The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 24, 1931, Page 1

5 a M. PROTEST THE MURDER OF MINE STRIKERS SCTTSRORO! <| NIEGRo BOYE WilLyou LEY Me pwn” @vahuniet UM (Section of es Communist Deni ice at New York, N. “Rintered am second-class matter at the Post Offices ¥., under the act of March 3, 1879 jorker ist Party U.S.A. WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! MINE STRIKE SPREADS DESPITE MURDER OF PICKETS Answer the Murderous Attack’ On the Striking Miners STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE BOARD OF THE TRADE UNION UNITY LEAGUE NOTE:—The statement of the T. U. U. L. was written before the new murderous attack af Arnold. “Mass murder,” “shoot to kill” is the policy of the operators, the government and the UMWA to break the strike which is spreading despite all terror. * . - * HE attack on the picket line of the miners at the Wildwood Mine which resulted in one dead and more than a dozen seriously wounded, is an attack not only upon the miners but upon every worker and every work- ers’ organization. This, though the most brutal attack, was not the first one. Those shot in the course of the strike now number over 20. The workers throughout the country must answer this attack of the coal op- erators, their government and the United Mine Workers officials, who are equally responsible for this brutal murder. From the very beginning of the strike, the miners have faced the @ombined assault of the coal operators, the government and the UMWA officialdom. Previous to this murderous attack at the Wildwood Mine eight strikers had been shot by the Pinchot state troopers and the deputy sheriffs. Scores of miners, their wives and children, were clubbed, gassed and brvtally attacked. Many more score of arrests have taken place in Pennsylvania and Ohio. In Ohio more than a dozen strikers are now held under the vicious criminal syndicalist law. But despite this terror and intimidation, despite the application of the criminal syndicalist law to workers who dare fight against wage cuts, despite the threat of depor- tation of the foreign born miners, the strike is constantly spreading and already involves nearly 40,000 miners fighting under the leadership of the National Miners Union. Neither the terror of the armed thugs of the government, nor the open strike-breaking activity qf the UMWA, could prevent the spread of the strike and its growing miNtancy. Neither the starvation and eviction program of the operators nor the arbitration schemes of Governor Pinchot could stop the determination of the miners to win better conditions. ‘The miners of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia are carrying on a militant struggle against starvation conditions. They have resorted to the weapon of strike in an effort to stop the repeated attacks upon their living standards that have reduced the working miners to the stage of semi-starvation. In this struggle the miners are taking the lead in the fight against wage cuts that are now being carried through in every industry. The striking miners led by the National Miners Union, an affiliated organization of the Trade Union Unity Leagueyfre showing to the rest of the workérs what steps they must take to defend their interests. The miners fighting under the leadership of the National Miners | Union, are showing how to carry on the fight. They have elected their rank and file strime committee in every mine and a large representative strike committees for the entire strike. They have mobilized the active support of the gnemployed miners. Tens of thousands of striking and unemployed miners marched last week on the Washington County seat | demanding relief. Thus the struggle of the strikers and unemployed has become a joint struggle against starvation. Similar marches are being organized in all sections of the strike area. They have organized militant mass picketing. They have exposed every attempt of the strike-breaking UMWA to disrupt their strike. They have exposed every attempt to force them back to work under the starvation conditions through arbitration. They know that only the organization of their forces, rank and file par- ticipation and control of the strike, can bring victory to the miners. The coal operators, unable to break the strike thus far through all schemes, have resorted to the injunction. But the miners determined to win the strike, would not allow the injunction to break their strike. They are determined to carry on their fight despite any boss government in- junctions. The bosses and their government, assisted by the U.M.W.A., resorted to the most brutal attack on the miners in their efforts to en- force their injunction. They are determined to force the present starva- tion conditions upon the miners. They are ready to kill the miners, their wives and children, in order to maintain their profits. This latest attack shows that the coal operators, supported by the Hoover Government, the state government of the liberal Pinchot, the U.M.W.A. officials, are determined to break the strike through force and violence, having failed to break the strike through other means. They are bringing in all their forces against the strike. All workers must now see the danger and the necessity to rally all the possible forces of the working class in support of the miners, for the winning of the strike. Not only the interests of the miners, but the interests of all workers is involved in this struggle. This outrage on the miners must be a signal to all workers to rally more firmly behind the miners’ strike. Workers: ‘We must act quickly: Protest against these murderous attacks on the striking miners. m of protest must be organized. Protest meetings