The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-13

So
In the face Of certain injury for many and
probable death for others, the strike front ex-
tends and the rear is being consolidated. This
tells the story of the morale of these workers
who have not as yet received one dollar or one
pound of food as strike relief
What is the reason for this iron determine
ton? Implicit in the chief slogan of the strug-
gle, Strike Against Starvation" is both the
main reason for stern determination of the
workers and the character of this struggle in
which the class lines are SO clearly defined.
Strike Against Starvation" is not mere al
lucrative and evanescent catchword but bat
tlecry which expresses in the most concise form
the actual condition of the mass of the working
class population in the mining camps, and the
only way at present to defend their right to live.
Let me cite one or two concrete cases, quite
typical of miners who are forced to trade at
company stores:
At Rainey mines near Pricedale, the wage paid
is IS cents for wagon holding about liz
tons of COAL loading 10 tons of coal is a good
days work. This is little less Than, Is cents
per ton or about s1.5o per day BY heartbreaking
exertion it is possible to run this up to two Or
even three dollars per shift But the mine works
only one, two or three days per week Prices at
company stores are far higher than at ordinary
stores. For single man 1t means continual
hunger. For married miner and his family it
means slow starvation and the disgusting dis
eases of rralnutrition.
Go into such camps as this at six, seven or
eight o'clock in the evening and one still hears
the day shift dumping cars and the rattle of
the coal on the tipple. The company store is an
charge of an undernourshed girl The wfir at
the shafthead stops and after while coal
blackened miners come into the company store
with scrip and buy bread, beans, canned toina-
toes and maybe little coffee. They go home.
All this means that having no surplus from
day to day, they must wait until the last pound
of coal is weighed so that they can buy the bare
necessities for supper. In dozens of company
stores this scene is enacted evening after eve
ming. OF course, when the mine doesn't work
they don't eat. Nothing over and above what
the weigh slip calls for" is hard and fast pre-
cept on which the company stores operate The
operators make much of their kindness in keep
ing the company store open evenings so as to
accommodate the miners but no Pennsylvania
coal operator has ever been known to die from
enlargement of the heart.
In the Rainey mines just before the strike the
operators were experimenting with new type
Of wagon which would contain an entire cutting
OF coal The strike stopped the experiment but
it is probable that in a burst Of generosity the
operators would have raised the price per wagon
to 80 cents, been slavered over by the Pittsburgh
papers for their contribution to increase the buy
ing power Of their employees in this trying Pc.
Rod of depression end-reduced the tonnage
rate practically to zero No miner knows how
much coal he digs or loads. According to the
miners cubic yard Of pig iron on the scales
eli
than one of Clara Bows red tresses.
Pittsburgh editor would siludder If ore even
limited that there is anything III the nature OF
forced labor in the Western Pennsylvania mines.
But right across the river from the Rainey mines
is an independent" mine which does not force
It's employees to trade at company store and
therefore Is good" to the miners. But this mine
has not paid wages for four months.
The miners cannot leave since there are no