by Seamus (James Haldeman)
During the mid 1800’s the area in Northeastern Pennsylvania was overrun with
families from Ireland, who had come to the region in search of a new life
and a day’s work. They were fleeing the oppression and tyranny of their
homeland, Ireland. They had hoped to leave behind in Ireland the hard times,
evictions and starvation they experienced at the hands of the British
government. As they began to work and settle down in their new home land they
soon realized the same type of problems existed here at the hands of the
American cousins of the royalty that ruled Ireland. In fact much of America
after the Great Revolution was financed for many years to come by Englishmen
. Once again the Irish were at the hands of English bankers and landlords.
Soon many of the new immigrants found work in the coal mines and quickly
discovered mining to be a very dangerous occupation. Too many of them lost
their lives to cave-ins, fire, explosions and horrendous accidents, for which
they were discharged from their employment. It quickly dawned on them that
they were not paid adequately for the hard work and risks they endured.
The miners lived in toolbox homes, only to be taken out when they were
needed for a particular task and tossed out on the culm banks when they
usefulness expired. The homes were owned by the coal companies and the
miner’s and their families existed at the whim of the local superintendent.
The miners were compelled to buy all their goods and needs at the Company
store at exorbitantly high prices. Items such as tools necessary for the job
were also a requirement as a condition of employment. The company was
permitted to charge whatever rates for theses tools that it deemed necessary.
Too often the miner was paid in inflated script that could only be redeemed
at the company store or the cost of his tools was deducted from the paycheck
of the miner. Many a miner found himself with a bobtail check at the end of
the month on payday. All his earnings were deducted from his pay against his
earnings and if he was luck he walked away breaking even. The other option a
miner often faced was owning the company money on payday. If a miner or any
member of his family did business at another independent store he faced being
fired. In this way the coal company constantly kept the miners in debt so
they could not quit their jobs and move on. Many miners did manage to slip
out in the night to other coal patches where they cold start anew. If they
were caught up with too often the men were sent to the poor farm and the
family left destitute. The wife would end up living with relatives and the
children would be farmed out to as many relatives as could take care of them.
The railroads owned by many of the larger coal companies controlled life in
the coal patches of Schuykill and Carbon Counties. The most powerful of them
all was the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad having combined interests in
coal , both mining and transportation of the product.
In the winter of 1873 a coal combination, of five companies , was formed.
In today’s terms we would call that a cartel. Franklin Gowen, president of
the Reading RR, called the major coal companies to a meeting in New York, in
order to fix the price of coal. Not only were the miners being taken
advantage of, but the general public was at the mercy of this cartel and it’s
ambitious greed. Coal was fixed at a price of $5 a ton, thus being the first
case of price fixing in the United States. As a result of that the general
public had no sympathy what so ever for the miners and their plight. Clearly
the miners were blamed for the outrageous price of coal.
The Worker’s Benevolent Association , to which most of the miners belonged ,
had made minor advances in achieving better working conditions and
compensation for their toil . Their advances were abruptly halted by the Coal
operators. In December of 1874 pay was reduce by 20%. Very soon after that
another 10% cut was levied upon the miners. The miners went out on strike for
7 months, only to come crawling back at the demands of the company. Gowan had
been informed that the miners were going to strike and he managed to
stockpile enough coal to meet the cold winter’s demands. Many of the men who
supported the strike were singled out by the coal operators as trouble makers
and would not be called back to work.
In order to gain the support and sympathy of the populace, Gowan was quick
to trump up charges that the troubles in the area were cause by a gang of
ruffians known as the " Molly Maguires". These men were repudiated to be a
group of terrorists who would stop at nothing to rule the region with tyranny
and mayhem. The name Molly Maguires was taken from an old legend in Ireland ,
probably from County Cavan, from of a group of men who terrorized the
landlords in the region. Molly Maguire was supposedly a woman who had been
dispossessed by her landlord, when her son came to her aid. He was very
coldly and calculatedly murdered by the agents of the landlord. In Molly’s
name the local’s rose against the injustice of the landlord and his agents.
They were noted for looting, burning, rioting and shooting of the
establishment who ruled and deprived their families of basic human rights.
At this time there was no such known society in the United States, but
Franklin Gowen made sure to re-invent this organization in order to recoup
the sympathy of the citizens then living in the region, both German, Welsh
and Irish alike. Diabolically he linked the names of the men who led the
efforts of the "Great Strike" to the fictitious organization he called the
Molly Maguires. Franklin Gowan wanted these men out of his mines and out of
the area for good, to be punished and banished forever in the cold hard jails
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It was then many of the men became
extremely desperate and would cross the line of insanity to achieve their
goals of a decent life for their families.
Some of the men known as the Molly Maguires were probably guilty of many of
the accused crimes against the state. They had been pushed to the wall and
would strike back any way they could.
In 1873 Mr. Gowan hired the monsterous thugs of the Alan Pinkerton Detective
agency to infiltrate the coal fields and expose the men who were at the core
of all this mayhem. The most infamous of the successful detectives sent in
was James Mc Parlin, alias Jamie McKenna.. In the 3 years McParlin was in the
area he gathered and fabricated enough evidence to permanently remove 20 or
so innocent Irishmen from their families and friends forever. Among them were
John Kehoe and Alec Campbell. These men were both very respectable, educated
and influential citizens of the region. They commanded much respect among the
local citizens. This was clearly evident by the large number of mourners who
attended their funeral. Both Irish and Welsh alike cried out about the
injustice levied on these men.
History has proven these men to be completely innocent of the crimes they
were charged with, while others who went Scot free were clearly guilty of
their dastardly deeds upon mankind. It was in these evil men that Gowan found
solace and retribution. The cruel atmosphere of the Anti-Irish prejudice
prevented these men from a fair trial. The men had been pronounced guilty in
the newspapers preceding their day in court. The reporting of many of the
nations newspapers called for convictions before the trial even began. The
men were not given the right of trial by their peers. Not one Irish Catholic
was selected for jury duty. Many of the jurors were illiterate or had formed
an opinion from the diatribe printed in the media. As a result of this
miscarriage of Justice 7 accused Mollies met their death in the Carbon County
Jail on June 21, 1877, "The day of the Rope" or more commonly know as "Black
Thursday".
This was the only time in history of the great country of America that
innocent men were hung as a result of a private corporation bringing charges,
providing fraudulent information, instigating mayhem and privately arresting
innocent men for their conviction and demise, only to advance the cause of
greed and subjugation of the countries minority and immigrant citizens.
This article was written by Jim (Seamus) Haldeman. To send comments
to Mr. Haldeman about this article please see my
email page.
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