The Bill of Rights was summarily ignored in Illinois' downstate coal mining counties. Progressive Miners of America supporters and organizers risked their lives when they convened a meeting or publicly advocated for their union.

Here’s an image from the February 24, 1933 edition of The Progressive Miner.  By this time wanton violence was all to common practice to disrupt the coal strike and thwart efforts of the Progressive Miners to expand the movement.  And as the cartoon shows the Progressive Miners believed they knew who was responsible.

In October, 1932, Gerry Allard enjoined miners to "build the Progressive Miners of America into the most powerful working class organization and compel the (coal) operators to grant our demands for a human standard of living."

Today marks the 47th anniversary of the passing of Gerry Allard, a founder of the Progressive Miners of America, and life-long advocate for coal miners.  The following biography is taken from The Gerry Allard Memorial Program.  The event was held in Collinsville, Illinois, October 3, 1965:

Gerry Allard, was born in Pas de Calais, Oignes, France, on March 10, 1908, the son of Auguste and Eugenie Defresne Allard.  He was called Germinal, after Zola’s famous novel of the French miners.

He was brought to Illinois when four and entered the cola mine at Dowell when he was fifteen years old.  He was a miner intermittently until 1935.

He helped organize the Progressive Miners of America and was first editor of The Progressive Miner. After a policy split with the union’s conservative leadership, he edited the Socialist Call, worked on the WPA writers project, wrote for newspapers and magazines. From 1941 to 1956 he traveled for various shoe companies.

He was director of the Illinois Miners relief Committee during the dark depression days, helped organize the Workrs Alliance of Illinois.  He was later chairman of the DuQuoin Miners Defense Committee, a cause to which he was deeply devoted.

He built a summer house on Long Lake, near Birchwood, Wisconsin, in 1951, and made it into a permanent home in 1961.

He married Irene Walley in Waukegan, Illinois, August 24, 1926.

Longtime friend Jack Battuello delivered the following tribute at the memorial event.

Gerry Allard — A Tribute To A Buddy

In the world of today various methods are used to measure a man’s worth. Some people believe that wealth is a good barometer of worthiness. Some people believe the attainment of high military honors is the insignia of greatness. Others, still, believe that academic and scientific achievement is the hallmark of fame. And, then, there are those who would settle for a Babe Ruth or Marilyn Monroe as the ultimate criterion.

There is no doubt that many of these endeavors play an important role in the affairs of Man.

But without the Man who cares about humanity, without the Man who dares to step beyond the narrow boundaries of nationalism, without the man who is unafraid to stand foursquare for universal brotherhood, without such a Man, our world would still be submerged in utter darkness.

It is easy enough for those who profited from colonialism to justify the plunder of primative people. But Gerry Allard cried tears of humiliation for those victims, and predicted we would one day rue the handiwork of the exploiter.

It is easy enough for those who revel in the spoils of exploitation and who believe that property rights are more sacrosanct than human rights, to accept a system of life which keeps the world in shambles. But Gerry Allard died with an ache in his heart for those who to to bed hungry every night…for those who died because they had no equality…and for those who have never known a day of surcease from fear and fratricide.

It is easy enough for those who concern for the human family is limited by the horizonof finances, commerce and national interests to favor war as a solution for social and political problems. But Gerry Allard condemned war in totality believing it to be the tool of the ignorant and the tyrant, a tool which would inevitably drag mankind down the road to ruin and oblivion.

It is easy enough for those who have become entrapped by the myth of superiority to mistreat his fellowman…to ridicule the color of his skin…to downgrade him aas an inferior…and to deny him equality. But Gerry Allard denounced this shameful attitude, scorning it as a behavior beneath the dignity of a civilized person and contrary to every concept of humanitarianism.

In a moment of history when world governments are playing Russian roulette with loaded guns and statesmen speak with forked tongue, when the social institutions remain captives if the economic and religious dogmas of the medieval period, when the schools and colleges and scientists are used as instruments for the endorsement and promotion of militarism, Gerry Allard’s presence in the world was an opportune occurrence. For with his being he brought a ray of light, a touch of hope and a breath of inspiration.

By Jack Battuello

To close, Stephane Elise Booth quotes Gerry’s vision and passion in her 1981 paper, “Gerry Allard: Miners’ Advocate”:

But for me, I will do my shouting young.  I will express my wails, my woes and torures.  My kind will force the new, will abolish the old and on the ruins of the antiquated we will build a place where the dreams born with the dawn of civilization will be realized.

