The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-08-21
By VERN SMITH

IN the Herrin trial, 1922, the Illinois
district administration of the
United Mine Workers defended those
miners charged with murder, but
only after some hesitation. The in
ternational office of the union did
not defend them at all, and conducted
an anti-Red, anti-militancy cam
paign detrimental to the defense
during the progress Of the trial. The
head of the American Federation of
Labor actively sabotaged the. de-
tense. The labor bureaucracy, to
those who could tell approaching
events by the shadows they cast be-
fore them, was seen to be sold Tut
to the employers and the prosecu-
ton. But it feared the mass SEN
timent of the rank and file, and
those sections of it closest to the
rank and file feared most, az1 were
least open in their treason.
In the Zeigler case 1929 these
misleaders of labor came out into
the open; frankly used the capitalist
courts to frame up left wing lead
ers. By the time Of the Pittston
case, 1923, such alliance of the A.
F. of L. corrupt officialdom with
the employers frame-up system
was a commonplace throughout the
needle trades, and in other indus
tries. In the present Gastonia case,
a formal order has gone out from
the executive council of the A. F.
of L. warning all in A. F. L. unions,
as they value their membership, to
not contribute cent to the defense
of the mill strikers and union or
ganizers charged with murder, and
the leaders of the United Textile
Workers are actively interfering in
every way possible with the organi-
cation campaign of the union to
which the Gastonia victims belong,
to cut from under their feet their
best fighting ground, a strong or
ganization of the workers in the
vicinity of the trial.
The Left Wing in Zeigler.
In Zeigler, Illinois, the miners
were the last to be unionized. The
open shoppers survived Virden day,
even, by a couple of years. The
great Bell-Zoller mines owners
early effected a working agreement
with the harrington machine. In
Zeigler Local 992 of the UNIV. A.,
President John G. Smith, and Treas
urer Brooks conspired with Secre-
tary Alec Hargis to teal money
from the union. Hargis was ex-
posed, but after losing his job as
secretary, was protected by the cor
rupt officials, and allowed to work
in the mines. Later it was adj
mitted by District IL auditors July
"a, 1929 that another machine
president of the local, o. Berry, and
Alec Hargis, while recording-secre-
tary, had made it easy for the
machine treasurer, Mike Roscho, to
steal S4,100 of union funds. The
sum was afterwards found to be
really about $1,000.
The sub-district president, Lon
Fox, and Frank Harrington, presi-
dent of District IL, ousted the pro-
gressive officials elected after this
graft was exposed, in order to per-
NIT the union election to be stolen,
and prevent the left wing leaders in
Southern Illinois, Henry Corbishley,
from winning the sub-district presi-
dency. The machine and the Ku
Klux Klan were by this time one and
the same organization in Zeigler, al
though membership in the xxx.
was forbidden by the q. M. w. con-
stitution.
After the sub-district vote was in,
and miscounted, and Lon Fox safely
in control of the sub-distrIct, a
special election was allowed to Lo-
cal 992, in which Corbishley was
elected president of the local, and
a complete slate Of progressives
took over the local union offices.
Two fights were going on. One
was against the company, which
during the misleaders' control in
Zeigler, had cheated the miners
right and left on the weights of