After the 1922 ‘Herrin Massacre’ where UMWA miners decisively defended their strike from scabs and hired Klan gunmen killing dozens of strike-breakers and thugs, a reign of terror descended on the Southern Illinois coal fields. The Klan took over whole towns, deposing elected bodies, and made a concerted effort to infiltrate and smash the UWMA. Militant mining communities revolted, and a complicated class war raged in the coal fields for decades, with the bloodiest years in the mid-1920s. Other factors came into play; the John L. Lewis and Farrington bureaucracy, anti-Communist union leaders making common cause with the Klan, Democratic and Republican political machines, the ‘Knights of the Flaming Circle’ anti-klan defenders, prohibition and racketeering, politically divided progressive miners, and a helluva lot of violence. However, the militant miners never surrender to the Klan. A year after this article which highlights S. Glenn Young, klan sadist responsible for up to 30 murders of unionists, miners, immigrants, and personal enemies–also an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Investigation–was seen by Ora Thomas, anti-klan former sheriff and Flaming Circle member, on January 24, 1925 at a local cigar store in Herrin. Eyes met, guns were drawn, and in seconds Thomas had laid Young and his two bodyguards in a deserved grave. Thomas, fatally wounded in the exchange, died on the floor of the cigar stand next to his mortal enemies.

‘Illinois Miners Strike to Oust Klan’ from the Daily Worker. Vol. 1 No. 337. February 11, 1924.

Mines Close As State Troops Reach Herrin, Illinois

HERRIN, ILL. Twelve mines are already shut down and a general strike of all the coal diggers in Williamson county is expected in labor’s defensive fight against K.K.K. usurpers who have taken over the government of the county and arrested Hugh Willis, state official of the United Mine Workers of America, Mayor Anderson and Sheriff Galligan, on framed-up changes of murder.

The strike comes as hundreds of militiamen, members of the 132nd Infantry, arrived as reinforcements to S. Glenn Young and his policemen, who have lawlessly taken possession of the city.

Veteran of Herrin Case.

Willis’ arrest on the charge of murdering Constable Cagle, is the second attempt of operators’ forces to frame him. The first was at the famous Herrin trial where he was completely vindicated by a jury.

Arrested with Willis by the Klan police under S. Glenn Young, is the mayor of Herrin, an anti-Klansman, C.E. Anderson. Other defendants are Hezzie Byrn and M.J. Trout, deputy sheriffs; Jim Davis, John Murray, J.W. Brown, Alvin Thomas, Pete Smith, James Johnson and Ora Thomas. All are held in the basement of the Elks’ Club headquarters, where Klansmen foregather.

Klan Arrests Sheriff.

Sheriff George Galligan, who sought to restrain the terroristic policies of the Klan, is lodged a prisoner in the city jail, also charged with murder. No direct evidence supports the Klan’s charge.

S. Glenn Young, whom the United States invested with the authority of a federal “prohibition enforcement” agent as he directed the Ku Klux Klan raids on the foreign born miners of Williamson county, is, in control of the local police forces in Herrin and working hand in hand with the guardsmen.

Soldiers Save Klan.

The military forces of the State of Illinois came while Mayer Anderson’s men were fighting gallantly against a mob that was trying to break into the hospital to lynch Deputy Sheriff Layman who had been shot by Ford. the Klan police chief, who preceded Young. The soldiers’ arrival at double quick with fixed bayonets, saved the Klan gunmen from the anti-Klansmen who were coming in response to a hurry call.

The Klan dictatorship of the new chief of police, S. Glenn Young, sworn in by the assistant chief irregularly, is shown by his failure to make arrests for the shooting of Deputy Sheriff Layman by Chief John Ford. Witnesses saw Ford fire.

The crime occurred as Sheriff Galligan and Layman were arresting Ford and two other Klansmen as they were leading a mob that was storming the hall where the Knights of the Flaming Circle, an anti-Ku Klux society, was meeting.

One of Galligan’s last official acts before arrest was to save Ford and the two other Klansmen from a crowd of men who wanted to rough- handle the prisoners as they were being taken away by the Sheriff. Ford and two colleagues were taken to the county seat, Marion. Young then took over the post of chief of police.

Against Foreign Born Miners.

Klan raids in Williamson county have been under the guise of “prohibition” measures but they have been used to terrorize the militant foreign-born miners the companies fear. So extreme has been the house wrecking and physical violence that both the French and Italian consuls in Chicago have appealed to their ambassadors in Washington to protest to the state department. The Klan raiders even went so far as to raid Johnston City while that town was in the midst of mourning for the 38 miners slain in the gas blast for which the coal company has been proved responsible by a coroner’s jury.

Protests against the violent treatment of foreign-born workers in Williamson County, Illinois, where United State prohibition enforcement officers S. Glenn Young and his Ku Klux Klan raiders are spreading devastation, are rolling into the office of Secretary of State Hughes from the other members of the diplomatic corps.

Diplomatic intervention against the federal agents’ program was first asked by the French consul in an urgent message to M. Jusserand, French ambassador, outlining to him the treatment French citizens had received in Williamson County, and asking him to take the matter up with the State department.

The French consul is protesting against the treatment of more than a hundred French citizens in Johnson City, Ill., where in the guise of “dry” raiders, their homes were raided and looted. In more than one case religious objects were desecrated and French citizens beaten. The raids, French people wrote the consul, were really holdups. They are doubly vicious coming while the town is still overwhelmed in the grief of the great mine blast.

Italian Consul Aroused.

While the French consul here is taking up the treatment of French citizens with the French embassy, Giovanni Pico, Italian consul at Springfield, is forwarding to the Italian ambassador in Washington scores of affidavits made by Italians in and around Herrin, telling of the treatment they received at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1924/v01-n336-feb-11-1924-DW-LOC.pdf