The Long Strike of 1875 (and the rise of the Molly Maguires)

This was a labor strike by anthracite coal miners in northeast Pennsylvania which led to the dissolution of the first truly effective miners’ labor union (the Workingmen's Benevolent Association - WBA) that had been formed by mine workers in 1868. The strike was the result of Franklin B. Gowen’s (President of the Reading Company and the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company) effort to gain economic hegemony over parts of the southern and middle coalfields in Schuylkill, Columbia, and Northumberland Counties, Pennsylvania and creating a production and transportation monopoly for his firm(s). Gowen had over-invested in the railroad and mines and needed to cut his labor costs to remain viable. This strike has also become associated with the events between 1873 and 1877 that led to the Molly Maguire trials.  

Background

The Workingmen's Benevolent Association of St. Clair [See Pinkowski, Edward, John Siney: The Miner's Martyr, Sunshine Press- Philadelphia, (1963)] (WBA) was organized March 21, 1868. The WBA under John Siney of St. Clair, the chief organizer was granted a charter on June 11, 1868. Siney declined the presidency in favor of Ralph Platt. Siney had experience in organizing consumer cooperatives in England, and was in the forefront of the miners’ fight against company "company" stores. The men formed a "benevolent association" because they were advised by their lawyer, Linn Bartholomew, that state laws did not allow a charter for a trade union. This association was modeled upon the Miners' Benevolent Society of Carbon County, founded in 1864. The Workingmen's Benevolent Association was the name under which all parts of the anthracite fields were organized. In 1870 the legislature gave the society a new charter and the name was changed to the Miners and Laborers’ Benevolent Association, but it continued to be called, except officially, by its old name—the Workingmen's Benevolent Association [See Bulletin of the Department of Labor, Vol 13, November 1897, p. 733].

 

The WBA almost immediately proved to be a success, aided by the unfortunate Avondale Mining disaster. In the aftermath of the Avondale mine disaster, and as the other deaths and injuries continued, thousands of miners joined the WBA and participated in a series of job actions and strikes (often called turnouts). The WBA struck in April 1870 to combat a wage reduction. An agreement was reached in the latter part of July called, from the part taken in forming it by the president of the Reading Railroad, the “Gowen compromise,” ironically. Gowen and the Reading had not yet completed their move to take over mine operators in the southern and middle fields.  These moves were to take place between 1871 and 1875.

In 1871, a labor action in the northern field created a work stoppage. An appeal was made to the workmen in the other regions to support the labor action, but these workmen in the lower (southern) fields were reluctant to join in the strike. However, the WBA leadership believed a sacrifice was to be made, and resolved that they would adhere to the wage so long as Luzerne and Carbon (the two northern counties) worked with the WBA in good faith. Eventually this strike was resolved through the means of arbitration, the first use of this method in a labor dispute {see BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, NO. 13—November, 1897, p.740]. Eventually, an agreement was reached for a minimum wage and a sliding scale which kept the miners and the operators at peace until 1875. This relative peace in labor relations was even maintained through the financial crisis, “Panic of 1873”, a depression in America and Europe. The WBA grew to represent over 30,000 miners in all regions of the coalfields [Danver, Steven L., Editor, Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History, Volume 1, ABC-CLIO (2011) p.466].

Prelude to the Long Strike

By 1872 the Reading Railroad was now through a sister company - the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company - also the biggest mine company in the lower anthracite region. It had used its monopoly on the railroads to take over a substantial acreage of coal lands. Between 1871 and 1875 Gowen borrowed $69 million to pay for his dual (coal and rail) empire. But he had overestimated the demand for train service (and the stable price of coal) and over-invested. Debt forced him and other railroads to fire many workers, resulting in a nationwide depression during the Panic of 1873.  By 1874 one third of Pennsylvania's work-force was unemployed.

In 1873 Siney left the WBA to pursue the presidency of a “national” miners’ union which embraced both anthracite miners in eastern Pennsylvania as well as bituminous coal miners in western Pennsylvania and Ohio - the Miners’ National Association (NMA).  Thomas F. Williams succeeded him at the WBA and later, John F. Welsh assumed leadership of the WBA [Kenny, Kevin, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires, Oxford University Press (1998) p. 169]. 

Gowen and the WBA co-existed in a fairly stable economic relationship between 1872 and 1874 [See Kenny Molly Maguires 1998, pp.168-170].  Gowen then sought to increase coal production in 1874 to stockpile reserves in anticipation of work stoppage under his consideration when he wanted to decrease  wages and improve his companies economic outlook.  Afterwards true to his plan, Gowen and the other operators (the Coal Exchange) then announced a harshly low wage rate for 1875 – 15-20% lower, and the abolishment of the agreed to minimum wage.  Surprisingly, the Miners' Journal, not a friend of organized labor, wrote [Miner’s Journal, January 4, 1875] that it had:

"...no hesitation in saying that these wages are too low for mining."

