Industrial Democrat (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 1, No. 6, Ed. 1 Saturday, February 5, 1910 Page: 1 of 4
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n
5,000 CIRCOLATION
IN It STATES
mrs
lime
E IECCRB OF HE
• FOR 5 WEEKS!
; S:;
NO. 6 MTIRMV, FEB. S, I91B
Workers of the world, unite;
you have nothing to lose hut
your chains; you have a world
to |ain.~-Marx.
A R ACK PAGE IN HISTORY OF CAPITALISM’S CONOIIEST
: Thev htiilr wnllfl nnd tnmnoil thol - ■ — Jfi ... ^
Why Four Hundred Workers
Perished in a Criminal Fire Trap
BY. J. O. BENT ALL
STATE SECRETARY. SOCIALIST PARTY OF ILLINOIS
[COURTESY INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW. CHICAGO.]
Was your brother one of the four
hundred who perished in the Cherry
coal mine November 13th? Or was
It your father? Your hunband? Your
SM?
My brother was there. My father.
My aon. I helped carry them out
They were cold in death. They were
covered with coal dust and swollen
from black damp.
I am telling you this story from
what I have seen with my own eyes.
Not from hearsay.
I went from Chicago right to Cher-
ry. With thousands of others I
stood and looked from the outside.
fellows became frightened when the
hay caught fire and how they were
left without aid in tlie'r deathtrap.
How they had to run around empty-
handed, not a bucket or barrel of
water being provided in the entire
mine.
All this you have heard and doubt-
ed. I found that every bit if it was
true.
I feund mere.
Jonnie Miller told me that as soon
as she heard that something was
wrong at the mine oho hastened to
the shaft. For two hours after the
ft ro trau afartrwl u-hilo onnl was |)0.
THE MURDER TRAP.
Then I broke through the line and
joined the volunteer rescuers. I put
on overalls, jacket, cap and lamp and
went down into the tomb that con-
tained over four hundred victims—
a few living most of them dead.
I helped plug the entries to prevent
the fire from spreading. I had a
hand in timbering where the roof was
loose, or where collars were breaking.
I cut legs off the dead mules so wo
could get them through the passage-
ways ftud clear the track for bring-
ing out the men. I was with the
gang that found nineteen dead in one
pile and twenty-one in another, thirty-
seven In a third and one hundred and
etxty-two in a fourth.
We took those men—our brothers
—and loaded them into the cars—
eight or ten of them into each car.
We pushed them a mile, a mile and
a half, through the tunnels to the
shaft and brought them up. We
laid them on canvas in rows on the
ground—in rows of eighty, a hundred
feed long. We carried them on stret-
chers. made of scantlings and coarse
canvas, into the morgue. We put
them Into pine coffins—cheap boxes—
furnished by the company. We brush
ed away a tear occasionally as the
body of our brother was hauled off
to th'1 long trench—the ditch—dug for
him and the others, for the old man
whose gray hair was black with coal,
foe tho little pale boy whose mother
at tod shivering on the edge of the
collective tomb.
You.already know how the company
failed -to repair the electric lighting.
How unprotected torches were put
up along the tracks where coa! and
hay was pushed. How the bales
brushed the torches and caught fire.
How little boys under legal age were
mt-de to do this work that grown men
should have done. How these little
ing hoisted, she stood there waiting
for her husband to come up. But he
didn’t. The coa! cars came. Her hus-
band came up ten days later and I
helped carry him to the morgue.
The men who heard about the fire
wanted to go up at once but were
told by the company’s boss to “get
back to work, you cowards.” There
was coal to be hauled up and the
men could wait. They waited. Two
hundred of them are still waiting.
Nearly two hundred others are wait-
ing in the trench In the company’s
pine boxes.
The fire spread and became intense
The fan sucking the air up, and the
all shaft, built of brittle wood in-
stead of being constructed of iron and
eteel as the law prescribes, was soon
threatened. To avoid loss of a few
boards in the air shaft the fan was
reversed, throwing the wind, and
with it the fire, up the main shaft.
The two shafts were now success-
fully closed to all living beings. Oth-
er exits there were none. That the
law requires escapes for the workers
was treated as an absurdity by the
company.
To dig holes in the ground for tho
safety of the miners is to dig holes
into the dividends of the company.
Neither of them were dug. To make
previsions for the worker's reason-
able security is not the concern of the
company.
No! No! It does not pay to make
things safe for the workers.
Then, to stop the fire the mine had
to be sealed. Everybody knew that
this also sealed the fate of the en-
tombed men. But the coal was burn-
ing and that must not be allowed.
The unfortunates in the dark chan-
nels knew what that meant. They
hastened to remote parts of the mine.
