The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 18, 1924, Page 5

Tuesday, March 18, 1924 a eee Constitution of Miners’ Union and Rights of Membership Are Violated By the Pay-Roll Vote By J. A. HAMILTON, (Special to The PITTSBURGH, Pa., March must have in a United Mine Workers’ convention is control of enough delegates and votes to decide the action of the conven- tion on important matters. District Five, Western Pennsylvania, source of supply for these deleg, progressive’ wave in that dis- trict put the machine into diffi- cult’ straits when preparing tor| Your Union Meeting the 1924 convention. It was unable to carry the vote of the District Five dele- gation strongly for the ma- chine as has been the rule in the past. An unofficial count: of the roll-call vote on the removal of the appointive power of the International President shows 197 votes for the machine and 218 against it. In the 1922 convention the District Five delegation voted on the Howat case, 231 with the machine and 185 against; in the 1921 Convention, on the Howat case, 264 with and 130 against. Thus a machine majority of 134 votes in 1921, and of 96 in 1922 was turned by 1924 into a progressive majority of 21, a change in sentiment of 155 votes from 1921 and 117 votes from 1922, Machine Violates Constitution. When the sources of these 197 ma- chine votes are examined, it is seen that to run up this total the machine indisputably violated the’ Constitution in some cases; almost certainly vio- lated it in others; and perverted it in others; in order to defeat the wishes of the rank and file. The whole system of pay-roll rep- resentation is contrary to the inter- ests of the membership. To speak of one of the pay-roll “representing” a certain local union is to joke; the pay-roll represents neither the locals from which they have credentials, nor the interests of the membership as a whole, but solely the Lewis machine. Out of the 197 machine votes, 109 were cast by elected or appointed employes or well-known henchmen of. the machine and out of the 109 votes, 63 were illegal or questionable, Most or all of these votes would not have been cast at all had the constitution been complied with and had the sys- tem of pay-roll misrepresentation not been in vogue; or at least the machine would have had a _ considerable amount of trouble to secure the votes. The other 46 pay-roll votes and the 88 machine votes by rank and file delegates by no means indicate that the sentiment of the members for whom these votes were cast, was in accordance. with. the. machine.on the appointive power issue. Preponderance of Pay-Rollers. When a member of the pay-roll by hook or crook gets a credential from a local, there is one or more. votes cinched for the machine on anything or everything. A rank and file dele- gate even ,tho friendly. with the ma- chine is more or less subject to being influenced by fear of the membership of his local union. The pay-roll dele- gate is little bothered by what one or two locals think. When the delegates get to the con- vention they find that for every two or three rank and file delegates there is,a pay-roller. The District five delegation included 169 delegates of which 39 were appointed or elected officials, 110 were well-known hench- men of the machine, and 12@ were from the rank and file. There was thus a quite sufficient force of pay- rollers to keep in touch with all the rank and file delegates and to keep under control all delegates subject to any of the many forms of influence the machine knows how to exert. The methods used by the District Five delegation to roll up the votes are typical of what the Lewis machine does thruout the union whenever the occasion demands and wherever the opportunity affords. Not only is the District Five Administration respon- sible but the International Admini- stration is more responsible for allow- ing and encouraging the manufacture of votes in a subordinate division and for profiting from the results. In some districts, for example in Illinois the manufacture of votes does not go on as it does in District Five and other sections.. But it is of vital interest to the Illinois miners that District Five eae other — sections be cleaned up because othe’ Lewis machine will be able indefinite- ly to manufacture and control enough votes to overcome a very strong op- position from Illinois and other states. Hlegal Votes—Delinquent Locals. Article XII, Section 6 of the Inter- aational Constitution states, “Any socal union becoming delinquent vust comply with Section 18 of Ar- ticle 14 and be in good standing for four months previous to the month UNCLE WIGGILY'S TRICKS— THE DAILY WORKER Daily Worker) 17.