The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-04-28
The Coal Miners Union Has
Had Leaders Who Dared
To Fight the Government
By ]. LOUIS ENGDAHL

ent will not admit that there are classes The spread
eagle of the established order always refer to
1.-THE people," bulking them all en- masse
But out here in the ocean, this government-owned
liner the class distinctions rigid any Hindu
caste system 1t is first class second class and third
class according to the dollars that you have with the
oneyed aristocracy in it's cabins the top deck feel
ing quite from those herded in the seerage far
beneath
These distinctions come to mind in retrospection
the now famous declaration of President John L. Lewis
during the 1922 strike of the coal miners that
"I cannot fight the government"
President Lewis made the declaration later dur
ing the struggle of the Nova Scotia, Canada, coal mi
ners the government this time being that of his royal
majesty, the king of England.
President Lewis does not say how else the working
class shall become the ruling except to fight the
existing social order. AS matter Of fact he does not
want the workers to become the rulers
The whole history of the development of the miners
union has been of continuous class struggle 1t is
well for the mine workers know this especially to get
acquainted with those leaders and the fibre OF the rank
and file thru whose sacrifices the strength of the mine
workers organization has grown in the past. The Off
Gals of the early days of the union of different
type than those associated with Lewis in the pres
emit leadership of the organization.
In the early Seventies of the last century the union
was also in a crisis Hardly had the Miners National
Association of America gotten under than it began
to feel the effects of the panic of 1873.
Wages were reduced as much as so percent in some
cases and in other the miners paid in worth
less paper such hey had to dispose of at 20 per-
cent discount" The leaders of local strikes "vic
timzed" (refused work. and those who had accepted
their leadership compelled to sign contracts abro
eating their affation with the union condition Of
obtaining work In some the strikers were dis
placed by Negroes of them only recently released
from slavery, who brought north to take the jobs
Of union This confession by the mine own
er be sure that the nationality and religious differ
ences that had been exploited to the limit by the mine
owners longer great source of dissension
among the mine workers previously.
It was under these conditions that the officials of the
Miners National Association advised the loyal members
Of the union organize secretly and to sign the
tracts imposed upon them in the same spirit that Calico
reacted before the inqustion when he exclaimed "But
it 1.-THE world) does after all"
Of course, the outstanding American citizen, John L.
Lewis the present president of the United Mine Work
Of America would not degn to build the skeleton
of organization secretly in such states West Vr
gina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and elsewhere
that the miners union finds itself practically out
awed That would be un-paytriotc to his government
and dsloya his friends in Washington aho it would
be the basis of building the organization in the
gained fields.
The president of the union in those days, John Sney
and Xngo Parks, national organizer tried in Penn
sylvania under the law of conspiracy par
Elephants in a combination to raise wages
In his "History of the United Mine Workers Of Amer
ica," Evans gives a summary of extract from the
address of the prosecuting attorney declaring that can
attempt made to convict the national unon thru
its officials under the plea that the acts and speeches
made by Siney and Parks Tin connection with local
strike) together with its printed documents constitu-
tons and laws represented the acts of the national
union and made it equally guilty of criminal violation
Of the law of conspiracy"
The government fighting the union at that time.
This clearly shown by this attack The difference
at that time that the union had officials who
not afraid to fight back.
Pennsylvania had passed a law in 1869 which per-
mitted workmen to organize Unions but proviso
inserted that the act should not apply to Cleared and
Center countless the area in which the local strike had
occurred Whatever the reason for such a provso, it
left the law Of conspiracy in full force in those counties
Another statute in 1872 had definitely relieved work
mems associations from the law of conspiracy for reus
ing to work for under conditions that
satisfactory but it contained proviso that the law
should not prevent the prosecution and punishment of
persons who hndered others who wished to work from
doing This "ioker in the law enabled the prosecu-
ton to charge Siney and Parks with technical violation
of the law against pcketing and with melting to riot
In the trial, Siney acquitted but Parks and the
local union officials fined and sentenced to various
terms of Imprisonment.
By 1876 the Miners National Association had reached
its highest development The SAT local unions, having
vana (20s40); Illinois 5,122); Ohio (4734); Indiana
(2,f35); Missouri (547); Wyoming (544); Maryland
(43D Iowa (272); Colorado (242); West Virginia
7S) Tennessee (29); Kansas (123); and Indian Ter
ritory now Oklahoma (57). 1t thus be that
the seeds of militant unonsm in the mining industry
were being widely sown.
The organization, however, to grief during