MINE WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18590, 26 June 1922, Page 5

MINE WAR

THE HERRIN ATEOOITIES

GHASTLY MASSACRE.

CARNIVAL OF BLOOD AND DESTRUCTION.

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright

NEW YORK, June 23. Tlie mine war near Herrin (Illinois) will probably go down as the most brutal example of debauchery in the history of Labour conflicts. Hundreds of union miners, inflamed by liquor, marched off the prisoners after the non-union labourers at the mine had surrendered, beat many of them to death, and hung others and cut them to pieces. Dynamite was used to blow up many thousands of dollar’s worth of property. Innocent men were corralled and butchered under most horrible circumstances. Probably 50 men were killed. More than 20 were so seriously wounded that they are not expected to live. The union miners’ wives followed the murderers,, applauding their acts. Spectators declare that the carnival of blood and destruction went on for more than a day.—A-. and N.Z. Cable. WOMEN BEATEN TO DEATH. TWO THOUSAND TROOPS MOBILISED NEW YORK, June 23., The latest reports from Herrin show that the massacre was more ghastly, than was at first believed. The bodies of five women, some of them with infants in their arms, were found beaten to death. One refugee declares that he saw 15 miners’ bodies thrown into the lake with rock around their necks. Others were tied together and dragged behind a motor car down a rocky road. They were then allowed to lie in the hot sun with their wounds unattended to, and they were refused water. Two thousand troops have been mobilised at Chicago and Springfield, and are ready to proceed to the minefields in case of renewed outbreaks.—A. and N.Z. Cable.