George Norris, editor of the Free
Press, to report their meeting at
Which they had aired their
grievances over shortweighting at
the Wellington Colliery. Dunsmuir
used Norris’ subsequent article
Teporting the meeting as the basis
for a libel suit against the news-

paperman. The verdict in the case.

which opened March 7 in Nanaimo,

was a foregone conclusion: Norris

Could expect little justice from

magistrates who, in other cases,

Shared the bench with Dunsmuir in

his other capacity as Justice of the
ace.

Dunsmuir had further purpose in
‘Moving against Norris: he wanted
to stiflea paper that often afforded
the miners a forum. And he wanted
to demonstrate to the colliers ‘of
Wellington that their cause was
lost, that they had defied justice no
less than Dunsmuir, Diggle and
Company.

That he was as much intent on
crushing the struggle of his miners
as he was on maintaining
Production was evident in Duns-
muir’s actions from the beginning.
The committee of miners had sent
a letter to Matthew Begbie, chief
Justice for the province, asking
him to arbitrate in their dispute.
But Dunsmuir, when he was told of
the action, declared that he would
“permit no man to arbitrate in the
case” and the men withdrew their
request. Later they sent two men,
Alex Hoggan and James Williams,
to propose to the owners that all
outstanding grievances be sub-

mitted to a committee of 12 men. .

The committee would be chosen by
mutual agreement with the losing
party bearing all expenses. But
Hoggan and Williams returned
shortly after with the reply: “Mr.
Dunsmuir indignantly refused to
be party to any such mode of
settlement.”

He was moving instead to muster
whatever forces of coercion. within
reach of his considerable in-
fluence. From the County Court, he
obtained a court order,
manding the miners and _ their
families to vacate the company
houses in Wellington. And more

than 1,000 miles away, his son,
Alex, was recruiting a force of
scabs. Thirty-eight of them were to
arrive in Nanaimo on the steamer
Maude, boundfrom San Francisco.

Meanwhile the Wellington
miners were organizing for a long
Struggle. As in the strike in
Nanaimo in 1870-71, support
committees — Dunsmuir would
later derisively refer to them as
“begging committees’ — were
Sent into Nanaimo and Victoria to
outline the miners’ case and to
Seek support. In the city of
Nanaimo, a meeting of miners
called to discuss the proposed
Coal Mines Regulation Act,”
Pledged “to assist both morally

com--

and panier the miners of
Wellington while out on the strike.”
And the sympathy for the miners
extended far beyond Vancouver
Island. =

The Maude docked in Departure
Bay on Monday evening March 12,
bringing Dunsmuir’s recruits to
Nanaimo. But they never reached
the mine, as the Free Press

related:

“The 38 miners who arrived by -

the Maude on Monday evening to
work at the Wellington Colliery in
place of those on strike refused
yesterday to go to work. Yesterday
morning these new men were
taken to Wellington by the
locomotive. On arriving they were
met by the women and children of
Wellington and asked if they had

come to take the bread and butter .

out of their mouths. After this
appeal the new men declined to
work. In a few hours the old and
new men were mingling together

‘at Chantrell’s as though they had

been friends for years.”

From their own meagre
resources, the Weilington miners
gave those who wanted to return to
San Francisco the $15 to cover the
fare. Others were offered
assistance in finding jobs at Vic-
toria and Nanaimo.

Three weeks later,
Thomas Harris, charged by the
court to carry out the County Court
eviction order forcing the miners
out of the company shacks, found
the same sympathy for the
strikers. His first appeal. for
possession of the houses refused,
he returned to Wellington April 5
with 12 assistants, intending to
“forcibly eject the occupants of the
houses.”

But the assistants refused to act.

Undaunted, Sheriff Harris sent a

note aboard the H.M.S. Rocket,

anchored in the harbor and asked
for 12 volunteers to act as bailiffs
under his command. The force
obtained, he returned to the town
but even with his troop of soldiers
and marines he could only succeed
in evicting the occupants of two
houses. And the response he
received from the miners and their
families was even’ more
‘ignominious.

“On the return of the sailors in
the evening and while in the act of
embarking at Gordon’s Wharf,
they were greeted with hootings
and groans,” the Colonist reported.
“Tater in the evening, a number of
persons armed with coal oil tins

- assembled in front of Mr. Theo.