—What the Lewis machine has long been a ates and votes.. But the strong Third Tuesday, March 18, 1924 Name of Local and Place of Meeting. Bricklayejs, 912 W. Monroe St, Carpenters, Diversey and Sheffield. Carpenters, 1023 E, 75th St. Carpenters, Moose Hill, Chicago Heights Carpenters, Springfidld and 26th. Engineers, 180 W. Washington St, Firemen and Enginemen, 5438 8. Hal- sted St, Federal Employes, Great Northern Hotel Glove Workers’ Joint Council, 1710 N. Winchester Ave, 5:30 p. m. Hod Carriers, 225°E. 15th St., Chicago Heights, Ii, Hod Carriers, 814 W. Harrison St. Ladies’ Garment Workers, 328 W. Van Buren St. Marine Fire and Oilers, 357 N. Clark Painters, 20 W. Randolph St. Painters, N. E. cor, California and Madison, Painters, 6414 8, Hal Painters, Trumbull a Ogden Ave. Plasterers, Monroe and Peoria Sts. Printers and Die Stampers, 19 W. is St, Railway Carmen, 75th and Drexel Ave. Railway Clerks, 9 3, Clinton St. Railway Clerks, 509 W. Washington. Teamsters, 159'N. State St. Waiters, 234 W. Randolph St. (Note—Uniess otherwise stated all meetings are at 8 p. m.) =——————————— in which the Convention is held, be- ay it will be entitled to representa- ‘ion.”” A local delinquent Sept- 1, 1923 or becoming so later would not be en- titled to representation because even tho it would comply with Article 14, Section 18, it would not be in good standing for the required four months, the convention having, been held in January. Nevertheless, there were delegates seated from four locals which were on the delingent list Jan. 17, 1924, These locals are 1372 Cecil; 2555, Bridgeville; 3140 Vandergrift; and 3303 Imperial, all “represented” by the pay-roll outfit, Illegal Votes-By Appointed Employes: Article XII, Section 10 st tes, “No appointed employe of the organiza- tion shall be delegate from any other local union than his own.” The pay- roll bunch transfer their membership whenever the interests of the machine demand it so it is hard to tell in what local a certain one holds membership at present. But when an appointed employe represents more than one local, he is clearly and indisputably sclating this section .of the Constitu- ion ‘ - Four District Organizers and one International appointed employe each represented more than one local thus casting illegal votes to the number of 10, and representing illegally 8 locals, (Organizers Frank Dobbins, 3143 and 4370; Jas. Malone, 2501, 274, 2271, 2597; John Busarell, 1046, 4001, 1589; Robt. Gaitens, 1247, 3141; Convention Sergeant-at-Arms Thos. Dobbins, 3081, 3149.) Mine On Strike. 2230 belongs to Lilly Mine, West Brownsville where there has been a strike since the spring of 1923, Re- Ports are conflicting about the status of this strike, but it seems that the mine is operating, and that many of the original strikers are no longer on strike. It is doubtful if there are enough on strike to be entitled to two votes, after 8 or 9 months with mines working all around. Many would leave for other mines. This local paid on 217 men. the six months end- ing Jan: 1, 1923, before the strike started. Questionable Votes By Appointees. Eleven locals with thirteen votes were represented by appointed em- ployes who formerly belonged to other locals. If any of these em- ployes did not belong to the local represented, the vote was illegal; and even if they all did belong, the fact remains that their transfer of membership was merely for the pur- pose of being able to better serve the machine and defeat the interests of the membership. (Frank Dobbins, 3143; Carlile Wolcutt, 4338; Percy Thompson, 4874; Thos- Naylor, 1678; } Jas. Riach, 408; David Hickey, 2932; F, P. Hanaway, 3882; John Grecula, 2682; Pete Maracini, 4840; Thos. the | Dobbins, 3081; Bozo Damich, 963.) Article XIV, Section 1 states, “Local Unions shall be composed of ten or more workmen, skilled and un- skilled, working in or around coal mines, coal washers, or coke ovens.” Section 11 states, “Any member becoming three months in arrears for dues and, assessments, unless of- fisially exonerated from the payment. of same, shall forfeit his member- ship.” Section 23, provides for ex- oneration