New-York tribune., 1921-11-13
lat "CHECK-OFF" MEANS IN THE COAL WAR


not and are not yet satisfied with the efforts
made by the organization to solidly unionize
the miners of West Virginia, and the operators
Of the Central Competitive Field have been
protesting to and criticizing the officials Of the
organization because OF the Intellectual efforts
Naturally, there are other sides to the
question A CLEAN from another facet IS re-
f1ected in the statement Of Mr.. Mcdonald. an
official of the United Mine Workers, which il
quoted in the Williamson operators state
ment, as follows:
1--WE have had thousands Of our men go 70
the penitentiary for trying to establish our
organization in West Virginia ard other non
union fields, and not only have they gone 20
the penitentiary but they have been beaten UP
and slaughtered. We have had men
go to jail. The penitentiary doors have TO
terrors for US, as far that is concerned.
And if putting two or three hundred Of our
men in jail will organize West Virginia we
will send two or three hundred down. The
chances are that we will have to get busy
with that situation shortly That was IN
1910. Clearly, the operators Of West Vir-
ginia were fighting tooth and toenaii to pre-
vent their men from organizing
There has been strife in the West Virginia
coal fields IN increasing proportions each year
until the climax IN August and September Of
this year, when organized miners in the Coal
River Valley modified. With them wers
miners who came in from Pennsylvania, Ken
tucky and other sections embraced by the
Central Competitive Field. This force OF
more than 5000 armed with high power
rifles and led by former officers Of the 4. z.
F. were prepared to organize with bullets the
non-union miners Of the parallel valleys Of
the Guyan and the Tug rivers.
Their invasion was stopped by hastily re-
cruited forces of citizens drawn by Gov
ernor's proclamation from all parts of West
Virginia Then Federal troops sent by Pres
ident Harding came into the state ard the
miners army dispersed-after hiding their
rifles until they should need them again
Thomas H. Watkins is president Of the
Pennsylvania Coal and Coke Corporation the
mines Of which are not in the Central Com
petitive Field. Mr. Watkins few davs ago
said:
Il have talked with many operators in the
Central Competitive Field, and far as I
can find they are not IN sympathy with the
old practices. The check-otf was not con-
spiracy, in my opinion, but it was a develop
ment that got out Of control.
For twenty-five years the operators policy
seems to have been of following the path
of least resistance, and in the earlier days OF
this organization, with miners wages brought
through competition, to an unreasonablv low
point, operators competing with one another
through periods of overproduction, many
operators seemed to think that the encourage
Of I,,I--
lize business in the production of biturainous
coal through uniform wage scale, and in or
der to insure the unions leaders strength to
carry out contracts entered into on the prn-
ciple Of collective bargaining between the or
ganization and operators there was instituted
system called the checz-off. The very plausi-
bic argument was used by the miners leaders.
IN which the operators aequiesced, that in or
der to insure the faithful performance Of their
wage agreements it would be necessary. owing
to the class of men they represented, 10 organ
ize the whole force, and in order TO secure the
expenses Of their organization and insure 4
sufficient revenue, d system Of collecting the
dues by the operator directly from the pay
envelope of the men employed was Instituted
l cannot believe that the operators IN those
days realized what they were doing and so
what II would lead No other organization Of
employers in the world ever adopted this sys-
TEN. Other labor Unions were built up and de-
pended upon the voluntary payment Of the
dues to their own officers, but this organiza-
ton depends upon the employers collecting the
dues from all members of the organization
from the pay envelope su1all-inont.lly. inns
money is collected and turned over TO the Off
GERS Of the union. The money is then used for
propaganda, for organizers and for conducting
and supporting strikes, and it is through the
operators assistance that the millions Of dol
lars that have been spent in West Virginia
Alabama and other sections of the country
have been collected.
The operator collects annually from each
member of the union in my district IN Central
Pennsylvania S36.3s, which is turned over to
the treasury Of the United Mine Workers of
America. There are in the neghborhood of
5000 members of this union, and we can
readily figure the millions that are collected
and viii be collected so long as this PERM
clous system is continued. Every operator
who participates in it is assisting in conspir-
acy TO help unionize every mine in this coun~
try, and also is assisting in collecting money
to carry on the propaganda to nationalize the
L