Bloody Williamson (41 page)

W
HEN
the Herrin Massacre took place, Oldham Paisley, editor of the
Marion Republican
, began pasting his own stories of the tragedy, as well as those which came to him in exchanges, in a scrapbook. He continued the process until the last Birger gangster was sent to the penitentiary in 1930. By that time he had filled thirteen books, and had preserved an incomparable record of most of the events with which this study deals.

Today, these scrapbooks, kept in the Marion Public Library, are the only local contemporary record of what happened in Williamson County between 1922 and 1930. Except for the chapters on the Bloody Vendetta and the Brush and Leiter mining ventures (v, vi, and vii), they have been my primary reliance and may be taken as my authority where no specific sources are indicated.

I write under circumstances that compel me to have practically every source I intend to use microfilmed or photostatted. Thus, in addition to a microfilm copy of the Paisley scrapbooks, as well as a complete set of projection prints, I acquired a microfilm copy of the
Illinois Miner
from November 25, 1922 to December 28, 1929 (the only extant file is in the Department of Labor Library), a microfilm copy of the stenographic transcript of the proceedings of the Herrin Investigating Committee, hundreds of photostats of magazine articles and newspapers not represented in the Paisley scrapbooks, a large number of clippings, and many pamphlets and books relating to my subject. These have all been placed in the library of the Chicago Historical Society, where anyone who wishes to check my sources, or examine the great surplus of original material that I could not use may consult them.

There is no satisfactory account of the Herrin Massacre. The longest narratives within books are to be found in Oscar Ameringer’s
If You
Don’t Weaken
(New York: Holt; 1940), McAlister Coleman’s
Men and Coal
(New York: Farrar & Rinehart; 1943), and Saul D. Alinsky’s
John L. Lewis, An Unauthorized Biography
(New York: Putnam; 1949). All are superficial, incomplete, and biased. The one full-length account—
The Herrin Massacre
, by Cortland Parker (Chicago: Parker Publishing Company; 1923)—is accurate factually, but incomplete and repellingly hortatory. Besides, copies are almost impossible to find.

My account, in this chapter, is based almost entirely upon the sworn testimony of witnesses at the two trials and the legislative investigation. For the trials, I have followed the day-to-day reports in the
Marion Republican;
the testimony before the House Investigating Committee comes from the stenographic transcript of the committee’s hearings, now to be found in the Archives Division of the Illinois State Library, Springfield. Formal testimony has been supplemented by the accounts that survivors—notably Bernard Jones and Edward Rose—gave to Thoreau Cronyn of the
New York Herald
and George E. Lyndon, Jr., of the
Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
Quotations used here are from the
Herald
of July 12 and July 13, 1922; and from the
Daily Eagle
of August 15 and August 19, 1922.

Donald M. Ewing, who appears in this chapter as Don Ewing, is now associate editor of the
Shreveport Times
, Shreveport, Louisiana. In correspondence during the summer and fall of 1951 he confirmed my account of his experiences during the Massacre and added vivid details.

This chapter opens with a characterization of William J. Lester, and an interpretation of his motives in deciding to defy the striking miners, that differs considerably from all previous accounts. As far as I know, no earlier writer on this subject has even attempted to find out what kind of man Lester really was. For my information I am indebted to Mr. R. H. Sherwood of Indianapolis, who knew him intimately for twenty years, and Mr. Arthur S. Lytton of Chicago, former member of the firm of Bull, Lytton and Olson, his Chicago lawyers.

My account of the somewhat devious course followed by local mine-union officials immediately before the Massacre is based on this passage from an address that Follett W. Bull, of Lester’s law firm, made before the Association of Life Insurance Counsel on May 24,
1923 (published as a pamphlet with the title, “The Herrin Massacre”):

This accords with the recollection of Arthur S. Lytton. A. B. McLaren, of Marion, recalls that Lester intimated to him that he had the local union officials “fixed.” McLaren warned him that neither he nor anyone could “fix” the rank and file, and that the rank and file would cause serious trouble.

The report of the United States Coal Commission, from which I quote, is to be found in the National Archives, Washington. Stories of the arrogance of Lester’s guards rest on testimony given at the first trial. The narrative of the efforts that Hunter and his associates made to avert trouble and to effect a truce after the attack on the mine had taken place is based almost entirely upon testimony before the House Investigating Committee, principally by Hunter, Edrington, and General Black, but I have also drawn upon Hunter’s personal record of events, published in the
Marion Post
, June 24, 1922.

The first paragraph of this chapter is a composite of editorial opinion as expressed by the
St. Louis Globe-Democrat
, the
New York Evening World,
the
New York Times
, the
Los Angeles Times
, the
Baltimore Sun
, and the
Augusta Journal
within a day or two of the Massacre. The
Congressional Record
is, of course, the source for the strictures spoken in the Senate and House of Representatives. The
Chicago Tribune’s
comment on the verdict of the coroner’s jury is to be found
in the issue of June 27, 1922; that of the
St. Louis Times
in its issue of June 28, 1922. Other papers quoted in this connection are the
St. Louis Globe-Democrat
for June 27, and the
Detroit Free Press
and the
New York Herald
of the same date.

A photostat of the flyer, cited in the text, of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, a copy of the National Coal Association’s pamphlet, “The Herrin Conspiracy,” and a photostat of the folder, “Herrin Massacre,” issued by John Price Jones (my source for the Pershing quotation), are now in the Chicago Historical Society. The appeal of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce is recorded in that organization’s official publication, the
Illinois Journal of Commerce
, for September 1922. Editorial comment on the appeal is taken from the October issue of the same publication. My authority for the miners’ defense fund is Carroll Binder’s article, “Herrin—Murder Trial or Holy Cause?” in
The Nation
, October 11, 1922, as well as press dispatches.

