The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-09-30
COLORADO COAL
OPERATORS BAR
Check EICHMAN
Strangers Watched by
Gunmen; Strike Oct. Is

WALSENBURG, Colo, Sept. 20
Over four thousand miners of the
coal fields in Colorado will strike on
October 10, the new date set for the
walk-out, says the strike committee
making arrangements. This is not a
strike of the United Mine Workers of
America, but it will take place at the
same time that over 10000 U. M. w.
miners are locked out in the coal
fields farther east. The strike COM
mittee thru A. X. Payne, secretary,
has issued a statement pointing out
the basis of the strike, and why the
I. w. w. is leading it. It says:
y
"The Colorado strike of the coal
miners is going to reflect the mill
fancy of organized labor. If the
I. w. w. is able to enter the coal
fields of the Colorado Fuel and Iron
and whip them in their own territory,
there is nothing that they can do.
"There is no place where the One
Big Union idea is so thoroughly i'm
planted in the minds of the workers
as it is in Colorado There is no
place in the u S. that has been so
completely deserted by conservative
unionism. And there is no place
where the workers are so completely
disguised with the policy of com
promise as they are here.
Companies Show Fear.
"The fear that the companies show
is evidence that they know they are
trying to bottle up volcano.
"Last night (September 21), thru
intimidation, the check weigh man at
the Kebbler mine was running off the
tipple. When he returned to the
camp, after reporting the incident to
the Union hall, he was met by twelve
armed men, and forcibly evicted from
the company property.
"Threats that the men will be for
chilly evicted are being made daily by
the company scab-herders. But the
employers have gone too far with
their intimidation. There are points
beyond which men can not be driven
on the road to slavery; and they have
reached the point where they must
either revolt, or enter into state of
peonage that will be worse than slav-
cry. These men are acting more
from desperation that from any other
motive
No Civil Liberties.
"Civil liberties are a fiction in the
mining camps. If union man desires
to visit friends in these camps, he
is met by gunman and asked what
his business is. If he looks as though
he can be easily inundated he is
refused admittance to the camp. If
he insists on entering he is accom-
panied by the gunman and transacts
what business he has within hearing
of a stool-pigeon. Labor organizers
are admitted under no circumstances.
These are the conditions at the pres
ent in this section of The Land of
the Free and the Home Of the Brave.
SIS it any wonder that the workers
have revolted, and demand that they
be allowed to live their lives in the
same fashion that other people live
their lives?
"Now! We want arrangements
made to have two or three good spell
binding speakers from October to
the men who have been preaching
Solidarity since can remember? If
it is, then Solidarity is an illusion"
In answer to statement by the In
dustrial Commission of Colorado, that
the strike committee had no right to
call strike as it represented no or
ganization of miners, the committee
has issued the following open letter
to the Industrial Commission:
Gentlemen:-We are today mailing
notices to ell the mining companies
of the State of Colorado, enclosing
demands and putting the date for
strike forward to the 18th of Octo-
Der, 1927. This action is taken by
the Strike Committee in response to
the wishes of members of our organi-
cation working in the coal mines of
Northern Colorado.
The manner in which the recent
investigation was conducted by the
Industrial Commission of Colorado
causes the Strike Committee to be-
lieve that, no matter in which way
ou elegates had been elected to the
Aguilar Conference, and no matter
what the method of procedure at that
Conference might have been, the In
dustrial Commission would have
found technical points on which to
make an adverse report.
We fear that the miners of Colo
RADIO who have heretofore depended
greatly on the Industrial Commission
for fair dealing in such matters, will
now get the impression that the In
dustrial Commission is now joining
forces with the Colorado Fuel & Iron
n ond Ot hnr largo an, nlnUarc o4