They knew that black damp, the min-
ers’ deadly dread, was following them.
They built walls and tamped the
cracks to shut out their deadly ene-
my. They killed the mules so they
would not consume the limited supply
of oxygon in the prison of these men.
Then they waited. They had faith In
the men on top and in their comrades
who knew their fate.
But the company stood in the way.
The comrades above pleaded and im-
plored. But the iron soul of the com-
pany refused to yield.
The consensus of opinion among
the miners Is that the fire could have
been put out within ten hours after
It started. Suppose that a son of
President Earllng had been In the
mine, would not this have been done?
Chemical extinguishers could have
reached the shaft in less than one
hour. Electric signals and light could
have been lowered intp the mine
to tell that some effort was being
mad“ in behalf of the prisoners.
But nothing was done.
The men in the tomb waited and
waited. Sunday and Monday passed.
No sign of help. Tuesday and Wed-
nesday came and went, all of them
twenty-four hours each. The water
was gone. The oil was used up. Hun-
ger and thirst became unendurable.
The mules had been dead several
| days. Thir flesh, raw and putrid, was
not Inviting, but it tasted good, in the
meanwhile the officials dined sump-
tuously in the palace cars.
Thursday and Friday saw the mine
open and rescuers descend. Headed by
pompous state and company officials
it was difficult for the practical min-
ers to do much. We pleaded with the
officials to be allowed to go Into this
and that, to be allowed to in-
vestigate the possible retreats where
men might bo alive, but we were al-
ways told to stick right to the “In-
spectors."
Wo had passed those entries for
three days. Several of them were
known to contain workers, but what
could we do? The hunger and thirst
of the men In these dungeons drove
them Into a frenzy. They agreed that
even If opening the door would mean
swift death from black damp there
was no use in waiting any longer. So
one of them broke through. This was
on Saturday. He saw what ho could
have seen three days before—the
lights in the caps of the rescuers.
A cry went up to his fellows
J. O. BENT ALL.
But Dunlop did not know who I
was or he would not have tried so
hard to save four ceots for the com-
pany.
When we were through plugging
this entry, which was done in a short
time, we proceeded to explore other
places where men, living or dead,
might be found.
We met "inspector” Taylor, who
also was in command. Taylor and
Dunlop foil into a discussion and did
not agree, it was this and It was that.
Tho whole procedure was clearly
made up. I got into a bunch of fel-
lows who wanted to do something.
We stole away and fell upon a heap
of some twenty ’oodles. We took
three of them to the shaft and went
up. By that time there were some
twenty thousand people at the mine
bending the ropes and craning their
necks to see the product of the re-
scuers’ work.
It was not pleasing to the company
to have any mw kndtes brought up
that day and we were “gently" told
not to leave the “inspectors" any
more, and we didn't.
During the middle of the afternoon
of this same Sunday—the second af-
ter the fire—about forty of us were
down to help out. Among them were
Duncan McDonald and Bill James,
union officials. Wo were all ready to
five or six of you in charge of Mr.
Jones. Another company will go
with me. The rest be stationed as
with me. The rest will he stationed
as follows.”
A fine plan was outlined. We feit
good. Everybody was ready and it
actually seemed as if we were to ac-
complish something. But oil at once,
after this elaborate schedule which
had consumed over an hour, “Inspec-
tor" Taylor turned to us very pleas-
antly saying:
“Now, gentlemen, you have been
down here quite a while and It would
be well for you to go up to get a lunch
Then we will carry on the work we
have outlined."
Of course there was nothing to do
but to go up and get a lunch. It is
necdlues to sny that Taylor never got
back to tho boys to execute the plan.
But we went up to lunch. Yob, for
ten days we had gone up to lunch
every six or eight hours. It was hard
work to wander around in tho mine, i
Wc needed fresh air and material to j
make blood and muscle out of.
The lunch room was in the com-
pnn’y boiler room. There wero two
pieces of flooring sixteen feet long
on some old boxes wiggling on a pile
of gas pipes and iron carelessly scat-
tered from the repair corner. Facing
us ns wo sat down was a “table”
made up of three pieces of flooring
on two salt barrels. At the ond of
the table was a dirty gasoline stove
on top of which was a precarious-
looking wash boiler with coffee.
On the “table’’ wero two dozen
cups, a paper box with sugar, a tray
of ham sandwitches and two spoons.
Three "visiting nurses" were bciw-een
us and the table who handed sand-
wiches and cofee to the volunteer re-
scuers. One nurse at each end of the
line would t-tart to stir the coflee for
the men and when they met in the
middle with the two spoons held high
in the air they would call out:
‘Are you all stirred?”
