The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-09-09
DAVIS STATE
sure HANDSIT
TO THE MINERS
Darkest West Va. Home
of Donkey Candidate
BY ART SHIELDS.

|
NOR GANTOW N, w. Va,
Sept. 6.-The liberties of 19l
members of the United Mine
Workers'IocaI on strike in Brady
are in jeopardy this month when
Justice !. Grant LazzeIle, of the
Circuit Court of MonongaheIa
County, hears the contempt |
cases at the men he ordered ar
rested on a charge of violating
the Injunction he issued at the |
instance of the Brady-Warner |
Coal Corporation.
The injunction was granted |
May 10, the date Sam Brady be-
gan evicting the strikers, and it
contains those stringent provi- /,
sions which have made the labor |
injunction the chief strike
breaking weapon of the West |
Virginia open shop operators.
Perhaps They May Not Breathe.
The strikers are forbidden from
soliciting, inducing or persuading"
the strikebreakers from violating
their terms of employment" says one
clause of the injunction, intended to
protect the notorious yellow dog"
contracts the open shop firms forced
on its new employees, signing them
to work for definite period as nom
union men.
The strikers are also forbidden
from sitting foot on company proper.
ty, thus denying an easy right of way
to their union hall, and they are en-
joined:
From in any way interfering with
the lawful right of the plaintiff to en-
ploy such laborers as it may choose
and to discharge them as it may see
fit, and from in any manner obstruct-
ing, opposing, or interfering with the
plaintiff in re-entering upon and TAX
ing possession OF its said dwelling
houses and each Of them and remov-
ing the goods Of said defendants there
from"
Seabs Want to Quit.
| talked with one Of the strike.
breakers this injunction seeks to pro
tect from persuasive unionists and l
found that he does not need persua.
sion. He is already persuaded. All
he needs is the funds to get out with.
The firm keeps him SO deeply in debt
to the company-town store that he
sees little money from one two-weeks
pay to the next-and it takes money
to move his family out, he says.
There are white strikebreakers too.
but this particular man is a Negro.
Brady's agents brought him from the
Connellsville coke region in Penn
sylvania and placed him in a house
from which a strikebreaker's family
had been evicted. He is Just two
years out of Alabama where he
chucked the hopeless life of a tenant
farmer and left for the North. The
1922 strike found him in Southwestern
Pennsylvania. A labor agent gave him
job In Prick mine, on strike. He
knew little Of the labor movement and
went to work. The mine later shut
down and another agent brought him
to Brady during the present strike.
His eyes are opening to the union
movement. He is sick Of his present
life and says he'll find some way to
get out of Brady as other Negroes
have done recently.
Negro Getting Educated.
Miners tell me this case is typical.
The Southern Negro is getting a stern
education in Northern industrial
methods.
The contempt defendants were ar
rested July s, after Sam Brady found
the strike going strong despite the
burning of the union hall. Cases were
heard during the July term, without
decision, and continued for further
hearing. Brady gets the benefit of the
restraining order all the while.
Former Governor Glascock, a tried
servant of the coal barons, represents
Brady at the hearings. Attorneys
Harold Houston and Townsend, of
Charleston, represent the miners.
Miners Seek Damages.
In the October term of the Circuit
Court a significant damage suit for
$4,000 is coming against Sam Brady.
II is brought by Joseph Morton, Harry
Casal and Leon Antrim of the Brady
Local for damages sustained in the |
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