The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-08-02
ASK FOR NO CHARITY

Mir Kennamer stated himself, posi- lively that the statement was not true and that with reference to playgrounos and schools, the miners did not ask TOT charity, that they wanted the right to say who would teach their children ana who should be their doctor. eThe operators refer to paid agitators, and say that these men would be glad to see a strike Who's talking about trouble? Not the miners. We haven t said anything about striking. The paid agitators they, refer to are you, my friends, for you have made our organiza- tion great.
 s"All of you know that William liar rison is an Alabama boy, and he has helped us organize
 q myself was born and reared in Ala bama; I am not a foreign agitator. Sec retary Clemo has lived here 30 years, and yet they call him foreign agitator.
 'The colored man will strike If the need should arise, and he will strike as long as it is necessary.
 "The operators have got paid agita- tors going among you and paid emis- saries telling you that it is northern organization.
 law, and local leaders will not permit members to carry guns. The operators | every way possible.
 "They have had their spotters watch our meetings-to which we did not ob- iect-and have discharged every man who joined us Is that intimidation? Yes, but they are doing it. ''We have proposed peace to the oper- ators and have asked them to meet with us as business men. The operators speak falsely when they say we have talked of l., ,of n vfrilr ing but on the other hand, we do not want to strike.
 eThe operators say there are not 90 per cent of the miners in the district in the union, but I tell you that more than 90 per cent of them are in the union.
 s"The operators knew they were making false statement when they wrote that the leaders wanted a strike The miners have organized and the organization has come to stay.
 MEETING AT SIPSEY
 "The miners were refused permission to cross the river at Sipsey last Sunday, the ferryboat was sunk and auger holes bored in individual boats. But they got across the river and held their meeting and yet the operators charge us with stirring up strife
 Tn spite of the damnable, hellish working conditions in effect at some op- eratidHs, we are advising our men to re- fuse to answer insults, because we don't want any trouble whatever.
 T defy successful contradiction of the fact that the first man to commit an act of violence in the strike of 1908 was an operator. I've got the evidence, and can give you the name if necessary.
 There were more than 4000 arrests in the 1908 strike and less than 15 convic- tions
 "No man was allowed to go into a cer- tain camp without a satisfactory exami- nation for years-and that same com pany now follows the same tactics.
 If 800 men who have been discharged, were put back to work, I ask you if it would not increase the production of coal. The operators are discharging men every day and cutting coal production and yet say that the United Mine Work CTS are reducing the output of coal
 Our scale is nothing more than opera tors in other sections are working under and it is the fairest proposition ever made to operators anywhere Our gov- ernment has an eight-hour day and rec ognizes union labor but little coterie of coal operators here have said they will not recognize the union-that they are bigger than the government
 Some operators have said they would turn their plants over to the government before recognizing the union.
 Just let the operators make such a proposition to us and see how quick we'll snap it up. We will work for Uncle Sam as long as he wants us to, and we'll keep him supplied with coal, too
 The operators say, if the public will stand for lawlessness the strike would last six or eight months They say the mines will be closed-but the government has told the operators that if they could not operate the mines, the government could
 ''I am told that there is but enough coal in Birmingham to supply the factories here 10 days.
 We are talking for peace and want peace. We do not want a strike.
 In the 1908 strike, trestles were blown up by operators and they charged miners