The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-07-31
The Ohio-W. Va. Striking Miners
Fight the ALL Betrayers
By BILL DUNE.

BRIDGEPORT Ohio July "a (By MalD All
predictions of the propagandists of the coal
operators and of the other business elements
represented in the various chambers of COM
MERGE as TO the speedy crushing of the strike
in the Eastern Ohio-Panhandle West Virginia
section having proved false-the strike is now
eight weeks old-new suppressive measures
have been worked out and are being put into
effect
The murder of 16-year-old William Simons
In Yorkville Ohio the shooting Of four miners
in Elm GroVe-by a mine guard and a mine SUI
perintendent-brutal beating of women, as in
the Smithfield jail are some outstanding acts
in a general program of forcible suppression.
Big Demonstrations Show Splendid Spirit.
Two big demonstrations of miners and other
workers within three days have shown the spirit
Of the masses: the steubenville hunger march
and demonstration on July 81 with 1000 workers
taking part and the mass funeral of William
Simon in Tiltonville with 1000 workers march
ing behind the coffin and 5000 at tbs ceme-
terry, have shown to the local bosses and their
government that the National Miners Union
has won the loyalty Of 95 per cent Of the min
ers, that it can mobilize masses on short notice.
even in the face of open threats of armed at
tack as in steubenviIle.
Continual Arrests of Leaders
On the Ohio side the local authorities have
now intensified the tactic of continual arrests
of strike leaders, On any old charge or no
charges at all, which with lapse Of a few
DAYS has marked the progress of the strike al
most from the first day. Today Bob Sivert
district secretary of the N. M. u, and Steve
Rompa, organizer for the Yorkville section, were
odged in the St. C1airsville jail-Sivert charged
with criminal syndicalsm and distributing il
legal propaganda" and Ron1pa with being his
accomplish. The illegal propaganda" is the
program Of unity and action adopted by the
Miners National Conference in Pittsburgh,
July 1915.
Mass Arrests.
On the west Virginia side 16 strike commit
tee members and active union members are
held in the Wellsboro jail on $500 bail each
charged with conspiracy to commit assault.
Among them are Alex Dorsey, Negro miner,
chairman of the section Rank and File Strike
Committee, and Maurer, president Of Local
Union fl of the N. M. q.
No sooner are these 18 leaders held out Of
tai of IS arrested last Tuesday, than the sher-
T. of Brooke County issues a decree that there
b III be no more picketing in his territory All
4 ket lines will be broken up and all pckets
s-ested he says
Picketing Banned in w Va.
Farther down the river, in the mining areas
in Ohio county, Of which Wheeling is the
county seat. the sheriff and state cossacks have
decreed that no more than five can be on any
picket line and that these five pickets must
stay at certain spots carefully chosen by the
sheriff-n cooperation with the mine superin-
tendents Three of the five must be able to
read and write English. This ruling would be
tough on the native born nliners-if rigdly
enforced.
strikebreaking Conferences.
These new strikebreaking acts and edicts fol-
low closely the holding of two conferences in
Wheeling this week, attended by, according to
the Wheeling Register, "city, state and county
law enforcement agents. representatives Of the
coal corporations of the county, labor officials
ard business men" meeting in the courthouse.
The Register reports further: "a plan Of pro-
cedure is reported to have been drawn at the
meeting, and it was agreed not to recognize the
National Miners Union which is held RESPONSE
BILE for many disorders here"
1.-The group is reported to have taken steps
TO prevent the formation of mobs in the vicinity
of the various mines in the county at which
strikes prevail. 1t was proposed to limit the
number Of pickets"
A. F. L. Leaders Plot Scabbery.
AS one would expect at such strikebreakng
of small town fascists, the local Of
ficials of the American Federation of Labor
were present-and in favor of everything. The
Register, pleased as Punch that the
conference had official labor endorsement
states with frankness that IS bound with a
little help from the N NJ. u, to cause no little
to these A. F. L. strikebreakers
among the Ohio Valley workers, that among
others attending the conference was John
Easton, president of the West Virginia Fedora
ton of Labor and Harry W. Norrington of the
Ohio Valley Trades and Labor Assembly"
What the Home Folks Are Doing.
To show that it lives up to the motto over