The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-09-20
WATT SEES Mine
revolt GROWING
Urges Support for Coal
Diggers

continued from Page One
the home town of Lewis and Fish
wick, as well as of Frank Earring
ton, former president of District IL
now getting $4,000 year from
the Peabody Coal Co., is bound to
spread.
"These 1900 Illinois miners will
come along with us and they will
be followed by most Of the 10000
Illinois miners now employed, who
won't stand by and watch the Fish
wick machine put over a fake rati-
fication that reduces their wages
from the Jacksonville scale of $3.50
day to $6.10. They know that this
reduction is only a preliminary for
further reductions all along the
line. Our Investigators in Illinois
have concrete evidence that in many
Illinois locals the vote was ten to
one against the new agreement,
while in few locals was it less than
two to one
incidentally, a recent issue of
Coal Age a capitalist magazine,
revealed that the Illinois district
has invested s150,000 in the Great
Lakes Anthracite Coal Corporation.
an open shop West Virginia com
pany that is paying its miners $3.50
day. This is the sort Of union
activity that the henchmen of Lewis
engage in.
Unorganized Flock to New Union.
"The strike of the Illinois min
ers will also strengthen the morale
of the Indiana miners with whom
the operators have refused to make
an agreement.
The unorganized miners are
everywhere flocking to our call to
build a new union of the rank and
file" Watt said. Three hundred
and fifty thousand of the 100000
coal diggers in this country have
never been organized by the Lewis
machine. They are located mostly
in Westmoreland Somerset and
Fayette Counties, Pa, and in West
Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ala
bama and Maryland. Ruthless
wage slashing and unemployment,
together with the miserable failure
Of the Lewis machine to organize
them, have made these miners eager
for an organization that will really
fight for their interests. We ex-
pect the unorganized miners to
form one Of the strongest sections
in the new National Miners Union.
Anthracite Revolt.
In the anthracite the insurgent
group of District / have been
thrown out, and they are coming to
realize that it is impossible to re-
form the United Mine Workers and
that they must join forces with the
new union"
Asked what he thought of the
prospects of Lewis, who has en-
dorsed Hoover, becoming secretary
OF state should Hoover be elected
Watt smiled. "He deserves to get
the job for serving the bosses so
well" he said laconieally.
Watt described the terrible con-
dltion of the miners and their fam
lilies. "In southern Illinois they are
literally starving, In Pennsylvania
and Ohio thousands of miners are
unemployed and blacklisted and the.
and their families are completely
destitute. Forty per cent of the
miners in the anthracite are iobless.
The support of the entire American
working class is needed to save
these thousands from starvation and
disease and to enable the new Ma
tional Miners Union to grow into
a powerful, fighting organization.
Il feel certain that the workers
OF New York, at the meeting to.
night, will pledge their utmost sup
port and will back us 100 per cent y
KILLED BY TRAIN