The Molly Maguires

[bucolic_frolic]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Maguires

"a trial later described by a Carbon County judge, John P. Lavelle, as follows:

The Molly Maguire trials were a surrender of state sovereignty. A private corporation initiated the investigation through a private detective agency. A private police force arrested the alleged defenders, and private attorneys for the coal companies prosecuted them. The state provided only the courtroom and the gallows.[69]"

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The Molly Maguires is the history of coal mining and labor strife for better working conditions in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Hundred of miners died in an era of no ventilation, no structural support, no escape tunnels, low pay, child labor. It was corporate coal against the working man. Several were hanged in Pottsville, PA, and the mining area includes Scranton, PA.

The article also notes: "In 1979, Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp granted a posthumous pardon to John "Black Jack" Kehoe after an investigation by the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons. The request for a pardon was made by one of Kehoe's descendants. John Kehoe had proclaimed his innocence until his death. The Board recommended the pardon after investigating Kehoe's trial and the circumstances surrounding it. Shapp praised Kehoe, saying the men called "Molly Maguires" were "martyrs to labor" and heroes in the struggle to establish a union and fair treatment for workers.[74] And "... t is impossible for us to imagine the plight of the 19th Century miners in Pennsylvania's anthracite region" and that it was Kehoe's popularity among the miners that led Gowen "'to fear, despise and ultimately destroy [him]'".[75][76]"

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Yeah that would make sense, Schapp was a businessman from Scranton, PA. "During World War II, Shapp served as an officer in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in North Africa and Europe. After World War II, he moved to Philadelphia and founded Jerrold Electronics Corporation, a pioneer in the cable television industry, using a $500 loan subsidized by the G.I. Bill. Jerrold became one of America's first providers of coaxial cable TV systems in 1948. Jerrold Electronics became a major player in the television industry, and Shapp himself amassed a multimillion-dollar fortune. Shapp sold his interest in Jerrold Electronics in 1967 to the General Instrument Company to concentrate on politics. The Jerrold name, however, continued to survive on cable TV reception equipment into the 1990s when it became obsolete when General Instrument (which acquired Jerrold in the interim) went out of business in 1997."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Shapp

Biden's family hails from Scranton, PA of course, which is what got me started reading on this subject. Joe's support of labor is in tune with the Scranton area's history of labor unrest and the battle for unions and safe working conditions.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

1. My parents and I always liked him.

He was a good man.

The article doesn't mention it but his company Jerrold gets its name from Shapp, his middle name.
I actually worked as a consultant for General Instrument in the '90s.

Despite the amazing collection of sharp RF engineers, someone pick SCO Unix to run the cable headend.

Milton Shapp was well liked.