The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-19
BY j. LOUIS ENGDAHL.

D.
HAVE inst come from the depths of the Har-
l Ian County Jail, in Harlan, Kentucky, heart
Of the Eastern Kentucky coal fields, that spawn
riches for some of the greatest corporations in
the land; hunger, misery, death, for the MINERS
their women and children.
Nearly 100 miners and their sympathizers are
crowded into the dark cells of this prison. A
score are charged with murder, carrying the
death penalty Scores have been indicted Tor
banding and confederating" Criminal syndl-
caIisn1 is supposed to be the crime others nave
committed for speaking at meetings.
No one knows not even the jailed union Of
ficiaIs or the lawyers, exactly how many prls-
oners there are. Warrants for arrest are OUT
for scores more. New prisoners are being bought
in practically every day.
The Eastern Kentucky coal miners cannot
fight this out alone. Whether in Harlan's dun
geons or out in the dark mine pits OF the nils
and mountains they writhe under the heels OF
such great combinations of organized dollars
as the United States Steel Corporations Cthe
Steel Trust); tht Peabody Coal Company OF
Chicago; the Peabody-Insull interests, the Wis
consin Steel Company, the commonwealth Eol-
son power monopoly.
Fxactlv at the moment that the Steel Trust
heads. Farrell and Schwab in New York, were
Theoretically voicing their opposition to wage
cuts. and Sammy insult was advancing mil
lions of dollars in loans out of his stolen wealth
to his newly elected Chicago municipal gov
eminent the gunner and thugs OF these IN
terests" recruited from the dregs of bootleggers
rum runners and hijackers, were pouring broad
sides of murderous dunn dunn mushroom) bul-
let's from machine guns and high-powered ~
shot rifles against striking Eastern Kentucky
coal miners, seeking to utilize the strike weapon
in defense of their efforts to organize to fight
wage cuts TO resist the lowering of their starva-
ton standard of living SO low that in many
instances working miners were forced to ask for
charity to keep alive.
The mine strikers bury their dead But they
do not forget. There are no statistics OF mar
tyred workers in Harlan County.
But the mine owners press dhe press that
Icks the boots of the Farrells, the Schwabs the
insults, the press of the Harlan County Coal
Operators Association, RACES through the coun-
trysde; Governor Sampson orders out the state
militia; Sheriff John Henry Blair Deputies new
hordes of criminal scum; Circuit Judge D. G.
Baby" Jones calls a special grand jury, boss
class claw and order" seeks the blood of work.
ers because in their attack on the coal miners
free city, of Evarts, in May several mine own
ers gunner were also numbered among the
dead 1t was Gastonia all over again. exactly
two years after the textile workers in the Man.
ville-Jenckes mill town of North Carolina had
stood their ground against the armed lynching
mob attack led by the Chief of Police, Aderholt
Not a single mine guard, deputized thug OF
other riff-raff Of the Farrell-Insull anti-labo1
army of mankillers has been arrested. But the
1nan-hunt goes through the mountains for
the leaders and organizers of the miners strug-
gle against hunger.
/ talked with w. B. Jones, secretary of the
Miners Union, sitting in his prison CELL He
told of oppression of labor through these Ken.
lucky mountains that made human slavery il
the pre-Civil War days of more than 10 years
ago seem paradise. For struggling against these
conditions he is charged with murder
Here in this same Jail sits Joe Cawood, thu
miners candidate for sheriff in the last cleo
lions who was counted out in real Tamman,
Hall STYLE while the insult gang was screaming