“Yea, we art- all stirred,” I lokl
them, "mightily stirred. Have they
only two spoons over In the Pullman
cars also?”
‘Oh, there are lots of spoons over
there, but they are for the officials.”
was the reply.
After twelve days the best the com-
pany could do was to furnish the vol-
unteers with sandwiches, coffee and
to feed men on only one kind of food
for a long time, especially when they
are working as the volunteers were.
"The Bed Cross” could not seo this
fearful wrong. Nor could this Red
Cross—rather Red Graft, this bloody
hypocrite of the capitalist hydra
—discover any need among the poo-
pie bereft of husbands and brothers,
•starving in their hovels. I went
around to a great number of homes
and asked how their needs were sup-
plied. Most of them had been helped
by kind neighbors, none by the Red
Cross. Tho only beneficiaries of the
Red Cross aeomod to be the soldiers
and the nurses, who were having a
high time flirting and carousing,
while the hungry women and child-
ren in Cherry were the least possible
concern to the Red Graft.
Had It not been for the neighbors
and some farmers, as well as the lit-
tle Congregational church, whose
basement was given over to the chari-
ty workers, the women and cnlldren
of tho murdered miners would have
siffered from starvation even the
first and second week. I brought this
criminal neglect on the part of the
Red Cross Society to tho notice of
Cross Society with its large retinue of
officers and salaried .relief experts
has done during the entire period of
distress In Cherry. She is the real
charity heroine In the Cherry disas-
ter.
Had the miner's union been .n shape
to take hold—to demand pose salon of
the situation—from the start the
workers could have been brought out
alive with very few exceptions, and
the Immediate wants of those who
had lost their bread winners could
have been lllied systematically end
efficiently.
But this wholesale murder of work-
ers, with the subsequent outrages on
the patience and long suffering of
their relatives and the people in gen-
eral with the spiriting away of wit-
nesses and the frustration of Justice,
lorces upon tho toilers a new reason
why we should unite and take into
our own hands the induetAss of the
world and put within reach the ele-
ments necessaiy to the life and pro-
gress of the whole human race.
FIGHT OR STARVE.
After months of fruitless search for
employment that would yield enough
in as mm m tm — — —
SCENES AT THE MORGUE.
Some came crawling out. Most cf do something, but were told to sit
them too weak to walk had to be down and wait until the •■Inspector"
carried. One died when he reached and one of the men go off to see if
the top. Twenty are still alive. 'everything was safe. We waited for
The company took them into cus three hours and became alarmed.
tody to shape their testimony as
much as possible end to scold them
for having killed the mules. The
wives and children were not allowed
to see them for some time except
through the windows of the cars.
The rescue work still dragged. On
Sunday a week after the fire, we
j went down again. But the inspectors
held us back all the time. We fixed
the entry where some smoke was
coming out While in the process of
doing this "Inspector" Dunlop wanted
a hole plugged. I had cut a sand bag
!<*pen with an ax, thus tearing the
sack instead of carefully untieing the
string. This ragged sack was known
to be in the pile semewhere and Dun-
lop told us to hunt it.
“Here is anoth“r sack to plug the
” I suggested.
’Damn it; that's too good. The
sack will do.” answered I tun
iop.
I took on an bumble look and agreed !
with him that it was wasteful to lake ;
a new sack to atop up a bole with
and aa we could not find the torn
thinking the advance explorers might
have been overcome by black damp.
We Bent two fellows to investigate.
The "inspector” became quite indig-
nant. and our committee was told to
go back and mind its orders.
In this way all 3unday was spent.
The people on top were under the im-
pression that the rescuers below were
busy. The widows were sure that
their husbands would soon he brought
forth.
Little Albert Buckle, 15 years old
November 28, who escaped on tho
last car up, and his mother and sis-
ter stood at the ropes all day, watch-
ing for “Rl;h," who was 16 years the
2!st of last June, and who worked in
the mine ever since fcis father was
killed three years ago, but poor Rich !
ard was not brought up that day. On
Monday I went to see the broken-
hearted mother but I could not com-,
fort her.
At one time we were told by "in-
spector” Taylor that real work was
to be done. Twenty of us were at the .
bottom of the mine ready to take or-;
MADE ORPHANS BY CAPITALISM.
one, I obeyed his wtern command toiders and go ahead.
| Taylor laid fine plana.
two spoons. This was our food. They
also furnished lodging.
Yea, in the night when too tired
to go down another trip we tried to
find a spot to rest. The fireman had
be< n made to ’ double up” in the
Pullmans, but the berths thus made
available were for Bale at such a fig-
ure as to make it impossible for the
volunteers to sleep In these comfort-
aide bunks.
