The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-01-07
BY ED FALKOWSKI.

| Dy Ell Il AbhOW Ohl.
SHENANDOAH, Pa, Jan. 6. -
What impresses one most in the an
thracite at present is the lack of pro-
gram on the part of the United Mine
Workers. From all sides complaints
pour forth. Reports of men knocked
off,; of breakers operating on idle
days putting through bank coal; of
cranes skimming the men off timber
bankers; of miners oppressed and
cheated Over all hangs the cloud of
slack time. 1t absorbs everything.
Slack time is in the faces of men
standing on corners. 1t is in the sales
receipts of stores; in the poor attend
ance of picture shows. Everywhere
slack time-an unacceptable phenom-
enon that has enveloped the region
and is choking the old vigor out of it.
Yet everyone seems to be lodging
the issue. Few are brave enough to
face it. January is big hope to
them. Maloney, president of the P.
& r. c. & I. Co. is vast miracle
man, supersalesman. who will soon
start the collieries full time. Every
body waits for something to happen.
But nothing happens. Every day is
( the same. Slack time-a dreary heav-
mess that presses everything down.
And everybody stranded. wallowing
in mire from which it is impossible
to crawl out!
/ Despite prayers, the weather con-
tinues warm and sloppy. Itsis not
even normally cold. Bum weather for
the coal trade.
The union stands by. watching. Eff
ficiency comes with its dismissed hun
dreds, it's machinery. its timeclocks
its proletariat tramping up and
down these hills in search of work.
But the union does not answer with
a program of its own. 1t does not
come forward to challenge those who
are preparing to slide the union out
of existence. 1t even comedies points
to them, and permits them to carry
on their pernicious work.
So the region drifts from bad to
worse with little outlook for tomor-
row.
! The Mine Boards Meets.
4 Conversational preliminaries are
hammered to faint murmur as the
enormous bulk of the chairman sits
itself into a chair and the meeting is
declared open. Cigars are lit. pipes
charged, ears perk up attentively, as
the secretary reads off in slumber-
some voice the unexciting minutes of
the previous meeting. 1t seems that
the janitor was the big figure at the
last meeting. A loaded delegate de-
fled the chairman to keep him in or
dor. starting one-man meeting that
made the official meeting look like
q ragged sideshow. The noise reached
such gay pitch that the church serv-
ices upstairs were disturbed The
ianitor was sent down by the priest
to turn out the lights and adjourn 4,
the meeting. This the janitor did
as he was already tired of sitting out
in the cold hallway waiting for this
endless meeting to hit some snag that
would hasten it's adjournment.
Incidentally, a feeble fellow whose
wooden leg has rhythm all its own
as he pounds in and out, reported the
alarming presence of 100 Wobblies
in the town. Where they met, what
they did, who they were-he couldn't
say. But certain he was that these
dire disrupters had nested themselves
in the town, and the mine board
should take drastic measures TO set
ting them on the open road again.
Nothing, however, was dore.
The minutes, gavelled to slumber
by the silence of the delegates, and
the efficiency of the chairman. griev-
ances we're taken up again. The dele
gates from the different collieries
were asked to render reports of the
latest troubles arising at their work
ings.
Came from one colliery the report
of lokie engineer who had previous
ly tended his lokie on idle days, and
whose engine was now tended by
slope engineers, thus Knocking him
off" on idle days. But as winter comes
on, the engineers are compelled tn
walk to the lokie house to tend the
fires, where previously the lokie was
set by the engine house-a conven-
lent jump for the engineers, Hence
the engineers registered high kick,
and attempts were made to have the
lokie engineer come out on Sundays,
leaving the idle days to themselves.
This the engineer refused to do, since
if they could do his job when the col
liery was idle, what on earth was to
stop them from doing it on Sundays
as well?
Hot Talk.