The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-16
SCOUTS STORY. .OF UPRISING. PLOT IN U. $.
National Coal Association President Replies to Alleged Exposures of United Mine Workers Of America
 BLAMES ORGANIZATION FOR STRIKE VIOLENCE
Characterizes Effort As h.
 effective, Bad And Related Attempt To Evade ReSponsi- bility For Happenings

NEW YORK. Sept. 15.-A recent published series of charges by the United Mine Workers of America that the communist internationale at Mos cow was formenting industrial revo- lution in the United States and Cana da as a step to over throwing the governments were characterized to- day by John c. Bridon, president of the National Coal Association, as a bald, ineffective and belated attempt by the mine workers in order to which they justly should be asham- ed"
 ''Violence in the coal fields" Mir. Bridan declared '1s not due to the machinations of communists who draw their inspiration from Moscow It 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 Work CTS of America have sought to, shut off prodL tion during strikes"
 The association president, who al- so is chairman of the bituminous operators special committee, assert ed that "the $17,000.000 a year which the miners union raises through the check off has great deal more to do with the maintenance of the violence in the coal fields than has the mythical $1,100.000 from the treasuries of the soviet"
 Surprised at Charges
 "I have read with amazment," MT. Bridon's statement begins, the melo- dramatic stories which picture offi- .iaIs of the United Mine Workers as the Innocent niaideus of industry with the williams of Mosc9vva~ still pursuing them" He then tells of an exhaustive investigation under taken by the mine operators as an aid to the United States coal com mission, and the examination of trial records of scores of violence cases involving officials of the union."
 Not in one single instance of all those crimes against communities which have shattered coal history with blood from Kentucky to Utah and from Alabama to Pennsylvania, have we found reasonable evidence of any communist influence. What we have found Is a creed and a prac- tice based upon the tent that ma 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"
 
 wide publicity and Is there- fore one of the counts on which the United Mine Workers of America seeks to defend itself. But Herrin was no worse in principle that the killings which followed it five days later in Ohio or than the scores of other instances of violence which ac- companied the strike of 1922.
 Something closer to home than propaganda from far off Moscow is the force which invades such Amer ican communities and transforms their inhabitants into men who in- deed might have been fitting mem- bers of the gallant squad that exc euted the czar and his family. This something Is the deliberate policy or teaching men that nigh is right in labor disputes and that there are no rights except those of the organiza- tion which claims 8 super-loyalty and displaces all normal and natural IL yalties"