The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-10-10
MELLON Cash
BACKS Fight
ON DISTRICT )
Pittsburgh Coal Co. In
War on u. NJ. w. of A.
sy An sHlELps, Federated PICS


porting the war on the coal miners
union lin the western Pennsylvania or
Pittsburgh district, No. s, United
Mine Workers Of America. The Mel
lon brothers of Pittsburgh Coal and
sehwab and Grace Of Bethlehem
mlnes are backing the policy Of con-
tract violations by their operating
managers.
Force and Violence.
u 10 q hard-bolied drive to smash
the union In this key outpost district
Of the central competitive field. Gum
men, Burns detectives, renegade
unlon leaders drumming up scabs for
operators; fake dual unions; steel
wire fencing; sssrehIIshts; company
owned sherlffs and courts are among
the weapons. And there Is another,
moot serious Of all-the cheap scab
coal from West Virginia and the non
union fields Of southwestern Pennsyl-
VanlA,
jacksonville "Peaee" start Of War.
Signing of the supposed peace
treaty ae Jacksonville really marked
the start Of a more intense war. The
sink on the contracts had hardly dried
in April, 1924, when the abovenamed
operators and others began making
preparations to pull out. Knowing
that while fellow operators IN Penn
sylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois
were observing the agreement the
union was barred from using the ma
tional strike weapon the double-cross-
srs went ahead with their treachery.
As a nrst step they shut down their
mines thru 1924 to starve the work
ers, n possible, into q submissive
mood. Then in late 1924 and early
1925 they began reopening on the
scab 1917 scale with its 80 per cent
cuts-and no checkweighman on tAe
tipple.
RENEGADE official and Fake Union.
In the strikes that followed Pitts
burgh Coal used E. @. Mccullough,
renegade former international union
viee-president, as q labor scout to
preach company good will TO pros
pectiye strikebreakers. Also a pseudo
independent union, the federated min
srs' union, was created by the COM
pany with the assistance of Bill Har~
MS. former president Of the West Vir-
Ginia Federation Of Labor. But this
paper organization blew up in few
months.
Local strikes called by the United
Mine Workers did not, Of course, pre-
vent nou-union coal from seeping in
from the outside, but they greatly
slowed up local production and sub
Jected the companies to great ex-
penss. IN 1926 Pittsburgh Coal passed
dividends on common stock and its
securities generally fell many points.
At the end OF two years warfare 1t
shad no. put one-third Of its 81 dis
trict mines into operation.
Mellon Backs open shop.
Hut Pittsburgh Coal has financial
Afaiiations that help 1t get by. The
Melons are heavy stockholders in
more than q score Of big corporations
and other investors have large out
side holdings.
The union cannot stand alone
without abundant outside aid 1t wt1l
not have the resources to long con-
time striking against imported coal
and imported strikebreakers and
starvation. Already half its more
than 10000 members have been
swept away.
A terrible Fall and Winter must
pass before the Jacksonville agree
rnent terminates and q more hopeful
fight can be made. The district union
has appealed to the Pittsburgh cen
tral labor union and to the state fed
sration for sQccor and every good
union man IN whatever trade must
come 20 the rescue If this basic union
Is not to go the open shop way OF the
Pittsburgh steel mills.
Vssta Prepares for War In Union.
Not all the Pittsburgh companies
are contract breakers. The union
still has agreements with Vesta Coal
Co. a subsidiary of the Jones &
IAughlin steel mills and with Pitts
burgh Terminal Coal Corporation and
a string Of smaller concerns. Vesta
No. 4, one of the four Vesta operat-
ing mines, has 1.40O miners working
steadily.
But the Vesta company is now
opening a still larger NINE in nom
union Greene county to the south.
A thousand company houses are be-
ing laid out. A giant steel tipple next
spring will be dumping coal onto
Monongahela River barges.
VIII Il be union coal? The answer
probably depends on the general
strength the organization shows next
year,