Gerry Allard, The Progressive Miner, March 3, 1933

Gerry Allard – March 10, 1908 – April 29, 1965

United Mine Workers Journal, July 15, 1933

Following months of violence and his failure to negotiate any kind of settlement between the UMWA and the Progressive Miners, Governor Horner appointed a legislative committee to investigate and issue a report on the conflict.

The committee’s membership included IL State Senators W.E.C. Clifford, Champaign; Louis L. Williams, Clinton; C.L. Ewing, Douglas; IL State Representatives Frank A. McCarthy, Elgin; Matt Franz, Chicago, and James T. Burns, Kankakee; Dr. Albert Britt, president of Knox College, Galesburg; Montgomery S. Winning, assistant attorney general, and James Mullenbach, Chicago labor arbitrator.

The report is noteworthy for several reasons.

As one might expect the committee was diligent to avoid taking sides in the conflict.  However they and Gov. Horner failed to acknowledge that by deploying the state militia in Christian County, the state essentially sided with the UMWA and Peabody Coal Company.  The presence of the state militia broke the Progressive Miners’ picket lines in Taylorville, Kindcaid and the rest of the Midland, restoring coal production to these Peabody Mines and eliminated one of the Progressive’s most effective tools – halting coal production.

To that end the committee seemed to lack a basic understanding of how unions gain and deploy leverage in labor disputes.  Specifically the committee rejected the notion of the closed shop.  The committee argued that:

“Labor unions are voluntary organizations, and it is the right of men to determine for themselves the union with which they will affiliate.  In making that determination, persons are guaranteed the right of free speech and the right to assemble in a peaceable manner to discuss the questions involved.  These rights, however,  do not authorize such persons to encourage others to violate the constitutional rights of their fellow men.  Every person complying  with the law has a right to work wherever and whenever he can secure employment, and no man can interfere with that right.”

And although the committee recognized that the solution lie in “one union under wise leadership”, it failed to chart a path to that solution, offering only the tepid recommendation that the state should “set up the necessary legal machinery authorizing arbitration in controversies where the public interest is affected or a great industry is threatened with destruction.”  It could have gone further and recommend a new election as the Progressives had demanded since their inception.  Such a recommendation would have made sense given that even the committee acknowledged that the split had been precipitated by a fraudulent election.

However the report also affirmed charges that the Progressive Miners had been making for months.

For instance the committee echoed the Progressives’ claim that local law enforcement had largely disintegrated and that local sheriffs were partisans in the conflict.  It also criticized the practice of deputizing coal miners.  (However, it should be noted that some local sheriffs sided with Progressives.)

The committee also criticized importing workers from other regions to work in the mines although no mention was made of this practice as a strike-breaking tactic.  Rather it was criticized because it “denies to the residents of such county the means of a livelihood at their accustomed occupation and increases unemployment and distress.”

Most important, the report highlighted the role that the coal operators and electric utilities played in the mine war.  In fact two of the four recommendations made by the committee speak to the complicity of public utilities and coal companies in the fracas.  Too often the Illinois mine war is described simplistically as a “Hatfield–McCoy” factional dispute between two labor unions.  Anyone reading this report will be disabused of that notion.

The report was published in its entirety in the July 15, 1933 edition of the United Mine Workers Journal.  A PDF of the full report is available here.

Part of a group of Progressive Miners beaten in Franklin County. Standing, left to right: Catherine De Rorre, Agnes Burns Wieck, Rose Menzyk, Thomas Wakefield. Sitting left to right: Mrs. Allen Lawton, Anna Demaret, and Mrs. Thomas Wakefield.

After enjoining Governor Horner to protect their civil liberties a couple of weeks earlier, men and women lawfully demonstrating in support of the Progressive Miners of America were assaulted and severely beaten by Franklin County sheriff’s deputies and Lewis-Walker gun-thugs in the town of West Frankfort, IL on February 5, 1933.

A contingent of injured union activists lead by Illinois Women’s Auxiliary President, Agnes Burns Wieck immediately returned to Springfield to demand action from Governor Horner.

On January 26, 1933, Gov. Horner had urged Wieck and the 10,000 protesters who attended the Springfield mass march to retain confidence in government adding: “I am not a prayerful man, but I an praying that you will keep that faith. For without that faith in government the government cannot endure. When government goes all is lost.”

Ironically the returning protesters were brutalized by Franklin County sheriff’s deputies, sworn representatives of the government.