only for those who have not worked more than four days in the month, Machine Performs Miracles, The pay-roll “represented” 15 locals, with 17 votes, which are located at non-union or abandoned or long-idle mines. Two of these locals (3149 and 3521, 2 votes each) have appeared in no tax report as far back as the one for six months ending Jan- 81, 1920. Hight have paid nothing since July 31, 1921; (1201, aban- doned; 3081, 8188, 4652, 3148, 3983, 3140, at non-union mines; and 963 at Manown mine, now part of Mongah mine, local union 408). One (4400) has paid nothing since Jan. 31, 1922. The other four (3141, and 849 at non-union mines; 2501 and 1872 at long-idle mines) have since July 31, 1921, paid tax regularly or now and then but only on an average of less than ten members. Every one of these 15 locals has thus for years been composed entire- ly or almost entirely of exonerated members. If there really are the number of exonerated members in these locals which the machine claims there Y™ when it represents these locals, it is a miracle how they can live so long without work. It may well be doubted whether there are really enough members in any of these locals to entitle them to existence. What Does This Mean? Local 849 is at Albany mine, near Brownsville, which has been non- union for years, if not thruout its ex- istence. 3149 is at Brackenridge, where Fannie Sellins was murdered by a company thug Aug. 26, 1919, during an attempt to establish the union. According to reports this ended the campaign, with the ex- ception of passing on some relief in a very loose manner. 3521 is at Na- ‘trona, whose one or two mines have been non-union for years, if not dur- ing their existence. The other non-union mines are in the Kiskiminetas River Valley which was once well organized, In the report for the six months ending July 31, 1921, 22 Kiski locals appear, paying tax equivalent to 1482 members. In the reports since that time, from 2 to 5 locals appear, pay- ing on from 5 to 160 members in the various reports. This has been due to the action of the Hicks Coal Co-, the chief operator in this field, which broke the contract before its expira- tion April 1, 1922, and which with practically all the other operators in the Kiski valley have been able since to establish the open-shop. . “Graveyard” Locals, The pay-roll “represented” 16 locals which during the year ending July 31, 1923, were real respectable, But in the next four months report, ten of these locals do not appear (3516, 3120, 2597, 2244, 615, 2555, 1247, 3303, 4001, 2728) and the other six paid an unusually low amount of tax (4338, 4874, 4740, 816, 4724, 671)- This means that these mines were idle for all or most of this four months, which means for six months before the convention. With mines operating all around these idle mines, there would be very few members left in these locals by the time the con- vention rolled around. It is therefore extremely probable that at least some of these locals had lost members until they did not have left the required ten members, and were therefore un- entitled to representation in the con- vention. Sixteen votes from these. “Peanut” Locals. The pay-roll “represented” 20 locals with 20 votes which in the year and for months ending Nov, 80, 1923, paid tax equivalent to an average membership of 50 or less. (3128, 5027, 3214, 4223, 5116, 2456, 2367, 3123, 4219, 3716, 1943, 4808, 5626, 2932, 4993, 4325, 5533, 1361, 4370, 5180). Such locals are constitution. ally entitled to representation, even -tho the membership is only ten, (Ar- ticle XII, Section 2) and can combine with other small locals to send a dele- gate (Section 5), and by custom, a small local is often represented by a delegate from a local of more than the one hundred membership specified in Section 5. But in practice, very few locals of less than 100 members. let alone less than 50, are represented if left to themselves. The Constitution exempts them from penalty for failure to be rep- resented; and the burden of the dele- gate’s hotel and wages, the bother of combining with other locals, and the knowledge that the small-local does not have much influence, act together tto keep the locals from sending dele- gates from their membership. But one of the pay-roll can easily get credentials from these small locals because it ¢osts the local nothing, and thus add to the machine vote in the convention