The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1897-07-30
AN APPEAL FOR AID,
STRIKING COAL MINERS
CALL FOR ASSISTANCE.
All Union Labor Called Upon to Back
the Miners President Ratchford Issues
aStirring Manifesto-Organized Labor
Fighting for Its Very Life.

PARAMOUNT, w. Va, July 24.-M. ID.
Ratchford, president of the United
Mine Workers of America, telegraphed
the following letter to Samuel Com
pers, president of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor, last night, at Wash
ington, d. c.:
ION the fair soil of West Virginia
peaceable assemblage has been for
hidden and free speech suppressed. A
crisis is upon US which must be met if
we would escape total slavery. The
great mining strike now extends over
five states; 100000 miners and their
families, almost million souls, are
involved Public sentiment is over
whelmingly with us. Only the hol-
low, heartless sentiment of cor
porate capital echoed by its vul-
gar parrot, the subsidized press, is
opposed to us. The acute stage has
been reached This is no longer IL
strike for justice, but a struggle
against starvation. Ever atom of no
bility in human nature impels us to
rise to the emergency and by perform
ing our duty as becomes men resue the
miners of the country from the cruel
grasp of bondage, and their wives and
children from the tortures of famine.
"West Virginia is the field of action
and here cur forces must be converged
The miners here are eager for an eX-
cuse to join in our movement for their
emancipation, but are restrained by
the fear of discharge and eviction.
They are as much the property of their
masters as were the black slaves be-
fore the guns of Sumter hundred the
doom Of chattel slavery. Here upon the
soil made sacred by Thomas jefferson
and Patrick Henry, the slavery of la
Dor has become universal. The patri-
otto cry of The impassioned Henry
Give me liberty, or give me death, is
once more in order. The hosts of or
ganized labor must come to the res
cue. The millions of sturdy craftsmen
of our country must be aroused. |,
therefore. call upon you, in behalf of
the struggling miners, to convene all
the chief executive officers of all
national labor organizations at Wheel
ing, w. Va, on Tuesday, July 27, for
the purpose of meeting this crisis and
achieving victory for the cause of
labor.
Never have the American people so
unanimously supported labor strike.
Fully 10 per cent are with MS, and
will support our cause to the end.
This is the supreme opportunity to
strike the blow for industrial liberty,
and if ignored the doom of labor is
sealed, and we trusted leaders must
bear the odium of our cowardly in
action
The very presence of the combined
leadership of labor in this state will
awaken the hosts to duty. The down
trodden miners will take heart, and as
if by magic will stand erect and assert
their rights as men. The unity of
labor is all that Is required to decide
the contest in favor of the miners, in
favor of justice and in favor of hui
manity."
NEVADA, Mo-, July 24.-The Mis-
souri, Pacific shops here are running
full force repairing cars to haul the
Vernon county coal to market. An
average of 300 cars of coal per day is
being shipped from the mines A num-
Der of orders are said to be. in antici-
patton of "A strike, though the miners
seem determined not to strike.
MEXICo, Mo-, July 24.--The coal
mines at Vandalia, this county, have
resumed work with an increased force
All the coal that can be gotten out is
being sold. The union miners are not
affected by the strike, although some
of them are in sympathy. The pay is
r. cents per ton.