The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 9, 1924, Page 5

“The idea bacomes power when it pene- trates the masses.— Karl Marx. ‘issue of appointive power versus FTER the smoke of battle and| election by sit tibet ll the fumes of bunk-laden ora-} The Klan, which is doing consid- tory cleared away from Tomlinson] erable “boring from within” in the halt, Indianapolis, where the 29th! miners’ union, practically controls consecutive and 60th biennial con- the organization in. Indiana, and the vention of the United Mine Workers| power of election would mean to of America was held, John L. Lewis,| them the placing in the field of Klan representing the reactionary leader-| organizers, getting paid by the ship in the organization, still held! minors’ union, and organizing work- his place in the saddie, tho ws/ers into the Invisible Empire under position was considerably more pre-| the direction of the Dragon of in- — than when the convention] diana. opened. On every other issue that rocked The fight at this convention was] the Pe the old progressives not, as in former years, between the| never kicked over the traces or ex- controling machine and the old pro-| pressed the slightest disagreement pressives, but between the reaction-| with the reactionary machine, They ary machine, which has assimilated| can be put down as hopeless and the or amalgamated the old progressives, | radicals must not count on them in and the rising radical wing, led by| any way. In fact, their acquaintance the communists. _ | with the radical movement makes The outstanding featufre of {his} them dangerous enemies, much more convention was that the radicals} so than the consistent conserva- for the first time in the history of| tives. the organization, showed that they The Radicals knew that it is not only necessary} The opposition to Lewis at the to fight, but to prepare this fight.| convention comes under three gen- As the convention progressed, this} era] headings. First were the com- element was gaining in militancy) munists, who fought Lewis on prin- and self confidence, and tho John L. Lewis may caim a vViwiy was truly a Pyhrric one, because his | Special Magazine Supplement “|THE DAILY WORKER. THE MINERS’ CONVENTION convention. This group was grad- ‘ually learning to fight with the communists and, at the close of the convention, the voting strength of this element numbered around 450. This was demonstrated in the vot- ing on the election of international delegates to the Mining Congress when John Hindmarsh, who fought with the communists on practically every issue that came before the convention, received 449 votes. It is from this fighting element that the bulk of the organized oppo- sition must come. Under communist leadership and discipline it is even now numerically strong enough to overthrow the present autocratic ad- ministration, but until the masses of the membership are iden'ovically in harmony with it, and a sufficiently large number of lieutenants are trained to man the union, such a vietory would not be lasting, and might be disastrous. The Fight for Leadership The administration leaders under- stand the miners. The miners are Nemesis was born when he deliv- erately stole the vote on Alexander Howat and literally told the dele- gates to “go to heli.” With the radicals entering the mext convention as well organized, Where Is Our Prosperity? HE official propagandists of the employers are overworking them- selves spreading the illusion amongst the workers that we are on the threshold of a new era of prosperity. In many ways the publicity smacks disciplined and enthusiastic as when}of being an organized effort to befuddle the minds of the working men. they left this one, John L. Lewis may have a different story to tell. There is a greater number of capa- ble mashine lieutenants in the Unitea Mine Workers of America than in any other industrial working ciass organization in the United States. It was said of the French army under Napoleon “that every seldier of France carried a Marshall’s baton in his knapsack,” ang it can (also) be said that every member of the United Mine Workers who can use his tongue carries an organizer’s commission in his portfolio. The Lewis machine is built on patronage. Whenever a promising member of the union shows his head above the common level, he is gobbled up by the administration forces, p.aced on the payroll if he is for sale, and if not, war is declared against him. The political generalship of the miners’ union is in the hands of John L. Lewis and William Green, assisted by Thomas Kennedy and Philip Murray. The first three named are clever, know the miners and can appeai effectively to their emotions. They are definitely com- mitted to the policy of class col- laboration, have no vision beyond an occasional increase of wages and improvement of working conditions. In this respect, they