The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-01-28
HERD Strikers
FAMILIES IN
FLIMSY SHACKS
Evictions Grow; Women
Children, Cold, Hungry
Continued from Page One)

trucks and sent to the commissaries
of the strikers. New and fresh goods.
All of the best brands on the mar
ket. The committee states that
nothing is too good for the strikers
all efforts are made to secure the
best. "For the men, women and
children who dare challenge the COM
panies. the best is not too good. Fresh
food will give the strikers encourage
ment, stamina and determination to
win.
The many trucks move away in car
avian fashion. Early morning crowds
stand and watch the trucks go by,
reading the signs which cover the
sides of all the trucks. A good me-
thod of notifying people there is a
strike on and relief is needed.
Three trucks start for the four
towns of Mollenauer, Coverdale, Van
Voorhis and Vestaburg. These three
sroceed as unit and will remain to-
gether until the four towns are COW
cred and the relief delivered.
Depend on Trucks.
~re arrive in Mollenauer an hour
rater with the weather a few degrees
below Zero The strikers in Molten
auer have came to consider the
Pennsylvania Ohio trucks as definite
and certain as the sun, moon, day or
night, as there is always a large
crowd on hand at a certain time in
the morning to meet the trucks. One
striker told me when l asked him
were there so many of the strikers
and wives out so early waiting for us
altho we sent no message of our COM
ing: "That doesn't matter, we know
the trucks are coming on a certain
day and at certain hour, our pepople
all know that, and no advance word
is necessary" So it is that in this
little town back in the hills the Relief
Committee has become an established
institution.
At least three hundred men, wives
and children swarm around the
truck. A cheer goes up, and they
set to work unloading. P T. Fa-
gan, President of District No. of
U. M. W. of A. is a member of the
Mollenauer local union apparatus in
the hands of his henchmen. A rank
and file committee of the local union
handles the relief. One of the local
committeeman says ''the Pennsylva-
nia-Ohio Committee is doing splendid
work for the miners. 1t stiffens our
backbone, and gives us courage to
fight on when we know you are work
ing so hard to keep us out on strike.
The officials of the union have spread
reports that your committee is part
isan and feeds only friends. If this
is so, then we here all wonder why
you bother coming to Mollenauer,
Van Voorhis, Vestaburg, etc., which
are all supposed to be strongholds of
the Lewis Administration. This con-
vinces us you are not partisan to your
friends but feed all without preju-
dice"
81 a Week.
"Can we live on two dollars week.
which we get some weeks, not al
2" they say. 'Next week they
will evict US. We must start build
ing the barracks tomorrow. More
power to your committee. Sometimes
the churches give little insignificant
relief; sometimes the ministers appeal
for us, but all form a charitable stand
point. We don't want charity, we
want solidarity, and the Relief Com
mittee, its publicity, signs, slogans,
etc., stress this very good"
Mollenauer relief will be distributed
that afternoon, According to regula-
tons of the Pennsylvania Ohio Com
mittee it must be distributed fairly.
equally, without discrimination and
to satisfaction of all the strikers un-
der your Jurisdiction"
Strikers Children.
The crowd swells around the
trucks. Some strikers children tell
us how many scabs' kids they
Cleaned up on" yesterday and the
day before. One exhibits a cut nose
but claims he is satisfied because the
scabs' kids got away with a worse
mauling than a cut nose. Marks of
combat between the union and scabs'
children, to the union children are
more valuable than all the medals of
Lindbergh.
A strikers wife aids the thawing-
out process applied to the cold men on
the relief trucks by large cups of hot
coffee. She is sad because she cannot
give us something to eat" also for
she explains that until the relief is
distributed coffee is all she has. We
hear many stories of brutality of
state and coal and iron police-of
hunger, of suffering, of fortitude.
Eyictions and Misery.
The trucks proceed to Coverdale,
most famous of all striking camps,
famous for its evictions, shutting off
water, companies tearing off roofs of
strikers houses trying to hasten the
eviction orders, of unparalleled bru-