The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-02-19
LEFT Wing OF
Miners FORMS
FIGHTING front
Organizes to Seat Too
hey and Other Delegates
Especial to The Daily wOrker)

SOhAN YIN Fay Tep' 10 NC
rank and file of the anthracite min
ers union have organized for the
fight to seat their spokesman at the
.Tri-Distriet ratification convention
which opened yesterday for the pur-
pose of either accepting or rejecting
the Philadelphia agreement. The
Lewis machine, fearing the presence
Of leaders of the progressive miners
committee at the convention as the
floor leaders of the opposition dele
cation have resorted to an autocratic
change in the basis Of local union rep
resentation in an attempt to keep
these miners away from the conVen-
ton.
Representatives of scores of local
unions of the Wilkes-Barre and Pitts
burgh territory met yesterday at Pau
xitas Hall, Edwardsville, where final
plans for the left wing fight were
made. The opening fight of the con-
vention will be on the seating of Pat
Toohey, ex-secretary Of the Plains col
liery, and delegate to the last Tri-
District convention. At that conven-
ton he incurred the wrath and en-
nifty of the machine by opposing the
reports of the Lewis committees and
advancing instead the program of the
rank and file delegation.
Fight Over Toohey's Seating.
The conventions hand-picked cred
entails committee will undoubtedly
report unfavorably upon the creden-
tials of Toohey and recommend he
not be seated at the convention. Thus
the Lewis machine will attempt to
forestall the capitalization of oppo-
sition upon the convention floor. The
committee will doubtless report Too
hey an expelled member and conse-
quently not privileged to attend as a
delegate. Scores of delegates declar-
ed their determinati64 to fight for
the seating of Toohey in the conven-
ton. If they succeed in seating him
it will considerably bolster the fore
es of the anti-Lewis opposition. Lewis
and his henchmen will resort to all
despicable methods to prevent the
seating of Toohey at this convention,
as they did at many previous miner
conventions, district tri-district and
International.
It is not known, What will develop
when the left wing goes to the Sctan-
ton convention. Toohey in particu-
lar faces immediate arrest and i'm
prisonment as soon as he enters
Lackawanna county, thru this COM
bination of the Lewis machine and
the crooked Scranton politicians.
Woodward Local TO be Represented
The second big fight by the left
wing will be on the seating of the
delegation of the expelled Woodward
local union at Edwardsville. Lewis
expelled the entire 1900 members of
this local and recognized the local"
by placing it in the hands of company
stools, after deposing and expelling
the militant local leaders for their
refusal to bow in submission to Cap
pellini, the autocrat. The Woodward
local will elect II delegates and in
sist upon their being seated at the
convention. The Lewis machine will
fight every inch Of the way to prevent
their being seated, for If they are seat
ed 1t means the Lewis machine is
whipped.
Left Wing is Gaining.
These two issues will undoubtedly
divide the convention Immediately in
to two definite groupings. Practically
every local union in the Wilkes-Barre
and Edwardsyille area that has heard
left wing speakers the past few days
have unanimously repudiated the con-
tract and instructed their delegates to
fight for the seating of Pat Toohey
and the other Plains delegates and the
expelled delegation from the Wood
ward colliery. The organized left wing
decided to hold regular meetings dur
ing the course of the convention and
until its adjournment.