Jack Battuello Memoir #1 - University of Illinois Springfield

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A. We had a meeting before,
Q. Did this occur at the convention?
A. This was held in Gillespie at the ci.ty hall. That was the leaders
of the movement and there it was decided that it would be peaceful.
Q. Was therc any discussion on that pori.nt, ever?
A. Not too much, not too much because somehow or other it seemed
likc we were seeking to prove that we were going to be law-abiding.
And after all, we wanted to win miners, not alienate them, and shooting
wouldn't have been a good form of soliciting support. We figured
that; we learned differently, of course.
Q. How was that word passed down--just by word of mouth? You never
had to search cars yourself to make sure thac some hothead wasn't
involved?
A. No, no, never. Never disputed a man's integrity, or word or his
honesty. We said this is going to be a peaceful march; it's going
to be one in which we're going to articulate our demands, our request
for help, and we are going to plead to . . . , Illinois miners had
always been a solid unit up until then--a pretty much solid unit,
There was some variance between the northern miners of Illinois and
the southern miners in T>ittle Egypt, of course that related to more
religious, economic and political differences. But when it came to
thc mine problems, we were pretty solid. For instance, we never had
to put on picket lines in Illinois--never.
Q. You never had to what?
A. We never had to establish a picket line in a stlrike in Illinois.
When we went on strike--we stayed home, Nobody ever dared to go
through a line; there was no picket line, that's how solfd we were.
Q. Bow do you explain 1llinoi.s' solidari~y?
A. Prom experience, hard, cruel experiences in the past, There
were some quite painful struggles took p1,ace in Illinois. Like Virden,
you know. Do you remember John Al-tgeld? Governor Altgeld?
He was in office when they tried to scab the Virden mines. They
brought Negroes in with box cars and there were big killings there.
Some of the miners were not allowed eo bc buried in Virdcn; they
buried them in Mount Olive.
Q. So you think it was the early mine struggles here that kept the
miners aware of their autonomy?
A. There's another explanation for chxt, too. The Illinois miners--
the radical element of Illinois miners--were always great activists.
Jack Battuello Memoir -- Archives, University of Illinois at Springfield