You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Saturday October 24, 1903
From The Labor World: "Where Union Labor Is The Strongest."
In its latest edition this Duluth, Minnesota, labor newspaper discusses recently released statistics on world-wide labor organizations:
Washington, Oct. 22.-According to the latest statistics of labor organizations it appears that considerably over half of the working men in the world who belong to unions are found in the United States, the British Isles, and the self-governing colonies of great Britain, including Canada. There are about 2,500,000 members of unions in this country and Canada. In the United Kingdom there are, in round numbers, 2,000,000 more. The 4,500,000 union workmen in those countries much out number the strength of labor unions in the rest of the world.
...Continental Europe, all told, has not more than 900,000 members of trades unions or other labor organizations.
In three of the great divisions of the globe-Asia, Africa, and South America-such bodies are practically non-existent...
It is still a noteworthy fact, however, that even in this enlightened country the union organizations comprise but a comparatively small minority of the workers-according to some authorities less than twenty per cent. The rapidity with which further growth is to be attained will probably depend largely upon the degrees of wisdom and reasonable forbearance exercised by the men who are now looked up to as labor leaders.
We would like to suggest to these labor leaders that, in the interest of Wisdom and Reasonable Forbearance and on behalf of Labor Unity, they consider: organizing the mass industries on an industrial basis which includes the unskilled workers, stopping discrimination across the color line, putting an end to their shameful anti-Asian practices, and ending their campaign against the Socialist who figure so prominently in the Labor Movement.
SOURCE
The Labor World
(Duluth, MN)
-of October 24, 1903
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Friday October 24, 1913
Dawson, New Mexico - 43 Bodies Recovered, Death Toll Will Reach 263
By this morning, 43 bodies had been recovered from the Stag Canyon Mine No. 2. An estimated 220 men are still missing and believed to be dead. Two helmetmen who arrived on the government rescue car, have also lost their lives attempting to save the trapped miners.
Mine Rescue Team
The wives of the volunteer helmetmen have joined the mothers and sisters, wives and children of the entombed miners at the mouth of the mine. They now stand silent, waiting as all hope of rescue fades. The mine is full of poison gas, and anyone trapped inside would surely have suffocated by now, according to the rescue team.
Of the 43 known dead and the 220 missing miners, 133 are Italians, and 35 are Greeks. The rest are said to be Slavic, Polish, and native-born Americans.
From the El Paso Herald: Ed Doyle driven away by mine guards.
Washington, D. C.,-Oct 24-Representative Keating of Colorado, today received a telegram from E. L. Doyle, an official of the Mine Workers' union, declaring that he was driven away from Dawson by mine guards. Mr. Keating made a protest to the postal authorities, as Doyle was also restrained from entering the post office.
"Hundreds of miners still entombed: action a disgrace to civilization. I ask if it was not my right to visit the post office," the telegram says in part.
We have learned that Ed Doyle, Secretary of District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America, and a few other union men were illegally arrested by Phelps-Dodge mine guards, taken six miles out into the desert, dumped there and warned not to return to Dawson.
SOURCES
El Paso Herald
(El Paso, TX)
-of Oct 24, 1913
Buried Unsung
Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre
-by Zeese Papanikolas
U of Utah Press, 1982
Photo: The photo is of an unidentified "early rescue team."
Used here to represent the courageous men who responded to the Dawson Mine Disaster. Two of them died attempting to rescue the trapped miners.
http://www.msha.gov/...
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Thursday October 24, 2013
More on early mine rescue teams:
In the pioneer studies of mine disasters and their causes, it was found important and necessary to examine conditions in a mine as soon as possible after an explosion or fire. This need led to establishing mine-safety stations and railroad cars. Although the original purpose of these stations and cars was to aid in technical studies, the courageous rescue work performed was so humanitarian and spectacular that the stations and cars soon were referred to as "mine-rescue" stations and cars...
Car No. 2, in the coal fields of New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, with headquarters at Trinidad, Colo., Salt Lake City, Utah, and finally with permanent headquarters at Burnham, Colo., a suburb of Denver.
Read more on early mine rescue teams here:
Mine Safety and Health Administration - MSHA
- Protecting Miners' Safety and Health Since 1978
http://www.msha.gov/...
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Lydia-Slaid Cleves
Oh, Lydia, your tears are heaven's rain,
But she never was the same..
-Karen Poston
Big Thank You to tardis10 for introducing me to this hauntingly beautiful song.
12:13 PM PT: Edited to give correct credit to songwriter of Lydia, thx again, tardis!