More On Illinois Politics

I recently interviewed Rosemary Feurer, Professor of History at Northern Illinois University. As noted on the university website, she is an expert on "labor issues and conflict within the context of U.S. capitalist development during the late nineteenth and twentieth century."

Here is Feurer's take on the downstate Illinois politics in the early 20th century:

"The political landscape in those small mining towns was so much more diverse than we can imagine in the present. They would be exposed to a variety of parties, from the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the Socialist Labor Party. The Socialist Party sent in organizers and were very successful in organizing for Socialist candidates from the early 1900’s right up through the 1930’s."

She adds: "In some of these towns, that meant that the other parties (the Democrats and Republicans) had to do things to get workers to listen to them. And one of those things I should add that was really critical was they said, 'We will make sure the sheriff doesn’t break up your picket line. We will make sure if we’re elected as the judge that you’re not going to get an injunction.' So the Democratic and the Republican parties both had to listen. And so workers made those parties respond even if the third parties didn’t win, it had a very important effect that was tangible for miners."

Please take time to read Rosemary's book, Radical Unionism In The Midwest, 1900-1950 which was published in 2006. You can read more about this book here.




Prof. Feurer is also a documentary filmmaker. Here is the link to her project on the Virden Massacre and her recent film on the life of Mother Jones. Laura Vasquez collaborated on both of these projects.

Downstate Illinois Politics In The 1930's

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview Victor Hicken in 2004. Hicken is Professor Emeritus of History at Western Illinois University. (He's also the author of a great history book entitled, Illinois in the Civil War.)



Before his academic career, Prof. Hicken worked in the mines, an occupation that extended back generations in his family. Like many miners living in Gillespie, Illinois in the early 1930's, Hicken's father split from the United Mine Workers and joined the Progressive Miners of America.

Here is an excerpt from an article by Dr. Hicken on the range of political parties that were active in downstate Illinois.

"In the election of 1920, for instance, there was no Communist Party listed on Illinois ballots, but the Socialist and Socialist-Labor candidates won 1,291 votes in that county. Compared to a non-coal county such as Adams, the difference was remarkable. Larger in population than Macoupin, Adams County gave 404 votes to both of the radical candidates.

Four years later, in 1924, with the Progressive party, Socialist-Labor party, and Workers' Party (Communist) candidates on the ballots, Macoupin County tallied 6,959 votes for the first, thirty-two for the second, and seventy-seven for the last. Once again, this far exceeded the Adams county votes for the candidates of those three parties.

The Communist vote in Macoupin went up by far in 1928, but in 1932 the results were more interesting. Norman Thomas received 1,567 votes, the Socialist-Labor candidate won fifty-one votes, and the Communist candidate received 134 votes. The Lemke-O'Brien Union Party ticket was to affect the 1936 election, drawing 950 votes in Macoupin county, but a study of the Socialist party vote in that election is revealing. There was no Communist candidate, and one may assume that votes ordinarily going in that direction would be cast for the venerable Norman Thomas. Thomas did well in three areas in Macoupin: in Benld, in Gillespie, where he received his largest support, and in one of the Dorchester precincts. Dorchester itself is a little farming village, but it does have one precinct which covers the Wilsonville area, where Superior Mine No. 4 is located. There Thomas got forty votes which, by calculation, amounts to almost three times the number which the candidate received in five precincts of Carlinville, the county seat."

This certainly offers evidence of the broad range of political ideas debated among voters in those days. And a far cry from the narrow options we're offered by the dominant political parties today.

Weapons From The Mine War

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of weapons were seized by the state militia during the mine war. Many of these weapons were donated to the Illinois State Museum.



At last contact, the museum hadn't yet cataloged their holdings but here's an example.

Peabody Denied Strikebreakers Were Used

The use of strikebreakers by Peabody was a contentious issue.

Here's a statement by W.C. Argust, division superintendent of the Peabody Coal Company, reported in the Illinois State Journal, October 11, 1932:

"I read an article in one of the Springfield papers Sunday quoting Jerry Allard, one of the Progressive Mine leaders, as saying that the Peabody Coal company is importing strike breakers here in an attempt to break the strike. That is just another of the infamous lies that is being told the miners to keep their movement alive...

