Illinois. General Assembly. House of Representatives. Committee on Investigation of the Herrin Massacre.

A violent incident, known as the Herrin Massacre, resulted from an attempt to run a strip mine in Williamson County, Illinois during the coal strike of 1922.

Involved was a conflict between members of the Steam Shovel Men's Union (SSMU), an independent union, and members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW). The SSMU men were employed by William J. Lester to break the UMW strike at the strip mines in Herrin and Marion, Ill., owned by the Southern Illinois Coal Company, of which he was the president.

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