My how times (and attitudes toward labor disputes and unions) have changed.
I grew up in a different era in Central and Southern Illinois mine country -
very, very union mine country.
The Time Magazine article (from 1923) below is part of the so called
"Labor's Untold Story" - both the good and the bad. (Not that the Time
Magazine article is all that accurate or unprejudiced.)
By the way my grandfather (Ed Forbes) was a Gunman for the Miners' Union in
Herrin, Illinois at that time. (And yes that was his official title "Gunman".
Later - in about 1953 when I asked some of the older miners what his real title
was they said: "Oh the 'youngan' wants us to put a fancy name on his
Grandfather's title - no - that was his real title 'Gunman'")
So to be very clear the shooting of 19 or so (it is unclear just how many
were shot) strikebreakers by the Miners in Herrin, Illinois was not a good
thing. However it is sure clear that in Herrin, Illinois it was considered a
very, very bad thing to break a Strike and to be a Scab and that just might be
a good thing even though enforcing it with violence is a bad thing. And after
two jury trials of people accused of shooting the 19 Strikebreakers (with over
50 actual eyewitnesses to the shootings) astonishingly in both trials the
juries actually voted unanimously to find those accused Not-Guilty. As it was
said: "In Herrin, Illinois it is not Illegal to shoot Strikebreaking Scabs."
And that is part of the untold history of labor conflicts in Central and
Southern Illinois and in America in general.
And Otis Clark is still a hero in Herrin, Illinois. As Otis Clark is
reported to have said: "Shoot the Scabs - one and all - wipe out the breed
once and for all".
And in 1925 at the European Hotel Cigar Store, Otis Clark and my
grandfather, Ed Forbes, were ambushed and shot and killed by the KKK and Coal
Company supported Sheriff (their were two competing Sheriffs in Herrin during
that time - the KKK and Coal Company supported Sheriff and the Coal Miner
supported Sheriff) in retaliation for their roles in the Herrin, Massacre.
And nowadays Strikebreakers just watz acorss the Strike Picket Line and
even people who are members of other unions cross Strike Picket Lines (i.e.
SCAB) and do not think that there is anything wrong with helping to break a
Strike of members of another union.
My how times have changed.
Should we organize to bring back some of the things and values of the "good
old days"?
Jim D.
-------------------------------
TIME MAGAZINE
Saturday, March 10, 1923
The Herrin Horror Retold
The second Herrin trial is on. The witnesses for the prosecution and the
defense have assembled, the jury is chosen and the judge has made his opening
statement. Again the lines of battle in the class war are sharply drawn; the
zero hour is about to strike, and once more the nation will listen to the
citizens of Herrin-farmers, strikebreakers, tradesmen, victims of the mob,
union miners-as they reconstruct the massacre in which 22 strikebreakers and
mine guards lost their lives.
It is mid-June in the mining town of Herrin, Illinois. There is a coal strike
on and all the mines are shut down. It is peaceable, good-natured, loafing
summer strike, with none of the strife and bitterness of the cold weather
conflicts in the coal industry. At the Lester strip mine all is quiet. Then one
day strangers begin to appear in the town. They come in motor trucks and by
train. They are armed and wear police badges. Others follow them, and all at
once the Lester mine commences a feverish production. For a day or two nothing
happens, and then the mine guards begin to patrol the highways. They search
passersby, they frighten women, they boast and are hardboiled, as professional
scabs and company detectives usually are.
Suddenly there is great activity at the United Mine Workers' Local. The miners
see their strike jeopardized by the scabs, and the community terrorized by the
mine guards. Fresh arrogance by the invading company detectives fans the flames
to hatred. The miners begin to arm, a group of them ambush a truck full of
guards coming from Carbondale and kill three. It is the overt act of class
warfare.
Before the sun is down the miners have organized and surrounded the Lester
strip mine. They fire hundreds of shots into the company sheds and freight
cars, where the strike breakers and guards have entrenched themselves. But the
beleaguered defenders are equipped with machine guns and three union miners are
riddled early in the action. Night falls and the besiegers creep closer-to
within forty yards of the enemy. They crouch behind a parapet of earth thrown
up by a steam-shovel and wait for daylight to finish their bloody work.
Meanwhile Colonel Sam Hunter from the Adjutant General's office in Springfield
comes to town. He gets in touch with Hugh Willis, official of the Mine Workers'
Local, and tries to arrange an honorable surrender with immunity. Willis
replies evasively, but " thinks it can be arranged." The defenders are
telephoned and told to wait for a " white flag and a union official motor car."
They wait until sunup, but neither flag or motor appear. So they raise their
own white flag, and trusting the shouts of the union miners promising them
immunity, surrender in a body-45 strikebreakers and 25 mine guards. Down the
dusty road they march, prisoners, promised immunity according to the ethics of
war.
But class war has ethics of its own, it seems. One Otis Clark harangues the
mob. He calls for the death of every scab, prisoner or not, to " stamp out the
breed " once and for all. As a gauge of battle he leads away McDowell, the
one-legged superintendent of the mine into the woods. McDowell's mutilated body
is found hours later.
The gruesome march continues through Herrin to the cemetery. At the barbed-wire
fence encircling the graves, the prisoners are lined up. Their captors withdraw
a few paces and a mob leader says, " We are going to give you a chance to run
for it." The prisoners start to run and a volley of rifle and shotgun fire from
the miners slaughters 14. The survivors flee through the woods, where they are
hunted all day and six recaptured. These six are led back to the cemetery and
shot down in cold blood. The massacre thus over and the mob's blood lust
appeased, quiet once more settles upon the sweltering town of Herrin, in late
June.
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