The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-04-09
BY FRED YTGMAN

By FRED VTGMAN
II
The third Of g series Of articles, Communism
In Kentucky and Tennessee" that appeared In
the Knoxville Journal as part Of the coal
operators campaign to crush the miners back
to work without organization or won demands
is a most vicious attack on the miners their
strike struggle. the Workers International Relief
and such sympathetic elements SIS the recent
writers delegation,
The Knoxville journal would have its readers
believe that the miners were not striking against
living standard that spelled actual starvation
10 themselves and their families, but rather at
the behest Of union organizers and writer's who
made of it a lucrative business. The journal
then quotes that section Of the Fish report that
purports to bolster up this strikebreaking con-
tention. In trying to separate the union and
relief organizers from the miners the Journal
tries to undermine the influence and orgariza-
ton work Of the National Miners Union and the
Workers International Relief. Thus the attack
against the miners is launched as follows:
Communist led strikes have become we'll
organized racket, remunerative to both the
organizers and to the radical New York writer's
who give them publicity
SIN Gastoria, PineviIle and Harlan the same
methods have been employed with satisfactory
results to both the organizers and the writer's.
0IlOuIu OIl5 SUrlk6 announced IOr EAuOAV4I6
the latter part Of April be called, the same
obvious plan OF procedure would be followed
here"
More Inciting Statements
The "strike announced for the latter part Of
ApriP' is a provocative statement originating
solely in the Journals Office in its campaign OF
Indictment against the miners and their organi-
cations.
The journal would have the striking miners
believe that they put forth impossible demands
and that the union and relief organizers and
writer's proceed to make political capital out Of
this. No mention is made of the terrible condi-
tons that forced the miners to move in the
direction OF union organization and strike strug-
gle to defend the very right to live. The Journal
does not say anything about the reign of terror
directed against the miners and their organizers
to crush the miners back to starvation con-
ditions.
Then resorting to the basest sort Of an attack
ON the workers relief organization, the Workers
international Relief, the Journal writes:
"But what becomes Of the money collected
for the strikers as result Of all this publicity
isn't often written about. Presumably it goes
to feed hungry children IN reality it doesn't"
Aimed at the disruption Of the mass basis Of
the relief campaign for the miners, the Journal
then spews forth other most vicious lies.
The struggling miners Of southeastern Ken
lucky and northern Tennessee, who have wit
messed the workers International Relief mobilize
thousands of workers for mass relief and support
Of their strike, are testimony to the backness Of
these coal operators ISLANDERS.
When in the earlier struggles in Harlan Coun-
ty, Kentucky, the United Mine Workers aban-
doned the miners to the tender mercies of the
coal operators and their gun-thugs and the
miners turned to the National Miners Union,
the relief support organized through the Work
ers international Relief was factor in helping
the miners build their union organization.
The coal operators tried desperately to snatch
away the weapon Of relief from the miners. The