The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 27, 1926, Page 9

i shat ty {Ullar's but that they w . sults of the plans have at all times By Alex Reid. Secretary, Progressive Miners’ Com- mittee. HE agreément entered into by the miners’ officials and the coal own- ers in the anthracite field must re- ceive the careful study of the miners, not only in the hard coal, but in the bituminous as well. . The miners’ officials “ are already making much of the fact that the min- ers at the reconvened convention in- dorsed the eontract, and it is well that we examine the reason of the indorse- ment, with the contract itself. The miners after a six months’ strike, with but little financial aid, many ofthem receiving no aid what- ever, in semi-destitution,. with every agency of the opposition against them, including the officials of the union themselves, found that they could hardly do anything else under the cir- cumstances but accept the proposed agreement, False Leadership. ET no man believe for a moment that the miners, in accepting the agreement, thought they had received what they were entitled to, or be- lieved that they got what they could have secured if the strike had been properly managed. Far from it, the miners know that the strike was mis- managed from the beginning; and thousands of discouraged miners ac- cepted the agreement with the state- ment, “that it is all we can get under false leadership.” Five Year Peonage. HE miners have returned to work in comparative quietness. As the miners prepare to go below there are no smiling faces to be seen at the pit mouth as, are seen after a successful battle with the operators. No, the miners are very grim looking, as they. go to work, and many of the miners are heard to denounce bitterly the be- trayal. Many of the miners state open- ly ‘that they return for a while to r acce, contract. Co-operate with Bosses. oO” particular section of the copn- tract is worthy of special atten- the five-year peonage tion. “Co-operation with the bosses for efficiency.” A board is to be cre- ated to study efficiency, and its plans to be applied “for the benefit of each party.” These efficiéficy boards have prepared plans before in many parts ‘of the mining industry, but the re- made for more profits to the coal barons at the expense of fhe miners. The introduction of machinery has resulted in an addition to the unem- ployment list, the miners have become mere laborers to the machines, work- ing harder for less money, Their working conditions have been destroy- ed, and with the new system of min- ing behind the machines, the old art of mining is almost entirely gone, with the miners as laborers to the machines. Efficiency in the coal mines of the bituminous, under the Farrington re- - gime, for instance, has resulted in many miners in Illinois being forced to do the work of the day men, such as setting of timbers, cleaning falls, laying track, etc., for little pay, and in many cases for.no pay at all. This has resulted in lowering the wages of the miners considerably, Kicked Out of the Union. S in the bituminous, so it will. be in the“anthracite. Under a five- year contract, the operators will have time to change all working conditions that they desire to change, and Will kick all those out of the industry, ‘and out of the union, that object to the change. No man that has read and studied the contract believes it will run five years as written at the present time. The miners will undoubtedly change the provisions of the agreement, if not by peace, then by strike, long be- fore the five years are up. As they see their conditions lost, one after an- Arbitration, EWIS must have understood this when he permitted the arbitration clause to be written into the agree- ment under a different name. A board of two men has been given. full au- thority to settle any demand of either party to the contract. The board has been given “full power and with reservations or re- strictions, and the parties agree to abide by any decision or decisions of such board either on the merits of the controversy, or as to ‘Droceedure to be followed.” A forerurmer of this condition was found at one of the mines in Wilkes- Barre, belonging to the Pennsylvania coal company, the first morning after the strike. A dispute arose about a certain kind of work at the mine, the operators wanting to change the prev- ious custom. The miners immediately rejected the proposed change, with the result that the men returned home and refused to work until the matter was settled. Bear in mind that this happened the first morning after the men returned to work after having been idle nearly six months, and in starvation. Will Not Submit. T goes to show the men are not go- ing to submit tamely to the terms of the traitorous agreement, It shows something more. It shows the coal operators are not going to wait long before their campaign against the miners’ wages and working conditions is launched. The operators feel they have a tre- mendous advantage over the men at the present time. Knowing the men are in destitute circumstances and tied down with the agreement, which will be carried out by the miners’ of- ficials to the best of their ability, the operators feel that the miners cannot afford to fight against any of these impositions, for fear of losing their jobs and being kicked out of the in- dustry with no other employment to go to, ~~ Repudiate it, ; E operators are gloating over their victory, a victory that could never have occured under the lead- ership of the progressive miners, or if the strike had been managed by the rank and file themselves. The capi- talist press is also gloating over the miners’ defeat, but they are gloating much too soon. The contract is sign- ed, but it is not carried out, and I make the rough guess that the miners will not carry it:out for five years. Capitalists Gloat. HE New York Times gloats editor- ially as follows, which is but a sample of the manner in which the capitalist press is trying to break the morale of the miners and to destroy the United Mine Workers of America: “The outcome reveals him (John L. Lewis) beaten at nearly every point. He ordered the strike in order to get higher wages, He orders the men back to work at the old wage. He demand- ed the check-off in its most rigorous form. If he gets it at all, it is only in a modified form. For months he vowed to high heaven that he would never consent to arbitration, yet he finally put his name to an agreement which stipulates