This is the related regular cache for the
Lab Adventure - Cape Breton Coal
at the location
" Riot and Death "
The miners’ latest contract had expired on 15 Jan. 1925 and Besco, under its stubborn president, Roy Mitchell Wolvin, was serious about breaking the union. On 2 March credit at company stores located in areas of strong union militancy was cut off. Four days later almost 12,000 miners went on strike. At this point Besco vice-president John Ernest McLurg summarily dismissed a reporter’s analogy: “Poker game, nothing, we have all the cards. . . . Let them stay out two months or six months, it matters not; eventually they will have to come to us. . . . They can’t stand the gaff.” That attitude and the latter phrase steeled the workers’ resolve, though thousands of Cape Bretoners were reported to be “on the verge of starvation” over the next three months. The company refused arbitration and on 4 June District 26 began 100 per cent picketing. The miners quickly expelled company men who had taken over a power and pumping station located at Waterford Lake. More than 30 union men were arrested during the next few days.
Besco gathered all its available police and late on the 10th this force escorted 30 company men to restart the plant and the mine pumps. The next morning the company police sent a provocative patrol through New Waterford, an action that led to a small clash with a group of miners. It was followed by an open-air meeting and a decision by the miners to approach the plant workers and ask them to quit. The crowd (estimates ranged from 700 to 3,000) arrived at the site around 11:00 a.m. Before the spokesman could state his request the company police charged. Or perhaps the horses bolted – neither the animals nor the police were trained. The police fired over 300 shots. A policeman bore down on the 5 foot 3 inch, 150-pound Davis; as he struggled to turn the horse away another policeman shot him in the heart. He was dead within five minutes. Within ten minutes the police were in full retreat, leaving behind many wounded.