Evening star., 1923-09-16
CHARGES EVASION
BY MINE WORKERS
Head of Coal Association
Scores Blame of Aliens in
Herrin Massacre.
Rr The Associated Press

By the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, September 15.-A re-
cent published series of charges by
the United Mine Workers of America
that the communist international at
Moscow was fomenting industrial
revolution in the United States and
Canada as a step toward overthrow
ing the governments were character
ICED today by John G. Brydon, presi-
dent of the National Coal Associa-
tion. as a bald. ineffective and be-
lated attempt by the mine workers
officials to evade responsibility for
events Of which they justly should
be ashamed"
"Violence in the coal fields" Mr..
Brydon declared. lis not due to the
Vaccinations Of communists who
draw their inspiration from MOSCOW.
1t is the direct result of an even
more dangerous theory of labor con-
quest by destruction. intimidation
and murder, practiced over wide
areas where the United Mine
Workers of America have sought to
shut off production during strikes"
The association president. who also
Is chairman OF the bituminous op-
orators special committee, asserted
that the Sl7,00o,000 year which the
miners union raises through the
check off has Il great deal more to
do with the maintenance and growth
of violence in the coal fields than has
the mythical sl.10o,oo0 from the
treasures of the soviet"
@Amaxed by Stories"
"I have read with amazement." Mr..
Brydon's. statement begins. the melo-
dramatic stories which picture ofh-
cials of the United Mine Workers as
- ~ ff1A
with the Williams OF Moscow still pur-
suing them" He then tells of an
exhaustive investigation undertaken
by the mine operators as an aid to
the United States Coal Commission,
and the examination of trial rec
ords of scores of violence cases In
volving officials Of the union. "Con-
tinuing:
Not in one single instance of all
those crimes against communities
which have spattered coal history
with blood, from Kentucky TO Utah
and from Alabama to Pennsylvania,
have we found q reasonable evi-
dence of any communist influence.
What we have found ia creed and a
practice based upon the tenet that
no American shall mine or ship coal
anywhere in the United states IN
time of strike with freedom to his
property and his life unless he shall
mine that coal in accordance with
the dictates of the officials of the
United Mine Workers OF America"
Cites Other yioIences.
THE Herrin massacre has achieved
wide publicity and is therefore one
of the counts on which the United
Mine workers OF american seeks 70
defend itself. But Herrin was no
worse in principle than the killings
which followed five days later in
Ohio or than the scores of other in
stances of violence which accom-
panied the strike of 1922. But Herrin.
ample of the fiat untruth of the con-
tention that any reason other than
the iniquitous policy Of the leaders
of the United Mine Workers of Amer
lea is the moving force that stlrs'
not foreigners but Americans, to un-
speakable crimes against their fell
lowmen and against ali those ideals
which we think of as proper to
American life.
THE names of the indicted men in
the Herrin affairs were such names
as Otis Clark, Leva Mann. Peter Hitler
and Burt Grace. The United States
Coal Commission has said that Will
hanson county, ILL.,. is intensely pa
triotic and had fine record during
the world war-that its people would
resent any suggestion that they were
not good. patriotic American citizens,
Something closer to home than
propaganda from far-off Moscow is
the force which invades such Amer
lican communities and transforms
their Inhabitants into men who. in
deed, might have been fitting MEM
bers of the gallant squad that execut-
ed the czar and his family. This
something is the deliberate policy of
teaching men that might is. right in
labor disputes and that there are no
rights except those of the organiza-
tion which claims a superloyalty and
displaces all normal and natural
Royalties"