The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-07-28
i NJ W Officials Point Out
Mine Strikers for Arrest
Sheriff and State Troopers Try Terrorize Min
ers from Attending Meeting in marlborough
UNIV Aids Wage Cutting in West Virginia

uoWH ana 20 10 Work.
4
EDNA, Pa, July 27.--Buck Moore,
deputy for Edna No. mine of the
Hillman Coal and Coke Co kicked
an eleven-year-ol boy down the hill
for going from one section of the
patch to the other. The deputy ac-
cused the boy of carrying strike bull
letins and carrying news" for the
miners. There is no strike here.
Men are not allowed by the dep
uties of this company to visit those
living in nearby houses without per-
nlissio of the boss. They are never
allowed to gather in groups, no mat
ter how small.
PITTSBURGH, Pa, July PA
conference is called of delegates of
the strikers and those forced back
through terror into working under
the UNIV agreement in the Pitts
burgh Terminal Mines, to meet with
delegates of the Pursglove miners of
West Virginia, where similar slave
contract was made by the UNIV ecen
before the Pittsburgh Terminal
Swindle.
The Executive Committee of the
Central Rank and File Strike Com
mittee, meeting July "a in Pittsburgh
decided to issue call for this con-
ference, and to arrange hall for it
to meet at Cocerdale, July 30 Co.
verdale is the site of one of the main
Terminal mines.
The conference will have before it
the question of united fight to
smash the UNIV starvation regime,
to smash the wage cut scale which
the Lewis gang set up in both min
ing fields. The miners will be fight
ing the same boss, for though the
names of the companies are differ
ent, both are owned by the Taplin
interests, and the PursgloYe of West
Virginia is also president of the
Pittsburgh Terminal in Pennsylvania.
1t was brought out at the strike
committee meeting that the strike is
seeping through the Terminal mines
anyway. Day by day production is
being cut down in Mine No. 8, at
Coyerdale. The newly established
picket line at Mine No. 2 at Castle
Shannon reports a steady decrease in
the workers, and the Pittsburgh Ter
minal Mine No. 3 at Mollenauer,
where there are only observation
posts, but no picket line, is losing
its workers. Yesterday there were
only 21o men in No. 8. Today there
were only 100. The company which
used to threaten vigorously in its
eviction notice, has now taken a
begging tone, inviting the miners who
refuse to go to work to come and
talk it over with the management.
The imported scabs are not getting
out much coal.
An organizer from Avela, where
Pittsburgh Terminals "P and w"
mine is located reports that at this
mine all the springs and wells are
polluted; signs are up "All water
must be boiled" and there is not an
ice box in the camp Neither is
there any running water There is
already this year one case of typhoid
from the germ-laden water, and
miners remember that there has been
a typhoid epidemic every year
Delegates from West Virginia re-
port that the 30-cent rate the UNIV
set up there is wage cut, the rate
before the UNIV came in was 36
cents.
Furthermore, Van Bittner, Presi-
dent Lewis appointee as president
of the West Virginia district of the
UNIV, is going around to companies
now unorganized and paying from IS
cents a ton to 40 cents a ton, and
promising that If they will sign an
agreement with the UNIV and give
Van Bittner and Lewis their check
off, the miners will be forced by the
UNIV to work for 80 cents ton.
In the signed mines of West Vir-
GINA, the UNIV has crew of gang
sters armed with blackjacks and pis-
tolls, who literally drive the miners to
work, and who maintain in some
mines regular picket lines to keep
National Miners Union organizers
out. The NMU organizers are there,
however, and all the attempts of the
UNIV thugs TO organize attacks on
them have failed. The miners are
for the NMU.
The West Virginia checkweighmen
are appointed by the district off,
Gals, and the weights they give are
about 3,400 for a $500 pound car.
The West Virginia bosses are try
ing the welfare gag" holding picnics
for the miners as a substitute for
wages, Mine superintendent hardly
pretend that the mine committees
have any authority, and calmly over
rule their decisions and disregard
even the UNIV contract, as bad as
it is. Secretaries OF locals Of the
UNIV are resigning in disgust be-
cause the district officials strip them
of all the money collected and do not
leave them penny. The local off,
Gals are responsible for accounting
for the money, but have nothing to
say about the spending of it and do
not know how it is spent.