Montana labor news., 1946-06-06
JOHN L. LEWIS CONSERVATIVE

still has a great admiration for Her
bert Hoover.
At a recent abortive get-together o
labor and management he was credit
ed by n representative of the Nation
al Association of Manufacturers viii
having made the best defense of free
enterprise ever uttered. His one book
a duly written job. was a windy paear
of praise to the private profit com
petitive systematic self-same system
which has made such a shamhles OF
the coal fields.
He is unalterably opposed to ma
tionalization OF the mines. which. III
my opinion. is the only salvation fol
the almost fatally sick industry, and
is pig-headedly against such masniti'
Gently conceived projects as IVA and
Grand Coulee and the contemplated
It. Lawrence and MNA developments
When. in the early sos. Lewis made
no effort IL organize the Southern
fields which were pointed at his fast
dwindling organization like Il loaded
pistol. Oscar Ameringer. Adolph Ger
mer, Powers Hapgood and other in.
surgcnts started IA move against Lewis
which almost unseated him. But he
came back in 1898 to put on II OF
the most vigorous organizing cam
paiens even conducted. built up the
union from Il demoralized 10000 mem
nership to the well-disciplined. fight
ing half million il is today. AS head
OF the ClO, in headlong opposition TO
the ancient hierarchs of the ALL
with whom he again sits today-he or
eanized workers from coast to coast
on the pattern OF militant industrial
uninism-the same pattern which
when urged by socialists and progress
sives a few years before he had de-
cried as being made of starry-eyed
and impractical idealism.
With all this. and his often unnec
~essarily dictatorial methods of ruling
the union in addition. Lewis remains
the one man who has done more for
country than any other mine leader,
living or dead, and among the latter |
place the famous John Mitchell.
When he demanded last March that
an end be put to the callous slaughter
of the miners with all the indescrib-
able suffering that fingers long in a
coal camp after the charred bodies
have been brought to the surface, Lew
is was accused of strangling recover
sion, shutting off electrical advertis.
ing signs, and upsetting the travel
plans Of Barnum and Bailey's Great
est Show on Earth" When he pro
posed. before the war. that the oper-
ators be forced to observe some meas
ure of respect for the laws, pushed
through by the miners union. requir-
ing greater safety measures, he was
treated with scornful contempt by
these same operators.
When. during the war. while the
death rate and the accident and dis
ease rate We're mounting tragically
because Of the high pressure put upon
the miners to produce the greatest IN
nual to%nnage-600 .000. 900 tons-evel
brought to the top by miners in this
or any other nation. he was denounced
as an "obstrnctionist' and worse. Per
hars they could get around to enforc
ing some of the less stringent safety
laws after the war. but with the coun
try engaged in "a struggle for surviv
al ii was no time to be talking about
less killing Of coal-miners. Now thai
The war is over Tor is it?) Lewis re
vcrts to the subject and thereby, ac
cording to the ineffable Truman
makes war upon his government"
| have written that the bulk of tn,
accidents which make mining the mos
hazardous Of all our industries are
prevcntable. In that | am backed III
ly every competent authority from in
y~estigators for the Russell Sage Foun
dation to ex-Secretary Harold Ickc.
and even one or two operators Wht
have the CUTS 20 lecture their fellow
employers on the need for rock-dust
ing eassy mines regularly-one sur,
way of preventing methane gas. tn,
cause Of most serious eXplosions-fo'
keeping the cu%tting-bars Of the big
new machines cooled. for allowing gov
eminent inspectors to make ~frequen
trips to the pits. for maintaining con
slant vigilance on the part of thei
own supers and safety men. The rea
son that these things are not done
and the none too adequate laws ar,
either broken or ignored is that safet,
measures cost money.
The coal operators are. with one o
two exceptions. penny-pinching usui
ers.. They are for the most part II,
more than office-boys for the Ri
Shots in the banks, utilities. and raj
roads who are the absentee owners O