The Way Life Was

Earl Hutchison was a small boy during the mine war. He and his family lived in Tovey and Virden Illinois during the conflict. In his 2006 book, Growing Up On The Illinois Prairie During The Great Depression And The Coal Mine Wars: A Portrayal Of The Way Life Was, Dr. Hutchison recounts his experiences as a young boy living under the cloud of economic calamity and a violent labor war.

In this excerpt, Hutchison attempts to understand why as a six-year-old, he shot out the windows of the local mine owner as well as the perpetual violence that gripped the region:

“Perhaps part of my actions here and elsewhere stem from what I call 'resident' or 'landed' memories. The essence of a man or a woman, I believe, stems not only from their heritage and their actions but from the land they live on. The milieu they live in. If the land or the milieu has a history of turbulence and violence, that influence may be paramount: The consciousness it exerts on those living on that land, an endosymbiosis, cannot be dismissed as inconsequential.”

While Hutchison’s tome is a valuable oral history of the times, the publisher Edwin Mellen Press specializes in academic research works which will prevent this book from being affordable for many. (It's priced at $109.95) However, Hutchison and the publisher are to be commended for preserving a history that is too often ignored. And while the book may be out of personal reach, the local public or university library may very well be able to acquire a copy.

“Coal Field Hell Raiser”

The Progressive Miners of America distinguished itself in a number of ways. Perhaps the most important was the role that women played in organizing and leadership. As a community-based union, the PMA viewed its struggle as that of the community and not limited to the male members of the organization. As pointed out in an earlier post, PMA women organized themselves and became active organizers and leaders in the struggle. Sometimes they were willing to take risks that their male counterparts were unwilling to assume.

Much of that early activism was led by the first President of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Progressive Miners of America, Agnes Burnes Wieck.

The East St. Louis Journal noted:

“In the old days, women of the mine areas were a hazard to the success of any strike. The men knew that a complaining woman at home could drive the most militant union man back to the pits without victory.

Now the women, organized under the auxiliary, glory in the privations they suffer. They would not let the men go back if they wanted to go, unless the return was a distinct victory. That, says Mrs. Wieck, is why there never can be a compromise between the Progressives and the U.M.W.A. in Illinois.

The second factor is that as an organization the women have taken an important role in the actual hostilities. The have picketed and the have marched in demonstrations. The have held meetings in the face of orders forbidding meetings. Where they might have starved singly, they have learned through organization to raise money for food, clothing, and strike expenses.”

Charles M. Swart, “Agnes Burnes Weick (sic) – Coal Fields Hell Raiser,” East St. Louis Journal, Illinois Magazine, 22 October 1933, 1.


To learn more about her life and contributions, read Woman from Spillertown, A Memoir of Agnes Burnes Wieck, by her son David Thoreau Wieck

"Verdict in Springfield"

Here's an online article which was originally published in Time magazine on December 27, 1937. The article was written on the federal conviction of 36 members of the Progressive Miners "of conspiring to blow up trains and thus interfere with 1) the mails and 2) interstate commerce."

While the verdicts dealt a near-fatal blow to the union, trial testimony also pointed to collusion between the coal operators and the United Mine Workers. That testimony was never refuted in the trial. Here's an excerpt from the Illinois State Journal's trial coverage, December 11, 1937.

“W.R. Swafford, Harrisburg, ...testified Friday he was instructed by an official of the Peabody Coal Co. to simulate a gun battle during miners’ riot in Harrisburg in October of 1933 to raise sympathy and get the militia out.

Swafford, ... said he acted under orders of W. C. Craggs,... at that time superintendent of the company’s No. 43 mine near Harrisburg.

... According to previous testimony presented in the trial, ...a mass meeting of miners was held in Harrisburg, a march was made on the mine, a gun battle followed, and troops were called out to restore order.

Swafford, ... said Craggs gave him a sawed-off shot gun and a rifle and four boxes of shells and told him to go out on the mine property to guard the mine’s fan house. ‘If anyone starts shooting,’ Swafford quoted Craggs as instructing him, ‘do all the shooting you can so we can raise sympathy and get the militia in here.’

...He also testified he saw a company-owned truck, covered with sheet iron leave the property about 10 p.m., and asserted he saw three machine guns, rifles, shotguns, ammunition, and a couple of boxes of dynamite in a mine office...

He asserted that earlier in 1933, from June 30 to July 5, he said about two hundred others were requested to stay in the mine to arouse sympathy and get the militia called out. Pressed by Prosecutor Welly K. Hopkins to tell who gave him those orders, the witness replied it was general talk at the time. ‘Didn’t you really stay in the mine because it was heavily picketed?’ Hopkins asked. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘I went home one night and was not molested. The company wanted us to look like we were picketed in.’”