The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-02-24

NEGLIGENCE BY
COAL BOSSES WAS
ICAUSE OF DEATHS
Experienced Miners
Would Have Escaped

Continued from Page Oms)
because the truth about this deatf
trap at Kinlock might seap thru th'
ranks of the unemployed all over the
country and to the southern corn ano
cotton fields from which colored mer
are seduced with specious promises
of good pay and light labor in the
black caves under the hills of West
ern Pennsylvania.
Dead Were Strikebreakers.
The dead men were strikebreakers
and those they left behind them are
sheltered from public attention by
wire netting and the guns of deputy
sheriffs, inside a compound-a COM
pany preserve called "The Patch"
This open-air prison is closed to
newspapermen. The wives and chill
dren, of. the dead men may grieve in
solitude. After all, the dead men
were only scabs. They were taking
the bread out of the mouths of thou
sands of union children and getting
little for the mouths of their own
broods. The striking miners shed no
tears of sympathy for their widowed
and orphaned dependents.
The people of the three neighbor-
ing towns, Arnold, Parnassus and
New Kensington, say: at serves
them right" OF Twelve more will
never scab again." A sentimental
list might slobber over such hardness,
but not this writer. This is war and
belligerents don't wall over the
enemy's misfortunes.
Hauled BY Union Men.
Yet they were workers, -members
of the earth's robbed and down.
trodden and under different circum-
stances they might be standing side
by side with their fellow workers in
the never-ending struggle against the
exploiters-never ending until the
rotten system goes down under the
marching feet of the enslaved mill
ions. They came from the South
most of them-and never heard of a
union.
4 They were hauled to Kinlock by
union trainmen. This is something
to ponder over. 1t appears that there
are two kinds of scabbery; one sane
toned by the officialdom of the
American Federation of Labor and
both sanctioned by the employing
classes.
Cost Company Nothing.
The Valley Camp Coal Company
will not have to pay a nickel for the
dead men. On the morning of the
disaster, 10 scabs were hauled into
'the patch" in automobiles, by deputy
sheriffs, guarded by state troopers.
There is plenty of human fodder
available. And the wives and chill
dren of the dead men will be thrown
out of the company houses to make
room for more scabs and the families
of scabs. They can go to the devil
for all the officials and owners of
the Valley Camp Coal Company care.
The miners were two miles back in
the Kinlock mine when the deadly
gas exploded. 1t might be rock dust.
It is not yet definitely known. There
will be an investigation and then the
truth may come out, or it may not.
former mine fire boss told me that
( he mine was never safe, just regu-
lar death trap.
Experienced Would Escape.
, Experienced union men know how
to take proper precautionary steps
when the fatal vapor cuts loose. They
turn off the motor and pull of the
| trolley poles before making for the
steep incline that leads to the open
air.. And don't forget that there are
280 steps to be taken before one
reaches the top.
The union miners would walk out
and refuse to jeopardise their lives
when the mine became unusually I'M
safe. But the strikebreakers had to
choose between unemployment and a
long chance of escaping death. If
workers who do not believe in the
value of unionism worked for while
in coal mine and escaped with their
lives, their conversion would be quick
and distinguishes they are con-
genital serfs.
Officials Guilty.
Every official Of the Valley Camp
Coal Company should be indicted fol-
murder" said a former fire boss tc
me. "They knew that the mine was
dangerous. They could have helped
to make the mine reasonably safe by
reversing the fan, which now drives
the air into the mine and out thru
the entrance. If the fan were tulnet
the other way, it would suck the ga.
out thru the shaft. AS it is, wher
the gas breaks loose, !" He threw
up his hands in a despairing gesture
Gas, gas everywhere.
Perhaps reversing The fan woul,
cost money! No. The officials 0.
the coal company simply don't give :
damn like that Texas mule who's
bonehead antics a friend Of min'
likes to describe on appropriate oc
casions. The mule however was onl,
playing with his own head; the Goa