1 50 8 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/894a29529d1ccedc4958ffe5adb07761.pdf b28eebfb81ec55f900de720ddd87dccd PDF Text Text 144 SLOVAKIA Book Reuiew Dr. Gordon Skilling, Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution, Princeton University Press (Princeton, 1976) XVI, 924 pp. $45.00. Among some one hundred books published on the events in Czecho-Slovakia in 1968 which aimed at "socialism with a human face," Professor Skilling's extensive study is the best and most authoritative of them all. For nearly 40 years, Skilling has followed the political scene and in numerous articles and several books has presented them to Western readers. His knowledge of local languages, his frequent stays in Prague, and visits to Slovakia, enabled him to write more authoritatively and with deeper perception of the problems than many other specialists in Eastern Europe could do by observing the developments from afar or compiling their books from other writings. It is Skilling's "opus magnum," not only because of its size, but also due to his thorough knowledge of the historical background of Czechs and Slovaks, their mutual relations, tensions and clashes, and of the ideological forces and men belying the efforts to reform the social system imposed on peoples of East Central Europe by the Soviet Union. More than anybody else up to the present, the author used all accessible published and unpublished sources of information in the Czech and Slovak languages, including secret documents and extensive interviews with leading figures of the Government, the Party, and the reform movement. Some parts of the book sound familiar, for the author has written extensively on Czechoslovakia during the past 30 years. He now gives a global view and provides an analysis of the events he calls an ''interrupted revolution.'' He assesses their impact on Czechs and Slovaks, and on Soviet policy in general. It should also be said that his approach to the Slovak problem, and his assessment of the role of Slovaks in the reform movement headed by Alexander Dubcek (mistakenly presented in many other books as a Czech), is remarkably free of bias. He admits without reservation that the Communist Party, having reunited its Czech and Slovak branches in 1948, was predominantly Czech in membership and leadership. The campaign against Slovak nationalism in the fifties resulted in the execution of Vladimir Clementis, the imprisonment of Husak and others, and the subordination of the Slovak party to Prague. Czechoslovakia again became a state ruled by Czechs, but this time with even greater indifference to Slovak rights than before 1939. The 1960 Constitution openly articulated extreme centralism and reduced the forms of Slovak self-government to nil. After 1963 there was a resurgence of Slovak cultural nationalism and a certain advance in the political position of the Slovaks, but they continued to be minor partners in a predominantly Czech state and party. (p. 10) �SLOVAKIA 145 Skilling also admits, contrary to those who write only about the Slovak collaboration with Germans: ''During the years of war (in both World Wars) there was a readiness on the part of some Czechs (and Slovaks) to adapt themselves to the prevailing system and to collaborate with their German rulers.'' He adds that Svejk, ''the typical model of Czech behavior toward authority,'' relates '' only to the Czechs and not to the Slovaks, who possess, in their history, the figure of Janosik, a kind of Robin Hood of the 18th century, who became, in literature and folklore, a legendary symbol of Slovak nationalism and rebellion against social injustice." (p. 16-17) With objectivity uncommon in the West, Skilling also presents the divergence of opinions between Slovaks and Czechs during the period of Dubcek's regime, a period when "Slovak opinion crystallized rapidly in favor of federalism, and the Czech public evinced little or no interest in the matter" (p. 456). Earlier he notes, "In almost all institutions, for instance, the trade unions, the Academy of Sciences, the youth league, and the cultural associations, Slovaks were in a subordinate position, subject to bureaucratic rule from Prague" (p. 53). The role of Slovaks in the struggle for de-Stalinization and for liberalization also seems to be presented more objectively than in other books. After 1963, Slovak writers and journalists were either in the forefront of or kept pace with Czech intellectuals. The Slovak question played an important part from the beginning to the end of the revolution interrupted by Soviet tanks. The book is divided into six parts, and contains 22 chapters with an interesting epilogue on Dubcek's decline and fall. In the epilogue, Skilling deals with theoretical questions of the Dubcek era, and then adds useful appendixes and a bibliography. Throughout the book, Skilling maintains a high level of scholarship, amply documenting his presentation of events. The structure of the book is well planned. Its global view is not obscured by the author's richly detailed descriptions of the crisis and its final tragic end; the author's narrative skills are many. Skilling is too serious a scholar to look for slogans . From the Slovak side, at least one objection should be raised. Skilling writes that "Husak had come to resemble not so much President Hacha, a conservative but reluctant collaborator of Hitler, but rather Father Tiso, who ruled Slovakia, under Hitler's auspices, with a strong commitment to Nazi policy.'' Since I presume that Professor Skilling has read V. Nastny's book: The Czechs Under Nazi Rule and Hacha's telegrams and speeches therein, he seems to be too generous to Hacha and ill-informed about President Tiso. It is not true that Tiso "ruled with a strong commitment to Nazi policy." If a comparison is necessary, then Husak can be compared with Prime Minister Tuka, whom Husak put to the gallows because he trusted �146 SLOVAKIA Berlin and executed its orders - in the same way Husak now does with regard to Moscow. J . M . Kirschbaum �SLOVAKIA 147 Our Contributors Edward J. Behuncik, J .D., attorney; President, Slovak League of America; Stratford, Connecticut Konstantin Culen, author, historian Joseph M. Kirschbaum, LL.D. , Ph.D. , historian , author; Toronto, Ontario, Canada Stanley Z. Pech Hana Ponicka Alexander J . Rudinsky, student M. Mark Stolarik, Ph.D., historian, professor; Cleveland, Ohio Harry B. Schooley, III, Buffalo, New York George A. Turner Theodoric J . Zubek , O.F.M., S.T.D., author, lecturer; Easton, Pennsylvania ���Plll NT ID IN U.S.A. JIO NO TA PIU NTI RY , MID DLi TO WN , PA. � 144 SLOVAKIA Book Reuiew Dr. Gordon Skilling, Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution, Princeton University Press (Princeton, 1976) XVI, 924 pp. $45.00. Among some one hundred books published on the events in Czecho-Slovakia in 1968 which aimed at "socialism with a human face," Professor Skilling's extensive study is the best and most authoritative of them all. For nearly 40 years, Skilling has followed the political scene and in numerous articles and several books has presented them to Western readers. His knowledge of local languages, his frequent stays in Prague, and visits to Slovakia, enabled him to write more authoritatively and with deeper perception of the problems than many other specialists in Eastern Europe could do by observing the developments from afar or compiling their books from other writings. It is Skilling's "opus magnum," not only because of its size, but also due to his thorough knowledge of the historical background of Czechs and Slovaks, their mutual relations, tensions and clashes, and of the ideological forces and men belying the efforts to reform the social system imposed on peoples of East Central Europe by the Soviet Union. More than anybody else up to the present, the author used all accessible published and unpublished sources of information in the Czech and Slovak languages, including secret documents and extensive interviews with leading figures of the Government, the Party, and the reform movement. Some parts of the book sound familiar, for the author has written extensively on Czechoslovakia during the past 30 years. He now gives a global view and provides an analysis of the events he calls an ''interrupted revolution.'' He assesses their impact on Czechs and Slovaks, and on Soviet policy in general. It should also be said that his approach to the Slovak problem, and his assessment of the role of Slovaks in the reform movement headed by Alexander Dubcek (mistakenly presented in many other books as a Czech), is remarkably free of bias. He admits without reservation that the Communist Party, having reunited its Czech and Slovak branches in 1948, was predominantly Czech in membership and leadership. The campaign against Slovak nationalism in the fifties resulted in the execution of Vladimir Clementis, the imprisonment of Husak and others, and the subordination of the Slovak party to Prague. Czechoslovakia again became a state ruled by Czechs, but this time with even greater indifference to Slovak rights than before 1939. The 1960 Constitution openly articulated extreme centralism and reduced the forms of Slovak self-government to nil. After 1963 there was a resurgence of Slovak cultural nationalism and a certain advance in the political position of the Slovaks, but they continued to be minor partners in a predominantly Czech state and party. (p. 10) �SLOVAKIA 145 Skilling also admits, contrary to those who write only about the Slovak collaboration with Germans: ''During the years of war (in both World Wars) there was a readiness on the part of some Czechs (and Slovaks) to adapt themselves to the prevailing system and to collaborate with their German rulers.'' He adds that Svejk, ''the typical model of Czech behavior toward authority,'' relates '' only to the Czechs and not to the Slovaks, who possess, in their history, the figure of Janosik, a kind of Robin Hood of the 18th century, who became, in literature and folklore, a legendary symbol of Slovak nationalism and rebellion against social injustice." (p. 16-17) With objectivity uncommon in the West, Skilling also presents the divergence of opinions between Slovaks and Czechs during the period of Dubcek's regime, a period when "Slovak opinion crystallized rapidly in favor of federalism, and the Czech public evinced little or no interest in the matter" (p. 456). Earlier he notes, "In almost all institutions, for instance, the trade unions, the Academy of Sciences, the youth league, and the cultural associations, Slovaks were in a subordinate position, subject to bureaucratic rule from Prague" (p. 53). The role of Slovaks in the struggle for de-Stalinization and for liberalization also seems to be presented more objectively than in other books. After 1963, Slovak writers and journalists were either in the forefront of or kept pace with Czech intellectuals. The Slovak question played an important part from the beginning to the end of the revolution interrupted by Soviet tanks. The book is divided into six parts, and contains 22 chapters with an interesting epilogue on Dubcek's decline and fall. In the epilogue, Skilling deals with theoretical questions of the Dubcek era, and then adds useful appendixes and a bibliography. Throughout the book, Skilling maintains a high level of scholarship, amply documenting his presentation of events. The structure of the book is well planned. Its global view is not obscured by the author's richly detailed descriptions of the crisis and its final tragic end; the author's narrative skills are many. Skilling is too serious a scholar to look for slogans . From the Slovak side, at least one objection should be raised. Skilling writes that "Husak had come to resemble not so much President Hacha, a conservative but reluctant collaborator of Hitler, but rather Father Tiso, who ruled Slovakia, under Hitler's auspices, with a strong commitment to Nazi policy.'' Since I presume that Professor Skilling has read V. Nastny's book: The Czechs Under Nazi Rule and Hacha's telegrams and speeches therein, he seems to be too generous to Hacha and ill-informed about President Tiso. It is not true that Tiso "ruled with a strong commitment to Nazi policy." If a comparison is necessary, then Husak can be compared with Prime Minister Tuka, whom Husak put to the gallows because he trusted �146 SLOVAKIA Berlin and executed its orders - in the same way Husak now does with regard to Moscow. J . M . Kirschbaum �SLOVAKIA 147 Our Contributors Edward J. Behuncik, J .D., attorney; President, Slovak League of America; Stratford, Connecticut Konstantin Culen, author, historian Joseph M. Kirschbaum, LL.D. , Ph.D. , historian , author; Toronto, Ontario, Canada Stanley Z. Pech Hana Ponicka Alexander J . Rudinsky, student M. Mark Stolarik, Ph.D., historian, professor; Cleveland, Ohio Harry B. Schooley, III, Buffalo, New York George A. Turner Theodoric J . Zubek , O.F.M., S.T.D., author, lecturer; Easton, Pennsylvania ���Plll NT ID IN U.S.A. JIO NO TA PIU NTI RY , MID DLi TO WN , PA. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1977, Vol. 27 Description An account of the resource Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 144 SLOVAKIA Book Reuiew Dr. Gordon Skilling, Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution, Princeton University Press (Princeton, 1976) XVI, 924 pp. $45.00. Among some one hundred books published on the events in Czecho-Slovakia in 1968 which aimed at "socialism with a human face," Professor Skilling's extensive study is the best and most authoritative of them all. For nearly 40 years, Skilling has followed the political scene and in numerous articles and several books has presented them to Western readers. His knowledge of local languages, his frequent stays in Prague, and visits to Slovakia, enabled him to write more authoritatively and with deeper perception of the problems than many other specialists in Eastern Europe could do by observing the developments from afar or compiling their books from other writings. It is Skilling's "opus magnum," not only because of its size, but also due to his thorough knowledge of the historical background of Czechs and Slovaks, their mutual relations, tensions and clashes, and of the ideological forces and men belying the efforts to reform the social system imposed on peoples of East Central Europe by the Soviet Union. More than anybody else up to the present, the author used all accessible published and unpublished sources of information in the Czech and Slovak languages, including secret documents and extensive interviews with leading figures of the Government, the Party, and the reform movement. Some parts of the book sound familiar, for the author has written extensively on Czechoslovakia during the past 30 years. He now gives a global view and provides an analysis of the events he calls an ''interrupted revolution.'' He assesses their impact on Czechs and Slovaks, and on Soviet policy in general. It should also be said that his approach to the Slovak problem, and his assessment of the role of Slovaks in the reform movement headed by Alexander Dubcek (mistakenly presented in many other books as a Czech), is remarkably free of bias. He admits without reservation that the Communist Party, having reunited its Czech and Slovak branches in 1948, was predominantly Czech in membership and leadership. The campaign against Slovak nationalism in the fifties resulted in the execution of Vladimir Clementis, the imprisonment of Husak and others, and the subordination of the Slovak party to Prague. Czechoslovakia again became a state ruled by Czechs, but this time with even greater indifference to Slovak rights than before 1939. The 1960 Constitution openly articulated extreme centralism and reduced the forms of Slovak self-government to nil. After 1963 there was a resurgence of Slovak cultural nationalism and a certain advance in the political position of the Slovaks, but they continued to be minor partners in a predominantly Czech state and party. (p. 10) SLOVAKIA 145 Skilling also admits, contrary to those who write only about the Slovak collaboration with Germans: ''During the years of war (in both World Wars) there was a readiness on the part of some Czechs (and Slovaks) to adapt themselves to the prevailing system and to collaborate with their German rulers.'' He adds that Svejk, ''the typical model of Czech behavior toward authority,'' relates '' only to the Czechs and not to the Slovaks, who possess, in their history, the figure of Janosik, a kind of Robin Hood of the 18th century, who became, in literature and folklore, a legendary symbol of Slovak nationalism and rebellion against social injustice." (p. 16-17) With objectivity uncommon in the West, Skilling also presents the divergence of opinions between Slovaks and Czechs during the period of Dubcek's regime, a period when "Slovak opinion crystallized rapidly in favor of federalism, and the Czech public evinced little or no interest in the matter" (p. 456). Earlier he notes, "In almost all institutions, for instance, the trade unions, the Academy of Sciences, the youth league, and the cultural associations, Slovaks were in a subordinate position, subject to bureaucratic rule from Prague" (p. 53). The role of Slovaks in the struggle for de-Stalinization and for liberalization also seems to be presented more objectively than in other books. After 1963, Slovak writers and journalists were either in the forefront of or kept pace with Czech intellectuals. The Slovak question played an important part from the beginning to the end of the revolution interrupted by Soviet tanks. The book is divided into six parts, and contains 22 chapters with an interesting epilogue on Dubcek's decline and fall. In the epilogue, Skilling deals with theoretical questions of the Dubcek era, and then adds useful appendixes and a bibliography. Throughout the book, Skilling maintains a high level of scholarship, amply documenting his presentation of events. The structure of the book is well planned. Its global view is not obscured by the author's richly detailed descriptions of the crisis and its final tragic end; the author's narrative skills are many. Skilling is too serious a scholar to look for slogans . From the Slovak side, at least one objection should be raised. Skilling writes that "Husak had come to resemble not so much President Hacha, a conservative but reluctant collaborator of Hitler, but rather Father Tiso, who ruled Slovakia, under Hitler's auspices, with a strong commitment to Nazi policy.'' Since I presume that Professor Skilling has read V. Nastny's book: The Czechs Under Nazi Rule and Hacha's telegrams and speeches therein, he seems to be too generous to Hacha and ill-informed about President Tiso. It is not true that Tiso "ruled with a strong commitment to Nazi policy." If a comparison is necessary, then Husak can be compared with Prime Minister Tuka, whom Husak put to the gallows because he trusted 146 SLOVAKIA Berlin and executed its orders - in the same way Husak now does with regard to Moscow. J . M . Kirschbaum SLOVAKIA 147 Our Contributors Edward J. Behuncik, J .D., attorney; President, Slovak League of America; Stratford, Connecticut Konstantin Culen, author, historian Joseph M. Kirschbaum, LL.D. , Ph.D. , historian , author; Toronto, Ontario, Canada Stanley Z. Pech Hana Ponicka Alexander J . Rudinsky, student M. Mark Stolarik, Ph.D., historian, professor; Cleveland, Ohio Harry B. Schooley, III, Buffalo, New York George A. Turner Theodoric J . Zubek , O.F.M., S.T.D., author, lecturer; Easton, Pennsylvania Plll NT ID IN U.S.A. JIO NO TA PIU NTI RY , MID DLi TO WN , PA.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Back Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 27 (No. 50) Description An account of the resource includes Book Reviews; Our Contributors Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/d21a21880b64960b1f061fe54da171c4.pdf 2196332d20dd317fdc9f4385f9ae7d9c PDF Text Text 136 SLOVAKIA A Slovak-American Perspective in a Changing Society ALEXANDER J. RUDINSKY It is important to talk of Slovakia within the context of the rest of the world and of changing events. As Slovak-Americans we face a complex series of events different from those either of the Slovak or the American people, and yet we experience familiar ties with both. The insights which come from having an affinity towards these two cultures provide a truer picture of our personal and social lives. I remember the halusky s bryndzou we ate on Sunday. I remember the chickens running around the yard. We weren't supposed to keep the gate open for fear they 'd run out. I remember the Kalvaria (Calvary) with medieval statues nestled in a pattern between the trees on the hill. I remember helping plant the garden and being scared by the geese. The buses went everywhere all the time. The cobblestone streets were always being repaired, as were the buildings. I remember much scaffolding on the church. Inside, the scaffolding hid the figures of painted cherubs high on the ceiling; sometimes they would peek out. When we sat in the dark wooden pews Mom would give us each a koruna to put in when the basket came around. In the little town of Banska Stiavnica my thoughts were dreamlike. How much of it was because I was twelve , or because I was in a new land with a new culture, I don't know. I do know, however, there is ·a definite change. I spent half of two years in Slovakia with my Slovak relatives. Life there was more tightly knit. I had a definite place in the public school I went to, in the community of neighbors, and of course, in the family. Since I was a foreigner, especially from America, the place I had in these groups was rather unique. I was looked upon as different and special. But also in many instances, I was looked upon as a member. This is what I cherished. One did not do things without the family, without the community, without loyalty towards those to whom one belonged. The four children in the house, from age twenty to eleven, slept in the same room. We ate together and spent most of our time with other members of the family. The primary social occasion was visiting our second cousins at the end of the street. Walking up the Sitno mountain reminded me of the story told about the Turks who almost conquered that area. Almost. During the seige, the Slovaks at the top of the hill were running drastically short of food. As a gesture to the Turks, they baked a huge loaf of bread and This paper won First Place in the scholarship competition of the Slovak League. �SLOVAKIA 137 rolled it down the mountain into their camp. The Turks were impressed by the pertinacity of the Slovaks, and their seeming store of extra provisions. Soon they abandoned their siege. Living in Czecho-Slovakia gives one a sense of tradition unfelt in America, and quite different from that of Western Europe; a rough and harsh beauty. It is evident in the Tatras and evident in the tale of Janosik. It is also evident on the faces and in the hearts of the people. People from all over talk of the Slovaks as being a "noble" and "exuberant" people. "The Slovaks are generally known as unadulterated peasants and shepherd people, settled in a land of considerable natural beauty. Observers have always known to appreciate their natural handsomeness and dignity as well as the incorruptible honesty of their character. "(l) American Culture The first two years and then later the two months I spent in Slovakia formed one of the most important experiences in my life and education. The rest of the time I have spent in America. The culture here is of a completely different nature. All the while I was growing up like my ·brothers and sisters, I had a room alone. Our society places more importance on the solitary individual as a center of responsibility, rather than on the family or neighborhood. The will of the solitary self which harbors loneliness goes well with the Protestant ethic so predominant in this country. It is difficult to say what American culture is. The facets of life in this country are many. The newly rich WASPS, the oilmen of Texas, the real estaters of Florida, are in direct contrast to the quiet, distinguished WASPS of New England. And the majority of America's people are descendants of recent immigrants who are in varying degrees of WASP assimilation. The constant change we have is a necessity. Whatever America is, it is different from what we or our Slovak predecessors came from. Big cars, large steaks, and mass consumption are in direct contrast with the small Skodas, potatoes, and folk art products. Conflicts For all the talk of truth in America there is a lot of falsehood here. All forms of mass media, especially television, block many realities out. This doesn't make people forget the realities, but they tend not to acknowledge them as much. In all the shows the "good guy" wins, and the ' 'bad guy' ' gets what he deserves, usually a bullet in the back of his head. An incredible amount of violence is just one way of distorting the facts and giving a view of the world that is totaly unrealistic. Possibly a less blatant distortion is the propagation of stereotyped roles. This is not only present in television's dream world, but also in our society. We are all too familiar with the jokes about the Polish, a fad that has �138 SLOVAKIA lowered many conversations. The portrayal of ethnics as being dumb flag-waving fascists is still quite prevalent. This is evident in such slang as " hunky " . Who wants to be associated with that? Rather let's try and match up to the cool American stereotype we always see on television. He is usually quiet and has everything under control. He is usually tough and individualistic. He knows what he wants and knows how to get it. As the saying goes , "He 's cool, calm and collected." These aren't bad traits to have! Women are also stereotyped in the media. She is self-assured and seductive. Her saying is " Clean is sexy. " Not bad traits to have either! The tendency to use these sterotyped roles is strong. And why not? These roles are quite socially acceptable, and immerse the owner in a charismatic light. Many other countries have worse distortions than these seemingly peripheral ones. As Slovaks, an oppressed people, we are quite, quite familiar with them. What the Slovaks are facing at present is degrading and very pressing. However, this does not negate the problem we have here , either . Our situation in life , especially when growing up, is filled with numerous differences in how we react to society . This becomes more complicated when society reacts to itself in more than one way. Since here in the United States the media portray a false world, many people bring some of these false perceptions into the "real world." This is again complicated by the differences in "real worlds" in our many cultures. It becomes important to look at some of these differences to understand the conflicts which Slovaks, as an ethnic group living in the United States , feel. Slovak-Americans must bear more of these conflicts than the typical WASP. Multi-cultural people bring into a culture many inherited differences of perception. Different cultural groups relate to anger, hatred, desire and pain in vastly different ways. Mark Zborowski in his book People and Pain, illustrates many differences in perception . Societal pressure to adhere to the societal norm is great. When deviation occurs, such as culture differences, much misunderstanding and stereotyping results. Another problem, that of self-misunderstanding, results. People try to be what they are not. They try to live up to a cultural type not their own. They go against their own instincts for the reward of societal acceptance. What do we have to give up for these constantly sought after types? Do not the majority of us have to give up some aspect of our heritage , our past? Have we always been the quintessential American , cool , calm , collected? Secretly we know we have not, and still, how many times do we cover it up to ourselves? The whole idea of an ethnic memory is not so much remembering a series of events, but rather it is the feeling, instincts , and expectations passed from generation to generation. It is the patterns of behavior and �SLOVAKIA 139 emotion for the individual and the people as a whole. Being ethnic requires us to understand that sense of reality. John Wayne vs Janosik The heroes of a culture reveal many peculiar insights to that culture's frame of reference. It is helpful to know a person's history and cultural background to understand his perceptions. Juro Janosik is certainly no less than the prototype of Slovak mentality. On the other hand, a perfect hero of America is John Wayne. I think the illustration of fundamental differences between these two can provide insight into the differences in the values of either society. On the one hand, the individualistic, cool oppressor type; John Wayne needs no justification for his actions. He can "do as he damn well pleases." Also the phrase "he calls 'em as he sees 'em" is characteristic of such an attitude. On the other hand, Janosik has qualities illustrating different aspects of personality. His whole life is centered around fighting against injustice. He harbors loyalty to his beloved ones and is sensitive and sentimental. Instead of being totally individualistic, he relies heavily on his mountain boys. The way the hero fits into his surrounding environment also influences the culture's frame of reference. Janosik dealt mostly with shepherds and poor folk, fighting against the established barons. He fought upwards against oppression. John Wayne fought the Indians; he drove them away . His was a different sense of justice (might makes right). Janosik's justice was closer to the word's true meaning. Which does one follow: John Wayne or Janosik? Much of this decision depends on to what extent the ethnic experience exists in us individually. Michael Novak gives an illuminating description of the crisis: The battle is partly in one's own soul. On the one hand American, enlightened, educated; on the other, stubbornly resistant, in love with values too dear to jettison, at home neither in the ethnic community nor in any intellectual group, neither with theorists nor with practical politicians, convinced of a certain rightness in one's soul and yet not confident that others will see, can see, the subtle links in a different way of life. It is the insecurity of certainty: the sense that something of value is not likely to be understood. (2) Cultural Multiplicity Within inheritors of more than one heritage there arise conflicts. However, this meeting of different ways of life many times is quite beneficial. Synergy, a word very few people use, means the behavior of whole systems unpredicted by its parts or any subassembly of its parts(3), i.e., the combination of various things may be stronger than the sum of its parts. One and one and one equals four. A three hundred pound man can sit on a bicycle with wheels that are supported by �140 SLOVAKIA spokes a child could bend. It is the arrangement of those spokes which makes it possible to withstand great pressure. The ignorance of such a concept creates misunderstandings in many areas of knowledge, not the least of which is relationships between people. Since this ignorance is widespread throughout society, people with a different cultural background are usually thought of for other reasons than for their own potential benefit. The misunderstanding results in such ideas as cultural inferiority, as if purity of heritage is a great virtue, and in such nick-names as ''half-breed,'' etc. Although our notion of equality has been around since the beginning of this country, so were Jefferson's slaves. Even though this concept has dropped from prominence, much of the idea of intellectual superiority remains. These notions are looked upon as ridiculous in present day science. The study of biology shows us the creatures which survive are the ones that are most suitable to the environment. When the environment changes, the animals must either adapt or perish. Humans are no different: the more variables - the more adaptive to change. L. S. Harms in his book Intercultural Communication also raises the concept of synergy: Synergy is a process that may operate in an organized system with a favorable structure. In the case of communication, in an authority structure in which messages are prepared and transmitted, there is little opportunity for synergy to operate. The interchange structure, however, is favorable to the process of synergy. (indeed) .. . high synergy may be expected. (4) A high number of various cultural influences is not unique to Slovak-Americans. It is inherent in all intercultural transactions. The advantages of a multi-heritage and especially a multi-lingual perception become clear in the ability to perceive below a superficial level of human understanding. One becomes able to see certain fundamental aspects. A tolerance arises for different attitudes, opinions, lifestyles and patterns of behavior. We become able to adapt ourselves to other peoples' mannerisms, symbolic meanings, gestures and etiquette. Indeed, the need to go beyond linguistic differences is essential in understanding our true thoughts, which abide in our subjective side, in our feelings and emotions. Humanity's creative geniuses, whether they be in art, science, philosophy or religion, speak of their understanding coming from a place deep within, usually beyond language. Today and Tomorrow: Toward a Preferred State Our world is changing at a shocking rate. In recent years, we have invented two new terms to describe that change: culture-shock and future-shock. Culture-shock describes the condition, the disease, experienced by a person suddenly transplanted into a foreign culture (Arensburg and Niehoff 1973). Future-shock describes the experience of the person who finds "things" in his community changing so fast he �SLOVAKIA 141 is no longer able to deal with them (Toffler 1971). Many large imbalances have resulted in the process of rapid growth. We have now a technological superiority and a moral inferiority. Our amount of information is doubling every ten years, yet we cling to many obsolete patterns of thought. Dichotomies such as rich and poor, educated and noneducated still exist, and we seem to be making little progress towards change . These problems need to be faced. In order to solve problems one must plan a preferred state. In order to design such a plan, one must have a variety of values. Values, in turn, come from individuals made up of different social, religious and ethnic backgrounds . We need a larger selection of values to work from, when confronting the large scale problems of today. This selection of values must be representative of our population, including more than the traditional WASP ethics we have now. There is a great need for people with multi-perspectives to help in world planning in all areas. It's high time for a new cultural pluralism and a politics that requires this pluralism - one that draws from resources other than Anglo-Saxon history and values. We have the responsibility of seeing that our Slovak culture does not die, but grows as we grow. This responsibility also entails quality. There must be a true pride in the heritage we come from. Paul Wilkes, a Slovak reporter, after an ethnic festival in New Jersey, wrote, "I didn't belong in East Hampton but I was going back there. It would be a place to recollect myself. Maybe next year at the festival I'll be able to walk up to a stranger and say: ''I'm a SlovakAmerican boy. And you?"(5) That was written in 1976. It is already ''next year''! But again, to isolate ourselves is to miss the point. The majority of Americans are minorities. When fighting individually we can't possibly match strength with many of the established ways which are oppressive. However, in combined numbers we are able to get rid of the antagonism that plagues us all. Novak, in his column "Illusions and Realities'' in the Jednota weekly, comments: Mathematics is on the side of stressing similarities. If we stress racial differences, we err in strategy. Isolated off by themselves, blacks are only nine percent of the nation. Linked to others who share analogous experiences, blacks stand with the large majority . . . I wish the Black Caucus in Congress would call into being a White Ethnic Caucus. These two together might forge a great new source of fresh social ideas and political power. ''A rising tide lifts every boat. ''(6) Much of what I've said has been said before. The awareness of injustice towards ethnic groups is high right now. This is ''The Decade of the Ethnics''. But, in order for those ideas to be meaningful, they have to be embraced on both an individual and community level. Personally, I think you will find it quite rewarding to go finding out your �142 SLOVAKIA " roots ". Discussing ethnic subjects brings the topic into general awareness, and it also clarifies certain issues previously left unsaid . I do sincerely hope that all those that are in similar positions can also incorporate the fact of being Slovak-Americans on a level that is more than just a slogan. Let it become a fact that determines much of what you say and do. Become aware of many of those unconscious traits which we all have passed down to us from our ancestors. As Michael Novak says: To learn the habits, instincts, and inspirations of a person 's grandparents is to discern the emotional and imaginal weight of much in that person's life that otherwise seems inexplicable. To see the patterns of life adopted by a person's grandchildren is to discern more clearly the organic implications of the choices and efforts launched two generations earlier. Emotions, instincts, memory, imagination, passions, and ways of perceiving are passed on to us in ways so thick with life that they lie far beyond the power of consciousness (let alone the analytic and verbal reason) thoroughly to master, totally to alter. We are, in a word, ineffebly ethnic in our values and our actions. (7) I haven't been to Slovakia for almost five years, yet I still have fond memories of the place. I remember Starky coming home from a long day of cutting grass, bringing some with him to feed the rabbits . I also remember him standing over the table at Stedry vecer (Christmas Eve) and quoting from the Bible before we could eat. He was eighty-five then and has worked every day of his life, except Sundays. My brother Mike just came back from a year in Slovakia and visited me for a few days. He said Starky is becoming senile. After this New Year was over Starky said to him - ' ' Miso , Christmas time should be coming up, shouldn't it? " I hope I will be able to see him once again, and learn more of those instincts and passions which have so richly contributed to what I and my family are, realizing how much we are all enriched by the vitality of our ancestral roots. FOOTNOTES (1) Joseph A. Mikus, Pride in Slovak Origin, (Cleveland: First Catholic Slovak Union Press , 1973) pp 100-101. (2) Michael Novak , The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics, (New York : Macmillan Co., 1972) p 62. (3) R. Buckminster Fulle r , Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, (New York : Pocket Books, 1971) p 65. (4) L. S. Harms, lnte rcultural Communication, (New York: Harper and Row, 1973) p 53. (5) Paul Wilkes, " Rejoining the Slovak Community," (The New York Times, August 6, 1976). (6) Michael Novak, Illusions and Realities, Jednota , p. 1, February 24, 1977. (7) Michael Novak, The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics p xvi . �SLOVAKIA 143 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Fuller, R. Buckminster, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, New York: Pocket Books , 1971. 2. Harms, L. S., /ntercultural Communication, New York: Harper and Row, 1973. 3. Mikus, Joseph A., Pride in Slovak Origin, Cleveland: First Catholic Slovak Union, 1973. 4. Novak, Michael, The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics, New York : Macmillan Co., 1972. 5. Segal, Bernard E., ed., Racial and Ethnic Relations New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1966. 6. Wilkes, Paul , Rejoining the Slovak Community, The New York Times, August 6, 1976, N.Y., N.Y. 7. Zborowski, Mark , People in Pain, San Francisco, Jossey Bass, Inc., 1966 . � 136 SLOVAKIA A Slovak-American Perspective in a Changing Society ALEXANDER J. RUDINSKY It is important to talk of Slovakia within the context of the rest of the world and of changing events. As Slovak-Americans we face a complex series of events different from those either of the Slovak or the American people, and yet we experience familiar ties with both. The insights which come from having an affinity towards these two cultures provide a truer picture of our personal and social lives. I remember the halusky s bryndzou we ate on Sunday. I remember the chickens running around the yard. We weren't supposed to keep the gate open for fear they 'd run out. I remember the Kalvaria (Calvary) with medieval statues nestled in a pattern between the trees on the hill. I remember helping plant the garden and being scared by the geese. The buses went everywhere all the time. The cobblestone streets were always being repaired, as were the buildings. I remember much scaffolding on the church. Inside, the scaffolding hid the figures of painted cherubs high on the ceiling; sometimes they would peek out. When we sat in the dark wooden pews Mom would give us each a koruna to put in when the basket came around. In the little town of Banska Stiavnica my thoughts were dreamlike. How much of it was because I was twelve , or because I was in a new land with a new culture, I don't know. I do know, however, there is ·a definite change. I spent half of two years in Slovakia with my Slovak relatives. Life there was more tightly knit. I had a definite place in the public school I went to, in the community of neighbors, and of course, in the family. Since I was a foreigner, especially from America, the place I had in these groups was rather unique. I was looked upon as different and special. But also in many instances, I was looked upon as a member. This is what I cherished. One did not do things without the family, without the community, without loyalty towards those to whom one belonged. The four children in the house, from age twenty to eleven, slept in the same room. We ate together and spent most of our time with other members of the family. The primary social occasion was visiting our second cousins at the end of the street. Walking up the Sitno mountain reminded me of the story told about the Turks who almost conquered that area. Almost. During the seige, the Slovaks at the top of the hill were running drastically short of food. As a gesture to the Turks, they baked a huge loaf of bread and This paper won First Place in the scholarship competition of the Slovak League. �SLOVAKIA 137 rolled it down the mountain into their camp. The Turks were impressed by the pertinacity of the Slovaks, and their seeming store of extra provisions. Soon they abandoned their siege. Living in Czecho-Slovakia gives one a sense of tradition unfelt in America, and quite different from that of Western Europe; a rough and harsh beauty. It is evident in the Tatras and evident in the tale of Janosik. It is also evident on the faces and in the hearts of the people. People from all over talk of the Slovaks as being a "noble" and "exuberant" people. "The Slovaks are generally known as unadulterated peasants and shepherd people, settled in a land of considerable natural beauty. Observers have always known to appreciate their natural handsomeness and dignity as well as the incorruptible honesty of their character. "(l) American Culture The first two years and then later the two months I spent in Slovakia formed one of the most important experiences in my life and education. The rest of the time I have spent in America. The culture here is of a completely different nature. All the while I was growing up like my ·brothers and sisters, I had a room alone. Our society places more importance on the solitary individual as a center of responsibility, rather than on the family or neighborhood. The will of the solitary self which harbors loneliness goes well with the Protestant ethic so predominant in this country. It is difficult to say what American culture is. The facets of life in this country are many. The newly rich WASPS, the oilmen of Texas, the real estaters of Florida, are in direct contrast to the quiet, distinguished WASPS of New England. And the majority of America's people are descendants of recent immigrants who are in varying degrees of WASP assimilation. The constant change we have is a necessity. Whatever America is, it is different from what we or our Slovak predecessors came from. Big cars, large steaks, and mass consumption are in direct contrast with the small Skodas, potatoes, and folk art products. Conflicts For all the talk of truth in America there is a lot of falsehood here. All forms of mass media, especially television, block many realities out. This doesn't make people forget the realities, but they tend not to acknowledge them as much. In all the shows the "good guy" wins, and the ' 'bad guy' ' gets what he deserves, usually a bullet in the back of his head. An incredible amount of violence is just one way of distorting the facts and giving a view of the world that is totaly unrealistic. Possibly a less blatant distortion is the propagation of stereotyped roles. This is not only present in television's dream world, but also in our society. We are all too familiar with the jokes about the Polish, a fad that has �138 SLOVAKIA lowered many conversations. The portrayal of ethnics as being dumb flag-waving fascists is still quite prevalent. This is evident in such slang as " hunky " . Who wants to be associated with that? Rather let's try and match up to the cool American stereotype we always see on television. He is usually quiet and has everything under control. He is usually tough and individualistic. He knows what he wants and knows how to get it. As the saying goes , "He 's cool, calm and collected." These aren't bad traits to have! Women are also stereotyped in the media. She is self-assured and seductive. Her saying is " Clean is sexy. " Not bad traits to have either! The tendency to use these sterotyped roles is strong. And why not? These roles are quite socially acceptable, and immerse the owner in a charismatic light. Many other countries have worse distortions than these seemingly peripheral ones. As Slovaks, an oppressed people, we are quite, quite familiar with them. What the Slovaks are facing at present is degrading and very pressing. However, this does not negate the problem we have here , either . Our situation in life , especially when growing up, is filled with numerous differences in how we react to society . This becomes more complicated when society reacts to itself in more than one way. Since here in the United States the media portray a false world, many people bring some of these false perceptions into the "real world." This is again complicated by the differences in "real worlds" in our many cultures. It becomes important to look at some of these differences to understand the conflicts which Slovaks, as an ethnic group living in the United States , feel. Slovak-Americans must bear more of these conflicts than the typical WASP. Multi-cultural people bring into a culture many inherited differences of perception. Different cultural groups relate to anger, hatred, desire and pain in vastly different ways. Mark Zborowski in his book People and Pain, illustrates many differences in perception . Societal pressure to adhere to the societal norm is great. When deviation occurs, such as culture differences, much misunderstanding and stereotyping results. Another problem, that of self-misunderstanding, results. People try to be what they are not. They try to live up to a cultural type not their own. They go against their own instincts for the reward of societal acceptance. What do we have to give up for these constantly sought after types? Do not the majority of us have to give up some aspect of our heritage , our past? Have we always been the quintessential American , cool , calm , collected? Secretly we know we have not, and still, how many times do we cover it up to ourselves? The whole idea of an ethnic memory is not so much remembering a series of events, but rather it is the feeling, instincts , and expectations passed from generation to generation. It is the patterns of behavior and �SLOVAKIA 139 emotion for the individual and the people as a whole. Being ethnic requires us to understand that sense of reality. John Wayne vs Janosik The heroes of a culture reveal many peculiar insights to that culture's frame of reference. It is helpful to know a person's history and cultural background to understand his perceptions. Juro Janosik is certainly no less than the prototype of Slovak mentality. On the other hand, a perfect hero of America is John Wayne. I think the illustration of fundamental differences between these two can provide insight into the differences in the values of either society. On the one hand, the individualistic, cool oppressor type; John Wayne needs no justification for his actions. He can "do as he damn well pleases." Also the phrase "he calls 'em as he sees 'em" is characteristic of such an attitude. On the other hand, Janosik has qualities illustrating different aspects of personality. His whole life is centered around fighting against injustice. He harbors loyalty to his beloved ones and is sensitive and sentimental. Instead of being totally individualistic, he relies heavily on his mountain boys. The way the hero fits into his surrounding environment also influences the culture's frame of reference. Janosik dealt mostly with shepherds and poor folk, fighting against the established barons. He fought upwards against oppression. John Wayne fought the Indians; he drove them away . His was a different sense of justice (might makes right). Janosik's justice was closer to the word's true meaning. Which does one follow: John Wayne or Janosik? Much of this decision depends on to what extent the ethnic experience exists in us individually. Michael Novak gives an illuminating description of the crisis: The battle is partly in one's own soul. On the one hand American, enlightened, educated; on the other, stubbornly resistant, in love with values too dear to jettison, at home neither in the ethnic community nor in any intellectual group, neither with theorists nor with practical politicians, convinced of a certain rightness in one's soul and yet not confident that others will see, can see, the subtle links in a different way of life. It is the insecurity of certainty: the sense that something of value is not likely to be understood. (2) Cultural Multiplicity Within inheritors of more than one heritage there arise conflicts. However, this meeting of different ways of life many times is quite beneficial. Synergy, a word very few people use, means the behavior of whole systems unpredicted by its parts or any subassembly of its parts(3), i.e., the combination of various things may be stronger than the sum of its parts. One and one and one equals four. A three hundred pound man can sit on a bicycle with wheels that are supported by �140 SLOVAKIA spokes a child could bend. It is the arrangement of those spokes which makes it possible to withstand great pressure. The ignorance of such a concept creates misunderstandings in many areas of knowledge, not the least of which is relationships between people. Since this ignorance is widespread throughout society, people with a different cultural background are usually thought of for other reasons than for their own potential benefit. The misunderstanding results in such ideas as cultural inferiority, as if purity of heritage is a great virtue, and in such nick-names as ''half-breed,'' etc. Although our notion of equality has been around since the beginning of this country, so were Jefferson's slaves. Even though this concept has dropped from prominence, much of the idea of intellectual superiority remains. These notions are looked upon as ridiculous in present day science. The study of biology shows us the creatures which survive are the ones that are most suitable to the environment. When the environment changes, the animals must either adapt or perish. Humans are no different: the more variables - the more adaptive to change. L. S. Harms in his book Intercultural Communication also raises the concept of synergy: Synergy is a process that may operate in an organized system with a favorable structure. In the case of communication, in an authority structure in which messages are prepared and transmitted, there is little opportunity for synergy to operate. The interchange structure, however, is favorable to the process of synergy. (indeed) .. . high synergy may be expected. (4) A high number of various cultural influences is not unique to Slovak-Americans. It is inherent in all intercultural transactions. The advantages of a multi-heritage and especially a multi-lingual perception become clear in the ability to perceive below a superficial level of human understanding. One becomes able to see certain fundamental aspects. A tolerance arises for different attitudes, opinions, lifestyles and patterns of behavior. We become able to adapt ourselves to other peoples' mannerisms, symbolic meanings, gestures and etiquette. Indeed, the need to go beyond linguistic differences is essential in understanding our true thoughts, which abide in our subjective side, in our feelings and emotions. Humanity's creative geniuses, whether they be in art, science, philosophy or religion, speak of their understanding coming from a place deep within, usually beyond language. Today and Tomorrow: Toward a Preferred State Our world is changing at a shocking rate. In recent years, we have invented two new terms to describe that change: culture-shock and future-shock. Culture-shock describes the condition, the disease, experienced by a person suddenly transplanted into a foreign culture (Arensburg and Niehoff 1973). Future-shock describes the experience of the person who finds "things" in his community changing so fast he �SLOVAKIA 141 is no longer able to deal with them (Toffler 1971). Many large imbalances have resulted in the process of rapid growth. We have now a technological superiority and a moral inferiority. Our amount of information is doubling every ten years, yet we cling to many obsolete patterns of thought. Dichotomies such as rich and poor, educated and noneducated still exist, and we seem to be making little progress towards change . These problems need to be faced. In order to solve problems one must plan a preferred state. In order to design such a plan, one must have a variety of values. Values, in turn, come from individuals made up of different social, religious and ethnic backgrounds . We need a larger selection of values to work from, when confronting the large scale problems of today. This selection of values must be representative of our population, including more than the traditional WASP ethics we have now. There is a great need for people with multi-perspectives to help in world planning in all areas. It's high time for a new cultural pluralism and a politics that requires this pluralism - one that draws from resources other than Anglo-Saxon history and values. We have the responsibility of seeing that our Slovak culture does not die, but grows as we grow. This responsibility also entails quality. There must be a true pride in the heritage we come from. Paul Wilkes, a Slovak reporter, after an ethnic festival in New Jersey, wrote, "I didn't belong in East Hampton but I was going back there. It would be a place to recollect myself. Maybe next year at the festival I'll be able to walk up to a stranger and say: ''I'm a SlovakAmerican boy. And you?"(5) That was written in 1976. It is already ''next year''! But again, to isolate ourselves is to miss the point. The majority of Americans are minorities. When fighting individually we can't possibly match strength with many of the established ways which are oppressive. However, in combined numbers we are able to get rid of the antagonism that plagues us all. Novak, in his column "Illusions and Realities'' in the Jednota weekly, comments: Mathematics is on the side of stressing similarities. If we stress racial differences, we err in strategy. Isolated off by themselves, blacks are only nine percent of the nation. Linked to others who share analogous experiences, blacks stand with the large majority . . . I wish the Black Caucus in Congress would call into being a White Ethnic Caucus. These two together might forge a great new source of fresh social ideas and political power. ''A rising tide lifts every boat. ''(6) Much of what I've said has been said before. The awareness of injustice towards ethnic groups is high right now. This is ''The Decade of the Ethnics''. But, in order for those ideas to be meaningful, they have to be embraced on both an individual and community level. Personally, I think you will find it quite rewarding to go finding out your �142 SLOVAKIA " roots ". Discussing ethnic subjects brings the topic into general awareness, and it also clarifies certain issues previously left unsaid . I do sincerely hope that all those that are in similar positions can also incorporate the fact of being Slovak-Americans on a level that is more than just a slogan. Let it become a fact that determines much of what you say and do. Become aware of many of those unconscious traits which we all have passed down to us from our ancestors. As Michael Novak says: To learn the habits, instincts, and inspirations of a person 's grandparents is to discern the emotional and imaginal weight of much in that person's life that otherwise seems inexplicable. To see the patterns of life adopted by a person's grandchildren is to discern more clearly the organic implications of the choices and efforts launched two generations earlier. Emotions, instincts, memory, imagination, passions, and ways of perceiving are passed on to us in ways so thick with life that they lie far beyond the power of consciousness (let alone the analytic and verbal reason) thoroughly to master, totally to alter. We are, in a word, ineffebly ethnic in our values and our actions. (7) I haven't been to Slovakia for almost five years, yet I still have fond memories of the place. I remember Starky coming home from a long day of cutting grass, bringing some with him to feed the rabbits . I also remember him standing over the table at Stedry vecer (Christmas Eve) and quoting from the Bible before we could eat. He was eighty-five then and has worked every day of his life, except Sundays. My brother Mike just came back from a year in Slovakia and visited me for a few days. He said Starky is becoming senile. After this New Year was over Starky said to him - ' ' Miso , Christmas time should be coming up, shouldn't it? " I hope I will be able to see him once again, and learn more of those instincts and passions which have so richly contributed to what I and my family are, realizing how much we are all enriched by the vitality of our ancestral roots. FOOTNOTES (1) Joseph A. Mikus, Pride in Slovak Origin, (Cleveland: First Catholic Slovak Union Press , 1973) pp 100-101. (2) Michael Novak , The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics, (New York : Macmillan Co., 1972) p 62. (3) R. Buckminster Fulle r , Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, (New York : Pocket Books, 1971) p 65. (4) L. S. Harms, lnte rcultural Communication, (New York: Harper and Row, 1973) p 53. (5) Paul Wilkes, " Rejoining the Slovak Community," (The New York Times, August 6, 1976). (6) Michael Novak, Illusions and Realities, Jednota , p. 1, February 24, 1977. (7) Michael Novak, The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics p xvi . �SLOVAKIA 143 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Fuller, R. Buckminster, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, New York: Pocket Books , 1971. 2. Harms, L. S., /ntercultural Communication, New York: Harper and Row, 1973. 3. Mikus, Joseph A., Pride in Slovak Origin, Cleveland: First Catholic Slovak Union, 1973. 4. Novak, Michael, The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics, New York : Macmillan Co., 1972. 5. Segal, Bernard E., ed., Racial and Ethnic Relations New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1966. 6. Wilkes, Paul , Rejoining the Slovak Community, The New York Times, August 6, 1976, N.Y., N.Y. 7. Zborowski, Mark , People in Pain, San Francisco, Jossey Bass, Inc., 1966 . � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1977, Vol. 27 Description An account of the resource Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 136 SLOVAKIA A Slovak-American Perspective in a Changing Society ALEXANDER J. RUDINSKY It is important to talk of Slovakia within the context of the rest of the world and of changing events. As Slovak-Americans we face a complex series of events different from those either of the Slovak or the American people, and yet we experience familiar ties with both. The insights which come from having an affinity towards these two cultures provide a truer picture of our personal and social lives. I remember the halusky s bryndzou we ate on Sunday. I remember the chickens running around the yard. We weren't supposed to keep the gate open for fear they 'd run out. I remember the Kalvaria (Calvary) with medieval statues nestled in a pattern between the trees on the hill. I remember helping plant the garden and being scared by the geese. The buses went everywhere all the time. The cobblestone streets were always being repaired, as were the buildings. I remember much scaffolding on the church. Inside, the scaffolding hid the figures of painted cherubs high on the ceiling; sometimes they would peek out. When we sat in the dark wooden pews Mom would give us each a koruna to put in when the basket came around. In the little town of Banska Stiavnica my thoughts were dreamlike. How much of it was because I was twelve , or because I was in a new land with a new culture, I don't know. I do know, however, there is ·a definite change. I spent half of two years in Slovakia with my Slovak relatives. Life there was more tightly knit. I had a definite place in the public school I went to, in the community of neighbors, and of course, in the family. Since I was a foreigner, especially from America, the place I had in these groups was rather unique. I was looked upon as different and special. But also in many instances, I was looked upon as a member. This is what I cherished. One did not do things without the family, without the community, without loyalty towards those to whom one belonged. The four children in the house, from age twenty to eleven, slept in the same room. We ate together and spent most of our time with other members of the family. The primary social occasion was visiting our second cousins at the end of the street. Walking up the Sitno mountain reminded me of the story told about the Turks who almost conquered that area. Almost. During the seige, the Slovaks at the top of the hill were running drastically short of food. As a gesture to the Turks, they baked a huge loaf of bread and This paper won First Place in the scholarship competition of the Slovak League. SLOVAKIA 137 rolled it down the mountain into their camp. The Turks were impressed by the pertinacity of the Slovaks, and their seeming store of extra provisions. Soon they abandoned their siege. Living in Czecho-Slovakia gives one a sense of tradition unfelt in America, and quite different from that of Western Europe; a rough and harsh beauty. It is evident in the Tatras and evident in the tale of Janosik. It is also evident on the faces and in the hearts of the people. People from all over talk of the Slovaks as being a "noble" and "exuberant" people. "The Slovaks are generally known as unadulterated peasants and shepherd people, settled in a land of considerable natural beauty. Observers have always known to appreciate their natural handsomeness and dignity as well as the incorruptible honesty of their character. "(l) American Culture The first two years and then later the two months I spent in Slovakia formed one of the most important experiences in my life and education. The rest of the time I have spent in America. The culture here is of a completely different nature. All the while I was growing up like my ·brothers and sisters, I had a room alone. Our society places more importance on the solitary individual as a center of responsibility, rather than on the family or neighborhood. The will of the solitary self which harbors loneliness goes well with the Protestant ethic so predominant in this country. It is difficult to say what American culture is. The facets of life in this country are many. The newly rich WASPS, the oilmen of Texas, the real estaters of Florida, are in direct contrast to the quiet, distinguished WASPS of New England. And the majority of America's people are descendants of recent immigrants who are in varying degrees of WASP assimilation. The constant change we have is a necessity. Whatever America is, it is different from what we or our Slovak predecessors came from. Big cars, large steaks, and mass consumption are in direct contrast with the small Skodas, potatoes, and folk art products. Conflicts For all the talk of truth in America there is a lot of falsehood here. All forms of mass media, especially television, block many realities out. This doesn't make people forget the realities, but they tend not to acknowledge them as much. In all the shows the "good guy" wins, and the ' 'bad guy' ' gets what he deserves, usually a bullet in the back of his head. An incredible amount of violence is just one way of distorting the facts and giving a view of the world that is totaly unrealistic. Possibly a less blatant distortion is the propagation of stereotyped roles. This is not only present in television's dream world, but also in our society. We are all too familiar with the jokes about the Polish, a fad that has 138 SLOVAKIA lowered many conversations. The portrayal of ethnics as being dumb flag-waving fascists is still quite prevalent. This is evident in such slang as " hunky " . Who wants to be associated with that? Rather let's try and match up to the cool American stereotype we always see on television. He is usually quiet and has everything under control. He is usually tough and individualistic. He knows what he wants and knows how to get it. As the saying goes , "He 's cool, calm and collected." These aren't bad traits to have! Women are also stereotyped in the media. She is self-assured and seductive. Her saying is " Clean is sexy. " Not bad traits to have either! The tendency to use these sterotyped roles is strong. And why not? These roles are quite socially acceptable, and immerse the owner in a charismatic light. Many other countries have worse distortions than these seemingly peripheral ones. As Slovaks, an oppressed people, we are quite, quite familiar with them. What the Slovaks are facing at present is degrading and very pressing. However, this does not negate the problem we have here , either . Our situation in life , especially when growing up, is filled with numerous differences in how we react to society . This becomes more complicated when society reacts to itself in more than one way. Since here in the United States the media portray a false world, many people bring some of these false perceptions into the "real world." This is again complicated by the differences in "real worlds" in our many cultures. It becomes important to look at some of these differences to understand the conflicts which Slovaks, as an ethnic group living in the United States , feel. Slovak-Americans must bear more of these conflicts than the typical WASP. Multi-cultural people bring into a culture many inherited differences of perception. Different cultural groups relate to anger, hatred, desire and pain in vastly different ways. Mark Zborowski in his book People and Pain, illustrates many differences in perception . Societal pressure to adhere to the societal norm is great. When deviation occurs, such as culture differences, much misunderstanding and stereotyping results. Another problem, that of self-misunderstanding, results. People try to be what they are not. They try to live up to a cultural type not their own. They go against their own instincts for the reward of societal acceptance. What do we have to give up for these constantly sought after types? Do not the majority of us have to give up some aspect of our heritage , our past? Have we always been the quintessential American , cool , calm , collected? Secretly we know we have not, and still, how many times do we cover it up to ourselves? The whole idea of an ethnic memory is not so much remembering a series of events, but rather it is the feeling, instincts , and expectations passed from generation to generation. It is the patterns of behavior and SLOVAKIA 139 emotion for the individual and the people as a whole. Being ethnic requires us to understand that sense of reality. John Wayne vs Janosik The heroes of a culture reveal many peculiar insights to that culture's frame of reference. It is helpful to know a person's history and cultural background to understand his perceptions. Juro Janosik is certainly no less than the prototype of Slovak mentality. On the other hand, a perfect hero of America is John Wayne. I think the illustration of fundamental differences between these two can provide insight into the differences in the values of either society. On the one hand, the individualistic, cool oppressor type; John Wayne needs no justification for his actions. He can "do as he damn well pleases." Also the phrase "he calls 'em as he sees 'em" is characteristic of such an attitude. On the other hand, Janosik has qualities illustrating different aspects of personality. His whole life is centered around fighting against injustice. He harbors loyalty to his beloved ones and is sensitive and sentimental. Instead of being totally individualistic, he relies heavily on his mountain boys. The way the hero fits into his surrounding environment also influences the culture's frame of reference. Janosik dealt mostly with shepherds and poor folk, fighting against the established barons. He fought upwards against oppression. John Wayne fought the Indians; he drove them away . His was a different sense of justice (might makes right). Janosik's justice was closer to the word's true meaning. Which does one follow: John Wayne or Janosik? Much of this decision depends on to what extent the ethnic experience exists in us individually. Michael Novak gives an illuminating description of the crisis: The battle is partly in one's own soul. On the one hand American, enlightened, educated; on the other, stubbornly resistant, in love with values too dear to jettison, at home neither in the ethnic community nor in any intellectual group, neither with theorists nor with practical politicians, convinced of a certain rightness in one's soul and yet not confident that others will see, can see, the subtle links in a different way of life. It is the insecurity of certainty: the sense that something of value is not likely to be understood. (2) Cultural Multiplicity Within inheritors of more than one heritage there arise conflicts. However, this meeting of different ways of life many times is quite beneficial. Synergy, a word very few people use, means the behavior of whole systems unpredicted by its parts or any subassembly of its parts(3), i.e., the combination of various things may be stronger than the sum of its parts. One and one and one equals four. A three hundred pound man can sit on a bicycle with wheels that are supported by 140 SLOVAKIA spokes a child could bend. It is the arrangement of those spokes which makes it possible to withstand great pressure. The ignorance of such a concept creates misunderstandings in many areas of knowledge, not the least of which is relationships between people. Since this ignorance is widespread throughout society, people with a different cultural background are usually thought of for other reasons than for their own potential benefit. The misunderstanding results in such ideas as cultural inferiority, as if purity of heritage is a great virtue, and in such nick-names as ''half-breed,'' etc. Although our notion of equality has been around since the beginning of this country, so were Jefferson's slaves. Even though this concept has dropped from prominence, much of the idea of intellectual superiority remains. These notions are looked upon as ridiculous in present day science. The study of biology shows us the creatures which survive are the ones that are most suitable to the environment. When the environment changes, the animals must either adapt or perish. Humans are no different: the more variables - the more adaptive to change. L. S. Harms in his book Intercultural Communication also raises the concept of synergy: Synergy is a process that may operate in an organized system with a favorable structure. In the case of communication, in an authority structure in which messages are prepared and transmitted, there is little opportunity for synergy to operate. The interchange structure, however, is favorable to the process of synergy. (indeed) .. . high synergy may be expected. (4) A high number of various cultural influences is not unique to Slovak-Americans. It is inherent in all intercultural transactions. The advantages of a multi-heritage and especially a multi-lingual perception become clear in the ability to perceive below a superficial level of human understanding. One becomes able to see certain fundamental aspects. A tolerance arises for different attitudes, opinions, lifestyles and patterns of behavior. We become able to adapt ourselves to other peoples' mannerisms, symbolic meanings, gestures and etiquette. Indeed, the need to go beyond linguistic differences is essential in understanding our true thoughts, which abide in our subjective side, in our feelings and emotions. Humanity's creative geniuses, whether they be in art, science, philosophy or religion, speak of their understanding coming from a place deep within, usually beyond language. Today and Tomorrow: Toward a Preferred State Our world is changing at a shocking rate. In recent years, we have invented two new terms to describe that change: culture-shock and future-shock. Culture-shock describes the condition, the disease, experienced by a person suddenly transplanted into a foreign culture (Arensburg and Niehoff 1973). Future-shock describes the experience of the person who finds "things" in his community changing so fast he SLOVAKIA 141 is no longer able to deal with them (Toffler 1971). Many large imbalances have resulted in the process of rapid growth. We have now a technological superiority and a moral inferiority. Our amount of information is doubling every ten years, yet we cling to many obsolete patterns of thought. Dichotomies such as rich and poor, educated and noneducated still exist, and we seem to be making little progress towards change . These problems need to be faced. In order to solve problems one must plan a preferred state. In order to design such a plan, one must have a variety of values. Values, in turn, come from individuals made up of different social, religious and ethnic backgrounds . We need a larger selection of values to work from, when confronting the large scale problems of today. This selection of values must be representative of our population, including more than the traditional WASP ethics we have now. There is a great need for people with multi-perspectives to help in world planning in all areas. It's high time for a new cultural pluralism and a politics that requires this pluralism - one that draws from resources other than Anglo-Saxon history and values. We have the responsibility of seeing that our Slovak culture does not die, but grows as we grow. This responsibility also entails quality. There must be a true pride in the heritage we come from. Paul Wilkes, a Slovak reporter, after an ethnic festival in New Jersey, wrote, "I didn't belong in East Hampton but I was going back there. It would be a place to recollect myself. Maybe next year at the festival I'll be able to walk up to a stranger and say: ''I'm a SlovakAmerican boy. And you?"(5) That was written in 1976. It is already ''next year''! But again, to isolate ourselves is to miss the point. The majority of Americans are minorities. When fighting individually we can't possibly match strength with many of the established ways which are oppressive. However, in combined numbers we are able to get rid of the antagonism that plagues us all. Novak, in his column "Illusions and Realities'' in the Jednota weekly, comments: Mathematics is on the side of stressing similarities. If we stress racial differences, we err in strategy. Isolated off by themselves, blacks are only nine percent of the nation. Linked to others who share analogous experiences, blacks stand with the large majority . . . I wish the Black Caucus in Congress would call into being a White Ethnic Caucus. These two together might forge a great new source of fresh social ideas and political power. ''A rising tide lifts every boat. ''(6) Much of what I've said has been said before. The awareness of injustice towards ethnic groups is high right now. This is ''The Decade of the Ethnics''. But, in order for those ideas to be meaningful, they have to be embraced on both an individual and community level. Personally, I think you will find it quite rewarding to go finding out your 142 SLOVAKIA " roots ". Discussing ethnic subjects brings the topic into general awareness, and it also clarifies certain issues previously left unsaid . I do sincerely hope that all those that are in similar positions can also incorporate the fact of being Slovak-Americans on a level that is more than just a slogan. Let it become a fact that determines much of what you say and do. Become aware of many of those unconscious traits which we all have passed down to us from our ancestors. As Michael Novak says: To learn the habits, instincts, and inspirations of a person 's grandparents is to discern the emotional and imaginal weight of much in that person's life that otherwise seems inexplicable. To see the patterns of life adopted by a person's grandchildren is to discern more clearly the organic implications of the choices and efforts launched two generations earlier. Emotions, instincts, memory, imagination, passions, and ways of perceiving are passed on to us in ways so thick with life that they lie far beyond the power of consciousness (let alone the analytic and verbal reason) thoroughly to master, totally to alter. We are, in a word, ineffebly ethnic in our values and our actions. (7) I haven't been to Slovakia for almost five years, yet I still have fond memories of the place. I remember Starky coming home from a long day of cutting grass, bringing some with him to feed the rabbits . I also remember him standing over the table at Stedry vecer (Christmas Eve) and quoting from the Bible before we could eat. He was eighty-five then and has worked every day of his life, except Sundays. My brother Mike just came back from a year in Slovakia and visited me for a few days. He said Starky is becoming senile. After this New Year was over Starky said to him - ' ' Miso , Christmas time should be coming up, shouldn't it? " I hope I will be able to see him once again, and learn more of those instincts and passions which have so richly contributed to what I and my family are, realizing how much we are all enriched by the vitality of our ancestral roots. FOOTNOTES (1) Joseph A. Mikus, Pride in Slovak Origin, (Cleveland: First Catholic Slovak Union Press , 1973) pp 100-101. (2) Michael Novak , The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics, (New York : Macmillan Co., 1972) p 62. (3) R. Buckminster Fulle r , Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, (New York : Pocket Books, 1971) p 65. (4) L. S. Harms, lnte rcultural Communication, (New York: Harper and Row, 1973) p 53. (5) Paul Wilkes, " Rejoining the Slovak Community," (The New York Times, August 6, 1976). (6) Michael Novak, Illusions and Realities, Jednota , p. 1, February 24, 1977. (7) Michael Novak, The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics p xvi . SLOVAKIA 143 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Fuller, R. Buckminster, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, New York: Pocket Books , 1971. 2. Harms, L. S., /ntercultural Communication, New York: Harper and Row, 1973. 3. Mikus, Joseph A., Pride in Slovak Origin, Cleveland: First Catholic Slovak Union, 1973. 4. Novak, Michael, The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics, New York : Macmillan Co., 1972. 5. Segal, Bernard E., ed., Racial and Ethnic Relations New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1966. 6. Wilkes, Paul , Rejoining the Slovak Community, The New York Times, August 6, 1976, N.Y., N.Y. 7. Zborowski, Mark , People in Pain, San Francisco, Jossey Bass, Inc., 1966 .  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Slovak-American Perspective in a Changing Society Description An account of the resource Alexander J. Rudinsky Slovakia, Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977 pp. 136-143 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rudinsky, Alexander J. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/e88f15a5a3124cc119704332de7e69a9.pdf 2324226e9d0c8548ddb018a3c20fad83 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 113 The Nationalist Movements of the Austrian Slavs in 1848: A Comparative Sociological Profile STANLEY Z. PECH The year 1848 was unlike any other in the long and arduous saga of the Austrian Slavs. It was a year when the Austrian Slavs, like the rest of Europe, passed through a major social and political upheaval. However, the year held for them a very special significance: in 1848 they first emerged as fledgling nations, from the backwater of Europe to stake out a claim for themselves as rightful members of the European family. As William H. Stiles, the United States charge d'affaires in Vienna at the time put it: " Previous to that period," the Austrian Slavs possessed "no proper individuality , their political nationality was unacknowledged, and for centuries, consequently, they exercised no influence in the political councils of Europe. The storms of 1848 and 1849 raised them to consideration, and even power. " (1) In recent years, Western historians have been diligent enough in providing the Western reader with the essential facts concerning the revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Slavic realm. There is indeed ample material for a good copy: the fever of the March Days, the clashes and recriminations between Germans and Slavs, the Magyars and Slavs; the fervent preachments of the highpriests of the various Slavic nationalisms; the Slavic Congress in Prague flaring up into an uprising and aborted by the artillery of General Windischgratz. These are the high points of the revolutions essential to an understanding of the events of that year. However, this understanding now needs to be broadened and refined in the light of new techniques and methodologies developed in the West. There is need for a structural analysis of the Slavic nationalist movements of 1848. There is an added potential benefit to be derived from cross-national comparisons to which these movements lend themselves. The present account seeks to construct a social profile of the Slavic nationalist movements of 1848 and to analyze and compare their strength. I In the mid-nineteenth century, the Austrian Empire counted seven Slavic nationalities in its multi-ethnic structure: Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, Poles, and Ukrainians. The last three will not Reprinted with permission from Histoire Sociale-Social History (Ottawa), Vol. 9, November 1976. �114 SLOVAKIA be treated here. For them the Austrian Empire was not the principal homeland: a majority of Ukrainians and Poles lived under Russia (a number of Poles also lived under Prussia), and a majority of Serbs under Turkey. This makes comparisons involving them problematical. Czechs , Slovaks , Slovenes , and Croats, on the other hand, were not so divided; they had no " home " other than the Austrian Empire. Their basic comparability derives from the following: 1) they experienced a revolution in 1848 ; 2) they lived under the same empire; 3) they were Slavic and shared the status of "subject" nationalities living under " alien " rule: the Czechs and the Slovenes under the Austro-Germans in the western half of the empire, and the Slovaks and the Croats under the Magyars in the eastern half of the empire; 4) they were passing through early stages of national awakening. The largest of the four national groups were the Czechs who numbered, in the middle of the nineteenth century, approximately 4 million. The number of Slovaks in the same period was 1. 7 million, that of the Croats 1.6 million, and that of the Slovenes a little over 1 million. (2) The total population of the Austrian Empire is estimated to have been 37 million ,(3) with the Austro-Germans the largest nationality (over 7 million) and the Magyars the second largest (4 .5 million) .(4) The revolutionary stresses that brought on the upheaval in 1848 had been accentuated by the demographic pressures of the halfcentury preceding the upheaval. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century , the population of the empire had been increasing steadily by 1850 the increase had amounted to one third as against the year 1800, a rate comparable to the other large states of Western Europe.(5) While it is difficult to separate the growth rates for the different peoples of the empire , this much can be hypothesized from the evidence: the rate of growth of the Slavs was greater than that of the non-Slavs.(6) In religious affiliation, Czechs , Slovenes, and Croats were at least 95 percent Roman Catholic. Roman Catholicism was also dominant among the Slovaks but there it was confronted with a numerically strong Protestant population (between 25 percent and 30 percent) . (7) The fact that the four nationalities being surveyed here had evolved through centuries as "subject" nationalities imparted to their social structures certain distinctive features - features that set them apart from W estem Europe and left a special mark on their development as modernizing societies. The West European model, with France and Germany as a typical example, exhibited a social structure that was unencumbered (small exceptions aside) by the complicating presence of a different nationality: peasants, nobles, workers, entrepreneurs, bureaucrats, priests, bishops, all spoke the same language and belonged to the same nationality. This comfortable ethnic homogeneity was lacking among most of the Austrian Slavs. To generalize: the four nationalities had an "incomplete" social structure; the lower portions �SLOVAKIA 115 of their social pyramid were Slavic while the upper portions were filled with members of the ruling nationality . How did the socio-ethnic edifice look in the specific cases? In the western half of the empire, the Czechs and the Slovenes each had their own peasantry, working class, artisanate, shopkeeper class, intelligentsia, lower clergy and lower bureaucracy. At the same time, their complementing higher classes, the nobility, the entrepreneurs and the higher bureaucracy, were German. The one point of difference between the Czechs and the Slovenes concerned the ecclesiastical hierarchy: in the Czech regions the hierarchy was entirely German whereas in the Slovene regions an influential segment of it was Slovene . This difference explains , in part, the divergent religious attitudes of the two peoples during the next century: the Czechs tended to embrace religious scepticism whereas the Slovenes evinced a vigorous religious spirit and lent strong support to movements of political Catholicism. In the eastern half of the empire, the structure was more complicated. The Slovaks occupied the lower portions of the social pyramid, but the upper portions included, besides the Germans , also the Magyars. The Croats, on the other hand , held a position significantly different from the other three national groups . Of the four nationalities , they alone retained, in part, their own governing class: a segment of the nobility, of higher clergy and of higher bureaucracy in Croatia belonged to the Croatian nationality; the remaining segment was Magyar (or Magyar-oriented Croat) or German. The fact that the Croats retained a substantial foothold in the governing class gave them an advantage not enjoyed by the other three national groups: in the pre-industrial age when the nobility alone counted as a political class , they had at all times a political voice . They had never been reduced to a mere '' nation of peasants.' ' In that sense, they were the only one of the four groups that approximated the West European model of social development. The Austrian Empire was not only a labyrinth of seemingly disarrayed social and ethnic parts. It also was a bewildering conglomerate of provinces and administrative divisions that disarrayed the ethnic parts still further. The existing administrative system had taken shape during the pre-nationalist age and bore no relationship to ethnic boundaries. As a result, not only did some nationality sometimes inhabit two or more provinces but if often shared each such province with a different nationality. Little useful purpose would be served by listing all the administrative divisions with their particular ethnic mosaics. Suffice it to say that for each nationality, one province usually stood out as a core of nationalist activism and attention will be focused on these. For the Czechs, this was the province of Bohemia which the Czechs shared with the Germans, the Czech-German ethnic ratio being 60 percent to 40 percent.(8) For the Slovenes, it was Carniola which was over 90 percent _S lovene, the Germans making up the balance.(9) For �116 SLOVAKIA the Croats, it was Croatia (full name "Croatia-Slavonia") in which the Slavs comprised over 95 percent of the population (two thirds of which were Croats and one third Serbs) while the ruling Magyars and Germans together did not exceed 2 percent; certain other small groups accounted for the remainder. (10) Croatia, it should be stressed, possessed a number of self-governing institutions in which the Croatian nobility, clergy and bureaucracy wielded considerable influence which helped cushion the German-Magyar rule. It even had an army which though subordinated directly to the emperor, was nevertheless an important symbol of Croatian national identity. In short, these social and institutional paraphernalia provided the Croats with defenses and opportunities not available to the other Slavs. This made it possible for them, in the course of 1848, to wrest political control entirely from the Magyars and Germans and erect what amounted to their own state with its own government that recognized only the authority of the emperor in Vienna. None of the other three nationalities came close to generating this type of institutional power. In this connection, it may be noted that the people who exercised the least power from the institutional point of view were the Slovaks. They had been totally submerged through centuries in the existing Hungarian system of counties and no part of the Slovak territory enjoyed the status of a province. The Slovak territory was reasonably compact in ethnic terms but had no institutional support to lend it distinctiveness and distinguish it from the other areas of Hungary. This made the Slovaks the most vulnerable and the least visible of the four peoples. After the Congress of Vienna, the Austrian Empire entered upon the first stages of industrialization . There were, however, marked regional disparities in the tempo with which industrialization proceeded , with the western half of the monarchy moving ahead more rapidly than the eastern half. Among the Slavic peoples, by the middle of the nineteenth century, only the Czechs had made significant advances along the road of modernization . By 1857 , the agrarian sector in Bohemia had been reduced to the point where only some 55 percent of the population derived their livelihood from agriculture .(11) The above figure applies to all of Bohemia (both to its Czech and Germanspeaking areas) ; and it is not possible to say exactly what it would be for the Czech inhabitants specifically. However, it is known that the German-speaking areas of Bohemia were by far the more industrialized( 12) and this would justify revising the figure, as applied to the Czechs, upward: 65 percent to 70 percent seems a more realistic estimate. At this same time, the agrarian sector in the three other Austro-Slavic regions continued to employ 90 percent or more of the economically active population.(13) The economic growth was reflected in the expansion of the urban population, with similar regional disparities prevailing in the degree or urbanization attained. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the proportion of the urban �SLOVAKIA 117 population in Bohemia was just under 20 percent;(14) for the Czechspeaking population of Bohemia this figure would have to be revised downward to some extent, perhaps to 15 percent. The Slovenes had at this time an urban population of 4 percent(15) while for the Slovaks and the Croats the figure was even less. (France had then an urban population of 26 percent and Germany 35 percent.)(16) ThE: major cities were few and not even their rapid expansion during the first half of the nineteenth century - some cities doubled in size during this period had produced many large urban centers by West European standards. The largest one was Prague, the most populous Czech city and the capital of Bohemia. With a population of 118,000 in the middle of the nineteenth century (77 ,000 in 1800), (17) it was the only city in the four ethnic regions to attain the 100,000 mark, an achievement placing it in a class with the major cities of Western Europe. The largest Croatian city was Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, with a population of 15,000(18) (8,000 at the beginning of the century)(19) and the largest Slovene city was Ljubljana (Laibach), the capital of Carniola, with a population of 17,000 (it was half this size in 1817). (20) The biggest city in what is today the Slovak region was Bratislava (Pressburg) which had a population, in 1848, of 40,000 (in 1805 it had been just under 22,000).(21) However, Bratislava was then not a Slovak city in any meaningful sense of the term; the majority of its inhabitants were German and it was not the scene of any mass Slovak nationalist activity in 1848.(22) The case of Bratislava was far from unique: many cities and towns throughout the Slavic regions of the Austrian Empire contained a large number of Germans, and sizeable German minorities were to be found in Prague. Ljubljana and Zagreb.(23) Economic power in the cities and indeed throughout the monarchy was largely in the hands of Germans and German Jews. Germans typically constituted the urban elite which controlled municipal administrations and in general exercised a decisive influence over the Slavic substratum. The demographic development of Prague, as the largest metropolis, deserves a special comment. Although the city grew more or less steadily after the year 1800, the really important demographic transformation was not the growth itself, but the increasing proportion of newcomers who moved into the city from the surrounding countryside. In the first two decades of the nineteenth century, the proportion of these newcomers remained relatively stable - hovering near 6 percent of the total population. A change set in during the 1820s: the proportion of newcomers began to increase markedly, from 6.3 percent in 1818, to 15 percent in 1826, to 36.3 percent in 1834, and finally to 48.9 percent in 1850.(24) This meant that by the middle of the century nearly one half of the Prague population consisted of people who had severed their previous roots and come to the city in search of a new life. The mass of newcomers was Czech. They found work in the new textile and machine industries founded during the 1830s and �118 SLOVAKIA 1840s, and in other forms of employment. Textile workers, about a thousand strong, became the largest distinctive group of the labor force in the capital city. Their rioting in 1844 announced the advent of an industrial age in Bohemia and attracted the attention of Europe, its effect reinforced by the rioting at almost the same time of Prague workers employed on the construction of a new railway.(25) One of the consequences of the influx of newcomers was to augment the Czechspeaking substratum in a city governed by the German elite. All this provided a setting calculated to raise the social and political fever of the capital city and goes far toward explaining the intensity of the upheaval that swept Prague during 1848. The other three cities mentioned above were drawn less precipitously into the vortex of social and economic change. Zagreb may serve as an example of a city standing at the opposite pole of the socio-economic spectrum from Prague. Although its size had almost doubled in the half-century before 1848, the city had not acquired an industrial face in the process. In 1808, nearly 40 percent of its population consisted of nobles and clergy (! ) and by 1848 these two groups, along with the intelligentsia, still accounted for one half of the total number of inhabitants.(26) City life in Zagreb, and in the eastern half of the empire as a whole, retained essentially a pre-industrial character as late as 1848. What passed for a town in the eastern half of the empire was different from what it was understood to be in the western half and in Western Europe. As one contemporary observer described the town scene in the eastern half of the empire just on the eve of 1848: not only the small towns but also the larger cities there '' consisted of nothing but settlements of ploughmen, vine growers, and shepherds in which respect they did not differ at all from the villages .'' (27) It is startling to realize that at the time of the outbreak of the 1848 revolution, Croatia - and also Slovakia - had not yet acquired a single mile of railroad. II How strong were the nationalist movements to which these structures gave rise and which broke into the open during the years 1848-1849, complete with leaders and programs? The nationalist movements of 1848 were the culminating point of the preceding halfcentury of "national awakening." This development had of course proceeded at a different pace in the case of the various peoples and by 1848 each movement ·had attained a different level of strength. How can this strength be measured? How did the movements compare in their ability to mobilize supporters? It is generally agreed that to be effective a movement requires '' some kind of organization that enables certain persons to act as authorized spokesmen and representatives. This can take the form of committees, clubs, labor unions, or political parties.'' (28) Such clubs consist of individuals with the highest degree �SLOVAKIA 119 of commitment to a movement's objectives. In our context, organizations with such a commitment were the pre-March patriotic societies that had come into being during the 1830s and 1840s. The Czechs, the Croats and the Slovaks each had one such society: they were, respectively, the Czech Foundation (Ceska Matice, founded in 1832), the Croatian Foundation (Matica Hrvatska, 1842) and the Slovak Tatrin (1844). These were nationalist societies comprising the highest echelon of nationalist elites. Although independent of each other, they had similar organizational structures and pursued identical objectives: to promote the native language and culture, and to foster the publication of books and newspapers in that language . With this comparability in mind, we can use the numerical strength of these societies as a comparative index of the strength with which the three nationalist movements entered upon the year 1848. On the eve of 1848, the Czech Foundation had a membership of 2329 (for the year 1847),(29) the Croatian Foundation 300(30) (for 1844, the last pre-1848 year available) and Tatrin 80 (1847).(31) Measured against the total population of each nationality as given earlier, this yields the ratio of 5.8 per 10,000 for the Czech national movement, 1.9 per 10,000 for the Croatian, and a low 0.5 per 10,000 for the Slovak. It may be added that the membership in all three societies was growing.(32) Evidently, the nationalist movements had acquired a momentum of their own, adding their weight to the forces that precipitated the collapse of absolutism in March 1848. The revolutions of 1848 may not have been inevitable but the forces that produced them had been unmistakably at work. The Slovenes lacked a patriotic society before 1848 and consequently we cannot measure the strength of the Slovene movement on a basis strictly comparable with the other three. It may be assumed, however, that the absence of a patriotic society is itself evidence of a sort: it suggests the existence of a less developed nationalist movement. Nevertheless, the Slovenes were not without visible manifestations of progress on the nationalist front. Their patriots established a foothold in the Agricultural Society of Camiola, an organization of long standing. This was not a Slovene patriotic society for it counted both Germans and Slovenes among its members and its avowed purpose was improvement of agriculture, not promotion of Slovene nationalism. However, in 1842 the society appointed a moderate, Dr. Janez Bleiweis, as its new secretary, and under him Slovene nationalist forces found elbow room within the society's framework. The success of the first modem Slovene newspaper, Novice, which Bleiweis launched in 1843 under the auspices of the society, afforded proof that Slovene nationalism was on the rise. (33) Still, the absence of a genuine patriotic society was a serious drawback; it meant that the Slovene elite entered upon the year 1848 with little organizational contact, strength and experience. In this it resembled the Slovak elite whose Tatrin offered too feeble a basis when the need �120 SLOVAKIA for action arose . The Slovene and the Slovak elites were the weaker members in the group, the Czech and the Croatian ones the stronger. This distribution of pre-1848 strength corresponds, in fact, very closely to the performance of these nationalist movements during the year 1848. What about the social hue of the elites? The membership rosters of the three patriotic societies contain occupational data that permit us to make cross-national comparisons. For the Slovenes, we must again resort to substitute material which furnishes a basis for an informed estimate. Surveying all four elites, one can perceive two social groups playing a dominant role: the intelligentsia and the lower clergy. The intelligentsia, as defined here, includes teachers, officials, writers, students, and professionals. The term clergy refers to both Roman Catholic and Protestant clergymen. The latter were numerically strong only in the Slovak elite. In the other three elites, the clergy was, with few exceptions, Roman Catholic. While it is true that the intelligentsia and the clergy were prominent in all four elites, their weight varied from case to case. From the material at our disposal it is evident that the intelligentsia had a larger share in the Czech and Croatian elites, while the clergy had a larger share in the Slovene and Slovak elites. The proportion of the intelligentsia and the clergy in the three patriotic societies was, respectively: 54 percent and 29 percent in the Czech.(34) 52 percent and 20 percent in the Croatian(35) and 30 percent and 59 percent in the Slovak society.(36) It is noteworthy that businessmen and other groups ranked after the intelligentsia and the clergy. The peasants as might be expected were hardly significant. The dominant role of the clergy in the Slovene elite can be gleaned from the list of subscribers to the abovementioned newspaper Novice. Although Novice was intended to be a peasant newspaper, the peasants constituted only a small minority of its subscribers; nearly half of the subscribers (in 1847) were nationalist clergymen!(37) The influence of the clergy was noted by a Slovene historian of the last century; in relating the origins of the nationalist movement he observed that ''The number of conscious (Slovene) patriots outside the ranks of the clergy was small.'' (38) The role of the nobility was important only in the Croatian elite . Its proportion in the Croatian Foundation was 7 percent, as compared with 1.5 percent in the Czech Foundation and zero in the Slovak Tatrin. (39) There were, to be sure, influential individual nobles active also in the Czech nationalist movement in its earliest stages. However, they were, as a rule , German-speaking "Bohemian patriots" who sympathized with the Czech movement without identifying themselves with the Czech nationalism. They were friendly outsiders "looking in" and withdrew from the movement in proportion as that movement acquired a clearly Czech nationalist stamp. The role of the nobility in the Croatian movement was completely different. Far from being outsiders �SLOVAKIA 121 looking in, they were anchored squarely in the very heart of the nationalist movement at all times, helping to give it shape and direction in a manner in which the Czech nobility never did. The Croatian elite , it should be pointed out, had an added feature all of its own; this consisted in a peculiar collaboration between the nobles and the intelligentsia. It was almost routine practice for the Croatian nobles who had the right to sit in pre-1848 county assemblies to allow themselves to be represented by members of the nationalist intelligentsia. (40) This gave the intelligentsia considerable influence over and above its numercial strength , but there was a reverse side to the coin: the intelligentsia fell into a state of dependence upon the nobles to some extent and acted as a conduit for noble influence. A particular reference should be made at this point to the Slovak elite and to the problem that bedeviled the relationship between its members: the religious problem. Perhaps half of the clergymen in the Slovak patriotic society were Protestant (Lutheran), the remainder were Roman Catholic.(41) Protestants, however, had acquired a commanding position during the years preceding 1848. Moreover, Protestants and Catholics were divided not only by religious convictions - which would have been serious enough to jeopardize the movement - but also by different attitudes regarding the conception of Slovak nationhood and literary language . The chasm separating the two religious groups proved difficult to bridge and Roman Catholics treated the Protestant initiatives with the greatest reserve. This was bound to have a damaging effect on Slovak efforts; how damaging, the events of 1848 were to bear out only too painfully. This added to the vulnerability of a nationalist movement that had already been rendered vulnerable on other counts. The Slovaks were the only one of the four nationalities that entered the year 1848 with a seriously disunited elite . The elites as organized in the patriotic societies comprised the most highly committed or mobilized members of the nationalist movements. How did the elites draw the broader strata of the populations into the movement? How did the wider process of social mobilization take place? It is now increasingly recognized that the development of nationalism is related to the role of communications. A group of sociological theories assigns communications a prime place in the process of national awakening. One communications model in fact considers ' 'the role of the intelligentsia ... to be a necessary condition of all nationalist movements, " (42) an observation which appears to receive support from the role the intelligentsia played in the four movements examined here. If one includes the clergy, as some historians do , in the concept of "intelligentsia" (" clerical intelligentsia'' ), then the importance of this social group in the genesis of Austro-Slavic nationalisms becomes overwhelming. In this context literacy was an essential factor contributing to the success of any mobilizing effort mounted by the elites. How did the four �122 SLOVAKIA nationalities rate on this count? Literacy statistics were not compiled in the Austrian Empire at the time we are discussing. In order to obtain a picture, we are obliged to rely on later census data that indicate the literacy of the generation that was born in the 1830s and was of school age in the 1840s. In this generation, the Czechs led the others . Their rate was 84. 75 percent which was nearly three times as much as that of the Slovaks (30.2 percent), the Slovenes (28.62 percent) and the Croats (26. 7 percent) . (43) It is necessary to add that the Slavic populations in general were at a disadvantage vis-a-vis the Austro-Germans when it came to the use of their languages as a medium of instruction in schools. Only in the lower schools was teaching conducted in the language appropriate to the ethnic region. The language of middle and higher schools was German in the western half of the empire and German, Latin or Magyar in the eastern half. In other words, attaining a higher level of education generally compelled the individual concerned to leave the cultural ambience of his native language . The results of this process were often bizarre. For example, the Czech Karel Havlicek and the Slovene Bleiwies, both leading nationalists, were, in the early stages of their nationalist activity, more fluent in German than in their own native language - a situation by no means untypical of Slavic national awakeners.(44) The elites were keenly aware of the efficacy of the printed word as a medium through which they could best transmit their ideas and mobilize the larger non-elite mass; hence the preoccupation of the patriotic societies with publishing. The printed word devised and disseminated nationalist symbols, awakened an interest in the past and created an awareness of shared leaders, thus ultimately engendering a sense of the community of language, culture and history. For maximum effectiveness, the printed word had to have periodicity and this pointed to the importance of the newspaper as a vehicle most suitable for communication. It was a portent of an approaching nationalist storm that the fifteen-year period preceding the revolutions of 1848 saw the foundation of the first modem national and nationalist newspapers in the case of all four nationalities . One such newspaper was founded in each case, under the auspices of or in association with, the patriotic societies.(45) Of the four, only one, the Slovak, remained stationary in circulation during the pre-March period(46) while the other three showed a circulation increase, with the Czech newspaper registering an increase that can only be described as extraordinary, from 200 in 1846 to 1,500 in 1848.(47) The editor of the Czech newspaper was Karel Havlicek , of the Croatian, Ljudevit Gaj, of the Slovak, I.:udovit Stur, and of the Slovene, Dr. Janez Bleiweis. It is interesting to note that the last three men were the principal nationalist leaders of their peoples at the time and are considered the ''fathers' ' of their particular nationalist movements. As for Havlicek, he shared this honor with the Czech historian Frantisek Palacky. Nothing illustrates more tellingly the �SLOVAKIA 123 importance of communications to nationalism than the fact that the nationalist editors were the leaders of their national groups. ill In March 1848 absolutism in the Austrian Empire collapsed and this ushered in the "revolutions of 1848," a period of constitutional government that lasted for over a year, until the emperor began to reimpose absolutism in the spring and summer of 1849. Among the most important constitutional innovations introduced by the liberal regime was the abolition of censorship in March 1848. This led to the foundation of new magazines and newspapers, making it possible for the Czech leaders to start a veritable avalanche of the printed word. On the eve of 1848 the Czechs had a total of 13 newspapers and periodicals; after March this number quadrupled, to 52.(48) Elsewhere, the expansion was more modest. In Croatia, the increase was from 5 in 184 7 to 8 in 1848(49) while the corresponding Slovak figures were 6 and 8.(50) The Slovenes, starting from a low base of 1 newspaper in 1847 brought the number up to 6 in 1848.(51) (After the return of the reaction in 1849 the number of newspapers began to drop again to pre1848 levels.) Calculated on a per capita basis, there was, in 1848, one newspaper or magazine for 77,000 Czechs, 167,000 Slovenes, 200,000 Croats and 213,000 Slovaks. Clearly, the Czech elite had at their disposal the most highly developed network of communications - an advantage heightened by the fact that some of their newspapers appeared daily (six times a week) whereas the frequency of the newspapers of the other nationalities was not more than three times a week. The strengths and the handicaps with which each Slavic group had entered upon the revolution became evident in the first days of freedom. The Czechs and the Croats promptly staged mass meetings , (in March in their capital cities) at which nationalist programs were adopted. (52) In the other two ethnic regions, the adoption of nationalist programs was accomplished with less mass support. The Slovenes formulated their nationalist programs in March without the benefit of a single mass meeting - the only Slav group to pass through the revolutionary year without mass demonstrations or rallies in support of nationalist objectives.(53) In Slovakia, the elite was slow in getting off the mark and encountered difficulties in mobilizing public opinion. A full-fledged nationalist program was not adopted until the beginning of May 1848 at a meeting in Liptovsky Svlity Mikulas, but the public presence at this meeting was modest and the program failed to acquire the legitimacy and force sufficient to compel the Magyar authorities to heed it.(54) The opening stages of the revolutionary period demonstrated the advantage of a people having a body of nationalists with organizational experience and mutual contact who would seize the initiatives, and �124 SLOVAKIA quickly and forcefully responded to the challenges of the moment. The pre-1848 patriotic societies consisted of such nationalists. However, accustomed as they had been to more genteel forms of struggle, these societies could not in themselves become the instruments of political activism at a time of revolutionary turbulence, and so new organizations were established to cope with new forms of struggle. The Czechs in Prague created in March a National Committee which served, until its dissolution after the June 1848 uprising in Prague, as a center of Czech nationalist activity throughout Bohemia. Many members of the Czech Foundation became active in the National Committee which counted over a hundred members. In the National Committee, the intelligentsia prevailed, as it had done in the Czech Foundation, with 44 percent of the members belonging to this stratum. However, the proportion of the clergy was drastically reduced in this elite group, to a mere 4 percent, as compared with 29 percent it had had in the Czech Foundation in the last year before the revolution. It appears that the revolution had pushed the clergy into the background. Its place was taken by the bourgeoisie (burghers, artisans, businessmen) whose share in the National Committee was 42 percent.(55) After June 1848 the vacuum created by the demise of the National Committee was filled by the newly founded Slavic Linden (Slovanska Lipa), a nationalist pressure group consciously seeking political change. The Slavic Linden was led by intellectuals and bourgeoisie, with some members of the National Committee passing into its ranks. (56) The clergy played no major role. Politically, the Slavic Linden was somewhat to the left of the National Committee and, unlike the latter, acquired some of the characteristics of a political party: it had its own newspaper, an elected executive, a headquarters (in Prague), and local branches. By the beginning of 1849 it counted 49 branches throughout Bohemia, forming a network reaching into all corners of the province, with a total estimated membership of 2,000.(57) Among rank and file members of the Slavic Linden were peasants and people of the humble stations in life. (58) The Slavic Linden was in fact the only non-elite stratum, showing a widening circle of nationalistically mobilized population. None of the other three nationalities could point to this level of national awakening, and none devised the kind of network through which the nationalists could communicate and operate in an organized fashion. The Croatian nationalist movement operated with instruments essentially different from those employed by the Czechs. The Croatian elite relied less on the spontaneous organs such as the Czech National Committee and more on Croatia's existing institutions of selfgovernment which it revived and re-shaped to suit the new post-March conditions. After March, the Croats acquired their provincial government, the Ban's Council, which managed the affairs of the country throughout 1848-1849. The Croats were the only Slavic group to �SLOVAKIA 125 become for the duration of the 1848-1849 revolutionary period , masters in their own house, recognizing the authority of none but the emperor. Their nobility continued to be active and influential in the existing arrangements. The only new non-governmental nationalist political or quasi-political organization to which the elite gave rise in the postMarch period was the Croatian version of the Slavic Linden. It was inspired by but independent of the Czech Slavic Linden. It was founded in Zagreb , was led by moderately left-oriented intellectuals, and acquired a newspaper of its own. However, it was never too active and never succeeded in building a network of branches throughout the Croatian regions. Only one major branch was set up outside of Zagreb.(59) The total membership of the two branches was no more than a few score and the organization never reached into the non-elite strata. (60) The effectiveness and power of the Croatian nationalist movement derived more from the existing institutional structure and the participation of the nobility than from the mobilization of the wider segments of the population. The Slovenes and the Slovaks could offer little to match the Czech and the Croatian examples. Among the Slovenes, the revolution gave rise to the Slovene Society of Ljubljana founded in April 1848 which became the largest and most influential body of Slovene patriots of the revolutionary period . Its slogan was "Everything for Religion, Emperor and Nationality" and doubtless expressed the influence of clergymen who, according to a police report, formed the largest social group within the 400-member society, with the intelligentsia accounting for the rest .(61) The slogan captures the spirit of the society sufficiently to contrast it with the Czech National Committee which was secular minded and in which the clergy had hardly any role to play. At the same time, it deserves to be noted that the thrust of the Society ' s efforts was cultural more than political. It did not become a center of political activity and did not regard itself as much more than a patriotic interest group. The position of the Slovaks was the least satisfactory. At no time after March 1848 did they form anything resembling the Czech National Committee or even the Slovene Society of Ljubljana. As a consequence, their movement was without an organized thrust and without a single direction. Only the political newspaper, the Slouenskje N<irodnjc Nouini continued to function as a voice of Slovak nationalism but it was compelled to suspend publication in June 1848 under Magyar pressure and with its passing, the last channel of communications through which the elite could address itself to the mass had been destroyed. The Slovak people were thus left without a political newspaper for the greater part of the revolutionary era - a handicap to which none of the other three nationalities was subjected. Furth ermore, in June 1848, Magyar authorities declared martial law over much of Slovak territory - charging the Slovak leaders with '' Pan- �126 SLOVAKIA Slavic" subversion and forcing many of them into exile - and this paralyzed the Slovak movement still further.(62) The clergy (Protestant) continued to dominate what was left of the life of the Slovak movement after June. (63 ) The organizational strength of the elites and the degree to which they were able to mobilize the wider segments of the populations were tested at the elections to the various representative assemblies that took place during 1848 - the first such modem elections to be held in the history of the Austrian Empire. Until 1848 , public life in the empire had borne a German or, in the eastern half, German-Magyar character and this was bound to favor German and Magyar candidates in the election contests even in the Slavic-speaking areas . Conversely, success at the polls of the Slavic candidates could be regarded as evidence of a relatively high degree of mobilization among the Slavic electorate. The right to vote was more liberal in the western than in the eastern half of the empire , and even in the former, segments of the lower social classes were excluded. Nevertheless , it must be acknowledged that everywhere a large number of " common" people enjoyed the right to vote and the election results can serve as a rough expression of popular sentiment vis-a-vis the nationalist movements . The elections yielded the following results. In Bohemia, they demonstrated a high degree of responsiveness of voters to the Czech nationalist movement. In the election of the Bohemian diet in J une 1848 the proportion of Czech deputies elected was just over 60 percent (the remainder were Germans) - a figure corresponding closely to the estimated proportion of the Czech population in the province. The election to the Imperial Parliament held in the same month brought similar results, with the Bohemian voters sending to Vienna 55 Czech as against 35 German deputies.(64) In Croatia, the elections to the diet (June 1848) were a clean sweep for the nationalist candidates. This was due , in part , to the militancy of the Croatian authorities who saw to it that only committed to the Croatian cause could stand as candidates. (65) Because of this, the election results are not very meaningful. In the Slovene regions, the electoral behavior of the voters was less affected by nationalist sentiment. The election of the diet of Carniola produced " numerous" Slovene deputies(66) but not nearly the decisive majority the size of the Slovene population of Camiola (90 percent) would warrant. Similarly, only about half of the deputies elected to the Imperial Parliament in ethnically Slovene territory were actually of Slovene orientation ; the other half were German or bilingual without specifically Slovene leanings.(67) Finally, the nationalists in the Slovak regions failed completely: the first modern Hungarian Parliament , elected in June 1848, did not have a single Slovak deputy. This was attributable, in part , to Magyar electoral pressures. But the principal reason was the underdeveloped nationalist sentiment of the Slovak mass . Slovak leaders were themselves not unaware of this and �SLOVAKIA 127 fielded only a few candidates . (68) The nationalist leaders realized that much of their effectiveness depended on the success with which they mobilized the support of the largest social group: the peasantry . To achieve this, they experimented with the publication of newspapers written and edited specifically for the peasantry. However, the results of this effort proved disappointing. The only peasant newspaper that proved successful was the Slovene Novice but even in this instance , no more than 15 percent of its subscribers belonged to the class for which it was primarily aimed.(69) Clearly, Novice could maintain itself only because of the support of non-peasant readers , particularly the clergy. Publication of peasant newspapers was tried also by Croatian (Summer 1848) and Czech (Spring 1849) leaders but both ventures failed for lack of reader support. (70) A more technically oriented newspaper was devised and launched for the Slovak peasants but it likewise proved short-lived (1848). (71) These failures have usually been attributed to a lack of national consciousness on the part of the peasantry, and doubtless there is more than a grain of truth in the observation. After all, the peasantry had only just emerged, in 1848, from the last vestiges of serfdom . A large number of peasants was still illiterate and could not be expected to display a degree of political and nationalist commitment of the kind evinced by the elites. Plainly, the peasant's most immediate and active concerns involved his own social problems rather than the problems of nationalism . At the same time, it should not be forgotten that the peasants were the authentic traditional bearers of the national cultures and folklore and it would be implausible to maintain that such traditions had failed to engender varying degrees of national consciousness or even of interest in the nationalist movement. There is, in fact , good evidence to show that although the peasants turned their back on peasant newspapers, many of them followed the great nationalist press, such as the Czech Narodni Noviny (successor, since April 1848 to Praiske Noviny) .(72) It is probable that such newspapers offered them a more direct opportunity of identifying with the nationalist leaders . The quality and intensity of the peasants' commitment to nationalism did not and could not equal that of the elites , but not a few of them were prepared to support the elites in the capacity of followers. However, this differed from one ethnic region to another. Peasant support for the nationalist elites was the most widespread in the Czech regions. The authorities in Bohemia were not oblivious to the support from the peasants the Czech leaders enjoyed; a confidential police report of May 1849 noted that Czech leaders could count on Czech peasants in resisting unpopular government measures.(73) In the other three ethnic regions, the peasantry seemed moblized to a lesser degree , the least , to judge from the election results, in Slovakia. The apathy of the Slovak peasant seemed more marked than that of his Czech, Slovene and Croatian counterparts. Indeed, the Slovak �128 SLOVAKIA movement as a whole was so weak that a brief digression concerning this weakness appears warranted. Certainly , a major weakening factor was religious discord. Although a majority of Slovaks were Roman Catholic, the Protestants occupied the highest rungs of power in the elite and were , for all practical purposes , the moving spirits of the revolution of 1848 in Slovakia - a situation calculated to displease the Roman Catholics. The great triad of the movement, tudovit Stur, M. M . Hodza and J.M. Hurban, were all Protestants , the latter two were practicing Lutheran clergymen. The group that adopted the nationalist program of May 1848 consisted almost entirely of Protestants.(74) At the grass roots, the climate was similar: the areas inhabited by Protestants manifested a more active nationalist sentiment during the revolution than those inhabited by Roman Catholics - hardly a favorable omen in a people that was in majority Roman Catholic. It is not surprising that some Roman Catholic Slovaks regarded the movement of 1848 as a Protestant plot.(75) Furthermore , the Slovaks lacked a major center of national culture and their geographic setting in general hindered rather than aided the growth of communications and the development of nationalism . The river valleys amid the high peaks of the Tatra Mountains had an isolating effect. " We are an unfortunate people," lamented one Slovak leader, ' ' in that we live only in our valleys - isolated from one another, ' ' and contrasted it with the advantage the Czechs possessed in having a centrally located city , Prague , which was " like the heart of the (Czech) body ." (76) The network of roads and postal services and transportation facilities was sparse, much sparser than, for instance , in the Czech regions. It took considerably less time to traverse a distance in Bohemia than it did to traverse the same distance in Slovakia. (77) Bratislava was in 1848 a predominantly German city, on the fringes of Slovak ethnic territory. Although Stur's Slovenske Narodnje No vini was published there, the city was far from dominant in Slovak national life . Of the 8 Slovak newspapers appearing in 1848, only 3 were published in Bratislava. (78) The cultural facilities of the Slovaks were dispersed, with no city standing above the others as undisputed national leader. When it came to a center of national culture, the other three peoples were in a better position. The Slovenes , it is true , faced a hostile geographic environment in their mountainous terrain, but had at least a reasonably active center in the city of Ljubljana, situated in the heart of the Slovene ethnic territory. Of the 6 Slovene newspapers appearing in 1848 , all but one originated in Ljubljana. (79) The position of the Croats and the Czechs was again superior to that of the Slovenes. The Croats had their undisputed capital and nationalist center in Zagreb, with 7 of the existing 8 Croatian newspapers published there , (80) and with all major cultural institutions located there. While the Czechs had the most vigorous national center of all, in Prague, to which not only the Czechs but also most other Austrian Slavs, looked �SLOVAKIA 129 for leadership . Of the 41 Czech newspapers published in Bohemia, 33 were appearing in Prague, and they were the ones with the nationwide circulation.(81) Prague was already then becoming the towering symbol of Czech nationalism. To sum up the strength of the Austrian Slavic nationalist movements: the Czechs and the Croats belonged in one category as the stronger pair, while the Slovenes and the Slovaks were the weaker. Within each pair, however, there were marked differences. The Czech movement derived its strength principally from a large popular base , created by more highly developed communications. The Croatian movement had a more restricted popular base but compensated for this by having at is disposal an administrative structure rooted in the traditions of self-government. This, combined with the foothold the movement had in the governing class, the nobility, gave it a readymade leverage of political influence which was denied to the other three nationalities. To formulate it in slightly different language: the strength of the Croatian movement was derived from the traditional social and political features; that of the Czech movement was more clearly associated with the features of modernization. The latter was born in a society that could be described as early industrial, the former in a society that was essentially pre-industrial. A few data will illustrate this. On the eve of 1848, Croatia was without a railroad and with only 4 steam engines operating on its territory.(82) Bohemia (with Moravia) had over 500 kilometers of railroads(83) and some 360 steam engines.(84) For the sake of comparison, it may be noted that at this same time Slovakia was, like Croatia, without a railroad and with only 3 steam engines(85) while Slovenia was more advanced, with 25 steam engines(86) and a stretch of railroad a little under 100 kilometers.(87) (The number of steam engines in Britain then was 30,000 and in France 5,000.(88) Britain had more than 4,000 kilometers of railroad.)(89) The Slovenes and the Slovaks were weaker on several counts . Their nationalist elites were less well organized. The Slovak elite was especially hampered by the Protestant-Catholic differences which constituted a unique element not present in the other three movements. Also, alone of the nationalities being surveyed here, the Slovaks had no institutional forms that would lend their ethnic territory a certain visibility and a possible leverage for political action; and, after June 1848, no political press. Furthermore, the Slovak mass appears to have been the least mobilized into the national movement: the Slovak elite had little impact on the rest of the population. In some of these respects, the Slovenes were in a better position than the Slovaks. They had at least the provincial institutions of Carniola which could be made to serve as an instrument with which to advance the nationalist cause. Their elite was not rent with religious discord. During the year 1848 it succeeded in producing at least a modicum of organizational life (Slovene Society of Ljubljana) and also a political or quasi-political �130 SLOVAKIA press that functioned throughout the 1848-1849 constitutional period. The circulation figures for the Slovene and Slovak newspapers offer unmistakable evidence that the Slovene nationalist movement was reaching a larger proportion of its constituency than the Slovak one.(90) The social and occupational groups that made up the preponderant strain in the nationalist elites were the intelligentsia and the clergy: the former was dominant in the Czech and the Croatian (here linked closely with the nobility) elites, the latter in the Slovene and the Slovak ones. The elites were the ideologues of the nationalist movements, disseminating their views chiefly through the press which they controlled. This suggests some possibilities for future research. It would be desirable to know in what ways the social structure of the elites was reflected in the political ideologies of the nationalist movements.(91) It would be also interesting to discover in what ways the elites helped shape the merging political cultures - the revolutions of 1848 constitute the beginning of modem political life among the peoples of the Austrian Empire - and to what extent this contributed to the enduring pattern of political culture as it crystallized in the coming generations. In our own century, down to the outbreak of World War II, the Czechs gained a reputation for supporting center and left-of-center political movements; the Croats displayed political vagaries but a certain centrist mixture of liberal and conservative seemed to hold the most sway: while among the Slovenes and the Slovaks militant right-wing clericalist movements proved the most dynamic. This pattern seems to mirror, to a considerable extent, the dominant social classes in the nationalist elites as they existed in the middle of the last century. With the present popularity of the study of political cultures, it should not be long before social scientists interested in the Austrian Slavs tum to the middle of the nineteenth century as the time ''when it all began.'' FOOTNOTES 1) W. H. STILLS, Austria in 1848-49 (New York: 1852), 388. ( 2) For the figures for Czechs, Slovaks and Slovenes, see the tables in Fran ZWITTER et al., Nacionalni problemi v Habsbudki Monarhiji (Ljubljana: 1962) , 212-219. For Croats, see the article "Hrvati" in EnciklopedijaJugoslavije. Vol. 4, p. 58. ( 3) Uebersichts-Tafeln zur Statistik der oesterreichisechen Monarchie (Special Reprint of Fascicle X and XI of Statistische Mittheilungen, Vienna: 1850), 1. ( 4) ZWITTER, op. cit., 216, 219. ( 5) George FASEL, Europe in Upheaval: The Revolutions of 1848 (Chicago: 1970), 4. ( 6) Johann SPRINGER, Statistik des oesterreichischen Kaiserstaates, Vol. 1 (Vienna: 1840), 98. ( 7) Slovenska jar: Slovenske povstanie 1848-49, ed. by Jan SLOBODA (Bratislava: 1971), 40 , estimates the Slovak Protestants at one third. ( 8) See the table in ZWITTER, op. cit., 215. �SLOVAKIA 131 ( 9) Bogo GRAFENAUER, Zgodovina slovenskega naroda, Vol. 5 (Ljubljana: 1962), 172. (10) I. KARAMAN, "Ekonomske prilike u vrijeme hrvatskog narodnog preporoda," Kolo, New Series, Vol. 4 (1966), Nos. 8-10, p. 181. (11) K. NOVOTNY and M. MYSKA, eds., Prvni kroky k vitezstvi (Prague: 1966), 10. (12) For the historical development of the ethnic regions of Bohemia, see the map in Ceskoslovenska vlastiveda, Part II, Dejiny, Vol. 2 (Prague: 1969), following p. 80. Compare with this the map depicting the industrial development of Bohemia before 1848, in Atlas ceskoslovenskych dejin (Prague: 1965), No. 17 a. (13) In Croatia as late as 1880 (the earliest year for which accurate statistics are available). 84.64 percent of the population derived their livelihood from agriculture; see Enciklopedija Jugoslavije, Vol. 4, article "Hrvatska," p. 196. For the Slovenes, the estimate for the middle of the nineteenth century is 89 percent; see article "Slovenija," EnciklopedijaJugoslavije, Vol. 7,353. Much the same picture emerges for the Slovaks, from Slovenskajar, op. cit. 34. (14) See GRAFENAUER, op. cit., 154. (15) Ibid. (16) J. GODECHOT, Les Revolutions de 1848 (Paris: 1971), 90. (17) L. KARNlKOVA, Vyvoj obyvatelstva v ceskych zemich 1754-1914 (Prague: 1965), 105. (18) Uebersichtstafeln zur Statistik, op. cit., 3. (19) F. SISlC, HrvatskaPovijest, Vol. 3 (Zagreb: 1913), 7. (20) Uebersichtstafeln zur Statistik, op. cit., 3. I. CHURKINA, "O nekotorykh osobennostiakh formirovaniia slovenskoi natsii, '' Sovetskoe slavianovedenie, No. 2, 1968, p . 16. (21) Uebersichtstafeln zur Statistik, op. cit., 3 Dejiny Slovenska, ed. by L. HOLOTIK, Vol. 1 (Bratislava: 1961), 435. - For the overall economic trends in Eastern Europe, see I. T. BEREND and G. RAN KI, Economic Development in East-Central Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries (translation from the Hungarian) (New York and London: 1974). (22) In 1850, the ethnic composition of the population of Bratislava was as follows: Germans 70.6 percent, Jews 12.9 percent, Slovaks 10.09 percent, Magyars 6.18 percent, others 0.23 percent. See I. HOUDEK, "Bratislava v revolucnych rokoch 1848-1849." Acta Musei Civitatis Bratislavensis: Bratislava, Vol. 5 (1969), 169. (23) No reliable ethnic statistics exist for these three cities for the middle of the nineteenth century and the available estimates differ so widely that it is unprofitable to reproduce them here. As a rule, German historians claim a larger share of German inhabitants for each city than do the Slavic historians. (24) KARNlKOVA, op. cit., 105. (25) J. JANACEK, ed., Dejiny Prahy (Prague: 1964), 432-433. (26) I. I. LESHCHILOVSKAIA, Illirizm (Moscow: 1968), 94. (27) Quoted in R. A. AVERBUKH, Revoliutsiia i natsionalno-osvoboditelnaia borba v Vengrii 1848-1849 (Moscow: 1965), 5. (28) "Social Movements," in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 14, p. 441. (29) Prehled ceskoslovenskych dejin, Vol. 1 (Prague: 1958), 688. (30) J. RAVLIC, Matica Hrvatska 1842-1962 (Zagreb: 1963), 40. (31) D. RAP ANT, Tatrin (Martin, 1950), 11-12. For the patriotic societies of the various Slavic groups, see S. B. KIMBALL, The Austro-Slav Revival: A Study of Nineteenth- �132 SLOVAKIA Century Literary Foundations, in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, LXIII, Part 4 (Philadelphia: 1973). (32) The number of members of the Czech Foundation grew from 35 in 1832 to over 500 in 1839, to 2329 in 1847; see Prehled teskoswvenskych dejin op. cit., 688. Tatrin expanded from 23 in 1844 to 80 in 1847; see RAPANT, op. cit., 12, who says that the membership lists were not always accurate. The Croatian Foundation expanded from 158 members in 1842 to 300 in 1844 (figures for the later pre-March years are not available): see RA VLlC, op. cit., 34, 40. (33) J. BLEIWEIS, Zgodovina C. K. krajnske kmetijske druibe (Ljubljana: 1855), 11. (34) M. HROCH, Die Vorkiimpfer der nationalen Bewegung bei den Kleinen Voelkem Europas (Prague: 1968), 44. The percentages refer to the situation as it was in 1847. (35) I have computed these percentages from a membership list containing occupational data, as reproduced in RA VLlC, op. cit., 260-263. The Croatian Foundation was a successor to the so-called Illyrian Reading Room and the above list gives the names of members, 217 in all, of that reading room, for the year 1838-1839. It is the only extant list that contains occupational data and can give us an indication of the social structure of the Croatian Foundation. (36) Computed from a list given in RAP ANT , op. cit., 12. (37) In 1847 the total number of subscribers was 1522 of whom 230 were peasants and 689 clergymen. See GRAFENAUER, op. cit., Vol. 5, 165. (38) J . APIH, "Die Slovenen und die Miirzbewegung von 1848," Oesterreichisches Jahrbuch , XIV (1890), 93. (39) See Notes 34, 35, 36. (40) On the role of the nobility in the Croatian nationalist movement, see LESHCHILOVSKAIA, op. cit., 72-75. (41) RAPANT, op. cit., 12. I have supplemented Rapant's data with those found M. SLAVIK, ed. , Swvenski narodovci do 30. okt6bra 1918 (Trencin: 1945), Ch. ill. For a basic monograph on the early stages of the Slovak nationalist movement, see J. BUTVIN, Slovenske narodno-zjednocovacie hnutie 1780-1848 (Bratislava, 1965). A new quantifying study of the Slovak pre-1848 patriotic intelligentsia is J. HUCKO Socialne sloienie a povod slovenskej obrodenskej inteligencie (Bratislava: 1974). This volume had not reached me at the time this study was completed. (42) A. D. SMITH, Theories of Nationalism (London: 1971), 87 . One of the most influential exponents of the communications theory of nationalism is K. W . DEUTSCH. Nationalism and Social Communication (second edition, Cambridge, Mass ., 1966) . Deutsch inspired the Czech historian HROCH whose work (Note 34) is an important study comparing the origin of certain West and East (including Czech and Slovak) European nationalist movements. (43) M. N. KUZMIN , Shkola i obrazovanie v Chekhoslovakii (Moscow: 1971), 89, 159. (44) One of the leading members of the Czech nationalist movement of the time says of Havlicek and several other Czech nationalists that they spoke Czech "extremely unclearly": quoted in E. BASS, Cteni o roce osmoctyricatem, Vol. 1 (Prague: 1940), 208. For a similar situation among the Slovenes , see F. GESTRIN and V. MELIK, Swvenska zgodovina od konca osemnajstego stoletja do 1918 (Ljubljana: 1968), 83, 88. (45) They were: the Czech Praiske Noviny which began to appear in 1825 but assumed a militant nationalist posture only under the editorship of Karel Havlicek who took it over in 1845-46; the Slovene Novice, founded in 1843; the Croatian Novine Hrvatske (1835); and the Slovak Slovenskje Narodnje Novini (1845). (46) The Slovak newspaper had a circulation of about 500 in the year in which it was launched: see Stur 's letter of September 6, 1845, as printed in Listy Eudovita Stura. Vol. II, ed. by J. AMBRUS (Bratislava: 1956), 94. Subsequent complaints by Stur �SLOVAKIA 133 about circulation indicate that it failed to grow; indeed, for a time at least, it appears to have slipped slightly; see Stur' s letter of August 3, 1846, in Listy, Vol. II, as cited, p. 143. (47) The circulation figures for the Czech newspaper are given by Havlicek in an article published by him on December 28, 1849, and reproduced in Z. V. TOBOLKA , ed. , Karel Havlitek Borovski; Politicke Spisy, Vol. II. Pt. 2 (Prague, 1902) , 875. For a recent article on Havlicek, see B. K. KIMMEL, "Karel Havlicek and the Czech Press before 1848," in P . BROCK and H . Gordon SKILIJNG, eds., The Czech Renascence of the Nineteenth Century (Toronto: 1970) . The Croatian newspaper was printed in 750 copies in the year of its first appearance (1835). This dipped to 400 in 1837 but then began to rise again steadily until the circulation reached 800 in 1848; see J. HORVAT, Povijest novinstva Hrvatske 17711939 (Zagreb : 1962), 123, 133 . The Slovene newspaper started with a run of 1,000 in 1843 and rose to 1,800 by 1848; see J . SLEBINGER, Slovenski tasniki i tasopisi: Bibliografski pregled od 1797-1936 (Ljubljana: 1937), 5. (48) M. LAISKE , Casopisectvi v Cechach 1650-1847 (Prague: 1959), 162, for the pre1848 figure . For the 1848 figure, see F. ROUBIK , Casopisectvo v Cechach v letech 1848-1862 (Prague, 1930). Appendix No . 9 (this for Bohemia) and M. WURMOVA, Soupis moravskych novin a tasopisu z let 1848-1918 (Brno: 1955), 4 (for Moravia) . (49) I. HERGESIC , Hrvatske novine i tasopisi do 1848 (Zagreb : 1936) , 102-103 . (50) M . POTEMRA , Bibliografia slovenskych novin a tasopisov do roku 1918 (Martin: 1958), 117. (51) SLEBINGER, op. cit., 5-7 . (52) For the meeting in Prague, see my Czech Revolution of 1848 (Chapel Hill: 1969), Chpt. 2. For the meeting in Zagreb, see R. HORVAT , Najnovije doba hrvatske povjesti (Zagreb : 1906), 112-113. (53) For the circumstances surrounding the formulation of the Slovene programs , see F. ZWITTER, "Slovenski politicni prerod XIX, stoletja v okviru evropske nacionalne problematike ," Zgodovinski Casopis, Vol. 18 (1964), 110-111. See also I. B. CHURKINA , " Politicheskaia programma Matii Maiara v 1848 godu," Sovetskoe Slavianovedenie 1969, No . 5. (54) J . BUTVIN and J . HA VRANEK, Dejiny Ceskoslovenska (Prague: 1968) , 220-221. (55) A list of members of the National Committee, with occupational data, is found Narodni Noviny, 14 April, 1848. The role of this committee is discussed in PECH, op. cit., 76-79, 115-121. (56) The Slavic Linden executive in Prague had 50 members. Their names, with incomplete occupational data, are printed in Noviny Lipy Slovanske , 11 April, 1849. I was able to identify the occupations of 42 of the members; of these 33 belonged to the inte lligentsia , 6 were merchants , 2 were liberal nobles, and one was a liberal Protestant clergyman . (57) See my "Czech Political Parties in 1848," Canadian Slavonic Papers-Revue canadiene des slavistes XV (1973) , 484-485 . For a map showing the geographic distribution of the branches, see Atlas teskoslovanskych dejin (Prague: 1965), No. 19j . (58) Thus , in one branch in a city , only one member out of 150 enjoyed the status of " burgher." In another, a majority were "poor artisans ," still another consisted largely of " cottagers and poor agricultural workers ." See Narodni Noviny 30 December , 1848 which contains an account of the congress of Slavic Linden branches held in Prague . This account offers some fragmentary data on the occupations of members of a few individual branches . (59) See " Slovenska Lipa ," Enciklopedija Jugoslavije, Vol. 7, 220-221. �134 SLOVAKIA (60) The Slavic Linden in Zagreb had 80-90 members : Noviny Lipy Slo vans ke, 20 January , 1849. The other major branch, Zadar, is said to have had 200 members ; see V. ZACEK , " Ceske a jihoslovanske Slovanske lipy v roce 1848, " Lite r<irni Archiv Vl (1971) , 227 . (61) J. MAL, " Ljubljana in leto 1848 ," Glasnik Muzejskega Dru~tva za Slovenijo XIV (1933) , 123. See also, J . APIH , Slovenci in 1848 le to (Ljubljana: 1888), 133 . (62) BUTVIN-HAVRANEK , op. cit., 221. (63) Of the four Slovak members who sat on a special 7-man council formed in the fall of 1848 to conduct resistance to Magyar authorities on Slovak territory, 3 were Protestant clergymen ; F . BOKES, " Slovenska narodna rada z rokov 1848-1849," Historicky Casopis xm (1965) , 214 . (64) PECH , Czech Revolution, 104, 167. (65) J . HORVAT, Politii!ka povijest Hrvatske (Zagreb : 1936) , 176. (66) J. APIH, " Die slovenische Bewegung im Fruhjahr und Vorsommer 1848," Oesterreichisches Jahrbuch, XVI (1892); 201. (67) ZWITTER , " Slovenski politicni . .. " 128. (68) D. RAPANT, Slovenske povstanie roku 1848-49, Vol. 1 Pt. 1 (Martin : 1937) , 212. (69) See Note 37 . (70) The Croatian one, entitled Prijatelj Puka, appeared in Zagreb as a weekly supplement of Slavenski Jug. from 9 August to 29 November, 1848 ; see ''Slavenski Jug,' ' Enciklopedija Jugoslavije, Vol. 7, p. 221. The Czech one was Sedlsk e Noviny, published in Prague between 1 April, 1849 and 30 June, 1849. It is now available in J.J. TYi, Spisy, XIV, ed . by F. STREJCEK and H . HRZALOVA (Prague : 1953). (71) " Noviny pre hospodarstvo , remeslo a domaci zivot ," published from 5 April, 1848 to 27 September, 1848 ; see F . RUTTKAY, Daniel G. Lichard a slovenske novin<irstvo jeho doby (Martin : 1961) , 81 ff . (72) The influence of Havlicek on the peasants was striking. He advised them how to vote and what type of deputies to choose and they followed his advice quite readily; see PECH, Czech R evolution, 105, 284. (73) Ibid. , 258 . (74) L. VON GOGOLAK , Beitriige zur Geschichte des slowakischen Volkes , Vol. 2: Die slowakische nationale Fragen der Reformepoche Ungarns 1790-1848 (Munich: 1969) , 263. (75) D. RAP ANT , Slovenske povstanie roku 1848-49, Vol. 11 Pt. 1 (Martin: 1950), 344 . According to Rapant, Slovak national consciousness was the most highly developed in the Turcian County; RAPANT , op. cit., Vol. ill, Pt. 1 (1956), 351. This was also a region in which the Protestants were especially strong. (76) N<irodni Noviny, 31 May, 1848, article by Hurban . (77) See the map in Atlas i!eskoslovenskych dejin (Prague : 1965), No. 19f; this is an ingenious map comparing the speed of travel in the Czech and Slovak regions in the year 1827. (78) POTEMRA , op. cit., 117. (79) SLEBINGER , op. cit., 5-7 . (80) HERGESIC, op. cit., 102-103. (81) ROUBlK , op. cit., Appendix 6 and 9. (82) R. BICANIC , Doba manufakture u Hrvatskoj i Slavoniji 1750-1860 (Zagreb, 1951), 344. �SLOVAKIA 135 (83) See the map in Skolni atlas t!eskoslovenskych dejin (Prague, 1959), No. 25. (84) Ceskoslovenska vlastiveda, Part II, Dejiny, Vol. 2 (Prague, 1969), 93. (85) Ibid., 104. The first railroad came to Slovakia in the latter part of 1848. (86) GESTRIN-MELIK, op. cit., 50. (87) R. PAVLOVCIC, Zgodovinski atlas Slovenije (Buenos Aires, 1960), No. 69. Also GESTRIN-MELIK , op. cit., 103. (88) GODECHOT . op. cit. , 103. (89) Ceskoslovenska vlastiveda, op. cit., 104. (90) The circulation of the Slovene Novice in 1848 was 1,800 copies which yields a ratio of one copy for 556 people . The circulation of the Slovak Slovenskje Narodnje Novini may be assumed to have been 500 copies in 1848 which yields a ratio of one copy for 3 ,400 people.For the circulation figures, see Notes 46 and 47. (91) I have attempted to compare the ideology of the press of the four nationalities in S. Z. PECH, " The Press of the Habsburg Slavs in 1848: Contribution to a Political Profile ," Canadian Journal of History-Anna/es canadiennes d'histoire, X (1975): 3549 . However, I did not attempt to relate the ideology to the social structure of the elites . � SLOVAKIA 113 The Nationalist Movements of the Austrian Slavs in 1848: A Comparative Sociological Profile STANLEY Z. PECH The year 1848 was unlike any other in the long and arduous saga of the Austrian Slavs. It was a year when the Austrian Slavs, like the rest of Europe, passed through a major social and political upheaval. However, the year held for them a very special significance: in 1848 they first emerged as fledgling nations, from the backwater of Europe to stake out a claim for themselves as rightful members of the European family. As William H. Stiles, the United States charge d'affaires in Vienna at the time put it: " Previous to that period," the Austrian Slavs possessed "no proper individuality , their political nationality was unacknowledged, and for centuries, consequently, they exercised no influence in the political councils of Europe. The storms of 1848 and 1849 raised them to consideration, and even power. " (1) In recent years, Western historians have been diligent enough in providing the Western reader with the essential facts concerning the revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Slavic realm. There is indeed ample material for a good copy: the fever of the March Days, the clashes and recriminations between Germans and Slavs, the Magyars and Slavs; the fervent preachments of the highpriests of the various Slavic nationalisms; the Slavic Congress in Prague flaring up into an uprising and aborted by the artillery of General Windischgratz. These are the high points of the revolutions essential to an understanding of the events of that year. However, this understanding now needs to be broadened and refined in the light of new techniques and methodologies developed in the West. There is need for a structural analysis of the Slavic nationalist movements of 1848. There is an added potential benefit to be derived from cross-national comparisons to which these movements lend themselves. The present account seeks to construct a social profile of the Slavic nationalist movements of 1848 and to analyze and compare their strength. I In the mid-nineteenth century, the Austrian Empire counted seven Slavic nationalities in its multi-ethnic structure: Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, Poles, and Ukrainians. The last three will not Reprinted with permission from Histoire Sociale-Social History (Ottawa), Vol. 9, November 1976. �114 SLOVAKIA be treated here. For them the Austrian Empire was not the principal homeland: a majority of Ukrainians and Poles lived under Russia (a number of Poles also lived under Prussia), and a majority of Serbs under Turkey. This makes comparisons involving them problematical. Czechs , Slovaks , Slovenes , and Croats, on the other hand, were not so divided; they had no " home " other than the Austrian Empire. Their basic comparability derives from the following: 1) they experienced a revolution in 1848 ; 2) they lived under the same empire; 3) they were Slavic and shared the status of "subject" nationalities living under " alien " rule: the Czechs and the Slovenes under the Austro-Germans in the western half of the empire, and the Slovaks and the Croats under the Magyars in the eastern half of the empire; 4) they were passing through early stages of national awakening. The largest of the four national groups were the Czechs who numbered, in the middle of the nineteenth century, approximately 4 million. The number of Slovaks in the same period was 1. 