London Evening Advertiser
- Buried for 121 Hours, Workers Emerge Alive
- Cook Now Admits Miners Defeated
- Mexican Bandits Attack Train
The Evening Advertiser of 30 September 1926 carried wire stories from several places, and this partial reading follows three of them. From Ironwood, Michigan, the paper reported that 43 iron miners, sealed 800 feet down in the Pabst mine by a shaft cave-in that killed three electricians, had been brought out alive after 121 hours, having lived on birch-bark tea while 400 rescuers worked to reach them. A New York Herald-Tribune cable from London quoted A. J. Cook conceding for the first time that Britain's striking miners were returning to the pits "beaten by starvation," while he attacked Baldwin and the Trades Union Congress; Miners' Federation delegates debated a government arbitration proposal without deciding, and a Communist was jailed under emergency powers. A Mexico City brief described bandits robbing passengers on a Guadalajara–Mexico City train at Corralejo after the military escort failed to drive them off. Local photo captions of Senator Charles Murphy and Major Hume Cronyn also appeared within the excerpts.
This is a partial reading of three articles only. The OCR text of the selected passages is interleaved with fragments from neighboring columns, including an Ontario by-election item, a report on the St. Joseph's Nurses' Home ceremony, a London street-railway report and the end of a Port Credit accident story. Those fragments are not translated, though two complete local photo captions within the excerpts are included. The banner above the Ironwood story is truncated ("RELEASE 43 M…"), and the story breaks off mid-sentence at a column edge. The Mexican item was read with medium confidence, and its place names are kept as printed.
Translation
BURIED FOR 121 HOURS — WORKERS EMERGE ALIVE
Shaft Caving In At Michigan Mine Kills Three and Isolates Others.
ON 800-FOOT LEVEL
Four Hundred Rescuers Are Rewarded by Success After Strenuous Effort For Relief.
Ironwood, Mich., Sept. 30. — Safe after 121 hours of nerve-racking imprisonment in the damp depths of the Pabst iron mine, 43 bewhiskered men saw daylight from hospital beds today for the first time in almost a week. Rest for them and the 400 men who labored untiringly for their rescue was the order of the day.
Entombed 800 feet underground last Friday by a shaft cave-in which killed three mine electricians, the last of the 43 miners was brought to the surface shortly before midnight, ending one of the greatest rescue efforts in mining annals.
Given Light Foods.
Today the men were recuperating from their harrowing experience. They were given light foods, replacing their diet of birch bark tea brewed over improvised stoves made from lunch pails. Birch bark was stripped from …
Speaks In City
SENATOR HON. CHARLES MURPHY, who delivered splendid address at cornerstone laying of St. Joseph's Nurses' Home this morning.
COOK NOW ADMITS MINERS DEFEATED
MAJOR HUME CRONYN, general manager of the Huron and Erie Mortgage Corporation in this city, who in a speech at Winnipeg yesterday warned against indiscriminate immigration.
Secretary of Federation Declares Workers Were "Beaten by Starvation."
FOUGHT VALIANTLY
Communist Is Sent to Jail For Trying to Impede Distribution of Coal.
New York Herald-Tribune Special Cable
London, Sept. 30. — The first admission from A. J. Cook, secretary of the Miners' Federation, of defeat of the British miners in the coal strike came last night when he declared in an address before the Tobacco Workers' Union that the miners were going back to the pits "beaten by starvation."
"They have fought courageously, but they will be just as courageous in their retreat," he said.
He denounced Prime Minister Baldwin as a tool of the mine owners and took a fling at the general council of the Trades Union Congress for failing to furnish money to aid the miners and for refusing to grant a coal embargo.
More than 140 delegates of the Miners' Federation debated the Government's proposal for a national arbitration tribunal but arrived at no decision. They are continuing the discussion today and will probably refer a final decision to a vote of the men in the districts.
For circulating a leaflet "calculated to impede the distribution of coal" D. F. Springhall, a Communist, was sentenced to three months in jail yesterday under the Government's emergency powers act, which was renewed by the Parliament Tuesday.
Mexican Bandits Attack Train
Passengers Robbed When Military Escort Unable to Repel Invaders.
Mexico City, Sept. 30. — A passenger train running between Guadalajara and Mexico City was attacked by bandits today at Corralejo in the State of Queretaro, according to special despatches from Iraputo. The military escort on the train was unable to eject the bandits from the train and some of the passengers were robbed. The reports say there were several casualties, but gave no details. The train was forced to return to Penjamo because several small bridges had been burned by the bandits.
Context
Why did the Pabst mine's shaft give way?
