The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-07-20
This is the second of a saries of three arti
cIes. The last article will appear tomorrow.
"A reply to Edmund Wilson'S New Republic
Article of July 81
By BILL DUNE
Article II

TT has already been pointed out above that
while Wilson is of the opinion that "the flu
ture of the country depends upon the success"
of a spontaneous native labor movement with
trained native left-wing leadership" such as he
claims the southern West Virginia miners move
ment to be- that he is in favor of this movement
being mulched with Musteite manure so that its
natural militancy can be guided into the chan
rels of worker management cooperation" for
which the Musteites stand, and which as the
concrete expression of its policy of class peace as
against class struggle, is the unbreakable link
binding it to the A. F. L.. and consequently, in
the case of southern West Virginia, to the Lewis
machine.
AS in Elizabethton, Tenn, where the Mustetes
put over a blacklist system in the form of
personnel director and aided the mill bosses
to improve their speed-up system, and called it
a victory for the workers, as in Danville, Va,
where they appealed to the mill owner to allow
them to reorganize the production system and
increase output at the expense of the workers,
so in West Virginia the Musteites are preparing
another betrayal which they attempt to disguise
- verv oentlemany criticism of the Lewis ma
chine Just as Wilson does not mention the fact
that Pinchot sent state troopers to prevent min
ers carrying through further mass picketing of
the intunction-protected wildwood mine after
one miner had been shot TO death and score
wounded by special deputies, so also does he say
nothing of the whole series of actual sell-outs of
the miners by Lewis from 1922 to the present
time.
Wilson leaves the door open for return to
the Lewis U. M w. A. and he must be very angry
indeed because the National Miners Unon--and
the Communist Party, Mr.. Wilson-has already
taken steps to prevent the West Virginia miners
being led blndfod down that road to betrayal
by campaign for unity on the national scale
against the coal operators and u. M w. A. strike
breaking
The Musteites can unite with Keeney because
he is against unity of the rank and file based
on democratic elections and adoption of a COM
mon program Of demands and action. The
Wilson article with its diatribes against the Com
munists and the National Miners Union who
are fighting for just this kind of unity, his care
full avoidance of the whole question Of the united
front of all miners against Lewis and the oper-
ators is alone sujcient proof that the Musteites,
with Keeney who is simply defeated U. M w.
A. official, wants to preserve the mine fields of
southern West Virginia. with their thousands of
half-starved miners, women and children, as a
Musteite playground where they can maneuver
at the expense of the miners for a return to
Lewis for an organic alliance of social fascsm
in the coal fields. The Musteite conception of
unity is the American Federation Of Labor and,
knowing that Green, Lewis and Co. need Mus
teite mantle of Brookwood College phrases, they
believe they can be induced to accept 1t If borne
hr the hands Of several thousand betrayed work.