The daily worker., 1925-11-12
BELLAIRE MAYOR
BANS MEETINGS
OF The WORKERS
HAS Little Czardom In
IOpen Shop Steel Town
BY W. }. WHITE

BELLAIRE, Ohio, Nov. 10.-The
5oviet's birthday anniversary meeting
Nfor Bellaire was stopped by Mayor
William Komport and chief Of reifee
Leo Corbett. They ordered the janitor
and owners of the hall to lock 1t up
and under no circumstances to per-
init "then damn Jugo-Slav Bolsheviks"
to hold the meeting. This was the re-
mark made to Fred Walch and COM
mittee by Corbett.
The Young Workers League intend
ed putting on playlet "The Capital
lists Day, Mayor" they were also going
to have recitations, and singing Be
cause Of extensive advertising the
comrades expected a very large
crowd.
Under steel Trust Rule
Ku kluxers are strong here. The
Carnegie steel is located here and is
a branch of the U. S. Steel, and the
Wheeling Steel Co., large independ-
ent steel company. Many big cor
porations are deeply interested in the
open shop mines. The Bethlehem
Steel and Carnegie Steel and U. S.
Steel are vitality interested in keep
ing the district open shop.
The work of the Young Workers
League under the direction of Com
rade Marie Suskalo had caused so
much comment and had attracted so
much attention by their singing the
T,,fa,v,o tionoI oDd fba pad LNfor fbo4
the children in the Bellaire schools
were talking about the play the chill
dren in the Shady Side school were
going to put on.
One of the Bellaire school teachers
had to promise her pupils to go and
see the play because her scholars
talked so much about their play.
The Y. w. L. had also attracted the
attention of the children by singing
the revolutionary songs of the work
ing class and even some of them had
started singing the songs on the
streets.
Comrade Wicks had trouble here
about three years ago at a May Day
celebration. The same sinister forces
here-the chamber of commerce,
board of trade, Kiwanis and Rotarians
are the mouth-pieces of big business.
The open shop mines of the Wheel
ing Steel Co., is just across the river
from Bellaire, where lis members of
of our class were killed in an ex-
plosion at this mine about two years
ago. The strike of the iron and steel
workers against this same company
has been going on for the past four
years. Their plants are all open shop.
The only force here that stands for
the rights of the workers are our
comrades-hence they are fought. The
unions are mostly A. F. Of L. and COM
pany unions.
Many girls work in potteries and
glass houses and in the enamel plant.
Mayor Komport was recently defeated
for reelection.
The Bellaire Leader had a front
page story about the meeting being
stopped at the Bohemian Hall. The
police patrol was visiting the hall Just
before the meeting to see that the
orders of the mayor and police were
obeyed. Fred Walchlj was the Amer
lean comrade who went with our
South Slavic comrades to see the
mayor about why the meeting was
stopped The comrades are active in
the progressive miners. They are also
active among the eolored workers.
The Bohemians have Instructions
not to rent halls to reds" If the
comrades want to hold any kind of
entertainment they must go to st.
Clairsville and get permission from
the county authorities. This was the
statement made to the comrades by
the hall owners under the instruc-
tons Of the police and the mayor.