The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-12-04

miners agreement did not cover4
such work but Howat in turn pointed
out that the United Mine Workers
had jurisdiction over call men work
ing in and around the mines and In
formed the operators the coal miners
would be within the contract if they
stopped work in mines where these
nonunion men were repairing machin-
cry.
Metal Workers Join Union.
The operators saw Mentally and
altho he complained bitterly the met
al workers employed by his company
! joined their respective unions.
1t is to be noted that not a single
one of the international union heads,
/ whose organizations received assis-
lance of this kind, have ever raised
| their voices in defense of Alex How
at in his 5-year fight for honesty and
militancy in the miners union None
of them came to his assistance in
his fight against the Kansas Indus
trial Court lava fight that involved
the entire labor movement.
The incidents listed above are only
few of long list of events in which
the miners union, under the leader
ship of Howat, took the side of other
workers against the bosses with moth
ing to gain for itself except a consci-
BUSINESS Of duty well done.
Why They Hate Howat.
These incidents explain the hatred
of the coal operators of Kansas-and
other capitalization Alex Howat. 1.
is an indisputable fact that the CAPT
talist and middle class elements, par
ticularly in the Pittsburgh territory,
hailed John L. Lewis as their savior
when he began the war on Howat, the
other officials of the miners union
and the membership of District IA.
1t is likewise a fact that the Kan
sas capitalists, Governor Allen-the
sponsor of the Industrial Court law
and other enemies of labor were I'M
able to defeat the Kansas miners and
were themselves being defeated until
President Lewis became their ally.
Importance of Kansas Fight.
The rank and file of the American
labor movement has, in my opinion.
never understood fully the tremen-
dous importance of the struggle
against the Industrial Court fought
by the Kansas miners. II is only
now, since the United States Supreme
Court has ratified the decision Of the
Kansas court which sent Howat and
other militant officials to jail for II
months for defending the right to
strike, that the labor movement, five
years later, begins to understand that
elementary rights for which labor has
fought ever since the decay of feud
alism, were at stake in that struggle
and that in view of the decision oil
the Supreme Court the same fight
will have to be made by the whole
labor movement.
The Kansas miners were the shock
troops Of the labor movement.
Kansas is primarily an agricultural
state. With the exception Of railway
terminals, the small industries In
Kansas City, the Pittsburgh Goa
fields and scattered oil properties
there is no industry on large scale
Frightening the Farmers.
! The farming population for years
had been fed with tales Of the hor
rid deeds of the foreigners" II
} Pittsburgh led by Howat whose doc
= trines were redder than his hair.
The Kansas Chamber Of Commerce
; frightened by the threatened revol
OF the farmers among whom the non
partisan league had made some in
roads, was only too willing to hav'
an issue to distract the attention o
the farmers from their wrongs. Il
addition many OF its coal operate
members were smarting under dc
feats administered in clashes with tn
coal miners union.
Governor Allen had presidential an