London Evening Advertiser
- Australia May Start Ball Rolling
- SAY RED MINERS RETAINED MONEY
- FEAR 65 MINERS TRAPPED THREE MILES UNDERGROUND
This London, Ontario evening paper of October 4, 1926 relied heavily on Associated Press cables. From London it reported that Australia's Premier Bruce, newly landed at Marseilles, was expected to force a showdown at the coming Imperial Conference on how the dominions stood toward Britain, prompted by hints that another dominion wanted independent status. A second London cable relayed a Daily Express claim that American money for Britain's striking miners had gone to an unofficial delegation rather than the official one, causing a feud around A. J. Cook. From Rockwood, Tennessee came word that 65 men were feared trapped after an explosion deep in a Roane Iron Company mine. Short items reported that Italy's cabinet had approved restoring the death penalty for attempts on the royal family and the premier, and that Georgetown University's seismographs had recorded a severe distant earthquake. This reading covers only part of the page and leaves out torn sections and fragments from neighbouring columns.
This is a partial reading. The left edge of the page is badly torn, and several articles run across tile boundaries. Fragments from neighbouring columns that were mixed into the scanned text (sports, weather, a Soviet-Japanese item, a U.S. labour report and scraps of court news) have been left out. Breaks are marked […]. The third excerpt also contains legible scraps of a Hamilton liquor case and a World Series report, plus complete short items on Italy and an earthquake. The Daily Express allegations about American funds could not be checked, and the Italy and earthquake items were not researched.
Translation
Australia May Start Ball Rolling
Bruce Intimates He Will Ask Showdown on Imperial Relationships.
AT THE CONFERENCE
Concern Over Africa's Leaning Toward Independence May Precipitate It.
Associated Press Despatch.
London, Oct. 4. — Constitutional issues of greatest importance, involving the whole relations of the dominions with the mother country will be raised at the Imperial conference opening here on Oct. 19, according to despatches received here from Marseilles, where Premier Bruce, heading the Australian delegation, landed on Sunday.
For the first time in British history an attempt will be made to define these relations, which hitherto have been only loosely understood.
A showdown, it is understood, will be forced by the Australian section, which plans to clear the air of hints emanating from certain other dominions of a desire for an independent status.
Australia's concern for her sister dominion's susceptibilities, no less than the latter's possible demand for an independent status, is likely to prove a vital factor in bringing this issue to a head at the conference.
Australia, it is understood, will maintain that an inter- […]
SAY RED MINERS RETAINED MONEY
Labor Federation in Britain Questions A. J. Cook Regarding Disposal.
GIFTS FROM AMERICA
Associated Press Despatch.
London, Oct. 4. — According to the Daily Express there is a feud within the miners federation, growing out of money collected in the United States for the striking miners in the British Isles.
The newspaper asserts that general surprise was occasioned by the smallness of the response to the official delegates sent to the United States to collect funds, and that the reason for the small contributions has now been disclosed in the report of the delegates.
All the money the United States unions could spare, says the Daily Express, was collected by an unofficial delegation which visited the United States just before the official representatives went there. These unofficial delegates, it is asserted, among whom the princi- […]
FEAR 65 MINERS TRAPPED THREE MILES UNDERGROUND
[…] customs acts in connection with the deaths last July of Hamilton people who drank poison liquor. The cases have been called in court nine times already, but the crown has not yet been prepared to proceed.
[…] Alexander had all the stuff a world's series pitcher needs, but his brain, working in perfect co-ordination with his good right arm, was the outstanding part of his afternoon's work. He […] Continued on Page 3, Column 4.
Nothing Heard From Mine Crew Since Blast Occurred in Pit.
RESCUERS ON SCENE
Associated Press Despatch.
Rockwood, Tenn., Oct. 4. — A mine explosion three miles underground at the Rogers entry of the Roane Iron Company's coal mine was reported to have occurred this morning. Sixty-five miners are known to have been working at that point, and no word had been received from them at noon today. A rescue party has been organized.
Eugene Tedder, a miner, first reported the explosion. He was about two miles from the Rogers entry and stated he had felt the force of the blast and smelled gases from the explosion.
Deputy State Mine Inspector A. J. Holden was in Rockwood and accompanied the mine rescue party which will make an investigation.
Italy Restores Death Penalty
Rome, Oct. 4. — Capital punishment, which was abolished in Italy in 1888, has been approved by the council of ministers in the case of attempts against the life of the king, regent, queen, crown prince and premier. The project, which was submitted by the minister of justice, will be submitted to Parliament at its next session.
FEEL EARTHQUAKE.
Washington, D.C., Oct. 4. — An earthquake which continued more than four hours yesterday and had its centre about 4,500 miles southwest of Washington, was recorded on the seismographs at Georgetown University. The disturbance began at 2:57 p.m., was described by Director Tondorf of the observatory as "quite severe." […]
Context
Who actually drove the redefinition of dominion status in 1926?
The AP cable expected Australia to force the issue, pushing back against another dominion's apparent wish for independent status. The article's reference to "Africa's leaning toward independence" points to South Africa. The conference did produce the redefinition the paper anticipated. The Balfour Declaration, drawn up by the Inter-Imperial Relations Committee chaired by Arthur Balfour, was unanimously approved by the imperial prime ministers on 15 November 1926. It declared Britain and the dominions to be equal in status and in no way subordinate to one another. However, the record credits the proposal to South Africa's J. B. M. Hertzog and Canada's Mackenzie King, not to Bruce. In other words, the dominion that Australia was reportedly trying to rein in was one of the two that started the process. The paper's prediction of an Australian-led showdown was a forecast made two weeks before the conference opened. It is not an account of what happened there.
Why were British miners still on strike in October 1926?
The "striking miners" in the Daily Express story were the coal miners locked out in the spring dispute. Mine owners had tried to cut wages and lengthen the working day. The Trades Union Congress called a general strike from 4 to 12 May to support the 1.2 million locked-out miners, but it failed. The miners held out alone for months afterwards, which is why fund-raising abroad still mattered in October. A. J. Cook, named in the deck, was one of the leading figures of the dispute on the union side. By the end of November most miners had gone back to work, and those still employed had to accept longer hours and lower wages. The claims that the American money was collected by an unofficial delegation, and that "red" miners kept it, came from the Daily Express as relayed by AP. The sources consulted here neither confirm nor rule them out.
What happened at the Roane Iron Company mine at Rockwood?
The dispatch was written only hours after the blast. Its figure of 65 was the number of men known to have been working near the Rogers entry, and at noon no one knew their fate. Later accounts give a lower death toll. A history of Rockwood, citing the next day's New York Times report "Explosion Traps 32 Men in Tennessee Mine," records that the October 4, 1926 explosion killed 32 people. The Roane Iron Company, founded after the Civil War by John T. Wilder and Hiram Chamberlain, had built the town around its iron furnace and coal mines. A series of mining accidents, above all the 1926 explosion, hurt the company's reputation and led to workers' compensation payments it could not control. Roane Iron shut down in 1929. The gap between the first report of 65 and the later figure of 32 reflects that this first cable counted the men known to be at risk, not those confirmed dead.
Original
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SAY RED MINERS RETAINED MONEY
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FEAR 65 MINERS TRAPPED THREE MILES UNDERGROUND
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