The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-03-22
BY VINCENT KEMENOVICH.
(Secretary District Five, n. M. u

RECENTLY two conventions" were held in
~ the name of the miners of the United
States-one in Springfield, ILL., and the other
in Indianapolis. The one in Springfield under
the leadership of Howat, Brophy, Walker, ct
al, was under the direct control of the Pea
body Coal Company, which worked directly
through its agents, harrington, Fshwick and
Loda. The Indianapolis convention" was the
typical U.M.W.A, with the paid henchmen and
machine supporters as the delegates" picked
to represent the miners.
AT the Springfield gathering two miners"
spoke for the 100000 Pennsylvania coal dig
gers. Neither have seen Pennsylvania for
several years. Neither knows what wages and
conditions prevail in the state at present. One
of them, Powers Hapgood, has been engaged
in feverish campaign to be taken back into
the fold of the W.A.-through the good
graces of a Miss Roche, owner of the Rocky
Mountain Fuel Company in Colorado. The
other, John Brophy, has been selling canned
goods for the elder Hapgood, of Indianapolis
Both Deserted.
When the coal corporations in the Pennsyl-
vania fields were cutting wages, wiping out
conditions, forcing the miners to pay exhorbi-
tant prices in the company stores-when the
miners were being murdered and jailed by the
coal company police, evicted and vctimized,
these two gentlemen were either tilling their
gardens las per photos in Colorado news
papers) or selling the canned stuff to soup
merchants. And now these gentlemen come to
speak in the name of the men whom they de-
serted and left at the mercy of the coal cor
porations.
Why? In order to receive recognition from
the Peabody agents, one had to bring some
thing. Harrington had squeezed out of the
Peabody mines tens of thousands of Illinois
miners. He was instrumental in forcing Ill-
nos miners to load rs tons of coal for wages
that were 100 per cent lower per ton. He
forced the men to do work Of two and three
by speed-up, increased unemployment-thu
creating market of willing slaves for Pea
body. Fishwick, Loda, Nesbit, ETC., all helped
in this.
Alex Howat, at the same time, promised to
deliver the Kansas miners and the name that
the Kansas miners had built up for him during
the years of struggle against the agent of the
U. s. Steel Corporation-John L. Lewis. By
utilizing this name, he hoped to further fool
the miners.
Sharp Contains.
Brophy and Hapgood had nothing SO tangible
to offer; their names were not in. the same
class with Howat they were not in position
to deliver the miners in Indianapolis or Den
yer, SO they struck the happy medium by pro-
missing to deliver the miners of Pennsylvania
on the altar of the Peabody Coal Company
greed They forgot to consider slight de-
tail-would the miners of Pennsylvania permit
this delivery? These gentlemen, Brophy and
Hapgood, who had deserted the Pennsylvania
miners during the bitter fight of 1927-192S,
fight against the bosses and their agents,
the Lewis machine, came with no mandates
from the miners. These two takers simply
came to the convention" and assumed their
rightful places in the Peabody organization.
Brophy had spent several days in the Penn
sylvania mining field few weeks before the
convention" and the best he could do was to
get the Colorado miner" Hapgood, to be his
co-delegate from Pennsylvania In this in
stance Peabody is not getting his moneys
worth and this probably is one of the reasons
why Brophy did not get elected to some exalt-
ed office in the Peabody union.
On the other hand, the U. S. Steel conven-
ton in Indianapolis also boasts number of
miners leaders" who speak in the name of
the Pennsylvania miners-P. T. Pagan, Philip
Murray, John O'Leary, etc. who in turn pledge
the Pennsylvania miners to be the obedient
slaves of the U.S. Steel trust Were they
delegated by the miners to do this? By no
means! The miners did not send the Fagans
and Murrays to Indianapolis in which they had
slight interest. The U.M.W.A. machine has
kept on the payroll the Hugheses, the Gulicks.
Fagans, Murrays, ETC., and the fraternity of
gangsters, stoopigeons, paid pickets, ETC. Con-