7 million, that of the Croats 1.6 million, and that of the Slovenes a little over 1 million. (2) The total population of the Austrian Empire is estimated to have been 37 million ,(3) with the Austro-Germans the largest nationality (over 7 million) and the Magyars the second largest (4 .5 million) .(4) The revolutionary stresses that brought on the upheaval in 1848 had been accentuated by the demographic pressures of the halfcentury preceding the upheaval. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century , the population of the empire had been increasing steadily by 1850 the increase had amounted to one third as against the year 1800, a rate comparable to the other large states of Western Europe.(5) While it is difficult to separate the growth rates for the different peoples of the empire , this much can be hypothesized from the evidence: the rate of growth of the Slavs was greater than that of the non-Slavs.(6) In religious affiliation, Czechs , Slovenes, and Croats were at least 95 percent Roman Catholic. Roman Catholicism was also dominant among the Slovaks but there it was confronted with a numerically strong Protestant population (between 25 percent and 30 percent) . (7) The fact that the four nationalities being surveyed here had evolved through centuries as "subject" nationalities imparted to their social structures certain distinctive features - features that set them apart from W estem Europe and left a special mark on their development as modernizing societies. The West European model, with France and Germany as a typical example, exhibited a social structure that was unencumbered (small exceptions aside) by the complicating presence of a different nationality: peasants, nobles, workers, entrepreneurs, bureaucrats, priests, bishops, all spoke the same language and belonged to the same nationality. This comfortable ethnic homogeneity was lacking among most of the Austrian Slavs. To generalize: the four nationalities had an "incomplete" social structure; the lower portions �SLOVAKIA 115 of their social pyramid were Slavic while the upper portions were filled with members of the ruling nationality . How did the socio-ethnic edifice look in the specific cases? In the western half of the empire, the Czechs and the Slovenes each had their own peasantry, working class, artisanate, shopkeeper class, intelligentsia, lower clergy and lower bureaucracy. At the same time, their complementing higher classes, the nobility, the entrepreneurs and the higher bureaucracy, were German. The one point of difference between the Czechs and the Slovenes concerned the ecclesiastical hierarchy: in the Czech regions the hierarchy was entirely German whereas in the Slovene regions an influential segment of it was Slovene . This difference explains , in part, the divergent religious attitudes of the two peoples during the next century: the Czechs tended to embrace religious scepticism whereas the Slovenes evinced a vigorous religious spirit and lent strong support to movements of political Catholicism. In the eastern half of the empire, the structure was more complicated. The Slovaks occupied the lower portions of the social pyramid, but the upper portions included, besides the Germans , also the Magyars. The Croats, on the other hand , held a position significantly different from the other three national groups . Of the four nationalities , they alone retained, in part, their own governing class: a segment of the nobility, of higher clergy and of higher bureaucracy in Croatia belonged to the Croatian nationality; the remaining segment was Magyar (or Magyar-oriented Croat) or German. The fact that the Croats retained a substantial foothold in the governing class gave them an advantage not enjoyed by the other three national groups: in the pre-industrial age when the nobility alone counted as a political class , they had at all times a political voice . They had never been reduced to a mere '' nation of peasants.' ' In that sense, they were the only one of the four groups that approximated the West European model of social development. The Austrian Empire was not only a labyrinth of seemingly disarrayed social and ethnic parts. It also was a bewildering conglomerate of provinces and administrative divisions that disarrayed the ethnic parts still further. The existing administrative system had taken shape during the pre-nationalist age and bore no relationship to ethnic boundaries. As a result, not only did some nationality sometimes inhabit two or more provinces but if often shared each such province with a different nationality. Little useful purpose would be served by listing all the administrative divisions with their particular ethnic mosaics. Suffice it to say that for each nationality, one province usually stood out as a core of nationalist activism and attention will be focused on these. For the Czechs, this was the province of Bohemia which the Czechs shared with the Germans, the Czech-German ethnic ratio being 60 percent to 40 percent.(8) For the Slovenes, it was Carniola which was over 90 percent _S lovene, the Germans making up the balance.(9) For �116 SLOVAKIA the Croats, it was Croatia (full name "Croatia-Slavonia") in which the Slavs comprised over 95 percent of the population (two thirds of which were Croats and one third Serbs) while the ruling Magyars and Germans together did not exceed 2 percent; certain other small groups accounted for the remainder. (10) Croatia, it should be stressed, possessed a number of self-governing institutions in which the Croatian nobility, clergy and bureaucracy wielded considerable influence which helped cushion the German-Magyar rule. It even had an army which though subordinated directly to the emperor, was nevertheless an important symbol of Croatian national identity. In short, these social and institutional paraphernalia provided the Croats with defenses and opportunities not available to the other Slavs. This made it possible for them, in the course of 1848, to wrest political control entirely from the Magyars and Germans and erect what amounted to their own state with its own government that recognized only the authority of the emperor in Vienna. None of the other three nationalities came close to generating this type of institutional power. In this connection, it may be noted that the people who exercised the least power from the institutional point of view were the Slovaks. They had been totally submerged through centuries in the existing Hungarian system of counties and no part of the Slovak territory enjoyed the status of a province. The Slovak territory was reasonably compact in ethnic terms but had no institutional support to lend it distinctiveness and distinguish it from the other areas of Hungary. This made the Slovaks the most vulnerable and the least visible of the four peoples. After the Congress of Vienna, the Austrian Empire entered upon the first stages of industrialization . There were, however, marked regional disparities in the tempo with which industrialization proceeded , with the western half of the monarchy moving ahead more rapidly than the eastern half. Among the Slavic peoples, by the middle of the nineteenth century, only the Czechs had made significant advances along the road of modernization . By 1857 , the agrarian sector in Bohemia had been reduced to the point where only some 55 percent of the population derived their livelihood from agriculture .(11) The above figure applies to all of Bohemia (both to its Czech and Germanspeaking areas) ; and it is not possible to say exactly what it would be for the Czech inhabitants specifically. However, it is known that the German-speaking areas of Bohemia were by far the more industrialized( 12) and this would justify revising the figure, as applied to the Czechs, upward: 65 percent to 70 percent seems a more realistic estimate. At this same time, the agrarian sector in the three other Austro-Slavic regions continued to employ 90 percent or more of the economically active population.(13) The economic growth was reflected in the expansion of the urban population, with similar regional disparities prevailing in the degree or urbanization attained. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the proportion of the urban �SLOVAKIA 117 population in Bohemia was just under 20 percent;(14) for the Czechspeaking population of Bohemia this figure would have to be revised downward to some extent, perhaps to 15 percent. The Slovenes had at this time an urban population of 4 percent(15) while for the Slovaks and the Croats the figure was even less. (France had then an urban population of 26 percent and Germany 35 percent.)(16) ThE: major cities were few and not even their rapid expansion during the first half of the nineteenth century - some cities doubled in size during this period had produced many large urban centers by West European standards. The largest one was Prague, the most populous Czech city and the capital of Bohemia. With a population of 118,000 in the middle of the nineteenth century (77 ,000 in 1800), (17) it was the only city in the four ethnic regions to attain the 100,000 mark, an achievement placing it in a class with the major cities of Western Europe. The largest Croatian city was Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, with a population of 15,000(18) (8,000 at the beginning of the century)(19) and the largest Slovene city was Ljubljana (Laibach), the capital of Carniola, with a population of 17,000 (it was half this size in 1817). (20) The biggest city in what is today the Slovak region was Bratislava (Pressburg) which had a population, in 1848, of 40,000 (in 1805 it had been just under 22,000).(21) However, Bratislava was then not a Slovak city in any meaningful sense of the term; the majority of its inhabitants were German and it was not the scene of any mass Slovak nationalist activity in 1848.(22) The case of Bratislava was far from unique: many cities and towns throughout the Slavic regions of the Austrian Empire contained a large number of Germans, and sizeable German minorities were to be found in Prague. Ljubljana and Zagreb.(23) Economic power in the cities and indeed throughout the monarchy was largely in the hands of Germans and German Jews. Germans typically constituted the urban elite which controlled municipal administrations and in general exercised a decisive influence over the Slavic substratum. The demographic development of Prague, as the largest metropolis, deserves a special comment. Although the city grew more or less steadily after the year 1800, the really important demographic transformation was not the growth itself, but the increasing proportion of newcomers who moved into the city from the surrounding countryside. In the first two decades of the nineteenth century, the proportion of these newcomers remained relatively stable - hovering near 6 percent of the total population. A change set in during the 1820s: the proportion of newcomers began to increase markedly, from 6.3 percent in 1818, to 15 percent in 1826, to 36.3 percent in 1834, and finally to 48.9 percent in 1850.(24) This meant that by the middle of the century nearly one half of the Prague population consisted of people who had severed their previous roots and come to the city in search of a new life. The mass of newcomers was Czech. They found work in the new textile and machine industries founded during the 1830s and �118 SLOVAKIA 1840s, and in other forms of employment. Textile workers, about a thousand strong, became the largest distinctive group of the labor force in the capital city. Their rioting in 1844 announced the advent of an industrial age in Bohemia and attracted the attention of Europe, its effect reinforced by the rioting at almost the same time of Prague workers employed on the construction of a new railway.(25) One of the consequences of the influx of newcomers was to augment the Czechspeaking substratum in a city governed by the German elite. All this provided a setting calculated to raise the social and political fever of the capital city and goes far toward explaining the intensity of the upheaval that swept Prague during 1848. The other three cities mentioned above were drawn less precipitously into the vortex of social and economic change. Zagreb may serve as an example of a city standing at the opposite pole of the socio-economic spectrum from Prague. Although its size had almost doubled in the half-century before 1848, the city had not acquired an industrial face in the process. In 1808, nearly 40 percent of its population consisted of nobles and clergy (! ) and by 1848 these two groups, along with the intelligentsia, still accounted for one half of the total number of inhabitants.(26) City life in Zagreb, and in the eastern half of the empire as a whole, retained essentially a pre-industrial character as late as 1848. What passed for a town in the eastern half of the empire was different from what it was understood to be in the western half and in Western Europe. As one contemporary observer described the town scene in the eastern half of the empire just on the eve of 1848: not only the small towns but also the larger cities there '' consisted of nothing but settlements of ploughmen, vine growers, and shepherds in which respect they did not differ at all from the villages .'' (27) It is startling to realize that at the time of the outbreak of the 1848 revolution, Croatia - and also Slovakia - had not yet acquired a single mile of railroad. II How strong were the nationalist movements to which these structures gave rise and which broke into the open during the years 1848-1849, complete with leaders and programs? The nationalist movements of 1848 were the culminating point of the preceding halfcentury of "national awakening." This development had of course proceeded at a different pace in the case of the various peoples and by 1848 each movement ·had attained a different level of strength. How can this strength be measured? How did the movements compare in their ability to mobilize supporters? It is generally agreed that to be effective a movement requires '' some kind of organization that enables certain persons to act as authorized spokesmen and representatives. This can take the form of committees, clubs, labor unions, or political parties.'' (28) Such clubs consist of individuals with the highest degree �SLOVAKIA 119 of commitment to a movement's objectives. In our context, organizations with such a commitment were the pre-March patriotic societies that had come into being during the 1830s and 1840s. The Czechs, the Croats and the Slovaks each had one such society: they were, respectively, the Czech Foundation (Ceska Matice, founded in 1832), the Croatian Foundation (Matica Hrvatska, 1842) and the Slovak Tatrin (1844). These were nationalist societies comprising the highest echelon of nationalist elites. Although independent of each other, they had similar organizational structures and pursued identical objectives: to promote the native language and culture, and to foster the publication of books and newspapers in that language . With this comparability in mind, we can use the numerical strength of these societies as a comparative index of the strength with which the three nationalist movements entered upon the year 1848. On the eve of 1848, the Czech Foundation had a membership of 2329 (for the year 1847),(29) the Croatian Foundation 300(30) (for 1844, the last pre-1848 year available) and Tatrin 80 (1847).(31) Measured against the total population of each nationality as given earlier, this yields the ratio of 5.8 per 10,000 for the Czech national movement, 1.9 per 10,000 for the Croatian, and a low 0.5 per 10,000 for the Slovak. It may be added that the membership in all three societies was growing.(32) Evidently, the nationalist movements had acquired a momentum of their own, adding their weight to the forces that precipitated the collapse of absolutism in March 1848. The revolutions of 1848 may not have been inevitable but the forces that produced them had been unmistakably at work. The Slovenes lacked a patriotic society before 1848 and consequently we cannot measure the strength of the Slovene movement on a basis strictly comparable with the other three. It may be assumed, however, that the absence of a patriotic society is itself evidence of a sort: it suggests the existence of a less developed nationalist movement. Nevertheless, the Slovenes were not without visible manifestations of progress on the nationalist front. Their patriots established a foothold in the Agricultural Society of Camiola, an organization of long standing. This was not a Slovene patriotic society for it counted both Germans and Slovenes among its members and its avowed purpose was improvement of agriculture, not promotion of Slovene nationalism. However, in 1842 the society appointed a moderate, Dr. Janez Bleiweis, as its new secretary, and under him Slovene nationalist forces found elbow room within the society's framework. The success of the first modem Slovene newspaper, Novice, which Bleiweis launched in 1843 under the auspices of the society, afforded proof that Slovene nationalism was on the rise. (33) Still, the absence of a genuine patriotic society was a serious drawback; it meant that the Slovene elite entered upon the year 1848 with little organizational contact, strength and experience. In this it resembled the Slovak elite whose Tatrin offered too feeble a basis when the need �120 SLOVAKIA for action arose . The Slovene and the Slovak elites were the weaker members in the group, the Czech and the Croatian ones the stronger. This distribution of pre-1848 strength corresponds, in fact, very closely to the performance of these nationalist movements during the year 1848. What about the social hue of the elites? The membership rosters of the three patriotic societies contain occupational data that permit us to make cross-national comparisons. For the Slovenes, we must again resort to substitute material which furnishes a basis for an informed estimate. Surveying all four elites, one can perceive two social groups playing a dominant role: the intelligentsia and the lower clergy. The intelligentsia, as defined here, includes teachers, officials, writers, students, and professionals. The term clergy refers to both Roman Catholic and Protestant clergymen. The latter were numerically strong only in the Slovak elite. In the other three elites, the clergy was, with few exceptions, Roman Catholic. While it is true that the intelligentsia and the clergy were prominent in all four elites, their weight varied from case to case. From the material at our disposal it is evident that the intelligentsia had a larger share in the Czech and Croatian elites, while the clergy had a larger share in the Slovene and Slovak elites. The proportion of the intelligentsia and the clergy in the three patriotic societies was, respectively: 54 percent and 29 percent in the Czech.(34) 52 percent and 20 percent in the Croatian(35) and 30 percent and 59 percent in the Slovak society.(36) It is noteworthy that businessmen and other groups ranked after the intelligentsia and the clergy. The peasants as might be expected were hardly significant. The dominant role of the clergy in the Slovene elite can be gleaned from the list of subscribers to the abovementioned newspaper Novice. Although Novice was intended to be a peasant newspaper, the peasants constituted only a small minority of its subscribers; nearly half of the subscribers (in 1847) were nationalist clergymen!(37) The influence of the clergy was noted by a Slovene historian of the last century; in relating the origins of the nationalist movement he observed that ''The number of conscious (Slovene) patriots outside the ranks of the clergy was small.'' (38) The role of the nobility was important only in the Croatian elite . Its proportion in the Croatian Foundation was 7 percent, as compared with 1.5 percent in the Czech Foundation and zero in the Slovak Tatrin. (39) There were, to be sure, influential individual nobles active also in the Czech nationalist movement in its earliest stages. However, they were, as a rule , German-speaking "Bohemian patriots" who sympathized with the Czech movement without identifying themselves with the Czech nationalism. They were friendly outsiders "looking in" and withdrew from the movement in proportion as that movement acquired a clearly Czech nationalist stamp. The role of the nobility in the Croatian movement was completely different. Far from being outsiders �SLOVAKIA 121 looking in, they were anchored squarely in the very heart of the nationalist movement at all times, helping to give it shape and direction in a manner in which the Czech nobility never did. The Croatian elite , it should be pointed out, had an added feature all of its own; this consisted in a peculiar collaboration between the nobles and the intelligentsia. It was almost routine practice for the Croatian nobles who had the right to sit in pre-1848 county assemblies to allow themselves to be represented by members of the nationalist intelligentsia. (40) This gave the intelligentsia considerable influence over and above its numercial strength , but there was a reverse side to the coin: the intelligentsia fell into a state of dependence upon the nobles to some extent and acted as a conduit for noble influence. A particular reference should be made at this point to the Slovak elite and to the problem that bedeviled the relationship between its members: the religious problem. Perhaps half of the clergymen in the Slovak patriotic society were Protestant (Lutheran), the remainder were Roman Catholic.(41) Protestants, however, had acquired a commanding position during the years preceding 1848. Moreover, Protestants and Catholics were divided not only by religious convictions - which would have been serious enough to jeopardize the movement - but also by different attitudes regarding the conception of Slovak nationhood and literary language . The chasm separating the two religious groups proved difficult to bridge and Roman Catholics treated the Protestant initiatives with the greatest reserve. This was bound to have a damaging effect on Slovak efforts; how damaging, the events of 1848 were to bear out only too painfully. This added to the vulnerability of a nationalist movement that had already been rendered vulnerable on other counts. The Slovaks were the only one of the four nationalities that entered the year 1848 with a seriously disunited elite . The elites as organized in the patriotic societies comprised the most highly committed or mobilized members of the nationalist movements. How did the elites draw the broader strata of the populations into the movement? How did the wider process of social mobilization take place? It is now increasingly recognized that the development of nationalism is related to the role of communications. A group of sociological theories assigns communications a prime place in the process of national awakening. One communications model in fact considers ' 'the role of the intelligentsia ... to be a necessary condition of all nationalist movements, " (42) an observation which appears to receive support from the role the intelligentsia played in the four movements examined here. If one includes the clergy, as some historians do , in the concept of "intelligentsia" (" clerical intelligentsia'' ), then the importance of this social group in the genesis of Austro-Slavic nationalisms becomes overwhelming. In this context literacy was an essential factor contributing to the success of any mobilizing effort mounted by the elites. How did the four �122 SLOVAKIA nationalities rate on this count? Literacy statistics were not compiled in the Austrian Empire at the time we are discussing. In order to obtain a picture, we are obliged to rely on later census data that indicate the literacy of the generation that was born in the 1830s and was of school age in the 1840s. In this generation, the Czechs led the others . Their rate was 84. 75 percent which was nearly three times as much as that of the Slovaks (30.2 percent), the Slovenes (28.62 percent) and the Croats (26. 7 percent) . (43) It is necessary to add that the Slavic populations in general were at a disadvantage vis-a-vis the Austro-Germans when it came to the use of their languages as a medium of instruction in schools. Only in the lower schools was teaching conducted in the language appropriate to the ethnic region. The language of middle and higher schools was German in the western half of the empire and German, Latin or Magyar in the eastern half. In other words, attaining a higher level of education generally compelled the individual concerned to leave the cultural ambience of his native language . The results of this process were often bizarre. For example, the Czech Karel Havlicek and the Slovene Bleiwies, both leading nationalists, were, in the early stages of their nationalist activity, more fluent in German than in their own native language - a situation by no means untypical of Slavic national awakeners.(44) The elites were keenly aware of the efficacy of the printed word as a medium through which they could best transmit their ideas and mobilize the larger non-elite mass; hence the preoccupation of the patriotic societies with publishing. The printed word devised and disseminated nationalist symbols, awakened an interest in the past and created an awareness of shared leaders, thus ultimately engendering a sense of the community of language, culture and history. For maximum effectiveness, the printed word had to have periodicity and this pointed to the importance of the newspaper as a vehicle most suitable for communication. It was a portent of an approaching nationalist storm that the fifteen-year period preceding the revolutions of 1848 saw the foundation of the first modem national and nationalist newspapers in the case of all four nationalities . One such newspaper was founded in each case, under the auspices of or in association with, the patriotic societies.(45) Of the four, only one, the Slovak, remained stationary in circulation during the pre-March period(46) while the other three showed a circulation increase, with the Czech newspaper registering an increase that can only be described as extraordinary, from 200 in 1846 to 1,500 in 1848.(47) The editor of the Czech newspaper was Karel Havlicek , of the Croatian, Ljudevit Gaj, of the Slovak, I.:udovit Stur, and of the Slovene, Dr. Janez Bleiweis. It is interesting to note that the last three men were the principal nationalist leaders of their peoples at the time and are considered the ''fathers' ' of their particular nationalist movements. As for Havlicek, he shared this honor with the Czech historian Frantisek Palacky. Nothing illustrates more tellingly the �SLOVAKIA 123 importance of communications to nationalism than the fact that the nationalist editors were the leaders of their national groups. ill In March 1848 absolutism in the Austrian Empire collapsed and this ushered in the "revolutions of 1848," a period of constitutional government that lasted for over a year, until the emperor began to reimpose absolutism in the spring and summer of 1849. Among the most important constitutional innovations introduced by the liberal regime was the abolition of censorship in March 1848. This led to the foundation of new magazines and newspapers, making it possible for the Czech leaders to start a veritable avalanche of the printed word. On the eve of 1848 the Czechs had a total of 13 newspapers and periodicals; after March this number quadrupled, to 52.(48) Elsewhere, the expansion was more modest. In Croatia, the increase was from 5 in 184 7 to 8 in 1848(49) while the corresponding Slovak figures were 6 and 8.(50) The Slovenes, starting from a low base of 1 newspaper in 1847 brought the number up to 6 in 1848.(51) (After the return of the reaction in 1849 the number of newspapers began to drop again to pre1848 levels.) Calculated on a per capita basis, there was, in 1848, one newspaper or magazine for 77,000 Czechs, 167,000 Slovenes, 200,000 Croats and 213,000 Slovaks. Clearly, the Czech elite had at their disposal the most highly developed network of communications - an advantage heightened by the fact that some of their newspapers appeared daily (six times a week) whereas the frequency of the newspapers of the other nationalities was not more than three times a week. The strengths and the handicaps with which each Slavic group had entered upon the revolution became evident in the first days of freedom. The Czechs and the Croats promptly staged mass meetings , (in March in their capital cities) at which nationalist programs were adopted. (52) In the other two ethnic regions, the adoption of nationalist programs was accomplished with less mass support. The Slovenes formulated their nationalist programs in March without the benefit of a single mass meeting - the only Slav group to pass through the revolutionary year without mass demonstrations or rallies in support of nationalist objectives.(53) In Slovakia, the elite was slow in getting off the mark and encountered difficulties in mobilizing public opinion. A full-fledged nationalist program was not adopted until the beginning of May 1848 at a meeting in Liptovsky Svlity Mikulas, but the public presence at this meeting was modest and the program failed to acquire the legitimacy and force sufficient to compel the Magyar authorities to heed it.(54) The opening stages of the revolutionary period demonstrated the advantage of a people having a body of nationalists with organizational experience and mutual contact who would seize the initiatives, and �124 SLOVAKIA quickly and forcefully responded to the challenges of the moment. The pre-1848 patriotic societies consisted of such nationalists. However, accustomed as they had been to more genteel forms of struggle, these societies could not in themselves become the instruments of political activism at a time of revolutionary turbulence, and so new organizations were established to cope with new forms of struggle. The Czechs in Prague created in March a National Committee which served, until its dissolution after the June 1848 uprising in Prague, as a center of Czech nationalist activity throughout Bohemia. Many members of the Czech Foundation became active in the National Committee which counted over a hundred members. In the National Committee, the intelligentsia prevailed, as it had done in the Czech Foundation, with 44 percent of the members belonging to this stratum. However, the proportion of the clergy was drastically reduced in this elite group, to a mere 4 percent, as compared with 29 percent it had had in the Czech Foundation in the last year before the revolution. It appears that the revolution had pushed the clergy into the background. Its place was taken by the bourgeoisie (burghers, artisans, businessmen) whose share in the National Committee was 42 percent.(55) After June 1848 the vacuum created by the demise of the National Committee was filled by the newly founded Slavic Linden (Slovanska Lipa), a nationalist pressure group consciously seeking political change. The Slavic Linden was led by intellectuals and bourgeoisie, with some members of the National Committee passing into its ranks. (56) The clergy played no major role. Politically, the Slavic Linden was somewhat to the left of the National Committee and, unlike the latter, acquired some of the characteristics of a political party: it had its own newspaper, an elected executive, a headquarters (in Prague), and local branches. By the beginning of 1849 it counted 49 branches throughout Bohemia, forming a network reaching into all corners of the province, with a total estimated membership of 2,000.(57) Among rank and file members of the Slavic Linden were peasants and people of the humble stations in life. (58) The Slavic Linden was in fact the only non-elite stratum, showing a widening circle of nationalistically mobilized population. None of the other three nationalities could point to this level of national awakening, and none devised the kind of network through which the nationalists could communicate and operate in an organized fashion. The Croatian nationalist movement operated with instruments essentially different from those employed by the Czechs. The Croatian elite relied less on the spontaneous organs such as the Czech National Committee and more on Croatia's existing institutions of selfgovernment which it revived and re-shaped to suit the new post-March conditions. After March, the Croats acquired their provincial government, the Ban's Council, which managed the affairs of the country throughout 1848-1849. The Croats were the only Slavic group to �SLOVAKIA 125 become for the duration of the 1848-1849 revolutionary period , masters in their own house, recognizing the authority of none but the emperor. Their nobility continued to be active and influential in the existing arrangements. The only new non-governmental nationalist political or quasi-political organization to which the elite gave rise in the postMarch period was the Croatian version of the Slavic Linden. It was inspired by but independent of the Czech Slavic Linden. It was founded in Zagreb , was led by moderately left-oriented intellectuals, and acquired a newspaper of its own. However, it was never too active and never succeeded in building a network of branches throughout the Croatian regions. Only one major branch was set up outside of Zagreb.(59) The total membership of the two branches was no more than a few score and the organization never reached into the non-elite strata. (60) The effectiveness and power of the Croatian nationalist movement derived more from the existing institutional structure and the participation of the nobility than from the mobilization of the wider segments of the population. The Slovenes and the Slovaks could offer little to match the Czech and the Croatian examples. Among the Slovenes, the revolution gave rise to the Slovene Society of Ljubljana founded in April 1848 which became the largest and most influential body of Slovene patriots of the revolutionary period . Its slogan was "Everything for Religion, Emperor and Nationality" and doubtless expressed the influence of clergymen who, according to a police report, formed the largest social group within the 400-member society, with the intelligentsia accounting for the rest .(61) The slogan captures the spirit of the society sufficiently to contrast it with the Czech National Committee which was secular minded and in which the clergy had hardly any role to play. At the same time, it deserves to be noted that the thrust of the Society ' s efforts was cultural more than political. It did not become a center of political activity and did not regard itself as much more than a patriotic interest group. The position of the Slovaks was the least satisfactory. At no time after March 1848 did they form anything resembling the Czech National Committee or even the Slovene Society of Ljubljana. As a consequence, their movement was without an organized thrust and without a single direction. Only the political newspaper, the Slouenskje N<irodnjc Nouini continued to function as a voice of Slovak nationalism but it was compelled to suspend publication in June 1848 under Magyar pressure and with its passing, the last channel of communications through which the elite could address itself to the mass had been destroyed. The Slovak people were thus left without a political newspaper for the greater part of the revolutionary era - a handicap to which none of the other three nationalities was subjected. Furth ermore, in June 1848, Magyar authorities declared martial law over much of Slovak territory - charging the Slovak leaders with '' Pan- �126 SLOVAKIA Slavic" subversion and forcing many of them into exile - and this paralyzed the Slovak movement still further.(62) The clergy (Protestant) continued to dominate what was left of the life of the Slovak movement after June. (63 ) The organizational strength of the elites and the degree to which they were able to mobilize the wider segments of the populations were tested at the elections to the various representative assemblies that took place during 1848 - the first such modem elections to be held in the history of the Austrian Empire. Until 1848 , public life in the empire had borne a German or, in the eastern half, German-Magyar character and this was bound to favor German and Magyar candidates in the election contests even in the Slavic-speaking areas . Conversely, success at the polls of the Slavic candidates could be regarded as evidence of a relatively high degree of mobilization among the Slavic electorate. The right to vote was more liberal in the western than in the eastern half of the empire , and even in the former, segments of the lower social classes were excluded. Nevertheless , it must be acknowledged that everywhere a large number of " common" people enjoyed the right to vote and the election results can serve as a rough expression of popular sentiment vis-a-vis the nationalist movements . The elections yielded the following results. In Bohemia, they demonstrated a high degree of responsiveness of voters to the Czech nationalist movement. In the election of the Bohemian diet in J une 1848 the proportion of Czech deputies elected was just over 60 percent (the remainder were Germans) - a figure corresponding closely to the estimated proportion of the Czech population in the province. The election to the Imperial Parliament held in the same month brought similar results, with the Bohemian voters sending to Vienna 55 Czech as against 35 German deputies.(64) In Croatia, the elections to the diet (June 1848) were a clean sweep for the nationalist candidates. This was due , in part , to the militancy of the Croatian authorities who saw to it that only committed to the Croatian cause could stand as candidates. (65) Because of this, the election results are not very meaningful. In the Slovene regions, the electoral behavior of the voters was less affected by nationalist sentiment. The election of the diet of Carniola produced " numerous" Slovene deputies(66) but not nearly the decisive majority the size of the Slovene population of Camiola (90 percent) would warrant. Similarly, only about half of the deputies elected to the Imperial Parliament in ethnically Slovene territory were actually of Slovene orientation ; the other half were German or bilingual without specifically Slovene leanings.(67) Finally, the nationalists in the Slovak regions failed completely: the first modern Hungarian Parliament , elected in June 1848, did not have a single Slovak deputy. This was attributable, in part , to Magyar electoral pressures. But the principal reason was the underdeveloped nationalist sentiment of the Slovak mass . Slovak leaders were themselves not unaware of this and �SLOVAKIA 127 fielded only a few candidates . (68) The nationalist leaders realized that much of their effectiveness depended on the success with which they mobilized the support of the largest social group: the peasantry . To achieve this, they experimented with the publication of newspapers written and edited specifically for the peasantry. However, the results of this effort proved disappointing. The only peasant newspaper that proved successful was the Slovene Novice but even in this instance , no more than 15 percent of its subscribers belonged to the class for which it was primarily aimed.(69) Clearly, Novice could maintain itself only because of the support of non-peasant readers , particularly the clergy. Publication of peasant newspapers was tried also by Croatian (Summer 1848) and Czech (Spring 1849) leaders but both ventures failed for lack of reader support. (70) A more technically oriented newspaper was devised and launched for the Slovak peasants but it likewise proved short-lived (1848). (71) These failures have usually been attributed to a lack of national consciousness on the part of the peasantry, and doubtless there is more than a grain of truth in the observation. After all, the peasantry had only just emerged, in 1848, from the last vestiges of serfdom . A large number of peasants was still illiterate and could not be expected to display a degree of political and nationalist commitment of the kind evinced by the elites. Plainly, the peasant's most immediate and active concerns involved his own social problems rather than the problems of nationalism . At the same time, it should not be forgotten that the peasants were the authentic traditional bearers of the national cultures and folklore and it would be implausible to maintain that such traditions had failed to engender varying degrees of national consciousness or even of interest in the nationalist movement. There is, in fact , good evidence to show that although the peasants turned their back on peasant newspapers, many of them followed the great nationalist press, such as the Czech Narodni Noviny (successor, since April 1848 to Praiske Noviny) .(72) It is probable that such newspapers offered them a more direct opportunity of identifying with the nationalist leaders . The quality and intensity of the peasants' commitment to nationalism did not and could not equal that of the elites , but not a few of them were prepared to support the elites in the capacity of followers. However, this differed from one ethnic region to another. Peasant support for the nationalist elites was the most widespread in the Czech regions. The authorities in Bohemia were not oblivious to the support from the peasants the Czech leaders enjoyed; a confidential police report of May 1849 noted that Czech leaders could count on Czech peasants in resisting unpopular government measures.(73) In the other three ethnic regions, the peasantry seemed moblized to a lesser degree , the least , to judge from the election results, in Slovakia. The apathy of the Slovak peasant seemed more marked than that of his Czech, Slovene and Croatian counterparts. Indeed, the Slovak �128 SLOVAKIA movement as a whole was so weak that a brief digression concerning this weakness appears warranted. Certainly , a major weakening factor was religious discord. Although a majority of Slovaks were Roman Catholic, the Protestants occupied the highest rungs of power in the elite and were , for all practical purposes , the moving spirits of the revolution of 1848 in Slovakia - a situation calculated to displease the Roman Catholics. The great triad of the movement, tudovit Stur, M. M . Hodza and J.M. Hurban, were all Protestants , the latter two were practicing Lutheran clergymen. The group that adopted the nationalist program of May 1848 consisted almost entirely of Protestants.(74) At the grass roots, the climate was similar: the areas inhabited by Protestants manifested a more active nationalist sentiment during the revolution than those inhabited by Roman Catholics - hardly a favorable omen in a people that was in majority Roman Catholic. It is not surprising that some Roman Catholic Slovaks regarded the movement of 1848 as a Protestant plot.(75) Furthermore , the Slovaks lacked a major center of national culture and their geographic setting in general hindered rather than aided the growth of communications and the development of nationalism . The river valleys amid the high peaks of the Tatra Mountains had an isolating effect. " We are an unfortunate people," lamented one Slovak leader, ' ' in that we live only in our valleys - isolated from one another, ' ' and contrasted it with the advantage the Czechs possessed in having a centrally located city , Prague , which was " like the heart of the (Czech) body ." (76) The network of roads and postal services and transportation facilities was sparse, much sparser than, for instance , in the Czech regions. It took considerably less time to traverse a distance in Bohemia than it did to traverse the same distance in Slovakia. (77) Bratislava was in 1848 a predominantly German city, on the fringes of Slovak ethnic territory. Although Stur's Slovenske Narodnje No vini was published there, the city was far from dominant in Slovak national life . Of the 8 Slovak newspapers appearing in 1848, only 3 were published in Bratislava. (78) The cultural facilities of the Slovaks were dispersed, with no city standing above the others as undisputed national leader. When it came to a center of national culture, the other three peoples were in a better position. The Slovenes , it is true , faced a hostile geographic environment in their mountainous terrain, but had at least a reasonably active center in the city of Ljubljana, situated in the heart of the Slovene ethnic territory. Of the 6 Slovene newspapers appearing in 1848 , all but one originated in Ljubljana. (79) The position of the Croats and the Czechs was again superior to that of the Slovenes. The Croats had their undisputed capital and nationalist center in Zagreb, with 7 of the existing 8 Croatian newspapers published there , (80) and with all major cultural institutions located there. While the Czechs had the most vigorous national center of all, in Prague, to which not only the Czechs but also most other Austrian Slavs, looked �SLOVAKIA 129 for leadership . Of the 41 Czech newspapers published in Bohemia, 33 were appearing in Prague, and they were the ones with the nationwide circulation.(81) Prague was already then becoming the towering symbol of Czech nationalism. To sum up the strength of the Austrian Slavic nationalist movements: the Czechs and the Croats belonged in one category as the stronger pair, while the Slovenes and the Slovaks were the weaker. Within each pair, however, there were marked differences. The Czech movement derived its strength principally from a large popular base , created by more highly developed communications. The Croatian movement had a more restricted popular base but compensated for this by having at is disposal an administrative structure rooted in the traditions of self-government. This, combined with the foothold the movement had in the governing class, the nobility, gave it a readymade leverage of political influence which was denied to the other three nationalities. To formulate it in slightly different language: the strength of the Croatian movement was derived from the traditional social and political features; that of the Czech movement was more clearly associated with the features of modernization. The latter was born in a society that could be described as early industrial, the former in a society that was essentially pre-industrial. A few data will illustrate this. On the eve of 1848, Croatia was without a railroad and with only 4 steam engines operating on its territory.(82) Bohemia (with Moravia) had over 500 kilometers of railroads(83) and some 360 steam engines.(84) For the sake of comparison, it may be noted that at this same time Slovakia was, like Croatia, without a railroad and with only 3 steam engines(85) while Slovenia was more advanced, with 25 steam engines(86) and a stretch of railroad a little under 100 kilometers.(87) (The number of steam engines in Britain then was 30,000 and in France 5,000.(88) Britain had more than 4,000 kilometers of railroad.)(89) The Slovenes and the Slovaks were weaker on several counts . Their nationalist elites were less well organized. The Slovak elite was especially hampered by the Protestant-Catholic differences which constituted a unique element not present in the other three movements. Also, alone of the nationalities being surveyed here, the Slovaks had no institutional forms that would lend their ethnic territory a certain visibility and a possible leverage for political action; and, after June 1848, no political press. Furthermore, the Slovak mass appears to have been the least mobilized into the national movement: the Slovak elite had little impact on the rest of the population. In some of these respects, the Slovenes were in a better position than the Slovaks. They had at least the provincial institutions of Carniola which could be made to serve as an instrument with which to advance the nationalist cause. Their elite was not rent with religious discord. During the year 1848 it succeeded in producing at least a modicum of organizational life (Slovene Society of Ljubljana) and also a political or quasi-political �130 SLOVAKIA press that functioned throughout the 1848-1849 constitutional period. The circulation figures for the Slovene and Slovak newspapers offer unmistakable evidence that the Slovene nationalist movement was reaching a larger proportion of its constituency than the Slovak one.(90) The social and occupational groups that made up the preponderant strain in the nationalist elites were the intelligentsia and the clergy: the former was dominant in the Czech and the Croatian (here linked closely with the nobility) elites, the latter in the Slovene and the Slovak ones. The elites were the ideologues of the nationalist movements, disseminating their views chiefly through the press which they controlled. This suggests some possibilities for future research. It would be desirable to know in what ways the social structure of the elites was reflected in the political ideologies of the nationalist movements.(91) It would be also interesting to discover in what ways the elites helped shape the merging political cultures - the revolutions of 1848 constitute the beginning of modem political life among the peoples of the Austrian Empire - and to what extent this contributed to the enduring pattern of political culture as it crystallized in the coming generations. In our own century, down to the outbreak of World War II, the Czechs gained a reputation for supporting center and left-of-center political movements; the Croats displayed political vagaries but a certain centrist mixture of liberal and conservative seemed to hold the most sway: while among the Slovenes and the Slovaks militant right-wing clericalist movements proved the most dynamic. This pattern seems to mirror, to a considerable extent, the dominant social classes in the nationalist elites as they existed in the middle of the last century. With the present popularity of the study of political cultures, it should not be long before social scientists interested in the Austrian Slavs tum to the middle of the nineteenth century as the time ''when it all began.'' FOOTNOTES 1) W. H. STILLS, Austria in 1848-49 (New York: 1852), 388. ( 2) For the figures for Czechs, Slovaks and Slovenes, see the tables in Fran ZWITTER et al., Nacionalni problemi v Habsbudki Monarhiji (Ljubljana: 1962) , 212-219. For Croats, see the article "Hrvati" in EnciklopedijaJugoslavije. Vol. 4, p. 58. ( 3) Uebersichts-Tafeln zur Statistik der oesterreichisechen Monarchie (Special Reprint of Fascicle X and XI of Statistische Mittheilungen, Vienna: 1850), 1. ( 4) ZWITTER, op. cit., 216, 219. ( 5) George FASEL, Europe in Upheaval: The Revolutions of 1848 (Chicago: 1970), 4. ( 6) Johann SPRINGER, Statistik des oesterreichischen Kaiserstaates, Vol. 1 (Vienna: 1840), 98. ( 7) Slovenska jar: Slovenske povstanie 1848-49, ed. by Jan SLOBODA (Bratislava: 1971), 40 , estimates the Slovak Protestants at one third. ( 8) See the table in ZWITTER, op. cit., 215. �SLOVAKIA 131 ( 9) Bogo GRAFENAUER, Zgodovina slovenskega naroda, Vol. 5 (Ljubljana: 1962), 172. (10) I. KARAMAN, "Ekonomske prilike u vrijeme hrvatskog narodnog preporoda," Kolo, New Series, Vol. 4 (1966), Nos. 8-10, p. 181. (11) K. NOVOTNY and M. MYSKA, eds., Prvni kroky k vitezstvi (Prague: 1966), 10. (12) For the historical development of the ethnic regions of Bohemia, see the map in Ceskoslovenska vlastiveda, Part II, Dejiny, Vol. 2 (Prague: 1969), following p. 80. Compare with this the map depicting the industrial development of Bohemia before 1848, in Atlas ceskoslovenskych dejin (Prague: 1965), No. 17 a. (13) In Croatia as late as 1880 (the earliest year for which accurate statistics are available). 84.64 percent of the population derived their livelihood from agriculture; see Enciklopedija Jugoslavije, Vol. 4, article "Hrvatska," p. 196. For the Slovenes, the estimate for the middle of the nineteenth century is 89 percent; see article "Slovenija," EnciklopedijaJugoslavije, Vol. 7,353. Much the same picture emerges for the Slovaks, from Slovenskajar, op. cit. 34. (14) See GRAFENAUER, op. cit., 154. (15) Ibid. (16) J. GODECHOT, Les Revolutions de 1848 (Paris: 1971), 90. (17) L. KARNlKOVA, Vyvoj obyvatelstva v ceskych zemich 1754-1914 (Prague: 1965), 105. (18) Uebersichtstafeln zur Statistik, op. cit., 3. (19) F. SISlC, HrvatskaPovijest, Vol. 3 (Zagreb: 1913), 7. (20) Uebersichtstafeln zur Statistik, op. cit., 3. I. CHURKINA, "O nekotorykh osobennostiakh formirovaniia slovenskoi natsii, '' Sovetskoe slavianovedenie, No. 2, 1968, p . 16. (21) Uebersichtstafeln zur Statistik, op. cit., 3 Dejiny Slovenska, ed. by L. HOLOTIK, Vol. 1 (Bratislava: 1961), 435. - For the overall economic trends in Eastern Europe, see I. T. BEREND and G. RAN KI, Economic Development in East-Central Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries (translation from the Hungarian) (New York and London: 1974). (22) In 1850, the ethnic composition of the population of Bratislava was as follows: Germans 70.6 percent, Jews 12.9 percent, Slovaks 10.09 percent, Magyars 6.18 percent, others 0.23 percent. See I. HOUDEK, "Bratislava v revolucnych rokoch 1848-1849." Acta Musei Civitatis Bratislavensis: Bratislava, Vol. 5 (1969), 169. (23) No reliable ethnic statistics exist for these three cities for the middle of the nineteenth century and the available estimates differ so widely that it is unprofitable to reproduce them here. As a rule, German historians claim a larger share of German inhabitants for each city than do the Slavic historians. (24) KARNlKOVA, op. cit., 105. (25) J. JANACEK, ed., Dejiny Prahy (Prague: 1964), 432-433. (26) I. I. LESHCHILOVSKAIA, Illirizm (Moscow: 1968), 94. (27) Quoted in R. A. AVERBUKH, Revoliutsiia i natsionalno-osvoboditelnaia borba v Vengrii 1848-1849 (Moscow: 1965), 5. (28) "Social Movements," in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 14, p. 441. (29) Prehled ceskoslovenskych dejin, Vol. 1 (Prague: 1958), 688. (30) J. RAVLIC, Matica Hrvatska 1842-1962 (Zagreb: 1963), 40. (31) D. RAP ANT, Tatrin (Martin, 1950), 11-12. For the patriotic societies of the various Slavic groups, see S. B. KIMBALL, The Austro-Slav Revival: A Study of Nineteenth- �132 SLOVAKIA Century Literary Foundations, in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, LXIII, Part 4 (Philadelphia: 1973). (32) The number of members of the Czech Foundation grew from 35 in 1832 to over 500 in 1839, to 2329 in 1847; see Prehled teskoswvenskych dejin op. cit., 688. Tatrin expanded from 23 in 1844 to 80 in 1847; see RAPANT, op. cit., 12, who says that the membership lists were not always accurate. The Croatian Foundation expanded from 158 members in 1842 to 300 in 1844 (figures for the later pre-March years are not available): see RA VLlC, op. cit., 34, 40. (33) J. BLEIWEIS, Zgodovina C. K. krajnske kmetijske druibe (Ljubljana: 1855), 11. (34) M. HROCH, Die Vorkiimpfer der nationalen Bewegung bei den Kleinen Voelkem Europas (Prague: 1968), 44. The percentages refer to the situation as it was in 1847. (35) I have computed these percentages from a membership list containing occupational data, as reproduced in RA VLlC, op. cit., 260-263. The Croatian Foundation was a successor to the so-called Illyrian Reading Room and the above list gives the names of members, 217 in all, of that reading room, for the year 1838-1839. It is the only extant list that contains occupational data and can give us an indication of the social structure of the Croatian Foundation. (36) Computed from a list given in RAP ANT , op. cit., 12. (37) In 1847 the total number of subscribers was 1522 of whom 230 were peasants and 689 clergymen. See GRAFENAUER, op. cit., Vol. 5, 165. (38) J . APIH, "Die Slovenen und die Miirzbewegung von 1848," Oesterreichisches Jahrbuch , XIV (1890), 93. (39) See Notes 34, 35, 36. (40) On the role of the nobility in the Croatian nationalist movement, see LESHCHILOVSKAIA, op. cit., 72-75. (41) RAPANT, op. cit., 12. I have supplemented Rapant's data with those found M. SLAVIK, ed. , Swvenski narodovci do 30. okt6bra 1918 (Trencin: 1945), Ch. ill. For a basic monograph on the early stages of the Slovak nationalist movement, see J. BUTVIN, Slovenske narodno-zjednocovacie hnutie 1780-1848 (Bratislava, 1965). A new quantifying study of the Slovak pre-1848 patriotic intelligentsia is J. HUCKO Socialne sloienie a povod slovenskej obrodenskej inteligencie (Bratislava: 1974). This volume had not reached me at the time this study was completed. (42) A. D. SMITH, Theories of Nationalism (London: 1971), 87 . One of the most influential exponents of the communications theory of nationalism is K. W . DEUTSCH. Nationalism and Social Communication (second edition, Cambridge, Mass ., 1966) . Deutsch inspired the Czech historian HROCH whose work (Note 34) is an important study comparing the origin of certain West and East (including Czech and Slovak) European nationalist movements. (43) M. N. KUZMIN , Shkola i obrazovanie v Chekhoslovakii (Moscow: 1971), 89, 159. (44) One of the leading members of the Czech nationalist movement of the time says of Havlicek and several other Czech nationalists that they spoke Czech "extremely unclearly": quoted in E. BASS, Cteni o roce osmoctyricatem, Vol. 1 (Prague: 1940), 208. For a similar situation among the Slovenes , see F. GESTRIN and V. MELIK, Swvenska zgodovina od konca osemnajstego stoletja do 1918 (Ljubljana: 1968), 83, 88. (45) They were: the Czech Praiske Noviny which began to appear in 1825 but assumed a militant nationalist posture only under the editorship of Karel Havlicek who took it over in 1845-46; the Slovene Novice, founded in 1843; the Croatian Novine Hrvatske (1835); and the Slovak Slovenskje Narodnje Novini (1845). (46) The Slovak newspaper had a circulation of about 500 in the year in which it was launched: see Stur 's letter of September 6, 1845, as printed in Listy Eudovita Stura. Vol. II, ed. by J. AMBRUS (Bratislava: 1956), 94. Subsequent complaints by Stur �SLOVAKIA 133 about circulation indicate that it failed to grow; indeed, for a time at least, it appears to have slipped slightly; see Stur' s letter of August 3, 1846, in Listy, Vol. II, as cited, p. 143. (47) The circulation figures for the Czech newspaper are given by Havlicek in an article published by him on December 28, 1849, and reproduced in Z. V. TOBOLKA , ed. , Karel Havlitek Borovski; Politicke Spisy, Vol. II. Pt. 2 (Prague, 1902) , 875. For a recent article on Havlicek, see B. K. KIMMEL, "Karel Havlicek and the Czech Press before 1848," in P . BROCK and H . Gordon SKILIJNG, eds., The Czech Renascence of the Nineteenth Century (Toronto: 1970) . The Croatian newspaper was printed in 750 copies in the year of its first appearance (1835). This dipped to 400 in 1837 but then began to rise again steadily until the circulation reached 800 in 1848; see J. HORVAT, Povijest novinstva Hrvatske 17711939 (Zagreb : 1962), 123, 133 . The Slovene newspaper started with a run of 1,000 in 1843 and rose to 1,800 by 1848; see J . SLEBINGER, Slovenski tasniki i tasopisi: Bibliografski pregled od 1797-1936 (Ljubljana: 1937), 5. (48) M. LAISKE , Casopisectvi v Cechach 1650-1847 (Prague: 1959), 162, for the pre1848 figure . For the 1848 figure, see F. ROUBIK , Casopisectvo v Cechach v letech 1848-1862 (Prague, 1930). Appendix No . 9 (this for Bohemia) and M. WURMOVA, Soupis moravskych novin a tasopisu z let 1848-1918 (Brno: 1955), 4 (for Moravia) . (49) I. HERGESIC , Hrvatske novine i tasopisi do 1848 (Zagreb : 1936) , 102-103 . (50) M . POTEMRA , Bibliografia slovenskych novin a tasopisov do roku 1918 (Martin: 1958), 117. (51) SLEBINGER, op. cit., 5-7 . (52) For the meeting in Prague, see my Czech Revolution of 1848 (Chapel Hill: 1969), Chpt. 2. For the meeting in Zagreb, see R. HORVAT , Najnovije doba hrvatske povjesti (Zagreb : 1906), 112-113. (53) For the circumstances surrounding the formulation of the Slovene programs , see F. ZWITTER, "Slovenski politicni prerod XIX, stoletja v okviru evropske nacionalne problematike ," Zgodovinski Casopis, Vol. 18 (1964), 110-111. See also I. B. CHURKINA , " Politicheskaia programma Matii Maiara v 1848 godu," Sovetskoe Slavianovedenie 1969, No . 5. (54) J . BUTVIN and J . HA VRANEK, Dejiny Ceskoslovenska (Prague: 1968) , 220-221. (55) A list of members of the National Committee, with occupational data, is found Narodni Noviny, 14 April, 1848. The role of this committee is discussed in PECH, op. cit., 76-79, 115-121. (56) The Slavic Linden executive in Prague had 50 members. Their names, with incomplete occupational data, are printed in Noviny Lipy Slovanske , 11 April, 1849. I was able to identify the occupations of 42 of the members; of these 33 belonged to the inte lligentsia , 6 were merchants , 2 were liberal nobles, and one was a liberal Protestant clergyman . (57) See my "Czech Political Parties in 1848," Canadian Slavonic Papers-Revue canadiene des slavistes XV (1973) , 484-485 . For a map showing the geographic distribution of the branches, see Atlas teskoslovanskych dejin (Prague: 1965), No. 19j . (58) Thus , in one branch in a city , only one member out of 150 enjoyed the status of " burgher." In another, a majority were "poor artisans ," still another consisted largely of " cottagers and poor agricultural workers ." See Narodni Noviny 30 December , 1848 which contains an account of the congress of Slavic Linden branches held in Prague . This account offers some fragmentary data on the occupations of members of a few individual branches . (59) See " Slovenska Lipa ," Enciklopedija Jugoslavije, Vol. 7, 220-221. �134 SLOVAKIA (60) The Slavic Linden in Zagreb had 80-90 members : Noviny Lipy Slo vans ke, 20 January , 1849. The other major branch, Zadar, is said to have had 200 members ; see V. ZACEK , " Ceske a jihoslovanske Slovanske lipy v roce 1848, " Lite r<irni Archiv Vl (1971) , 227 . (61) J. MAL, " Ljubljana in leto 1848 ," Glasnik Muzejskega Dru~tva za Slovenijo XIV (1933) , 123. See also, J . APIH , Slovenci in 1848 le to (Ljubljana: 1888), 133 . (62) BUTVIN-HAVRANEK , op. cit., 221. (63) Of the four Slovak members who sat on a special 7-man council formed in the fall of 1848 to conduct resistance to Magyar authorities on Slovak territory, 3 were Protestant clergymen ; F . BOKES, " Slovenska narodna rada z rokov 1848-1849," Historicky Casopis xm (1965) , 214 . (64) PECH , Czech Revolution, 104, 167. (65) J . HORVAT, Politii!ka povijest Hrvatske (Zagreb : 1936) , 176. (66) J. APIH, " Die slovenische Bewegung im Fruhjahr und Vorsommer 1848," Oesterreichisches Jahrbuch, XVI (1892); 201. (67) ZWITTER , " Slovenski politicni . .. " 128. (68) D. RAPANT, Slovenske povstanie roku 1848-49, Vol. 1 Pt. 1 (Martin : 1937) , 212. (69) See Note 37 . (70) The Croatian one, entitled Prijatelj Puka, appeared in Zagreb as a weekly supplement of Slavenski Jug. from 9 August to 29 November, 1848 ; see ''Slavenski Jug,' ' Enciklopedija Jugoslavije, Vol. 7, p. 221. The Czech one was Sedlsk e Noviny, published in Prague between 1 April, 1849 and 30 June, 1849. It is now available in J.J. TYi, Spisy, XIV, ed . by F. STREJCEK and H . HRZALOVA (Prague : 1953). (71) " Noviny pre hospodarstvo , remeslo a domaci zivot ," published from 5 April, 1848 to 27 September, 1848 ; see F . RUTTKAY, Daniel G. Lichard a slovenske novin<irstvo jeho doby (Martin : 1961) , 81 ff . (72) The influence of Havlicek on the peasants was striking. He advised them how to vote and what type of deputies to choose and they followed his advice quite readily; see PECH, Czech R evolution, 105, 284. (73) Ibid. , 258 . (74) L. VON GOGOLAK , Beitriige zur Geschichte des slowakischen Volkes , Vol. 2: Die slowakische nationale Fragen der Reformepoche Ungarns 1790-1848 (Munich: 1969) , 263. (75) D. RAP ANT , Slovenske povstanie roku 1848-49, Vol. 11 Pt. 1 (Martin: 1950), 344 . According to Rapant, Slovak national consciousness was the most highly developed in the Turcian County; RAPANT , op. cit., Vol. ill, Pt. 1 (1956), 351. This was also a region in which the Protestants were especially strong. (76) N<irodni Noviny, 31 May, 1848, article by Hurban . (77) See the map in Atlas i!eskoslovenskych dejin (Prague : 1965), No. 19f; this is an ingenious map comparing the speed of travel in the Czech and Slovak regions in the year 1827. (78) POTEMRA , op. cit., 117. (79) SLEBINGER , op. cit., 5-7 . (80) HERGESIC, op. cit., 102-103. (81) ROUBlK , op. cit., Appendix 6 and 9. (82) R. BICANIC , Doba manufakture u Hrvatskoj i Slavoniji 1750-1860 (Zagreb, 1951), 344. �SLOVAKIA 135 (83) See the map in Skolni atlas t!eskoslovenskych dejin (Prague, 1959), No. 25. (84) Ceskoslovenska vlastiveda, Part II, Dejiny, Vol. 2 (Prague, 1969), 93. (85) Ibid., 104. The first railroad came to Slovakia in the latter part of 1848. (86) GESTRIN-MELIK, op. cit., 50. (87) R. PAVLOVCIC, Zgodovinski atlas Slovenije (Buenos Aires, 1960), No. 69. Also GESTRIN-MELIK , op. cit., 103. (88) GODECHOT . op. cit. , 103. (89) Ceskoslovenska vlastiveda, op. cit., 104. (90) The circulation of the Slovene Novice in 1848 was 1,800 copies which yields a ratio of one copy for 556 people . The circulation of the Slovak Slovenskje Narodnje Novini may be assumed to have been 500 copies in 1848 which yields a ratio of one copy for 3 ,400 people.For the circulation figures, see Notes 46 and 47. (91) I have attempted to compare the ideology of the press of the four nationalities in S. Z. PECH, " The Press of the Habsburg Slavs in 1848: Contribution to a Political Profile ," Canadian Journal of History-Anna/es canadiennes d'histoire, X (1975): 3549 . However, I did not attempt to relate the ideology to the social structure of the elites . � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1977, Vol. 27 Description An account of the resource Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 113 The Nationalist Movements of the Austrian Slavs in 1848: A Comparative Sociological Profile STANLEY Z. PECH The year 1848 was unlike any other in the long and arduous saga of the Austrian Slavs. It was a year when the Austrian Slavs, like the rest of Europe, passed through a major social and political upheaval. However, the year held for them a very special significance: in 1848 they first emerged as fledgling nations, from the backwater of Europe to stake out a claim for themselves as rightful members of the European family. As William H. Stiles, the United States charge d'affaires in Vienna at the time put it: " Previous to that period," the Austrian Slavs possessed "no proper individuality , their political nationality was unacknowledged, and for centuries, consequently, they exercised no influence in the political councils of Europe. The storms of 1848 and 1849 raised them to consideration, and even power. " (1) In recent years, Western historians have been diligent enough in providing the Western reader with the essential facts concerning the revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Slavic realm. There is indeed ample material for a good copy: the fever of the March Days, the clashes and recriminations between Germans and Slavs, the Magyars and Slavs; the fervent preachments of the highpriests of the various Slavic nationalisms; the Slavic Congress in Prague flaring up into an uprising and aborted by the artillery of General Windischgratz. These are the high points of the revolutions essential to an understanding of the events of that year. However, this understanding now needs to be broadened and refined in the light of new techniques and methodologies developed in the West. There is need for a structural analysis of the Slavic nationalist movements of 1848. There is an added potential benefit to be derived from cross-national comparisons to which these movements lend themselves. The present account seeks to construct a social profile of the Slavic nationalist movements of 1848 and to analyze and compare their strength. I In the mid-nineteenth century, the Austrian Empire counted seven Slavic nationalities in its multi-ethnic structure: Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, Poles, and Ukrainians. The last three will not Reprinted with permission from Histoire Sociale-Social History (Ottawa), Vol. 9, November 1976. 114 SLOVAKIA be treated here. For them the Austrian Empire was not the principal homeland: a majority of Ukrainians and Poles lived under Russia (a number of Poles also lived under Prussia), and a majority of Serbs under Turkey. This makes comparisons involving them problematical. Czechs , Slovaks , Slovenes , and Croats, on the other hand, were not so divided; they had no " home " other than the Austrian Empire. Their basic comparability derives from the following: 1) they experienced a revolution in 1848 ; 2) they lived under the same empire; 3) they were Slavic and shared the status of "subject" nationalities living under " alien " rule: the Czechs and the Slovenes under the Austro-Germans in the western half of the empire, and the Slovaks and the Croats under the Magyars in the eastern half of the empire; 4) they were passing through early stages of national awakening. The largest of the four national groups were the Czechs who numbered, in the middle of the nineteenth century, approximately 4 million. The number of Slovaks in the same period was 1. 7 million, that of the Croats 1.6 million, and that of the Slovenes a little over 1 million. (2) The total population of the Austrian Empire is estimated to have been 37 million ,(3) with the Austro-Germans the largest nationality (over 7 million) and the Magyars the second largest (4 .5 million) .(4) The revolutionary stresses that brought on the upheaval in 1848 had been accentuated by the demographic pressures of the halfcentury preceding the upheaval. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century , the population of the empire had been increasing steadily by 1850 the increase had amounted to one third as against the year 1800, a rate comparable to the other large states of Western Europe.(5) While it is difficult to separate the growth rates for the different peoples of the empire , this much can be hypothesized from the evidence: the rate of growth of the Slavs was greater than that of the non-Slavs.(6) In religious affiliation, Czechs , Slovenes, and Croats were at least 95 percent Roman Catholic. Roman Catholicism was also dominant among the Slovaks but there it was confronted with a numerically strong Protestant population (between 25 percent and 30 percent) . (7) The fact that the four nationalities being surveyed here had evolved through centuries as "subject" nationalities imparted to their social structures certain distinctive features - features that set them apart from W estem Europe and left a special mark on their development as modernizing societies. The West European model, with France and Germany as a typical example, exhibited a social structure that was unencumbered (small exceptions aside) by the complicating presence of a different nationality: peasants, nobles, workers, entrepreneurs, bureaucrats, priests, bishops, all spoke the same language and belonged to the same nationality. This comfortable ethnic homogeneity was lacking among most of the Austrian Slavs. To generalize: the four nationalities had an "incomplete" social structure; the lower portions SLOVAKIA 115 of their social pyramid were Slavic while the upper portions were filled with members of the ruling nationality . How did the socio-ethnic edifice look in the specific cases? In the western half of the empire, the Czechs and the Slovenes each had their own peasantry, working class, artisanate, shopkeeper class, intelligentsia, lower clergy and lower bureaucracy. At the same time, their complementing higher classes, the nobility, the entrepreneurs and the higher bureaucracy, were German. The one point of difference between the Czechs and the Slovenes concerned the ecclesiastical hierarchy: in the Czech regions the hierarchy was entirely German whereas in the Slovene regions an influential segment of it was Slovene . This difference explains , in part, the divergent religious attitudes of the two peoples during the next century: the Czechs tended to embrace religious scepticism whereas the Slovenes evinced a vigorous religious spirit and lent strong support to movements of political Catholicism. In the eastern half of the empire, the structure was more complicated. The Slovaks occupied the lower portions of the social pyramid, but the upper portions included, besides the Germans , also the Magyars. The Croats, on the other hand , held a position significantly different from the other three national groups . Of the four nationalities , they alone retained, in part, their own governing class: a segment of the nobility, of higher clergy and of higher bureaucracy in Croatia belonged to the Croatian nationality; the remaining segment was Magyar (or Magyar-oriented Croat) or German. The fact that the Croats retained a substantial foothold in the governing class gave them an advantage not enjoyed by the other three national groups: in the pre-industrial age when the nobility alone counted as a political class , they had at all times a political voice . They had never been reduced to a mere '' nation of peasants.' ' In that sense, they were the only one of the four groups that approximated the West European model of social development. The Austrian Empire was not only a labyrinth of seemingly disarrayed social and ethnic parts. It also was a bewildering conglomerate of provinces and administrative divisions that disarrayed the ethnic parts still further. The existing administrative system had taken shape during the pre-nationalist age and bore no relationship to ethnic boundaries. As a result, not only did some nationality sometimes inhabit two or more provinces but if often shared each such province with a different nationality. Little useful purpose would be served by listing all the administrative divisions with their particular ethnic mosaics. Suffice it to say that for each nationality, one province usually stood out as a core of nationalist activism and attention will be focused on these. For the Czechs, this was the province of Bohemia which the Czechs shared with the Germans, the Czech-German ethnic ratio being 60 percent to 40 percent.(8) For the Slovenes, it was Carniola which was over 90 percent _S lovene, the Germans making up the balance.(9) For 116 SLOVAKIA the Croats, it was Croatia (full name "Croatia-Slavonia") in which the Slavs comprised over 95 percent of the population (two thirds of which were Croats and one third Serbs) while the ruling Magyars and Germans together did not exceed 2 percent; certain other small groups accounted for the remainder. (10) Croatia, it should be stressed, possessed a number of self-governing institutions in which the Croatian nobility, clergy and bureaucracy wielded considerable influence which helped cushion the German-Magyar rule. It even had an army which though subordinated directly to the emperor, was nevertheless an important symbol of Croatian national identity. In short, these social and institutional paraphernalia provided the Croats with defenses and opportunities not available to the other Slavs. This made it possible for them, in the course of 1848, to wrest political control entirely from the Magyars and Germans and erect what amounted to their own state with its own government that recognized only the authority of the emperor in Vienna. None of the other three nationalities came close to generating this type of institutional power. In this connection, it may be noted that the people who exercised the least power from the institutional point of view were the Slovaks. They had been totally submerged through centuries in the existing Hungarian system of counties and no part of the Slovak territory enjoyed the status of a province. The Slovak territory was reasonably compact in ethnic terms but had no institutional support to lend it distinctiveness and distinguish it from the other areas of Hungary. This made the Slovaks the most vulnerable and the least visible of the four peoples. After the Congress of Vienna, the Austrian Empire entered upon the first stages of industrialization . There were, however, marked regional disparities in the tempo with which industrialization proceeded , with the western half of the monarchy moving ahead more rapidly than the eastern half. Among the Slavic peoples, by the middle of the nineteenth century, only the Czechs had made significant advances along the road of modernization . By 1857 , the agrarian sector in Bohemia had been reduced to the point where only some 55 percent of the population derived their livelihood from agriculture .(11) The above figure applies to all of Bohemia (both to its Czech and Germanspeaking areas) ; and it is not possible to say exactly what it would be for the Czech inhabitants specifically. However, it is known that the German-speaking areas of Bohemia were by far the more industrialized( 12) and this would justify revising the figure, as applied to the Czechs, upward: 65 percent to 70 percent seems a more realistic estimate. At this same time, the agrarian sector in the three other Austro-Slavic regions continued to employ 90 percent or more of the economically active population.(13) The economic growth was reflected in the expansion of the urban population, with similar regional disparities prevailing in the degree or urbanization attained. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the proportion of the urban SLOVAKIA 117 population in Bohemia was just under 20 percent;(14) for the Czechspeaking population of Bohemia this figure would have to be revised downward to some extent, perhaps to 15 percent. The Slovenes had at this time an urban population of 4 percent(15) while for the Slovaks and the Croats the figure was even less. (France had then an urban population of 26 percent and Germany 35 percent.)(16) ThE: major cities were few and not even their rapid expansion during the first half of the nineteenth century - some cities doubled in size during this period had produced many large urban centers by West European standards. The largest one was Prague, the most populous Czech city and the capital of Bohemia. With a population of 118,000 in the middle of the nineteenth century (77 ,000 in 1800), (17) it was the only city in the four ethnic regions to attain the 100,000 mark, an achievement placing it in a class with the major cities of Western Europe. The largest Croatian city was Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, with a population of 15,000(18) (8,000 at the beginning of the century)(19) and the largest Slovene city was Ljubljana (Laibach), the capital of Carniola, with a population of 17,000 (it was half this size in 1817). (20) The biggest city in what is today the Slovak region was Bratislava (Pressburg) which had a population, in 1848, of 40,000 (in 1805 it had been just under 22,000).(21) However, Bratislava was then not a Slovak city in any meaningful sense of the term; the majority of its inhabitants were German and it was not the scene of any mass Slovak nationalist activity in 1848.(22) The case of Bratislava was far from unique: many cities and towns throughout the Slavic regions of the Austrian Empire contained a large number of Germans, and sizeable German minorities were to be found in Prague. Ljubljana and Zagreb.(23) Economic power in the cities and indeed throughout the monarchy was largely in the hands of Germans and German Jews. Germans typically constituted the urban elite which controlled municipal administrations and in general exercised a decisive influence over the Slavic substratum. The demographic development of Prague, as the largest metropolis, deserves a special comment. Although the city grew more or less steadily after the year 1800, the really important demographic transformation was not the growth itself, but the increasing proportion of newcomers who moved into the city from the surrounding countryside. In the first two decades of the nineteenth century, the proportion of these newcomers remained relatively stable - hovering near 6 percent of the total population. A change set in during the 1820s: the proportion of newcomers began to increase markedly, from 6.3 percent in 1818, to 15 percent in 1826, to 36.3 percent in 1834, and finally to 48.9 percent in 1850.(24) This meant that by the middle of the century nearly one half of the Prague population consisted of people who had severed their previous roots and come to the city in search of a new life. The mass of newcomers was Czech. They found work in the new textile and machine industries founded during the 1830s and 118 SLOVAKIA 1840s, and in other forms of employment. Textile workers, about a thousand strong, became the largest distinctive group of the labor force in the capital city. Their rioting in 1844 announced the advent of an industrial age in Bohemia and attracted the attention of Europe, its effect reinforced by the rioting at almost the same time of Prague workers employed on the construction of a new railway.(25) One of the consequences of the influx of newcomers was to augment the Czechspeaking substratum in a city governed by the German elite. All this provided a setting calculated to raise the social and political fever of the capital city and goes far toward explaining the intensity of the upheaval that swept Prague during 1848. The other three cities mentioned above were drawn less precipitously into the vortex of social and economic change. Zagreb may serve as an example of a city standing at the opposite pole of the socio-economic spectrum from Prague. Although its size had almost doubled in the half-century before 1848, the city had not acquired an industrial face in the process. In 1808, nearly 40 percent of its population consisted of nobles and clergy (! ) and by 1848 these two groups, along with the intelligentsia, still accounted for one half of the total number of inhabitants.(26) City life in Zagreb, and in the eastern half of the empire as a whole, retained essentially a pre-industrial character as late as 1848. What passed for a town in the eastern half of the empire was different from what it was understood to be in the western half and in Western Europe. As one contemporary observer described the town scene in the eastern half of the empire just on the eve of 1848: not only the small towns but also the larger cities there '' consisted of nothing but settlements of ploughmen, vine growers, and shepherds in which respect they did not differ at all from the villages .'' (27) It is startling to realize that at the time of the outbreak of the 1848 revolution, Croatia - and also Slovakia - had not yet acquired a single mile of railroad. II How strong were the nationalist movements to which these structures gave rise and which broke into the open during the years 1848-1849, complete with leaders and programs? The nationalist movements of 1848 were the culminating point of the preceding halfcentury of "national awakening." This development had of course proceeded at a different pace in the case of the various peoples and by 1848 each movement ·had attained a different level of strength. How can this strength be measured? How did the movements compare in their ability to mobilize supporters? It is generally agreed that to be effective a movement requires '' some kind of organization that enables certain persons to act as authorized spokesmen and representatives. This can take the form of committees, clubs, labor unions, or political parties.'' (28) Such clubs consist of individuals with the highest degree SLOVAKIA 119 of commitment to a movement's objectives. In our context, organizations with such a commitment were the pre-March patriotic societies that had come into being during the 1830s and 1840s. The Czechs, the Croats and the Slovaks each had one such society: they were, respectively, the Czech Foundation (Ceska Matice, founded in 1832), the Croatian Foundation (Matica Hrvatska, 1842) and the Slovak Tatrin (1844). These were nationalist societies comprising the highest echelon of nationalist elites. Although independent of each other, they had similar organizational structures and pursued identical objectives: to promote the native language and culture, and to foster the publication of books and newspapers in that language . With this comparability in mind, we can use the numerical strength of these societies as a comparative index of the strength with which the three nationalist movements entered upon the year 1848. On the eve of 1848, the Czech Foundation had a membership of 2329 (for the year 1847),(29) the Croatian Foundation 300(30) (for 1844, the last pre-1848 year available) and Tatrin 80 (1847).(31) Measured against the total population of each nationality as given earlier, this yields the ratio of 5.8 per 10,000 for the Czech national movement, 1.9 per 10,000 for the Croatian, and a low 0.5 per 10,000 for the Slovak. It may be added that the membership in all three societies was growing.(32) Evidently, the nationalist movements had acquired a momentum of their own, adding their weight to the forces that precipitated the collapse of absolutism in March 1848. The revolutions of 1848 may not have been inevitable but the forces that produced them had been unmistakably at work. The Slovenes lacked a patriotic society before 1848 and consequently we cannot measure the strength of the Slovene movement on a basis strictly comparable with the other three. It may be assumed, however, that the absence of a patriotic society is itself evidence of a sort: it suggests the existence of a less developed nationalist movement. Nevertheless, the Slovenes were not without visible manifestations of progress on the nationalist front. Their patriots established a foothold in the Agricultural Society of Camiola, an organization of long standing. This was not a Slovene patriotic society for it counted both Germans and Slovenes among its members and its avowed purpose was improvement of agriculture, not promotion of Slovene nationalism. However, in 1842 the society appointed a moderate, Dr. Janez Bleiweis, as its new secretary, and under him Slovene nationalist forces found elbow room within the society's framework. The success of the first modem Slovene newspaper, Novice, which Bleiweis launched in 1843 under the auspices of the society, afforded proof that Slovene nationalism was on the rise. (33) Still, the absence of a genuine patriotic society was a serious drawback; it meant that the Slovene elite entered upon the year 1848 with little organizational contact, strength and experience. In this it resembled the Slovak elite whose Tatrin offered too feeble a basis when the need 120 SLOVAKIA for action arose . The Slovene and the Slovak elites were the weaker members in the group, the Czech and the Croatian ones the stronger. This distribution of pre-1848 strength corresponds, in fact, very closely to the performance of these nationalist movements during the year 1848. What about the social hue of the elites? The membership rosters of the three patriotic societies contain occupational data that permit us to make cross-national comparisons. For the Slovenes, we must again resort to substitute material which furnishes a basis for an informed estimate. Surveying all four elites, one can perceive two social groups playing a dominant role: the intelligentsia and the lower clergy. The intelligentsia, as defined here, includes teachers, officials, writers, students, and professionals. The term clergy refers to both Roman Catholic and Protestant clergymen. The latter were numerically strong only in the Slovak elite. In the other three elites, the clergy was, with few exceptions, Roman Catholic. While it is true that the intelligentsia and the clergy were prominent in all four elites, their weight varied from case to case. From the material at our disposal it is evident that the intelligentsia had a larger share in the Czech and Croatian elites, while the clergy had a larger share in the Slovene and Slovak elites. The proportion of the intelligentsia and the clergy in the three patriotic societies was, respectively: 54 percent and 29 percent in the Czech.(34) 52 percent and 20 percent in the Croatian(35) and 30 percent and 59 percent in the Slovak society.(36) It is noteworthy that businessmen and other groups ranked after the intelligentsia and the clergy. The peasants as might be expected were hardly significant. The dominant role of the clergy in the Slovene elite can be gleaned from the list of subscribers to the abovementioned newspaper Novice. Although Novice was intended to be a peasant newspaper, the peasants constituted only a small minority of its subscribers; nearly half of the subscribers (in 1847) were nationalist clergymen!(37) The influence of the clergy was noted by a Slovene historian of the last century; in relating the origins of the nationalist movement he observed that ''The number of conscious (Slovene) patriots outside the ranks of the clergy was small.'' (38) The role of the nobility was important only in the Croatian elite . Its proportion in the Croatian Foundation was 7 percent, as compared with 1.5 percent in the Czech Foundation and zero in the Slovak Tatrin. (39) There were, to be sure, influential individual nobles active also in the Czech nationalist movement in its earliest stages. However, they were, as a rule , German-speaking "Bohemian patriots" who sympathized with the Czech movement without identifying themselves with the Czech nationalism. They were friendly outsiders "looking in" and withdrew from the movement in proportion as that movement acquired a clearly Czech nationalist stamp. The role of the nobility in the Croatian movement was completely different. Far from being outsiders SLOVAKIA 121 looking in, they were anchored squarely in the very heart of the nationalist movement at all times, helping to give it shape and direction in a manner in which the Czech nobility never did. The Croatian elite , it should be pointed out, had an added feature all of its own; this consisted in a peculiar collaboration between the nobles and the intelligentsia. It was almost routine practice for the Croatian nobles who had the right to sit in pre-1848 county assemblies to allow themselves to be represented by members of the nationalist intelligentsia. (40) This gave the intelligentsia considerable influence over and above its numercial strength , but there was a reverse side to the coin: the intelligentsia fell into a state of dependence upon the nobles to some extent and acted as a conduit for noble influence. A particular reference should be made at this point to the Slovak elite and to the problem that bedeviled the relationship between its members: the religious problem. Perhaps half of the clergymen in the Slovak patriotic society were Protestant (Lutheran), the remainder were Roman Catholic.(41) Protestants, however, had acquired a commanding position during the years preceding 1848. Moreover, Protestants and Catholics were divided not only by religious convictions - which would have been serious enough to jeopardize the movement - but also by different attitudes regarding the conception of Slovak nationhood and literary language . The chasm separating the two religious groups proved difficult to bridge and Roman Catholics treated the Protestant initiatives with the greatest reserve. This was bound to have a damaging effect on Slovak efforts; how damaging, the events of 1848 were to bear out only too painfully. This added to the vulnerability of a nationalist movement that had already been rendered vulnerable on other counts. The Slovaks were the only one of the four nationalities that entered the year 1848 with a seriously disunited elite . The elites as organized in the patriotic societies comprised the most highly committed or mobilized members of the nationalist movements. How did the elites draw the broader strata of the populations into the movement? How did the wider process of social mobilization take place? It is now increasingly recognized that the development of nationalism is related to the role of communications. A group of sociological theories assigns communications a prime place in the process of national awakening. One communications model in fact considers ' 'the role of the intelligentsia ... to be a necessary condition of all nationalist movements, " (42) an observation which appears to receive support from the role the intelligentsia played in the four movements examined here. If one includes the clergy, as some historians do , in the concept of "intelligentsia" (" clerical intelligentsia'' ), then the importance of this social group in the genesis of Austro-Slavic nationalisms becomes overwhelming. In this context literacy was an essential factor contributing to the success of any mobilizing effort mounted by the elites. How did the four 122 SLOVAKIA nationalities rate on this count? Literacy statistics were not compiled in the Austrian Empire at the time we are discussing. In order to obtain a picture, we are obliged to rely on later census data that indicate the literacy of the generation that was born in the 1830s and was of school age in the 1840s. In this generation, the Czechs led the others . Their rate was 84. 75 percent which was nearly three times as much as that of the Slovaks (30.2 percent), the Slovenes (28.62 percent) and the Croats (26. 7 percent) . (43) It is necessary to add that the Slavic populations in general were at a disadvantage vis-a-vis the Austro-Germans when it came to the use of their languages as a medium of instruction in schools. Only in the lower schools was teaching conducted in the language appropriate to the ethnic region. The language of middle and higher schools was German in the western half of the empire and German, Latin or Magyar in the eastern half. In other words, attaining a higher level of education generally compelled the individual concerned to leave the cultural ambience of his native language . The results of this process were often bizarre. For example, the Czech Karel Havlicek and the Slovene Bleiwies, both leading nationalists, were, in the early stages of their nationalist activity, more fluent in German than in their own native language - a situation by no means untypical of Slavic national awakeners.(44) The elites were keenly aware of the efficacy of the printed word as a medium through which they could best transmit their ideas and mobilize the larger non-elite mass; hence the preoccupation of the patriotic societies with publishing. The printed word devised and disseminated nationalist symbols, awakened an interest in the past and created an awareness of shared leaders, thus ultimately engendering a sense of the community of language, culture and history. For maximum effectiveness, the printed word had to have periodicity and this pointed to the importance of the newspaper as a vehicle most suitable for communication. It was a portent of an approaching nationalist storm that the fifteen-year period preceding the revolutions of 1848 saw the foundation of the first modem national and nationalist newspapers in the case of all four nationalities . One such newspaper was founded in each case, under the auspices of or in association with, the patriotic societies.(45) Of the four, only one, the Slovak, remained stationary in circulation during the pre-March period(46) while the other three showed a circulation increase, with the Czech newspaper registering an increase that can only be described as extraordinary, from 200 in 1846 to 1,500 in 1848.(47) The editor of the Czech newspaper was Karel Havlicek , of the Croatian, Ljudevit Gaj, of the Slovak, I.:udovit Stur, and of the Slovene, Dr. Janez Bleiweis. It is interesting to note that the last three men were the principal nationalist leaders of their peoples at the time and are considered the ''fathers' ' of their particular nationalist movements. As for Havlicek, he shared this honor with the Czech historian Frantisek Palacky. Nothing illustrates more tellingly the SLOVAKIA 123 importance of communications to nationalism than the fact that the nationalist editors were the leaders of their national groups. ill In March 1848 absolutism in the Austrian Empire collapsed and this ushered in the "revolutions of 1848," a period of constitutional government that lasted for over a year, until the emperor began to reimpose absolutism in the spring and summer of 1849. Among the most important constitutional innovations introduced by the liberal regime was the abolition of censorship in March 1848. This led to the foundation of new magazines and newspapers, making it possible for the Czech leaders to start a veritable avalanche of the printed word. On the eve of 1848 the Czechs had a total of 13 newspapers and periodicals; after March this number quadrupled, to 52.(48) Elsewhere, the expansion was more modest. In Croatia, the increase was from 5 in 184 7 to 8 in 1848(49) while the corresponding Slovak figures were 6 and 8.(50) The Slovenes, starting from a low base of 1 newspaper in 1847 brought the number up to 6 in 1848.(51) (After the return of the reaction in 1849 the number of newspapers began to drop again to pre1848 levels.) Calculated on a per capita basis, there was, in 1848, one newspaper or magazine for 77,000 Czechs, 167,000 Slovenes, 200,000 Croats and 213,000 Slovaks. Clearly, the Czech elite had at their disposal the most highly developed network of communications - an advantage heightened by the fact that some of their newspapers appeared daily (six times a week) whereas the frequency of the newspapers of the other nationalities was not more than three times a week. The strengths and the handicaps with which each Slavic group had entered upon the revolution became evident in the first days of freedom. The Czechs and the Croats promptly staged mass meetings , (in March in their capital cities) at which nationalist programs were adopted. (52) In the other two ethnic regions, the adoption of nationalist programs was accomplished with less mass support. The Slovenes formulated their nationalist programs in March without the benefit of a single mass meeting - the only Slav group to pass through the revolutionary year without mass demonstrations or rallies in support of nationalist objectives.(53) In Slovakia, the elite was slow in getting off the mark and encountered difficulties in mobilizing public opinion. A full-fledged nationalist program was not adopted until the beginning of May 1848 at a meeting in Liptovsky Svlity Mikulas, but the public presence at this meeting was modest and the program failed to acquire the legitimacy and force sufficient to compel the Magyar authorities to heed it.(54) The opening stages of the revolutionary period demonstrated the advantage of a people having a body of nationalists with organizational experience and mutual contact who would seize the initiatives, and 124 SLOVAKIA quickly and forcefully responded to the challenges of the moment. The pre-1848 patriotic societies consisted of such nationalists. However, accustomed as they had been to more genteel forms of struggle, these societies could not in themselves become the instruments of political activism at a time of revolutionary turbulence, and so new organizations were established to cope with new forms of struggle. The Czechs in Prague created in March a National Committee which served, until its dissolution after the June 1848 uprising in Prague, as a center of Czech nationalist activity throughout Bohemia. Many members of the Czech Foundation became active in the National Committee which counted over a hundred members. In the National Committee, the intelligentsia prevailed, as it had done in the Czech Foundation, with 44 percent of the members belonging to this stratum. However, the proportion of the clergy was drastically reduced in this elite group, to a mere 4 percent, as compared with 29 percent it had had in the Czech Foundation in the last year before the revolution. It appears that the revolution had pushed the clergy into the background. Its place was taken by the bourgeoisie (burghers, artisans, businessmen) whose share in the National Committee was 42 percent.(55) After June 1848 the vacuum created by the demise of the National Committee was filled by the newly founded Slavic Linden (Slovanska Lipa), a nationalist pressure group consciously seeking political change. The Slavic Linden was led by intellectuals and bourgeoisie, with some members of the National Committee passing into its ranks. (56) The clergy played no major role. Politically, the Slavic Linden was somewhat to the left of the National Committee and, unlike the latter, acquired some of the characteristics of a political party: it had its own newspaper, an elected executive, a headquarters (in Prague), and local branches. By the beginning of 1849 it counted 49 branches throughout Bohemia, forming a network reaching into all corners of the province, with a total estimated membership of 2,000.(57) Among rank and file members of the Slavic Linden were peasants and people of the humble stations in life. (58) The Slavic Linden was in fact the only non-elite stratum, showing a widening circle of nationalistically mobilized population. None of the other three nationalities could point to this level of national awakening, and none devised the kind of network through which the nationalists could communicate and operate in an organized fashion. The Croatian nationalist movement operated with instruments essentially different from those employed by the Czechs. The Croatian elite relied less on the spontaneous organs such as the Czech National Committee and more on Croatia's existing institutions of selfgovernment which it revived and re-shaped to suit the new post-March conditions. After March, the Croats acquired their provincial government, the Ban's Council, which managed the affairs of the country throughout 1848-1849. The Croats were the only Slavic group to SLOVAKIA 125 become for the duration of the 1848-1849 revolutionary period , masters in their own house, recognizing the authority of none but the emperor. Their nobility continued to be active and influential in the existing arrangements. The only new non-governmental nationalist political or quasi-political organization to which the elite gave rise in the postMarch period was the Croatian version of the Slavic Linden. It was inspired by but independent of the Czech Slavic Linden. It was founded in Zagreb , was led by moderately left-oriented intellectuals, and acquired a newspaper of its own. However, it was never too active and never succeeded in building a network of branches throughout the Croatian regions. Only one major branch was set up outside of Zagreb.(59) The total membership of the two branches was no more than a few score and the organization never reached into the non-elite strata. (60) The effectiveness and power of the Croatian nationalist movement derived more from the existing institutional structure and the participation of the nobility than from the mobilization of the wider segments of the population. The Slovenes and the Slovaks could offer little to match the Czech and the Croatian examples. Among the Slovenes, the revolution gave rise to the Slovene Society of Ljubljana founded in April 1848 which became the largest and most influential body of Slovene patriots of the revolutionary period . Its slogan was "Everything for Religion, Emperor and Nationality" and doubtless expressed the influence of clergymen who, according to a police report, formed the largest social group within the 400-member society, with the intelligentsia accounting for the rest .(61) The slogan captures the spirit of the society sufficiently to contrast it with the Czech National Committee which was secular minded and in which the clergy had hardly any role to play. At the same time, it deserves to be noted that the thrust of the Society ' s efforts was cultural more than political. It did not become a center of political activity and did not regard itself as much more than a patriotic interest group. The position of the Slovaks was the least satisfactory. At no time after March 1848 did they form anything resembling the Czech National Committee or even the Slovene Society of Ljubljana. As a consequence, their movement was without an organized thrust and without a single direction. Only the political newspaper, the Slouenskje N<irodnjc Nouini continued to function as a voice of Slovak nationalism but it was compelled to suspend publication in June 1848 under Magyar pressure and with its passing, the last channel of communications through which the elite could address itself to the mass had been destroyed. The Slovak people were thus left without a political newspaper for the greater part of the revolutionary era - a handicap to which none of the other three nationalities was subjected. Furth ermore, in June 1848, Magyar authorities declared martial law over much of Slovak territory - charging the Slovak leaders with '' Pan- 126 SLOVAKIA Slavic" subversion and forcing many of them into exile - and this paralyzed the Slovak movement still further.(62) The clergy (Protestant) continued to dominate what was left of the life of the Slovak movement after June. (63 ) The organizational strength of the elites and the degree to which they were able to mobilize the wider segments of the populations were tested at the elections to the various representative assemblies that took place during 1848 - the first such modem elections to be held in the history of the Austrian Empire. Until 1848 , public life in the empire had borne a German or, in the eastern half, German-Magyar character and this was bound to favor German and Magyar candidates in the election contests even in the Slavic-speaking areas . Conversely, success at the polls of the Slavic candidates could be regarded as evidence of a relatively high degree of mobilization among the Slavic electorate. The right to vote was more liberal in the western than in the eastern half of the empire , and even in the former, segments of the lower social classes were excluded. Nevertheless , it must be acknowledged that everywhere a large number of " common" people enjoyed the right to vote and the election results can serve as a rough expression of popular sentiment vis-a-vis the nationalist movements . The elections yielded the following results. In Bohemia, they demonstrated a high degree of responsiveness of voters to the Czech nationalist movement. In the election of the Bohemian diet in J une 1848 the proportion of Czech deputies elected was just over 60 percent (the remainder were Germans) - a figure corresponding closely to the estimated proportion of the Czech population in the province. The election to the Imperial Parliament held in the same month brought similar results, with the Bohemian voters sending to Vienna 55 Czech as against 35 German deputies.(64) In Croatia, the elections to the diet (June 1848) were a clean sweep for the nationalist candidates. This was due , in part , to the militancy of the Croatian authorities who saw to it that only committed to the Croatian cause could stand as candidates. (65) Because of this, the election results are not very meaningful. In the Slovene regions, the electoral behavior of the voters was less affected by nationalist sentiment. The election of the diet of Carniola produced " numerous" Slovene deputies(66) but not nearly the decisive majority the size of the Slovene population of Camiola (90 percent) would warrant. Similarly, only about half of the deputies elected to the Imperial Parliament in ethnically Slovene territory were actually of Slovene orientation ; the other half were German or bilingual without specifically Slovene leanings.(67) Finally, the nationalists in the Slovak regions failed completely: the first modern Hungarian Parliament , elected in June 1848, did not have a single Slovak deputy. This was attributable, in part , to Magyar electoral pressures. But the principal reason was the underdeveloped nationalist sentiment of the Slovak mass . Slovak leaders were themselves not unaware of this and SLOVAKIA 127 fielded only a few candidates . (68) The nationalist leaders realized that much of their effectiveness depended on the success with which they mobilized the support of the largest social group: the peasantry . To achieve this, they experimented with the publication of newspapers written and edited specifically for the peasantry. However, the results of this effort proved disappointing. The only peasant newspaper that proved successful was the Slovene Novice but even in this instance , no more than 15 percent of its subscribers belonged to the class for which it was primarily aimed.(69) Clearly, Novice could maintain itself only because of the support of non-peasant readers , particularly the clergy. Publication of peasant newspapers was tried also by Croatian (Summer 1848) and Czech (Spring 1849) leaders but both ventures failed for lack of reader support. (70) A more technically oriented newspaper was devised and launched for the Slovak peasants but it likewise proved short-lived (1848). (71) These failures have usually been attributed to a lack of national consciousness on the part of the peasantry, and doubtless there is more than a grain of truth in the observation. After all, the peasantry had only just emerged, in 1848, from the last vestiges of serfdom . A large number of peasants was still illiterate and could not be expected to display a degree of political and nationalist commitment of the kind evinced by the elites. Plainly, the peasant's most immediate and active concerns involved his own social problems rather than the problems of nationalism . At the same time, it should not be forgotten that the peasants were the authentic traditional bearers of the national cultures and folklore and it would be implausible to maintain that such traditions had failed to engender varying degrees of national consciousness or even of interest in the nationalist movement. There is, in fact , good evidence to show that although the peasants turned their back on peasant newspapers, many of them followed the great nationalist press, such as the Czech Narodni Noviny (successor, since April 1848 to Praiske Noviny) .(72) It is probable that such newspapers offered them a more direct opportunity of identifying with the nationalist leaders . The quality and intensity of the peasants' commitment to nationalism did not and could not equal that of the elites , but not a few of them were prepared to support the elites in the capacity of followers. However, this differed from one ethnic region to another. Peasant support for the nationalist elites was the most widespread in the Czech regions. The authorities in Bohemia were not oblivious to the support from the peasants the Czech leaders enjoyed; a confidential police report of May 1849 noted that Czech leaders could count on Czech peasants in resisting unpopular government measures.(73) In the other three ethnic regions, the peasantry seemed moblized to a lesser degree , the least , to judge from the election results, in Slovakia. The apathy of the Slovak peasant seemed more marked than that of his Czech, Slovene and Croatian counterparts. Indeed, the Slovak 128 SLOVAKIA movement as a whole was so weak that a brief digression concerning this weakness appears warranted. Certainly , a major weakening factor was religious discord. Although a majority of Slovaks were Roman Catholic, the Protestants occupied the highest rungs of power in the elite and were , for all practical purposes , the moving spirits of the revolution of 1848 in Slovakia - a situation calculated to displease the Roman Catholics. The great triad of the movement, tudovit Stur, M. M . Hodza and J.M. Hurban, were all Protestants , the latter two were practicing Lutheran clergymen. The group that adopted the nationalist program of May 1848 consisted almost entirely of Protestants.(74) At the grass roots, the climate was similar: the areas inhabited by Protestants manifested a more active nationalist sentiment during the revolution than those inhabited by Roman Catholics - hardly a favorable omen in a people that was in majority Roman Catholic. It is not surprising that some Roman Catholic Slovaks regarded the movement of 1848 as a Protestant plot.(75) Furthermore , the Slovaks lacked a major center of national culture and their geographic setting in general hindered rather than aided the growth of communications and the development of nationalism . The river valleys amid the high peaks of the Tatra Mountains had an isolating effect. " We are an unfortunate people," lamented one Slovak leader, ' ' in that we live only in our valleys - isolated from one another, ' ' and contrasted it with the advantage the Czechs possessed in having a centrally located city , Prague , which was " like the heart of the (Czech) body ." (76) The network of roads and postal services and transportation facilities was sparse, much sparser than, for instance , in the Czech regions. It took considerably less time to traverse a distance in Bohemia than it did to traverse the same distance in Slovakia. (77) Bratislava was in 1848 a predominantly German city, on the fringes of Slovak ethnic territory. Although Stur's Slovenske Narodnje No vini was published there, the city was far from dominant in Slovak national life . Of the 8 Slovak newspapers appearing in 1848, only 3 were published in Bratislava. (78) The cultural facilities of the Slovaks were dispersed, with no city standing above the others as undisputed national leader. When it came to a center of national culture, the other three peoples were in a better position. The Slovenes , it is true , faced a hostile geographic environment in their mountainous terrain, but had at least a reasonably active center in the city of Ljubljana, situated in the heart of the Slovene ethnic territory. Of the 6 Slovene newspapers appearing in 1848 , all but one originated in Ljubljana. (79) The position of the Croats and the Czechs was again superior to that of the Slovenes. The Croats had their undisputed capital and nationalist center in Zagreb, with 7 of the existing 8 Croatian newspapers published there , (80) and with all major cultural institutions located there. While the Czechs had the most vigorous national center of all, in Prague, to which not only the Czechs but also most other Austrian Slavs, looked SLOVAKIA 129 for leadership . Of the 41 Czech newspapers published in Bohemia, 33 were appearing in Prague, and they were the ones with the nationwide circulation.(81) Prague was already then becoming the towering symbol of Czech nationalism. To sum up the strength of the Austrian Slavic nationalist movements: the Czechs and the Croats belonged in one category as the stronger pair, while the Slovenes and the Slovaks were the weaker. Within each pair, however, there were marked differences. The Czech movement derived its strength principally from a large popular base , created by more highly developed communications. The Croatian movement had a more restricted popular base but compensated for this by having at is disposal an administrative structure rooted in the traditions of self-government. This, combined with the foothold the movement had in the governing class, the nobility, gave it a readymade leverage of political influence which was denied to the other three nationalities. To formulate it in slightly different language: the strength of the Croatian movement was derived from the traditional social and political features; that of the Czech movement was more clearly associated with the features of modernization. The latter was born in a society that could be described as early industrial, the former in a society that was essentially pre-industrial. A few data will illustrate this. On the eve of 1848, Croatia was without a railroad and with only 4 steam engines operating on its territory.(82) Bohemia (with Moravia) had over 500 kilometers of railroads(83) and some 360 steam engines.(84) For the sake of comparison, it may be noted that at this same time Slovakia was, like Croatia, without a railroad and with only 3 steam engines(85) while Slovenia was more advanced, with 25 steam engines(86) and a stretch of railroad a little under 100 kilometers.(87) (The number of steam engines in Britain then was 30,000 and in France 5,000.(88) Britain had more than 4,000 kilometers of railroad.)(89) The Slovenes and the Slovaks were weaker on several counts . Their nationalist elites were less well organized. The Slovak elite was especially hampered by the Protestant-Catholic differences which constituted a unique element not present in the other three movements. Also, alone of the nationalities being surveyed here, the Slovaks had no institutional forms that would lend their ethnic territory a certain visibility and a possible leverage for political action; and, after June 1848, no political press. Furthermore, the Slovak mass appears to have been the least mobilized into the national movement: the Slovak elite had little impact on the rest of the population. In some of these respects, the Slovenes were in a better position than the Slovaks. They had at least the provincial institutions of Carniola which could be made to serve as an instrument with which to advance the nationalist cause. Their elite was not rent with religious discord. During the year 1848 it succeeded in producing at least a modicum of organizational life (Slovene Society of Ljubljana) and also a political or quasi-political 130 SLOVAKIA press that functioned throughout the 1848-1849 constitutional period. The circulation figures for the Slovene and Slovak newspapers offer unmistakable evidence that the Slovene nationalist movement was reaching a larger proportion of its constituency than the Slovak one.(90) The social and occupational groups that made up the preponderant strain in the nationalist elites were the intelligentsia and the clergy: the former was dominant in the Czech and the Croatian (here linked closely with the nobility) elites, the latter in the Slovene and the Slovak ones. The elites were the ideologues of the nationalist movements, disseminating their views chiefly through the press which they controlled. This suggests some possibilities for future research. It would be desirable to know in what ways the social structure of the elites was reflected in the political ideologies of the nationalist movements.(91) It would be also interesting to discover in what ways the elites helped shape the merging political cultures - the revolutions of 1848 constitute the beginning of modem political life among the peoples of the Austrian Empire - and to what extent this contributed to the enduring pattern of political culture as it crystallized in the coming generations. In our own century, down to the outbreak of World War II, the Czechs gained a reputation for supporting center and left-of-center political movements; the Croats displayed political vagaries but a certain centrist mixture of liberal and conservative seemed to hold the most sway: while among the Slovenes and the Slovaks militant right-wing clericalist movements proved the most dynamic. This pattern seems to mirror, to a considerable extent, the dominant social classes in the nationalist elites as they existed in the middle of the last century. With the present popularity of the study of political cultures, it should not be long before social scientists interested in the Austrian Slavs tum to the middle of the nineteenth century as the time ''when it all began.'' FOOTNOTES 1) W. H. STILLS, Austria in 1848-49 (New York: 1852), 388. ( 2) For the figures for Czechs, Slovaks and Slovenes, see the tables in Fran ZWITTER et al., Nacionalni problemi v Habsbudki Monarhiji (Ljubljana: 1962) , 212-219. For Croats, see the article "Hrvati" in EnciklopedijaJugoslavije. Vol. 4, p. 58. ( 3) Uebersichts-Tafeln zur Statistik der oesterreichisechen Monarchie (Special Reprint of Fascicle X and XI of Statistische Mittheilungen, Vienna: 1850), 1. ( 4) ZWITTER, op. cit., 216, 219. ( 5) George FASEL, Europe in Upheaval: The Revolutions of 1848 (Chicago: 1970), 4. ( 6) Johann SPRINGER, Statistik des oesterreichischen Kaiserstaates, Vol. 1 (Vienna: 1840), 98. ( 7) Slovenska jar: Slovenske povstanie 1848-49, ed. by Jan SLOBODA (Bratislava: 1971), 40 , estimates the Slovak Protestants at one third. ( 8) See the table in ZWITTER, op. cit., 215. SLOVAKIA 131 ( 9) Bogo GRAFENAUER, Zgodovina slovenskega naroda, Vol. 5 (Ljubljana: 1962), 172. (10) I. KARAMAN, "Ekonomske prilike u vrijeme hrvatskog narodnog preporoda," Kolo, New Series, Vol. 4 (1966), Nos. 8-10, p. 181. (11) K. NOVOTNY and M. MYSKA, eds., Prvni kroky k vitezstvi (Prague: 1966), 10. (12) For the historical development of the ethnic regions of Bohemia, see the map in Ceskoslovenska vlastiveda, Part II, Dejiny, Vol. 2 (Prague: 1969), following p. 80. Compare with this the map depicting the industrial development of Bohemia before 1848, in Atlas ceskoslovenskych dejin (Prague: 1965), No. 17 a. (13) In Croatia as late as 1880 (the earliest year for which accurate statistics are available). 84.64 percent of the population derived their livelihood from agriculture; see Enciklopedija Jugoslavije, Vol. 4, article "Hrvatska," p. 196. For the Slovenes, the estimate for the middle of the nineteenth century is 89 percent; see article "Slovenija," EnciklopedijaJugoslavije, Vol. 7,353. Much the same picture emerges for the Slovaks, from Slovenskajar, op. cit. 34. (14) See GRAFENAUER, op. cit., 154. (15) Ibid. (16) J. GODECHOT, Les Revolutions de 1848 (Paris: 1971), 90. (17) L. KARNlKOVA, Vyvoj obyvatelstva v ceskych zemich 1754-1914 (Prague: 1965), 105. (18) Uebersichtstafeln zur Statistik, op. cit., 3. (19) F. SISlC, HrvatskaPovijest, Vol. 3 (Zagreb: 1913), 7. (20) Uebersichtstafeln zur Statistik, op. cit., 3. I. CHURKINA, "O nekotorykh osobennostiakh formirovaniia slovenskoi natsii, '' Sovetskoe slavianovedenie, No. 2, 1968, p . 16. (21) Uebersichtstafeln zur Statistik, op. cit., 3 Dejiny Slovenska, ed. by L. HOLOTIK, Vol. 1 (Bratislava: 1961), 435. - For the overall economic trends in Eastern Europe, see I. T. BEREND and G. RAN KI, Economic Development in East-Central Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries (translation from the Hungarian) (New York and London: 1974). (22) In 1850, the ethnic composition of the population of Bratislava was as follows: Germans 70.6 percent, Jews 12.9 percent, Slovaks 10.09 percent, Magyars 6.18 percent, others 0.23 percent. See I. HOUDEK, "Bratislava v revolucnych rokoch 1848-1849." Acta Musei Civitatis Bratislavensis: Bratislava, Vol. 5 (1969), 169. (23) No reliable ethnic statistics exist for these three cities for the middle of the nineteenth century and the available estimates differ so widely that it is unprofitable to reproduce them here. As a rule, German historians claim a larger share of German inhabitants for each city than do the Slavic historians. (24) KARNlKOVA, op. cit., 105. (25) J. JANACEK, ed., Dejiny Prahy (Prague: 1964), 432-433. (26) I. I. LESHCHILOVSKAIA, Illirizm (Moscow: 1968), 94. (27) Quoted in R. A. AVERBUKH, Revoliutsiia i natsionalno-osvoboditelnaia borba v Vengrii 1848-1849 (Moscow: 1965), 5. (28) "Social Movements," in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 14, p. 441. (29) Prehled ceskoslovenskych dejin, Vol. 1 (Prague: 1958), 688. (30) J. RAVLIC, Matica Hrvatska 1842-1962 (Zagreb: 1963), 40. (31) D. RAP ANT, Tatrin (Martin, 1950), 11-12. For the patriotic societies of the various Slavic groups, see S. B. KIMBALL, The Austro-Slav Revival: A Study of Nineteenth- 132 SLOVAKIA Century Literary Foundations, in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, LXIII, Part 4 (Philadelphia: 1973). (32) The number of members of the Czech Foundation grew from 35 in 1832 to over 500 in 1839, to 2329 in 1847; see Prehled teskoswvenskych dejin op. cit., 688. Tatrin expanded from 23 in 1844 to 80 in 1847; see RAPANT, op. cit., 12, who says that the membership lists were not always accurate. The Croatian Foundation expanded from 158 members in 1842 to 300 in 1844 (figures for the later pre-March years are not available): see RA VLlC, op. cit., 34, 40. (33) J. BLEIWEIS, Zgodovina C. K. krajnske kmetijske druibe (Ljubljana: 1855), 11. (34) M. HROCH, Die Vorkiimpfer der nationalen Bewegung bei den Kleinen Voelkem Europas (Prague: 1968), 44. The percentages refer to the situation as it was in 1847. (35) I have computed these percentages from a membership list containing occupational data, as reproduced in RA VLlC, op. cit., 260-263. The Croatian Foundation was a successor to the so-called Illyrian Reading Room and the above list gives the names of members, 217 in all, of that reading room, for the year 1838-1839. It is the only extant list that contains occupational data and can give us an indication of the social structure of the Croatian Foundation. (36) Computed from a list given in RAP ANT , op. cit., 12. (37) In 1847 the total number of subscribers was 1522 of whom 230 were peasants and 689 clergymen. See GRAFENAUER, op. cit., Vol. 5, 165. (38) J . APIH, "Die Slovenen und die Miirzbewegung von 1848," Oesterreichisches Jahrbuch , XIV (1890), 93. (39) See Notes 34, 35, 36. (40) On the role of the nobility in the Croatian nationalist movement, see LESHCHILOVSKAIA, op. cit., 72-75. (41) RAPANT, op. cit., 12. I have supplemented Rapant's data with those found M. SLAVIK, ed. , Swvenski narodovci do 30. okt6bra 1918 (Trencin: 1945), Ch. ill. For a basic monograph on the early stages of the Slovak nationalist movement, see J. BUTVIN, Slovenske narodno-zjednocovacie hnutie 1780-1848 (Bratislava, 1965). A new quantifying study of the Slovak pre-1848 patriotic intelligentsia is J. HUCKO Socialne sloienie a povod slovenskej obrodenskej inteligencie (Bratislava: 1974). This volume had not reached me at the time this study was completed. (42) A. D. SMITH, Theories of Nationalism (London: 1971), 87 . One of the most influential exponents of the communications theory of nationalism is K. W . DEUTSCH. Nationalism and Social Communication (second edition, Cambridge, Mass ., 1966) . Deutsch inspired the Czech historian HROCH whose work (Note 34) is an important study comparing the origin of certain West and East (including Czech and Slovak) European nationalist movements. (43) M. N. KUZMIN , Shkola i obrazovanie v Chekhoslovakii (Moscow: 1971), 89, 159. (44) One of the leading members of the Czech nationalist movement of the time says of Havlicek and several other Czech nationalists that they spoke Czech "extremely unclearly": quoted in E. BASS, Cteni o roce osmoctyricatem, Vol. 1 (Prague: 1940), 208. For a similar situation among the Slovenes , see F. GESTRIN and V. MELIK, Swvenska zgodovina od konca osemnajstego stoletja do 1918 (Ljubljana: 1968), 83, 88. (45) They were: the Czech Praiske Noviny which began to appear in 1825 but assumed a militant nationalist posture only under the editorship of Karel Havlicek who took it over in 1845-46; the Slovene Novice, founded in 1843; the Croatian Novine Hrvatske (1835); and the Slovak Slovenskje Narodnje Novini (1845). (46) The Slovak newspaper had a circulation of about 500 in the year in which it was launched: see Stur 's letter of September 6, 1845, as printed in Listy Eudovita Stura. Vol. II, ed. by J. AMBRUS (Bratislava: 1956), 94. Subsequent complaints by Stur SLOVAKIA 133 about circulation indicate that it failed to grow; indeed, for a time at least, it appears to have slipped slightly; see Stur' s letter of August 3, 1846, in Listy, Vol. II, as cited, p. 143. (47) The circulation figures for the Czech newspaper are given by Havlicek in an article published by him on December 28, 1849, and reproduced in Z. V. TOBOLKA , ed. , Karel Havlitek Borovski; Politicke Spisy, Vol. II. Pt. 2 (Prague, 1902) , 875. For a recent article on Havlicek, see B. K. KIMMEL, "Karel Havlicek and the Czech Press before 1848," in P . BROCK and H . Gordon SKILIJNG, eds., The Czech Renascence of the Nineteenth Century (Toronto: 1970) . The Croatian newspaper was printed in 750 copies in the year of its first appearance (1835). This dipped to 400 in 1837 but then began to rise again steadily until the circulation reached 800 in 1848; see J. HORVAT, Povijest novinstva Hrvatske 17711939 (Zagreb : 1962), 123, 133 . The Slovene newspaper started with a run of 1,000 in 1843 and rose to 1,800 by 1848; see J . SLEBINGER, Slovenski tasniki i tasopisi: Bibliografski pregled od 1797-1936 (Ljubljana: 1937), 5. (48) M. LAISKE , Casopisectvi v Cechach 1650-1847 (Prague: 1959), 162, for the pre1848 figure . For the 1848 figure, see F. ROUBIK , Casopisectvo v Cechach v letech 1848-1862 (Prague, 1930). Appendix No . 9 (this for Bohemia) and M. WURMOVA, Soupis moravskych novin a tasopisu z let 1848-1918 (Brno: 1955), 4 (for Moravia) . (49) I. HERGESIC , Hrvatske novine i tasopisi do 1848 (Zagreb : 1936) , 102-103 . (50) M . POTEMRA , Bibliografia slovenskych novin a tasopisov do roku 1918 (Martin: 1958), 117. (51) SLEBINGER, op. cit., 5-7 . (52) For the meeting in Prague, see my Czech Revolution of 1848 (Chapel Hill: 1969), Chpt. 2. For the meeting in Zagreb, see R. HORVAT , Najnovije doba hrvatske povjesti (Zagreb : 1906), 112-113. (53) For the circumstances surrounding the formulation of the Slovene programs , see F. ZWITTER, "Slovenski politicni prerod XIX, stoletja v okviru evropske nacionalne problematike ," Zgodovinski Casopis, Vol. 18 (1964), 110-111. See also I. B. CHURKINA , " Politicheskaia programma Matii Maiara v 1848 godu," Sovetskoe Slavianovedenie 1969, No . 5. (54) J . BUTVIN and J . HA VRANEK, Dejiny Ceskoslovenska (Prague: 1968) , 220-221. (55) A list of members of the National Committee, with occupational data, is found Narodni Noviny, 14 April, 1848. The role of this committee is discussed in PECH, op. cit., 76-79, 115-121. (56) The Slavic Linden executive in Prague had 50 members. Their names, with incomplete occupational data, are printed in Noviny Lipy Slovanske , 11 April, 1849. I was able to identify the occupations of 42 of the members; of these 33 belonged to the inte lligentsia , 6 were merchants , 2 were liberal nobles, and one was a liberal Protestant clergyman . (57) See my "Czech Political Parties in 1848," Canadian Slavonic Papers-Revue canadiene des slavistes XV (1973) , 484-485 . For a map showing the geographic distribution of the branches, see Atlas teskoslovanskych dejin (Prague: 1965), No. 19j . (58) Thus , in one branch in a city , only one member out of 150 enjoyed the status of " burgher." In another, a majority were "poor artisans ," still another consisted largely of " cottagers and poor agricultural workers ." See Narodni Noviny 30 December , 1848 which contains an account of the congress of Slavic Linden branches held in Prague . This account offers some fragmentary data on the occupations of members of a few individual branches . (59) See " Slovenska Lipa ," Enciklopedija Jugoslavije, Vol. 7, 220-221. 134 SLOVAKIA (60) The Slavic Linden in Zagreb had 80-90 members : Noviny Lipy Slo vans ke, 20 January , 1849. The other major branch, Zadar, is said to have had 200 members ; see V. ZACEK , " Ceske a jihoslovanske Slovanske lipy v roce 1848, " Lite r<irni Archiv Vl (1971) , 227 . (61) J. MAL, " Ljubljana in leto 1848 ," Glasnik Muzejskega Dru~tva za Slovenijo XIV (1933) , 123. See also, J . APIH , Slovenci in 1848 le to (Ljubljana: 1888), 133 . (62) BUTVIN-HAVRANEK , op. cit., 221. (63) Of the four Slovak members who sat on a special 7-man council formed in the fall of 1848 to conduct resistance to Magyar authorities on Slovak territory, 3 were Protestant clergymen ; F . BOKES, " Slovenska narodna rada z rokov 1848-1849," Historicky Casopis xm (1965) , 214 . (64) PECH , Czech Revolution, 104, 167. (65) J . HORVAT, Politii!ka povijest Hrvatske (Zagreb : 1936) , 176. (66) J. APIH, " Die slovenische Bewegung im Fruhjahr und Vorsommer 1848," Oesterreichisches Jahrbuch, XVI (1892); 201. (67) ZWITTER , " Slovenski politicni . .. " 128. (68) D. RAPANT, Slovenske povstanie roku 1848-49, Vol. 1 Pt. 1 (Martin : 1937) , 212. (69) See Note 37 . (70) The Croatian one, entitled Prijatelj Puka, appeared in Zagreb as a weekly supplement of Slavenski Jug. from 9 August to 29 November, 1848 ; see ''Slavenski Jug,' ' Enciklopedija Jugoslavije, Vol. 7, p. 221. The Czech one was Sedlsk e Noviny, published in Prague between 1 April, 1849 and 30 June, 1849. It is now available in J.J. TYi, Spisy, XIV, ed . by F. STREJCEK and H . HRZALOVA (Prague : 1953). (71) " Noviny pre hospodarstvo , remeslo a domaci zivot ," published from 5 April, 1848 to 27 September, 1848 ; see F . RUTTKAY, Daniel G. Lichard a slovenske novin<irstvo jeho doby (Martin : 1961) , 81 ff . (72) The influence of Havlicek on the peasants was striking. He advised them how to vote and what type of deputies to choose and they followed his advice quite readily; see PECH, Czech R evolution, 105, 284. (73) Ibid. , 258 . (74) L. VON GOGOLAK , Beitriige zur Geschichte des slowakischen Volkes , Vol. 2: Die slowakische nationale Fragen der Reformepoche Ungarns 1790-1848 (Munich: 1969) , 263. (75) D. RAP ANT , Slovenske povstanie roku 1848-49, Vol. 11 Pt. 1 (Martin: 1950), 344 . According to Rapant, Slovak national consciousness was the most highly developed in the Turcian County; RAPANT , op. cit., Vol. ill, Pt. 1 (1956), 351. This was also a region in which the Protestants were especially strong. (76) N<irodni Noviny, 31 May, 1848, article by Hurban . (77) See the map in Atlas i!eskoslovenskych dejin (Prague : 1965), No. 19f; this is an ingenious map comparing the speed of travel in the Czech and Slovak regions in the year 1827. (78) POTEMRA , op. cit., 117. (79) SLEBINGER , op. cit., 5-7 . (80) HERGESIC, op. cit., 102-103. (81) ROUBlK , op. cit., Appendix 6 and 9. (82) R. BICANIC , Doba manufakture u Hrvatskoj i Slavoniji 1750-1860 (Zagreb, 1951), 344. SLOVAKIA 135 (83) See the map in Skolni atlas t!eskoslovenskych dejin (Prague, 1959), No. 25. (84) Ceskoslovenska vlastiveda, Part II, Dejiny, Vol. 2 (Prague, 1969), 93. (85) Ibid., 104. The first railroad came to Slovakia in the latter part of 1848. (86) GESTRIN-MELIK, op. cit., 50. (87) R. PAVLOVCIC, Zgodovinski atlas Slovenije (Buenos Aires, 1960), No. 69. Also GESTRIN-MELIK , op. cit., 103. (88) GODECHOT . op. cit. , 103. (89) Ceskoslovenska vlastiveda, op. cit., 104. (90) The circulation of the Slovene Novice in 1848 was 1,800 copies which yields a ratio of one copy for 556 people . The circulation of the Slovak Slovenskje Narodnje Novini may be assumed to have been 500 copies in 1848 which yields a ratio of one copy for 3 ,400 people.For the circulation figures, see Notes 46 and 47. (91) I have attempted to compare the ideology of the press of the four nationalities in S. Z. PECH, " The Press of the Habsburg Slavs in 1848: Contribution to a Political Profile ," Canadian Journal of History-Anna/es canadiennes d'histoire, X (1975): 3549 . However, I did not attempt to relate the ideology to the social structure of the elites .  