The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1929-10-04
EMANCIPATING THE COAL WINER

This is the machine age and the era of freedoml
Among those booked for emancipation we find the
coal miners who have hitherto gone down into the
bowels of the earth at risk of life and health 10
bring up the fuel that supplied the motive power
to industry and filled the Golfers of the coal barons
with money. But the bad old days will soon be of
the past and henceforth the erstwhiIe coal digger
will be white-collared engineer always properly
CARRIED to shake the hand of his employers daugh-
ter and with the necessary social standing to mar
ry her. But there is cockroach in the soup.
There may not be enough miners to go round
The new thinner" is 10 be lifted to place of
dignity, where he can produce coal from the deep
cavities of the earth by the mere pressing of
button throwing of lever Machinery will
replace half the miners now laboring beneath the
surface of the earth while long strings of cars
bearing fuel to turn the wheels of industry will
go forward in ever increasing numbers Lucky
miners. 1t looks like long glorious holiday for
them with nothing to do but eat, drink and be
merry.
AT the Fairpoint, West Va mines of the Wheel
ing & Lake Erie Coal Company, long steel convey
ors reaching into the strata of coal and trans
porting it to the surface so per cent faster so per
cent safer and at 30 per cent less labor cost A
mechanical tipple will be the final cog in a ma
chine that will mine 1900 tons of coal with the
aid of As men, task that formerly required 800
men employing the old methods.
This is very interesting. But we rise to ask:
what is going to become of the miners thrown out
of employment by this new machine? Where are
they going to find work? What is to become of
their families?
Henry Ford is laying off thousands of workers
The General Motors Company is similarly engaged
More automobiles are being produced with less
help. The same process is going on in every large
industry. Combines are putting the agricultural
laborer IN the same categody as the dodo Are
the millions of willing workers going to peacefully
die OF starvation while the naturalization process
now booming along in American industry heaps up
colossal fortunes for the of land, machine
ry OF production and transportation? Tt is not
Kelly that they will lay down and die without
struggle. They may believe that they have right
to job on this earth into which they were brought
thru no fault of their own.
The farmer may think it is none of his business
what happens to the industrial worker. The indus
trail worker may think the farmers problem is
not his funeral. They are both crazy if they are
of this opinion. The millions that are thrown out
of employment in industry will not be able to
purchase the product of the fields The farmer
may enjoy looking in the solemn faces of his heif-
ers or gaze admiringly at his flowing acres of
grain but when it comes to exchanging his pro-
ducts for money the kick will not be so pleasant.
The process of naturalization in industry. which
means producing more at less cost, is going on in
every country in the world Competition between
groups OF capitalists in country and the COM
petition between capitalist nations thruout the
world makes this process inevitable New ma
cnlnery may transform begrimed coal digger in
TO whitecollared slave but for everyone SO trans
former scores are turned into paupers and vag-
rants
There is no solution to this problem that can be
executed within the framework of the capitalist
system The social ownership of land, machinery
and transportation is the only solution And that
solution can be brought only when the producing
classes establish their own government to put il
into effect
A Workers and Farmers Government should be
the slogan of the American workers and farmers