Davie’s law office and serenaded
Sheriff Harris and Mr. Dunsmuir
with music from the tin cans and
gavethree cheers and three groans
for the brave men who turned the
women and cripples out of the
houses. One of the party sang that
glorious song, “Death of Nelson,”

Lapa

Hew Advertisements.

MILITIA NOTICE.

Yrrcry ApsctaxtT QGaewaenrt's Oretcs,
Victoria, 20th April. 1077.

H* MAJKSTY HAS BEEN PLEASED
to Order the Corpe of Victoria Ries, Companies Kos.
Lae 2. to be pisced on acttel service. and to mes
ter at the Drill Shed, Victoria, on SUNDAY the BOcb
INSTANT, at the hour of 10 a.m.

G F. HOUGHTON, Lieat. Celi.
D. A. G., Military District Bo. 4.

Sheriff

changing the last stanza to suit the
occasion. Yesterday Sheriff Harris
demanded possession of the other
tenements but after some very
hard language had been used, the
occupiers emphatically refused to
give up possession of the disputed
tenements. The sheriff will leave
this morning for Victoria where he
will lay the whole matter before
the Government and he expects to
be back next week with forces
sufficiently strong to enforce the
order of ejectment made by the
County Court.”

As the Colonist editorially ad-
monished the strikers for “‘setting
the constituted authority at
defiance,” Sheriff Harris returned
again on April 13 — this time with
13 deputies. As they disembarked
from the H.M.S. Grappler and
proceeded to Wellington, they were
greeted by nearly 200 men and
women who urged them to turn
back. Sheriff Harris led them on
but before they were able to evict
more than the occupants of six
houses, the crowd drove them back
to the naval vessel.

Thwarted in his drive to in-
timidate the miners into sub-
mission and unable to reopen the
mine with scab labor, Dunsmuir
sought to convince his associates in
Victoria that only force could avoid
an indefinite shutdown. Earlier, a
second contingent of scabs had
been escorted to the mine only to
have most of them refuse to work
when they were met by the miners
and their families. Those who tried
were driven off. :

On April 20, Dunsmuir wrote to
A. C. Elliott, premier of the
province, insisting that he had
been put to great expense “‘for
want of proper force’ and warning
that if the government did not do
something, the Wellington mines
would be shut down for a year.

Elsewhere, the clamor for re-
pression grew louder. The Colonist
warned in an editorial that a
prolonged strike could endanger
Nanaimo’s position as a coal port.
As far away as California, the
Daily Alta, ina story picked up by
the Free Press, passed its
judgment and stated: ‘“‘The men
have a right to quit work but they

_ haveno right to add rioting to that

act and they deserve punishment.”

Suddenly, on April 27, a Militia
Notice appeared in the Colonist

_calling the Corps of Victoria Rifles
_ up “for actual service” and or-

dering the men to muster April 29.
The same day, a dispatch reported
that Militia Companies 1 and 2 of
Victoria and the New Westminster
Rifles and Artillery had been
placed on actual service “‘to en-
force the law at Wellington.”’ On

April 28 mayor Bates of Nanaimo’

and his wife left for San Francisco.

On April 29, 53 militiamen
mustered at Victoria where they
were given instructions and were
read the regulations regarding the
obeying of orders.

The same day, the two corps of
militia, under the command of Lt.-
Col. C. F. Houghton — later to
become Dunsmuir’s son-in-law —

boarded the steamer Maude at-

Victoria. The orders were to
proceed to New Westminster
where they were to pick up the
company of New Westminster
Rifles and the New Westminster
Artillery and sail for Departure
Bay. In a gesture that it un-
doubtedly considered fitting, the
Colonist sent along a ‘war
correspondent.”

Sheriff Thomas Harris was on
board the H.M.S. Rocket with
several police officers — and
warrants for the arrest of “‘the
principal rioters.”’

It was quiet in the town of
Wellington when the militia, police
and Sheriff Harris arrived at noon,
April 30. Only an hour before, the
miners and their families had
attended the funeral of a small boy
who had fallen downa well and the
pall of mourning still hung over the
mining community.

Armed with 20 rounds of am-

munition, the militiamen
assembled in companies and stood
threateningly by as_ police
superintendent Todd arrested
three men and proceeded back to
the Maude. The townspeople
watched as Sheriff Harris evicted
the rest of the families from the
company houses. There was no
resistance — only one last gesture
of defiance as a miner strode up
the steps and broke into a house
after the door had been sealed.

