The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-04-25
The Policies of John |.
Lewis Have Set the Coal
Miners Back Many Years
By ]. LOUIS ENGDAHL

canitalst daiIies Among them were the Times, the
Herald-Tribune, The World and one OF the taoolds'
The Evening Graphic.
have scanned them all carefully, thru all of their
pages but have failed to discover word about the
subject in which / am most interested at the moment,
and which should interest the whole American work
ing class the epOchal struggle between the coal miners
and the mine owners in the soft coal teds' perhaps
enc Of the crucial engagements IN the whole his
tory of the American class struggle
Less than week has passed since the old agreement
between workers and bosses in the bitumlnous fields
expired ON March 81, with no wage contract to
take its place owing to the failure of the Miami Con-
ference to come understanding. But already the
capitalist press finds news in this battle for bread
that directly 100000 workers. organized and
unorganized in the coal industry, and indirectly the
whole working class l. the miners union can be
smashed, crippled in this fight, then the whole
American working class organized and unorganized,
is affected.
have before me one of the last issues before sailing
Of our DAILY WORKER, Tuesday April 9Th, and 1t
tells of prospective conference OF the Coal operators
(Owners) Association of Illinois, which employs some
$4,000 men, be held at st. Louis with mo hopes or
settling the strike" Similar district gatherings OF
mine owners being held elsewhere, at this writing,
with equally futile promises of results When John
L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers OF
America announced that district and local settlements
would be permitted following the breakdown of the
Joint conference in the Central Competitive Field
CIlnos, Indiana, Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, he
confessed the weakness that the miners union has
back the miners unon In its fight for power IN the
industry practically 80 years, to 1885, when he broke
the front of the mine workers army and announced
that separate agreements would be permitted 1t was
in 1898 that the miners union first became strong
enough to force the mine into the Interstate
Joint Conference and develop the struggle on some
thing resembling a national scale With the beginning
Of the century unity and discipline were being estab-
ished by tortuous struggle among the mine workers.
thruout the industry. In these early years OF the
second quarter of the century, President Lewis and
the red-baiting regime of which he is the head, has
brought chaos into the ranks of the mine workers,
creating an outlook darker than at any time since the
ranic Of 1898 nearly destroyed the beginnings OF the
union just taking root and giving promise OF growth
The struggle for nationwide action the part OF
mine workers constitutes the history of the miners
Union No wonder that Arthur f. Suffern begins his
book entitled 1.-THE Coal Miners Struggle for Industrial
Status" with the declaration:
1.-The ability of organized workmen IN the basic IN
dustres tie up the whole economic system is com
paratively recent phenomenon THERE is SOME
THING OMNIBUS IN THE FACT THAT MEN IN
SUCH NUMBERS CAN MAINTAIN UNANIMlTY
OF ACTION"
The writer still had in mind the brilliant struggles
of the miners since the war, when unity was de-
veloped broader front than before only to be
broken by the historic declaration Of President
Lewis that, Il cannot fight the government. The
present difficult situation that confronts the coal
miners is but the logical development of the reign of
treason Of John L. Lewis, that this year sends the
mine workers in squads and depleted plaoons against
the wel-organized regiments of collars of the mine
owners in perhaps the affluen that Ameri-
can capitalism has enjoyed. At least the profit
showngs for the first three months Of the year In
that the record totals Of wealth stolen from labor
last year being outsrpped by the passing months
Of 1927
The sun smiles only on that faction of the National
Coal Association (mne owners) that expects the union
will be permanently kept of day be uprooted
from, at least their section of the industry"
The object of this series of articles will be to
the history of the efforts Of the coal miners to build
their organization, a study of the factors that
contributed to the strengthening the weakening of
the organization and the differences that be drawn
in their application to the present struggle
Even the most il-nformed coal miner must realize
that the union is the wrong track that it is headed
'he toward destruction under the Lewis policies
which are the policies Of the mine owners and not OF
the mine workers.
Take for instance the fact that only few
union miners in West Virginia out in support of the
present struggle whereas in 1919 enough non-union
miners responded to the call to struggle for better
dtions higher and shorter workday to cut off
70 per cent of the national bituminous production.
Years that rich, like 1926, for the capitalists
usually give favorable opportunities for otganI-
zaton work among the unorganized toing MASSES
But the Lewis administration inactive during
1926 in the mining industry, the Green regime IN
the American Federation of Labor idle generally
thruout all industry in Selling this favorable oppor-
tunity to build the power of labor against the lean
years of depression and inevitable unemployment
Instead of a militant and growing army of mine
workers, challenging the mine owners, find the
Magazine of Wall Streets gloating the fact that
today the open shop mines producing the bulk OF
the coal 1t says that, Alabama, for example, went
up from 1913O1S4 tons in 1924 to 22356,000 tons
1926; Kentucky from 36127133 to 47906000, and West
Virginia from 101662897 TO 147,209,000 tons, while