The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-12-05

he has spent his whole life with the
exception of few years In the coal re-
gions. His parish is composed of 700
families and ninety per cent of the
men are mine workers. He Is frequent
ly at the homes OF miners and knows
their conditions and mode Of living.
The Fourth legislative district. OF
which Hazelton is part. contains 5000
total abstainers. one half of them adult
men. Every member of his congrega-
tion took the total abstinence pledge the
first Sunday OF the strike Drinking
was at his minimum among his people
during the strike, and he only saw five
drunken men I'm Hazelton during the
five months the strike was on.
Conditions among the miners of the
Hazelton region. he said, were truly de-
plorable. They are barely able to exist.
He had been in other places where he
saw conditions, which. ne thought.
were deplorable, but no place he had
ever been could compare with Hazelton
in this respect.
Can't Be Called Homes.
The homes can not properly be called
homes. They are habtations. The
miners, he said. are frugal, conserva-
tive men, reasonable in their demands
and that they are u God-fearing peo-
pie is attested by the fact that in the
city of Hazelton there are eight Ro-
man Catholic churches, to say nothing
of the churches Of other faiths, all or
them are crowded every Sunday.
He has found that in sickness the
miner Is scarcely able to pay for at
tendance and medicine and IL death
means a long standing debt. one fru-
gal German miner told the witness that
he was six years paying off debt Of
5000 contracted for a funeral
The witness told incidentally, that G.
b. Markle e. Co. maintain burial fund
for their employees. He commended the
company for this very humane action.
Because of the poor wages received
by the head Of the household 1t is I'M
possible to keep the families together
Girls leave home as soon as they are
able to work, some Of them going to
other places to live as servants, and
many of them going into the silk mills
and other like industries. The boys go
into the breaker as soon as they are able
to toddle out of the house. The average
age at which miners children leave
school, the witness said, Is little over
eleven years.
During the last strike there was great
privation among the miners, but he
knew of not a single instance where
striker wanted to return to work until
the union decreed he should return Out
of fifty or sixty men OF whom he made
inquiries, he found only three who had
money saved. One made it in Scot
land. another made it in Australia, and
the third inherited it,
He examined the list of taXables in
the city of Hazleton and found that
out of 1.723 persons on the list there
We're only eighty miners assessed as
owners of homes. Seventy per cent. OF
the population OF Hazleton, he said, is
made up of miners and their depend
entS.
There was no considerable feeling or
excitement in HaZleton during the
strike, the witness asserted. 1t was, on
the contrary. remarkably quiet. He had
protested as a citizen, in a letter to the
public. against the stories sent out re-
garding disorder in his city. The news
paper reports We're grossuy eXagger-
ated. One morning he read an account
Of man being attacked by strikers on
the streets of Hazleton. Alongside of 1t
was story to the effect that the chief
OF police declared there We're fewer ar
rests and less drunkenness in Hazleton
during that month than in any month
of the preceding year.
Considered Conservative.
He did not know any of the mine
workers officials personally except Dis
trict President Duffy and he considered
him very conservative man.
The sending Of the military to Huzle-
ton, the witness declared, was wholly
uncalled for. Their arrival was a big
surprise to the people of the town.
There had been no call for them by the
citizens and absolutely no occasion for
their coming.
On cross examination. Mr.. Lenahan
related a series of strike disorders,
which occurred in and about Hazleton,
including the dynamitng of the home
Of non-unlon man; an attack on a
car conveying nOn-lnion men through
Hazleton, and the mobbing of the crew
of railroad train on the Coke Bros. &
Co. road at Drifton. and asked the wit
ness if he had heard of these things.
The witness had heard of some of
them through the newspapers. Some of
the reports he knew We're exaggerated.
Others he knew something about, but
was ready to believe the newspaper
reports of them were exaggerated
The witness admitted he knew that
Sheriff Jacobs, Of Lu2erne county, re-
sides in Hazleton and that it was he
who called out the troops, but denied
all knowledge OF the alleged fact that
it was after a night of tumult in and
around Hazleton, with mobs menaclng
miners and workmen at Hazle and
Foster, that the sheriff made the requl-
sition on the governor.
Commissioner Clark asked If cond-
tions changed after the troops arrived.
Father Hussie answered that the same
peace and quiet continued, and the
people ana soldiers were the best OF
friends.
In conclusion, Father Hussie en-
pressed the opinion that lack of in.
telllgence ana want Of charity on the
part of the mine bosses who have the
direction of the work of the
men, are responsible mainly for the ills
Of which the miners complain.
John Price, a check docking boss at
No. breaker of the Susquehanna Coal
,OmDany, Nunticokp testified that n,ior