The paper described only a "shaft caving in" that killed three electricians and sealed the men below. Later accounts give more background. The mine belonged to the Oliver Iron Mining Company, which had become a subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation in 1901. September 1926 had been exceptionally wet around Ironwood: one source says as much as 11 inches of rain fell before the disaster on 24 September. After the accident, employees said the shaft had given trouble before, with its walls bowing out as the rock settled and bending the rails the mine elevator ran on. Repairs had been made quickly each time and the shaft put back into service. Accounts differ on whether the elevator failed or falling rock brought it down, so the page's report of three electricians killed in a cave-in is consistent with later histories without settling the cause.
How were the Ironwood miners reached, and how does the report compare?
The article credited 400 rescuers and called the effort one of the greatest in mining history. Later accounts explain how it was done: over five days rescuers dug in from the neighboring "H" shaft, going nearly to its bottom, crossing through a connecting tunnel and then working up the ladderway of the ruined "G" shaft. The paper's detail about birch-bark tea is borne out, but with a different explanation. Later accounts say the bark was scraped from the wooden planks lining the mine walls and the tea was heated with the miners' carbide lamps, not over stoves made from lunch pails. The figures also differ. The paper counted 121 hours and placed all 43 men on the 800-foot level. Later accounts give 129 hours and say 40 men were trapped on the eighth level, two on the 13th and one on the 18th. They describe as many as 5,000 people waiting at the shaft head as the men came up. The paper's timing, "shortly before midnight," matches the recorded 11:22 p.m. for the last man out.
What lay behind A. J. Cook's admission of defeat?
Arthur James Cook had been general secretary of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain since 1924. He was closely identified with the slogan "Not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day," the miners' answer to the owners' demand for lower wages. The nine-day General Strike of May 1926 had been called off by the Trades Union Congress, but the miners stayed out for months afterward under Cook's leadership. That history explains his complaint, reported here, that the TUC General Council had given no money and refused a coal embargo. His phrase "beaten by starvation" anticipated the outcome: by the end of November 1926 most miners had been forced by economic necessity to return on the employers' terms. The delegates' inconclusive debate over a government arbitration proposal, reported in the same cable, thus came roughly two months before the strike's end.
What unrest surrounded the attack at Corralejo?
The brief blamed "bandits" and gave no motive, but the attack came as west-central Mexico was sliding into the Cristero War. That rebellion, dated from 3 August 1926, grew out of President Plutarco Elías Calles's June 1926 penal-code decree, known as the Calles Law, which enforced the constitution's anticlerical articles. The train in this report retreated to Pénjamo. There, just two days earlier on 28 September, the town's mayor, Luis Navarro Origel, had led an armed rising. His men were beaten by federal troops in open country and fell back into the mountains to fight as guerrillas. Once the rebellion spread in 1927, the rebels came to rely on raids on towns, trains and ranches for money, horses, ammunition and food. The paper did not identify the Corralejo attackers as Cristeros, however, so any link between this raid and the rising is not established. The page also placed Corralejo in Querétaro, while Pénjamo lies in Guanajuato.
Original
BURIED FOR 121 HOURS WORKERS EMERGE ALIVE
RELEASE 43 M BURIED FOR 121 HOURS WORKERS EMERGE ALIVE Shaft Caving In At Michigan Mine Kills Three and Isolates Others. ON 800-FOOT LEVEL Four Hundred Rescuers Are Rewarded by Success After Strenuous Effort For Relief. Ironwood, Mich., Sept. 30. - Safe after 121 hours of nerve-racking imprisonment in the damp depths of the Pabst iron mine, 43 bewhiskered men saw daylight from hospital beds today for the first time in almost a week. Rest for them and the 400 men who labored untiringly for their rescue was the order of the day. Entombed 800 feet underground last Friday by a shaft cave-in which killed three mine electricians, the last of the 43 miners was brought to the surface shortly before midnight, ending one of the greatest rescue efforts in mining annals. Given Light Foods. Today the men were recuperating from their harrowing experience. They were given light foods, replacing their diet of birch bark tea brewed over improvised stoves made from lunch pails. Birch bark was stripped from Speaks In City SENATOR HON. CHARLES MURPHY, who delivered splendid address at cornerstone laying of St. Joseph's Nurses ' Home this morning. MANY LOSE LIVES C Ab Th Ea Premier Hold E NINE Series o menc Latest r [?] with his idea f tion this fa by-electio vacant se Mr. Fe by-electio may be pr that seve
COOK NOW ADMITS MINERS DEFEATED
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Mexican Bandits Attack Train
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