The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-01-26
TheKentuckyLegio
AS an Expert ON
Communism
BY HARRY CANNES.

A sprung up in the ranks Of the coal operators
of Kentucky and their supporters.
The American Legion in the coal regions,
whose main task while the miners were starving.
before the present strike to prepare them
for new slaughter "for democracy" now de-
votes its major activities to combating Com
muniSm."
Why do all these forces Of the coal operators,
when they are not busy shooting miners or jail
ing strike leaders, attack the Communist Party2
They can no longer brighten the miners by call
ing the National Miners Union Red union"
They want to confuse the miners about the basic
issues about the bankruptcy of the capitalist
system which is at the bottom of the misery of
the K ntucky miners.
Let's start off with the American Legion
arguments" On Jan. S, 1892 the American
Legion posts of Pineville, NIiddleSboro, Barbour
vile and Harlan met in Pinesville and passed a
resolution supposedly containing an exposure of
Communism and an argument for American
ideals"
ideals for Which We Fought"
There is growing tendency among some OF
our citizens to depreciate the ideals for which
we fought" says the American Legion.
Are the present conditions in the Kentucky
coal fields the ideals" for which the miners
fought in the army OF the American capitalism?
The last World War; in which 100000 workers
enrichment of Henry Ford Whose lawyers now
seek an injunction against the striking miners)
1t gave hundreds of millions in profits to the
U. S. Steel Corporation (Whose gun thugs shoot
down miners in Harlan County,, and it brought
hunger to the great masses of American workers.
Such ideals" the Communist Party seeks to
destroy and replace by a government of the
workers and farmers.
another Form of Government"
There exists in the United States" the coal
operators American Legion goes on to say, "a
great many persons who look with favor upon
the substitution of another form of government
similar to that established in Russia"
Does the American Legion charge that the
Communist Party works to substitute the present
coal operators government of Kentucky, which
jailS miners who fight against starvation, which
shoots down the best fighting leaders of the
miners, with another form of government? The
Communist Party points out that the present
government not only of Harlan County but Of
the United States whole is the instrument
of the big bankers of Wall Street of the big
corporations which rule not only in Harlan but
where the workers slave and starve everywhere
in the country; that it is this government which
the Legion is helping to preserve and along with
it the whole capitalist system Of perpetual hun
ger.
The Communist Party it is true, points to the
example of the workers in Russia where after
the last bitter world war in which the Gar had
100000 Russian workers killed in fighting for
the same ideals" for which the Legion now
yepS, the workers and farmers wiped out the
old system of hunger, war and brutality, and
established their own government.
This workers government was built up in the
form OF Soviets, which means councils. The
workers in the Russian mines, in the steel mills,
formed their revolutionary committees which
drove out the coal operators and the steel bosses
and turned the factories, the land and the mines
of the country over to the working class and to
the poor farmers From then on, the workers
began to build new society in which the idea
of the bosses running things for profit was wiped
out.
The result now is that it is only in the Soviet
Union that unemployment and hunger does not
exist.
The example Of the Russian workers Is treas
ured by the militant workers in every country.
1t is because the Kentucky coal operators fear
that the Kentucky miners will learn this OUT
standing lesson of working class history that they
raise cloud of lies hoping to blind the miners.
The American Legion accuses the Communist
Party propaganda of being responsible for "caus-
ing untold suffering and privation" in Kentucky.
Who is it that is cutting wages? 1t is the coal
operators Who blacklisted 5000 Kentucky
miners, long before the Communist Party of the
United States composed OF workers hardened in
the class struggle, sent its best leaders to Ken
lucky? 1t was the coal operators.
When the miners babies were dying off like
flies as the result of flux, starvation disease,
what did the Red Cross do, that shining ex-
emple Of coal operators ideals" 1--WE were sur
prised to hear" wrote Governor SIMPSONS in
vestigating committee, "that organization with
the Red Cross as its banner the emblem of the
viz and ,o If thrtef 4xxrx.
deaf refuse to aid needy men, women
and children"
Yes, it is pertinent question: Who brought
misery and suffering to the workers and their
families Of the Kentucky coal fields? The an
swer is capitalism, represented in Harlan and
Bell Counties by the coal operators and all their
agents.
1t is because the Communist Party rallies the
workers to build their own political party with
its main object to wipe out such system that
the American Legion, defending the hunger sys-
tenn, raises the cry Of Soviet interference.
wear IQ17l are NJ extraordinary oreat i,,por-