The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-09-04
SMALL HIRING
union Miners
AT SCAD WAGES
JObIess Diggers Forced
Into Convict Labor
BY KARL REEVE.
(Staff Writer, Daily Worker)


part of the state are forced to
work like conVicts, making ce-
ment roads at the scab wages
of from IS to As cents an hour,
for Governor Small, who is busy
trying to make good his name
as the Good Roads Governor"
AT the same time Small, who
has been endorsed by Frank
Harrington, president of the Illi-
nois Miners Union, is also MAX
ing good his name as a labor
hater by putting the miners to
work at convict wages. He ex-
ploits the road-making here be-
cause he can draw a cheap labor
supply from the idle miners.
Miners cursing Small.
Everywhere l go find the miners
cursing Len Small for the paltry non
union wages he hands out, and ours
ing Frank Harrington for indorsing
Len Small for governor in the COM
ing November elections.
Governor Small, in a recent visit
to Paisa, Macoupin County, Illinois,
where he was electioneering for re-
election, outlined his policies at a fish
fry. The anti-union governors adj
dress, like all his campaign speeches,
was devoted largely to the subject of
road improvement. 1T will be my
aim, if reelected, to continue the
building Of hard roads until all towns
in the state are connected by cement
roads," said Small.
We do not know what arrangement
Small has with the cement manufac-
turers, or with the hard-road contrac-
tors. but we do know that SmalPs
bodybuilding is no benefactor to the
miners Of Southern Illinois.
Miner Finds Work Terrible.
Il worked for a few days on state
road construction at Albion" Ralph
Lawdler, a miner, told me. And l
almost died working in the hot sun
in the cement. l received for my pay
two dollars a day and board. This
is convict wages for convict work. l
had to quit in few days. / am used
to the hardest work in the mines, but
if / can't get a union wage, guess
I'll stay out of a job until the mines
open UP again" Albion is in Edwards
County, northeast of here, and Lawd-
Ter worked on the hard road being
built from Albion to GRANVILLE. He
worked in a crew which worked from
Carmi towards GRANVILLE.
John Carrigan, of Carriers Mills, is
another unemployed miner who took
work on the hard road which has
just been built running from Harris
burg to Marion. This road" Carri-
gan said, 'is being built under Len
Smalls guidance. 1t is a state road.
They build them as cheaply as pos
sible. A good cement road is supposed
to last around Is years, but if this
one lasts five, it will be surprising.
There is a high proportion of gravel
mixed with the cement. Gravel, you
know, is cheaper than cement"
Miners Forced by Unemployment.
The work is killing. 1t is extreme
ly hot in the summer in this part of
the state, so hot that gardens and
corn crops dry up. But there we were,
several hundred miners who had not
been able to get a job for months,
forced to starve or work like convicts
for forty cents an hour"
When I was in Diyernon, Tom Parry
told me THE only work available
around here now is on the state road
at the edge Of the town. This is hard
work for the miners, who are not
used to the sun. Besides that, they
are forced to do non-union work which
they detest, and are forced to work
hard for ten or more hours a day at
the paltry wage of 40 cents an hour.
Some OF the men work only a few
days or a week and quit. Others,
whose plight is more desperate, stick
II out rather than starve."
Endorsed by harrington Anyway.
Il cannot see how any miner can
possibly sanction Farrington's en-
dorsement Of Len Small for reelection
when Small has been classed as IN.
fair to organized labor by his home
town, and when he is paying the min
ers such poor wages for the hard
work Of road building"
Harrington gives the excuse that
some mysterious promises have been
made by Small relative to some OBJ
scure and indefinite legislation in
Springfield. Meanwhile, Small is max.
ing a poor start for the labor vote by
his non-union road building. And
Frank Harrington is treading on dan.
gerous ground when he indorses the
employer Of scab labor.
Fare Thee Wall al.