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


many as four times In some instances and
charged through tear gas barrage behind
which lay barricaded professional killers armed
with machine guns. The workers had only
sticks and stones they had picked up along the
roadside.
Brave men, these uniformed defenders Of the
coal operators who will fire machine gun burst
fearlessly into line of working men and women
land children-arned with the weapons of
primitive man-sticks and stones The Pitts
burgh papers lavish much praise on these he
roes and commend their courage in the highest
terms OF course to the Pittsburgh papers-and
especially in the view of their special writer's
like one Lytle-three women with broomsticks
and one child of 10 hurting decayed turnip
constitute an angry armed mob" OF there is
anything lower than the sadistic brutes who are
the sworn guardians of the Keystone state
with the emphasis on the coal operators and
steel barons-it is the liberal" governor who
fabricated excuses for their bloody attacks on
starving workers, and if there is anything lower
than this in the human scale it is an operators
bootlicker in the form of a UMWA official
and If there is anything lower than this it is a
special writer for the Pittsburgh papers Well
maybe Pittsburgh city editor AS southern
textile worker once said to me in the course of
a very fruitful discussion on the ancestry ana
traits of this species They could put on silk
hat and walk under snakes belly. without
tickling hirn.")
The exact numerical strength of the defend
ers of law and order" is hard to estimate but
undoubtedly Governor Pinchot, that sterling
friend of labor" who has sent SO many we'll
equipped emissaries to maintain close contact
with striking miners could give exact figures.
The gloating statements OF the local coal and
steel sheets. however enable one to form gen.
eral estimate. For instance, the Pittsburgh Press
(Scripps- McRae) said on June 9: a.. hundreds
of state troopers, deputies and coal police stood
guard along the 70-rnile coal front in three
counties" The Sun-Telegraph CHearst of the
same date said: "Those districts marked by dis
orders yesterday became armed camps as addi-
tional deputies equipped with tear gas bombs
and sawed-off shotguns went on duty" In the
very first days Of the strike Sheriff Cain OF AL
legheny County publicly declared his intention
of enlisting 10000 deputies If necessary" He
has since issued what loyal vassals of this
barony undoubtedly consider an unnecessarily
humanitarian ukase, ie, this tender-hearted
captain Of the condottieri has prohibited women
and children from appearing on the picket lines
and taking part in the marches.
This is nothing more or less than the notice
usually given to the enemy in civilized" war
fare for the evacuation Of thoss considered non
combatants before the strafing begins 1t is the
second step in the war on the starving miners
and their families. This legal fornlality was
ignored in the recent big push of June and
dozens Of women and children were ridden down
and dubbed Runor has 1t that some of the
weaker stomached hegemen who have not yet
learned the thrill that comes from clubbing bag
gard mothers and half-fed children we're
alarmed lest this social error exercise bad ef-
feet on "the public"
Eut the loyal Post-Gazette had anticipated
these spineless waverings and asserted sternly
that amy weakening on the part of the authori-
ties would have bad consequences. 1t is quite
clear that the rulers consider this strike serf
revolt in which no quarter is to be given but
that at present It is believed uneconomic to ex-
terntnate tho ensAa mine HpckAg popN]atson