It was over in a matter of hours.
Dunsmuir had proven his might in
arraying the police and the militia
against the defiant miners and
their families. But the Wellington
mine was still closed.

The blatant show of force soon
brought reactions from the com-
munity. In Nanaimo, the foreman
of the Grand Jury, James Brown,
in a presentment to Chief Justice
Matthew Begbie May 9, declared
“a serious stigma has been cast on

the District by the use of military ,

force.” He added that ‘‘misrepre-
sentation must have been made to
have induced the government to
such extreme measures.”

However sympathetic the Grand
Jury’s action, it was not enough to
stop the forces that had been set in
motion.

At Wellington, Dunsmuir,
capitalizing on the uncertainty of
the miners, posted notices asking
that all men who wanted to return
to work at the old rate send in their
names. Although only a dozen
complied, Dunsmuir pledged to
raise a full force of scabs at San
Francisco, now that the display of
militia had demonstrated his
strength.

In Victoria, Chief Justice Begbie
replied imperiously to the Grand
Jury presentment. ‘‘Let those who
have any influence with these mis-
guided men induce them to return
to work and try to make amends
for the loss and expense which the
town and the whole province have
sustained,’ he thundered. The
Colonist declared in an editorial
its justification for Dunsmuir’s
pledge to recruit scabs and echoed
his call for government forces to
escort them. ;

Perhaps as telling on the morale
of the miners, however, were the
reports coming from coal fields all
over the continent, detailing the
desperate state of the coal trade
and the destitution to which miners
had been reduced. Worst of all was
the plight of the Pennsylvania
anthracite miners who had been
driven to abject poverty by the
crushing defeat of the long strike of
1875 and the general depression of
the coal. market. Although the
reports, carried in the Colonist
with a warning to the Wellington
miners to “read and commit to
memory,” were deliberately over-
emphasized, their effect could not
be diminished.

The trial of the Wellington
miners, held during the Spring
Assizes, opened the last chapter of
the 1877 strike. The Grand Jury
had found “‘true bills” on all seven
indictments against the miners
and six men faced charges, the
worst of which were “unlawful
combination to fix wages and to
compel divers persons to abstain
from work’’ and “obstructing a
peace officer.”

The case on unlawful combina-
tion opened May 8 and on May 28,
“in consequence of the conflicting
nature of the evidence,” the jury
found the men not guilty. It was a
victory for these men who had
received so little justice at the
hands of ‘‘constituted authority,”
but even as the verdict came down,
the Dunsmuirs had managed to
bring most of the miners back to
work. And as men had applied,
Dunsmuir’s son, James, had
“‘selected the least obnoxious of the
strikers’”’ and had told them to
report for work May 28. Others
wereto await communication from
the company, but for many, it
never came — the blacklist had
been drawn up. .s

On June 1 came another blow.
Although five of those charged
were found not guilty of ob-
structing a peace officer in the
charges resulting from their
refusal to vacate company houses,
a sixth, Alex Hoggan, was found
guilty. Ignoring the jury’s in-
structions for ‘“‘the strongest
recommendation for mercy,” the
judge sentenced him to four
months. The other charges were
declared “nolle prosequi’’ — they
would not be pursued.

The final blow came the same
week when Dunsmuir, carrying out

- an earlier threat, brought in 31

laborers from San Francisco. At
the same time, 40 of the former
Wellington miners were turned
away when they reported for work.

After nearly four months of
strike, it seemed a bitter end. But
at a time when thousands of miners
had been thrown out of work and
wages reduced in the owners’ drive
for profit; at a time when all the
forces of the state were arrayed
against the miners, the odds
against forcing concessions from
Dunsmuir, Diggle and Company
were formidable, if not in-
surmountable. And if the miners
were forced back at the old rates,
they could go proudly — for four
months they had stood fast against
strikebreakers and company in-
timidation and had only~ suc-
cumbed when the full force of
authority had been brought into
their struggle.

Thoughit would be several years
before union organization would be
formed in the Nanaimo coal fields,
the strikers Of 1877 would have
done much to pave the way with
their militance, their discipline —
and their unity.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 29, 1977—Page 9