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Nationalist Movements of the Austrian Slavs in 1848: A Comparative Sociological Profile Description An account of the resource Stanley Z. Pech Slovakia, Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977 pp. 113-135 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pech, Stanley Z., 1924-1985 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 LCNAF+dates https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/2b6ffd2bc25a578864af4acebea874cb.pdf fecee9742e45dbaca1968d95260c911b PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 107 A Call for Courage HANA PONICKA INTRODUCTION BY J.M . KIRSCHBAUM Due to the peculiar circumstances under which the Slovak people were subjected to Communism, cultural life in Slovakia may have experienced the strongest repression of any Soviet satellite. (1) The short period of liberalization under A. Dubcek proved, however, that the Stalinist system was unable to break the moral backbone of Slovak writers or to eradicate Slovak literary traditions. Within a few months after the suspension of censorship, Slovak intellectuals displayed a moral courage which startled Wes tern observers. They were among the initiators of the struggle for "socialism with a human face. '' They condemned and criticized the excesses of the Stalinist period, called for rehabilitation of its victims, and insisted on giving cultural institutions (Matica Slovenska, for instance) their original functions and cultural freedom. (2) The short period of liberalization made possible a freer portrayal of the past in literary and political history. The memoirs of T. J. Gaspar and testimonies about political trials (G. Husak, E. Loebl, D . Viest and others) were published. Cultural contacts with the Western world were renewed. This new cultural freedom was interrupted by the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies on August 21, 1968. The subsequent Soviet occupation put an end to free cultural expression. " Socialism with a human face '' perished with the final removal of Dubcek from his position in the Spring of 1969. The new regime under Dr. Gustav Husak proclaimed the Soviet invasion an act of 'fraternal assistance of the socialist countries to protect socialism in Czecho-Slovakia. ' ' It introduced a policy of "normalization. " Dubcek 's liberalization was condemned as "counterrevolutionary. ' ' Massive purges eliminated thousands of people from scientific institutions, artists' unions, schools, broadcasting, journalism, and literary journals. The regime "moved swiftly to block or to reverse the major reforms of 1968, including political democratization, freedom of expression and association, legal reform and rehabiliation . . . '' One saw ' 'the restoration of the Soviet model in all spheres of life. The penetration of Soviet ideas was so blatant that a visitor could not escape the impression that Czecho-Slovakia had taken on the character of a Soviet republic. " (3) Among the first measures of this ' 'normalization'' policy were the introduction of a strict censorship and the establishment of new committees to head cultural and scientific institutions. The Academy of �108 SLOVAKIA Sciences and the Matica Slovenska were transformed into instruments for the "development of socialist culture, science and education in the spirit of Marxism-Leninism. " Artists' unions were transformed into ideological organizations subject to the Communist Party. The periodicals Kulturny iivot and Nova tvorba were forced out of publication. Many scholars, writers, and artists found themselves pariahs, unable to engage in creative work of any kind, and restricted to menial work, at a very low fixed income. Their children also suffered from discrimination in schooling and employment. New and refined methods of persecution were employed, not as grim and macabre as the slow trials of the 'fifties.' These took the form, in Havel's words, of existential pressure, threatening every one, high or low, loyal or disloyal, with loss of position in case of nonconformity. ''This became a veritable vendetta against all who were engaged in reform activities in 1968 and who were unwilling to recant. "(4) That this ''normalization'' has not changed during the past eight years, observers of the Sovak cultural scene have little doubt. Corroboration is found in a courageous address by a Slovak writer who was neither purged nor persecuted, Hana Ponicka. Here follow, in abbreviated form, without the knowledge or permission of the author, her propositions for discussion at the 3rd Conference of Slovak Writers in Bratislava, March 2, 1977, undelivered due to the preemptory halting of discussion, but offered to the Conference as a matter of record. Esteemed assembly: This is our third Slovak Writers' Conference . In the five years since our last conference, held May 31, 1972 in Bratislava, every one of us has surely created something. We have realized the publication of new books and various dramatic and other works. Numerically, with respect to contemporary Slovak literature, this is not the worst record, for our classics are being reissued, and new editions of Slovak translations of classical world literature are also being published. And yet I am not, I cannot be, satisfied. In the vicinity of the village where I live, I see in the fall a great amount of ungathered harvest. But I am troubled just as much by the ungathered harvests in our literary fields. We have been living for nine years now in an atmosphere of unusual social tension. Even during such long-lasting tension, however, it is possible for excellent works to appear that are worth reading and deserving of literary criticism. And yet we have suffered and continue to suffer disproportionate losses. In the past few years, we have lost more notable writers. Though they have died, their work continues to be published. But besides them we have lost many remarkable writers living here and elsewhere, fully capable of creativity, but whose work has not appeared for many years. To this day they are not fellow-members of our writers' organization, nor are �SLOVAKIA 109 they permitted to publish, writers such as Dominik Tatarka, Peter Karvas, and Ladislav Tazky. Nor, unlike the works of other writers recently deceased, do the highly qualified translations of Zora Jesenska from Russian, Soviet, English classics and contemporary literature appear, and are even less likely to. If her name was not mentioned among the others in the requested moment of reverent silence by which we were to honor the work and memory of all our departed writers, I do so at least now with this brief pause of respect. To this day (a long list of writers) is forbidden to publish their poems, prose, or translations , articles or literary critiques, or to write with the hope of being published , whether they are former members or candidates of our writers' organization or even non-members and workers on our literary and cultural journals, such as Jan Rozner, Pavol Hruz, Milan Hamada, Josef Bzoch , Fedor Cadra, Miroslav Kusy, Zlata Solivajsova, Miroslav Hysko, Michal Gafri, Julius Vanovic, Ctibor Stitnicky, Frantisek Andrascik, Stefan Moravcik, Roman Kalisky, Juraj Spitzer, Albert Marencin, Agnesa Kalinova, Sona Cechova, Ladislav Dobis, Ivan Kadlecik , Jan Kalina, Tomas Winkler, and others. If there are any errors in my listing, or if in the case of some authors administrative changes have taken place, that is not my fault. Meeting less seldom in the framework of our organization now than ever before, we know very little about each other. Hence we do not have in our ranks to this day many creators of literature, criticism, journalism or dramatic works. Their names have been lost together with their works from the catalogs and shelves of our public libraries. And yet these friends and colleagues of ours work and live among us, or rather, apart from us and around us. They work in jobs, though not the worst in every case, that are mostly foreign to them and inferior to their abilities. Some of the younger ones who did not try to become members of the Slovak Writers ' Union have taken hold of axe and spade, but among them there are also those who are literally vegetating physically, morally and spiritually - on pension. And what particularly catches us up short is the fact that years ago many of them were awarded the highest artistic titles and honors of our socialist state. As far as I know, these titles have not been taken away from them . Titles, yes; publication, no. I shall never forget that picture of our contemporary literature that appeared to me a couple of years ago when, on the occasion of my chats with them in schools of various districts, Slovak students and their teachers showed me pages of these literary textbooks crossed-out . With what knowledge of our recent history will those youths go out into the world, who with their own hands had to expunge from their textbooks the names and works of living writers, whom they were recently taught to respect and admire? This picture of expunged contemporary literature must also be a part of our balancing of the recent interconference period. Likewise must examples of discarded galleys and �110 SLOVAKIA the shredding of freshly published books and literary works of our expelled writers be included in this picture. It has to be said with sadness that the losses of creative forces in literature, the arts, and in all cultural activity on the part of Czechs are immeasurably greater than those of the Slovaks. I personally feel the continuation of this situation of precious losses as a great fault of our cultural policy, as a serious crime against our creative element and our respective literatures, arts and cultures. Twenty-one years ago, the poet Vitezslav Nezval said at a conference on Czech poetry in Prague: "So long as a single poet in this land lives with the feeling that he cannot publish, my comrades, something is out of order. '' And a year later, at the Second Conference of Czechoslovak Writers, in Prague in 1956, the poet Frantisek Hrubin said: "He who walks among us unconcernedly, writes and calmly gathers honors and goes to sleep peacefully, as though he knew nothing was amiss, who does not cry out aloud, 'A crime is being committed!' is a disguised bourgeois and egotist, and the one who is only secretly ashamed, is a coward!" Esteemed Conference: I can no longer bear the secret shame that I am allowed to publish while others cannot. I can probably claim some justification for myself, namely, that I was one of those who long believed and hoped that the conflicts and injustices would be corrected and solved, and with the intention of improving a difficult societal situation especially for young people, I worked from the fall of 1968 to the end of 1971 in the editorial offices of juvenile publications. Then I somehow stopped hoping. It became necessary for me to create for myself a new working situation in order to accomplish something. I worked hard physically and mentally, I found my place in a new environment where things are called by their right name, and, after long deliberations and daily conversations with people who are being shipped out of our own communities to factories, railroads and other places of occupation, or with those who remained to work in the JRD (collective farms) that is, after acquiring new experiences and knowledge and, of course, as I followed the course of domestic and world events in the press and in our own and foreign broadcasts - I decided to speak out honestly about that which hurts us and disturbs us. We are suffering morally, and our moral suffering is caused by the moral suffering of others, by the endless contradictions between words and deeds, by the rampant growth of half-truths and lies, by unceasing duplicity, and by the incomprehensibly harmful interventions of our society. Our Sturovian poet said 130 years ago: ' 'Among us one loves! '' Another said: ''Among us one sings.'' But today our poetic nation says: '' Among us one deceives!'' And we hear it said further: ''I wouldn't say anything if it were just a little deception; for after all, I too deceive an old woman a little if I can �SLOVAKIA 111 get away with short-changing her a decimeter; but here the deception goes on daily, and only on Sunday is there a little truth to be found. And as for freely confessing our faith? You have to crawl through the back alleys if you want your child christened. And as for equal rights? This is what they are like: Take a child who has completed his entrance examinations with distinction, both parents are workers - but the child is not only not accepted by the school, but is not even given the right to appeal! For it is said that even the application for an appeal must be made in advance, and that even the appeal will be decided in advance by the higher authorities. That's what they told me, I swear!" our people conclude, and they must then go to other districts to find a school that will enroll their child. Our people are indeed grateful for their material improvements, and yet they have a soul as well - the kind of soul they have possessed for ages - and so they are not satisfied merely with material things. They want to realize their full personal dignity, the respect of their communities toward everything that is within them. They also wish independently to be able to evaluate their abilities and to arrive at their conclusions and views without the endless propaganda and imposition of prescribed and ready-made views, as well as without fear of unpleasant consequences if they do not always parrot a for a, but also must do the same for b, c, d, and so on to z. Our people are also entitled to their full dignity in their congregations and the feeling of actual freedom to confess their faith and to perform the activities pertaining thereto. It is impossible, after all, to make instant atheists quickly, haphazardly and forcibly out of one-third of the population of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic that still professes a religious faith. I have not touched upon our literature of the last period, but I know that our literature has lost its experimentation and innovation, and that these have been replaced in the main by conventional tastes, ideas and forms. Such innovations as do manage to appear here or there are not welcomed directly. And the significance of exceptional works is systematically pushed into the background if their author is not on the list of acceptable authors who may publish but without publicity. Esteemed Conference, I conclude. I have spoken extremely critically, because if I had said anything of a complimentary nature, that would have amounted to carrying wood into the forest considering our press of late. And I have spoken extremely critically also out of carefulness, lest it happen, God forbid, that out of my presentation only some positive excerpt would be quoted in print. That happens among us regularly with the comments of author-delegates. And finally, I permit myself the privilege of proposing a motion: that our debates at this conference be published. I think that now when our press has lately revealed such an interest in writers and their signatures, that there would be an equal willingness to provide space for their debates at their Third Write rs ' Conference.'' �112 SLOVAKIA FOOTNOTES (1) See Chapter X in my book Slovak Language and Literature (University of Manitoba, Dept. of Slavic Studies, Winnipeg, 1975) pp. 215-234. (2) See H. Gordon Skilling, Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution (Princeton , 1976), pp. 62-72, and J . Kirschbaum , " Slovakia in the de-Stalinization Process of Czechoslovakia," Canadian Slavonic Papers, Vol. X, 4, 1968, pp. 549-556. (3) Skilling, "Czechoslovakia and Helsinki," Canadian Slavonic Papers, XVIII, 3, pp. 246-253. (4) Skilling, ibid., p. 254. � SLOVAKIA 107 A Call for Courage HANA PONICKA INTRODUCTION BY J.M . KIRSCHBAUM Due to the peculiar circumstances under which the Slovak people were subjected to Communism, cultural life in Slovakia may have experienced the strongest repression of any Soviet satellite. (1) The short period of liberalization under A. Dubcek proved, however, that the Stalinist system was unable to break the moral backbone of Slovak writers or to eradicate Slovak literary traditions. Within a few months after the suspension of censorship, Slovak intellectuals displayed a moral courage which startled Wes tern observers. They were among the initiators of the struggle for "socialism with a human face. '' They condemned and criticized the excesses of the Stalinist period, called for rehabilitation of its victims, and insisted on giving cultural institutions (Matica Slovenska, for instance) their original functions and cultural freedom. (2) The short period of liberalization made possible a freer portrayal of the past in literary and political history. The memoirs of T. J. Gaspar and testimonies about political trials (G. Husak, E. Loebl, D . Viest and others) were published. Cultural contacts with the Western world were renewed. This new cultural freedom was interrupted by the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies on August 21, 1968. The subsequent Soviet occupation put an end to free cultural expression. " Socialism with a human face '' perished with the final removal of Dubcek from his position in the Spring of 1969. The new regime under Dr. Gustav Husak proclaimed the Soviet invasion an act of 'fraternal assistance of the socialist countries to protect socialism in Czecho-Slovakia. ' ' It introduced a policy of "normalization. " Dubcek 's liberalization was condemned as "counterrevolutionary. ' ' Massive purges eliminated thousands of people from scientific institutions, artists' unions, schools, broadcasting, journalism, and literary journals. The regime "moved swiftly to block or to reverse the major reforms of 1968, including political democratization, freedom of expression and association, legal reform and rehabiliation . . . '' One saw ' 'the restoration of the Soviet model in all spheres of life. The penetration of Soviet ideas was so blatant that a visitor could not escape the impression that Czecho-Slovakia had taken on the character of a Soviet republic. " (3) Among the first measures of this ' 'normalization'' policy were the introduction of a strict censorship and the establishment of new committees to head cultural and scientific institutions. The Academy of �108 SLOVAKIA Sciences and the Matica Slovenska were transformed into instruments for the "development of socialist culture, science and education in the spirit of Marxism-Leninism. " Artists' unions were transformed into ideological organizations subject to the Communist Party. The periodicals Kulturny iivot and Nova tvorba were forced out of publication. Many scholars, writers, and artists found themselves pariahs, unable to engage in creative work of any kind, and restricted to menial work, at a very low fixed income. Their children also suffered from discrimination in schooling and employment. New and refined methods of persecution were employed, not as grim and macabre as the slow trials of the 'fifties.' These took the form, in Havel's words, of existential pressure, threatening every one, high or low, loyal or disloyal, with loss of position in case of nonconformity. ''This became a veritable vendetta against all who were engaged in reform activities in 1968 and who were unwilling to recant. "(4) That this ''normalization'' has not changed during the past eight years, observers of the Sovak cultural scene have little doubt. Corroboration is found in a courageous address by a Slovak writer who was neither purged nor persecuted, Hana Ponicka. Here follow, in abbreviated form, without the knowledge or permission of the author, her propositions for discussion at the 3rd Conference of Slovak Writers in Bratislava, March 2, 1977, undelivered due to the preemptory halting of discussion, but offered to the Conference as a matter of record. Esteemed assembly: This is our third Slovak Writers' Conference . In the five years since our last conference, held May 31, 1972 in Bratislava, every one of us has surely created something. We have realized the publication of new books and various dramatic and other works. Numerically, with respect to contemporary Slovak literature, this is not the worst record, for our classics are being reissued, and new editions of Slovak translations of classical world literature are also being published. And yet I am not, I cannot be, satisfied. In the vicinity of the village where I live, I see in the fall a great amount of ungathered harvest. But I am troubled just as much by the ungathered harvests in our literary fields. We have been living for nine years now in an atmosphere of unusual social tension. Even during such long-lasting tension, however, it is possible for excellent works to appear that are worth reading and deserving of literary criticism. And yet we have suffered and continue to suffer disproportionate losses. In the past few years, we have lost more notable writers. Though they have died, their work continues to be published. But besides them we have lost many remarkable writers living here and elsewhere, fully capable of creativity, but whose work has not appeared for many years. To this day they are not fellow-members of our writers' organization, nor are �SLOVAKIA 109 they permitted to publish, writers such as Dominik Tatarka, Peter Karvas, and Ladislav Tazky. Nor, unlike the works of other writers recently deceased, do the highly qualified translations of Zora Jesenska from Russian, Soviet, English classics and contemporary literature appear, and are even less likely to. If her name was not mentioned among the others in the requested moment of reverent silence by which we were to honor the work and memory of all our departed writers, I do so at least now with this brief pause of respect. To this day (a long list of writers) is forbidden to publish their poems, prose, or translations , articles or literary critiques, or to write with the hope of being published , whether they are former members or candidates of our writers' organization or even non-members and workers on our literary and cultural journals, such as Jan Rozner, Pavol Hruz, Milan Hamada, Josef Bzoch , Fedor Cadra, Miroslav Kusy, Zlata Solivajsova, Miroslav Hysko, Michal Gafri, Julius Vanovic, Ctibor Stitnicky, Frantisek Andrascik, Stefan Moravcik, Roman Kalisky, Juraj Spitzer, Albert Marencin, Agnesa Kalinova, Sona Cechova, Ladislav Dobis, Ivan Kadlecik , Jan Kalina, Tomas Winkler, and others. If there are any errors in my listing, or if in the case of some authors administrative changes have taken place, that is not my fault. Meeting less seldom in the framework of our organization now than ever before, we know very little about each other. Hence we do not have in our ranks to this day many creators of literature, criticism, journalism or dramatic works. Their names have been lost together with their works from the catalogs and shelves of our public libraries. And yet these friends and colleagues of ours work and live among us, or rather, apart from us and around us. They work in jobs, though not the worst in every case, that are mostly foreign to them and inferior to their abilities. Some of the younger ones who did not try to become members of the Slovak Writers ' Union have taken hold of axe and spade, but among them there are also those who are literally vegetating physically, morally and spiritually - on pension. And what particularly catches us up short is the fact that years ago many of them were awarded the highest artistic titles and honors of our socialist state. As far as I know, these titles have not been taken away from them . Titles, yes; publication, no. I shall never forget that picture of our contemporary literature that appeared to me a couple of years ago when, on the occasion of my chats with them in schools of various districts, Slovak students and their teachers showed me pages of these literary textbooks crossed-out . With what knowledge of our recent history will those youths go out into the world, who with their own hands had to expunge from their textbooks the names and works of living writers, whom they were recently taught to respect and admire? This picture of expunged contemporary literature must also be a part of our balancing of the recent interconference period. Likewise must examples of discarded galleys and �110 SLOVAKIA the shredding of freshly published books and literary works of our expelled writers be included in this picture. It has to be said with sadness that the losses of creative forces in literature, the arts, and in all cultural activity on the part of Czechs are immeasurably greater than those of the Slovaks. I personally feel the continuation of this situation of precious losses as a great fault of our cultural policy, as a serious crime against our creative element and our respective literatures, arts and cultures. Twenty-one years ago, the poet Vitezslav Nezval said at a conference on Czech poetry in Prague: "So long as a single poet in this land lives with the feeling that he cannot publish, my comrades, something is out of order. '' And a year later, at the Second Conference of Czechoslovak Writers, in Prague in 1956, the poet Frantisek Hrubin said: "He who walks among us unconcernedly, writes and calmly gathers honors and goes to sleep peacefully, as though he knew nothing was amiss, who does not cry out aloud, 'A crime is being committed!' is a disguised bourgeois and egotist, and the one who is only secretly ashamed, is a coward!" Esteemed Conference: I can no longer bear the secret shame that I am allowed to publish while others cannot. I can probably claim some justification for myself, namely, that I was one of those who long believed and hoped that the conflicts and injustices would be corrected and solved, and with the intention of improving a difficult societal situation especially for young people, I worked from the fall of 1968 to the end of 1971 in the editorial offices of juvenile publications. Then I somehow stopped hoping. It became necessary for me to create for myself a new working situation in order to accomplish something. I worked hard physically and mentally, I found my place in a new environment where things are called by their right name, and, after long deliberations and daily conversations with people who are being shipped out of our own communities to factories, railroads and other places of occupation, or with those who remained to work in the JRD (collective farms) that is, after acquiring new experiences and knowledge and, of course, as I followed the course of domestic and world events in the press and in our own and foreign broadcasts - I decided to speak out honestly about that which hurts us and disturbs us. We are suffering morally, and our moral suffering is caused by the moral suffering of others, by the endless contradictions between words and deeds, by the rampant growth of half-truths and lies, by unceasing duplicity, and by the incomprehensibly harmful interventions of our society. Our Sturovian poet said 130 years ago: ' 'Among us one loves! '' Another said: ''Among us one sings.'' But today our poetic nation says: '' Among us one deceives!'' And we hear it said further: ''I wouldn't say anything if it were just a little deception; for after all, I too deceive an old woman a little if I can �SLOVAKIA 111 get away with short-changing her a decimeter; but here the deception goes on daily, and only on Sunday is there a little truth to be found. And as for freely confessing our faith? You have to crawl through the back alleys if you want your child christened. And as for equal rights? This is what they are like: Take a child who has completed his entrance examinations with distinction, both parents are workers - but the child is not only not accepted by the school, but is not even given the right to appeal! For it is said that even the application for an appeal must be made in advance, and that even the appeal will be decided in advance by the higher authorities. That's what they told me, I swear!" our people conclude, and they must then go to other districts to find a school that will enroll their child. Our people are indeed grateful for their material improvements, and yet they have a soul as well - the kind of soul they have possessed for ages - and so they are not satisfied merely with material things. They want to realize their full personal dignity, the respect of their communities toward everything that is within them. They also wish independently to be able to evaluate their abilities and to arrive at their conclusions and views without the endless propaganda and imposition of prescribed and ready-made views, as well as without fear of unpleasant consequences if they do not always parrot a for a, but also must do the same for b, c, d, and so on to z. Our people are also entitled to their full dignity in their congregations and the feeling of actual freedom to confess their faith and to perform the activities pertaining thereto. It is impossible, after all, to make instant atheists quickly, haphazardly and forcibly out of one-third of the population of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic that still professes a religious faith. I have not touched upon our literature of the last period, but I know that our literature has lost its experimentation and innovation, and that these have been replaced in the main by conventional tastes, ideas and forms. Such innovations as do manage to appear here or there are not welcomed directly. And the significance of exceptional works is systematically pushed into the background if their author is not on the list of acceptable authors who may publish but without publicity. Esteemed Conference, I conclude. I have spoken extremely critically, because if I had said anything of a complimentary nature, that would have amounted to carrying wood into the forest considering our press of late. And I have spoken extremely critically also out of carefulness, lest it happen, God forbid, that out of my presentation only some positive excerpt would be quoted in print. That happens among us regularly with the comments of author-delegates. And finally, I permit myself the privilege of proposing a motion: that our debates at this conference be published. I think that now when our press has lately revealed such an interest in writers and their signatures, that there would be an equal willingness to provide space for their debates at their Third Write rs ' Conference.'' �112 SLOVAKIA FOOTNOTES (1) See Chapter X in my book Slovak Language and Literature (University of Manitoba, Dept. of Slavic Studies, Winnipeg, 1975) pp. 215-234. (2) See H. Gordon Skilling, Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution (Princeton , 1976), pp. 62-72, and J . Kirschbaum , " Slovakia in the de-Stalinization Process of Czechoslovakia," Canadian Slavonic Papers, Vol. X, 4, 1968, pp. 549-556. (3) Skilling, "Czechoslovakia and Helsinki," Canadian Slavonic Papers, XVIII, 3, pp. 246-253. (4) Skilling, ibid., p. 254. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1977, Vol. 27 Description An account of the resource Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 107 A Call for Courage HANA PONICKA INTRODUCTION BY J.M . KIRSCHBAUM Due to the peculiar circumstances under which the Slovak people were subjected to Communism, cultural life in Slovakia may have experienced the strongest repression of any Soviet satellite. (1) The short period of liberalization under A. Dubcek proved, however, that the Stalinist system was unable to break the moral backbone of Slovak writers or to eradicate Slovak literary traditions. Within a few months after the suspension of censorship, Slovak intellectuals displayed a moral courage which startled Wes tern observers. They were among the initiators of the struggle for "socialism with a human face. '' They condemned and criticized the excesses of the Stalinist period, called for rehabilitation of its victims, and insisted on giving cultural institutions (Matica Slovenska, for instance) their original functions and cultural freedom. (2) The short period of liberalization made possible a freer portrayal of the past in literary and political history. The memoirs of T. J. Gaspar and testimonies about political trials (G. Husak, E. Loebl, D . Viest and others) were published. Cultural contacts with the Western world were renewed. This new cultural freedom was interrupted by the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies on August 21, 1968. The subsequent Soviet occupation put an end to free cultural expression. " Socialism with a human face '' perished with the final removal of Dubcek from his position in the Spring of 1969. The new regime under Dr. Gustav Husak proclaimed the Soviet invasion an act of 'fraternal assistance of the socialist countries to protect socialism in Czecho-Slovakia. ' ' It introduced a policy of "normalization. " Dubcek 's liberalization was condemned as "counterrevolutionary. ' ' Massive purges eliminated thousands of people from scientific institutions, artists' unions, schools, broadcasting, journalism, and literary journals. The regime "moved swiftly to block or to reverse the major reforms of 1968, including political democratization, freedom of expression and association, legal reform and rehabiliation . . . '' One saw ' 'the restoration of the Soviet model in all spheres of life. The penetration of Soviet ideas was so blatant that a visitor could not escape the impression that Czecho-Slovakia had taken on the character of a Soviet republic. " (3) Among the first measures of this ' 'normalization'' policy were the introduction of a strict censorship and the establishment of new committees to head cultural and scientific institutions. The Academy of 108 SLOVAKIA Sciences and the Matica Slovenska were transformed into instruments for the "development of socialist culture, science and education in the spirit of Marxism-Leninism. " Artists' unions were transformed into ideological organizations subject to the Communist Party. The periodicals Kulturny iivot and Nova tvorba were forced out of publication. Many scholars, writers, and artists found themselves pariahs, unable to engage in creative work of any kind, and restricted to menial work, at a very low fixed income. Their children also suffered from discrimination in schooling and employment. New and refined methods of persecution were employed, not as grim and macabre as the slow trials of the 'fifties.' These took the form, in Havel's words, of existential pressure, threatening every one, high or low, loyal or disloyal, with loss of position in case of nonconformity. ''This became a veritable vendetta against all who were engaged in reform activities in 1968 and who were unwilling to recant. "(4) That this ''normalization'' has not changed during the past eight years, observers of the Sovak cultural scene have little doubt. Corroboration is found in a courageous address by a Slovak writer who was neither purged nor persecuted, Hana Ponicka. Here follow, in abbreviated form, without the knowledge or permission of the author, her propositions for discussion at the 3rd Conference of Slovak Writers in Bratislava, March 2, 1977, undelivered due to the preemptory halting of discussion, but offered to the Conference as a matter of record. Esteemed assembly: This is our third Slovak Writers' Conference . In the five years since our last conference, held May 31, 1972 in Bratislava, every one of us has surely created something. We have realized the publication of new books and various dramatic and other works. Numerically, with respect to contemporary Slovak literature, this is not the worst record, for our classics are being reissued, and new editions of Slovak translations of classical world literature are also being published. And yet I am not, I cannot be, satisfied. In the vicinity of the village where I live, I see in the fall a great amount of ungathered harvest. But I am troubled just as much by the ungathered harvests in our literary fields. We have been living for nine years now in an atmosphere of unusual social tension. Even during such long-lasting tension, however, it is possible for excellent works to appear that are worth reading and deserving of literary criticism. And yet we have suffered and continue to suffer disproportionate losses. In the past few years, we have lost more notable writers. Though they have died, their work continues to be published. But besides them we have lost many remarkable writers living here and elsewhere, fully capable of creativity, but whose work has not appeared for many years. To this day they are not fellow-members of our writers' organization, nor are SLOVAKIA 109 they permitted to publish, writers such as Dominik Tatarka, Peter Karvas, and Ladislav Tazky. Nor, unlike the works of other writers recently deceased, do the highly qualified translations of Zora Jesenska from Russian, Soviet, English classics and contemporary literature appear, and are even less likely to. If her name was not mentioned among the others in the requested moment of reverent silence by which we were to honor the work and memory of all our departed writers, I do so at least now with this brief pause of respect. To this day (a long list of writers) is forbidden to publish their poems, prose, or translations , articles or literary critiques, or to write with the hope of being published , whether they are former members or candidates of our writers' organization or even non-members and workers on our literary and cultural journals, such as Jan Rozner, Pavol Hruz, Milan Hamada, Josef Bzoch , Fedor Cadra, Miroslav Kusy, Zlata Solivajsova, Miroslav Hysko, Michal Gafri, Julius Vanovic, Ctibor Stitnicky, Frantisek Andrascik, Stefan Moravcik, Roman Kalisky, Juraj Spitzer, Albert Marencin, Agnesa Kalinova, Sona Cechova, Ladislav Dobis, Ivan Kadlecik , Jan Kalina, Tomas Winkler, and others. If there are any errors in my listing, or if in the case of some authors administrative changes have taken place, that is not my fault. Meeting less seldom in the framework of our organization now than ever before, we know very little about each other. Hence we do not have in our ranks to this day many creators of literature, criticism, journalism or dramatic works. Their names have been lost together with their works from the catalogs and shelves of our public libraries. And yet these friends and colleagues of ours work and live among us, or rather, apart from us and around us. They work in jobs, though not the worst in every case, that are mostly foreign to them and inferior to their abilities. Some of the younger ones who did not try to become members of the Slovak Writers ' Union have taken hold of axe and spade, but among them there are also those who are literally vegetating physically, morally and spiritually - on pension. And what particularly catches us up short is the fact that years ago many of them were awarded the highest artistic titles and honors of our socialist state. As far as I know, these titles have not been taken away from them . Titles, yes; publication, no. I shall never forget that picture of our contemporary literature that appeared to me a couple of years ago when, on the occasion of my chats with them in schools of various districts, Slovak students and their teachers showed me pages of these literary textbooks crossed-out . With what knowledge of our recent history will those youths go out into the world, who with their own hands had to expunge from their textbooks the names and works of living writers, whom they were recently taught to respect and admire? This picture of expunged contemporary literature must also be a part of our balancing of the recent interconference period. Likewise must examples of discarded galleys and 110 SLOVAKIA the shredding of freshly published books and literary works of our expelled writers be included in this picture. It has to be said with sadness that the losses of creative forces in literature, the arts, and in all cultural activity on the part of Czechs are immeasurably greater than those of the Slovaks. I personally feel the continuation of this situation of precious losses as a great fault of our cultural policy, as a serious crime against our creative element and our respective literatures, arts and cultures. Twenty-one years ago, the poet Vitezslav Nezval said at a conference on Czech poetry in Prague: "So long as a single poet in this land lives with the feeling that he cannot publish, my comrades, something is out of order. '' And a year later, at the Second Conference of Czechoslovak Writers, in Prague in 1956, the poet Frantisek Hrubin said: "He who walks among us unconcernedly, writes and calmly gathers honors and goes to sleep peacefully, as though he knew nothing was amiss, who does not cry out aloud, 'A crime is being committed!' is a disguised bourgeois and egotist, and the one who is only secretly ashamed, is a coward!" Esteemed Conference: I can no longer bear the secret shame that I am allowed to publish while others cannot. I can probably claim some justification for myself, namely, that I was one of those who long believed and hoped that the conflicts and injustices would be corrected and solved, and with the intention of improving a difficult societal situation especially for young people, I worked from the fall of 1968 to the end of 1971 in the editorial offices of juvenile publications. Then I somehow stopped hoping. It became necessary for me to create for myself a new working situation in order to accomplish something. I worked hard physically and mentally, I found my place in a new environment where things are called by their right name, and, after long deliberations and daily conversations with people who are being shipped out of our own communities to factories, railroads and other places of occupation, or with those who remained to work in the JRD (collective farms) that is, after acquiring new experiences and knowledge and, of course, as I followed the course of domestic and world events in the press and in our own and foreign broadcasts - I decided to speak out honestly about that which hurts us and disturbs us. We are suffering morally, and our moral suffering is caused by the moral suffering of others, by the endless contradictions between words and deeds, by the rampant growth of half-truths and lies, by unceasing duplicity, and by the incomprehensibly harmful interventions of our society. Our Sturovian poet said 130 years ago: ' 'Among us one loves! '' Another said: ''Among us one sings.'' But today our poetic nation says: '' Among us one deceives!'' And we hear it said further: ''I wouldn't say anything if it were just a little deception; for after all, I too deceive an old woman a little if I can SLOVAKIA 111 get away with short-changing her a decimeter; but here the deception goes on daily, and only on Sunday is there a little truth to be found. And as for freely confessing our faith? You have to crawl through the back alleys if you want your child christened. And as for equal rights? This is what they are like: Take a child who has completed his entrance examinations with distinction, both parents are workers - but the child is not only not accepted by the school, but is not even given the right to appeal! For it is said that even the application for an appeal must be made in advance, and that even the appeal will be decided in advance by the higher authorities. That's what they told me, I swear!" our people conclude, and they must then go to other districts to find a school that will enroll their child. Our people are indeed grateful for their material improvements, and yet they have a soul as well - the kind of soul they have possessed for ages - and so they are not satisfied merely with material things. They want to realize their full personal dignity, the respect of their communities toward everything that is within them. They also wish independently to be able to evaluate their abilities and to arrive at their conclusions and views without the endless propaganda and imposition of prescribed and ready-made views, as well as without fear of unpleasant consequences if they do not always parrot a for a, but also must do the same for b, c, d, and so on to z. Our people are also entitled to their full dignity in their congregations and the feeling of actual freedom to confess their faith and to perform the activities pertaining thereto. It is impossible, after all, to make instant atheists quickly, haphazardly and forcibly out of one-third of the population of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic that still professes a religious faith. I have not touched upon our literature of the last period, but I know that our literature has lost its experimentation and innovation, and that these have been replaced in the main by conventional tastes, ideas and forms. Such innovations as do manage to appear here or there are not welcomed directly. And the significance of exceptional works is systematically pushed into the background if their author is not on the list of acceptable authors who may publish but without publicity. Esteemed Conference, I conclude. I have spoken extremely critically, because if I had said anything of a complimentary nature, that would have amounted to carrying wood into the forest considering our press of late. And I have spoken extremely critically also out of carefulness, lest it happen, God forbid, that out of my presentation only some positive excerpt would be quoted in print. That happens among us regularly with the comments of author-delegates. And finally, I permit myself the privilege of proposing a motion: that our debates at this conference be published. I think that now when our press has lately revealed such an interest in writers and their signatures, that there would be an equal willingness to provide space for their debates at their Third Write rs ' Conference.'' 112 SLOVAKIA FOOTNOTES (1) See Chapter X in my book Slovak Language and Literature (University of Manitoba, Dept. of Slavic Studies, Winnipeg, 1975) pp. 215-234. (2) See H. Gordon Skilling, Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution (Princeton , 1976), pp. 62-72, and J . Kirschbaum , " Slovakia in the de-Stalinization Process of Czechoslovakia," Canadian Slavonic Papers, Vol. X, 4, 1968, pp. 549-556. (3) Skilling, "Czechoslovakia and Helsinki," Canadian Slavonic Papers, XVIII, 3, pp. 246-253. (4) Skilling, ibid., p. 254.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Call for Courage Description An account of the resource Hana Ponická Introduction by J.M. Kirschbaum Slovakia, Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977 pp. 107-112 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ponická, Hana, 1922-2007 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/61f7383a7c1f833e76ab21ff25507d49.pdf cbe51529c06c366ec59bc030c5e6ac8b PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 91 Preludes to nCharter '77" THEODORIC J. ZUBEK, O.F.M. The occupation of Czecho-Slovakia by the Soviet armies and their satellites in August, 1968, brought new enslavement. The Soviets did not achieve their goal immediately, but they gradually tightened the political relaxations of the Dubcek era. The Russians imprisoned Dubcek and his closest associates and dragged them to Russia. This gravely irritated public opinion. The leadership of the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia insisted on the release of Dubcek and his co-workers and their own restoration to positions of leadership in Czecho-Slovakia. At first, the Russians were not able to find a person agreeable to collaborate with occupation authorities. They had to restore Dubcek and permit him to continue as the first Secretary of the Central Committee and leading member of the Presidium of the Communist Party. But the Russians worked feverishly to split the leadership of the Party. Dr. Gustav Husak proved to be the most able and articulate politician in the chaotic situation. In the early fifties, Husak, a Slovak, had been imprisoned and condemned for so-called bourgeois nationalistic deviation. He was ousted from the Communist party. In the period of de-Stalinization in 1963, he was released from prison and re-admitted into the Party, but held no official position. But, he was active behind the scenes in fomenting a movement against President Novotny and his Stalinist methods. In April, 1968, Husak became one of the vice-premiers of the government, and after the occupation also became a member of the Presidium. Though he had been politically rehabilitated through the moderate policy of Alexander Dubcek, it was, after the occupation that Husak became an open critic of "Communism with a human face." Dubcek was gradually pushed to the background, and lost one position after another. Finally, under increasing pressure, on April 17, 1969, Dubcek resigned as first secretary of the Communist Party, and was stripped of his membership in the Party. On the same day, Husak took his position as first secretary. Husak had considerable support among the people, especially in Slovakia, since he had suffered 12 years of imprisonment for his Slovak nationalism and later fought against Prague centralism. He had promoted the federalization of Czecho-Slovakia. He also seemed to favor Dubcek's liberalization. After the Russian occupation, many accepted Husak's argument that there was no military possibility of defending the country, and that it was necessary to yield to Russian pressure to some degree, and to consolidate the internal situation in the country in order to persuade Moscow that there was no need for the �92 SLOVAKIA continued presence of Russian armies in Czecho-Slovakia. Some also believed Husak's pledge that there would never be a return to Stalinism and that the earlier process of democratization would continue. Nevertheless , it became clear that Husak was primarily interested in gaining Moscow's confidence and in strengthening his own leading position. He fully accepted suppression and terrorism and in a short time, under the guise of "normalization, " he once again enslaved the country. In his hatred of religion, Husak outdid his Moscow bosses. Religion had strong roots, especially in Slovakia, so Husak's antireligious campaign is aimed particularly against the Catholic Church. Present day persecution of the Catholic Church in Czecho-Slovakia is more brutal than in any other communist-dominated country of Europe. It is more pervasive and more cunning than it was during the regimes of Gottwald or Novotny. In recent years, more and more news stories about the terrorism of Husak's regime and the suppression of human rights appeared in the free world. At the beginning of 1977, a transcript of Charter '77 was published in many newspapers of the Western world. In this document, more than 600 Czech and Slovak signers protested against the suppression of human rights, specifically mentioning suppression of the rights to religious conviction. These rights are guaranteed by the . Czecho-Slovak Constitution as well as by the Helsinki Agreement which was by signed Czecho-Slovakia. This Charter '77 was preceded by several public protests of individual citizens, laymen and priests, who openly denounced the abuses of government power and the systematic campaign against religion. Some of these written protests found their way to the free world. A number of them were written before the Helsinki Agreement (September, 1975) and they refer to the Czecho-Slovak Constitution and other laws; later protests also refer to the Helsinki Agreement. It was a number of these protests that prepared the mood for Charter '77. It is proper to express admiration and respect for these individual dissidents for their courage and strength. In a Communist regime, it is riskier for an individual to protest against government abuses than it is for a group. Individual internationally unknown dissidents are taken care of quickly. Under the pretext of anti-state activity, they are silenced in prison or labor camps without much notice or commotion, and without comment in the free world. The Case of Pavol Carnogursky Pavol Carnogursky is a sixty-eight year old layman, who from his youth played an important role in the Catholic life of Slovakia. As an employee of the Catholic Agency in Bratislava, he organized and led Catholic Action programs among Slovak young people, patterned �SLOVAKIA 93 largely on the practices of the French and Belgian Catholic Workers and Catholic Organizations of intellectuals. During the period of Slovak autonomy and independence (19381945), he was a member of the Slovak Parliament and was esteemed as an expert on education and school matters. He opposed the Nazi tendencies of some Slovak politicians and belonged to the group of Slovak Catholic moderates headed by President Joseph Tiso and Dr. Martin Sokol, speaker of the Slovak Parliament . For this reason the Germans regarded him as a persona non grata. Immediately after World War II , Pavol Carnogursky tried to organize the Christian Republican Party as a platform for defending human rights and freedom of conscience in Slovakia, when the country was again made part of Czecho-Slovakia. On the insistence of Slovak bishops, however, the Slovak Catholics joined forces with the predominantly Lutheran Democratic Party and helped it attain an overwhelming victory in Slovakia, triumphing over the communists and other small parties in the 1946 elections. Although Carnogursky was clearly anti-Nazi, yet because of his position as a deputy during the Slovak Republic, he was not found acceptable for any public role in the political life of post-war Slovakia. In 1947 , because of his well known anti-communist stand and his involvement in re-organizing the Catholic workers and the intelligentsia, he was imprisoned and eventually forced into seclusion and silence, providing for his family as a manual worker in a Bratislava factory . Nevertheless, during all those years of seclusion, Carnogursky carefully observed the political and religious situation in Slovakia, read all the biased works of communist historians about the Slovak Republic, and occasionally expressed his critical views in letters he sent to his friends abroad . After the fall of Dubcek in 1969, there began an era of brutal suppression of human rights and a systematic denial of freedom of religion. A pro-communist organization of the clergy, called Pacem in Terris, was established and the priests of Czecho-Slovakia were again torn into two groups, each distrusting the other. The Catholic press, i.e. the Katolicke nouiny (Catholic News) and Duchouny Pastier (Spiritual Shepherd) were put under strict communist control. The pro-communist speeches and articles of Canon Jozef Dovala, pastor in Ziar nad Hronom in the Banska Bystrica Diocese and vicar general of the Diocese , a prominent member of the Pacem in Terris movement, brought the patience and silence of Pavol Carnogursky to an end. The corruption of the Katolicke nouiny offended Carnogursky in a special way, since for some time after the war he had been the editor of this Catholic weekly and worked earnestly to bring it to a high journalistic level. On September 11 , 1974, the executive board of the Federal Association of the Catholic Clergymen, Pacem in Terris , celebrated the �94 SLOVAKIA thirtieth a nniversary of the Slovak upri sing in Banska Bystrica. Canon Joze f Dov ala was the main speaker. He equated the so-called '' political Catholicism ' ' of the Slovak Republic with collaboration with Ge rman Naz ism, and made it co-responsible for the death of about four thou sand priests in Nazi concentration camps. In a letter to Dovala, Carnogursky said it was ab surd to draw a connection between the regime of the Slovak Republic and Ge rman atrocities during the war. He wrote: In a few months it will be thirty years since the e nd of the S econd World War. During this p eriod a countless multitude of articles, political or pseudo-political, as well as scholarly and professional works on the current situation in Slo vakia appeared. Only in exceptional cases are they free of anti-Catholic tendencies. The great majority of the m obtusely describe the situation prejudicially, as you did. I read all tho se articles and books. In the last analysis, they have the same goal: to destroy Catholic ideology and Catholic life in Slo vakia. For that reason the arguments, of which even a mildly honest man and more so a scholar would be ashamed, are crude, unfounded, even hostile, negative and degrading. But what you, Father, associated with the ideas of political Catholicism in Slovakia, surpasses e verything. W e should give credit to anti-Catholic propaganda for using such tricks. The Slo vak State had to be proclaimed at that particular time (March 14, 1939, ed.) and under prevailing circumstances, if we were to make sure that among the thousands of priests murdered (in other countries) in Hitler 's concentration camps there would not be Slo vak priests. In the last analysis, our administrative authorities were not motivated only by a concern for the priests, but for the whole nation as well. And the nation has been saved. I cannot understand why you are angered and prompted to attack it (Slovak independence), since its existence gave you guarantees assuring that you yourself did not become a victim of Hitler 's concentration camp, if you were ordained before World War II. (Douala was ordained March 17, 1938.) I cannot understand why they talk only about political Catholicism and not about political Lutheranism, political Judaism, political atheism, and about the means by which these denominations and institutions have in that day and even to our day influenced and affected public life. Catholicism in Slovakia was a historical force in the nation. Without the care of the Catholic church for education, the social structure, schools, the press, agriculture and social and economic institutions, especially without the work and sacrifices of the best sons of the nation who as Catholic priests defended its voice and language, developing and enriching it through the centuries and assuring its cultural and economic growth - we would have perished. I can well understand why in the Protestant milieu, among the Jews and other denominations in Slovakia, there was not a similar �SLOVAKIA 95 attack on their own. They are fully conscious of the consequences of such a step. Your attack on so-called political Catholicism during the span of the Slovak Republic, unfounded and, to say in openly, irresponsible as it is, is the more tragic because it came at the time when large-scale militant atheism was active in Slovakia and aimed its fury against the Catholic Church, its doctrine, essence and its historical influence upon the thinking and feeling of our people. And this is done by repressive methods not invoked now at the end of the twentieth century by any other Socialist country, not even in black Africa. No teacher, no educator among us, is permitted to enter a classroom, to work among the students, to teach even technical subject matter, unless he declares that he has solved the religious question, which means that he proclaims that he is an atheist. He must avow that he is an atheist not only in his private convictions, but in an active sense as well, ready to teach and educate in the atheistic way. Any doubt in this area, any evidence of religious feelings, such as attendance at divine services, reception of any sacrament, excludes him from a teaching position. Parents who enrolled their children for religious instruction are exposed to unheard of pressure from the school officials and from their employers. Children who attended religious instruction are denied advanced studies. There is a general rule valid even among the most primitive social groups that under-age children are not responsible for a transgression of the law. In our case, children are punished for attending religious instructions, while the Constitution of the peoples' democratic system ironically guarantees freedom of religious conviction. And these sanctions against children are not for a limited period of time, but for their whole lifetime. Father, how will the history of the Church in Slovakia and the general history of mankind call this kind of Catholicism, which, witnessing all this, still feels and expresses itself as you did in this case? My letter to you cannot delineate a complete description of the tragic situation of the Catholic Church in Slovakia. This situation has the dimensions of a world problem that cannot be contained in one letter. The core of the problem is the effort at the eradication of Christian consciousness in the life and culture of a nation which by its very nature and because of its Christian Catholic roots contributed to the civilization process in the heart of Europe ever since the ninth century. We cannot blind our eyes with illusions, assuming that the working of divine grace alone will defeat the imperiled Christianity of our n(!,tion. Without our personal co-operation, our struggle and our living faith, we cannot count on perpetuating the religious life and spirit of our universally Christian country. Doubtless, this struggle demands not only our standing up as Christians but also our intelligent approach to find reasonable �96 SLOVAKIA possibilities to solve the problems facing us without craven concessions and compromises. But an attack like yours, coming in such a form and content, inveighing upon political Catholicism as you have done, cannot be accounted as an acceptable line of conduct. Pavol Camogursky's second letter of protest was addressed to Bishop Jozef Feranec, Ordinary of the Diocese of Banska Bystrica. It deals with an article by Jozef Dovala published in the Katolicke Nouiny (Catholic News) August 29, 1976, in which the author states that the priests and laity participate in up building the new way of life in CzechoSlovakia where freedom of religion is constitutionally safeguarded. Dovala wrote this article after his return from the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia (August 1-7, 1976) where he attended the Slovak services as the only priest from Slovakia. The text of Camogursky' s letter of August 29, 1976, is as follows: Your Excellency, after reading the editorial in the last issue of the Katolicke Nouiny (no. 53, August 29, 1976) even the simplest believer cannot refrain from reacting in protest, realizing how severe is the extermination process against the Church in Slovakia and how this bitter reality opposes his religious conviction and undermines his devotion to the duties which bind him to the Church. In this article vicar Jozef Douala of Banska Bystrica, wrote among other things: 'Priests as well as laymen participate in the up building of our new life and they also share in its fruits. The Constitution of our state system respects the conviction of every citizen and guarantees the freedom of religion'. With pain in my heart I must state that reality in no way bears out the import of these words. Only a cynical scoffer could write thus, bringing the paper to the level of absurdity and compromising the reader in whose name he so dares to write. What then is the factual status of religious affairs, notwithstanding what the Constitution and Article 7 of the Helsinki Agreement provide? Two weeks ago, on August 18, 1976, the daily Pravda, organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia, published a report on the conclusions of the Party Congress and on atheistic education in Slovakia. The gist of these conclusions by the reporting officer read: 'Slovakia became a country of mass atheism. 'A competent representative would hardly dare to make such a bold and far reaching statement in the Party organ of any other Socialist state. Since it cannot be doubted that P. Prusak 's report was factual, even if he did not elaborate about what means were used where it was attained, one must take it as a hard fact. In Slovakia there is a special campaign against religion. I am convinced that Church leadership in Slovakia definitely and carefully concerns itself with the gravity of this article and will weigh its consequences both for itself and for the sake of the Church in Slovakia. �SLOVAKIA 97 I am merely emphasizing the fact that the core of such purported success of atheism in Slovakia is viewed by the author as a purposeful atheistic work which has assumed a systematic character, as he specifically underlines it. In this systematic character of mass abandonment of the paternal heritage - the Catholic Church - by her sons and daughters, one must also see the fact that in Church leadership there are some persons whose high positions serve as the necessary front windows for facilitating apostasy and promoting mass atheism by playing a role assigned to them in their high functions. On the very same level, alas, one must also place the paper Katolicke Noviny which is degenerating into a publication of professional flatterers writing explicitly about themes that have very little in common with authentic religion. This attitude is in total contradiction to the contemporary difficult position of the Church, especially with the mentality of tormented parent-believers. It does not serve the serious matter of peace and rapprochement and easing of tensions. Forgive me, my Bishop, for the bitter tone of this letter. Truly, it is not as bitter as it is painful. And it is precisely for that reason that I must react to the slap on the face inflicted by the aforementioned writing of your vicar general. But not to write would pose an impossible dilemma for me: Am I still a Catholic? Has Mr. Prusak also rightfully included me in his concept of 'mass atheism' in Slovakia? For a responsible member of the Church not to react righteously to this critical development at a time when the very existence of the Church is at stake would be tantamount to not being in rapport with her, with this historic force which endowed Slovakia with all her spiritual, moral and cultural wealth. (1) Pavol Camogursky was imprisoned on November 10, 1976, undoubtedly for this daring analysis of the religious situation in Slovakia and his sharp criticism of Jozef Dovala. In such cases, stock charges of anti-state activities are readily found in the deformed communist system of justice. When Carnogursky ' s case evoked wide publicity in the free world, he was released from prison. He is awaiting trial for purported anti-state activity in the near future. A Speech by Aloysius Tkac Aloysius Tkac is a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Kosice (Eastern Slovakia). He is now 43 years old. He was an archivist in the bishop's chancery and as such he was a member of the pro-communist priestly organization Pacem in Terris. Seeing all the abuses perpetrated against the Church by the communist regime, he decided to publicly denounce them at the festive meeting of this organization on October 23, 1974. On the occasion of the celebration of the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Slovak Uprising, in the presence of communist officials controlling �98 SLOVAKIA all activities of the said organization, he first recalled the Constitution of the Czecho-Slovak Socialist Republic (art. 32) guaranteeing religious freedom of all citizens. Then he cited the government decrees and pertinent regulations of the Ministry of Culture from 1970 and 1972, by which religious education of children of second to seventh grades is permitted. He mentioned recent statements of the President about religious freedom; and no. 326 of the criminal code, by which all those hindering religious freedom and religious activity by force should be prosecuted and punished. He then proceeded to give accounts of actual religious situations in the country: We cannot pass with silence the unpleasant fact which causes both priests and believers great suffering; we feel we are being discriminated against. The procedure in regard to the spiritual needs many times is reckless and we consider it extremely harsh. The guidelines of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Socialist Republic concerning the enrollment of children for religious instructions are in many places disregarded. Groups were formed which not only belittle religious instructions, but hold back parents from the enrollment of their children in religious instruction by direct terror. Contrary to official guidelines about the enrollment, both parents have to present the enrollment petition; often the father or the mother have to excuse themselves from their jobs and complete their work after working hours. It was brought forth to some parents: 'Don't you want to send your children to a higher level of education? Do you want to bury the future of your children in technical schooling?' The behavior of many teachers was harsh, arrogant (such as tearing to pieces the enrollment petition or throwing it away), an illegal act, and it offended the dignity of the citizen-believers. Children attending religious instructions are often excluded from activities with their peers; they cannot make the Pioneers' pledge. During the school year there is also a great deal of peer and teacher pressure put on them. Parents and their children are going through Calvary. They are really martyrs. But how does all this square with the above mentioned state decrees? Even if there were only a few of thse examples, still we must not be silent. Unfortunately, such incidents are very frequent! The fact is that only a small percentage of the children are enrolled for religious instructions. Does this mean that parents and students have renounced their faith and become atheists? By no means! It is largely the result of a natural fear concerning the future! Citizen-believers are being deterred from fulfilling their religious needs, from receiving sacraments (Mass, Holy Communion, Confirmation, Matrimony). Only with difficulty can a priest secretly administer the sacraments of the dying in a hospital. Under various, even false, accusations state permission for priestly work has been revoked to several priests. Does that not bother �SLOVAKIA 99 us? Does not the fate of our brothers in the priesthood concern us? Do we not stand up for the defense of the honor of the priestly state? If not, it is a tragedy! Fifteen newly ordained priests, four months after their ordination, are still waiting for their assignments. Other college graduates have their work assignments in their pockets the moment they have finished their studies. And there are so many parishes and chaplaincies unoccupied/ There are other pains, but others should speak about them! Brothers, friends, I have brought up our common pains. I have spoken to you about the suffering of our believing people. We are not too sensitive, nor are we asking for privileges. We are in pain from the thorns that we have to wear with our people. We are happy to live in our Czecho-Slovak Socialist Republic. We would not betray it for anything. But let us eliminate the mistakes and inadequacies which make our lives difficult. This frank statement shocked the priests and the communist government representatives who always attend such meetings . As a rule, only praise of and gratitude to the regime are expressed at such gatherings. The statement was not even mentioned in the so-called Catholic press of Czecho-Slovakia, or other newspapers. It was secretly smuggled to the free world. What happened to this brave Catholic priest who openly expressed both the facts and the feelings of all conscientious priests and Catholic lay people? Nothing immediately . But then in July of 1975 , almost a year later, news came from Slovakia that several priests who expressed their anti-communist feelings were attacked and some of them severely injured by some individuals who were never apprehended by the police . One of those attacked and severely injured was Aloysius Tkac. In December , 1975 the state permit of Aloysius Tkac to perform priestly duties was withdrawn. His present fate is not known . It may be either manual work or jail. (2) Protests of Monsignor Trstensky Monsignor Victor Trstensky is a prominent Slovak priest. He was born in Trstena (District Orava) on March 29, 1908. After finishing his basic and high school studies in Trstena, he enrolled in the Spis Diocesan Seminary, and was ordained on June 29, 1931. Because of his pastoral zeal and exemplary priestly life, he early became pastor of St. Catherine Church in Dolny Kubin, where he was also a teacher of religion at the local gynmasium. On the recommendation of his Bishop, John Vojtassak, he was made Papal Prelate (Monsignor) while still a very young priest. During the Slovak Republic (1939-1945), as a prominent member of the Hlinka Slovak Populist Party, he took an active part in the public life of his town; at the same time he was involved in the Catholic Action Movement. �100 SLOVAKIA For this activity, after the Second World War he was imprisoned and spent twenty-one years in various prisons, in labor camps, and in manual work. During the Dubcek era, he was rehabilitated and received a state permit for pastoral work on October 7, 1969. The Ordinary of the Spis Diocese , Reverend Joseph Ligos, appointed him adminstrator of St. Nicholas Church in Stara Lubovna where he worked tirelessly for four years. In the post-Dubcek era, the communists in Czecho-Slovakia could not tolerate strong personalities like Monsignor Trstensky in pastoral work . They were afraid of his moral influence on parishioners and particularly on youth. With the year 1974, a new Calvary began for Monsignor Trstensky. The communist-dominated District Committee in Stara Lubovna decided that Trstensky had to leave the town and again be removed from pastoral work . He was notified about his imminent dismissal on January 21, 1974 by the new Ordinary of the Diocese, Stephen Garaj. On January 27, 1974 , Monsignor Trstensky preached to his stunned parishioners a memorable homily, which was secretly taped and later found its way to the free world. The principal reasons for Trstensky's dismissal, given to the vicar capitular by Communist officials, were as follows: 1. preaching against atheism and atheists; 2. sending gifts to old people on Christmas; 3. meetings with altar boys in the church and rectory; 4. keeping in his parish religious Sisters in violation of state regulations; 5. blessing the homes of parishioners after Epiphany. In his classic homily, Monsignor Trstensky explained his activity as pastor of the church in Stara Lubovna and argued convincingly that there was nothing illegal in his pastoral work . He concluded his homily with these words: What does matter is the truth. Whoever distorts the truth cannot build the country. Only truth can save the nation and the country. Remember, if I have to leave here, I am not leaving as a criminal, murderer, traitor of the nation and country. I love my country. Twice I was abroad - in Vienna, Rome, Paris. I could have stayed there. I was invited to do so. But I said: 'I am a Slovak. I did not do anything wrong. I want to live among our people because I love my country and my people.' I returned home. I sincerely love my country, and not only in words but more so by teaching you to love God and one another; by teaching you to work diligently and to live morally. I do not talk about peace, but I promote it with my whole life and work. (3) The decision of the County Committee, Department of Culture, in Stara Lubovna, prohibiting Trstensky to perform priestly ministry was dated January 30, 1974 and delivered to him on February 1, 1974. The reasons for his dismissal are formulated as follows : From the beginning of his assignment to Stara Lubovna, Victor Trstensky in various ways manifested his dissent with the development �SLOVAKIA 101 of our socialist society. For that reason, several sessions were held with him where he was notified that he was breaking the norms established for state-church relationships. In recent times he has increased his reactionary activity and in his sermons he openly and vituperatively spoke against progressively thinking citizens and incited against them. In one of his sermons he said that the unbelievers will once again experience the supremacy of god (sic) and will wish to become believers, but it will be too late. By this activity he was systematically breaking the established laws regarding state-church relations. Such was the case during the last Christmas season, when with the help of school children he distributed to some families packages containing wine, oranges, soap and other items. During his assignment to the parish of Stara Lubovna he intentionally infringed upon the directives on religious instructions by gathering a group of altar boys and choir singers in the church and rectory for practice; furthermore, he organized meetings with a considerable number of children in the rectory. During his assignment at the parish of Stara Lubovna, three religious Sisters came to him and, under his direction, performed church functions and worked actively on the revitalization of the church in the city and among the youth. For these reasons and for his dangerously anti-socialist stand, shown particularly in recent times and in these last days, when he caused among the believers a high and dangerous tension, his continuance in church administration would seriously endanger peaceful social life and the interests of our working people; therefore, with immediate effectiveness, we take away his state permit to work in church administration. On February 14, 1974, Monsignor Trstensky appealed this verdict. As a preliminary to his letter of appeal, he pointed to the irregularities in the whole procedure against him by quoting eight paragraphs of law 71-1967, which were disregarded in his case. Then, in eight pages, he convincingly refuted all the vague or completely false charges against him. He referred to the public and well-known record of his activity as pastor of Stara Lubovna parish. He emphatically stated that he only fulfilled his duties as pastor of a parish, never acting against the state laws and official regulations. The only real reason for the removal of Monsignor Trstensky from pastoral work was his exemplary priestly life and his zealous work for the spiritual welfare of his flock. The appeal of Monsignor Trstensky had no effect and the District Committee in Kosice which by the decision of February 19, 1974, confirmed the verdict of the County Committee in Stara Lubovna and made the decision final, precluding any further appeal. Monsignor Trstensky thereafter went to live in his town of birth, Trstena, in the region of Orava. Grateful parishioners of Stara Lubovna did not forget their beloved pastor. As a token of their appreciation and �102 SLOVAKIA gratitude during the rest of the year 1974, they traveled to Trstena in trucks loaded with construction material and built a home for him. He lives there today. Letters to Highest Authorities After spending years in prison and now being deprived of the permit to work as a priest, Monsignor Trstensky became a fearless witness to communist persecution of loyal priests, and a bold defender of the minimal rights of religion. Monsignor Trstensky carefully observes the situation in his country, sharply analyzes it, and sends his observations to the highest government places. He is sending protest letters to Dr. Peter Colotka, Prime Minister of Slovakia, and even to the President of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. Gustav Husak. Copies of some of his letters have found their way to the free world. They are quite revealing, since they contain the first-hand experiences and observations of a man who lives there, sees with open eyes, and is able to analyze the situation. One such letter was addressed to Dr. Colotka as a reaction to his television talk on the occasion of the International Year of Women, on March 7, 1974. Colotka is a native of Orava region, and Trstensky was his teacher of religion in Dolny Kubin gymnasium. The letter starts with acknowledgements to Colotka for his fine tribute to women, to Slovak mothers and grandmothers, who taught their children honesty, loyalty and readiness to sacrifice for the truth even with their lives. In his letter Trstensky asks Colotka what these women get from the communist regime. Isn't it tearing apart the hearts of our mothers and grandmothers and their offspring, when religious education of children is being hindered more and more? I heard, for example, that in Banska Bystrica, because of brutal terror at the time of enrollment for religious instructions, not one child was registered. It is the same in many cities of Slovakia. Not that the parents and children would not be interested in religion, as purported, but because of the fear for their existence, they do not dare to register their children for religious instructions. Isn't it a punishment for our mothers and grandmothers, when it is made impossible for their sons to devote themselves to a priestly state of life? And even when they have achieved it after years of demanding studies, obtusely to deprive them of a permit to work in the Church ministry, despite a great shortage of priests? In Slovakia, every year 50 to 60 priests die, while hardly 20 to 22 newly ordained priests come out of the seminary. The reason for this is the unfortunate numerous clauses (restricted number) by which only a small number of the candidates can be accepted into the seminary, and this number only on the evaluation of various non-ecclesiastical authorities. Isn't it a punishment for our mothers and grandmothers, when their daughters and granddaughters are not permitted to choose a vocation in which �SLOVAKIA 103 they could peacefully serve God and their neighbors? Even those religious Sisters who previously had chosen this vocation are, so to say, thrown out from their own houses to the streets? lsn 't it hurting our mothers and grandmothers to see how their children, plying their vocations as teachers, civil servants, or factory foremen cannot fulfill their religious obligations for fear of being/ired or transferred to some other job with a lower salary? What can our mothers and grandmothers say about the so-called Catholic press, which in fact does not exist? ''The statements of Pacem in Terris officers that everything is all right here in the matters of religion, do not change these sad facts. By such statements they compromise not only themselves and the Church, but put into a bad perspective our whole system. We are like open cards, and whoever stops here can evaluate religious situations himself and can see the one-sidedness of such self-serving statements. It would be much more fruitful, it those from our priestly ranks who are writing for Pacem in Terris and who think they are promoting peace and social progress, mainly and openly told the heads of our regime that man is not only a body, but also a soul, which is in need of spiritual food. Our simple old women in Orava are shaking their heads when, while reading in the Katolicke Noviny all those praises about religious life in our country, they live in sadness with their daughters who were thrown out of religious life not by Church but by State authorities, or with their sons who were stripped of the State permit for Church administration, or when they see their sons and daughters sneaking away, if they want to pray, get married in church, or have their child baptized. (4) In July, 1976, Monsignor Trstensky asked for travel permission to see his sick brother and his aged sister living in the U.S.A. His petition was turned down by the government officials. Trstensky again sent appeals to the Slovak Prime Minister, Peter Colotka, and to the President of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. Gustav Husak. In his letter to the President dated January 6, 1977, Trstensky again presented a sharp analysis of the situation in Slovakia. I still have not received an answer about my own sufferings and those of believing people. Probably the reason is that it regards a Roman Catholic priest, thus a man outside the law. This confirms my conviction that the main task of some of our circles is to harrass the citizens, especially believers, and to unleash a ruthless war against religion and its adherents. By watching television, by reading newspapers, and magazines and books about so-called "scientific" atheism, by talking with believers, by watching their sad faces, by seeing hundreds of priests outside pastoral work, tormented Sisters, the fear of teachers, civil servants, nurses, foremen in factories, one gets a clear testimony what injustices are being perpetrated against believers. A member of the Party can be like a stump of wood, as long as he knows some phrases about atheism, Marxism. He is preferred to a non- �104 SLOVAKIA Party man, no matter how intelligent, conscientious and patriotic the latter may be. How much more useful would it be to our country, if those much needed billions squandered on anti-religious propaganda, on so-called civil baptisms, weddings, burials, and on the tens of thousands of atheistic propagandists, were used for real re-education in the spirit of justice and mutual love, and for the promotion of material, spiritual, cultural and social development. Wherever there is an anti-religious campaign and justice is trampled upon, morality declines, the families fall apart, enthusiasm for work vanishes, honesty and responsibility disappear, criminality among adults and even among adolescents increases, and the very foundations of the country are undermined. If there is to be a lasting peace, it must be built on justice, truth, freedom and love. (5) It is interesting to note that despite his sharp protest letters, some of which were published in the Western press , Monsignor Trstensky is still not in jail. He is harrassed and intimidated, as appears from his letters . The reason for his not being imprisoned may be the notoriety of his case throughout Czecho-Slovakia and, to some extent, even throughout the free world. The regime fears the out-cry of the free world which follows the imprisonment of well-known dissidents. Examples of Living Faith Not all opponents of militant atheism express their protests against the persecution of the Church by letters and manifestos. In Slovakia there are many priests and lay people resisting the communist oppression of religion with their lives. There are people filling the churches on Sundays and holy days, receiving the sacraments regularly , enrolling their children for religious instructions - ready to pay for it with a loss of better jobs and in some instances with a loss of personal freedom. There are still priests who are in a real sense spiritual fathers of their flock, risking the loss of a state permit to function as priests, or risking the loss of liberty. There are priests and lay people who by the depth of their religious life equal the heroism of the Christians of the early Church. They are luminaries of deep faith in these hours of darkness. One such is John Chrysostom Korec. At the time of the suppression of religious orders in 1950, John Korec was a Jesuit cleric. After nearly completing his regular theological studies, he was secretly ordained a priest and in 1951, bishop. He was then 27 years old, the youngest bishop in the world. He had to go through military service. He then became a factory worker. He worked as a bishop in the underground by secretly preaching to small groups of people, administering the sacrament of Confirmation , teaching young clerics, ~d �SLOVAKIA 105 eventually ordaining them as priests. In 1960, communist spies discovered who John Korec really was. He was sentenced to twelve years in a high security prison. But even in those years of imprisonment, he continued his priestly work among his fellow inmates. In 1968, Bishop Korec was released from jail, weakened in body. He became one of the leading personalities in revitalizing the religious life of Slovakia during this period of thaw. In 1969, he visited Rome and had a private audience with the Holy Father, who gave him one of his personal croziers and a pectoral cross as a sign of his appreciation for the young bishop's work. After the fall of Dubcek (April 17, 1969), renewed terrorism began in Czecho-Slovakia. The state permit to publicly celebrate the Mass was taken away from Bishop Korec. He was not permitted to take part in any official functions of the Church. He became a factory worker in Bratislava. Today, the whole of Slovakia knows about the case of Bishop Korec. People distressed by harsh religious repression, particularly the highly educated, come to Bishop Korec for his words of advice and consolation. This is not looked upon favorably by the communist authorities. They would like to get rid of Bishop Korec, but without further disturbing the populace. They offered him an opporutnity to emigrate from Slovakia. Bishop Korec rejected the suggestion. They offered him a state permit to perform a ministry in some parish outside Bratislava. Bishop Korec said he would accept the ministry outside Bratislava, on the condition that all other priests to whom the state permit was denied or taken away be given permission to function as priests. The communist authorities rejected this condition. The case of the heroic Bishop Korec was reported in the Catholic press throughout the free world. Perhaps this will protect him temporarily against imprisonment. (6) Stephen J avorsky, a Salesian priest, administrator of the parish in Muran, was imprisoned by the state police on November 26, 1975 and sentenced to eighteen months in jail. His state permit to perform his priestly duties was suspended for two years after the expiration of his jail sentence. For this verdict the following reasons are given by the County Court in Muran: ''He enticed youth, especially university students, by inducing them to listen to the Vatican Radio; he distributed books among them; in their presence, he projected film strips and played tapes containing unacceptable conferences on religious philosophy directed against the interests of our socialist society and against materialistic philosophy, with the aim of involving into this work a large group of religious lay people who besides their regular vocation should exercise missionary activity as well. On June 1, 1975, during the divine services in the parish church of Muran, he tried to influence parents, calling the County Spartakiad (gymnastic exhibition) a worldly vanity fair to be opposed by the parents in the future. " Javorsky's appeal of this verdict to a higher court was rejected and the length of his prison term was prolonged to two full years. (7) �106 SLOVAKIA Among Slovak dissidents are also brave writers and distributors of anonymous pamphlets which sporadically appear in various parts of the country. Such a leaflet distributed in June, 1975, analyzes the religious situation in Slovakia and exhorts Christian believers to defend religious rights guaranteed by the Constitution and state laws.(8) Another pamphlet, distributed in Slovakia in April of 1976, warns Slovak Catholics of the biased news published in the Katolicke Noviny and against the priest-collaborators active in the pro-communist organization Pacem in Terris. (9) It is proper to express our respect and admiration of these known and unknown heroes. They suffer for their deep religious convictions . The whole country lives in an atmosphere of imprisonment. Their suffering sooner or later will bring about the liberty of the Church and of the people in Slovakia. FOOTNOTES The complete text of both Camogursky letters was published in HORIZONT ' 77 , March-April , 1977, p . 8-9. (2) The text of Rev. Tkac 's speech can be found in " SITUATION DER KATHOLISHEN KIRCHE IN DER TSCHECHOSLOWAKEI," Ed . JUSTITIA ET PAX 1976, p. 134138. (3) Frantisek Vnuk : Prenasledo uanie katolickeho ducho uenst ua sa stupi'tuje . (Mounting Persecution of the Catholic Clergy) . SLOVAK V AMERIKE (Slovak in America), May 8, 1974, p . 1, 3. (4) The text of this Jetter was published in HLASY Z RIMA (Voices of Rome), July 1976, p. 22-23. (5) The main parts of this letter were published in JEDNOTA , March 30, 1977, p. 20, 17; also in HLASY Z RIMA , April 1977, p. 21-23 . (6) " Narodeniny biskupa-robotnika Jana Korea " (The Birthday of Bishop-Worker, John Korec) . SLOVAK V AMERIKE , Jan. 26, 1977 , p . 1. (7) HLASY Z RIMA , January 1977, p . 22. (8) The complete text of this pamphlet was published in " SITUATION DER KATHOLISCHEN KIRCHE IN DER TSCHECHOSLOWAKEI," p. 123-130. (9) Ibid. , p . 84-85 ; HLASY Z RIMA , August-September, 1976, p . 31. (1) � SLOVAKIA 91 Preludes to nCharter '77" THEODORIC J. ZUBEK, O.F.M. The occupation of Czecho-Slovakia by the Soviet armies and their satellites in August, 1968, brought new enslavement. The Soviets did not achieve their goal immediately, but they gradually tightened the political relaxations of the Dubcek era. The Russians imprisoned Dubcek and his closest associates and dragged them to Russia. This gravely irritated public opinion. The leadership of the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia insisted on the release of Dubcek and his co-workers and their own restoration to positions of leadership in Czecho-Slovakia. At first, the Russians were not able to find a person agreeable to collaborate with occupation authorities. They had to restore Dubcek and permit him to continue as the first Secretary of the Central Committee and leading member of the Presidium of the Communist Party. But the Russians worked feverishly to split the leadership of the Party. Dr. Gustav Husak proved to be the most able and articulate politician in the chaotic situation. In the early fifties, Husak, a Slovak, had been imprisoned and condemned for so-called bourgeois nationalistic deviation. He was ousted from the Communist party. In the period of de-Stalinization in 1963, he was released from prison and re-admitted into the Party, but held no official position. But, he was active behind the scenes in fomenting a movement against President Novotny and his Stalinist methods. In April, 1968, Husak became one of the vice-premiers of the government, and after the occupation also became a member of the Presidium. Though he had been politically rehabilitated through the moderate policy of Alexander Dubcek, it was, after the occupation that Husak became an open critic of "Communism with a human face." Dubcek was gradually pushed to the background, and lost one position after another. Finally, under increasing pressure, on April 17, 1969, Dubcek resigned as first secretary of the Communist Party, and was stripped of his membership in the Party. On the same day, Husak took his position as first secretary. Husak had considerable support among the people, especially in Slovakia, since he had suffered 12 years of imprisonment for his Slovak nationalism and later fought against Prague centralism. He had promoted the federalization of Czecho-Slovakia. He also seemed to favor Dubcek's liberalization. After the Russian occupation, many accepted Husak's argument that there was no military possibility of defending the country, and that it was necessary to yield to Russian pressure to some degree, and to consolidate the internal situation in the country in order to persuade Moscow that there was no need for the �92 SLOVAKIA continued presence of Russian armies in Czecho-Slovakia. Some also believed Husak's pledge that there would never be a return to Stalinism and that the earlier process of democratization would continue. Nevertheless , it became clear that Husak was primarily interested in gaining Moscow's confidence and in strengthening his own leading position. He fully accepted suppression and terrorism and in a short time, under the guise of "normalization, " he once again enslaved the country. In his hatred of religion, Husak outdid his Moscow bosses. Religion had strong roots, especially in Slovakia, so Husak's antireligious campaign is aimed particularly against the Catholic Church. Present day persecution of the Catholic Church in Czecho-Slovakia is more brutal than in any other communist-dominated country of Europe. It is more pervasive and more cunning than it was during the regimes of Gottwald or Novotny. In recent years, more and more news stories about the terrorism of Husak's regime and the suppression of human rights appeared in the free world. At the beginning of 1977, a transcript of Charter '77 was published in many newspapers of the Western world. In this document, more than 600 Czech and Slovak signers protested against the suppression of human rights, specifically mentioning suppression of the rights to religious conviction. These rights are guaranteed by the . Czecho-Slovak Constitution as well as by the Helsinki Agreement which was by signed Czecho-Slovakia. This Charter '77 was preceded by several public protests of individual citizens, laymen and priests, who openly denounced the abuses of government power and the systematic campaign against religion. Some of these written protests found their way to the free world. A number of them were written before the Helsinki Agreement (September, 1975) and they refer to the Czecho-Slovak Constitution and other laws; later protests also refer to the Helsinki Agreement. It was a number of these protests that prepared the mood for Charter '77. It is proper to express admiration and respect for these individual dissidents for their courage and strength. In a Communist regime, it is riskier for an individual to protest against government abuses than it is for a group. Individual internationally unknown dissidents are taken care of quickly. Under the pretext of anti-state activity, they are silenced in prison or labor camps without much notice or commotion, and without comment in the free world. The Case of Pavol Carnogursky Pavol Carnogursky is a sixty-eight year old layman, who from his youth played an important role in the Catholic life of Slovakia. As an employee of the Catholic Agency in Bratislava, he organized and led Catholic Action programs among Slovak young people, patterned �SLOVAKIA 93 largely on the practices of the French and Belgian Catholic Workers and Catholic Organizations of intellectuals. During the period of Slovak autonomy and independence (19381945), he was a member of the Slovak Parliament and was esteemed as an expert on education and school matters. He opposed the Nazi tendencies of some Slovak politicians and belonged to the group of Slovak Catholic moderates headed by President Joseph Tiso and Dr. Martin Sokol, speaker of the Slovak Parliament . For this reason the Germans regarded him as a persona non grata. Immediately after World War II , Pavol Carnogursky tried to organize the Christian Republican Party as a platform for defending human rights and freedom of conscience in Slovakia, when the country was again made part of Czecho-Slovakia. On the insistence of Slovak bishops, however, the Slovak Catholics joined forces with the predominantly Lutheran Democratic Party and helped it attain an overwhelming victory in Slovakia, triumphing over the communists and other small parties in the 1946 elections. Although Carnogursky was clearly anti-Nazi, yet because of his position as a deputy during the Slovak Republic, he was not found acceptable for any public role in the political life of post-war Slovakia. In 1947 , because of his well known anti-communist stand and his involvement in re-organizing the Catholic workers and the intelligentsia, he was imprisoned and eventually forced into seclusion and silence, providing for his family as a manual worker in a Bratislava factory . Nevertheless, during all those years of seclusion, Carnogursky carefully observed the political and religious situation in Slovakia, read all the biased works of communist historians about the Slovak Republic, and occasionally expressed his critical views in letters he sent to his friends abroad . After the fall of Dubcek in 1969, there began an era of brutal suppression of human rights and a systematic denial of freedom of religion. A pro-communist organization of the clergy, called Pacem in Terris, was established and the priests of Czecho-Slovakia were again torn into two groups, each distrusting the other. The Catholic press, i.e. the Katolicke nouiny (Catholic News) and Duchouny Pastier (Spiritual Shepherd) were put under strict communist control. The pro-communist speeches and articles of Canon Jozef Dovala, pastor in Ziar nad Hronom in the Banska Bystrica Diocese and vicar general of the Diocese , a prominent member of the Pacem in Terris movement, brought the patience and silence of Pavol Carnogursky to an end. The corruption of the Katolicke nouiny offended Carnogursky in a special way, since for some time after the war he had been the editor of this Catholic weekly and worked earnestly to bring it to a high journalistic level. On September 11 , 1974, the executive board of the Federal Association of the Catholic Clergymen, Pacem in Terris , celebrated the �94 SLOVAKIA thirtieth a nniversary of the Slovak upri sing in Banska Bystrica. Canon Joze f Dov ala was the main speaker. He equated the so-called '' political Catholicism ' ' of the Slovak Republic with collaboration with Ge rman Naz ism, and made it co-responsible for the death of about four thou sand priests in Nazi concentration camps. In a letter to Dovala, Carnogursky said it was ab surd to draw a connection between the regime of the Slovak Republic and Ge rman atrocities during the war. He wrote: In a few months it will be thirty years since the e nd of the S econd World War. During this p eriod a countless multitude of articles, political or pseudo-political, as well as scholarly and professional works on the current situation in Slo vakia appeared. Only in exceptional cases are they free of anti-Catholic tendencies. The great majority of the m obtusely describe the situation prejudicially, as you did. I read all tho se articles and books. In the last analysis, they have the same goal: to destroy Catholic ideology and Catholic life in Slo vakia. For that reason the arguments, of which even a mildly honest man and more so a scholar would be ashamed, are crude, unfounded, even hostile, negative and degrading. But what you, Father, associated with the ideas of political Catholicism in Slovakia, surpasses e verything. W e should give credit to anti-Catholic propaganda for using such tricks. The Slo vak State had to be proclaimed at that particular time (March 14, 1939, ed.) and under prevailing circumstances, if we were to make sure that among the thousands of priests murdered (in other countries) in Hitler 's concentration camps there would not be Slo vak priests. In the last analysis, our administrative authorities were not motivated only by a concern for the priests, but for the whole nation as well. And the nation has been saved. I cannot understand why you are angered and prompted to attack it (Slovak independence), since its existence gave you guarantees assuring that you yourself did not become a victim of Hitler 's concentration camp, if you were ordained before World War II. (Douala was ordained March 17, 1938.) I cannot understand why they talk only about political Catholicism and not about political Lutheranism, political Judaism, political atheism, and about the means by which these denominations and institutions have in that day and even to our day influenced and affected public life. Catholicism in Slovakia was a historical force in the nation. Without the care of the Catholic church for education, the social structure, schools, the press, agriculture and social and economic institutions, especially without the work and sacrifices of the best sons of the nation who as Catholic priests defended its voice and language, developing and enriching it through the centuries and assuring its cultural and economic growth - we would have perished. I can well understand why in the Protestant milieu, among the Jews and other denominations in Slovakia, there was not a similar �SLOVAKIA 95 attack on their own. They are fully conscious of the consequences of such a step. Your attack on so-called political Catholicism during the span of the Slovak Republic, unfounded and, to say in openly, irresponsible as it is, is the more tragic because it came at the time when large-scale militant atheism was active in Slovakia and aimed its fury against the Catholic Church, its doctrine, essence and its historical influence upon the thinking and feeling of our people. And this is done by repressive methods not invoked now at the end of the twentieth century by any other Socialist country, not even in black Africa. No teacher, no educator among us, is permitted to enter a classroom, to work among the students, to teach even technical subject matter, unless he declares that he has solved the religious question, which means that he proclaims that he is an atheist. He must avow that he is an atheist not only in his private convictions, but in an active sense as well, ready to teach and educate in the atheistic way. Any doubt in this area, any evidence of religious feelings, such as attendance at divine services, reception of any sacrament, excludes him from a teaching position. Parents who enrolled their children for religious instruction are exposed to unheard of pressure from the school officials and from their employers. Children who attended religious instruction are denied advanced studies. There is a general rule valid even among the most primitive social groups that under-age children are not responsible for a transgression of the law. In our case, children are punished for attending religious instructions, while the Constitution of the peoples' democratic system ironically guarantees freedom of religious conviction. And these sanctions against children are not for a limited period of time, but for their whole lifetime. Father, how will the history of the Church in Slovakia and the general history of mankind call this kind of Catholicism, which, witnessing all this, still feels and expresses itself as you did in this case? My letter to you cannot delineate a complete description of the tragic situation of the Catholic Church in Slovakia. This situation has the dimensions of a world problem that cannot be contained in one letter. The core of the problem is the effort at the eradication of Christian consciousness in the life and culture of a nation which by its very nature and because of its Christian Catholic roots contributed to the civilization process in the heart of Europe ever since the ninth century. We cannot blind our eyes with illusions, assuming that the working of divine grace alone will defeat the imperiled Christianity of our n(!,tion. Without our personal co-operation, our struggle and our living faith, we cannot count on perpetuating the religious life and spirit of our universally Christian country. Doubtless, this struggle demands not only our standing up as Christians but also our intelligent approach to find reasonable �96 SLOVAKIA possibilities to solve the problems facing us without craven concessions and compromises. But an attack like yours, coming in such a form and content, inveighing upon political Catholicism as you have done, cannot be accounted as an acceptable line of conduct. Pavol Camogursky's second letter of protest was addressed to Bishop Jozef Feranec, Ordinary of the Diocese of Banska Bystrica. It deals with an article by Jozef Dovala published in the Katolicke Nouiny (Catholic News) August 29, 1976, in which the author states that the priests and laity participate in up building the new way of life in CzechoSlovakia where freedom of religion is constitutionally safeguarded. Dovala wrote this article after his return from the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia (August 1-7, 1976) where he attended the Slovak services as the only priest from Slovakia. The text of Camogursky' s letter of August 29, 1976, is as follows: Your Excellency, after reading the editorial in the last issue of the Katolicke Nouiny (no. 53, August 29, 1976) even the simplest believer cannot refrain from reacting in protest, realizing how severe is the extermination process against the Church in Slovakia and how this bitter reality opposes his religious conviction and undermines his devotion to the duties which bind him to the Church. In this article vicar Jozef Douala of Banska Bystrica, wrote among other things: 'Priests as well as laymen participate in the up building of our new life and they also share in its fruits. The Constitution of our state system respects the conviction of every citizen and guarantees the freedom of religion'. With pain in my heart I must state that reality in no way bears out the import of these words. Only a cynical scoffer could write thus, bringing the paper to the level of absurdity and compromising the reader in whose name he so dares to write. What then is the factual status of religious affairs, notwithstanding what the Constitution and Article 7 of the Helsinki Agreement provide? Two weeks ago, on August 18, 1976, the daily Pravda, organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia, published a report on the conclusions of the Party Congress and on atheistic education in Slovakia. The gist of these conclusions by the reporting officer read: 'Slovakia became a country of mass atheism. 'A competent representative would hardly dare to make such a bold and far reaching statement in the Party organ of any other Socialist state. Since it cannot be doubted that P. Prusak 's report was factual, even if he did not elaborate about what means were used where it was attained, one must take it as a hard fact. In Slovakia there is a special campaign against religion. I am convinced that Church leadership in Slovakia definitely and carefully concerns itself with the gravity of this article and will weigh its consequences both for itself and for the sake of the Church in Slovakia. �SLOVAKIA 97 I am merely emphasizing the fact that the core of such purported success of atheism in Slovakia is viewed by the author as a purposeful atheistic work which has assumed a systematic character, as he specifically underlines it. In this systematic character of mass abandonment of the paternal heritage - the Catholic Church - by her sons and daughters, one must also see the fact that in Church leadership there are some persons whose high positions serve as the necessary front windows for facilitating apostasy and promoting mass atheism by playing a role assigned to them in their high functions. On the very same level, alas, one must also place the paper Katolicke Noviny which is degenerating into a publication of professional flatterers writing explicitly about themes that have very little in common with authentic religion. This attitude is in total contradiction to the contemporary difficult position of the Church, especially with the mentality of tormented parent-believers. It does not serve the serious matter of peace and rapprochement and easing of tensions. Forgive me, my Bishop, for the bitter tone of this letter. Truly, it is not as bitter as it is painful. And it is precisely for that reason that I must react to the slap on the face inflicted by the aforementioned writing of your vicar general. But not to write would pose an impossible dilemma for me: Am I still a Catholic? Has Mr. Prusak also rightfully included me in his concept of 'mass atheism' in Slovakia? For a responsible member of the Church not to react righteously to this critical development at a time when the very existence of the Church is at stake would be tantamount to not being in rapport with her, with this historic force which endowed Slovakia with all her spiritual, moral and cultural wealth. (1) Pavol Camogursky was imprisoned on November 10, 1976, undoubtedly for this daring analysis of the religious situation in Slovakia and his sharp criticism of Jozef Dovala. In such cases, stock charges of anti-state activities are readily found in the deformed communist system of justice. When Carnogursky ' s case evoked wide publicity in the free world, he was released from prison. He is awaiting trial for purported anti-state activity in the near future. A Speech by Aloysius Tkac Aloysius Tkac is a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Kosice (Eastern Slovakia). He is now 43 years old. He was an archivist in the bishop's chancery and as such he was a member of the pro-communist priestly organization Pacem in Terris. Seeing all the abuses perpetrated against the Church by the communist regime, he decided to publicly denounce them at the festive meeting of this organization on October 23, 1974. On the occasion of the celebration of the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Slovak Uprising, in the presence of communist officials controlling �98 SLOVAKIA all activities of the said organization, he first recalled the Constitution of the Czecho-Slovak Socialist Republic (art. 32) guaranteeing religious freedom of all citizens. Then he cited the government decrees and pertinent regulations of the Ministry of Culture from 1970 and 1972, by which religious education of children of second to seventh grades is permitted. He mentioned recent statements of the President about religious freedom; and no. 326 of the criminal code, by which all those hindering religious freedom and religious activity by force should be prosecuted and punished. He then proceeded to give accounts of actual religious situations in the country: We cannot pass with silence the unpleasant fact which causes both priests and believers great suffering; we feel we are being discriminated against. The procedure in regard to the spiritual needs many times is reckless and we consider it extremely harsh. The guidelines of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Socialist Republic concerning the enrollment of children for religious instructions are in many places disregarded. Groups were formed which not only belittle religious instructions, but hold back parents from the enrollment of their children in religious instruction by direct terror. Contrary to official guidelines about the enrollment, both parents have to present the enrollment petition; often the father or the mother have to excuse themselves from their jobs and complete their work after working hours. It was brought forth to some parents: 'Don't you want to send your children to a higher level of education? Do you want to bury the future of your children in technical schooling?' The behavior of many teachers was harsh, arrogant (such as tearing to pieces the enrollment petition or throwing it away), an illegal act, and it offended the dignity of the citizen-believers. Children attending religious instructions are often excluded from activities with their peers; they cannot make the Pioneers' pledge. During the school year there is also a great deal of peer and teacher pressure put on them. Parents and their children are going through Calvary. They are really martyrs. But how does all this square with the above mentioned state decrees? Even if there were only a few of thse examples, still we must not be silent. Unfortunately, such incidents are very frequent! The fact is that only a small percentage of the children are enrolled for religious instructions. Does this mean that parents and students have renounced their faith and become atheists? By no means! It is largely the result of a natural fear concerning the future! Citizen-believers are being deterred from fulfilling their religious needs, from receiving sacraments (Mass, Holy Communion, Confirmation, Matrimony). Only with difficulty can a priest secretly administer the sacraments of the dying in a hospital. Under various, even false, accusations state permission for priestly work has been revoked to several priests. Does that not bother �SLOVAKIA 99 us? Does not the fate of our brothers in the priesthood concern us? Do we not stand up for the defense of the honor of the priestly state? If not, it is a tragedy! Fifteen newly ordained priests, four months after their ordination, are still waiting for their assignments. Other college graduates have their work assignments in their pockets the moment they have finished their studies. And there are so many parishes and chaplaincies unoccupied/ There are other pains, but others should speak about them! Brothers, friends, I have brought up our common pains. I have spoken to you about the suffering of our believing people. We are not too sensitive, nor are we asking for privileges. We are in pain from the thorns that we have to wear with our people. We are happy to live in our Czecho-Slovak Socialist Republic. We would not betray it for anything. But let us eliminate the mistakes and inadequacies which make our lives difficult. This frank statement shocked the priests and the communist government representatives who always attend such meetings . As a rule, only praise of and gratitude to the regime are expressed at such gatherings. The statement was not even mentioned in the so-called Catholic press of Czecho-Slovakia, or other newspapers. It was secretly smuggled to the free world. What happened to this brave Catholic priest who openly expressed both the facts and the feelings of all conscientious priests and Catholic lay people? Nothing immediately . But then in July of 1975 , almost a year later, news came from Slovakia that several priests who expressed their anti-communist feelings were attacked and some of them severely injured by some individuals who were never apprehended by the police . One of those attacked and severely injured was Aloysius Tkac. In December , 1975 the state permit of Aloysius Tkac to perform priestly duties was withdrawn. His present fate is not known . It may be either manual work or jail. (2) Protests of Monsignor Trstensky Monsignor Victor Trstensky is a prominent Slovak priest. He was born in Trstena (District Orava) on March 29, 1908. After finishing his basic and high school studies in Trstena, he enrolled in the Spis Diocesan Seminary, and was ordained on June 29, 1931. Because of his pastoral zeal and exemplary priestly life, he early became pastor of St. Catherine Church in Dolny Kubin, where he was also a teacher of religion at the local gynmasium. On the recommendation of his Bishop, John Vojtassak, he was made Papal Prelate (Monsignor) while still a very young priest. During the Slovak Republic (1939-1945), as a prominent member of the Hlinka Slovak Populist Party, he took an active part in the public life of his town; at the same time he was involved in the Catholic Action Movement. �100 SLOVAKIA For this activity, after the Second World War he was imprisoned and spent twenty-one years in various prisons, in labor camps, and in manual work. During the Dubcek era, he was rehabilitated and received a state permit for pastoral work on October 7, 1969. The Ordinary of the Spis Diocese , Reverend Joseph Ligos, appointed him adminstrator of St. Nicholas Church in Stara Lubovna where he worked tirelessly for four years. In the post-Dubcek era, the communists in Czecho-Slovakia could not tolerate strong personalities like Monsignor Trstensky in pastoral work . They were afraid of his moral influence on parishioners and particularly on youth. With the year 1974, a new Calvary began for Monsignor Trstensky. The communist-dominated District Committee in Stara Lubovna decided that Trstensky had to leave the town and again be removed from pastoral work . He was notified about his imminent dismissal on January 21, 1974 by the new Ordinary of the Diocese, Stephen Garaj. On January 27, 1974 , Monsignor Trstensky preached to his stunned parishioners a memorable homily, which was secretly taped and later found its way to the free world. The principal reasons for Trstensky's dismissal, given to the vicar capitular by Communist officials, were as follows: 1. preaching against atheism and atheists; 2. sending gifts to old people on Christmas; 3. meetings with altar boys in the church and rectory; 4. keeping in his parish religious Sisters in violation of state regulations; 5. blessing the homes of parishioners after Epiphany. In his classic homily, Monsignor Trstensky explained his activity as pastor of the church in Stara Lubovna and argued convincingly that there was nothing illegal in his pastoral work . He concluded his homily with these words: What does matter is the truth. Whoever distorts the truth cannot build the country. Only truth can save the nation and the country. Remember, if I have to leave here, I am not leaving as a criminal, murderer, traitor of the nation and country. I love my country. Twice I was abroad - in Vienna, Rome, Paris. I could have stayed there. I was invited to do so. But I said: 'I am a Slovak. I did not do anything wrong. I want to live among our people because I love my country and my people.' I returned home. I sincerely love my country, and not only in words but more so by teaching you to love God and one another; by teaching you to work diligently and to live morally. I do not talk about peace, but I promote it with my whole life and work. (3) The decision of the County Committee, Department of Culture, in Stara Lubovna, prohibiting Trstensky to perform priestly ministry was dated January 30, 1974 and delivered to him on February 1, 1974. The reasons for his dismissal are formulated as follows : From the beginning of his assignment to Stara Lubovna, Victor Trstensky in various ways manifested his dissent with the development �SLOVAKIA 101 of our socialist society. For that reason, several sessions were held with him where he was notified that he was breaking the norms established for state-church relationships. In recent times he has increased his reactionary activity and in his sermons he openly and vituperatively spoke against progressively thinking citizens and incited against them. In one of his sermons he said that the unbelievers will once again experience the supremacy of god (sic) and will wish to become believers, but it will be too late. By this activity he was systematically breaking the established laws regarding state-church relations. Such was the case during the last Christmas season, when with the help of school children he distributed to some families packages containing wine, oranges, soap and other items. During his assignment to the parish of Stara Lubovna he intentionally infringed upon the directives on religious instructions by gathering a group of altar boys and choir singers in the church and rectory for practice; furthermore, he organized meetings with a considerable number of children in the rectory. During his assignment at the parish of Stara Lubovna, three religious Sisters came to him and, under his direction, performed church functions and worked actively on the revitalization of the church in the city and among the youth. For these reasons and for his dangerously anti-socialist stand, shown particularly in recent times and in these last days, when he caused among the believers a high and dangerous tension, his continuance in church administration would seriously endanger peaceful social life and the interests of our working people; therefore, with immediate effectiveness, we take away his state permit to work in church administration. On February 14, 1974, Monsignor Trstensky appealed this verdict. As a preliminary to his letter of appeal, he pointed to the irregularities in the whole procedure against him by quoting eight paragraphs of law 71-1967, which were disregarded in his case. Then, in eight pages, he convincingly refuted all the vague or completely false charges against him. He referred to the public and well-known record of his activity as pastor of Stara Lubovna parish. He emphatically stated that he only fulfilled his duties as pastor of a parish, never acting against the state laws and official regulations. The only real reason for the removal of Monsignor Trstensky from pastoral work was his exemplary priestly life and his zealous work for the spiritual welfare of his flock. The appeal of Monsignor Trstensky had no effect and the District Committee in Kosice which by the decision of February 19, 1974, confirmed the verdict of the County Committee in Stara Lubovna and made the decision final, precluding any further appeal. Monsignor Trstensky thereafter went to live in his town of birth, Trstena, in the region of Orava. Grateful parishioners of Stara Lubovna did not forget their beloved pastor. As a token of their appreciation and �102 SLOVAKIA gratitude during the rest of the year 1974, they traveled to Trstena in trucks loaded with construction material and built a home for him. He lives there today. Letters to Highest Authorities After spending years in prison and now being deprived of the permit to work as a priest, Monsignor Trstensky became a fearless witness to communist persecution of loyal priests, and a bold defender of the minimal rights of religion. Monsignor Trstensky carefully observes the situation in his country, sharply analyzes it, and sends his observations to the highest government places. He is sending protest letters to Dr. Peter Colotka, Prime Minister of Slovakia, and even to the President of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. Gustav Husak. Copies of some of his letters have found their way to the free world. They are quite revealing, since they contain the first-hand experiences and observations of a man who lives there, sees with open eyes, and is able to analyze the situation. One such letter was addressed to Dr. Colotka as a reaction to his television talk on the occasion of the International Year of Women, on March 7, 1974. Colotka is a native of Orava region, and Trstensky was his teacher of religion in Dolny Kubin gymnasium. The letter starts with acknowledgements to Colotka for his fine tribute to women, to Slovak mothers and grandmothers, who taught their children honesty, loyalty and readiness to sacrifice for the truth even with their lives. In his letter Trstensky asks Colotka what these women get from the communist regime. Isn't it tearing apart the hearts of our mothers and grandmothers and their offspring, when religious education of children is being hindered more and more? I heard, for example, that in Banska Bystrica, because of brutal terror at the time of enrollment for religious instructions, not one child was registered. It is the same in many cities of Slovakia. Not that the parents and children would not be interested in religion, as purported, but because of the fear for their existence, they do not dare to register their children for religious instructions. Isn't it a punishment for our mothers and grandmothers, when it is made impossible for their sons to devote themselves to a priestly state of life? And even when they have achieved it after years of demanding studies, obtusely to deprive them of a permit to work in the Church ministry, despite a great shortage of priests? In Slovakia, every year 50 to 60 priests die, while hardly 20 to 22 newly ordained priests come out of the seminary. The reason for this is the unfortunate numerous clauses (restricted number) by which only a small number of the candidates can be accepted into the seminary, and this number only on the evaluation of various non-ecclesiastical authorities. Isn't it a punishment for our mothers and grandmothers, when their daughters and granddaughters are not permitted to choose a vocation in which �SLOVAKIA 103 they could peacefully serve God and their neighbors? Even those religious Sisters who previously had chosen this vocation are, so to say, thrown out from their own houses to the streets? lsn 't it hurting our mothers and grandmothers to see how their children, plying their vocations as teachers, civil servants, or factory foremen cannot fulfill their religious obligations for fear of being/ired or transferred to some other job with a lower salary? What can our mothers and grandmothers say about the so-called Catholic press, which in fact does not exist? ''The statements of Pacem in Terris officers that everything is all right here in the matters of religion, do not change these sad facts. By such statements they compromise not only themselves and the Church, but put into a bad perspective our whole system. We are like open cards, and whoever stops here can evaluate religious situations himself and can see the one-sidedness of such self-serving statements. It would be much more fruitful, it those from our priestly ranks who are writing for Pacem in Terris and who think they are promoting peace and social progress, mainly and openly told the heads of our regime that man is not only a body, but also a soul, which is in need of spiritual food. Our simple old women in Orava are shaking their heads when, while reading in the Katolicke Noviny all those praises about religious life in our country, they live in sadness with their daughters who were thrown out of religious life not by Church but by State authorities, or with their sons who were stripped of the State permit for Church administration, or when they see their sons and daughters sneaking away, if they want to pray, get married in church, or have their child baptized. (4) In July, 1976, Monsignor Trstensky asked for travel permission to see his sick brother and his aged sister living in the U.S.A. His petition was turned down by the government officials. Trstensky again sent appeals to the Slovak Prime Minister, Peter Colotka, and to the President of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. Gustav Husak. In his letter to the President dated January 6, 1977, Trstensky again presented a sharp analysis of the situation in Slovakia. I still have not received an answer about my own sufferings and those of believing people. Probably the reason is that it regards a Roman Catholic priest, thus a man outside the law. This confirms my conviction that the main task of some of our circles is to harrass the citizens, especially believers, and to unleash a ruthless war against religion and its adherents. By watching television, by reading newspapers, and magazines and books about so-called "scientific" atheism, by talking with believers, by watching their sad faces, by seeing hundreds of priests outside pastoral work, tormented Sisters, the fear of teachers, civil servants, nurses, foremen in factories, one gets a clear testimony what injustices are being perpetrated against believers. A member of the Party can be like a stump of wood, as long as he knows some phrases about atheism, Marxism. He is preferred to a non- �104 SLOVAKIA Party man, no matter how intelligent, conscientious and patriotic the latter may be. How much more useful would it be to our country, if those much needed billions squandered on anti-religious propaganda, on so-called civil baptisms, weddings, burials, and on the tens of thousands of atheistic propagandists, were used for real re-education in the spirit of justice and mutual love, and for the promotion of material, spiritual, cultural and social development. Wherever there is an anti-religious campaign and justice is trampled upon, morality declines, the families fall apart, enthusiasm for work vanishes, honesty and responsibility disappear, criminality among adults and even among adolescents increases, and the very foundations of the country are undermined. If there is to be a lasting peace, it must be built on justice, truth, freedom and love. (5) It is interesting to note that despite his sharp protest letters, some of which were published in the Western press , Monsignor Trstensky is still not in jail. He is harrassed and intimidated, as appears from his letters . The reason for his not being imprisoned may be the notoriety of his case throughout Czecho-Slovakia and, to some extent, even throughout the free world. The regime fears the out-cry of the free world which follows the imprisonment of well-known dissidents. Examples of Living Faith Not all opponents of militant atheism express their protests against the persecution of the Church by letters and manifestos. In Slovakia there are many priests and lay people resisting the communist oppression of religion with their lives. There are people filling the churches on Sundays and holy days, receiving the sacraments regularly , enrolling their children for religious instructions - ready to pay for it with a loss of better jobs and in some instances with a loss of personal freedom. There are still priests who are in a real sense spiritual fathers of their flock, risking the loss of a state permit to function as priests, or risking the loss of liberty. There are priests and lay people who by the depth of their religious life equal the heroism of the Christians of the early Church. They are luminaries of deep faith in these hours of darkness. One such is John Chrysostom Korec. At the time of the suppression of religious orders in 1950, John Korec was a Jesuit cleric. After nearly completing his regular theological studies, he was secretly ordained a priest and in 1951, bishop. He was then 27 years old, the youngest bishop in the world. He had to go through military service. He then became a factory worker. He worked as a bishop in the underground by secretly preaching to small groups of people, administering the sacrament of Confirmation , teaching young clerics, ~d �SLOVAKIA 105 eventually ordaining them as priests. In 1960, communist spies discovered who John Korec really was. He was sentenced to twelve years in a high security prison. But even in those years of imprisonment, he continued his priestly work among his fellow inmates. In 1968, Bishop Korec was released from jail, weakened in body. He became one of the leading personalities in revitalizing the religious life of Slovakia during this period of thaw. In 1969, he visited Rome and had a private audience with the Holy Father, who gave him one of his personal croziers and a pectoral cross as a sign of his appreciation for the young bishop's work. After the fall of Dubcek (April 17, 1969), renewed terrorism began in Czecho-Slovakia. The state permit to publicly celebrate the Mass was taken away from Bishop Korec. He was not permitted to take part in any official functions of the Church. He became a factory worker in Bratislava. Today, the whole of Slovakia knows about the case of Bishop Korec. People distressed by harsh religious repression, particularly the highly educated, come to Bishop Korec for his words of advice and consolation. This is not looked upon favorably by the communist authorities. They would like to get rid of Bishop Korec, but without further disturbing the populace. They offered him an opporutnity to emigrate from Slovakia. Bishop Korec rejected the suggestion. They offered him a state permit to perform a ministry in some parish outside Bratislava. Bishop Korec said he would accept the ministry outside Bratislava, on the condition that all other priests to whom the state permit was denied or taken away be given permission to function as priests. The communist authorities rejected this condition. The case of the heroic Bishop Korec was reported in the Catholic press throughout the free world. Perhaps this will protect him temporarily against imprisonment. (6) Stephen J avorsky, a Salesian priest, administrator of the parish in Muran, was imprisoned by the state police on November 26, 1975 and sentenced to eighteen months in jail. His state permit to perform his priestly duties was suspended for two years after the expiration of his jail sentence. For this verdict the following reasons are given by the County Court in Muran: ''He enticed youth, especially university students, by inducing them to listen to the Vatican Radio; he distributed books among them; in their presence, he projected film strips and played tapes containing unacceptable conferences on religious philosophy directed against the interests of our socialist society and against materialistic philosophy, with the aim of involving into this work a large group of religious lay people who besides their regular vocation should exercise missionary activity as well. On June 1, 1975, during the divine services in the parish church of Muran, he tried to influence parents, calling the County Spartakiad (gymnastic exhibition) a worldly vanity fair to be opposed by the parents in the future. " Javorsky's appeal of this verdict to a higher court was rejected and the length of his prison term was prolonged to two full years. (7) �106 SLOVAKIA Among Slovak dissidents are also brave writers and distributors of anonymous pamphlets which sporadically appear in various parts of the country. Such a leaflet distributed in June, 1975, analyzes the religious situation in Slovakia and exhorts Christian believers to defend religious rights guaranteed by the Constitution and state laws.(8) Another pamphlet, distributed in Slovakia in April of 1976, warns Slovak Catholics of the biased news published in the Katolicke Noviny and against the priest-collaborators active in the pro-communist organization Pacem in Terris. (9) It is proper to express our respect and admiration of these known and unknown heroes. They suffer for their deep religious convictions . The whole country lives in an atmosphere of imprisonment. Their suffering sooner or later will bring about the liberty of the Church and of the people in Slovakia. FOOTNOTES The complete text of both Camogursky letters was published in HORIZONT ' 77 , March-April , 1977, p . 8-9. (2) The text of Rev. Tkac 's speech can be found in " SITUATION DER KATHOLISHEN KIRCHE IN DER TSCHECHOSLOWAKEI," Ed . JUSTITIA ET PAX 1976, p. 134138. (3) Frantisek Vnuk : Prenasledo uanie katolickeho ducho uenst ua sa stupi'tuje . (Mounting Persecution of the Catholic Clergy) . SLOVAK V AMERIKE (Slovak in America), May 8, 1974, p . 1, 3. (4) The text of this Jetter was published in HLASY Z RIMA (Voices of Rome), July 1976, p. 22-23. (5) The main parts of this letter were published in JEDNOTA , March 30, 1977, p. 20, 17; also in HLASY Z RIMA , April 1977, p. 21-23 . (6) " Narodeniny biskupa-robotnika Jana Korea " (The Birthday of Bishop-Worker, John Korec) . SLOVAK V AMERIKE , Jan. 26, 1977 , p . 1. (7) HLASY Z RIMA , January 1977, p . 22. (8) The complete text of this pamphlet was published in " SITUATION DER KATHOLISCHEN KIRCHE IN DER TSCHECHOSLOWAKEI," p. 123-130. (9) Ibid. , p . 84-85 ; HLASY Z RIMA , August-September, 1976, p . 31. (1) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1977, Vol. 27 Description An account of the resource Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 91 Preludes to nCharter '77" THEODORIC J. ZUBEK, O.F.M. The occupation of Czecho-Slovakia by the Soviet armies and their satellites in August, 1968, brought new enslavement. The Soviets did not achieve their goal immediately, but they gradually tightened the political relaxations of the Dubcek era. The Russians imprisoned Dubcek and his closest associates and dragged them to Russia. This gravely irritated public opinion. The leadership of the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia insisted on the release of Dubcek and his co-workers and their own restoration to positions of leadership in Czecho-Slovakia. At first, the Russians were not able to find a person agreeable to collaborate with occupation authorities. They had to restore Dubcek and permit him to continue as the first Secretary of the Central Committee and leading member of the Presidium of the Communist Party. But the Russians worked feverishly to split the leadership of the Party. Dr. Gustav Husak proved to be the most able and articulate politician in the chaotic situation. In the early fifties, Husak, a Slovak, had been imprisoned and condemned for so-called bourgeois nationalistic deviation. He was ousted from the Communist party. In the period of de-Stalinization in 1963, he was released from prison and re-admitted into the Party, but held no official position. But, he was active behind the scenes in fomenting a movement against President Novotny and his Stalinist methods. In April, 1968, Husak became one of the vice-premiers of the government, and after the occupation also became a member of the Presidium. Though he had been politically rehabilitated through the moderate policy of Alexander Dubcek, it was, after the occupation that Husak became an open critic of "Communism with a human face." Dubcek was gradually pushed to the background, and lost one position after another. Finally, under increasing pressure, on April 17, 1969, Dubcek resigned as first secretary of the Communist Party, and was stripped of his membership in the Party. On the same day, Husak took his position as first secretary. Husak had considerable support among the people, especially in Slovakia, since he had suffered 12 years of imprisonment for his Slovak nationalism and later fought against Prague centralism. He had promoted the federalization of Czecho-Slovakia. He also seemed to favor Dubcek's liberalization. After the Russian occupation, many accepted Husak's argument that there was no military possibility of defending the country, and that it was necessary to yield to Russian pressure to some degree, and to consolidate the internal situation in the country in order to persuade Moscow that there was no need for the 92 SLOVAKIA continued presence of Russian armies in Czecho-Slovakia. Some also believed Husak's pledge that there would never be a return to Stalinism and that the earlier process of democratization would continue. Nevertheless , it became clear that Husak was primarily interested in gaining Moscow's confidence and in strengthening his own leading position. He fully accepted suppression and terrorism and in a short time, under the guise of "normalization, " he once again enslaved the country. In his hatred of religion, Husak outdid his Moscow bosses. Religion had strong roots, especially in Slovakia, so Husak's antireligious campaign is aimed particularly against the Catholic Church. Present day persecution of the Catholic Church in Czecho-Slovakia is more brutal than in any other communist-dominated country of Europe. It is more pervasive and more cunning than it was during the regimes of Gottwald or Novotny. In recent years, more and more news stories about the terrorism of Husak's regime and the suppression of human rights appeared in the free world. At the beginning of 1977, a transcript of Charter '77 was published in many newspapers of the Western world. In this document, more than 600 Czech and Slovak signers protested against the suppression of human rights, specifically mentioning suppression of the rights to religious conviction. These rights are guaranteed by the . Czecho-Slovak Constitution as well as by the Helsinki Agreement which was by signed Czecho-Slovakia. This Charter '77 was preceded by several public protests of individual citizens, laymen and priests, who openly denounced the abuses of government power and the systematic campaign against religion. Some of these written protests found their way to the free world. A number of them were written before the Helsinki Agreement (September, 1975) and they refer to the Czecho-Slovak Constitution and other laws; later protests also refer to the Helsinki Agreement. It was a number of these protests that prepared the mood for Charter '77. It is proper to express admiration and respect for these individual dissidents for their courage and strength. In a Communist regime, it is riskier for an individual to protest against government abuses than it is for a group. Individual internationally unknown dissidents are taken care of quickly. Under the pretext of anti-state activity, they are silenced in prison or labor camps without much notice or commotion, and without comment in the free world. The Case of Pavol Carnogursky Pavol Carnogursky is a sixty-eight year old layman, who from his youth played an important role in the Catholic life of Slovakia. As an employee of the Catholic Agency in Bratislava, he organized and led Catholic Action programs among Slovak young people, patterned SLOVAKIA 93 largely on the practices of the French and Belgian Catholic Workers and Catholic Organizations of intellectuals. During the period of Slovak autonomy and independence (19381945), he was a member of the Slovak Parliament and was esteemed as an expert on education and school matters. He opposed the Nazi tendencies of some Slovak politicians and belonged to the group of Slovak Catholic moderates headed by President Joseph Tiso and Dr. Martin Sokol, speaker of the Slovak Parliament . For this reason the Germans regarded him as a persona non grata. Immediately after World War II , Pavol Carnogursky tried to organize the Christian Republican Party as a platform for defending human rights and freedom of conscience in Slovakia, when the country was again made part of Czecho-Slovakia. On the insistence of Slovak bishops, however, the Slovak Catholics joined forces with the predominantly Lutheran Democratic Party and helped it attain an overwhelming victory in Slovakia, triumphing over the communists and other small parties in the 1946 elections. Although Carnogursky was clearly anti-Nazi, yet because of his position as a deputy during the Slovak Republic, he was not found acceptable for any public role in the political life of post-war Slovakia. In 1947 , because of his well known anti-communist stand and his involvement in re-organizing the Catholic workers and the intelligentsia, he was imprisoned and eventually forced into seclusion and silence, providing for his family as a manual worker in a Bratislava factory . Nevertheless, during all those years of seclusion, Carnogursky carefully observed the political and religious situation in Slovakia, read all the biased works of communist historians about the Slovak Republic, and occasionally expressed his critical views in letters he sent to his friends abroad . After the fall of Dubcek in 1969, there began an era of brutal suppression of human rights and a systematic denial of freedom of religion. A pro-communist organization of the clergy, called Pacem in Terris, was established and the priests of Czecho-Slovakia were again torn into two groups, each distrusting the other. The Catholic press, i.e. the Katolicke nouiny (Catholic News) and Duchouny Pastier (Spiritual Shepherd) were put under strict communist control. The pro-communist speeches and articles of Canon Jozef Dovala, pastor in Ziar nad Hronom in the Banska Bystrica Diocese and vicar general of the Diocese , a prominent member of the Pacem in Terris movement, brought the patience and silence of Pavol Carnogursky to an end. The corruption of the Katolicke nouiny offended Carnogursky in a special way, since for some time after the war he had been the editor of this Catholic weekly and worked earnestly to bring it to a high journalistic level. On September 11 , 1974, the executive board of the Federal Association of the Catholic Clergymen, Pacem in Terris , celebrated the 94 SLOVAKIA thirtieth a nniversary of the Slovak upri sing in Banska Bystrica. Canon Joze f Dov ala was the main speaker. He equated the so-called '' political Catholicism ' ' of the Slovak Republic with collaboration with Ge rman Naz ism, and made it co-responsible for the death of about four thou sand priests in Nazi concentration camps. In a letter to Dovala, Carnogursky said it was ab surd to draw a connection between the regime of the Slovak Republic and Ge rman atrocities during the war. He wrote: In a few months it will be thirty years since the e nd of the S econd World War. During this p eriod a countless multitude of articles, political or pseudo-political, as well as scholarly and professional works on the current situation in Slo vakia appeared. Only in exceptional cases are they free of anti-Catholic tendencies. The great majority of the m obtusely describe the situation prejudicially, as you did. I read all tho se articles and books. In the last analysis, they have the same goal: to destroy Catholic ideology and Catholic life in Slo vakia. For that reason the arguments, of which even a mildly honest man and more so a scholar would be ashamed, are crude, unfounded, even hostile, negative and degrading. But what you, Father, associated with the ideas of political Catholicism in Slovakia, surpasses e verything. W e should give credit to anti-Catholic propaganda for using such tricks. The Slo vak State had to be proclaimed at that particular time (March 14, 1939, ed.) and under prevailing circumstances, if we were to make sure that among the thousands of priests murdered (in other countries) in Hitler 's concentration camps there would not be Slo vak priests. In the last analysis, our administrative authorities were not motivated only by a concern for the priests, but for the whole nation as well. And the nation has been saved. I cannot understand why you are angered and prompted to attack it (Slovak independence), since its existence gave you guarantees assuring that you yourself did not become a victim of Hitler 's concentration camp, if you were ordained before World War II. (Douala was ordained March 17, 1938.) I cannot understand why they talk only about political Catholicism and not about political Lutheranism, political Judaism, political atheism, and about the means by which these denominations and institutions have in that day and even to our day influenced and affected public life. Catholicism in Slovakia was a historical force in the nation. Without the care of the Catholic church for education, the social structure, schools, the press, agriculture and social and economic institutions, especially without the work and sacrifices of the best sons of the nation who as Catholic priests defended its voice and language, developing and enriching it through the centuries and assuring its cultural and economic growth - we would have perished. I can well understand why in the Protestant milieu, among the Jews and other denominations in Slovakia, there was not a similar SLOVAKIA 95 attack on their own. They are fully conscious of the consequences of such a step. Your attack on so-called political Catholicism during the span of the Slovak Republic, unfounded and, to say in openly, irresponsible as it is, is the more tragic because it came at the time when large-scale militant atheism was active in Slovakia and aimed its fury against the Catholic Church, its doctrine, essence and its historical influence upon the thinking and feeling of our people. And this is done by repressive methods not invoked now at the end of the twentieth century by any other Socialist country, not even in black Africa. No teacher, no educator among us, is permitted to enter a classroom, to work among the students, to teach even technical subject matter, unless he declares that he has solved the religious question, which means that he proclaims that he is an atheist. He must avow that he is an atheist not only in his private convictions, but in an active sense as well, ready to teach and educate in the atheistic way. Any doubt in this area, any evidence of religious feelings, such as attendance at divine services, reception of any sacrament, excludes him from a teaching position. Parents who enrolled their children for religious instruction are exposed to unheard of pressure from the school officials and from their employers. Children who attended religious instruction are denied advanced studies. There is a general rule valid even among the most primitive social groups that under-age children are not responsible for a transgression of the law. In our case, children are punished for attending religious instructions, while the Constitution of the peoples' democratic system ironically guarantees freedom of religious conviction. And these sanctions against children are not for a limited period of time, but for their whole lifetime. Father, how will the history of the Church in Slovakia and the general history of mankind call this kind of Catholicism, which, witnessing all this, still feels and expresses itself as you did in this case? My letter to you cannot delineate a complete description of the tragic situation of the Catholic Church in Slovakia. This situation has the dimensions of a world problem that cannot be contained in one letter. The core of the problem is the effort at the eradication of Christian consciousness in the life and culture of a nation which by its very nature and because of its Christian Catholic roots contributed to the civilization process in the heart of Europe ever since the ninth century. We cannot blind our eyes with illusions, assuming that the working of divine grace alone will defeat the imperiled Christianity of our n(!,tion. Without our personal co-operation, our struggle and our living faith, we cannot count on perpetuating the religious life and spirit of our universally Christian country. Doubtless, this struggle demands not only our standing up as Christians but also our intelligent approach to find reasonable 96 SLOVAKIA possibilities to solve the problems facing us without craven concessions and compromises. But an attack like yours, coming in such a form and content, inveighing upon political Catholicism as you have done, cannot be accounted as an acceptable line of conduct. Pavol Camogursky's second letter of protest was addressed to Bishop Jozef Feranec, Ordinary of the Diocese of Banska Bystrica. It deals with an article by Jozef Dovala published in the Katolicke Nouiny (Catholic News) August 29, 1976, in which the author states that the priests and laity participate in up building the new way of life in CzechoSlovakia where freedom of religion is constitutionally safeguarded. Dovala wrote this article after his return from the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia (August 1-7, 1976) where he attended the Slovak services as the only priest from Slovakia. The text of Camogursky' s letter of August 29, 1976, is as follows: Your Excellency, after reading the editorial in the last issue of the Katolicke Nouiny (no. 53, August 29, 1976) even the simplest believer cannot refrain from reacting in protest, realizing how severe is the extermination process against the Church in Slovakia and how this bitter reality opposes his religious conviction and undermines his devotion to the duties which bind him to the Church. In this article vicar Jozef Douala of Banska Bystrica, wrote among other things: 'Priests as well as laymen participate in the up building of our new life and they also share in its fruits. The Constitution of our state system respects the conviction of every citizen and guarantees the freedom of religion'. With pain in my heart I must state that reality in no way bears out the import of these words. Only a cynical scoffer could write thus, bringing the paper to the level of absurdity and compromising the reader in whose name he so dares to write. What then is the factual status of religious affairs, notwithstanding what the Constitution and Article 7 of the Helsinki Agreement provide? Two weeks ago, on August 18, 1976, the daily Pravda, organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia, published a report on the conclusions of the Party Congress and on atheistic education in Slovakia. The gist of these conclusions by the reporting officer read: 'Slovakia became a country of mass atheism. 'A competent representative would hardly dare to make such a bold and far reaching statement in the Party organ of any other Socialist state. Since it cannot be doubted that P. Prusak 's report was factual, even if he did not elaborate about what means were used where it was attained, one must take it as a hard fact. In Slovakia there is a special campaign against religion. I am convinced that Church leadership in Slovakia definitely and carefully concerns itself with the gravity of this article and will weigh its consequences both for itself and for the sake of the Church in Slovakia. SLOVAKIA 97 I am merely emphasizing the fact that the core of such purported success of atheism in Slovakia is viewed by the author as a purposeful atheistic work which has assumed a systematic character, as he specifically underlines it. In this systematic character of mass abandonment of the paternal heritage - the Catholic Church - by her sons and daughters, one must also see the fact that in Church leadership there are some persons whose high positions serve as the necessary front windows for facilitating apostasy and promoting mass atheism by playing a role assigned to them in their high functions. On the very same level, alas, one must also place the paper Katolicke Noviny which is degenerating into a publication of professional flatterers writing explicitly about themes that have very little in common with authentic religion. This attitude is in total contradiction to the contemporary difficult position of the Church, especially with the mentality of tormented parent-believers. It does not serve the serious matter of peace and rapprochement and easing of tensions. Forgive me, my Bishop, for the bitter tone of this letter. Truly, it is not as bitter as it is painful. And it is precisely for that reason that I must react to the slap on the face inflicted by the aforementioned writing of your vicar general. But not to write would pose an impossible dilemma for me: Am I still a Catholic? Has Mr. Prusak also rightfully included me in his concept of 'mass atheism' in Slovakia? For a responsible member of the Church not to react righteously to this critical development at a time when the very existence of the Church is at stake would be tantamount to not being in rapport with her, with this historic force which endowed Slovakia with all her spiritual, moral and cultural wealth. (1) Pavol Camogursky was imprisoned on November 10, 1976, undoubtedly for this daring analysis of the religious situation in Slovakia and his sharp criticism of Jozef Dovala. In such cases, stock charges of anti-state activities are readily found in the deformed communist system of justice. When Carnogursky ' s case evoked wide publicity in the free world, he was released from prison. He is awaiting trial for purported anti-state activity in the near future. A Speech by Aloysius Tkac Aloysius Tkac is a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Kosice (Eastern Slovakia). He is now 43 years old. He was an archivist in the bishop's chancery and as such he was a member of the pro-communist priestly organization Pacem in Terris. Seeing all the abuses perpetrated against the Church by the communist regime, he decided to publicly denounce them at the festive meeting of this organization on October 23, 1974. On the occasion of the celebration of the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Slovak Uprising, in the presence of communist officials controlling 98 SLOVAKIA all activities of the said organization, he first recalled the Constitution of the Czecho-Slovak Socialist Republic (art. 32) guaranteeing religious freedom of all citizens. Then he cited the government decrees and pertinent regulations of the Ministry of Culture from 1970 and 1972, by which religious education of children of second to seventh grades is permitted. He mentioned recent statements of the President about religious freedom; and no. 326 of the criminal code, by which all those hindering religious freedom and religious activity by force should be prosecuted and punished. He then proceeded to give accounts of actual religious situations in the country: We cannot pass with silence the unpleasant fact which causes both priests and believers great suffering; we feel we are being discriminated against. The procedure in regard to the spiritual needs many times is reckless and we consider it extremely harsh. The guidelines of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Socialist Republic concerning the enrollment of children for religious instructions are in many places disregarded. Groups were formed which not only belittle religious instructions, but hold back parents from the enrollment of their children in religious instruction by direct terror. Contrary to official guidelines about the enrollment, both parents have to present the enrollment petition; often the father or the mother have to excuse themselves from their jobs and complete their work after working hours. It was brought forth to some parents: 'Don't you want to send your children to a higher level of education? Do you want to bury the future of your children in technical schooling?' The behavior of many teachers was harsh, arrogant (such as tearing to pieces the enrollment petition or throwing it away), an illegal act, and it offended the dignity of the citizen-believers. Children attending religious instructions are often excluded from activities with their peers; they cannot make the Pioneers' pledge. During the school year there is also a great deal of peer and teacher pressure put on them. Parents and their children are going through Calvary. They are really martyrs. But how does all this square with the above mentioned state decrees? Even if there were only a few of thse examples, still we must not be silent. Unfortunately, such incidents are very frequent! The fact is that only a small percentage of the children are enrolled for religious instructions. Does this mean that parents and students have renounced their faith and become atheists? By no means! It is largely the result of a natural fear concerning the future! Citizen-believers are being deterred from fulfilling their religious needs, from receiving sacraments (Mass, Holy Communion, Confirmation, Matrimony). Only with difficulty can a priest secretly administer the sacraments of the dying in a hospital. Under various, even false, accusations state permission for priestly work has been revoked to several priests. Does that not bother SLOVAKIA 99 us? Does not the fate of our brothers in the priesthood concern us? Do we not stand up for the defense of the honor of the priestly state? If not, it is a tragedy! Fifteen newly ordained priests, four months after their ordination, are still waiting for their assignments. Other college graduates have their work assignments in their pockets the moment they have finished their studies. And there are so many parishes and chaplaincies unoccupied/ There are other pains, but others should speak about them! Brothers, friends, I have brought up our common pains. I have spoken to you about the suffering of our believing people. We are not too sensitive, nor are we asking for privileges. We are in pain from the thorns that we have to wear with our people. We are happy to live in our Czecho-Slovak Socialist Republic. We would not betray it for anything. But let us eliminate the mistakes and inadequacies which make our lives difficult. This frank statement shocked the priests and the communist government representatives who always attend such meetings . As a rule, only praise of and gratitude to the regime are expressed at such gatherings. The statement was not even mentioned in the so-called Catholic press of Czecho-Slovakia, or other newspapers. It was secretly smuggled to the free world. What happened to this brave Catholic priest who openly expressed both the facts and the feelings of all conscientious priests and Catholic lay people? Nothing immediately . But then in July of 1975 , almost a year later, news came from Slovakia that several priests who expressed their anti-communist feelings were attacked and some of them severely injured by some individuals who were never apprehended by the police . One of those attacked and severely injured was Aloysius Tkac. In December , 1975 the state permit of Aloysius Tkac to perform priestly duties was withdrawn. His present fate is not known . It may be either manual work or jail. (2) Protests of Monsignor Trstensky Monsignor Victor Trstensky is a prominent Slovak priest. He was born in Trstena (District Orava) on March 29, 1908. After finishing his basic and high school studies in Trstena, he enrolled in the Spis Diocesan Seminary, and was ordained on June 29, 1931. Because of his pastoral zeal and exemplary priestly life, he early became pastor of St. Catherine Church in Dolny Kubin, where he was also a teacher of religion at the local gynmasium. On the recommendation of his Bishop, John Vojtassak, he was made Papal Prelate (Monsignor) while still a very young priest. During the Slovak Republic (1939-1945), as a prominent member of the Hlinka Slovak Populist Party, he took an active part in the public life of his town; at the same time he was involved in the Catholic Action Movement. 