and demonstrations must take place in every city, town and village. Resolu- tions of protest should be adopted in all unions, workers’ organizations, mass meetings and factories. We must multiply a hundredfold the immediate collection of relief. Send food, clothing and money to help carry on the struggle to victory. Demand the immediate withdrawal of all armed forces that are mur- (CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE) Receipts Drop,‘Daily Danger; Out ‘Tag Days! the Daily Worker. action. the Daily at all. | But— | Saturday only $318.06 was received in the campaign to save Sunday and Monday (two.days) $573.91 was received. Yesterday—$212.67. Here is the story of the last four days, typical of the gen- eral slump in contributions during the past two weeks. EVERY DISTRICT WITHOUT EXCEPTION HAS FALLEN OFF BADLY. You have read the appeals of Comrades William Z. Foster, Earl Browder, Robert Minor and Max Bedacht. They are calls to Pictures, and stories of the miners’ battles are being left out because we must give space to our appeal in order to print The mine strike, the Scottsboro case, the fight against the Michigan alien registration bill—every struggle of the working class is a call to action to save the Daily, Workers, the Tag Days, Friday, Saturday and June 26, 27 and 28, will decide the fate of your fighting paper. We have fallen so far behind in the drive that success or failure in the Tag Days will mean life or death for the Daily Worker. See to it that they mean LIFE! Mass participation in the Tag Days country, mass collection of funds on the streets, side and outside shops and factories, will save the Daily Worker. All out for the Tag Days! Sunday, in .every city of the in homes, in- While the Daily is waiting for the receipts of the Tag Days it must live. The situation is critical. SPEED EVERY CENT TO- DAY TO THE DAILY WORKER, 50 E. 13th St., New York City. masses. | ana foreign born, will |class children. Workers ‘from all over the city will gather in Harlem for the biggest demonstration ever staged uptown. The demonstration will start with a parade from 130th ‘Judge Denies New Trials For 9 Boys; Fight Goes On; N.Y. Workers Protest Sat. BULLETIN. The eight Scottsboro Negro boys railroaded to the electric chair | by the Alabama bosses have been denied new trials by Judge A. E. Hawkins, according to a United Press despatch. The attorneys of the International Labor Defense immediately filed notice of an appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court. NEW YORK. —The mass fight to free the nine Srpeeporo | Negro boys continues to spread throughout the country shat-| tering the last hope of the Alabama bosses that by delaying the decision in their courts on the motions filed by the Inter- national Labor Defense for new trials for the boys they would undermine the vigilance of the®- In New York this coming Saturday | UP Lenox Avenue to 10th Street, west | | the workers, white and Negro, native | | to 8th Avenue, south to 135th Street, | aagin take | east to 7th Avenue, north to 144th | the streets to voice their indignation | Street, east to Lenox Avenue, north | against this frightful crime against |to 16th Street. the Negro people and nine working | Lenox Avenue a meetirig and dem- | Seabbing Efforts at Chio Mine Town. at Provident, Ohio BRIDGEPORT, Ohio, June 23. An attempted meeting of the Unit- ed Mine Workers of America at Provident to break the strike was smashed up by enraged miners |] under the leadership of the Na- |] tional Miners Union last night. The UMWA officials were driven out of town. The U. M. W. A |} claimed to have 400 men signed up in the Piney Fork Mine No. 1 to go back to work on Monday morn- ing. The National Miners Union mass picket line of 1,200 kept all but 14 men out of the mine and smashed the United Mine Workers influence, despite the desperate attempts of the sheriffs to stop the pickets. The mass picket line on No. 6 mine at Bellaire employ- ing 600 men will pull this mine tomorrow. * Street and Lenox Avenue, marching | At 16th Street and | tions. The demonstration is called | onstration will be held, with promi- | by the United Front Scottsboro De- | nent speakers from the League of | | Struggle for Negro Rights, the In- fense Committee supported by many ternational Labor Defense, the Com-| organizations with white and Negro munist Party and other organiza- members, in ARNOLD CITY DEPUTIES KILL MAN AIDING Sik RIKE RELIEF; TRY TO MURDER ALL THE STRIKE LEADERS To Smash Fnianction| Despite Wildwood Massacre Sweeps Fields 1600 Vesta No. 5 Pulled |Out By Mass Picketing PITTSBURGH, Pa, June 23.—The coal operstors and the of Pennsylvania, fighting the striking miners | Rage state govern- | ment to drive back to | starvation, launched a massacre terday at Wildwood. Deputy sher . |mine guards and office men of the | Butler Consolidated Coal Co. defend- ed their injunction against picket- ing by ambushing and killing Peter | Zigaric, and wounding nine others so severcly that they are in the hos- | pital. How many more are wounded | less severely, is not known because forty-one including the National | Miners’ Union section organizer. Tom Myerscough, were arrested. It is known that one woman in the picket line was wounded. The Butler Consolidated Coal Co. ‘got an injunction last week from the aged Judge Rowand in Pittsburgh, which prohibits not only picketing, but any attempt to request men to strike. The Central Rank and File | Strike Committee at its meeting Wednesday last week answered that jin this fight against starvation, the |miners can not recognize the claim of a court to any right to tell them 4 not to strike, any more than it could recognize any other court order