The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-07-26
IS NOW
VITAL NEED OF
HEROIC DICCERS
Houses, Cows, Cars,
Sold for Food I
by a Worker Correspondent


WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (By MaiD
In January, 1927, Lewis organ,
the United Mine Workers Journal,
stated that the two best citizens in
the United States are, first, Andrew
Mellon, secretary of the U. S. treas
ury, and, second, John L. Lewis,
president of the United Mine Work
ers of America. Mellon said no
back step from the European debts
and Lewis said no back step from
the Jacksonville agreement. Oh, no!
Ruin
When the delegates returned from
the national convention in 1927 they
reported to US that national policy
committee had been appointed by
Lewis and that everything would
be all right. All we had to do was
to stay out until victory should be
ours. Well, we did what was asked
of us. We spent every penny we
had saved. Some of us had property
which we mortgaged. Some had
their life insurance policies turned
into as much cash as they could get.
Some had cows or automobiles which
they sold. AS a consequence of all
this we were thrown out of our
houses, our furniture was sold in
order to pay the rent.
We have been hungry because we
sacrificed practically everything and
in order not to take a back step we
did not return. After a period of
Is months our dear President Lewis
calls his hand-picked so-called policy
committee and abolishes the Jack
sonville scale and tells us to go to
work for whatever we can get. If
that is not one of the greatest
treacheries in the labor history of
the United States, l do not know
what is.
Lewis Pile
Lewis made a fortune during this
strike relatively as large as the one
Morgan and others made out of the
last World War. Many locals were
expelled and their charters revoked
for no other reason than that Lewis
wished to pocket more money for
himself and his henchmen, although
these locals deserved to remain in
the union. A statement of finances
was issued and we found that the
international treasury received S24,-
100000 But we strikers did not
see more than 100000. Where
is the rest of the money?
When we sent a committee to
Pittsburgh to see P. T. Egan, presi-
dent of District 5, to give us some
relief because we cannot live on 81
per man, 25 cents per woman and
20 cents per child, P. T. Egan told
our committee that they had no
money, and that they had not been
notified by the international that
the hard coal miners had not paid
any assessments and that they could
do nothing to pay anyone anything
more.
Finds Out Facts
When we were not able to stand
such living any longer, few locals
decided to send me to District l, to
the hard coal district, to raise some
funds for US starving miners and
our families. When I arrived
found, to my surprise, that the
brothers in the hard coal have been
paying their assessments, some of
them for ten months consecutively.
They also said that they pay So per
month each for assessments. And
that is the truth.
We figured the entire thing out
and found that hard coal miners had
already paid Thomas Kennedy
S2,844,000; the Illinois miners paid
from October 1. 1927, to April 1,
1928, the amount of 100000; the
American Federation of Labor from
November, 1927, until July, 1928, 81
per month for 100000 members,
paid the United Mine Workers
treasury the sum of $20,S00,000.
The grand total is S24,104,0G0.
Many Officials
Everybody should learn what has
been done with all that money. Part
of it went to the striking miners,
part to keep up the offices of Dis
tricts 2, 5. 6, II, IL, IA, II and 20,
for salaries of officials who are in
much greater quantities now than
ever before in the history Of the
limited Mine Workers. especially in