100 SLOVAKIA For this activity, after the Second World War he was imprisoned and spent twenty-one years in various prisons, in labor camps, and in manual work. During the Dubcek era, he was rehabilitated and received a state permit for pastoral work on October 7, 1969. The Ordinary of the Spis Diocese , Reverend Joseph Ligos, appointed him adminstrator of St. Nicholas Church in Stara Lubovna where he worked tirelessly for four years. In the post-Dubcek era, the communists in Czecho-Slovakia could not tolerate strong personalities like Monsignor Trstensky in pastoral work . They were afraid of his moral influence on parishioners and particularly on youth. With the year 1974, a new Calvary began for Monsignor Trstensky. The communist-dominated District Committee in Stara Lubovna decided that Trstensky had to leave the town and again be removed from pastoral work . He was notified about his imminent dismissal on January 21, 1974 by the new Ordinary of the Diocese, Stephen Garaj. On January 27, 1974 , Monsignor Trstensky preached to his stunned parishioners a memorable homily, which was secretly taped and later found its way to the free world. The principal reasons for Trstensky's dismissal, given to the vicar capitular by Communist officials, were as follows: 1. preaching against atheism and atheists; 2. sending gifts to old people on Christmas; 3. meetings with altar boys in the church and rectory; 4. keeping in his parish religious Sisters in violation of state regulations; 5. blessing the homes of parishioners after Epiphany. In his classic homily, Monsignor Trstensky explained his activity as pastor of the church in Stara Lubovna and argued convincingly that there was nothing illegal in his pastoral work . He concluded his homily with these words: What does matter is the truth. Whoever distorts the truth cannot build the country. Only truth can save the nation and the country. Remember, if I have to leave here, I am not leaving as a criminal, murderer, traitor of the nation and country. I love my country. Twice I was abroad - in Vienna, Rome, Paris. I could have stayed there. I was invited to do so. But I said: 'I am a Slovak. I did not do anything wrong. I want to live among our people because I love my country and my people.' I returned home. I sincerely love my country, and not only in words but more so by teaching you to love God and one another; by teaching you to work diligently and to live morally. I do not talk about peace, but I promote it with my whole life and work. (3) The decision of the County Committee, Department of Culture, in Stara Lubovna, prohibiting Trstensky to perform priestly ministry was dated January 30, 1974 and delivered to him on February 1, 1974. The reasons for his dismissal are formulated as follows : From the beginning of his assignment to Stara Lubovna, Victor Trstensky in various ways manifested his dissent with the development SLOVAKIA 101 of our socialist society. For that reason, several sessions were held with him where he was notified that he was breaking the norms established for state-church relationships. In recent times he has increased his reactionary activity and in his sermons he openly and vituperatively spoke against progressively thinking citizens and incited against them. In one of his sermons he said that the unbelievers will once again experience the supremacy of god (sic) and will wish to become believers, but it will be too late. By this activity he was systematically breaking the established laws regarding state-church relations. Such was the case during the last Christmas season, when with the help of school children he distributed to some families packages containing wine, oranges, soap and other items. During his assignment to the parish of Stara Lubovna he intentionally infringed upon the directives on religious instructions by gathering a group of altar boys and choir singers in the church and rectory for practice; furthermore, he organized meetings with a considerable number of children in the rectory. During his assignment at the parish of Stara Lubovna, three religious Sisters came to him and, under his direction, performed church functions and worked actively on the revitalization of the church in the city and among the youth. For these reasons and for his dangerously anti-socialist stand, shown particularly in recent times and in these last days, when he caused among the believers a high and dangerous tension, his continuance in church administration would seriously endanger peaceful social life and the interests of our working people; therefore, with immediate effectiveness, we take away his state permit to work in church administration. On February 14, 1974, Monsignor Trstensky appealed this verdict. As a preliminary to his letter of appeal, he pointed to the irregularities in the whole procedure against him by quoting eight paragraphs of law 71-1967, which were disregarded in his case. Then, in eight pages, he convincingly refuted all the vague or completely false charges against him. He referred to the public and well-known record of his activity as pastor of Stara Lubovna parish. He emphatically stated that he only fulfilled his duties as pastor of a parish, never acting against the state laws and official regulations. The only real reason for the removal of Monsignor Trstensky from pastoral work was his exemplary priestly life and his zealous work for the spiritual welfare of his flock. The appeal of Monsignor Trstensky had no effect and the District Committee in Kosice which by the decision of February 19, 1974, confirmed the verdict of the County Committee in Stara Lubovna and made the decision final, precluding any further appeal. Monsignor Trstensky thereafter went to live in his town of birth, Trstena, in the region of Orava. Grateful parishioners of Stara Lubovna did not forget their beloved pastor. As a token of their appreciation and 102 SLOVAKIA gratitude during the rest of the year 1974, they traveled to Trstena in trucks loaded with construction material and built a home for him. He lives there today. Letters to Highest Authorities After spending years in prison and now being deprived of the permit to work as a priest, Monsignor Trstensky became a fearless witness to communist persecution of loyal priests, and a bold defender of the minimal rights of religion. Monsignor Trstensky carefully observes the situation in his country, sharply analyzes it, and sends his observations to the highest government places. He is sending protest letters to Dr. Peter Colotka, Prime Minister of Slovakia, and even to the President of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. Gustav Husak. Copies of some of his letters have found their way to the free world. They are quite revealing, since they contain the first-hand experiences and observations of a man who lives there, sees with open eyes, and is able to analyze the situation. One such letter was addressed to Dr. Colotka as a reaction to his television talk on the occasion of the International Year of Women, on March 7, 1974. Colotka is a native of Orava region, and Trstensky was his teacher of religion in Dolny Kubin gymnasium. The letter starts with acknowledgements to Colotka for his fine tribute to women, to Slovak mothers and grandmothers, who taught their children honesty, loyalty and readiness to sacrifice for the truth even with their lives. In his letter Trstensky asks Colotka what these women get from the communist regime. Isn't it tearing apart the hearts of our mothers and grandmothers and their offspring, when religious education of children is being hindered more and more? I heard, for example, that in Banska Bystrica, because of brutal terror at the time of enrollment for religious instructions, not one child was registered. It is the same in many cities of Slovakia. Not that the parents and children would not be interested in religion, as purported, but because of the fear for their existence, they do not dare to register their children for religious instructions. Isn't it a punishment for our mothers and grandmothers, when it is made impossible for their sons to devote themselves to a priestly state of life? And even when they have achieved it after years of demanding studies, obtusely to deprive them of a permit to work in the Church ministry, despite a great shortage of priests? In Slovakia, every year 50 to 60 priests die, while hardly 20 to 22 newly ordained priests come out of the seminary. The reason for this is the unfortunate numerous clauses (restricted number) by which only a small number of the candidates can be accepted into the seminary, and this number only on the evaluation of various non-ecclesiastical authorities. Isn't it a punishment for our mothers and grandmothers, when their daughters and granddaughters are not permitted to choose a vocation in which SLOVAKIA 103 they could peacefully serve God and their neighbors? Even those religious Sisters who previously had chosen this vocation are, so to say, thrown out from their own houses to the streets? lsn 't it hurting our mothers and grandmothers to see how their children, plying their vocations as teachers, civil servants, or factory foremen cannot fulfill their religious obligations for fear of being/ired or transferred to some other job with a lower salary? What can our mothers and grandmothers say about the so-called Catholic press, which in fact does not exist? ''The statements of Pacem in Terris officers that everything is all right here in the matters of religion, do not change these sad facts. By such statements they compromise not only themselves and the Church, but put into a bad perspective our whole system. We are like open cards, and whoever stops here can evaluate religious situations himself and can see the one-sidedness of such self-serving statements. It would be much more fruitful, it those from our priestly ranks who are writing for Pacem in Terris and who think they are promoting peace and social progress, mainly and openly told the heads of our regime that man is not only a body, but also a soul, which is in need of spiritual food. Our simple old women in Orava are shaking their heads when, while reading in the Katolicke Noviny all those praises about religious life in our country, they live in sadness with their daughters who were thrown out of religious life not by Church but by State authorities, or with their sons who were stripped of the State permit for Church administration, or when they see their sons and daughters sneaking away, if they want to pray, get married in church, or have their child baptized. (4) In July, 1976, Monsignor Trstensky asked for travel permission to see his sick brother and his aged sister living in the U.S.A. His petition was turned down by the government officials. Trstensky again sent appeals to the Slovak Prime Minister, Peter Colotka, and to the President of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. Gustav Husak. In his letter to the President dated January 6, 1977, Trstensky again presented a sharp analysis of the situation in Slovakia. I still have not received an answer about my own sufferings and those of believing people. Probably the reason is that it regards a Roman Catholic priest, thus a man outside the law. This confirms my conviction that the main task of some of our circles is to harrass the citizens, especially believers, and to unleash a ruthless war against religion and its adherents. By watching television, by reading newspapers, and magazines and books about so-called "scientific" atheism, by talking with believers, by watching their sad faces, by seeing hundreds of priests outside pastoral work, tormented Sisters, the fear of teachers, civil servants, nurses, foremen in factories, one gets a clear testimony what injustices are being perpetrated against believers. A member of the Party can be like a stump of wood, as long as he knows some phrases about atheism, Marxism. He is preferred to a non- 104 SLOVAKIA Party man, no matter how intelligent, conscientious and patriotic the latter may be. How much more useful would it be to our country, if those much needed billions squandered on anti-religious propaganda, on so-called civil baptisms, weddings, burials, and on the tens of thousands of atheistic propagandists, were used for real re-education in the spirit of justice and mutual love, and for the promotion of material, spiritual, cultural and social development. Wherever there is an anti-religious campaign and justice is trampled upon, morality declines, the families fall apart, enthusiasm for work vanishes, honesty and responsibility disappear, criminality among adults and even among adolescents increases, and the very foundations of the country are undermined. If there is to be a lasting peace, it must be built on justice, truth, freedom and love. (5) It is interesting to note that despite his sharp protest letters, some of which were published in the Western press , Monsignor Trstensky is still not in jail. He is harrassed and intimidated, as appears from his letters . The reason for his not being imprisoned may be the notoriety of his case throughout Czecho-Slovakia and, to some extent, even throughout the free world. The regime fears the out-cry of the free world which follows the imprisonment of well-known dissidents. Examples of Living Faith Not all opponents of militant atheism express their protests against the persecution of the Church by letters and manifestos. In Slovakia there are many priests and lay people resisting the communist oppression of religion with their lives. There are people filling the churches on Sundays and holy days, receiving the sacraments regularly , enrolling their children for religious instructions - ready to pay for it with a loss of better jobs and in some instances with a loss of personal freedom. There are still priests who are in a real sense spiritual fathers of their flock, risking the loss of a state permit to function as priests, or risking the loss of liberty. There are priests and lay people who by the depth of their religious life equal the heroism of the Christians of the early Church. They are luminaries of deep faith in these hours of darkness. One such is John Chrysostom Korec. At the time of the suppression of religious orders in 1950, John Korec was a Jesuit cleric. After nearly completing his regular theological studies, he was secretly ordained a priest and in 1951, bishop. He was then 27 years old, the youngest bishop in the world. He had to go through military service. He then became a factory worker. He worked as a bishop in the underground by secretly preaching to small groups of people, administering the sacrament of Confirmation , teaching young clerics, ~d SLOVAKIA 105 eventually ordaining them as priests. In 1960, communist spies discovered who John Korec really was. He was sentenced to twelve years in a high security prison. But even in those years of imprisonment, he continued his priestly work among his fellow inmates. In 1968, Bishop Korec was released from jail, weakened in body. He became one of the leading personalities in revitalizing the religious life of Slovakia during this period of thaw. In 1969, he visited Rome and had a private audience with the Holy Father, who gave him one of his personal croziers and a pectoral cross as a sign of his appreciation for the young bishop's work. After the fall of Dubcek (April 17, 1969), renewed terrorism began in Czecho-Slovakia. The state permit to publicly celebrate the Mass was taken away from Bishop Korec. He was not permitted to take part in any official functions of the Church. He became a factory worker in Bratislava. Today, the whole of Slovakia knows about the case of Bishop Korec. People distressed by harsh religious repression, particularly the highly educated, come to Bishop Korec for his words of advice and consolation. This is not looked upon favorably by the communist authorities. They would like to get rid of Bishop Korec, but without further disturbing the populace. They offered him an opporutnity to emigrate from Slovakia. Bishop Korec rejected the suggestion. They offered him a state permit to perform a ministry in some parish outside Bratislava. Bishop Korec said he would accept the ministry outside Bratislava, on the condition that all other priests to whom the state permit was denied or taken away be given permission to function as priests. The communist authorities rejected this condition. The case of the heroic Bishop Korec was reported in the Catholic press throughout the free world. Perhaps this will protect him temporarily against imprisonment. (6) Stephen J avorsky, a Salesian priest, administrator of the parish in Muran, was imprisoned by the state police on November 26, 1975 and sentenced to eighteen months in jail. His state permit to perform his priestly duties was suspended for two years after the expiration of his jail sentence. For this verdict the following reasons are given by the County Court in Muran: ''He enticed youth, especially university students, by inducing them to listen to the Vatican Radio; he distributed books among them; in their presence, he projected film strips and played tapes containing unacceptable conferences on religious philosophy directed against the interests of our socialist society and against materialistic philosophy, with the aim of involving into this work a large group of religious lay people who besides their regular vocation should exercise missionary activity as well. On June 1, 1975, during the divine services in the parish church of Muran, he tried to influence parents, calling the County Spartakiad (gymnastic exhibition) a worldly vanity fair to be opposed by the parents in the future. " Javorsky's appeal of this verdict to a higher court was rejected and the length of his prison term was prolonged to two full years. (7) 106 SLOVAKIA Among Slovak dissidents are also brave writers and distributors of anonymous pamphlets which sporadically appear in various parts of the country. Such a leaflet distributed in June, 1975, analyzes the religious situation in Slovakia and exhorts Christian believers to defend religious rights guaranteed by the Constitution and state laws.(8) Another pamphlet, distributed in Slovakia in April of 1976, warns Slovak Catholics of the biased news published in the Katolicke Noviny and against the priest-collaborators active in the pro-communist organization Pacem in Terris. (9) It is proper to express our respect and admiration of these known and unknown heroes. They suffer for their deep religious convictions . The whole country lives in an atmosphere of imprisonment. Their suffering sooner or later will bring about the liberty of the Church and of the people in Slovakia. FOOTNOTES The complete text of both Camogursky letters was published in HORIZONT ' 77 , March-April , 1977, p . 8-9. (2) The text of Rev. Tkac 's speech can be found in " SITUATION DER KATHOLISHEN KIRCHE IN DER TSCHECHOSLOWAKEI," Ed . JUSTITIA ET PAX 1976, p. 134138. (3) Frantisek Vnuk : Prenasledo uanie katolickeho ducho uenst ua sa stupi'tuje . (Mounting Persecution of the Catholic Clergy) . SLOVAK V AMERIKE (Slovak in America), May 8, 1974, p . 1, 3. (4) The text of this Jetter was published in HLASY Z RIMA (Voices of Rome), July 1976, p. 22-23. (5) The main parts of this letter were published in JEDNOTA , March 30, 1977, p. 20, 17; also in HLASY Z RIMA , April 1977, p. 21-23 . (6) " Narodeniny biskupa-robotnika Jana Korea " (The Birthday of Bishop-Worker, John Korec) . SLOVAK V AMERIKE , Jan. 26, 1977 , p . 1. (7) HLASY Z RIMA , January 1977, p . 22. (8) The complete text of this pamphlet was published in " SITUATION DER KATHOLISCHEN KIRCHE IN DER TSCHECHOSLOWAKEI," p. 123-130. (9) Ibid. , p . 84-85 ; HLASY Z RIMA , August-September, 1976, p . 31. (1)  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Preludes to "Charter '77" Description An account of the resource Theodoric J. Zubek, O.F.M. Slovakia, Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977 pp. 91-106 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Zúbek, Teodorik J., 1914-1988 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/293943c0b83f61cc8975d8cf3f6e79af.pdf 507d35d0db53abcb327341f0ff214eca PDF Text Text 80 SLOVAKIA Immigration, Education and the Social Mobility of Slovaks, 1870-1930* M. MARK STOLARIK In the last few decades the social mobility of ethnic groups in American society has drawn the attention of numerous scholars from a variety of disciplines. Their research has raised some important questions about the nature and meaning of this phenomenon. Particularly influential has been the work of the sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Reinhard Bendix. In their Social Mobility in Industrial Society, (1) Lipset and Bendix demonstrated that moving up or down the socio-economic ladder was an integral and continuing aspect of the process of industrialization. They did not explain, however, what caused some people to move up, others to remain where they were and others still to move down. Josef Barton, trained in both history and sociology, sought to answer these questions by comparing the relative rates of movement of three ethnic groups in Cleveland in Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians and Slovaks in an American City, 18901950. (2) Barton found that education, family size and the occupation of the father played a pivotal role in the traditional American '' success story." The Rumanians, who came from peasant backgrounds similar to that of the Slovaks and Italians, stressed extended public education for their children, they limited the size of their families and their fathers tended to move from blue-collar to white-collar occupations more often than did Italians or Slovaks. As a result, more than fifty per cent of Rumanian children moved from manual to non-manual employment in the period 1900-1950 while less than twenty per cent of Italians and Slovaks did so. (3) What Barton did not explain was why the Rumanians had such a strong commitment to education, to small families and why the fathers were so mobile in contrast to Italians and Slovaks. Part of the answer lies, I submit, in the Old World background of the various groups and • This paper was presented to the Bicentennial Symposium on "Religious Freedom: Churches and Ethnic Communities in the American City, " at Saint Joseph's College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 21 , 1975. Reprinted from Immigrants and Religion in Urban America, (edited by Randall Miller and Thomas Marzik, copyright 1977) with the kind permission of the original publisher, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, Pa. �SLOVAKIA 81 in their attitude towards life as molded by their religions. To illustrate this hypothesis the Slovak experience will be examined in detail. Before the mass migration of Slovaks to America began in the 1880's, lay leaders in the Old World had stressed the value of education for social mobility and their people seemed to agree with them. As early as 1845, for example, Jan Cipka, a student at Vienna's polytechnic institute, anticipated the abolition of serfdom and urged his countrymen to prepare themselves for the approaching industrial age by sending their children to technical schools. (4) The editors of N arodni hlasnik agreed and in subsequent decades urged the founding of Slovak trade and high schools.(5) The editors of Obzor added the sobering comment that "knowledge is power." (6) Reacting to the urgings of their leaders, the Slovak people built and supported educational institutions whenever possible. By 1870 they had established three 'gymnasiums' (high schools) and operated 1,822 religious grammar schools, with the result that every second village had its own schoolhouse. So successful was the Slovak educational system that by 1885 it enrolled 88 percent of all children in its districts , the highest percentage in the entire Kingdom of Hungary.(7) The Hungarian government, rather than applauding such efforts, set out to thwart them because they conflicted with its official policy of Magyarization. Shortly after they reached the famous Compromise of 1867 with the Habsburgs, the Magyars of Hungary set out to assimilate their subject nationalities by attacking their school systems. Thus, they closed the three Slovak gymnasiums in 1874 on the pretext that they propagated "Pan-Slavism". Furthermore, the Minister of Education seized upon the fact that many village schools were primitive structures and over-crowded to nationalize them and turn them into public institutions. By 1905 the Slovaks of Hungary had only 241 schools left under their control.(8) Not only did the Magyars turn Slovak schools into public institutions but they also set out to eradicate the use of all non-Magyar languages in them. In 1877 the Budapest parliament banned all nonMagyar texts and two years later made the teaching of Magyar compulsory in all schools. Furthermore, starting in 1881 it paid teachers a bonus of 100 gold forints (equivalent to a year's wages) if they did a good job in Magyarizing their pupils. Those teachers who refused to cooperate were fired and students who balked at the new rules were expelled. The net result was a decline in Slovak literacy from 88 percent in 1885 to 76 percent in 1911. The Magyar public school system had virtually destroyed education in the Slovak language by the First World War.(9) While the Hungarian government worked at assimilating its subject nationalities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a very large section of the population began to emigrate to �82 SLOVAKIA America. Poor economic conditions in the Old World compelled hundreds of thousands of Slovaks to seek a livelihood in the New. By 1920 more than 600,000 of them lived in America, toiling in the mines, mills and refineries of the industrial Northeast. They were followed by a small group of intellectuals, both lay and religious, who fled national persecution in Hungary and who were determined to preserve Slovak life in the United States. Educational conditions in Hungary had a profound effect upon the thinking of those intellectuals who left for America. They brought with them an understandable contempt for public schools and they expressed these thoughts in their press. In an analysis of the nondenominational Amerik<insko-Slovenske Noviny, the largest and most influential Slovak newspaper in America before 1914, I found five articles concerned with education between the years 1893 and 1902 and these expressed nine discrete statements about it. Four declared the purpose of education to be the preservation of the children's language and nationality, three stressed the moral value of education and only one affirmed schooling to be a process of self improvement. Only once did the editors suggest that parents send their children to public schools if no parochial ones existed. The main complaint the editors made was that public schools "assimilate our children and turn them against their parents. " (10) In an analysis of the N<irodny Kalend<ir, the almanac of the secular National Slovak Society, I found similar opinions in four articles concerned with education between 1899 and 1917. Three of six ideas expressed in these articles stressed the need to preserve the children's language and heritage through schools, one emphasized the need to preserve the students' morals through schooling while only one each pointed to the value of education for self-improvement and social mobility.(11) Indeed, one contributor denounced public schools because "whether in America or in Hungary, (they) denationalize our children." (12) Thus, secular Slovak leaders in the United States no longer shared the enthusiasm for education that their colleagues back home had expressed in earlier decades. Religious leaders, on the other hand , stressed the moral value of education. In the old World even the Lutheran editors of Dom a Skala (Home and School) labelled public schools as •'bastard children of the church and state." They quite correctly charged the government with using state schools to "wage war upon the nationalities" and they demanded a return to good religious instruction because ••a moral unbringing is the chief aim of school and education is only a means of achieving this end."(13) Roman Catholic editors agreed that the chief aim of schooling was to instill "morality" in children. However, since most of their educational journals in Hungary were sponsored by the government, they extended this aim to include not only piety and good behavior but also loyalty to the Magyar state.(14) �SLOVAKIA 83 Slovak Catholic leaders in America , meanwhile, cared little about loyalty to the Magyar state but they did continue to stress the moral value of education. In an analysis of the leading Catholic Slovak newspaper Jednota over the years 1902-1911 , for instance, I found seventeen articles concerned with education and these contained thirtyone statements about its worth. Eleven times the editors praised parochial schools for cultivating their children's morality , and an equal numbe r of times they stressed the role of such institutions in preserving the next generation's ethnicity. Only three statements admitted the value of education for social mobility and only once did they speak of schooling as a means of self-improvement. And, while on three occasions the editors pointed to the good example set by other nationalities in parochial education, only twice did they suggest sending Slovak children to non-Slovak Catholic schools if they had none of their own.(15) The Jednota Kalend<ir , almanac of the First Catholic Slovak Union, meanwhile was even more emphatic about the moral value of education. This annual published eight articles about schooling between 1898 and 1917 and these contained fifteen statements about its worth. Eight of them stressed the role of Catholic institutions in cultivating a child's morality while four added that they also preserved the children's nationality . Only once did a statement appear which praised education as a vehicle for social mobility. Similarly , only once did an author suggest that children attend public schools or parochial schools of another nationality if they had none of their own. (16) Clearly, then, Catholic leaders valued parochial schools above all else, they worried much more about their children's moral and national upbringing than about social mobility and they had no use for public schools. Indeed, when one looks at the reaction of Slovak Roman Catholic priests towards state schools, one finds only the harshest condemnation of these institutions. The Reverend Andrej Pavco, for instance, blamed the supposed decline of morality in America at the turn of the century on the "anti-religious " nature of public schools which " made loafers of all girls who attended them. " (17) Father Stefan Furdek agreed and further charged that state schools provided "an anti-God education" with the result that America had the highest divorce rate in the world. (18) Father Jan Porubsky added that "life is a preparation for God" and American public schools ignored this, causing the United States to lead the world in immorality and crime. Porubsky especially singled out trade schools because they allegedly produced " illiterate " children and propagated "atheism." He added that " these are the places from which cities get their vagabonds, suburbs their tramps and murderers and the gallows their offerings. " (19) In a more subtle article the Reverend Stefan Furdek analyzed both school systems and, in condemning public institutions, revealed the �84 SLOVAKIA basis of his Catholic philosophy. Public schools , he pointed out, were free . They supplied books and clothes to poor children and had nurses to care for the sick. Classes consisted of only thirty to forty pupils taught by teachers with diplomas and a good command of English. Slovak parochial schools, on the other hand, required the parents to pay tuition, their classes were overcrowded and the teachers often lacked diplomas . In spite of these faults, Furdek found parochial schools superior to public ones because they taught catechism. He declared that ''the saving of souls is more important than a good secular education." In other words, schools did not exist to promote social mobility but to give the child a decent moral upbringing . He closed his argument with the revealing statement that "a Gypsy cannot read music, but he can sure play the violin!" (20) Since both secular and religious leaders of the Slovak community in America had such negative attitudes towards public schools, and since the majority of Slovaks (80 percent) were Roman Catholics, it became almost inevitable that they would build as many parochial schools as possible and that they would send their children to these or to other Catholic institutions. The first Slovak Catholic school was built in Streator, Illinois in 1889. By 1930, more than half of the 241 Slovak parishes in America had their own schools.(21) Furthermore, Josef Barton and I have discovered that wherever the Slovak community had its own school, as at St. Wendelin's parish in Cleveland or at St. Peter's in Fort William (now Thunder Bay, Ontario), the majority (between 60 percent and 80 percent) of eligible Slovak children did attend it. (22) Where they did not have their own school, as at St. Cyril's in Minneapolis before 1938, almost half of the children attended parochial schools of other nationalities. (23) Thus , whenever possible, Slovak parents heeded the advice of their leaders and sent their children to parochial schools. Slovak parents also seemed to agree with their priests' teachings that the chief aim of schooling was not necessarily to promote social mobility here on earth but to prepare for the afterlife . Thus, once one had acquired the "three R's" and knew one's catechism, extended schooling became superfluous . This was clearly evident in the school attendance records of Slovak children in Cleveland, Minneapolis and Thunder Bay. In all three cities more than 60 percent of these children dropped out between the sixth and ninth grades in the period 19101940. This contrasted with an average American drop-out rate of 44 percent over the same period . Only twenty percent graduated from high school.(24) A few lay leaders recognized this phenomenon and complained about it. Jozef Joscak, editor of N<irodne Noviny, accused his American countrymen of "caring less about education than had Slovaks in the Old Country."(25) Pavel Jamarik, a perceptive social critic, charged that American-Slovak parents "only sent their children to high school if they wanted them to become priests." (26) Finally, �SLOVAKIA 85 Michal Bosak , a banker and one of America's first Slovak millionaires, advised parents to at least send their youngsters to commerical schools instead of into the mines and factories, so as to enable them to compete in America' s capitalist society. (27) Such advice often fell on deaf ears, for, as Jozef Joscak had earlier concluded, American Slovaks "had their minds on other things . " (28) The '' other things '' that J oscak referred to were a way of life that rejected the basic tenets of the ''Protestant ethic.' ' The German sociologist Max Weber had observed that Catholic and Protestant peoples at the tum of the century had different attitudes towards life and he developed an elaborate theory to explain these differences. It appeared in his celebrated book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. (29) Among other things, Weber theorized that the Protestant Reformation , especially its Calvinist branch , helped bring about the modem Capitalist world because Calvinists regarded work as a glorification of God rather than as a curse that followed the fall of Adam, as Medieval Catholics had believed. Furthermore , Weber continued, since Calvinists believed in predestination, they stressed self-discipline, education and a constant striving to improve one's position in life. If one did, indeed, improve oneself, the Calvinists believed, it was proof that one was saved because God ' s grace descended only upon the 'elect.' Weber's theory has caused quite a debate in academic circles , with some scholars arguing that he was correct and others denouncing his views. One of his most enthusiastic defenders has been Gerhard Lenski. In his Religious Factor: A Sociological Study of Religion's Impact on Politics, Economics and Family Life, (30) Lenski focused on 658 people of various religious persuasions in Detroit and sought to test the Weber thesis. He found that the Protestants in his sample constantly strove harder to succeed and to climb the socio-economic ladder than did Catholics , and they were successful in doing so much more often than Catholics and thus he concluded that Weber was essentially correct. The Catholics , Lenski added, were held back by an attitude that stressed the after-life rather than success in this world. While Lenski defended Weber, many more critics have attacked the latter's theories. Lipset and Bendix, for instance, argued that ethnicity was far more important than religious persuasion in American social mobility . They attributed the low rate of social mobility of Eastern Europeans as compared to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants to the later arrival of the former to this country. It was only a matter of time , they asserted, before third and fourth generation Poles , Italians and Slovaks caught up with British and Scandinavian peoples in the United States.(31) Similarly, Father Andrew Greeley, in Religion and Career: A Study of College Graduates(32) bent over backwards to try to disprove both Weber's and Lenski's theories . By using the resources of the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), which had ad- �86 SLOVAKIA ministered questionnaires to 33,000 college graduates in 1961 , Greeley tried to show that Catholics and Protestants had basically the same goals and aspirations in life and that one was as likely to be successful as the other. He did admit, however, that arriving Catholic immigrants may have been influenced by what he called a ''folk element'' which was anti-intellectual, but he saw this rapidly disappearing. (33) I see several flaws in Greeley's research. First of all, the sample he used tested only college graduates ' opinions, not their actual performances . Opinions do not necessarily reflect what people do after they graduate. Nor are the opinions of college graduates a good indicator of what the rest of their ethnic community may be thinking. Furthermore , these students may have answered the questions the way they guessed was expected of them by a society that worships social mobility . Greeley also did not differentiate enough between ethnic groups. I suspect that the vast majority of his Catholic students were German and Irish. These two peoples have been in America much longer than Eastern Europeans , they have had greater contact with White Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the past, both in the Old World and in the New, and they may even have begun to accept the "Protestant ethic" as they have gradually assimilated into American society. Finally , Greeley paid absolutely no attention to what the Catholic church has been teaching its people about the goal of life . Let us focus on the last point for the moment. Recall the advice of Father Porubsky that " life is a preparation for God" and Father Furdek 's pronouncement that " the saving of souls is much more important than a good secular education. '' (34) Should we dismiss these as the words of a couple of naive priests or do they represent official church teaching? The Baltimore Catechism which until Vatican II had been more important to most American Catholics than the Bible, since it was used in most Parochial schools, essentially repeats Porubsky's and Furdek's teachings . In the first lesson, dealing with the purpose of life, the question is asked, "Why did God make us?" The answer given is: "God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven. " The next question asks, "What must we do to gain the happiness of heaven? ' ' and the reply is '' ... we must know, love and serve God in this world."(35) Nowhere does it say that we must strive to better ourselves on this earth, to work hard, to study and make money and to climb the social ladder. Indeed, the only mention of "work" that I could find in the Catechism is a derogatory one. In the lesson on the creation and fall of man, we read that because of Adam's original sin, " we have to die, to suffer, to study, to work .. . ! '' (36) In other words , studying and work are a curse that Adam brought upon us because of his disobedience to God. This teaching is the exact opposite of the ''Protestant ethic' ' and it has reached and influenced millions of Catholics over the last century. �SLOVAKIA 87 Having surveyed Slovak Catholic attitudes towards both education and work, and having discovered their negative attitudes towards both, we are now in a better position to explain their low rate of social mobility. ' 'Success'' in America has traditionally been viewed through White Anglo-Saxon Protestant eyes. Sociologists who measure success reflect such a bias. They always look for people moving up from bluecollar to white-collar and thence to professional occupations. A corollary is that once one ' 'succeeds,'' one moves out of the central city to the more affluent suburbs. This pattern of "up and out" is usually accepted as the only meaningful form of social mobility in America.(37) There is another approach to life, however, one seldom discussed by American scholars, which is typified by the Catholic Slovak experience. Josef Barton discovered it in his study of Rumanians, Italians and Slovaks in Cleveland, although he did not pursue the subject to its final conclusion. Thus, in looking at the ways in which the three immigrant groups reacted to the American situation, Barton found that almost half of the Slovak men in his sample became skilled workers and-or acquired some property in their original neighborhoods of settlement. Furthermore, they had large families which often lived in the extended form and this increased their overall family income. (38) Here , then was a different way of ''making it. '' It was all right to be a blue-collar worker, to drop out of school at an early age and to live in the same neighborhood all of your life. Stability, rather than movement, characterized the people of this community and they seemed to be satisfied with it. Even though Barton recognized that he had discovered a different approach to social mobility, he did not really approve of it. The Rumanian example of " up and out" impressed him as the " classic rise" of an immigrant group and he left us with the impression that somehow the Slovaks had made a mistake.(39) Whether or not they had, indeed, made a mistake depends largely upon their and the observer's perception of life. Is it one's goal to constantly strive to improve oneself through education, work and the accumulation of wealth here on earth? Or is it more important to lead a moral life, to accept one 's status, no matter how low, and strive for the higher goal of everlasting salvation? The answer is usually very personal but much depends on the teachings of one's church and on the religiosity of the individual. The majority of Slovak Catholics, I submit, were very religious and did heed the teachings of their leaders and the church, at least in the first two generations. Thus, they cared more for the moral upbringing of their children than for success here on earth and this was reflected in their condemnation of public schools, in their praise for Catholic education and in their acceptance of blue-collar work and life in ethnic neighborhoods. �88 SLOVAKIA But what of third and fourth generation American Slovaks? Do they perceive life in the same way as their parents and grandparents? Do they have the same attitudes towards work and school, family and neighborhood? We do not know because no one has yet researched this group . If Andrew Greeley' s studies of German and Irish Catholics are correct, then perhaps the " Protestant ethic " will eventually rub off on Slovak Catholics as they become more assimilated into American society. Perhaps the growing nationwide decline in parochial school attendance will aid in this process . Indeed, Catholic values generally may be changing across the land and the third and fourth generations may reflect such changes. These are questions which await further research . Should someone still be skeptical about the whole theory of the " Protestant ethic ," the various components of the Slovak community in America can be studied to provide a clearer answer. While 80 percent of Slovaks are Roman Catholics , about 15 percent are Lutherans and 2 percent are Calvinists. The latter two groups could be studied, and their attitudes towards life, work , education and their social mobility could be compared and contrasted with that of their Catholic counterparts. Such a study would supercede previous efforts because one would not have to control for ethnicity , time of arrival and other variables except religion. Such research could, hopefully , deal with the whole theory of the " Protestant ethic " to everyone 's satisfaction. Finally, the American concept of social mobility needs closer scrutiny. Should the majority of scholars continue to accept without question the ideal that everyone should constantly strive to move ''up and out ' '? What are the social consequences of such a philosophy? Is it good and necessary that everyone seek a higher education, for example? Who will sweep the streets, collect the garbage, fix the roads and man the factories if we continue to revere non-manual work so much? And, what are the consequences of an upwardly-mobile whitecollar worker moving from neighborhood to neighborhood and city to city all the time in order to keep climbing? Is this good for his family? Does it not in fact destroy extended family solidarity and breed an intense nuclear family that has no roots and no sense of community? (40) Indeed, the historian Rowland Berthoff has argued that America has in the past suffered from too much mobility and he predicted that this country 's many social ills would not disappear until a sense of community was restored in this land and this implied that Americans would have to stop moving around so much.(41) In this respect those Eastern Europeans who have stayed put and have tried to preserve their neighborhoods have been in the vanguard of social planning,. Perhaps Michael Novak is right. Perhaps we should stress extended family life, ethnic neighborhoods, stability and quietness again. (42) At least we should let those who prefer this way of life to live in peace , without bureaucratic harrassment. This would mean fighting �SLOVAKIA 89 "block-busting," "red-lining," freeway construction, and any other threats to community life that individuals or the government may pose. In short, it would call for respect for the pluralism of American life. It would mean toleration for the Catholic alternative to the ''Protestant ethic.'' FOOTNOTES (1) Berkeley , 1959. (2) Cambridge, Mass., 1975 . (3) Ibid ., pp. 99-100 . (4) Slouenskje narodiije nouini (Bratislava), November 18, 1845, p. 125. (5) N<i.rodni hl<i.snik (Martin), August 31, 1868, p . 178; October 31, 1868, p . 225; and May 31, 1871, p . 135 . (6) Obzor (Skalica), January 5, 1872 and January 5, 1881. (7) Julius Mesaros et al. , Dejiny Slouenska II: Od Roku 1848 do 1900 (A History of Slovakia , II: From 1848 to 1900) (Bratislava, 1968) , 264 ; and Dom a Skala (Ruzomberok), ill (1887) , 23-25. (8) Zipser Batte (Levoca), No. 29, 1905; and Jozef Gregor-Tajovsky , "Vychodne Slovensko " (Eastern Slovakia) , N<i.rodny Kalendar, 1913 (Pittsburgh), 243-4 . (9) Minister of Education to the School Inspector of Spis, Slovak State Archives in Levoca , county Spis , Executive Council, 420, KB, 1877 ; the same, 462, 1881; the same, II , 181 , 1898 and the same again, II , 183, 1902. See also William P. Dillingham, Chairman, Reports of the Immigration Commission, Volume 3, 61st Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Document No . 756 (Washington, 1911), 84 for literacy rates. (10) Amerik<i.nsko-Slouenske Nouiny (Pittsburgh), February 2, 1893, p . 6; December 8, 1894, p . 8; January 8, 1895 , p . l; July 13 , 1895 , p . 4 ; April 28, 1898, p. 8. The quotation is from the first article . (11) N<i.rodny Kalend<i.r, 1899, 44-5; 1911, 59-64 and 224-8; and 1917, 222-4 . (12) Ibid. , 1917, 222 . (13) Dom a Skala, II (1886), 194; and ill (1887), 73. (14) See for example Nafa Z<i.staua (Presov) September 20, 1908, p . 2 and October 4, 1908, p. 2; Eperjes (Presov), September 1, 1913, p . l; August 15, 1913, p . 2; October 15 , 1914 , p . 3; andEghy<i.z Es Iskola (Presov), February 15, 1918, p . 69 . (15) Jednota (Cleveland), September 17, 1902, p . 3 ; October 1, 1902, p . 4; August 31 , 1904, p . 4; July 12 , 1905 , p . 4; July 26, 1905, p . 4 ; August 9, 1905, p. 4; February 7, 1906, p. 4; July 1, 1908, p . 4; August 19, 1908, p. 4; September 8, 1909, p . 4; February 16, 1910, p . 4 ; March 23, 1910, p . 4; July 27, 1910, p . 4; August 17, 1910, p . 4; September 2, 1910, p . 4 ; April 5, 1911, p . 4; and August 23, 1911 , p . 4. (16) Kalend<i.r Jednota, 1898 (Cleveland), 133-4 ; 1899, 135-6; 1902, 128-36; 1907, 120-3; 1908, 177-8; 1911, 29-31; 1913, 123-8 ; 1917, 83-5. (17) Ibid., 1898, 133. (18) Jednota, July 12, 1905, p . 4. (19) Kalend<i.r J ednota, 1907, 120-3. (20) Jednota, August 19, 1908 , p . 4. (21) N<i.rodnie nouiny, October 5, 1889, p . 3 and October 23, 1890, p . 3; Kalendar Jednota, 1930, 193-201. �90 SLOVAKIA (22) Barton, Peasants and Strangers , 149-50; M. Mark Stolarik, "Immigration and Urbanization: the Slovak Experience, 1870-1918," Ph .D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1974, pp. 165-6. (23) Ibid., Stolarik, 165-6. (24) Barton, Peasants and Strangers, 132 , 137 and Stolarik , "Immigration and Urbanization," 170. (25) N<irodne Nouiny (Pittsburgh) , June 2, 1910, p . 4. (26) Pavel Jarnarik , Vychoua dietok: prakticke n<iuody pre Slouenskych rodic:ou (The Raising of Children : Practical Advice for Slovak Parents) (Author ' s publication, Disputant , Virginia, 1913), 22. (27) Kalend<ir J ednota 1917, 83-5. (28) N<irodne Nouiny , June 2, 1910, p. 4. (29) Translated by Talcott Parsons (London, 1930). (30) New York, 1961. (31) Social Mobility in Industrial Society, 49-52 . (32) New York, 1963. (33) Ibid., p . 134. (34) See above page 6. (35) Rev . Michael A. McGuire, The New Baltimore Catechism and Mass (No. 2, Official Revised Edition, New York, 1941), p. 14. (36) Ibid. , p. 29. (37) All the scholars cited above - Lipset and Bendix , Lenski, Greeley and even Barton - accept this pattern. One who questions its wisdom is Richard Sennett in Families Against the City: Middle Class Homes in Industrial Chicago, 1872-1890 (Cambridge, 1970) . (38) Barton , Peasants and Strangers, 143. (39) Ibid., 172-3. (40) This was part of Richard Sennet's argumentt in Families Against the City, cited above . (41) See his An Unsettled People; Social Order and Disorder in American History (New York , 1971). (42) Novak makes this argument in his Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics: Politics and Culture in the Seventies (New York, 1972) and again in the two EMPAC! (Ethnic Millions Political Action Committee) statements of 1973 and 1975. � 80 SLOVAKIA Immigration, Education and the Social Mobility of Slovaks, 1870-1930* M. MARK STOLARIK In the last few decades the social mobility of ethnic groups in American society has drawn the attention of numerous scholars from a variety of disciplines. Their research has raised some important questions about the nature and meaning of this phenomenon. Particularly influential has been the work of the sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Reinhard Bendix. In their Social Mobility in Industrial Society, (1) Lipset and Bendix demonstrated that moving up or down the socio-economic ladder was an integral and continuing aspect of the process of industrialization. They did not explain, however, what caused some people to move up, others to remain where they were and others still to move down. Josef Barton, trained in both history and sociology, sought to answer these questions by comparing the relative rates of movement of three ethnic groups in Cleveland in Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians and Slovaks in an American City, 18901950. (2) Barton found that education, family size and the occupation of the father played a pivotal role in the traditional American '' success story." The Rumanians, who came from peasant backgrounds similar to that of the Slovaks and Italians, stressed extended public education for their children, they limited the size of their families and their fathers tended to move from blue-collar to white-collar occupations more often than did Italians or Slovaks. As a result, more than fifty per cent of Rumanian children moved from manual to non-manual employment in the period 1900-1950 while less than twenty per cent of Italians and Slovaks did so. (3) What Barton did not explain was why the Rumanians had such a strong commitment to education, to small families and why the fathers were so mobile in contrast to Italians and Slovaks. Part of the answer lies, I submit, in the Old World background of the various groups and • This paper was presented to the Bicentennial Symposium on "Religious Freedom: Churches and Ethnic Communities in the American City, " at Saint Joseph's College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 21 , 1975. Reprinted from Immigrants and Religion in Urban America, (edited by Randall Miller and Thomas Marzik, copyright 1977) with the kind permission of the original publisher, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, Pa. �SLOVAKIA 81 in their attitude towards life as molded by their religions. To illustrate this hypothesis the Slovak experience will be examined in detail. Before the mass migration of Slovaks to America began in the 1880's, lay leaders in the Old World had stressed the value of education for social mobility and their people seemed to agree with them. As early as 1845, for example, Jan Cipka, a student at Vienna's polytechnic institute, anticipated the abolition of serfdom and urged his countrymen to prepare themselves for the approaching industrial age by sending their children to technical schools. (4) The editors of N arodni hlasnik agreed and in subsequent decades urged the founding of Slovak trade and high schools.(5) The editors of Obzor added the sobering comment that "knowledge is power." (6) Reacting to the urgings of their leaders, the Slovak people built and supported educational institutions whenever possible. By 1870 they had established three 'gymnasiums' (high schools) and operated 1,822 religious grammar schools, with the result that every second village had its own schoolhouse. So successful was the Slovak educational system that by 1885 it enrolled 88 percent of all children in its districts , the highest percentage in the entire Kingdom of Hungary.(7) The Hungarian government, rather than applauding such efforts, set out to thwart them because they conflicted with its official policy of Magyarization. Shortly after they reached the famous Compromise of 1867 with the Habsburgs, the Magyars of Hungary set out to assimilate their subject nationalities by attacking their school systems. Thus, they closed the three Slovak gymnasiums in 1874 on the pretext that they propagated "Pan-Slavism". Furthermore, the Minister of Education seized upon the fact that many village schools were primitive structures and over-crowded to nationalize them and turn them into public institutions. By 1905 the Slovaks of Hungary had only 241 schools left under their control.(8) Not only did the Magyars turn Slovak schools into public institutions but they also set out to eradicate the use of all non-Magyar languages in them. In 1877 the Budapest parliament banned all nonMagyar texts and two years later made the teaching of Magyar compulsory in all schools. Furthermore, starting in 1881 it paid teachers a bonus of 100 gold forints (equivalent to a year's wages) if they did a good job in Magyarizing their pupils. Those teachers who refused to cooperate were fired and students who balked at the new rules were expelled. The net result was a decline in Slovak literacy from 88 percent in 1885 to 76 percent in 1911. The Magyar public school system had virtually destroyed education in the Slovak language by the First World War.(9) While the Hungarian government worked at assimilating its subject nationalities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a very large section of the population began to emigrate to �82 SLOVAKIA America. Poor economic conditions in the Old World compelled hundreds of thousands of Slovaks to seek a livelihood in the New. By 1920 more than 600,000 of them lived in America, toiling in the mines, mills and refineries of the industrial Northeast. They were followed by a small group of intellectuals, both lay and religious, who fled national persecution in Hungary and who were determined to preserve Slovak life in the United States. Educational conditions in Hungary had a profound effect upon the thinking of those intellectuals who left for America. They brought with them an understandable contempt for public schools and they expressed these thoughts in their press. In an analysis of the nondenominational Amerik<insko-Slovenske Noviny, the largest and most influential Slovak newspaper in America before 1914, I found five articles concerned with education between the years 1893 and 1902 and these expressed nine discrete statements about it. Four declared the purpose of education to be the preservation of the children's language and nationality, three stressed the moral value of education and only one affirmed schooling to be a process of self improvement. Only once did the editors suggest that parents send their children to public schools if no parochial ones existed. The main complaint the editors made was that public schools "assimilate our children and turn them against their parents. " (10) In an analysis of the N<irodny Kalend<ir, the almanac of the secular National Slovak Society, I found similar opinions in four articles concerned with education between 1899 and 1917. Three of six ideas expressed in these articles stressed the need to preserve the children's language and heritage through schools, one emphasized the need to preserve the students' morals through schooling while only one each pointed to the value of education for self-improvement and social mobility.(11) Indeed, one contributor denounced public schools because "whether in America or in Hungary, (they) denationalize our children." (12) Thus, secular Slovak leaders in the United States no longer shared the enthusiasm for education that their colleagues back home had expressed in earlier decades. Religious leaders, on the other hand , stressed the moral value of education. In the old World even the Lutheran editors of Dom a Skala (Home and School) labelled public schools as •'bastard children of the church and state." They quite correctly charged the government with using state schools to "wage war upon the nationalities" and they demanded a return to good religious instruction because ••a moral unbringing is the chief aim of school and education is only a means of achieving this end."(13) Roman Catholic editors agreed that the chief aim of schooling was to instill "morality" in children. However, since most of their educational journals in Hungary were sponsored by the government, they extended this aim to include not only piety and good behavior but also loyalty to the Magyar state.(14) �SLOVAKIA 83 Slovak Catholic leaders in America , meanwhile, cared little about loyalty to the Magyar state but they did continue to stress the moral value of education. In an analysis of the leading Catholic Slovak newspaper Jednota over the years 1902-1911 , for instance, I found seventeen articles concerned with education and these contained thirtyone statements about its worth. Eleven times the editors praised parochial schools for cultivating their children's morality , and an equal numbe r of times they stressed the role of such institutions in preserving the next generation's ethnicity. Only three statements admitted the value of education for social mobility and only once did they speak of schooling as a means of self-improvement. And, while on three occasions the editors pointed to the good example set by other nationalities in parochial education, only twice did they suggest sending Slovak children to non-Slovak Catholic schools if they had none of their own.(15) The Jednota Kalend<ir , almanac of the First Catholic Slovak Union, meanwhile was even more emphatic about the moral value of education. This annual published eight articles about schooling between 1898 and 1917 and these contained fifteen statements about its worth. Eight of them stressed the role of Catholic institutions in cultivating a child's morality while four added that they also preserved the children's nationality . Only once did a statement appear which praised education as a vehicle for social mobility. Similarly , only once did an author suggest that children attend public schools or parochial schools of another nationality if they had none of their own. (16) Clearly, then, Catholic leaders valued parochial schools above all else, they worried much more about their children's moral and national upbringing than about social mobility and they had no use for public schools. Indeed, when one looks at the reaction of Slovak Roman Catholic priests towards state schools, one finds only the harshest condemnation of these institutions. The Reverend Andrej Pavco, for instance, blamed the supposed decline of morality in America at the turn of the century on the "anti-religious " nature of public schools which " made loafers of all girls who attended them. " (17) Father Stefan Furdek agreed and further charged that state schools provided "an anti-God education" with the result that America had the highest divorce rate in the world. (18) Father Jan Porubsky added that "life is a preparation for God" and American public schools ignored this, causing the United States to lead the world in immorality and crime. Porubsky especially singled out trade schools because they allegedly produced " illiterate " children and propagated "atheism." He added that " these are the places from which cities get their vagabonds, suburbs their tramps and murderers and the gallows their offerings. " (19) In a more subtle article the Reverend Stefan Furdek analyzed both school systems and, in condemning public institutions, revealed the �84 SLOVAKIA basis of his Catholic philosophy. Public schools , he pointed out, were free . They supplied books and clothes to poor children and had nurses to care for the sick. Classes consisted of only thirty to forty pupils taught by teachers with diplomas and a good command of English. Slovak parochial schools, on the other hand, required the parents to pay tuition, their classes were overcrowded and the teachers often lacked diplomas . In spite of these faults, Furdek found parochial schools superior to public ones because they taught catechism. He declared that ''the saving of souls is more important than a good secular education." In other words, schools did not exist to promote social mobility but to give the child a decent moral upbringing . He closed his argument with the revealing statement that "a Gypsy cannot read music, but he can sure play the violin!" (20) Since both secular and religious leaders of the Slovak community in America had such negative attitudes towards public schools, and since the majority of Slovaks (80 percent) were Roman Catholics, it became almost inevitable that they would build as many parochial schools as possible and that they would send their children to these or to other Catholic institutions. The first Slovak Catholic school was built in Streator, Illinois in 1889. By 1930, more than half of the 241 Slovak parishes in America had their own schools.(21) Furthermore, Josef Barton and I have discovered that wherever the Slovak community had its own school, as at St. Wendelin's parish in Cleveland or at St. Peter's in Fort William (now Thunder Bay, Ontario), the majority (between 60 percent and 80 percent) of eligible Slovak children did attend it. (22) Where they did not have their own school, as at St. Cyril's in Minneapolis before 1938, almost half of the children attended parochial schools of other nationalities. (23) Thus , whenever possible, Slovak parents heeded the advice of their leaders and sent their children to parochial schools. Slovak parents also seemed to agree with their priests' teachings that the chief aim of schooling was not necessarily to promote social mobility here on earth but to prepare for the afterlife . Thus, once one had acquired the "three R's" and knew one's catechism, extended schooling became superfluous . This was clearly evident in the school attendance records of Slovak children in Cleveland, Minneapolis and Thunder Bay. In all three cities more than 60 percent of these children dropped out between the sixth and ninth grades in the period 19101940. This contrasted with an average American drop-out rate of 44 percent over the same period . Only twenty percent graduated from high school.(24) A few lay leaders recognized this phenomenon and complained about it. Jozef Joscak, editor of N<irodne Noviny, accused his American countrymen of "caring less about education than had Slovaks in the Old Country."(25) Pavel Jamarik, a perceptive social critic, charged that American-Slovak parents "only sent their children to high school if they wanted them to become priests." (26) Finally, �SLOVAKIA 85 Michal Bosak , a banker and one of America's first Slovak millionaires, advised parents to at least send their youngsters to commerical schools instead of into the mines and factories, so as to enable them to compete in America' s capitalist society. (27) Such advice often fell on deaf ears, for, as Jozef Joscak had earlier concluded, American Slovaks "had their minds on other things . " (28) The '' other things '' that J oscak referred to were a way of life that rejected the basic tenets of the ''Protestant ethic.' ' The German sociologist Max Weber had observed that Catholic and Protestant peoples at the tum of the century had different attitudes towards life and he developed an elaborate theory to explain these differences. It appeared in his celebrated book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. (29) Among other things, Weber theorized that the Protestant Reformation , especially its Calvinist branch , helped bring about the modem Capitalist world because Calvinists regarded work as a glorification of God rather than as a curse that followed the fall of Adam, as Medieval Catholics had believed. Furthermore , Weber continued, since Calvinists believed in predestination, they stressed self-discipline, education and a constant striving to improve one's position in life. If one did, indeed, improve oneself, the Calvinists believed, it was proof that one was saved because God ' s grace descended only upon the 'elect.' Weber's theory has caused quite a debate in academic circles , with some scholars arguing that he was correct and others denouncing his views. One of his most enthusiastic defenders has been Gerhard Lenski. In his Religious Factor: A Sociological Study of Religion's Impact on Politics, Economics and Family Life, (30) Lenski focused on 658 people of various religious persuasions in Detroit and sought to test the Weber thesis. He found that the Protestants in his sample constantly strove harder to succeed and to climb the socio-economic ladder than did Catholics , and they were successful in doing so much more often than Catholics and thus he concluded that Weber was essentially correct. The Catholics , Lenski added, were held back by an attitude that stressed the after-life rather than success in this world. While Lenski defended Weber, many more critics have attacked the latter's theories. Lipset and Bendix, for instance, argued that ethnicity was far more important than religious persuasion in American social mobility . They attributed the low rate of social mobility of Eastern Europeans as compared to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants to the later arrival of the former to this country. It was only a matter of time , they asserted, before third and fourth generation Poles , Italians and Slovaks caught up with British and Scandinavian peoples in the United States.(31) Similarly, Father Andrew Greeley, in Religion and Career: A Study of College Graduates(32) bent over backwards to try to disprove both Weber's and Lenski's theories . By using the resources of the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), which had ad- �86 SLOVAKIA ministered questionnaires to 33,000 college graduates in 1961 , Greeley tried to show that Catholics and Protestants had basically the same goals and aspirations in life and that one was as likely to be successful as the other. He did admit, however, that arriving Catholic immigrants may have been influenced by what he called a ''folk element'' which was anti-intellectual, but he saw this rapidly disappearing. (33) I see several flaws in Greeley's research. First of all, the sample he used tested only college graduates ' opinions, not their actual performances . Opinions do not necessarily reflect what people do after they graduate. Nor are the opinions of college graduates a good indicator of what the rest of their ethnic community may be thinking. Furthermore , these students may have answered the questions the way they guessed was expected of them by a society that worships social mobility . Greeley also did not differentiate enough between ethnic groups. I suspect that the vast majority of his Catholic students were German and Irish. These two peoples have been in America much longer than Eastern Europeans , they have had greater contact with White Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the past, both in the Old World and in the New, and they may even have begun to accept the "Protestant ethic" as they have gradually assimilated into American society. Finally , Greeley paid absolutely no attention to what the Catholic church has been teaching its people about the goal of life . Let us focus on the last point for the moment. Recall the advice of Father Porubsky that " life is a preparation for God" and Father Furdek 's pronouncement that " the saving of souls is much more important than a good secular education. '' (34) Should we dismiss these as the words of a couple of naive priests or do they represent official church teaching? The Baltimore Catechism which until Vatican II had been more important to most American Catholics than the Bible, since it was used in most Parochial schools, essentially repeats Porubsky's and Furdek's teachings . In the first lesson, dealing with the purpose of life, the question is asked, "Why did God make us?" The answer given is: "God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven. " The next question asks, "What must we do to gain the happiness of heaven? ' ' and the reply is '' ... we must know, love and serve God in this world."(35) Nowhere does it say that we must strive to better ourselves on this earth, to work hard, to study and make money and to climb the social ladder. Indeed, the only mention of "work" that I could find in the Catechism is a derogatory one. In the lesson on the creation and fall of man, we read that because of Adam's original sin, " we have to die, to suffer, to study, to work .. . ! '' (36) In other words , studying and work are a curse that Adam brought upon us because of his disobedience to God. This teaching is the exact opposite of the ''Protestant ethic' ' and it has reached and influenced millions of Catholics over the last century. �SLOVAKIA 87 Having surveyed Slovak Catholic attitudes towards both education and work, and having discovered their negative attitudes towards both, we are now in a better position to explain their low rate of social mobility. ' 'Success'' in America has traditionally been viewed through White Anglo-Saxon Protestant eyes. Sociologists who measure success reflect such a bias. They always look for people moving up from bluecollar to white-collar and thence to professional occupations. A corollary is that once one ' 'succeeds,'' one moves out of the central city to the more affluent suburbs. This pattern of "up and out" is usually accepted as the only meaningful form of social mobility in America.(37) There is another approach to life, however, one seldom discussed by American scholars, which is typified by the Catholic Slovak experience. Josef Barton discovered it in his study of Rumanians, Italians and Slovaks in Cleveland, although he did not pursue the subject to its final conclusion. Thus, in looking at the ways in which the three immigrant groups reacted to the American situation, Barton found that almost half of the Slovak men in his sample became skilled workers and-or acquired some property in their original neighborhoods of settlement. Furthermore, they had large families which often lived in the extended form and this increased their overall family income. (38) Here , then was a different way of ''making it. '' It was all right to be a blue-collar worker, to drop out of school at an early age and to live in the same neighborhood all of your life. Stability, rather than movement, characterized the people of this community and they seemed to be satisfied with it. Even though Barton recognized that he had discovered a different approach to social mobility, he did not really approve of it. The Rumanian example of " up and out" impressed him as the " classic rise" of an immigrant group and he left us with the impression that somehow the Slovaks had made a mistake.(39) Whether or not they had, indeed, made a mistake depends largely upon their and the observer's perception of life. Is it one's goal to constantly strive to improve oneself through education, work and the accumulation of wealth here on earth? Or is it more important to lead a moral life, to accept one 's status, no matter how low, and strive for the higher goal of everlasting salvation? The answer is usually very personal but much depends on the teachings of one's church and on the religiosity of the individual. The majority of Slovak Catholics, I submit, were very religious and did heed the teachings of their leaders and the church, at least in the first two generations. Thus, they cared more for the moral upbringing of their children than for success here on earth and this was reflected in their condemnation of public schools, in their praise for Catholic education and in their acceptance of blue-collar work and life in ethnic neighborhoods. �88 SLOVAKIA But what of third and fourth generation American Slovaks? Do they perceive life in the same way as their parents and grandparents? Do they have the same attitudes towards work and school, family and neighborhood? We do not know because no one has yet researched this group . If Andrew Greeley' s studies of German and Irish Catholics are correct, then perhaps the " Protestant ethic " will eventually rub off on Slovak Catholics as they become more assimilated into American society. Perhaps the growing nationwide decline in parochial school attendance will aid in this process . Indeed, Catholic values generally may be changing across the land and the third and fourth generations may reflect such changes. These are questions which await further research . Should someone still be skeptical about the whole theory of the " Protestant ethic ," the various components of the Slovak community in America can be studied to provide a clearer answer. While 80 percent of Slovaks are Roman Catholics , about 15 percent are Lutherans and 2 percent are Calvinists. The latter two groups could be studied, and their attitudes towards life, work , education and their social mobility could be compared and contrasted with that of their Catholic counterparts. Such a study would supercede previous efforts because one would not have to control for ethnicity , time of arrival and other variables except religion. Such research could, hopefully , deal with the whole theory of the " Protestant ethic " to everyone 's satisfaction. Finally, the American concept of social mobility needs closer scrutiny. Should the majority of scholars continue to accept without question the ideal that everyone should constantly strive to move ''up and out ' '? What are the social consequences of such a philosophy? Is it good and necessary that everyone seek a higher education, for example? Who will sweep the streets, collect the garbage, fix the roads and man the factories if we continue to revere non-manual work so much? And, what are the consequences of an upwardly-mobile whitecollar worker moving from neighborhood to neighborhood and city to city all the time in order to keep climbing? Is this good for his family? Does it not in fact destroy extended family solidarity and breed an intense nuclear family that has no roots and no sense of community? (40) Indeed, the historian Rowland Berthoff has argued that America has in the past suffered from too much mobility and he predicted that this country 's many social ills would not disappear until a sense of community was restored in this land and this implied that Americans would have to stop moving around so much.(41) In this respect those Eastern Europeans who have stayed put and have tried to preserve their neighborhoods have been in the vanguard of social planning,. Perhaps Michael Novak is right. Perhaps we should stress extended family life, ethnic neighborhoods, stability and quietness again. (42) At least we should let those who prefer this way of life to live in peace , without bureaucratic harrassment. This would mean fighting �SLOVAKIA 89 "block-busting," "red-lining," freeway construction, and any other threats to community life that individuals or the government may pose. In short, it would call for respect for the pluralism of American life. It would mean toleration for the Catholic alternative to the ''Protestant ethic.'' FOOTNOTES (1) Berkeley , 1959. (2) Cambridge, Mass., 1975 . (3) Ibid ., pp. 99-100 . (4) Slouenskje narodiije nouini (Bratislava), November 18, 1845, p. 125. (5) N<i.rodni hl<i.snik (Martin), August 31, 1868, p . 178; October 31, 1868, p . 225; and May 31, 1871, p . 135 . (6) Obzor (Skalica), January 5, 1872 and January 5, 1881. (7) Julius Mesaros et al. , Dejiny Slouenska II: Od Roku 1848 do 1900 (A History of Slovakia , II: From 1848 to 1900) (Bratislava, 1968) , 264 ; and Dom a Skala (Ruzomberok), ill (1887) , 23-25. (8) Zipser Batte (Levoca), No. 29, 1905; and Jozef Gregor-Tajovsky , "Vychodne Slovensko " (Eastern Slovakia) , N<i.rodny Kalendar, 1913 (Pittsburgh), 243-4 . (9) Minister of Education to the School Inspector of Spis, Slovak State Archives in Levoca , county Spis , Executive Council, 420, KB, 1877 ; the same, 462, 1881; the same, II , 181 , 1898 and the same again, II , 183, 1902. See also William P. Dillingham, Chairman, Reports of the Immigration Commission, Volume 3, 61st Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Document No . 756 (Washington, 1911), 84 for literacy rates. (10) Amerik<i.nsko-Slouenske Nouiny (Pittsburgh), February 2, 1893, p . 6; December 8, 1894, p . 8; January 8, 1895 , p . l; July 13 , 1895 , p . 4 ; April 28, 1898, p. 8. The quotation is from the first article . (11) N<i.rodny Kalend<i.r, 1899, 44-5; 1911, 59-64 and 224-8; and 1917, 222-4 . (12) Ibid. , 1917, 222 . (13) Dom a Skala, II (1886), 194; and ill (1887), 73. (14) See for example Nafa Z<i.staua (Presov) September 20, 1908, p . 2 and October 4, 1908, p. 2; Eperjes (Presov), September 1, 1913, p . l; August 15, 1913, p . 2; October 15 , 1914 , p . 3; andEghy<i.z Es Iskola (Presov), February 15, 1918, p . 69 . (15) Jednota (Cleveland), September 17, 1902, p . 3 ; October 1, 1902, p . 4; August 31 , 1904, p . 4; July 12 , 1905 , p . 4; July 26, 1905, p . 4 ; August 9, 1905, p. 4; February 7, 1906, p. 4; July 1, 1908, p . 4; August 19, 1908, p. 4; September 8, 1909, p . 4; February 16, 1910, p . 4 ; March 23, 1910, p . 4; July 27, 1910, p . 4; August 17, 1910, p . 4; September 2, 1910, p . 4 ; April 5, 1911, p . 4; and August 23, 1911 , p . 4. (16) Kalend<i.r Jednota, 1898 (Cleveland), 133-4 ; 1899, 135-6; 1902, 128-36; 1907, 120-3; 1908, 177-8; 1911, 29-31; 1913, 123-8 ; 1917, 83-5. (17) Ibid., 1898, 133. (18) Jednota, July 12, 1905, p . 4. (19) Kalend<i.r J ednota, 1907, 120-3. (20) Jednota, August 19, 1908 , p . 4. (21) N<i.rodnie nouiny, October 5, 1889, p . 3 and October 23, 1890, p . 3; Kalendar Jednota, 1930, 193-201. �90 SLOVAKIA (22) Barton, Peasants and Strangers , 149-50; M. Mark Stolarik, "Immigration and Urbanization: the Slovak Experience, 1870-1918," Ph .D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1974, pp. 165-6. (23) Ibid., Stolarik, 165-6. (24) Barton, Peasants and Strangers, 132 , 137 and Stolarik , "Immigration and Urbanization," 170. (25) N<irodne Nouiny (Pittsburgh) , June 2, 1910, p . 4. (26) Pavel Jarnarik , Vychoua dietok: prakticke n<iuody pre Slouenskych rodic:ou (The Raising of Children : Practical Advice for Slovak Parents) (Author ' s publication, Disputant , Virginia, 1913), 22. (27) Kalend<ir J ednota 1917, 83-5. (28) N<irodne Nouiny , June 2, 1910, p. 4. (29) Translated by Talcott Parsons (London, 1930). (30) New York, 1961. (31) Social Mobility in Industrial Society, 49-52 . (32) New York, 1963. (33) Ibid., p . 134. (34) See above page 6. (35) Rev . Michael A. McGuire, The New Baltimore Catechism and Mass (No. 2, Official Revised Edition, New York, 1941), p. 14. (36) Ibid. , p. 29. (37) All the scholars cited above - Lipset and Bendix , Lenski, Greeley and even Barton - accept this pattern. One who questions its wisdom is Richard Sennett in Families Against the City: Middle Class Homes in Industrial Chicago, 1872-1890 (Cambridge, 1970) . (38) Barton , Peasants and Strangers, 143. (39) Ibid., 172-3. (40) This was part of Richard Sennet's argumentt in Families Against the City, cited above . (41) See his An Unsettled People; Social Order and Disorder in American History (New York , 1971). (42) Novak makes this argument in his Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics: Politics and Culture in the Seventies (New York, 1972) and again in the two EMPAC! (Ethnic Millions Political Action Committee) statements of 1973 and 1975. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1977, Vol. 27 Description An account of the resource Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 80 SLOVAKIA Immigration, Education and the Social Mobility of Slovaks, 1870-1930* M. MARK STOLARIK In the last few decades the social mobility of ethnic groups in American society has drawn the attention of numerous scholars from a variety of disciplines. Their research has raised some important questions about the nature and meaning of this phenomenon. Particularly influential has been the work of the sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Reinhard Bendix. In their Social Mobility in Industrial Society, (1) Lipset and Bendix demonstrated that moving up or down the socio-economic ladder was an integral and continuing aspect of the process of industrialization. They did not explain, however, what caused some people to move up, others to remain where they were and others still to move down. Josef Barton, trained in both history and sociology, sought to answer these questions by comparing the relative rates of movement of three ethnic groups in Cleveland in Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians and Slovaks in an American City, 18901950. (2) Barton found that education, family size and the occupation of the father played a pivotal role in the traditional American '' success story." The Rumanians, who came from peasant backgrounds similar to that of the Slovaks and Italians, stressed extended public education for their children, they limited the size of their families and their fathers tended to move from blue-collar to white-collar occupations more often than did Italians or Slovaks. As a result, more than fifty per cent of Rumanian children moved from manual to non-manual employment in the period 1900-1950 while less than twenty per cent of Italians and Slovaks did so. (3) What Barton did not explain was why the Rumanians had such a strong commitment to education, to small families and why the fathers were so mobile in contrast to Italians and Slovaks. Part of the answer lies, I submit, in the Old World background of the various groups and • This paper was presented to the Bicentennial Symposium on "Religious Freedom: Churches and Ethnic Communities in the American City, " at Saint Joseph's College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 21 , 1975. Reprinted from Immigrants and Religion in Urban America, (edited by Randall Miller and Thomas Marzik, copyright 1977) with the kind permission of the original publisher, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, Pa. SLOVAKIA 81 in their attitude towards life as molded by their religions. To illustrate this hypothesis the Slovak experience will be examined in detail. Before the mass migration of Slovaks to America began in the 1880's, lay leaders in the Old World had stressed the value of education for social mobility and their people seemed to agree with them. As early as 1845, for example, Jan Cipka, a student at Vienna's polytechnic institute, anticipated the abolition of serfdom and urged his countrymen to prepare themselves for the approaching industrial age by sending their children to technical schools. (4) The editors of N arodni hlasnik agreed and in subsequent decades urged the founding of Slovak trade and high schools.(5) The editors of Obzor added the sobering comment that "knowledge is power." (6) Reacting to the urgings of their leaders, the Slovak people built and supported educational institutions whenever possible. By 1870 they had established three 'gymnasiums' (high schools) and operated 1,822 religious grammar schools, with the result that every second village had its own schoolhouse. So successful was the Slovak educational system that by 1885 it enrolled 88 percent of all children in its districts , the highest percentage in the entire Kingdom of Hungary.(7) The Hungarian government, rather than applauding such efforts, set out to thwart them because they conflicted with its official policy of Magyarization. Shortly after they reached the famous Compromise of 1867 with the Habsburgs, the Magyars of Hungary set out to assimilate their subject nationalities by attacking their school systems. Thus, they closed the three Slovak gymnasiums in 1874 on the pretext that they propagated "Pan-Slavism". Furthermore, the Minister of Education seized upon the fact that many village schools were primitive structures and over-crowded to nationalize them and turn them into public institutions. By 1905 the Slovaks of Hungary had only 241 schools left under their control.(8) Not only did the Magyars turn Slovak schools into public institutions but they also set out to eradicate the use of all non-Magyar languages in them. In 1877 the Budapest parliament banned all nonMagyar texts and two years later made the teaching of Magyar compulsory in all schools. Furthermore, starting in 1881 it paid teachers a bonus of 100 gold forints (equivalent to a year's wages) if they did a good job in Magyarizing their pupils. Those teachers who refused to cooperate were fired and students who balked at the new rules were expelled. The net result was a decline in Slovak literacy from 88 percent in 1885 to 76 percent in 1911. The Magyar public school system had virtually destroyed education in the Slovak language by the First World War.(9) While the Hungarian government worked at assimilating its subject nationalities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a very large section of the population began to emigrate to 82 SLOVAKIA America. Poor economic conditions in the Old World compelled hundreds of thousands of Slovaks to seek a livelihood in the New. By 1920 more than 600,000 of them lived in America, toiling in the mines, mills and refineries of the industrial Northeast. They were followed by a small group of intellectuals, both lay and religious, who fled national persecution in Hungary and who were determined to preserve Slovak life in the United States. Educational conditions in Hungary had a profound effect upon the thinking of those intellectuals who left for America. They brought with them an understandable contempt for public schools and they expressed these thoughts in their press. In an analysis of the nondenominational Amerik<insko-Slovenske Noviny, the largest and most influential Slovak newspaper in America before 1914, I found five articles concerned with education between the years 1893 and 1902 and these expressed nine discrete statements about it. Four declared the purpose of education to be the preservation of the children's language and nationality, three stressed the moral value of education and only one affirmed schooling to be a process of self improvement. Only once did the editors suggest that parents send their children to public schools if no parochial ones existed. The main complaint the editors made was that public schools "assimilate our children and turn them against their parents. " (10) In an analysis of the N<irodny Kalend<ir, the almanac of the secular National Slovak Society, I found similar opinions in four articles concerned with education between 1899 and 1917. Three of six ideas expressed in these articles stressed the need to preserve the children's language and heritage through schools, one emphasized the need to preserve the students' morals through schooling while only one each pointed to the value of education for self-improvement and social mobility.(11) Indeed, one contributor denounced public schools because "whether in America or in Hungary, (they) denationalize our children." (12) Thus, secular Slovak leaders in the United States no longer shared the enthusiasm for education that their colleagues back home had expressed in earlier decades. Religious leaders, on the other hand , stressed the moral value of education. In the old World even the Lutheran editors of Dom a Skala (Home and School) labelled public schools as •'bastard children of the church and state." They quite correctly charged the government with using state schools to "wage war upon the nationalities" and they demanded a return to good religious instruction because ••a moral unbringing is the chief aim of school and education is only a means of achieving this end."(13) Roman Catholic editors agreed that the chief aim of schooling was to instill "morality" in children. However, since most of their educational journals in Hungary were sponsored by the government, they extended this aim to include not only piety and good behavior but also loyalty to the Magyar state.(14) SLOVAKIA 83 Slovak Catholic leaders in America , meanwhile, cared little about loyalty to the Magyar state but they did continue to stress the moral value of education. In an analysis of the leading Catholic Slovak newspaper Jednota over the years 1902-1911 , for instance, I found seventeen articles concerned with education and these contained thirtyone statements about its worth. Eleven times the editors praised parochial schools for cultivating their children's morality , and an equal numbe r of times they stressed the role of such institutions in preserving the next generation's ethnicity. Only three statements admitted the value of education for social mobility and only once did they speak of schooling as a means of self-improvement. And, while on three occasions the editors pointed to the good example set by other nationalities in parochial education, only twice did they suggest sending Slovak children to non-Slovak Catholic schools if they had none of their own.(15) The Jednota Kalend<ir , almanac of the First Catholic Slovak Union, meanwhile was even more emphatic about the moral value of education. This annual published eight articles about schooling between 1898 and 1917 and these contained fifteen statements about its worth. Eight of them stressed the role of Catholic institutions in cultivating a child's morality while four added that they also preserved the children's nationality . Only once did a statement appear which praised education as a vehicle for social mobility. Similarly , only once did an author suggest that children attend public schools or parochial schools of another nationality if they had none of their own. (16) Clearly, then, Catholic leaders valued parochial schools above all else, they worried much more about their children's moral and national upbringing than about social mobility and they had no use for public schools. Indeed, when one looks at the reaction of Slovak Roman Catholic priests towards state schools, one finds only the harshest condemnation of these institutions. The Reverend Andrej Pavco, for instance, blamed the supposed decline of morality in America at the turn of the century on the "anti-religious " nature of public schools which " made loafers of all girls who attended them. " (17) Father Stefan Furdek agreed and further charged that state schools provided "an anti-God education" with the result that America had the highest divorce rate in the world. (18) Father Jan Porubsky added that "life is a preparation for God" and American public schools ignored this, causing the United States to lead the world in immorality and crime. Porubsky especially singled out trade schools because they allegedly produced " illiterate " children and propagated "atheism." He added that " these are the places from which cities get their vagabonds, suburbs their tramps and murderers and the gallows their offerings. " (19) In a more subtle article the Reverend Stefan Furdek analyzed both school systems and, in condemning public institutions, revealed the 84 SLOVAKIA basis of his Catholic philosophy. Public schools , he pointed out, were free . They supplied books and clothes to poor children and had nurses to care for the sick. Classes consisted of only thirty to forty pupils taught by teachers with diplomas and a good command of English. Slovak parochial schools, on the other hand, required the parents to pay tuition, their classes were overcrowded and the teachers often lacked diplomas . In spite of these faults, Furdek found parochial schools superior to public ones because they taught catechism. He declared that ''the saving of souls is more important than a good secular education." In other words, schools did not exist to promote social mobility but to give the child a decent moral upbringing . He closed his argument with the revealing statement that "a Gypsy cannot read music, but he can sure play the violin!" (20) Since both secular and religious leaders of the Slovak community in America had such negative attitudes towards public schools, and since the majority of Slovaks (80 percent) were Roman Catholics, it became almost inevitable that they would build as many parochial schools as possible and that they would send their children to these or to other Catholic institutions. The first Slovak Catholic school was built in Streator, Illinois in 1889. By 1930, more than half of the 241 Slovak parishes in America had their own schools.(21) Furthermore, Josef Barton and I have discovered that wherever the Slovak community had its own school, as at St. Wendelin's parish in Cleveland or at St. Peter's in Fort William (now Thunder Bay, Ontario), the majority (between 60 percent and 80 percent) of eligible Slovak children did attend it. (22) Where they did not have their own school, as at St. Cyril's in Minneapolis before 1938, almost half of the children attended parochial schools of other nationalities. (23) Thus , whenever possible, Slovak parents heeded the advice of their leaders and sent their children to parochial schools. Slovak parents also seemed to agree with their priests' teachings that the chief aim of schooling was not necessarily to promote social mobility here on earth but to prepare for the afterlife . Thus, once one had acquired the "three R's" and knew one's catechism, extended schooling became superfluous . This was clearly evident in the school attendance records of Slovak children in Cleveland, Minneapolis and Thunder Bay. In all three cities more than 60 percent of these children dropped out between the sixth and ninth grades in the period 19101940. This contrasted with an average American drop-out rate of 44 percent over the same period . Only twenty percent graduated from high school.(24) A few lay leaders recognized this phenomenon and complained about it. Jozef Joscak, editor of N<irodne Noviny, accused his American countrymen of "caring less about education than had Slovaks in the Old Country."(25) Pavel Jamarik, a perceptive social critic, charged that American-Slovak parents "only sent their children to high school if they wanted them to become priests." (26) Finally, SLOVAKIA 85 Michal Bosak , a banker and one of America's first Slovak millionaires, advised parents to at least send their youngsters to commerical schools instead of into the mines and factories, so as to enable them to compete in America' s capitalist society. (27) Such advice often fell on deaf ears, for, as Jozef Joscak had earlier concluded, American Slovaks "had their minds on other things . " (28) The '' other things '' that J oscak referred to were a way of life that rejected the basic tenets of the ''Protestant ethic.' ' The German sociologist Max Weber had observed that Catholic and Protestant peoples at the tum of the century had different attitudes towards life and he developed an elaborate theory to explain these differences. It appeared in his celebrated book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. (29) Among other things, Weber theorized that the Protestant Reformation , especially its Calvinist branch , helped bring about the modem Capitalist world because Calvinists regarded work as a glorification of God rather than as a curse that followed the fall of Adam, as Medieval Catholics had believed. Furthermore , Weber continued, since Calvinists believed in predestination, they stressed self-discipline, education and a constant striving to improve one's position in life. If one did, indeed, improve oneself, the Calvinists believed, it was proof that one was saved because God ' s grace descended only upon the 'elect.' Weber's theory has caused quite a debate in academic circles , with some scholars arguing that he was correct and others denouncing his views. One of his most enthusiastic defenders has been Gerhard Lenski. In his Religious Factor: A Sociological Study of Religion's Impact on Politics, Economics and Family Life, (30) Lenski focused on 658 people of various religious persuasions in Detroit and sought to test the Weber thesis. He found that the Protestants in his sample constantly strove harder to succeed and to climb the socio-economic ladder than did Catholics , and they were successful in doing so much more often than Catholics and thus he concluded that Weber was essentially correct. The Catholics , Lenski added, were held back by an attitude that stressed the after-life rather than success in this world. While Lenski defended Weber, many more critics have attacked the latter's theories. Lipset and Bendix, for instance, argued that ethnicity was far more important than religious persuasion in American social mobility . They attributed the low rate of social mobility of Eastern Europeans as compared to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants to the later arrival of the former to this country. It was only a matter of time , they asserted, before third and fourth generation Poles , Italians and Slovaks caught up with British and Scandinavian peoples in the United States.(31) Similarly, Father Andrew Greeley, in Religion and Career: A Study of College Graduates(32) bent over backwards to try to disprove both Weber's and Lenski's theories . By using the resources of the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), which had ad- 86 SLOVAKIA ministered questionnaires to 33,000 college graduates in 1961 , Greeley tried to show that Catholics and Protestants had basically the same goals and aspirations in life and that one was as likely to be successful as the other. He did admit, however, that arriving Catholic immigrants may have been influenced by what he called a ''folk element'' which was anti-intellectual, but he saw this rapidly disappearing. (33) I see several flaws in Greeley's research. First of all, the sample he used tested only college graduates ' opinions, not their actual performances . Opinions do not necessarily reflect what people do after they graduate. Nor are the opinions of college graduates a good indicator of what the rest of their ethnic community may be thinking. Furthermore , these students may have answered the questions the way they guessed was expected of them by a society that worships social mobility . Greeley also did not differentiate enough between ethnic groups. I suspect that the vast majority of his Catholic students were German and Irish. These two peoples have been in America much longer than Eastern Europeans , they have had greater contact with White Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the past, both in the Old World and in the New, and they may even have begun to accept the "Protestant ethic" as they have gradually assimilated into American society. Finally , Greeley paid absolutely no attention to what the Catholic church has been teaching its people about the goal of life . Let us focus on the last point for the moment. Recall the advice of Father Porubsky that " life is a preparation for God" and Father Furdek 's pronouncement that " the saving of souls is much more important than a good secular education. '' (34) Should we dismiss these as the words of a couple of naive priests or do they represent official church teaching? The Baltimore Catechism which until Vatican II had been more important to most American Catholics than the Bible, since it was used in most Parochial schools, essentially repeats Porubsky's and Furdek's teachings . In the first lesson, dealing with the purpose of life, the question is asked, "Why did God make us?" The answer given is: "God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven. " The next question asks, "What must we do to gain the happiness of heaven? ' ' and the reply is '' ... we must know, love and serve God in this world."(35) Nowhere does it say that we must strive to better ourselves on this earth, to work hard, to study and make money and to climb the social ladder. Indeed, the only mention of "work" that I could find in the Catechism is a derogatory one. In the lesson on the creation and fall of man, we read that because of Adam's original sin, " we have to die, to suffer, to study, to work .. . ! '' (36) In other words , studying and work are a curse that Adam brought upon us because of his disobedience to God. This teaching is the exact opposite of the ''Protestant ethic' ' and it has reached and influenced millions of Catholics over the last century. SLOVAKIA 87 Having surveyed Slovak Catholic attitudes towards both education and work, and having discovered their negative attitudes towards both, we are now in a better position to explain their low rate of social mobility. ' 'Success'' in America has traditionally been viewed through White Anglo-Saxon Protestant eyes. Sociologists who measure success reflect such a bias. They always look for people moving up from bluecollar to white-collar and thence to professional occupations. A corollary is that once one ' 'succeeds,'' one moves out of the central city to the more affluent suburbs. This pattern of "up and out" is usually accepted as the only meaningful form of social mobility in America.(37) There is another approach to life, however, one seldom discussed by American scholars, which is typified by the Catholic Slovak experience. Josef Barton discovered it in his study of Rumanians, Italians and Slovaks in Cleveland, although he did not pursue the subject to its final conclusion. Thus, in looking at the ways in which the three immigrant groups reacted to the American situation, Barton found that almost half of the Slovak men in his sample became skilled workers and-or acquired some property in their original neighborhoods of settlement. Furthermore, they had large families which often lived in the extended form and this increased their overall family income. (38) Here , then was a different way of ''making it. '' It was all right to be a blue-collar worker, to drop out of school at an early age and to live in the same neighborhood all of your life. Stability, rather than movement, characterized the people of this community and they seemed to be satisfied with it. Even though Barton recognized that he had discovered a different approach to social mobility, he did not really approve of it. The Rumanian example of " up and out" impressed him as the " classic rise" of an immigrant group and he left us with the impression that somehow the Slovaks had made a mistake.(39) Whether or not they had, indeed, made a mistake depends largely upon their and the observer's perception of life. Is it one's goal to constantly strive to improve oneself through education, work and the accumulation of wealth here on earth? Or is it more important to lead a moral life, to accept one 's status, no matter how low, and strive for the higher goal of everlasting salvation? The answer is usually very personal but much depends on the teachings of one's church and on the religiosity of the individual. The majority of Slovak Catholics, I submit, were very religious and did heed the teachings of their leaders and the church, at least in the first two generations. Thus, they cared more for the moral upbringing of their children than for success here on earth and this was reflected in their condemnation of public schools, in their praise for Catholic education and in their acceptance of blue-collar work and life in ethnic neighborhoods. 88 SLOVAKIA But what of third and fourth generation American Slovaks? Do they perceive life in the same way as their parents and grandparents? Do they have the same attitudes towards work and school, family and neighborhood? We do not know because no one has yet researched this group . If Andrew Greeley' s studies of German and Irish Catholics are correct, then perhaps the " Protestant ethic " will eventually rub off on Slovak Catholics as they become more assimilated into American society. Perhaps the growing nationwide decline in parochial school attendance will aid in this process . Indeed, Catholic values generally may be changing across the land and the third and fourth generations may reflect such changes. These are questions which await further research . Should someone still be skeptical about the whole theory of the " Protestant ethic ," the various components of the Slovak community in America can be studied to provide a clearer answer. While 80 percent of Slovaks are Roman Catholics , about 15 percent are Lutherans and 2 percent are Calvinists. The latter two groups could be studied, and their attitudes towards life, work , education and their social mobility could be compared and contrasted with that of their Catholic counterparts. Such a study would supercede previous efforts because one would not have to control for ethnicity , time of arrival and other variables except religion. Such research could, hopefully , deal with the whole theory of the " Protestant ethic " to everyone 's satisfaction. Finally, the American concept of social mobility needs closer scrutiny. Should the majority of scholars continue to accept without question the ideal that everyone should constantly strive to move ''up and out ' '? What are the social consequences of such a philosophy? Is it good and necessary that everyone seek a higher education, for example? Who will sweep the streets, collect the garbage, fix the roads and man the factories if we continue to revere non-manual work so much? And, what are the consequences of an upwardly-mobile whitecollar worker moving from neighborhood to neighborhood and city to city all the time in order to keep climbing? Is this good for his family? Does it not in fact destroy extended family solidarity and breed an intense nuclear family that has no roots and no sense of community? (40) Indeed, the historian Rowland Berthoff has argued that America has in the past suffered from too much mobility and he predicted that this country 's many social ills would not disappear until a sense of community was restored in this land and this implied that Americans would have to stop moving around so much.(41) In this respect those Eastern Europeans who have stayed put and have tried to preserve their neighborhoods have been in the vanguard of social planning,. Perhaps Michael Novak is right. Perhaps we should stress extended family life, ethnic neighborhoods, stability and quietness again. (42) At least we should let those who prefer this way of life to live in peace , without bureaucratic harrassment. This would mean fighting SLOVAKIA 89 "block-busting," "red-lining," freeway construction, and any other threats to community life that individuals or the government may pose. In short, it would call for respect for the pluralism of American life. It would mean toleration for the Catholic alternative to the ''Protestant ethic.'' FOOTNOTES (1) Berkeley , 1959. (2) Cambridge, Mass., 1975 . (3) Ibid ., pp. 99-100 . (4) Slouenskje narodiije nouini (Bratislava), November 18, 1845, p. 125. (5) N<i.rodni hl<i.snik (Martin), August 31, 1868, p . 178; October 31, 1868, p . 225; and May 31, 1871, p . 135 . (6) Obzor (Skalica), January 5, 1872 and January 5, 1881. (7) Julius Mesaros et al. , Dejiny Slouenska II: Od Roku 1848 do 1900 (A History of Slovakia , II: From 1848 to 1900) (Bratislava, 1968) , 264 ; and Dom a Skala (Ruzomberok), ill (1887) , 23-25. (8) Zipser Batte (Levoca), No. 29, 1905; and Jozef Gregor-Tajovsky , "Vychodne Slovensko " (Eastern Slovakia) , N<i.rodny Kalendar, 1913 (Pittsburgh), 243-4 . (9) Minister of Education to the School Inspector of Spis, Slovak State Archives in Levoca , county Spis , Executive Council, 420, KB, 1877 ; the same, 462, 1881; the same, II , 181 , 1898 and the same again, II , 183, 1902. See also William P. Dillingham, Chairman, Reports of the Immigration Commission, Volume 3, 61st Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Document No . 756 (Washington, 1911), 84 for literacy rates. (10) Amerik<i.nsko-Slouenske Nouiny (Pittsburgh), February 2, 1893, p . 6; December 8, 1894, p . 8; January 8, 1895 , p . l; July 13 , 1895 , p . 4 ; April 28, 1898, p. 8. The quotation is from the first article . (11) N<i.rodny Kalend<i.r, 1899, 44-5; 1911, 59-64 and 224-8; and 1917, 222-4 . (12) Ibid. , 1917, 222 . (13) Dom a Skala, II (1886), 194; and ill (1887), 73. (14) See for example Nafa Z<i.staua (Presov) September 20, 1908, p . 2 and October 4, 1908, p. 2; Eperjes (Presov), September 1, 1913, p . l; August 15, 1913, p . 2; October 15 , 1914 , p . 3; andEghy<i.z Es Iskola (Presov), February 15, 1918, p . 69 . (15) Jednota (Cleveland), September 17, 1902, p . 3 ; October 1, 1902, p . 4; August 31 , 1904, p . 4; July 12 , 1905 , p . 4; July 26, 1905, p . 4 ; August 9, 1905, p. 4; February 7, 1906, p. 4; July 1, 1908, p . 4; August 19, 1908, p. 4; September 8, 1909, p . 4; February 16, 1910, p . 4 ; March 23, 1910, p . 4; July 27, 1910, p . 4; August 17, 1910, p . 4; September 2, 1910, p . 4 ; April 5, 1911, p . 4; and August 23, 1911 , p . 4. (16) Kalend<i.r Jednota, 1898 (Cleveland), 133-4 ; 1899, 135-6; 1902, 128-36; 1907, 120-3; 1908, 177-8; 1911, 29-31; 1913, 123-8 ; 1917, 83-5. (17) Ibid., 1898, 133. (18) Jednota, July 12, 1905, p . 4. (19) Kalend<i.r J ednota, 1907, 120-3. (20) Jednota, August 19, 1908 , p . 4. (21) N<i.rodnie nouiny, October 5, 1889, p . 3 and October 23, 1890, p . 3; Kalendar Jednota, 1930, 193-201. 90 SLOVAKIA (22) Barton, Peasants and Strangers , 149-50; M. Mark Stolarik, "Immigration and Urbanization: the Slovak Experience, 1870-1918," Ph .D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1974, pp. 165-6. (23) Ibid., Stolarik, 165-6. (24) Barton, Peasants and Strangers, 132 , 137 and Stolarik , "Immigration and Urbanization," 170. (25) N<irodne Nouiny (Pittsburgh) , June 2, 1910, p . 4. (26) Pavel Jarnarik , Vychoua dietok: prakticke n<iuody pre Slouenskych rodic:ou (The Raising of Children : Practical Advice for Slovak Parents) (Author ' s publication, Disputant , Virginia, 1913), 22. (27) Kalend<ir J ednota 1917, 83-5. (28) N<irodne Nouiny , June 2, 1910, p. 4. (29) Translated by Talcott Parsons (London, 1930). (30) New York, 1961. (31) Social Mobility in Industrial Society, 49-52 . (32) New York, 1963. (33) Ibid., p . 134. (34) See above page 6. (35) Rev . Michael A. McGuire, The New Baltimore Catechism and Mass (No. 2, Official Revised Edition, New York, 1941), p. 14. (36) Ibid. , p. 29. (37) All the scholars cited above - Lipset and Bendix , Lenski, Greeley and even Barton - accept this pattern. One who questions its wisdom is Richard Sennett in Families Against the City: Middle Class Homes in Industrial Chicago, 1872-1890 (Cambridge, 1970) . (38) Barton , Peasants and Strangers, 143. (39) Ibid., 172-3. (40) This was part of Richard Sennet's argumentt in Families Against the City, cited above . (41) See his An Unsettled People; Social Order and Disorder in American History (New York , 1971). (42) Novak makes this argument in his Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics: Politics and Culture in the Seventies (New York, 1972) and again in the two EMPAC! (Ethnic Millions Political Action Committee) statements of 1973 and 1975.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Immigration, Education, and the Social Mobility of Slovaks, 1870-1930 Description An account of the resource M. Mark Stolarik Slovakia, Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977 pp. 80-90 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/4bc69c29bb870a250fa1b6758b8d6a87.pdf 91d342c6840a65d6345652c59f188e97 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 9 The Lattimer Massacre and Its Sources GEORGE A. TURNER ''The affair at Hazleton yesterday is one of those terrible catastrophies the news of which simply stuns the community and paralyzes for a moment the power of thought." (1) The above editorial comment was a reaction to one of the worst acts of violence in the history of the American labor movement. The tragedy occurred at Laimer, a small coal mining patch, one and a half miles northeast of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh region of the anthracite coal fields on September 10, 1897. A group of nearly four hundred striking, unarmed, immigrant mine workers adhering to the control of their leaders, approached Lattimer to encourage the employees of Calvin Pardee & Company to join them in a work stoppage. They encountered Sheriff James Martin of Luzerne County and his posse of eighty-six deputies who viewed them as enemies of public order and the wellspring of lawlessness. When the marching laborers arrived at Lattimer in midafternoon, the Sheriff approached them, ordered them to halt, disperse, and return to their homes. Within a few minutes an altercation erupted between the Sheriff and some of the strikers at which point the deputies aimed their rifles and fired directly into the group of strikers. Instantly, their gunshots produced a carnage of blood and death among the immigrants - a massacre that left nineteen dead and thirty-eight wounded.(2) Peace officers were unscathed in their deadly assault on the defenseless workers who had been peacefully assembled on a public highway. This incident, lasting only a few minutes, became one of the most devastating acts of public authorities attacking, wounding and killing American laborers. The next day newspaper headlines depicted the killings as an atrocity. Regional papers denounced the shooting: "Yesterday's Butchery, A Mob of Heartless Deputies Fire Into a Throng of Miners and Accomplish Deadly Work" ;(3) "D of Blood at Lattimer" ;(4) "Strikers Shot in Cold Blood" ;(5) and "Looks Like Butchery" .(6) The account quickly spread beyond the anthracite region. Major metropolitan newspapers depicted the shooting in equally stark terms: ''The Killing of Miners at Lattimer Was Butchery'';(7) ''Mowed Down By Deputies" ;(8) "Laid Low By Bullets, the Men Fell Like Sheep Before the Murderous Winchesters of the Officials" ;(9) "Homestead Battle Thrown In The Shade" ;(10) and "Dead in Heaps, Deputies Fire on Miners at Lattimer, Penn ., Men Were Huddled Closely and Slaughter Was Terrific''. (11) The killing of the strikers by the Sheriff's deputies was a major national news story for several days prompting a �10 SLOVAKIA very basic question: Why did this senseless, violent act of shooting unarmed immigrant workers occur? To answer this inquiry requires an understanding of nativism found in the hard coal fields of Pennsylvania and an identification of those factors affecting the lives and working conditions of the immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. Slavic and Italian immigrants began arriving in the eight Pennsylvania counties comprising the anthracite region in the late 1870' s and early 1880 's with nearly all taking employment in mining and by the late 1890's outnumbered German and English-speaking workers .(12) The magnitude of this immigration flow from Poland, Austria-Hungary , Russia, and Italy was evident; in 1880 they totaled only 1,925 , in 1890 they were 32,007, and ten years later their numbe had more than doubled to 89,328. At the same time the foreign born from England , Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Germany decreased by 2.2 percent from 102,421 in 1880 to 100,269 in 1900; in particular, the demographic composition of this group in Luzerne County revealed a decline from ninety-four percent in 1880, to sixty-eight percent in 1890, and a further drop to forty-nine percent in 1900. These southern and eastern Europeans grew to an ever increasing percent of the foreignborn population in the anthracite coal fields: 1. 7 percent in 1880, 25 .2 percent in 1890 , and 46.1 percent in 1900.(13) Such a substantial and rapid growth of alien people created apprehension and anxieties leading to resentment and nativistic sentiments among the AngloSaxon population , their antipathy stemming from cultural differences and fear of economic competition for jobs. There was little to encourage the necessary processes for immigrants to be readily assimilated into the society. New arrivals had a distinctive culture, language , religion, and life style that were strikingly different , giving rise to suspicion and contempt from the native population and other established ethnic groups. Eastern and southern Europeans established numerous ethnic societies which perpetuated their pride , customs, and traditions . Since their religion was Catholic , they organized separate parishes along nationality lines thus sustaining ethnic identification. Marriage records reveal a consistent pattern of immigrants marrying only members of their own nationality. Divisions caused by factionalism in this polyglot society were difficult to bridge. Newspapers did not assume any responsibility for promoting harmony and assimilation among the diverse nationalities, and public schools did not lead in the task of Americanizing children of foreign cultures until the early 1900's . School attendance by immigrant children was minimal and those who did attend encountered language barriers. (14) Anglo-Saxons were finding it difficult to accept a pluralistic society in which they were becoming a numerical minority. This development fostered nativist sentiment , causing AngloSaxons to have ce rtain perceptions of the immigrants that inhibited �SLOVAKIA 11 assimilation of the aliens contributing to their separation and isolation in the society. Attitudes of non-acceptance found expression in opprobrious terms for the new arrivals: " Pollocks, " "Huns," and " Dagoes," all denoting inferiority and disdain. Polish, Italian, and Slavic celebrations for marriages and their baptismal customs were denigrated and viewed as outlandish. A common belief among the native population was that a '' ... Slav does not know how to enjoy himself save by getting drunk, he does not know how to show kindness to friends save by making them drink." (15) Stories circulated that these new aliens participated in wife-selling, practiced polyandry, and were responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime, (16) contributing to the viewpoint that they were '' ... much more dangerous to the body politic than the excluded Chinese; . . . do not hesitate to use dynamite if they desire to blow up the home of one whom they particularly hate."(17) Rejection of the new immigrants grew in part from a feeling on the part of Anglo-Saxons that they belonged to a superior and more progressive race of people. The way that immigrants lived reinforced feelings of superiority in nativist thinking. Due to economic factors, lack of acceptance, and the desire of ethnic groups to have their own neighborhoods, ghettoes emerged in different communities. Since houses in ghettoes were crowded and substandard, outsiders viewed living conditions as unpleasant , unattractive, offensive, and the area as a tough and brawlly place to live. "The Slavs are physically strong and can flourish in an environment that would be fatal to more sensitive organisms." (18) Supporting this dislike of southern and eastern Europeans, the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1895 passed a resolution calling upon Congress to enact legislation to restrict immigration. The resolution clearly reflected a protectionist attitude as seen in its opening statement: '' That we recognize in the constant influx of an ignorant and vicious class of immigrants a great and growing evil highly injurious to American workingmen and dangerous to American institutions." (19) Again, two years later legislators passed another similar resolution.(20) Native Americans and older immigrants from northern Europe came to the conclusion they were being invaded and overcome by hordes of undesirable people who would undermine their communities. Of equal importance and of more immediate concern was competition by Slavic and Italian immigrants for jobs and wages in the labor market. Nativist sentiment held that railroads and coal operators enticed immigrants to settle in the region in order to increase the supply of labor which, in turn, had the effect of keeping wage rates down. (21) This charge against railroad and coal operators, however, was not completely true. It was well known that contract miners, who were primarily Anglo-Saxons, had the best and highest paying positions outside the mine supervisory jobs. They were also employers and were '' ... themselves largely responsible for the employment of �12 SLOVAKIA the non-English speaking foreigners. Instead of employing English laborers at the regular wage week the miners would employ a big Slav or Hun cheaply, increasing his own pay check quite an amount. His boasting of the 'snap' caused others to do the same."(22) Job competition increased as immigrants took any kind of work they could find in and around the mines. No matter what employment they found their wages were four or five times higher than what they previously earned in the native land.(23) Anxious to find work, newcomers took the unskilled positions of slate pickers, door-boys and helpers, drivers , runners, and laborers, willing to endure dangerous work and inconveniences which older workers refused to accept. With the passage of time and experience they began to compete for the higher paying, skilled positions held by English-speaking and German coal workers. Established workers contended that since new immigrants were willing to accept lower wages and even wage cuts to get and hold jobs, they were undermining the standard of living and forcing many older laborers to forego mining in the mines and to leave the area to find new employment. Anglo-Saxon workers became bitter and antagonistic which impaired the development of any class solidarity among the anthracite workers.(24) This led to discriminatory and exclusionary practices toward eastern and southern Europeans. The history of the anthracite labor movement revealed that the Knights of Labor, dominated by Irish, and the Amalgamated Association of Miners and Mine Laborers, controlled by Americans, English, Welsh, and Germans, were ineffective in enrolling these workers into their ranks in the 1880's and 1890's. Leaders of organized labor vacillated, were ambivalent, and showed a lack of real interest in encouraging new immigrants to join the union movement. On certain occasions labor organizations even attacked Slavic groups for undermining the labor movement. Failure of the unions to bridge ethnic differences was a major factor in thwarting endeavors to establish successful collective bargaining with the region's coal operators and to gain better conditions of employment.(25) Whenever new immigrants supported organized labor, they generally joined locals organized along ethnic lines; this at first weakened the interests of mine workers. English-speaking officials retained control of union affairs, further contributing to a lack of fusion and interchange of interests of mine workers. English-speaking officials retained control of union affairs, further contributing to a lack of fusion and interchange of interests and ideas between the AngloSaxons and the new immigrants.(26) When the United Mine Workers of America first appeared in the area in the early 1890's, it made little headway in recruiting the Slavic and Italian immigrants who were fast becoming the major segment of the anthracite labor force.(27) Finally, when U.M.W.A. became firmly established after 1900 and merged the 'old' and 'new' immigrants together, each local retained ethnic �SLOVAKIA 13 distinction , making the union an alliance of distrustful nationality groups .(28) Established miners, who supported organized labor and held the higher paying and more desirable jobs, sought to protect their positions and perpetuate their advantage. They were fearful that the new immigrants who entered the coal fields as unskilled laborers would in time acquire needed skills to pass into the ranks of skilled miners which had the highest pay scale ; older workers also believed that when new immigrants became employed in mines the accident rate increased due to their lack of mining experience and inability to communicate in English .(29) State mine inspector, James Roderick, of Luzerne and Carbon Counties supported this viewpoint and asserted in 1883 that the rate of accidents increased as the influx of new laborers grew, whereas the older miners were more careful in their work. (30) Therefore, AngloSaxon miners supported the enactment of the miners' examination law passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1889. The official title of the legislation, " An act for the examination of miners in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania and to prevent the employment of incompetent persons as miners in anthracite coal mines,'' aptly described its intent. The law created examination boards in various districts in the anthracite region consisting of skilled miners having at least five years of experience and appointed by the presiding judge in a county . It stipulated that no coal company could legally employ a person as a miner who did not have a certificate of competency issued by a miners' examination board ; in order for a person to receive a miner's certificate he had to provide evidence of having at least two years experience as a mine laborer in Pennsylvania.(31) In the legislative debate on this proposal, coal operators were accused of allowing incompetent people to work in mines , thus contributing to large numbers of fatalities and injuries. Many hoped that the new law would reduce the dangers of working in anthracite mines . Aside from viewing this act as a safety measure, there was a clear inference that the law would also help to check the influx and competition of labor from the new immigrants. Representative Caffery commenting on the proposed law declared that it could prevent '' ... incompetent men to come here from Europe, three or four of whom will be rushed into one chamber, thus dividing up the work.'' (32) Caffery's remark clearly made reference to the recent European influx into the anthracite region that had aroused resentments among older miners. In time it became apparent that expectations concerning the miner 's examination law would not be realized. Anglo-Saxon miners recognized that asking a few questions by miners ' examination boards could not really assure the competency of an applicant. In the examination of a non-English speaking person, the interpreter often aided and embellished the individual' s response. Furthermore, it �14 SLOVAKIA became a fact of life, due to fraud and corruption, that certificates became articles of merchandise.(33) From the time the law went into effect until 1897 there were several attempts to modify or even to repeal the statute . The law, rather than excluding unskilled laborers from becoming miners, had, in effect, due to the requirement of two years of mining experience in Pennsylvania, made ineligible the experienced miners who came from other parts of the country or Europe to secure jobs in the anthracite coal fields . These men were unwilling to work two years as a mine laborers in order to qualify for a miner's certificate. Instead, this simply assured that the new immigrants in time would move into the ranks of skilled miners - the higher-paying positions normally held by Anglo-Saxon workers. Representative Miller, whose district included Luzerne county, substantiated this point: ''Under the present act no one can receive a certificate as a miner until he has worked for two years as a miner's laborer. The result of that is just this: Only the least responsible class of workmen will come into the anthracite district at all; it excludes all of the better class of men. No one who is a practical miner from the bituminous region, or any other part of the State or the United States will come into the anthracite region and work for two years as a miner's laborer before he can obtain this certificate. '' (34) Admission that the law would stymie the settlement of new immigrants in the region was acknowledged by Representative Morahan in one of the attempts to revise the statute: ''It was brought about after the mining corporations had sent their agents over into Europe and brought over an element tended to restrict the production and elevation of wages. It was passed for the purpose of preventing the importation of pauper immigrants into the anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania . . . "(35) Deficiencies in the miners' examination law prompted district one (anthracite region) of the United Mine Workers of America in its annual convention at Pottsvillle on October 16, 1896, to charge that the act was a farce. In a resolution calling for revision of the statute, the union wanted stiff penalties, imprisonment up to five years and fines of $100, for not adhering to the law; it also advocated that the state pay board members a set salary, abolishing the present procedure of having salaries based on fees collected from issuance of certificates. (36) These recommended changes reflected a view that corruption and failure to enforce the law had become commonplace among many of the miners' examination boards. John Fahy, president of district one, lobbied at the state capital in support of revisions to the law approved in 1897. One amendment increased penalties for violations, but no changes were made in the fee structure. A second amendment stipulated that each exaininee had to answer a minimum of twelve questions in English, which prohibited the use of interpreters and therefore discriminated against immigrants, who could not speak English.(37) The United Mine �SLOVAKIA 15 Worker's Journal lauded Fahy's lobbying activities and contribution in getting this legislature enacted. (38) After passage of these revisions to the law, the Miners' Examination Board in the Hazleton area placed a notice in the local newspaper to alert mine officials of its provisions. It noted that the law had been violated in the past but henceforth would be strictly enforced. The Board's warning reflected nativist sentiment: "As you, above all others, should know the necessity of having men who understand their work and the language which is the known language of this, our country, the Board would say do your duty and acquit yourselves like men and Americans.'' (39) Control of the miners' examination boards rested with English-speaking miners who were able to exercise certain prerogatives and institute various regulations to their advantage at the expense of the new immigrants.(40) Another piece of discriminating legislation with nativist prejudice, the Alien Tax Act, passed by large majorities in both houses, went into effect on July 1, 1897. The statue stipulated that any male alien age twenty-one and over employed in the state had to pay a three-cent tax on each day of employment which meant that most aliens employed as laborers in the Lehigh anthracite coal region suffered a two to three percent reduction in daily wages . Employers had to maintain employment records on aliens in their service and to collect the tax which reverted to the county treasury, half of which went to school districts and the other half to defray county operating expenses.(41) In the senate debate over the bill, the presence of new immigrants in the community gave rise to a concern that they were '' .. . a constant source of expense to us and . . . this is a very good way to get some money out of them to help pay the expenses of government.' ' (42) The act's preamble declared that aliens showed no allegiance to the state and did not financially support the maintenance of government. In addition, it described aliens as direct competitors to the state's laboring population. One passage stated they were '' ... brought into unjust competition with the tax-paying American laborers and greatly impair their welfare by depriving them of their employment and of preventing them from receiving fair compensation for their labor therefore." (43) Again, John Fahy, miners ' advocate at the state capital, wrote an article for the United Mine Workers Journal asserting: ''What a world of good this law would do the American citizens who try to earn their living in the coal mines, if the tax were one dollar per day.' ' (44) Nearly two months after the tax went into effect, the United States Circuit Court in Pittsburgh declared the law unconstitutional as a violation of the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. Judge Acheson in the court's decision acknowledged that the law discriminated against new immigrants: "Evidently the act is intended to hinder the employment of foreign born unnaturalized male persons over 21 years of age." (45) An obvious recourse for the alien to avoid this new tax, prior to its �16 SLOVAKIA being declared unconstitutional, was to become a naturalized citizen. Senator Flinn feared this possibility and could see little benefit from such a law unless to increase local revenues. It was his opinion that the legislation '' ... would have a tendency to drive this class of people into quicker citizenship." (46) Possibly anticipating this result, the Naturalization Court in Luzerne County a few days prior to the alien tax being voided instituted new rules to revise the process of naturalizing aliens. New procedures required an applicant to make formal application and declare his or her intention to become an American citizen at least thirty days prior to appearing in court, to be represented in the court proceedings by an attorney, and to produce a certificate of entry from the commissioner of immigration at the port of arrival. County officials had to publish in advance of the naturalization hearing the names of aliens seeking citizenship . Publicizing names of aliens petitioning to become citizens had the purpose of facilitating the process of weeding out undesirable applicants. Under the new rules five people could sign a petition remonstrating against an alien becoming a citizen thereby requiring a hearing to pass on their objections. In court, the alien had to demonstrate knowledge of the national and state constitutions and duties of citizens with responses in English.(47) Under these new procedures costs and amount of time required of the foreigner to become a citizen greatly increased. Previously, it had been perfunctory procedure since the immigrant only had to pay two dollars to secure naturalization papers. Now the costs rose to at least eight dollars for court and attorney fees.(48) When the individual lived some distance from the courthouse in Wilkes-Barre, he had additional expenses for transportation and meals as well as losing a day of wages. Cumulatively, the costs for most aliens was equivalent to nearly two weeks of wages . A month later when implementation of these new naturalization rules became part of the court proceedings, half of the ninety-seven applicants, predominately Slavic, Polish, and Italian, were rejected in their quest for citizenship.(49) The new naturalization procedures confirmed the fact that the ease with which foreigners had in the past gained American citizenship would no longer be the rule. The new immigrants, who had become the dominant group among the mine workers, found themselves unaccepted due to nativistic attitudes, discriminatory laws, organized labor's lack of interest and view of them as an economic threat, and increased difficulty in acquiring citizenship. An added burden which all mine laborers faced was working conditions in the anthracite coal fields . The Pennsylvania Legislature in 1897 established a joint investigating committee of three representatives and two senators to examine and make a report concerning working conditions among those employed in the mining of anthracite coal. The committee held twenty-six meetings in the principal cities in the anthracite region and took testimony from 311 witnesses �SLOVAKIA 17 representing businessmen , directors of relief organizations, and different classes of people connected with mining. The committee released its findings to the public on June 14, 1897, containing valuable information affecting those employed in mining.(50) The committee cited a major problem in the anthracite coal economy as excessive production in relationship to market demands that made coal prices weak and unstable. This had a direct bearing on mine employees since coal operators would cut production , institute lay-offs , and reduce wages in order to prevent or minimize their losses, thus exacerbating the labor market which already suffered from an over supply of workers . Surplus labor was evident when comparing the number employed in the anthracite mines in 1892 with 1896 and the coal produced in those same two years. Between 1892 to 1896 there occurred a fifteen percent increase in the number employed , 130,197 to 149,670, while coal production only increased five percent, 45,738,374 to 48,074 ,350 tons.(51) Estimated production capacity of the region 's collieries in 1896 was ninety million tons; actual output only came to fifty-four percent of capability while the number of mine employees for that same year increased by 6,065 .(52) Because of surplus laborers and a weak coal market there was lack of employment in the mines in 1896 as the average number of days of employment in the Hazleton region was only 178 days or fifty-seven percent of full employment for a year, based on a six-day week for fifty-two weeks. (53) This same condition was still prevalent in the first seven months in 1897 in which the mines operated on an average of one or two days a week.(54) One mine owner succinctly described the situation: " We can't give them work enough even at ninety cents a day because of the ups and downs of the business. When things begin to improve, we must have enough on hand to satisfy the demand, and that means, when business slacks up, that many have to be idle ." (55) This practice of the coal operators cutting back production to maintain the price of coal in a depressed market had caused frequent interruptions in the mid 1890's that put the standard of living of the average mine laborer on a very low basis . The legislative report pointed out that starvation conditions existed among the miners with Hazleton and vicinity one of the five areas identified as having great destitution and want. The committee reported: ' 'The testimony shows conclusively that deplorable condition of affairs for a period covering about two years, and particularly since the first of January of the present year, since which time the men in and about the collieries have been employed not more than two or three three-fourths days per week , earning on an average $4 per week , upon which , in many instances, they were compelled to support large families , in some cases as high as eleven members, paying house rent and coal and the necessities of life, which to this committee seems an impossibility . In . .. mining centres there is at all times more or less destitution and want , in many instances occasioned by profligacy. �18 SLOVAKIA Matters throughout the anthracite region have been gradually growing worse, and never in the history of this section of our State has the condition of the men employed in and about the mines been so deplorable or of such long duration.'' (56) The wages of miners and laborers in the Lehigh anthracite region had a direct relationship to the selling price of coal. Since the collapse of the union after the strike in 1888, there was no union contract to govern working conditions and wages. Wages were pegged to the market price of coal at the tidewater in Elizabethport, New Jersey. This system known as the ' 'sliding scale'' came into effect in 1869 with the formula for determining wages established in 1875. Under this arrangement, if coal sold for $5 .00 a ton at Elizabethport, miners, who held the highest paying jobs, received eighty-seven cents for each car of coal produced which meant that on the average, skilled miners earned twenty-one cents an hour, or $12.60 a week for sixty hours of work. The highest paid class of laborers, if a ton of coal sold for the same price, earned $10.80 a week or fourteen percent less than the miners. Whenever the price of coal increased ten cents a ton, wages advanced one percent for each ten cent rise and conversely, whenever the price of coal declined ten cents a ton, wages decreased one percent for each ten cent reduction . (57) Mine employees saw several drawbacks to this method of determining wages. Lehigh coal operators, as opposed to the Wyoming and Schuylkill coal operators, were mainly independents; hence, they were more vulnerable to the vicissitudes of the freight rates in transporting their coal to the markets, which, in turn, had a direct bearing on establishing the price of coal. High transportation costs reduced the coal operator's ability to improve wages and, most importantly, forced an increase in coal prices that made coal produced in the Lehigh region less competitive in the market than that produced in the other two fields largely under the control of the railroads. Consequently, starting in 1892 the Lehigh coal operators, who produced only around sixteen percent of anthracite coal, agreed to sell part of their production to the railway coal companies at forty percent below the tidewater price in order to avoid excessive freight rates. A major portion of the coal production was sold in the interior at prices higher than at the tidewater. Finally, the 1875 price-wage formula did not reflect changes that had occurred in the coal market. Anthracite coal had been losing the industrial fuel market to the less expensive bituminous coal. This loss forced a readjustment in the coal trade as more and more anthracite had to be processed into smaller sizes to be sold for home heating purposes. Smaller sizes gradually became the major portion of the coal trade and this sold at lower prices, resulting in a reduction of the average price per ton of coal thus keeping wages down.(58) Besides irregular work and low wages the anthracite laborer had to contend with day-to-day conditions which were equally distressing. The �SLOVAKIA 19 company store had long been an issue in the mining communities and had an odious reputation. The fact that employees were under some form of compulsion to make their purchases at a company store at inflated prices was so repugnant that it caused considerable discord, dissension, and prolonged agitation. A congressional committee in 1889 investigating working conditions in the anthracite region reported some of the abuses connected with stores operated by coal companies which still persisted in the late 1890's. Prices were as much as thirty percent higher for the same items sold in independent stores. There was both direct and subtle pressure on employees to purchase groceries , clothing, and other items from the company store; workers feared losing their jobs or being moved to a lower paying position or to one that was more difficult because of dangerous or strenuous working conditions. "Some of the officials of the company, such as foremen, would state to their workmen, 'If you patronize me we will patronize you.' Well , that meant if there was a good job they would receive it if they traded in the company' s store ."(59) Reacting to these abuses, Pennsylvania in 1891 enacted a law prohibiting corporations engaged in mining and manufacturing from operating general supply stores . In an attempt to prevent evasion, the law explicitly made it illegal for a corporation to contract with an independent store to require its employees to purchase merchandise; also it prohibited any corporate officer or stockholder to operate a company store on the premises of the corporation. (60) Unfortunately, the legislation did not eliminate the many evils associated with the company stores. In the first place , unincorporated coal operators did not come under the law's jurisdiction. Secondly, there was a loophole in the law's language forbidding a corporation from requiring its employees to patronize a particular store by stating that employees " shall not be obliged" to deal with a designated store. In other words an employee of a corporation could not be compelled to shop at a particular store but he could voluntarily choose to buy his merchandise at that store. Realistically, as life existed in the mining communities with the ever-presence and dominance of the coal companies, many factors came into play that inevitably induced an employee to make a so-called voluntary decision to patronize a particular store. Thirdly, when individual coal operators sold their interests to a large corporation, they often retained the right to continue the operation of their store. In this arrangement, many times the corporation provided a service by deducting an employee's bill at the store from his monthly wages with a collection fee which varied from three to five percent of the bill. This system had a descriptive nickname of the "pluck-me-store." (61) It was in the Lehigh region, where a very large percent of the coal operators were independent and unincorporated, that the existence of company stores was one of the highest in the anthracite region ; two-thirds of the mine laborers worked at collieries �20 SLOVAKIA that operated company stores.