The Connecticut labor news., 1921-11-25
MlNGO KIDDIDES TO HAVE A POOR XMAS
 UNLESS UNIONS AID
Coal Miners Little Ones Have Dreary Outlook for
 Hn1idaUS

has been said and written about the
 the general strike conditione in Mingo
 County, West Virginia, but very little
 space has been devoted to the 4,o73
 little children and babies that were
 thrown upon the public highways by
 coal company gunman during the evic-
 tion of the miners and their families
 i'll the summer of 1920, and who have
 since lived in tents and passed a win
 ter with the chilly blasts stabbing into
 their tender flesh like needles and the
 rain, sleet and snow sitting in upon
 them adding to their misery and sui
 fering.
 These little tots are the innocent
 victims of the greedy coal masters, who
 in their mad rush for profits and power
 have Crucihed them upon the cross of
 greed and thrown them like mere chattels
 to wither and die upon the public high
 ways with but a himsy canvass between
 them and the bitter elements, while the tyrants revel in licentuous luxury and
 
 the mothers and the children whom they
 have torn from their homes because their
 fathers and husbands, sought to bring
 little more sunshine and happiness into
 their lives by demanding their constitu-
 tional and God given rights.
 And now that the holiday spirit is
 in the air and everybody is preparing
 to bring Christmas joy to the children
 of their homes, we stop and shudder at
 the thought of the nearly 5000 little
 kiddies of the striking coal miners in War-torn Mingo county who have lived
 Ill tents for nearly two years amid the bleak hills and barren waste, exposed to the elements and denied all the joys of
 childhood and with no prospects of that Christmas cheer which is so joyously anticipated by the children of the Ma tion
 Last year The West Virginia Fed erationist (the only class conscious labor paper in West Virginia) conducted a. Xmas Fund campaign which was liber- ally contributed to by the workers of this State and car load of candies, nuts, fruit and a Christmas ham for each family was distributed among them and it drew tears of joy from those who
 went among them distributing the goodies and saw the glad light that sprang into their forlorn little faces and the smiles that it drew from sorrow creased faces of the mothers.
 But alas, the iron heel of the coal masters has descended upon coal min CTS in the organized fields and on the workers of other industries, and as result they have had but little work since last spring, and i'll many cases, they have been idle for months at a stretch and many of their families are barely existing and the Xmas spirit in their homes will be but the shadow of what 1t has been in the past. And those
 with assessments and calls upon their purse which have stripped them dry. They have given i'll the interest of the cause of humanity until 1t has more than l hurt, and we have not the heart to add to their misery by calling for that which we know they cannot give. there fore we are appealing to our more fortunate brothers i'll those States that at least some of those rights and privi- leges decreed by the Constitution of these United States, and ask the readers of the Labor News and the Local Unions in your community to contribute small sum to a Christman Fund to provide few pieces of candy, a few nuts and
 an orange and an apple or two for the little kiddies in war torn gunnan-ruled Mingo and help us bring a few rays of | sunshine into their drab little lives on l the birthday of Him that said suffer little children to come unto Me" With an abiding faith that the work CTS of this country will respond to our appeal, and that each one who reads | these lines will add his or her contri-
 button, be 1t large or small, toward | ushering a few bright moments into the | tented homes of the little victims of | the greed of the most relentless enemy of humanity-the soulless corporations who erect mansions and palaces upon the | blood and bones of the children of the | wealth producers of the world. Send all contributions to The Feder-
 ationist Xmas Fund F. o. Box 12O1, | Charleston, w. Va and let it come at | once.
 Trusting that you will give us your
 cooperation and support and thanking you in advance for the same, we are, Sincerely and fraternally THE WEST VIRGINIA