On this day in 1898, the Battle of Virden began when armed members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) surrounded a train full of strikebreakers and exchanged fire with company guards. 13 people were killed, dozens more wounded.
After a local chapter of the UMW began striking at a mine in Virden, Illinois, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company hired black strikebreakers from Birmingham, Alabama and shipped them to Virden by train.
The company hired armed detectives or security guards to accompany the strikebreakers, and an armed conflict broke out when armed miners surrounded the train as it arrived in town. A total of four detectives and seven striking mine workers were killed, with five guards, thirty miners, and an unrecorded number of strikebreakers wounded.
After this incident, Illinois Governor John Tanner ordered the National Guard to prevent any more strikebreakers from coming into the state by force. The next month, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company relented and allowed the unionization of its workers.
"When the last call comes for me to take my ο¬nal rest, will the miners see that I get a resting place in the same clay that shelters the miners who gave up their lives on the hills of Virden, Illinois...They are responsible for Illinois being the best organized labor state in America."
Mother Jones
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Firmly established knowledge seems like arrogance to those who are sure that they have a firm grasp of the world and are not familiar with the term "Unknown Unknowns".
Is there something sinister in Moralism? No. God is in his heaven. All is right on Earth.
If you believe that how could anyone be wiser than you, the great life understander?
There's also "Don't expect a man to understand something his job depends on not understanding".
You can't convince Liberals of basic realities because if they accepted those realities they could not be liberals and for the most part protecting your social standing and maintaining group cohesion is more important to the individual than building an accurate picture of the world.