Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1891 — STRIKERS FORM A MOB. [ARTICLE]

STRIKERS FORM A MOB.

COKE PLANTS IN PENNSYLVANIA DEMOLISHED. 1 A Bomb Thrown Into a Non-Union Workman’* House—Armed Deputies Powerless—The Sheriff Asks Gov. Pattison for Weapons, but the Request Is Refused. A Pittsburg dispat h says: The most eventful day in the coke strike was favorable to the men. The labor leaders say no preconcerted attack was made, but in view of the fact that three of the principal works in the region were raided, and that in the morning the operators had decided to resume all plants, the talk of accidental raids does not go very far. At two o’clock in the morning the strains of a band woke 411 strikers on the road from Scottdale to Bradford, and in a short time 1,500 men followed the musicians’ path, which was directed to the Jimtown plant of the H. C. Frick Company. This place was reached at 5 a m., when the works were captnted without a struggle, except the incidental disarming of Superintendent Rosser, whose revolver was flourished in vain. A few workers were struck with stones, but the body of strikers dispersed without serious damage. Some time later a terrific report in the direction of tbe Leisenring works gave a warning of trouble there and thousands grathered to witness the work of the first bomb exploded by the strikers. The shock was felt for several miles, but its only visible effect was the tearing of a great hole in the front of a non-union worker's house and the throwing up of considerable dirt in the vicinity. It is feared that such work is not over with, however, as the effect upon the unruly but thoroughly organized Hungarians was ominous. After this lhe workmen at Leisenring Nos. 2 and 3 were chased out of the yards and a few only returned when the excited crowd had departed. The few men at the Leith works were also driven out, though nobody is reported badly injured Trouble is also talked of at the Trott -r plant, but this is denied by the operators. The big Morewood plant of the Frick Company also contributed more than its quota to the exciting qvents of the day. This plant has been in partial operation, and has been carefully guirdel by deputies. Some 3,000 strikers gathered about the place, however, and swept the armed deputies aside as if they had been chaff. Not a blow was struck, not a shot fired, as such a move would have been fatal to both guards and workers in the face of the 3,000 determined strikers. After the abandonment of the works by the guard an hour of wrecking followed. Tracks, doors, and in fact everything movable were torn and wrenched aside by the maddened crowd, who only left after the plant had been mutilated beyond immediate repair. The central board of the federation meets in Pittsburgh, when the strike will be brought up up for indorsement. At Uniontown Judge Ewing granted a preliminary injunction against all men assembling at the Frick works not employed by that company. bheriff McCormick, with a number of armed deputies, left Uniontown on a special train to arrest the leaders in the several raids. Probably the ugliest feature of the several raids was the number of women participating, the most seriously injured man being PitBoss Cooper, who was struck again and again with an iron bar in the hands of an Infuriated woman. Secret meetings were held by the strikers, who w.ll certainly prevent the intended resumption. There has been much telegraphic correspondence between Gov. Pattison and Sheriff Clawson of Westmoreland County regarding the strike of the cokeworkers and,the attack upon the works of Erick & Co. of Morehead, The Sheriff asked permission to use the arms of two companies of the national guard to prseect property, but Gov. Pattison responded that “the civil power to maintain the peace must be exhausted and powerless before the military power can be invoked.” To this Sheriff Clawson replied that he did not want the troops, but only their arms. Gov. Pattison, however, in another dispatch declined to issue the desired order.