mirror the views of the majority of the miners —payroll brigade included—at the present time. They have the ideo- logical leadership of the membership as was demonstrated whenever ques- tions other than those relating par- ticularly to the miners’ organization, came up for consideration. That, together with a liberal show of force, determination—and the payroll —enables them to hold their seats. On organization questions, how- ever, their hold on the ‘membership is precarious, only a refusal to recognize an adverse majority vote enabled them to retain power. The Old Progressives In other days the miners’ union was the happy hunting groun’ or ives. It was the nest where | than the industrial chickens of the social- ist party were hatched. What a Thomas Kennedy, Charles Keeney, John Brophy, Chris Golden, John Hessler, Otto Gunner, and hundreds of lesser lights. Where are they today? So _ indisolubly bound with the most reactionary ma- that ever controlled the Unit- Mine Workers of America that pg Ppp Big 0 Bese one o ogressive n trom the ey HE a «ere and that was in the case of John Hessler of Indiana, whose Ku Klux Klan him cy ol to vote against Lewis, on the One cannot pick up a newspaper or financial journal of any standing and fail to find columns stuffed with the great prosperity predictions. _ But when one discards these romances of finance and examines the official reports of the Government and the authoritative statements of lead- ing banks and manufacturing corporations he is confronted with a different story. He is then face to face with grim realities that the mass of workers must put up with The latest report on employment issued by the Department of Labor indicates that there has been a continuous decline in the number of workers employed since last June. The month of December which has been painted as a month of extraordinary prosperity in the daily press shows a decline of 1.5% of workers employed. Payrolls thruout the country have decreased 1.7%, the sugar refining industry and the steam railroad car building are the heaviest sufferers. The daily record of pig iron production in December as well as the value of building permits shows a substantial decrease in December from the preceding month, The number of commercial failures increased from 1653 in November to 1862 in December. The same holds true for the value of the liabilities incurred thru these failures. The situation in Illinois is particularly acute. The official statement of the Illinois Department of Labor speaks of the blight of winter having fallen rather heavily on the labor market. It goes on to say: “Unemploy- ment of considerable proportions has made its appearance in several local- ities and is at its worst in Chicago, where the market is already glutted, from the migration of workers from the farms, from the South, and from down State mining towns, where operations have been suspended, has had to bear the strain”. In the State the building industry has suffered a decline during December. Six of the largest producers of iron and steel, employing about 20,000 workers have dismissed 30% of their force in the last 30 day period. Automobile production was at low ebb during the month. At the same time the number of workers placed in industry by the State Employment Bureau fell by about 4,000. These are the cold, dismal statistics that face the worker in his every day life. These are the facts of industry that give the lie to the prosperity propaganda being spread so assiduou sly by our employing class press. ciple, because of (his social out-] intensely loyal to the organization. look, plus his general conduct. Next came the radica's, or militants, who believe in fighting the coal opefa- tors, and who are disgusted with the subservient and complacent attitude of Lewis toward the bosses as against his ruthless persecution of the fight- er in the union. This element is sympathetic to the communist mes sage and is excellent fighting ma- terial. Last come those who, for various reasons, are anti-Lewis for other reasons, generally of a local character. The militants lacked sufficient floor It is the big thing in their lives. it gives them whatever protectioi they have. They have sacrifice much for it, and without it they know from experience that their conditions of work would be almost unbearabie. The reactionary leaders take ad- vantage of this fact and endeavor to picture every opposition leader as an open or secret enemy of the miners’ union, whose actions are in- spired by a desire to bring abou: the destruction of the United Mine Workers of America. Such a material, with the result that the,charge, delivered in deep sepulchral few speakers they had spoke oftener reeend be desirable were it ble to do otherwise. These few to take the floor on every ques- tion where the radical point of view was at stake. The great majority of the communist delegates, owing to difficulties with the English lan- guage, or lack of experience in speaking, were unable to make them- selves heard, and yet they were the backbone of the oo and the nucleus of what grow into the near future into the most formidable mafhine that ever challenged reac- tion in the United Mine Workers of America. 