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| Front page, The Herald-Patriot, Dec. 4, 1919 |
Temperatures plunged across Iowa as December dawned during 1919, falling in Chariton to 5 degrees on Nov. 30 and then dropping to a record low of minus-20 on December 10.
The uneasiness of these bone-chilling days was intensified mightily by the fact the supply of coal --- the principal source of heat and power --- was diminishing and the way forward was not clear. Lucas County's miners, 600-700 of them, were on strike --- as were hundreds of thousand of others elsewhere in the United States. None of Iowa's coal mines, where an estimated 15,000 miners were employed, were operating.
The nation's coal miners, more than 400,000 of whom now were represented by Lucas County's own John L. Lewis who had become acting president of the United Mine Workers of America that year, had agreed two years earlier that wage agreements in place when World War I broke out would remain in effect until after the war ended. Once the war ended, mine owners --- who had profited mightily during the war --- declined to negotiate. Lewis had called the first strike of his presidency for Nov. 1.
Washington, D.C., was in disarray. President Woodrow Wilson had suffered a debilitating stroke during October. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, aligned with mine owners against labor, invoked the wartime Lever Act, making it a crime to interfere with the production and transportation of necessities during war time (the United States would not sign a peace treaty with defeated Germany until 1921). This infuriated Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson, inclined to negotiate with the miners.
While all of this was playing out, ordinary residents of Lucas County were taking extraordinary precautions in the face of the threat of a long, cold winter. The front-page headline on The Herald-Patriot of Dec. 4 read, "Chariton Hard Hit By Strike; Schools Close December 12th, Coal Going to the City; Churches Are Closed Tightly; Blanket Order Shortens Hours for All Business Houses."
Here's the text of the story that followed:
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Developments in the coal situation in Chariton the past week are these:
No miners have returned to work and no attempt has been made to reopen any mine in Lucas county.
Union men are not talking, but it is reported that a meeting was held at which it was decided not to accept the government's offer of a 14 percent advance.
The electric light plant has received two cars of coal, insuring light and power for the towns served by it for the next two weeks, at least.
A car of coal was parceled out on Monday by order of the mayor in quarter and half ton lots to those in need to fuel, but the supply was inadequate and many are on the waiting list, the zero weather causing not a little suffering among those in poorly built houses with little fuel.
Small quantities of wood are coming to the city. Wood is taken to the city wood lot, sawed into convenient lengths and sold only upon order of the mayor, who is working with fine efficiency and impartiality to prevent actual suffering. Every purchaser of coal on Monday was required to buy wood to mix with it.
After conferences which lasted all day Tuesday between the mayor and council, the fuel conservaion board and the clergy of the city, the latter decided to close all mid-week meetings in churches, then those churches whose tenets would permit should join in a union service on Sunday evening, but that separate morning services and Sunday schools should be held.
Feeling that the situation was more acute than was at first realized and that the fifteen tons of coal which would be required to heat the churches on Sunday would keep thirty houses warm for a week, the fuel board consisting of Messrs. Frank Larimer, Welker and Goodsell, on Thursday passed a formal order prohibiting all church services except such as might be held in private homes.
The school board met with the fuel board on Wednesday afternoon and decided to close the schools on Friday, December 12th, or one week in advance of the regular holiday vacation, with the understanding that the schools should not re-open until the fuel situation is relieved and that the surplus coal owned by the schools should be turned over to the city to be used as an emergency supply. The schools have perhaps 275 tons of Iowa coal on hand. It will require about thirty tons to run until December 12, leaving a balance of nearly 250 tons. Under normal conditions this coal supply would run Chariton less than three days, but with the present restrictions it would mean a week's supply for 50 homes. The coal will be sold at cost, but with the added cost of re-handling and delivery. It is understood that this coal is to serve as Chariton's "last ditch" and it is not proposed to use it until all other supplies have been exhausted.
Revival services opened by the Nazarene church on Monday evening were closed by order of the mayor. The Lincoln theater is closed indefinitely.
On Thursday morning the fuel board met with the council and issued a blanket order closing all business houses except between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. This order was made to cover mercantile houses of all descriptions, including drug stores, stores, pool halls, restaurants, etc. Manufacturing plants will be allowed longer hours in consideration of the fact that no power is available until noon of each day.
As there have been evidences of thievery during the lightless nights, the Commercial Club has employed two additional night watchmen to serve until normal conditions are restored.
An organized effort to provide wood for the city is to be made by the Commercial Club, the city administration and the fuel board, acting with the citizens generally. Farmers are urged to bring wood to town and place it at the disposal of the city, which will pay the market price.
From Jack Miley, the city has purchased from eight to ten car loads of mine props which are unloaded near the Olmitz switch. Cars have been provided and men are being secured to load it, when it will be brought to Chariton and sawed. It is dry, seasoned wood.
Several offers of wood have been made by farmers who will give the wood in order to have their timber lands cleared. Road conditions are now good for hauling and wood cutting and it is hoped to get as much wood in as possible in view either of a possible blizzard or a warm spell which would make the roads soft. Farmers are urged to rally to the assistance of Chariton in this crisis in the same spirit the Chariton business men helped them to reap their crops during the war.
It is reported that the schools of Lucas were closed yesterday, but that under the direction of Supt. Mathewson a volunteer crew has been organized by means of which it is hoped to secure enough wood to relieve the situation in town and re-open the schools.
A number of miners have found employment on sewer work and others will possibly work in the ice harvest, preparations for which are now being made, but none have expressed any intention of helping to relieve the fuel famine.
Opinions as to the duration of the strike vary widely. The reported threats by anthracite miners in the east that they will strike if coal is shopped to relieve the famine, and by Brotherhoods that they will refuse to transport coal mined by non-union men complicates the situation, as have the conflicting orders on the part of the government. Locally, feeling is growing rapidly against both operators and miners as the pinch of cold is felt and business men see their prospects injured and those employed find enforced idleness confronting them.
The printing business is made most difficult in many ways by the fuel and power regulations and all the Herald-Patriot can promise is to do its best, asking that due allowance be made for deficiencies in news service.
Details of fuel order will be posted today. Bakeries, drug stores, etc.,close at 6 o'clock, restaurants at 7 at night. As the library will soon close, bring all books back at once.
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Some precautionary measures already had been imposed by the time this article was published. The city electric plant was operating from noon until 11 p.m. only. A fuel yard had been opened just south of the Bates House hotel on the current site of Chariton True Value Hardware. Wood was to be delivered there to be cut and distributed. Coal mined by non-union workers from the various coal banks and small "gopher hole" mines around the county also was to be brought here for purchase by the city and distribution.
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Fortunately for everyone concerned, an agreement between the government, mine owners and UMWA was reached on Dec. 10. Miners agreed to accept a 14 percent wage increase in return for the establishment of an investigatory commission to consider the way forward.
Miners were back at work in Lucas County two days later, on Friday, Dec. 12, but it took several days to resume production. And the supply of coal from elsewhere, as the days passed, began to flow into town via rail.
Although the situation would not return quite to normal by Christmas, at least there was the assurance that the worst was over.
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