The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-29
NEW MINE UNION
OFFICIAL HELD
BY STATE POLICE
Arrested at Meeting;
Accused of Putting
Dynamite at Church
Attempt to Kill Union
Labor Defense Moves
to Get Release

PITTSTON, Pa, Nov. 2S.-
Anthony Minerich, National
Board Member of the National
Miners Union, is being framed
up by the state troopers of
Pennsylvania, acting for the
coal operators, on charge of
attempting to blow up with
dynamite the EbeneZer Baptist
Church, PittstOn. He has been
held incommunicado in Wyom-
ing barracks of the state troop
ers since his arrest about 6 p.
m. yesterday, just as he was
leaving a successful mass
meeting held despite the orders of
Mayor Gillespie of Pittston, that no
miners meetings are to be allowed.
The American Civil Liberties CO.
operated with the National Miners
Union in putting through the meet
ing. The International Labor De-
fense, 799 Broadway, New York,
will defend Minerich, and their at
torney will apply for habeus corpus
tomorrow.
The meeting yesterday was not
broken up, but as Minerich left
Walenchus Hall, where it was held,
two state detectives arrested him.
They charged him with placing
dynamite to blow up the baptist
church here. Their story is that Y
sticks of dynamite were found
against the wall of the church yes
terday morning, with a fuse at
tached which was burning and
would have set off the blast in an
other minute.
Steal Papers.
After Minerichs arrest, his room
was searched, and all papers and
pamphlets found there, or which the
police said they found there. were
carted away. These include all mat
ter relating to the activities of la
Dor anywhere in the world, and pub
locations and letters of the National
Miners Union, of which Minerich Is
national board member. The
police claim this is "seditious."
The police Immediately began to
circulate the slander that Minerich
was in some way connected with the
harmless dynamite explosion at the
Butler Collieries, Pittston, about
two weeks ago, during the strike of,
5000 miners against the contrac-
tor policy of the Pennsylvania Coal
Co.
Attack On Union.
Members of the National Miners
Union here have no doubt that these
two "plants" of dynamite were
made by agents provocateurs of the
coal operators, perhaps acting in
conjunction with the reactionary,
Lewis-controlled, "United Mime
Workers of America" which is try
ing to become the company union of
the coal operators in this anthracite
region. through contracts involving
a check-off.
Minerich is particularly hated by
the coal companies and the Lewis
gang because of his militant record,
fighting for more vigor against the
employers. and against injunctions,
during = 1reat coal strike, and
for his part in the movement of the
progressive miners, first to throw
Lewis and his machine out of con-
troll of the U. NJ. w. A., and then
to organize the new National Miners
Union which excludes Lewis and his
misleaders.
Helped Pittston Strike.
The Pennsylvania Coal Co. has a
particular grudge against him be-
cause he came into the strike of the
Pittston coal miners at the time
where Frank McGarry, leader of the
independent" Pennsylvania Coal
Miners Union, had declared that the
men must go back to work. Min
erich offered the miners the support
of the National Miners Union, and
began to fight Mayor Gillespie's
anti-free speech edict.
The strike was ended several DAYS
ago, but a new difficulty over the
company's discrimination against
several hundred of the most militant
miners, began, and it was in this
connection that the mass meeting
Yesterday was held.