that they should cease to live | Five thousand striking miners, | with their families, gathered on the | historic picnic grounds at Cheswick, where on August 22, 1927, state | troopers bombed, shot and clubbed a | multitude, and because one of them | (CONTANE DON PAGE THRE Calling on all unions affiliated ¢ to | the Trade Union Unity League to| | mobilize their force for a huge pro-j test demonstration on Thursday, | gune 25, in Union Square at 5 p.m., | to protest the deliberate slaughter | | of miners fighting against starva- Le | tion in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West | Virginia, an appeal has been issued to all shop chairmen, section chair- | | men, rank and file members of T. U. | U. L. unions, as well as sympathizers, | to join in this protest. | | “The murderous attacks by the! State police and hired gunmen of the night or tomorrow. protest the « $35,000 voted to hire puty gunmen sheriffs be turned over Protest Salus ee Miners, Union Sq. Thursday 5 p.m, | striking miners who are fighting the vend Delegates to “UMWA Scab Policy Is Anti-War Meet Part of Murder Thursday, June 25 Program Front / meet 1 A United More Mines Close Up Hope to Break Strike a fo ue otters 3y Mass Murder Il be a rally ied New ¥ ing of for the ion against im- International Red ence, the mass demo PITTSBURGH, Pa., June 23.—The general policy of terror by coal com- pany gunmen and agents of the op- erators, on the one hand, while the ron all delegates }j United Mine Workers of America Communist ‘coceeds to make strike-breaking ements, on the other hand, is all combined in one program. The terror which started with beatings, gassings, evictions, injune- tions and now is increased by “shoot to kill” orders issued by conferences of deputies. MINERS RESIST EVICTIONS; PLAN HUNGER MARCH Strikers Released | From Jail BRIDGEPORT, Ohio, June On the same day that the Wild- wood shootings took place, the ited Mine Workers announced a ive agreement with the Pitts- Terminal Coal Co.: Teday, simultaneous with the shooting of iners in Arnold City, Pa. the ted Mine Workers announces its scale and orders men back to work tomorrow. The scale is not for 45 cents a ton, as the capitalist papers say, but for “the standard’ rate,” which may mean anything. Even | 45 cents was the scale before the | strike, against which the strikers de- kson Coal Co., the Youg- | mand 55 cents. zheny and Ohio Co.. the Costan- | Coal Co., have all started eviction proceedings against stri The nizing tance to the evictions. A r march of Belmont County | ‘Kers will take place on St. Clairs- | Ne Friday, July 8rd. Ten thousand | unemployed workers and strikers will | sts, demand a sop | demand that the; additional de- gh 14 held in the St. Clairsville jail is ex- | pected on a total bond of $108,000 to- The Cl. In this murderous attack of the mine gunmen against mine pickets on a wide front, Governor Pinchot and the United Mine Workers are working hand in hand, National Miners Union is org: mass resis! hu In Arnold City this morning at 7 a, m. 100 pickets formed a line and proceeded toward the regular point of picketing, in an attempt to stop some scabe who were being sent from the closed Arnold Mine to the struck Pricedale Mine. The pick- ets had not reached the picketing point, but were near the store of Mike Filipovich, a sympathizer and active in relief. His basement was used as a relief headquarters. The | deputies and coal and iron police | appeared, cursing without provoca- tion of any kind. The chief dep- | uty ordered them to shoot, and every | cop emptied his pistol:at the men running from tear gas bombs which were simultaneously released. to the evictions, | to the district miners Relief Com- | mittee | | ae companies against. the heroic | miners, who are striking against | starvation,” reads the appeal, “has reo uied in two miners being shot eath and many more woundet “The <‘vuggle of the 40,000 miners | is a life and death struggle. “Every class-conscious worker must rally his fellow-workers to join in this protest. All out Thursday to Union Square! Smash the murder- force of the bosses! Support the This was a deliberate attempt to _| kill the strike and relief leaders. The | first to fall was Gallegher, secretary | of the National Miners’ Union Local; the second to fall was James Davis, president of the National Miners’ Union Local; the third to fall was Mike Filipovich, shot four times througt the chest at a ten-foot range by the chief deputy. Filipo- vich was instantly killed. Filipovich was unarmed and was not on the battles of every American worker against wage-cuts and against star- vation!” (CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE) who were ambu: THREE OF THE WOUNDED STRIKERS ished and shot while picketing the Butler Consolidated Coal Co. mine at Wildwood, Pa., Monday, are shown lying on a coal truck, being held without any medical attention by the company killers. ‘They were thrown on the steel floor of the truck and shoved about. Before they were loaded on this truck the men, prere left lying in the roadway for twenty minutes. AY seen, In an effort A MINER WOUNDED LYING IN THE ROAD. ¢. “Sas picketing the Butler Consolidated Coal Company gunmen fired tear gas bombs at the strikers who were marching on the Wildwood, Pa., mine in defiance of an injunction. The fumes of the gas bombs can be clearly oad - pean VY ee ae Sant ANOTHER SCENE and shotgun slugs, from the Butler Consolidated coal company gunmen’s armed attack on unarmed strike pickets at Wildwood, Pa., Monday. Just in front of the automobile Ues a blackjack which one of the deputies - throw: nate so that he could use his gun morg freely, This shows a miner wounded by ballets