FACES AND PLACES: In the beginning was the UNA (01/22/06)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

In the beginning was the UNA

The recent mine tragedy in West Virginia that killed 12 miners brought to mind the early days of the Ukrainian immigration to the United States when most males from Ukraine were coal miners.

Our first immigrants began arriving in eastern Pennsylvania in the late 1870s, settling in anthracite coal towns such as Shenandoah, Shamokin, Mount Carmel, Hazleton, Mahanoy City, Olyphant. Largely illiterate, they called themselves "Rusyns."

Immigrants from Ukraine were initially brought over as strike-breakers to take the place of earlier immigrants from Western Europe who were demanding higher wages and safer working conditions. Ukraine's immigrants were thrust into the mines to work 10 to 11-hour days for $10 a day. Many were beaten severely by the strikers. Some were killed.

In those days, there was no Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to monitor conditions in the mines. The average miner worked in dark, damp shafts, often knee-deep in water. With mine flooding and cave-ins common, death was a constant companion. "In the anthracite coal fields," wrote Michael Novak in his book, "The Guns of Latimer," "three men died every two days on the average. Nearly every miner bore external signs of injuries, a missing finger, stitches, scars, limps."

Initially, coal-mine owners ruthlessly exploited their workers. Dissent was systematically crushed by the lowering of wages, union busting, terrorism - often perpetrated by the Coal and Iron Police (a "security" force funded by coal mine owners) - and, as was the case with immigrants from Eastern Europe, the importing of ignorant and docile workers.

By the late 1870s, the coal barons of northeast Pennsylvania had successfully broken the first serious threat to their control, a six-week strike. Moreover, the "Molly Macguires," a clandestine group of Irish Catholic miners who, in the early 1870s, had attempted to resist management exploitation and terrorism with violence of their own, had been vanquished, their leaders hanged. It was hardly an auspicious time to begin work as an immigrant laborer in the mines of Pennsylvania. Immigrants from Ukraine, however, persevered and eventually joined their fellow workers in America's emerging labor movement.

Father Ivan Wolansky, America's first Ukrainian Catholic priest, arrived in 1884 and established a parish in Shenandoah. Shunned by Archbishop Patrick Ryan because of his married status, Father Wolansky refused to return to Ukraine as the archbishop demanded, and began to organize parishes throughout Pennsylvania. Thoroughly at home with his flock, Father Wolansky quickly adapted to American ways, providing secular guidance as well as spiritual succor to his flock. During the next six years he established a newspaper (Ameryka), a co-op grocery store, a choir, a school for children and, in contrast to Roman Catholic priests in the area, a cell of the Knights of Labor, then a secret labor union. Recognized for his leadership skills, he became a leading unionist rallying miners to strike when other leaders advised caution.

Mine safety remained a serious problem. The question of family security following the death of the primary breadwinner in a mine accident was a major concern. The solution was the creation of fraternal benefit societies - initially called "burial societies" - a movement that began in Pennsylvania among many ethnic groups during the second half of the 19th century. Coal miners, whose risky occupation prohibited affordable insurance premiums, were especially vulnerable. Survivors, left with no source of income, suffered greatly when miners were killed or disabled. Few families were left with much to live on after paying funeral expenses.

Led by their priests, immigrants from Ukraine began to establish local mutual-aid societies on the fraternal model. On February 22, 1894, delegates from 13 such societies came together in Shamokin, Pa., to establish the Ruskyi Narodnyi Soyuz (RNS). Elected president of the new fraternal organization was Theodosij Talpash, a leading Rusyn activist in Shamokin.

The first regular convention of the new fraternal was held on May 30, 1894. Convention delegates representing a membership of 505 voted to formally adopt Svoboda (founded in 1893) as the official organ of the RNS, and to pay benefits of $400 upon a member's death, $200 on a wife's death. Dues were 50 cents a month.

In addition to providing death benefits for its members, the most significant accomplishment of the new mutual benefit organization was education. Local branches established reading rooms where illiterates were taught to read and U.S. citizenship classes were conducted. Following ethnonational trends in western Ukraine, Svoboda published article after article explaining to its Rusyn subscribers that their true national identity was "Ukrainian." The message was heard and accepted. In 1914, delegates to the national convention in Buffalo, N.Y., formally voted to adopt "Ukrainian National Association" as the new and permanent name of their 20-year old fraternal organization. At the time, the organization had 25,335 adult and juvenile members. By 1970, the UNA had grown to 89,119 dues-paying members.

The Ukrainian National Association was there in the beginning and it has remained there for 111 years. There has never been a significant development in the Ukrainian American community that didn't involve the UNA. Worthy of mention here are such achievements as the publication of Svoboda (the oldest Ukrainian-language periodical in the world) since 1894, the publication of The Ukrainian Weekly since 1933, The Ukrainian Pavilion at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, demonstrations against the Polish pacification and the Holodomor during the 1930s, the establishment of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) in 1940, the purchase of Soyuzivka in 1952, the publication of Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia in 1963, the erection of the Shevchenko monument in 1964.

During Memorial Day weekend this year, delegates from UNA branches throughout the United States and Canada will gather at Soyuzivka to develop plans for the future. Their decisions are important. Think about it. What happens to the UNA during the next four years may well determine the future of the entire Ukrainian American community. Now is the time for the UNA membership at large to educate their delegates regarding their organizational aspirations.

Myron Kuropas's e-mail address is [email protected].

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