(62) In some instances a coal company which operated a store would undersell its competitor by lowering prices for coal and then make up losses by compelling the employees to trade at the company store at exorbitant prices .(63) The store of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company reportedly had everything from a red herring to a furnace . A Polish employee of the company flatly stated: '' ... we are compelled to purchase whether we want to or not. " (64) Three English-speaking miners of the A. S. Van Wickle Company commented that they would not object to the company's store if it were not for the high prices. To illustrate their point, they cited three items priced in an independent store and the company store: dozen eggs for thirteen cents as opposed to twenty-three cents, pound of butter for eighteen cents as opposed to twenty-six cents, and tobacco for twenty-six cents as opposed to thirtyfour cents. (In computing these goods the average price increase over the independent store was forty-six percent.) They further asserted: ''These are but a few samples of the prices charged here, but we have no redress. If we do not deal in the store we are notified about it with a broad intimation that others would be glad to have our places and deal in the store ." (65) The two investigative reports documented abuses concerning the company store in the anthracite region in 1897 and drew attention to three pertinent facts: the company store did not operate to the benefit of the workmen; employees were subjected to intimidation when they failed to patronize company stores; profits were substantial. (66) The company store problem was a major concern of John Fahy who noted that the number was greater than when the legislation was passed in 1891 and coal operators continued to violate the law. Union members of the United Mine Workers of America agreed and passed a resolution condemning this kind of store : '' ... the company store is a great and burdensome evil; that the system is harsh and tyrannical, and its purposes to rob labor of the full use of that pittance, always too meager, which the mine worker now received for his toil . . . "(67) Another grievance of the workers closely related to the company store was the practice of having a company butcher make door to door sales to employees living in company houses. They objected to the butcher's high prices and his habit of leaving more meat than requested forcing the purchaser to pay for meat not wanted . (68) What they wanted was the. abolition of this solicitation. Dominance of the coal companies over their employees was felt in another way through the company doctor. Coal operators had a physician to administer to the health needs of workers. On the surface this service appeared to be a desirable fringe benefit. Not so in the eyes of the employees who had several objections. They felt that they should have the right to select their own doctor since many believed that the quality of medical help was below average. The fact that the doctor's �SLOVAKIA 21 allegiance rested with the company placed uncertainty on the doctorpatient relationship.(69) Aside from these reservations was the cost. Deduction from workers' paychecks funded the program; A. S. Van Wickle Company levied two cents a day on each employee while other companies charged each married man with a family seventy-five cents a month and single men fifty cents a month.(70) To many this outlay of money equaled a half-day of wages and was an unnecessary cost. At this time it was common practice for people to rely upon home remedies for curing illnesses rather than always going to a doctor. A custom among miners was to establish their own mutual medical aid organizations known as '' keg funds.'' Miners donated refunds received from turning in their empty powder kegs.(71) Another major factor explaining why workers opposed the company doctor scheme stemmed from a plethora of fraternal groups that provided insurance against sickness and death. In the Hazleton area there were around fifty such organizations with many established along ethnic lines. Working class membership in these societies was large. Dues entitled them to sick benefits that varied from four to six dollars a week for a period of three to six months. Average death benefits ranged from $50 to $125 with wives often receiving half the rate. (72) With these other arrangements, the company doctor plan offered few, if any , advantages to mine workers. Feelings of exploitation among the miners were particularly strong over the price of blasting powder and mining supplies and the coercion to purchase these items from the coal companies. Each of the collieries kept mining supplies for sale. Testimony before the United States Industrial Commission revealed: ''The coal operators will say that they do not compel miners to buy their supplies with that company. While this may be true in regard to oil in some places, yet they are compelled to buy their powder from these companies where they work, for they will tell you if you do not buy your powder there you can work where you buy it."(73) Along with this compulsion there was the high price for the powder. A keg of powder weighing twenty-five pounds sold for $2. 75 in the Lehigh region whereas in the Schuylkill region the same amount had sold for $1.50 since 1888.(74) A major demand of the strikers was to secure a price decrease for powder generally in the amount of seventy-five cents a keg. However, miners at Calvin Pardee & Company sought a more extensive price reduction for powder so that it would sell for $1.50 a keg.(75) Powder purchased from independent stores sold from $1.25 to $1.50 a keg and the wholesale cost of powder per keg delivered from the manufacturer ranged from 90 cents to $1.00.(76) It was obvious to the miners that the coal operators made substantial profits on the sale of powder with a mark-up of around two hundred percent. When comparing powder prices in the Schuylkill region with the Hazleton area in 1896, men believed they were overcharged by some $125,353.75 or a per capita of $217.50 which was �22 SLOVAKIA almost equivalent to one-third of their annual income.(77) This issue was particularly irritating to the miners and they felt that they were victims of extortion. Another vexing issue was the lack of compliance by coal companies to provisions of the state semi-monthly wage payment law passed in 1891 . The act stipulated that employers pay their employees in lawful money every two weeks.(78) With the exception of the Coxe mines, violation of the statute was widespread in the Hazleton area . (79) The state legislative investigating committee reported the act was '' ... virtually a dead letter in many instances. Operators disregard it and deem it an unjustifiable interference with their rights .'' (80) District One of the United Mine Workers of America in its 1896 annual convention adopted a resolution endorsing the semi-monthly wage payment law and invited members of the business community to cooperate with them in supporting this legislation. (81) Frequency of payment to workers was important to coal operators since it had a direct relationship to the maintenance of company stores. If workmen received their wages every two weeks or even weekly, they would be inclined to shop at independent stores which had lower prices. With monthly payments, employees found it convenient and, sometimes necessary , to depend on credit extended at the company stores.(82) These cumulative burdens of adverse working conditions, irregular and limited work, low wages, pressure to patronize the company's store and butcher, expense for a company doctor, high costs for blasting powder and mining supplies, and non-compliance with the semi-monthly pay law were hardships ever present to mine laborers and became issues in the strike. Of equal importance, immigrant workers found themselves having to cope with additional adversities such as nativistic attitudes that rejected their culture and impeded assimilation, economic discrimination in employment, passage of the alien tax law, and difficult and costly naturalization procedures. A wellspring of resentment and antagonism festered among the ranks of southern and eastern Europeans over conditions affecting their lives which stirred feelings of discontent and frustrations creating a serious strike situation. The spark which produced the Lattimer massacre first appeared to be nothing more than an isolated and minor labor dispute between District Superintendent Gomer Jones and some mule drivers at the Honey Brook colliery of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company; however, it became the catalyst leading to a series of crippling strikes in the Lehigh region. Gomer Jones , who had a reputation as a tyrannical mine boss, had recently been appointed superintendent of the Audenried district and assumed his new position with an eagerness to establish order and efficiency out of what he and the company considered to be a chaotic situation.(83) Jones stated in an interview that he perceived his superintendency: '' I came here a year ago. I came to restore discipline �SLOVAKIA 23 in the mines and to operate them in such a manner that the company could continue in business. The discipline was certainly lax. The men did about as they pleased. The two superintendents who were here then associated with the men, mixed with them, drank with them and were regarded as 'hail fellows well met' everywhere among the miners. Now I cannot do that. I'm not a drinking man, and I've never made it a practice to hobnob with the men. However, when I give orders I expect them to be obeyed and do not permit miners to do exactly as they please. " (84) He began to institute economics in the company's operations in order to achieve the lowest possible cost in mining. To carry out this resolve , he dismissed two easy-going foremen , about eighty other workers, and reduced daily wages for all classes of mine workers from three percent for carpenters to as much as twenty-five percent for stripping miners.(85) Another of Jones ' cost-saving proposals required all of the company mules to be stabled at Audenried. This measure required the mule drivers employed at Honey Brook to spend an extra hour in the morning and evening to pick up their mules and return them to the stables. For these two extra hours of work , Jones refused to grant any compensation to the mule drivers . Dissatisfaction over this arrangement provoked a strike among mule drivers , who were Slavic and Polish , on August 13 . The next day some workers took up positions along the road near the stable to insure that none of the mule teams was removed for work. Upon learning of this development , Jones went to the scene with club in hand with the intention of dispersing the disgruntled workers. Within minutes a boisterous dispute erupted and Jones, using his club, struck one worker. Some of Jones' assistants came to his rescue before the melee got completely out of control. (86) A consequence of the mule driver strike and the residue of dissatisfaction and discontent among the rest of the workers produced a general strike against the company on August 16. An assessment of the situation made by a local newspaper declared that coal companies " .. . import this cheap labor, drag them down with all sorts of hardships, and indignities and finally the bosses attempt to make records for money saving and thus increase their own salaries at the expense of the poor unfortunates who are under them. There is no need for white slavery, nor pauper wages ... pay them a living salary and treat them as human beings , and trouble of this kind will be unheard of.'' (87) That evening miners held a large meeting at McAdoo at which they formulated their grievances and demands to present to Elmer H. Lawall, General Superintendent of Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company. They wanted restoration of the wage scale in effect prior to reductions imposed by Jones , an increase of ten percent in wages for all employees who worked underground, purchase of coal by workers for use in their homes reduced from $2.50 to $1.50 a ton, the right of each worker to select his own doctor, removal of Gomer Jones from his �24 SLOVAKIA position as district superintendent, and assurance that each person on strike would be reinstated.(88). Miners elected a strike committee representing different nationalities to present the issue to company officials. After meeting with Mr. Lawall on August 17, the committee decided to go to New York the next day to confer with Mr. Lawall and C. H. Warren, assistant to company President Maxwell. After returning from New York, the committee on August 19 met with the miners to report on negotiations, informing them that Mr. Warren had pledged that the company would pay the same rate of wages prevailing in the area and did not object to miners selecting their own doctor and making their own payments. There was no response to reducing the price of coal used by miners in their homes. With regard to the miners' objections concerning the conduct of Gomer Jones, the company refused to dismiss him but did promise to investigate his actions; this prompted an editorial comment in a Hazleton newspaper: ''The men are determined in their demands for justice, and if the Lehigh and WilkesBarre officials are wise they will speedily dismiss Superintendent Gomer Jones, for so long as he is retained in his present position, the trouble will not be adjusted. This man, with perhaps one exception, has imposed more hardships on the mines than any other living person who ever set foot on this soil. " (89) Upon hearing the company offer, which the miners described as one containing only promises rather than solutions to their grievances and demands, they voted to remain on strike . (90) Refusal to end the strike caused Mr. Lawall to hold another meeting with the strike committee. Three additional issues were introduced in the negotiations: employees need not live in company houses , men in the same grade of work receive the same pay, and employees be paid for all services rendered to the company - a direct reference to the mule drivers' complaint of having to spend two extra hours without pay to pick up and return their mules to the stables. After conferring with Lawall the strike committee called another meeting with workers on August 20. At this time the company informed the men that it had accepted the employees' position on the three additional points and that Lawall had personally promised to investigate fairly every grievance . Strikers believed that the injudicious activities of Jones would certainly be exposed and he would be dismissed. They learned that the mules were returned to Honey Brook, removing the issue of extra work without pay that had sparked the strike . In addition, two men dismissed by Jones were reinstated to their former positions. With such favorable news and expectation of Jones' replacement, the miners voted to end the week old strike and return to work on August 23.(91) The euphoria that prevailed among miners stemmed from their belief of success in exerting their interests against the coal company. This sense of accomplishment was further underscored by the fact they �SLOVAKIA 25 had been able to organize seven locals of the United Mine Workers of America comprising nearly a thousand men or about half of the company' s employees in the Audenried district. Establishing the union rested on the activities of John Fahy, United Mine Workers organizer, who took advantage of miners' discontent over their working conditions and lack of unionization. With the backing of a union and the promise of Lawall to investigate their differences with Jones , miners felt confident that they had won.(92) It appeared that labor unrest at the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company was only an aberration and the outlook for labor peace quite good. Such optimism was short lived. The strike was a harbinger of labor agitation that soon engulfed the Lehigh mining region surrounding Hazleton. Within a week, on August 27, another strike initiated by immigrant workers broke out at the Coleraine and Milnesville collieries of A. S. Van Wickle Coal Company. Some 1,500 strikers demanded reinstatement of the wage scale prior to the reduction made in February of 1897, which meant an average increase in wages from ten to fifteen percent in the daily rates. They wanted the new daily rates to be the following: stripping laborers, $1.20; first class laborers , $1.64; second class laborers, $1.50; outside laborers , from $1.00 to $1.20 ; breaker hands, men at $1.00 and boys at 90 cents; mule drivers, one mule at $1.50 ; two mules at $1.64; and three mules at $1.75; first class miners , $2.10; and second class miners, $1.93 . A few days later, August 31, some 2,000 employees of Lehigh and WilkesBarre Coal Company swelled the ranks of dissatisfied workers by walking off their jobs a second time after the elapse of two weeks when company officials had promised a settlement of their grievances in their first strike at the beginning of the month.(93) Chairman of the strikers ' negotiating committee charged that ' ' ... Messrs. Lawall and Warren, did not keep faith, and their refusal to make any concessions after their encouraging promises originally had served to work the men up to a high pitch. " (94) Work stoppages also began to spread to other coal operators: Lehigh Valley Coal Company, C. M. Dodson & Company, G. B. Markel & Company, Calvin Pardee & Company, A. Pardee & Company , New Ebervale Coal Company, Cross Creek Coal Company, Arnold & Morgan Company , and Silver Brook Coal Company.(95) This general strike action at the end of August and the first of September erupted with the pressing demand for an increase in wages. Immigrant workers were the principal source of agitation over this issue. It was they who suffered loss of wages due to enactment of the alien tax law and who felt the effects of wage discrimination when they received less for the same job than the English-speaking worker. Miners in their class earned from $1.50 to $1.65 a day while an Englishspeaking miner earned $1.97 for the same position. Similar conditions existed for those who were employed as laborers; the percent of wage difference was even greater, $1.15 versus $1.50. Anglo-Saxon workers �26 SLOVAKIA did not support the strike and immigrants looked upon them as a favored class. Since Slavic and Italian workers outnumbered Englishspeaking workers by a three-to-one ratio, their dissatisfaction over wages and working conditions became the prevailing voice. (96) Demand for the same pay for the same job had the following local, editorial support: "Employees should receive the same compensation for the same kind and amount of work done whether they are Hungarians, Italians or any other nationality." (97) Strikers ' demands for improvement in their wages came in part from the fact that Lehigh coal operators paid lower wages than operators in the other two anthracite coal fields. (98) Although there existed an industry-wide formula for determining wages based on the tidewater price of coal, in actuality there was a divergence in the wage scale particularly among the unskilled in different coal companies, which contributed to labor unrest among workers when they learned their wages were lower than their counterparts in other mines. In protest, foreign workers began marching from one colliery to another, closing down operations and compelling other workers to join their ranks. With each passing day the situation became somewhat more tense. Area newspapers assessed conditions as serious with the distinct possibility of becoming quite dangerous since, ''Never in the history of the region was such a determined body of men seen together'' ;(99) it was feared that unless a settlement was reached, '' ... the whole Lehigh region will be plunged into one of the most threatening conditions ever experienced in the history of Pennsylvania coal mining." (100) Immigrant workers were the masters of the situation, dominating the strike activities; English-speaking workers, fewer in number receiving better wages, did not voluntarily support them and preferred to remain at work. Instead of a feeling of camaraderie and solidarity between these two groups there was distrust and suspicion.(101) An important break occurred in the strike action when A. S. Van Wickle Coal Company made a wage settlement with their employees at Milnesville and Coleraine collieries on September 3 and 4, respectively. The company's General Superintendent, James Roderick, fulfilled a promise to investigate wages paid at other area mines and, if his company's rates were lower, make appropriate advances. Advances did not completely equal the original demands of the workers: increases were around nine percent given primarily to the unskilled and semiskilled, jobs held mainly by the Slavic and Italian immigrants with no raise for skilled laborers, miners, jobs dominated by AngloSaxons.(102) With regard to the alien tax, which had recently been declared unconstitutional, the company promised to return the money at the next pay day. Concerning other issues of the company store and butcher, Roderick promised ''. . . there will positively be no compulsion for any man to deal with the company butcher and the company �SLOVAKIA 27 store, nor will any intimidation in this direction be permitted by any of the subordinates."(103) Following the lead of A. S. Van Wickle Coal Company, officials at Coxe mines voluntarily increased wages ten cents a day to prevent their workers from going out on strike. (104) Settlement of the strike at A. S. Van Wickle Coal Company and increased pay by Coxe marked an important turning point in the labor unrest which had idled some twelve collieries due to the strikers' demonstrations. Success of these workers in improving their wages became a stimulus for hundreds of other workers to increase their determination to secure the same monetary gain. Higher wages granted by the two companies simply exacerbated the situation when other coal operators refused to match or make any improvement in wages. As long as this condition prevailed, chances of labor unrest becoming volatile heightened and the outcome became more uncertain . A week prior to the Lattimer killings, a Hazleton newspaper, realizing the nature of the situation, made the following appeal to coal operators: ''What the outcome of the uprising will be is simply conjecture, but one thing is certain, that the operators owe it to themselves as well as the community to bring about a speedy adjustment of the trouble. There is no good reason why the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Co. officials should not pay the same rate of wages as A. S. Van Wickle; they are in a position to do it and ought to. If there is to be an average rate of wages let all the operators join the combination and pay it. The obstinacy of either one company or the other, is simply injurious to the community, and for the benefit of all we suggest that the operators at least meet the men half-way, and the trouble will soon be a thing of the past. " (105) As each day passed without settlement, strikers continued marching from one coal mine to another seeking to induce other workers to join the strike; some responded willingly and others only after cajoling or intimidation. Their efforts were having success in disrupting the area's mining operations. Anxiety grew as the potential for serious trouble became likely with an apparent impasse emerging between strikers and operators who had refused to go along with the settlement made by A. S. Van Wickle and Coxe. Coal companies , holding the view that the situation had deteriorated and people had become terrorstricken by the strikers' protest, urged the sheriff to intervene in a manner that would terminate the strikers' activities. Sheriff James Martin, vacationing in Atlantic City, New Jersey , received a telegram on Saturday , September 4, from his deputy, Mr. George Wall, that Superintendent Lathrop of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company requested him to go to Hazleton to deal with the developing strike situation. Upon returning to Wilkes-Barre, the Sheriff held a Monday morning conference concerning the strike with Lathrop, Superintendent Steams of Cross Creek Coal Company, and Superintendent Lawall of Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company before �28 SLOVAKIA proceeding to Hazleton.(106) The Sheriff did not come to Hazleton at the request of any elected or appointed public official such as a magistrate, justice of peace, constable, or mayor, nor upon his arrival did he confer with any public official concerning the question of public order as related to the strikers' demonstrations. Instead, when he came to Hazleton, he met with Mr. Zerby, Assistant Superintendent of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, and Mr. Platt, Superintendent of Calvin Pardee & Company store. Naturally, these two men held views concerning the strike that reflected their companies' vested interests and could possibly have misrepresented the degree of disruption. Apparently, Martin did not feel there was any advantage to investigating and reviewing developments with a variety of people having different perspectives in order to ascertain objectively sentiments and facts related to the strike. It was at this time that officials of Lehigh Valley Coal Company, Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, Cross Creek Coal Company, and Calvin Pardee & Company made it abundantly clear that they would hold Sheriff Martin personally responsible for any interference with their mining operations.(107) After conferring with Messrs. Zerby and Platt, Martin decided to organize a posse comitatus. A Sheriff's decision to create a posse must be based upon circumstances as defined in law in which a state of disorder exists, consisting of a riot or the threat of a riot in which life and property are in jeopardy. Again Martin's assessment that these conditions existed rested upon information given to him by representatives of coal companies. Following their recommendation, he appointed Thomas Hall, a prominent Hazleton businessman whose occupation involved selling blasting powder to coal companies, as his chief deputy.(108) In the Hazleton Machinery Supply Company Store, a concern involved in coal mining, eighty-seven men were sworn in as Sheriff's deputies and members of the posse with nearly all of them directly or indirectly earning their living from coal companies. This close connection of the deputies with the coal companies was apparent as some twenty-three were employees of Calvin Pardee & Company, including his own son and Augustus W. Drake, Pardee's General Superintendent; fourteen worked for the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, and six were members of the coal and iron police. All but one deputy had surnames indicating Irish, English, or German heritage, the majority were members of prominent families and relatives of coal operators, many were young, several had attended college and were engineers or held managerial positions in coal companies. Others were businessmen and a few were laborers.(109) Superintendent Smith of G. B. Markle & Company, a coal operator, ordered rifles and shotguns and shipped them to a warehouse owned by A. Pardee & Company, another coal operator, where they were dispensed to the deputies under the direction of Mr. Platt.(110) Martin cautioned his deputies: " ... it was their duty to maintain the peace at all hazards, but under no cir- �SLOVAKIA 29 cumstances to shoot unless they were convinced either they or myself to be in danger.'' (111) Since the coal operators were responsible for requesting the Sheriff to come to Hazleton and to organize a posse, they also agreed to assume the costs for expenses incurred by the deputies. (112) Another service available to the Sheriff and his deputies was a special trolley car provided by Lehigh Traction Company upon the orders of Mr. Zerby so they could have unimpeded transportation to move about the coal fields.(113) While arrangements were under way in organizing the posse, Martin contacted Sheriffs Scott and Setzer of Schuylkill and Carbon Counties, respectively , since Lehigh coal fields encompassed parts of these counties. The main source of strike agitation came from men employed at collieries south of Hazleton in the area where Luzerne , Schuylkill , and Carbon Counties have a common boundary. After consulting with each other, the three law officers issued separate proclamations admonishing people '' . . . from all tumultuous and unlawful assembly, and from all acts of disorder or violence, and from all acts interfering with the liberty of other citizens, or tending to a breach of the peace .' ' (114) Included in the proclamation was the state riot act of 1860 describing illegal activities and penalties. Sheriff Martin 's decision to issue the proclamation made it appear that he felt conditions were turbulent, disorderly, and warranted the organization of a posse; yet on the same day he chose to spend a leisurely afternnoon attending the bicycle races at Hazleton.(115) The following morning, Tuesday, September 7, Sheriff Martin, upon learning that a group of strikers planned to shut down the Crystal Ridge Colliery , took a number of deputies to the site and prevented them from accomplishing their goal.(116) News of this intervention by the Sheriff either had not spread, or if it had, did not awe other strikers from descending on the New Ebervale Coal Company colliery and closing it down. Company superintendent, John Scott, describing the incident stated: '' ... the real leader appeared and said they intended to win the strike if they had to apply the torch to every town in the region ."(117) After closing the New Ebervale colliery, strikers marched over to the stripping area of Calvin Pardee & Company at Lattimer hoping to repeat their success earlier in the day. However, some of the Sheriff's deputies were already at Lattimer to prevent any disruption in the company 's operations . When the marchers appeared, the officers fired warning shots ito the air dispersing them and thwarting their objective.(118) The remaining days prior to the tragedy at Lattimer found Sheriff Martin and his deputies constantly transversing the coal fields from one colliery to another checking the strikers' movements . With each passing encounter the level of exasperation and tension between the law officers and immigrant workers on strike began to rise. A Hazleton newspaper again reflected a growing concern over the lack of a strike �30 SLOVAKIA settlement and a possible serious confrontation: ''The strike can be settled within twenty-four hours, and without bloodshed, if the operators will act fair and honest with their men. "(119) A day later the same editorial voice observed a growing seriousness in that the strikers '' ... are very much embittered against the deputies, and it is feared that both parties will engage in mortal combat." (120) A letter to the newspaper editor commenting on the strike stated it was '' ... causing a depression in business and fear in the hearts of the people of bloodshed . . . '' suggesting ' ' . . . the Ministerial Association take the matter in hand, call a meeting of all the clergy of the Protestant and Catholic churches, and together with the press and businessmen try and see if their influence could not be used to settle this grave matter between the operators and men."(121) John Fahy counseled the workers to obey the Sheriff's proclamations and to avoid provocations that could cause violence since the authorities had the ability to crush them. His interest was to temper the strikers' ardor and give it some meaningful direction.(122) Martin, apparently feeling some frustrations and reservations over his efforts to deal with strikers , told Frank Pardee, head of A. Pardee & Company, '' ... that while the strikers simply confined themselves to talking to the men quietly and persuading them to quit, it was none of my business and I had no right to interfere. "(123) Regardless of whatever doubts the Sheriff may have had, he knew perfectly well that he could not disregard the wishes of the coal operators. Starting on Thursday afternoon events began to cascade toward that fateful Friday. Employees of Calvin Pardee & Company at Harwood who were on strike felt that in order to win they had to shut down the company's operation at Lattimer which had failed earlier. News came to Harwood strikers that their fellow employees at Lattimer were anxious to join them if only they would march over to Lattimer; this appeal stimulated their determination.(124) The Harwood local of the United Mine Workers held a meeting on Thursday evening to make plans to march to Lattimer the next day. Joe Mahalko, president of the Harwood local of the United Mine Workers of America, cautioned his fellow workers to go without guns or any other kind of weapons, to harm no one nor to destroy any property, and to keep the peace. On the next day, Friday, September 10, around noon some two hundred and fifty strikers from the Harwood area, consisting almost exclusively of immigrant workers, started their ill-fated mission to get their counterparts to go on strike at Lattimer. As the march proceeded, some seventy-five to one hundred additional strikers joined the ranks. (125) When they reached the outskirts of West Hazleton on their route to Lattimer around two o 'clock, they were stopped by Evan Jones, Chief of Police of West Hazleton, who told them, "Go back out of this, you are in a dangerous place. If you have to go to Lattimer you must go another way."(126) At this point Sheriff Martin and his deputies �SLOVAKIA 31 arrived on the scene with the intention of stopping the marchers from proceeding to Lattimer. A confrontation occurred between the Sheriff, his deputies , and the strikers, in which one striker was arrested, another had his arm broken by a deputy, many had guns thrust in their faces , the American flag they were carrying was destroyed, and there was an exchange of blasphemous name calling.(127) Martin read his proclamation containing the riot act, ordered them to cease their march to Lattimer , and urged them to return to their homes, telling them that all of the marching from colliery to colliery to drive men from work was no way to get better wages.(128) He believed there would be serious trouble since some of the marchers had picked up stones and looked as if they intended to throw them at the law enforcement officials. However, this fear proved to be unfounded since they did not take such a provocative action. (129) Efforts to halt the march were futile considering the strikers ' determination to continue their trek to Lattimer, and Martin 's inability to communicate with them since he spoke only English and had no interpreter . After becoming exhausted from the episode , he simply gave up trying to stop them.(130) The strikers ' perception of this hostile encounter differed from the law officers ' version and hinted at forthcoming trouble . John Eagler, one of the leaders of the march and secretary of the United Mine Workers local at Harwood stated: " We were met by the deputies at West Hazleton who did not come like civilized beings , but broke through the ranks, crying, 'Stop , stop!' " (131) Joseph Mahalko declared : '' I told the Sheriff we had no stick big as my finger in the crowd. All Sheriff said was 'don't go any farther .' Sheriff said , 'You go back or I shoot you . ' " (132) Again John Eagler stated that the Sheriff only took a piece of paper from his pocket and did not read any proclamation as he claimed but had simply told them that it was against the law to march to Lattimer.(133) The strikers asserted they did not initiate any altercation with the law officers but were merely the victims of an unwarranted attempt to prohibit them from using the public highway. Something that proved to be far more serious was the ominous threats attributted to the Sheriff and his deputies against the strikers: "Go back and take care of yourself, for there will be big trouble today ." (134) " We 'll get even with the --- at Lattimer."(135) "We ' ll leave them go till we get to Lattimer ; then we ' ll shoot them. "(136) "I'd like to get a pop at the ---of b---. I'll bet I'll drop six. " (137) "I didn 't know what the h--- the Sheriff makes us walk around here so much without giving us a chance to shoot those men .'' (138) ' 'Everyone of the G-- d-- Hunks ought to be shot. " (139) Sheriff Martin , formerly a coal foreman at the Mill Creek colliery in Luzerne County, allegedly stated, " . . . a little cold lead is the only way to conquer the strikers."(140) The Sheriff's efforts and reported intimidations to terminate the strike rs ' march to Lattimer became nothing more than a futile gesture that only made them more resolute to continue their journey. Un- �32 SLOVAKIA daunted, the marchers following the advice of Chief Evan Jones took a route toward Lattimer along the outskirts of Hazleton on which they could proceed without further interference.(141) Sheriff Martin realizing his efforts had been to no avail quickly returned to Hazleton, summoned his entire force of deputies telling them to take their arms and board the trolley to Lattimer so they could prevent the marchers from stopping the Lattimer mining operations.(142) En route there was talk among the deputies '' . . . about shooting and each man seemed to be eager ... "(143) Since some of the deputies had served as coal and iron police, they " ... had had much trouble with the strikers on previous occasions and were said to be in a revengeful mood against them. "(144) Even Sheriff Martin admitted, " ... I have no doubt that some of the deputies were excited, and certainly the ride over the mountain in that crowded car was animating."(145) The Sheriff and his posse arrived at Lattimer a few minutes after three o'clock and stationed themselves along the right side of the road as it entered Lattimer from the south. He instructed his deputies " ... to keep cool and not get excited. "(146) However, before the strikers arrived, the deputies ordered a woman to go into her house on the likelihood that some shooting may occur.(147) Shortly after the deputies were in place , the strikers appeared coming up the public road in an orderly array toward the Lattimer breaker. (148) There was every reason to suspect that the deputies were fully aware that the miners were unarmed. As they approached the law officers who were standing parallel to the road, the Sheriff stepped out and walked toward the marchers with the intention of learning what they planned to do. Martin indicated that " ... if they are not going to do anything, I may let them go on, and we will go along with them.' ' (149) He ordered them to halt about forty or fifty yards from the armed deputies. The front of the column slowed as the Sheriff approached and asked them what they intended to do. The Sheriff reported they said, "We stop Lattimer Mines."(150) He then proceeded to read his proclamation in English, which many of them could not understand, while at the same time the rear of the column kept pushing forward. Within a few minutes a fracas broke out between the Sheriff and some twenty strikers at the side of the road when he attempted to seize and arrest one of the men.(151) At this point the deputies aimed and fired directly into the ranks of the strikers. The exploding crescendo of Winchesters created a bloody massacre with the sound of shrieks and moaning of the dying and wounded lying in agony. One newspaper described the scene: ''It was a human slaughter in which men were mowed down like grain stalks before a scythe, by the deadly bullets which stormed for fully two minutes. The blood of the dead and dying soaked the dusty road and flowed in streams through the ditch."(152) The murderous volley created a human carnage taking the lives of nineteen immigrants and leaving thrity-eight wounded; eleven men died at Lattimer with the �SLOVAKIA 33 remaining eight dying at the Hazleton Hospital. Dr. Keller, a physician at the hospital, stated that many of the victims were shot in the back.(153) What began a month earlier as a dispute between Gomer Jones and immigrant mule drivers grew into a serious strike finally ending as a sorrowful episode in American labor history. In the aftermath of this tragedy there were contradictory versions as to what actually happened. Sheriff Martin said the strikers were vicious, boisterous, a furious and desperate gang, fierce as wild beasts, threatening to physically harm or even kill him. He felt that they were bent on doing violence and had no intention of obeying his proclamation or the laws of Pennsylvania. Earlier at West Hazleton, Martin told the marchers that it was his duty to prevent them from interfering with the men who were working at the mines, and at Lattimer he went a step further to warn them that if they did not disperse there would be trouble.(154) When a Hungarian speaking in broken English told him, "Go to hell, you a---," (155) he sought to arrest the man who shouted the epithet. The men, excited, began assaulting him forcing him to draw his revolver in self defense and attempt to shoot an attacking man, but the gun failed to discharge. He claimed that two of his attackers had pistols and a third man with a knife sought to stab him. (156) In a letter written five weeks later explaining the event to Governor Hastings, Martin wrote the following description: "One high (sic) fellow gave me a blow on the cheek and knocked me on my knees. I would have been knocked down on my back, but the crowd was too close around me so that there was no room for me to get down, and while we were struggling I heard a shot followed closely by a second and then a number of shots together. Those who were attacking me were shot, and I was then unable to recover myself, and there is no doubt in my mind that if the deputies had not shot just when they did I would certainly have been killed. While I was struggling with part of the mob on one side of the road in the ditch where they had pushed me, the part on the other side of the road with a whoop and yell rushed on toward the deputies, who no doubt fearing that their lives were in danger and that I was to be killed, fired ... '' (157) On the day after the shooting, Martin gave several conflicting statements as to why the deputies shot the strikers. "I called to the deputies to discharge their firearms into the air over the heads of the strikers ... I then called upon the deputies to defend themselves and shoot if they must to protect their lives or to protect the property that they had been sent to guard from being demolished . . . I hated to give the command to shoot and was awfully sorry that I was compelled to do so. "(158) "I did not order the deputies to fire; someone else did that. I gave no order." (159) "The shooting commenced in a manner that baffles me completely when it comes to explaining."(160) A few days later in an interview Martin suggested that the cause of the shooting came from an impulse of his men to protect him: ''They saw me in the �34 SLOVAKIA midst of the strikers, with men aiming blows at me, and they supposed probably that my life was in danger."(161) The Sheriff's answers vacillated on how the shooting began, ranging from admitting that he gave the order to his deputies to fire their weapons to denying any knowledge of how the firing happened. Even among the deputies there was no satisfactory answer as to how the shooting commenced. The version of the confrontation by the strikers and bystanders differed from and challenged the assertions made by Sheriff Martin. According to the strikers, the Sheriff ordered them to halt and began to read his proclamation. The situation became disruptive when the Sheriff sought to arrest one of the marchers and get the others to disperse. One of the men told the Sheriff '' . . . we only want to move on peaceably ... "(162) Those in the rear of the column continued pressing forward and shouting '' go ahead,'' pushing the Sheriff and some of the men off to the side of the road. Whereupon, John Eagler reported that Martin flourished his revolver, '' ... grabbed one man by the arm, and, pointing the revolver at him, said, 'Did you tell them to go ahead?' The man said he had not spoken, and then the Sheriff grabbed another man and began to shove him about. 'You will say ''Go ahead," eh?' said the Sheriff, and at the same time he aimed the revolver squarely at the man's heart. The man naturally was frightened, and pushed the Sheriff's hand holding the revolver to one side. Whether or not the Sheriff considers that an attack or·not I don't know. I am positive that not a man hit the Sheriff."(163) An account from a bystander stated that Martin '' . . . became excited and ordered the deputies to shoot . . . " (164) A striker affirmed this point that the Sheriff gave the order to fire.(165) Another eye witness agreed that Martin's command was to fire but only a warning shot over the heads of the strikers.(166) Witnesses to the shooting pointed out there were no warning shots fired but told of excessive firing into the ranks of the strikers, deputies continuing to shoot after men ran for cover, and men shot down as far as 150 yards from where they were stopped by the Sheriff.(167) A Lattimer school teacher reported: "I saw men who had hidden behind trees and fences during the first fusillade leave their places of concealment only to be deliberately shot down."(168) The school house about three hundred yards distant from which the teacher saw the shooting was riddled with bullets. An area newspaper asserted: ''This would indicate that the strikers, fleeing by the shortest route to Hazleton across the hills, were shot at long after there was any danger to the deputies." (169) Strikers affirming this horror told of being targets as they ran for safety. A detached account by Henry Hoyt, United States Assistant Attorney General, based upon an investigation of the shooting made the following summation: ''It appeared that the strikers were unarmed; that small clubs which they had previously carried were thrown away on the march between West Hazleton and Lattimer; that they were peaceable and orderly in West �SLOVAKIA 35 Hazleton and Lattimer; were not riotous at West Hazleton or Lattimer, and at neither place made an assault upon the Sheriff or his deputies, or offered any violence or used threatening language to them."(170) Martin confirmed Hoyt's account by stating, in response to a reporter's question, that the strikers until the time of the shooting had not committed any overt act nor behaved otherwise than peaceably. (171) The Lattimer tragedy resulted from a multiplicity of interrelated sources. Existing in the anthracite region were nativistic sentiments encompassing an attitude of disdain for Slavic and Italian immigrants; Anglo-Saxons looked upon the strikers as unwelcomed strangers who were inferiors and who could not possibly conform to accepted standards in society. In an interview a federal treasury official, who was familiar with Hazleton, affirmed this idea with his romantic (and distorted) depiction of an idyllic and bucolic setting disrupted by the intrusion of alien people who fostered hatred: ''I think when all the facts come out in regard to the shooting it will be found that the officers who did the shooting have covered a revenge of years under the wings of the law. I remember when twelve or fifteen years ago, the section around Hazleton was settled by hard-working and honest Irishmen, Welshmen, Englishmen, Germans, and Americans. They worked in the mines and did well. Many of them owned their own homes - pretty little cottages on the hillside, surrounded by outhouses for cattle and chickens, etc., and happiness seemed to smile on all. There were no strikes and the morality of the neighborhood was good. Then began to come in the Hungarians and the Poles and the class of foreigners, by accepting smaller wages, ran the others out. I knew several Irishmen who vowed they would not leave, but went away to other States, in many instances having to sell their little homes to pay their debts and to get away on. This naturally caused a bitter feeling, a feeling which exists to this day, and one which caused many vows of revenge. The houses once the property of prosperous Irishmen and Americans are now in filthy condition, occupied by two and three families of Hungarians and Poles. Instead of clean beds there are bunks ranged along the walls and as many as four people slept in a small room. In that band of deputies which encountered the marching miners a few days ago are many men who remembered the change from the scenes of years ago. Their hearts have been full of revenge. When the opportunity presented itself they seized it, with the horrible result too well known. They shot to kill, because their relatives and friends had been made paupers by these people. I do not approve of the shooting, but I believe the facts will reveal what I have stated." (172) These immigrant strikers represented a class of people outside the local structure, posed an economic threat to the interests of coal operators, and replaced Anglo-Saxons as the dominant mine workers. In contrast, the Sheriff's posse consisted of a class of people that was �36 SLOVAKIA diametrically opposite in nationality, place in society , and occupation. This dissimilarity in turn tended to heighten emotional responses. The strike increased the stresses of nativism. Passions grew in both contending groups; as workers sought to shut down the mines , the Sheriff and his deputies, under the pressure of coal companies , tried to prevent them from accomplishing their objective. A feeling of anxiety and tension grew in the community as the chances of an ugly confrontation between strikers and law officers became likely. Undoubtedly , the Sheriff and his men fully sensed this but realized the ramifications if they failed to prevent the strikers from closing down the mining operations at Lattimer. If unsuccessful, the chances of protecting the remaining mines from being closed down by the strikers would be slight. Combined with this pressure were frustrations in trying to quell the strikers' activities , tension and fatigue over the incident at West Hazleton, malicious attitudes toward the immigrants who were also labor agitators, and a glandular excitement capable of generating panic from a large group about to undergo another encounter with strikers . A maturation process among Slavic and Italian immigrants in the anthracite coal fields reached fruition when the strike broke out in the Lehigh region in the late summer of 1897. Having become the dominant group among the mine workers in the late 1890's, they asserted themselves by conceiving and initiating the strike . This decision resulted from the frustrating working conditions and discriminatory practices emanating from nativistic actions which combined to impose hardships and an inferior status . The culmination of these factors was the wellspring for discontent and dissatisfaction. At this time the United Mine Workers of America lacked strength to represent and protect the anthracite mine workers ' interest effectively and , in addition , generally showed little interest in including the new immigrants in their ranks or purview. Consequently, the only recourse for the immigrant workers was to take matters into their own hands to seek redress for grievances. As the strike developed, it lacked coherent strategies since it was unorganized, leaderless , and did not have benefit of an effective union structure to provide direction, articulation, and ability to successfully negotiate with the coal operators. (173) This point of inadequate experience and unfamiliarity in labor affairs made the strikers vulnerable to violence . Therefore, on that Friday afternoon as the immigrant strikers marched into Lattimer imbued with a spirit to win their strike, they came face to face with Sheriff Martin and his deputies equally committed to stopping them. It was as if for a moment, the recent social and economic history of the area had been centripetally compressed into a time capsule only to be exploded by indigenous divergent and incompatible forces . Catapulted into a deadly collision were two different worlds in conflict. The result was-violence, perpetrated by public peace keepers who were the instruments of coal �SLOVAKIA 37 companies' strategy to break the strike . The effect was that Lattimer became the worst tragedy in American labor history in terms of the number of workers killed and wounded by public authorities, who were not provoked nor endangered and who attacked without warning unarmed strikers peacefully demonstrating on a public highway. FOOTNOTES (1) Wilkes-Barre Leader, September 11, 1897. (2) Letter from Henry Hoyt, Assistant Attorney-General, to William Day, Secretary of State, April 8, 1898; in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, with the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 6, 1898 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1901), 82-87. Hoyt' s letter stemmed from an investigation made by the Department of Justice for the Department of State concerning a diplomatic protest from the Austria-Hungary government over several of its nationals killed and wounded at Lattimer. A great deal of confusion and inaccuracy existed in newspaper accounts as to the number of casualities from the shooting; reports varied from fourteen to as many as fifty people killed. Hoyt based his figures upon grand jury murder indictments against Sheriff Martin and his deputies who were brought to trial on February 1, 1898, in Luzerne County but were found not guilty by the jury. (3) Daily Standard (Hazleton), September 11, 1897. (4) Wilkes-Barre Record, September 11, 1897. (5) Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897. (6) Daily Globe (South Bethlehem) , September 11, 1897. (7) St. Louis Post Dispatch, September 12, 1897. (8) San Francisco Chronicle, September 11, 1897. (9) Detroit Free Press, September 11, 1897. (10) Pittsburgh Dispatch, September 11, 1897. (11) Boston Daily Globe, September 11, 1897. (12) Wilkes-Barre Record, September 5, 1897. (13) Frank Julian Warne, The Slav Invasion and the Mine Workers : A Study in Immigration (Philadelphia: J . B. Lippincott Company, 1904) , 51 & 58 ; Frank Julian Warne, "Some Industrial Effects of Slav Immigration," Charities and the Commons, XIII (December 3, 1904), 223-224. (14) Rowland Berthoff, "The Social Order of the Anthracite Region , 1825-1902," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, LXXXIX (July 1965), 169-171; Charles B. Spahr, "America 's Working People," Outlook, Ll(Il (August 5, 1899) , 811. (15) Peter Roberts , " The Sclavs in Anthracite Coal Communities," Charities and the Commons, XIII (December 3, 1904) , 219. (16) Berthoff, 287; George 0 . Virtue, "The Anthracite Mine Laborers," Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor No. 13, (November, 1897) , 753. (17) Henry Edward Rood , "A Pennsylvania Colliery Village ," Century Magazine, XXXIII, new series, (April, 1898), 811. (18) Roberts , " The Sclavs in Anthracite Coal Communities," 221. (19) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Passed at the Session of 1895 (Harrisburg: Edwin K. Meyers State Printer, 1895), 643. (20) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Passed at the Session of 1897 (Harrisburg: Clarence M. Busch State Printer, 1897), 546. �38 SLOVAKIA (21) Frank Julian Warne, " Organized Labor in the Anthracite Coal Fields," Outlook, LXXI (May 24 , 1902), 273 . '' . . . The operators used them (immigrants) originally to introduce low wages ... " Wilkes-Barre Record, August 8, 1897. The attitude that immigrants were responsible for undermining native labor interests was prevalent in newspaper editorials. Mauch Chunk Coal Gazette, September 25, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 8, 1897; Weekly Herald (Shenandoah), September 18, 1897; Sullivan Review, September 16, 1897 ; Detroit Free Press, September 12, 1897; Pittsburgh Post, September 15, 1897. (22) Pottsville Republican, September 20, 1897. The laborer who assisted the contract miner was not employed by the coal operator but by the miner. Nearly eighty percent of the mine laborers in the Lehigh region worked under the contract system. Frank Julian Warne , " The Anthracite Coal Strike, " Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, XVII (January, 1901), 32-33 . (23) Rood, 815. (24) Frank Julian Warne , " The Effect of Unionism Upon the Mine Worker," Annuals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, XXI (January , 1903) , 23-24; Rood, 815; Virtue, 753 . (25) Victor R. Greene, The Slavic Community on Strike: Immigrant Labor in Pennsylvania Anthracite (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968), 86-87 ; Berthoff, 272-273 ; Virtue , 753 . (26) Spahr, 8ll ; Warne, " The Effect of Unionism Upon the Mine Worker," 31-32 ; Roberts, "The Sclavs in Anthracite Coal Communities, " 218 . (27) Harold W. Aurand , From the Molly Maguires to the United Mine Workers: The Social Ecology of an Industrial Union, 1869-1897 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press , 1971) , 136. (28) Berthoff, 273 . (29) Warne , " The Effect of Unionism Upon the Mine Worker, " 21; Berthoff, 268. (30) Alexander Trachtenberg, The History of Legislation for the Protection of Coal Miners in Pennsylvania, 1824-1915 (New York: International Publishers, 1942) , 134135. (31) Ibid., 135-136; Frank Julian Warne, The Slav Invasion and the Mine Workers, 88 . (32) Pennsylvania Legislative Record for the Sessions of 1889, Vol. I, Harrisburg: Clarence M. Busch State Printer, 1889) , 1529. (33) Virtue, 768; Greene, ll 7-ll8 ; Pottsville Republican, June 15, 1897 . (34) Pennsylvania Legislative Record for the Session of 1889, Vol. I, 1236. (35) Ibid. (36) United Mine Workers Journal, October 22, 1896, 1. (37) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Passed at the Session of 1897, 289. (38) UMW Journal, August 12, 1897, 7. (39) Daily Standard, August 28, 1897. (40) Warne , Th e Slav Invasion and the Mine Workers, 88. (41) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Passed at the Ses sion of 1897, 135-136. The bill passed the House and Senate by votes of 126 to 12 and 28 to 3 respectively . Pennsylvania Legislative Record for the Session of 1897, Vol. I, (Harrisburg: Clarence M. Busch State Printer, 1897), 1069 & 2418 . There were attempts in the House to make the tax five cents a day. Ibid., 2418 (42) Ibid., 2292 . (43) Ibid., 2217 . �SLOVAKIA 39 (44) UMW Journal, July 1, 1897, 1. (45) Fraser v. McConway & Torley Co., 82 The Federal Reporter 259 (1897) . (46) Pennsylvania Legislative Record for the Session of 1897, Vol. I, 2217. (47) Wilkes-Barre Record, August 26 & 28, 1897. (48) Peter Roberts, Anthracite Coal Communities: A Study of the Demography, The Social, Educational and Moral Life of the Anthracite Region (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1904), 44-45 . (49) Wilkes-Barre Record, September 28, 1897. (50) " Legislative Investigating Committee Report on Conditions Existing Among the Miners and Those Employed in and About the Mines in the Anthracite Coal Regions ," Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the Session Begun at Harrisburg, on the Fifth Day of January, 1897 (Harrisburg: Wm. Stanley Ray State Printer, 1897), Il, 1824-1842. (51) R eports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, 1896 (Harrisburg: Clarence M. Busch State Printer, 1897), xvi-xvii . (52) Ibid., xvii; "Legislative Investigating Committee Report," 1839. (53) Reports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, 1896, 170-172. (54) "The Association Letter," Anthracite Coal Operators Association, September, 1897, 2. (55) John Graham Brooks, " An Impression of the Anthracite Coal Troubles," Yale Review, VI (November, 1897), 307. (56) "Legislative Investigating Committee Report, " 1826. (57) Virtue, 756 . (58) Ibid., 757-58; "The Association Letter," 14-15; "The Marketing of Small Sizes of Anthracite," The Colliery Engineer, XVIl (June, 1897), 490. (59) The Reports of Committees of the House of Representatives for the Second Session of the Fiftieth Congress, 1888-89, Vol. IV (Washington: U.S . Government Printing Office, 1889) , lxxix . (60) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Passed at the Session of 1891 (Harrisburg: Edwin K. Meyers State Printer, 1891), 256-57 . (61) Peter Roberts , Anthracite Coal Industry (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1901), 136. (62) Ibid., 138. (63) "Company Store Legislation," The Colliery Engineer, XVIl (April, 1897) , 395. (64) Pottsville Republican, September 2, 1897. (65) Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 2, 1897. (66) Virtue, 760 ; " Legislative Investigating Committee Report," 1839. (67) UMW Journal, January 14 , 1897, 5; Ibid., October 22, 1896, l; Wilkes-Barre Record, December 25, 1896; Pottsville Republican, September 20, 1897 . Fahy launched a campaign in the anthracite region to secure public contributions to support the United Mine Workers of America lobbying activities to abolish the company store. The Pennsylvania Legislature, reflecting an increased awareness of labor interests, responded and passed a bill in July, 1897 , placing a ten percent tax upon the face value of all types of certificates or the equivalent issued in lieu of legal tender for employees' wages . This measure would have severely crippled the operation of company stores; however, Governor Hastings vetoed the legislation on the ground that it violated the state constitution. George Edward Reed, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. Xll, 4th ser., (Harrisburg: Wm . Stanley Ray State Printer, 1902), 150-54. �40 SLOVAKIA (68) Daily Standard, August 31 & September 8, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 2 & 13, 1897; Wilkes-Barre Record, September 4, 1897; Report to the President of the Anthracite Coal Strike of May-October, 1902 by the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission (Washington : U.S . Government Printing Office , 1903), 144 . The above source contained information regarding the strikers' demands made to the G. B. Markle & Company in the 1897 strike. (69) Daily Standard, September 6 & 8, 1897; Spahr, 810 . (70) Ibid.; Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28 , 1897 ; The Reports of Committees of the Hous e ... Fiftieth Congress, lxxxi. (71) Berthoff, 286. If all the miners in the fifth district (Lehigh region) had turned in their empty powder kegs in 1896, they would have raised $10 ,028.30 . Reports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, 1896, 173. (72) Robe rts , Anthracite Coal Communities, 259, 262-263. (73) Report of the Industrial Commission of the Relations and Conditions of Capital and Labor in the Mining Industry Including Testimony, Review of Evidence, and Topical Digest, Vol. XIl (Washington : U.S. Government Printing Office , 1901), 142 . (74) Robe rts, Anthracite Coal Industry, 133-134. (75) Daily Standard, September 6, 8 & 9, 1897; Wilkes-Barre Record, September 7, 1897; Report to the President of the Anthracite Coal Strike, 144. (76) Daily Standard, September 9, 1897; Spahr, 810; Report of the Industrial Commission, 142. (77) Computation based on 5,754 miners and laborers in the fifth anthracite district and the use of 100,283 kegs of blasting powder. Reports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, 1896, 173 & 176. (78) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Passed at the Session of 1891, 96-97. (79) Pottsville Republican, September 20, 1897. (80) " Legislative Investigating Committee Report," 1830. (81) UMW Journal, Ocotber 22, 1896, 1. (82) Report of the Industrial Commission, 143. (83) UMW Journal, November 25, 1897, 2; Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897. (84) Wilkes-Barre Record, September 15, 1897. (85) Ibid.; Daily Standard, August 17, 1897. In the Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre newspapers there appeared an account of an interview with an unnamed individual defending Jones ' superintendency . Acknowledging that Jones may have made some mistakes, the source indicated that the workers' discontent really stemmed from the decisions made by the preceeding superintendent or from orders issued by higher company officials . ''He is charged with being a tyrant, and in reference to this it may be said that each foreman has full charge of all employees working under him . But Jones is among the first men about the works in the morning and among the last to leave at night, and because he attends strictly to business he is called a tyrant by men who want ten hours pay for less than ten hours of work.'' Wilkes-Barre Times, August 27, 1897. (86) Ibid., August 16, 1897. Gomer Jones was arrested later on a complaint by John Bodan on the charge of aggravated assault. Ibid., August 18, 1897. (87)lbid. , August 16, 1897 . (88) Ibid. , August 17, 1897 . (89) Ibid. , August 18, 1897. (90) Ibid. , August 20, 1897 . �SLOVAKIA 41 (91) Ibid. , August 21, 1897. (92) Ibid. (93) Ibid., August 28, 30 & September 1, 1897; Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28, 1897. (94) Ibid., September 3, 1897. (95) Ibid., September 3 & 4, 1897; Daily Standard, August 28, September 4, 6 & 8, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 3, 1897 . (96) Ibid. , August 28, 1897; Daily Standard, August 28, 1897; Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28 , 1897. (97) Ibid. , August 30, 1897 . (98) Ibid., August 31, 1897. (99) Wilkes-Barre Leader, September 3, 1897. (100) Daily Standard, September 4, 1897. (101) Ibid, ; Pottsville Republican, September 2, 1897; Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28 & 30, 1897. (102) Ibid. , September 4 & 6, 1897. (103) Daily Standard, September 6, 1897. (104) Wilkes-Barre Record, September 4, 1897. (105) Daily Standard, September 4, 1897. A. S. Van Wickle Company operated independently of the other coal companies, provided their employees more work, and were regarded with greater esteem and confidence in the community. Wilkes-Barre Record, January 22, 1897 . (106) Letter from James Martin to Daniel H. Hastings, Governor of Pennsylvania, October 18, 1897 , Governor Hastings Papers, MG-145, Box 18, Division of Archives and Manuscripts of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. (107) Ibid. (108) R eco rd of the Times (Wilkes-Barre), March 4, 1898. (109) New York World, February 13, 1898; Dollar Weekly News-Dealer (Wilkes-Barre), September 18, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 23 , 1898 ; Pennsylvania, Department of State, Commission Bureau, "Policemen, 1889-1912," 346; Hazle Township and Hazleton City, "Real Estate Tax Assessment Books for 1896 and 1897 ,'' Office of the Board for the Assessment and Revision of Taxes , Luzerne County Courthouse, Wilkes-Barre , Pennsylvania . (110) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898; Daily Standard, September 7, 1897. (111) Record of the Times, March 4, 1897. (112) Daily Standard, October 21, 1897. A review of the annual financial report of the Comptroller for Luzerne County revealed that there were no payments from county funds for the services of the deputies at Hazleton , supporting the conclusion that the coal operators paid the deputies' salaries. Wilkes-Barre Record, January 23, 1898. (113) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898. (114) Daily Standard, September 9, 1898. (115) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898. (116) Martin to Hastings, October 18, 1897 . (118) Ibid. (119) Ibid. , September 9, 1897. (120) Ibid. , September 10, 1897 . (121) Ibid., September 9, 1897. �42 SLOVAKIA (122) Ibid., September 8, 1897; Hazleton Sentinel, September 3, 1897; Spahr, 808. (123) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898. (124) Daily Standard, September 11, 1897. (125) Record of the Times, February 8, 1898; Hoyt to Day, April 8, 1898. (126) Record of the Times, February 11, 1898. (127) Ibid. , March 4, 1898. (128) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898. (129) Martin to Hastings, October 18, 1897 . (130) Ibid. (131) Record of the Times, February 8, 1898. (132) Ibid. (133) Ibid. (134) Ibid., February 18, 1898. (135) Ibid., February 11, 1898. (136) Ibid., February 15, 1898. (137) Ibid., February 11, 1898. (138) Ibid., February 8, 1898. (139) Ibid., February 11, 1898. (140) New York World, September 12, 1898. "Whether deserved or not, Sheriff Martin, of Luzerne county, it is alleged, entertains an unquestionable hatred for the foreign element." Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897. (141) Record of the Times, February 8, 1898. (142) Ibid., September 11, 1897. (143) Wilkes-Barre Leader, September 13, 1897. (144) Easton Free Press, September 13, 1897. (145) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 12, 1897. (146) Martin to Hastings , October 18, 1897. (147) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 12, 1897. (148) Record of the Times, February 28, 1898; Easton Free Press, September 11, 1897. (149) Martin to Hastings , October 18, 1897. (150) Ibid. (151) Daily Standard, September 11, 1897. (152) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1897. (153) Hoyt to Day, April 8, 1898; Evening Bulletin (Philadelphia), September 11, 1897; Record of the Times, February 8, 1898; Philadelphia Inquirer, September 12, 1897. (154) Ibid., September 11, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 11 , 1897; WilkesBarre Record, September 11, 1897 . (155) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1897. (156) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898. (157) Martin to Hastings, October 18, 1897. (158) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1897. (159) Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897 . (160) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11 , 1897. �SLOVAKIA 43 (161) Pottsville Republican, September 14, 1897. (162) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1897. (163) Evening Bulletin, September 13, 1897. (164) Daily Standard, September 11, 1897. (165) Record of the Times, February 22, 1897. (166) Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897. (167) Record of the Times, February 11 & 15, 1898; Daily Standard, September 11, 1897; "Some of the guns were loaded with shells containing a lot of No.8 shot, which scattered with deadliest effect, and others had the plain bullets of heavy bore. The manner in which the victims were tom up looked as though they had been before gatling guns or on a field of where grape and canister were poured from cannon mouths." Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1897. (168) Easton Free Press, September 11, 1897. (169) Wilkes-Barre Sunday Morning Leader, September 12, 1897. (170) Hoyt to Day, April 8, 1898. (171) Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897. (172) New York Tribune, September 15, 1897. (173) Report of the Industrial Commission, 139-140; Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28 & September 5, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 2, 1897; Daily Standard, September 4, 1897. When news of the Lattimer shooting spread through the coal fields surrounding Hazleton, the scope of the strike immediately enlarged involving some 10,000 mine employees and idling nineteen of the thirty-three area collieries. Strikers were unwilling to return to work during the following week when funerals for victims were held; they further refused to end their work stoppage until the coal operators met their grievances, mainly an increase in wages. The strike began to wane on September 20 when the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company agreed to grant a ten percent wage increase to mine laborers, pay six to eight cents more per car of coal to miners, and seek solutions to workers' complaints. Only two companies, Lehigh Valley Coal Company and C. Pardee and Company, had not reached a settlement by the end of the second week after the Lattimer shooting but by the end of September they both made an agreement similar to the other coal operators which finally brought an end to the Lehigh coal strike of 1897. Pennsylvania, Official Documents of 1897 (Harrisburg: Wm. Stanley Ray State Printer, 1899), ill, 124 Scranton Times, September 21, 1897; Daily Standard, September 21 & 24, 1897; UMW Journal, November 18, 1897, 3. �44 SLOVAKIA The Lattimer Massacre KON STANTIN CULEN A tragic event that occurred in September 1897 struck at the heart of Slovak American life with such telling impact that it served to solidify the Slovak immigrants in the United States into one unified body more effectively than had any previous experience in their new world. This event greatly furthered that awareness of a need for unity that began to crystallize under the pressures to which they had been subjected in their homeland Slovakia. In American history as well as in the record of early SlovakAmerican history this event is known as the Lattimer slaughter or the Lattimer massacre. The setting was the mining region around Hazleton, Pennsylvania. It was an area that had long seethed with the discontent and the restiveness of the men who were employed in the mines . Mine management groups had long bled their workers white, extracting the very marrow out of their bones . The companies paid out pauper wages, cheated the workmen on their weight checks, overcharged prices for foods and daily necessities that were sold through company stores. Scores of mining catastrophes underscored the obvious inadequacy of safety measures that existed to protect the men in their dangerous work in deep underground pits. Miners in Hazleton had declared a strike but nearby mines in neighboring communities continued to operate at practically full strength. Some casual talk was heard from time to time to the effect that the Hazleton operators were planning to bring in scabs in the near future. Union leaders realized that their Hazleton strike would lose all effectiveness unless the miners of the entire locality would join forces in one concerted resistance movement, supporting the Hazleton effort and pressing common demands for improved conditions and benefits. On September 10, 1897 a sizable group of Slovak and Polish miners who were on strike set out for the small mining settlement of Lattimer. In subsequent investigations during the trial they testified that they were on their way there because the Lattimer workers had sent them word that they decided to join the strike movement. The group of striking miners had hardly left Hazleton when Sheriff Martin with a company of about a hundred men from the supporting police force (so-called deputies) anticipated their movement and went An excerpt from Konstantin Culen's two-volume History of the Slovaks in America. (Bratislava, Slovenska Liga , 1942) vol. 1, Part XI , no . 5-9, pp. 162-176. Translated by Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. �SLOVAKIA 45 on ahead of them riding the trolley lines. On reaching Lattimer, he assigned his force of deputies to various positions and then he moved several paces forward, addressing the group marching in on foot, to read a restraining order that forbade any gathering or assemblage of persons by provision ordinance dealing with uprising and rebellion. During the reading of this ordinance, a few strikers came closer to the sheriff and there was some minor verbal exchange. The miners objected that they were not disturbers of the public peace or revolutionaries of any kind; they were simply orderly and law-abiding citizens peacefully going along their way . This reaction so exasperated the sheriff that he reached out and snatched away a small American flag that one of the men was carrying, tore it up, pulled out his revolver and began to shoot. After he had drawn his trigger five times, his sixth shot struck a miner in the chest and hurled him to the ground. After the sheriff's outburst of fire, there was the sound of volleys from the deputies. The unarmed miners turned and fled in panic, trying to find safety or protection of some kind. The brutal frontal attack lasted but a few moments but the deputies continued to fire upon the fleeing miners so that practically all of them were struck and wounded in flight.(1) The deputies who were charged with excitement by this time, further assaulted the bleeding victims by beating them and kicking them cruelly as they lay helpless on the ground. A shot or a volley of shots can seem to be an effective argument at a given moment but usually its effectiveness wears off after a brief time. And shots or salvos of shots fail to carry conviction. This was brought out in the Lattimer situation. The Slovak colony found itself in a state of shock, standing inconsolate beside the corpses of the fallen men. It was all too clear to these newcomers now - if it had not been clear to them before - that every Slovak had to be very realistically a brother to a fellow-Slovak, that every Slovak would have to be the most reliable standby and defense of a fellow-Slovak. Anything less than that would serve to reduce them to the debasing circumstance of being mere henchmen and convenient tools of foreign overlords and exploiters. This extravagant bloodletting and bizarre butchering under unprovoked and non-violent circumstances evoked considerable humane reaction in the American press. The attitudes of American journalists were not all of a kind. Some reporters and editors were incensed over the needless killings and brutality. Some wrote with a sense of relief that the incident involved only "Hunkies" - the generic designation that most newspapers used for every newcomer from Austria-Hungary. News of this lamentable event spread to all the Slovak settlers scattered throughout the United States and set off a degree of outrage and consternation that no other experience had yet caused in SlovakAmerican life. Those who had been faction-torn or at odds for whatever �46 SLOVAKIA reasons , were at once moved to conciliation and unity through their common grief at the graveside of the murdered men. Slovak Ame rican journalists who had been indulging personal and non-personal bouts of polemics in their papers left all that trivia now that a common cause evolved out of this catastrophe , and a vigorous new spirit infused their energies and talents. They reacted with a sense of unity and resolute will not only to moderate the mounting resentment and growing agitation that could have been fanned to unreasonable and uncontrollable proportions but to divert effort and attention to an altruistic purpose on behalf of aiding and befriending the widowed and orphaned survivors . Slovak American journalists also undertook a determined program to secure in the free world of America that measure of civic dignity and security that would make it impossible for such brutal disregard of the human right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ever to be repeated and condoned again . The press came out strongly with appeals for at least financial compensation to the bereaved widows and orphans and demanded that punitive justice be dealt the incriminated sheriff. The general feeling was that the just process of law and suitable sentencing should act as a deterrent to any possible repetition of the horrible incident. The whole body of Slovak immigrant life in America reacted with a corporate cry of pain and a strong appeal protesting the inhumanity of the Lattimer episode. New York, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, all made their voices heard as did lesser towns and even the lowly scattered hamlet settlements in America where Slovaks nursed the pain of this tragic hurt . Countless gatherings and demonstrations attracted thousands of Slovak laborers to review and assess the factors involved and the consequences of this catastrophe. Numberless formal discussions and rallies were climaxed with the drawing up of appropriate protest resolutions. All Slovak-American centers participated in drives to aid the victimized survivors of the callous murder, and there were also spirited fund-raising campaigns for legal expenses and court costs to bring Sheriff Martin to justice, for the prevailing view was that he should be made to pay for his crime, for his responsibility in leading and abetting reprehensible action . A committee for this express purpose was organized in Hazleton, holding itself charged to set in motion whatever action might be called for and to pursue the cause to its end. The September 16, 1897 issue (738) of the Amerikansko-Slovenske noviny appeared with a banner headline whose bold-faced lettering read: "Massacre of Slavs . In the freest country under the sun , people are shot at like dogs. Slavs are the victims of American savagery." Editor Pucher Ciernovodsky designated September 10 the bloody Friday of Slovak national life. His report seemed to be written with a pen dipped in blood. He denounced the attacking party and he did not spare the Slovaks themselves , finding them culpable of that lack of �SLOVAKIA 47 interest in public affairs that could have contributed significantly to the culmination of this public scandal. Some of Pucher Ciernovodsky' s thoughts were: ' 'The mountainsides of Hazleton are drenched with Slovak blood, and pitiable orphans and widows, fathers and mothers, brothers and friends raise eyes brimming with bitter tears to heaven pleading, 0 God , is there justice in this life? If there is justice on this earth of ours, did our blood truly deserve this spilling? Who in this world is committed to greater drudgery than we? Who in this world is engaged in a work that is more dangerous than ours? ' 'When we are driven to extremes of misery because hunger and want have sapped our strength and our bodies are bone-weary from overwork, and when our famished and shabbily clothed children ask for food that we cannot provide for them , and we go to discuss our problems and try to come together for deliberations in an effort to arrive at some reasonable solutions, how to go about unsnarling this sad fate that so embitters our lives - what kind of law is it, what kind of justice and fairness is it - or is it our miserable doom that we should be shot at like dogs? Ah, America, America ... ''It is indeed a curious America. When the Turks set upon the Armenians, every full-blooded American protested and vehemently shouted his willingness to join a fighting force to check the Turks. And yet here and now when it comes to bringing to justice those who similarly violated the rights of Slavs in America, they do all in their power to prevent the guilty from being brought to legitimate trial. Reams have been written and volumes have been mouthed condemning the cruelties of the Spanish in Cuba. There was universal recrimination against the injustices inflicted upon the oppressed Cubans, yet journalists have scant syllables of tenderness or sympathy for our people who were felled by wanton gunshot in a manner more senseless and inhuman than any attack of the Spanish upon the Cubans . The Cubans at least had defense weapons but our people were shot unarmed, shot like animals . ''This grieves us unspeakably. '' And, in the last analysis, who is most responsible for all this? "We ourselves must hold ourselves responsible. "A Slav does not support a fellow-Slav. We have no mutual bonds of unity, no fellowship at all, no commonly shared activities. We cultivate none. We fail to get along amicably. Instead, we seem to make sport of baiting one another, and we lack even that zest for life that long ago should have whipped us into a common front to denounce the maligning that the American press released against us and to protest the discrimination and injustice imposed upon foreigners by the threecent-tax. If other ethnic groups had not taken the initiative , we would have let them dance on our heads . �48 SLOVAKIA ' ' What can the American public think about such men? It would not be surprising if they rated us cowardly, worthless, less than the Indians, and so deserving a fate no better than that of the Indians. "We give too little consideration to matters like citizenship, legal rights and civil rights or public opinion. No wonder, then, that public opinion shows no concern about us, has no regard for us . ''If public opinion had any respect for us, then those deputies and the sheriff who were involved in the Lattimer affair would not have allowed themselves to perpetrate such an act of sheer barbarism. Whatever the circumstances, whether there was any excuse or not for a collective attack with Winchester rifles, at least this truth remains that if we were not a subservient people they would not have kept firing at our fleeing men from behind. "The catchword of people like our attackers, is "Shoot the Hungarian dog! ' ' Why? Because we do not make the effort to have our own recognized defense and defenders , our own qualified men who are in touch with the pulse of political life and current trends , men qualified to speak out on our behalf. We ourselves all too readily and regrettably belittle our own ; we tend to regard with disfavor and lack of recognition those of us who have gifts of leadership; we begrudge them opportunities , cut them down and deny them a chance to develop their potential. "In the end we suffer for it collectively. It is true that there are officials whose duty it is to defend our people because they were appointed and authorized to do so, and they are salaried to execute this office , but they seem to be wrapped in safe slumber. They are our Austro-Hungarian consuls. " Just what did these officials, these Austro-Hungarian consuls do for us in previous strike situations? Exactly nothing. " On the other hand , how did the Italian consuls react when their Italian countrymen were being lynched in New Orleans? The furor that was generated on that occasion almost incited a war with the United States, and an indemnity of five thousand dollars had to be paid for every victim. ' 'It is our reasoned judgment that the Hazleton bloodshed is far more criminal than was the New Orleans lynching and it is the patent duty of the Austro-Hungarian government to make honorable and serious intervention on our behalf. "Since those who were shot to death were citizens of the United States , we have no alternative but to organize our effort in order to bring the whole affair to an exhaustive investigation and to the due process of justice. The burden of responsibility in this matter rests primarily with our Slavic organizations which, in every respect, bear the characteristics of American organizational structure. And their responsibility for such action is all the more binding if any of their members happened to be among the victims, if they were members of �SLOVAKIA 49 the National Slovak Society, the First Catholic Slovak Union (Jednota), the Greek Catholic society Sojedinenie, the Pennsylvania Slovak Union, Sojus, etc. Let these organizations set in motion the wheels that will bring about necessary lawsuits; let them underwrite out of their treasuries or raise funds in some way to cover related expenses, and let their united effort and combined strength prove that they truly have the good name and the best interests of all Slavic ethnics at heart. Let me presume to say that this Bartholomew night should serve as a Sturrnistic symbol effecting concerted and wholehearted cooperation. ''If this soul-shaking experience fails to jolt us out of our morbid lethargy, we ought to raise a memorial cross as a marker for our nation and our spirit of patriotism and declare that we buried it all on that bloody Friday in Hazleton.'' (2) Because of this massacre a violent disturbance broke out among the Slovak and Polish miners. Governor Hastings declared a state of emergency in Hazleton and dispatched 2,500 troops to move in and control the problem. Security measures that the governor ordered for the Hazleton area were very extensive and elaborate, involving the outlay of $475 ,000 - a very large sum in those days. The whole countryside seethed and repercussions were witnessed far and wide. The American press took sides with Sheriff Martin, generally arguing (as if it were a valid objection) that the slain men were not even American citizens. The press of the ethnic groups and those who supported the cause of the miners countered this attitude with the historically substantiated observation that neither were Pulaski, Kosciusko and some other heroes of the American War for Independence official citizens of the United States. They came to fight for freedom in a land that was alien to them because liberty and freedom are nowhere in the world foreign commodities to any human being. Freedom is the prerogative of every person and we are all entitled to our share of this gift. In the hour of our country's struggle for freedom, every able volunteer was welcome to share in the battle and in the pain to win it. Now that the fruits of liberty should be portioned out to all and denied to none in a free land, it is glibly said that freedom is our privilege - you are existentially in the land of liberty but you are not a free man. On September 11 the miners held an open air protest rally in Hazleton. Father Stas, pastor of St. John Nepomucene Roman Catholic church in Freeland, spoke on behalf of the Slovak minority. He spoke out strongly and fearlessly against a freedom that countenances the murder of defenseless people. Some of the other speakers on this occasion were Reverend R. Aust of Hazleton who represented the Poles, Reverend Gullovic, Reverend Hauser, attorney John Shea of Wilkes-Barre and J . Fahy, president of the United Mine Workers. A gathering of over 4,000 Slovak and Polish mine workers resolved to �50 SLOVAKIA defend their rights, determined to make Sheriff Martin stand trial for this wanton bloodletting. The victims of the disaster were buried on September 12 as huge throngs converged upon the area for the occasion. This Lattimer massacre affected much of America. On September 15, the Slovaks and the Poles of the New York region held a mass demonstration at which they made it clear that the issue at stake was in no way related to religious affiliation or nationality roots or fratemalism of one kind or another. Their main concern was the general welfare of the American working class and fundamental civil rights for all. They appealed for unanimity and single-mindedness of purpose among them all - the Slovaks, Poles, Hungarians and English. A resolution which they formulated on this occasion includes these sentiments: · 'Profoundly affected by the catastrophe that occurred in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, in a free country, the republic of the United States of North America, where on September 10 eighteen men who were Slavs and Slovaks were shot to death and about forty others were wounded by a sheriff's posse as these men peaceably and with no ill intent went their way on a public street, aware of the provision of the Constitution of the United States which guarantees every citizen freedom of speech, freedom of opinion and belief, and the right of assemblage, all of which this country esteems and safeguards as sacred civil rights. ' ' Aware that the action of Sheriff Martin and his party was wholly unlawful and totally uncalled for - for it has been proved that the workmen who were en route to their predetermined destination had neither arms nor foul purpose, and he had not even tried to inform them of his rights and their duties - we, on this basis, as American citizens, as workingmen, as Slavs by accident of birth, do most emphatically denounce and condemn this criminal act. We express our profound sympathy to the bereaved families of the unfortunate victims even as we invoke the widely esteemed American regard for justice, urging that formal action be taken to bring to trial those who are considered blameworthy and to have them face their responsibility by due process of law and in this way to effect moral satisfaction to our nation and material compensation to the survivors of the victim families; ' 'We further resolve that to the full extent of our ability and means we will morally and materially offer our assistance to the unfortunately bereaved and we will exert all our power and prestige to have bloodthirsty criminals bear the just punishment which their conduct deserves; "We finally resolve that copies of this resolution be sent to the governor of the state of Pennsylvania and to the district attorney of Luzerne County, and that it be published in all newspapers; we also urge the editors of our Slovak publications to appeal to our people to �SLOVAKIA 51 support this action wholeheartedly with liberal contributions in an effort to redeem and justify the much maligned name and rights of the Slovaks who find it inevitable to undertake a distasteful reckoning with narrow-minded nativists." (3) A spirited call was made in the press for attendance at a protest gathering scheduled for September 20 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania "at which resolutions will be formulated denouncing the action of Sheriff Martin who is responsible for the shooting-death of so many blameless Slovaks . English, Slovak, Polish, Croatian and various other speakers will address those present." Protest and denunciation were voiced from all parts of the nation where there were fellow nationals of the slain miners . Dr. Theodorovic, who represented the office of the Austro-Hungarian consul, came to Hazleton for a personal assessment of the massacre and related factors. Slovak and Polish groups initiated drives throughout the United States in order to raise funds for promoting an equitable trial that would yield at least fair compensations where they were due, and just penalties for Sheriff Martin and his henchmen, all within the framework of jurisprudence and with a deterrent impact against similar injustice. One outcome of this effort was the organization of "the National Fair Trial and Beneficial Committee on Behalf of the Lattimer Victims. " This committee published a public statement and an appeal which was carried in all the current newspapers. It read in part: '' The underlings who are in the employ of corporations and share a thirst for liquidating their fellow-citizens are largely the lackeys and hacks of their bosses, all murderously eager to carry out every order from the top. The incident did not arise out of any disturbance of the peace by those guiltless men who were so brutally victimized; there was no intent to transgress law or ordinance; they carried no firearms , no clubs or flails. Workingmen were simply on a mission of their own, marching along the street to meet some fellow-workers from the same mining company in order to discuss a sharing of views and attitudes and to build moral support in a common cause. ''The Declaration of Independence in this land proclaims that all men are created free and equal. Somehow these hirelings felt that the life of an alien is not worth even as much as the life of a slave. Apparently they were led to believe that their killing of such people and under such circumstances would be universally approved by the press and by public opinion. '' It is well known that Americans endorse the principle of fair play. When poor workmen, unarmed victims, were so foully gunned down in cold blood, not only this land but all the civilized world was appalled by the atrocity. The Constitution of the United States provides for the right of peaceful assembly. Have these words meaning or force in the light of bullets and bayonets? We hold that every individual who participated in the shooting on that ill-fated day in Lattimer overstepped his rights �52 SLOVAKIA and violated the law. We hold that their act was nothing short of criminal, inhuman and unspeakable butchery. "We make this appeal and protest in the name of those who were wounded and as representatives of those who are the bereaved survivors in the families of the slain victims. Our committee has been organized in order to provide counsel and to call witnesses and to take care of whatever else may be necessary to bring Sheriff Martin and his deputies to face indictment and to stand trial according to the full force of our country's laws. ''We act on the principle that this struggle of ours is your struggle as well as ours and on the assumption that you are friends of the workingman who is often taken advantage of. If these people whom we desire to bring to an accounting are let go free and without making retribution for the killing of our countrymen, who knows what further fate can await us in the future? "Reverend Richard Aust, president; John Nemeth, treasurer; Loughran, secretary; Reverend John Stas, Salvator di Sandola, Nicholas Ballok, Matthews Long, John Kuntz, Charles Hauser, Edmund Lemhick, Reverend J. Formanek, Frank Kozlovski, George Kozarovich. '' Samuel Gompers, president of the Federation of Labor, visited the scene and made some observations about the cheap labor of the Poles, Slovaks and Italians whom the coal barons were importing into America in order to squeeze out the '' intelligent Irish and Welsh laborers.' ' Even before the sentencing, Gompers as president of the workers' union said, ''It is my opinion that the sheriff and his deputies will be acquitted in order to teach 'those foreigners' a lesson to behave differently in the future. ' 'Posterity will rate the Lattimer killings as nothing but massacre of a kind that has no equal in the history of civilized peoples, and the consciences of the perpetrators of this act will accuse and torment them to their last day. And even though monopolies and monopolists may succeed in achieving their victory, such slaughter must some day come to an end; truth will be victorious and all people will enjoy the fulness of their sacred rights - all people, whether they be of the common working class or the favored moneyed class of mine owners. "The laborers .of our country are moving toward better and stronger organization day by day, and the citizens at large are grasping a much better and a truer concept of the rights and obligations of individuals. When that day of ultimate realization does arrive, the account of the Lattimer murders will have been written in our history in letters of blood and this notorious crime will be looked upon as the most atrocious and vile offense of the nineteenth century.'' The trial of Sheriff Martin and his associates opened on February 1, 1898. The place of trial was the Luzerne County Court in WilkesBarre. Adherents of both the prosecution and the defense followed �SLOVAKIA 53 developments with undivided attention and intense feeling. Sheriff Martin had the support of all the major coal corporations , top officialdom and capitalism . The plaintiffs were backed by the laboring masses. In the process of jury se lection , Judge Staley Woodward saw to it that only American-born citizens were seated as jurors . There was never any doubt that the se lected jury panel was unanimous in its antipathy for foreigners . Judge Woodward ascertained from sworn testimony that the striking miners had created no public disorder or disturbance during their march , that they were completely unarmed, that Sheriff Martin had stopped them and insolently ordered them to turn back , that the miners were not incline d to obey but had objected that they had every right to use a public street. Further testimony indicated that the sheriff challenged the leader of the marching group, gave the order to fire and that he himself fired the first shot , striking the leader of the marching miners in the chest as additional volleys were turned upon the men who began to run for shelter . The City Trust Safe Deposit and Surety Company of Philadelphia supplied bail for the indicted to the amount of $256 ,000 . The press seldom missed an opportunity to belittle the foreign element and to overstate their shortcomings and least desirable traits - almost as if bad traits and undesirable characteristics were exclusively theirs. The presiding judge at the trial was Judge Woodward. He was related to the owner of the mines where strikes were beginning to be staged. He was also a shareholder in these mines. There was not a single Slav among the twelve jurors, most of whom were farmers, men who could hardly have firsthand knowledge of mining conditions and the situations that had justified the strike movement. They were not at all familiar with such matters as fair working conditions, e quitable pay, safety m easures, etc. A writer in one of the current publications observed, ' 'These are the names of the men in whose hands rests the power of passing a verdict that will tell the world whether anyone in this civilized country - even if he be the highest official of a particular country - may or may not, without cause, slaughter peaceful workers . It is easy to tell from the listed names that to the very last man these jurors are all Americans. The question is: are their hearts filled with rank nativism and malicious ill-will against foreigners? If they are bigoted nativists, it is vain to expect a fair sentence.'' Early in the opening of the trial the court denied the motion of the state prosecutor that the jury go to the scene of the massacre for a kind of re-enactment of the events that occurred there . The last act of this bloody drama took place during the trial. As charge followed upon charge , the full impact of hate and prejudice �54 SLOVAKIA harbored against the Slavic immigrants came into clearer and surer light. One of the defendants boasted, "I did all right; I aimed at nine and brought down five of them ." Meanwhile the mutilated survivors of that bloody Friday - some without an arm or a leg -- were in full view of the court and the spectators gathered at the trial. Before the eyes of them all , Gregory Gasparik with bandages bound about his head in which a bullet was still lodged, in moderate tones testified against Sheriff Martin and his posse. People who lived near the scene of the crime also came in to testify, telling how they had seen the deputies beat the strikers who were already all bloodied and wounded with shots . The defendants produced about a hundred witnesses who charged that Poles and Huns had terrorized the whole area and that on this occasion they were actuallly marching with firearms. They supported Sheriff Martin as a law man who was doing his duty when he ordered his men to fire at the group . Sheriff Martin, on his part, denied all guilt in the matter and entered a plea of innocent . He claimed that after reading the injunction, he attempted to arrest the leader of the marchers but the striking men , misunderstanding his action and intent, set upon him and began to beat and kick him. At this point he called upon his men for help and when even that restraint was ineffective, he finally gave an order to fire because he feared that he might be killed. When blank shots did not quell the situation , then they began to shoot in earnest even if it meant to wound and kill. He claimed that when he first met the marchers, he asked where they were going and that they answered, ''To Lattimer in order to get the men out of work! " " I begged them and pleaded with them not to go any farther ," he stated. " I urged them to obey the law and to disperse. Someone from the back of the crowd loudly cried out the word to go on. The strikers began to jostle me about and to shout abuse at me. One drunken Hungarian even tried to throttle me so I arrested him. The crowd that surrounded me swelled bigger and bigger. I drew my revolver and aimed into the air because I did not want to hurt anyone . In that instant, Joseph Novotny punched me in the face and I fell to the ground as the mob began to howl, 'Kill the s.o.b. ! ' '' I tried to defend myself with my revolver but it wouldn't fire. The mob that was pressing upon me was armed with revolvers and knives. When I fell to my knees, the deputies began to fire and the crowd then started to fall back. But they did not disperse at once. At a distance of 500 to 600 feet, they stopped in a wooded place. I felt that they might return. My men began to shout to them to disperse . Afterwards I gave the order to look after the wounded and the killed.'' The strikers countered this desposition with the charge that the sheriff was the first to fire a shot. They maintained that no one struck �SLOVAKIA 55 him, no one kicked him nor was there any evidence on his clothing or his body that he had been subjected to rough treatment of any kind. No blanks were discharged and no man who was wounded or killed was struck by a frontal shot; all were shot from the back. The son of the mine owner, young Pardee, called out to the law men , "Boys, shoot down those Huns! " Further testimony indicated that the deputies were extremely harsh and unfeeling even toward the killed and the wounded , kicking them mercilessly. Sworn witnesses consistently testified that the miners had no arms of any kind . They carried no canes or sticks, no rocks or stones , much less firearms. Scores of witnesses corroborated this testimony . Andrew Siviar, one of the miners, testified that the workmen marched as members of the United Mine Workers of America and that they had no weapons and had planned no mischief or property destruction of any kind. John Milhala, secretary of the local union, testified that they had gone to the mayor of the city who assured them that they could go to Lattimer in orderly fashion , that the sheriff had no authority to stop or prevent them. Some striking testimony was presented by the local school teacher Charles Guscot. He was eyewitness to the entire episode. He attested to the opening of fire by Sheriff Martin and the inhumane shooting upon the men who helplessly tried to flee from the ruthless officers. Another teacher from a nearby school alleged that she personally saw one of the deputies pursuing a wounded and bloodied man and in horror witnessed how he shot him to death a few steps in front of her when the weakened man fell to the ground from exhaustion. Reverend Stafflet declared under sworn testimony that he was passing the scene in a trolley car and had seen no signs of provocation on the part of the miners . They conducted themselves becomingly and bothered nobody along the way. The daily papers reported that the courtroom was the scene of some most unusual proceedings. The firm that had provided the earlier funds for bail now again supplied further expense money in the amount of over $402 .00 . All the sworn testimony agreed on the fact that the miners had no weapons . As a matter of fact, they had reckoned with the possibility of being challenged on the way and had forbidden any man to carry arms. Not one of them carried even as much as a walking stick or ordinary cane. Among the witnesses one testified that when he decided to join the group, he went into the mountains and cut himself a staff - just in case - but the others prevailed upon him to throw it away. There was also testimony that the deputies had openly boasted in the town that they would kill "the dirty Huns" yet. One of them joked about the whole thing afterwards, commenting that if he had been �56 SLOVAKIA given a cent for every one that he shot, he would have had the price of a bee r because he himself hit five . The sheriff and all the indicted men appeared before the bench with an air of great self-confidence and assurance. Their backing firm had made an outlay of over $30,000 in legal fees, the judge undoubtedly lent them the weight of his favor and they knew beforehand that no kind of testimony could affect them adversely. Some of the leading American newspapers, including the New York World which was owned by Pulitzer , a Jew from Zemplin in Slovakia, slanted their reporting to discredit the miners. Maurice Engelman , who was also a witness, testified that back in town they laughingly told him to hide or he would be an easy target. John Petruska testified that he was present when the posse was choosing firearms and one of the deputies quipped, " We ' re on our way for a shooting in Lattimer!" Gaspar Wizneski testified that he himself saw the sheriff raise his revolver and fire into the crowd in front of him . '' Do you swear that you saw the sheriff kill one of the strikers?'' the attorney challenged him . '' I swear to it that I did! '' he answered in a clear and audible voice that carried throughout the electrified atmosphere of the courtroom. Martin McGahren and Scarlet, attorneys for the plaintiffs, did not lack incriminating evidence yet all the substance of the testimony did not seem to put the burden of guilt on the accused. The court demanded specific proof and specific charges identifying who killed whom . This could hardly be presented , given the circumstances of abrupt assault and the ensuing panic . Who could tell precisely whose bullet killed this victim or that one? And there was the persistent line of defense claiming that the sheriff acted in the discharge of his duty when he issued the order to fire on the crowd. The defense was called to investigate a hundred witnesses . It was a drawn out trial that finally ended on March 9, 1898 . The sentence that was pronounced was: "The accused are found not guilty. " The court ruled that they had the right to shoot, that they had a right to selfdefense. This verdict created a public scandal. Over 30 ,000 miners began to threaten to take to the streets again, to start another strike. But they were at a total disadvantage. Corporations had contributed several hundred thousands of dollars for this legal battle. How could that be matched by the trifling $5,930 that the impoverished and distracted miners were able to raise from their own resources? For long months, the prime topic of public interest and comment among the Slovaks was the Lattimer massacre. Dozens and dozens of articles, printed and spoken reactions of varying degrees of intensity, were devoted to this incredibly outrageous event and its disgraceful outcome . J. A. Feriencik vehemently and fearlessly criticized a court of �SLOVAKIA 57 justice that would condone such wanton killing and allow such an act to go unpunished, unatoned, because the lords and the mighty ones assented to it. In stark disbelief he wrote: ''They will kill, they will shoot, and grant you no mourning or tears of relief. And somehow they will make it all come out within the limits of the law. '' On the one hand we keep calling out 'Friends and countrymen of ours, come out here and settle here in America, in this famed free country. Apply for American citizenship, learn English, do your utmost to become worthy citizens of the United States, etc.' On the other hand, we urge our people back home to come over with their entire families, to establish themselves as family units and to adopt the American way of life and so gain the ' respect' of their American neighbors. '' And our people here credulously throng to the courts for naturalization forms, they register their desire to become American citizens, set themselves to studying English, the language of this country, adopt American usage and custom, and with all the ardor of their nature they cultivate a deep love for this new country of theirs. In many instances their devotion and loyalty outstrip the sentiments of some native American citizens. And the returns for this good will and generous effort? - Heartless murder! "Even as our people spare no pain in their sincere enthusiasm to evidence their devotion , patriotism and good will, their love for the land of their adoption, their respect for its laws, they are contemptuously referred to as scoundrel Huns and Hunkies. And what hate goes with the slogans: They pushed us out of our jobs; take it out on them! Give it to them! Let them know that we don't like them one bit! '' Some of it is even more foul than this but I must restrain myself or some of that biased American justice might just get me across the knuckles too. "So it is then. These are the facts: You, my people , bend your neck willingly . You do all that you can to prove your genuine devotion to this new land. And what do you get for it all? - Censure, unmitigated scorn, cold brutality. '' Blameless blood is needlessly shed within the scope of the law. It is all but a miracle that the presiding judge did not pin a medal of heroism on the lapel of the sheriff and proclaim him a deliverer of some kind. ''It is time for us to look about and assess what's around us and not just sound off about the freedom, the democracy and the brotherhood of these people. "At every step you come upon hate, you face contempt. Even a street urchin will let you know that you are repulsive to him. ' ' My people, does misery force you to flee from one country as you seek to save your life and avoid starvation, and do you eagerly turn to �58 SLOVAKIA this free America to settle here and earn your bread through hard work and long hours? You escape from misery at home and the threat of death by famine only to hurl yourself into the arms of death here. There you tried to save your life; here they snatch it from you. "Foul murder! '' Are we to be the door mat of murderers forever? Some drive us out of our birthplace and in exile others set upon us with the intent to kill. "Introduce a system of slavery. Buy white slaves, shackle them, treat them at will and you will have a fair picture of American freedom and democracy in action . A realistic picture. Is the world to consider these democratic and freedom-loving people? A murderer has never yet been taken for a champion of freedom , a humanitarian or a freedom-lover. The lurid blotch left by Slovak blood spilled in Pennsylvania will long witness your kind of benevolence, your warped philanthropia? '' Are we to tell the undisguised truth to all our people? Well, if you want them to shoot you here, then tell it. It appears that before long they will pass laws making it legal to shoot Slovaks in certain particular months and not to consider them game in others - just as they do for various animals. It seems to be moving in that direction. This very trial gives proof of such widely touted justice and equity. The capitalist triumphs in spite of his crime and his guilt. The wretched workman loses even though it is he who has been wronged. " My people, if you only had millions of dollars in your hands, they would surely have proved to you how they can adjust and modify twisted paragraphs. But without the almighty dollar ... if you are the unfortunate wretch, then suffer and be still. That is the kind of principle that guided the judge presiding at the trial of the Lattimer murderers .'' (4) The American-Slovak News further editorialized on the subject of the trial and its verdict: '' For those who participated in the Lattimer massacre - or putting it more aptly - for those who defended the bloody trade of the butchers thirsting for human blood at the scene of the Lattimer carnage, it would be rather unfair to designate the event as a drama. For them this classic drama reached its denouement with all the impact of a genuine comedy. Twelve confirmed foes of all that does not breathe the fanatic ideas of the Apaches declared that the butcher Sheriff Martin and his vultures only did their duty; they acted as honorable men when they killed off those hated Huns. ''They crucified truth! They grossly trampled upon the rights of the disadvantaged workman in this free country. Why? For no reason other than this fact that the slaughtered victims first saw the light of day in Hungary, in Russia, in Germany or in Italy.'' (5) �SLOVAKIA 59 Naturally such a foul crime of multiple homicide and utter ruthlessness could not have touched Slovak life without affecting it deeply. The Slovaks sensed that if they would truly avoid being so tom by factions and lack of unity, if they could somehow unite their thousands of workers with common purpose and a sense of solidarity, such a misfortune could never again be repeated. Gradually there evolved within them the consciousness that we are all at fault, all of us, for not claiming those rights to which we are entitled. And so we suffer punishment. Out of this painful and humiliating or humbling realization , even before the verdict was pronounced, there grew the first substantial endeavor of the Slovaks in this land to work in harmony and to achieve a common strength. Realization fortunately led to action. On October 17, 1897 representatives of the leading Slovak-American publications met in Cleveland in order to confer on definite practical steps toward cooperation and the pursuit of common goals. The conference of these journalists resolved to adopt measures related to basic issues in order to counteract the unwholesome attitudes and underserved attacks of certain American press agencies that treated the Slovak immigrant element as less than human . This Congress of Slavic Pressmen , which was organized by Fr. (Francis) Pucher , also sent expressions of condolence to the survivors of the Lattimer victims. This innocent Slovak blood that was shed then did not go wholly wasted. It tended to conciliate the Slovaks and to bring them together. And though this was an extravagantly harsh and costly lesson, it taught them that in their distant strange land they must renounce all petty conflicts and contentions, for in this new world their widely scattered strength will count only if they can bring themselves together and act as a corporate unit that has the general welfare at heart. Many families that had not bothered about joining a Slovak fraternal or beneficial organization now saw that membership in such a society could really mean much to them, especially in the event of an unfortunate or tragic occurrence. The blood that the Slovak miners shed for the general good was the first effective and lasting incentive that brought the Slovaks of America together into one unified and conscious body. One disappointment followed in the aftermath. Newspapers published the report that John Nemeth, chairman of the committee, was named consul just before the final settlement of all the misunderstandings; however, his appointment was conditioned on his withdrawal from the committee. The government of Austria-Hungary petitioned the government of the United States to allocate some compensation to the families of the Lattimer victims. The outcome is embodied in an official document of the Secretary of the Interior (78,999) which includes the following statement: �60 SLOVAKIA "The government of the United States does not recognize any obligation to provide compensation to our fellow-citizens or to the famili es of those who were killed in the clash between the mine workers and the police in the Hazleton-Lattimer area.'' From the blood of these martyrs there was a sprouting of the fragile and delicate flower of accord. Within a year the general tone of the Slovak press had changed from bitter acrimony and unprofitable controversy to understanding and kindlier feeling all around. Even in cases where everyone had believed that common ground could never be found among known antagonists, it had indeed been discovered that these individuals also had many mutually satisfying interests to share and promote and they could work together and get along satisfactorily in spite of their differences. From this point on, every other problem seemed to be of a trivial nature, insignificant trifles that caused minor rifts here and there but had no essential substance. The main drive was toward definite goals even though various and varied avenues led to the ultimate end. FOOTNOTES (1) In a newspaper report published by the Amerikansko Slovenske noviny right after the event, the following are listed as fatality victims in this unfortunate clash: 1) John Kosanec , 2) John Temoci , 3) Fr. Kedel, 4) John Ceka, 5) John Ceslak 6) George Versek, 7) Stephen Hornik , 8) George Kulik, 9) Fr. Ceka, 10) Stephen Ulrich, 11) Andrew Zesman, 12) John Ivanko. Later these names wer also added to the list: 13) John Futa , whose name is sometimes also given as Futas, 14) Stephen Jurek, 15) Michael Ceslak, 16) George Gasparek, 17) John Slebodnik , 18) John Banko, 19) Andrew Jurecek, 20) John Skrip. Since Sheriff Martin was indicted for the death of twenty-one victims , it is clear that this list is incomplete. Some of the men who had been seriously wounded in the incident later died in the hospital. An exact list with all names in their correct spelling is most likely available from the court records in Wilkes-Barre and probably from various English and Polish newspapers of that time. It was a common practice in those days to transmit news reports by telegraphic communication and so it is possible that some of the names were affected by transcription and could have been somewhat distorted. The following men were wounded in the encounter: Anthony Macuka, single , Polish; James Tomason , single, Polish; Francis Fetus, single, Slovak; John Penkames, married, Lithuanian; Joseph Macko, married, Slovak ; Andrew Josmont, married, Polish ; Martin Serfanek, single, Polish ; John Dolny , married , Slovak; John Krisak, single, Slovak ; John Presa, married, Slovak ; Andrew Majer , single, Slovak; John Padnok , married , Polish ; John Posca, married, Slovak ; George Gaspar, single, Slovak; Adolph Colak, married, Slovak ; Adam Lipianski , single, Polish; John Kulich, single, Polish , John Kontra, married , Slovak; Joseph Gasparik, married, Slovak; Thomas Paris , single, Polish ; Andrew Honas, married, Slovak; Andrew Orban, married , Polish; Gaspar Dula§, married , Slovak; Joseph Zapa, Slovak; Joseph Paulak, married , Polish; Matthew Chia, married , Polish; Clement Plotach, married, Polish; John Fora, single, Slovak; Stanislaus Kominski, married, Polish; Constantine Monsara , married , Polish , Bernard Rummal, single, Polish . In 1902 the convention of American Mine Workers adopted a resolution providing for the erection of a memorial to honor the fallen miners as pioneer heroes in the cause for �SLOVAKIA 61 social justice. Additional names of stricken men that make their appearance within the formal text of this resolution include the following: Clement Patek, John Foote, Sebastian Praztomski, Raphael Rezervicz, Albert Czaja, Stanley Rajoski, Andrew Goekers, Andrew Miczkowski, John Krop, Andrew Morrikoski, Adam Zrainski, Adalbert Zienka, Frank Chazesjewski, Steve Znoec, Andrew Jamee (Jurecek), Mike Coseak (Ceslak), George Kulek (Kulik). Some of the surnames were garbled to some extent; most likely they happened to be misread in the course of years that had passed since the massacre itself. (2) Amerikansko-slovenske noviny (American-Slovak News), September 16, 1897. (3) Amerikansko-slovenske noviny, 30. IX. 1897. (4) "Let Slovak Blood Call to God for Vengeance" American-Slovak News, 31. ill. 1898. (5) American-Slovak News. 5.Il. 1899. �62 SLOVAKIA The Lattimer Massacre and Trial HARRY B. SCHOOLEY III INTRODUCTION To have a clearer understanding of the trial at issue it is necessary to say that upon entering the court where the trial is in progress one is immediately impressed with the fact that the issue involved is as much a question of the relations of employer and employed as a question of the trial of Sheriff Martin and his deputies for murder, and, as has been invariably the case, the representatives of corporate power assume a hauteur and domineering attitude toward all. The counsel for the defense, former Attorney-General Palmer and Mr. Lenahan, as well as Sheriff Martin and the Deputies , assume an air of offended pride and indignation at being called to defend themselves against a charge of killing a score or more laborers, and think of it! Foreign laborers at that! So wrote Samuel Gompers in an article for the New York World of February 20, 1898. The shooting at Lattimer, Pennsylvania, had become labor's forgotten massacre. Twenty-four striking anthracite coal miners were killed when Luzerne County Sheriff James Martin ordered his deputies to fire into their ranks when their parade threatened the security of the community shortly after three o'clock on the hot afternoon of September 10, 1897. While at times a Sheriff has been punished for criminal neglect of his duty in not firing on a riotous mob, Sheriff Martin was proceeded against in the Lattimer trial because he and his deputies did so fire. The law of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for whose supremacy they battled, was used to compass their destruction because they did so. Gompers was wrong. Lattimer was not a '' question of the relations of employer and employed." The lesson of the verdict in the Lattimer case is not that the rich are to be protected, but that the poor and defenseless shall have an absolute guarantee of all their individual rights, and that those who attempt to impair them by lawlessness must answer to the law as criminals. H.B.s.,m May, 1965 (Harry B. Schooley ill teaches at the Buffalo Seminary for girls in Buffalo, New York. A native of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, he wrote this paper while an undergraduate at Williams College in May, 1965.) �SLOVAKIA 63 Ariovistus Pardee, an ambitious engineering student with the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company, was sent in May of 1833 to the Lehigh coal regions of Pennsylvania to survey a railroad line from the anthracite mines at Beaver Meadow to the Lehigh Canal at Mauch Chunk. Pardee 's success in the area led him to locating further lines in the region and he began his own mining operations in 1840.(1) In 1869 Pardee built the company towns of Lattimer and Harwood near Hazleton to house the miners working in his six mines. In 1892, following his father ' s death, Calvin Pardee took over the mines at Lattimer and Harwood. Feeling there would be less chance of a consolidation of the working men against his interests, Pardee mixed the foreign immigrant miners filling the houses at Lattimer largely with Italians and those at Harwood with Slovaks, Poles, and Lithuanians . Between 1875 and 1900 there were sporadic attempts on behalf of the Welsh, Irish, and German miners of the anthracite fields to organize for better working and wage conditions. A means for curbing any attempts to organize the miners was the introduction by the mine operators of large numbers of laborers from Austria-Hungary, Poland, Russia , and Italy who were content to work hard and long for low wages. This over supply of unorganized men literally depressed wages to a minimum through the ever-present competition.(2) By the late 1890's the mine patches of the Lehigh coal regions were largely populated by the new mixture of non-English speaking nationalities who with their cheaper immigrant labor replaced the old order of English , Welsh, and Irish miners. The new miners were largely Slovaks, Poles, Italians , Hungarians , and Lithuanians and were considered "foreigners" relegated by the social conditions to which they belonged - the unpainted company houses , shacks, and the dreaded company store. A racial and national prejudice predominated in the mine patches and the better educated, more intelligent of the foreigners met with each other and insisted that every good foreigner should get his "papers " as soon as possible so as to vote in the elections and prevent the '' white men ' ' from voting to pass a law that might drive them from the country. Many of the miners found themselves in great debt to the company store . In 1896 the Pennsylvania Legislature appointed a committee to investigate the company store system . An order for 50,000 copies of the committee report was canceled because, as American Federation of Labor Vice President J . P. McGuire stated in September of 1897 , ''of the disgrace which would fall upon the State were the truth made known of conditions existing in the Schuylkill region." (3) Conditions were the same in the Lehigh and Wyoming Valleys. Perhaps McGuire 's labor affiliations prejudiced him in the making of this statement, but the recent business depression had reduced the lot of the anthracite miner to a very poor one. The manager of one of the Hazleton collieries revealed that his payrolls for September 1, 1897, amounted to about $26,000, of which $18,000 was �64 SLOVAKIA deducted for living expenses (debts to the company store, rents for living in the company houses, fees deducted from pay for the company doctor, money deducted to pay the priest) leaving less than one-third the original amount to be divided among the miners. Discontent over small wages, idleness, and other alleged "wrongs" was seized upon by the new leadership composed of young, energetic and often violent labor organizers as a timely excuse for action. Their opportunity came in August of 1897. A strike broke out at the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company 's Honeybrook Colliery near the new borough of McAdoo, when twenty driver boys were ordered to stable their mules after stopping work without extra pay. They refused and division superintendent Gomer Jones fired them. On Sunday, August 15, 2,500 Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Company miners joined the strike. Newspapers feared that ''the Italians and Hungarians, who are very aggressive, cannot be controlled." (4) The Honeybrook strikers were led by a committee of grievances which met with general superintendent Elmer H. Lawall demanding an investigation of Gomer Jones to the effect that he reduced miners' wages and that the wages be restored to the original rates. Lawall promised an investigation of Jones if the miners returned to work; and a week after the first walk-out, work was resumed at Honeybrook.(5) On the same day (August 22) the Honeybrook miners returned to work, there arrived in the area from Philadelphia one John Fahy, selfappointed local president of the United Mine Workers of America. Meeting with Italian miners at Audenreid, Yorktown, and Beaver Brook, Fahy persuaded them to organize an Italian branch of the United Mine Workers.(6) Fahy's presence in the area on behalf of the union caused great concern among the mine operators as the miners became more aware of their plight and their demands became more intense. Fahy's word spread rapidly from operation to operation, and on August 26, Italian and Hungarian miners struck at the Van Wickle Coal Company collieries at Beaver Meadow and Coleraine. Two thousand miners moving overnight forced the workers from their shops at the Van Wickle breakers so as to stop all work. Their demands for higher wages were not considered serious as the strike was spontaneous and had no apparent intelligent leadership.(7) On August 27, the Van Wickle colliery at Milnesville was idled by the strikers and a coal train was prevented from leaving the town. All Van Wickle operations were forced to shut down. The next day at a meeting of the strikers in Hazleton, a formal demand was presented to Van Wickle superintendent Roderick. Roderick claimed that the advanced scheduled wages (which would set a wage scale for the region) demanded by Fahy 's organizers would not be paid to the miners, although the average pay rates of the region would be paid. The speaker at a Coleraine meeting urged the strikers to resort to violence if the demands were not met. In answer armed members of the Coal and �SLOVAKIA 65 Iron Police were sent to guard the Van Wickle properties.(8) Saloons in Milnesville and Coleraine were closed and a state of ominous calm pervaded the Hazleton area. English-speaking miners were willing to return to work were it not for the threats made by the foreigners. The employees of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company anxiously watched the Van Wickle situation as there had been no action taken towards the promised investigation of Superintendent Jones.(9) Between August 30 and September 3 the strike spread rapidly. Roderick agreed to make wage concessions at the Van Wickle colliery at Milnesville which immediately resumed work. If settlements were made at the other Van Wickle operations, then the Lehigh and WilkesBarre miners might never see Jones investigated at all. The miners at the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre's Audenreid colliery struck and five hundred strong marched on the company's Yorktown colliery and washeries at Dodson, Beaver Brook, Star, Monarch, and Carson, driving off all the workmen.(10) The miners at the Van Wickle Coleraine colliery remained on strike. Assembling in McAdoo on September 2, Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre strikers marched with an American flag to the Beaver Brook colliery forcing it to close. Those workers who refused to stop work were driven off. From Beaver Brook they marched to Yorktown (which had resumed work in spite of the march on that operation by the Audenreid strikers a day earlier) where colliery superintendent Hayes tried to reason with them, as the Yorktown workers had no grievance. Nevertheless, the Yorktown colliery closed. The march then turned towards Audenreid and the home of Gomer Jones. Following a thorough but futile search for Jones , the then two thousand marchers proceeded to the colliery at Silver Brook where the workers fled. At a meeting that evening in McAdoo, the members of the grievance committee advised against future marches, but Fahy's organizers insisted that the marches would continue daily until all the collieries were idle. Fahy, incidentally, was in Silver Brook that evening organizing a new chapter of the United Mine Workers. At Coleraine the Van Wickle strikers were quiet and Superintendent Roderick, in a bid to maintain good will between the company and the strikers, stated that none of the Coleraine workers participated in the march.(11) Later on the evening of September 2, the Coleraine strikers agreed to return to work if they would be protected from the mob. Roderick gladly granted protection. Mayor Altmiller of Hazleton issued orders to the police that if any attempt was made to organize a mob parade on September 3, the marchers were to be dispersed, and if the police were not strong enough the citizens should help them. The Lehigh Valley Coal Company closed its collieries at Jeansville and Hazleton No. 1 not because of grievances between the company and its employees, but because the mob of strikers had threatened the workers. The Lehigh Valley counseled all its workmen to obey the will of the mob.(12) By September 3 the strike had stopped all �66 SLOVAKIA mining operations except those of the New Ebervale Coal Company , Van Wickle 's Coleraine and Milnesville Collieries, and Pardee 's colliery at Lattimer. The weapons of the foreigners were the threat and the mob . With the march of September 2 and the probability of future marches , many mine owners feared for the safety of their property at the hands of the striking miners. The Luzerne County Sheriff's office in Wilkes-Barre, in response to the pleas of the operators for protection , sent an urgent telegram to Sheriff James R. Martin , vacationing in Atlantic City, requesting his immediate return. As soon as Sheriff Martin arrived in Wilkes-Barre on September 5, he telegraphed the sheriffs of Carbon and Schuylkill counties to meet him in Hazleton the next day. Before boarding the train to Hazleton, Martin announced that if he thought necessary , a proclamation would be issued calling on the strikers to refrain from all acts of violence and to permit all who so desired to return to their usual vocation as well as to cease marching. "The fact that men are compelled against their will to march along with an ignorant and sometimes infuriated mob causes some fear that other and more dangerous complications may arise ." (13) Following the Hazleton meeting on September 6, the three sheriffs simultaneously published a proclamation prohibiting mob parades and demonstrations , stating the following: . . . notice is given to all good citizens to refrain from all tumultuous and unlawful assembly and from all acts of disorder or violence, and from all acts interfering with the liberty of other citizens, or tending to a breach of the peace . Notice is further given, that all such acts of disorder and lawlessness will be summarily repressed and punished in accordance with the laws of the land. - James Martin, High Sheriff of Luzerne County The proclamation was based on the Pennsylvania Riot Act of March 31, 1860 which forbade ''any persons riotously and tumultuously to assemble together to the disturbance of the public peace." (15) While the three sheriffs were meeting in Hazleton, Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Company granted the same advances as did the Van Wickle Coal Company at Milnesville and Coleraine.(16) That night Sheriff Martin in his Broad Street hotel room swore in 87 deputies, most of whom were members of the Coal and Iron Police from the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre and Lehigh Valley Coal companies , but some of whom were business and professional men of the Hazleton area .(17) For the next three days the Hazleton area remained in an uneasy calm as the sheriff and his deputies remained on call responding to separate incidents throughout the area. �SLOVAKIA 67 While Martin and his men remained in Hazleton, John Fahy was active at the Pardee colliery at Harwood. Enlisting the aid of the popular young Hungarian slate boss, John Eagler, Fahy was successful in organizing a new branch of the United Mine Workers. Fahy claimed the new union advocated peaceful arbitration of differences between the miners and the operators. Selecting Eagler as their first local secretary and Joseph Mehalto, another well-known Slav from nearby Crystal Ridge as president, the Harwood body immediately formulated a list of grievances - demanding a ten cent wage raise, a reduction of blasting powder from $2. 75 to $1.50, and no company butcher or company doctor - which they presented to the Pardee office in Hazleton on September 9.(18) While the Harwood strikers were presenting their grievances, a mob of "young Italians and Huns" descended on the New Ebervale Coal Company's colliery at Ebervale, driving off Superintendent John Scott and his employees in a shower of rocks and sticks.(19) With this outbreak of new violence, the Pardee Company refused to consider any grievances until all sections of the Harwood colliery were working. Meeting in the Harwood schoolhouse on the evening of September 9, the striking miners decided that in order to get the bargaining position they needed, the whole company must be shut down. This meant work must be stopped at Lattimer. Upon Mehalto's suggestion, the members resolved to send a committee of ten to Lattimer on the next day to persuade the colliery to close down. (20) On the morning of the tenth it was suggested that the strikers go along with the committee, and with Mehalto and Eagler at the head of a column of 250 to 300 men and boys, the strikers set out for Lattimer. With the American flag at the head of the procession, they marched through Crystal Ridge and Cranberry where they were joined by others until the ranks numbered about four hundred. On entering West Hazleton the strikers found their route blocked by Sheriff Martin and his deputies . Standing in front of his line of deputies, Martin ordered the strikers to stop and to disperse. The march pushed on, a scuffle resulted, two strikers were arrested, and the flag was taken from them. Following this encounter, the strikers moved off into a field by the side of the road and the sheriff and his deputies withdrew maintaining a careful eye on the marchers. Soon, however, the march was under way once more, the strikers still heading for Lattimer but skirting West Hazleton to the north. Martin and his deputies hurriedly boarded an open trolley car, provided for their use by the Lehigh Transit Company, and rode back into Hazleton and out the Lattimer line to Harleigh , where the road to Lattimer and the rail line converged and ran parallel for a short distance. At Harleigh the sheriff and his deputies again met the marching strikers, the trolley car keeping pace with the men on foot, grim silence between them while the police in their trolley sat holding their rifles . (21) The car arrived in Lattimer in time for Martin to �68 SLOVAKIA watch the movement of the march, and, from a high point at the town 's approach, the column could be observed moving toward the Pardee colliery No. 1. Again the deputies, about 150 in number, having been reinforced by numbers of the coal and iron police from Lattimer, lined up in a semi-circle across the road with Sheriff Martin standing several yards in front of them. The scene at West Hazleton a few hours earlier appeared about to be re-enacted. When the strikers reached the line of deputies Martin, proclamation in hand, stepped out to meet them: ''You must stop marching and disperse. This is contrary to the law and you are creating a disturbance. You must go back. I won't let you go on to the colliery.'' (22) Eagler argued that American citizens had the right to parade as long as they were not disturbing the peace. Martin read the Riot Act. Most of the marchers, not understanding English, pushed forward to find out what Martin was saying. In the crowd the sheriff was jostled. Thinking himself in danger, he tried to get back to his line of deputies, but was knocked to his knees. The strikers made way for him, and just as he emerged from their ranks, the cry was heard, ''Fire, fire on' em!'' The deputies fired into the unarmed mob. (23) Following a meeting with his lawyer on arriving back in WilkesBarre that evening, Sheriff Martin issued a statement of the Hazleton conditions and shooting: I was not there to interfere in the strike in any shape or manner, but was there for the mere purpose to prevent all violations of the law, and to restore peace and quiet. I beseeched and entreated the leaders to talk to their comrades and ask them to disperse and return to their homes, act in a peaceable way and desist from doing any sort of violence ... (at West Hazleton) the strikers began to crowd together, and to mutter and chatter in their own languages. The leaders urged them on and at the same time began to curse and swear at me, as well as openly defy me and my deputies . (at Lattimer) I ... rushed ahead of my deputies ... dashed in among the foreigners and boldly placed the leader under arrest. (the strikers) at once attacked me most viciously , striking and kicking me, knocking me down. I called to the deputies to discharge their firearms into the air over the heads of the strikers, as it might probably frighten them ... I fully realized that the foreigners were a desperate lot ... (I assumed) they were too excited to listen to reason and that myself and deputies would be killed ... if we did not defend ourselves. I then called upon the deputies to defend themselves and shoot, if they must, to protect their lives or to �SLOVAKIA 69 protect the property, that they had been sent to guard, from being demolished. I hated to give the command to shoot and was awful sorry that I was compelled to do so, but I was there to do my duty and I did it the best I knew how and as my conscience dictated, as the strikers were violating the laws of the Commonwealth and flatly refused to obey the proclamation that I had read to them. They, instead, insisted on doing violence and disobeying the laws.(24) In "doing violence and disobeying the laws" eighteen strikers were instantly killed while approximately twenty-four others were seriously wounded. Eagler and Mehalto escaped and their comrades fled in terror. One of the strikers, Martin Rosko, a Hungarian from Mt. Pleasant and wounded in the arm, gave the following account: We were going along the road to Lattimer and the deputies were lined across the road barring our progress. We tried to go through them and did not attempt to hit or molest them when they fired upon us. We ran but they kept on shooting while we ran. It (the massacre) is all their fault.(25) That evening three thousand Hazleton-area miners gathered at Hazleton's Donegal Hall for a meeting conducted by United Mine Workers' president John Fahy in which it was resolved "that we demand the prosecution of the sheriff and deputies of the crimes committed this tenth day of September."(26) At midnight Pennsylvania Governor Daniel Hastings notified Colonel C. B. Dougherty of the 9th Regiment that as there may be further disturbances and that the security of the community may be in danger, Dougherty was to take the regiment to Hazleton to maintain peace and order. (27) On September 11, Dougherty's regiment was joined by five regiments of the Third Brigade of the Pennsylvania National Guard under the leadership of General John P. Gobin. On the morning of September 11, John Nemeth, a leader of the strikers' general committee, went before Squire Gorman of Hazleton and had warrants sworn out for Sheriff Martin and 102 of his deputies. (28) When General Gobin heard of the warrants he issued an edict declaring that so long as the troops remain in the vicinity not a single deputy would be placed under arrest. Owing to the military authority, Sheriff Martin and the deputies were not arrested until ten days after the warrants were issued. Also on that morning a representative of the Austro-Hungarian Consulate in Philadelphia arrived in Hazleton to investigate the murder of Hungarian nationals. (29) �70 SLOVAKIA In the meantime the strike continued. By September 14, seven thousand men had left their jobs, crippling the seven Hazleton area companies.(30) Out of sympathy for their murdered comrades from Harwood, 2,300 men left work at the Pardee operations at Lattimer. Visiting Hazleton from Philadelphia the next day, Calvin Pardee stated the following: My men were perfectly satisfied with the wages they were receiving, and would have continued work had they not been driven away by the mob . . . I have operated my collieries over twenty years on the sliding scale, the rate of wages being based on the price of coal at tide, and I will not change that method.(31) Sheriff Scott of Schuylkill County telegraphed to Governor Hastings an appeal for troops to maintain order should the strike spread to his county(32) as sporadic outbreaks of violence continued throughout the region with no apparent prospect of settlement in sight. John Fahy, in a somewhat curious statement to the press on September 18, claimed "The strike is not being conducted by the United Mine Workers." Speaking of his efforts to organize the miners, Fahy stated, "our objects are not to raise excitement and occasion violence but are arbitration, peace and conciliation. Our organization is not to encourage strikes but to prevent them." (33) Fahy expressed the hope that the strike would be settled more quickly if more men organized. If more men were organized in the manner in which the Harwood strikers were organized, the strike would be far from being settled. On September 19 following a Hazleton meeting, the owners of the mines at Lattimer, Beaver Meadow, Honeybrook, McAdoo, and Audenreid announced that they would open their mines on September 20, and if the men were not back at work, they would be discharged altogether. By September 20 all strikers but the employees of the Coxe Brothers Coal Company had returned to work.(34) That evening Fahy held a meeting at Donegal Hall whereat the miners resolved ''to demand that the Attorney-General of Pennsylvania immediately proceed against each corporation now conducting company stores."(35) On September 23, the employees of the Silver Brook collieries were told they were no longer subject to compulsory patronization of the company store and company butcher.(36) The operators gradually made concessions to prevent another such strike, and on September 29, General Gobin and his troops left Hazleton.(37) The anthracite strike of 1897 was virtually over. With peace returning to the Hazleton region, attention was turned to the fate of Sheriff Martin and his deputies. On September 20, Luzerne County District Attorney D.A. Fell and County Detective Isaac Eckert secured bench warrants from the Luzerne County Court of Oyer �SLOVAKIA 71 and Terminer for the arrest of Martin and 68 of his deputies, charging them with' 'the willful and malicious killing of twenty-four (six had died since the shooting) strikers near the village of Lattimer on September 10 last."(38) Bail was posted at $4,000 for homicide and $1,000 for felonious wounding and, through the maneuvring of Calvin Pardee, bond was furnished by the City Trust, Safe Deposit and Surety Company of Philadelphia.(39) Seeing the opportunity to take up the cause, the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor meeting in Washington resolved on September 24, That we condemn most severely the wanton killing and wounding of the poor miners at Lattimer and will give our fullest help through the trade union and the American Federation of Labor to raise money for the legal prosecution and conviction of Sheriff Martin and his murderous minions, that through the courts of the land even-handed justice may be done to atone for those revolting murders.(40) A preliminary hearing was held in the Luzerne County Court House at Wilkes-Barre from September 21 to 27 wherein the grand jury came to the decision that Martin and his men had shown probable cause of a "wanton and unjustifiable" killing of the strikers.