One of the 51 women labor activists jailed by an Ohio sheriff tells the story of the struggling mining families.

‘The Miners Long Struggle is a Battle for Life’ by A Miner’s Wife from Labor Defender. Vol. 3 No. 6. June, 1928.

The Story of the Arrest of 51 Women Told by a Miner’s Wife

I AM one of the 51 miners’ wives arrested on Saturday, April 21 when we were tricked into the jail here in Lansing, Ohio.

We women took no part whatever in “rioting” though the capitalist press classified us like we were murderers or wild cats. We only went to the jail to protest when some of our men were taken from the hall where we were told by the sheriff Clyde C. Hardesty, that we could organize a woman’s auxiliary.

These men arrested the second time are the same ones who were arrested before and are out on bond. These men did not take part in anything during the time we had our meeting. They were arrested simply because they were in the hall.

Among these men we had a secret serviceman who reported every word that was said and everything that was to be done. This was not known at that time, but our eyes are now fixed on that suspicious man who is employed to spy and lie on us.

Because we did not know the laws of the state we were tricked into the jail and locked up for 72 hours.

In the Wheeling Sunday newspaper there appeared articles which said 51 women and five nursing babies were locked up. There were no babies in jail at that time until the prosecuting attorney read the papers. Later we were asked if we wanted our babies. They did not dare give us the papers until they had done something about the babies.

The little ones were brought to the jail after a special trip by the prosecuting attorney and let out the same time with the mothers. They had to sleep in one blanket with their mothers in the jail. Some of the floors were made of sheet iron. Four of the cots were without mattresses.

There were 5 cells with 29 women and five babies in one compartment (not apartment, beg pardon). Twenty women and two school girls were on the other side.

We were all married women, wives of striking miners, who were tricked with the prisoners into the jail.

After the 72 hours were up we were taken to the courtroom where we pleaded not guilty and were put under $200 peace bonds. Two of the women, Mother Guyan, a gray-haired lady, and Mary Barto, whose husband was one of the six men taken from the hall during the wholesale arrests Saturday, were let out on $500 bond.

I am going to give you a description of our county jail. There are five cells, each about six by nine. They are like cages. There is a corridor, about 60 feet long with cement floors and there is sheet iron on the floors of the cells.

When we came in Saturday, there were four buckets of garbage standing in back of the jail in the toilet room. And such filth, no sanitation whatever! We asked to have these buckets removed and were told that we would not be here very long. Remember that that was Saturday and that we were there until Tuesday afternoon!

Our company at night was bedbugs and cockroaches, something we don’t have at home. We even had iron bars on the windows and the door was locked every time the jailer left us after he brought our meals. Some poor chance we had of escaping when even the steps are guarded, so why lock us up!

We women had never been in jail until we were tricked by the secret serviceman who even preached violence, but was not taken to jail when the other men were arrested. Some swell reception they gave us while marching us to the jail. The guards were armed to the teeth and even had iron helmets and steel jackets.

Well, they tricked us into the jail, but they did not break our spirit yet and never will for this is a struggle for existence and life. Under this capitalist system we cannot expect anything better, only the abolishment of wage slavery.

I am a poor wage slave’s wife. Print this at the end of my letter. But do not print my name for I have many Lewis women living around me.

Labor Defender was published monthly from 1926 until 1937 by the International Labor Defense (ILD), a Workers Party of America, and later Communist Party-led, non-partisan defense organization founded by James Cannon and William Haywood while in Moscow, 1925 to support prisoners of the class war, victims of racism and imperialism, and the struggle against fascism. It included, poetry, letters from prisoners, and was heavily illustrated with photos, images, and cartoons. Labor Defender was the central organ of the Scottsboro and Sacco and Vanzetti defense campaigns. Editors included T. J. O’ Flaherty, Max Shactman, Karl Reeve, J. Louis Engdahl, William L. Patterson, Sasha Small, and Sender Garlin.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1928/v03n06-jun-1928-LD-ORIG.pdf