Montana labor news., 1934-05-17
Tennessee Strikers Kids
Shrivel up, as Faith
Dies In NRA

giving %s'i up ali <als,(o Of help from
Washington, "bug-wapd' cutters OF
Tennessee have addre\ed a letter to
President Roosevelt tSling, OF their
plight. The letter is sigSdlby Win l..
Brown, secretary OF tht Cumberland
Mountain Workers League, which has
been leading a strike of these workers
started last June.
IF our children were shriveling up
before your eyes because there wasn't
enough for them TO eat and you had
tried every way you could to get a
paying job or enough relief Tor them
to live on, maybe you would be writ
ing this letter instead OF us, the let
ter starts. Folks like you who own
things that make them money have a
hard time understanding what the
working class is up against"
Telling of the start Of the strike,
when some of US has jobs cutting
chemical wood you call it, we call it
'bug-wood',' the letter continues; "A
man had to furnish his own tools and
sharpen them on his W time, and all
that the average cutter could make
in a 10 or l1-hour day was Use. A fell
low by the name of Henry figured that
he was making an average OF zhc a
meal for each member OF his family
The strike was called for $l.50 a
cord, in place of the existing rate OF
75c. Neighbors joined in with the
strikers TO form the Cumberland
Mountain Workers league, whose pur-
pose is cd To prevent the wholesale
destruction of our forests, and ~ to
better the condition of the community
by raising wages of members of this
organization.
Even the $3.50 rate would be only
l5c an hour, us furnishing tools and
losing time in bad weather." the strik-
ers point out.
Many letters to Washington were
just referred from one department to
another, until finally the strikers sent a
delegation to Washington, the letter
relates. Hartman hosiery strikers,
Wilder miners and Knoxville textile
strikers asked the delegation to take
up their cases as we'll.
when we arrived in Washington"
says the letter to the president, I'VE
went straight to Miss Perkins office
and told her secretary that we wanted
to talk with the Secretary of Labor
about the bug-wood strike and about
the problems Of 1000 other workers in
Tennessee.
"We were told that Miss Perkins
was in conference with some important
fp1frcfrt1l 1aa1arc arI rAt.iI not ka 49,
pected to give her personal attention
to every delegation OF workers that
came to Washington. We promised to
stay two or three days, if our money
held out, but were told Miss Perkins
would be too busy TO talk with us"
After the strikers had stuck it out
all winter" on April p a government
Investigator got around to our strike.
He advises us to callioff the strike and
go back to work for, 81 a cord"
The strikers relate how they lost
all faith in the MIRA diving ANYTHING for
the working class soon after our triD
TO Washington" and decided to form a
co-opeFatiye. but wera "unable to get
the smallest package of seed" And
now their children, "hah starved for
lack of greens, are still eating bread
and fat meat"
These Tennessee strikers have
learned a lesson about the class char
acter of their local government.
When we complain to- the relief
chairman" they write, "He calls the
sheriff and has us put out. Our coun-
ty is run by the coal mine operators.
They are not interested in us. They
even let one of their own workers
live for a week on paste made from
flour and water. The county
health officer has been trying to get
yeast and cod liver oil for sickly
children, but the relief committee says
they can't afford it, so the children
Just dry up and die"