A PLAN TO NATIONALIZE COAL
A PLAN TO NATIONALIZE COAL Report of the Miners Nationalization Committee Presents Basis for Solution (( rj-ow to rDs coal?" J—f That i« • i/ur»tu,n that it agitating workers, owners...
...Comrade Walker nad been in ill health for months but had continued his work on the Daily Graphic as director of the art department until his condition required that he submit to an operation,, A slight relapse during his convaleacence induced his wife, who had visited him every day, to start early Saturday morning, when the accident happened at the Great Notch Station of the Erie Railroad...
...But as long as he elects to try for a thing called civilization—to come in out of the wet and eat cooked food —he must push on with his unnatural experiment and not lie down in the midst of the muddle...
...Ryan and "Maudit" Walker were ideal lovers...
...Administration The job of administration is to do...
...Democratic management must be the blood and bones of a plan of nationalization for the mines...
...Mrs...
...Unless unification and order enter the industry, there will be a blow-up somewhere, followed by drastic, angry and frenzied legislation...
...2. The wage a* the first charge againat the industry...
...Public Ownership But any plan of nationalization must afso include ownership by the public...
...Such a life is a social heritage of the present and future, and in union with similar lives they form a stream that gathers all that is good and noble and conserves it for the happiness of mankind...
...the "good" manager haa too often been forced to be a Labor "tqueezer," cutting nates to prove his efficiency...
...These district councils will he made up on the | same threefold lines of local execuI tives, miners and consumers...
...culty, skill, 4. The local conditinna of yardage, timbering, rorkfalls, dirt, faulta...
...Their affection was not circumacribed by the bounds of family and personal frienda...
...The human derelicts cast up by a maladjusted civilization mada her conscious of th* kinship ef all humanity...
...Although childless, aha mothered the children of all man...
...Ryan Walker is widely known in this country because of cartoons on Labor questions, and his work is also greatly appreciated in England, Australia, and New Zealand...
...The American worker has no use for the thing called State Socialism...
...By democratic management ha means that coal shall be run by the people who mine it, who apply their scientific knowledge to its problems, who transport it, who sell it, who use it...
...What are needed are some plain rules of the road...
...The National Mining Council appoint* the mine managers, in consultation with the regional councils...
...There will be regional council* for the various large coal fields, such aa the central competitive and the tide water districts, the anthracite, the southwest, and so forth...
...A permanent fact finding agency will be one of the instruments of control...
...Ownership of tha mines by the miners alon* would be a* unjust and a* diaaitrou* a* owaerahip by the coal operatora haa proved itself to be...
...the layer of and the sympathizer with the lowliest .f earth...
...This means that the Federal Commission of Mines and the Secretary of Mine* will have the final say on these matter...
...Why Man are willing to risk their lives and spend their days in dangerous and racking toil...
...Thwarted childhood appealed to her, and th* cry of her sisters, drawn into th* sordid vertex of greed, vexed her sensitive toul and made her shrink from tha moral disaster that often awaitt tham...
...The only large-scale proposal has come from the United Mine Workers of America in their demand for nationalization...
...She had beauty, brilliancy, wit that flashed from her sparkling eyes, and a winsmi'.inets, kindliness and abounding good nature that won and held for her the love and admiration of the whole community...
...8. The differentials for i},k diffl...
...Wagea »ui be aaade iha first charge against tke induatry A good American life for the Miner will be regarded at of equal importance with a ateady aupply of coal at a reasonable price to the public...
...In the patt...
...It is the steady average annual offering of over a half million miners...
...But not one of these elementary facts is known today...
...It were b'tter to be a relative or friend of such a one who has passed from us than to be with one whose soul never quickened to the tragedies of life, or the Socialists present were John McMahon, Bruce Calvert, W. W. Passage and wife, William M. Faigenbaum, Ben Belsky, William Nudleman and wife, and James Oneal and daughter...
...It is no...
...How weak, how very feeble, words are in an hour of tuch heart-breaking and toul-siekening bereavement 1 Ryan Walker, the tupremt artist, idealist and dreamer...
...Control means statistics of output, requirements, stocks...
...The miners will be nominated by the United Mine Worker* of America...
...Nevertheless, such questions as the division of the annual product and rates of pay for the various grades of work, and tha conditions of the working place, will iways remain...
...They give ten, twenty, forty years to hard labor...
...It must be in a position to discuss wages through the Wage Scale Committee —an independent joint conference board...
...There will he no complete cooperation until his suggestions are welcomed and weighed...
...Standing at the railway atafton, awaiting eagerly, impatiently, the train to New York where her beloved hutband was to undergo a critical operation at a hospital, she oat struck down by the ruthing train, her fair flesh was mangled and bespattered with, her own precious blood, and within a twinkling her radiant and beautiful young life wat muffed out and htr great white toul winged itt way to the farther shore...
