The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-07-15

the Pittsburgh Terminal Mine No.
here. There will be bigger mass
picketing tomorrow to bring out the
others. Particularly the women
pickets are making arrangements to
appear in sufficient force to defy
the ban placed on women picketing.
Pittsburgh Terminal mines are be-
ing re-struck by degrees, and the i'm
mediate problem of the Library sec
ton, in which most of these mines
are located, is to crystalline the in
tense, smouldering resentment of
those in the mines, and build the
mass picket lines outside, to turn
this dribblng out of miners once
forced back to work into an open
stampede out of the mines. After
Coverdale comes Horning, Mollen-
auer, and Castle Shannon, and
others.
PITTSBURGH, Pa, July 14.-Six
delegates from historic Harlan coun-
ty Kentucky, came into Pittsburgh
today, two days ahead of schedule,
to attend the United Front National
Miners Conference which will take
place Wednesday and Thursday.
They are the first contingent of a
delegation of 80 which is on the
road.
"The Kentucky miners are so in
terested in this National Conference
and in the National Union" said
their spokesman, Afford, "that they
started out just any way they could,
in their cars without tires and they
are rushing here to get in just as
soon as they can. We want to go
around and tell the Pennsylvania
miners a few things about Ken
lucky"
Afford and the first six will get
their chance. Preparations are
made to tour them around the strike
area here between now and Wednes-
day at IL a. M, fast time, when the
conference Of five or six hundred
delegates get into session.
Afford sat in the N. M. q. Office
here and told a. story that has an
old familiar ring, about conditions
in Kentucky and United Mine Work
ers officials treachery. About three
months ago, 1000 miners in Harlan
county went on strike, spontaneously.
They could not stand the bad air
caused by brattices being left down
and all sorts of company schemes to
save a few dollars at the expense of
the miners. They revolted against
a wage cut from 40 cents ton with
a little pay for dead work, down to
80 cents with no pay for dead work.
This cut was on February /. They
didn't like the Is and II hour day.
Company stores were charging them
40 per cent above the prices in other
stores. House rent was $40 for four
rooms, in old rotting houses with
every facility absent. Cars that used
to weigh, six years ago. from 40 to so
hundred weight, were now cynically
weighed by the companies at 81 to
81 cwt.
The Harlan strike started as an
unorganized strike. The men them
selves, hearing stories of the ancient
militancy of the United Mine Work
ers, went ahead and organized To-
Gals, and got charters for some of
them
Then they began to be disillu-
stoned, The Lewis organizers never
came within fifty miles of the scene
where miners we're literally fighting
for their lives against horde of 300
gangsters and company gunner
made over night into deputy sher-
ifs" and given machine guns and
bombs to go out and kill strikers.
William Turnblazer, Lewis district
president of Kentucky and Tennes-
see, has his headquarters at Jellico,
Tenn. He never has come any clos
er to the battlefield than Pineyville,
IS miles from Harlan.
Turnblazer made an agreement
with the governor to send in militia,
and sent word to the strikers that
the militia were to protect them
from depuized mine guards. The
militiamen actually preserved neu-
trslity for "a hours, Afford says.
Then their officers were moved to a
hotel in Harlan which is a meeting
place for the coal operators, which
in fact is generally knowns as 1.-THE
Operators Hotel" From that mo-
ment on, the situation changed. The
militia had orders to harass the
strikers. The miners still feel that
the rank and file of the militia are
not against them, but they want to
see the militia go.
Relief became a problem. Local
relief committees did heroic work,
canvassing all adjacent parts of Vir-
ginia, Tennessee, and even Illinois.
But the strikers thought that a real
union should do more than this.
Their communications to the UNIV.
International Office at Indianapolis
remaining unanswered they sent
delegations to see mfr Lewis"
These delegations came back con-
siderably angered because they had
the door slammed in their faces at
indianapolis.
Not a cent of relief did the UNI.
w send into Harlan county while