The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-01-04
M 0 ST INTENSE
STRUGGLE LOOMS
AT SPRINGFIELD
Mine Demonstrations
Against Terror to
Spread Strike
40 Miners Fired Daily
.W.I.R. Calls for Funds
Children Eat Garbage

81 MINT 1I1lIIy ill., jail All
intense struggle is brewing here.
Preparations are being made for
mass demonstrations against the
terror that will be the signal for
spreading the coal strike.
The spirit of the miners is high.
When over $50 were arrested in
Taylorville, they refused bail. GIVE
US beans, not ball." they cried.
u. M. w. Gunner Thick.
The deputized United Mine Work
ers gunner are still around. Twenty
to forty men are being fired daily
for sympathies with the National
Miners Union. The firing is not
done by the bosses directly, but
by the pit committees of the United
Mine Workers.
The Peabody Coal Company owns
the mines in this section and also
the railroads. They are running
special trains for scabs from Girard,
thirty-four miles away, and are
being aided by the U. M. W. A.
Frank harrington, chief lieutenant
of Harry Fishwick, president of the
Illinois District of the U. M. W. A,
as a former (?) employe of the Pea
body Coal Company at salary OF
$4,000 a year, is of course, only too
eager to aid his benefactors in every
possible way.
Fishwick- Decision Soon.
The decision of the coal operators
courts in the suit over the injunction
brought by Harry Fishwick, presi-
dent of District IL of the U. M. w.
A. against his International presi-
dent, John Lewis, to compel Lewis
+ to stop trying to take over the Il
linois organization of the U. M. W.,
has been taken under advisement by
Judge Jones, and he may be ex-
pected to decide any time now. This
suit is ens round in struggle be-
| tween the Illinois coal operators,
backing Fishwick, and outside OPP
orators, backing Lewis. Whichever
wins, the miners gain nothing, as
| in the end it makes no difference
which group of operators buys with
the checkoff- the right to cut
miners wages and worsen their
conditions, or which gang of union
misleaders in the U. M. W. A. re-
ceive the check-off and sell out the
miners.
Fight for Demands.
The miners are anxious to carry
on the fight, under the leadership
of the National Miners Union. They
are struggling for general demands,
such as the six-hour day and five
day week, the $50 week minimum
wage, no discrimination against
young miners and Negro miners, I'M
employment relief paid for by the
operators or the State, bigger
crews on machines, rest periods for
machine crews, no more check-off,
etc. They also have in every mine,
many local demands, concerning
safety measures which are now prac-
tically absent; against being forced
to lay tracks, set timbers, take up
bottoms and do other unpaid work;
against being made to stand in line
in the open Winter weather for
half or three-quarters of an hour
before going to work, etc.
More Relief Stations.
Marcel Scherer, representative in
Southern Illinois of the Workers
international Relief, with main Of
fees at 949 Broadway, New York,
attended the Taylorville w. |. r.
conference yesterday. He states:
"a relief station in Taylorville is
badly needed. I am looking for a
store now, but expect trouble from
U. M. w. A. guerillas if open it.
The station in Eldorado is already
open and another one will have to
be established in Christopher. Funds
for relief are the crying need.
"In Saline County l found chill
dren picking oranges form the gar
bage of the company store. You
can imagine how rotten the oranges
must be for the company store to
throw them away. And the kids,
hungry and miserable, were eating
this filth!
"We will try to get some food
from the farmers, but we must
have immediate funds for relief. We
are also arranging larger relief con-
ferences in Christopher, Springfield,
Belleville and st. Louis during the
next two or three weeks"