Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1925-10-16
LEWIS OUTLINES COAL
|. STRIKE BEFORE HUGE
WEST VIRGINIA CROWD

-
crowd Of miners, their wives and chill
dren, estimated at $4,000, formed a
huge gathering at the old Fair
grounds here September 26, to hear
John l.. Lewis, president Of the United
Wine Workers of America, and other
international officials speak on the
situation in the bituminous coal fields
of northern West Virginia.
The meeting was the largest ever
held in this section and there was in
tense but subdued enthusiasm among
the thousands Of miners who came
out of the mountains and up from the
valleys to hear the cause of unionism
discussed first hand.
Big Parade Before Meeting
Preceding the fairgrounds meeting
there was 9 parade which required
two and a half hours to pass given
point. Thousands of coal diggers and
their families marched four abreast
up and down the hilly streets of Fair
mont, headed by the officials of the
international union and rs ex-service
men dressed in their overseas khaki
uniforms, each carrying huge Amer
lean flag. The rs men were in
massed formation at the head Of the
parade and formed an inspiring sight,
cheered to the echo as they marched.
Behind the flag bearers was the Mo
nongah band of 108 musicians, all
union miners. Then followed the
thousands of miners on foot. At one
place in the parade there were sew
eral hundred women and children who
sang gala songs and shouted acclaim
to the union.
Operator-owned newspapers here
conceded that the parade and meeting
were the largest that was ever held
in the Fairmont regions. No disorders
or accidents of any kind marred the
day which was given over entirely
to a "sun-to-sup" celebration.
Lewis Analyses Situation.
At the Playground meeting Presi-
dent Lewis, who was at his best in
speaking, dispassionately discussed
the situation in the bituminous coal
fields and excoriated the contract
breaking operators who had contemp-
tuously torn up the wage agreement,
sealed and signed at Baltimore, out
of mere expediency.
1.-THE Baltimore agreement" Presi-
dent Lewis said, "a supplemental con-
tract based on the Jacksonville pact,
has been dishonored and impaired to
degree which reveals moral turpi-
tude upon the part of a group of coal
operators who arA$eeking to escape
their contraetura obligations upon
the flimsy ground of business ex-
pediency. Led by the Pittsburgh Coal
company and the Consolidation Coal
Company, the two largest producing
companies in the United States, lu-
merous operators in western Penn
sylvania, northern West Virginit and
central Pennsylvania have repudiated
the agreement and struck down the
wage structure of the industry"
Bares Operators Reign of Terror
President Lewis said he knew Col.
Watson of the Consolidated company
and that he was man of many vir-
tues, but his action in respect to con-
tracts gave the lie to his virtues.
"In their mad efforts to escape
their honest obligations to free Amer
lean labor, the coal operators of these
districts have not failed to utilize ev-
cry instrument of oppression and re-
preston. They have torn up their
wage contracts; they have closed their
mines for long periods TO starve their
employees into submission; they have
evicted employees from their homes;
they have manned their properties
with armed guards, searchlights,
barbed wire fences, stockades and
such paraphernalia of war; they have
courts and have sought to bind the
workers hand and foot by the issuance
of court injunctions, stripping the
worker of nearly every right guaran-
teed him under the constitution; they
have in substance and effect, conduct
ed a campaign of community terror
ism in the isolated mining villages"
Unions To Stay In West Virginia
President Lewis declared that the
union had come to stay in West Vir-
GINA and that not all the injunctions
in the world or unfriendly courts could
run it out. He emphasized the fact
that the United Mine Workers of
America was a law-abiding organiza-
ton but that it had rights, which the
courts had set out, that it would fight
for. He declared the situation in
West Virginia was one which should
command the attention of the public
and the government because the en-
tire stability of the bituminous coal
industry is threatened by the repre-
hensible conspiracy and attack upon
the very principles of collective bar
gaining.
The speech was heard by the thou
sands in attendance through huge
electric amplifiers which carried the
speakers voice for half mile away
and made him audible to every part
of the huge tableland where the meet
ing was held.
At the close of the meeting a cali
was made by Van A. Bittner, chair