The anthracite coal mines of Pennsylvania have shut down as workers walked out carrying their tools, defying mine operators who insist they'll keep the mines open. In Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, thousands of miners left their posts after the expiration of the three-year award from Theodore Roosevelt's 1903 Strike Commission. The Delaware and Hudson Company posted notices that they would continue to honor the commission's terms, while other operators like the Lackawanna Company's Col. R.A. Phillips declared their mines would remain open Monday for anyone wanting to work, though they won't make special efforts to operate. Behind closed doors at the Delaware and Hudson office, coal superintendents held heated discussions about importing strikebreakers, with Lackawanna officials strongly opposing the move, fearing it would only inflame tensions. Meanwhile, Massachusetts Republicans in Congress are plotting their own rebellion, planning to force tariff revision despite Chairman Payne's dismissive attitude. Representative McCall is leading the charge, declaring that "nothing short of an earthquake will waken the somnolent committee to action." The front page also covers elaborate preparations for John Paul Jones's final burial ceremonies at Annapolis, where French warships including the flagship Desaix will join American naval squadrons on April 21.

This coal strike represents a critical test of labor relations in the Progressive Era, coming just three years after Theodore Roosevelt's landmark intervention in the 1902 coal strike that established him as a trust-busting president willing to mediate between capital and labor. The anthracite region supplied most of America's home heating fuel, making this shutdown a potential crisis for millions of households. The strike also reflects growing tensions between organized labor and industrial capitalists during a period when unions were gaining unprecedented power and recognition. The tariff revision fight signals early stirrings of the trade policy debates that would reshape American politics, while the John Paul Jones ceremony represents America's growing naval ambitions and desire for international respect — themes that would define the nation's emergence as a world power.

• Edward Wins, superintendent of the Thiel Detective Agency of Chicago, was spotted in Superintendent Rose's office during the coal operators' meeting — revealing how companies were already consulting with private detective agencies despite public denials about hiring strikebreakers
• The Italian bark Antonio Marcello went ashore at Cape Henry carrying a cargo of bones from Uruguay to Alexandria, Virginia — an oddly macabre international trade in what were likely animal bones for fertilizer or industrial use
• The French warship Desaix carries six 10-inch guns and can reach 21 knots, while the smaller Troude, at just 1,877 tons, could actually outrun it at 22 knots — showing how naval design was rapidly evolving
• Republican district leaders are plotting to redraw boundaries so that Herbert Parsons, chairman of the Republican county committee, would end up in the same district as William C. Wilson — the very man Parsons appointed to head his reapportionment committee

• That coal strike involved the same Theodore Roosevelt commission from 1903 — it was the first time a U.S. president had intervened as a neutral mediator in a labor dispute, breaking the tradition of government always siding with business
• The French squadron visiting for John Paul Jones's burial was originally sent to Martinique during a crisis with Venezuela — part of the same period when Roosevelt issued his famous 'speak softly and carry a big stick' corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
• Those Typographical Union members fighting the Typothetae were part of the skilled craft union movement that would soon clash with the more inclusive Industrial Workers of the World, founded just the year before in 1905
• The Massachusetts Republicans demanding tariff revision were bucking their own party's protectionist orthodoxy — the Dingley Tariff they wanted to revise had raised rates to their highest levels in U.S. history
• The 'reapportionment' scheme to move district boundaries was happening because New York had just gained congressional seats from the 1900 census, requiring the kind of political gerrymandering that continues today