In the remainder of this chapter I have relied principally on the
Marion Republican.
In addition: the
Illinois Miner
of September 16, 1922 on the anti-union motives of the employing class; Philip Kinsley in the
Chicago Tribune
for September 2 and August 29; and the
Literary Digest
of October 14, 1922, summarizing editorial reaction, including that of labor papers, to the report of the Williamson County grand jury.

The first pages of this chapter—to the point, in fact, where Kerr makes the opening speech for the defense—are based upon the stories of metropolitan-newspaper correspondents, principally McAlister Coleman in the
New York World
, November 14, 1922, and the
Illinois Miner
, January 27, 1923; Philip Kinsley in the
Chicago Tribune
, November 19, 1922; Landon Laird in the
Kansas City Star
(quoted at length in the
Literary Digest
, February 10, 1923); and staff correspondent in the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, November 26 and December 3, 1922. Philip Kinsley’s dispatches—colorful, comprehensive, balanced—seem to me to be models of reporting. The same could be said of McAlister Coleman’s were it not for their strong prolabor bias.

The reports of the
Marion Republican
are my source for both trials, and provided considerable material for the account of the legislative investigation. That part of the chapter, however, is drawn
in the main from the stenographic transcript of the hearings before the Herrin Investigating Committee, to which I have already referred. Both majority and minority reports were printed in the
Journal of the House of Representatives of the 53rd General Assembly
(Springfield, Ill.: 1923).

Editorial commentary on the verdict of the first trial is taken from a comprehensive summary in the
Literary Digest
for February 3, 1923. The quotations used are from the
Baltimore American
, the
Newark
(N.J.)
News
, the
New York Daily News
, the
Chicago Journal of Commerce
, the
Rockford Star
, the
New York Call
, the
Pennsylvania Labor Herald
, and the
Herrin News.

The most complete account of the Bloody Vendetta is to be found in the incomparable book of Milo Erwin, originally published in 1876 as
The History of Williamson County, Illinois
, but reprinted in 1914 and again in 1927 with the cover title,
The Bloody Vendetta
, by which it is generally known. Erwin’s narrative is verbose, tortuous, and clothed in purple prose the like of which one seldom encounters, but the man had firsthand knowledge of the feud and a high regard for accuracy. The shorter treatment by George W. Young, “The Williamson County Vendetta,” in
Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society for 1914
, is also useful.

Newspapers of the time devoted many columns to the Bloody Vendetta. Long summary accounts appeared in the
Illinois State Journal
(Springfield), February 9, 1875, which reprinted an article from the
St. Louis Democrat
which I have been unable to locate, and in the
Chicago Weekly Tribune
, August 18, 1875. My account of the effort to obtain state aid for Williamson County is based on the reports that appeared in various issues of the
Chicago Tribune
during January, February, and March, 1875. Editorial condemnation of Governor Beveridge is drawn from a “round-up” article that the
Chicago Tribune
published August 10, 1875. A file of the
Marion Monitor
for 1874 and 1875, now in the Marion Public Library, contains much useful information.

No history of mining in Illinois even approaches adequacy. The best is S. O. Andros,
Coal Mining in Illinois
(Urbana: Bulletin No. 13,
Illinois Coal Mining Investigations; 1915), but even my brief account of the development of the Williamson County field and the beginnings of Brush’s operation had to be chiseled from the Illinois official publication,
Statistics of Coal in Illinois: A Supplemental Report of the State Bureau of Labor Statistics
, issued annually during the 1890’s. There is good local material in the
History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson Counties, Illinois
(Chicago: 1887), and in the
Historical Souvenir of Williamson County Illinois
(Effingham, Ill.: 1905).

Existing accounts of the unionization of the Illinois coalfield are unsatisfactory. McAlister Coleman deals with the subject in
Men and Coal
, but I have relied principally upon
Statistics of Coal in Illinois
, Karl Myron Scott’s unpublished doctoral dissertation, “The Coal Industry and the Coal Miners’ Unions in the United States Since the World War” (University of Illinois; 1931), Chris Evans,
History of United Mine Workers of America
(n.p., n.d.), and the testimony of John Mitchell and other U.M.W.A. officials before the Industrial Commission, published in Vol. XII of the Commission’s Reports,
Report of the Industrial Commission on the Relations and Conditions of Capital and Labor Employed in the Mining Industry
(Washington, D.C.: 1901).

Brush’s first difficulties with the union are described in summary articles in the
Marion Leader
, October 5, 1899, which reprinted a recent
Chicago Inter-Ocean
story that I have not seen in its original form, and in the
St. Louis Globe-Democrat
of December 9, 1899. Good accounts of the Virden and Pana riots, which tie into Brush’s fight with the union, are included in the fourth and fifth
Annual Reports, State Board of Arbitration of Illinois
, and in John Winfield Scott’s unpublished doctoral dissertation, “The Policing of Non-urban Industry” (University of Chicago; 1929). The
Marion Leader
for the period, now in the Marion Public Library, provides the local day-to-day record.

My story of the Lauder riot is taken from the
Chicago Tribune
, July 1 and 2, 1899, and from the
Marion Leader
, July 6, 1899. The account of the Carterville riot is drawn from contemporary news-dispatches in the
Chicago Tribune
and
Marion Leader
, and from testimony offered at the trial of the rioters. Both trials were reported in great detail by the
St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
The stories appeared in that paper almost daily from early December 1899 to January 8, 1900, and again from mid-February to early March, 1900.