The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-05-18
Hays Deserts Meeting
Called by KY. Miners
Civil Liberties Union Speakers Whitewash Ter
ror; Attack N,M.U.; Declare Walter B,
Smith Good Fellow"

KNOXVILLE, Tenn, May l5.-Ar-
thur Garfield Hays, attorney and
member of the delegation of the
American Civil LIBERTIES Union to
Kentucky, abandoned all pretense of
fighting for free speech when he, de-
serted a meeting arranged for him
by Kentucky miners i'll Middlesboro,
and repudiated it, At the same time
he went to Civil Liberties meeting
in Knoxville, where he attacked the
miners leadership.
The meeting arranged Yesterday at
.Middlssboro. KY. was broken up by
six carloads of gun thugs who
planted a machine gun in the field
The thugs gave c. Mahan. chairman,
until Sunday night TO get out of
town or be killed. They stated
We're going to clean up Middles-
boro Junction.
Before the meeting the National
Miners Union wired to Roger Bald
win of the American Civil Liberties
Union asking it to assign speaker
to The meeting. and. on Baldwin's
agreeing. advertised Arthur Garfield
Hays of the A.CL.U delegation to
Kentucky as g speaker. Last night
Hays was quoted in the local press
as saying that the NM.U. had no
authorization to say that he would
speak. The N. NJ. U. has wired Hays.
demanding an explanation of his
statement
WhiteWash;ng Operators,
The meeting held BY the American
Civil Liberties Union last night in the
Andrew johnson Hotel here with the
delegation present which had been
refused the right to hold any meet
ing in Bell or Harlan Counties Ken
lucky. was a complete whitewashing
OF the terror raging in Eastern Ken
lucky. American Civil Liberties Union
representatives absolved the opera
tors and the employers of all blame.
Brosdus Mitchell and other speak
ers denied the economic cause Of the
terrier They did not bring out, and,
on the contrary, covered up the fact
that the miners struck against abb
golute stark starvation, and that the
operators and their agents in county
and city office jailed, beat up and
murdered workers and their leaders
10 keep the miners starving and save
money for the coal companies.
iTitchelI said: What those Ken
tu,l ians need is education. They are
baitIWard. The terror is not due to
lnl economic cause"
arthur Garfield Hays, leader Of the
kal edition; Jesse Duke, Washington
attorney, and other speakers admit
ted that the American Civil Liberties
Union purpose was to prevent work
ers from rebelling
To Prevent Revolt.
Duke stated: I'VE came down here
to prevent revolution. The workers
will not stand for such oppression
and terror and will overthrow our
cherished government"
Arthur Garfield Hays was intro
duced by Attorney John Randolph
Neal as IAN ardent supporter Of the
American government" Hays fatty
stated that Communists are less en-
titled to liberties than any other
group, because they do not grant
liberty to others" Hays also said:
Tolerance is the important thing in
life; that's why I don't like the fas-
cism of Italy or the Communism Of
Russia. I believe in the American
system of democracy"
All the speakers admitted terror
existed in Kentucky, but attempted
to Isolate it from the general cam
paign Of brutalities by the employers
and their government, and excused it
as due to LOGAN ignorance.
Good Fellows"
Mitchell stated: Eastern Kentucky
is the only corner in the United
States where man can't say what he
wants to. 1t is out of step with the
rest of America"
All the speakers, including Hays,
highly praised Walter Smith,, Bell
County prosecutor, and some of the