The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 16, 1925, Page 14

.4 ee 300, Mines Idle in Illinois (Continued from page 1.) of the delegation that that included the demand for the six-hour day and five-day week. Hardly one of the thousands of locals but had a resolution in the con- vention demaniing such, but they were spurned and never incorporated in our demands. The contract was ac- cepted after the fiasco at Jacksonville because the miners did not know what else to do, and after the capitalist press had propagandized the country and the labor fakers had indulged in a red baiting orgy. It is safe to say that if the miners had been permitted to vote on the contract before it was signed, if they had been asked, “Are you satisfied to accept this as a con- tract?” they would have sent it down to defeat amidst their contempt and scorn. The miners will continue to fight for a six-hour day and five-day week. It is interesting to note the reasons given by the labor bureaucracy why they did not fight for a shorter-hour week was because of the competition of the unorganized field. J. L. Lewis said it was impossible to organize them, therefore, according to that, it will be impossible to ever get a shorter workday. The present gesture at organizing is camouflage designed to fool the militant miners and attempt to have them believe a serious attempt at or- ganizing is being made. If John L. Lewis wanted to organize the West Virginia field and the other fields at this time, John, with his vice president, Murray, would lead an army into West Virginia that would organ- ize it im six months or less. With concentration on the one district, Lewis at the head, assisted by Mur- ray, the international executive board and field workers, auditors, organizers, district presidents, vice presidents, district board members and field work- ers, sub-distzict presidents and vice presidents, and add to that the aid of-elass| conscious Workers with the many union men who are only waiting a chance to organize, and the battle would be won in a short period of time. N view of the fact that we have no contract now, since the operators have violated it on every hand, shut down the mines in violation of it to create a condition among the miners that will make them glad to accept a reduction in wages when they feel like offering them the proposition—in view of that fact we will not be violat- ing our “sacred” signature if we throw every mine in America idle at this time. Do that and we will not have to go any further than West Virginia. The few remaining flelds would jump at the chance to follow such a lead. The whole of the nation’s coal in- dustry at a standstill would make it easy for John L. Lewis to sign up a six-hour day and five-day week for the American mining industry, and not for a@ part of it only. That is the kind of policy worthy of the president of the fighting miners, and John L. Lewis, I say. to you now, be not afraid of support; we guarantee we would go thru hell with ydu on an organizing campaign of that kind, if necessary. At the present time of writing, the miners’ officials are indicted for viola- tion of an ancient injunction secured by the West Virginia Coal Company during the reign of Moses, and the energy of the officials,,their time and the miners’ money will be spent with high-priced lawyers, and irrespective of the outcome of the lawsuit, more injunctions will be issued, and so on, ad infinitum, The only way to kill the injunction evil is to let the lawyers stay at home, and with our leaders at our head, the miners of West Virginia, coupled with a few thousand miners that would gladly follow Lewis into West Vir- ginia, violate injunctions en masse, and all the injunctions from here to “hell would avail them naught. f tron foregoing will hot be done, be- cause they don’t want the miners organized, Instead they are going to aid. us by weeding us out of the in- dustry, “putting us on the bum,” to look for work in some other industry, Two hundred and fifty thousand of us have to go—miners with their sons, and workers perhaps from other_in- dustries who have been forced out because of depression therein, Every industry in the land is in a similar condition with unemployment. The workers have not been paid enough to buy back their products. They have produced too much, so they will have to starve—capitalism’s cure for unemployment. Weed us out; where will we go? Many of us have been as long in the industry as any of our Officials. Does the weeding out policy apply to the Officialdom also? If so, why don’t they put it into effect? We don’t no- tice any of them have resigned yet, and what is more, they won't as long as there is any mazuma in the treas- ury, The weeding out only applies to the workers, and a certain kind of worker, the militant miners who are exposing the reactionary officialdom, We have to wqrk to live, and refuse to be weeded out. Rather we will fight on for an equal share of the availabk< work in the mines, and still demand that our officials fight for an equal division of all work in all mines for all miners, ONDITIONS in Mllinois have reached a crisis. Our officials from the president down thru the vice president, the district executive board, the sub-district machine and field -workers, are in panic, They see the awakened miners arising en masse to politically bury them. Their bloody clutches on the miners’ treasury are about to be pried loose, They see the votes of 100,000 miners in the last election about to engulf them, and they turn in their agony to their natu- ral friends and alliés, deception and lying, constitution busting, red baiting, expulsions, election stealing, and be- trayals to the coal operators. Right and left the workers are los- ing their conditions, lost thru the traitorous decisions by ‘our officials, and in their haste to show the com- mon enemy their utter subserviency to their interests, they evén discard their usual caution and veneer of common decency in return for prom- ised bossing jobs with the coal opera- tors when the miners kick them out. In preparation for the wholesale de- livery many sub-district and district officials have been supplied with first- class mine manager papers, even in spite of the fact that some of them are totally ignorant and can hardly read their own names in print, far less work out problems in mine ventilation and cubic measurements. And these are the future mine managers whom thousands of miners’ lives will de- pend on. S it any wonder the miners of Illi- nois are feverishly organizing and s0 much bitterness is shown in the mass meetings taking place thruout the state?-The miners know what they want and intend to have it. They are demanding a special district conven- tion to take up the question of unem- ployment and financial relief, and also the irregularities of the last elections, and out of this many believe and ex- pect to see the downfall of the Illinois bureaucracy, Aside from this immediate situation a campaign for nationalization of the mines with workers’ control, six-hour day, five-day week, with unemployment benefits from the industry and mini- mum weekly wage, etc. No one knows better than the labor fakers their treason to the workers is at an end. Proof of that is found in the fact that they have received their bossing papers, ‘ee Get a sub for the DAILY WORKER from your shopmate and you will make another mem- ber for your branch. Dr. A. Moskalik DENTIST S. W. Corner 7th and Mifflin Sts, PHILADELPHIA, PA, e c geneen pF: oy 3 o) pornos Waar, &e — SREB eRe ; 8 b eae z 7 ; : bs ES goteonce | is “ EG : %, een mee ' 4 EF The first book of children’s stories ever is- sued -by th. Com#wunist -movement-in this country F airy Tales for Workers’ Children by Herminia Zur Miihlen Translated by IDA DAILES with four beautiful full-page two-color drawings and cover design by LYDIA GIBSON and many smaller drawings from the orig- inal edition. A fascinating collection of fairy tales from a working class view-point that you will en- | joy and children will be delighted with. This volume marks the first appearance in English of the work of a German writer of children’s stories of the very first rank. . . with a translation that catches the beauty of these stories and brings the warmth and feel- ing of the working class and its aspirations. A real children’s story book, size 9x 12 Inches, with large clear type and a durable, leather-like cover, 75 CENTS EACH (Cloth bound $1.25) The Daily Worker Publishing Co. 1113 W. Washington Bivd. Chicago, IIL. 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