votes which would not be cast at all did the pay-roll system of representation not exist- The “representing” of these “pea- nut” locals is all the worse because of the unusually small number of | members represented by a _ vote. These 20 locals paid tax according to the last report equivalent to a total average membership of 515, while 10 locals in the Canonsburg section whose 20 votes were cast against the machine, paid on an average member- ship of 2167. It would be possible for 200 members in 20 locals of ten! members each to exert as much influ- Put Your Name on the Honor Roll! O* Saturday, March 15, the campaign for 10,000 new sub- scribers for THE DAILY WORKER was opened. On Monday, March 17, the first results of the campaign reached THE DAILY WORKER. It appears that the employes in the business office are in for a few months of stiff work if the returns keep coming in at the rate in which they have commenced. So far the major- ity of the new “subs” sold under the special terms of the new drive have been sold by Chicago patriots, Very likely this is caused by the fact that Chicago has a start on the rest of the country because Chicago readers re- ceive their paper sooner and can get their letters in to THE DAILY WORKER office more quickly. But Chicagoans claim that they are off to a flying start and that they will lead the campaign from start to finish. It is impossible to enroll the names of those who have sold subs in this new drive in today’s paper. Beginning on Fri- day, March 21, and continuing every Tuesday and Friday thereafter, the names of the live wires who are making THE DAILY WORKER grow will be publishéd in the Honor Roll. For more reasons than one the Honor Roll will be an historic document. On it will be enrolled the names of the best fighters in the American labor movement, those who know that there is no better way to build up the militant movement than by increasing THE DAILY WORKER circulation. Is your name going to be.on this Roll of Honor? Sell a subscription to THE DAILY WORKER and put it there. Sell a trial “sub,” two months for $1.00; or, better still, sell a year’s “sub” at the regular rate and secure for yourself a half- month’s sub to “The Labor Herald,” “The Liberator” or “Soviet Russia Pictorial,” free! 4 ence in the convention as 3000 mem-| When a local’s paid membership * * Watch Friday’s Paper for Honor Roll. AUTO INDUSTRY LABOR COUNCIL FACING DECLINE, FLASHES S, 0.8, | DECLARES OLDS FOR RUTHENBERG Says Flivver Business Is| Inflated | Say MEAG { By LELAND OLDS | (Federated Press Industrial Editor) | Employment in Michigan factories | has reached a peak which threatens | increasing insecurity to the wage | earners in that state, acording to| figures made public by J. L. Lovett, | general manager, Michigan Manu- facturers’ Association. He pictures an inflated employment market, es- pecially in the automobile industry, | Employes should begin taking steps to protect their interests when the | automobile industry reaches the sat- uration. point. Employment Inflation. The number employed in Michigan factories, according to Lovett, ex- ceeds that in any previous yed in history. The number of wox,kers on the pay rolls is greater even than the number employed during the post-war inflation year, 1919, while nearly twice as much money is being paid out each week in wages, In Detroit 79 firms employing about two-thirds of the city’s indus- trial workers report approximately 241,000 employers on their pay rolls. On this basis Lovett estimates the total employed by the 3,000 Detroit factories at over 361,000. In 1919 sthe federal census bureau estimated Must Have More Funds To Make Appeal Attorneys’ fees and supplementary legal expenses took $2,170 of the $3,991 paid into the Labor Defense Council during the month of Febru- ary, as shown by the financial statement, just made public, This indicates that unless the returns are increased, the Council will be un- able to free itself from the burden of debt which is hampering its op- erations. The Labor Defense Council an- nounces that it is in debt to the amount of $7,000. February’s receipts were largely stimulated by the Labor Defense Council’s special premium offer, un- der which everyone selling a full sheet of Ruthenberg Appeal Coupons receives a free copy of Iury Libedin- sky’s stirring novel “A Week.” This is illustrated by the fact that re- turns from the sale