The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-08-26
WORKERS DEFY MACHINE GUNS TO HEAR.
FOSTER OUTLINE FIGHT ON WAGE CUTS
Mining Steel Railroad Workers Cheer Communist Candidates
Attack On F. L. and Brotherhood Officials Treachery
TROOPS THREAT
TOSHOOT CROWD
Steel and Coal Barons
Fear Speech's Effect

CHARLEROI, Pa, Aug. 25.-Masses
of steel, mining and railroad workers,
some of whom arrived in the face Of
a threat to machine-gun them as
they crossed the bridge over the
Monongahela, heard Foster in a
ringing call to build the militant
unions and fight wage cuts in all
these industries.
Workers arrived from Donora,
MonesSen and all the nearby steel
towns up and down the river, and
from the mining centers along the
valley, to Fosters meeting, here, yes
terday.
AS the Monessen detachment came
along in a kind of informal parade,
state troopers met them and told
them would be machine-gunned if
they tried to go over the bridge to
Fosters meeting. The workers
brushed past end went over anyway.
But this threat of the heavily armed
guards of Governor Pinchot, Repub-
lican Party man, showed the workers
as nothing else would that the steel
and coal barons fear the message OF
struggle brought by the Communist
presidential nominee.
Steel Wage Cuts
Foster told the story of the betray-
al of the steel workers in the 1919
strike by the A. F, of L. leaders, and
particularly those of the Amalga-
mated Association of Iron, Steel and
Tin Workers. Since that strike there
have been wage cut after wage cut,
in the face of which the Amalga-
mated and other A. F. of L. leaders
are passive against the bosses, mill
tant only against the workers who
fight the cuts. Join the new Steel
and Metal Workers Industrial Union, y
build committees in each department
in the mills, prepare to resist these
wage cuts. speed-up and intloerable
conditions" said Foster.
U. M. w. A. Betrayals
Turning to the miners present, he
reminded them Of the tactics of
President Fagin of the United Mine
Workers District S, western Pennsyl-
vania. how the U. M w. came into
the strike of 10000 miners last year
and split the ranks by wage-cut
contract with the Pittsburgh Termi-
nal Coal Co., a tactic the u M w.
has followed ever since. Wherever
the miners fight cuts, the U. M. w.
agrees to the cuts and engages in
strike breaking. In West Virginia it
cut wages by contract from 38 cents
q ton to % cents.
In Ohio, this year, the U. M. w. A.
chiefs helped break the strike of
10000 men against wage cut by pro-
hibiting mas picketing and denying
relief. In Illinois right now thou
sands of miners fight a wage cut
agreed on by the U. M w. A. heads
and the operators, and u. M w. off,
Gals aid the sheriffs and call for vio-
lence against the miners pickets
Build the National Miners Union!"
Foster shouted, amidst the cheers of
all
r. r.. Arbitration"
The Communist candidate told the
railroad workers how the Watson
Parker law arbitration machinery is
now being used to give them another
wage cut, with the Railroad Brother
hood officials playing right along with
the companies and the government to
make the Watson-Parker law work.
Build committees in every divi-
sion and railroad Shop" said Foster,
a railroad man himself in his young
er days, and unite them through the
National Railroad Brotherhoods Unity
Committee. Prepare to strike against
these new wage cuts!"
Union Leaders Speak
Speaking with Foster were Fred
Siders. leader of the Western Pensyl-
vania District of the National Miners
Union, and Vincent Kemenovich. ma
tional board member of the N. M. u;
also Joe Dallett, organizer of the
Steel and Metal Workers Industrial
Union. Ike Hawkins, Negro miner
and head of the central relief COM
mittee in the Pennsylvania strike,
was chairman of the meeting.