The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-11-12
MINERS SUFFER
WHILE LEADERS
LIVE All EASE
Illinois Coal Diggers in
Dire Necessity
BY TOM PARRY.

The miners of this vicinity are to-
day living in a dark and dismal world
In the days of chattel slavery the
white slave owner used to hire a
white taskmaster to drive the black
slave to his task. With lhe advent of
capitalism this becomes unnecessary.
Under the system whereby a few
men own the tools of production, that
Is, the hosting engines, the rails, the
pit cars, etc, which we miners have
to use before we can earn our daily
bread, all these tool owners have to
do Is to blow whistle that he is will
ing to allow us to use his tools in re-
turn for profits, and We freemen CD
would run to the mines. But alas, OF
late this has changed.
The writer lives in the midst Of
vast coal field Two years ago could
arise from my bed at $3.50 in the
morning and hear the whistles of
nine different mines calling the min
ers to work; to wit: West mine in
Wrden, North mine in Virden, Lefton
mine In Auburn, Old mine in Auburn.
Thayer mine, Panther Creek mine,
South mine in Auburn, Divernon mine
and Pawnee mine.
six Of Nine Whistles Silent.
Today only three of the whistles
blow, which are North mine in Viz
den, South mine in Auburn and Pan.
ther Creek mine. The other six
stand motionless. But what OF the
thousands of miners who answered
the whistles of these six motionless
mines two years ago? Are they mo-
tionless? No, for that would mean
dasth. They are leaving the mining
camps in the early hours of the
morning looking for JOBS. Some set
odd Jobs, others get jobs building hard
roads. The going wage is CSC per
hour.
The Vain Search for Work.
The majority of them tramp back
to the camps footsore and heartbrok-
en-, back to their wives and familiea
who are laden with debt, back to the
same families who two years ago lis
tened to these whistles calling their
sons and husbands to work and re-
garded it is music to their ears. To-
day they sit in despair, listening for
their husbands and sons coming up
the walk, hoping to hear them say,
"At last have job"
How It Happens.
Why all this misery for the working
class? Things were not always this
way nor always will be. We live in a
world of change and great change
has come to the mining industry and
this is the way it came about. In
1916 previous to America entering
the world war, there were less than
six thousand coal mines in America
In so doing there were practically
six thousand extra mines opened up
in America, for statistics show that
when the armistice was signed, we
had eleven thousand coal mines in
America. The moment the armistice
was signed, the British coal operators
we're successful in reducing the Brit
ish coal miners back to pre-war wages
after a bitter struggle.
Naturally British coal operators
took back the foreign market from
the American coal operators, which
left the American coal industry fifty
per cent over developed, based upon
eight-hour hoist.
The Convention Fight.
was one of very few OF the dclo-
Sat,s at the last mlners International
Convention, who worked and voted
against TIC present miners contract
At every oprortnnity in that Conven-
ton Hindmarsh, Watt, Thompson,
Tunulty and myself. all of whom
voiced our Eentimen. against this
present agreement, which means a
three year contract with only work
.or half our membership, also pointing
out that If we demanded a six-hour
lay and had to throw all OF our mem
barship into the fight for a few
months. it would be much better than
putting one-half OF our membership
out OF the industry for all time to
come.
Officials Knife Demands.
In the last miners convention the
membership expressed themselves in
no uncertain terms as to what our or
ganization's future policy should be
when they sent hundreds OF resolu-
tions demanding shorter work day.
But was that the policy adopted? oh,
no! a policy just the reverse was
adopted when the scale committee,
composed absolutely OF officers and
not one miner, recommended that we
do not even ask for a shorter work
day but that we ask for the same old
contract for three years, in spite OF
the fact that not one resolution, not
one man from the pits ever asked for
the same old contract including the