of Ruthenberg Appeal Coupons during the month totaled $1,371, constituting the larg- est single source of revenue. Subscription lists were second in amount of revenue produced, ac- counting for $1,348. Local branches of the Labor Defense Council sent in $1,042 to the National Office as a result of the month’s activities. The remaining $209 was realized from trade union contributions, collections / peak industrial employment ' of at meetings, and contributions from bers in 20 locals of 150 members each; each local is entitled to one delegate and one vote. Ordinarily the small local however, will not be represented; but the machine upsets the rule and perverts the constitution to help defeat the wishes of the mem- bership. Remove Violators From Office. The violations of the constitution and the rights of the membership pointed out herein should be sufficient grounds for removing the whole Dis- trict and International Administra- tions. They are jointly responsible, either for actually committing viola- tions or for aiding and abetting them or for failing to protest against and stop them: Amend the Constitution. It will be very difficult to prevent these violations as long as elected and appointed officials are allowed to act as delegates. A constitutional amend- ment should be made to prevent any- one on the pay-roll from being a dele- gate. Any official or employe whose knowledge or advices can benefit the for a certain period is less than ten, say for six months, the local should be investigated to see if there are really enough persons entitled to exoneration to keep the local alive. If so, the local officers should be re- quired to furnish a sworn list of the names and addresses of all exonerated members, and the fact should be pub- lished that the local has been found to be still in existence. The financial reports should be re- quired to include ‘the number of exonerations from each local, and also should give the local number and location of all locals chartered, suspended, revoked, and investigated during the period of the report. Officials determined to override the wishes of the membership can evade all sorts of constitutional provisions. What is needed is officials who try to serve the membership instead of try- ing to make the membership serve them. An Awakened Membership. To amend the constitution and to elect and retain honest officials re- quires a membership attentive to the convention can be allowed to speax but not to vote. This would not pre- vent the President and Secretary from exercising their present duties; they do not need to be delegates. good of the organization. If the membership ‘does not object to being exploited by a corrupt officigldom, there will not be much trouble in finding the officialdom to do the ex- The present procedure for secur- | Ploiting. ing exoneration is very loose. It is Summary. doubtless all right except when it/ Vote of District 5 delegation in 1924 comes to establishing the membership convention: of the local for election or convention! Giass of votes Locals Delegates Votes purposes. A provision should be adopted requiring the request for ex- oneration for members who will be entitled to vote in district and na- tional elections, or entitled to repre- sentation in a convention, to specify the names and addresses of the per- sons applied for. This list should be sworn to by the lecal officers. chine . .. chine— Ii voting 82% Pay-roll not 83— 83 83— 83 218—218 aq 109 soe 8 2 2 32%—117 33— 82 $8—199 entitled 6 4 169 7 206 4 A Leh oat Sept ee Sdopted ror Pay-roll Vote: mitting any delegate to inspec e teodentisle of the delegates, and the pil Planes ge aan yg Fog berg sworn applications for exoneration, latere'l ested otacals Pr rH At present one is led to doubt Dist. appointed official i a whether there are really any cre- Sessa {h ahd wet tee = bY dentials from some of these flunky locals. No one but the machine ever 49 «84% «111 sees the credentials. Questionable ‘Votes: The credential report should also Locals Votes be required to give more information- It should show for each local the number of paid and number of ex- Non-union A LAUGH FOR THE CHILDREN onerated members entitled to repre- sentation, and in the case of a local in which all or a part of its vote depends on the exonerated members, the re- port should state why these mer have been exonerated. The report sh also contain a list