Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1899 — SOME STARTLING FIGURES. [ARTICLE]

SOME STARTLING FIGURES.

Casualties Resulting from Troubles in ths Pana Mining District. The grand total of casualties since the advent of negro miners from the South to take the places of striking white miners in the Pana district is something appalling. The coal strike was declared in southern Illinois on April 1, 1898, because of the failure of the operators to abide by the decision of the arbitration board. Four months later the importation of negro miners from Alabama commenced. With the arrival of the first batch of negroes the trouble began. Numerous clashes of a more or less sanguinary nature occurred nlmost daily, but the first great tragedy came Oct. 13, when the mine guards at Virden shot and killed eleven strikers and wounded nineteen more. One negro was killed and four wounded in this battle. Other battles fought at Pana. Carterville and Virden, in which the roll of dead and wounded was more than doubled, followed. Following is a complete list of casualties since the beginning of the trouble: Oct. 13, 1898, at Virden, 11 whites, one negro. Oct. 10,1898, at Pana, one negro; April 1, at Pana, two whites, five negroes. June 30,1899, at Carterville, obe negro. Sept. 17, 1899, at Carterville, seven negroes. Total, 13 whites and 15 negroes. Wounded; Sept. 29, 1898, Pana, one negro; Oct. 11, 1898, Pana, two whites; Oct. 13, 1898, Virden, 19 whites, four negroes; Nov. 17, 1898, Pana, one white, two negroes; April 10, 1899, Pana, eight whites, one negro; June 30, 1899, Carterville, 20 negroes. Total, 30 whites and 28 negroes.