Agnes Burns Wieck recounts: “Governor Horner had no time to see the victims of his broken promise. But they had time to wait and thus compel him to see the price they had paid for the Constitution he had broken. The cloak of humanitarianism had now fallen from the shoulders of the new Governor. He stood revealed as just another politician protecting the interests of the privileged few. He advised recourse to the courts, declaring that he could not intervene except at the sheriff’s request.

‘We put you into office,’ the wounded women screamed at the Governor. ‘And now you would turn us out upon the icy streets of Springfield, even without mercy, let alone justice.’”

On January 26, 1933, 10,000 members of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Progressive Miners of America assembled in Springfield, IL to march on the state capitol.  Outraged by the wanton disregard for civil liberties, the violent abuse suffered at the hands of thugs and local law enforcement and the lack of basic economic relief for miner’s families, these women demanded an audience with Illinois’ new governor, Henry Horner.

Here’s an excerpt from the demands issued to the Governor on that day by Illinois Women’s Auxiliary President, Agnes Burns Wieck.  It’s performed by Champaign-Urbana theater talent, Diane Pritchard.

Agnes Burns Wieck Speech

This audio clip is an excerpt from audio documentary on Agnes’ work in the Illinois Women’s Auxiliary to be released soon.

Here are links to some past articles on Agnes and the remarkable Women’s Auxiliary of the Progressive Miners of America: Coal Field Hell Raiser and “To Our Militant Leader…From Militant Admirers”.

Detail from sheet music, "The Moweaqua Mine Disaster" written by Z.A. Traxler to commemorate the loss of 54 miners.

Beyond the battles of labor, government and industry, coal mining has always been an extremely hazardous enterprise.  And in 1932 the Christmas holiday marked a dark day for Illinois mining. On the morning of Christmas Eve, an underground methane gas explosion took the lives of 54 miners.

“Families of miners, sober faced and dry eyed, waited Saturday,
not for Christmas and the coming of Santa Claus, but for
mine rescue workers to reach their fathers and older brothers.”
Moweaqua News photo courtesy of Moweaqua Public Library.

Here’s an article from the January 11, 1933 edition of The Moweaqua News which speaks to the tragic loss:

Illinois state militia enforce martial law, Kincaid, IL - January 1933. Image courtesy of Christian County Coal Mine Museum

Will Stone at the Christian County Coal Mine Museum recently received a donation of snapshots which document life in Kincaid, IL during the mine war. The photographer is unknown. In this photo members of the Illinois State Militia pose while enforcing martial law in Kincaid.

More pictures coming soon…

Mother Jones' remains were relocated to the site of the monument erected in her honor. The casket is surrounded by volunteers from Progressive Miners Local 35, Mt. Olive, IL. This photo was taken during construction on July 24, 1936 by Joe Ozanic and includes the handwritten caption "Uncovered Casket of Mother Jones". The photo is part of the West Virginia and Regional History Collection.

October 12 marks the anniversary of the Battle of Virden, when in 1898 striking Illinois miners stood their ground and turned back the coal barons. Eight union miners lost their lives that day.  The difficulties didn’t end there though since even burying the slain men became controversial.  In The Union Miners Cemetery, John Keiser writes:

The Union Miners Cemetery was first laid out in September, 1899, when the donor of the land for the Mt. Olive city cemetery objected to the demonstrations the union held on the property to honor the men killed at Virden.  The Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery did not want the bodies moved there because, to the clergymen, the riot victims were “murderers.”  Adolph Germer, then a coal miner in Mt. Olive and later a well-known socialist leader…reported the matter to the members of the local union (Local 728, UMWA) and suggested that they purchase their own plot.  The union bought one acre for this purpose.

The cemetery land became contested space again in 1932 when locals 728 and 125 split from the United Mine Workers to become Progressives Miners of America Local 35; taking the deed to the cemetery with them.

My Final Rest…

When the last call comes for me to take my final rest, will the miners see that I get a resting place in the same clay that shelters the miners who gave up their lives of the hills of Virden, Illinois on the morning of October 12, 1897, for their heroic sacrifice of their fellow men? They are responsible for Illinois being the best organized labor state in America. I hope it will be my consolation when I pass away to feel I sleep under the clay with those brave boys.

Mother Jones
1924

Mother Jones was a self-described “hell raiser” and celebrated in the trade union movement for decades. She endeared herself to miners across the country as an organizer for the United Mine Workers.  However, Mother Jones was no supporter of John L. Lewis as he ascended to power within the UMWA. She publicly referred to him as an “empty piece of human slime.”

