Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-10-15

Scranton, Oct 11.-Thousands OF
striking mine workers marched IN re-
view through the crowded streets OF
the city yesterday and showed loyalty
to the cause for which they have been
battling for the past three weeks.
They showed the confidence they have
in John Mitchell, who came here to
participate in the parade and to adj
dress the men at a mass meeting. The
national presidents welcome was ex-
ceedingly fiattering. It was the great
est labor demonstration that has even
taken place in Lackawanna valley.
Thousands of miners and families
came to the city from all towns within
a radius Of twenty miles. The city
was generally bedecked with national
colors, and most business places closed
in honor of the occasion. 1t was estl-
mated that more than 10000 persons
we're gathered around the speakers
stand. when Fred Dilcher of Ohio,
member of the executive board OF the
United Mine Workers, introduced the
national president of the mine work
ers' union.
When Mitchell in his speech told
the miners the proposition of the oper-
ators to advance wages ten per cent.
was not enough, the spontaneity OF the
cheering was surprising and almost
startling. He followed this by declar-
ing that the mine officers ought to abol-
ish the company stores and sliding
scale, and that they should pay the
men their wages semi-monthly as the
Pennsylvania laws direct. Mitchell
refuted the charges that the strike was
inaugurated in the interests OF poll
ticians and also denied that the bitumi-
nous interests had anything to do with
the present contest. He declared that
if any soft coal was shipped into the
anthracite market as a substitute it
was coming from the non-union .bitumi-
nous fields of West Virginia. He gave
the non-union men now on the strike in
the anthracite field great credit for sus-
pending work along with the union
mine workers. He said there were
only 5000 union men in the anthracite
region on the day when the strike be-
gan, but that 10000 men had obeyed
the order to strike.
.D@- Bioodshed at Mines.
Hazelton, Oct 11.-One special po-
liceman was instantly killed, another
wounded, a striker probaly fatally
shot and ten non-union men more or
less seriously wounded at the Oneida
colliery, in a clash between officers
and 500 strikers yesterday. The Onei-
da colliery having been in operation
since the Inauguration of the strike,
union men at Oneida and Sheppton
decided to close down the mine. They
gathered in groups on the streets as
early as o'clock. AS non-union men
went to work they were asked to re-
main at home. Some of them turned
back, others did not. Those who went
to the colliery we're stoned. Strikers
remained at the cOlliery all morning.
AS the small mine locomotives used in
hauling coal pulled up on the road
near the latter colliery group ofwom-
en- blocked the track. Inc WOMEN
were told by General Superintendent
Kudlick to go home. He assured them
that their husbands would get an in
crease in wages and that their other
grievances would be properly adjust
ed. The women refused to listen and
stoned the superintendent, who was
wounded in the head. Then the strik-
ing men and women rushed toward
the colliery. A force of about fifty
special policemen who had been
brought down from Beaver Meadow
to prevent trouble attempted to
intercept the mob, but they
were powerless to do anything and
returned to the engine house. Just
as the officers got close to shelter a
shot was fired. This was followed by
another and in a few seconds many
shots rang through the air. Police
man Mills was first to fall. Then
Lesko, striker, staggered to the
ground. No one knows who shot first
but it is believed that both strikers
and officers used weapons. The melee
then followed After the shooting the
strikers dispersed.