Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1924-10-03
DAD HUNTER TO
BE HONORED AT
STREATOR SUNDAY
By ]. IL. wALkER
Springfield, ILL.,,
Sen, ~ 1924,

Springfield, ILL.,,
Sept. %, 1924.
On Sunday. October 3, 1924, in
Streator, Illinois. there will be dedi-
Gated monument to John NJ. tDadl
Hunter. former president of District
l2, Illinois United Mine Workers of
America.
Dad Hunter has rendered a grea,
service to the miners and their fam
lilies in the state of Illinois, and in
directly, TO the trade union movement
and all men who worked for living
and for their dependents, in our
country.
He took the helm at the turning
point in the miners strike In 1897,
just after the exposure of the be-
traya of the miners union of Illinois
by its then President, James Carson.
The miners were struggling under
trying circumstances and against
great odds, and this blow ltheir be-
trayal seemed to destroy the last
chance they had of winning. How
ever, Dad took the position with just
the same spirit as he would have
taken il, had there been no chance for
them to lose. and he carried on in
that spirit, until the strike was
brought to a successful close.
The first time | met him, was at q
mass meeting, called on the road next
to Monkeys Corners, close to Braid
wood. Some of the miners had broken
away in the northern coal field and
Dad came there 10 persuade them to
come back out and to encourage those
..ta. aaat II Ant n
| will never forget that day. The
rain poured down, it seemed to me,
harder than it ever did, prior to that
time, or since. He stood on a prop
wagon in the middle of the road. The
prop wagon had been hauled by hand,
by some of the strikers, from a
Broadwood coal mine. He talked for
nearly two hours. Before the meeting
was over, the water was running out
of the shoes and boots of thoes who
had them on. As a result of that
meeting, the men who had gone back
to work, came out again and the
strikers in the Wilmington coal field
STAYED out from then on, until the
strike was settled.
The next time Isaw him, he was in
the chair at the convention In the year
| 1898 at Springfield, which ratified
the first agreement made on state
wide basis by the present Miners
Organization. and which is the basis
of the present agreement.
| saw him several times afterwards
in national conventions and otherwise
heard of his activities in Carter
vile at the Sam T. Brush Mines, at
the Virden battle, which was another
turning point. Then, some two years
later, Dad, broken in health, decided
not to be a candidate for reelection.
Many times since then, have seen
and talked to him, and he always ex-
hibited the same concern for the well
fare of the common people. Particu-
larry for the trade unionists, that he
did, in the meeting at Monkeys
Corners.
The last time | saw him he was
coming home from the mine on a cold
winter afternoon, with three dull
picks under his arm, as was the won't
of the old time long wall coal min
ers--wet and muddy, tired and worn,
haggard drawn look on his white
pallid face, and his body shrunken by
age.
When | saw him then, feeling of
shame came over me, to think that a
man who had rendered such great
service at time of such extreme
need and under such trying and diff
cult and dangerous circumstances,
should get for it, such reward.
There will be many of the old time
coal miners of Illinois go to Streator
on that day, out of the feeling in
their hearts of deep appreciation and
love for dad" Hunter.
Received the following telegram
from r. G. Soderstrom of Streator,
Illinois: Monument unwilling parade
will form one-thirty p. m. Sunday,
October 5th, in Streator City park.
Dad Hunter was eighty years old and
died of old age He had fifteen chill
dren. Left no estate. He was
grand old man, minor, soldier, labor
leader, city official. Everybody was
very fond af him.