However, Gowen stated that these economic terms were non-negotiable in a ploy to get the WBA to strike, which it did on January 2, 1875 [The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society, CHRONOLOGY 1875, February 2006 Edition, p.2].

The Long Strike of 1875

The success of the strike would depend on regional solidarity.  For the strike to succeed, all the men in the upper and lower regions had to turnout (strike). In the Lehigh section of lower Luzerne County (the Eastern Middle Coal Field), the men quickly joined the striking mine workers of the two Schuylkill fields. But the workers in the Northern Coal Field, in upper Luzerne County, who had partially abandoned the WBA after their strike in 1871 and now belonged to the MNA,  did not agree to strike. Already agreeing to a pay cut of 10 percent, these men continued to work throughout 1875, dooming the prospects of a successful strike in the lower fields [Schlegel, Workingmen's Benevolent Association, p. 261.

As the strike continued month after month, many newspapers such as those in Harrisburg [Harrisburg Patriot, April 17, 1875] and Scranton [Scranton Republican, April 22, 1875] sided with the WBA, and unions from New York and Philadelphia contributed to the treasury of the WBA to help the miners in their strike against the mine operators [See Sunbury American, April 16, 1875.

Gowen responded by increasing the power of the Coal and Iron Police whose duty was to guard  those hired as strikebreakers. As the strike intensified, the police paraded through the streets of Schuylkill County seeking striker activity that turned violent. Strikers were reported to have derailed engines, set fire to loaded coal-cars, as well as burn down coal breakers and other buildings, and damage pumps (to flood mines). Against John Welsh’s orders, the miners played right into Gowen’s hands. By characterizing the labor union as a violent organization, rather than individual violent acts of frustrated workers, Gowen and Robert Ramsey (the new publisher of the Miners’ Journal (succeeding Benjamin Bannan in 1873) laid the groundwork for the eventual destruction of the WBA and any future unions for decades.  Welsh desperately offered to withdraw the basis system of wages and agree to any arrangement the operators were willing to make, but the Owners’ Coal Exchanges even refused to negotiate this favorable term.

By May, the Coal Exchange would no longer meet with the WBA at all [Schlegel,"The Workingmen's Benevolent Association," pp.264-66]. The operators now decided to reopen the mines unilaterally, guaranteeing protection to those who returned. In early June, the workers began to drift back to the mines and by July almost all of the collieries in the Schuylkill region were open again [Roy, History of the Coal Miners of the United States, 99]. 

A group of workers still refused to return to work. Most of the protest erupted between Shenandoah and Mahanoy City in Schuylkill County, and showed that violence was not a one way street. Striking workers paraded from Shenandoah west and attempted to convince the miners there who had returned to work, to again discontinue work, but the Coal and Iron Police led by Pinkerton (a detective form hired by Gowen) agent Robert Linden brought the march to a halt. The marchers changed course east to Mahanoy City, collecting followers as they went. Once they reached their destination, the crowd, which grew to thousands, only stopped when the police fired into the crowd. The miners returned to Shenandoah, defeated [See Schlegel, Ruler of the Reading, pp. 72-73; and Miners’ Journal, June 11, 1875].

On June 14, 1875, the WBA unconditionally surrendered by authorizing all locals in the anthracite fields to resume work on the best terms they could obtain individually.  Most men returned to work by July 1, ending the "Long Strike" and destroying the WBA union [The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society, CHRONOLOGY 1875, February 2006 Edition, p.27].

The WBA never recovered from the Long Strike; and within a few months it had collapsed. Workers were also forced to accept a wage 26.5 percent below the 1869 level. With the union gone, wages continued to fall over the next years until, in 1877, they were 54 percent below the 1869 level [Kenny, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires, p. 180 and see Chris Evans, History of the United Mine Workers of America from the Year 1860 to 1890, vol. 1 (Indianapolis: n.p., n.d.), p. 36].  Gowen and his allies had effectively evicted organized labor from the anthracite region

The Molly Maguires

Gowen had a fixation on this supposed secret organization dating back at least two years. Although never mentioned by name, in an article [Miners’ Journal, February 25, 1871], "The Tyranny in Schuylkill County," Benjamin Bannan described the “terrorism and tyranny” of the WBA and this "secret society".  To Bannan there was no difference between the secret society and the trade union; both were run by so-called terrorists. 

