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.