Lattimer Massacre

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The Lattimer Massacre was an incident in which a sheriff's posse killed nineteen unarmed immigrant miners and wounded scores more. On 10 September, 1897 at the Lattimer mine near Hazleton, Pennsylvania, men under the authority of the the Luzerne County sheriff fired on a peaceful labor demonstration made up of mostly Polish and Slovak anthracite miners. This incident stands not only as the largest massacre of Slavs in the United States, but also as a turning point in the American labor movement.

Contents

1 Background

1.1 Slavic immigration
1.2 Mining conditions

2 Events

2.1 Lead up
2.2 Massacre

3 Aftermath

4 External Links

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Background

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Slavic immigration

Eastern Europe was in economic peril in the late 19th century. Most families farmed small plots of land, sometimes no bigger than today's suburban backyards. These conditions produced a mass exodus to the United States at a time when that country was experiencing rapid industrialization and an explosion in steel production. Many of these new immigrants mined the coal needed to fuel this burgeoning industry.

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Mining conditions

These new miners, used to the harshness of old-world poverty, were initially willing to work in dangerous mines for little pay. Mines of that era were run with no consideration besides profit. Safety was neglected and miners were considered expendable and easily replaceable. Wage slavery was widely practiced by mines. In this system miners would be paid wages below subsistence level, forcing them to go into debt to the company-run store and placing them firmly in the mine's pocket. Mines also sought to control every aspect of their employees' lives, requiring them to live in company-owned housing, and be treated by company doctors.

Furthermore, the immigrant miners received a harsh welcome from the local population. As immigrants who were often Catholic, they faced much bigotry from these nativist Protestants. The slur "hunky" was commonly used.

1897 was a bad year for the coal industry. Low anthracite prices resulted in particularly poor pay and sporadic work for miners. Labor organizers from the United Mine Workers of America came to northeast Pennsylvania and began to organize strikes.

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Events

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Lead up

On 1 September, workers throughout Northeast Pennsylvania began to strike. About 5,000 miners soon joined the walkout. Demonstrators would march from mine to mine, shutting them down and adding new members to the strike. By midweek, the strike had swelled to 10,000. The mine owners, fearing for their property, and their bottom line, demanded help from the County Sheriff.

The municipal governments in Luzerne County were essentially under the control of the local mining companies. Sheriff James Martin declared a state of civil disorder allowing him to deputize a posse of 87 men; most of whom were locally-born Protestants, and some of them were undoubtedly connected with the management of local mining companies. They were armed with Winchester repeating rifles loaded with metal-jacketed bullets, giving the rounds greater lethality when fired at a crowd. The posse was ordered to "use whatever means necessary to quell the strikes."

On September 10, about 400 strikers were on their way to shut down the A.D. Pardee & Co. colliery at Lattimer. They marched unarmed, carrying not even walking sticks. The demonstrators were met by the sheriff and several deputies. While Sheriff Martin pointed his pistol at the head of a miner and read a proclamation banning demonstrations in the county, his deputies roughed up the strikers, breaking one man's arm with a rifle butt. This did not deter the miners, and they continued towards the Pardee mine.

The sheriff and his comrades took a streetcar to Lattimer to halt the march there. Some of the deputies were bent on confrontation. While on the streetcar one was overheard saying "I bet I drop six of them when I get over there."

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Massacre

When the demonstrators reached Lattimer, they were met again by the Sheriff and a semi-circle of about sixty armed deputies. The sheriff again ordered the crowd to disperse, but this only served to raise the tension to a boiling point. The halted march had resulted in confusion, compounded by the fact that many of the marchers spoke different languages.

An unknown person yelled "Fire!" and "Give two or three shots!" The sheriff was later accused of this, but the accusations could not be confirmed by any evidence. The posse opened fire. Fourteen Poles, four Slovaks, and one Lithuanian were killed on the spot. About forty more were wounded, at least six of whom later died of their wounds. Exact figures regarding the wounded are uncertain, as many were afraid to seek treatment at the hospital. About 150 rounds were fired, completely emptying several of the sixteen-round Winchesters. While some of the deputies rendered assistance to the wounded, others reacted more callously. When one wounded man cried for water, an onlooker heard a deputy respond, "We'll give you hell, not water, hunkies!"

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Aftermath

Reporters from many major east-coast newspapers were already in the county covering the strike. The resulting headlines outraged the American public. The Pennsylvania National Guard was immediately dispatched to the county to restore order. Sheriff Martin and 78 of his 87 deputies were arrested, but were later acquitted. This verdict upset many people involved in the Americal labor movement as well as the government of Austria-Hungary (homeland of some of the wounded). These parties alleged that the trial was conducted unfairly, and that the locally-born jury was unlikely to return a verdict favoring the miners.

The massacre's publicity drew much sympathy from the American middle class towards the plight of Slavic laborers. Ironically, however, it prompted distrust from the Slavic laborers toward the American system. This backlash added 15,000 new names to the rolls of the United Mine Workers of America.

Although the posse was acquitted, the legal fallout from the incident set an important precedent. In the future, only the National Guard would be used to restore order in times of civil disorder. The Ludlow Massacre of 1914, however, gave the Guard a reputation of being no less ruthless.

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