Gowen agreed with or himself initiated this assessment. When Pennsylvania’s Senate investigated railroad freight rates in 1871, Gowen had turned the proceedings into a general inquiry into labor-owner relations, conducted from his (and Bannan’s) point of view. Gowen insisted that a small, conspiratorial band of radicals (again un-named) controlled a majority of workingmen in the lower anthracite region.  He noted the existence of [Kenny, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires, pp. 143-44]:

"...an association which votes in secret, at night, that men's lives shall be taken, and that they shall be shot before their wives, murdered in cold blood, for daring to work against the order...the only men who are shot are the men to disobey the mandates of the Workingmen's Benevolent Association".

Neither Gowen nor Bannan had evidence to support these claims. Rumors circulated that the chimerical Molly Maguires were active once again (having first made the newspapers as anti-draft proponents in the early stages of the Civil War). Also in the early months of 1871, a number of mine superintendents in Schuylkill County were threatened and in October 1873, Gowen hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to investigate to what extent this was true. This action introduced agent James McParland (McKenna) into Schuylkill County. He was not the only Pinkerton agent assigned. In 1874, P.M. Cummings joined the WBA in and attempt to confirm Gowen’s suspicions [Kenny, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires, pp. 156]. He could find no evidence, however, that the WBA was involved in violence [See Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection, Pinkerton’sNational Detective Agency, report of Franklin to Gowen, on the work of Detective Cummings, March 27, 1874], despite rising to the level of official within the union [Lens, Sydney, The Labor Wars: From the Molly Maguires to the Sit-downs, Garden City, NY:Doubleday, (1973) p. 22].

It was the Long Strike and the associated violence during its latter half that allowed Gowen and Bannan’s successor at the Miners’ Journal, Ramsey, to identify the WBA with the “Molly Maguires” in 1875. Although the union leaders continued to condemn violence, they appeared to lose control over some of members of the rank and file as the strike dragged on for month after month. Evidence notwithstanding, Gowen and Ramsey conflated the miners’ labor movement and a closed secret society now being identified as the Molly Maguires [Kenny, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires, pp. 158].

A "coffin notice" was presented by Franklin B. Gowen, along with other similar coffin notices and a List of Outrages, as exhibits in his 1875 Legislative testimony. By Gowen’s account himself before the Pennsylvania State Legislature (in another investigation of the railroads) committee in July 1875 he identified a long list of “outrages” committed by miners/Molly Maguires, including 67 from the period after April 1, 1875. [De Wees, F.P., THE MOLLY MAGUIRES-THE ORIGIN, GROWTH, AND CHARACTER OF THE ORGANIZATION, J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO: PHILADELPHIA (l877), Appendix]. The defunct labor union (WBA) and the Molly Maguires now appeared (after Gowen’s and Ramsey’s efforts) to be as one and the same. And the Molly Maguires apparently became a new reality. Eventually the Molly Maguires were conflated with the Ancient Order of Hibernians (a secret Irish Benevolent Society) by Pinkerton's James McParlan's testimony in the future trials. McParlan claimed that the terms “Ancient Order of Hibernians”, “Molly Maguires” and “Buckshots” [another pejorative from the Civil War era] were interchangeable, describing the organization as “The Ancient Order of Hibernians, more commonly called the Molly Maguires,” [West, R. A., 1876. Report of the Case of the Commonwealth vs. John Kehoe Et Al., Members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Commonly Known as “Molly Maguires.” Indicted in the Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace, for Schuylkill County, Penna., for an Aggravated Assault. Pottsville, PA. Ed. Yale Law Library, s.a., p. 16] further stating the fantastical claim that “it was the general practice [of the AOH] to commit crimes.” [West 1876, p. 22]

 

The defeat of the WBA in the Long Strike on 1875 was however followed by three months of violence in the coal regions, which included six murders - Thomas Gwyther, Gomer Jones, Benjamin Yost, Thomas Sanger, William Uren and John P. Jones - now attributed to “Molly Maguires” (among others), by Pinkerton’s agent McParlan and his client, Franklin Gowen.  

As one self-identified “Molley” wrote [Shenandoah Herald, October 2, 1875 (sic)]: 

“… the union is Broke up and we Have got nothing to defind ourselves with But our Revolvers and if we dount use them we shal have to work for 50 cints a Day...i have told ye the Mind of the children of Mistress Molly Maguire, all we want is a fare Days wages for a fare Days work, and that’s what we cant get now By a Long shot."