The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1910-03-04
MINERSPLAN
BIG UNION
Solidarity of the Working
Class Is the Aim of Two
Big Organizations

The last annual convention of the
Western Federation of Miners elected
seven delegates to meet the delegates of
the United Mine Workers of America
for the purpose of endeavoring to bring
about consolidation or at least clos
er unity between the two organizations
of the mining industry. The delegates
selected by the Western Federation of
Miners were men of experience in the
labor movement and realized only too
well the full significance of the labor
movement being divided and disunited
through an outlived policy of craft and
trade autonomy. The delegates of the
w. F. M. attended the late convention
of the U. M. w. of A. and were en-
Enthusiastically received and the delegates
of the United Mine Workers hailed the
proposition of solidarity in the mining
industry of the continent. But since
the delegates of the w. F. NJ. met with
the delegates of the U. NJ. w. of A. and
held conference with the object in
view of bringing about coalition between
the men of the coal industry and the
men of the metal industry the "critic'
has been busy in questioning the hon
esty of the motives that led to Joint
conference between the Western FEEDER
alton of Miners and the United Mine
| Workars of America
When using the word "critic" is only
involves those "knockers" in the labor
movement whose reason has been de-
throned by fanaticism and who enter
tain the opinion that capitalism can be
overthrown by "hunger strikes" and fill
| ing the jails with dupes that are de-
luded by verbal beligerence against an
industrial system that enslaves world.
The "critic" has howled through the
columns of a few journals that are
called labor papers for want of more
appropriate name, and the "critic" with
a pretense of agony has declared that
the Western Federation of Miners is
about to become "Civic- -Federationized"
through its flirting with the United
Mine Workers of America. The "knock-
er" with the vision of a prophet can
see all the "glory" won by the Western
Federation of Miners on the industrial
| field of battle vanishing, as the feder-
alton becomes aligned with the United
Mine Workers and it's ultimate downfall
as it enters the portals of the American
Federation of Labor. These ''critics"
who advertise the pretense that their
hearts throb for the emancipation of hui
manity have elaborated at length upon
the fighting ability of the western min
err and like writer's of fiction, draw up
on their Imagination to portray the
many battles in which the western or
ganization has measured steel with the
powers of organized greed.
1t is true that the Western Federation
of Miners has fought many battle
against the tyranny and oppression of
master class. 1t is true that no Or
ganization on the face of the earth, for
its numerical strength, has been able to
put up more heroic battles than the
men who have stood beneath the flag of
the Western Federation of Miners. But
when all that is said, where are the
boosted victories achieved by the West
ern Federation of Miners? The organi-
| o1I 10 oh oil
effort to place eight-hour laws on the
statute books of Utah, Colorado, Arizo.
ma, Nevada, Missouri, Montana and
British Columbia, but in every conflict
of magnitude on the industrial field the
federation, though never conquered, has
gone down to defeat through the com
bined forces Of corporate power courts
state militia and federal troops.
For seventeen years the federation,
with its advanced and aggressive policy,
has stood outside the labor movement
of America, entertaining the opinion
that the unfaltering devotion and death
less allegiance of its membership to the
principles of organized labor would ulti-
mately prove invulnerable to the as
saults Of the relentless enemy. But
after seventeen years on the firing line,
standing practically alone and Isolated
from the labor movement of America,
the men Of experience and observation
in the organization who know the his
tory Of the federation from the Occur
d'Alenes to the lock- of the Home
stead company in the Black Hills, have
leone to the conclusion that the felera.
tion, or no other labor organization
standing aloof from the labor movement
of the country can hope to cope success
fully with the power Of capital intrench-
ed behind the very government itself.
The federation has faced the power
of the Judiciary, confronted the bay
onets of state militia and federal troops,
beheli the homes of its members des-
ecrated by the armed assassins of cor
porations, has seen the bravest men Of
the organization torn from their fire
sides and deported by outlaws wearing
the badge Of authority; and suffering
all these wrongs and outrages, the fed
Grafton has not escaped without bear
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