The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-07-24
Unemployed Council Smashes
Forced Labor in Shenandoah
U.M.W.A., COUNCIL.
WORK JOINTLY In.
SUB DISTRICT 3.
Pete Onesik Tells Mine
Meet of Many Homes
Without Water
BY HERMAN NICHOLSON
Daily Worker Special Correspondent

by HERMAN IdRChELSON
Daily Worker Special Correspondent
SHENANDOAH, Pa, July 23.-The
Unemployed Council here smashed
the forced labor systematic first
community in the state where it was
killed-with two mass marches to-
the county court house and picketing.
Now, with unemployed miners water
being cut off by landlords, the coun-
Gil is guiding the situation toward
other mass demonstrations to force
the town to act. Demands made the
authorities by the leaders of the
Unemployed Council were denied.
At the United Mine Workers Sub
District board meeting Friday night
Pete Onesik, union delegate and q
leader in the. Unemployed Council,
made strong speech demanding &C
ton. He told of miners families
where children are i'll, being forced
to carry water in buckets long dis
tances because the landlord has cut
off the water to save the SO cents
month water rate.
Clarence Eisenhower, a miner with
three children, one i'll with a mastoid
condition, and who hasn't had a pay
check for nearly three years, reported
that the landlord had actually taken
the kitchen sink out of his home,
plugging the pipes
"I' going to get water" Essen
hover shouted. IF 1 can't get it any
other way-well, I've got seven sticks
of dynamite in the house, and-I'm
going to get that water turned on
again"
Joint Action
The subdistrict of the United Mine
Workers is now committed to act.
Three delegates from the Unemployed
Council sit with the mine board, and
three union delegates act with the
Council. Today the basis for mass &C
ton the mine board voted to first
expose the landlords in the local
press, and if action is not Immediately
forthcoming, to make the mass DEM
onstration.
Even on the basis of conservative
governmnt figures, Schuylkill County
ranks third among Pennsylvania
counties in extent of unemployment,
with nearly SO per cent of all work
ers reported completely jobless-not
counting the part time workers. Re-
lief for family of five is So a week;
single men, 81. At first the town
tried to put men on relief to work
cleaning sewers, prettying the parks,
etc.-laying off regular workers. The
Unemployed Council stopped that in
short order.
How do unemployed miners without
reserves live There is an extensive
Hooverville, and for some there is the
business of coal picking" This is
simply matter of going out to the
strippings, digging out the coal, and
selling it. There have been battles
with the Coal and Iron Police, and
the work itself is extremely dangerous
since, working more or less surrep-
titiously and without machinery, the
miners can't do proper timbering
and simply have to take big chances.
Some have been killed, others badly
hurt in cave-ins.
How They Live
At Lost Crek, mine village near
by, the collieries have been shut down
IA or IS months. Tlse miners had
been going out, in regular day and
night shifts, and digging out the coal
for themselves. The Coal and Iron
Police attacked them. The miners
were beaten up singly, sometimes ar
rested or driven off. They massed
together and showed the police they
were determined to use their picks
and shovels as weapons Of defense.
The miners wives hurried to the
scene, armed with kettles of boiling
water and the police backed down.
Word came from the company that
the miners could go ahead and take
the coal, but must only do it during
the day. Nevertheless the miners are
working two shifts regularly, taking
out the coal and selling it.
They get little enough, So or So
ton for the finest anthracite in
the world, for which the bootleg
dealer who trucks it to the cities
gets $l0-but to this small extent
CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE,