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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
Prager had been a skilled baker-highly skilled, according to Mrs. Bruno-but had suddenly become a laborer in a coal mine. Johnson and Fornero, in a statement issued the night of 7 April, accused Prager of having lied when he had claimed to have worked in mines in Germany.59 They said (not very credibly considering the evidence of Prager's loyalty that would become known later) that Prager had stated "that Germany was fighting for a righteous cause and would win," and yet they added the ambiguous statement that their investigations had "led us and other parties and officials to believe that he was either a German spy or a man who would be injurious to the mining industry and unsafe in the mines" (emphasis added).60
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When Johnson testified at the coroner's inquest, he relayed a statement by a mine examiner at the mine where Prager had worked that Prager had come to him asking questions about the workings of the mine, saying he intended to become a mine manager: "Among other things he asked to know were the state laws and the organization laws regarding mine managers, something about the air controls in mines and about explosions and gases." Prager's interest in explosions, by this account, is what had excited the suspicion of the miners.61
If Prager was not planning to blow up the mine (and there is not so much as the shadow of a reasonable suspicion that he was), then his statement to the mine examiner suggests that he had a genuine ambition to join management-an ambition a wiser man might have been more reticent to express under the circumstances. That fits William Jokerst's characterization of Prager as "the kind of fellow that I think wanted to get ahead. ... He was wanting to do more than just be a laborer."62 The miners who knew Prager at the mine in Maryville-the same mine which had returned to operation one conspicuous day later than the other mines in the Collinsville area-had more reason to question Prager's loyalty to his fellow workers than his loyalty to his adopted country.
Why did Moses Johnson protect Joe Riegel by making himself the chief witness for the proposition that Prager was disloyal and dangerous? Riegel was one of the men Johnson had brawled with on Main Street only seven months before. By focusing attention on the mob's gruesome patriotism, however, Johnson effectively washed out the stain left on the loyalty of the miners during the autumn strikes by newspaper writers, Dr. Garfield, and even some of their own union officials-Johnson among them. By defending the mob, Johnson was defending the union, restoring his own authority, and staving off community division.
Johnson denied on 6 April that miners had been responsible for the hanging, but this was not credible and he may not have expected it to be credible. According to the Post-Dispatch, he said, "I was in the crowd at the city hall before they took Prager out. ... I know it wasn't a crowd of miners. There might have been some miners."63 One might ask what Johnson was doing there, and what he did after Prager was brought out.
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