Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-07-07
BLAME HERRIN
TRAGEDY TO THE
GENERAL PUBLIC

AT last it has come to pass. The
tragedy in Williamson county is what
most, if not all trade unionists fear
ed would be the result il the attempt
to operate the coal mines with non
union labor was made.
An investigation is now under way
to find out who was responsible for
the outbreak. In some quarters, the
miners officials are blamed; by others
the operators are blamed. One of the
most prominent ministers in the Twin
Cities, in touching on the Herrin
tragedy in his sermon last Sunday,
made the assertion that we all are to
blame, and that is the correct view To
take The people of Illinois are re-
sponsible for the conditions they now
find themselves in in regard to the
coal mining industry. The fact that
a few men baye gotten absolute con-
gifts to mankind. to such an extend
troll of one of Natures most valuable
that they can withhold it from the
people whenever they see fit to do so,
even to the point of cripplinl The en-
tire industrial welfare OF the whole
state, is evidence enough to prove the
minister's statement that we all are
to blame.
The operators refusal to meet the
miners at the appointed time to take
up the wage scale for 1923 and the
deliberate attempt to start mining
coal in Williamson county shows the
very thing organized labor has been
expecting--a determined attempt to
break the miners organization and
bring about the 'open" shop or Amer
xsln -. h. .,.xs. s.xI
in order that the coal barons of La
Sale street can set the price for put
ting coal on top. of the grorud and
also for putting it in the consumers
bin. If a merchant or any citizen of
the Twin Cities started out with a
gun on his hip expecting trouble it
is a pretty sure thing he would find
it. The operators at Herrin started
mining coal with gun in one hand
and black jack in the othe-. which
is evidence enough 70 the dullest mind
shame and disgrace of the people of
Illinois they found it.
The tragedy at Herrin is being used
now for the purpose of building up
sentiment for state constabulary.
just why should it be necessary to
have state constabulary as an aux
Hilary to coal mining and how near
would it come to settling the warfare
that has been going on in almost all
the coal fields for years? The state
constabulary has not settled the trou-
BILE in West Virginia, where they have
had a two-years' trial of it, with
hundreds of private gunner to assist
them. In Pennsylvania the constab-
ulary (which by the way is said to be
the finest specimen of that class of
troops In the country has been kill
ing men and starving women and
children for years, and who will say
the coal mining industry is on any
higher plane of decency in Pennsyl-
yania than it is in the state of Illi-
nois? 1t is not state police or phi
vate gunner that are needed set
tie the mine strike in Illinois. 1t will
be settled like all other strikes have
been settled-around the table-and
the sooned the coal barons get their
eyes open that fact, the sooner the
settlement will come.
The coal mine strike which is now
in its fourteenth week, should be an
eye-opener to organized labor as to
where they are drifting. 1t should
serve to show the members the fall
lacy of that old slogan .elect your
friends and defeat your enemies"
What labor needs to do is to get
enough men into the law-making bod
les of state and nation to be able to
defeat legislation aimed at labor, and
put over legislation that will be to the
best interests of labor and this can
not be done by voting for politicians
who make any and all kinds of prom
Uses to labor, and when the test
comes, fall in line under the clack of
the old party lash, or either are mark
ed absent. or not voting. Paying
dues, attending meeting once or
twice month and celebrating Labor
Day was all right years ago, but the
game has changed, the day of the
lead pipe, gun and black jack is past.
1t is brains and cash and votes rightly
used that must be the weapons for the
future The votes labor already has,
the cash they must raise among
themselves, and il they have not the
brains necessary, thew must adopt the
system of Big Business, and hire
them.--I. II. G.