So we Just found some old paper
and -pread it on the brlck-pavod floor
of tho boiler room, selected a chunk
■ of coal on which we also placed a
j piece of paper and used It for a pil
I low.
And wo were fairly comfortable—
; more no than the men in the mine. '
| who were walled in to keep from the
black damp and who wero suffering
the agony of death-like suspense wag-
ing for their rescuers, that were held
hack by the iron souls of the com
pon'y officials.
We were told that the Red Cross
Society was taking care of the hungry
to Cherry. Thousands cf dollars have
been given to this fake society,
which W. H. Taft, President of tn*
United States, is president. The so-
ciety can be forgi ven for its total neg-
lect of tho rescuers. The society for
j prohibiting cruelty to animals would,
will pot < however, have declared It outrageous I
«< v oral prominent people, hut
story was not believed. I pointed out
how the Red Cross had utterly failed
to pay any attention to the awful dis-
tress of the bereaved, but everybody
had faith in this notional organization
In Bplte of the tumblings It has been
guilty of from the catastrophe in Snn
Francisco to the Cherry holocaust.
Now, after a month of suf 'ring,
when the wail and cry of the cold and
hungry can no longer bo smothered
(he daily papers are compelled to
j show up the real situation.
But in spite of these facts, Graham
Tuylcr, D. D., a minister and profos-
j sor in the Chicago Thoologicl Hemi-
I nary, member of the Illinois Mining
Investigating Committee, writes an
I article in “The Survey” lauding tho
j Red Cross, the “Inspectors" and com-
[ pany, b uffing the people into the be-
i lief that the hundreds of thousands
Of dollars given to the Red Cross aie
{judicially spent, when he knows or
| ought to know that scarcely a drippl-
i ing has actually gone to tho ren! suf-
j ferers.
And just now Alderman Scully, of
! Chicago, who has boon to Cherry and
'soin the situation, demands that the
: public funds given to the Red Cross
I be turned ever to the Miners’ Union
I a* the Red Cross has proven itself
wholly incapable, having placed its
orders in tho hands of unscrupulous
j merchants who charge 25 cents a
j pound for the poorest kind of meat
I and In every other way demand ex-
j >rbitnnt prices, leaving people in ut- !
f most destitution.
I This Red Cross Society is what j
• Graham Taylor calls "an experienced j
agency which commanded the confi-
; dunce of the local and outside com
I uiunltles.”
One littlo farmer woman. Mrs. An
; oa N. Kendall, living a few miles;
from Cherry, did more all alone in1
providing needed clothing for the ba-
bies, that were being born while
their fathers were carried out of the
Mack pit. and for two hundred other
little ones yet to be born Into the;
world fatherless, than all tho Red
my for his* to support, himself and aged
mother, J. G. Evans of Paragoid, Ark.,
walked Into the United States army
recruiting station Tuesday and asked
relief. The man stated that he was
the sole support of an aged mother
and finding no employment in his
home town set out In senrch of work
vowing every week ho would remit a
rtm to his mother.
Lately the inclement weather and
poor labor conditions m.ido It Impos-
sible for him to keep his word, but
fioin now on he will not forget there
Is someone at tho little Arkansas vll-
age and the mother will watch eag-
erly for the check from tho br.y in
tiue, for he was enlisted.
Evans declared Tuesday afternoon
that every month he would send $12
home and requested that if anything
happened to him the aged woman be
notified. Mr. Evans will leave Wed-
nesday night for Dallas, Texas where
lie will enter the coast artillery.—
Dally Oklahoman.
WILL YOU HELP?
+ If you receive a sample ♦
+ copy of this paper It is an In- *
+ 'Ration to you to subscribe. ♦
ih It is published in I lie Interest *
+ of International Socialism, tho ♦
+ movement which fuvors the ♦
+ ownership of the earth by alt ♦
+ the people and not by a part ♦
♦ of the people. To fight Ho- +
clalim you should undersand ♦
+ it. To fight for Socialism you ♦
+ should understand It. There #
+ fore we appeal to the Socialist ♦
+ to subscribe for the Democrat *
+ because it will nid him ill ♦
+ bis propaganda Likewise we ♦
+ appeal to the non Socialist to ♦
+ subscribe for it in order that *
♦ he may understand tuoie ♦
+ thoroughly the movement he ♦
<• is opposing. +
+ The price Is 50 cents a year ♦
+ in cash. +
+++++++++++++++++
ON DUTY—TO PROTECT “PROPERTY."
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Brown, Marvin. Industrial Democrat (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 1, No. 6, Ed. 1 Saturday, February 5, 1910, newspaper, February 5, 1910; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc941368/m1/1/: accessed April 24, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.