2 4 The non-communist radicals repre- sented the largest opposition in the tones, to the nineteen hundred deie- gates, has a telling effect. No argu- ment or evidence is needed. The miners will not tolerate any leader who accepts a cut in wages. Therefore Lewis and his gang meet every attack on their leadership with an array of figures, tending to show that they ‘have been instrumental in securing more wage advances than any other leaders in the history of the union. While, during the “Aght against the Nova Scotia miners, he waves the red flag and sounded the charges on the Third International. Lewis emphasized still more strongly the gp amg be ayo the wages of the Nova of their American fellow workers. tia miners and that| the union. SECOND SECTION February 9, 1924. This magazine supplement will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker. By T. J. O’FLAHERTY He accused the radical leaders of the Nova Scotia miners with having accepted wage reductions, while he brought into the pockets of the an- thracite miners the large sum of 944,000,000 a year in wage increases. That the Nova Scotia miners looked beyond wage increases to the ultimate emancipation of the en- tire workingclass, where the pro- dugers could determine their own ‘wages, while struggling for improved conditions in the meantime, wag lost sight of in face of the fact that they receive less wages now than the miners of America under the leadership of John L. Lewis. The delegates were in ideological accord with Mr. Lewis. were re sone with their emancipa- lon from wage slavery; r) thought of selling their | ny ome for the highest possible price, The point Lewis stressed most in dealing with the violation of the agreement between the British Em- pire Coal Company and the District 26, was that a violation of an agreement between the coal ope- raters and any section of the union weakens the confidence of the coal operators in the integrity of the union, thus rendering the making of contracts more difficult and the pe- riods of unemployment thru strikes more frequent. In the fight against Howat Lewis did not over stress the fight against the Industrial Court Law, but laid heavy emphasis on the lack of friendly relations between the coal perators and deposed Kansas of- ficials for which he blamed the miners’ leaders, So far as Lewis is concerned, the miners’ union is a business, of which he is ‘manager. His commodity is the labor power of the members. Any department hedd who antagon- izes the buyers of that commodity sommits a crime that merits the se- verest punishment. The manager’s ob is to keep the miners satisfied so that they will give maximum serv- ce to the buyer, The Artillery Preparation The coal diggers are not afraid of radicalism as such, therefore the rid leaders picture to them a broken ind demoralized union with reduced wages the result if ever the radicals gain control. The first two days of the convention were practically con- sumed in psychologizing the delegates against the radica.s, aud the radical leaders who took the floor to stem this torrent of red phobia somehow sot confuséd in the minds of the less mentally alert with the destruc- ave bogey man, which was manu- ‘actured by Mr. Lewis. Immedi- ately. after he laid down the psycho- ‘ogical barrage he sent forward his vhock troops with the most dan- yerous resolutions and passed them ‘afely thru the enemy lines while the latter were still groggy from the offects of the poison gas. Being successful in his first brush vith the progressive foe, Mr. Lewis oozed confidence, which resulted in siving/him the support of the neu- ral mass, which always belongs to the strongest. His Vulnerable Point John L. Lewis stands brazenly on a platform, the only plank in which is the alleged ability to sell the miners’ labor power to the coal operators at the best possible price. But he has no so‘ution of the prob- lems that confront the miners in the introduction of new machinery in the mines, which is increasing the production of coal per man to an unprecedented degree, thus throwing hundreds of thousands of miners out of work. That is the big problem for the miners, the problem of unemploy- ment. A Here the radicals hammer with ef- fectiveness. They have a program. They come forward with the imme- diate demand of a six hour day and the nationalization of the mines, While Lewis claims there are over 200,000 men too many in the coal in- dustry, the radica’s say “No, there are too many coal miners outside Let us bring them in (Continued on page 8)