Law and order gun thugs add three more martyrs to the list of those who fell in Southern Illinois decades-long mine war. On April 7, 1933 Progressive Miners’ leaders Henry Arnold and James Atess were assassinated, while another assault killed LaVerne Miller, the 14-year-old daughter of a miner.

‘Sheriff’s Thugs Kill Two Miners In Illinois Strike’ by Garry Allard from Labor Action (C.P.L.A.). Vol. 1. No. 3. May 1, 1933.

DUQUOIN, III. “Get a doctor; they got me.” That was the greeting Henry Arnold, Perry County leader of the Progressive Miners of America, gave his wife when she entered her home near Duquoin. Her husband was slumped over a bed. He had been shot eight times.

In the bathroom Mrs. Arnold found James Attes, another Perry County leader of the P.M.A., dead in a pool of blood. Several shots had gone through his body, and pierced the door. Arnold died several hours after he was shot.

Four deputy sheriffs murdered Attes and Arnold. Howard Rheingans, professional gunman, with three others, invaded the Arnold home without a warrant. Rheingans admitted shooting Attes.

The only other person near at the time of the murders was Arnold’s step-daughter, Mrs. Corna Bullock, who came to the door of the Arnold residence when the deputies approached. They brushed her aside, drew their guns and forced their way into the house. No warrant was presented. Frightened Mrs. Bullock ran out into the yard. A few moments later the shots rang out.

Were Striking Miners

No weapons were found near the murdered miners, but a coroner, dispatched to the home by authorities, instantly rendered a decision of justifiable homicide.

Arnold and Attes were striking miners from the Majestic Peabody mine. The mine had been struck after the Peabody Coal Company  refused to recognize the Progressive Miners of America.

The morning before their murder they had been to the main business section of Duquoin and had observed brutal attacks of deputies against union members. They returned to Arnold’s home to evade danger in the city. The four deputy sheriffs followed them.

Unknown assailants shot into the home of Vernon Miller and Glen Canada the night before the double murder, hitting 14-year-old Laverne Miller in the chest. Later she died in the hospital.

Night Raids

The attack made against the Miller home was part of a series of night raids, marked by extreme brutality and terrorism. State highway patrolmen joined in numerous attacks against union members in the streets and highways about Duquoin. Miners were arrested after the deputies had murdered Miss Miller. They were held for questioning.

Headquarters and the relief station of the progressive union were ordered closed by acting State’s Attorney M.K. Grabowski.

Members of the P.M.A. and the Women’s Auxiliary braved hail, rain and a heavy wind to picket the United Electric strip mine west of Duquoin. The coal company had decided to abrogate its agreement with the miners after three months of peaceable relations with the P.M.A. Picket Line Holds

Approximately 250 Progressives picketed the mine peacefully without disturbance. Sheriff Albert Davis, who had given the miners the right of free speech, free assemblage and the right to picket, changed his mind after conferring with Vice President Melville of the United Electric Company, and issued an ultimatum to the pickets that they would have to disperse within three minutes.

The pickets held their ground and refused to be intimidated. Deputy Sheriff Rheingans came into prominence again by shooting the first tear gas bomb among a group of women pickets but the wind was too strong for the tear gas to have any effect. The lines held firm.

There are a number of periodicals with the name Labor Action in our history. This Labor Action was a bi-weekly newspaper published in 1933-34 by AJ Muste’s American Workers Party. The AWP grew from the Conference for Progressive Labor Action, founded in 1929, and Labor Action replaced the long-running CPLA magazine, Labor Age. Along with Muste, the AWP had activists and writers James Burnham and Art Preis. When the AWP fused with the Trotskyist Communist League of America in late 1934, their joint paper became The New Militant.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/laboraction-cpla/v1n03-may-01-1933-LA-Muste.pdf