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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
The evolving inquiry of Carl Monroe, Irving Dilliard, and William Jokerst retained more traces of a deeper context than the published accounts. Each of them traced an ambiguous connection between the lynching and the United Mine Workers.
That connection is the key to the deeper context. Prager went to his death (with unsung courage, it must be added) as the result of cultivated irrational fear, but the killing began because he publicly challenged union leadership, and it quickly became an impenetrable defense for the union against accusations of disloyalty based on bitter labor discord in Collinsville. The Prager lynching was one incident in a struggle whose main figures were Moses Johnson of the United Mine Workers, his radical antagonist Joe Riegel, and the patriotic managers of a campaign to eliminate disloyalty in southern Illinois. In Collinsville it was a union leader who seized the patriotic high ground, and the result was the preservation of community unity under strong union influence.
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According to reports of the 1920 census, Collinsville then had a population of 9,753. Native-born whites of native-born parentage made up less than half of that population-about 45.5 percent. Native-born whites of foreign or mixed parentage made up about 33.7 percent. Foreign-born whites numbered 1,790, or about 17.6 percent.21 Politically, at least before the United States entered World War I, Collinsville included Socialist minority related to local organized labor. Several Socialist candidates ran in the April 1917 municipal election. Most did not do well. Charles Britton finished second in the three-man contest for city clerk with only 155 votes out of 897, or about 17.3 percent. Mayoral candidate Robert Bertolo, president of UMW Local No. 685, did less well, and so did Ed Franek, candidate for alderman in the fifth ward and chairman of the Collinsville trades council. Only one Socialist was elected, R.C. DeLaney, as alderman for the fourth ward with 258 out of 502 votes cast.22
On 5 June 1917, the war came to Collinsville in the form of registration for conscription. The day was made a holiday. Some two thousand people, by the account of the Collinsville Herald, marched down Main Street in the "Registration Day" parade, which was led by mounted marshals, followed by the Collinsville band, the Daughters of Veterans, and Grand Army Veterans in automobiles. Also marching were "Prudential Life Insurance Company representatives, the Chester Knitting Mill employes, the Lutheran school children, Local Union No. 264 U.M.W.A. of Consolidated Mine No. 17, the Catholic school children, Local Union No. 685 U.M.W. of Lumaghi Mines Nos. 2 and 3, Kreider's band, the public school children and their teachers, the city firemen's platoon, a group of 'campfire girls' on a float, a group of 'Red Cross girls' and mail carriers' delegation carrying an immense flag, members of the city council and city officials. ... Nearly all carried flags."
Registration exceeded expectations; 1,079 men registered, and a subhead stated, "Nearly half decline to claim any ground for exemption; over 400 indicate dependents." The writer of the story related that as the registrants were asked whether they claimed exemptions, "One blond-haired German miner who had taken his first papers and who said he was the sole support of his mother, father, and sister, said nothing in answer to the question, but a steely glint in his eye showed that he was made of the heroic stuff that puts country above all other considerations."23
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