(41) The case of Commonwealth v. Martin was scheduled to begin on February 1, 1898. On February 4, 1898, an editorial in the Wilkes-Barre Record accurately predicted that the trial was expected to develop whether the sheriff and his posse were justified, under the circumstances, in resorting to the extreme measure they did, either for their own protection or to preserve law, order, and the public peace. The case was called on the morning of February 1, before Judge Stanley Woodward, presiding judge of Luzerne County. Sheriff Martin's defense counsel consisted of his personal lawyer, George S. Ferris, and the county's leading criminal lawyer, John T. Lenahan. Other attorneys for the defendants were Henry W. Palmer, George Troutman, C. W. Kline, George R. Urquhart and F. W. Wheaton. At the table for the prosecution sat the new District Attorney, T. R. Martin, who had only taken office a month earlier. With Martin were four other lawyers, who were secured by the strikers' prosecuting committee: John Garman, John McGahren, James Scarlett, and former secretary of the miners' prosecuting committee, J. F. Loughran. In addition to the deputies the court room was crowded with interested spectators including New York, Philadelphia, and nationally syndicated newspaper reporters, newspaper artists, representatives of the Royal Austro-Hungarian government which was planning to make a claim for indemnity for the deaths of the nationals should the sheriff be convicted, and the solicitor general of the United States, Luzerne County's own Henry M. Hoyt (Williams, 1849).(42) �72 SLOVAKIA For two tedious days the court was involved in selecting a jury. When the task had been completed, the twelve men who sat in the jury box were all native American citizens and were largely representative of the middle class skilled labor group.(43) Many of the jury men admitted in their examination by the counsels for defense and prosecution that although they had already formed an opinion, their verdict would not be so influenced. None of the jurors were foreign-born and counsel Loughran complained that the majority of them were ''in sympathy with the sheriff and his deputies." (44) The case for the Commonwealth was opened by McGahren, who claimed the shooting at Lattimer was a ''horrible massacre . '' In a highly emotional speech he told the courtroom how Sheriff Martin stood by proudly while his men brutally murdered the fleeing strikers. He even went so far as to claim the sheriff had emptied his pistol into the head of one of the march leaders. The Sheriff's actions at Lattimer were "a disgrace to civilization," he explained.(46) With this heated example of rhetoric, began the case for the prosecution which consumed nearly sixteen days of examination during which 103 witnesses testified. At the end of the first week of the trial on February 5, it developed that when the case had been continued from the November to the January term of court, bail for the defendants had not been renewed. District Attorney Martin immediately asked either that bail be posted or that the defendants be committed to jail. Judge Woodward replied he would not require the defendants to enter bail until Monday, February 7. Garman of the prosecution immediately pressed the court further to demand bail at once. Lenahan of the defense resented Garman's demands and charged, "You are a puppy! You have been a puppy all your life!" Garman's reply was apparently appropriate as he turned to Judge Woodward and said, "When the thing back of me shuts up, I will proceed." Lenahan replied, "That is only a part of the buffoonery of the Commonwealth.'' Garman turned to face him and raised his fist as if to strike. "If you touch me, I'll kill you!" By this time friends intervened and restrained the two attorneys until order was restored. Garman, eyeing Lenahan defiantly, replied, ''The buffoon has just ceased speaking." (4 7) This exchange of opinions on the floor of the courtroom did not change Woodward's mind and the bail was deferred. The exchange was, however, quickly picked up by the out-of-town reporters and reported in such a way that when court convened on February 7, Judge Woodward admonished the artists and reporters of some of the newspapers that if they continued to caricature the proceedings of the court or to misrepresent what developed, he would refuse them admission to the courtroom.(48) Woodward's admonishment of the reporters for their "yellow journalism" did not end the court's cause for concern. On the evening of February 14, the President of the American Federation of Labor, �SLOVAKIA 73 Samuel Gompers, arrived in Wilkes-Barre to write a special report on the trial for the New York World. The Wilkes-Barre Record was critical of the labor leader's being in Wilkes-Barre, claiming that Gompers would only report the trial from the point of view of the strikers, not from the objective viewpoint of whether Martin was justified in shooting.(49) The Record was not the only newspaper critical of Gompers ' being in Wilkes-Barre. The New York Evening Sun stated " Gompers is so dissatisfied with the way Judge Woodward is conducting the Lattimer trial that he refused to be presented to him. We can only congratulate his Honor on a fortunate escape." (50) In an article in the World on February 20, Gompers attacked Woodward's conduct of the trial, his rulings on evidence, and went so far as to attack him personally as a friend of the mine owners, as Woodward: married into a family of land holders of the district, who receive royalties upon every ton of coal mined. When a cessation of mining occurs from any cause Judge Woodward is to that extent a loser of part of his income. He is a member of the Westmoreland Club, of which the mine-owners are largely members and of which also a number of the so-called deputies are members.(Of the strikers Gompers wrote) They had previously decided and carried out their purpose , to be unarmed and unprotected except by the justice of their cause and the American flag in which they had absolute faith. It is sad to contemplate when workingmen of either American or foreign birth have their faith and confidence in the emblem of our country destroyed and perhaps sadder still is the possibility of losing faith in the justice of our courts. In conclusion Gompers made the Lattimer trial a trial in behalf of the eventual triumph of the working man: The workers of our country are organizing better and more thoroughly each day; we shall not only create a healthier public sentiment as to man 's rights and man's duties, but we shall largely constitute that public opinion. And , when that day comes , the crime of Lattimer will be a record-letter day in the annals of our history to which all will look back upon with horror as the monumental crime of the century. (51) Should Sheriff Martin be convicted of murder, labor would win a great victory in its struggle for recognition. While labor adopted Lattimer as its forgotten massacre , the prosecution rested on February �74 SLOVAKIA 21, having produced testimony in line with McGahren's opening. Ferris opened the case for the defense claiming that if a sheriff and his posse meet a riotous mob which resists them in such a way that their duty to uphold the law requires the use of firearms, then, "they do their duty. They do not violate, but obey the law.'' (52) Anarchy ruled the Hazleton area, Ferris explained, and Martin, in the company of good, lawabiding citizens - not bar room toughs and thugs - brought security to the region. On March 1, Sheriff Martin took the stand. He testified that when he met the strikers at Lattimer, he demanded to know where they were going and they all answered, "Lattimer to get out the men!" He also told the court that he had told them they were doing wrong and that he read the proclamation to them. He said he begged them to go no farther, but they pushed on and someone tried to grab him by the neck. I arrested him, when a big crowd pushed around me. I pulled out my revolver for protection and held it in the air, as I did not want to shoot. One of the mob tried to grab it, but failed, and in the struggle I and the crowd around me were pushed to one side of the road." (53) Martin testified one of the strikers gave him a terrific blow on the side of the head and that he tried to shoot that man, but his pistol would not go off. Then the firing began. After 111 witnesses had testified for the defense the Court adjourned on March 4.(54) The closing pleas to the jury began on March 7, with Scarlett opening for the prosecution: "Every effort has been made to have it tried fairly and nothing has been excluded and every bit of evidence has been admitted according to the rules of the court." (55) The final plea was made by former state Attorney-General Henry W. Palmer, on behalf of the defense, to an overcrowded court room. Palmer's closing has been praised as a masterpiece of eloquence and damned as a bigoted oration and foul utterance against the Slav immigrants. To the jury Palmer said the following: Condemn these men and go home to your neighbors and tell them, 'We convicted Sheriff Martin and his deputies for an error in judgment when they were standing between your homes and the horrors of mob rule.' Tell your wives and children that henceforth when the rioters are about to march and the right of men to work is in peril that there will be no Sheriff and deputies to keep the peace or defend your homes, because by your verdict you will have forbidden them to act, under penalty of death or infamous punishment. (56) Following Palmer's plea District Attorney Martin closed the case for the prosecution, and late on the afternoon of March 9, Judge Woodward delivered his charge to the jury. In an admirably clear, impartial, and ably written presentation of the law of riot and murder, �SLOVAKIA 75 Woodward charged that the sheriff had the right as the chief officer of the county to summon a posse to assist him in the preservation of order and in the prevention of riot. The public peace in Hazleton was threatened. Men were being driven from their jobs by the mob. The Sheriff saw the people were terrorized by the strikers. When they were at West Hazleton and at Lattimer, the strikers failed to obey the sheriff and insisted on pushing on. It was the duty of the crowd to obey his command and that disobedience of the sheriff was evidence of a riotous purpose. If you are satisfied, gentlemen, from the evidence that the purpose of the sheriff and of the posse was to preserve order and prevent a riot, then it would follow that their intent and object was not a criminal or unlawful one, and the rule of the law which makes the act of one the act of all has no application to the facts of this case. (57) At three minutes after ten on the morning of March 9, the jury arrived at its verdict. The sealed paper was handed up to the Judge, who examined it and returned it to the clerk. The clerk read: ''Gentlemen of the jury, harken unto your verdict as the Court hath recorded it. You find in the case wherein the Commonwealth is prosecutor and Sheriff Martin et. al., defendants, you find the defendants not guilty. So say you all?" (58) The verdict of acquittal was a just one under the law, yet, at the same time, it is possible that a terrible doubt exists that the slaughter at Lattimer was necessary or justifiable. Could the tragedy have been avoided? It is not clear that the miners should have been prevented from marching on the highway; it is not clear that they should have been denied the opportunity to show themselves within sight of the miners at work; it is not clear that the deputies should have fired as soon as they did. But, the law is for all men, and against all men who are not obedient to it. There is no question of the right of men to strike. The strike is often the only weapon. When the striker learns to keep within the law, to be fair to others, and to respect property rights, he will have made the greatest advances in the direction of public sympathy. The example of the Lattimer strikers was clear. Had a determined effort been made to keep within the law, to win the friendship of the people of the Hazleton region, the clash with Sheriff Martin and his deputies would have been avoided. The law is the defense of the individual and the salvation of the nation. Violence toward it cannot win. EPILOGUE In the course of researching the Commonwealth v. Martin Trial, it has been found that the Luzerne County Court records for that case are missing from their file at the Luzerne County Court House. Perhaps an �76 SLOVAKIA attorney borrowed them to study and never returned them ; or perhaps they were removed by intent considering the hard feelings exhibited by some members of the Hazleton mining community following the jury's verdict. The sleepy little mining patch of Lattimer today is much the same as it was sixty-eight years ago. The breakers are gone , the trolley tracks are gone , and the miners, whose families now occupy the same houses that witnessed the shooting, work at the near-by collieries in Harleigh and Jeddo . The excitement that brought the name Lattimer to the mind of most Americans in 1897 has been completely forgotten - even in Luzerne County. Should Lattimer be forgotten? Some say it should . But in today 's society when groups of American are banding together and marching, sometimes in defiance of the law, in causes they believe to be paramount, the tragedy of Lattimer could happen again. FOOTNOTES (1) John W . Jordan, Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography, vol. 7, (New York , 1916), 2350. (2) John Mitchell , Organized Labor, (Philadelphia, 1903), 375. (3) Henry Edward Rood , " A Pennsylvania Colliery Village, " The Century Magazine, vol. 55, no . 6, (April, 1898), 814. (4) "2,500 Men cut at Hazleton ," Wilkes -Barre Evening Leader, August 16, 1897, 1. (5) " The Honey Brook Strike ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 17, 1897, 1. "Concessions to Honey Brook Miners," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 21, 1897 , 7. "The Hazleton Strike ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 23, 1897, 8. (6) ''The Hazleton Strike,'' Wilk es-Barre Evening Leader, August 23 , 1897, 8. (7) " Two Thousand Foreigners Out, " Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 27, 1897, 1. (8) " Strikers in Hazleton Region in Complete Control ," Wilkes-Barre E vening Leader, August 28, 1897. 1. " Hazleton Strike Comes to a Demand ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 29, 1897, 1. (9) " The Anthracite Strike ," Wilkes -Barre E ve ning Leader, August 30, 1897, 1. (10) " Wild Excitement, " Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 2, 1897, 1-2. (11) " Strike Situation at Hazleton ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 3, 1897, 1. (12) " Wild Scenes at Hazleton ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 3, 1897, 1. (13) " Sheriff Martin on the Ground ," Wilkes -Barre Evening Leader, September 6, 1897 , 1. (14)/bid., 1. (15) " Labor Day Parade at Hazleton ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 7, 1897, 1. (16) " Sheriff Martin on the Ground ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 6, 1897, 1. (17) " Strikers Still Marching," Wilkes -Barre Evening Leader. �SLOVAKIA 77 (18) Ibid., 2. (19)lbid., 2. (20) Ibid., 2. (21) Ibid., 2. (22) "Murdered in Cold Blood," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 11 , 1897, 1. (23) Ibid., 1. (24) Ibid., 1. (25) Ibid. , 1. (26) Ibid. , 1. (27) Ibid., 1. (28) "Sheriff Martin to be Arrested, " Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 12, 1897, 1. (29) Ibid., 1. (30) ''They Will Not Return to Work, '' Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 14, 1897, 1. (31) "Everything Quiet Along the Line, " Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 16, 1897, 1. (32) " Miners ' Strike is Spreading," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 16, 1897, 1. (33) " News from the Seat of War," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 18, 1897, 1. (34) " Sunday in the Strike Region ," Wilkes-Barre Times, September 21, 1897, 1. (35) " Many Strikers Return to Work, " Wilkes-Barre Times, September 20, 1897, 1. (36) "A Quiet Day at Hazleton ," Wilkes-Barre Record, September 23, 1897, 1. (37) " Troops Leave Hazleton ," Wilkes-Barre Record, September 29, 1897, 1. (38) " A Stampede to Return to Work," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 21 , 1897, 1. (39) " The Court Sits In Judgment," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 22, 1897, 1. (40) " The Court Sits in Judgment," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 22, 1897, 1. " The Shooting at Lattimer," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 24, 1897, 1. " The Sheriff Condemned," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 28, 1897, 1. (42) ''The Lattimer Cases,'' Wilkes-Barre Record, September 28, 1897, 1. (43) "The Twelve Jurymen Selected, " Wilkes-Barre Record, February 3, 1898, 1. (44) " The Lattimer Cases," Wilkes-Barre Record, February 4, 1898, 1. (45) Henry W. Palmer, Fifty Years at the Bar and in Politics, (Williamsport, Penna. , 1913) 64. (46) Ibid., 65. (47) ''Excitement In Court,'' Wilkes-Barre Record, February 7, 1898, 12. (48) '' Yellow Journalism in the Court,'' Pittsburgh Times, February 8, 1898, 6 . (49) '' Said the Sheriff Shot, '' Wilkes-Barre Record, February 16, 1898, 6. (50) "A Labor View of Judge Woodward ," New York Evening Sun, February 17, 1898, 4. (51) "Samuel Gompers on the Lattimer Slaughter," New York World, February 20, 1898, 20. (52) Palmer , 67. (53) George B. Kulp , Luzerne Legal Register Reports, vol. 9 (Wilkes-Barre, 1900), 81. (54) Palmer , 81. �78 SLOVAKIA (55) Ibid., ll0. (56) Ibid., 147. (57) From Judge Woodward ' s original hand-written charge to the jury as found in his personal scrapbook in the possession of his grand-daughter, Mrs . Bruce Payne of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. (58) " The Deputies Are Not Guilty," Wilkes-Barre Times, March 9, 1898, 1. BIBLIOGRAPHY Jordan, John W ., Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography vol. 7, (New York, 1916) . Kulp, George B., Luzerne Legal Register Reports vol. 9, (Wilkes-Barre, 1900) . Mitchell , John, Organized Labor, (Philadelphia, 1903). Palmer, Henry W ., Fifty Years at the Bar and in Politics, (Williamsport, 1913) . Rood, Henry Edward , "A Pennsylvania Colliery Village," The Century Magazine, Vol. 55, no. 6, (1898). Newspaper Sources "A Labor View of Judge Woodward," New York Evening Sun, February 17, 1898, 4 . '' Samuel Gompers on the Lattimer Slaughter, " New York World, February 20 , 1898, 20. ''Yellow Journalism in the Court,'' Pittsburgh Times, February 8, 1898, 6. ''2,500 Men out at Hazleton, '' Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 16, 1897, 1. " The Honey Brook Strike, " August 17, 1897, 1. "Concessions to Honey Brook Miners," August 21, 1897, 7. "The Hazleton Strike ," August 23, 1897, 8 . " Two Thousand Foreigners Out," August 27, 1897, 1. " Strikers in Hazleton Region in Complete Control," August 28, 1897, 1. " Hazleton Strike comes to a Demand ," August 29, 1897, 1. " The Anthracite Strike ," August 30, 1897, 1. " Wild Excitement" September 2, 1897, 1-2. " Strike Situation at Hazleton," September 3 , 1897, 1. " Wild Scenes at Hazleton ," September 3, 1897, 1. " Sheriff Martin on the Ground, " September 6, 1897, 1. · 'Labor Day Parade at Hazleton,'' September 7, 1897, 1. "Strikers Still Marching, " Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 9, 1897, 2. "Murdered in Cold Blood," September 11, 1897, 1. " She riff Martin to be Arrested ," September 12, 1897, 1. " They Will Not Return to Work," September 14, 1897 , 1. · 'Eve rything Quiet along the Line ,' ' September 16, 1897, 1. " Mine rs ' Strike is Spreading, " September 17, 1897, 1. " News from the Seat of War," September 18, 1897, 1. " A Stampede to return to Work ," Septe mber 21, 1897, 1. "The Court sits in Judgment," Se ptember 22 , 1897, 1. " The Shooting at Lattime r," September 24 , 1897, 1. " She riff Condemned," September 28 , 1897, 1. ··A Quiet Day at Hazleton ,'' Wilkes-Barre Record, September 23, 1897, 1. �SLOVAKIA 79 "Troops Leave Hazleton ," September 29, 1897, 1. "The Twelve Jurymen Selected," February 3, 1898, 1. "The Lattimer Cases," February 4, 1898, 1. "Excitement in Court," February 7, 1898 , 12. "Said the Sheriff Shot," February 16, 1898, 6. "Sunday in the Strike Region ," Wilkes-Barre Times, September 20, 1897 , 1. "The Dep uties are Not Guilty," March 9, 1898, 1. Woodward, Stanley, the original hand-written charge to the jury as found in Judge Woodwa rd 's personal scrap book now in the possession of his granddaughter, Mrs. Bruce Payne of Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania. � SLOVAKIA 9 The Lattimer Massacre and Its Sources GEORGE A. TURNER ''The affair at Hazleton yesterday is one of those terrible catastrophies the news of which simply stuns the community and paralyzes for a moment the power of thought." (1) The above editorial comment was a reaction to one of the worst acts of violence in the history of the American labor movement. The tragedy occurred at Laimer, a small coal mining patch, one and a half miles northeast of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh region of the anthracite coal fields on September 10, 1897. A group of nearly four hundred striking, unarmed, immigrant mine workers adhering to the control of their leaders, approached Lattimer to encourage the employees of Calvin Pardee & Company to join them in a work stoppage. They encountered Sheriff James Martin of Luzerne County and his posse of eighty-six deputies who viewed them as enemies of public order and the wellspring of lawlessness. When the marching laborers arrived at Lattimer in midafternoon, the Sheriff approached them, ordered them to halt, disperse, and return to their homes. Within a few minutes an altercation erupted between the Sheriff and some of the strikers at which point the deputies aimed their rifles and fired directly into the group of strikers. Instantly, their gunshots produced a carnage of blood and death among the immigrants - a massacre that left nineteen dead and thirty-eight wounded.(2) Peace officers were unscathed in their deadly assault on the defenseless workers who had been peacefully assembled on a public highway. This incident, lasting only a few minutes, became one of the most devastating acts of public authorities attacking, wounding and killing American laborers. The next day newspaper headlines depicted the killings as an atrocity. Regional papers denounced the shooting: "Yesterday's Butchery, A Mob of Heartless Deputies Fire Into a Throng of Miners and Accomplish Deadly Work" ;(3) "D of Blood at Lattimer" ;(4) "Strikers Shot in Cold Blood" ;(5) and "Looks Like Butchery" .(6) The account quickly spread beyond the anthracite region. Major metropolitan newspapers depicted the shooting in equally stark terms: ''The Killing of Miners at Lattimer Was Butchery'';(7) ''Mowed Down By Deputies" ;(8) "Laid Low By Bullets, the Men Fell Like Sheep Before the Murderous Winchesters of the Officials" ;(9) "Homestead Battle Thrown In The Shade" ;(10) and "Dead in Heaps, Deputies Fire on Miners at Lattimer, Penn ., Men Were Huddled Closely and Slaughter Was Terrific''. (11) The killing of the strikers by the Sheriff's deputies was a major national news story for several days prompting a �10 SLOVAKIA very basic question: Why did this senseless, violent act of shooting unarmed immigrant workers occur? To answer this inquiry requires an understanding of nativism found in the hard coal fields of Pennsylvania and an identification of those factors affecting the lives and working conditions of the immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. Slavic and Italian immigrants began arriving in the eight Pennsylvania counties comprising the anthracite region in the late 1870' s and early 1880 's with nearly all taking employment in mining and by the late 1890's outnumbered German and English-speaking workers .(12) The magnitude of this immigration flow from Poland, Austria-Hungary , Russia, and Italy was evident; in 1880 they totaled only 1,925 , in 1890 they were 32,007, and ten years later their numbe had more than doubled to 89,328. At the same time the foreign born from England , Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Germany decreased by 2.2 percent from 102,421 in 1880 to 100,269 in 1900; in particular, the demographic composition of this group in Luzerne County revealed a decline from ninety-four percent in 1880, to sixty-eight percent in 1890, and a further drop to forty-nine percent in 1900. These southern and eastern Europeans grew to an ever increasing percent of the foreignborn population in the anthracite coal fields: 1. 7 percent in 1880, 25 .2 percent in 1890 , and 46.1 percent in 1900.(13) Such a substantial and rapid growth of alien people created apprehension and anxieties leading to resentment and nativistic sentiments among the AngloSaxon population , their antipathy stemming from cultural differences and fear of economic competition for jobs. There was little to encourage the necessary processes for immigrants to be readily assimilated into the society. New arrivals had a distinctive culture, language , religion, and life style that were strikingly different , giving rise to suspicion and contempt from the native population and other established ethnic groups. Eastern and southern Europeans established numerous ethnic societies which perpetuated their pride , customs, and traditions . Since their religion was Catholic , they organized separate parishes along nationality lines thus sustaining ethnic identification. Marriage records reveal a consistent pattern of immigrants marrying only members of their own nationality. Divisions caused by factionalism in this polyglot society were difficult to bridge. Newspapers did not assume any responsibility for promoting harmony and assimilation among the diverse nationalities, and public schools did not lead in the task of Americanizing children of foreign cultures until the early 1900's . School attendance by immigrant children was minimal and those who did attend encountered language barriers. (14) Anglo-Saxons were finding it difficult to accept a pluralistic society in which they were becoming a numerical minority. This development fostered nativist sentiment , causing AngloSaxons to have ce rtain perceptions of the immigrants that inhibited �SLOVAKIA 11 assimilation of the aliens contributing to their separation and isolation in the society. Attitudes of non-acceptance found expression in opprobrious terms for the new arrivals: " Pollocks, " "Huns," and " Dagoes," all denoting inferiority and disdain. Polish, Italian, and Slavic celebrations for marriages and their baptismal customs were denigrated and viewed as outlandish. A common belief among the native population was that a '' ... Slav does not know how to enjoy himself save by getting drunk, he does not know how to show kindness to friends save by making them drink." (15) Stories circulated that these new aliens participated in wife-selling, practiced polyandry, and were responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime, (16) contributing to the viewpoint that they were '' ... much more dangerous to the body politic than the excluded Chinese; . . . do not hesitate to use dynamite if they desire to blow up the home of one whom they particularly hate."(17) Rejection of the new immigrants grew in part from a feeling on the part of Anglo-Saxons that they belonged to a superior and more progressive race of people. The way that immigrants lived reinforced feelings of superiority in nativist thinking. Due to economic factors, lack of acceptance, and the desire of ethnic groups to have their own neighborhoods, ghettoes emerged in different communities. Since houses in ghettoes were crowded and substandard, outsiders viewed living conditions as unpleasant , unattractive, offensive, and the area as a tough and brawlly place to live. "The Slavs are physically strong and can flourish in an environment that would be fatal to more sensitive organisms." (18) Supporting this dislike of southern and eastern Europeans, the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1895 passed a resolution calling upon Congress to enact legislation to restrict immigration. The resolution clearly reflected a protectionist attitude as seen in its opening statement: '' That we recognize in the constant influx of an ignorant and vicious class of immigrants a great and growing evil highly injurious to American workingmen and dangerous to American institutions." (19) Again, two years later legislators passed another similar resolution.(20) Native Americans and older immigrants from northern Europe came to the conclusion they were being invaded and overcome by hordes of undesirable people who would undermine their communities. Of equal importance and of more immediate concern was competition by Slavic and Italian immigrants for jobs and wages in the labor market. Nativist sentiment held that railroads and coal operators enticed immigrants to settle in the region in order to increase the supply of labor which, in turn, had the effect of keeping wage rates down. (21) This charge against railroad and coal operators, however, was not completely true. It was well known that contract miners, who were primarily Anglo-Saxons, had the best and highest paying positions outside the mine supervisory jobs. They were also employers and were '' ... themselves largely responsible for the employment of �12 SLOVAKIA the non-English speaking foreigners. Instead of employing English laborers at the regular wage week the miners would employ a big Slav or Hun cheaply, increasing his own pay check quite an amount. His boasting of the 'snap' caused others to do the same."(22) Job competition increased as immigrants took any kind of work they could find in and around the mines. No matter what employment they found their wages were four or five times higher than what they previously earned in the native land.(23) Anxious to find work, newcomers took the unskilled positions of slate pickers, door-boys and helpers, drivers , runners, and laborers, willing to endure dangerous work and inconveniences which older workers refused to accept. With the passage of time and experience they began to compete for the higher paying, skilled positions held by English-speaking and German coal workers. Established workers contended that since new immigrants were willing to accept lower wages and even wage cuts to get and hold jobs, they were undermining the standard of living and forcing many older laborers to forego mining in the mines and to leave the area to find new employment. Anglo-Saxon workers became bitter and antagonistic which impaired the development of any class solidarity among the anthracite workers.(24) This led to discriminatory and exclusionary practices toward eastern and southern Europeans. The history of the anthracite labor movement revealed that the Knights of Labor, dominated by Irish, and the Amalgamated Association of Miners and Mine Laborers, controlled by Americans, English, Welsh, and Germans, were ineffective in enrolling these workers into their ranks in the 1880's and 1890's. Leaders of organized labor vacillated, were ambivalent, and showed a lack of real interest in encouraging new immigrants to join the union movement. On certain occasions labor organizations even attacked Slavic groups for undermining the labor movement. Failure of the unions to bridge ethnic differences was a major factor in thwarting endeavors to establish successful collective bargaining with the region's coal operators and to gain better conditions of employment.(25) Whenever new immigrants supported organized labor, they generally joined locals organized along ethnic lines; this at first weakened the interests of mine workers. English-speaking officials retained control of union affairs, further contributing to a lack of fusion and interchange of interests of mine workers. English-speaking officials retained control of union affairs, further contributing to a lack of fusion and interchange of interests and ideas between the AngloSaxons and the new immigrants.(26) When the United Mine Workers of America first appeared in the area in the early 1890's, it made little headway in recruiting the Slavic and Italian immigrants who were fast becoming the major segment of the anthracite labor force.(27) Finally, when U.M.W.A. became firmly established after 1900 and merged the 'old' and 'new' immigrants together, each local retained ethnic �SLOVAKIA 13 distinction , making the union an alliance of distrustful nationality groups .(28) Established miners, who supported organized labor and held the higher paying and more desirable jobs, sought to protect their positions and perpetuate their advantage. They were fearful that the new immigrants who entered the coal fields as unskilled laborers would in time acquire needed skills to pass into the ranks of skilled miners which had the highest pay scale ; older workers also believed that when new immigrants became employed in mines the accident rate increased due to their lack of mining experience and inability to communicate in English .(29) State mine inspector, James Roderick, of Luzerne and Carbon Counties supported this viewpoint and asserted in 1883 that the rate of accidents increased as the influx of new laborers grew, whereas the older miners were more careful in their work. (30) Therefore, AngloSaxon miners supported the enactment of the miners' examination law passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1889. The official title of the legislation, " An act for the examination of miners in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania and to prevent the employment of incompetent persons as miners in anthracite coal mines,'' aptly described its intent. The law created examination boards in various districts in the anthracite region consisting of skilled miners having at least five years of experience and appointed by the presiding judge in a county . It stipulated that no coal company could legally employ a person as a miner who did not have a certificate of competency issued by a miners' examination board ; in order for a person to receive a miner's certificate he had to provide evidence of having at least two years experience as a mine laborer in Pennsylvania.(31) In the legislative debate on this proposal, coal operators were accused of allowing incompetent people to work in mines , thus contributing to large numbers of fatalities and injuries. Many hoped that the new law would reduce the dangers of working in anthracite mines . Aside from viewing this act as a safety measure, there was a clear inference that the law would also help to check the influx and competition of labor from the new immigrants. Representative Caffery commenting on the proposed law declared that it could prevent '' ... incompetent men to come here from Europe, three or four of whom will be rushed into one chamber, thus dividing up the work.'' (32) Caffery's remark clearly made reference to the recent European influx into the anthracite region that had aroused resentments among older miners. In time it became apparent that expectations concerning the miner 's examination law would not be realized. Anglo-Saxon miners recognized that asking a few questions by miners ' examination boards could not really assure the competency of an applicant. In the examination of a non-English speaking person, the interpreter often aided and embellished the individual' s response. Furthermore, it �14 SLOVAKIA became a fact of life, due to fraud and corruption, that certificates became articles of merchandise.(33) From the time the law went into effect until 1897 there were several attempts to modify or even to repeal the statute . The law, rather than excluding unskilled laborers from becoming miners, had, in effect, due to the requirement of two years of mining experience in Pennsylvania, made ineligible the experienced miners who came from other parts of the country or Europe to secure jobs in the anthracite coal fields . These men were unwilling to work two years as a mine laborers in order to qualify for a miner's certificate. Instead, this simply assured that the new immigrants in time would move into the ranks of skilled miners - the higher-paying positions normally held by Anglo-Saxon workers. Representative Miller, whose district included Luzerne county, substantiated this point: ''Under the present act no one can receive a certificate as a miner until he has worked for two years as a miner's laborer. The result of that is just this: Only the least responsible class of workmen will come into the anthracite district at all; it excludes all of the better class of men. No one who is a practical miner from the bituminous region, or any other part of the State or the United States will come into the anthracite region and work for two years as a miner's laborer before he can obtain this certificate. '' (34) Admission that the law would stymie the settlement of new immigrants in the region was acknowledged by Representative Morahan in one of the attempts to revise the statute: ''It was brought about after the mining corporations had sent their agents over into Europe and brought over an element tended to restrict the production and elevation of wages. It was passed for the purpose of preventing the importation of pauper immigrants into the anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania . . . "(35) Deficiencies in the miners' examination law prompted district one (anthracite region) of the United Mine Workers of America in its annual convention at Pottsvillle on October 16, 1896, to charge that the act was a farce. In a resolution calling for revision of the statute, the union wanted stiff penalties, imprisonment up to five years and fines of $100, for not adhering to the law; it also advocated that the state pay board members a set salary, abolishing the present procedure of having salaries based on fees collected from issuance of certificates. (36) These recommended changes reflected a view that corruption and failure to enforce the law had become commonplace among many of the miners' examination boards. John Fahy, president of district one, lobbied at the state capital in support of revisions to the law approved in 1897. One amendment increased penalties for violations, but no changes were made in the fee structure. A second amendment stipulated that each exaininee had to answer a minimum of twelve questions in English, which prohibited the use of interpreters and therefore discriminated against immigrants, who could not speak English.(37) The United Mine �SLOVAKIA 15 Worker's Journal lauded Fahy's lobbying activities and contribution in getting this legislature enacted. (38) After passage of these revisions to the law, the Miners' Examination Board in the Hazleton area placed a notice in the local newspaper to alert mine officials of its provisions. It noted that the law had been violated in the past but henceforth would be strictly enforced. The Board's warning reflected nativist sentiment: "As you, above all others, should know the necessity of having men who understand their work and the language which is the known language of this, our country, the Board would say do your duty and acquit yourselves like men and Americans.'' (39) Control of the miners' examination boards rested with English-speaking miners who were able to exercise certain prerogatives and institute various regulations to their advantage at the expense of the new immigrants.(40) Another piece of discriminating legislation with nativist prejudice, the Alien Tax Act, passed by large majorities in both houses, went into effect on July 1, 1897. The statue stipulated that any male alien age twenty-one and over employed in the state had to pay a three-cent tax on each day of employment which meant that most aliens employed as laborers in the Lehigh anthracite coal region suffered a two to three percent reduction in daily wages . Employers had to maintain employment records on aliens in their service and to collect the tax which reverted to the county treasury, half of which went to school districts and the other half to defray county operating expenses.(41) In the senate debate over the bill, the presence of new immigrants in the community gave rise to a concern that they were '' .. . a constant source of expense to us and . . . this is a very good way to get some money out of them to help pay the expenses of government.' ' (42) The act's preamble declared that aliens showed no allegiance to the state and did not financially support the maintenance of government. In addition, it described aliens as direct competitors to the state's laboring population. One passage stated they were '' ... brought into unjust competition with the tax-paying American laborers and greatly impair their welfare by depriving them of their employment and of preventing them from receiving fair compensation for their labor therefore." (43) Again, John Fahy, miners ' advocate at the state capital, wrote an article for the United Mine Workers Journal asserting: ''What a world of good this law would do the American citizens who try to earn their living in the coal mines, if the tax were one dollar per day.' ' (44) Nearly two months after the tax went into effect, the United States Circuit Court in Pittsburgh declared the law unconstitutional as a violation of the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. Judge Acheson in the court's decision acknowledged that the law discriminated against new immigrants: "Evidently the act is intended to hinder the employment of foreign born unnaturalized male persons over 21 years of age." (45) An obvious recourse for the alien to avoid this new tax, prior to its �16 SLOVAKIA being declared unconstitutional, was to become a naturalized citizen. Senator Flinn feared this possibility and could see little benefit from such a law unless to increase local revenues. It was his opinion that the legislation '' ... would have a tendency to drive this class of people into quicker citizenship." (46) Possibly anticipating this result, the Naturalization Court in Luzerne County a few days prior to the alien tax being voided instituted new rules to revise the process of naturalizing aliens. New procedures required an applicant to make formal application and declare his or her intention to become an American citizen at least thirty days prior to appearing in court, to be represented in the court proceedings by an attorney, and to produce a certificate of entry from the commissioner of immigration at the port of arrival. County officials had to publish in advance of the naturalization hearing the names of aliens seeking citizenship . Publicizing names of aliens petitioning to become citizens had the purpose of facilitating the process of weeding out undesirable applicants. Under the new rules five people could sign a petition remonstrating against an alien becoming a citizen thereby requiring a hearing to pass on their objections. In court, the alien had to demonstrate knowledge of the national and state constitutions and duties of citizens with responses in English.(47) Under these new procedures costs and amount of time required of the foreigner to become a citizen greatly increased. Previously, it had been perfunctory procedure since the immigrant only had to pay two dollars to secure naturalization papers. Now the costs rose to at least eight dollars for court and attorney fees.(48) When the individual lived some distance from the courthouse in Wilkes-Barre, he had additional expenses for transportation and meals as well as losing a day of wages. Cumulatively, the costs for most aliens was equivalent to nearly two weeks of wages . A month later when implementation of these new naturalization rules became part of the court proceedings, half of the ninety-seven applicants, predominately Slavic, Polish, and Italian, were rejected in their quest for citizenship.(49) The new naturalization procedures confirmed the fact that the ease with which foreigners had in the past gained American citizenship would no longer be the rule. The new immigrants, who had become the dominant group among the mine workers, found themselves unaccepted due to nativistic attitudes, discriminatory laws, organized labor's lack of interest and view of them as an economic threat, and increased difficulty in acquiring citizenship. An added burden which all mine laborers faced was working conditions in the anthracite coal fields . The Pennsylvania Legislature in 1897 established a joint investigating committee of three representatives and two senators to examine and make a report concerning working conditions among those employed in the mining of anthracite coal. The committee held twenty-six meetings in the principal cities in the anthracite region and took testimony from 311 witnesses �SLOVAKIA 17 representing businessmen , directors of relief organizations, and different classes of people connected with mining. The committee released its findings to the public on June 14, 1897, containing valuable information affecting those employed in mining.(50) The committee cited a major problem in the anthracite coal economy as excessive production in relationship to market demands that made coal prices weak and unstable. This had a direct bearing on mine employees since coal operators would cut production , institute lay-offs , and reduce wages in order to prevent or minimize their losses, thus exacerbating the labor market which already suffered from an over supply of workers . Surplus labor was evident when comparing the number employed in the anthracite mines in 1892 with 1896 and the coal produced in those same two years. Between 1892 to 1896 there occurred a fifteen percent increase in the number employed , 130,197 to 149,670, while coal production only increased five percent, 45,738,374 to 48,074 ,350 tons.(51) Estimated production capacity of the region 's collieries in 1896 was ninety million tons; actual output only came to fifty-four percent of capability while the number of mine employees for that same year increased by 6,065 .(52) Because of surplus laborers and a weak coal market there was lack of employment in the mines in 1896 as the average number of days of employment in the Hazleton region was only 178 days or fifty-seven percent of full employment for a year, based on a six-day week for fifty-two weeks. (53) This same condition was still prevalent in the first seven months in 1897 in which the mines operated on an average of one or two days a week.(54) One mine owner succinctly described the situation: " We can't give them work enough even at ninety cents a day because of the ups and downs of the business. When things begin to improve, we must have enough on hand to satisfy the demand, and that means, when business slacks up, that many have to be idle ." (55) This practice of the coal operators cutting back production to maintain the price of coal in a depressed market had caused frequent interruptions in the mid 1890's that put the standard of living of the average mine laborer on a very low basis . The legislative report pointed out that starvation conditions existed among the miners with Hazleton and vicinity one of the five areas identified as having great destitution and want. The committee reported: ' 'The testimony shows conclusively that deplorable condition of affairs for a period covering about two years, and particularly since the first of January of the present year, since which time the men in and about the collieries have been employed not more than two or three three-fourths days per week , earning on an average $4 per week , upon which , in many instances, they were compelled to support large families , in some cases as high as eleven members, paying house rent and coal and the necessities of life, which to this committee seems an impossibility . In . .. mining centres there is at all times more or less destitution and want , in many instances occasioned by profligacy. �18 SLOVAKIA Matters throughout the anthracite region have been gradually growing worse, and never in the history of this section of our State has the condition of the men employed in and about the mines been so deplorable or of such long duration.'' (56) The wages of miners and laborers in the Lehigh anthracite region had a direct relationship to the selling price of coal. Since the collapse of the union after the strike in 1888, there was no union contract to govern working conditions and wages. Wages were pegged to the market price of coal at the tidewater in Elizabethport, New Jersey. This system known as the ' 'sliding scale'' came into effect in 1869 with the formula for determining wages established in 1875. Under this arrangement, if coal sold for $5 .00 a ton at Elizabethport, miners, who held the highest paying jobs, received eighty-seven cents for each car of coal produced which meant that on the average, skilled miners earned twenty-one cents an hour, or $12.60 a week for sixty hours of work. The highest paid class of laborers, if a ton of coal sold for the same price, earned $10.80 a week or fourteen percent less than the miners. Whenever the price of coal increased ten cents a ton, wages advanced one percent for each ten cent rise and conversely, whenever the price of coal declined ten cents a ton, wages decreased one percent for each ten cent reduction . (57) Mine employees saw several drawbacks to this method of determining wages. Lehigh coal operators, as opposed to the Wyoming and Schuylkill coal operators, were mainly independents; hence, they were more vulnerable to the vicissitudes of the freight rates in transporting their coal to the markets, which, in turn, had a direct bearing on establishing the price of coal. High transportation costs reduced the coal operator's ability to improve wages and, most importantly, forced an increase in coal prices that made coal produced in the Lehigh region less competitive in the market than that produced in the other two fields largely under the control of the railroads. Consequently, starting in 1892 the Lehigh coal operators, who produced only around sixteen percent of anthracite coal, agreed to sell part of their production to the railway coal companies at forty percent below the tidewater price in order to avoid excessive freight rates. A major portion of the coal production was sold in the interior at prices higher than at the tidewater. Finally, the 1875 price-wage formula did not reflect changes that had occurred in the coal market. Anthracite coal had been losing the industrial fuel market to the less expensive bituminous coal. This loss forced a readjustment in the coal trade as more and more anthracite had to be processed into smaller sizes to be sold for home heating purposes. Smaller sizes gradually became the major portion of the coal trade and this sold at lower prices, resulting in a reduction of the average price per ton of coal thus keeping wages down.(58) Besides irregular work and low wages the anthracite laborer had to contend with day-to-day conditions which were equally distressing. The �SLOVAKIA 19 company store had long been an issue in the mining communities and had an odious reputation. The fact that employees were under some form of compulsion to make their purchases at a company store at inflated prices was so repugnant that it caused considerable discord, dissension, and prolonged agitation. A congressional committee in 1889 investigating working conditions in the anthracite region reported some of the abuses connected with stores operated by coal companies which still persisted in the late 1890's. Prices were as much as thirty percent higher for the same items sold in independent stores. There was both direct and subtle pressure on employees to purchase groceries , clothing, and other items from the company store; workers feared losing their jobs or being moved to a lower paying position or to one that was more difficult because of dangerous or strenuous working conditions. "Some of the officials of the company, such as foremen, would state to their workmen, 'If you patronize me we will patronize you.' Well , that meant if there was a good job they would receive it if they traded in the company' s store ."(59) Reacting to these abuses, Pennsylvania in 1891 enacted a law prohibiting corporations engaged in mining and manufacturing from operating general supply stores . In an attempt to prevent evasion, the law explicitly made it illegal for a corporation to contract with an independent store to require its employees to purchase merchandise; also it prohibited any corporate officer or stockholder to operate a company store on the premises of the corporation. (60) Unfortunately, the legislation did not eliminate the many evils associated with the company stores. In the first place , unincorporated coal operators did not come under the law's jurisdiction. Secondly, there was a loophole in the law's language forbidding a corporation from requiring its employees to patronize a particular store by stating that employees " shall not be obliged" to deal with a designated store. In other words an employee of a corporation could not be compelled to shop at a particular store but he could voluntarily choose to buy his merchandise at that store. Realistically, as life existed in the mining communities with the ever-presence and dominance of the coal companies, many factors came into play that inevitably induced an employee to make a so-called voluntary decision to patronize a particular store. Thirdly, when individual coal operators sold their interests to a large corporation, they often retained the right to continue the operation of their store. In this arrangement, many times the corporation provided a service by deducting an employee's bill at the store from his monthly wages with a collection fee which varied from three to five percent of the bill. This system had a descriptive nickname of the "pluck-me-store." (61) It was in the Lehigh region, where a very large percent of the coal operators were independent and unincorporated, that the existence of company stores was one of the highest in the anthracite region ; two-thirds of the mine laborers worked at collieries �20 SLOVAKIA that operated company stores.(62) In some instances a coal company which operated a store would undersell its competitor by lowering prices for coal and then make up losses by compelling the employees to trade at the company store at exorbitant prices .(63) The store of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company reportedly had everything from a red herring to a furnace . A Polish employee of the company flatly stated: '' ... we are compelled to purchase whether we want to or not. " (64) Three English-speaking miners of the A. S. Van Wickle Company commented that they would not object to the company's store if it were not for the high prices. To illustrate their point, they cited three items priced in an independent store and the company store: dozen eggs for thirteen cents as opposed to twenty-three cents, pound of butter for eighteen cents as opposed to twenty-six cents, and tobacco for twenty-six cents as opposed to thirtyfour cents. (In computing these goods the average price increase over the independent store was forty-six percent.) They further asserted: ''These are but a few samples of the prices charged here, but we have no redress. If we do not deal in the store we are notified about it with a broad intimation that others would be glad to have our places and deal in the store ." (65) The two investigative reports documented abuses concerning the company store in the anthracite region in 1897 and drew attention to three pertinent facts: the company store did not operate to the benefit of the workmen; employees were subjected to intimidation when they failed to patronize company stores; profits were substantial. (66) The company store problem was a major concern of John Fahy who noted that the number was greater than when the legislation was passed in 1891 and coal operators continued to violate the law. Union members of the United Mine Workers of America agreed and passed a resolution condemning this kind of store : '' ... the company store is a great and burdensome evil; that the system is harsh and tyrannical, and its purposes to rob labor of the full use of that pittance, always too meager, which the mine worker now received for his toil . . . "(67) Another grievance of the workers closely related to the company store was the practice of having a company butcher make door to door sales to employees living in company houses. They objected to the butcher's high prices and his habit of leaving more meat than requested forcing the purchaser to pay for meat not wanted . (68) What they wanted was the. abolition of this solicitation. Dominance of the coal companies over their employees was felt in another way through the company doctor. Coal operators had a physician to administer to the health needs of workers. On the surface this service appeared to be a desirable fringe benefit. Not so in the eyes of the employees who had several objections. They felt that they should have the right to select their own doctor since many believed that the quality of medical help was below average. The fact that the doctor's �SLOVAKIA 21 allegiance rested with the company placed uncertainty on the doctorpatient relationship.(69) Aside from these reservations was the cost. Deduction from workers' paychecks funded the program; A. S. Van Wickle Company levied two cents a day on each employee while other companies charged each married man with a family seventy-five cents a month and single men fifty cents a month.(70) To many this outlay of money equaled a half-day of wages and was an unnecessary cost. At this time it was common practice for people to rely upon home remedies for curing illnesses rather than always going to a doctor. A custom among miners was to establish their own mutual medical aid organizations known as '' keg funds.'' Miners donated refunds received from turning in their empty powder kegs.(71) Another major factor explaining why workers opposed the company doctor scheme stemmed from a plethora of fraternal groups that provided insurance against sickness and death. In the Hazleton area there were around fifty such organizations with many established along ethnic lines. Working class membership in these societies was large. Dues entitled them to sick benefits that varied from four to six dollars a week for a period of three to six months. Average death benefits ranged from $50 to $125 with wives often receiving half the rate. (72) With these other arrangements, the company doctor plan offered few, if any , advantages to mine workers. Feelings of exploitation among the miners were particularly strong over the price of blasting powder and mining supplies and the coercion to purchase these items from the coal companies. Each of the collieries kept mining supplies for sale. Testimony before the United States Industrial Commission revealed: ''The coal operators will say that they do not compel miners to buy their supplies with that company. While this may be true in regard to oil in some places, yet they are compelled to buy their powder from these companies where they work, for they will tell you if you do not buy your powder there you can work where you buy it."(73) Along with this compulsion there was the high price for the powder. A keg of powder weighing twenty-five pounds sold for $2. 75 in the Lehigh region whereas in the Schuylkill region the same amount had sold for $1.50 since 1888.(74) A major demand of the strikers was to secure a price decrease for powder generally in the amount of seventy-five cents a keg. However, miners at Calvin Pardee & Company sought a more extensive price reduction for powder so that it would sell for $1.50 a keg.(75) Powder purchased from independent stores sold from $1.25 to $1.50 a keg and the wholesale cost of powder per keg delivered from the manufacturer ranged from 90 cents to $1.00.(76) It was obvious to the miners that the coal operators made substantial profits on the sale of powder with a mark-up of around two hundred percent. When comparing powder prices in the Schuylkill region with the Hazleton area in 1896, men believed they were overcharged by some $125,353.75 or a per capita of $217.50 which was �22 SLOVAKIA almost equivalent to one-third of their annual income.(77) This issue was particularly irritating to the miners and they felt that they were victims of extortion. Another vexing issue was the lack of compliance by coal companies to provisions of the state semi-monthly wage payment law passed in 1891 . The act stipulated that employers pay their employees in lawful money every two weeks.(78) With the exception of the Coxe mines, violation of the statute was widespread in the Hazleton area . (79) The state legislative investigating committee reported the act was '' ... virtually a dead letter in many instances. Operators disregard it and deem it an unjustifiable interference with their rights .'' (80) District One of the United Mine Workers of America in its 1896 annual convention adopted a resolution endorsing the semi-monthly wage payment law and invited members of the business community to cooperate with them in supporting this legislation. (81) Frequency of payment to workers was important to coal operators since it had a direct relationship to the maintenance of company stores. If workmen received their wages every two weeks or even weekly, they would be inclined to shop at independent stores which had lower prices. With monthly payments, employees found it convenient and, sometimes necessary , to depend on credit extended at the company stores.(82) These cumulative burdens of adverse working conditions, irregular and limited work, low wages, pressure to patronize the company's store and butcher, expense for a company doctor, high costs for blasting powder and mining supplies, and non-compliance with the semi-monthly pay law were hardships ever present to mine laborers and became issues in the strike. Of equal importance, immigrant workers found themselves having to cope with additional adversities such as nativistic attitudes that rejected their culture and impeded assimilation, economic discrimination in employment, passage of the alien tax law, and difficult and costly naturalization procedures. A wellspring of resentment and antagonism festered among the ranks of southern and eastern Europeans over conditions affecting their lives which stirred feelings of discontent and frustrations creating a serious strike situation. The spark which produced the Lattimer massacre first appeared to be nothing more than an isolated and minor labor dispute between District Superintendent Gomer Jones and some mule drivers at the Honey Brook colliery of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company; however, it became the catalyst leading to a series of crippling strikes in the Lehigh region. Gomer Jones , who had a reputation as a tyrannical mine boss, had recently been appointed superintendent of the Audenried district and assumed his new position with an eagerness to establish order and efficiency out of what he and the company considered to be a chaotic situation.(83) Jones stated in an interview that he perceived his superintendency: '' I came here a year ago. I came to restore discipline �SLOVAKIA 23 in the mines and to operate them in such a manner that the company could continue in business. The discipline was certainly lax. The men did about as they pleased. The two superintendents who were here then associated with the men, mixed with them, drank with them and were regarded as 'hail fellows well met' everywhere among the miners. Now I cannot do that. I'm not a drinking man, and I've never made it a practice to hobnob with the men. However, when I give orders I expect them to be obeyed and do not permit miners to do exactly as they please. " (84) He began to institute economics in the company's operations in order to achieve the lowest possible cost in mining. To carry out this resolve , he dismissed two easy-going foremen , about eighty other workers, and reduced daily wages for all classes of mine workers from three percent for carpenters to as much as twenty-five percent for stripping miners.(85) Another of Jones ' cost-saving proposals required all of the company mules to be stabled at Audenried. This measure required the mule drivers employed at Honey Brook to spend an extra hour in the morning and evening to pick up their mules and return them to the stables. For these two extra hours of work , Jones refused to grant any compensation to the mule drivers . Dissatisfaction over this arrangement provoked a strike among mule drivers , who were Slavic and Polish , on August 13 . The next day some workers took up positions along the road near the stable to insure that none of the mule teams was removed for work. Upon learning of this development , Jones went to the scene with club in hand with the intention of dispersing the disgruntled workers. Within minutes a boisterous dispute erupted and Jones, using his club, struck one worker. Some of Jones' assistants came to his rescue before the melee got completely out of control. (86) A consequence of the mule driver strike and the residue of dissatisfaction and discontent among the rest of the workers produced a general strike against the company on August 16. An assessment of the situation made by a local newspaper declared that coal companies " .. . import this cheap labor, drag them down with all sorts of hardships, and indignities and finally the bosses attempt to make records for money saving and thus increase their own salaries at the expense of the poor unfortunates who are under them. There is no need for white slavery, nor pauper wages ... pay them a living salary and treat them as human beings , and trouble of this kind will be unheard of.'' (87) That evening miners held a large meeting at McAdoo at which they formulated their grievances and demands to present to Elmer H. Lawall, General Superintendent of Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company. They wanted restoration of the wage scale in effect prior to reductions imposed by Jones , an increase of ten percent in wages for all employees who worked underground, purchase of coal by workers for use in their homes reduced from $2.50 to $1.50 a ton, the right of each worker to select his own doctor, removal of Gomer Jones from his �24 SLOVAKIA position as district superintendent, and assurance that each person on strike would be reinstated.(88). Miners elected a strike committee representing different nationalities to present the issue to company officials. After meeting with Mr. Lawall on August 17, the committee decided to go to New York the next day to confer with Mr. Lawall and C. H. Warren, assistant to company President Maxwell. After returning from New York, the committee on August 19 met with the miners to report on negotiations, informing them that Mr. Warren had pledged that the company would pay the same rate of wages prevailing in the area and did not object to miners selecting their own doctor and making their own payments. There was no response to reducing the price of coal used by miners in their homes. With regard to the miners' objections concerning the conduct of Gomer Jones, the company refused to dismiss him but did promise to investigate his actions; this prompted an editorial comment in a Hazleton newspaper: ''The men are determined in their demands for justice, and if the Lehigh and WilkesBarre officials are wise they will speedily dismiss Superintendent Gomer Jones, for so long as he is retained in his present position, the trouble will not be adjusted. This man, with perhaps one exception, has imposed more hardships on the mines than any other living person who ever set foot on this soil. " (89) Upon hearing the company offer, which the miners described as one containing only promises rather than solutions to their grievances and demands, they voted to remain on strike . (90) Refusal to end the strike caused Mr. Lawall to hold another meeting with the strike committee. Three additional issues were introduced in the negotiations: employees need not live in company houses , men in the same grade of work receive the same pay, and employees be paid for all services rendered to the company - a direct reference to the mule drivers' complaint of having to spend two extra hours without pay to pick up and return their mules to the stables. After conferring with Lawall the strike committee called another meeting with workers on August 20. At this time the company informed the men that it had accepted the employees' position on the three additional points and that Lawall had personally promised to investigate fairly every grievance . Strikers believed that the injudicious activities of Jones would certainly be exposed and he would be dismissed. They learned that the mules were returned to Honey Brook, removing the issue of extra work without pay that had sparked the strike . In addition, two men dismissed by Jones were reinstated to their former positions. With such favorable news and expectation of Jones' replacement, the miners voted to end the week old strike and return to work on August 23.(91) The euphoria that prevailed among miners stemmed from their belief of success in exerting their interests against the coal company. This sense of accomplishment was further underscored by the fact they �SLOVAKIA 25 had been able to organize seven locals of the United Mine Workers of America comprising nearly a thousand men or about half of the company' s employees in the Audenried district. Establishing the union rested on the activities of John Fahy, United Mine Workers organizer, who took advantage of miners' discontent over their working conditions and lack of unionization. With the backing of a union and the promise of Lawall to investigate their differences with Jones , miners felt confident that they had won.(92) It appeared that labor unrest at the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company was only an aberration and the outlook for labor peace quite good. Such optimism was short lived. The strike was a harbinger of labor agitation that soon engulfed the Lehigh mining region surrounding Hazleton. Within a week, on August 27, another strike initiated by immigrant workers broke out at the Coleraine and Milnesville collieries of A. S. Van Wickle Coal Company. Some 1,500 strikers demanded reinstatement of the wage scale prior to the reduction made in February of 1897, which meant an average increase in wages from ten to fifteen percent in the daily rates. They wanted the new daily rates to be the following: stripping laborers, $1.20; first class laborers , $1.64; second class laborers, $1.50; outside laborers , from $1.00 to $1.20 ; breaker hands, men at $1.00 and boys at 90 cents; mule drivers, one mule at $1.50 ; two mules at $1.64; and three mules at $1.75; first class miners , $2.10; and second class miners, $1.93 . A few days later, August 31, some 2,000 employees of Lehigh and WilkesBarre Coal Company swelled the ranks of dissatisfied workers by walking off their jobs a second time after the elapse of two weeks when company officials had promised a settlement of their grievances in their first strike at the beginning of the month.(93) Chairman of the strikers ' negotiating committee charged that ' ' ... Messrs. Lawall and Warren, did not keep faith, and their refusal to make any concessions after their encouraging promises originally had served to work the men up to a high pitch. " (94) Work stoppages also began to spread to other coal operators: Lehigh Valley Coal Company, C. M. Dodson & Company, G. B. Markel & Company, Calvin Pardee & Company, A. Pardee & Company , New Ebervale Coal Company, Cross Creek Coal Company, Arnold & Morgan Company , and Silver Brook Coal Company.(95) This general strike action at the end of August and the first of September erupted with the pressing demand for an increase in wages. Immigrant workers were the principal source of agitation over this issue. It was they who suffered loss of wages due to enactment of the alien tax law and who felt the effects of wage discrimination when they received less for the same job than the English-speaking worker. Miners in their class earned from $1.50 to $1.65 a day while an Englishspeaking miner earned $1.97 for the same position. Similar conditions existed for those who were employed as laborers; the percent of wage difference was even greater, $1.15 versus $1.50. Anglo-Saxon workers �26 SLOVAKIA did not support the strike and immigrants looked upon them as a favored class. Since Slavic and Italian workers outnumbered Englishspeaking workers by a three-to-one ratio, their dissatisfaction over wages and working conditions became the prevailing voice. (96) Demand for the same pay for the same job had the following local, editorial support: "Employees should receive the same compensation for the same kind and amount of work done whether they are Hungarians, Italians or any other nationality." (97) Strikers ' demands for improvement in their wages came in part from the fact that Lehigh coal operators paid lower wages than operators in the other two anthracite coal fields. (98) Although there existed an industry-wide formula for determining wages based on the tidewater price of coal, in actuality there was a divergence in the wage scale particularly among the unskilled in different coal companies, which contributed to labor unrest among workers when they learned their wages were lower than their counterparts in other mines. In protest, foreign workers began marching from one colliery to another, closing down operations and compelling other workers to join their ranks. With each passing day the situation became somewhat more tense. Area newspapers assessed conditions as serious with the distinct possibility of becoming quite dangerous since, ''Never in the history of the region was such a determined body of men seen together'' ;(99) it was feared that unless a settlement was reached, '' ... the whole Lehigh region will be plunged into one of the most threatening conditions ever experienced in the history of Pennsylvania coal mining." (100) Immigrant workers were the masters of the situation, dominating the strike activities; English-speaking workers, fewer in number receiving better wages, did not voluntarily support them and preferred to remain at work. Instead of a feeling of camaraderie and solidarity between these two groups there was distrust and suspicion.(101) An important break occurred in the strike action when A. S. Van Wickle Coal Company made a wage settlement with their employees at Milnesville and Coleraine collieries on September 3 and 4, respectively. The company's General Superintendent, James Roderick, fulfilled a promise to investigate wages paid at other area mines and, if his company's rates were lower, make appropriate advances. Advances did not completely equal the original demands of the workers: increases were around nine percent given primarily to the unskilled and semiskilled, jobs held mainly by the Slavic and Italian immigrants with no raise for skilled laborers, miners, jobs dominated by AngloSaxons.(102) With regard to the alien tax, which had recently been declared unconstitutional, the company promised to return the money at the next pay day. Concerning other issues of the company store and butcher, Roderick promised ''. . . there will positively be no compulsion for any man to deal with the company butcher and the company �SLOVAKIA 27 store, nor will any intimidation in this direction be permitted by any of the subordinates."(103) Following the lead of A. S. Van Wickle Coal Company, officials at Coxe mines voluntarily increased wages ten cents a day to prevent their workers from going out on strike. (104) Settlement of the strike at A. S. Van Wickle Coal Company and increased pay by Coxe marked an important turning point in the labor unrest which had idled some twelve collieries due to the strikers' demonstrations. Success of these workers in improving their wages became a stimulus for hundreds of other workers to increase their determination to secure the same monetary gain. Higher wages granted by the two companies simply exacerbated the situation when other coal operators refused to match or make any improvement in wages. As long as this condition prevailed, chances of labor unrest becoming volatile heightened and the outcome became more uncertain . A week prior to the Lattimer killings, a Hazleton newspaper, realizing the nature of the situation, made the following appeal to coal operators: ''What the outcome of the uprising will be is simply conjecture, but one thing is certain, that the operators owe it to themselves as well as the community to bring about a speedy adjustment of the trouble. There is no good reason why the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Co. officials should not pay the same rate of wages as A. S. Van Wickle; they are in a position to do it and ought to. If there is to be an average rate of wages let all the operators join the combination and pay it. The obstinacy of either one company or the other, is simply injurious to the community, and for the benefit of all we suggest that the operators at least meet the men half-way, and the trouble will soon be a thing of the past. " (105) As each day passed without settlement, strikers continued marching from one coal mine to another seeking to induce other workers to join the strike; some responded willingly and others only after cajoling or intimidation. Their efforts were having success in disrupting the area's mining operations. Anxiety grew as the potential for serious trouble became likely with an apparent impasse emerging between strikers and operators who had refused to go along with the settlement made by A. S. Van Wickle and Coxe. Coal companies , holding the view that the situation had deteriorated and people had become terrorstricken by the strikers' protest, urged the sheriff to intervene in a manner that would terminate the strikers' activities. Sheriff James Martin, vacationing in Atlantic City, New Jersey , received a telegram on Saturday , September 4, from his deputy, Mr. George Wall, that Superintendent Lathrop of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company requested him to go to Hazleton to deal with the developing strike situation. Upon returning to Wilkes-Barre, the Sheriff held a Monday morning conference concerning the strike with Lathrop, Superintendent Steams of Cross Creek Coal Company, and Superintendent Lawall of Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company before �28 SLOVAKIA proceeding to Hazleton.(106) The Sheriff did not come to Hazleton at the request of any elected or appointed public official such as a magistrate, justice of peace, constable, or mayor, nor upon his arrival did he confer with any public official concerning the question of public order as related to the strikers' demonstrations. Instead, when he came to Hazleton, he met with Mr. Zerby, Assistant Superintendent of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, and Mr. Platt, Superintendent of Calvin Pardee & Company store. Naturally, these two men held views concerning the strike that reflected their companies' vested interests and could possibly have misrepresented the degree of disruption. Apparently, Martin did not feel there was any advantage to investigating and reviewing developments with a variety of people having different perspectives in order to ascertain objectively sentiments and facts related to the strike. It was at this time that officials of Lehigh Valley Coal Company, Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, Cross Creek Coal Company, and Calvin Pardee & Company made it abundantly clear that they would hold Sheriff Martin personally responsible for any interference with their mining operations.(107) After conferring with Messrs. Zerby and Platt, Martin decided to organize a posse comitatus. A Sheriff's decision to create a posse must be based upon circumstances as defined in law in which a state of disorder exists, consisting of a riot or the threat of a riot in which life and property are in jeopardy. Again Martin's assessment that these conditions existed rested upon information given to him by representatives of coal companies. Following their recommendation, he appointed Thomas Hall, a prominent Hazleton businessman whose occupation involved selling blasting powder to coal companies, as his chief deputy.(108) In the Hazleton Machinery Supply Company Store, a concern involved in coal mining, eighty-seven men were sworn in as Sheriff's deputies and members of the posse with nearly all of them directly or indirectly earning their living from coal companies. This close connection of the deputies with the coal companies was apparent as some twenty-three were employees of Calvin Pardee & Company, including his own son and Augustus W. Drake, Pardee's General Superintendent; fourteen worked for the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, and six were members of the coal and iron police. All but one deputy had surnames indicating Irish, English, or German heritage, the majority were members of prominent families and relatives of coal operators, many were young, several had attended college and were engineers or held managerial positions in coal companies. Others were businessmen and a few were laborers.(109) Superintendent Smith of G. B. Markle & Company, a coal operator, ordered rifles and shotguns and shipped them to a warehouse owned by A. Pardee & Company, another coal operator, where they were dispensed to the deputies under the direction of Mr. Platt.(110) Martin cautioned his deputies: " ... it was their duty to maintain the peace at all hazards, but under no cir- �SLOVAKIA 29 cumstances to shoot unless they were convinced either they or myself to be in danger.'' (111) Since the coal operators were responsible for requesting the Sheriff to come to Hazleton and to organize a posse, they also agreed to assume the costs for expenses incurred by the deputies. (112) Another service available to the Sheriff and his deputies was a special trolley car provided by Lehigh Traction Company upon the orders of Mr. Zerby so they could have unimpeded transportation to move about the coal fields.(113) While arrangements were under way in organizing the posse, Martin contacted Sheriffs Scott and Setzer of Schuylkill and Carbon Counties, respectively , since Lehigh coal fields encompassed parts of these counties. The main source of strike agitation came from men employed at collieries south of Hazleton in the area where Luzerne , Schuylkill , and Carbon Counties have a common boundary. After consulting with each other, the three law officers issued separate proclamations admonishing people '' . . . from all tumultuous and unlawful assembly, and from all acts of disorder or violence, and from all acts interfering with the liberty of other citizens, or tending to a breach of the peace .' ' (114) Included in the proclamation was the state riot act of 1860 describing illegal activities and penalties. Sheriff Martin 's decision to issue the proclamation made it appear that he felt conditions were turbulent, disorderly, and warranted the organization of a posse; yet on the same day he chose to spend a leisurely afternnoon attending the bicycle races at Hazleton.(115) The following morning, Tuesday, September 7, Sheriff Martin, upon learning that a group of strikers planned to shut down the Crystal Ridge Colliery , took a number of deputies to the site and prevented them from accomplishing their goal.(116) News of this intervention by the Sheriff either had not spread, or if it had, did not awe other strikers from descending on the New Ebervale Coal Company colliery and closing it down. Company superintendent, John Scott, describing the incident stated: '' ... the real leader appeared and said they intended to win the strike if they had to apply the torch to every town in the region ."(117) After closing the New Ebervale colliery, strikers marched over to the stripping area of Calvin Pardee & Company at Lattimer hoping to repeat their success earlier in the day. However, some of the Sheriff's deputies were already at Lattimer to prevent any disruption in the company 's operations . When the marchers appeared, the officers fired warning shots ito the air dispersing them and thwarting their objective.(118) The remaining days prior to the tragedy at Lattimer found Sheriff Martin and his deputies constantly transversing the coal fields from one colliery to another checking the strikers' movements . With each passing encounter the level of exasperation and tension between the law officers and immigrant workers on strike began to rise. A Hazleton newspaper again reflected a growing concern over the lack of a strike �30 SLOVAKIA settlement and a possible serious confrontation: ''The strike can be settled within twenty-four hours, and without bloodshed, if the operators will act fair and honest with their men. "(119) A day later the same editorial voice observed a growing seriousness in that the strikers '' ... are very much embittered against the deputies, and it is feared that both parties will engage in mortal combat." (120) A letter to the newspaper editor commenting on the strike stated it was '' ... causing a depression in business and fear in the hearts of the people of bloodshed . . . '' suggesting ' ' . . . the Ministerial Association take the matter in hand, call a meeting of all the clergy of the Protestant and Catholic churches, and together with the press and businessmen try and see if their influence could not be used to settle this grave matter between the operators and men."(121) John Fahy counseled the workers to obey the Sheriff's proclamations and to avoid provocations that could cause violence since the authorities had the ability to crush them. His interest was to temper the strikers' ardor and give it some meaningful direction.(122) Martin, apparently feeling some frustrations and reservations over his efforts to deal with strikers , told Frank Pardee, head of A. Pardee & Company, '' ... that while the strikers simply confined themselves to talking to the men quietly and persuading them to quit, it was none of my business and I had no right to interfere. "(123) Regardless of whatever doubts the Sheriff may have had, he knew perfectly well that he could not disregard the wishes of the coal operators. Starting on Thursday afternoon events began to cascade toward that fateful Friday. Employees of Calvin Pardee & Company at Harwood who were on strike felt that in order to win they had to shut down the company's operation at Lattimer which had failed earlier. News came to Harwood strikers that their fellow employees at Lattimer were anxious to join them if only they would march over to Lattimer; this appeal stimulated their determination.(124) The Harwood local of the United Mine Workers held a meeting on Thursday evening to make plans to march to Lattimer the next day. Joe Mahalko, president of the Harwood local of the United Mine Workers of America, cautioned his fellow workers to go without guns or any other kind of weapons, to harm no one nor to destroy any property, and to keep the peace. On the next day, Friday, September 10, around noon some two hundred and fifty strikers from the Harwood area, consisting almost exclusively of immigrant workers, started their ill-fated mission to get their counterparts to go on strike at Lattimer. As the march proceeded, some seventy-five to one hundred additional strikers joined the ranks. (125) When they reached the outskirts of West Hazleton on their route to Lattimer around two o 'clock, they were stopped by Evan Jones, Chief of Police of West Hazleton, who told them, "Go back out of this, you are in a dangerous place. If you have to go to Lattimer you must go another way."(126) At this point Sheriff Martin and his deputies �SLOVAKIA 31 arrived on the scene with the intention of stopping the marchers from proceeding to Lattimer. A confrontation occurred between the Sheriff, his deputies , and the strikers, in which one striker was arrested, another had his arm broken by a deputy, many had guns thrust in their faces , the American flag they were carrying was destroyed, and there was an exchange of blasphemous name calling.(127) Martin read his proclamation containing the riot act, ordered them to cease their march to Lattimer , and urged them to return to their homes, telling them that all of the marching from colliery to colliery to drive men from work was no way to get better wages.(128) He believed there would be serious trouble since some of the marchers had picked up stones and looked as if they intended to throw them at the law enforcement officials. However, this fear proved to be unfounded since they did not take such a provocative action. (129) Efforts to halt the march were futile considering the strikers ' determination to continue their trek to Lattimer, and Martin 's inability to communicate with them since he spoke only English and had no interpreter . After becoming exhausted from the episode , he simply gave up trying to stop them.(130) The strikers ' perception of this hostile encounter differed from the law officers ' version and hinted at forthcoming trouble . John Eagler, one of the leaders of the march and secretary of the United Mine Workers local at Harwood stated: " We were met by the deputies at West Hazleton who did not come like civilized beings , but broke through the ranks, crying, 'Stop , stop!' " (131) Joseph Mahalko declared : '' I told the Sheriff we had no stick big as my finger in the crowd. All Sheriff said was 'don't go any farther .' Sheriff said , 'You go back or I shoot you . ' " (132) Again John Eagler stated that the Sheriff only took a piece of paper from his pocket and did not read any proclamation as he claimed but had simply told them that it was against the law to march to Lattimer.(133) The strikers asserted they did not initiate any altercation with the law officers but were merely the victims of an unwarranted attempt to prohibit them from using the public highway. Something that proved to be far more serious was the ominous threats attributted to the Sheriff and his deputies against the strikers: "Go back and take care of yourself, for there will be big trouble today ." (134) " We 'll get even with the --- at Lattimer."(135) "We ' ll leave them go till we get to Lattimer ; then we ' ll shoot them. "(136) "I'd like to get a pop at the ---of b---. I'll bet I'll drop six. " (137) "I didn 't know what the h--- the Sheriff makes us walk around here so much without giving us a chance to shoot those men .'' (138) ' 'Everyone of the G-- d-- Hunks ought to be shot. " (139) Sheriff Martin , formerly a coal foreman at the Mill Creek colliery in Luzerne County, allegedly stated, " . . . a little cold lead is the only way to conquer the strikers."(140) The Sheriff's efforts and reported intimidations to terminate the strike rs ' march to Lattimer became nothing more than a futile gesture that only made them more resolute to continue their journey. Un- �32 SLOVAKIA daunted, the marchers following the advice of Chief Evan Jones took a route toward Lattimer along the outskirts of Hazleton on which they could proceed without further interference.(141) Sheriff Martin realizing his efforts had been to no avail quickly returned to Hazleton, summoned his entire force of deputies telling them to take their arms and board the trolley to Lattimer so they could prevent the marchers from stopping the Lattimer mining operations.(142) En route there was talk among the deputies '' . . . about shooting and each man seemed to be eager ... "(143) Since some of the deputies had served as coal and iron police, they " ... had had much trouble with the strikers on previous occasions and were said to be in a revengeful mood against them. "(144) Even Sheriff Martin admitted, " ... I have no doubt that some of the deputies were excited, and certainly the ride over the mountain in that crowded car was animating."(145) The Sheriff and his posse arrived at Lattimer a few minutes after three o'clock and stationed themselves along the right side of the road as it entered Lattimer from the south. He instructed his deputies " ... to keep cool and not get excited. "(146) However, before the strikers arrived, the deputies ordered a woman to go into her house on the likelihood that some shooting may occur.(147) Shortly after the deputies were in place , the strikers appeared coming up the public road in an orderly array toward the Lattimer breaker. (148) There was every reason to suspect that the deputies were fully aware that the miners were unarmed. As they approached the law officers who were standing parallel to the road, the Sheriff stepped out and walked toward the marchers with the intention of learning what they planned to do. Martin indicated that " ... if they are not going to do anything, I may let them go on, and we will go along with them.' ' (149) He ordered them to halt about forty or fifty yards from the armed deputies. The front of the column slowed as the Sheriff approached and asked them what they intended to do. The Sheriff reported they said, "We stop Lattimer Mines."(150) He then proceeded to read his proclamation in English, which many of them could not understand, while at the same time the rear of the column kept pushing forward. Within a few minutes a fracas broke out between the Sheriff and some twenty strikers at the side of the road when he attempted to seize and arrest one of the men.(151) At this point the deputies aimed and fired directly into the ranks of the strikers. The exploding crescendo of Winchesters created a bloody massacre with the sound of shrieks and moaning of the dying and wounded lying in agony. One newspaper described the scene: ''It was a human slaughter in which men were mowed down like grain stalks before a scythe, by the deadly bullets which stormed for fully two minutes. The blood of the dead and dying soaked the dusty road and flowed in streams through the ditch."(152) The murderous volley created a human carnage taking the lives of nineteen immigrants and leaving thrity-eight wounded; eleven men died at Lattimer with the �SLOVAKIA 33 remaining eight dying at the Hazleton Hospital. Dr. Keller, a physician at the hospital, stated that many of the victims were shot in the back.(153) What began a month earlier as a dispute between Gomer Jones and immigrant mule drivers grew into a serious strike finally ending as a sorrowful episode in American labor history. In the aftermath of this tragedy there were contradictory versions as to what actually happened. Sheriff Martin said the strikers were vicious, boisterous, a furious and desperate gang, fierce as wild beasts, threatening to physically harm or even kill him. He felt that they were bent on doing violence and had no intention of obeying his proclamation or the laws of Pennsylvania. Earlier at West Hazleton, Martin told the marchers that it was his duty to prevent them from interfering with the men who were working at the mines, and at Lattimer he went a step further to warn them that if they did not disperse there would be trouble.(154) When a Hungarian speaking in broken English told him, "Go to hell, you a---," (155) he sought to arrest the man who shouted the epithet. The men, excited, began assaulting him forcing him to draw his revolver in self defense and attempt to shoot an attacking man, but the gun failed to discharge. He claimed that two of his attackers had pistols and a third man with a knife sought to stab him. (156) In a letter written five weeks later explaining the event to Governor Hastings, Martin wrote the following description: "One high (sic) fellow gave me a blow on the cheek and knocked me on my knees. I would have been knocked down on my back, but the crowd was too close around me so that there was no room for me to get down, and while we were struggling I heard a shot followed closely by a second and then a number of shots together. Those who were attacking me were shot, and I was then unable to recover myself, and there is no doubt in my mind that if the deputies had not shot just when they did I would certainly have been killed. While I was struggling with part of the mob on one side of the road in the ditch where they had pushed me, the part on the other side of the road with a whoop and yell rushed on toward the deputies, who no doubt fearing that their lives were in danger and that I was to be killed, fired ... '' (157) On the day after the shooting, Martin gave several conflicting statements as to why the deputies shot the strikers. "I called to the deputies to discharge their firearms into the air over the heads of the strikers ... I then called upon the deputies to defend themselves and shoot if they must to protect their lives or to protect the property that they had been sent to guard from being demolished . . . I hated to give the command to shoot and was awfully sorry that I was compelled to do so. "(158) "I did not order the deputies to fire; someone else did that. I gave no order." (159) "The shooting commenced in a manner that baffles me completely when it comes to explaining."(160) A few days later in an interview Martin suggested that the cause of the shooting came from an impulse of his men to protect him: ''They saw me in the �34 SLOVAKIA midst of the strikers, with men aiming blows at me, and they supposed probably that my life was in danger."(161) The Sheriff's answers vacillated on how the shooting began, ranging from admitting that he gave the order to his deputies to fire their weapons to denying any knowledge of how the firing happened. Even among the deputies there was no satisfactory answer as to how the shooting commenced. The version of the confrontation by the strikers and bystanders differed from and challenged the assertions made by Sheriff Martin. According to the strikers, the Sheriff ordered them to halt and began to read his proclamation. The situation became disruptive when the Sheriff sought to arrest one of the marchers and get the others to disperse. One of the men told the Sheriff '' . . . we only want to move on peaceably ... "(162) Those in the rear of the column continued pressing forward and shouting '' go ahead,'' pushing the Sheriff and some of the men off to the side of the road. Whereupon, John Eagler reported that Martin flourished his revolver, '' ... grabbed one man by the arm, and, pointing the revolver at him, said, 'Did you tell them to go ahead?' The man said he had not spoken, and then the Sheriff grabbed another man and began to shove him about. 'You will say ''Go ahead," eh?' said the Sheriff, and at the same time he aimed the revolver squarely at the man's heart. The man naturally was frightened, and pushed the Sheriff's hand holding the revolver to one side. Whether or not the Sheriff considers that an attack or·not I don't know. I am positive that not a man hit the Sheriff."(163) An account from a bystander stated that Martin '' . . . became excited and ordered the deputies to shoot . . . " (164) A striker affirmed this point that the Sheriff gave the order to fire.(165) Another eye witness agreed that Martin's command was to fire but only a warning shot over the heads of the strikers.(166) Witnesses to the shooting pointed out there were no warning shots fired but told of excessive firing into the ranks of the strikers, deputies continuing to shoot after men ran for cover, and men shot down as far as 150 yards from where they were stopped by the Sheriff.(167) A Lattimer school teacher reported: "I saw men who had hidden behind trees and fences during the first fusillade leave their places of concealment only to be deliberately shot down."(168) The school house about three hundred yards distant from which the teacher saw the shooting was riddled with bullets. An area newspaper asserted: ''This would indicate that the strikers, fleeing by the shortest route to Hazleton across the hills, were shot at long after there was any danger to the deputies." (169) Strikers affirming this horror told of being targets as they ran for safety. A detached account by Henry Hoyt, United States Assistant Attorney General, based upon an investigation of the shooting made the following summation: ''It appeared that the strikers were unarmed; that small clubs which they had previously carried were thrown away on the march between West Hazleton and Lattimer; that they were peaceable and orderly in West �SLOVAKIA 35 Hazleton and Lattimer; were not riotous at West Hazleton or Lattimer, and at neither place made an assault upon the Sheriff or his deputies, or offered any violence or used threatening language to them."(170) Martin confirmed Hoyt's account by stating, in response to a reporter's question, that the strikers until the time of the shooting had not committed any overt act nor behaved otherwise than peaceably. (171) The Lattimer tragedy resulted from a multiplicity of interrelated sources. Existing in the anthracite region were nativistic sentiments encompassing an attitude of disdain for Slavic and Italian immigrants; Anglo-Saxons looked upon the strikers as unwelcomed strangers who were inferiors and who could not possibly conform to accepted standards in society. In an interview a federal treasury official, who was familiar with Hazleton, affirmed this idea with his romantic (and distorted) depiction of an idyllic and bucolic setting disrupted by the intrusion of alien people who fostered hatred: ''I think when all the facts come out in regard to the shooting it will be found that the officers who did the shooting have covered a revenge of years under the wings of the law. I remember when twelve or fifteen years ago, the section around Hazleton was settled by hard-working and honest Irishmen, Welshmen, Englishmen, Germans, and Americans. They worked in the mines and did well. Many of them owned their own homes - pretty little cottages on the hillside, surrounded by outhouses for cattle and chickens, etc., and happiness seemed to smile on all. There were no strikes and the morality of the neighborhood was good. Then began to come in the Hungarians and the Poles and the class of foreigners, by accepting smaller wages, ran the others out. I knew several Irishmen who vowed they would not leave, but went away to other States, in many instances having to sell their little homes to pay their debts and to get away on. This naturally caused a bitter feeling, a feeling which exists to this day, and one which caused many vows of revenge. The houses once the property of prosperous Irishmen and Americans are now in filthy condition, occupied by two and three families of Hungarians and Poles. Instead of clean beds there are bunks ranged along the walls and as many as four people slept in a small room. In that band of deputies which encountered the marching miners a few days ago are many men who remembered the change from the scenes of years ago. Their hearts have been full of revenge. When the opportunity presented itself they seized it, with the horrible result too well known. They shot to kill, because their relatives and friends had been made paupers by these people. I do not approve of the shooting, but I believe the facts will reveal what I have stated." (172) These immigrant strikers represented a class of people outside the local structure, posed an economic threat to the interests of coal operators, and replaced Anglo-Saxons as the dominant mine workers. In contrast, the Sheriff's posse consisted of a class of people that was �36 SLOVAKIA diametrically opposite in nationality, place in society , and occupation. This dissimilarity in turn tended to heighten emotional responses. The strike increased the stresses of nativism. Passions grew in both contending groups; as workers sought to shut down the mines , the Sheriff and his deputies, under the pressure of coal companies , tried to prevent them from accomplishing their objective. A feeling of anxiety and tension grew in the community as the chances of an ugly confrontation between strikers and law officers became likely. Undoubtedly , the Sheriff and his men fully sensed this but realized the ramifications if they failed to prevent the strikers from closing down the mining operations at Lattimer. If unsuccessful, the chances of protecting the remaining mines from being closed down by the strikers would be slight. Combined with this pressure were frustrations in trying to quell the strikers' activities , tension and fatigue over the incident at West Hazleton, malicious attitudes toward the immigrants who were also labor agitators, and a glandular excitement capable of generating panic from a large group about to undergo another encounter with strikers . A maturation process among Slavic and Italian immigrants in the anthracite coal fields reached fruition when the strike broke out in the Lehigh region in the late summer of 1897. Having become the dominant group among the mine workers in the late 1890's, they asserted themselves by conceiving and initiating the strike . This decision resulted from the frustrating working conditions and discriminatory practices emanating from nativistic actions which combined to impose hardships and an inferior status . The culmination of these factors was the wellspring for discontent and dissatisfaction. At this time the United Mine Workers of America lacked strength to represent and protect the anthracite mine workers ' interest effectively and , in addition , generally showed little interest in including the new immigrants in their ranks or purview. Consequently, the only recourse for the immigrant workers was to take matters into their own hands to seek redress for grievances. As the strike developed, it lacked coherent strategies since it was unorganized, leaderless , and did not have benefit of an effective union structure to provide direction, articulation, and ability to successfully negotiate with the coal operators. (173) This point of inadequate experience and unfamiliarity in labor affairs made the strikers vulnerable to violence . Therefore, on that Friday afternoon as the immigrant strikers marched into Lattimer imbued with a spirit to win their strike, they came face to face with Sheriff Martin and his deputies equally committed to stopping them. It was as if for a moment, the recent social and economic history of the area had been centripetally compressed into a time capsule only to be exploded by indigenous divergent and incompatible forces . Catapulted into a deadly collision were two different worlds in conflict. The result was-violence, perpetrated by public peace keepers who were the instruments of coal �SLOVAKIA 37 companies' strategy to break the strike . The effect was that Lattimer became the worst tragedy in American labor history in terms of the number of workers killed and wounded by public authorities, who were not provoked nor endangered and who attacked without warning unarmed strikers peacefully demonstrating on a public highway. FOOTNOTES (1) Wilkes-Barre Leader, September 11, 1897. (2) Letter from Henry Hoyt, Assistant Attorney-General, to William Day, Secretary of State, April 8, 1898; in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, with the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 6, 1898 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1901), 82-87. Hoyt' s letter stemmed from an investigation made by the Department of Justice for the Department of State concerning a diplomatic protest from the Austria-Hungary government over several of its nationals killed and wounded at Lattimer. A great deal of confusion and inaccuracy existed in newspaper accounts as to the number of casualities from the shooting; reports varied from fourteen to as many as fifty people killed. Hoyt based his figures upon grand jury murder indictments against Sheriff Martin and his deputies who were brought to trial on February 1, 1898, in Luzerne County but were found not guilty by the jury. (3) Daily Standard (Hazleton), September 11, 1897. (4) Wilkes-Barre Record, September 11, 1897. (5) Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897. (6) Daily Globe (South Bethlehem) , September 11, 1897. (7) St. Louis Post Dispatch, September 12, 1897. (8) San Francisco Chronicle, September 11, 1897. (9) Detroit Free Press, September 11, 1897. (10) Pittsburgh Dispatch, September 11, 1897. (11) Boston Daily Globe, September 11, 1897. (12) Wilkes-Barre Record, September 5, 1897. (13) Frank Julian Warne, The Slav Invasion and the Mine Workers : A Study in Immigration (Philadelphia: J . B. Lippincott Company, 1904) , 51 & 58 ; Frank Julian Warne, "Some Industrial Effects of Slav Immigration," Charities and the Commons, XIII (December 3, 1904), 223-224. (14) Rowland Berthoff, "The Social Order of the Anthracite Region , 1825-1902," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, LXXXIX (July 1965), 169-171; Charles B. Spahr, "America 's Working People," Outlook, Ll(Il (August 5, 1899) , 811. (15) Peter Roberts , " The Sclavs in Anthracite Coal Communities," Charities and the Commons, XIII (December 3, 1904) , 219. (16) Berthoff, 287; George 0 . Virtue, "The Anthracite Mine Laborers," Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor No. 13, (November, 1897) , 753. (17) Henry Edward Rood , "A Pennsylvania Colliery Village ," Century Magazine, XXXIII, new series, (April, 1898), 811. (18) Roberts , " The Sclavs in Anthracite Coal Communities," 221. (19) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Passed at the Session of 1895 (Harrisburg: Edwin K. Meyers State Printer, 1895), 643. (20) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Passed at the Session of 1897 (Harrisburg: Clarence M. Busch State Printer, 1897), 546. �38 SLOVAKIA (21) Frank Julian Warne, " Organized Labor in the Anthracite Coal Fields," Outlook, LXXI (May 24 , 1902), 273 . '' . . . The operators used them (immigrants) originally to introduce low wages ... " Wilkes-Barre Record, August 8, 1897. The attitude that immigrants were responsible for undermining native labor interests was prevalent in newspaper editorials. Mauch Chunk Coal Gazette, September 25, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 8, 1897; Weekly Herald (Shenandoah), September 18, 1897; Sullivan Review, September 16, 1897 ; Detroit Free Press, September 12, 1897; Pittsburgh Post, September 15, 1897. (22) Pottsville Republican, September 20, 1897. The laborer who assisted the contract miner was not employed by the coal operator but by the miner. Nearly eighty percent of the mine laborers in the Lehigh region worked under the contract system. Frank Julian Warne , " The Anthracite Coal Strike, " Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, XVII (January, 1901), 32-33 . (23) Rood, 815. (24) Frank Julian Warne , " The Effect of Unionism Upon the Mine Worker," Annuals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, XXI (January , 1903) , 23-24; Rood, 815; Virtue, 753 . (25) Victor R. Greene, The Slavic Community on Strike: Immigrant Labor in Pennsylvania Anthracite (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968), 86-87 ; Berthoff, 272-273 ; Virtue , 753 . (26) Spahr, 8ll ; Warne, " The Effect of Unionism Upon the Mine Worker," 31-32 ; Roberts, "The Sclavs in Anthracite Coal Communities, " 218 . (27) Harold W. Aurand , From the Molly Maguires to the United Mine Workers: The Social Ecology of an Industrial Union, 1869-1897 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press , 1971) , 136. (28) Berthoff, 273 . (29) Warne , " The Effect of Unionism Upon the Mine Worker, " 21; Berthoff, 268. (30) Alexander Trachtenberg, The History of Legislation for the Protection of Coal Miners in Pennsylvania, 1824-1915 (New York: International Publishers, 1942) , 134135. (31) Ibid., 135-136; Frank Julian Warne, The Slav Invasion and the Mine Workers, 88 . (32) Pennsylvania Legislative Record for the Sessions of 1889, Vol. I, Harrisburg: Clarence M. Busch State Printer, 1889) , 1529. (33) Virtue, 768; Greene, ll 7-ll8 ; Pottsville Republican, June 15, 1897 . (34) Pennsylvania Legislative Record for the Session of 1889, Vol. I, 1236. (35) Ibid. (36) United Mine Workers Journal, October 22, 1896, 1. (37) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Passed at the Session of 1897, 289. (38) UMW Journal, August 12, 1897, 7. (39) Daily Standard, August 28, 1897. (40) Warne , Th e Slav Invasion and the Mine Workers, 88. (41) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Passed at the Ses sion of 1897, 135-136. The bill passed the House and Senate by votes of 126 to 12 and 28 to 3 respectively . Pennsylvania Legislative Record for the Session of 1897, Vol. I, (Harrisburg: Clarence M. Busch State Printer, 1897), 1069 & 2418 . There were attempts in the House to make the tax five cents a day. Ibid., 2418 (42) Ibid., 2292 . (43) Ibid., 2217 . �SLOVAKIA 39 (44) UMW Journal, July 1, 1897, 1. (45) Fraser v. McConway & Torley Co., 82 The Federal Reporter 259 (1897) . (46) Pennsylvania Legislative Record for the Session of 1897, Vol. I, 2217. (47) Wilkes-Barre Record, August 26 & 28, 1897. (48) Peter Roberts, Anthracite Coal Communities: A Study of the Demography, The Social, Educational and Moral Life of the Anthracite Region (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1904), 44-45 . (49) Wilkes-Barre Record, September 28, 1897. (50) " Legislative Investigating Committee Report on Conditions Existing Among the Miners and Those Employed in and About the Mines in the Anthracite Coal Regions ," Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the Session Begun at Harrisburg, on the Fifth Day of January, 1897 (Harrisburg: Wm. Stanley Ray State Printer, 1897), Il, 1824-1842. (51) R eports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, 1896 (Harrisburg: Clarence M. Busch State Printer, 1897), xvi-xvii . (52) Ibid., xvii; "Legislative Investigating Committee Report," 1839. (53) Reports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, 1896, 170-172. (54) "The Association Letter," Anthracite Coal Operators Association, September, 1897, 2. (55) John Graham Brooks, " An Impression of the Anthracite Coal Troubles," Yale Review, VI (November, 1897), 307. (56) "Legislative Investigating Committee Report, " 1826. (57) Virtue, 756 . (58) Ibid., 757-58; "The Association Letter," 14-15; "The Marketing of Small Sizes of Anthracite," The Colliery Engineer, XVIl (June, 1897), 490. (59) The Reports of Committees of the House of Representatives for the Second Session of the Fiftieth Congress, 1888-89, Vol. IV (Washington: U.S . Government Printing Office, 1889) , lxxix . (60) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Passed at the Session of 1891 (Harrisburg: Edwin K. Meyers State Printer, 1891), 256-57 . (61) Peter Roberts , Anthracite Coal Industry (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1901), 136. (62) Ibid., 138. (63) "Company Store Legislation," The Colliery Engineer, XVIl (April, 1897) , 395. (64) Pottsville Republican, September 2, 1897. (65) Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 2, 1897. (66) Virtue, 760 ; " Legislative Investigating Committee Report," 1839. (67) UMW Journal, January 14 , 1897, 5; Ibid., October 22, 1896, l; Wilkes-Barre Record, December 25, 1896; Pottsville Republican, September 20, 1897 . Fahy launched a campaign in the anthracite region to secure public contributions to support the United Mine Workers of America lobbying activities to abolish the company store. The Pennsylvania Legislature, reflecting an increased awareness of labor interests, responded and passed a bill in July, 1897 , placing a ten percent tax upon the face value of all types of certificates or the equivalent issued in lieu of legal tender for employees' wages . This measure would have severely crippled the operation of company stores; however, Governor Hastings vetoed the legislation on the ground that it violated the state constitution. George Edward Reed, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. Xll, 4th ser., (Harrisburg: Wm . Stanley Ray State Printer, 1902), 150-54. �40 SLOVAKIA (68) Daily Standard, August 31 & September 8, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 2 & 13, 1897; Wilkes-Barre Record, September 4, 1897; Report to the President of the Anthracite Coal Strike of May-October, 1902 by the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission (Washington : U.S . Government Printing Office , 1903), 144 . The above source contained information regarding the strikers' demands made to the G. B. Markle & Company in the 1897 strike. (69) Daily Standard, September 6 & 8, 1897; Spahr, 810 . (70) Ibid.; Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28 , 1897 ; The Reports of Committees of the Hous e ... Fiftieth Congress, lxxxi. (71) Berthoff, 286. If all the miners in the fifth district (Lehigh region) had turned in their empty powder kegs in 1896, they would have raised $10 ,028.30 . Reports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, 1896, 173. (72) Robe rts , Anthracite Coal Communities, 259, 262-263. (73) Report of the Industrial Commission of the Relations and Conditions of Capital and Labor in the Mining Industry Including Testimony, Review of Evidence, and Topical Digest, Vol. XIl (Washington : U.S. Government Printing Office , 1901), 142 . (74) Robe rts, Anthracite Coal Industry, 133-134. (75) Daily Standard, September 6, 8 & 9, 1897; Wilkes-Barre Record, September 7, 1897; Report to the President of the Anthracite Coal Strike, 144. (76) Daily Standard, September 9, 1897; Spahr, 810; Report of the Industrial Commission, 142. (77) Computation based on 5,754 miners and laborers in the fifth anthracite district and the use of 100,283 kegs of blasting powder. Reports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, 1896, 173 & 176. (78) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Passed at the Session of 1891, 96-97. (79) Pottsville Republican, September 20, 1897. (80) " Legislative Investigating Committee Report," 1830. (81) UMW Journal, Ocotber 22, 1896, 1. (82) Report of the Industrial Commission, 143. (83) UMW Journal, November 25, 1897, 2; Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897. (84) Wilkes-Barre Record, September 15, 1897. (85) Ibid.; Daily Standard, August 17, 1897. In the Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre newspapers there appeared an account of an interview with an unnamed individual defending Jones ' superintendency . Acknowledging that Jones may have made some mistakes, the source indicated that the workers' discontent really stemmed from the decisions made by the preceeding superintendent or from orders issued by higher company officials . ''He is charged with being a tyrant, and in reference to this it may be said that each foreman has full charge of all employees working under him . But Jones is among the first men about the works in the morning and among the last to leave at night, and because he attends strictly to business he is called a tyrant by men who want ten hours pay for less than ten hours of work.'' Wilkes-Barre Times, August 27, 1897. (86) Ibid., August 16, 1897. Gomer Jones was arrested later on a complaint by John Bodan on the charge of aggravated assault. Ibid., August 18, 1897. (87)lbid. , August 16, 1897 . (88) Ibid. , August 17, 1897 . (89) Ibid. , August 18, 1897. (90) Ibid. , August 20, 1897 . �SLOVAKIA 41 (91) Ibid. , August 21, 1897. (92) Ibid. (93) Ibid., August 28, 30 & September 1, 1897; Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28, 1897. (94) Ibid., September 3, 1897. (95) Ibid., September 3 & 4, 1897; Daily Standard, August 28, September 4, 6 & 8, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 3, 1897 . (96) Ibid. , August 28, 1897; Daily Standard, August 28, 1897; Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28 , 1897. (97) Ibid. , August 30, 1897 . (98) Ibid., August 31, 1897. (99) Wilkes-Barre Leader, September 3, 1897. (100) Daily Standard, September 4, 1897. (101) Ibid, ; Pottsville Republican, September 2, 1897; Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28 & 30, 1897. (102) Ibid. , September 4 & 6, 1897. (103) Daily Standard, September 6, 1897. (104) Wilkes-Barre Record, September 4, 1897. (105) Daily Standard, September 4, 1897. A. S. Van Wickle Company operated independently of the other coal companies, provided their employees more work, and were regarded with greater esteem and confidence in the community. Wilkes-Barre Record, January 22, 1897 . (106) Letter from James Martin to Daniel H. Hastings, Governor of Pennsylvania, October 18, 1897 , Governor Hastings Papers, MG-145, Box 18, Division of Archives and Manuscripts of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. (107) Ibid. (108) R eco rd of the Times (Wilkes-Barre), March 4, 1898. (109) New York World, February 13, 1898; Dollar Weekly News-Dealer (Wilkes-Barre), September 18, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 23 , 1898 ; Pennsylvania, Department of State, Commission Bureau, "Policemen, 1889-1912," 346; Hazle Township and Hazleton City, "Real Estate Tax Assessment Books for 1896 and 1897 ,'' Office of the Board for the Assessment and Revision of Taxes , Luzerne County Courthouse, Wilkes-Barre , Pennsylvania . (110) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898; Daily Standard, September 7, 1897. (111) Record of the Times, March 4, 1897. (112) Daily Standard, October 21, 1897. A review of the annual financial report of the Comptroller for Luzerne County revealed that there were no payments from county funds for the services of the deputies at Hazleton , supporting the conclusion that the coal operators paid the deputies' salaries. Wilkes-Barre Record, January 23, 1898. (113) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898. (114) Daily Standard, September 9, 1898. (115) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898. (116) Martin to Hastings, October 18, 1897 . (118) Ibid. (119) Ibid. , September 9, 1897. (120) Ibid. , September 10, 1897 . (121) Ibid., September 9, 1897. �42 SLOVAKIA (122) Ibid., September 8, 1897; Hazleton Sentinel, September 3, 1897; Spahr, 808. (123) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898. (124) Daily Standard, September 11, 1897. (125) Record of the Times, February 8, 1898; Hoyt to Day, April 8, 1898. (126) Record of the Times, February 11, 1898. (127) Ibid. , March 4, 1898. (128) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898. (129) Martin to Hastings, October 18, 1897 . (130) Ibid. (131) Record of the Times, February 8, 1898. (132) Ibid. (133) Ibid. (134) Ibid., February 18, 1898. (135) Ibid., February 11, 1898. (136) Ibid., February 15, 1898. (137) Ibid., February 11, 1898. (138) Ibid., February 8, 1898. (139) Ibid., February 11, 1898. (140) New York World, September 12, 1898. "Whether deserved or not, Sheriff Martin, of Luzerne county, it is alleged, entertains an unquestionable hatred for the foreign element." Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897. (141) Record of the Times, February 8, 1898. (142) Ibid., September 11, 1897. (143) Wilkes-Barre Leader, September 13, 1897. (144) Easton Free Press, September 13, 1897. (145) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 12, 1897. (146) Martin to Hastings , October 18, 1897. (147) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 12, 1897. (148) Record of the Times, February 28, 1898; Easton Free Press, September 11, 1897. (149) Martin to Hastings , October 18, 1897. (150) Ibid. (151) Daily Standard, September 11, 1897. (152) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1897. (153) Hoyt to Day, April 8, 1898; Evening Bulletin (Philadelphia), September 11, 1897; Record of the Times, February 8, 1898; Philadelphia Inquirer, September 12, 1897. (154) Ibid., September 11, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 11 , 1897; WilkesBarre Record, September 11, 1897 . (155) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1897. (156) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898. (157) Martin to Hastings, October 18, 1897. (158) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1897. (159) Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897 . (160) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11 , 1897. �SLOVAKIA 43 (161) Pottsville Republican, September 14, 1897. (162) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1897. (163) Evening Bulletin, September 13, 1897. (164) Daily Standard, September 11, 1897. (165) Record of the Times, February 22, 1897. (166) Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897. (167) Record of the Times, February 11 & 15, 1898; Daily Standard, September 11, 1897; "Some of the guns were loaded with shells containing a lot of No.8 shot, which scattered with deadliest effect, and others had the plain bullets of heavy bore. The manner in which the victims were tom up looked as though they had been before gatling guns or on a field of where grape and canister were poured from cannon mouths." Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1897. (168) Easton Free Press, September 11, 1897. (169) Wilkes-Barre Sunday Morning Leader, September 12, 1897. (170) Hoyt to Day, April 8, 1898. (171) Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897. (172) New York Tribune, September 15, 1897. (173) Report of the Industrial Commission, 139-140; Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28 & September 5, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 2, 1897; Daily Standard, September 4, 1897. When news of the Lattimer shooting spread through the coal fields surrounding Hazleton, the scope of the strike immediately enlarged involving some 10,000 mine employees and idling nineteen of the thirty-three area collieries. Strikers were unwilling to return to work during the following week when funerals for victims were held; they further refused to end their work stoppage until the coal operators met their grievances, mainly an increase in wages. The strike began to wane on September 20 when the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company agreed to grant a ten percent wage increase to mine laborers, pay six to eight cents more per car of coal to miners, and seek solutions to workers' complaints. Only two companies, Lehigh Valley Coal Company and C. Pardee and Company, had not reached a settlement by the end of the second week after the Lattimer shooting but by the end of September they both made an agreement similar to the other coal operators which finally brought an end to the Lehigh coal strike of 1897. Pennsylvania, Official Documents of 1897 (Harrisburg: Wm. Stanley Ray State Printer, 1899), ill, 124 Scranton Times, September 21, 1897; Daily Standard, September 21 & 24, 1897; UMW Journal, November 18, 1897, 3. �44 SLOVAKIA The Lattimer Massacre KON STANTIN CULEN A tragic event that occurred in September 1897 struck at the heart of Slovak American life with such telling impact that it served to solidify the Slovak immigrants in the United States into one unified body more effectively than had any previous experience in their new world. This event greatly furthered that awareness of a need for unity that began to crystallize under the pressures to which they had been subjected in their homeland Slovakia. In American history as well as in the record of early SlovakAmerican history this event is known as the Lattimer slaughter or the Lattimer massacre. The setting was the mining region around Hazleton, Pennsylvania. It was an area that had long seethed with the discontent and the restiveness of the men who were employed in the mines . Mine management groups had long bled their workers white, extracting the very marrow out of their bones . The companies paid out pauper wages, cheated the workmen on their weight checks, overcharged prices for foods and daily necessities that were sold through company stores. Scores of mining catastrophes underscored the obvious inadequacy of safety measures that existed to protect the men in their dangerous work in deep underground pits. Miners in Hazleton had declared a strike but nearby mines in neighboring communities continued to operate at practically full strength. Some casual talk was heard from time to time to the effect that the Hazleton operators were planning to bring in scabs in the near future. Union leaders realized that their Hazleton strike would lose all effectiveness unless the miners of the entire locality would join forces in one concerted resistance movement, supporting the Hazleton effort and pressing common demands for improved conditions and benefits. On September 10, 1897 a sizable group of Slovak and Polish miners who were on strike set out for the small mining settlement of Lattimer. In subsequent investigations during the trial they testified that they were on their way there because the Lattimer workers had sent them word that they decided to join the strike movement. The group of striking miners had hardly left Hazleton when Sheriff Martin with a company of about a hundred men from the supporting police force (so-called deputies) anticipated their movement and went An excerpt from Konstantin Culen's two-volume History of the Slovaks in America. (Bratislava, Slovenska Liga , 1942) vol. 1, Part XI , no . 5-9, pp. 162-176. Translated by Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. �SLOVAKIA 45 on ahead of them riding the trolley lines. On reaching Lattimer, he assigned his force of deputies to various positions and then he moved several paces forward, addressing the group marching in on foot, to read a restraining order that forbade any gathering or assemblage of persons by provision ordinance dealing with uprising and rebellion. During the reading of this ordinance, a few strikers came closer to the sheriff and there was some minor verbal exchange. The miners objected that they were not disturbers of the public peace or revolutionaries of any kind; they were simply orderly and law-abiding citizens peacefully going along their way . This reaction so exasperated the sheriff that he reached out and snatched away a small American flag that one of the men was carrying, tore it up, pulled out his revolver and began to shoot. After he had drawn his trigger five times, his sixth shot struck a miner in the chest and hurled him to the ground. After the sheriff's outburst of fire, there was the sound of volleys from the deputies. The unarmed miners turned and fled in panic, trying to find safety or protection of some kind. The brutal frontal attack lasted but a few moments but the deputies continued to fire upon the fleeing miners so that practically all of them were struck and wounded in flight.