...We spent hours and hourt in the beautiful companionship that has ever tinee been a treatured memory...
...Bat it 1* alwaya owaerahip that gives the power of deciiion...
...Safeguarding the Public The power of the purse will rest with the permanent Federal Commission of Mine...
...Against great odds and powerful opposition 1 tha workara hav* won a meaaura of control, certain negative functions of management...
...To give control to the community as a whole, to aafeguard the future as well as tha present, to practice the American policy of conservation equally with that of business initiative—all this is in the job of control...
...The happiness of multitudes of common people rests on thinking out the problems of human relationship under the strain of industry...
...a kill, difficulty and UeaJ condition...
...Of thought-out plan and remedy they have offered none...
...Our last tribute, our last wish, is, may we be worthy of her confidence, her affection, her rare life, and may she sleep well...
...One group will be the administrative heads of the industry— financial, technical, managerial...
...In other words, the United Mina Workers of America under nationalization will not only participate ia administration, but must in addition maintain its own life and integrity as "an independent organization of initiative and defense...
...ing wage measurement one of the furirtions of the Federal Commission under the prin ciplea of collective bargaining, which will be aafeguarded by an independent Joint wage acale committee...
...These are simple, easy, fundamental and essential facts in running an industry...
...So it will be necesry to provide a special and separate machinery for collective bargaining...
...These are our proposals: 1. A Secretary of Mlnea In the Cabinet 2. A Federal Commlaeion of Mines, to control budget and policy on the baaia of contlnuoua fact-finding...
...5. Freeing production management from wage aquabblea and ssies problems, by making , wagea the first charge against the industry and therefore mak...
...Among with their sorrow*, privations, insecurity and .social barriers, would be no more...
...Any plan of nationalization must give a larger area of control inside the industry to all workers...
...Maud Davis Walker experienced this...
...But the Nationalization Research Committee of the United Mine Workers of America is getting in touch with miners who are willing to invest with the same boldness and persistence of effort in planning good administration for their industry...
...The public ic feeling intensely, but it not y*t thinking wisely...
...Any plan of nationalization must arrange for the determination of price, quality and quantity of output by the whole community and not by the group of workers...
...Walker had frequently contributed book reviews to the New York Call and The New Leader and had contributed to other publications...
...the length of working day...
...She knew no barriers of caste or artificial distinctions that archaic customs and traditions ao often impose on mankind...
...This Federal Commission ;will be created by Congrast, and com poaed of at laaat eleven members...
...The coal industry has been so disorganized and mismanaged that the aituation in recent years has approached what big business men and atand-pat...
...I.—THE AMERICAN PLAN WE SHALL first present our plan in summary form, and then tell why we believe each item is necessary...
...But these gains are not enough for a worker in a democratically managed industry...
...They perfectly adored each other...
...the refuge of the weary and heavy-laden, who never harmed a living creature but knew only hew to be kind and gentle and to extend a helping hand wherever it wat needed, stricken by a cruel fate, lies helpless at a hotpital after a critical operation, and in thit agonizing hour the newt comes, the cruel and terrible news, that hit adored "Maudie," tpeeding to hi* bedside with anxiout, aching heart, it ttruck down and her preciout life cruthed out and brought to itt tragic end by the very 'rain that wat to bear her with her comforting pretence to the relief of her ttrieken and tuffering hutband...
...Wagea Just a* the Federal Commission of Mines will have its Bureau of Fact Finding, so it will have its Bureau of Wage Measurement...
...This machinery will be the same joint conference between miners and directors of the industry ss has always existed in union fields...
...Their function is advisory...
...Such a life it never lost Neither can ita influence iot good ba tap* rated from the onward match of the whose zest for its joys never awakened...
...Their hearta leaped with sympathy and understanding for those less fortunate than themselves...
...There are only three plans possible, because, after the ownera are bought out, only three interests are concerned—the public, the miners and the technical and managerial group...
...The mine ia conducted by the mine manager...
...The public must giv* tha final deciiion on the Urge itiuea of the industry...
...It is the only proposal that grapples with slack work for the miners, high price* and irregular aupply for the consumers...
...5. The determination not to rest on emotional appeal, nor data warfare, but on meaiurement...
...The prime cause of Labor disputes is removed by nstionalization in the elimination of th* profit motive...
...tha details of daily life intid* the mine and in leisure hours...
...Wages will be determined on a national basis, with the necessary differentials worked eat far riek...
...If coal were run by a bureau at Washington, the miner would feel as far away from being represented in the industry as he feels today urder private ownership...
