The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-01-27
PENN GOVERNOR,
MELLON IN DRIVE,
TO SMASH union
Blow to Rail Workers
as Well as Miners
BY T. ]. OIL HERTY.

Ciearfield Bituminous Coal Company,
which is owned by the New York
Central Railroad, and of which Gov
ernor Fisher of Pennsylvania is a
director, together with the Pittsburgh
Coal Company in which Andrew Mel
Ion, secretary of the treasury is the
dominant factor, are at the front of
thee union smashing conspiracy to
destroy the United Mine Workers in
Z the bituminous fields of Pennsylvania
and Ohio.
The Pittsburgh Coal Company, the
largest producer Of coal in the world,
is recognized as the leader in the
fight. Two officials of the Mellon
corporation signed the Jacksonville
agreement which was to expire on
March 81, 1927 The secretaries
Hoover and Davis bestowed the bless
ing of the Coolidge administration
which is run by Mellon-on the agree
ment, Melons company violated the
pact and shortly afterwards declared
war on the union.
Enter Mr. Lewis.
John L. Lewis, president of the in
ternational union, supported the Cool
idge administration in the last cleo
ton and still is a supporter of the
Republican Party. So highly did the
COP. strategists think of Lewis's
support that the miners chief was
made a member of the national re-
publican campaign committee. The
union coal diggers are now receiving
the reward of their presidents loyalty
to MELONS party-in cherries barr
acks, without adequate food or cloth
ing and at the mercy of the brutal
coal and iron police, deputy sheriffs
and the state constabulary.
The open-shop Pennsylvania Rail
road is allied with the Pittsburgh
Coal Company, the Hillman Coal and
Coke Company, the Jones an d
Laughlin Steel Corporation, the In
land Steel Company, the Wheeling
Steel Company, the Bethlehem Mines
Corporation, the Pittsburgh Terminal
Coal Corporation and others in the
drive against the union. Whenever
scab coal company finds itself in
need of counsel the experienced
strike-breaking lawyers of the scabby
Pennsylvania Railroad are at the ser
vice of the non-union coal company.
According to information submitted
to the senate by counsel for the Uni
ted Mine Workers, big coal-owning
and coal-carrying roads like the New
DIRK Central, the Pennsylvania and
the Baltimore and Ohio, and giant
corporations like General Motors.
thru refusal to supply cars and thru
flnancial pressure from controlled
banks, were able to prevent several
coal operators from keeping contracts
with the union.
b. & o. Strike Breaking
1t is timely to call attention here
to the b. & O.'s strike-breaking ac-
Invites in view of the high favor in
which modified company union plan
has been held by conservative trade
unionists, because Of it's adoption of
the famous "B. & 0. plan" which was
hailed as solution of the conflict be-
tween capital and labor. That plan
was modification of the company
union policy which the B. G. 0. found
profitable, but was ruinous to the
Machinists Union.
John H. Jones, head of the Bertha
Consumers Coal Company, with large
mine holdings in Pennsylvania and
West Virginia and yearly produc-
ticn of 100000 tons, 100000 of
which was purchased by the General
Motors Corporation, was forced by
General Motors to break with the
union after having worked its mines
with union labor for 81 years. The
Purchasing agents for General Motors
Informed jones that if he signed up
with the union the automobile con-
Germ would not purchase any more of
his coal, and that he should follow
the lead of the Pittsburgh Coal Com
pany or they would ruin him. Bankers
from Philadelphia who held his com
pany's paper called him on the long
distance and warned him that any
further contractual relations with the
union on his part would mean bank,
raptcy for him.
A Runs Open Shop.
he Bertha Consumers Coal Com
pany, which professed to be so sorry
for having to break with the union, is
new running open shop and its treat
ment of the striking miners has not
been whit better than that of the
Pittsburgh Coal Company. Our read
elfs can place whatever value they
please on Mr.. Jones's sincerity. The
difference between the good CAPT
talist and the bad" capitalist is the
difference between organized and I'M
organized workers or militant union
ism and the opposite kind.
UniOn-Smashing.
The Pennsylvania Railroad refused
to sign contracts with several Ohio
operators unless they broke with the
union. The B. & o. cancelled a con-
tract with Bellaire, Ohio operator
who signed temporary agreement
with the union. The Pennsylvania