In 1930, on the occasion of her 100th birthday celebration, Mother Jones donated $1,000 to the Illinois based, Reorganized United Mine Workers. With the donation to this autonomy movement within District 12 she stated, “I only hope I may live long enough to see John L. Lewis licked.”  Mother Jones’ revered status and her unwavering opposition to Lewis impelled the Progressive Miners to lay claim to her memory.

When she died in 1930, her burial wishes were honored and she was laid to rest at the Union Miner’s Cemetery in Mt. Olive, Illinois. However, due to the Mt. Olive locals “going Progessive” in 1932, cemetery ownership was transferred to the PMA.

To honor her, as well as to unite her memory with the sacrifices of the the Virden and PMA martyrs, in 1934 Joe Ozanic along with the Mother Jones Memorial Committee initiated a drive to collect money for a suitable monument. Within two years, over $16,000 was raised.

The challenges didn’t end there though. In his memoirs housed at the University of Illinois at Springfield, Ozanic recalls:

John L. (Lewis) tried to get a court injunction, and did get a temporary writ to prevent us from removing Mother Jones from her un-marked grave and opening the grave to place her over here at the foot of this new 80 ton marble monument. But we beat the temporary writ, in which he made it look like we were going to dig up graves and scatter bones all over the cemetery-we had no trouble proving our case. It was our cemetery, not John L.’s, and John L. was overruled. Then, we made absolutely sure that John L. couldn’t ever get his hands on any of our local assets-cemetery or funds…

John Keiser describes the monument, created by  sculptor was Carl Graf: “…was made of eighty tons of Minnesota pink granite, twenty-two feet high on a base twenty feet by eighteen feet. The granite spire in the center is flanked by two bronze statues of miners. In the center of the shaft is a bronze bas-relief plaque of ‘Mother’ Jones. At the base are five plaques commemorating Mary ‘Mother’ Jones (center), ‘General’ Alexander Bradley (far right), and Joseph Giterle, E. Kaemmerer, and E. W. Smith, who ‘Died in the Virden Massacre, October 12, 1898′.  Plaques on the left and right sides of the monument bear the names of twenty-one ‘Martyrs of the Progressive Miners of America’.

The dedication of the monument was held Sunday, October 11, 1936. Five special trains and twenty-five Greyhound buses brought miners to the event. A parade through the small mining town of Mt. Olive included 32,000 marchers. The total crowd that day was estimated at 50,000.

Commenting on the monument and dedication, Ozanic said:

And when that veil was whipped off at the moment of unveiling and dedication and with all the ideals it stood for believe you me, old coal miners who were alive and active during the time of the Virden riot in 1898 that were now old men, the tears rolled down their eyes like a little baby’s. “We fought for the establishment of the United Mine Workers and now we’ll fight against it as much as we fought for it original establishment at Virden.” And that moment, when it was dedicated, shook John L. up like nothing in this world could have done. In the heat of the war, we build a monument to Mother Jones and the martyrs of labor. No monument, any place in the nation’s coal fields, could match it.

In addition to Ozanic’s union work, he was also an avid photographer. His images are available online at the West Virginia and Regional History Collection. Here’s a selection devoted specifically to the construction of the Mother Jones Monument.

The first issue of The Progressive Miner heralds the emergence of a new union, published September 16, 1932.

Today marks the 79th anniversary of the founding of the Progressive Miners of America. Outraged by John L. Lewis’ autocratic actions and and humiliated by sheriff’s deputies and vigilantes in the Mulkeytown March, thousands of Illinois miners abandoned the United Mine Workers to form a new union.

The founding convention was held September 1 – 3, 1932 in Gillespie, IL.

The sign traversing the entryway of the Union Miners Cemetery has changed over the years. These photos show that the word "REAL" was changed to "GOOD" some time after 1976. It's likey the original was a rebuke to John L. Lewis and the United Mine Workers. The photo on the left is a detail from an image housed at the West Virginia and Regional History Collection.

Reviewing the terrific online photos hosted by the West Virginia and Regional Historical Collection, I noticed a change in the signage over the entrance of the Union Miners Cemetery in Mt. Olive Illinois. As you can see from the photos the word “REAL” was changed to “GOOD” some time after 1976. No doubt the original was a rebuke to John L. Lewis and the United Mine Workers.

My guess is that the change occurred some time after the deed to the cemetery was transferred from the Progressive Mine Workers of America. Tax records show the deed has been held by the Union Miners Association since 1974.

That deed was originally held by the UMWA. Its Locals 728 and 125 were based in Mt. Olive but the deed changed hands when those workers “went Progressive” and formed P.M. of A. Local 35 in 1932.