The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-06-15

bureaucracy rules with Mussolini-
like autocracy.
s. killing of prOgressivism and
militancy.
The UMWA was once the most
progressive union in the labor move
ment. It supported the labor party
and industrial unionism, and it gave
its active aid to every forward cause
of the workers. 1t was an old enemy
of the Gompers gang. It's splendid
fighting spirit was well known in the
American labor movement. But the
Lewis machine has choked this pro-
gressive spirit The Lewis program
lis "co-operation" with the employers,
which means surrender to them. He
has substituted fake arbitration"
methods for a real fighting policy.
Controlling the union with gangster
methods, the Lewis clique, in spite of
the progressive attitude of the rank
and file, have put the union on record
against every progressive measure it
ever stood for. They have rejected
the old-time labor party policy and
officially endorsed the reactionary
program of supporting candidates on
the tickets of the republican and dem
ocratic parties. They have flagrantly
Disseminated against Negroes an6
foreign born workers and the youth
They have degenerated the union into
supporter Of the most reactionary
elements in the A. F. of L. bureauc-
tracy. They have filled the whole or
ganization with pessimism and reac-
ton. With it's program of constant
retreat, and with close support from
coal operators, the Lewis gang has
systematically warred against all
militancy in the union, ruthelssly ex-
lpelling hundreds Of individuals and
locals, the best fighters among the
miners, simply because they have
dared to insist upon a progressive
! fighting policy, a real defense of the
miners interests.
9. Official graft and corruption.
The Lewis leaders are a body OF
lself-seekers who have no other aim
| than to enrich themselves at the ex.
| pense of the miners. Fabulous sala.
ries, swollen expense accounts, graft
from the employers, they use as
means to this end. They live il
mansions, while the miners suffer
dire poverty in company houses anc
flimsy barracks. The depths of the
UMWA officials corruption wer,
amply illustrated at the last interna.
tionaI convention where Lewis anC
Murray used the packed delegations
to raise their salaries to $4,000 anC
! $4,000 yearly, although the unior
faced a life and death crisis. AL
through the long, bitter months that
the Pennsylvania and Ohio miners
have been starving and striking on a
dollar or two week relief money
these false leaders of labor have beer
drawing their enormous salaries anc
living on the fat of tho land. From
such venal, corrupt leaders the miners
can only expect treachery and defeat
To get rid Of them is the first condi-
ton to the establishment of real
union and union conditions in the
mining industry.
The inevitable result of all these
corruptions, betrayals, and wrong pol
icies by the UMWA leadership is the
present breakdown of the union. No
union could survive with such mis-
leadership. The UMWA is now rap
idly decaying. Four years ago it con-
trolled 70 percent of bituminous coal
production; now it controls hardly &c
/ percent. And even this small control
is being taken away by the present
great drive Of. the operators. In Penn.
sylvania and Ohio the strike is in q
most critical position after the Ia
months Of struggle. In Illinois and
Indiana the Union is falling to pieces;
the agreements being signed up are
rank fakes. A similar condition ex-
lists in Kansas and other bituminous
districts. West Virginia has beer
lost altogether, even as Colorado
Alabama, Kentucky, etc. Disintegra-
ton of union conditions and break
down of the organization also sets in
the anthracite districts; the policies