*In The Time of The "Robber Barons" And The Early American Union Movement- The Molly Maguires

Click on the title to link to a "YouTube" film clip of Pete Seeger performing the classic coal country song "Which Side Are You On?"

BOOK REVIEW

THE MOLLY MAGUIRES, WAYNE BROEHL, JR., HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MA. 1964

The tale of the famous “Molly Maguires” of the Pennsylvania coal fields in the period immediately after the American Civil War is another in the seemingly endless stories of the Irish diaspora triggered by the ruthless policy of the bloody English imperialists, who come what may, refused to part with their colony until forced to by the Irish national liberation fighters of the early 20th century. One can read the Molly Maguire story as one of the first attempts in the post-Civil War period to organize an industry-wide labor union in the coal industry, including its sectionalism, political immaturity and oath-bound secrecy. One can also read it as a story of atomized labor confronted by the consolidation of capitalism in the extractive industries linked up to the carrying trade of the railroads and financed by stockholders here in America and in Britain. Finally one can read the story as a police procedural, highlighting the role of the infamous Pinkerton Detective Agency and its founder Alan Pinkerton in bringing some of the alleged leaders of the Mollies to trial and execution on behalf of the railroad and coal bosses. That is the route the author of the book under review has taken.

While some of the story as presented here by this author is tiresome, repetitive and overly written it nevertheless has a few points that can help us understand the history of that turbulent period in the foundation of the "robber baron" capitalist period of American history. One point is a rather good description, using the Reading Railroad and its president as a case study, of how the railroads, backed by finance capital-the banks, consolidated the coal industry by breaking the individual operators, buying coal land on the cheap and by manipulating supply and demand which ultimately broke the local miners union of which the Mollies were a small part.

Another point is how the mainly English capitalists of the area aggravated the already existing antagonisms between ethnic groups, like the Irish, Welsh and Germans (and later the various Slavic groups) to their benefit in a classic example of capitalist ‘divide and rule’ policy. Finally, the story points out the key role that privately-employed detective agencies, private police and ultimately state and federal troops played in bringing about the early defeats in the American labor movement (and continue to do so today as about one billion dollars a year is spent on keeping unions out or keeping them docile in the United States, one need only think of Wal-Mart). As stated above it you want the tale of the police roundup of some none too savory elements in the Mollies read this book. If you want to get a better picture of what the Mollies meant as part of the Irish diaspora in America and as part of the hard-pressed and poorly organized early American labor movement look elsewhere. I will review other books on this subject and these times later.