The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1910-09-12
ONLY BERRIES
M0UTHs0F BlD|E5
AND MOTHERS
Families o fStricken Nine WoEke11
Driven From Their Homes Whoa
Strike Il Declared, Live n
Tents On Hillsides.
Husbands, Fathers and Sons n
Desperate Stand Against Slave
Wages In Erwin.
NEW ALEXANDRA. Pa. Sept. ~.

NEW ALEXANDRA, Pa, Sept IL
Three hundred puny babies. thinl&
clad and underfed by half-etarvo0
mothers who have nothing to gives
live beneath canvas roofs and withtn
canvas walls these chilly days and
shivery nights in the Erwin coal
regions of western Pennsylvania.
A thousand other little childrens
barefoot and almost barebacke0s
live" on bread and water, In that
starvation camp among the foothills
OF the Alleghenies.
Five thousand women suffer grief
and hunger among their starving lit
tie ones but bravely encourage the.
despairing men-10. 900 fathers, huGr'
bands and sons-who refused last
March to be slaves in the mines Of
the Erwin district operators any long
er and who are desperately stickinQ
to the resolve made them.
For weeks these men and women
and children, driven from the COM
pany houses that were their homes,
to tents on the unused hillsides, have
lived on berries principally. The:
chill nights of September have
brought refreshing IL not overnour-
fishing change. They now have mush-
rooms with berries. And when the
union committee distributes the PEN
MES of its relief fund. they have =
little of bread, too, although most OF
1t Is saved for the children, who dip
II in water-bread and water, the
dungeons bill OF fare.
In New Alexandra, in Latrobe and
In Greensburg, the county seat, I
found desolation, hunger, sickness,
stagnated business and misery. Every
where are empty company houses
with doors and windows boarded up,
eloquently telling OF the homeless con-
dition of their former occupants, who
are now living in tents. Some very
few of the houses are occupied by
strikebreakers, but many more arc
empty. On every empty house In q
mo trespass" sign. Tiny truck gar
| dens with vegetables rotting on the
ground tell the pitiable story of the
| suddenness with which the striking
miners were evicted by the operators
two months ago.
The strike? The Times has already
told about that. The men claimed
and apparently have proved that they
ard their families could not live on
waht they were being paid last win
ter, SO they struck. Deputy sheriffs
and detectives were imported to club
them into submission. There was
bloodshed and terror. Men were ar
rested and even shot for refusing to
enter the mines. But tn strik Ia six
months old, and the men as deter
mined as ever.
II has been a hard struggle. When
the tightest pinch came some of the
men went back to their old homes to
gather the potatoes, sweet corn and
vegetables that they themselves had
planted and cultivated. They were
arrested for "trespassing."
During the summer the union has
been able to give little relief-a pit
lance, however. The men were al
lowed Is cents a day, women seven
and children two. How far does 81
cents a day (for man, wife and i've
children) go In your house, Mr.. Citi-
zen?
Now the chilly night of the fall up
here In the foothills are upon them.
It's cold, often at night, bitterly 90.
To heat the tents 10 practically i'm
possible, even IL the coal barons would
sell the coal to the miners, and II
they had the money to buy II with.
While II was too cold for me to 20
without my overcoat last night, I saw
| little children barefooted, clothed In
thin. tattered summer garments, fair
| ly blue with cold One little fellows
teeth chartered so badly as he told
me, II hope We can move back home
SOON" that IL was difficult to look at
the carefully-cropped lawn and pala-
| tial mansion OF one OF the big coal
operators in the near distance with
anything, resembling complaisance.
The father OF a family, himself In,
ragged garments, with tears in his
eyes. said II can't see my wife and
our babies starve and freeze. would
willingly go back into the mine to
save them, but they are not the ones
at stake.
It's the lives and comfort OF all.
II we go back now, all Is lost. For
20 years I have worked In that mine
there, and never once have I had
enough to eat and wear. II and the
rest go back now, IL will mean 20
more years OF the same slavery"
In front of a tented-home I saw a
tired, pale mother doing the family's
washing. "Oh. I don't mind II SO
much" she said. but the little ones II
what is worrying me. We can't buy
shoes or even stockings for them.
Their clothes are last years, and
they're mostly holes. II has been
hard all summer. and II is getting
worse every day. Every night the
children cry because they are cold.
though | give them all the bed cover
ing we've got. And when | think that
winter is coming ON. my God. don't
believe We can live through IT,"
But she would not listen to her
husbands going back to work In the
mines under the old conditions.
While the miners families are suf-
fering from cold, hunger and sick
ness. the coal barons refuse TO arbi-
trate Marcus Saxton. treasurer OF
one of the larger coal companies and
virtual head OF the operators com
bine. told a committee OF strikers:
There is nothing to arbitrate. Tho
coal mines are here You can start
to work tomorrow IL you wish. We
own the mines and you own your Ia
Dor. The wages we will pay 10 what
we want to give you and not what