The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-03-28
REVOLT STARTS
AT OPENING OF
UMWA MEETING
Illinois Convention in
First Sharp Crisis

appointed clerk of the machine, la
belled "statistician," who was ap-
pointed to this juicy plum as con-
ISOLATION for his defeat by Duncan
Macdonald for president of the
Illinois Federation of Labor four
years ago. AS far back as 1919 the
miners repudiated Mercer in the
union elections, but he has been kept
on the payroll ever since by APP
pointment. Similarly, Gus Fritz,
district board member from Belle
vile, was appointed head of the
hand-picked Constitution Committee.
May Be Long Fight.
The prospects are that the 700
delegates will have an extended stay
in Peoria, ranging from two to three
weeks. The machine has provided
for an extensive program of "head-
liners" prominent speakers, to take
up the time of the convention while
it is busy trying to persuade"
rebel delegates. From the national
office of the U. M. w. there will be
President John L. Lewis, Vice Pres
ident Phil Murray, and Secretary
Treasury Thomas Kennedy. From
The city governme..t of Peoria there
come Mayor Louis Mueller and City
Attorney Fred Beckman. The clergy
is represented by Father Mcclure
OF Viator's College, and the Rev.
Victor C. Goyke Of the Springfield
diocesan charities. No speaker has
rs yet been announced to represent
the Illinois Coal Operators Associa-
ton, but Ed. Week, the secretary
manager of the unions "Illinois
Coal Sales Association" is on the
LIST. Winding up the list are also
such erstwhile radicals" of former
years as John W. Walker, president
of the Illinois Federation of Labor,
end Alex Howat, once more presi-
dent of the Kansas district by grace
- John L. Lewis.
A Mass Revolt.
All of these preparations and
maneuvers are called forth by the
revolt of the Illinois miners against
years of most shameless betrayal by
the district and national bureaucrats.
The conditions of the miners have
become intolerable. Machinery and
speed-up methods are throwing
many thousands of miners out of
the industry, scrapping especially
the older men who find it hard to
keep pace with the terrific human
wear and tear of the new machinery.
There were 10000 less miners in
1923 than in 1927, yet their total
production. was greater by 100000
tons.
The labor takers offered the men
the employers program as RENE
dy-the program of 20 per cent
wage cut. The men rejected this
overwhelmingly in referendum
last September. but the machine,
committed to the employers pro-
gram, faxed the count and declared
the wage-cut adopted. This is the
charge of leading miners from all
over the district and they claim to
have large volume of evidence to
prove it. On top Of this, experience
has shown that the wage-cut pro-
gram is not remedy at all, Illinois
coal production during December
and January, after the cut, was
$4,000 tons less than year before
at the higher wage scale and more
end more mines are closing down.
To Divide Workers.
Under the Lewis policy of sepa-
rate district agreements expiring at
different dates, each district union
is forced into position of fighting
its fellow workers of other districts
in the interests of the operators. /
Common struggle is made impossible
by the fact that, for example, the
contracts of three adjoining dis
tricts expire at three different
times. Indiana in 1880, Kansas 1881.
T'inois 1882.
By actual experience the miners
have learned to realize hat with
out drastic change of fighting tao
tics their living standards are
doomed. The great bulk of the
miners have also already come to
realize that the U. M. w. A. lead '
ership has consciously turned their :,
once militant fighting union into an
organ of the operators, into COM
pany union. But they do not yet
fully realize the futility of all hope
of recreating the union that used to
be, the U. M. w. of Virden and
Mount Olive traditions. That union
has been killed. What is needed
now is a new nationwide industrial
union that meets the new conditions
Of mechanical coal mining, and that
,an fight the trustified coal oper-
ators and their renegade laborites
oy rev tactics and methods of class
struggle.
A group of leading members of
he new National Miners Union, in
Guiding National President John j.
Watts, District President Dan Sling
81, and National Board Member
Freeman Thompson, are in Peoria
working to make the delegates
.ealize that only through the Ma
.ional Miners Union can the de-
hands of the rank and file be met.
The program of the N. M. U. is
oeing made accessible to all attend
ng the U. M. w. convention, and
he establishment sure to result