The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-02-28
NO BEER, NO WORK
is new MOTTO OF
KANSAS MINERS
Their Program To Be Checked
Up to Governor Soon.
Foreigners Will Quit Work Be-
fore They Quit Drink.
WALk0UT THRU0UT DISTRICT
Operators Fear That Bone Dry
Law Will Paralyze Mines.
Monster Mass Meeting Held in
FrOntenac Sunday.
IWALKOUT THRUOUT DISTRICT
Operators Fear That Bone Dry
Law Will ParaIyze Mines.

Kansas miners are coming to To-
peka with blood in their eyes, accord
ing to reports current today in the
state house. They want their beer.
No beer, no work. That is the pro-
gram which is to be checked up to
Governor Capper in the next few days.
Down in the southeastern Kansas
mining district the bone dry bill has
occasioned all manner of concern.
Nearly every mining camp is inhab-
tied principally by foreigners or men
men have made beer a part of their
daily diet. Now a Kansas IegiSla-
ture comes to Topeka and passes a
law which threatens to send a man to
Jail for keeping a case or key of beer
in his home.
The miners in the Pittsburg district
have laid down their def. If the state
proposes to enforce the bone dry bill,
the men will lay down their picks
and shovels and quit work. 1t simply
means strike thruout the big mining
district and several thousand men
threaten TO go out. That the matter
may be clearly understood. however,
the miners propose to send a dele
CATION to Topeka this week to talk the
question over with Governor Capper
and ). M. Brewster, attorney general.
A monster mass meeting has been
called for next Sunday. The meeting
will be held in the little town of From
tenac. Men who know something of
the Frontenac mass meetings know
that Sundays gathering will be some
| thing worth while. They know that
some things will be said about the
bone dry law. the Kansas legislature
and the law enforcement officials that
will sound out of place in the public
prints.
Looks Like WaIKout.
'.It looks for all the world like a
walkout tf:rSout the entire district
said one man who is in touch with
conditions in the Pittsbure camp. 81
know the temperament of those men
and I know just how they feel about
, this matter. L wouldn't try to take
a case of beer out of the homes of one
of those men for ten thousand dollars
1t woulo he as much as mans life is
worth to try it. Nearly all of those
men have grown to manhood with
beer where they could drink it when
ever and however they desired. They
are the men who feel most keenly that
a mans home is his castle. And I am
not the man who would try to argue
the merits of this law with one OF
those men,.
Thousands of miners are employed
in the ttsburg-Co1umbus district
which comprises the big mines OF
Cherokee and Crawford counties. II
is claimed that more than 90 per cent
of the men employed in these mines
are foreigners. In the clean up days
under the prohibitory liquor law. the
mining camps of Cherokee and Craw-
ford counties were referred to as the
bad lands" Now the inhabitants OF
the so called bad lands have de-
clared their independence. No legis-
lature can tell them they cannot keep
beer in their homes for their own use
And they seem to mean it.
They Want to Know.
"A report which 1 received today
said one Crawford county man who
visited the state house today, was
to the effect that the miners would
doubtless send a delegation to Topeka
statement of facts and some assurance
as to the states program before they
enter the Frontenac meeting"
If the men are assured that the
state will arrest men with liquor in
their homes for their own use, it is
believed by mine operators and mer
in touch with conditions in the dis
trict, that a strike will be declared
That is not ALL Mine operators ir
the district have been unable to en-
ploy American labor to dig the coal
So with beer or no beer an issue and
a basis on which work will be done
the state may either be compelled to
sidestep enforcement of the strict let
ter and spirit of the law, or the mine
operators must make the most of the
SifuatiOD