In the reopening of our No. 9 mine at Langleyville we did so only after a sufficient number of men had voluntarily called at the Peabody Coal company office and requested that we reopen the mine that they might be enabled to return to their work."

As it turns out, strikebreakers were being used, apparently recruited in part by the United Mine Workers.

The Mine War Divided Families Too

In an article from last Sunday's StateJournal-Register, Dave Bakke discusses a poem written about Tovey, Illinois and its road commissioner, Joe Lisse.

Before he became road commissioner, Joe was a miner. And like almost every downstate miner, Joe and his brother, Duke were drawn into in the mine war. But in their case,they supported opposite sides. Joe "went Progressive" while Duke remained with the United Mine Workers. While they remained amicable, such splits could disrupt families for years to come.

You may read the article by clicking here.

"We've Got A War A Goin'!"

After the Progressives struck the Peabody mines in the Taylorville area, the United Mine Workers recruited workers from southern Illinois to break the strike.

Pauline Lindsey's father was member of the United Mine Workers who was recruited from Carterville, Illinois, about 150 miles south of Taylorville.



"These men that came up - they didn’t have any money. That’s the problem. And they came to get jobs. Because Carterville-owned mines out there had quit. It was done. So they had no jobs and they had no money."

In a recent interview, Pauline described what it was like to live under martial law in Taylorville.

"You didn’t know whether to speak to somebody or not and then the soldiers came in – we lived right across from that building – big old building up there. They were on the roof.

And of course, I wanted to go up town and I started up town. And the man hollered down with his gun. And he said, 'Go home woman!' And he said it again the next day. He said, 'We’ve got a war goin’!' So I didn’t go out any more."

"The Shaft" by C.D. Stelzer

The Illinois Times published this article on the mine war by C.D. Stelzer on June 21, 2007:

"Bill Warner never knew how close he came to dying. After clocking out at the Mount Olive, Ill., waterworks around midnight, he decided to walk home by way of the Union Miners Cemetery. Entering the graveyard, he ambled past the tombstones, pausing to gaze from afar at the silhouette of a shrouded monument. He then strode to within a couple of feet of the cloaked obelisk and again stopped in his tracks.

Warner had no idea that every move he made was being watched by eight men, each aiming a shotgun in his direction, finger on the trigger. Nor would the former coal miner ever learn that his near-death experience would become part of the region’s storied labor history..." full article

Boyhood Recollections of Frank Maras, Part 1

Frank Maras is a retired coal miner who was raised on a farm just outside of Bulpit, Illinois. Bulpit is near Taylorville, Illinois which was the site of major mining operations for the Peabody Coal Company. Angered by the recent contract vote which was believed to have been subverted by union officials, dissident miners struck the Peabody mines in the Taylorville area.



In an interview on November 6, Frank shared his vivid boyhood memories of the mine war. Frank’s father came out on strike against Peabody Coal Company at the outset of the conflict:

During the mine war itself, (we called it a war which it actually was) there was, I’m going to estimate at least nineteen – twenty people killed in the Kincaid area. In fact, one of them, one of them was killed within a block of our home on the farm. And being a kid like I was, I knew nothing about it until the next morning after it happened. It only happened about a block away from us.

And I looked. I was a little small and our kitchen was in the basement. I had to stand on a chair to look out the window and I saw a bunch of cars on the main street of Bulpit. Which is unusual because most of the cars in Bulpit was on blocks.

Bulpit was ninety-eight per cent Progressive. There was two or three coal miners that went back to work. They were in them days - they were called “scabs”.

But anyhow I asked my mom, I says, “Well what’s all the cars doing in Bulpit?”

She says, ”Well they had a shooting last night.” She said, “In fact, one of the balls just missed your dad. He stuck his head out of the window and the bullet went just by him and he didn’t look no more”.

Three Cheers for the Christian County Coal Mine Museum

Over the past several months, I’ve had the opportunity to work with Will Stone, the head of the Christian County Coal Mine Museum.

Will is a retired miner who’s committed to preserving the history and lore of mining in the region. He has been very helpful in identifying folks in the Taylorville area who have memories to share.

Here’s a short video produced by WILL-TV on the museum:

The museum is located at 115 N. Washington in Taylorville, IL - (217) 823 - 1819.