The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-08-08


American Civil Liberties Union is &C
tually trying to break the miners
strike against starvation and trying
to help the operators and the gov
eminent smash the organization of
these miners, the National Miners
Union, then the American Civil Lib
critics can be very proud of their re-
cent statement to the press con-
demning the N. NJ. U. because Pat
Pagan of the U. M w. and his thugs
lost the battle Of Canonsburg and
were run from the field by the min
ers of that community. 1t has
caused the operators and the press
to recognize the &C. L." as a great
institution.
This statement was instantly
picked up by the newspapers OF
Pittsburgh and made the heart and
center of vicious publicity cam
paign to lay the basis for armed &C
ton to drive the N. M. U. under
ground or if possible to crush it alto
gether.
Now, way down here in the Ken
lucky coal fields, where miners are
literally fighting for their lives
against the most extreme, open fas-
cist terror that has ever existed in
America, where they are dying right
and left from starvation and starva-
ton diseases, and still go on fight
ing, where prices are set on the
heads Of their leaders Of thousands
of dollars for the gunman who Will
kill those leaders-here we find the
Canonsburg statement of the Amerl-
can Civil Liberties Union being used
to crush this strike, to Starve more
Kentucky babies to death, to send
them to their little graves through
ths foul, painful "flux" Ga starvation
disease), and to give aid and COM
fort to the armored gunner, with
the telescope sights on their rifles,
surveying the hills for shot at Dan
Brooks, the N. M. U. organizer. You
get $1,000 bonus if you can kill Dan
Brooks within ten days, and leaflets
flooding Harlan County quote the
American Civil Liberties Union state
ment on Canonsburg as proof that
the National Miners Union is out
lawed, that it is "the common enemy
of all mankind" and its members can
be hunted over the hills and shot
from ambush like wolves or rabbits
No, the American Civil Liberties
did not say that the N. M U. was
"a common enemy" it is never as
outspoken as that. All it did was
to make a statement attacking the
N. M. U. because Canonsburg miners
defendede themselves against the U
M. w. breaking. But If Num-
and Roger Baldwin, college profess
sor and professional liberal who
signed the statement, have the slight
est political sense, they must have
known the effect of such state
ment, thrown to the rapidly fas-
Ching movement against the miners
and thrown by an organization OF
some prominence which the oper-
ators and the U. M. w. can hail as
a "disinterested third party" OF
even as a friend of the N. M. U
In fact the letter of the Civil Lib
critics begins with the salutation
"Friendsl" Talk about a Judas kiss
The Harlan County leaflets are put
out by the United Mine Workers OF
America, signed by William Turn
blazer, president of the U. M. w.
District 10. This is the man who
made the bargain with Governor
Sampson of Kentucky to fill Harlan
County with troops to try to smash
the strike which Turnblazer and In
ternational President Lewis Of the
u. M. w. repudiated, refused relief
and lined up with the coal operators
to break.
The leaflets are printed in red
white and blue and contain vicious
attack against the N. M. u, an ad-
mission that the wages Of Kentucky
miners are less than those of the