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lynching of Robert Prager, the United Mine Workers, and the problems of patriotism in 1918, The
Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Winter 2003 by Schwartz, E A
At about the same time that the miners were going on strike, about twenty-five would-be strikebreaking smelter workers were being arrested on the orders of Sheriff Jenkin Jenkins. The Herald coyly explained the charges against these men in this way: "One of the men had been found to be carrying concealed weapons while others had not." The sheriff was hauled into court on 17 October to explain himself, and despite the strenuous efforts of the state's attorney to find a law forbidding interstate movement of strikebreakers, was obliged by a writ of habeas corpus to let his prisoners go, "inasmuch as no charge had been preferred against most of them." Two deputy U.S. marshals, on the following day, cited Jenkins and five of his deputies (including Hannah Jokerst) for violating the injunction against interference with operations of the lead smelter. Before they took Jenkins away to Springfield, he said he had acted to preserve "peace and order. ... He had feared that the importation of the strike breakers, particularly the negroes, would cause trouble." He added that he was "especially seeking the agents who had been bringing the negroes into the city under false representations with regard to the strike."39
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A racial challenge had been superimposed on an already heated labor situation by the smelter company. A similar situation had led to a white-against-black race riot in nearby East St. Louis only a few months before.40 The hiring of black strikebreakers seems to have been a further spur to unify the almost entirely white community of Collinsville.
As for the mine strikes, fuel administrator Garfield said Thursday, 18 October, that leaders of the UMW were cooperating with him and "the whole matter will be straightened out within a few days." The New York Times had been told that "a radical element among the miners was, perhaps, responsible for much of the trouble."41 In a story datelined Springfield, 19 October, the Times said the miners were "on the verge of rebellion against Garfield, Farrington, and John P. White, President of the mine workers." Farrington was quoted as having threatened to revoke the charters of locals that declined to return to work by Monday, 22 October, "Mr. Farrington said his action was prompted by a desire to save the miners from industrial conscription."42
Representatives of the mine union locals in the Collinsville area met Sunday night. The Herald said, "sentiment was badly divided" at the meeting, but they decided to go back to work, and the strike ended Monday at all but one of the mines. The exception was the Donk Bros. Mine No. 3 in Maryville, where work began on Tuesday.43
The following night several strikebreakers, "mostly negroes," according to the Herald, were forced off streetcars "and in many other ways ... made to feel the hostility of the union men." A striking smelter worker cut a man identified as Mexican Mike Medina with a knife as he was leaving the plant.44
Nine men who had been pickets at the smelter were found guilty on 31 October of violating the federal injunction against interference with operations.45 Jenkins and his deputies were found guilty of violating the injunction the following day. The Herald commented, "The evidence showed that the sheriff and the deputies had arrested numerous men, mostly negroes, and had taken them to the county jail at Edwardsville, many of them with no charges against them. The judge based his decision on this evidence." Moses Johnson warned that the convictions "would cause a storm of protest among union men all over the state."
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