The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-08-30
WIN. z. foster
TO HAVE HUGE
miner RALLIES
Illinois Diggers Plan
Monster Meetings
BY KARL REEVE
Staff Writer, Daily Workerl

Several thousand idle miners
from jackson, Saline, William
son and Franklin Counties are
Hooking to ZiegIer, applying for
a lob at the Bell and zoller
mine number one, the only
large mine which has started
work again within the last few
weeks. Yesterday 500 men as
sembIed at the base Of the air
shaft waiting for the mine man.
ager to come out In order to
get work. Only a few were
selected.
The day before yesterday one
thousand miners were turned
away from the Ziegler mine,
the mine manager choosing only
thirty men to go to work. Her
rim, Benton, Christopher, Ses-
ser, Buckner, Wren City, Dow
ell, and other hard hit mining
towns poured out their humid
reds who are unsuccessfully
trying to get work in the newly
re-opened Ziegler mine.
ST. Louis on Downgrade.
Reports reaching here from St.
Louis. brought from miners who have
failed to get work and have returned
TO ziegler, show that one factory aft
er another in st. Louis and other large
cities is closing down. The East St
Louis steel mills are practically shut
down, and the consumption of coal is
therefore steadily decreasing. 1t is
thought here that the diminishing de-
mand for coal, due to increased fac
tory shutdowns, will cause the Ziegler
mines to again shut down before many
weeks have passed.
The coal miners here are planning
a monster Labor Day celebration, at
which the principal speaker will be
Joseph Marley of Chicago. William
T. Foster will speak at the City Park
here on September 3, and thousands
of miners will come in from many
miles around to hear the candidate for
president on the Communist platform.
Fosters audience will be composed of
miners not only from Ziegler, but from
I'VE other southern Illinois mining
ounties-Franklin, Saline, William
son. jackson and Perry counties.
Immediately after Manley's Labor
Day speech in Ziegler, he will be
taken by automobile to Waller, where,
if connections can be made, he. will
speak at another Labor Day celebra-
ton of the miners. Karl Reeve will
also speak at the Waller meeting.
Need Militant Program.
Ziegler is working better than any
other town in southern Illinois now
that the Bell and Zoller mine has re-
opened, yet survey of conditions re-
veals that the purpose of the militant
miners must be Immediately put into
effect IL the United Mine Workers are
not to lose their control of their Jobs.
Conditions in Ziegler demonstrate that
even when the miner is working, his
Condition is not comparable to a bed
pe roses.
Rents are higher in Ziegler than in
any other mining town l have visited.
For shacHs Of three and four rooms.
miners pay $40 and as high as $40 per
month. The prices charged for food
and necessities are in some cases rs
per cent higher than in other mining
towns.
The Bell and Zoller mine No. 1 here
claims the record for average daily
production, which is well above 5000
tons per day. But the bosses have
raised living costs so highly that the
bigger production and slightly higher
wages are extracted from the miners
in living expenses. They are worse
or than some of the miners getting
less pay in other camps.
Louis Joich of Dowell, who was
hunting job in the Ziegler mine, told
the DAILY WORKER how the few
men hired here were picked by their
ideas, the mine manager choosing his
friends. Known radicals are suffering
most. They are the first fired and the
last hired. One man was told by the
mine manager: III remember your
face, you'll never get job from me-"
Two men were hired who already had
part time jobs in other mining camps.
No provision has been made by the
"oficial family of the miners union
to distribute jobs to the most needy,
or to equally distribute what little
work there is.
Altho there are many other stores