The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-01-09
The Negro Worker in Labor History

their expression, Welt our men
do not see fit to accept our terms, we
can telegraph for those who will"
Cameron then tells as a case in
point how the mine-owners were dup
ing Scotch and English miners into
coming over to break the great an
thracite strike then being fought out
in the Pennsylvania district. After
failing in their attempt to smash the
strike by flashing the public into a
furore" over the "exorbitant" demands
of the miners, when the committee
on mining of the National Labor I'm
ion had given publicity to the actual
facts in the case, and showed the
starvation wages that the strikers had
been receiving, the owners, as soon
as "their little game was blocked and
the truth made known. . set on
foot a movement to secure, by mis-
representation, the services of Scotch
and English miners. Consequently the
most outrageous falsehoods were cir
culated and the most exaggerated in
ducement held out to those ignorant
Of the true state Of affairs. -. On
Handing IN Liverpool we found the
docks placarded with advertisements
flor miners, =. which contained the
most false and shameless statements,
yet statements which succeeded in
dipping many an honest, unsuspecting
miner, who would sooner have cut
off his right arm than defraud his
brother Of his due. Now under
the system proposed, no such decep-
ton can succeed. Where legitimate
l demand exists, the truth will be made
known; when the crushing process
is attempted, the fact can be as easily
| understood on the other as on this
side of the Atlantic" (Vol. 9.-Cum-
Minis C Andrews Documentary His
5ory.)
1t can readily be seen that American
capital would view a mass of Negroes
transferred from chattel to wage
slavery as a heaven-sent instrument
Tor their campaign of beating down
the living standards of labor as a
whole. The fact that the supply was
so vast and Immediately available,
and that, moreover, the Negro work
srs had for generations been beaten
into submission to the; will of the
master-class, rendered the danger
particularly pressing. The advanced
elements in the labor movement fully
realized the urgent necessity of win
ming over the Negro proletariat, both
| for the sake of the general cause OF
American labor, and because of the
merciless exploitation to which they
foresaw these newly "emancipated'
workers would be subjected should
the capitalist class succeed in its aim
The Address to the Workingmen OF
| the United States" issued by the Ma.
| tional Labor Union in 1867, as state
ment of principles of the organization
devotes a large amount of attention to
| this question. 1t deals with both the
economic aspects of the problem, as
stated above, and with the highly i'm
portant political role that Negro labor
must necessarily play in the future OF
the workers movement in this coun
try. Both aspects are treated with a
clarity of vision and definite class
viewpoint that make the maunderings
of a William Green anent the recent
convention of the present American
Negro Labor Congress appear curl
ously archaic by comparison. Some OF
| the paragraphs seem almost prophetic
of the tragic incidents of the half cen
fury intervening between their time
and ours-of race clashes, with, as the
address" puts it, tabor warning
against labor, and capital smiling and
reaping the fruits of this mad con
test. j." Altogether, the address
shows a remarkably just estimate OF
| the part of the labor militants of the
day, of the drama upon which the
curtain had just risen: the struggle
of the vanguard of the workers and
1 81.