(1) The deputies who were charged with excitement by this time, further assaulted the bleeding victims by beating them and kicking them cruelly as they lay helpless on the ground. A shot or a volley of shots can seem to be an effective argument at a given moment but usually its effectiveness wears off after a brief time. And shots or salvos of shots fail to carry conviction. This was brought out in the Lattimer situation. The Slovak colony found itself in a state of shock, standing inconsolate beside the corpses of the fallen men. It was all too clear to these newcomers now - if it had not been clear to them before - that every Slovak had to be very realistically a brother to a fellow-Slovak, that every Slovak would have to be the most reliable standby and defense of a fellow-Slovak. Anything less than that would serve to reduce them to the debasing circumstance of being mere henchmen and convenient tools of foreign overlords and exploiters. This extravagant bloodletting and bizarre butchering under unprovoked and non-violent circumstances evoked considerable humane reaction in the American press. The attitudes of American journalists were not all of a kind. Some reporters and editors were incensed over the needless killings and brutality. Some wrote with a sense of relief that the incident involved only "Hunkies" - the generic designation that most newspapers used for every newcomer from Austria-Hungary. News of this lamentable event spread to all the Slovak settlers scattered throughout the United States and set off a degree of outrage and consternation that no other experience had yet caused in SlovakAmerican life. Those who had been faction-torn or at odds for whatever �46 SLOVAKIA reasons , were at once moved to conciliation and unity through their common grief at the graveside of the murdered men. Slovak Ame rican journalists who had been indulging personal and non-personal bouts of polemics in their papers left all that trivia now that a common cause evolved out of this catastrophe , and a vigorous new spirit infused their energies and talents. They reacted with a sense of unity and resolute will not only to moderate the mounting resentment and growing agitation that could have been fanned to unreasonable and uncontrollable proportions but to divert effort and attention to an altruistic purpose on behalf of aiding and befriending the widowed and orphaned survivors . Slovak American journalists also undertook a determined program to secure in the free world of America that measure of civic dignity and security that would make it impossible for such brutal disregard of the human right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ever to be repeated and condoned again . The press came out strongly with appeals for at least financial compensation to the bereaved widows and orphans and demanded that punitive justice be dealt the incriminated sheriff. The general feeling was that the just process of law and suitable sentencing should act as a deterrent to any possible repetition of the horrible incident. The whole body of Slovak immigrant life in America reacted with a corporate cry of pain and a strong appeal protesting the inhumanity of the Lattimer episode. New York, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, all made their voices heard as did lesser towns and even the lowly scattered hamlet settlements in America where Slovaks nursed the pain of this tragic hurt . Countless gatherings and demonstrations attracted thousands of Slovak laborers to review and assess the factors involved and the consequences of this catastrophe. Numberless formal discussions and rallies were climaxed with the drawing up of appropriate protest resolutions. All Slovak-American centers participated in drives to aid the victimized survivors of the callous murder, and there were also spirited fund-raising campaigns for legal expenses and court costs to bring Sheriff Martin to justice, for the prevailing view was that he should be made to pay for his crime, for his responsibility in leading and abetting reprehensible action . A committee for this express purpose was organized in Hazleton, holding itself charged to set in motion whatever action might be called for and to pursue the cause to its end. The September 16, 1897 issue (738) of the Amerikansko-Slovenske noviny appeared with a banner headline whose bold-faced lettering read: "Massacre of Slavs . In the freest country under the sun , people are shot at like dogs. Slavs are the victims of American savagery." Editor Pucher Ciernovodsky designated September 10 the bloody Friday of Slovak national life. His report seemed to be written with a pen dipped in blood. He denounced the attacking party and he did not spare the Slovaks themselves , finding them culpable of that lack of �SLOVAKIA 47 interest in public affairs that could have contributed significantly to the culmination of this public scandal. Some of Pucher Ciernovodsky' s thoughts were: ' 'The mountainsides of Hazleton are drenched with Slovak blood, and pitiable orphans and widows, fathers and mothers, brothers and friends raise eyes brimming with bitter tears to heaven pleading, 0 God , is there justice in this life? If there is justice on this earth of ours, did our blood truly deserve this spilling? Who in this world is committed to greater drudgery than we? Who in this world is engaged in a work that is more dangerous than ours? ' 'When we are driven to extremes of misery because hunger and want have sapped our strength and our bodies are bone-weary from overwork, and when our famished and shabbily clothed children ask for food that we cannot provide for them , and we go to discuss our problems and try to come together for deliberations in an effort to arrive at some reasonable solutions, how to go about unsnarling this sad fate that so embitters our lives - what kind of law is it, what kind of justice and fairness is it - or is it our miserable doom that we should be shot at like dogs? Ah, America, America ... ''It is indeed a curious America. When the Turks set upon the Armenians, every full-blooded American protested and vehemently shouted his willingness to join a fighting force to check the Turks. And yet here and now when it comes to bringing to justice those who similarly violated the rights of Slavs in America, they do all in their power to prevent the guilty from being brought to legitimate trial. Reams have been written and volumes have been mouthed condemning the cruelties of the Spanish in Cuba. There was universal recrimination against the injustices inflicted upon the oppressed Cubans, yet journalists have scant syllables of tenderness or sympathy for our people who were felled by wanton gunshot in a manner more senseless and inhuman than any attack of the Spanish upon the Cubans . The Cubans at least had defense weapons but our people were shot unarmed, shot like animals . ''This grieves us unspeakably. '' And, in the last analysis, who is most responsible for all this? "We ourselves must hold ourselves responsible. "A Slav does not support a fellow-Slav. We have no mutual bonds of unity, no fellowship at all, no commonly shared activities. We cultivate none. We fail to get along amicably. Instead, we seem to make sport of baiting one another, and we lack even that zest for life that long ago should have whipped us into a common front to denounce the maligning that the American press released against us and to protest the discrimination and injustice imposed upon foreigners by the threecent-tax. If other ethnic groups had not taken the initiative , we would have let them dance on our heads . �48 SLOVAKIA ' ' What can the American public think about such men? It would not be surprising if they rated us cowardly, worthless, less than the Indians, and so deserving a fate no better than that of the Indians. "We give too little consideration to matters like citizenship, legal rights and civil rights or public opinion. No wonder, then, that public opinion shows no concern about us, has no regard for us . ''If public opinion had any respect for us, then those deputies and the sheriff who were involved in the Lattimer affair would not have allowed themselves to perpetrate such an act of sheer barbarism. Whatever the circumstances, whether there was any excuse or not for a collective attack with Winchester rifles, at least this truth remains that if we were not a subservient people they would not have kept firing at our fleeing men from behind. "The catchword of people like our attackers, is "Shoot the Hungarian dog! ' ' Why? Because we do not make the effort to have our own recognized defense and defenders , our own qualified men who are in touch with the pulse of political life and current trends , men qualified to speak out on our behalf. We ourselves all too readily and regrettably belittle our own ; we tend to regard with disfavor and lack of recognition those of us who have gifts of leadership; we begrudge them opportunities , cut them down and deny them a chance to develop their potential. "In the end we suffer for it collectively. It is true that there are officials whose duty it is to defend our people because they were appointed and authorized to do so, and they are salaried to execute this office , but they seem to be wrapped in safe slumber. They are our Austro-Hungarian consuls. " Just what did these officials, these Austro-Hungarian consuls do for us in previous strike situations? Exactly nothing. " On the other hand , how did the Italian consuls react when their Italian countrymen were being lynched in New Orleans? The furor that was generated on that occasion almost incited a war with the United States, and an indemnity of five thousand dollars had to be paid for every victim. ' 'It is our reasoned judgment that the Hazleton bloodshed is far more criminal than was the New Orleans lynching and it is the patent duty of the Austro-Hungarian government to make honorable and serious intervention on our behalf. "Since those who were shot to death were citizens of the United States , we have no alternative but to organize our effort in order to bring the whole affair to an exhaustive investigation and to the due process of justice. The burden of responsibility in this matter rests primarily with our Slavic organizations which, in every respect, bear the characteristics of American organizational structure. And their responsibility for such action is all the more binding if any of their members happened to be among the victims, if they were members of �SLOVAKIA 49 the National Slovak Society, the First Catholic Slovak Union (Jednota), the Greek Catholic society Sojedinenie, the Pennsylvania Slovak Union, Sojus, etc. Let these organizations set in motion the wheels that will bring about necessary lawsuits; let them underwrite out of their treasuries or raise funds in some way to cover related expenses, and let their united effort and combined strength prove that they truly have the good name and the best interests of all Slavic ethnics at heart. Let me presume to say that this Bartholomew night should serve as a Sturrnistic symbol effecting concerted and wholehearted cooperation. ''If this soul-shaking experience fails to jolt us out of our morbid lethargy, we ought to raise a memorial cross as a marker for our nation and our spirit of patriotism and declare that we buried it all on that bloody Friday in Hazleton.'' (2) Because of this massacre a violent disturbance broke out among the Slovak and Polish miners. Governor Hastings declared a state of emergency in Hazleton and dispatched 2,500 troops to move in and control the problem. Security measures that the governor ordered for the Hazleton area were very extensive and elaborate, involving the outlay of $475 ,000 - a very large sum in those days. The whole countryside seethed and repercussions were witnessed far and wide. The American press took sides with Sheriff Martin, generally arguing (as if it were a valid objection) that the slain men were not even American citizens. The press of the ethnic groups and those who supported the cause of the miners countered this attitude with the historically substantiated observation that neither were Pulaski, Kosciusko and some other heroes of the American War for Independence official citizens of the United States. They came to fight for freedom in a land that was alien to them because liberty and freedom are nowhere in the world foreign commodities to any human being. Freedom is the prerogative of every person and we are all entitled to our share of this gift. In the hour of our country's struggle for freedom, every able volunteer was welcome to share in the battle and in the pain to win it. Now that the fruits of liberty should be portioned out to all and denied to none in a free land, it is glibly said that freedom is our privilege - you are existentially in the land of liberty but you are not a free man. On September 11 the miners held an open air protest rally in Hazleton. Father Stas, pastor of St. John Nepomucene Roman Catholic church in Freeland, spoke on behalf of the Slovak minority. He spoke out strongly and fearlessly against a freedom that countenances the murder of defenseless people. Some of the other speakers on this occasion were Reverend R. Aust of Hazleton who represented the Poles, Reverend Gullovic, Reverend Hauser, attorney John Shea of Wilkes-Barre and J . Fahy, president of the United Mine Workers. A gathering of over 4,000 Slovak and Polish mine workers resolved to �50 SLOVAKIA defend their rights, determined to make Sheriff Martin stand trial for this wanton bloodletting. The victims of the disaster were buried on September 12 as huge throngs converged upon the area for the occasion. This Lattimer massacre affected much of America. On September 15, the Slovaks and the Poles of the New York region held a mass demonstration at which they made it clear that the issue at stake was in no way related to religious affiliation or nationality roots or fratemalism of one kind or another. Their main concern was the general welfare of the American working class and fundamental civil rights for all. They appealed for unanimity and single-mindedness of purpose among them all - the Slovaks, Poles, Hungarians and English. A resolution which they formulated on this occasion includes these sentiments: · 'Profoundly affected by the catastrophe that occurred in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, in a free country, the republic of the United States of North America, where on September 10 eighteen men who were Slavs and Slovaks were shot to death and about forty others were wounded by a sheriff's posse as these men peaceably and with no ill intent went their way on a public street, aware of the provision of the Constitution of the United States which guarantees every citizen freedom of speech, freedom of opinion and belief, and the right of assemblage, all of which this country esteems and safeguards as sacred civil rights. ' ' Aware that the action of Sheriff Martin and his party was wholly unlawful and totally uncalled for - for it has been proved that the workmen who were en route to their predetermined destination had neither arms nor foul purpose, and he had not even tried to inform them of his rights and their duties - we, on this basis, as American citizens, as workingmen, as Slavs by accident of birth, do most emphatically denounce and condemn this criminal act. We express our profound sympathy to the bereaved families of the unfortunate victims even as we invoke the widely esteemed American regard for justice, urging that formal action be taken to bring to trial those who are considered blameworthy and to have them face their responsibility by due process of law and in this way to effect moral satisfaction to our nation and material compensation to the survivors of the victim families; ' 'We further resolve that to the full extent of our ability and means we will morally and materially offer our assistance to the unfortunately bereaved and we will exert all our power and prestige to have bloodthirsty criminals bear the just punishment which their conduct deserves; "We finally resolve that copies of this resolution be sent to the governor of the state of Pennsylvania and to the district attorney of Luzerne County, and that it be published in all newspapers; we also urge the editors of our Slovak publications to appeal to our people to �SLOVAKIA 51 support this action wholeheartedly with liberal contributions in an effort to redeem and justify the much maligned name and rights of the Slovaks who find it inevitable to undertake a distasteful reckoning with narrow-minded nativists." (3) A spirited call was made in the press for attendance at a protest gathering scheduled for September 20 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania "at which resolutions will be formulated denouncing the action of Sheriff Martin who is responsible for the shooting-death of so many blameless Slovaks . English, Slovak, Polish, Croatian and various other speakers will address those present." Protest and denunciation were voiced from all parts of the nation where there were fellow nationals of the slain miners . Dr. Theodorovic, who represented the office of the Austro-Hungarian consul, came to Hazleton for a personal assessment of the massacre and related factors. Slovak and Polish groups initiated drives throughout the United States in order to raise funds for promoting an equitable trial that would yield at least fair compensations where they were due, and just penalties for Sheriff Martin and his henchmen, all within the framework of jurisprudence and with a deterrent impact against similar injustice. One outcome of this effort was the organization of "the National Fair Trial and Beneficial Committee on Behalf of the Lattimer Victims. " This committee published a public statement and an appeal which was carried in all the current newspapers. It read in part: '' The underlings who are in the employ of corporations and share a thirst for liquidating their fellow-citizens are largely the lackeys and hacks of their bosses, all murderously eager to carry out every order from the top. The incident did not arise out of any disturbance of the peace by those guiltless men who were so brutally victimized; there was no intent to transgress law or ordinance; they carried no firearms , no clubs or flails. Workingmen were simply on a mission of their own, marching along the street to meet some fellow-workers from the same mining company in order to discuss a sharing of views and attitudes and to build moral support in a common cause. ''The Declaration of Independence in this land proclaims that all men are created free and equal. Somehow these hirelings felt that the life of an alien is not worth even as much as the life of a slave. Apparently they were led to believe that their killing of such people and under such circumstances would be universally approved by the press and by public opinion. '' It is well known that Americans endorse the principle of fair play. When poor workmen, unarmed victims, were so foully gunned down in cold blood, not only this land but all the civilized world was appalled by the atrocity. The Constitution of the United States provides for the right of peaceful assembly. Have these words meaning or force in the light of bullets and bayonets? We hold that every individual who participated in the shooting on that ill-fated day in Lattimer overstepped his rights �52 SLOVAKIA and violated the law. We hold that their act was nothing short of criminal, inhuman and unspeakable butchery. "We make this appeal and protest in the name of those who were wounded and as representatives of those who are the bereaved survivors in the families of the slain victims. Our committee has been organized in order to provide counsel and to call witnesses and to take care of whatever else may be necessary to bring Sheriff Martin and his deputies to face indictment and to stand trial according to the full force of our country's laws. ''We act on the principle that this struggle of ours is your struggle as well as ours and on the assumption that you are friends of the workingman who is often taken advantage of. If these people whom we desire to bring to an accounting are let go free and without making retribution for the killing of our countrymen, who knows what further fate can await us in the future? "Reverend Richard Aust, president; John Nemeth, treasurer; Loughran, secretary; Reverend John Stas, Salvator di Sandola, Nicholas Ballok, Matthews Long, John Kuntz, Charles Hauser, Edmund Lemhick, Reverend J. Formanek, Frank Kozlovski, George Kozarovich. '' Samuel Gompers, president of the Federation of Labor, visited the scene and made some observations about the cheap labor of the Poles, Slovaks and Italians whom the coal barons were importing into America in order to squeeze out the '' intelligent Irish and Welsh laborers.' ' Even before the sentencing, Gompers as president of the workers' union said, ''It is my opinion that the sheriff and his deputies will be acquitted in order to teach 'those foreigners' a lesson to behave differently in the future. ' 'Posterity will rate the Lattimer killings as nothing but massacre of a kind that has no equal in the history of civilized peoples, and the consciences of the perpetrators of this act will accuse and torment them to their last day. And even though monopolies and monopolists may succeed in achieving their victory, such slaughter must some day come to an end; truth will be victorious and all people will enjoy the fulness of their sacred rights - all people, whether they be of the common working class or the favored moneyed class of mine owners. "The laborers .of our country are moving toward better and stronger organization day by day, and the citizens at large are grasping a much better and a truer concept of the rights and obligations of individuals. When that day of ultimate realization does arrive, the account of the Lattimer murders will have been written in our history in letters of blood and this notorious crime will be looked upon as the most atrocious and vile offense of the nineteenth century.'' The trial of Sheriff Martin and his associates opened on February 1, 1898. The place of trial was the Luzerne County Court in WilkesBarre. Adherents of both the prosecution and the defense followed �SLOVAKIA 53 developments with undivided attention and intense feeling. Sheriff Martin had the support of all the major coal corporations , top officialdom and capitalism . The plaintiffs were backed by the laboring masses. In the process of jury se lection , Judge Staley Woodward saw to it that only American-born citizens were seated as jurors . There was never any doubt that the se lected jury panel was unanimous in its antipathy for foreigners . Judge Woodward ascertained from sworn testimony that the striking miners had created no public disorder or disturbance during their march , that they were completely unarmed, that Sheriff Martin had stopped them and insolently ordered them to turn back , that the miners were not incline d to obey but had objected that they had every right to use a public street. Further testimony indicated that the sheriff challenged the leader of the marching group, gave the order to fire and that he himself fired the first shot , striking the leader of the marching miners in the chest as additional volleys were turned upon the men who began to run for shelter . The City Trust Safe Deposit and Surety Company of Philadelphia supplied bail for the indicted to the amount of $256 ,000 . The press seldom missed an opportunity to belittle the foreign element and to overstate their shortcomings and least desirable traits - almost as if bad traits and undesirable characteristics were exclusively theirs. The presiding judge at the trial was Judge Woodward. He was related to the owner of the mines where strikes were beginning to be staged. He was also a shareholder in these mines. There was not a single Slav among the twelve jurors, most of whom were farmers, men who could hardly have firsthand knowledge of mining conditions and the situations that had justified the strike movement. They were not at all familiar with such matters as fair working conditions, e quitable pay, safety m easures, etc. A writer in one of the current publications observed, ' 'These are the names of the men in whose hands rests the power of passing a verdict that will tell the world whether anyone in this civilized country - even if he be the highest official of a particular country - may or may not, without cause, slaughter peaceful workers . It is easy to tell from the listed names that to the very last man these jurors are all Americans. The question is: are their hearts filled with rank nativism and malicious ill-will against foreigners? If they are bigoted nativists, it is vain to expect a fair sentence.'' Early in the opening of the trial the court denied the motion of the state prosecutor that the jury go to the scene of the massacre for a kind of re-enactment of the events that occurred there . The last act of this bloody drama took place during the trial. As charge followed upon charge , the full impact of hate and prejudice �54 SLOVAKIA harbored against the Slavic immigrants came into clearer and surer light. One of the defendants boasted, "I did all right; I aimed at nine and brought down five of them ." Meanwhile the mutilated survivors of that bloody Friday - some without an arm or a leg -- were in full view of the court and the spectators gathered at the trial. Before the eyes of them all , Gregory Gasparik with bandages bound about his head in which a bullet was still lodged, in moderate tones testified against Sheriff Martin and his posse. People who lived near the scene of the crime also came in to testify, telling how they had seen the deputies beat the strikers who were already all bloodied and wounded with shots . The defendants produced about a hundred witnesses who charged that Poles and Huns had terrorized the whole area and that on this occasion they were actuallly marching with firearms. They supported Sheriff Martin as a law man who was doing his duty when he ordered his men to fire at the group . Sheriff Martin, on his part, denied all guilt in the matter and entered a plea of innocent . He claimed that after reading the injunction, he attempted to arrest the leader of the marchers but the striking men , misunderstanding his action and intent, set upon him and began to beat and kick him. At this point he called upon his men for help and when even that restraint was ineffective, he finally gave an order to fire because he feared that he might be killed. When blank shots did not quell the situation , then they began to shoot in earnest even if it meant to wound and kill. He claimed that when he first met the marchers, he asked where they were going and that they answered, ''To Lattimer in order to get the men out of work! " " I begged them and pleaded with them not to go any farther ," he stated. " I urged them to obey the law and to disperse. Someone from the back of the crowd loudly cried out the word to go on. The strikers began to jostle me about and to shout abuse at me. One drunken Hungarian even tried to throttle me so I arrested him. The crowd that surrounded me swelled bigger and bigger. I drew my revolver and aimed into the air because I did not want to hurt anyone . In that instant, Joseph Novotny punched me in the face and I fell to the ground as the mob began to howl, 'Kill the s.o.b. ! ' '' I tried to defend myself with my revolver but it wouldn't fire. The mob that was pressing upon me was armed with revolvers and knives. When I fell to my knees, the deputies began to fire and the crowd then started to fall back. But they did not disperse at once. At a distance of 500 to 600 feet, they stopped in a wooded place. I felt that they might return. My men began to shout to them to disperse . Afterwards I gave the order to look after the wounded and the killed.'' The strikers countered this desposition with the charge that the sheriff was the first to fire a shot. They maintained that no one struck �SLOVAKIA 55 him, no one kicked him nor was there any evidence on his clothing or his body that he had been subjected to rough treatment of any kind. No blanks were discharged and no man who was wounded or killed was struck by a frontal shot; all were shot from the back. The son of the mine owner, young Pardee, called out to the law men , "Boys, shoot down those Huns! " Further testimony indicated that the deputies were extremely harsh and unfeeling even toward the killed and the wounded , kicking them mercilessly. Sworn witnesses consistently testified that the miners had no arms of any kind . They carried no canes or sticks, no rocks or stones , much less firearms. Scores of witnesses corroborated this testimony . Andrew Siviar, one of the miners, testified that the workmen marched as members of the United Mine Workers of America and that they had no weapons and had planned no mischief or property destruction of any kind. John Milhala, secretary of the local union, testified that they had gone to the mayor of the city who assured them that they could go to Lattimer in orderly fashion , that the sheriff had no authority to stop or prevent them. Some striking testimony was presented by the local school teacher Charles Guscot. He was eyewitness to the entire episode. He attested to the opening of fire by Sheriff Martin and the inhumane shooting upon the men who helplessly tried to flee from the ruthless officers. Another teacher from a nearby school alleged that she personally saw one of the deputies pursuing a wounded and bloodied man and in horror witnessed how he shot him to death a few steps in front of her when the weakened man fell to the ground from exhaustion. Reverend Stafflet declared under sworn testimony that he was passing the scene in a trolley car and had seen no signs of provocation on the part of the miners . They conducted themselves becomingly and bothered nobody along the way. The daily papers reported that the courtroom was the scene of some most unusual proceedings. The firm that had provided the earlier funds for bail now again supplied further expense money in the amount of over $402 .00 . All the sworn testimony agreed on the fact that the miners had no weapons . As a matter of fact, they had reckoned with the possibility of being challenged on the way and had forbidden any man to carry arms. Not one of them carried even as much as a walking stick or ordinary cane. Among the witnesses one testified that when he decided to join the group, he went into the mountains and cut himself a staff - just in case - but the others prevailed upon him to throw it away. There was also testimony that the deputies had openly boasted in the town that they would kill "the dirty Huns" yet. One of them joked about the whole thing afterwards, commenting that if he had been �56 SLOVAKIA given a cent for every one that he shot, he would have had the price of a bee r because he himself hit five . The sheriff and all the indicted men appeared before the bench with an air of great self-confidence and assurance. Their backing firm had made an outlay of over $30,000 in legal fees, the judge undoubtedly lent them the weight of his favor and they knew beforehand that no kind of testimony could affect them adversely. Some of the leading American newspapers, including the New York World which was owned by Pulitzer , a Jew from Zemplin in Slovakia, slanted their reporting to discredit the miners. Maurice Engelman , who was also a witness, testified that back in town they laughingly told him to hide or he would be an easy target. John Petruska testified that he was present when the posse was choosing firearms and one of the deputies quipped, " We ' re on our way for a shooting in Lattimer!" Gaspar Wizneski testified that he himself saw the sheriff raise his revolver and fire into the crowd in front of him . '' Do you swear that you saw the sheriff kill one of the strikers?'' the attorney challenged him . '' I swear to it that I did! '' he answered in a clear and audible voice that carried throughout the electrified atmosphere of the courtroom. Martin McGahren and Scarlet, attorneys for the plaintiffs, did not lack incriminating evidence yet all the substance of the testimony did not seem to put the burden of guilt on the accused. The court demanded specific proof and specific charges identifying who killed whom . This could hardly be presented , given the circumstances of abrupt assault and the ensuing panic . Who could tell precisely whose bullet killed this victim or that one? And there was the persistent line of defense claiming that the sheriff acted in the discharge of his duty when he issued the order to fire on the crowd. The defense was called to investigate a hundred witnesses . It was a drawn out trial that finally ended on March 9, 1898 . The sentence that was pronounced was: "The accused are found not guilty. " The court ruled that they had the right to shoot, that they had a right to selfdefense. This verdict created a public scandal. Over 30 ,000 miners began to threaten to take to the streets again, to start another strike. But they were at a total disadvantage. Corporations had contributed several hundred thousands of dollars for this legal battle. How could that be matched by the trifling $5,930 that the impoverished and distracted miners were able to raise from their own resources? For long months, the prime topic of public interest and comment among the Slovaks was the Lattimer massacre. Dozens and dozens of articles, printed and spoken reactions of varying degrees of intensity, were devoted to this incredibly outrageous event and its disgraceful outcome . J. A. Feriencik vehemently and fearlessly criticized a court of �SLOVAKIA 57 justice that would condone such wanton killing and allow such an act to go unpunished, unatoned, because the lords and the mighty ones assented to it. In stark disbelief he wrote: ''They will kill, they will shoot, and grant you no mourning or tears of relief. And somehow they will make it all come out within the limits of the law. '' On the one hand we keep calling out 'Friends and countrymen of ours, come out here and settle here in America, in this famed free country. Apply for American citizenship, learn English, do your utmost to become worthy citizens of the United States, etc.' On the other hand, we urge our people back home to come over with their entire families, to establish themselves as family units and to adopt the American way of life and so gain the ' respect' of their American neighbors. '' And our people here credulously throng to the courts for naturalization forms, they register their desire to become American citizens, set themselves to studying English, the language of this country, adopt American usage and custom, and with all the ardor of their nature they cultivate a deep love for this new country of theirs. In many instances their devotion and loyalty outstrip the sentiments of some native American citizens. And the returns for this good will and generous effort? - Heartless murder! "Even as our people spare no pain in their sincere enthusiasm to evidence their devotion , patriotism and good will, their love for the land of their adoption, their respect for its laws, they are contemptuously referred to as scoundrel Huns and Hunkies. And what hate goes with the slogans: They pushed us out of our jobs; take it out on them! Give it to them! Let them know that we don't like them one bit! '' Some of it is even more foul than this but I must restrain myself or some of that biased American justice might just get me across the knuckles too. "So it is then. These are the facts: You, my people , bend your neck willingly . You do all that you can to prove your genuine devotion to this new land. And what do you get for it all? - Censure, unmitigated scorn, cold brutality. '' Blameless blood is needlessly shed within the scope of the law. It is all but a miracle that the presiding judge did not pin a medal of heroism on the lapel of the sheriff and proclaim him a deliverer of some kind. ''It is time for us to look about and assess what's around us and not just sound off about the freedom, the democracy and the brotherhood of these people. "At every step you come upon hate, you face contempt. Even a street urchin will let you know that you are repulsive to him. ' ' My people, does misery force you to flee from one country as you seek to save your life and avoid starvation, and do you eagerly turn to �58 SLOVAKIA this free America to settle here and earn your bread through hard work and long hours? You escape from misery at home and the threat of death by famine only to hurl yourself into the arms of death here. There you tried to save your life; here they snatch it from you. "Foul murder! '' Are we to be the door mat of murderers forever? Some drive us out of our birthplace and in exile others set upon us with the intent to kill. "Introduce a system of slavery. Buy white slaves, shackle them, treat them at will and you will have a fair picture of American freedom and democracy in action . A realistic picture. Is the world to consider these democratic and freedom-loving people? A murderer has never yet been taken for a champion of freedom , a humanitarian or a freedom-lover. The lurid blotch left by Slovak blood spilled in Pennsylvania will long witness your kind of benevolence, your warped philanthropia? '' Are we to tell the undisguised truth to all our people? Well, if you want them to shoot you here, then tell it. It appears that before long they will pass laws making it legal to shoot Slovaks in certain particular months and not to consider them game in others - just as they do for various animals. It seems to be moving in that direction. This very trial gives proof of such widely touted justice and equity. The capitalist triumphs in spite of his crime and his guilt. The wretched workman loses even though it is he who has been wronged. " My people, if you only had millions of dollars in your hands, they would surely have proved to you how they can adjust and modify twisted paragraphs. But without the almighty dollar ... if you are the unfortunate wretch, then suffer and be still. That is the kind of principle that guided the judge presiding at the trial of the Lattimer murderers .'' (4) The American-Slovak News further editorialized on the subject of the trial and its verdict: '' For those who participated in the Lattimer massacre - or putting it more aptly - for those who defended the bloody trade of the butchers thirsting for human blood at the scene of the Lattimer carnage, it would be rather unfair to designate the event as a drama. For them this classic drama reached its denouement with all the impact of a genuine comedy. Twelve confirmed foes of all that does not breathe the fanatic ideas of the Apaches declared that the butcher Sheriff Martin and his vultures only did their duty; they acted as honorable men when they killed off those hated Huns. ''They crucified truth! They grossly trampled upon the rights of the disadvantaged workman in this free country. Why? For no reason other than this fact that the slaughtered victims first saw the light of day in Hungary, in Russia, in Germany or in Italy.'' (5) �SLOVAKIA 59 Naturally such a foul crime of multiple homicide and utter ruthlessness could not have touched Slovak life without affecting it deeply. The Slovaks sensed that if they would truly avoid being so tom by factions and lack of unity, if they could somehow unite their thousands of workers with common purpose and a sense of solidarity, such a misfortune could never again be repeated. Gradually there evolved within them the consciousness that we are all at fault, all of us, for not claiming those rights to which we are entitled. And so we suffer punishment. Out of this painful and humiliating or humbling realization , even before the verdict was pronounced, there grew the first substantial endeavor of the Slovaks in this land to work in harmony and to achieve a common strength. Realization fortunately led to action. On October 17, 1897 representatives of the leading Slovak-American publications met in Cleveland in order to confer on definite practical steps toward cooperation and the pursuit of common goals. The conference of these journalists resolved to adopt measures related to basic issues in order to counteract the unwholesome attitudes and underserved attacks of certain American press agencies that treated the Slovak immigrant element as less than human . This Congress of Slavic Pressmen , which was organized by Fr. (Francis) Pucher , also sent expressions of condolence to the survivors of the Lattimer victims. This innocent Slovak blood that was shed then did not go wholly wasted. It tended to conciliate the Slovaks and to bring them together. And though this was an extravagantly harsh and costly lesson, it taught them that in their distant strange land they must renounce all petty conflicts and contentions, for in this new world their widely scattered strength will count only if they can bring themselves together and act as a corporate unit that has the general welfare at heart. Many families that had not bothered about joining a Slovak fraternal or beneficial organization now saw that membership in such a society could really mean much to them, especially in the event of an unfortunate or tragic occurrence. The blood that the Slovak miners shed for the general good was the first effective and lasting incentive that brought the Slovaks of America together into one unified and conscious body. One disappointment followed in the aftermath. Newspapers published the report that John Nemeth, chairman of the committee, was named consul just before the final settlement of all the misunderstandings; however, his appointment was conditioned on his withdrawal from the committee. The government of Austria-Hungary petitioned the government of the United States to allocate some compensation to the families of the Lattimer victims. The outcome is embodied in an official document of the Secretary of the Interior (78,999) which includes the following statement: �60 SLOVAKIA "The government of the United States does not recognize any obligation to provide compensation to our fellow-citizens or to the famili es of those who were killed in the clash between the mine workers and the police in the Hazleton-Lattimer area.'' From the blood of these martyrs there was a sprouting of the fragile and delicate flower of accord. Within a year the general tone of the Slovak press had changed from bitter acrimony and unprofitable controversy to understanding and kindlier feeling all around. Even in cases where everyone had believed that common ground could never be found among known antagonists, it had indeed been discovered that these individuals also had many mutually satisfying interests to share and promote and they could work together and get along satisfactorily in spite of their differences. From this point on, every other problem seemed to be of a trivial nature, insignificant trifles that caused minor rifts here and there but had no essential substance. The main drive was toward definite goals even though various and varied avenues led to the ultimate end. FOOTNOTES (1) In a newspaper report published by the Amerikansko Slovenske noviny right after the event, the following are listed as fatality victims in this unfortunate clash: 1) John Kosanec , 2) John Temoci , 3) Fr. Kedel, 4) John Ceka, 5) John Ceslak 6) George Versek, 7) Stephen Hornik , 8) George Kulik, 9) Fr. Ceka, 10) Stephen Ulrich, 11) Andrew Zesman, 12) John Ivanko. Later these names wer also added to the list: 13) John Futa , whose name is sometimes also given as Futas, 14) Stephen Jurek, 15) Michael Ceslak, 16) George Gasparek, 17) John Slebodnik , 18) John Banko, 19) Andrew Jurecek, 20) John Skrip. Since Sheriff Martin was indicted for the death of twenty-one victims , it is clear that this list is incomplete. Some of the men who had been seriously wounded in the incident later died in the hospital. An exact list with all names in their correct spelling is most likely available from the court records in Wilkes-Barre and probably from various English and Polish newspapers of that time. It was a common practice in those days to transmit news reports by telegraphic communication and so it is possible that some of the names were affected by transcription and could have been somewhat distorted. The following men were wounded in the encounter: Anthony Macuka, single , Polish; James Tomason , single, Polish; Francis Fetus, single, Slovak; John Penkames, married, Lithuanian; Joseph Macko, married, Slovak ; Andrew Josmont, married, Polish ; Martin Serfanek, single, Polish ; John Dolny , married , Slovak; John Krisak, single, Slovak ; John Presa, married, Slovak ; Andrew Majer , single, Slovak; John Padnok , married , Polish ; John Posca, married, Slovak ; George Gaspar, single, Slovak; Adolph Colak, married, Slovak ; Adam Lipianski , single, Polish; John Kulich, single, Polish , John Kontra, married , Slovak; Joseph Gasparik, married, Slovak; Thomas Paris , single, Polish ; Andrew Honas, married, Slovak; Andrew Orban, married , Polish; Gaspar Dula§, married , Slovak; Joseph Zapa, Slovak; Joseph Paulak, married , Polish; Matthew Chia, married , Polish; Clement Plotach, married, Polish; John Fora, single, Slovak; Stanislaus Kominski, married, Polish; Constantine Monsara , married , Polish , Bernard Rummal, single, Polish . In 1902 the convention of American Mine Workers adopted a resolution providing for the erection of a memorial to honor the fallen miners as pioneer heroes in the cause for �SLOVAKIA 61 social justice. Additional names of stricken men that make their appearance within the formal text of this resolution include the following: Clement Patek, John Foote, Sebastian Praztomski, Raphael Rezervicz, Albert Czaja, Stanley Rajoski, Andrew Goekers, Andrew Miczkowski, John Krop, Andrew Morrikoski, Adam Zrainski, Adalbert Zienka, Frank Chazesjewski, Steve Znoec, Andrew Jamee (Jurecek), Mike Coseak (Ceslak), George Kulek (Kulik). Some of the surnames were garbled to some extent; most likely they happened to be misread in the course of years that had passed since the massacre itself. (2) Amerikansko-slovenske noviny (American-Slovak News), September 16, 1897. (3) Amerikansko-slovenske noviny, 30. IX. 1897. (4) "Let Slovak Blood Call to God for Vengeance" American-Slovak News, 31. ill. 1898. (5) American-Slovak News. 5.Il. 1899. �62 SLOVAKIA The Lattimer Massacre and Trial HARRY B. SCHOOLEY III INTRODUCTION To have a clearer understanding of the trial at issue it is necessary to say that upon entering the court where the trial is in progress one is immediately impressed with the fact that the issue involved is as much a question of the relations of employer and employed as a question of the trial of Sheriff Martin and his deputies for murder, and, as has been invariably the case, the representatives of corporate power assume a hauteur and domineering attitude toward all. The counsel for the defense, former Attorney-General Palmer and Mr. Lenahan, as well as Sheriff Martin and the Deputies , assume an air of offended pride and indignation at being called to defend themselves against a charge of killing a score or more laborers, and think of it! Foreign laborers at that! So wrote Samuel Gompers in an article for the New York World of February 20, 1898. The shooting at Lattimer, Pennsylvania, had become labor's forgotten massacre. Twenty-four striking anthracite coal miners were killed when Luzerne County Sheriff James Martin ordered his deputies to fire into their ranks when their parade threatened the security of the community shortly after three o'clock on the hot afternoon of September 10, 1897. While at times a Sheriff has been punished for criminal neglect of his duty in not firing on a riotous mob, Sheriff Martin was proceeded against in the Lattimer trial because he and his deputies did so fire. The law of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for whose supremacy they battled, was used to compass their destruction because they did so. Gompers was wrong. Lattimer was not a '' question of the relations of employer and employed." The lesson of the verdict in the Lattimer case is not that the rich are to be protected, but that the poor and defenseless shall have an absolute guarantee of all their individual rights, and that those who attempt to impair them by lawlessness must answer to the law as criminals. H.B.s.,m May, 1965 (Harry B. Schooley ill teaches at the Buffalo Seminary for girls in Buffalo, New York. A native of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, he wrote this paper while an undergraduate at Williams College in May, 1965.) �SLOVAKIA 63 Ariovistus Pardee, an ambitious engineering student with the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company, was sent in May of 1833 to the Lehigh coal regions of Pennsylvania to survey a railroad line from the anthracite mines at Beaver Meadow to the Lehigh Canal at Mauch Chunk. Pardee 's success in the area led him to locating further lines in the region and he began his own mining operations in 1840.(1) In 1869 Pardee built the company towns of Lattimer and Harwood near Hazleton to house the miners working in his six mines. In 1892, following his father ' s death, Calvin Pardee took over the mines at Lattimer and Harwood. Feeling there would be less chance of a consolidation of the working men against his interests, Pardee mixed the foreign immigrant miners filling the houses at Lattimer largely with Italians and those at Harwood with Slovaks, Poles, and Lithuanians . Between 1875 and 1900 there were sporadic attempts on behalf of the Welsh, Irish, and German miners of the anthracite fields to organize for better working and wage conditions. A means for curbing any attempts to organize the miners was the introduction by the mine operators of large numbers of laborers from Austria-Hungary, Poland, Russia , and Italy who were content to work hard and long for low wages. This over supply of unorganized men literally depressed wages to a minimum through the ever-present competition.(2) By the late 1890's the mine patches of the Lehigh coal regions were largely populated by the new mixture of non-English speaking nationalities who with their cheaper immigrant labor replaced the old order of English , Welsh, and Irish miners. The new miners were largely Slovaks, Poles, Italians , Hungarians , and Lithuanians and were considered "foreigners" relegated by the social conditions to which they belonged - the unpainted company houses , shacks, and the dreaded company store. A racial and national prejudice predominated in the mine patches and the better educated, more intelligent of the foreigners met with each other and insisted that every good foreigner should get his "papers " as soon as possible so as to vote in the elections and prevent the '' white men ' ' from voting to pass a law that might drive them from the country. Many of the miners found themselves in great debt to the company store . In 1896 the Pennsylvania Legislature appointed a committee to investigate the company store system . An order for 50,000 copies of the committee report was canceled because, as American Federation of Labor Vice President J . P. McGuire stated in September of 1897 , ''of the disgrace which would fall upon the State were the truth made known of conditions existing in the Schuylkill region." (3) Conditions were the same in the Lehigh and Wyoming Valleys. Perhaps McGuire 's labor affiliations prejudiced him in the making of this statement, but the recent business depression had reduced the lot of the anthracite miner to a very poor one. The manager of one of the Hazleton collieries revealed that his payrolls for September 1, 1897, amounted to about $26,000, of which $18,000 was �64 SLOVAKIA deducted for living expenses (debts to the company store, rents for living in the company houses, fees deducted from pay for the company doctor, money deducted to pay the priest) leaving less than one-third the original amount to be divided among the miners. Discontent over small wages, idleness, and other alleged "wrongs" was seized upon by the new leadership composed of young, energetic and often violent labor organizers as a timely excuse for action. Their opportunity came in August of 1897. A strike broke out at the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company 's Honeybrook Colliery near the new borough of McAdoo, when twenty driver boys were ordered to stable their mules after stopping work without extra pay. They refused and division superintendent Gomer Jones fired them. On Sunday, August 15, 2,500 Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Company miners joined the strike. Newspapers feared that ''the Italians and Hungarians, who are very aggressive, cannot be controlled." (4) The Honeybrook strikers were led by a committee of grievances which met with general superintendent Elmer H. Lawall demanding an investigation of Gomer Jones to the effect that he reduced miners' wages and that the wages be restored to the original rates. Lawall promised an investigation of Jones if the miners returned to work; and a week after the first walk-out, work was resumed at Honeybrook.(5) On the same day (August 22) the Honeybrook miners returned to work, there arrived in the area from Philadelphia one John Fahy, selfappointed local president of the United Mine Workers of America. Meeting with Italian miners at Audenreid, Yorktown, and Beaver Brook, Fahy persuaded them to organize an Italian branch of the United Mine Workers.(6) Fahy's presence in the area on behalf of the union caused great concern among the mine operators as the miners became more aware of their plight and their demands became more intense. Fahy's word spread rapidly from operation to operation, and on August 26, Italian and Hungarian miners struck at the Van Wickle Coal Company collieries at Beaver Meadow and Coleraine. Two thousand miners moving overnight forced the workers from their shops at the Van Wickle breakers so as to stop all work. Their demands for higher wages were not considered serious as the strike was spontaneous and had no apparent intelligent leadership.(7) On August 27, the Van Wickle colliery at Milnesville was idled by the strikers and a coal train was prevented from leaving the town. All Van Wickle operations were forced to shut down. The next day at a meeting of the strikers in Hazleton, a formal demand was presented to Van Wickle superintendent Roderick. Roderick claimed that the advanced scheduled wages (which would set a wage scale for the region) demanded by Fahy 's organizers would not be paid to the miners, although the average pay rates of the region would be paid. The speaker at a Coleraine meeting urged the strikers to resort to violence if the demands were not met. In answer armed members of the Coal and �SLOVAKIA 65 Iron Police were sent to guard the Van Wickle properties.(8) Saloons in Milnesville and Coleraine were closed and a state of ominous calm pervaded the Hazleton area. English-speaking miners were willing to return to work were it not for the threats made by the foreigners. The employees of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company anxiously watched the Van Wickle situation as there had been no action taken towards the promised investigation of Superintendent Jones.(9) Between August 30 and September 3 the strike spread rapidly. Roderick agreed to make wage concessions at the Van Wickle colliery at Milnesville which immediately resumed work. If settlements were made at the other Van Wickle operations, then the Lehigh and WilkesBarre miners might never see Jones investigated at all. The miners at the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre's Audenreid colliery struck and five hundred strong marched on the company's Yorktown colliery and washeries at Dodson, Beaver Brook, Star, Monarch, and Carson, driving off all the workmen.(10) The miners at the Van Wickle Coleraine colliery remained on strike. Assembling in McAdoo on September 2, Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre strikers marched with an American flag to the Beaver Brook colliery forcing it to close. Those workers who refused to stop work were driven off. From Beaver Brook they marched to Yorktown (which had resumed work in spite of the march on that operation by the Audenreid strikers a day earlier) where colliery superintendent Hayes tried to reason with them, as the Yorktown workers had no grievance. Nevertheless, the Yorktown colliery closed. The march then turned towards Audenreid and the home of Gomer Jones. Following a thorough but futile search for Jones , the then two thousand marchers proceeded to the colliery at Silver Brook where the workers fled. At a meeting that evening in McAdoo, the members of the grievance committee advised against future marches, but Fahy's organizers insisted that the marches would continue daily until all the collieries were idle. Fahy, incidentally, was in Silver Brook that evening organizing a new chapter of the United Mine Workers. At Coleraine the Van Wickle strikers were quiet and Superintendent Roderick, in a bid to maintain good will between the company and the strikers, stated that none of the Coleraine workers participated in the march.(11) Later on the evening of September 2, the Coleraine strikers agreed to return to work if they would be protected from the mob. Roderick gladly granted protection. Mayor Altmiller of Hazleton issued orders to the police that if any attempt was made to organize a mob parade on September 3, the marchers were to be dispersed, and if the police were not strong enough the citizens should help them. The Lehigh Valley Coal Company closed its collieries at Jeansville and Hazleton No. 1 not because of grievances between the company and its employees, but because the mob of strikers had threatened the workers. The Lehigh Valley counseled all its workmen to obey the will of the mob.(12) By September 3 the strike had stopped all �66 SLOVAKIA mining operations except those of the New Ebervale Coal Company , Van Wickle 's Coleraine and Milnesville Collieries, and Pardee 's colliery at Lattimer. The weapons of the foreigners were the threat and the mob . With the march of September 2 and the probability of future marches , many mine owners feared for the safety of their property at the hands of the striking miners. The Luzerne County Sheriff's office in Wilkes-Barre, in response to the pleas of the operators for protection , sent an urgent telegram to Sheriff James R. Martin , vacationing in Atlantic City, requesting his immediate return. As soon as Sheriff Martin arrived in Wilkes-Barre on September 5, he telegraphed the sheriffs of Carbon and Schuylkill counties to meet him in Hazleton the next day. Before boarding the train to Hazleton, Martin announced that if he thought necessary , a proclamation would be issued calling on the strikers to refrain from all acts of violence and to permit all who so desired to return to their usual vocation as well as to cease marching. "The fact that men are compelled against their will to march along with an ignorant and sometimes infuriated mob causes some fear that other and more dangerous complications may arise ." (13) Following the Hazleton meeting on September 6, the three sheriffs simultaneously published a proclamation prohibiting mob parades and demonstrations , stating the following: . . . notice is given to all good citizens to refrain from all tumultuous and unlawful assembly and from all acts of disorder or violence, and from all acts interfering with the liberty of other citizens, or tending to a breach of the peace . Notice is further given, that all such acts of disorder and lawlessness will be summarily repressed and punished in accordance with the laws of the land. - James Martin, High Sheriff of Luzerne County The proclamation was based on the Pennsylvania Riot Act of March 31, 1860 which forbade ''any persons riotously and tumultuously to assemble together to the disturbance of the public peace." (15) While the three sheriffs were meeting in Hazleton, Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Company granted the same advances as did the Van Wickle Coal Company at Milnesville and Coleraine.(16) That night Sheriff Martin in his Broad Street hotel room swore in 87 deputies, most of whom were members of the Coal and Iron Police from the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre and Lehigh Valley Coal companies , but some of whom were business and professional men of the Hazleton area .(17) For the next three days the Hazleton area remained in an uneasy calm as the sheriff and his deputies remained on call responding to separate incidents throughout the area. �SLOVAKIA 67 While Martin and his men remained in Hazleton, John Fahy was active at the Pardee colliery at Harwood. Enlisting the aid of the popular young Hungarian slate boss, John Eagler, Fahy was successful in organizing a new branch of the United Mine Workers. Fahy claimed the new union advocated peaceful arbitration of differences between the miners and the operators. Selecting Eagler as their first local secretary and Joseph Mehalto, another well-known Slav from nearby Crystal Ridge as president, the Harwood body immediately formulated a list of grievances - demanding a ten cent wage raise, a reduction of blasting powder from $2. 75 to $1.50, and no company butcher or company doctor - which they presented to the Pardee office in Hazleton on September 9.(18) While the Harwood strikers were presenting their grievances, a mob of "young Italians and Huns" descended on the New Ebervale Coal Company's colliery at Ebervale, driving off Superintendent John Scott and his employees in a shower of rocks and sticks.(19) With this outbreak of new violence, the Pardee Company refused to consider any grievances until all sections of the Harwood colliery were working. Meeting in the Harwood schoolhouse on the evening of September 9, the striking miners decided that in order to get the bargaining position they needed, the whole company must be shut down. This meant work must be stopped at Lattimer. Upon Mehalto's suggestion, the members resolved to send a committee of ten to Lattimer on the next day to persuade the colliery to close down. (20) On the morning of the tenth it was suggested that the strikers go along with the committee, and with Mehalto and Eagler at the head of a column of 250 to 300 men and boys, the strikers set out for Lattimer. With the American flag at the head of the procession, they marched through Crystal Ridge and Cranberry where they were joined by others until the ranks numbered about four hundred. On entering West Hazleton the strikers found their route blocked by Sheriff Martin and his deputies . Standing in front of his line of deputies, Martin ordered the strikers to stop and to disperse. The march pushed on, a scuffle resulted, two strikers were arrested, and the flag was taken from them. Following this encounter, the strikers moved off into a field by the side of the road and the sheriff and his deputies withdrew maintaining a careful eye on the marchers. Soon, however, the march was under way once more, the strikers still heading for Lattimer but skirting West Hazleton to the north. Martin and his deputies hurriedly boarded an open trolley car, provided for their use by the Lehigh Transit Company, and rode back into Hazleton and out the Lattimer line to Harleigh , where the road to Lattimer and the rail line converged and ran parallel for a short distance. At Harleigh the sheriff and his deputies again met the marching strikers, the trolley car keeping pace with the men on foot, grim silence between them while the police in their trolley sat holding their rifles . (21) The car arrived in Lattimer in time for Martin to �68 SLOVAKIA watch the movement of the march, and, from a high point at the town 's approach, the column could be observed moving toward the Pardee colliery No. 1. Again the deputies, about 150 in number, having been reinforced by numbers of the coal and iron police from Lattimer, lined up in a semi-circle across the road with Sheriff Martin standing several yards in front of them. The scene at West Hazleton a few hours earlier appeared about to be re-enacted. When the strikers reached the line of deputies Martin, proclamation in hand, stepped out to meet them: ''You must stop marching and disperse. This is contrary to the law and you are creating a disturbance. You must go back. I won't let you go on to the colliery.'' (22) Eagler argued that American citizens had the right to parade as long as they were not disturbing the peace. Martin read the Riot Act. Most of the marchers, not understanding English, pushed forward to find out what Martin was saying. In the crowd the sheriff was jostled. Thinking himself in danger, he tried to get back to his line of deputies, but was knocked to his knees. The strikers made way for him, and just as he emerged from their ranks, the cry was heard, ''Fire, fire on' em!'' The deputies fired into the unarmed mob. (23) Following a meeting with his lawyer on arriving back in WilkesBarre that evening, Sheriff Martin issued a statement of the Hazleton conditions and shooting: I was not there to interfere in the strike in any shape or manner, but was there for the mere purpose to prevent all violations of the law, and to restore peace and quiet. I beseeched and entreated the leaders to talk to their comrades and ask them to disperse and return to their homes, act in a peaceable way and desist from doing any sort of violence ... (at West Hazleton) the strikers began to crowd together, and to mutter and chatter in their own languages. The leaders urged them on and at the same time began to curse and swear at me, as well as openly defy me and my deputies . (at Lattimer) I ... rushed ahead of my deputies ... dashed in among the foreigners and boldly placed the leader under arrest. (the strikers) at once attacked me most viciously , striking and kicking me, knocking me down. I called to the deputies to discharge their firearms into the air over the heads of the strikers, as it might probably frighten them ... I fully realized that the foreigners were a desperate lot ... (I assumed) they were too excited to listen to reason and that myself and deputies would be killed ... if we did not defend ourselves. I then called upon the deputies to defend themselves and shoot, if they must, to protect their lives or to �SLOVAKIA 69 protect the property, that they had been sent to guard, from being demolished. I hated to give the command to shoot and was awful sorry that I was compelled to do so, but I was there to do my duty and I did it the best I knew how and as my conscience dictated, as the strikers were violating the laws of the Commonwealth and flatly refused to obey the proclamation that I had read to them. They, instead, insisted on doing violence and disobeying the laws.(24) In "doing violence and disobeying the laws" eighteen strikers were instantly killed while approximately twenty-four others were seriously wounded. Eagler and Mehalto escaped and their comrades fled in terror. One of the strikers, Martin Rosko, a Hungarian from Mt. Pleasant and wounded in the arm, gave the following account: We were going along the road to Lattimer and the deputies were lined across the road barring our progress. We tried to go through them and did not attempt to hit or molest them when they fired upon us. We ran but they kept on shooting while we ran. It (the massacre) is all their fault.(25) That evening three thousand Hazleton-area miners gathered at Hazleton's Donegal Hall for a meeting conducted by United Mine Workers' president John Fahy in which it was resolved "that we demand the prosecution of the sheriff and deputies of the crimes committed this tenth day of September."(26) At midnight Pennsylvania Governor Daniel Hastings notified Colonel C. B. Dougherty of the 9th Regiment that as there may be further disturbances and that the security of the community may be in danger, Dougherty was to take the regiment to Hazleton to maintain peace and order. (27) On September 11, Dougherty's regiment was joined by five regiments of the Third Brigade of the Pennsylvania National Guard under the leadership of General John P. Gobin. On the morning of September 11, John Nemeth, a leader of the strikers' general committee, went before Squire Gorman of Hazleton and had warrants sworn out for Sheriff Martin and 102 of his deputies. (28) When General Gobin heard of the warrants he issued an edict declaring that so long as the troops remain in the vicinity not a single deputy would be placed under arrest. Owing to the military authority, Sheriff Martin and the deputies were not arrested until ten days after the warrants were issued. Also on that morning a representative of the Austro-Hungarian Consulate in Philadelphia arrived in Hazleton to investigate the murder of Hungarian nationals. (29) �70 SLOVAKIA In the meantime the strike continued. By September 14, seven thousand men had left their jobs, crippling the seven Hazleton area companies.(30) Out of sympathy for their murdered comrades from Harwood, 2,300 men left work at the Pardee operations at Lattimer. Visiting Hazleton from Philadelphia the next day, Calvin Pardee stated the following: My men were perfectly satisfied with the wages they were receiving, and would have continued work had they not been driven away by the mob . . . I have operated my collieries over twenty years on the sliding scale, the rate of wages being based on the price of coal at tide, and I will not change that method.(31) Sheriff Scott of Schuylkill County telegraphed to Governor Hastings an appeal for troops to maintain order should the strike spread to his county(32) as sporadic outbreaks of violence continued throughout the region with no apparent prospect of settlement in sight. John Fahy, in a somewhat curious statement to the press on September 18, claimed "The strike is not being conducted by the United Mine Workers." Speaking of his efforts to organize the miners, Fahy stated, "our objects are not to raise excitement and occasion violence but are arbitration, peace and conciliation. Our organization is not to encourage strikes but to prevent them." (33) Fahy expressed the hope that the strike would be settled more quickly if more men organized. If more men were organized in the manner in which the Harwood strikers were organized, the strike would be far from being settled. On September 19 following a Hazleton meeting, the owners of the mines at Lattimer, Beaver Meadow, Honeybrook, McAdoo, and Audenreid announced that they would open their mines on September 20, and if the men were not back at work, they would be discharged altogether. By September 20 all strikers but the employees of the Coxe Brothers Coal Company had returned to work.(34) That evening Fahy held a meeting at Donegal Hall whereat the miners resolved ''to demand that the Attorney-General of Pennsylvania immediately proceed against each corporation now conducting company stores."(35) On September 23, the employees of the Silver Brook collieries were told they were no longer subject to compulsory patronization of the company store and company butcher.(36) The operators gradually made concessions to prevent another such strike, and on September 29, General Gobin and his troops left Hazleton.(37) The anthracite strike of 1897 was virtually over. With peace returning to the Hazleton region, attention was turned to the fate of Sheriff Martin and his deputies. On September 20, Luzerne County District Attorney D.A. Fell and County Detective Isaac Eckert secured bench warrants from the Luzerne County Court of Oyer �SLOVAKIA 71 and Terminer for the arrest of Martin and 68 of his deputies, charging them with' 'the willful and malicious killing of twenty-four (six had died since the shooting) strikers near the village of Lattimer on September 10 last."(38) Bail was posted at $4,000 for homicide and $1,000 for felonious wounding and, through the maneuvring of Calvin Pardee, bond was furnished by the City Trust, Safe Deposit and Surety Company of Philadelphia.(39) Seeing the opportunity to take up the cause, the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor meeting in Washington resolved on September 24, That we condemn most severely the wanton killing and wounding of the poor miners at Lattimer and will give our fullest help through the trade union and the American Federation of Labor to raise money for the legal prosecution and conviction of Sheriff Martin and his murderous minions, that through the courts of the land even-handed justice may be done to atone for those revolting murders.(40) A preliminary hearing was held in the Luzerne County Court House at Wilkes-Barre from September 21 to 27 wherein the grand jury came to the decision that Martin and his men had shown probable cause of a "wanton and unjustifiable" killing of the strikers.(41) The case of Commonwealth v. Martin was scheduled to begin on February 1, 1898. On February 4, 1898, an editorial in the Wilkes-Barre Record accurately predicted that the trial was expected to develop whether the sheriff and his posse were justified, under the circumstances, in resorting to the extreme measure they did, either for their own protection or to preserve law, order, and the public peace. The case was called on the morning of February 1, before Judge Stanley Woodward, presiding judge of Luzerne County. Sheriff Martin's defense counsel consisted of his personal lawyer, George S. Ferris, and the county's leading criminal lawyer, John T. Lenahan. Other attorneys for the defendants were Henry W. Palmer, George Troutman, C. W. Kline, George R. Urquhart and F. W. Wheaton. At the table for the prosecution sat the new District Attorney, T. R. Martin, who had only taken office a month earlier. With Martin were four other lawyers, who were secured by the strikers' prosecuting committee: John Garman, John McGahren, James Scarlett, and former secretary of the miners' prosecuting committee, J. F. Loughran. In addition to the deputies the court room was crowded with interested spectators including New York, Philadelphia, and nationally syndicated newspaper reporters, newspaper artists, representatives of the Royal Austro-Hungarian government which was planning to make a claim for indemnity for the deaths of the nationals should the sheriff be convicted, and the solicitor general of the United States, Luzerne County's own Henry M. Hoyt (Williams, 1849).(42) �72 SLOVAKIA For two tedious days the court was involved in selecting a jury. When the task had been completed, the twelve men who sat in the jury box were all native American citizens and were largely representative of the middle class skilled labor group.(43) Many of the jury men admitted in their examination by the counsels for defense and prosecution that although they had already formed an opinion, their verdict would not be so influenced. None of the jurors were foreign-born and counsel Loughran complained that the majority of them were ''in sympathy with the sheriff and his deputies." (44) The case for the Commonwealth was opened by McGahren, who claimed the shooting at Lattimer was a ''horrible massacre . '' In a highly emotional speech he told the courtroom how Sheriff Martin stood by proudly while his men brutally murdered the fleeing strikers. He even went so far as to claim the sheriff had emptied his pistol into the head of one of the march leaders. The Sheriff's actions at Lattimer were "a disgrace to civilization," he explained.(46) With this heated example of rhetoric, began the case for the prosecution which consumed nearly sixteen days of examination during which 103 witnesses testified. At the end of the first week of the trial on February 5, it developed that when the case had been continued from the November to the January term of court, bail for the defendants had not been renewed. District Attorney Martin immediately asked either that bail be posted or that the defendants be committed to jail. Judge Woodward replied he would not require the defendants to enter bail until Monday, February 7. Garman of the prosecution immediately pressed the court further to demand bail at once. Lenahan of the defense resented Garman's demands and charged, "You are a puppy! You have been a puppy all your life!" Garman's reply was apparently appropriate as he turned to Judge Woodward and said, "When the thing back of me shuts up, I will proceed." Lenahan replied, "That is only a part of the buffoonery of the Commonwealth.'' Garman turned to face him and raised his fist as if to strike. "If you touch me, I'll kill you!" By this time friends intervened and restrained the two attorneys until order was restored. Garman, eyeing Lenahan defiantly, replied, ''The buffoon has just ceased speaking." (4 7) This exchange of opinions on the floor of the courtroom did not change Woodward's mind and the bail was deferred. The exchange was, however, quickly picked up by the out-of-town reporters and reported in such a way that when court convened on February 7, Judge Woodward admonished the artists and reporters of some of the newspapers that if they continued to caricature the proceedings of the court or to misrepresent what developed, he would refuse them admission to the courtroom.(48) Woodward's admonishment of the reporters for their "yellow journalism" did not end the court's cause for concern. On the evening of February 14, the President of the American Federation of Labor, �SLOVAKIA 73 Samuel Gompers, arrived in Wilkes-Barre to write a special report on the trial for the New York World. The Wilkes-Barre Record was critical of the labor leader's being in Wilkes-Barre, claiming that Gompers would only report the trial from the point of view of the strikers, not from the objective viewpoint of whether Martin was justified in shooting.(49) The Record was not the only newspaper critical of Gompers ' being in Wilkes-Barre. The New York Evening Sun stated " Gompers is so dissatisfied with the way Judge Woodward is conducting the Lattimer trial that he refused to be presented to him. We can only congratulate his Honor on a fortunate escape." (50) In an article in the World on February 20, Gompers attacked Woodward's conduct of the trial, his rulings on evidence, and went so far as to attack him personally as a friend of the mine owners, as Woodward: married into a family of land holders of the district, who receive royalties upon every ton of coal mined. When a cessation of mining occurs from any cause Judge Woodward is to that extent a loser of part of his income. He is a member of the Westmoreland Club, of which the mine-owners are largely members and of which also a number of the so-called deputies are members.(Of the strikers Gompers wrote) They had previously decided and carried out their purpose , to be unarmed and unprotected except by the justice of their cause and the American flag in which they had absolute faith. It is sad to contemplate when workingmen of either American or foreign birth have their faith and confidence in the emblem of our country destroyed and perhaps sadder still is the possibility of losing faith in the justice of our courts. In conclusion Gompers made the Lattimer trial a trial in behalf of the eventual triumph of the working man: The workers of our country are organizing better and more thoroughly each day; we shall not only create a healthier public sentiment as to man 's rights and man's duties, but we shall largely constitute that public opinion. And , when that day comes , the crime of Lattimer will be a record-letter day in the annals of our history to which all will look back upon with horror as the monumental crime of the century. (51) Should Sheriff Martin be convicted of murder, labor would win a great victory in its struggle for recognition. While labor adopted Lattimer as its forgotten massacre , the prosecution rested on February �74 SLOVAKIA 21, having produced testimony in line with McGahren's opening. Ferris opened the case for the defense claiming that if a sheriff and his posse meet a riotous mob which resists them in such a way that their duty to uphold the law requires the use of firearms, then, "they do their duty. They do not violate, but obey the law.'' (52) Anarchy ruled the Hazleton area, Ferris explained, and Martin, in the company of good, lawabiding citizens - not bar room toughs and thugs - brought security to the region. On March 1, Sheriff Martin took the stand. He testified that when he met the strikers at Lattimer, he demanded to know where they were going and they all answered, "Lattimer to get out the men!" He also told the court that he had told them they were doing wrong and that he read the proclamation to them. He said he begged them to go no farther, but they pushed on and someone tried to grab him by the neck. I arrested him, when a big crowd pushed around me. I pulled out my revolver for protection and held it in the air, as I did not want to shoot. One of the mob tried to grab it, but failed, and in the struggle I and the crowd around me were pushed to one side of the road." (53) Martin testified one of the strikers gave him a terrific blow on the side of the head and that he tried to shoot that man, but his pistol would not go off. Then the firing began. After 111 witnesses had testified for the defense the Court adjourned on March 4.(54) The closing pleas to the jury began on March 7, with Scarlett opening for the prosecution: "Every effort has been made to have it tried fairly and nothing has been excluded and every bit of evidence has been admitted according to the rules of the court." (55) The final plea was made by former state Attorney-General Henry W. Palmer, on behalf of the defense, to an overcrowded court room. Palmer's closing has been praised as a masterpiece of eloquence and damned as a bigoted oration and foul utterance against the Slav immigrants. To the jury Palmer said the following: Condemn these men and go home to your neighbors and tell them, 'We convicted Sheriff Martin and his deputies for an error in judgment when they were standing between your homes and the horrors of mob rule.' Tell your wives and children that henceforth when the rioters are about to march and the right of men to work is in peril that there will be no Sheriff and deputies to keep the peace or defend your homes, because by your verdict you will have forbidden them to act, under penalty of death or infamous punishment. (56) Following Palmer's plea District Attorney Martin closed the case for the prosecution, and late on the afternoon of March 9, Judge Woodward delivered his charge to the jury. In an admirably clear, impartial, and ably written presentation of the law of riot and murder, �SLOVAKIA 75 Woodward charged that the sheriff had the right as the chief officer of the county to summon a posse to assist him in the preservation of order and in the prevention of riot. The public peace in Hazleton was threatened. Men were being driven from their jobs by the mob. The Sheriff saw the people were terrorized by the strikers. When they were at West Hazleton and at Lattimer, the strikers failed to obey the sheriff and insisted on pushing on. It was the duty of the crowd to obey his command and that disobedience of the sheriff was evidence of a riotous purpose. If you are satisfied, gentlemen, from the evidence that the purpose of the sheriff and of the posse was to preserve order and prevent a riot, then it would follow that their intent and object was not a criminal or unlawful one, and the rule of the law which makes the act of one the act of all has no application to the facts of this case. (57) At three minutes after ten on the morning of March 9, the jury arrived at its verdict. The sealed paper was handed up to the Judge, who examined it and returned it to the clerk. The clerk read: ''Gentlemen of the jury, harken unto your verdict as the Court hath recorded it. You find in the case wherein the Commonwealth is prosecutor and Sheriff Martin et. al., defendants, you find the defendants not guilty. So say you all?" (58) The verdict of acquittal was a just one under the law, yet, at the same time, it is possible that a terrible doubt exists that the slaughter at Lattimer was necessary or justifiable. Could the tragedy have been avoided? It is not clear that the miners should have been prevented from marching on the highway; it is not clear that they should have been denied the opportunity to show themselves within sight of the miners at work; it is not clear that the deputies should have fired as soon as they did. But, the law is for all men, and against all men who are not obedient to it. There is no question of the right of men to strike. The strike is often the only weapon. When the striker learns to keep within the law, to be fair to others, and to respect property rights, he will have made the greatest advances in the direction of public sympathy. The example of the Lattimer strikers was clear. Had a determined effort been made to keep within the law, to win the friendship of the people of the Hazleton region, the clash with Sheriff Martin and his deputies would have been avoided. The law is the defense of the individual and the salvation of the nation. Violence toward it cannot win. EPILOGUE In the course of researching the Commonwealth v. Martin Trial, it has been found that the Luzerne County Court records for that case are missing from their file at the Luzerne County Court House. Perhaps an �76 SLOVAKIA attorney borrowed them to study and never returned them ; or perhaps they were removed by intent considering the hard feelings exhibited by some members of the Hazleton mining community following the jury's verdict. The sleepy little mining patch of Lattimer today is much the same as it was sixty-eight years ago. The breakers are gone , the trolley tracks are gone , and the miners, whose families now occupy the same houses that witnessed the shooting, work at the near-by collieries in Harleigh and Jeddo . The excitement that brought the name Lattimer to the mind of most Americans in 1897 has been completely forgotten - even in Luzerne County. Should Lattimer be forgotten? Some say it should . But in today 's society when groups of American are banding together and marching, sometimes in defiance of the law, in causes they believe to be paramount, the tragedy of Lattimer could happen again. FOOTNOTES (1) John W . Jordan, Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography, vol. 7, (New York , 1916), 2350. (2) John Mitchell , Organized Labor, (Philadelphia, 1903), 375. (3) Henry Edward Rood , " A Pennsylvania Colliery Village, " The Century Magazine, vol. 55, no . 6, (April, 1898), 814. (4) "2,500 Men cut at Hazleton ," Wilkes -Barre Evening Leader, August 16, 1897, 1. (5) " The Honey Brook Strike ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 17, 1897, 1. "Concessions to Honey Brook Miners," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 21, 1897 , 7. "The Hazleton Strike ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 23, 1897, 8. (6) ''The Hazleton Strike,'' Wilk es-Barre Evening Leader, August 23 , 1897, 8. (7) " Two Thousand Foreigners Out, " Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 27, 1897, 1. (8) " Strikers in Hazleton Region in Complete Control ," Wilkes-Barre E vening Leader, August 28, 1897. 1. " Hazleton Strike Comes to a Demand ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 29, 1897, 1. (9) " The Anthracite Strike ," Wilkes -Barre E ve ning Leader, August 30, 1897, 1. (10) " Wild Excitement, " Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 2, 1897, 1-2. (11) " Strike Situation at Hazleton ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 3, 1897, 1. (12) " Wild Scenes at Hazleton ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 3, 1897, 1. (13) " Sheriff Martin on the Ground ," Wilkes -Barre Evening Leader, September 6, 1897 , 1. (14)/bid., 1. (15) " Labor Day Parade at Hazleton ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 7, 1897, 1. (16) " Sheriff Martin on the Ground ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 6, 1897, 1. (17) " Strikers Still Marching," Wilkes -Barre Evening Leader. �SLOVAKIA 77 (18) Ibid., 2. (19)lbid., 2. (20) Ibid., 2. (21) Ibid., 2. (22) "Murdered in Cold Blood," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 11 , 1897, 1. (23) Ibid., 1. (24) Ibid., 1. (25) Ibid. , 1. (26) Ibid. , 1. (27) Ibid., 1. (28) "Sheriff Martin to be Arrested, " Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 12, 1897, 1. (29) Ibid., 1. (30) ''They Will Not Return to Work, '' Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 14, 1897, 1. (31) "Everything Quiet Along the Line, " Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 16, 1897, 1. (32) " Miners ' Strike is Spreading," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 16, 1897, 1. (33) " News from the Seat of War," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 18, 1897, 1. (34) " Sunday in the Strike Region ," Wilkes-Barre Times, September 21, 1897, 1. (35) " Many Strikers Return to Work, " Wilkes-Barre Times, September 20, 1897, 1. (36) "A Quiet Day at Hazleton ," Wilkes-Barre Record, September 23, 1897, 1. (37) " Troops Leave Hazleton ," Wilkes-Barre Record, September 29, 1897, 1. (38) " A Stampede to Return to Work," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 21 , 1897, 1. (39) " The Court Sits In Judgment," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 22, 1897, 1. (40) " The Court Sits in Judgment," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 22, 1897, 1. " The Shooting at Lattimer," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 24, 1897, 1. " The Sheriff Condemned," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 28, 1897, 1. (42) ''The Lattimer Cases,'' Wilkes-Barre Record, September 28, 1897, 1. (43) "The Twelve Jurymen Selected, " Wilkes-Barre Record, February 3, 1898, 1. (44) " The Lattimer Cases," Wilkes-Barre Record, February 4, 1898, 1. (45) Henry W. Palmer, Fifty Years at the Bar and in Politics, (Williamsport, Penna. , 1913) 64. (46) Ibid., 65. (47) ''Excitement In Court,'' Wilkes-Barre Record, February 7, 1898, 12. (48) '' Yellow Journalism in the Court,'' Pittsburgh Times, February 8, 1898, 6 . (49) '' Said the Sheriff Shot, '' Wilkes-Barre Record, February 16, 1898, 6. (50) "A Labor View of Judge Woodward ," New York Evening Sun, February 17, 1898, 4. (51) "Samuel Gompers on the Lattimer Slaughter," New York World, February 20, 1898, 20. (52) Palmer , 67. (53) George B. Kulp , Luzerne Legal Register Reports, vol. 9 (Wilkes-Barre, 1900), 81. (54) Palmer , 81. �78 SLOVAKIA (55) Ibid., ll0. (56) Ibid., 147. (57) From Judge Woodward ' s original hand-written charge to the jury as found in his personal scrapbook in the possession of his grand-daughter, Mrs . Bruce Payne of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. (58) " The Deputies Are Not Guilty," Wilkes-Barre Times, March 9, 1898, 1. BIBLIOGRAPHY Jordan, John W ., Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography vol. 7, (New York, 1916) . Kulp, George B., Luzerne Legal Register Reports vol. 9, (Wilkes-Barre, 1900) . Mitchell , John, Organized Labor, (Philadelphia, 1903). Palmer, Henry W ., Fifty Years at the Bar and in Politics, (Williamsport, 1913) . Rood, Henry Edward , "A Pennsylvania Colliery Village," The Century Magazine, Vol. 55, no. 6, (1898). Newspaper Sources "A Labor View of Judge Woodward," New York Evening Sun, February 17, 1898, 4 . '' Samuel Gompers on the Lattimer Slaughter, " New York World, February 20 , 1898, 20. ''Yellow Journalism in the Court,'' Pittsburgh Times, February 8, 1898, 6. ''2,500 Men out at Hazleton, '' Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 16, 1897, 1. " The Honey Brook Strike, " August 17, 1897, 1. "Concessions to Honey Brook Miners," August 21, 1897, 7. "The Hazleton Strike ," August 23, 1897, 8 . " Two Thousand Foreigners Out," August 27, 1897, 1. " Strikers in Hazleton Region in Complete Control," August 28, 1897, 1. " Hazleton Strike comes to a Demand ," August 29, 1897, 1. " The Anthracite Strike ," August 30, 1897, 1. " Wild Excitement" September 2, 1897, 1-2. " Strike Situation at Hazleton," September 3 , 1897, 1. " Wild Scenes at Hazleton ," September 3, 1897, 1. " Sheriff Martin on the Ground, " September 6, 1897, 1. · 'Labor Day Parade at Hazleton,'' September 7, 1897, 1. "Strikers Still Marching, " Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 9, 1897, 2. "Murdered in Cold Blood," September 11, 1897, 1. " She riff Martin to be Arrested ," September 12, 1897, 1. " They Will Not Return to Work," September 14, 1897 , 1. · 'Eve rything Quiet along the Line ,' ' September 16, 1897, 1. " Mine rs ' Strike is Spreading, " September 17, 1897, 1. " News from the Seat of War," September 18, 1897, 1. " A Stampede to return to Work ," Septe mber 21, 1897, 1. "The Court sits in Judgment," Se ptember 22 , 1897, 1. " The Shooting at Lattime r," September 24 , 1897, 1. " She riff Condemned," September 28 , 1897, 1. ··A Quiet Day at Hazleton ,'' Wilkes-Barre Record, September 23, 1897, 1. �SLOVAKIA 79 "Troops Leave Hazleton ," September 29, 1897, 1. "The Twelve Jurymen Selected," February 3, 1898, 1. "The Lattimer Cases," February 4, 1898, 1. "Excitement in Court," February 7, 1898 , 12. "Said the Sheriff Shot," February 16, 1898, 6. "Sunday in the Strike Region ," Wilkes-Barre Times, September 20, 1897 , 1. "The Dep uties are Not Guilty," March 9, 1898, 1. Woodward, Stanley, the original hand-written charge to the jury as found in Judge Woodwa rd 's personal scrap book now in the possession of his granddaughter, Mrs. Bruce Payne of Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1977, Vol. 27 Description An account of the resource Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 9 The Lattimer Massacre and Its Sources GEORGE A. TURNER ''The affair at Hazleton yesterday is one of those terrible catastrophies the news of which simply stuns the community and paralyzes for a moment the power of thought." (1) The above editorial comment was a reaction to one of the worst acts of violence in the history of the American labor movement. The tragedy occurred at Laimer, a small coal mining patch, one and a half miles northeast of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh region of the anthracite coal fields on September 10, 1897. A group of nearly four hundred striking, unarmed, immigrant mine workers adhering to the control of their leaders, approached Lattimer to encourage the employees of Calvin Pardee & Company to join them in a work stoppage. They encountered Sheriff James Martin of Luzerne County and his posse of eighty-six deputies who viewed them as enemies of public order and the wellspring of lawlessness. When the marching laborers arrived at Lattimer in midafternoon, the Sheriff approached them, ordered them to halt, disperse, and return to their homes. Within a few minutes an altercation erupted between the Sheriff and some of the strikers at which point the deputies aimed their rifles and fired directly into the group of strikers. Instantly, their gunshots produced a carnage of blood and death among the immigrants - a massacre that left nineteen dead and thirty-eight wounded.(2) Peace officers were unscathed in their deadly assault on the defenseless workers who had been peacefully assembled on a public highway. This incident, lasting only a few minutes, became one of the most devastating acts of public authorities attacking, wounding and killing American laborers. The next day newspaper headlines depicted the killings as an atrocity. Regional papers denounced the shooting: "Yesterday's Butchery, A Mob of Heartless Deputies Fire Into a Throng of Miners and Accomplish Deadly Work" ;(3) "D of Blood at Lattimer" ;(4) "Strikers Shot in Cold Blood" ;(5) and "Looks Like Butchery" .(6) The account quickly spread beyond the anthracite region. Major metropolitan newspapers depicted the shooting in equally stark terms: ''The Killing of Miners at Lattimer Was Butchery'';(7) ''Mowed Down By Deputies" ;(8) "Laid Low By Bullets, the Men Fell Like Sheep Before the Murderous Winchesters of the Officials" ;(9) "Homestead Battle Thrown In The Shade" ;(10) and "Dead in Heaps, Deputies Fire on Miners at Lattimer, Penn ., Men Were Huddled Closely and Slaughter Was Terrific''. (11) The killing of the strikers by the Sheriff's deputies was a major national news story for several days prompting a 10 SLOVAKIA very basic question: Why did this senseless, violent act of shooting unarmed immigrant workers occur? To answer this inquiry requires an understanding of nativism found in the hard coal fields of Pennsylvania and an identification of those factors affecting the lives and working conditions of the immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. Slavic and Italian immigrants began arriving in the eight Pennsylvania counties comprising the anthracite region in the late 1870' s and early 1880 's with nearly all taking employment in mining and by the late 1890's outnumbered German and English-speaking workers .(12) The magnitude of this immigration flow from Poland, Austria-Hungary , Russia, and Italy was evident; in 1880 they totaled only 1,925 , in 1890 they were 32,007, and ten years later their numbe had more than doubled to 89,328. At the same time the foreign born from England , Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Germany decreased by 2.2 percent from 102,421 in 1880 to 100,269 in 1900; in particular, the demographic composition of this group in Luzerne County revealed a decline from ninety-four percent in 1880, to sixty-eight percent in 1890, and a further drop to forty-nine percent in 1900. These southern and eastern Europeans grew to an ever increasing percent of the foreignborn population in the anthracite coal fields: 1. 7 percent in 1880, 25 .2 percent in 1890 , and 46.1 percent in 1900.(13) Such a substantial and rapid growth of alien people created apprehension and anxieties leading to resentment and nativistic sentiments among the AngloSaxon population , their antipathy stemming from cultural differences and fear of economic competition for jobs. There was little to encourage the necessary processes for immigrants to be readily assimilated into the society. New arrivals had a distinctive culture, language , religion, and life style that were strikingly different , giving rise to suspicion and contempt from the native population and other established ethnic groups. Eastern and southern Europeans established numerous ethnic societies which perpetuated their pride , customs, and traditions . Since their religion was Catholic , they organized separate parishes along nationality lines thus sustaining ethnic identification. Marriage records reveal a consistent pattern of immigrants marrying only members of their own nationality. Divisions caused by factionalism in this polyglot society were difficult to bridge. Newspapers did not assume any responsibility for promoting harmony and assimilation among the diverse nationalities, and public schools did not lead in the task of Americanizing children of foreign cultures until the early 1900's . School attendance by immigrant children was minimal and those who did attend encountered language barriers. (14) Anglo-Saxons were finding it difficult to accept a pluralistic society in which they were becoming a numerical minority. This development fostered nativist sentiment , causing AngloSaxons to have ce rtain perceptions of the immigrants that inhibited SLOVAKIA 11 assimilation of the aliens contributing to their separation and isolation in the society. Attitudes of non-acceptance found expression in opprobrious terms for the new arrivals: " Pollocks, " "Huns," and " Dagoes," all denoting inferiority and disdain. Polish, Italian, and Slavic celebrations for marriages and their baptismal customs were denigrated and viewed as outlandish. A common belief among the native population was that a '' ... Slav does not know how to enjoy himself save by getting drunk, he does not know how to show kindness to friends save by making them drink." (15) Stories circulated that these new aliens participated in wife-selling, practiced polyandry, and were responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime, (16) contributing to the viewpoint that they were '' ... much more dangerous to the body politic than the excluded Chinese; . . . do not hesitate to use dynamite if they desire to blow up the home of one whom they particularly hate."(17) Rejection of the new immigrants grew in part from a feeling on the part of Anglo-Saxons that they belonged to a superior and more progressive race of people. The way that immigrants lived reinforced feelings of superiority in nativist thinking. Due to economic factors, lack of acceptance, and the desire of ethnic groups to have their own neighborhoods, ghettoes emerged in different communities. Since houses in ghettoes were crowded and substandard, outsiders viewed living conditions as unpleasant , unattractive, offensive, and the area as a tough and brawlly place to live. "The Slavs are physically strong and can flourish in an environment that would be fatal to more sensitive organisms." (18) Supporting this dislike of southern and eastern Europeans, the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1895 passed a resolution calling upon Congress to enact legislation to restrict immigration. The resolution clearly reflected a protectionist attitude as seen in its opening statement: '' That we recognize in the constant influx of an ignorant and vicious class of immigrants a great and growing evil highly injurious to American workingmen and dangerous to American institutions." (19) Again, two years later legislators passed another similar resolution.(20) Native Americans and older immigrants from northern Europe came to the conclusion they were being invaded and overcome by hordes of undesirable people who would undermine their communities. Of equal importance and of more immediate concern was competition by Slavic and Italian immigrants for jobs and wages in the labor market. Nativist sentiment held that railroads and coal operators enticed immigrants to settle in the region in order to increase the supply of labor which, in turn, had the effect of keeping wage rates down. (21) This charge against railroad and coal operators, however, was not completely true. It was well known that contract miners, who were primarily Anglo-Saxons, had the best and highest paying positions outside the mine supervisory jobs. They were also employers and were '' ... themselves largely responsible for the employment of 12 SLOVAKIA the non-English speaking foreigners. Instead of employing English laborers at the regular wage week the miners would employ a big Slav or Hun cheaply, increasing his own pay check quite an amount. His boasting of the 'snap' caused others to do the same."(22) Job competition increased as immigrants took any kind of work they could find in and around the mines. No matter what employment they found their wages were four or five times higher than what they previously earned in the native land.(23) Anxious to find work, newcomers took the unskilled positions of slate pickers, door-boys and helpers, drivers , runners, and laborers, willing to endure dangerous work and inconveniences which older workers refused to accept. With the passage of time and experience they began to compete for the higher paying, skilled positions held by English-speaking and German coal workers. Established workers contended that since new immigrants were willing to accept lower wages and even wage cuts to get and hold jobs, they were undermining the standard of living and forcing many older laborers to forego mining in the mines and to leave the area to find new employment. Anglo-Saxon workers became bitter and antagonistic which impaired the development of any class solidarity among the anthracite workers.(24) This led to discriminatory and exclusionary practices toward eastern and southern Europeans. The history of the anthracite labor movement revealed that the Knights of Labor, dominated by Irish, and the Amalgamated Association of Miners and Mine Laborers, controlled by Americans, English, Welsh, and Germans, were ineffective in enrolling these workers into their ranks in the 1880's and 1890's. Leaders of organized labor vacillated, were ambivalent, and showed a lack of real interest in encouraging new immigrants to join the union movement. On certain occasions labor organizations even attacked Slavic groups for undermining the labor movement. Failure of the unions to bridge ethnic differences was a major factor in thwarting endeavors to establish successful collective bargaining with the region's coal operators and to gain better conditions of employment.(25) Whenever new immigrants supported organized labor, they generally joined locals organized along ethnic lines; this at first weakened the interests of mine workers. English-speaking officials retained control of union affairs, further contributing to a lack of fusion and interchange of interests of mine workers. English-speaking officials retained control of union affairs, further contributing to a lack of fusion and interchange of interests and ideas between the AngloSaxons and the new immigrants.(26) When the United Mine Workers of America first appeared in the area in the early 1890's, it made little headway in recruiting the Slavic and Italian immigrants who were fast becoming the major segment of the anthracite labor force.(27) Finally, when U.M.W.A. became firmly established after 1900 and merged the 'old' and 'new' immigrants together, each local retained ethnic SLOVAKIA 13 distinction , making the union an alliance of distrustful nationality groups .(28) Established miners, who supported organized labor and held the higher paying and more desirable jobs, sought to protect their positions and perpetuate their advantage. They were fearful that the new immigrants who entered the coal fields as unskilled laborers would in time acquire needed skills to pass into the ranks of skilled miners which had the highest pay scale ; older workers also believed that when new immigrants became employed in mines the accident rate increased due to their lack of mining experience and inability to communicate in English .(29) State mine inspector, James Roderick, of Luzerne and Carbon Counties supported this viewpoint and asserted in 1883 that the rate of accidents increased as the influx of new laborers grew, whereas the older miners were more careful in their work. (30) Therefore, AngloSaxon miners supported the enactment of the miners' examination law passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1889. The official title of the legislation, " An act for the examination of miners in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania and to prevent the employment of incompetent persons as miners in anthracite coal mines,'' aptly described its intent. The law created examination boards in various districts in the anthracite region consisting of skilled miners having at least five years of experience and appointed by the presiding judge in a county . It stipulated that no coal company could legally employ a person as a miner who did not have a certificate of competency issued by a miners' examination board ; in order for a person to receive a miner's certificate he had to provide evidence of having at least two years experience as a mine laborer in Pennsylvania.(31) In the legislative debate on this proposal, coal operators were accused of allowing incompetent people to work in mines , thus contributing to large numbers of fatalities and injuries. Many hoped that the new law would reduce the dangers of working in anthracite mines . Aside from viewing this act as a safety measure, there was a clear inference that the law would also help to check the influx and competition of labor from the new immigrants. Representative Caffery commenting on the proposed law declared that it could prevent '' ... incompetent men to come here from Europe, three or four of whom will be rushed into one chamber, thus dividing up the work.'' (32) Caffery's remark clearly made reference to the recent European influx into the anthracite region that had aroused resentments among older miners. In time it became apparent that expectations concerning the miner 's examination law would not be realized. Anglo-Saxon miners recognized that asking a few questions by miners ' examination boards could not really assure the competency of an applicant. In the examination of a non-English speaking person, the interpreter often aided and embellished the individual' s response. Furthermore, it 14 SLOVAKIA became a fact of life, due to fraud and corruption, that certificates became articles of merchandise.(33) From the time the law went into effect until 1897 there were several attempts to modify or even to repeal the statute . The law, rather than excluding unskilled laborers from becoming miners, had, in effect, due to the requirement of two years of mining experience in Pennsylvania, made ineligible the experienced miners who came from other parts of the country or Europe to secure jobs in the anthracite coal fields . These men were unwilling to work two years as a mine laborers in order to qualify for a miner's certificate. Instead, this simply assured that the new immigrants in time would move into the ranks of skilled miners - the higher-paying positions normally held by Anglo-Saxon workers. Representative Miller, whose district included Luzerne county, substantiated this point: ''Under the present act no one can receive a certificate as a miner until he has worked for two years as a miner's laborer. The result of that is just this: Only the least responsible class of workmen will come into the anthracite district at all; it excludes all of the better class of men. No one who is a practical miner from the bituminous region, or any other part of the State or the United States will come into the anthracite region and work for two years as a miner's laborer before he can obtain this certificate. '' (34) Admission that the law would stymie the settlement of new immigrants in the region was acknowledged by Representative Morahan in one of the attempts to revise the statute: ''It was brought about after the mining corporations had sent their agents over into Europe and brought over an element tended to restrict the production and elevation of wages. It was passed for the purpose of preventing the importation of pauper immigrants into the anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania . . . "(35) Deficiencies in the miners' examination law prompted district one (anthracite region) of the United Mine Workers of America in its annual convention at Pottsvillle on October 16, 1896, to charge that the act was a farce. In a resolution calling for revision of the statute, the union wanted stiff penalties, imprisonment up to five years and fines of $100, for not adhering to the law; it also advocated that the state pay board members a set salary, abolishing the present procedure of having salaries based on fees collected from issuance of certificates. (36) These recommended changes reflected a view that corruption and failure to enforce the law had become commonplace among many of the miners' examination boards. John Fahy, president of district one, lobbied at the state capital in support of revisions to the law approved in 1897. One amendment increased penalties for violations, but no changes were made in the fee structure. A second amendment stipulated that each exaininee had to answer a minimum of twelve questions in English, which prohibited the use of interpreters and therefore discriminated against immigrants, who could not speak English.(37) The United Mine SLOVAKIA 15 Worker's Journal lauded Fahy's lobbying activities and contribution in getting this legislature enacted. (38) After passage of these revisions to the law, the Miners' Examination Board in the Hazleton area placed a notice in the local newspaper to alert mine officials of its provisions. It noted that the law had been violated in the past but henceforth would be strictly enforced. The Board's warning reflected nativist sentiment: "As you, above all others, should know the necessity of having men who understand their work and the language which is the known language of this, our country, the Board would say do your duty and acquit yourselves like men and Americans.'' (39) Control of the miners' examination boards rested with English-speaking miners who were able to exercise certain prerogatives and institute various regulations to their advantage at the expense of the new immigrants.(40) Another piece of discriminating legislation with nativist prejudice, the Alien Tax Act, passed by large majorities in both houses, went into effect on July 1, 1897. The statue stipulated that any male alien age twenty-one and over employed in the state had to pay a three-cent tax on each day of employment which meant that most aliens employed as laborers in the Lehigh anthracite coal region suffered a two to three percent reduction in daily wages . Employers had to maintain employment records on aliens in their service and to collect the tax which reverted to the county treasury, half of which went to school districts and the other half to defray county operating expenses.(41) In the senate debate over the bill, the presence of new immigrants in the community gave rise to a concern that they were '' .. . a constant source of expense to us and . . . this is a very good way to get some money out of them to help pay the expenses of government.' ' (42) The act's preamble declared that aliens showed no allegiance to the state and did not financially support the maintenance of government. In addition, it described aliens as direct competitors to the state's laboring population. One passage stated they were '' ... brought into unjust competition with the tax-paying American laborers and greatly impair their welfare by depriving them of their employment and of preventing them from receiving fair compensation for their labor therefore." (43) Again, John Fahy, miners ' advocate at the state capital, wrote an article for the United Mine Workers Journal asserting: ''What a world of good this law would do the American citizens who try to earn their living in the coal mines, if the tax were one dollar per day.' ' (44) Nearly two months after the tax went into effect, the United States Circuit Court in Pittsburgh declared the law unconstitutional as a violation of the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. Judge Acheson in the court's decision acknowledged that the law discriminated against new immigrants: "Evidently the act is intended to hinder the employment of foreign born unnaturalized male persons over 21 years of age." (45) An obvious recourse for the alien to avoid this new tax, prior to its 16 SLOVAKIA being declared unconstitutional, was to become a naturalized citizen. Senator Flinn feared this possibility and could see little benefit from such a law unless to increase local revenues. It was his opinion that the legislation '' ... would have a tendency to drive this class of people into quicker citizenship." (46) Possibly anticipating this result, the Naturalization Court in Luzerne County a few days prior to the alien tax being voided instituted new rules to revise the process of naturalizing aliens. New procedures required an applicant to make formal application and declare his or her intention to become an American citizen at least thirty days prior to appearing in court, to be represented in the court proceedings by an attorney, and to produce a certificate of entry from the commissioner of immigration at the port of arrival. County officials had to publish in advance of the naturalization hearing the names of aliens seeking citizenship . Publicizing names of aliens petitioning to become citizens had the purpose of facilitating the process of weeding out undesirable applicants. Under the new rules five people could sign a petition remonstrating against an alien becoming a citizen thereby requiring a hearing to pass on their objections. In court, the alien had to demonstrate knowledge of the national and state constitutions and duties of citizens with responses in English.(47) Under these new procedures costs and amount of time required of the foreigner to become a citizen greatly increased. Previously, it had been perfunctory procedure since the immigrant only had to pay two dollars to secure naturalization papers. Now the costs rose to at least eight dollars for court and attorney fees.(48) When the individual lived some distance from the courthouse in Wilkes-Barre, he had additional expenses for transportation and meals as well as losing a day of wages. Cumulatively, the costs for most aliens was equivalent to nearly two weeks of wages . A month later when implementation of these new naturalization rules became part of the court proceedings, half of the ninety-seven applicants, predominately Slavic, Polish, and Italian, were rejected in their quest for citizenship.(49) The new naturalization procedures confirmed the fact that the ease with which foreigners had in the past gained American citizenship would no longer be the rule. The new immigrants, who had become the dominant group among the mine workers, found themselves unaccepted due to nativistic attitudes, discriminatory laws, organized labor's lack of interest and view of them as an economic threat, and increased difficulty in acquiring citizenship. An added burden which all mine laborers faced was working conditions in the anthracite coal fields . The Pennsylvania Legislature in 1897 established a joint investigating committee of three representatives and two senators to examine and make a report concerning working conditions among those employed in the mining of anthracite coal. The committee held twenty-six meetings in the principal cities in the anthracite region and took testimony from 311 witnesses SLOVAKIA 17 representing businessmen , directors of relief organizations, and different classes of people connected with mining. The committee released its findings to the public on June 14, 1897, containing valuable information affecting those employed in mining.(50) The committee cited a major problem in the anthracite coal economy as excessive production in relationship to market demands that made coal prices weak and unstable. This had a direct bearing on mine employees since coal operators would cut production , institute lay-offs , and reduce wages in order to prevent or minimize their losses, thus exacerbating the labor market which already suffered from an over supply of workers . Surplus labor was evident when comparing the number employed in the anthracite mines in 1892 with 1896 and the coal produced in those same two years. Between 1892 to 1896 there occurred a fifteen percent increase in the number employed , 130,197 to 149,670, while coal production only increased five percent, 45,738,374 to 48,074 ,350 tons.(51) Estimated production capacity of the region 's collieries in 1896 was ninety million tons; actual output only came to fifty-four percent of capability while the number of mine employees for that same year increased by 6,065 .(52) Because of surplus laborers and a weak coal market there was lack of employment in the mines in 1896 as the average number of days of employment in the Hazleton region was only 178 days or fifty-seven percent of full employment for a year, based on a six-day week for fifty-two weeks. (53) This same condition was still prevalent in the first seven months in 1897 in which the mines operated on an average of one or two days a week.(54) One mine owner succinctly described the situation: " We can't give them work enough even at ninety cents a day because of the ups and downs of the business. When things begin to improve, we must have enough on hand to satisfy the demand, and that means, when business slacks up, that many have to be idle ." (55) This practice of the coal operators cutting back production to maintain the price of coal in a depressed market had caused frequent interruptions in the mid 1890's that put the standard of living of the average mine laborer on a very low basis . The legislative report pointed out that starvation conditions existed among the miners with Hazleton and vicinity one of the five areas identified as having great destitution and want. The committee reported: ' 'The testimony shows conclusively that deplorable condition of affairs for a period covering about two years, and particularly since the first of January of the present year, since which time the men in and about the collieries have been employed not more than two or three three-fourths days per week , earning on an average $4 per week , upon which , in many instances, they were compelled to support large families , in some cases as high as eleven members, paying house rent and coal and the necessities of life, which to this committee seems an impossibility . In . .. mining centres there is at all times more or less destitution and want , in many instances occasioned by profligacy. 18 SLOVAKIA Matters throughout the anthracite region have been gradually growing worse, and never in the history of this section of our State has the condition of the men employed in and about the mines been so deplorable or of such long duration.'' (56) The wages of miners and laborers in the Lehigh anthracite region had a direct relationship to the selling price of coal. Since the collapse of the union after the strike in 1888, there was no union contract to govern working conditions and wages. Wages were pegged to the market price of coal at the tidewater in Elizabethport, New Jersey. This system known as the ' 'sliding scale'' came into effect in 1869 with the formula for determining wages established in 1875. Under this arrangement, if coal sold for $5 .00 a ton at Elizabethport, miners, who held the highest paying jobs, received eighty-seven cents for each car of coal produced which meant that on the average, skilled miners earned twenty-one cents an hour, or $12.60 a week for sixty hours of work. The highest paid class of laborers, if a ton of coal sold for the same price, earned $10.80 a week or fourteen percent less than the miners. Whenever the price of coal increased ten cents a ton, wages advanced one percent for each ten cent rise and conversely, whenever the price of coal declined ten cents a ton, wages decreased one percent for each ten cent reduction . (57) Mine employees saw several drawbacks to this method of determining wages. Lehigh coal operators, as opposed to the Wyoming and Schuylkill coal operators, were mainly independents; hence, they were more vulnerable to the vicissitudes of the freight rates in transporting their coal to the markets, which, in turn, had a direct bearing on establishing the price of coal. High transportation costs reduced the coal operator's ability to improve wages and, most importantly, forced an increase in coal prices that made coal produced in the Lehigh region less competitive in the market than that produced in the other two fields largely under the control of the railroads. Consequently, starting in 1892 the Lehigh coal operators, who produced only around sixteen percent of anthracite coal, agreed to sell part of their production to the railway coal companies at forty percent below the tidewater price in order to avoid excessive freight rates. A major portion of the coal production was sold in the interior at prices higher than at the tidewater. Finally, the 1875 price-wage formula did not reflect changes that had occurred in the coal market. Anthracite coal had been losing the industrial fuel market to the less expensive bituminous coal. This loss forced a readjustment in the coal trade as more and more anthracite had to be processed into smaller sizes to be sold for home heating purposes. Smaller sizes gradually became the major portion of the coal trade and this sold at lower prices, resulting in a reduction of the average price per ton of coal thus keeping wages down.(58) Besides irregular work and low wages the anthracite laborer had to contend with day-to-day conditions which were equally distressing. The SLOVAKIA 19 company store had long been an issue in the mining communities and had an odious reputation. The fact that employees were under some form of compulsion to make their purchases at a company store at inflated prices was so repugnant that it caused considerable discord, dissension, and prolonged agitation. A congressional committee in 1889 investigating working conditions in the anthracite region reported some of the abuses connected with stores operated by coal companies which still persisted in the late 1890's. Prices were as much as thirty percent higher for the same items sold in independent stores. There was both direct and subtle pressure on employees to purchase groceries , clothing, and other items from the company store; workers feared losing their jobs or being moved to a lower paying position or to one that was more difficult because of dangerous or strenuous working conditions. "Some of the officials of the company, such as foremen, would state to their workmen, 'If you patronize me we will patronize you.' Well , that meant if there was a good job they would receive it if they traded in the company' s store ."(59) Reacting to these abuses, Pennsylvania in 1891 enacted a law prohibiting corporations engaged in mining and manufacturing from operating general supply stores . In an attempt to prevent evasion, the law explicitly made it illegal for a corporation to contract with an independent store to require its employees to purchase merchandise; also it prohibited any corporate officer or stockholder to operate a company store on the premises of the corporation. (60) Unfortunately, the legislation did not eliminate the many evils associated with the company stores. In the first place , unincorporated coal operators did not come under the law's jurisdiction. Secondly, there was a loophole in the law's language forbidding a corporation from requiring its employees to patronize a particular store by stating that employees " shall not be obliged" to deal with a designated store. In other words an employee of a corporation could not be compelled to shop at a particular store but he could voluntarily choose to buy his merchandise at that store. Realistically, as life existed in the mining communities with the ever-presence and dominance of the coal companies, many factors came into play that inevitably induced an employee to make a so-called voluntary decision to patronize a particular store. Thirdly, when individual coal operators sold their interests to a large corporation, they often retained the right to continue the operation of their store. In this arrangement, many times the corporation provided a service by deducting an employee's bill at the store from his monthly wages with a collection fee which varied from three to five percent of the bill. This system had a descriptive nickname of the "pluck-me-store." (61) It was in the Lehigh region, where a very large percent of the coal operators were independent and unincorporated, that the existence of company stores was one of the highest in the anthracite region ; two-thirds of the mine laborers worked at collieries 20 SLOVAKIA that operated company stores.(62) In some instances a coal company which operated a store would undersell its competitor by lowering prices for coal and then make up losses by compelling the employees to trade at the company store at exorbitant prices .(63) The store of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company reportedly had everything from a red herring to a furnace . A Polish employee of the company flatly stated: '' ... we are compelled to purchase whether we want to or not. " (64) Three English-speaking miners of the A. S. Van Wickle Company commented that they would not object to the company's store if it were not for the high prices. To illustrate their point, they cited three items priced in an independent store and the company store: dozen eggs for thirteen cents as opposed to twenty-three cents, pound of butter for eighteen cents as opposed to twenty-six cents, and tobacco for twenty-six cents as opposed to thirtyfour cents. (In computing these goods the average price increase over the independent store was forty-six percent.) They further asserted: ''These are but a few samples of the prices charged here, but we have no redress. If we do not deal in the store we are notified about it with a broad intimation that others would be glad to have our places and deal in the store ." (65) The two investigative reports documented abuses concerning the company store in the anthracite region in 1897 and drew attention to three pertinent facts: the company store did not operate to the benefit of the workmen; employees were subjected to intimidation when they failed to patronize company stores; profits were substantial. (66) The company store problem was a major concern of John Fahy who noted that the number was greater than when the legislation was passed in 1891 and coal operators continued to violate the law. Union members of the United Mine Workers of America agreed and passed a resolution condemning this kind of store : '' ... the company store is a great and burdensome evil; that the system is harsh and tyrannical, and its purposes to rob labor of the full use of that pittance, always too meager, which the mine worker now received for his toil . . . "(67) Another grievance of the workers closely related to the company store was the practice of having a company butcher make door to door sales to employees living in company houses. They objected to the butcher's high prices and his habit of leaving more meat than requested forcing the purchaser to pay for meat not wanted . (68) What they wanted was the. abolition of this solicitation. Dominance of the coal companies over their employees was felt in another way through the company doctor. Coal operators had a physician to administer to the health needs of workers. On the surface this service appeared to be a desirable fringe benefit. Not so in the eyes of the employees who had several objections. They felt that they should have the right to select their own doctor since many believed that the quality of medical help was below average. The fact that the doctor's SLOVAKIA 21 allegiance rested with the company placed uncertainty on the doctorpatient relationship.(69) Aside from these reservations was the cost. Deduction from workers' paychecks funded the program; A. S. Van Wickle Company levied two cents a day on each employee while other companies charged each married man with a family seventy-five cents a month and single men fifty cents a month.(70) To many this outlay of money equaled a half-day of wages and was an unnecessary cost. At this time it was common practice for people to rely upon home remedies for curing illnesses rather than always going to a doctor. A custom among miners was to establish their own mutual medical aid organizations known as '' keg funds.'' Miners donated refunds received from turning in their empty powder kegs.(71) Another major factor explaining why workers opposed the company doctor scheme stemmed from a plethora of fraternal groups that provided insurance against sickness and death. In the Hazleton area there were around fifty such organizations with many established along ethnic lines. Working class membership in these societies was large. Dues entitled them to sick benefits that varied from four to six dollars a week for a period of three to six months. Average death benefits ranged from $50 to $125 with wives often receiving half the rate. (72) With these other arrangements, the company doctor plan offered few, if any , advantages to mine workers. Feelings of exploitation among the miners were particularly strong over the price of blasting powder and mining supplies and the coercion to purchase these items from the coal companies. Each of the collieries kept mining supplies for sale. Testimony before the United States Industrial Commission revealed: ''The coal operators will say that they do not compel miners to buy their supplies with that company. While this may be true in regard to oil in some places, yet they are compelled to buy their powder from these companies where they work, for they will tell you if you do not buy your powder there you can work where you buy it."(73) Along with this compulsion there was the high price for the powder. A keg of powder weighing twenty-five pounds sold for $2. 75 in the Lehigh region whereas in the Schuylkill region the same amount had sold for $1.50 since 1888.(74) A major demand of the strikers was to secure a price decrease for powder generally in the amount of seventy-five cents a keg. However, miners at Calvin Pardee & Company sought a more extensive price reduction for powder so that it would sell for $1.50 a keg.(75) Powder purchased from independent stores sold from $1.25 to $1.50 a keg and the wholesale cost of powder per keg delivered from the manufacturer ranged from 90 cents to $1.00.(76) It was obvious to the miners that the coal operators made substantial profits on the sale of powder with a mark-up of around two hundred percent. When comparing powder prices in the Schuylkill region with the Hazleton area in 1896, men believed they were overcharged by some $125,353.75 or a per capita of $217.50 which was 22 SLOVAKIA almost equivalent to one-third of their annual income.(77) This issue was particularly irritating to the miners and they felt that they were victims of extortion. Another vexing issue was the lack of compliance by coal companies to provisions of the state semi-monthly wage payment law passed in 1891 . The act stipulated that employers pay their employees in lawful money every two weeks.(78) With the exception of the Coxe mines, violation of the statute was widespread in the Hazleton area . (79) The state legislative investigating committee reported the act was '' ... virtually a dead letter in many instances. Operators disregard it and deem it an unjustifiable interference with their rights .'' (80) District One of the United Mine Workers of America in its 1896 annual convention adopted a resolution endorsing the semi-monthly wage payment law and invited members of the business community to cooperate with them in supporting this legislation. (81) Frequency of payment to workers was important to coal operators since it had a direct relationship to the maintenance of company stores. If workmen received their wages every two weeks or even weekly, they would be inclined to shop at independent stores which had lower prices. With monthly payments, employees found it convenient and, sometimes necessary , to depend on credit extended at the company stores.(82) These cumulative burdens of adverse working conditions, irregular and limited work, low wages, pressure to patronize the company's store and butcher, expense for a company doctor, high costs for blasting powder and mining supplies, and non-compliance with the semi-monthly pay law were hardships ever present to mine laborers and became issues in the strike. Of equal importance, immigrant workers found themselves having to cope with additional adversities such as nativistic attitudes that rejected their culture and impeded assimilation, economic discrimination in employment, passage of the alien tax law, and difficult and costly naturalization procedures. A wellspring of resentment and antagonism festered among the ranks of southern and eastern Europeans over conditions affecting their lives which stirred feelings of discontent and frustrations creating a serious strike situation. The spark which produced the Lattimer massacre first appeared to be nothing more than an isolated and minor labor dispute between District Superintendent Gomer Jones and some mule drivers at the Honey Brook colliery of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company; however, it became the catalyst leading to a series of crippling strikes in the Lehigh region. Gomer Jones , who had a reputation as a tyrannical mine boss, had recently been appointed superintendent of the Audenried district and assumed his new position with an eagerness to establish order and efficiency out of what he and the company considered to be a chaotic situation.(83) Jones stated in an interview that he perceived his superintendency: '' I came here a year ago. I came to restore discipline SLOVAKIA 23 in the mines and to operate them in such a manner that the company could continue in business. The discipline was certainly lax. The men did about as they pleased. The two superintendents who were here then associated with the men, mixed with them, drank with them and were regarded as 'hail fellows well met' everywhere among the miners. Now I cannot do that. I'm not a drinking man, and I've never made it a practice to hobnob with the men. However, when I give orders I expect them to be obeyed and do not permit miners to do exactly as they please. " (84) He began to institute economics in the company's operations in order to achieve the lowest possible cost in mining. To carry out this resolve , he dismissed two easy-going foremen , about eighty other workers, and reduced daily wages for all classes of mine workers from three percent for carpenters to as much as twenty-five percent for stripping miners.(85) Another of Jones ' cost-saving proposals required all of the company mules to be stabled at Audenried. This measure required the mule drivers employed at Honey Brook to spend an extra hour in the morning and evening to pick up their mules and return them to the stables. For these two extra hours of work , Jones refused to grant any compensation to the mule drivers . Dissatisfaction over this arrangement provoked a strike among mule drivers , who were Slavic and Polish , on August 13 . The next day some workers took up positions along the road near the stable to insure that none of the mule teams was removed for work. Upon learning of this development , Jones went to the scene with club in hand with the intention of dispersing the disgruntled workers. Within minutes a boisterous dispute erupted and Jones, using his club, struck one worker. Some of Jones' assistants came to his rescue before the melee got completely out of control. (86) A consequence of the mule driver strike and the residue of dissatisfaction and discontent among the rest of the workers produced a general strike against the company on August 16. An assessment of the situation made by a local newspaper declared that coal companies " .. . import this cheap labor, drag them down with all sorts of hardships, and indignities and finally the bosses attempt to make records for money saving and thus increase their own salaries at the expense of the poor unfortunates who are under them. There is no need for white slavery, nor pauper wages ... pay them a living salary and treat them as human beings , and trouble of this kind will be unheard of.'' (87) That evening miners held a large meeting at McAdoo at which they formulated their grievances and demands to present to Elmer H. Lawall, General Superintendent of Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company. They wanted restoration of the wage scale in effect prior to reductions imposed by Jones , an increase of ten percent in wages for all employees who worked underground, purchase of coal by workers for use in their homes reduced from $2.50 to $1.50 a ton, the right of each worker to select his own doctor, removal of Gomer Jones from his 24 SLOVAKIA position as district superintendent, and assurance that each person on strike would be reinstated.(88). Miners elected a strike committee representing different nationalities to present the issue to company officials. After meeting with Mr. Lawall on August 17, the committee decided to go to New York the next day to confer with Mr. Lawall and C. H. Warren, assistant to company President Maxwell. After returning from New York, the committee on August 19 met with the miners to report on negotiations, informing them that Mr. Warren had pledged that the company would pay the same rate of wages prevailing in the area and did not object to miners selecting their own doctor and making their own payments. There was no response to reducing the price of coal used by miners in their homes. With regard to the miners' objections concerning the conduct of Gomer Jones, the company refused to dismiss him but did promise to investigate his actions; this prompted an editorial comment in a Hazleton newspaper: ''The men are determined in their demands for justice, and if the Lehigh and WilkesBarre officials are wise they will speedily dismiss Superintendent Gomer Jones, for so long as he is retained in his present position, the trouble will not be adjusted. This man, with perhaps one exception, has imposed more hardships on the mines than any other living person who ever set foot on this soil. " (89) Upon hearing the company offer, which the miners described as one containing only promises rather than solutions to their grievances and demands, they voted to remain on strike . (90) Refusal to end the strike caused Mr. Lawall to hold another meeting with the strike committee. Three additional issues were introduced in the negotiations: employees need not live in company houses , men in the same grade of work receive the same pay, and employees be paid for all services rendered to the company - a direct reference to the mule drivers' complaint of having to spend two extra hours without pay to pick up and return their mules to the stables. After conferring with Lawall the strike committee called another meeting with workers on August 20. At this time the company informed the men that it had accepted the employees' position on the three additional points and that Lawall had personally promised to investigate fairly every grievance . Strikers believed that the injudicious activities of Jones would certainly be exposed and he would be dismissed. They learned that the mules were returned to Honey Brook, removing the issue of extra work without pay that had sparked the strike . In addition, two men dismissed by Jones were reinstated to their former positions. With such favorable news and expectation of Jones' replacement, the miners voted to end the week old strike and return to work on August 23.(91) The euphoria that prevailed among miners stemmed from their belief of success in exerting their interests against the coal company. This sense of accomplishment was further underscored by the fact they SLOVAKIA 25 had been able to organize seven locals of the United Mine Workers of America comprising nearly a thousand men or about half of the company' s employees in the Audenried district. Establishing the union rested on the activities of John Fahy, United Mine Workers organizer, who took advantage of miners' discontent over their working conditions and lack of unionization. With the backing of a union and the promise of Lawall to investigate their differences with Jones , miners felt confident that they had won.(92) It appeared that labor unrest at the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company was only an aberration and the outlook for labor peace quite good. Such optimism was short lived. The strike was a harbinger of labor agitation that soon engulfed the Lehigh mining region surrounding Hazleton. Within a week, on August 27, another strike initiated by immigrant workers broke out at the Coleraine and Milnesville collieries of A. S. Van Wickle Coal Company. Some 1,500 strikers demanded reinstatement of the wage scale prior to the reduction made in February of 1897, which meant an average increase in wages from ten to fifteen percent in the daily rates. They wanted the new daily rates to be the following: stripping laborers, $1.20; first class laborers , $1.64; second class laborers, $1.50; outside laborers , from $1.00 to $1.20 ; breaker hands, men at $1.00 and boys at 90 cents; mule drivers, one mule at $1.50 ; two mules at $1.64; and three mules at $1.75; first class miners , $2.10; and second class miners, $1.93 . A few days later, August 31, some 2,000 employees of Lehigh and WilkesBarre Coal Company swelled the ranks of dissatisfied workers by walking off their jobs a second time after the elapse of two weeks when company officials had promised a settlement of their grievances in their first strike at the beginning of the month.(93) Chairman of the strikers ' negotiating committee charged that ' ' ... Messrs. Lawall and Warren, did not keep faith, and their refusal to make any concessions after their encouraging promises originally had served to work the men up to a high pitch. " (94) Work stoppages also began to spread to other coal operators: Lehigh Valley Coal Company, C. M. Dodson & Company, G. B. Markel & Company, Calvin Pardee & Company, A. Pardee & Company , New Ebervale Coal Company, Cross Creek Coal Company, Arnold & Morgan Company , and Silver Brook Coal Company.(95) This general strike action at the end of August and the first of September erupted with the pressing demand for an increase in wages. Immigrant workers were the principal source of agitation over this issue. It was they who suffered loss of wages due to enactment of the alien tax law and who felt the effects of wage discrimination when they received less for the same job than the English-speaking worker. Miners in their class earned from $1.50 to $1.65 a day while an Englishspeaking miner earned $1.97 for the same position. Similar conditions existed for those who were employed as laborers; the percent of wage difference was even greater, $1.15 versus $1.50. Anglo-Saxon workers 26 SLOVAKIA did not support the strike and immigrants looked upon them as a favored class. Since Slavic and Italian workers outnumbered Englishspeaking workers by a three-to-one ratio, their dissatisfaction over wages and working conditions became the prevailing voice. (96) Demand for the same pay for the same job had the following local, editorial support: "Employees should receive the same compensation for the same kind and amount of work done whether they are Hungarians, Italians or any other nationality." (97) Strikers ' demands for improvement in their wages came in part from the fact that Lehigh coal operators paid lower wages than operators in the other two anthracite coal fields. (98) Although there existed an industry-wide formula for determining wages based on the tidewater price of coal, in actuality there was a divergence in the wage scale particularly among the unskilled in different coal companies, which contributed to labor unrest among workers when they learned their wages were lower than their counterparts in other mines. In protest, foreign workers began marching from one colliery to another, closing down operations and compelling other workers to join their ranks. With each passing day the situation became somewhat more tense. Area newspapers assessed conditions as serious with the distinct possibility of becoming quite dangerous since, ''Never in the history of the region was such a determined body of men seen together'' ;(99) it was feared that unless a settlement was reached, '' ... the whole Lehigh region will be plunged into one of the most threatening conditions ever experienced in the history of Pennsylvania coal mining." (100) Immigrant workers were the masters of the situation, dominating the strike activities; English-speaking workers, fewer in number receiving better wages, did not voluntarily support them and preferred to remain at work. Instead of a feeling of camaraderie and solidarity between these two groups there was distrust and suspicion.(101) An important break occurred in the strike action when A. S. Van Wickle Coal Company made a wage settlement with their employees at Milnesville and Coleraine collieries on September 3 and 4, respectively. The company's General Superintendent, James Roderick, fulfilled a promise to investigate wages paid at other area mines and, if his company's rates were lower, make appropriate advances. Advances did not completely equal the original demands of the workers: increases were around nine percent given primarily to the unskilled and semiskilled, jobs held mainly by the Slavic and Italian immigrants with no raise for skilled laborers, miners, jobs dominated by AngloSaxons.(102) With regard to the alien tax, which had recently been declared unconstitutional, the company promised to return the money at the next pay day. Concerning other issues of the company store and butcher, Roderick promised ''. . . there will positively be no compulsion for any man to deal with the company butcher and the company SLOVAKIA 27 store, nor will any intimidation in this direction be permitted by any of the subordinates."(103) Following the lead of A. S. Van Wickle Coal Company, officials at Coxe mines voluntarily increased wages ten cents a day to prevent their workers from going out on strike. (104) Settlement of the strike at A. S. Van Wickle Coal Company and increased pay by Coxe marked an important turning point in the labor unrest which had idled some twelve collieries due to the strikers' demonstrations. Success of these workers in improving their wages became a stimulus for hundreds of other workers to increase their determination to secure the same monetary gain. Higher wages granted by the two companies simply exacerbated the situation when other coal operators refused to match or make any improvement in wages. As long as this condition prevailed, chances of labor unrest becoming volatile heightened and the outcome became more uncertain . A week prior to the Lattimer killings, a Hazleton newspaper, realizing the nature of the situation, made the following appeal to coal operators: ''What the outcome of the uprising will be is simply conjecture, but one thing is certain, that the operators owe it to themselves as well as the community to bring about a speedy adjustment of the trouble. There is no good reason why the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Co. officials should not pay the same rate of wages as A. S. Van Wickle; they are in a position to do it and ought to. If there is to be an average rate of wages let all the operators join the combination and pay it. The obstinacy of either one company or the other, is simply injurious to the community, and for the benefit of all we suggest that the operators at least meet the men half-way, and the trouble will soon be a thing of the past. " (105) As each day passed without settlement, strikers continued marching from one coal mine to another seeking to induce other workers to join the strike; some responded willingly and others only after cajoling or intimidation. Their efforts were having success in disrupting the area's mining operations. Anxiety grew as the potential for serious trouble became likely with an apparent impasse emerging between strikers and operators who had refused to go along with the settlement made by A. S. Van Wickle and Coxe. Coal companies , holding the view that the situation had deteriorated and people had become terrorstricken by the strikers' protest, urged the sheriff to intervene in a manner that would terminate the strikers' activities. Sheriff James Martin, vacationing in Atlantic City, New Jersey , received a telegram on Saturday , September 4, from his deputy, Mr. George Wall, that Superintendent Lathrop of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company requested him to go to Hazleton to deal with the developing strike situation. Upon returning to Wilkes-Barre, the Sheriff held a Monday morning conference concerning the strike with Lathrop, Superintendent Steams of Cross Creek Coal Company, and Superintendent Lawall of Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company before 28 SLOVAKIA proceeding to Hazleton.(106) The Sheriff did not come to Hazleton at the request of any elected or appointed public official such as a magistrate, justice of peace, constable, or mayor, nor upon his arrival did he confer with any public official concerning the question of public order as related to the strikers' demonstrations. Instead, when he came to Hazleton, he met with Mr. Zerby, Assistant Superintendent of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, and Mr. Platt, Superintendent of Calvin Pardee & Company store. Naturally, these two men held views concerning the strike that reflected their companies' vested interests and could possibly have misrepresented the degree of disruption. Apparently, Martin did not feel there was any advantage to investigating and reviewing developments with a variety of people having different perspectives in order to ascertain objectively sentiments and facts related to the strike. It was at this time that officials of Lehigh Valley Coal Company, Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, Cross Creek Coal Company, and Calvin Pardee & Company made it abundantly clear that they would hold Sheriff Martin personally responsible for any interference with their mining operations.(107) After conferring with Messrs. Zerby and Platt, Martin decided to organize a posse comitatus. A Sheriff's decision to create a posse must be based upon circumstances as defined in law in which a state of disorder exists, consisting of a riot or the threat of a riot in which life and property are in jeopardy. Again Martin's assessment that these conditions existed rested upon information given to him by representatives of coal companies. Following their recommendation, he appointed Thomas Hall, a prominent Hazleton businessman whose occupation involved selling blasting powder to coal companies, as his chief deputy.(108) In the Hazleton Machinery Supply Company Store, a concern involved in coal mining, eighty-seven men were sworn in as Sheriff's deputies and members of the posse with nearly all of them directly or indirectly earning their living from coal companies. This close connection of the deputies with the coal companies was apparent as some twenty-three were employees of Calvin Pardee & Company, including his own son and Augustus W. Drake, Pardee's General Superintendent; fourteen worked for the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, and six were members of the coal and iron police. All but one deputy had surnames indicating Irish, English, or German heritage, the majority were members of prominent families and relatives of coal operators, many were young, several had attended college and were engineers or held managerial positions in coal companies. Others were businessmen and a few were laborers.(109) Superintendent Smith of G. B. Markle & Company, a coal operator, ordered rifles and shotguns and shipped them to a warehouse owned by A. Pardee & Company, another coal operator, where they were dispensed to the deputies under the direction of Mr. Platt.(110) Martin cautioned his deputies: " ... it was their duty to maintain the peace at all hazards, but under no cir- SLOVAKIA 29 cumstances to shoot unless they were convinced either they or myself to be in danger.'' (111) Since the coal operators were responsible for requesting the Sheriff to come to Hazleton and to organize a posse, they also agreed to assume the costs for expenses incurred by the deputies. (112) Another service available to the Sheriff and his deputies was a special trolley car provided by Lehigh Traction Company upon the orders of Mr. Zerby so they could have unimpeded transportation to move about the coal fields.(113) While arrangements were under way in organizing the posse, Martin contacted Sheriffs Scott and Setzer of Schuylkill and Carbon Counties, respectively , since Lehigh coal fields encompassed parts of these counties. The main source of strike agitation came from men employed at collieries south of Hazleton in the area where Luzerne , Schuylkill , and Carbon Counties have a common boundary. After consulting with each other, the three law officers issued separate proclamations admonishing people '' . . . from all tumultuous and unlawful assembly, and from all acts of disorder or violence, and from all acts interfering with the liberty of other citizens, or tending to a breach of the peace .' ' (114) Included in the proclamation was the state riot act of 1860 describing illegal activities and penalties. Sheriff Martin 's decision to issue the proclamation made it appear that he felt conditions were turbulent, disorderly, and warranted the organization of a posse; yet on the same day he chose to spend a leisurely afternnoon attending the bicycle races at Hazleton.(115) The following morning, Tuesday, September 7, Sheriff Martin, upon learning that a group of strikers planned to shut down the Crystal Ridge Colliery , took a number of deputies to the site and prevented them from accomplishing their goal.(116) News of this intervention by the Sheriff either had not spread, or if it had, did not awe other strikers from descending on the New Ebervale Coal Company colliery and closing it down. Company superintendent, John Scott, describing the incident stated: '' ... the real leader appeared and said they intended to win the strike if they had to apply the torch to every town in the region ."(117) After closing the New Ebervale colliery, strikers marched over to the stripping area of Calvin Pardee & Company at Lattimer hoping to repeat their success earlier in the day. However, some of the Sheriff's deputies were already at Lattimer to prevent any disruption in the company 's operations . When the marchers appeared, the officers fired warning shots ito the air dispersing them and thwarting their objective.(118) The remaining days prior to the tragedy at Lattimer found Sheriff Martin and his deputies constantly transversing the coal fields from one colliery to another checking the strikers' movements . With each passing encounter the level of exasperation and tension between the law officers and immigrant workers on strike began to rise. A Hazleton newspaper again reflected a growing concern over the lack of a strike 30 SLOVAKIA settlement and a possible serious confrontation: ''The strike can be settled within twenty-four hours, and without bloodshed, if the operators will act fair and honest with their men. "(119) A day later the same editorial voice observed a growing seriousness in that the strikers '' ... are very much embittered against the deputies, and it is feared that both parties will engage in mortal combat." (120) A letter to the newspaper editor commenting on the strike stated it was '' ... causing a depression in business and fear in the hearts of the people of bloodshed . . . '' suggesting ' ' . . . the Ministerial Association take the matter in hand, call a meeting of all the clergy of the Protestant and Catholic churches, and together with the press and businessmen try and see if their influence could not be used to settle this grave matter between the operators and men."(121) John Fahy counseled the workers to obey the Sheriff's proclamations and to avoid provocations that could cause violence since the authorities had the ability to crush them. His interest was to temper the strikers' ardor and give it some meaningful direction.(122) Martin, apparently feeling some frustrations and reservations over his efforts to deal with strikers , told Frank Pardee, head of A. Pardee & Company, '' ... that while the strikers simply confined themselves to talking to the men quietly and persuading them to quit, it was none of my business and I had no right to interfere. "(123) Regardless of whatever doubts the Sheriff may have had, he knew perfectly well that he could not disregard the wishes of the coal operators. Starting on Thursday afternoon events began to cascade toward that fateful Friday. Employees of Calvin Pardee & Company at Harwood who were on strike felt that in order to win they had to shut down the company's operation at Lattimer which had failed earlier. News came to Harwood strikers that their fellow employees at Lattimer were anxious to join them if only they would march over to Lattimer; this appeal stimulated their determination.(124) The Harwood local of the United Mine Workers held a meeting on Thursday evening to make plans to march to Lattimer the next day. Joe Mahalko, president of the Harwood local of the United Mine Workers of America, cautioned his fellow workers to go without guns or any other kind of weapons, to harm no one nor to destroy any property, and to keep the peace. On the next day, Friday, September 10, around noon some two hundred and fifty strikers from the Harwood area, consisting almost exclusively of immigrant workers, started their ill-fated mission to get their counterparts to go on strike at Lattimer. As the march proceeded, some seventy-five to one hundred additional strikers joined the ranks. (125) When they reached the outskirts of West Hazleton on their route to Lattimer around two o 'clock, they were stopped by Evan Jones, Chief of Police of West Hazleton, who told them, "Go back out of this, you are in a dangerous place. If you have to go to Lattimer you must go another way."(126) At this point Sheriff Martin and his deputies SLOVAKIA 31 arrived on the scene with the intention of stopping the marchers from proceeding to Lattimer. A confrontation occurred between the Sheriff, his deputies , and the strikers, in which one striker was arrested, another had his arm broken by a deputy, many had guns thrust in their faces , the American flag they were carrying was destroyed, and there was an exchange of blasphemous name calling.(127) Martin read his proclamation containing the riot act, ordered them to cease their march to Lattimer , and urged them to return to their homes, telling them that all of the marching from colliery to colliery to drive men from work was no way to get better wages.(128) He believed there would be serious trouble since some of the marchers had picked up stones and looked as if they intended to throw them at the law enforcement officials. However, this fear proved to be unfounded since they did not take such a provocative action. (129) Efforts to halt the march were futile considering the strikers ' determination to continue their trek to Lattimer, and Martin 's inability to communicate with them since he spoke only English and had no interpreter . After becoming exhausted from the episode , he simply gave up trying to stop them.(130) The strikers ' perception of this hostile encounter differed from the law officers ' version and hinted at forthcoming trouble . John Eagler, one of the leaders of the march and secretary of the United Mine Workers local at Harwood stated: " We were met by the deputies at West Hazleton who did not come like civilized beings , but broke through the ranks, crying, 'Stop , stop!' " (131) Joseph Mahalko declared : '' I told the Sheriff we had no stick big as my finger in the crowd. All Sheriff said was 'don't go any farther .' Sheriff said , 'You go back or I shoot you . ' " (132) Again John Eagler stated that the Sheriff only took a piece of paper from his pocket and did not read any proclamation as he claimed but had simply told them that it was against the law to march to Lattimer.(133) The strikers asserted they did not initiate any altercation with the law officers but were merely the victims of an unwarranted attempt to prohibit them from using the public highway. Something that proved to be far more serious was the ominous threats attributted to the Sheriff and his deputies against the strikers: "Go back and take care of yourself, for there will be big trouble today ." (134) " We 'll get even with the --- at Lattimer."(135) "We ' ll leave them go till we get to Lattimer ; then we ' ll shoot them. "(136) "I'd like to get a pop at the ---of b---. I'll bet I'll drop six. " (137) "I didn 't know what the h--- the Sheriff makes us walk around here so much without giving us a chance to shoot those men .'' (138) ' 'Everyone of the G-- d-- Hunks ought to be shot. " (139) Sheriff Martin , formerly a coal foreman at the Mill Creek colliery in Luzerne County, allegedly stated, " . . . a little cold lead is the only way to conquer the strikers."(140) The Sheriff's efforts and reported intimidations to terminate the strike rs ' march to Lattimer became nothing more than a futile gesture that only made them more resolute to continue their journey. Un- 32 SLOVAKIA daunted, the marchers following the advice of Chief Evan Jones took a route toward Lattimer along the outskirts of Hazleton on which they could proceed without further interference.(141) Sheriff Martin realizing his efforts had been to no avail quickly returned to Hazleton, summoned his entire force of deputies telling them to take their arms and board the trolley to Lattimer so they could prevent the marchers from stopping the Lattimer mining operations.(142) En route there was talk among the deputies '' . . . about shooting and each man seemed to be eager ... "(143) Since some of the deputies had served as coal and iron police, they " ... had had much trouble with the strikers on previous occasions and were said to be in a revengeful mood against them. "(144) Even Sheriff Martin admitted, " ... I have no doubt that some of the deputies were excited, and certainly the ride over the mountain in that crowded car was animating."(145) The Sheriff and his posse arrived at Lattimer a few minutes after three o'clock and stationed themselves along the right side of the road as it entered Lattimer from the south. He instructed his deputies " ... to keep cool and not get excited. "(146) However, before the strikers arrived, the deputies ordered a woman to go into her house on the likelihood that some shooting may occur.(147) Shortly after the deputies were in place , the strikers appeared coming up the public road in an orderly array toward the Lattimer breaker. (148) There was every reason to suspect that the deputies were fully aware that the miners were unarmed. As they approached the law officers who were standing parallel to the road, the Sheriff stepped out and walked toward the marchers with the intention of learning what they planned to do. Martin indicated that " ... if they are not going to do anything, I may let them go on, and we will go along with them.' ' (149) He ordered them to halt about forty or fifty yards from the armed deputies. The front of the column slowed as the Sheriff approached and asked them what they intended to do. The Sheriff reported they said, "We stop Lattimer Mines."(150) He then proceeded to read his proclamation in English, which many of them could not understand, while at the same time the rear of the column kept pushing forward. Within a few minutes a fracas broke out between the Sheriff and some twenty strikers at the side of the road when he attempted to seize and arrest one of the men.(151) At this point the deputies aimed and fired directly into the ranks of the strikers. The exploding crescendo of Winchesters created a bloody massacre with the sound of shrieks and moaning of the dying and wounded lying in agony. One newspaper described the scene: ''It was a human slaughter in which men were mowed down like grain stalks before a scythe, by the deadly bullets which stormed for fully two minutes. The blood of the dead and dying soaked the dusty road and flowed in streams through the ditch."(152) The murderous volley created a human carnage taking the lives of nineteen immigrants and leaving thrity-eight wounded; eleven men died at Lattimer with the SLOVAKIA 33 remaining eight dying at the Hazleton Hospital. Dr. Keller, a physician at the hospital, stated that many of the victims were shot in the back.(153) What began a month earlier as a dispute between Gomer Jones and immigrant mule drivers grew into a serious strike finally ending as a sorrowful episode in American labor history. In the aftermath of this tragedy there were contradictory versions as to what actually happened. Sheriff Martin said the strikers were vicious, boisterous, a furious and desperate gang, fierce as wild beasts, threatening to physically harm or even kill him. He felt that they were bent on doing violence and had no intention of obeying his proclamation or the laws of Pennsylvania. Earlier at West Hazleton, Martin told the marchers that it was his duty to prevent them from interfering with the men who were working at the mines, and at Lattimer he went a step further to warn them that if they did not disperse there would be trouble.(154) When a Hungarian speaking in broken English told him, "Go to hell, you a---," (155) he sought to arrest the man who shouted the epithet. The men, excited, began assaulting him forcing him to draw his revolver in self defense and attempt to shoot an attacking man, but the gun failed to discharge. He claimed that two of his attackers had pistols and a third man with a knife sought to stab him. (156) In a letter written five weeks later explaining the event to Governor Hastings, Martin wrote the following description: "One high (sic) fellow gave me a blow on the cheek and knocked me on my knees. I would have been knocked down on my back, but the crowd was too close around me so that there was no room for me to get down, and while we were struggling I heard a shot followed closely by a second and then a number of shots together. Those who were attacking me were shot, and I was then unable to recover myself, and there is no doubt in my mind that if the deputies had not shot just when they did I would certainly have been killed. While I was struggling with part of the mob on one side of the road in the ditch where they had pushed me, the part on the other side of the road with a whoop and yell rushed on toward the deputies, who no doubt fearing that their lives were in danger and that I was to be killed, fired ... '' (157) On the day after the shooting, Martin gave several conflicting statements as to why the deputies shot the strikers. "I called to the deputies to discharge their firearms into the air over the heads of the strikers ... I then called upon the deputies to defend themselves and shoot if they must to protect their lives or to protect the property that they had been sent to guard from being demolished . . . I hated to give the command to shoot and was awfully sorry that I was compelled to do so. "(158) "I did not order the deputies to fire; someone else did that. I gave no order." (159) "The shooting commenced in a manner that baffles me completely when it comes to explaining."