Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/504

500 In the soft coal fields, after a strike in 1875 caused by a reduction in wages, two of the strike leaders, John Siney, president of the Miners' Union, and Zingo Parks were arrested for conspiracy. Siney was acquitted; but Parks was sent to the penitentiary. The famous "coal and iron police" was organized at this time. The union among the miners was practically destroyed, and soon the "Molly Maguires" appeared as the natural product of a policy of repression.

The pressure of hard times caused the membership of the International Typographical Union to decrease from 9,797 in 1873 to 4,260 in 1878; and the number of unions in the organization declined from 105 to 60. In 1877, unionism among cigarmakers "was almost extinct." Only 17 unions remained in good standing in the International Union. Outside of New York City, Chicago and Detroit there were only 217 union cigarmakers in the United States and Canada. The strikes of 1877 are said to have acted as an "alarm bell." There were over six times as many unions in 1881 as in 1877; and they were better organized "than in the most flourishing days of the past." Organization among the coal miners was practically destroyed by the period of hard times.

The Knights of St. Crispin and the Daughters of St. Crispin also practically disappeared with the panic.

Up to 1875 as a rule, labor leaders opposed the use of the strike except as a last resort. President Siney of the National Miners' Association stated that one of the objects of the association was "to remove as far as possible the cause of all strikes." In 1877, the first great railway strike occurred, and many bitter contests took place in the cigarmaking industry. And after 1877, "strikes multiplied enormously."

The middle years of the decade of the eighties were years of discontent and struggle. The competitive battle was extremely fierce. Many independent industries and proprietors were being ruthlessly crushed in order that industrial "American Beauty roses" might flourish; and in the process the employee inevitably suffered. The employer no longer came in personal touch with his employees; and the old personal relations no longer existed to soften and humanize the treatment of his employees. On the other hand, where the unions were in control, "the methods employed were not always diplomatic, and sometimes they were a bit coarse." This big-stick policy reached its climax in some of the western mining towns the government of which was