The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-09-20
<PeaCe" in the Ohio Coal Fields

up is being introduced in every in
dustry, which is displacing its own
hundreds of thousands. What is
then to be done? Shall the work
ers, as at the time of the installa-
ton of the first textile machinery,
attempt to destroy it? He shall
not: The machine must be put to
the service of the men and women
who use it-not to enslave them as
it does today, not to represent more
profit for the owner, the capitalist,
but to furnish greater facility of
production for the workers.
Today that means that the worker
must demand the lowering of hours,
an equal division of work, so that
each miner will find employment
and none will suffer. But in the
end that will rot suffice, for the
machinery of production, N the
United States in particular, has
been improved to such an extent
that, compared with 1919, IL per
cent less men produce 26 per cent
more commodities. This can be in
creased by scrapping the old ma
chinery and methods, by cutting the
waste in overhead and distribution,
so that only part of the workers
will be employed while the majority
will remain idle.
What is the solution? That the
workers must prepare to take over
the machinery of production to op-
crate it not for profit-nor from
the standpoint of production-but
for the purpose Of use. This means
the Revolution-but the American
worker is not yet prepared to fight
for that-neither organizationally
nor ;deologically. The conditions,
however, will force him in that
direction.
The sell-out is complete. The big
operators will not deal with the
union, reactionary as its officials
are and willing as they are to sac
rifice the men. The mergers and
classification in the non-union fields,
the control of the railroads, the in
PRODUCTION of machinery, make the
settlement a joke.
There can be no peace in the coal
fields. The miners must recognize
this, and have recognized it, and are
preparing to build up a new union
that will fight for the interests of
the miners. Today the miners are
forced to accept the conditions that
the sell-out of Lewis, by decision of
the Executive Council, forces upon
them. They must accept them
and they do--not with the, concep-
ton that ali is lost. No-out of
the chaos, depression and defeat a
new union is growing. Not re-
plea of Lewis union-but a fight
ing union with a different policy
and a different aim. Though it is
not stated in the program of the new
union, inevitably through the strug-
gle in the mining industry, as in
other industries, with the ad-
vancing war, the miner will not and
cannot be content with continually
facing unemployment, hunger and
deprivation. The miners have
learnt a bitter lesson. Not only
the coal operators are thei: enc
mics, but the government, too, OPP
presses them. The textile workers
of New Bedford also are learning
the role of the government. The
Canton steel workers are learning
to their enlightenment. All these
workers will learn-through the
struggle for better conditions-that
the employers will oppose them
and though here and there they will
make concession-in the end they
will stand fast. They will learn
that, the fight will have to be a
basic one: shall the workers or the
capitalists control the mines and in
dustries of the country? Shall the
workers suffer and struggle, OF
shall they struggle and demand con-
trcl?
This question will be posed in the
not distant future-and the shame.
full betrayal of Lewis and his yield.
ing to and cooperation with the
government will have taught the
miners the proper lesson. There car
be no peace, either in the coalfields
exists. The struggle is on and will
continue till the workers have taken
over control through their organized
power, facing the capitalists and
the capitalist government, facing
them and defeating them; defeating
and destroying them and establish
ing working class power--the pro-
Iletarian dictatorship