(160) A few days later in an interview Martin suggested that the cause of the shooting came from an impulse of his men to protect him: ''They saw me in the 34 SLOVAKIA midst of the strikers, with men aiming blows at me, and they supposed probably that my life was in danger."(161) The Sheriff's answers vacillated on how the shooting began, ranging from admitting that he gave the order to his deputies to fire their weapons to denying any knowledge of how the firing happened. Even among the deputies there was no satisfactory answer as to how the shooting commenced. The version of the confrontation by the strikers and bystanders differed from and challenged the assertions made by Sheriff Martin. According to the strikers, the Sheriff ordered them to halt and began to read his proclamation. The situation became disruptive when the Sheriff sought to arrest one of the marchers and get the others to disperse. One of the men told the Sheriff '' . . . we only want to move on peaceably ... "(162) Those in the rear of the column continued pressing forward and shouting '' go ahead,'' pushing the Sheriff and some of the men off to the side of the road. Whereupon, John Eagler reported that Martin flourished his revolver, '' ... grabbed one man by the arm, and, pointing the revolver at him, said, 'Did you tell them to go ahead?' The man said he had not spoken, and then the Sheriff grabbed another man and began to shove him about. 'You will say ''Go ahead," eh?' said the Sheriff, and at the same time he aimed the revolver squarely at the man's heart. The man naturally was frightened, and pushed the Sheriff's hand holding the revolver to one side. Whether or not the Sheriff considers that an attack or·not I don't know. I am positive that not a man hit the Sheriff."(163) An account from a bystander stated that Martin '' . . . became excited and ordered the deputies to shoot . . . " (164) A striker affirmed this point that the Sheriff gave the order to fire.(165) Another eye witness agreed that Martin's command was to fire but only a warning shot over the heads of the strikers.(166) Witnesses to the shooting pointed out there were no warning shots fired but told of excessive firing into the ranks of the strikers, deputies continuing to shoot after men ran for cover, and men shot down as far as 150 yards from where they were stopped by the Sheriff.(167) A Lattimer school teacher reported: "I saw men who had hidden behind trees and fences during the first fusillade leave their places of concealment only to be deliberately shot down."(168) The school house about three hundred yards distant from which the teacher saw the shooting was riddled with bullets. An area newspaper asserted: ''This would indicate that the strikers, fleeing by the shortest route to Hazleton across the hills, were shot at long after there was any danger to the deputies." (169) Strikers affirming this horror told of being targets as they ran for safety. A detached account by Henry Hoyt, United States Assistant Attorney General, based upon an investigation of the shooting made the following summation: ''It appeared that the strikers were unarmed; that small clubs which they had previously carried were thrown away on the march between West Hazleton and Lattimer; that they were peaceable and orderly in West SLOVAKIA 35 Hazleton and Lattimer; were not riotous at West Hazleton or Lattimer, and at neither place made an assault upon the Sheriff or his deputies, or offered any violence or used threatening language to them."(170) Martin confirmed Hoyt's account by stating, in response to a reporter's question, that the strikers until the time of the shooting had not committed any overt act nor behaved otherwise than peaceably. (171) The Lattimer tragedy resulted from a multiplicity of interrelated sources. Existing in the anthracite region were nativistic sentiments encompassing an attitude of disdain for Slavic and Italian immigrants; Anglo-Saxons looked upon the strikers as unwelcomed strangers who were inferiors and who could not possibly conform to accepted standards in society. In an interview a federal treasury official, who was familiar with Hazleton, affirmed this idea with his romantic (and distorted) depiction of an idyllic and bucolic setting disrupted by the intrusion of alien people who fostered hatred: ''I think when all the facts come out in regard to the shooting it will be found that the officers who did the shooting have covered a revenge of years under the wings of the law. I remember when twelve or fifteen years ago, the section around Hazleton was settled by hard-working and honest Irishmen, Welshmen, Englishmen, Germans, and Americans. They worked in the mines and did well. Many of them owned their own homes - pretty little cottages on the hillside, surrounded by outhouses for cattle and chickens, etc., and happiness seemed to smile on all. There were no strikes and the morality of the neighborhood was good. Then began to come in the Hungarians and the Poles and the class of foreigners, by accepting smaller wages, ran the others out. I knew several Irishmen who vowed they would not leave, but went away to other States, in many instances having to sell their little homes to pay their debts and to get away on. This naturally caused a bitter feeling, a feeling which exists to this day, and one which caused many vows of revenge. The houses once the property of prosperous Irishmen and Americans are now in filthy condition, occupied by two and three families of Hungarians and Poles. Instead of clean beds there are bunks ranged along the walls and as many as four people slept in a small room. In that band of deputies which encountered the marching miners a few days ago are many men who remembered the change from the scenes of years ago. Their hearts have been full of revenge. When the opportunity presented itself they seized it, with the horrible result too well known. They shot to kill, because their relatives and friends had been made paupers by these people. I do not approve of the shooting, but I believe the facts will reveal what I have stated." (172) These immigrant strikers represented a class of people outside the local structure, posed an economic threat to the interests of coal operators, and replaced Anglo-Saxons as the dominant mine workers. In contrast, the Sheriff's posse consisted of a class of people that was 36 SLOVAKIA diametrically opposite in nationality, place in society , and occupation. This dissimilarity in turn tended to heighten emotional responses. The strike increased the stresses of nativism. Passions grew in both contending groups; as workers sought to shut down the mines , the Sheriff and his deputies, under the pressure of coal companies , tried to prevent them from accomplishing their objective. A feeling of anxiety and tension grew in the community as the chances of an ugly confrontation between strikers and law officers became likely. Undoubtedly , the Sheriff and his men fully sensed this but realized the ramifications if they failed to prevent the strikers from closing down the mining operations at Lattimer. If unsuccessful, the chances of protecting the remaining mines from being closed down by the strikers would be slight. Combined with this pressure were frustrations in trying to quell the strikers' activities , tension and fatigue over the incident at West Hazleton, malicious attitudes toward the immigrants who were also labor agitators, and a glandular excitement capable of generating panic from a large group about to undergo another encounter with strikers . A maturation process among Slavic and Italian immigrants in the anthracite coal fields reached fruition when the strike broke out in the Lehigh region in the late summer of 1897. Having become the dominant group among the mine workers in the late 1890's, they asserted themselves by conceiving and initiating the strike . This decision resulted from the frustrating working conditions and discriminatory practices emanating from nativistic actions which combined to impose hardships and an inferior status . The culmination of these factors was the wellspring for discontent and dissatisfaction. At this time the United Mine Workers of America lacked strength to represent and protect the anthracite mine workers ' interest effectively and , in addition , generally showed little interest in including the new immigrants in their ranks or purview. Consequently, the only recourse for the immigrant workers was to take matters into their own hands to seek redress for grievances. As the strike developed, it lacked coherent strategies since it was unorganized, leaderless , and did not have benefit of an effective union structure to provide direction, articulation, and ability to successfully negotiate with the coal operators. (173) This point of inadequate experience and unfamiliarity in labor affairs made the strikers vulnerable to violence . Therefore, on that Friday afternoon as the immigrant strikers marched into Lattimer imbued with a spirit to win their strike, they came face to face with Sheriff Martin and his deputies equally committed to stopping them. It was as if for a moment, the recent social and economic history of the area had been centripetally compressed into a time capsule only to be exploded by indigenous divergent and incompatible forces . Catapulted into a deadly collision were two different worlds in conflict. The result was-violence, perpetrated by public peace keepers who were the instruments of coal SLOVAKIA 37 companies' strategy to break the strike . The effect was that Lattimer became the worst tragedy in American labor history in terms of the number of workers killed and wounded by public authorities, who were not provoked nor endangered and who attacked without warning unarmed strikers peacefully demonstrating on a public highway. FOOTNOTES (1) Wilkes-Barre Leader, September 11, 1897. (2) Letter from Henry Hoyt, Assistant Attorney-General, to William Day, Secretary of State, April 8, 1898; in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, with the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 6, 1898 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1901), 82-87. Hoyt' s letter stemmed from an investigation made by the Department of Justice for the Department of State concerning a diplomatic protest from the Austria-Hungary government over several of its nationals killed and wounded at Lattimer. A great deal of confusion and inaccuracy existed in newspaper accounts as to the number of casualities from the shooting; reports varied from fourteen to as many as fifty people killed. Hoyt based his figures upon grand jury murder indictments against Sheriff Martin and his deputies who were brought to trial on February 1, 1898, in Luzerne County but were found not guilty by the jury. (3) Daily Standard (Hazleton), September 11, 1897. (4) Wilkes-Barre Record, September 11, 1897. (5) Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897. (6) Daily Globe (South Bethlehem) , September 11, 1897. (7) St. Louis Post Dispatch, September 12, 1897. (8) San Francisco Chronicle, September 11, 1897. (9) Detroit Free Press, September 11, 1897. (10) Pittsburgh Dispatch, September 11, 1897. (11) Boston Daily Globe, September 11, 1897. (12) Wilkes-Barre Record, September 5, 1897. (13) Frank Julian Warne, The Slav Invasion and the Mine Workers : A Study in Immigration (Philadelphia: J . B. Lippincott Company, 1904) , 51 & 58 ; Frank Julian Warne, "Some Industrial Effects of Slav Immigration," Charities and the Commons, XIII (December 3, 1904), 223-224. (14) Rowland Berthoff, "The Social Order of the Anthracite Region , 1825-1902," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, LXXXIX (July 1965), 169-171; Charles B. Spahr, "America 's Working People," Outlook, Ll(Il (August 5, 1899) , 811. (15) Peter Roberts , " The Sclavs in Anthracite Coal Communities," Charities and the Commons, XIII (December 3, 1904) , 219. (16) Berthoff, 287; George 0 . Virtue, "The Anthracite Mine Laborers," Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor No. 13, (November, 1897) , 753. (17) Henry Edward Rood , "A Pennsylvania Colliery Village ," Century Magazine, XXXIII, new series, (April, 1898), 811. (18) Roberts , " The Sclavs in Anthracite Coal Communities," 221. (19) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Passed at the Session of 1895 (Harrisburg: Edwin K. Meyers State Printer, 1895), 643. (20) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Passed at the Session of 1897 (Harrisburg: Clarence M. Busch State Printer, 1897), 546. 38 SLOVAKIA (21) Frank Julian Warne, " Organized Labor in the Anthracite Coal Fields," Outlook, LXXI (May 24 , 1902), 273 . '' . . . The operators used them (immigrants) originally to introduce low wages ... " Wilkes-Barre Record, August 8, 1897. The attitude that immigrants were responsible for undermining native labor interests was prevalent in newspaper editorials. Mauch Chunk Coal Gazette, September 25, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 8, 1897; Weekly Herald (Shenandoah), September 18, 1897; Sullivan Review, September 16, 1897 ; Detroit Free Press, September 12, 1897; Pittsburgh Post, September 15, 1897. (22) Pottsville Republican, September 20, 1897. The laborer who assisted the contract miner was not employed by the coal operator but by the miner. Nearly eighty percent of the mine laborers in the Lehigh region worked under the contract system. Frank Julian Warne , " The Anthracite Coal Strike, " Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, XVII (January, 1901), 32-33 . (23) Rood, 815. (24) Frank Julian Warne , " The Effect of Unionism Upon the Mine Worker," Annuals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, XXI (January , 1903) , 23-24; Rood, 815; Virtue, 753 . (25) Victor R. Greene, The Slavic Community on Strike: Immigrant Labor in Pennsylvania Anthracite (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968), 86-87 ; Berthoff, 272-273 ; Virtue , 753 . (26) Spahr, 8ll ; Warne, " The Effect of Unionism Upon the Mine Worker," 31-32 ; Roberts, "The Sclavs in Anthracite Coal Communities, " 218 . (27) Harold W. Aurand , From the Molly Maguires to the United Mine Workers: The Social Ecology of an Industrial Union, 1869-1897 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press , 1971) , 136. (28) Berthoff, 273 . (29) Warne , " The Effect of Unionism Upon the Mine Worker, " 21; Berthoff, 268. (30) Alexander Trachtenberg, The History of Legislation for the Protection of Coal Miners in Pennsylvania, 1824-1915 (New York: International Publishers, 1942) , 134135. (31) Ibid., 135-136; Frank Julian Warne, The Slav Invasion and the Mine Workers, 88 . (32) Pennsylvania Legislative Record for the Sessions of 1889, Vol. I, Harrisburg: Clarence M. Busch State Printer, 1889) , 1529. (33) Virtue, 768; Greene, ll 7-ll8 ; Pottsville Republican, June 15, 1897 . (34) Pennsylvania Legislative Record for the Session of 1889, Vol. I, 1236. (35) Ibid. (36) United Mine Workers Journal, October 22, 1896, 1. (37) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Passed at the Session of 1897, 289. (38) UMW Journal, August 12, 1897, 7. (39) Daily Standard, August 28, 1897. (40) Warne , Th e Slav Invasion and the Mine Workers, 88. (41) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Passed at the Ses sion of 1897, 135-136. The bill passed the House and Senate by votes of 126 to 12 and 28 to 3 respectively . Pennsylvania Legislative Record for the Session of 1897, Vol. I, (Harrisburg: Clarence M. Busch State Printer, 1897), 1069 & 2418 . There were attempts in the House to make the tax five cents a day. Ibid., 2418 (42) Ibid., 2292 . (43) Ibid., 2217 . SLOVAKIA 39 (44) UMW Journal, July 1, 1897, 1. (45) Fraser v. McConway & Torley Co., 82 The Federal Reporter 259 (1897) . (46) Pennsylvania Legislative Record for the Session of 1897, Vol. I, 2217. (47) Wilkes-Barre Record, August 26 & 28, 1897. (48) Peter Roberts, Anthracite Coal Communities: A Study of the Demography, The Social, Educational and Moral Life of the Anthracite Region (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1904), 44-45 . (49) Wilkes-Barre Record, September 28, 1897. (50) " Legislative Investigating Committee Report on Conditions Existing Among the Miners and Those Employed in and About the Mines in the Anthracite Coal Regions ," Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the Session Begun at Harrisburg, on the Fifth Day of January, 1897 (Harrisburg: Wm. Stanley Ray State Printer, 1897), Il, 1824-1842. (51) R eports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, 1896 (Harrisburg: Clarence M. Busch State Printer, 1897), xvi-xvii . (52) Ibid., xvii; "Legislative Investigating Committee Report," 1839. (53) Reports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, 1896, 170-172. (54) "The Association Letter," Anthracite Coal Operators Association, September, 1897, 2. (55) John Graham Brooks, " An Impression of the Anthracite Coal Troubles," Yale Review, VI (November, 1897), 307. (56) "Legislative Investigating Committee Report, " 1826. (57) Virtue, 756 . (58) Ibid., 757-58; "The Association Letter," 14-15; "The Marketing of Small Sizes of Anthracite," The Colliery Engineer, XVIl (June, 1897), 490. (59) The Reports of Committees of the House of Representatives for the Second Session of the Fiftieth Congress, 1888-89, Vol. IV (Washington: U.S . Government Printing Office, 1889) , lxxix . (60) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Passed at the Session of 1891 (Harrisburg: Edwin K. Meyers State Printer, 1891), 256-57 . (61) Peter Roberts , Anthracite Coal Industry (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1901), 136. (62) Ibid., 138. (63) "Company Store Legislation," The Colliery Engineer, XVIl (April, 1897) , 395. (64) Pottsville Republican, September 2, 1897. (65) Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 2, 1897. (66) Virtue, 760 ; " Legislative Investigating Committee Report," 1839. (67) UMW Journal, January 14 , 1897, 5; Ibid., October 22, 1896, l; Wilkes-Barre Record, December 25, 1896; Pottsville Republican, September 20, 1897 . Fahy launched a campaign in the anthracite region to secure public contributions to support the United Mine Workers of America lobbying activities to abolish the company store. The Pennsylvania Legislature, reflecting an increased awareness of labor interests, responded and passed a bill in July, 1897 , placing a ten percent tax upon the face value of all types of certificates or the equivalent issued in lieu of legal tender for employees' wages . This measure would have severely crippled the operation of company stores; however, Governor Hastings vetoed the legislation on the ground that it violated the state constitution. George Edward Reed, ed., Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. Xll, 4th ser., (Harrisburg: Wm . Stanley Ray State Printer, 1902), 150-54. 40 SLOVAKIA (68) Daily Standard, August 31 & September 8, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 2 & 13, 1897; Wilkes-Barre Record, September 4, 1897; Report to the President of the Anthracite Coal Strike of May-October, 1902 by the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission (Washington : U.S . Government Printing Office , 1903), 144 . The above source contained information regarding the strikers' demands made to the G. B. Markle & Company in the 1897 strike. (69) Daily Standard, September 6 & 8, 1897; Spahr, 810 . (70) Ibid.; Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28 , 1897 ; The Reports of Committees of the Hous e ... Fiftieth Congress, lxxxi. (71) Berthoff, 286. If all the miners in the fifth district (Lehigh region) had turned in their empty powder kegs in 1896, they would have raised $10 ,028.30 . Reports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, 1896, 173. (72) Robe rts , Anthracite Coal Communities, 259, 262-263. (73) Report of the Industrial Commission of the Relations and Conditions of Capital and Labor in the Mining Industry Including Testimony, Review of Evidence, and Topical Digest, Vol. XIl (Washington : U.S. Government Printing Office , 1901), 142 . (74) Robe rts, Anthracite Coal Industry, 133-134. (75) Daily Standard, September 6, 8 & 9, 1897; Wilkes-Barre Record, September 7, 1897; Report to the President of the Anthracite Coal Strike, 144. (76) Daily Standard, September 9, 1897; Spahr, 810; Report of the Industrial Commission, 142. (77) Computation based on 5,754 miners and laborers in the fifth anthracite district and the use of 100,283 kegs of blasting powder. Reports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, 1896, 173 & 176. (78) Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Passed at the Session of 1891, 96-97. (79) Pottsville Republican, September 20, 1897. (80) " Legislative Investigating Committee Report," 1830. (81) UMW Journal, Ocotber 22, 1896, 1. (82) Report of the Industrial Commission, 143. (83) UMW Journal, November 25, 1897, 2; Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897. (84) Wilkes-Barre Record, September 15, 1897. (85) Ibid.; Daily Standard, August 17, 1897. In the Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre newspapers there appeared an account of an interview with an unnamed individual defending Jones ' superintendency . Acknowledging that Jones may have made some mistakes, the source indicated that the workers' discontent really stemmed from the decisions made by the preceeding superintendent or from orders issued by higher company officials . ''He is charged with being a tyrant, and in reference to this it may be said that each foreman has full charge of all employees working under him . But Jones is among the first men about the works in the morning and among the last to leave at night, and because he attends strictly to business he is called a tyrant by men who want ten hours pay for less than ten hours of work.'' Wilkes-Barre Times, August 27, 1897. (86) Ibid., August 16, 1897. Gomer Jones was arrested later on a complaint by John Bodan on the charge of aggravated assault. Ibid., August 18, 1897. (87)lbid. , August 16, 1897 . (88) Ibid. , August 17, 1897 . (89) Ibid. , August 18, 1897. (90) Ibid. , August 20, 1897 . SLOVAKIA 41 (91) Ibid. , August 21, 1897. (92) Ibid. (93) Ibid., August 28, 30 & September 1, 1897; Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28, 1897. (94) Ibid., September 3, 1897. (95) Ibid., September 3 & 4, 1897; Daily Standard, August 28, September 4, 6 & 8, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 3, 1897 . (96) Ibid. , August 28, 1897; Daily Standard, August 28, 1897; Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28 , 1897. (97) Ibid. , August 30, 1897 . (98) Ibid., August 31, 1897. (99) Wilkes-Barre Leader, September 3, 1897. (100) Daily Standard, September 4, 1897. (101) Ibid, ; Pottsville Republican, September 2, 1897; Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28 & 30, 1897. (102) Ibid. , September 4 & 6, 1897. (103) Daily Standard, September 6, 1897. (104) Wilkes-Barre Record, September 4, 1897. (105) Daily Standard, September 4, 1897. A. S. Van Wickle Company operated independently of the other coal companies, provided their employees more work, and were regarded with greater esteem and confidence in the community. Wilkes-Barre Record, January 22, 1897 . (106) Letter from James Martin to Daniel H. Hastings, Governor of Pennsylvania, October 18, 1897 , Governor Hastings Papers, MG-145, Box 18, Division of Archives and Manuscripts of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. (107) Ibid. (108) R eco rd of the Times (Wilkes-Barre), March 4, 1898. (109) New York World, February 13, 1898; Dollar Weekly News-Dealer (Wilkes-Barre), September 18, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 23 , 1898 ; Pennsylvania, Department of State, Commission Bureau, "Policemen, 1889-1912," 346; Hazle Township and Hazleton City, "Real Estate Tax Assessment Books for 1896 and 1897 ,'' Office of the Board for the Assessment and Revision of Taxes , Luzerne County Courthouse, Wilkes-Barre , Pennsylvania . (110) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898; Daily Standard, September 7, 1897. (111) Record of the Times, March 4, 1897. (112) Daily Standard, October 21, 1897. A review of the annual financial report of the Comptroller for Luzerne County revealed that there were no payments from county funds for the services of the deputies at Hazleton , supporting the conclusion that the coal operators paid the deputies' salaries. Wilkes-Barre Record, January 23, 1898. (113) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898. (114) Daily Standard, September 9, 1898. (115) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898. (116) Martin to Hastings, October 18, 1897 . (118) Ibid. (119) Ibid. , September 9, 1897. (120) Ibid. , September 10, 1897 . (121) Ibid., September 9, 1897. 42 SLOVAKIA (122) Ibid., September 8, 1897; Hazleton Sentinel, September 3, 1897; Spahr, 808. (123) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898. (124) Daily Standard, September 11, 1897. (125) Record of the Times, February 8, 1898; Hoyt to Day, April 8, 1898. (126) Record of the Times, February 11, 1898. (127) Ibid. , March 4, 1898. (128) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898. (129) Martin to Hastings, October 18, 1897 . (130) Ibid. (131) Record of the Times, February 8, 1898. (132) Ibid. (133) Ibid. (134) Ibid., February 18, 1898. (135) Ibid., February 11, 1898. (136) Ibid., February 15, 1898. (137) Ibid., February 11, 1898. (138) Ibid., February 8, 1898. (139) Ibid., February 11, 1898. (140) New York World, September 12, 1898. "Whether deserved or not, Sheriff Martin, of Luzerne county, it is alleged, entertains an unquestionable hatred for the foreign element." Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897. (141) Record of the Times, February 8, 1898. (142) Ibid., September 11, 1897. (143) Wilkes-Barre Leader, September 13, 1897. (144) Easton Free Press, September 13, 1897. (145) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 12, 1897. (146) Martin to Hastings , October 18, 1897. (147) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 12, 1897. (148) Record of the Times, February 28, 1898; Easton Free Press, September 11, 1897. (149) Martin to Hastings , October 18, 1897. (150) Ibid. (151) Daily Standard, September 11, 1897. (152) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1897. (153) Hoyt to Day, April 8, 1898; Evening Bulletin (Philadelphia), September 11, 1897; Record of the Times, February 8, 1898; Philadelphia Inquirer, September 12, 1897. (154) Ibid., September 11, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 11 , 1897; WilkesBarre Record, September 11, 1897 . (155) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1897. (156) Record of the Times, March 4, 1898. (157) Martin to Hastings, October 18, 1897. (158) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1897. (159) Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897 . (160) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11 , 1897. SLOVAKIA 43 (161) Pottsville Republican, September 14, 1897. (162) Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1897. (163) Evening Bulletin, September 13, 1897. (164) Daily Standard, September 11, 1897. (165) Record of the Times, February 22, 1897. (166) Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897. (167) Record of the Times, February 11 & 15, 1898; Daily Standard, September 11, 1897; "Some of the guns were loaded with shells containing a lot of No.8 shot, which scattered with deadliest effect, and others had the plain bullets of heavy bore. The manner in which the victims were tom up looked as though they had been before gatling guns or on a field of where grape and canister were poured from cannon mouths." Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1897. (168) Easton Free Press, September 11, 1897. (169) Wilkes-Barre Sunday Morning Leader, September 12, 1897. (170) Hoyt to Day, April 8, 1898. (171) Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1897. (172) New York Tribune, September 15, 1897. (173) Report of the Industrial Commission, 139-140; Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28 & September 5, 1897; Pottsville Republican, September 2, 1897; Daily Standard, September 4, 1897. When news of the Lattimer shooting spread through the coal fields surrounding Hazleton, the scope of the strike immediately enlarged involving some 10,000 mine employees and idling nineteen of the thirty-three area collieries. Strikers were unwilling to return to work during the following week when funerals for victims were held; they further refused to end their work stoppage until the coal operators met their grievances, mainly an increase in wages. The strike began to wane on September 20 when the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company agreed to grant a ten percent wage increase to mine laborers, pay six to eight cents more per car of coal to miners, and seek solutions to workers' complaints. Only two companies, Lehigh Valley Coal Company and C. Pardee and Company, had not reached a settlement by the end of the second week after the Lattimer shooting but by the end of September they both made an agreement similar to the other coal operators which finally brought an end to the Lehigh coal strike of 1897. Pennsylvania, Official Documents of 1897 (Harrisburg: Wm. Stanley Ray State Printer, 1899), ill, 124 Scranton Times, September 21, 1897; Daily Standard, September 21 & 24, 1897; UMW Journal, November 18, 1897, 3. 44 SLOVAKIA The Lattimer Massacre KON STANTIN CULEN A tragic event that occurred in September 1897 struck at the heart of Slovak American life with such telling impact that it served to solidify the Slovak immigrants in the United States into one unified body more effectively than had any previous experience in their new world. This event greatly furthered that awareness of a need for unity that began to crystallize under the pressures to which they had been subjected in their homeland Slovakia. In American history as well as in the record of early SlovakAmerican history this event is known as the Lattimer slaughter or the Lattimer massacre. The setting was the mining region around Hazleton, Pennsylvania. It was an area that had long seethed with the discontent and the restiveness of the men who were employed in the mines . Mine management groups had long bled their workers white, extracting the very marrow out of their bones . The companies paid out pauper wages, cheated the workmen on their weight checks, overcharged prices for foods and daily necessities that were sold through company stores. Scores of mining catastrophes underscored the obvious inadequacy of safety measures that existed to protect the men in their dangerous work in deep underground pits. Miners in Hazleton had declared a strike but nearby mines in neighboring communities continued to operate at practically full strength. Some casual talk was heard from time to time to the effect that the Hazleton operators were planning to bring in scabs in the near future. Union leaders realized that their Hazleton strike would lose all effectiveness unless the miners of the entire locality would join forces in one concerted resistance movement, supporting the Hazleton effort and pressing common demands for improved conditions and benefits. On September 10, 1897 a sizable group of Slovak and Polish miners who were on strike set out for the small mining settlement of Lattimer. In subsequent investigations during the trial they testified that they were on their way there because the Lattimer workers had sent them word that they decided to join the strike movement. The group of striking miners had hardly left Hazleton when Sheriff Martin with a company of about a hundred men from the supporting police force (so-called deputies) anticipated their movement and went An excerpt from Konstantin Culen's two-volume History of the Slovaks in America. (Bratislava, Slovenska Liga , 1942) vol. 1, Part XI , no . 5-9, pp. 162-176. Translated by Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. SLOVAKIA 45 on ahead of them riding the trolley lines. On reaching Lattimer, he assigned his force of deputies to various positions and then he moved several paces forward, addressing the group marching in on foot, to read a restraining order that forbade any gathering or assemblage of persons by provision ordinance dealing with uprising and rebellion. During the reading of this ordinance, a few strikers came closer to the sheriff and there was some minor verbal exchange. The miners objected that they were not disturbers of the public peace or revolutionaries of any kind; they were simply orderly and law-abiding citizens peacefully going along their way . This reaction so exasperated the sheriff that he reached out and snatched away a small American flag that one of the men was carrying, tore it up, pulled out his revolver and began to shoot. After he had drawn his trigger five times, his sixth shot struck a miner in the chest and hurled him to the ground. After the sheriff's outburst of fire, there was the sound of volleys from the deputies. The unarmed miners turned and fled in panic, trying to find safety or protection of some kind. The brutal frontal attack lasted but a few moments but the deputies continued to fire upon the fleeing miners so that practically all of them were struck and wounded in flight.(1) The deputies who were charged with excitement by this time, further assaulted the bleeding victims by beating them and kicking them cruelly as they lay helpless on the ground. A shot or a volley of shots can seem to be an effective argument at a given moment but usually its effectiveness wears off after a brief time. And shots or salvos of shots fail to carry conviction. This was brought out in the Lattimer situation. The Slovak colony found itself in a state of shock, standing inconsolate beside the corpses of the fallen men. It was all too clear to these newcomers now - if it had not been clear to them before - that every Slovak had to be very realistically a brother to a fellow-Slovak, that every Slovak would have to be the most reliable standby and defense of a fellow-Slovak. Anything less than that would serve to reduce them to the debasing circumstance of being mere henchmen and convenient tools of foreign overlords and exploiters. This extravagant bloodletting and bizarre butchering under unprovoked and non-violent circumstances evoked considerable humane reaction in the American press. The attitudes of American journalists were not all of a kind. Some reporters and editors were incensed over the needless killings and brutality. Some wrote with a sense of relief that the incident involved only "Hunkies" - the generic designation that most newspapers used for every newcomer from Austria-Hungary. News of this lamentable event spread to all the Slovak settlers scattered throughout the United States and set off a degree of outrage and consternation that no other experience had yet caused in SlovakAmerican life. Those who had been faction-torn or at odds for whatever 46 SLOVAKIA reasons , were at once moved to conciliation and unity through their common grief at the graveside of the murdered men. Slovak Ame rican journalists who had been indulging personal and non-personal bouts of polemics in their papers left all that trivia now that a common cause evolved out of this catastrophe , and a vigorous new spirit infused their energies and talents. They reacted with a sense of unity and resolute will not only to moderate the mounting resentment and growing agitation that could have been fanned to unreasonable and uncontrollable proportions but to divert effort and attention to an altruistic purpose on behalf of aiding and befriending the widowed and orphaned survivors . Slovak American journalists also undertook a determined program to secure in the free world of America that measure of civic dignity and security that would make it impossible for such brutal disregard of the human right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ever to be repeated and condoned again . The press came out strongly with appeals for at least financial compensation to the bereaved widows and orphans and demanded that punitive justice be dealt the incriminated sheriff. The general feeling was that the just process of law and suitable sentencing should act as a deterrent to any possible repetition of the horrible incident. The whole body of Slovak immigrant life in America reacted with a corporate cry of pain and a strong appeal protesting the inhumanity of the Lattimer episode. New York, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, all made their voices heard as did lesser towns and even the lowly scattered hamlet settlements in America where Slovaks nursed the pain of this tragic hurt . Countless gatherings and demonstrations attracted thousands of Slovak laborers to review and assess the factors involved and the consequences of this catastrophe. Numberless formal discussions and rallies were climaxed with the drawing up of appropriate protest resolutions. All Slovak-American centers participated in drives to aid the victimized survivors of the callous murder, and there were also spirited fund-raising campaigns for legal expenses and court costs to bring Sheriff Martin to justice, for the prevailing view was that he should be made to pay for his crime, for his responsibility in leading and abetting reprehensible action . A committee for this express purpose was organized in Hazleton, holding itself charged to set in motion whatever action might be called for and to pursue the cause to its end. The September 16, 1897 issue (738) of the Amerikansko-Slovenske noviny appeared with a banner headline whose bold-faced lettering read: "Massacre of Slavs . In the freest country under the sun , people are shot at like dogs. Slavs are the victims of American savagery." Editor Pucher Ciernovodsky designated September 10 the bloody Friday of Slovak national life. His report seemed to be written with a pen dipped in blood. He denounced the attacking party and he did not spare the Slovaks themselves , finding them culpable of that lack of SLOVAKIA 47 interest in public affairs that could have contributed significantly to the culmination of this public scandal. Some of Pucher Ciernovodsky' s thoughts were: ' 'The mountainsides of Hazleton are drenched with Slovak blood, and pitiable orphans and widows, fathers and mothers, brothers and friends raise eyes brimming with bitter tears to heaven pleading, 0 God , is there justice in this life? If there is justice on this earth of ours, did our blood truly deserve this spilling? Who in this world is committed to greater drudgery than we? Who in this world is engaged in a work that is more dangerous than ours? ' 'When we are driven to extremes of misery because hunger and want have sapped our strength and our bodies are bone-weary from overwork, and when our famished and shabbily clothed children ask for food that we cannot provide for them , and we go to discuss our problems and try to come together for deliberations in an effort to arrive at some reasonable solutions, how to go about unsnarling this sad fate that so embitters our lives - what kind of law is it, what kind of justice and fairness is it - or is it our miserable doom that we should be shot at like dogs? Ah, America, America ... ''It is indeed a curious America. When the Turks set upon the Armenians, every full-blooded American protested and vehemently shouted his willingness to join a fighting force to check the Turks. And yet here and now when it comes to bringing to justice those who similarly violated the rights of Slavs in America, they do all in their power to prevent the guilty from being brought to legitimate trial. Reams have been written and volumes have been mouthed condemning the cruelties of the Spanish in Cuba. There was universal recrimination against the injustices inflicted upon the oppressed Cubans, yet journalists have scant syllables of tenderness or sympathy for our people who were felled by wanton gunshot in a manner more senseless and inhuman than any attack of the Spanish upon the Cubans . The Cubans at least had defense weapons but our people were shot unarmed, shot like animals . ''This grieves us unspeakably. '' And, in the last analysis, who is most responsible for all this? "We ourselves must hold ourselves responsible. "A Slav does not support a fellow-Slav. We have no mutual bonds of unity, no fellowship at all, no commonly shared activities. We cultivate none. We fail to get along amicably. Instead, we seem to make sport of baiting one another, and we lack even that zest for life that long ago should have whipped us into a common front to denounce the maligning that the American press released against us and to protest the discrimination and injustice imposed upon foreigners by the threecent-tax. If other ethnic groups had not taken the initiative , we would have let them dance on our heads . 48 SLOVAKIA ' ' What can the American public think about such men? It would not be surprising if they rated us cowardly, worthless, less than the Indians, and so deserving a fate no better than that of the Indians. "We give too little consideration to matters like citizenship, legal rights and civil rights or public opinion. No wonder, then, that public opinion shows no concern about us, has no regard for us . ''If public opinion had any respect for us, then those deputies and the sheriff who were involved in the Lattimer affair would not have allowed themselves to perpetrate such an act of sheer barbarism. Whatever the circumstances, whether there was any excuse or not for a collective attack with Winchester rifles, at least this truth remains that if we were not a subservient people they would not have kept firing at our fleeing men from behind. "The catchword of people like our attackers, is "Shoot the Hungarian dog! ' ' Why? Because we do not make the effort to have our own recognized defense and defenders , our own qualified men who are in touch with the pulse of political life and current trends , men qualified to speak out on our behalf. We ourselves all too readily and regrettably belittle our own ; we tend to regard with disfavor and lack of recognition those of us who have gifts of leadership; we begrudge them opportunities , cut them down and deny them a chance to develop their potential. "In the end we suffer for it collectively. It is true that there are officials whose duty it is to defend our people because they were appointed and authorized to do so, and they are salaried to execute this office , but they seem to be wrapped in safe slumber. They are our Austro-Hungarian consuls. " Just what did these officials, these Austro-Hungarian consuls do for us in previous strike situations? Exactly nothing. " On the other hand , how did the Italian consuls react when their Italian countrymen were being lynched in New Orleans? The furor that was generated on that occasion almost incited a war with the United States, and an indemnity of five thousand dollars had to be paid for every victim. ' 'It is our reasoned judgment that the Hazleton bloodshed is far more criminal than was the New Orleans lynching and it is the patent duty of the Austro-Hungarian government to make honorable and serious intervention on our behalf. "Since those who were shot to death were citizens of the United States , we have no alternative but to organize our effort in order to bring the whole affair to an exhaustive investigation and to the due process of justice. The burden of responsibility in this matter rests primarily with our Slavic organizations which, in every respect, bear the characteristics of American organizational structure. And their responsibility for such action is all the more binding if any of their members happened to be among the victims, if they were members of SLOVAKIA 49 the National Slovak Society, the First Catholic Slovak Union (Jednota), the Greek Catholic society Sojedinenie, the Pennsylvania Slovak Union, Sojus, etc. Let these organizations set in motion the wheels that will bring about necessary lawsuits; let them underwrite out of their treasuries or raise funds in some way to cover related expenses, and let their united effort and combined strength prove that they truly have the good name and the best interests of all Slavic ethnics at heart. Let me presume to say that this Bartholomew night should serve as a Sturrnistic symbol effecting concerted and wholehearted cooperation. ''If this soul-shaking experience fails to jolt us out of our morbid lethargy, we ought to raise a memorial cross as a marker for our nation and our spirit of patriotism and declare that we buried it all on that bloody Friday in Hazleton.'' (2) Because of this massacre a violent disturbance broke out among the Slovak and Polish miners. Governor Hastings declared a state of emergency in Hazleton and dispatched 2,500 troops to move in and control the problem. Security measures that the governor ordered for the Hazleton area were very extensive and elaborate, involving the outlay of $475 ,000 - a very large sum in those days. The whole countryside seethed and repercussions were witnessed far and wide. The American press took sides with Sheriff Martin, generally arguing (as if it were a valid objection) that the slain men were not even American citizens. The press of the ethnic groups and those who supported the cause of the miners countered this attitude with the historically substantiated observation that neither were Pulaski, Kosciusko and some other heroes of the American War for Independence official citizens of the United States. They came to fight for freedom in a land that was alien to them because liberty and freedom are nowhere in the world foreign commodities to any human being. Freedom is the prerogative of every person and we are all entitled to our share of this gift. In the hour of our country's struggle for freedom, every able volunteer was welcome to share in the battle and in the pain to win it. Now that the fruits of liberty should be portioned out to all and denied to none in a free land, it is glibly said that freedom is our privilege - you are existentially in the land of liberty but you are not a free man. On September 11 the miners held an open air protest rally in Hazleton. Father Stas, pastor of St. John Nepomucene Roman Catholic church in Freeland, spoke on behalf of the Slovak minority. He spoke out strongly and fearlessly against a freedom that countenances the murder of defenseless people. Some of the other speakers on this occasion were Reverend R. Aust of Hazleton who represented the Poles, Reverend Gullovic, Reverend Hauser, attorney John Shea of Wilkes-Barre and J . Fahy, president of the United Mine Workers. A gathering of over 4,000 Slovak and Polish mine workers resolved to 50 SLOVAKIA defend their rights, determined to make Sheriff Martin stand trial for this wanton bloodletting. The victims of the disaster were buried on September 12 as huge throngs converged upon the area for the occasion. This Lattimer massacre affected much of America. On September 15, the Slovaks and the Poles of the New York region held a mass demonstration at which they made it clear that the issue at stake was in no way related to religious affiliation or nationality roots or fratemalism of one kind or another. Their main concern was the general welfare of the American working class and fundamental civil rights for all. They appealed for unanimity and single-mindedness of purpose among them all - the Slovaks, Poles, Hungarians and English. A resolution which they formulated on this occasion includes these sentiments: · 'Profoundly affected by the catastrophe that occurred in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, in a free country, the republic of the United States of North America, where on September 10 eighteen men who were Slavs and Slovaks were shot to death and about forty others were wounded by a sheriff's posse as these men peaceably and with no ill intent went their way on a public street, aware of the provision of the Constitution of the United States which guarantees every citizen freedom of speech, freedom of opinion and belief, and the right of assemblage, all of which this country esteems and safeguards as sacred civil rights. ' ' Aware that the action of Sheriff Martin and his party was wholly unlawful and totally uncalled for - for it has been proved that the workmen who were en route to their predetermined destination had neither arms nor foul purpose, and he had not even tried to inform them of his rights and their duties - we, on this basis, as American citizens, as workingmen, as Slavs by accident of birth, do most emphatically denounce and condemn this criminal act. We express our profound sympathy to the bereaved families of the unfortunate victims even as we invoke the widely esteemed American regard for justice, urging that formal action be taken to bring to trial those who are considered blameworthy and to have them face their responsibility by due process of law and in this way to effect moral satisfaction to our nation and material compensation to the survivors of the victim families; ' 'We further resolve that to the full extent of our ability and means we will morally and materially offer our assistance to the unfortunately bereaved and we will exert all our power and prestige to have bloodthirsty criminals bear the just punishment which their conduct deserves; "We finally resolve that copies of this resolution be sent to the governor of the state of Pennsylvania and to the district attorney of Luzerne County, and that it be published in all newspapers; we also urge the editors of our Slovak publications to appeal to our people to SLOVAKIA 51 support this action wholeheartedly with liberal contributions in an effort to redeem and justify the much maligned name and rights of the Slovaks who find it inevitable to undertake a distasteful reckoning with narrow-minded nativists." (3) A spirited call was made in the press for attendance at a protest gathering scheduled for September 20 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania "at which resolutions will be formulated denouncing the action of Sheriff Martin who is responsible for the shooting-death of so many blameless Slovaks . English, Slovak, Polish, Croatian and various other speakers will address those present." Protest and denunciation were voiced from all parts of the nation where there were fellow nationals of the slain miners . Dr. Theodorovic, who represented the office of the Austro-Hungarian consul, came to Hazleton for a personal assessment of the massacre and related factors. Slovak and Polish groups initiated drives throughout the United States in order to raise funds for promoting an equitable trial that would yield at least fair compensations where they were due, and just penalties for Sheriff Martin and his henchmen, all within the framework of jurisprudence and with a deterrent impact against similar injustice. One outcome of this effort was the organization of "the National Fair Trial and Beneficial Committee on Behalf of the Lattimer Victims. " This committee published a public statement and an appeal which was carried in all the current newspapers. It read in part: '' The underlings who are in the employ of corporations and share a thirst for liquidating their fellow-citizens are largely the lackeys and hacks of their bosses, all murderously eager to carry out every order from the top. The incident did not arise out of any disturbance of the peace by those guiltless men who were so brutally victimized; there was no intent to transgress law or ordinance; they carried no firearms , no clubs or flails. Workingmen were simply on a mission of their own, marching along the street to meet some fellow-workers from the same mining company in order to discuss a sharing of views and attitudes and to build moral support in a common cause. ''The Declaration of Independence in this land proclaims that all men are created free and equal. Somehow these hirelings felt that the life of an alien is not worth even as much as the life of a slave. Apparently they were led to believe that their killing of such people and under such circumstances would be universally approved by the press and by public opinion. '' It is well known that Americans endorse the principle of fair play. When poor workmen, unarmed victims, were so foully gunned down in cold blood, not only this land but all the civilized world was appalled by the atrocity. The Constitution of the United States provides for the right of peaceful assembly. Have these words meaning or force in the light of bullets and bayonets? We hold that every individual who participated in the shooting on that ill-fated day in Lattimer overstepped his rights 52 SLOVAKIA and violated the law. We hold that their act was nothing short of criminal, inhuman and unspeakable butchery. "We make this appeal and protest in the name of those who were wounded and as representatives of those who are the bereaved survivors in the families of the slain victims. Our committee has been organized in order to provide counsel and to call witnesses and to take care of whatever else may be necessary to bring Sheriff Martin and his deputies to face indictment and to stand trial according to the full force of our country's laws. ''We act on the principle that this struggle of ours is your struggle as well as ours and on the assumption that you are friends of the workingman who is often taken advantage of. If these people whom we desire to bring to an accounting are let go free and without making retribution for the killing of our countrymen, who knows what further fate can await us in the future? "Reverend Richard Aust, president; John Nemeth, treasurer; Loughran, secretary; Reverend John Stas, Salvator di Sandola, Nicholas Ballok, Matthews Long, John Kuntz, Charles Hauser, Edmund Lemhick, Reverend J. Formanek, Frank Kozlovski, George Kozarovich. '' Samuel Gompers, president of the Federation of Labor, visited the scene and made some observations about the cheap labor of the Poles, Slovaks and Italians whom the coal barons were importing into America in order to squeeze out the '' intelligent Irish and Welsh laborers.' ' Even before the sentencing, Gompers as president of the workers' union said, ''It is my opinion that the sheriff and his deputies will be acquitted in order to teach 'those foreigners' a lesson to behave differently in the future. ' 'Posterity will rate the Lattimer killings as nothing but massacre of a kind that has no equal in the history of civilized peoples, and the consciences of the perpetrators of this act will accuse and torment them to their last day. And even though monopolies and monopolists may succeed in achieving their victory, such slaughter must some day come to an end; truth will be victorious and all people will enjoy the fulness of their sacred rights - all people, whether they be of the common working class or the favored moneyed class of mine owners. "The laborers .of our country are moving toward better and stronger organization day by day, and the citizens at large are grasping a much better and a truer concept of the rights and obligations of individuals. When that day of ultimate realization does arrive, the account of the Lattimer murders will have been written in our history in letters of blood and this notorious crime will be looked upon as the most atrocious and vile offense of the nineteenth century.'' The trial of Sheriff Martin and his associates opened on February 1, 1898. The place of trial was the Luzerne County Court in WilkesBarre. Adherents of both the prosecution and the defense followed SLOVAKIA 53 developments with undivided attention and intense feeling. Sheriff Martin had the support of all the major coal corporations , top officialdom and capitalism . The plaintiffs were backed by the laboring masses. In the process of jury se lection , Judge Staley Woodward saw to it that only American-born citizens were seated as jurors . There was never any doubt that the se lected jury panel was unanimous in its antipathy for foreigners . Judge Woodward ascertained from sworn testimony that the striking miners had created no public disorder or disturbance during their march , that they were completely unarmed, that Sheriff Martin had stopped them and insolently ordered them to turn back , that the miners were not incline d to obey but had objected that they had every right to use a public street. Further testimony indicated that the sheriff challenged the leader of the marching group, gave the order to fire and that he himself fired the first shot , striking the leader of the marching miners in the chest as additional volleys were turned upon the men who began to run for shelter . The City Trust Safe Deposit and Surety Company of Philadelphia supplied bail for the indicted to the amount of $256 ,000 . The press seldom missed an opportunity to belittle the foreign element and to overstate their shortcomings and least desirable traits - almost as if bad traits and undesirable characteristics were exclusively theirs. The presiding judge at the trial was Judge Woodward. He was related to the owner of the mines where strikes were beginning to be staged. He was also a shareholder in these mines. There was not a single Slav among the twelve jurors, most of whom were farmers, men who could hardly have firsthand knowledge of mining conditions and the situations that had justified the strike movement. They were not at all familiar with such matters as fair working conditions, e quitable pay, safety m easures, etc. A writer in one of the current publications observed, ' 'These are the names of the men in whose hands rests the power of passing a verdict that will tell the world whether anyone in this civilized country - even if he be the highest official of a particular country - may or may not, without cause, slaughter peaceful workers . It is easy to tell from the listed names that to the very last man these jurors are all Americans. The question is: are their hearts filled with rank nativism and malicious ill-will against foreigners? If they are bigoted nativists, it is vain to expect a fair sentence.'' Early in the opening of the trial the court denied the motion of the state prosecutor that the jury go to the scene of the massacre for a kind of re-enactment of the events that occurred there . The last act of this bloody drama took place during the trial. As charge followed upon charge , the full impact of hate and prejudice 54 SLOVAKIA harbored against the Slavic immigrants came into clearer and surer light. One of the defendants boasted, "I did all right; I aimed at nine and brought down five of them ." Meanwhile the mutilated survivors of that bloody Friday - some without an arm or a leg -- were in full view of the court and the spectators gathered at the trial. Before the eyes of them all , Gregory Gasparik with bandages bound about his head in which a bullet was still lodged, in moderate tones testified against Sheriff Martin and his posse. People who lived near the scene of the crime also came in to testify, telling how they had seen the deputies beat the strikers who were already all bloodied and wounded with shots . The defendants produced about a hundred witnesses who charged that Poles and Huns had terrorized the whole area and that on this occasion they were actuallly marching with firearms. They supported Sheriff Martin as a law man who was doing his duty when he ordered his men to fire at the group . Sheriff Martin, on his part, denied all guilt in the matter and entered a plea of innocent . He claimed that after reading the injunction, he attempted to arrest the leader of the marchers but the striking men , misunderstanding his action and intent, set upon him and began to beat and kick him. At this point he called upon his men for help and when even that restraint was ineffective, he finally gave an order to fire because he feared that he might be killed. When blank shots did not quell the situation , then they began to shoot in earnest even if it meant to wound and kill. He claimed that when he first met the marchers, he asked where they were going and that they answered, ''To Lattimer in order to get the men out of work! " " I begged them and pleaded with them not to go any farther ," he stated. " I urged them to obey the law and to disperse. Someone from the back of the crowd loudly cried out the word to go on. The strikers began to jostle me about and to shout abuse at me. One drunken Hungarian even tried to throttle me so I arrested him. The crowd that surrounded me swelled bigger and bigger. I drew my revolver and aimed into the air because I did not want to hurt anyone . In that instant, Joseph Novotny punched me in the face and I fell to the ground as the mob began to howl, 'Kill the s.o.b. ! ' '' I tried to defend myself with my revolver but it wouldn't fire. The mob that was pressing upon me was armed with revolvers and knives. When I fell to my knees, the deputies began to fire and the crowd then started to fall back. But they did not disperse at once. At a distance of 500 to 600 feet, they stopped in a wooded place. I felt that they might return. My men began to shout to them to disperse . Afterwards I gave the order to look after the wounded and the killed.'' The strikers countered this desposition with the charge that the sheriff was the first to fire a shot. They maintained that no one struck SLOVAKIA 55 him, no one kicked him nor was there any evidence on his clothing or his body that he had been subjected to rough treatment of any kind. No blanks were discharged and no man who was wounded or killed was struck by a frontal shot; all were shot from the back. The son of the mine owner, young Pardee, called out to the law men , "Boys, shoot down those Huns! " Further testimony indicated that the deputies were extremely harsh and unfeeling even toward the killed and the wounded , kicking them mercilessly. Sworn witnesses consistently testified that the miners had no arms of any kind . They carried no canes or sticks, no rocks or stones , much less firearms. Scores of witnesses corroborated this testimony . Andrew Siviar, one of the miners, testified that the workmen marched as members of the United Mine Workers of America and that they had no weapons and had planned no mischief or property destruction of any kind. John Milhala, secretary of the local union, testified that they had gone to the mayor of the city who assured them that they could go to Lattimer in orderly fashion , that the sheriff had no authority to stop or prevent them. Some striking testimony was presented by the local school teacher Charles Guscot. He was eyewitness to the entire episode. He attested to the opening of fire by Sheriff Martin and the inhumane shooting upon the men who helplessly tried to flee from the ruthless officers. Another teacher from a nearby school alleged that she personally saw one of the deputies pursuing a wounded and bloodied man and in horror witnessed how he shot him to death a few steps in front of her when the weakened man fell to the ground from exhaustion. Reverend Stafflet declared under sworn testimony that he was passing the scene in a trolley car and had seen no signs of provocation on the part of the miners . They conducted themselves becomingly and bothered nobody along the way. The daily papers reported that the courtroom was the scene of some most unusual proceedings. The firm that had provided the earlier funds for bail now again supplied further expense money in the amount of over $402 .00 . All the sworn testimony agreed on the fact that the miners had no weapons . As a matter of fact, they had reckoned with the possibility of being challenged on the way and had forbidden any man to carry arms. Not one of them carried even as much as a walking stick or ordinary cane. Among the witnesses one testified that when he decided to join the group, he went into the mountains and cut himself a staff - just in case - but the others prevailed upon him to throw it away. There was also testimony that the deputies had openly boasted in the town that they would kill "the dirty Huns" yet. One of them joked about the whole thing afterwards, commenting that if he had been 56 SLOVAKIA given a cent for every one that he shot, he would have had the price of a bee r because he himself hit five . The sheriff and all the indicted men appeared before the bench with an air of great self-confidence and assurance. Their backing firm had made an outlay of over $30,000 in legal fees, the judge undoubtedly lent them the weight of his favor and they knew beforehand that no kind of testimony could affect them adversely. Some of the leading American newspapers, including the New York World which was owned by Pulitzer , a Jew from Zemplin in Slovakia, slanted their reporting to discredit the miners. Maurice Engelman , who was also a witness, testified that back in town they laughingly told him to hide or he would be an easy target. John Petruska testified that he was present when the posse was choosing firearms and one of the deputies quipped, " We ' re on our way for a shooting in Lattimer!" Gaspar Wizneski testified that he himself saw the sheriff raise his revolver and fire into the crowd in front of him . '' Do you swear that you saw the sheriff kill one of the strikers?'' the attorney challenged him . '' I swear to it that I did! '' he answered in a clear and audible voice that carried throughout the electrified atmosphere of the courtroom. Martin McGahren and Scarlet, attorneys for the plaintiffs, did not lack incriminating evidence yet all the substance of the testimony did not seem to put the burden of guilt on the accused. The court demanded specific proof and specific charges identifying who killed whom . This could hardly be presented , given the circumstances of abrupt assault and the ensuing panic . Who could tell precisely whose bullet killed this victim or that one? And there was the persistent line of defense claiming that the sheriff acted in the discharge of his duty when he issued the order to fire on the crowd. The defense was called to investigate a hundred witnesses . It was a drawn out trial that finally ended on March 9, 1898 . The sentence that was pronounced was: "The accused are found not guilty. " The court ruled that they had the right to shoot, that they had a right to selfdefense. This verdict created a public scandal. Over 30 ,000 miners began to threaten to take to the streets again, to start another strike. But they were at a total disadvantage. Corporations had contributed several hundred thousands of dollars for this legal battle. How could that be matched by the trifling $5,930 that the impoverished and distracted miners were able to raise from their own resources? For long months, the prime topic of public interest and comment among the Slovaks was the Lattimer massacre. Dozens and dozens of articles, printed and spoken reactions of varying degrees of intensity, were devoted to this incredibly outrageous event and its disgraceful outcome . J. A. Feriencik vehemently and fearlessly criticized a court of SLOVAKIA 57 justice that would condone such wanton killing and allow such an act to go unpunished, unatoned, because the lords and the mighty ones assented to it. In stark disbelief he wrote: ''They will kill, they will shoot, and grant you no mourning or tears of relief. And somehow they will make it all come out within the limits of the law. '' On the one hand we keep calling out 'Friends and countrymen of ours, come out here and settle here in America, in this famed free country. Apply for American citizenship, learn English, do your utmost to become worthy citizens of the United States, etc.' On the other hand, we urge our people back home to come over with their entire families, to establish themselves as family units and to adopt the American way of life and so gain the ' respect' of their American neighbors. '' And our people here credulously throng to the courts for naturalization forms, they register their desire to become American citizens, set themselves to studying English, the language of this country, adopt American usage and custom, and with all the ardor of their nature they cultivate a deep love for this new country of theirs. In many instances their devotion and loyalty outstrip the sentiments of some native American citizens. And the returns for this good will and generous effort? - Heartless murder! "Even as our people spare no pain in their sincere enthusiasm to evidence their devotion , patriotism and good will, their love for the land of their adoption, their respect for its laws, they are contemptuously referred to as scoundrel Huns and Hunkies. And what hate goes with the slogans: They pushed us out of our jobs; take it out on them! Give it to them! Let them know that we don't like them one bit! '' Some of it is even more foul than this but I must restrain myself or some of that biased American justice might just get me across the knuckles too. "So it is then. These are the facts: You, my people , bend your neck willingly . You do all that you can to prove your genuine devotion to this new land. And what do you get for it all? - Censure, unmitigated scorn, cold brutality. '' Blameless blood is needlessly shed within the scope of the law. It is all but a miracle that the presiding judge did not pin a medal of heroism on the lapel of the sheriff and proclaim him a deliverer of some kind. ''It is time for us to look about and assess what's around us and not just sound off about the freedom, the democracy and the brotherhood of these people. "At every step you come upon hate, you face contempt. Even a street urchin will let you know that you are repulsive to him. ' ' My people, does misery force you to flee from one country as you seek to save your life and avoid starvation, and do you eagerly turn to 58 SLOVAKIA this free America to settle here and earn your bread through hard work and long hours? You escape from misery at home and the threat of death by famine only to hurl yourself into the arms of death here. There you tried to save your life; here they snatch it from you. "Foul murder! '' Are we to be the door mat of murderers forever? Some drive us out of our birthplace and in exile others set upon us with the intent to kill. "Introduce a system of slavery. Buy white slaves, shackle them, treat them at will and you will have a fair picture of American freedom and democracy in action . A realistic picture. Is the world to consider these democratic and freedom-loving people? A murderer has never yet been taken for a champion of freedom , a humanitarian or a freedom-lover. The lurid blotch left by Slovak blood spilled in Pennsylvania will long witness your kind of benevolence, your warped philanthropia? '' Are we to tell the undisguised truth to all our people? Well, if you want them to shoot you here, then tell it. It appears that before long they will pass laws making it legal to shoot Slovaks in certain particular months and not to consider them game in others - just as they do for various animals. It seems to be moving in that direction. This very trial gives proof of such widely touted justice and equity. The capitalist triumphs in spite of his crime and his guilt. The wretched workman loses even though it is he who has been wronged. " My people, if you only had millions of dollars in your hands, they would surely have proved to you how they can adjust and modify twisted paragraphs. But without the almighty dollar ... if you are the unfortunate wretch, then suffer and be still. That is the kind of principle that guided the judge presiding at the trial of the Lattimer murderers .'' (4) The American-Slovak News further editorialized on the subject of the trial and its verdict: '' For those who participated in the Lattimer massacre - or putting it more aptly - for those who defended the bloody trade of the butchers thirsting for human blood at the scene of the Lattimer carnage, it would be rather unfair to designate the event as a drama. For them this classic drama reached its denouement with all the impact of a genuine comedy. Twelve confirmed foes of all that does not breathe the fanatic ideas of the Apaches declared that the butcher Sheriff Martin and his vultures only did their duty; they acted as honorable men when they killed off those hated Huns. ''They crucified truth! They grossly trampled upon the rights of the disadvantaged workman in this free country. Why? For no reason other than this fact that the slaughtered victims first saw the light of day in Hungary, in Russia, in Germany or in Italy.'' (5) SLOVAKIA 59 Naturally such a foul crime of multiple homicide and utter ruthlessness could not have touched Slovak life without affecting it deeply. The Slovaks sensed that if they would truly avoid being so tom by factions and lack of unity, if they could somehow unite their thousands of workers with common purpose and a sense of solidarity, such a misfortune could never again be repeated. Gradually there evolved within them the consciousness that we are all at fault, all of us, for not claiming those rights to which we are entitled. And so we suffer punishment. Out of this painful and humiliating or humbling realization , even before the verdict was pronounced, there grew the first substantial endeavor of the Slovaks in this land to work in harmony and to achieve a common strength. Realization fortunately led to action. On October 17, 1897 representatives of the leading Slovak-American publications met in Cleveland in order to confer on definite practical steps toward cooperation and the pursuit of common goals. The conference of these journalists resolved to adopt measures related to basic issues in order to counteract the unwholesome attitudes and underserved attacks of certain American press agencies that treated the Slovak immigrant element as less than human . This Congress of Slavic Pressmen , which was organized by Fr. (Francis) Pucher , also sent expressions of condolence to the survivors of the Lattimer victims. This innocent Slovak blood that was shed then did not go wholly wasted. It tended to conciliate the Slovaks and to bring them together. And though this was an extravagantly harsh and costly lesson, it taught them that in their distant strange land they must renounce all petty conflicts and contentions, for in this new world their widely scattered strength will count only if they can bring themselves together and act as a corporate unit that has the general welfare at heart. Many families that had not bothered about joining a Slovak fraternal or beneficial organization now saw that membership in such a society could really mean much to them, especially in the event of an unfortunate or tragic occurrence. The blood that the Slovak miners shed for the general good was the first effective and lasting incentive that brought the Slovaks of America together into one unified and conscious body. One disappointment followed in the aftermath. Newspapers published the report that John Nemeth, chairman of the committee, was named consul just before the final settlement of all the misunderstandings; however, his appointment was conditioned on his withdrawal from the committee. The government of Austria-Hungary petitioned the government of the United States to allocate some compensation to the families of the Lattimer victims. The outcome is embodied in an official document of the Secretary of the Interior (78,999) which includes the following statement: 60 SLOVAKIA "The government of the United States does not recognize any obligation to provide compensation to our fellow-citizens or to the famili es of those who were killed in the clash between the mine workers and the police in the Hazleton-Lattimer area.'' From the blood of these martyrs there was a sprouting of the fragile and delicate flower of accord. Within a year the general tone of the Slovak press had changed from bitter acrimony and unprofitable controversy to understanding and kindlier feeling all around. Even in cases where everyone had believed that common ground could never be found among known antagonists, it had indeed been discovered that these individuals also had many mutually satisfying interests to share and promote and they could work together and get along satisfactorily in spite of their differences. From this point on, every other problem seemed to be of a trivial nature, insignificant trifles that caused minor rifts here and there but had no essential substance. The main drive was toward definite goals even though various and varied avenues led to the ultimate end. FOOTNOTES (1) In a newspaper report published by the Amerikansko Slovenske noviny right after the event, the following are listed as fatality victims in this unfortunate clash: 1) John Kosanec , 2) John Temoci , 3) Fr. Kedel, 4) John Ceka, 5) John Ceslak 6) George Versek, 7) Stephen Hornik , 8) George Kulik, 9) Fr. Ceka, 10) Stephen Ulrich, 11) Andrew Zesman, 12) John Ivanko. Later these names wer also added to the list: 13) John Futa , whose name is sometimes also given as Futas, 14) Stephen Jurek, 15) Michael Ceslak, 16) George Gasparek, 17) John Slebodnik , 18) John Banko, 19) Andrew Jurecek, 20) John Skrip. Since Sheriff Martin was indicted for the death of twenty-one victims , it is clear that this list is incomplete. Some of the men who had been seriously wounded in the incident later died in the hospital. An exact list with all names in their correct spelling is most likely available from the court records in Wilkes-Barre and probably from various English and Polish newspapers of that time. It was a common practice in those days to transmit news reports by telegraphic communication and so it is possible that some of the names were affected by transcription and could have been somewhat distorted. The following men were wounded in the encounter: Anthony Macuka, single , Polish; James Tomason , single, Polish; Francis Fetus, single, Slovak; John Penkames, married, Lithuanian; Joseph Macko, married, Slovak ; Andrew Josmont, married, Polish ; Martin Serfanek, single, Polish ; John Dolny , married , Slovak; John Krisak, single, Slovak ; John Presa, married, Slovak ; Andrew Majer , single, Slovak; John Padnok , married , Polish ; John Posca, married, Slovak ; George Gaspar, single, Slovak; Adolph Colak, married, Slovak ; Adam Lipianski , single, Polish; John Kulich, single, Polish , John Kontra, married , Slovak; Joseph Gasparik, married, Slovak; Thomas Paris , single, Polish ; Andrew Honas, married, Slovak; Andrew Orban, married , Polish; Gaspar Dula§, married , Slovak; Joseph Zapa, Slovak; Joseph Paulak, married , Polish; Matthew Chia, married , Polish; Clement Plotach, married, Polish; John Fora, single, Slovak; Stanislaus Kominski, married, Polish; Constantine Monsara , married , Polish , Bernard Rummal, single, Polish . In 1902 the convention of American Mine Workers adopted a resolution providing for the erection of a memorial to honor the fallen miners as pioneer heroes in the cause for SLOVAKIA 61 social justice. Additional names of stricken men that make their appearance within the formal text of this resolution include the following: Clement Patek, John Foote, Sebastian Praztomski, Raphael Rezervicz, Albert Czaja, Stanley Rajoski, Andrew Goekers, Andrew Miczkowski, John Krop, Andrew Morrikoski, Adam Zrainski, Adalbert Zienka, Frank Chazesjewski, Steve Znoec, Andrew Jamee (Jurecek), Mike Coseak (Ceslak), George Kulek (Kulik). Some of the surnames were garbled to some extent; most likely they happened to be misread in the course of years that had passed since the massacre itself. (2) Amerikansko-slovenske noviny (American-Slovak News), September 16, 1897. (3) Amerikansko-slovenske noviny, 30. IX. 1897. (4) "Let Slovak Blood Call to God for Vengeance" American-Slovak News, 31. ill. 1898. (5) American-Slovak News. 5.Il. 1899. 62 SLOVAKIA The Lattimer Massacre and Trial HARRY B. SCHOOLEY III INTRODUCTION To have a clearer understanding of the trial at issue it is necessary to say that upon entering the court where the trial is in progress one is immediately impressed with the fact that the issue involved is as much a question of the relations of employer and employed as a question of the trial of Sheriff Martin and his deputies for murder, and, as has been invariably the case, the representatives of corporate power assume a hauteur and domineering attitude toward all. The counsel for the defense, former Attorney-General Palmer and Mr. Lenahan, as well as Sheriff Martin and the Deputies , assume an air of offended pride and indignation at being called to defend themselves against a charge of killing a score or more laborers, and think of it! Foreign laborers at that! So wrote Samuel Gompers in an article for the New York World of February 20, 1898. The shooting at Lattimer, Pennsylvania, had become labor's forgotten massacre. Twenty-four striking anthracite coal miners were killed when Luzerne County Sheriff James Martin ordered his deputies to fire into their ranks when their parade threatened the security of the community shortly after three o'clock on the hot afternoon of September 10, 1897. While at times a Sheriff has been punished for criminal neglect of his duty in not firing on a riotous mob, Sheriff Martin was proceeded against in the Lattimer trial because he and his deputies did so fire. The law of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for whose supremacy they battled, was used to compass their destruction because they did so. Gompers was wrong. Lattimer was not a '' question of the relations of employer and employed." The lesson of the verdict in the Lattimer case is not that the rich are to be protected, but that the poor and defenseless shall have an absolute guarantee of all their individual rights, and that those who attempt to impair them by lawlessness must answer to the law as criminals. H.B.s.,m May, 1965 (Harry B. Schooley ill teaches at the Buffalo Seminary for girls in Buffalo, New York. A native of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, he wrote this paper while an undergraduate at Williams College in May, 1965.) SLOVAKIA 63 Ariovistus Pardee, an ambitious engineering student with the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company, was sent in May of 1833 to the Lehigh coal regions of Pennsylvania to survey a railroad line from the anthracite mines at Beaver Meadow to the Lehigh Canal at Mauch Chunk. Pardee 's success in the area led him to locating further lines in the region and he began his own mining operations in 1840.(1) In 1869 Pardee built the company towns of Lattimer and Harwood near Hazleton to house the miners working in his six mines. In 1892, following his father ' s death, Calvin Pardee took over the mines at Lattimer and Harwood. Feeling there would be less chance of a consolidation of the working men against his interests, Pardee mixed the foreign immigrant miners filling the houses at Lattimer largely with Italians and those at Harwood with Slovaks, Poles, and Lithuanians . Between 1875 and 1900 there were sporadic attempts on behalf of the Welsh, Irish, and German miners of the anthracite fields to organize for better working and wage conditions. A means for curbing any attempts to organize the miners was the introduction by the mine operators of large numbers of laborers from Austria-Hungary, Poland, Russia , and Italy who were content to work hard and long for low wages. This over supply of unorganized men literally depressed wages to a minimum through the ever-present competition.(2) By the late 1890's the mine patches of the Lehigh coal regions were largely populated by the new mixture of non-English speaking nationalities who with their cheaper immigrant labor replaced the old order of English , Welsh, and Irish miners. The new miners were largely Slovaks, Poles, Italians , Hungarians , and Lithuanians and were considered "foreigners" relegated by the social conditions to which they belonged - the unpainted company houses , shacks, and the dreaded company store. A racial and national prejudice predominated in the mine patches and the better educated, more intelligent of the foreigners met with each other and insisted that every good foreigner should get his "papers " as soon as possible so as to vote in the elections and prevent the '' white men ' ' from voting to pass a law that might drive them from the country. Many of the miners found themselves in great debt to the company store . In 1896 the Pennsylvania Legislature appointed a committee to investigate the company store system . An order for 50,000 copies of the committee report was canceled because, as American Federation of Labor Vice President J . P. McGuire stated in September of 1897 , ''of the disgrace which would fall upon the State were the truth made known of conditions existing in the Schuylkill region." (3) Conditions were the same in the Lehigh and Wyoming Valleys. Perhaps McGuire 's labor affiliations prejudiced him in the making of this statement, but the recent business depression had reduced the lot of the anthracite miner to a very poor one. The manager of one of the Hazleton collieries revealed that his payrolls for September 1, 1897, amounted to about $26,000, of which $18,000 was 64 SLOVAKIA deducted for living expenses (debts to the company store, rents for living in the company houses, fees deducted from pay for the company doctor, money deducted to pay the priest) leaving less than one-third the original amount to be divided among the miners. Discontent over small wages, idleness, and other alleged "wrongs" was seized upon by the new leadership composed of young, energetic and often violent labor organizers as a timely excuse for action. Their opportunity came in August of 1897. A strike broke out at the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company 's Honeybrook Colliery near the new borough of McAdoo, when twenty driver boys were ordered to stable their mules after stopping work without extra pay. They refused and division superintendent Gomer Jones fired them. On Sunday, August 15, 2,500 Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Company miners joined the strike. Newspapers feared that ''the Italians and Hungarians, who are very aggressive, cannot be controlled." (4) The Honeybrook strikers were led by a committee of grievances which met with general superintendent Elmer H. Lawall demanding an investigation of Gomer Jones to the effect that he reduced miners' wages and that the wages be restored to the original rates. Lawall promised an investigation of Jones if the miners returned to work; and a week after the first walk-out, work was resumed at Honeybrook.(5) On the same day (August 22) the Honeybrook miners returned to work, there arrived in the area from Philadelphia one John Fahy, selfappointed local president of the United Mine Workers of America. Meeting with Italian miners at Audenreid, Yorktown, and Beaver Brook, Fahy persuaded them to organize an Italian branch of the United Mine Workers.(6) Fahy's presence in the area on behalf of the union caused great concern among the mine operators as the miners became more aware of their plight and their demands became more intense. Fahy's word spread rapidly from operation to operation, and on August 26, Italian and Hungarian miners struck at the Van Wickle Coal Company collieries at Beaver Meadow and Coleraine. Two thousand miners moving overnight forced the workers from their shops at the Van Wickle breakers so as to stop all work. Their demands for higher wages were not considered serious as the strike was spontaneous and had no apparent intelligent leadership.(7) On August 27, the Van Wickle colliery at Milnesville was idled by the strikers and a coal train was prevented from leaving the town. All Van Wickle operations were forced to shut down. The next day at a meeting of the strikers in Hazleton, a formal demand was presented to Van Wickle superintendent Roderick. Roderick claimed that the advanced scheduled wages (which would set a wage scale for the region) demanded by Fahy 's organizers would not be paid to the miners, although the average pay rates of the region would be paid. The speaker at a Coleraine meeting urged the strikers to resort to violence if the demands were not met. In answer armed members of the Coal and SLOVAKIA 65 Iron Police were sent to guard the Van Wickle properties.(8) Saloons in Milnesville and Coleraine were closed and a state of ominous calm pervaded the Hazleton area. English-speaking miners were willing to return to work were it not for the threats made by the foreigners. The employees of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company anxiously watched the Van Wickle situation as there had been no action taken towards the promised investigation of Superintendent Jones.(9) Between August 30 and September 3 the strike spread rapidly. Roderick agreed to make wage concessions at the Van Wickle colliery at Milnesville which immediately resumed work. If settlements were made at the other Van Wickle operations, then the Lehigh and WilkesBarre miners might never see Jones investigated at all. The miners at the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre's Audenreid colliery struck and five hundred strong marched on the company's Yorktown colliery and washeries at Dodson, Beaver Brook, Star, Monarch, and Carson, driving off all the workmen.(10) The miners at the Van Wickle Coleraine colliery remained on strike. Assembling in McAdoo on September 2, Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre strikers marched with an American flag to the Beaver Brook colliery forcing it to close. Those workers who refused to stop work were driven off. From Beaver Brook they marched to Yorktown (which had resumed work in spite of the march on that operation by the Audenreid strikers a day earlier) where colliery superintendent Hayes tried to reason with them, as the Yorktown workers had no grievance. Nevertheless, the Yorktown colliery closed. The march then turned towards Audenreid and the home of Gomer Jones. Following a thorough but futile search for Jones , the then two thousand marchers proceeded to the colliery at Silver Brook where the workers fled. At a meeting that evening in McAdoo, the members of the grievance committee advised against future marches, but Fahy's organizers insisted that the marches would continue daily until all the collieries were idle. Fahy, incidentally, was in Silver Brook that evening organizing a new chapter of the United Mine Workers. At Coleraine the Van Wickle strikers were quiet and Superintendent Roderick, in a bid to maintain good will between the company and the strikers, stated that none of the Coleraine workers participated in the march.(11) Later on the evening of September 2, the Coleraine strikers agreed to return to work if they would be protected from the mob. Roderick gladly granted protection. Mayor Altmiller of Hazleton issued orders to the police that if any attempt was made to organize a mob parade on September 3, the marchers were to be dispersed, and if the police were not strong enough the citizens should help them. The Lehigh Valley Coal Company closed its collieries at Jeansville and Hazleton No. 1 not because of grievances between the company and its employees, but because the mob of strikers had threatened the workers. The Lehigh Valley counseled all its workmen to obey the will of the mob.(12) By September 3 the strike had stopped all 66 SLOVAKIA mining operations except those of the New Ebervale Coal Company , Van Wickle 's Coleraine and Milnesville Collieries, and Pardee 's colliery at Lattimer. The weapons of the foreigners were the threat and the mob . With the march of September 2 and the probability of future marches , many mine owners feared for the safety of their property at the hands of the striking miners. The Luzerne County Sheriff's office in Wilkes-Barre, in response to the pleas of the operators for protection , sent an urgent telegram to Sheriff James R. Martin , vacationing in Atlantic City, requesting his immediate return. As soon as Sheriff Martin arrived in Wilkes-Barre on September 5, he telegraphed the sheriffs of Carbon and Schuylkill counties to meet him in Hazleton the next day. Before boarding the train to Hazleton, Martin announced that if he thought necessary , a proclamation would be issued calling on the strikers to refrain from all acts of violence and to permit all who so desired to return to their usual vocation as well as to cease marching. "The fact that men are compelled against their will to march along with an ignorant and sometimes infuriated mob causes some fear that other and more dangerous complications may arise ." (13) Following the Hazleton meeting on September 6, the three sheriffs simultaneously published a proclamation prohibiting mob parades and demonstrations , stating the following: . . . notice is given to all good citizens to refrain from all tumultuous and unlawful assembly and from all acts of disorder or violence, and from all acts interfering with the liberty of other citizens, or tending to a breach of the peace . Notice is further given, that all such acts of disorder and lawlessness will be summarily repressed and punished in accordance with the laws of the land. - James Martin, High Sheriff of Luzerne County The proclamation was based on the Pennsylvania Riot Act of March 31, 1860 which forbade ''any persons riotously and tumultuously to assemble together to the disturbance of the public peace." (15) While the three sheriffs were meeting in Hazleton, Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Company granted the same advances as did the Van Wickle Coal Company at Milnesville and Coleraine.(16) That night Sheriff Martin in his Broad Street hotel room swore in 87 deputies, most of whom were members of the Coal and Iron Police from the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre and Lehigh Valley Coal companies , but some of whom were business and professional men of the Hazleton area .(17) For the next three days the Hazleton area remained in an uneasy calm as the sheriff and his deputies remained on call responding to separate incidents throughout the area. SLOVAKIA 67 While Martin and his men remained in Hazleton, John Fahy was active at the Pardee colliery at Harwood. Enlisting the aid of the popular young Hungarian slate boss, John Eagler, Fahy was successful in organizing a new branch of the United Mine Workers. Fahy claimed the new union advocated peaceful arbitration of differences between the miners and the operators. Selecting Eagler as their first local secretary and Joseph Mehalto, another well-known Slav from nearby Crystal Ridge as president, the Harwood body immediately formulated a list of grievances - demanding a ten cent wage raise, a reduction of blasting powder from $2. 75 to $1.50, and no company butcher or company doctor - which they presented to the Pardee office in Hazleton on September 9.(18) While the Harwood strikers were presenting their grievances, a mob of "young Italians and Huns" descended on the New Ebervale Coal Company's colliery at Ebervale, driving off Superintendent John Scott and his employees in a shower of rocks and sticks.(19) With this outbreak of new violence, the Pardee Company refused to consider any grievances until all sections of the Harwood colliery were working. Meeting in the Harwood schoolhouse on the evening of September 9, the striking miners decided that in order to get the bargaining position they needed, the whole company must be shut down. This meant work must be stopped at Lattimer. Upon Mehalto's suggestion, the members resolved to send a committee of ten to Lattimer on the next day to persuade the colliery to close down. (20) On the morning of the tenth it was suggested that the strikers go along with the committee, and with Mehalto and Eagler at the head of a column of 250 to 300 men and boys, the strikers set out for Lattimer. With the American flag at the head of the procession, they marched through Crystal Ridge and Cranberry where they were joined by others until the ranks numbered about four hundred. On entering West Hazleton the strikers found their route blocked by Sheriff Martin and his deputies . Standing in front of his line of deputies, Martin ordered the strikers to stop and to disperse. The march pushed on, a scuffle resulted, two strikers were arrested, and the flag was taken from them. Following this encounter, the strikers moved off into a field by the side of the road and the sheriff and his deputies withdrew maintaining a careful eye on the marchers. Soon, however, the march was under way once more, the strikers still heading for Lattimer but skirting West Hazleton to the north. Martin and his deputies hurriedly boarded an open trolley car, provided for their use by the Lehigh Transit Company, and rode back into Hazleton and out the Lattimer line to Harleigh , where the road to Lattimer and the rail line converged and ran parallel for a short distance. At Harleigh the sheriff and his deputies again met the marching strikers, the trolley car keeping pace with the men on foot, grim silence between them while the police in their trolley sat holding their rifles . (21) The car arrived in Lattimer in time for Martin to 68 SLOVAKIA watch the movement of the march, and, from a high point at the town 's approach, the column could be observed moving toward the Pardee colliery No. 1. Again the deputies, about 150 in number, having been reinforced by numbers of the coal and iron police from Lattimer, lined up in a semi-circle across the road with Sheriff Martin standing several yards in front of them. The scene at West Hazleton a few hours earlier appeared about to be re-enacted. When the strikers reached the line of deputies Martin, proclamation in hand, stepped out to meet them: ''You must stop marching and disperse. This is contrary to the law and you are creating a disturbance. You must go back. I won't let you go on to the colliery.'' (22) Eagler argued that American citizens had the right to parade as long as they were not disturbing the peace. Martin read the Riot Act. Most of the marchers, not understanding English, pushed forward to find out what Martin was saying. In the crowd the sheriff was jostled. Thinking himself in danger, he tried to get back to his line of deputies, but was knocked to his knees. The strikers made way for him, and just as he emerged from their ranks, the cry was heard, ''Fire, fire on' em!'' The deputies fired into the unarmed mob. (23) Following a meeting with his lawyer on arriving back in WilkesBarre that evening, Sheriff Martin issued a statement of the Hazleton conditions and shooting: I was not there to interfere in the strike in any shape or manner, but was there for the mere purpose to prevent all violations of the law, and to restore peace and quiet. I beseeched and entreated the leaders to talk to their comrades and ask them to disperse and return to their homes, act in a peaceable way and desist from doing any sort of violence ... (at West Hazleton) the strikers began to crowd together, and to mutter and chatter in their own languages. The leaders urged them on and at the same time began to curse and swear at me, as well as openly defy me and my deputies . (at Lattimer) I ... rushed ahead of my deputies ... dashed in among the foreigners and boldly placed the leader under arrest. (the strikers) at once attacked me most viciously , striking and kicking me, knocking me down. I called to the deputies to discharge their firearms into the air over the heads of the strikers, as it might probably frighten them ... I fully realized that the foreigners were a desperate lot ... (I assumed) they were too excited to listen to reason and that myself and deputies would be killed ... if we did not defend ourselves. I then called upon the deputies to defend themselves and shoot, if they must, to protect their lives or to SLOVAKIA 69 protect the property, that they had been sent to guard, from being demolished. I hated to give the command to shoot and was awful sorry that I was compelled to do so, but I was there to do my duty and I did it the best I knew how and as my conscience dictated, as the strikers were violating the laws of the Commonwealth and flatly refused to obey the proclamation that I had read to them. They, instead, insisted on doing violence and disobeying the laws.(24) In "doing violence and disobeying the laws" eighteen strikers were instantly killed while approximately twenty-four others were seriously wounded. Eagler and Mehalto escaped and their comrades fled in terror. One of the strikers, Martin Rosko, a Hungarian from Mt. Pleasant and wounded in the arm, gave the following account: We were going along the road to Lattimer and the deputies were lined across the road barring our progress. We tried to go through them and did not attempt to hit or molest them when they fired upon us. We ran but they kept on shooting while we ran. It (the massacre) is all their fault.(25) That evening three thousand Hazleton-area miners gathered at Hazleton's Donegal Hall for a meeting conducted by United Mine Workers' president John Fahy in which it was resolved "that we demand the prosecution of the sheriff and deputies of the crimes committed this tenth day of September."(26) At midnight Pennsylvania Governor Daniel Hastings notified Colonel C. B. Dougherty of the 9th Regiment that as there may be further disturbances and that the security of the community may be in danger, Dougherty was to take the regiment to Hazleton to maintain peace and order. (27) On September 11, Dougherty's regiment was joined by five regiments of the Third Brigade of the Pennsylvania National Guard under the leadership of General John P. Gobin. On the morning of September 11, John Nemeth, a leader of the strikers' general committee, went before Squire Gorman of Hazleton and had warrants sworn out for Sheriff Martin and 102 of his deputies. (28) When General Gobin heard of the warrants he issued an edict declaring that so long as the troops remain in the vicinity not a single deputy would be placed under arrest. Owing to the military authority, Sheriff Martin and the deputies were not arrested until ten days after the warrants were issued. Also on that morning a representative of the Austro-Hungarian Consulate in Philadelphia arrived in Hazleton to investigate the murder of Hungarian nationals. (29) 70 SLOVAKIA In the meantime the strike continued. By September 14, seven thousand men had left their jobs, crippling the seven Hazleton area companies.(30) Out of sympathy for their murdered comrades from Harwood, 2,300 men left work at the Pardee operations at Lattimer. Visiting Hazleton from Philadelphia the next day, Calvin Pardee stated the following: My men were perfectly satisfied with the wages they were receiving, and would have continued work had they not been driven away by the mob . . . I have operated my collieries over twenty years on the sliding scale, the rate of wages being based on the price of coal at tide, and I will not change that method.(31) Sheriff Scott of Schuylkill County telegraphed to Governor Hastings an appeal for troops to maintain order should the strike spread to his county(32) as sporadic outbreaks of violence continued throughout the region with no apparent prospect of settlement in sight. John Fahy, in a somewhat curious statement to the press on September 18, claimed "The strike is not being conducted by the United Mine Workers." Speaking of his efforts to organize the miners, Fahy stated, "our objects are not to raise excitement and occasion violence but are arbitration, peace and conciliation. Our organization is not to encourage strikes but to prevent them." (33) Fahy expressed the hope that the strike would be settled more quickly if more men organized. If more men were organized in the manner in which the Harwood strikers were organized, the strike would be far from being settled. On September 19 following a Hazleton meeting, the owners of the mines at Lattimer, Beaver Meadow, Honeybrook, McAdoo, and Audenreid announced that they would open their mines on September 20, and if the men were not back at work, they would be discharged altogether. By September 20 all strikers but the employees of the Coxe Brothers Coal Company had returned to work.(34) That evening Fahy held a meeting at Donegal Hall whereat the miners resolved ''to demand that the Attorney-General of Pennsylvania immediately proceed against each corporation now conducting company stores."(35) On September 23, the employees of the Silver Brook collieries were told they were no longer subject to compulsory patronization of the company store and company butcher.(36) The operators gradually made concessions to prevent another such strike, and on September 29, General Gobin and his troops left Hazleton.(37) The anthracite strike of 1897 was virtually over. With peace returning to the Hazleton region, attention was turned to the fate of Sheriff Martin and his deputies. On September 20, Luzerne County District Attorney D.A. Fell and County Detective Isaac Eckert secured bench warrants from the Luzerne County Court of Oyer SLOVAKIA 71 and Terminer for the arrest of Martin and 68 of his deputies, charging them with' 'the willful and malicious killing of twenty-four (six had died since the shooting) strikers near the village of Lattimer on September 10 last."(38) Bail was posted at $4,000 for homicide and $1,000 for felonious wounding and, through the maneuvring of Calvin Pardee, bond was furnished by the City Trust, Safe Deposit and Surety Company of Philadelphia.(39) Seeing the opportunity to take up the cause, the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor meeting in Washington resolved on September 24, That we condemn most severely the wanton killing and wounding of the poor miners at Lattimer and will give our fullest help through the trade union and the American Federation of Labor to raise money for the legal prosecution and conviction of Sheriff Martin and his murderous minions, that through the courts of the land even-handed justice may be done to atone for those revolting murders.(40) A preliminary hearing was held in the Luzerne County Court House at Wilkes-Barre from September 21 to 27 wherein the grand jury came to the decision that Martin and his men had shown probable cause of a "wanton and unjustifiable" killing of the strikers.(41) The case of Commonwealth v. Martin was scheduled to begin on February 1, 1898. On February 4, 1898, an editorial in the Wilkes-Barre Record accurately predicted that the trial was expected to develop whether the sheriff and his posse were justified, under the circumstances, in resorting to the extreme measure they did, either for their own protection or to preserve law, order, and the public peace. The case was called on the morning of February 1, before Judge Stanley Woodward, presiding judge of Luzerne County. Sheriff Martin's defense counsel consisted of his personal lawyer, George S. Ferris, and the county's leading criminal lawyer, John T. Lenahan. Other attorneys for the defendants were Henry W. Palmer, George Troutman, C. W. Kline, George R. Urquhart and F. W. Wheaton. At the table for the prosecution sat the new District Attorney, T. R. Martin, who had only taken office a month earlier. With Martin were four other lawyers, who were secured by the strikers' prosecuting committee: John Garman, John McGahren, James Scarlett, and former secretary of the miners' prosecuting committee, J. F. Loughran. In addition to the deputies the court room was crowded with interested spectators including New York, Philadelphia, and nationally syndicated newspaper reporters, newspaper artists, representatives of the Royal Austro-Hungarian government which was planning to make a claim for indemnity for the deaths of the nationals should the sheriff be convicted, and the solicitor general of the United States, Luzerne County's own Henry M. Hoyt (Williams, 1849).(42) 72 SLOVAKIA For two tedious days the court was involved in selecting a jury. When the task had been completed, the twelve men who sat in the jury box were all native American citizens and were largely representative of the middle class skilled labor group.(43) Many of the jury men admitted in their examination by the counsels for defense and prosecution that although they had already formed an opinion, their verdict would not be so influenced. None of the jurors were foreign-born and counsel Loughran complained that the majority of them were ''in sympathy with the sheriff and his deputies." (44) The case for the Commonwealth was opened by McGahren, who claimed the shooting at Lattimer was a ''horrible massacre . '' In a highly emotional speech he told the courtroom how Sheriff Martin stood by proudly while his men brutally murdered the fleeing strikers. He even went so far as to claim the sheriff had emptied his pistol into the head of one of the march leaders. The Sheriff's actions at Lattimer were "a disgrace to civilization," he explained.(46) With this heated example of rhetoric, began the case for the prosecution which consumed nearly sixteen days of examination during which 103 witnesses testified. At the end of the first week of the trial on February 5, it developed that when the case had been continued from the November to the January term of court, bail for the defendants had not been renewed. District Attorney Martin immediately asked either that bail be posted or that the defendants be committed to jail. Judge Woodward replied he would not require the defendants to enter bail until Monday, February 7. Garman of the prosecution immediately pressed the court further to demand bail at once. Lenahan of the defense resented Garman's demands and charged, "You are a puppy! You have been a puppy all your life!" Garman's reply was apparently appropriate as he turned to Judge Woodward and said, "When the thing back of me shuts up, I will proceed." Lenahan replied, "That is only a part of the buffoonery of the Commonwealth.'' Garman turned to face him and raised his fist as if to strike. "If you touch me, I'll kill you!" By this time friends intervened and restrained the two attorneys until order was restored. Garman, eyeing Lenahan defiantly, replied, ''The buffoon has just ceased speaking." (4 7) This exchange of opinions on the floor of the courtroom did not change Woodward's mind and the bail was deferred. The exchange was, however, quickly picked up by the out-of-town reporters and reported in such a way that when court convened on February 7, Judge Woodward admonished the artists and reporters of some of the newspapers that if they continued to caricature the proceedings of the court or to misrepresent what developed, he would refuse them admission to the courtroom.(48) Woodward's admonishment of the reporters for their "yellow journalism" did not end the court's cause for concern. On the evening of February 14, the President of the American Federation of Labor, SLOVAKIA 73 Samuel Gompers, arrived in Wilkes-Barre to write a special report on the trial for the New York World. The Wilkes-Barre Record was critical of the labor leader's being in Wilkes-Barre, claiming that Gompers would only report the trial from the point of view of the strikers, not from the objective viewpoint of whether Martin was justified in shooting.(49) The Record was not the only newspaper critical of Gompers ' being in Wilkes-Barre. The New York Evening Sun stated " Gompers is so dissatisfied with the way Judge Woodward is conducting the Lattimer trial that he refused to be presented to him. We can only congratulate his Honor on a fortunate escape." (50) In an article in the World on February 20, Gompers attacked Woodward's conduct of the trial, his rulings on evidence, and went so far as to attack him personally as a friend of the mine owners, as Woodward: married into a family of land holders of the district, who receive royalties upon every ton of coal mined. When a cessation of mining occurs from any cause Judge Woodward is to that extent a loser of part of his income. He is a member of the Westmoreland Club, of which the mine-owners are largely members and of which also a number of the so-called deputies are members.(Of the strikers Gompers wrote) They had previously decided and carried out their purpose , to be unarmed and unprotected except by the justice of their cause and the American flag in which they had absolute faith. It is sad to contemplate when workingmen of either American or foreign birth have their faith and confidence in the emblem of our country destroyed and perhaps sadder still is the possibility of losing faith in the justice of our courts. In conclusion Gompers made the Lattimer trial a trial in behalf of the eventual triumph of the working man: The workers of our country are organizing better and more thoroughly each day; we shall not only create a healthier public sentiment as to man 's rights and man's duties, but we shall largely constitute that public opinion. And , when that day comes , the crime of Lattimer will be a record-letter day in the annals of our history to which all will look back upon with horror as the monumental crime of the century. (51) Should Sheriff Martin be convicted of murder, labor would win a great victory in its struggle for recognition. While labor adopted Lattimer as its forgotten massacre , the prosecution rested on February 74 SLOVAKIA 21, having produced testimony in line with McGahren's opening. Ferris opened the case for the defense claiming that if a sheriff and his posse meet a riotous mob which resists them in such a way that their duty to uphold the law requires the use of firearms, then, "they do their duty. They do not violate, but obey the law.'' (52) Anarchy ruled the Hazleton area, Ferris explained, and Martin, in the company of good, lawabiding citizens - not bar room toughs and thugs - brought security to the region. On March 1, Sheriff Martin took the stand. He testified that when he met the strikers at Lattimer, he demanded to know where they were going and they all answered, "Lattimer to get out the men!" He also told the court that he had told them they were doing wrong and that he read the proclamation to them. He said he begged them to go no farther, but they pushed on and someone tried to grab him by the neck. I arrested him, when a big crowd pushed around me. I pulled out my revolver for protection and held it in the air, as I did not want to shoot. One of the mob tried to grab it, but failed, and in the struggle I and the crowd around me were pushed to one side of the road." (53) Martin testified one of the strikers gave him a terrific blow on the side of the head and that he tried to shoot that man, but his pistol would not go off. Then the firing began. After 111 witnesses had testified for the defense the Court adjourned on March 4.(54) The closing pleas to the jury began on March 7, with Scarlett opening for the prosecution: "Every effort has been made to have it tried fairly and nothing has been excluded and every bit of evidence has been admitted according to the rules of the court." (55) The final plea was made by former state Attorney-General Henry W. Palmer, on behalf of the defense, to an overcrowded court room. Palmer's closing has been praised as a masterpiece of eloquence and damned as a bigoted oration and foul utterance against the Slav immigrants. To the jury Palmer said the following: Condemn these men and go home to your neighbors and tell them, 'We convicted Sheriff Martin and his deputies for an error in judgment when they were standing between your homes and the horrors of mob rule.' Tell your wives and children that henceforth when the rioters are about to march and the right of men to work is in peril that there will be no Sheriff and deputies to keep the peace or defend your homes, because by your verdict you will have forbidden them to act, under penalty of death or infamous punishment. (56) Following Palmer's plea District Attorney Martin closed the case for the prosecution, and late on the afternoon of March 9, Judge Woodward delivered his charge to the jury. In an admirably clear, impartial, and ably written presentation of the law of riot and murder, SLOVAKIA 75 Woodward charged that the sheriff had the right as the chief officer of the county to summon a posse to assist him in the preservation of order and in the prevention of riot. The public peace in Hazleton was threatened. Men were being driven from their jobs by the mob. The Sheriff saw the people were terrorized by the strikers. When they were at West Hazleton and at Lattimer, the strikers failed to obey the sheriff and insisted on pushing on. It was the duty of the crowd to obey his command and that disobedience of the sheriff was evidence of a riotous purpose. If you are satisfied, gentlemen, from the evidence that the purpose of the sheriff and of the posse was to preserve order and prevent a riot, then it would follow that their intent and object was not a criminal or unlawful one, and the rule of the law which makes the act of one the act of all has no application to the facts of this case. (57) At three minutes after ten on the morning of March 9, the jury arrived at its verdict. The sealed paper was handed up to the Judge, who examined it and returned it to the clerk. The clerk read: ''Gentlemen of the jury, harken unto your verdict as the Court hath recorded it. You find in the case wherein the Commonwealth is prosecutor and Sheriff Martin et. al., defendants, you find the defendants not guilty. So say you all?" (58) The verdict of acquittal was a just one under the law, yet, at the same time, it is possible that a terrible doubt exists that the slaughter at Lattimer was necessary or justifiable. Could the tragedy have been avoided? It is not clear that the miners should have been prevented from marching on the highway; it is not clear that they should have been denied the opportunity to show themselves within sight of the miners at work; it is not clear that the deputies should have fired as soon as they did. But, the law is for all men, and against all men who are not obedient to it. There is no question of the right of men to strike. The strike is often the only weapon. When the striker learns to keep within the law, to be fair to others, and to respect property rights, he will have made the greatest advances in the direction of public sympathy. The example of the Lattimer strikers was clear. Had a determined effort been made to keep within the law, to win the friendship of the people of the Hazleton region, the clash with Sheriff Martin and his deputies would have been avoided. The law is the defense of the individual and the salvation of the nation. Violence toward it cannot win. EPILOGUE In the course of researching the Commonwealth v. Martin Trial, it has been found that the Luzerne County Court records for that case are missing from their file at the Luzerne County Court House. Perhaps an 76 SLOVAKIA attorney borrowed them to study and never returned them ; or perhaps they were removed by intent considering the hard feelings exhibited by some members of the Hazleton mining community following the jury's verdict. The sleepy little mining patch of Lattimer today is much the same as it was sixty-eight years ago. The breakers are gone , the trolley tracks are gone , and the miners, whose families now occupy the same houses that witnessed the shooting, work at the near-by collieries in Harleigh and Jeddo . The excitement that brought the name Lattimer to the mind of most Americans in 1897 has been completely forgotten - even in Luzerne County. Should Lattimer be forgotten? Some say it should . But in today 's society when groups of American are banding together and marching, sometimes in defiance of the law, in causes they believe to be paramount, the tragedy of Lattimer could happen again. FOOTNOTES (1) John W . Jordan, Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography, vol. 7, (New York , 1916), 2350. (2) John Mitchell , Organized Labor, (Philadelphia, 1903), 375. (3) Henry Edward Rood , " A Pennsylvania Colliery Village, " The Century Magazine, vol. 55, no . 6, (April, 1898), 814. (4) "2,500 Men cut at Hazleton ," Wilkes -Barre Evening Leader, August 16, 1897, 1. (5) " The Honey Brook Strike ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 17, 1897, 1. "Concessions to Honey Brook Miners," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 21, 1897 , 7. "The Hazleton Strike ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 23, 1897, 8. (6) ''The Hazleton Strike,'' Wilk es-Barre Evening Leader, August 23 , 1897, 8. (7) " Two Thousand Foreigners Out, " Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 27, 1897, 1. (8) " Strikers in Hazleton Region in Complete Control ," Wilkes-Barre E vening Leader, August 28, 1897. 1. " Hazleton Strike Comes to a Demand ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 29, 1897, 1. (9) " The Anthracite Strike ," Wilkes -Barre E ve ning Leader, August 30, 1897, 1. (10) " Wild Excitement, " Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 2, 1897, 1-2. (11) " Strike Situation at Hazleton ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 3, 1897, 1. (12) " Wild Scenes at Hazleton ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 3, 1897, 1. (13) " Sheriff Martin on the Ground ," Wilkes -Barre Evening Leader, September 6, 1897 , 1. (14)/bid., 1. (15) " Labor Day Parade at Hazleton ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 7, 1897, 1. (16) " Sheriff Martin on the Ground ," Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, September 6, 1897, 1. (17) " Strikers Still Marching," Wilkes -Barre Evening Leader. SLOVAKIA 77 (18) Ibid., 2. (19)lbid., 2. (20) Ibid., 2. (21) Ibid., 2. (22) "Murdered in Cold Blood," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 11 , 1897, 1. (23) Ibid., 1. (24) Ibid., 1. (25) Ibid. , 1. (26) Ibid. , 1. (27) Ibid., 1. (28) "Sheriff Martin to be Arrested, " Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 12, 1897, 1. (29) Ibid., 1. (30) ''They Will Not Return to Work, '' Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 14, 1897, 1. (31) "Everything Quiet Along the Line, " Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 16, 1897, 1. (32) " Miners ' Strike is Spreading," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 16, 1897, 1. (33) " News from the Seat of War," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 18, 1897, 1. (34) " Sunday in the Strike Region ," Wilkes-Barre Times, September 21, 1897, 1. (35) " Many Strikers Return to Work, " Wilkes-Barre Times, September 20, 1897, 1. (36) "A Quiet Day at Hazleton ," Wilkes-Barre Record, September 23, 1897, 1. (37) " Troops Leave Hazleton ," Wilkes-Barre Record, September 29, 1897, 1. (38) " A Stampede to Return to Work," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 21 , 1897, 1. (39) " The Court Sits In Judgment," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 22, 1897, 1. (40) " The Court Sits in Judgment," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 22, 1897, 1. " The Shooting at Lattimer," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 24, 1897, 1. " The Sheriff Condemned," Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 28, 1897, 1. (42) ''The Lattimer Cases,'' Wilkes-Barre Record, September 28, 1897, 1. (43) "The Twelve Jurymen Selected, " Wilkes-Barre Record, February 3, 1898, 1. (44) " The Lattimer Cases," Wilkes-Barre Record, February 4, 1898, 1. (45) Henry W. Palmer, Fifty Years at the Bar and in Politics, (Williamsport, Penna. , 1913) 64. (46) Ibid., 65. (47) ''Excitement In Court,'' Wilkes-Barre Record, February 7, 1898, 12. (48) '' Yellow Journalism in the Court,'' Pittsburgh Times, February 8, 1898, 6 . (49) '' Said the Sheriff Shot, '' Wilkes-Barre Record, February 16, 1898, 6. (50) "A Labor View of Judge Woodward ," New York Evening Sun, February 17, 1898, 4. (51) "Samuel Gompers on the Lattimer Slaughter," New York World, February 20, 1898, 20. (52) Palmer , 67. (53) George B. Kulp , Luzerne Legal Register Reports, vol. 9 (Wilkes-Barre, 1900), 81. (54) Palmer , 81. 78 SLOVAKIA (55) Ibid., ll0. (56) Ibid., 147. (57) From Judge Woodward ' s original hand-written charge to the jury as found in his personal scrapbook in the possession of his grand-daughter, Mrs . Bruce Payne of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. (58) " The Deputies Are Not Guilty," Wilkes-Barre Times, March 9, 1898, 1. BIBLIOGRAPHY Jordan, John W ., Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography vol. 7, (New York, 1916) . Kulp, George B., Luzerne Legal Register Reports vol. 9, (Wilkes-Barre, 1900) . Mitchell , John, Organized Labor, (Philadelphia, 1903). Palmer, Henry W ., Fifty Years at the Bar and in Politics, (Williamsport, 1913) . Rood, Henry Edward , "A Pennsylvania Colliery Village," The Century Magazine, Vol. 55, no. 6, (1898). Newspaper Sources "A Labor View of Judge Woodward," New York Evening Sun, February 17, 1898, 4 . '' Samuel Gompers on the Lattimer Slaughter, " New York World, February 20 , 1898, 20. ''Yellow Journalism in the Court,'' Pittsburgh Times, February 8, 1898, 6. ''2,500 Men out at Hazleton, '' Wilkes-Barre Evening Leader, August 16, 1897, 1. " The Honey Brook Strike, " August 17, 1897, 1. "Concessions to Honey Brook Miners," August 21, 1897, 7. "The Hazleton Strike ," August 23, 1897, 8 . " Two Thousand Foreigners Out," August 27, 1897, 1. " Strikers in Hazleton Region in Complete Control," August 28, 1897, 1. " Hazleton Strike comes to a Demand ," August 29, 1897, 1. " The Anthracite Strike ," August 30, 1897, 1. " Wild Excitement" September 2, 1897, 1-2. " Strike Situation at Hazleton," September 3 , 1897, 1. " Wild Scenes at Hazleton ," September 3, 1897, 1. " Sheriff Martin on the Ground, " September 6, 1897, 1. · 'Labor Day Parade at Hazleton,'' September 7, 1897, 1. "Strikers Still Marching, " Wilkes-Barre News Dealer, September 9, 1897, 2. "Murdered in Cold Blood," September 11, 1897, 1. " She riff Martin to be Arrested ," September 12, 1897, 1. " They Will Not Return to Work," September 14, 1897 , 1. · 'Eve rything Quiet along the Line ,' ' September 16, 1897, 1. " Mine rs ' Strike is Spreading, " September 17, 1897, 1. " News from the Seat of War," September 18, 1897, 1. " A Stampede to return to Work ," Septe mber 21, 1897, 1. "The Court sits in Judgment," Se ptember 22 , 1897, 1. " The Shooting at Lattime r," September 24 , 1897, 1. " She riff Condemned," September 28 , 1897, 1. ··A Quiet Day at Hazleton ,'' Wilkes-Barre Record, September 23, 1897, 1. SLOVAKIA 79 "Troops Leave Hazleton ," September 29, 1897, 1. "The Twelve Jurymen Selected," February 3, 1898, 1. "The Lattimer Cases," February 4, 1898, 1. "Excitement in Court," February 7, 1898 , 12. "Said the Sheriff Shot," February 16, 1898, 6. "Sunday in the Strike Region ," Wilkes-Barre Times, September 20, 1897 , 1. "The Dep uties are Not Guilty," March 9, 1898, 1. Woodward, Stanley, the original hand-written charge to the jury as found in Judge Woodwa rd 's personal scrap book now in the possession of his granddaughter, Mrs. Bruce Payne of Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource THE MASSACRE AT LATIIMER MINES: September 10, 1897 Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977<br />pp. 9-79<br /><ol><li>The Lattimer Massacre and Its Sources / George A. Turner (pp. 9-43).</li> <li>The Lattimer Massacre / Konštantín Čulen (pp. 44-61).</li> <li>The Lattimer Massacre and Trial / Harry B. Schooley III (pp. 62-79).</li> </ol> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Turner, George A., 1935-2014 Schooley, Harry B. Čulen, Konštantín, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/925e1172817fcf3aae8ab06168d7f2c3.pdf aa810d47743180d2874305b37a9043da PDF Text Text ��SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXVII 19n MICHAEL NOVAK Editor EDITORIAL BOARD: Draga Divinska Joseph M. Kirschbaum Joseph C. Krajsa Susan Mikula Joseph A. Mikus Rev. Andrew V. Pier, O.S.B. Mark Stolarik Daniel F. Tanzone Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. A Political Science and Historical Annual Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Mailing Address: SLOVAKIA 870 Rifle Camp Road West Paterson, N.J. 07424 N0.50 �Printed by JEDNOTA PRINTERY P.O . Box 150 Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 U.S.A. �SLOVAKIA 3 Table of Contents From the Editor - Michael Novak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Remarks by Edward J . Behuncik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 THE MASSACRE AT LATIIMER MINES September 10, 1897 - Three Accounts The Lattimer Massacre and Its Sources George A . Turner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Lattimer Massacre - Konstantin Culen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 The Lattimer Massacre and Trial Harry B . Schooley, m . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Immigration, Education, and the Social Mobility of Slovaks , 1870-1930 - M. Mark Stolarik ..... . . . . .. . . . .. . . 80 Preludes to "Charter ' 77 " - TheodoricJ. Zubek, O.F.M. .. ... .. . 91 A Call for Courage - Hana Ponickti Introduction by J.M. Kirschbaum .. . . .. ... . .. .. .. .. . . .... . 107 The Nationalist Movements of the Austrian Slavs in 1848: A Comparative Sociological Profile Stanley Z. Pech .................. . .. . ...... .. ...... . ... . 113 A Slovak-American Perspective in a Changing Society Alexander J . Rudinsky .............. . ............. . ..... 136 Book Review - J. M. Kirschbaum .. . ..... .. .. . . . .. . . ......... 144 Our Contributors . . . ..... . . . . ... ......... .. . . ... ...... . .... . 147 ��SLOVAKIA 5 From the Editor One of the most significant events in Slovak American history was the massacre at Lattimer Mines, outside Hazleton, Pennsylvania, which occurred on September 10, 1897. The strike of that summer, led by Slavic laborers, including many Slovaks, was a turning point in the history of the United Mine Workers. No historian has ever recorded the full account of the events of September 10th, although Victor Greene's important and pioneering work, The Slavic Community on Strike (Notre Dame University Press) did lay bare the larger context and Edward Pinkowski' s pamphlet (Philadelphia: The Sunshine Press) kept the story alive. The most thorough work on the massacre has been prepared by Professor George A. Turner of Bloomsburg State College in a series of articles and Slovakia is honored to carry in full one of his comprehensive studies on the subject. His is an authoritative voice in the field. Years ago, Konstantin Culen devoted chapters 5 through 9 of his History of the Slovaks in America (Dejiny Slovakov v Amerike), vol. 1, (Nakladatefstvo Slovenskej Ligy v Bratislave, 1942), to this tragic event. In the strong, fluent, and authentic translation by the indefatigable and perceptive Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M., of the Jankola Library in Danville, Pennsylvania, we are privileged to make these pages available in English for the first time. Culen's work is significant because it records not only the facts but also the interpretation given to the massacre in the Slovak-American communities of that time. A third paper on Lattimer is also included. Professor Schooley wrote this essay twelve years ago, as an undergraduate, and was at first reluctant to allow its publication. On some matters of fact and detail, there are errors in the text; Professor Turner's thorough knowledge and research is here the more basic document. But our younger readers can take heart from Schooley's work; his documentation and vivid interpretation helped to create interest in this event within the local historical societies and libraries of the region, when older scholars had forgotten it. There are many other treasures in this volume, demonstrating some of the range of interests of our writers and readers. The report on "Charter 77" is especially important. We are also pleased to have Dr. Kirschbaum's review of Professor Skilling's important book. Meanwhile, manuscripts for next year's edition are already arriving. Manuscripts may be sent to the editor at any time, but preferably before June 1, 1978. My warmest thanks and appreciation go to Messrs. Edward Behuncik and John Holy, Officers of the Slovak League of America, for �6 SLOVAKIA their support; to Joseph C. Krajsa, Editor of Jednota , and his coworkers at the Jednota Printery; and to my colleagues, Daniel F. Tanzone and Sister M. Martina Tybor, for their generous assistance. MICHAEL NOV AK, Editor Department of Religion Syracuse University Syracuse , New York 13210 �SLOVAKIA 7 Remarks by Edward J. Behuncik Made at the 70th Anniversary Slovak League of America Banquet Hotel Cleveland Sheraton Cleveland, Ohio Sunday, May 15, 1977 As today's successor to our esteemed founder , Father Stefan Furdek, I am delighted to have this opportunity to greet all of you. Before making my brief remarks, I take this occasion publicly to extend my official as well as personal thanks to all you fine Ohio Slovaks who worked so diligently in preparing this anniversary celebration. Thank you one and all. Now, with apologies to the immortal Abraham Lincoln , I proceed with my remarks. Three score and ten years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent, a new federation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that Slovaks are coequal with all men. Now we are engaged in a great moral war, testing whether that federation, or any federation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met at the founding site of our federation. We have come to rededicate ourselves and to pay tribute to those who gave of their lives and honor that this federation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot rededicate - we cannot glorify we cannot hallow this site. The brave Slovaks - living and dead - who struggled here for Slovak ethnicity, have consecrated our cause far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long rememb er what we say here, but it can never forget what Father Stefan Furdek and his associates did here . It is for us , the living , rather to be rededicated here to the unfinished work which they who struggled and sacrificed have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here rededicated to the great task remaining before us - that from our honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they lived and died - For God and Nation - Za Boha a Na.rod; that we here highly resolve that these our founders and predecessors shall not have sacrificed in vain - that this federation - The Slovak League of America - under God , shall in this age of American ethnicity have rebirth of freedom and of increased leadership and productivity so that government of the Slovak people, by the Slovak people, for the Slovak people be established in a free �8 SLOVAKIA Slovakia, and that in this manner we help to make certain that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. Thank you. � ��SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXVII 19n MICHAEL NOVAK Editor EDITORIAL BOARD: Draga Divinska Joseph M. Kirschbaum Joseph C. Krajsa Susan Mikula Joseph A. Mikus Rev. Andrew V. Pier, O.S.B. Mark Stolarik Daniel F. Tanzone Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. A Political Science and Historical Annual Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Mailing Address: SLOVAKIA 870 Rifle Camp Road West Paterson, N.J. 07424 N0.50 �Printed by JEDNOTA PRINTERY P.O . Box 150 Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 U.S.A. �SLOVAKIA 3 Table of Contents From the Editor - Michael Novak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Remarks by Edward J . Behuncik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 THE MASSACRE AT LATIIMER MINES September 10, 1897 - Three Accounts The Lattimer Massacre and Its Sources George A . Turner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Lattimer Massacre - Konstantin Culen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 The Lattimer Massacre and Trial Harry B . Schooley, m . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Immigration, Education, and the Social Mobility of Slovaks , 1870-1930 - M. Mark Stolarik ..... . . . . .. . . . .. . . 80 Preludes to "Charter ' 77 " - TheodoricJ. Zubek, O.F.M. .. ... .. . 91 A Call for Courage - Hana Ponickti Introduction by J.M. Kirschbaum .. . . .. ... . .. .. .. .. . . .... . 107 The Nationalist Movements of the Austrian Slavs in 1848: A Comparative Sociological Profile Stanley Z. Pech .................. . .. . ...... .. ...... . ... . 113 A Slovak-American Perspective in a Changing Society Alexander J . Rudinsky .............. . ............. . ..... 136 Book Review - J. M. Kirschbaum .. . ..... .. .. . . . .. . . ......... 144 Our Contributors . . . ..... . . . . ... ......... .. . . ... ...... . .... . 147 ��SLOVAKIA 5 From the Editor One of the most significant events in Slovak American history was the massacre at Lattimer Mines, outside Hazleton, Pennsylvania, which occurred on September 10, 1897. The strike of that summer, led by Slavic laborers, including many Slovaks, was a turning point in the history of the United Mine Workers. No historian has ever recorded the full account of the events of September 10th, although Victor Greene's important and pioneering work, The Slavic Community on Strike (Notre Dame University Press) did lay bare the larger context and Edward Pinkowski' s pamphlet (Philadelphia: The Sunshine Press) kept the story alive. The most thorough work on the massacre has been prepared by Professor George A. Turner of Bloomsburg State College in a series of articles and Slovakia is honored to carry in full one of his comprehensive studies on the subject. His is an authoritative voice in the field. Years ago, Konstantin Culen devoted chapters 5 through 9 of his History of the Slovaks in America (Dejiny Slovakov v Amerike), vol. 1, (Nakladatefstvo Slovenskej Ligy v Bratislave, 1942), to this tragic event. In the strong, fluent, and authentic translation by the indefatigable and perceptive Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M., of the Jankola Library in Danville, Pennsylvania, we are privileged to make these pages available in English for the first time. Culen's work is significant because it records not only the facts but also the interpretation given to the massacre in the Slovak-American communities of that time. A third paper on Lattimer is also included. Professor Schooley wrote this essay twelve years ago, as an undergraduate, and was at first reluctant to allow its publication. On some matters of fact and detail, there are errors in the text; Professor Turner's thorough knowledge and research is here the more basic document. But our younger readers can take heart from Schooley's work; his documentation and vivid interpretation helped to create interest in this event within the local historical societies and libraries of the region, when older scholars had forgotten it. There are many other treasures in this volume, demonstrating some of the range of interests of our writers and readers. The report on "Charter 77" is especially important. We are also pleased to have Dr. Kirschbaum's review of Professor Skilling's important book. Meanwhile, manuscripts for next year's edition are already arriving. Manuscripts may be sent to the editor at any time, but preferably before June 1, 1978. My warmest thanks and appreciation go to Messrs. Edward Behuncik and John Holy, Officers of the Slovak League of America, for �6 SLOVAKIA their support; to Joseph C. Krajsa, Editor of Jednota , and his coworkers at the Jednota Printery; and to my colleagues, Daniel F. Tanzone and Sister M. Martina Tybor, for their generous assistance. MICHAEL NOV AK, Editor Department of Religion Syracuse University Syracuse , New York 13210 �SLOVAKIA 7 Remarks by Edward J. Behuncik Made at the 70th Anniversary Slovak League of America Banquet Hotel Cleveland Sheraton Cleveland, Ohio Sunday, May 15, 1977 As today's successor to our esteemed founder , Father Stefan Furdek, I am delighted to have this opportunity to greet all of you. Before making my brief remarks, I take this occasion publicly to extend my official as well as personal thanks to all you fine Ohio Slovaks who worked so diligently in preparing this anniversary celebration. Thank you one and all. Now, with apologies to the immortal Abraham Lincoln , I proceed with my remarks. Three score and ten years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent, a new federation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that Slovaks are coequal with all men. Now we are engaged in a great moral war, testing whether that federation, or any federation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met at the founding site of our federation. We have come to rededicate ourselves and to pay tribute to those who gave of their lives and honor that this federation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot rededicate - we cannot glorify we cannot hallow this site. The brave Slovaks - living and dead - who struggled here for Slovak ethnicity, have consecrated our cause far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long rememb er what we say here, but it can never forget what Father Stefan Furdek and his associates did here . It is for us , the living , rather to be rededicated here to the unfinished work which they who struggled and sacrificed have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here rededicated to the great task remaining before us - that from our honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they lived and died - For God and Nation - Za Boha a Na.rod; that we here highly resolve that these our founders and predecessors shall not have sacrificed in vain - that this federation - The Slovak League of America - under God , shall in this age of American ethnicity have rebirth of freedom and of increased leadership and productivity so that government of the Slovak people, by the Slovak people, for the Slovak people be established in a free �8 SLOVAKIA Slovakia, and that in this manner we help to make certain that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. Thank you. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1977, Vol. 27 Description An account of the resource Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXVII 19n MICHAEL NOVAK Editor EDITORIAL BOARD: Draga Divinska Joseph M. Kirschbaum Joseph C. Krajsa Susan Mikula Joseph A. Mikus Rev. Andrew V. Pier, O.S.B. Mark Stolarik Daniel F. Tanzone Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. A Political Science and Historical Annual Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Mailing Address: SLOVAKIA 870 Rifle Camp Road West Paterson, N.J. 07424 N0.50 Printed by JEDNOTA PRINTERY P.O . Box 150 Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 U.S.A. SLOVAKIA 3 Table of Contents From the Editor - Michael Novak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Remarks by Edward J . Behuncik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 THE MASSACRE AT LATIIMER MINES September 10, 1897 - Three Accounts The Lattimer Massacre and Its Sources George A . Turner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Lattimer Massacre - Konstantin Culen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 The Lattimer Massacre and Trial Harry B . Schooley, m . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Immigration, Education, and the Social Mobility of Slovaks , 1870-1930 - M. Mark Stolarik ..... . . . . .. . . . .. . . 80 Preludes to "Charter ' 77 " - TheodoricJ. Zubek, O.F.M. .. ... .. . 91 A Call for Courage - Hana Ponickti Introduction by J.M. Kirschbaum .. . . .. ... . .. .. .. .. . . .... . 107 The Nationalist Movements of the Austrian Slavs in 1848: A Comparative Sociological Profile Stanley Z. Pech .................. . .. . ...... .. ...... . ... . 113 A Slovak-American Perspective in a Changing Society Alexander J . Rudinsky .............. . ............. . ..... 136 Book Review - J. M. Kirschbaum .. . ..... .. .. . . . .. . . ......... 144 Our Contributors . . . ..... . . . . ... ......... .. . . ... ...... . .... . 147 SLOVAKIA 5 From the Editor One of the most significant events in Slovak American history was the massacre at Lattimer Mines, outside Hazleton, Pennsylvania, which occurred on September 10, 1897. The strike of that summer, led by Slavic laborers, including many Slovaks, was a turning point in the history of the United Mine Workers. No historian has ever recorded the full account of the events of September 10th, although Victor Greene's important and pioneering work, The Slavic Community on Strike (Notre Dame University Press) did lay bare the larger context and Edward Pinkowski' s pamphlet (Philadelphia: The Sunshine Press) kept the story alive. The most thorough work on the massacre has been prepared by Professor George A. Turner of Bloomsburg State College in a series of articles and Slovakia is honored to carry in full one of his comprehensive studies on the subject. His is an authoritative voice in the field. Years ago, Konstantin Culen devoted chapters 5 through 9 of his History of the Slovaks in America (Dejiny Slovakov v Amerike), vol. 1, (Nakladatefstvo Slovenskej Ligy v Bratislave, 1942), to this tragic event. In the strong, fluent, and authentic translation by the indefatigable and perceptive Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M., of the Jankola Library in Danville, Pennsylvania, we are privileged to make these pages available in English for the first time. Culen's work is significant because it records not only the facts but also the interpretation given to the massacre in the Slovak-American communities of that time. A third paper on Lattimer is also included. Professor Schooley wrote this essay twelve years ago, as an undergraduate, and was at first reluctant to allow its publication. On some matters of fact and detail, there are errors in the text; Professor Turner's thorough knowledge and research is here the more basic document. But our younger readers can take heart from Schooley's work; his documentation and vivid interpretation helped to create interest in this event within the local historical societies and libraries of the region, when older scholars had forgotten it. There are many other treasures in this volume, demonstrating some of the range of interests of our writers and readers. The report on "Charter 77" is especially important. We are also pleased to have Dr. Kirschbaum's review of Professor Skilling's important book. Meanwhile, manuscripts for next year's edition are already arriving. Manuscripts may be sent to the editor at any time, but preferably before June 1, 1978. My warmest thanks and appreciation go to Messrs. Edward Behuncik and John Holy, Officers of the Slovak League of America, for 6 SLOVAKIA their support; to Joseph C. Krajsa, Editor of Jednota , and his coworkers at the Jednota Printery; and to my colleagues, Daniel F. Tanzone and Sister M. Martina Tybor, for their generous assistance. MICHAEL NOV AK, Editor Department of Religion Syracuse University Syracuse , New York 13210 SLOVAKIA 7 Remarks by Edward J. Behuncik Made at the 70th Anniversary Slovak League of America Banquet Hotel Cleveland Sheraton Cleveland, Ohio Sunday, May 15, 1977 As today's successor to our esteemed founder , Father Stefan Furdek, I am delighted to have this opportunity to greet all of you. Before making my brief remarks, I take this occasion publicly to extend my official as well as personal thanks to all you fine Ohio Slovaks who worked so diligently in preparing this anniversary celebration. Thank you one and all. Now, with apologies to the immortal Abraham Lincoln , I proceed with my remarks. Three score and ten years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent, a new federation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that Slovaks are coequal with all men. Now we are engaged in a great moral war, testing whether that federation, or any federation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met at the founding site of our federation. We have come to rededicate ourselves and to pay tribute to those who gave of their lives and honor that this federation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot rededicate - we cannot glorify we cannot hallow this site. The brave Slovaks - living and dead - who struggled here for Slovak ethnicity, have consecrated our cause far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long rememb er what we say here, but it can never forget what Father Stefan Furdek and his associates did here . It is for us , the living , rather to be rededicated here to the unfinished work which they who struggled and sacrificed have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here rededicated to the great task remaining before us - that from our honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they lived and died - For God and Nation - Za Boha a Na.rod; that we here highly resolve that these our founders and predecessors shall not have sacrificed in vain - that this federation - The Slovak League of America - under God , shall in this age of American ethnicity have rebirth of freedom and of increased leadership and productivity so that government of the Slovak people, by the Slovak people, for the Slovak people be established in a free 8 SLOVAKIA Slovakia, and that in this manner we help to make certain that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. Thank you.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 27 (No. 50) Description An account of the resource includes From the Editor (Michael Novak); Remarks by Edward J. Behuncik Made at the 70th Anniversary Slovak League of America Banquet Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Novak, Michael, 1933-2017 Behuncik, Edward J. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 LCNAF+dates name