...The operators have a fresh explanation for the annual crisis aa often as it rolls around...
...As these lines are written, Maud Walker, the beautiful and beloved wife, titter...
...the qualification of the worker to be hired...
...She watched and waited, worked and hoped, and dreamed of a day when social maladjuttments, pose, made their home a Mecca for those who knew it...
...Administration means a National Mining Council...
...Man is an animal that organizes painfully and poorly...
...In the mine or group of minea there will be mine committees...
...No large leading idea ha* com* from tha public...
...These are real gains in personal freedom and economic status...
...the manner and tone of the manager...
...J—f That i« • i/ur»tu,n that it agitating workers, owners end coneumtrt alike The enlightened section* of the worktri and consumers havt long answered...
...Per the Brat urn* la the battery ..f the industry, disputed wage quae, tions will he reaieved freta the ad* ministration ef the industry whera t hey do aot belong, and placed under the economic central of the induatry, where they do belong Tha mine manager will be able to turn hia face away from the buainea* office and direct hia full attention to the getting out of coal...
...it embraced all mankind...
...He grows irritable in large-scale industry...
...Collective Bargaining Any plan of nationalization of the coal mines must include the safeguarding of the union and collective bargaining...
...They must be incorporated in any successful schema of administration...
...it means the collection of all the neceessary new and now unknown facts about tha induatry...
...We ask tham to give hut one hour a week to the firm thinking thst will sweeten all the job...
...With the casket strewn with flowers, tare* poems of Walt Whitman were read by Dr...
...This is not tha gift of a few unusual men...
...Senators describe as a "catastrophe...
...The funeral services were held on the lawn under the trees of their home in Great Notch, their simplicity being in keeping with the ideals of Ryan, and his wife...
...He wishes the right to make suggestions on technical improvements, on car-pushing, on slack work, on output, and the right to take part in carrying them out...
...Control means to know what is actually being done, as well as to know what must be done to get results and to order the thing to be done...
...Control Any plan of nationalization must include the separation of control from adminiatration...
...How blind and pitiless tke fates are in dealing Ihtir crushing and unsuspected blows, and how often Ihtir victims are among the sweetest, finest, and tenderest of earth...
...it mutt also satisfy his demand for a voice in management, for a share in the actual administration of the industry...
...Five of thai* merabera ahould be named by auch bodies aa the profeaalonal and industrial associations (Engineer*, etc...
...The plans differ in the proportion of power they give to each of the the three interests...
...The workers have won at least a measure of control over the rata of pay...
...The good manager of the future will be ranked by his skill in coal-production and in the sound organization of work...
...This is the same right which workers under consumers' cooperation enjoy...
...The consideration* in wage deter, mination are these: 1. The eatabliahment of a national baaic wage...
...Their method has been collective bargaining, and their instrument has been tha union...
...They have been largely won by the union...
...The national mining council will present to the Commission its account—receipt*, expense*, (alaries, wage*, costs, development of new coal fields, prices on coal...
...The mine manager will have tha authority of his position...
...The proof is that these rights ara not granted in a non-union field...
...tha job of administration, that ia, running the industry, is quita a different thing...
...This will be the public safeguard...
...MAUD HELENA DAVIS WALKER By EUGENE V. DEBS 7HERE has seldom come to me a message so painful and shocking in the news it contained as the one announcing the cruel and tragic death at Great Notch, New Jersey, of Maud Helena Davis, beloved wife of Ryan Walker, the widely-known Socialist and, cartoonist...
...With unification of the industry the apparently innumerable variables of local wage conditions will fall within like general limits at workmen's compensation and lif* insurance...
...s In the evening, though they were doing only "light housekeeping," "Maudie" always had something in the way of a surprise on her little pantry shelf, and her hospitality knew io bounds...
...This council will be made up of three kinds of members...
...Keeler, who, with James Oneal, made short addreases...
...To the extent that she could build that future she built...
...revelation from heaven that is needed...
...it means tests, inspections, research, publicity...
...the right to inspect the conditions of the mine and, through tha checkweighman, to inspect the amount of work done...
...One group will be the miners...
...We were long together at Girard, Kansas, in the days of the old Appeal...
...The other aix member* will be appointed by tha President The function* of thia Federal Commission include factfinding, scientifli totting, budget determination, price fixing, reaearch...
...And now this beautiful creature, this noble-hearted woman, this adored wife and adorable Comrade, lies cold and ttark in her newly-made grave...
...Devoted to the Socialist movement, he and his wife have always been recognized as the higheat type of which the movement is proud...
...Comrade and friend, it being laid to rett, but her radiant spirit will remain undimmed, her noble pertonality will abide, and her brave, intpiring example will remain a bletted memory to the world...
