What is Behind the Coal Strike in Pennsylvania
Levinson, Edward
What is Behind the Coal Strike in Pennsylvania By EDWARD LEVINSON • •"II/E heard the United 1 W Mine Workers had Iqst 12,000 members," representatives of miners in the Schuylkill, Penn.,...
...Grievances of long standing, Wat* dating back a year, some nine nonths, ware pending before the toneiliation boards set up in the agreement betwee.i tfcj United Mine Workers and tha anthracite operators...
...They have got to come to it some time, if not now, eventually," is tha opinion of this veteran in the editorial field of organized Labor publications in Los Angeles...
...they have been rather a sort of battering ram, used to stir the companies and, incidentally, the district officers into action...
...An observing youth saw a little steam lift the lid of a tea kettle, and powerful steam engines, aggregating millions of horsepower, sprsng np in a few decades and revolutionised the physical aspects of our lives...
...Our union knew we couldn't afford to lose 12,000 membera, and so they sent us over to look around and see what it's •I] about...
...The Power of love, and Understanding By VLADIMIR KARAPETOFF (Profeaaor of Electrical Engineering, Cornell University...
...His contribution to the efforts st settlement of the dispute waa the promise that he would "single out the parties responsible for the strike and read then out of the organisation...
...Want a District Convention In addition to their demands for adjustment of their grievances, the strikers reiterate a previous oftrepeated demand for a district'convention to consider the matter of tha long list of unsettled grievances...
...In spite of their naive hypocrisy, I welcome these statements, for they all have a truer and broader connotation which is a worthy program for our children's children...
...The childish view that the tiger is bloodthirsty, while the pigeon is loving and meek, gradually gives way to a rational Interpretation of ing out such timidly-sprouting higher anthropological traits ss are discernible...
...Two days lster, the general grievance committee of the Lehigh 1 'and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company met and joined in the demands for speedy adjustment of long-stsnding grievances and a district convention...
...Soon after his election to office there came a reshuffling of the cards...
...For his tireless efforts to organise the Pittston miners who now seldom speak of him in complimentary language, they presented him with a big motor car...
...The biggest problem," he said, ?'is that of our idle men...
...A few years ago, Cappellini himself) was suspended as union organiser because he led an "outlaw" strike...
...Let' the Republican party have a free hand for several months, and let it give the workers a good tnste of the kind of legislation It will put over, and by summer the workers will be a good deal more anxious for independent political action than they are now...
...A general "outlaw" strike would bring more expulsions which would leave any distriet convention that might be called completely in Cappellini's hands...
...In fact a number of them said that were it not for the promise of a Labor party after the 1924 election they would not waste any time working in the La Follette taiui'a!'Tii...
...The strikers' answer was a demand for the resignation of Cappellini and other district officers and the immediate calling of a district convention...
...At the Butler colliery three grievances are .pending in one instance since May, regarding a violation of the agreement by the company on rates for new work...
...The spirit of the meeting was undoubtedly "district convention or strike...
...Part of the original strike resolution declared they would "refuse any telegram from anion officials...
...The practical program thus is: To place grouse of humanity under such conditions that there will be lass and loss occasion to exercise their brutal animal propensities and where more and more accomplishment* and satisfaction will result from lor* and cooperation...
...At first glance 1.' seemed that a general atrike was brewing...
...To put it 'n other words, humans, while still endowed with the strong and cruel biological instincts of self-preservation and propagation of the species, in common with other animals, seem to be undergoing a long aad vary slow, deep-rooted process of modification of such traits into what may ha called specifically "anthropological" traits...
...Ed Nolar, of the Machinist!' Union, with whom I spoks the last night of the campaign in South San Francisco, laid great stress in his speech, for th* workers not to be discouraged if the vote did not measure up to their expectation and to bear in mind thst th* allimportant thing waa our getting ready for the organisation of the workers on the political field ao they might be eqdipped to better serve their own interests...
...The adjustment of grievances has been primarily within the province of tha district officers and executive board...
...Tha 12,000 members of tha United Mine Worke.-s who came to the union office to pay their dues •ne morning only to And they ¦weren't wanted have been on strike .(afarnet the Pennsylvania C^al C*a>Ipeny since November 24, j 40,000 Others V.y Strike ! After more than a month of fruitjiMlS 'attempts to adjust the grievi estsae on a basis that would permit tM man to return to work, the situation in Wyoming Valley has taken a tarn where 40,000 other JBtnrbtrt of th« United Mine Workers may align themselves with the strikers, defying th ' International aad district officials, as well aa the coa' companies...
...Steinnmett.—Editor...
...1. What the miners can't understand about Cappellini's bitterness against these committees —he has termed them "illegal" and without any official standing whatsoever—was his enthusiasm back in the days when the Workers' party, ever a noisy though absolutely inconsequential element in the miners' union, called him a radical of the radicals...
...A decision between these two views, as to what humanity is, is a matter of immense importance to anyone, in that it determines one's mode of behavior and life program...
...This is probably the reason why we often look, in our actions, like a squirrel in the midst of shedding its summer fur for a winter one, or like a left-handed person who is trying to become dextrous with his other hand...
...Let them give us credit at least for having invented the names...
...As soon as you take a biological point of view, many movements will become clear to you...
...Re rose to the popularity which finally elected him to office by organizing the verysame miners around Pittston who now find themselves out of the union because they disobeyed his orders that they return to work...
...On the other hand, one could, with equal ease, fill volumes with stories of heroic self-sacrifices, conversions to sublime devotion, intelligent care of weaker ones, spiritual visions, and divine creations of art, for which we know of no parallels in the animal kingdom...
...In the balance, whether the strike is extended or not, hangs the fate of the spontaneous, democratic movement for the concentration of more powers in the hands of th* grievance committee...
...Formerly on the "outs" with International President John L. Lewis, Cappellini waa aoon on cordial terms with him...
...GIVEN a task of demonstrating that humans are more cruel, treacherous, and beastly to their own kind than any other living creature on earth, one would have little trouble in filling several volumes with narratives of the past and the present to prove this contention...
...After the men had turned a deaf ear to pleas that they return to work, on December I came the order rescinding the charters of the tan local unions on strike...
...Matters finally came to a head with a meeting of all tha grievance committees of District 1 in WilkesBarre last Saturday night...
...When the 12,000 miners in and around Pittston, at a meeting from which their district officials were Barred, repudiated their officials, forbid their attendance at future ; Strike meeting*, refused to receive -any communications .'-oji them and generally kicked over the traces, tki outside world, whose interest in coal ueuelly .begins and ends with ate am-'..eat, heard for the first time of what seemed to be a sudden revolt...
...they haven't paid that since March 12...
...Without intending to suggest any connection between the two events, Csppel>isni's friendship with Lewis warmed aa his relations with tha man in th* mines cooled...
...In the central colliery the company promised $8 a car for work on a vein that had a lot of rock in it After the men had worked through 500 feet of bad work and struck a clear vein of coal, tha company went back an their agreement...
...Whereas Cappellini and his associates in the district office were for sticking to the contract, the miners felt that the company had itself broken thfeontracts and, therefore, nj.^ntradi'ilp^peak of existed...
...Two Points of View District President Renaldo Cappelllni and his Executive Board, saw, from their Scranton offices, the prime necessity of preserving the Integrity of the United Mine Workers as an organization that kept its agreements...
...Just as a natural scientist observes a barely perceptible secondary phenomenon and then magnifies it many times by suitable surroundings, so the present problem for the optimists among us is carefully to discover, to study, and to magnify these higher human traits or call them divine ideas, if you wish...
...Such a convention has been refused by Cappellini, although the constitution provides that requests from five locals make a district convention mandator...
...Meanwhile President Cippelllni returned...
...Tha strikers and other in the doal fields knew the revolt to be the Inst culmination af a lo.-t series of Tying events...
...It waa decided, therefore, to create an organized, insistent demand for a district convention within fifteen days...
...What is Behind the Coal Strike in Pennsylvania By EDWARD LEVINSON • •"II/E heard the United 1 W Mine Workers had Iqst 12,000 members," representatives of miners in the Schuylkill, Penn., antnracite district told a meeting of representatives of Wyomin...
...Profeitor Karapetoff it Profeitor of Electrical Engineering at Cornell Univertity and a head engineer who hat taken over lotne of tike work of the late Ckarlet P...
...Therein, it seems, lies the crux of the entire conflict...
...He was then the power behind the grievance committees) and he awore by them as they by him...
...Th* minea c»U|t dozen grievances ttalnst Or cmpanies, none of Mich have received what they believe was sorely needed attention, Some of tha Grievances " Tony Panne, leader of the Pittston strikers, spoke of a number of them...
...Labor Party Tendencies By LENA MORROW LEWIS SCARCELY five million votes for La Follette and Wheeler...
...In those days, it is figured, Cappellini led more than threescore strikes, most of them of the "outlaw" variety...
...The February date brings the meeting too near the date or election, and the size of the vote Is not large enough to give the workers sufficient encouragement to organize a Labor party...
...The grievance committee* have not worked as a sort of complement to the efforts of the district officials...
...Francis Drake, editor of the Southern California Labor Press, expressed the view that, "it would have been better to call the Conference in May or June...
...At the Underwood colliery, they would rather pay a contractor with a white collar who does nothing but stand around all day tl00 a day than pay tha men that dig the coal the, difference between a fair wage and a dishonest wage...
...Small observed that anthropological traits of love, service, human brotherhood, and forbearance, point unmistakably to the existence of new hidden forces which are destined to become powerful springs of action in generations to come...
...Valley miner/ in Union Hall, WilkesBs(rre, last Saturday night...
...Enough t6 discourage the self seeking pie-counter politician...
...On them devolved tha responsibility of presenting the miners' complaints before the Conciliation Board and getting a decision...
...9 the company agreed to pay 15 a car...
...Since both conflicting views can be substantiated by numerous proofs, and therefore both must have element* of truth in them, a conciliation of the two, acceptable to our reason, must be sought One way of compromising such views, suitable for an active life program, is that humanity ia "in the process of becoming...
...Enough to encourage the workers to go forward in the organization for, independent political action...
...Severs...
...In my judgmsnt, the opinion of the rank and file of workers snd farmers snd progressive minded persons regarding the organization of the new Labor party will only be temporarily affected by the action of the recent American Federation of Labor Convention...
...Cappellini was with President Lewis' party at th* recent Calles' ceremonies in Mexico City when the strike broke on November 25, the third strike in that month...
...The widespread belief that given Aittnatt nature you cannot hope for tocial progrtts, make* the following article by a great tcitntitt peculiarly timely...
...strikes of short duration had been called and called off, only to bring adjustment of these matters no nearer...
...While we are still infinitolyaar...
...For this, let us be truly thankful...
...These latter are not the stuff out of which a worth while constructive American Labor Party can be built...
...We also thought maybe you needed gome help, and being as District 1 didn't lose any time to help us during the war, District 9 is ready to , help you now.1' — Many others art wondering what the wholesale expulsion <f members •f the United Mine Workers by International President John L. Lewis •'is all about...
...The story of the subsequent strike developments further indicates the length: to which Cappellini and hia miners have drifted apart...
...With these grievances piling up and their district officers seemingly unable to get anything dona for them, th* miners turned to their own grievance committees...
...He would have returned to the scene of the trouble immediately, he said, had not President Ltv.it "assigned me to a task in El Paso...
...Cappsllinl met this with threats of further expulsions...
...Interpreting social phenomena biologically, and believing that humanity will forever be governed by the two great animal instincts, are two different things...
...Cappellini Lad Sixty Strikes Cappellini knew the value of these grievance committees when he was fighting Brennan, who preceded him in the office of President of District No...
...Between failure to secure speedy and satisfactory adjustments and the necessity of preserving the sanctity of a contract, tha diatrict officials had to prove themselves pretty agile...
...Th* grievaae* aaaunittld submitted their peace plan te Cappellini which, in turn, ha tttraad do n. It was quit* apparent that Cappellini and the grievance committee would not mix...
...I feel sure that many of those now engaged in brutal strife, competition, and oppression are groaning and travailing within for a practical guidance to a realization of life, of love, and of international cooperation...
...The miners in the coal-sooted hills sized up the matter a little differently...
...To them the wrongs they had suffered at the hands of the company, for which their district officials' had apparently failed to secure any redress, could be weighed in dollars and easts at the end of each week...
...First—The large number of workers voting for Coolidge does not prove they are not ready or in fsvor, of independent political ac(Coattawd en rag* 11...
...When the meeting opened, however, it was evident that different strategy had been decided upon...
...In case the party is not organised in January, Noel expressed the opinion that the Socialist party should continue its educational work and carry on its organization work with a view of preparing the workers for independent political action later on...
...Only the cat does this automatically and not in th* name of high-sounding . principles...
...P. D. Noel, a veteran Socialist In ths early days of th* movement and in more recent years serving in official positions and devoting most of his time to the activities of organized Labor, questioned the advisability of trying to do very much in the way of immediate organization unless sufficient number of independent Labor unions joined in the move to overcome the action of the A. F. of L. That a Labor party is destined to play its part in American politics, as the British Labor party is in England, was claimsd by Brother Noel, but whether it is wise to organize now in face of the A. F. of L. opposition or indifference is a queatlon...
...In colliery No...
...It seems tn me there are several points to be considered in the contemplation of the new Labor party...
...So they will not be with us yet, awhile...
...Again and aitain active workers in the Labor movement, like James Morgan of the Wyoming section of the United Mine Workers, proclaimed their readiness tn keep right on after election...
...The men had waited patiently for soma adjustment of these grievances...
...With the Pennsylvania Coal Conn pan/ men remaining fast, tha grievance committee of tha Lehigh Valley Coal Company *Hrew itself into the scales against Cappellini and for the strikers by authorizing a strike vote, which has aince been overwhelmingly carried...
...from becoming truly human, we have accomplished at least the following step of incalculable Importance in our spiritual progress: Wa begin to be ashamed of open and naked manifestation* of biological instincts, and, not being as yet able collectively to suppress or to modify them, we give to our selfish actions various decorous names, such as bringing the light of civilisation to backward peoples and helping them to develop their natural resources, spreading tha true religion, maintaining an open door, making the world safe for democracy, etc...
...During the recent campaign, I spoke for the La Follette-Wheeler ticket in eleven states, and in my travels I was continually impressed with the number of persons who were looking beyond the immediate November election...
...A strike to bring adjustment was specifically barred in the agreement...
...persecution of Jews and calumnies about them, the Ku Klux Klan, the yellow peril, torturing of pacifists during the War, the Herrin massacres, of England in Egypt—all these are as simple to understand (even though mysterious teleologically) as why the cat eats mice and fights the bulldog...
...President Cappellini's plan for ending the strike did not impress the Pittston strikers witli any great hope and so they decided to remain out...
...When we asked Cappellini what assurance he would give us of an adjustment of this, he said, 'None.' At the Ewan colliery we have 120 men laid off since March 1 and a long negotiation by Cappellini has gotten us nowhere...
Vol. 2 • January 1925 • No. 1