of the men repre- senting more than one local with the nambers of the difforent locals he} jist... cic represents: Megal votes not included in The constitution is loose regarding | it of questionable votes 6 the disposition of the charter of a TOTAL dead local. As soon as the member- ship falls below ten for a certain time, say three months, for any rea- son, the charter should automatically be suspended and the International Secretary should be required to pub- lish the fact. Then if the member- ship remains below ten for an ad- ditional period of say three months ‘tthe charter should be automatically revoked. At present the disposition of such local is left to the discretion of the International President who has the sole right to revoke charters, but is not given any instructions as to the use of this power. On strike . Delinquent locals (illegal). 4 ‘ Illegally by employees. 10 \ (tose also in above). Primar! BISMARCK, es in North Dakota, the betting today to win from Sen- ator Hiram Johnson in the Narth Dakota primary tomorrow, Gee! Extra Day of Rest. LONDON, March 17. Prince of Wales and plans for the heir to the British throne returning to London from Aldershot were changed at the last minute. Murder Follows Murder, Van Gordon, accused of murdering his wife and their 12 year old son, was shot to death in a gun battle with last night, RUBBER STAMPS AND SEALS IN ENGLISH AND IN ALL, FOREIGN LANGUAGES INK. PADS, DATERS, RUBBER TYPE.Erc. NOBLER STAMP & SEAL CO, od 73 W. VanBurenst, N. D., March 17.—|3 President Coolidge was a favorite in : Wayne county, which includes De- troit, at 256,000. Grand Rapids employment figures show a gain of 5,000 over 1919 altho the futniture industry is operating at not more than 70 per cent of ca-| L, pacity. Flint with a total employ- ment of about 35,000 shows a gain of 15 per cent. Pontiac with a total of 15,000 reports a gain of 10 per cent. Lancaster and Kalamazoo both report gains of 3,000 over 1919. While Jackson reports a gain of 2,000, Battle Creek a gain of 1,000 and Muskegon a gain of 1,000. Carrying Eggs in One Basket. A glance at the census of manu- facturers would seem to indicate that Michigan is carrying too many eggs in one basket. Like the man who invests the greater part of his savings in a single venture Michi- gan has invested over half her jobs in the making of automobiles, auto- mobile bodies and accessories. In 1919, according to the census, 197,- 881 of the 471,242 industrial work- ers in Michigan were directly engag- ed in the production of automobiles and auto parts, Since 1919 the au- tomobile industry has grown mate- rially. As a matter of fact 50 per cent of all the workers employed by the automobile industry in the Unit- ed States now work in Michigan. Cal Coolidge Cuts Short Interview with The Passion Players WASHINGTON, March 17.—The president cannot receive public ad- dresses from people of a foreign na- tion unless presented thru the usual diplomatic channels, President Cool- idge declared today in a letter to Anton Lang, the Christus ett the famous Oberammergau Passion Players. The president’s letter, which was addressed to Lang in care of the German etbassy at Washington, was in explanation of the action of Mr. Coolidge in cutting short the audience which the Passion Players ytd at the White House on Satur- y: Get unity thru the Labor Party! Telephone Diversey 5129 ED. GARBER QUALITY SHOES For Men, Women and Children 2427 LINCOLN AVENUE Near Halsted and Fullerton Ave. CHICAGO “An extra | % day’s rest” was ordered today for the : CASPER, Wyo. March 17.—Fred|% sheriff Peyton of Douglas, Wyoming,| % Room 307, 166 W. Proceeds for German Relief Granulated, use Murine often. Secthen, Baia or lalean or Adale “POLIKUSHKA” LEO TOLSTOY'S IMMORTAL STORY OF SERFDOM ADAPTED TO THE SCREEN BY MOSCOW ART THEATRE Starring IVAN MOSKVIN ORCHESTRA HALL, MARCH 19, 1924 The Friends of Soviet Russia and Workers’ Germany, individuals, Two months ago, the Labor De- fense Council announced that it had to have $15,000 by March 1. Only $7,612 has come in since then. The . D. C. is again sending out the call to GET BEHIND THE RUTH- ENBERG APPEAL. How many of your shop-mates read the DAILY WORKER? Get one of them to subscribe today. If You Are Particular and Want a Fresh JUST LIKE HOME MEAL EAT AT LERNER’S PRIVATE RESTAURANT 2709 W. DIVISION ST. 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