of
the members of the coal and iron police
The strikers and their friends were
shot down and their friends were in
jured, but the peace officers all escaped
unhurt. The fight was all on one side.
No officers clothing was even torn.
The officers were not pursued from the
scene of the fight to the hotel One uf
the men who was wounded, said this
afternoon that the whole trouble was
started by the coal and iron police. Sew
eral Of these officers were standing
near the Lehigh Valley railroad sta
ton when some miners came along un-
der escort. They stopped and engaged
in arguments with their friends. This
exchange Of language was boistrous, but
there was no violence
Suddenly the officers of the Coal and
Iron police rushed into the crowd and
began forcing the fighting.
At the same time someone telegraphed
to the Ferguson hotel, where the deputy
sheriffs were waiting, saying that
trouble was beginning.
They came on the run-the distance
is only few blocks-and they and the
Coal and Iron officers began firing.
It cannot be demonstrated that the
strikers fired shot. Few of them are
armed. They carry no rifles and it is a
matter of police record that few of them
have revolvers.
Business men who saw the affair from
their stores could not be made to admit
that they saw single striker fire
shot, although l tried hard to find one
disinterested witness who could corro-
borate this claim of the officers. And
yet, the business element of the town
is in sympathy with the operators The
commercial desire is to have the mines
resume operations on any basis. Some
of them say the miners fought terribly,
yet their evidence when sifted shows
the strikers did not do much beyond
getting away. There were a good many
Of them and if they fought like tigers
it would be natural for them to do some
damage. They did none
The bullet holes in the buildings are
all back Of where the strikers were, and
came from the direction where the Of
ficers were standing.
1t all looks very much like a put up
job on the part of the mining railroads
to get troops out.
1t is part of the plan of the operators
to begin trying to break the strike Mon
day by resIming work i'll the mines of
that county. This cannot be accom-
plished except by the aid of soldiers.
There is only one way to get out the
soldiers. That is by having riots. The
riots happened Just in time to bring the
soldiers out for Monday.
General Gorbin In command says that
every man who wants to work will be
protected and that the protection will
extend over the entire distric. and con-
tinue until It Is unnecessary, even
though every soldier Of the Penn
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