REIGN OF TERROR

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11249, 29 June 1922, Page 6

REIGN OF TERROR

ILLINOIS FIREBRANDS FURTHER VIOLENCE BY UNION MINERS PROBABLE. THE RECENT MASSACRES. By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. Australian and N.Z Cable Association (Received June 29, 12.5 a.m.) NEW YORK, June 27. The coroner's jury at Herrin, who are believed to be under union miners’ influence, found that the officials of the mine owned by the Southern Illinois Coal Company were guilty of tho death of two striking union miners killed during the massacre, while the death of some sixteen other non-union strike-breakers was declared to be due to unknown causes. Tho local union is not disinclined to disclaim its acts. Although no official utterance has been made, -individual members of the union are inclined to boast of the acts, painting out what will happen to non-union strike-break-ers if they again attempt to break up a strike. Mr Farrington, president of tho Illinois Federation of Miners, of which the Hen-in Union is a unit, issued a statement which generally condemns violence .on the ground that it will discredit the union movement and possibly destroy the United Mine Workers of America, of which the federation is a State unit. It appears that tho greater number of the dead and wounded.were either mine guards of the strike-breakeie or their family ties. It is said that the strike-breakers themselves belonged to the Steam Shovellers’ Union, which is not recognised by the American Federation of Labour. This renders the sit uation uncomfortable. Mine officials have -asked the authorities for protection in removing tho injured non-union workers who are in tlie hospitals to Chicago in order to safeguard them. They will be used as witnesses at tho coming investigation of the tragedy. Mine officials declare that they received threats from union miners that any attempt to remove the wounded will mean further violence. Pittsburg reports that two hundred armed striking union miners marched through the mane district near that city threatening to kill non-union miners. They succeeded in shutting down four mines by teirorising the strikebreakers.