Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-06-23
FEDERATION CONVENTION
TRANSACTS BUSINESS OF
IMPORTANCE TO LABOR
fContipued from Page One)

tie Representative VI tfiG OHleI
Mine Workers at the expiration OF q
contract that was then entered into
for the purpose of negotiating a new
agreement. That contract was made
under Government supervision and
Government direction: the Govern
ment, in fact, was party to the agree
ment; but when the contract expired
and they were asked TO comply with
the agreement they had entered into
the coal operators fatty refused and
up to this time have steadfastly re-
fused to live up to their agreement.
$50 the miners are fighting, first,
for the recognition Of contract rights,
fighting 10 compel the coal operators
to adhere to a contract they entered
into. The struggle has gone on for
more than ten weeks. The fight has
been desperate from the beginning.
In many non-union sections of the
country and in some thoroughly or
ganized sections as we'll, the coal OPP
orators have fought the miners by all
the brutal, uncivilized methods that
have heretofore characterized indus
trial conflicts in the mining fields.
"In the state of West Virginia, in
junction after injunction has been
issued, men have been arrested for
violating these iniunetions, charged
with the violation of these injunctions.
Men and their families, with their be-
longings, have been thrown out of the
miserable homes that belong to the
operators, into the roads and high
ways and on the mountainsides; but,
Notwithstanding these brutal methods
they have stood like soldiers with
their backs against the wall, unfalter-
ing in their determination to win this
fight.
81 don't know whether or not you
from other trades have observed a
conflict where members of organized
labor and their families have been
deprived of their homes. Imagine, if
you please, family, wife, father
and four or five children, some of
them babies too young to understand
the meaning of it all, thrown out on
the highway with their belongings in
the rain, the snow and the sunshine.
Can you conceive of a more brutal
method of industrial warfare than
that? With no home in which to live,
and the only home we can offer them
is tent into which our organization
moves them for the purpose of pro-
tecting the family from the elements.
That is the kind Of warfare that has
been engaged in.
last week | addressed a meeting
at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, with
10000 United Mine Workers and
many of their wives and children
present. | never observed on the
faces of any body of men and women
a more fixed determination to 60
through with the conflict even though
the fight may last all summer. As
they told me the stories of brutality,
of attacks that had been made upon
them, my heart was touched. 1t
thrilled me, because l didn't believe
there were any employers in America
that would be so inhuman and brutal
as to pursue the policies that have
been pursued there.
snow the struggle has reached a
point where 1t is attracting the atten-
ton of the people. We have fought
well and valiantly, and we pronose to
continue to fight and fight valiantly.
Our purpose is to fight to win, but our
organization feels that rather than
meekly submit to indefensible reduc-
ton of wages or the imposition of I'M
fair conditions of employment, we
would rather fight and lose than &C.
cept it without q protest. That Is the
spirit of our people.
an Ohio, within the confines of the
state in which we are holding this
convention, the district officers have
been enjoined again and again, men
have been arrested and hailed before
the courts charged with the violation
of indefensible injunctions. The strug-
gle Is going on in all sections. The
pressure is greater now than it has
ever been. The spirit and morals of
these men are wonderful, and | am
sure you can appreciate, in view of
the reductions in wages that have
been imposed on members of organ
lied labor since this march back to
normalcy began, that the United Mine
Workers are not only making their
own fight for their own women, their
own children and their own American
standards of living, but they are ac-
tually making the fight for the or
ganized labor movement of America.
with these few remarks, spoken
from an earnest heart, want to
again express to the delegates the ap-
probation of our organization for the
unanimous vote you gave US. Per-
haps if the struggle goes on it will be
required of the representatives of our
organization to come to sister unions
who may be more fortunately situat-
ed than others and ask them for
something more substantial than you
have given us this morning. | am
sure, my friends, that if it comes to
that we won't hesitate, because we be-
lieve in you and we know you will do
the best you can. am sure we are
not going to come and ask for your
financial help unless we find it abso-
lutely necessary to do So"
The Coronado Decision.
Cin.,;nnati q luna 10 -Kaanino