...It must not only yield a good American life to the worker in the sense of wage*, hours, safety, health, and all other living conditions...
...The Bureau of Wage Measurement will deal scientifically with tha disputed points in rate fixing, such as dead work for which no satisfactory standardized rate has been worked out Its function is that of an impartial body to make all necessary tests...
...A acientifle budget ia eatential to tha auccaaa of thia plan...
...Our departed friend and Comrade united her will with the will of others who also had a vision of the race as one human family, and in that union with others of like vision she realized a forecast of the future that will yet bless mankind...
...Without this the workers would be almost as well off under th* old system...
...Under public ownership and democratic administration, the coal industry will find out how much coal the people want, how much of the supply is already in stock, what is the cost of mining coal, how much pay a miner geta, and what the correct price is for a ton of coal...
...It was my good fortune to know both husband and wife and to also share something of the vision that sustained them...
...No eingle constructive auggestion has com* from the operator...
...One year it is car shortage, another year high wages, then the war, then Government interference...
...Intelligent men, with the welfare of the industry at heart, agree that the "game is up" —the eld game of speculative profits, over-production, shortages, skyhigh prices, unemployment, gunmen, spies, the murder of miners, a sullen, desperate public...
...She was intensely human...
...MAUD DAVIS WALKER PASSES SOCIALISTS and their friends were profoundly shocked last Saturday upon learning that Maud Davis Walker, wife of Ryan Walker, met her death in a railroad accident while on her way to see her husband in the Polyclinic Hospital in New York City...
...Democratic management is what the worker wants...
...To have a group of politicians at Washington manage coal would be as distasteful to the miner as it would be to the long-suffering public...
...So the public must own tha mine...
...The working miner must have a real part in the government of coal...
...Two braver hearts, two tweeter spirits, tw» finer souls, I have never known...
...Surely this is some consolation for such a loss and the memory of it will tend to soften a shock otherwise difficult to bear...
...S. A national mining council, to adminieter poliriea, - with minora, techniciana and eonaumera represented 4. The safeguarding of collective bargaining through joint-conference...
...I have said that she was childless, but no deeper or mora affectionate motherhood can come to woman than that which includes all childhood within ita rang...
...Democratic Management Any plan of unification to be acceptable to a free people must fulfill several demands...
...Th* afflicted never appealed to her in vain...
...At the lawn services James Oneal spoke as follows: "We who are gathered hare on thia sad occasion with friends and relatives of she who sleeps before us find it difficult ito give utterance to what we feel...
...Comrade Walker was carried to the lawn by friends and again to the car, and accompanied his wife to the cemetery...
...The rich heritage of both in word and deed will one day appear in the fraternity and brotherhood which they visioned in the wider family that is to be...
...All other plans are minor variations on those three...
...The New Leader rtprintt ih* plan at this time, not to much because we are in agieemtnt with many of the featuret tnunciated, but bectiML it providet an excellent basis for discussion of nationalization of coal, tke only tolution for the ever-recurring problem of kow to make the mines serve tke miners and their fellow workers, the consumers...
...Tha decision of policy i* on* thing...
...Those who were privileged to know Maud Davis Walker as a tender friejnd also came to know of her universal sympathy for those in distress...
...Administrator*, instead of wage haggling and market-juggling, will adminiater...
...It is now the job of the miners to decide what kind of nationalization they want...
...Th* third group will represent the coal consumers, the consumers in other allied industries, and the community...
...The American Kingdom of Coal is today in as chaotic and explosive condition as tha States of Europe...
...It is the hammering out of some simple devices in administration...
...The Federal Commission will pass upon the determination of its Bureau of Wage Measurement from the point of view of business expediency and economic feasibility...
...Control means a permanent Federal Interstate Commission of Mines, and the eyes of the Commission will be a fact-finding agency, with uniform accounting and a research group...
...the friend of the friendlett...
...Every hour of their life was "jewelled with a joy...
...Hia good will and intelligence should be encouraged...
...Words fail here and the heart ttands still...
...Here it tke nationalization plan drawn up by the United Mm* Worktrt Nationalisation Committtt in 19tl...
...There are only three plans possible for control and administration...
...The State Committee of the Socialist Party of New York and Socialist friends sent flowers...
...It was her rich experience to associate her ideals with a prince among men, her husband, our friend, Comrade, and lover of mankind, Ryan Walker, Their rare spiritual kinship, union of ideals, affectionate companionship and nobility of purrace, measured or weighed...
...At the head is the Secretary of Mines, a Cabinet member...
...The larger questions of wage determination, such as the national basic rates, will be the buainess of the Joint Wage Scale Committee...
Vol. 2 • August 1925 • No. 34
