These men were dissatisfied because an extra two-hours' work was forced upon them every day without extra pay.
Some mules which had formerly been stationed in another colliery were changed over to the one at which these men were employed, and the care of these animals occupied the drivers an extra hour morning and night, which the miners resented. They therefore struck work.
Two of the drivers did not wish to join in the strike, and the superintendent, seeing this, did his best to persuade all the men to go to work. Upon this the strikers became angry, and bitter words and hard feeling resulted.
Thinking themselves badly used, the men resolved to try and make the strike general in the neighborhood, and began marching from colliery to colliery, urging the men at work to lay down their picks and join them.
The strikers have been very orderly, and have made no disturbance of any kind, but as they were principally foreigners who are ignorant of our laws and customs, it was thought best to have men on hand ready to check them if they attempted any lawless act. The sheriff of Luzerne County, in which Hazleton is situated, was therefore notified to be on the alert, and in his turn sent word to his deputies to be ready for action.
The sheriff of a county is a very important officer. It is his duty to see that law and order are preserved within the limits of his county, that the penalties ordered by the judges are carried out, and to suppress all riots and uprisings in his district.
To assist him in this work he has the right to call on as many citizens as he needs for the business in hand. These men he binds by an oath to aid him in the discharge of his duty and to help him to preserve the peace. They compose what is known as the sheriff's posse, and are a body of men who accompany him and help him to do his duty.
Sheriff Martin, of Luzerne County, called out about ninety deputies for his posse, and had them in the vicinity of Hazleton for over a week before the shooting occurred.
On the day of the tragedy a body of the strikers had determined to march to Lattimer, a village not very far away from Hazleton. They desired to persuade the miners there to join their ranks, and started out about two hundred and fifty strong, marching in a peaceable and orderly manner along the road. None of them were armed, and none showed the slightest desire for violence or riot.
They had arrived within a few hundred yards of their destination when their road was blocked by the sheriff and his posse.