The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-02-07

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Unlimber Guns.
At this point the six troopers adj
vanced to the platform with their
guns numbered. They ordered the
meeting to dispense and placed the
speaker under arrest.
The crowd, which was estimated at
500, left the hall expressing indig-
nation at the action of the state con-
stabulary.
Minerich was lodged in the Can
onsburg city Jail and several hours
elapsed before the International
Labor Defense, an organization
which exists to protect the legal
rights of workers arrested for activ-
ity in the class struggle, was able
to locate him.
Finally Released.
At first the state police threatened
to charge him with ''inciting to riot"
which draws heavy sentence on con-
viction. But anxious tho they were
to put temporary stop to Minerich's
activities in providing relief for the
and encouraging them to conduct the
strike in a more militant and effec-
tive manner, they finally were un-
able to book him on more serious
charge than "disorderly conduct" He
was released by Justice Mcknight of
Houston on $25 bail, which was fur
nished by a resident of Canonsburg.
The Pennsylvania Miners Re-
lief Committee, with headquarters at
Gil Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa,
which is giving relief to over one
hundred mining camps in Pennsyl-
vania and Ohio, brands its chair
mans arrest as part of the cam
paign now being conducted by the
coal operators thru their tools, the
state constabulary, to hinder the
work of the relief committee, with
the object of starving the strikers
into submission. and forcing them to
return to work on starvation wages.
Chairman Minerich on his release
from Jail, declared that the Pennsyl-
vanla-Ohio Miners Relief Committee
would continue giving relief and en-
couraging the striking miners not to
allow strike-breaking injunctions is
sued by coal company judges to
stand in the way of victory.
In Dire Need.
hundreds Of thousands of union
miners and their wives and children
are in dire need of food and clothing"
he said. "The strike must continue
until the bosses are forced to sur
render. If the strikers are provided
with the necessary food and clothing
Tor themselves and their dependents
they viii be in a position to hold out
until victory is theirs. Mass picket
ing, instead of the few pickets allow
ed near the scab mines by the iniunc-
lions, has proven an effective method
IN shutting off the scab supply. The
union must be saved at all costs for
IT the the union is smashed and the
miners are forced to work under
yellow dog contracts they will be
completely at The mercy of the oper-
ators."
BROWNSVILLE, Pa, Feb. 6. -
In the Connellsville coke region and
other fields where no miners organi-
cation exists, and where about 1OO.-
900 mine workers are dependent on
the coal industry, thousands of the
workers have worked in some of the
mines for from ten to thirty years.
Many Of them have large families,
while others have sons and grand
sons working in the same mines.
The coal miners in the unorganized
fields have, from time to time, suf-
fered wage cuts. Here in the coke
region, at the beginning of 1925, the
coal companies began to cut the min
ers' wages. The Reiney Coal Com
pany, and the Hillman Company, who
were the first to start the wage cuts,
tried to operate under the 1927 wage
scale.
Utilize British Strike.
They were followed by other small
coal operators, but few weeks later
the British miners strike began thus
opening market for American coal.
Then the American companies took
the opportunity to show how gen
erous they we're by giving their work
ers raise in wages. They operated
under the 1920 scale. But the real