The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-01-30
Men, M IS and
Notion at the Coal
Miners Convention

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from the stage and shook hands with
miner. Several delegates were
seen taking notes. No doubt this
will be considered of sufficient inn
portance to report back to their local
unions as an outstanding event.
Delegates to the convention stood
in silence for one minute at the CON
vention to express their sorrow for
the victims Of the mine blasts in
johnson City, Illinois and Shanks-
town, Pa. The miners are ac-
customed to such incidents, approx
mately ten lives being sacrificed
daily to the greed of the coal barons
who hesitate to apply the necessary
precautions to guarantee safety.
It was learned today that the local
union in Johnston, H., which had
jurisdiction over the illfated mine,
called the attention Of the state min
ing inspector to the unsafe condition
of the mine. No attention was paid
to this request and many lives are
now sacrificed for this criminal
negligence.
On Recommendation of the resolu-
tons committee one thousand dollars
was voted to the defense fund of
the Tom Mooney Moulders Defense
Committee.
Rena Mooney addressed the con-
vention briefly and was given an
ovation out Of respect for the brave
man who is behind the bans in Saint
Quentin. It is a pardonable digres-
sion to say here, that the Mooney
case is standing indictment of the
American labor movement. Had the
reactionaries who control that
movement taken any real interest in
his case, the capitalist government Of
California would have been COM
PEELED to release him long ago. The
radicals saved him from the gallows
and organized whatever was done to
bring his case before the public.
Now, the labor lieutenants of CAPT
talism from Gompers down. donate a
| thousand dollars occasionally for his
defense, as sop to public opinion.
1t the labor leaders were half as
interested in freeing Mooney as they
are in crucifying workers who violate
the sacred contract" with the boss
under exceptional conditions, Tom
MONEYS friends would not be
obliged to depend on the tender
mercies Of some hypocriticsl political
faker who may happen to have the
power Of liberty or servitude over
that gallant battler for the workers
right.
! A long resolution favoring more
Fairgrounds, another in favor Of the
Kelly Bill now before Congress in
behalf Of better conditions for postal
clerks and a diluted resolution
against injunctions finished the re-
port of the resolutions committee.
A resolution demanding that mem
bership in the miners union be
limited to miners sons and those in
unorganized territory was voted
down. The wage scale committee is
said not to be In agreement over the
demands to be made on the opera
tors when they meet in Florida next
month. John L. Lewis is known to
favor long term contract with the
present wage scale. while the six
hour day is recognized as a matter
of principle. If the 20 per cent
wage increase is pressed at the out
set it is considered merely as a
counter to the silencing of the de-
mand for the six hour day.
A resolution was passed urging
the withdrawal Of all troops from
occupied Germany. The German
workers were entitled to political and
economic freedom, under capitalism
Of course.
The fight on the part of the adj
ministration forces to refuse Dele
gate Perkovitz a seat at the conven-
ton revealed the capitalist psy-
chology Of these individuals. The
chairman of the committee Is from
the north of England, and while the
writer does not hold him personally
responsible for his physiognomy,
John Mossop, the individual referred
to, bears a striking resemblance to
the hale and hearty John Bull, whose
picture appears on a certain brand of
British cigarettes. A typical English
squire, he never expressed thkI
slightest concern, for the miners
whose livelihoods were involved in
the decision Of his committee, but he
fell backwards in his extreme con-
sideration for the interests Of the
employers. And he did this without
trace Of malice. Just reactionary
fossil whose mind has not taken on a
new impression for half a century.
Nick Perkovitz hates the capitalist
system with = hatred that is holy.
And the feeling between himself and
all the coal companies that ever had
the pleasure Of hiring his pick is
mutual. There is no love lost be-
tween them. He feels toward a coal
operator much the same as a cat
feels toward a dirty little mouse.
Mossop Gets Confused
When asked q question involving
the human side Of the coal miners
work, Chairman Mossop appeared
quite confused. He never thought
of Perkovitz as a human being. To
Mossop the militant coal miner was
an animated attachment which was n