The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-12-14

Sweeping ahead under stimulus
of the wage agreement negotiated
last Fall, October coal production
in Illinois struck an encouraging
note for the state mining industry"
Thus speaks the Illinois miner, Of
fetal organ of the Fishwick gang
in Illinois. That wage scale agreed
on by President Fishwick of the ILL
nois district of the United Mine
Workers of America is on the face
of it about three-quarters of what
the miners were getting before
Lewis and Fishwick sold them out
last year, and was placed on the
miners of Illinois against their
overwhelming vote, but read about
the crimes of Lewis and Fishwick
in another article in this paper, and
think for a moment of what the
bosses and their agent, Fishwick,
call encouraging notes."
These are, as stated in Fishwick's
paper, that IT'S mines are working
in October of this year in Illinois,
producing an increase of nearly a
million tons of coal over the month
!. before, and more coal than was put
4 put five years ago. This October
are doing it with 51,037 men.
d "Only" Is of them were killed in
October" says the Fish, and "only"
1918 were injured enough to lose
work in that month. That was be-
fore the Old Ben company sent a
crew down into gas-filled old No. IA
at West Frankfort and got seven of
them killed at one blast. These 10
were murdered in just the ordinary
course of a miners work, mostly hit
by rocks falling from the roof, or
smashed in the underground rail-
way systems.
The Pace that Kills.
Now the miners Of Illinois want
to live, they don't like to be slaugh-
tered underground so the boss can
live gorgeously above ground. One
of their demands, to stop the rapid
increase of accidents is for decent
working conditions. "No speedup,"
they say, for speed-up means acct
dents. 1t means machines run fast
err, with men forced to be careless in
the most dangerous of all trades.
1t means hurry to drive the face
back and get out the coal, without
regard for timbering or for lurking
pockets Of explosive gas or for
mines full Of suffocating fumes. 1t
means that mine cars run recklessly,
killing those who work with them.
The miners veto the dim ''bug
lamps" some of which are supposed
to be Safety" and give the COM
pany an excuse to send men into
places where there is "only little
gas" The miners demand bigger
crews on the machines, fifteen-min-
ute rest periods in every hour, prop
err lighting. If they win this strike
and build single big, strong, Ma
tional Miners Union, they will see to
it that all other safety provisions
are carried out, and that will be
the only way that such safety meas
ures ever will be enforced. The way
things are now the company does
what it pleases, and it is well known
among the mine owners that it is
cheaper to kill a few men every
month, cheaper even to run the risk
of an explosion that may damage
the mine a little, than to make the
mine as safe as it can be made, or
even as safe as the law provides.
The War Against Hunger.
But the miners are not just fight
sing to keep from being killed in
the mines. They are fighting now
to keep from dying of starvation
outside Of the mines. This same
article, giving the conditions the
bosses and Fishwick think are so
Encouraging" mentions increased
coal production with 51,037 men at
wcxH. Now, half dozen years ago,
there were $4,000 men at work in
t0O AllluOlS ullilCS. lHICS years e15Oy
Ehere were $4,000.
What has happened? In Illinois,
~ in many other parts Of the coal
fisld, particularly West Virginia,
he coal cutting machines, the coal
loading machines, species of con-
ysyor, have been introduced. The
naehine means that miners no longer
work - they used to, one or two in
. room, which they had practically
rented from the company, and could
puA In as much or as little time as
they wished, working in their own
way, by hand, and looking out for
themselves.
\ The machine means what has
come to be called the factory sys-
tenn; It means gangs of men from
3 TO rs, working under a boss, who
tsll them to "step on it, boys" "get
busy or get out" and watches to
zee that they do it.
With no union but the company
union. which is all the U. M. w. A.