that controversies not capable of being settled directly shall be referred to a board—to all intents and purposes @ board of ar- bitration—with full power and with- out reservation or restriction, and the parties agree to abide by any decision or decisions of such board. Tt is hard to imagine a retreat more complete or a defeat more absolute, Expected Different Results expect the capitalist press to gloat over the betrayal. That is its service to its class, But surely the miners are entitled to expect some- thing different from their leaders, We pay them high salaries to look ofter our interest, and we do not’ scrimp high expenses, as an examination of the report of the treasurer will show. I deny that we got defeated. That is, I deny that our defeat is perman- ent. Lewis betrayed us for the mo- ment, but we will never tamely sub- mit to the treason, Our victory is only a little delayed, and when we are ready, when we have a few, meager + SS ene reac cd tae SRR ae ht AE Ih aA aoe Ra AA On RP aN NON ae kt Mh Se hc SP LA cee Aeon pays to chase the wolf away from the door, we will again enter the fray and Lewis shall not betray us a second time. Let the capitalists rave and gloat; our time is coming in the very near future, and we will recoup our losses, and will gain our demands. Already thruout the anthracite the militant progressive miners are or- ganizing for their program, and the rank and file are indorsing the pro- gram in almost eyery local union in the field. This program, which calls for a 100 per cent strike in the indus- try, would have won the miners’ strike, and nobody knows that better than Lewis and his reactionary ma- chine. National yearly agreements, shorter’ workday and shorter week, etc., etc., will be fought for in the min- ing industry in America in the very near future, and all the Lewises, Far- ringtons and Cappellinis will not be able to stop it, The reconvened convention which indorsed the agreement stands out as the most despicable act of the labor fakers, The miners’ representation was cut down to a mere nothing ‘in comparison with the convention that | formulated the demands. No opposi- tion was permitted. No discussion was allowed to the progressive miners’ delegates. Ed. Sharfenburg, the mili- tant miner, attempted to take the dis- cussion of the merits and demerits of the agreement onto the floor of the convention, but was immediately ex- pelled from the convention. The min- ers demanded that the progressive miners’ leaflets “which carried the progressive miners’ program be read HOUSANODS of working | class women—women who \ 1 toil, tor long hours in factories and _ shops, and women who strug- gle continually to main- tain their pitiably mi- serable homes—are ral- lying together in all parts of the country to celebrate the interna- tional holiday of work- ing class ‘women— March the Eighth, These women work- ers are opening their eyes to the real mean- ing of the oppression by the bosses of the working men and the working women. They are learning thru hard and bitter experience the vital need for or- ganization on the part of the working class— both men and women— against the horrible conditions under which We workers are forced to live. which the women of the Paris Com- mune threw off the shackles of their old, humble position, and took their rightful places beside the working men of Paris on the barricades of the revolution, is to be celebrated in Chi- cago in a particularly effective way. Working women’s organizations from all over the city of Chicago, rep- resenting eleven different language speaking groups, met in a delegate conference recently to plan an inter- national celebration of women’s day. Girls.from the machine shops, work- ing mothers worrying about the little ones ‘they'd left at home, women used to the “floor” from participation in their union meetings, Teal working class women were there, And in en- thusiastic little breathless talks, some in speeches in which they obviously sought for their words, these women all showed their intense desire to join A Temporary Defeat in the Anthracite to the convention. But altho Lewis stated that it was because Sharfen- burg had indorsed the program and distributed it, that he was expelled, and altho the delegates and miners in the galleries demanded that it be read, Lewis refused to permit it to be read. is Many miners stated that if the pro- gram had been read, the delegates would have refused to ratify the con- tract. And so the strike passes into his- tory as America’s “Black Friday,” and we, like the British miners, will not forget it. ‘ The settlement is made. A settle- ment that setiles nothing. The min- ers are more*discontented than be- fore they came on strike. They see everything gone for the present time, they see that their six months’ strug- gle proves to be in vain for the pres- ent, they see that their officials are to blame for the temporary defeat, and not the strength of the operators. The miners know that the strike could have been won by pulling out the maintenance men, by bringing out the 4 | bituminous men to support them, and jthey are determined that the bunch of traitors will not have it in their power to betray them much longer, Anthracite miners! Build up the United Mine Workers of America in co-operation with the progressive min- ers! The progressive miners’ pro- gram is the only program the miners have, and the program which will make the miners’ union the fighting organization for the benefit of the coal diggers that was in days gone by. ee Woman’s Day By Lillian L. Borgeson. — March the Wighth—the day om] with other women of the working class in this demonstration of their solidarity. They chose Saturday, March 6, as the time of the meeting, because the 8th happened to fall on Monday and working class women find it hard to get out on Monday. They chose their speakers and assigned the subjects. And the subjects showed their in- | terest—women and the trade unions, | women and the class war, the work- ing class housewife, women in Soviet ‘Russia. If you live in or near Chicago and are interested, and surely no worker can fail to be interested—come to Northwest Hall, Chicago, on March 6, and take part in this demonstration of the awakening of the working class women to their conditions and their resolution to fight for what is theirs. Remember the place, Chicagoans— Northwest Hall, at the corner of North Ave. and Western Ave., Chi- cago. Remember the date— March ¢—on Saturday. Remember to come.