The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-12-22
By F. BoRICH


Secretary National Miners UniOn)
OXFORD PINCHOT, liberal"
u Governor of Pennsylvania, is
making another demagogic at
tempt to appear in the role of a
friend" of the exploited, hungry
miners, and an "arch enemy" OF
the greedy coal operators, The
United Mine officials, Murray, Fa-
gan and company, lost no time in
endorsing and associating them
selves with Pinchot in defending"
the interests of the same miners
whom they have betrayed SO many
times. The capitalist press through
out the state of Pennsylvania are
making strenuous efforts to utilize
the Pinchot-U. M. w. A. officials
demagogy in an attempt to pacify
the revolving miners by creating
the impression that Pinchot and
his Legislature will "solve" their
problem Of starvation by calling
the coal operators to an account.
According to press stories, Pin
chot investigated wages and con-
ditions of the miners in Pennsyl-
vania. He found them to be
"abominable and growing worse"
After citing some examples of ac-
tual slavery in the mines, Pinchot
says: MANY coal companies are
deliberately making matters worse
by cutting wages and practising
abuses which grind the miner to
level of poverty and despair never
before known to the industry His
statement concludes with the warn
ing: 1It is my intention, if these
abuses continue, to make public
the rames of companies which are
maltreating their men, and to ask
the Legislature for a thorough in
yestigation."
CONDITIONS
The conditions of the miners in
Pennsylvania, employed by the
coal operators, are much more
"abominable" than Mr. Pinchot is
willing to admit. The wages have
been cut below starvation level.
The coke ovens are overcrowded
with the unemployed. Tent colo
MES and jungles are growing in
every mining town. The under
takers are busy burying men, wo-
men and children who are dying
of hunger and cold. There is one
section of the miners whose con-
ditions are even worse than those
employed by the coal operators,
but whom Mr.. Pinchot and the
U. M. w. A. officials forget" to
mention. These are the tens of
thousands of miners employed by
the Pinchot government on the So
called public works. All of them
are employed at forced labor.
Their labor power is being paid for
by the few pounds of the govern
ment flour and a few other crumbs
of relief. This relief comes through
the company stores. owned by the
same coal operators whom Mr Pin
chot attacks at exornitantly high
prices. The government is paying
miners wages to the company
stores, giving the coal operators
thousands of dollars of profits and
depriving the miners of many
necessities of life.
In addition to this the local
governments of Pennsylvania,
working under the leadership of
Pinchot, are taking house deeds,
farm deeds, lot deeds, automobile
titles and other property papers
of the miners in return for star
Yation relief, making the unem-
ployed miners actual debtors and
slaves to the state.
Mr.. Pinchot is more than any
other individual responsible for the
starvation of the employed miners
and the imemnse suffering of those
whom he helped to blacklist. We
wish to remind the miners of Pin
chot's role in 1881.
IN 1881 the Western Pennsylva-
! MIA miners, under the leadership
of the National Miners Union,
struck against the attack of the
coal operators on their standard of
living. Even at that time the main
slogan of the strike was: Strike
against starvation" There was
every indication that the miners,
with their solid front, militant
leadership and mass activity, would
force the coal operators into sub