The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-10-21
MELONS EFFORT
TO SMASH MINER
UNION FAILURE
Scabby Cabinet Official
Meets Resistance
BY LELAND oLDs
Federated Press)

Federated Press)
The attack on the supremacy of the
United Mine Workers in the central
competitive field, led by Secy. Mel
Ions Pittsburgh Coal Co., has fallen
far short of notable success, accord
ing to facts in special article by
Coal Age by Sidney A. Hale. Hale
was on the engineering staff of the
U. S. coal commission. X His review
of western Pennsylvania and south
ern Ohio goes far to explode the CAPT
talist press attempt to show a rapid
drift of union miners to the mines
which the Pittsburgh company is try
ing to operate on nonunion 1917
scale basis.
Miners Hold the Fort.
"Dist. No. 5 Of the United Mine
Workers-the western Pennsylvania
are" says Hale, has a membership
Of approximately $4,000 of whom, ac-
cording to union figures, $4,000 are
now employed in the mines Of the dis
trict. Less than 400 men have &C
copied the conditions of employment
at the two Banning operations Of the
Pittsburgh Coal Co. The Pomeroy
Bend group of mines are in District
No. 6. This district had a union
membership Of $4,000 at the peak of
power in 1920; the most claimed for
the 1917 scale and cooperative op-
erations in the Pomeroy Bend area is
less than 700. The combined totals
in the two fields when compared with
union membership of over 100000 in
the central competitive field as
whole, is pitiably insignificant"
Very Few Desertions.
So scarcely more than 1 per cent
Of the union miners in the two dis
tricts where Pittsburgh coal is max
ing its anti-unien drive have gone
over to the enemy althe the scheme
has been in operation since the first
Of May. In fact Hale's figures show
that after the first few assertions fol-
lowing the openshep move the COM
pany has made no gains.
The Dark Hollow mine which OPP
ened about May l had working force
of 156 men by the middle of July.
The average for the first week of Sep
TENDER was still 1876. Similarly the
Forest Run mine which opened the
last week of May had an average of
131 men by the end of July. From
then on the number slowly dwindled
with an average of 1923 employed the
middle Of September.
Fake co-operatives Lose.
Hale says the union has been com
petely successful in holding its lines
against the fake cooperative divers
ion by which Indiana operators tried
to get out from under the Jackson
vile contract, that it has checked
similar move in Ohio, and that I'LL
nois is still firmly union. He also
shows that right down thru 1923 the
predominantly union central field
its share of the country's total out
put. In 1928 1t turned out 2O2,7OS,-
600 tons, 35.9 per cent of the total,
compared with an average of 35.7 per
cent in the years, 1916-1920, 1928
per cent in the years 1911-1915, and
34.1 per cent in the period 19O6-191O.
Must Pay Union Scale.
1t is a war of attrition with the
miners worale still good. TIL e op-
orators have lost their old ally-im-
migration Of cheap labor. They have
to persuade thousands of miners, who
know what the union has done for
them, to give it up and enter again
the old bondage. Otherwise the op-
orators have the choice Of paying the
union scale or being unable to man
| their mines.
MELONS contract-breaikng Pitts
burgh Coal Co. now has behind it the
Pittsburgh chamber of commerce. II
has a special department in charge
OF the renegade Il. S. Mccullough.
former vice president, of the miners
union, to recruit mine labor willing
to desert the union TO quote Hale:
Neither the Pittsburgh Coal Co. nor
the Pittsburgh chamber of commerce
can now retire without heavy loss
of prestige. The other union operat.
ors OF the district are reported watch
ing to see whether Melons big COM
pany can get away with IT,"