Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 30, 1921 Miners of Kansas Condemn Suspension of District 14 U. M. W. A.
From The Workers Chronicle of Pittsburg, Kansas, November 25, 1921:
Truth Shall Win —————
Alex Howat
Reports from all over the country are to the effect that organized labor everywhere is condemning the action of one man (John L. Lewis with the assistance of his hired gang of labor crooks) in suspending District 14 and expelling the officers from the U. M. W. of A., at a time when the, crisis is on in the fight against the infamous court of industrial relations law. This contemptible action was taken with controversies at two small strip pits as the basis. One was a lockout and the other a shutdown, and both companies refuse to let the men return to work in accordance with orders given the men by officials of District 14, and pursuant to instructions of the recent national convention of the U. M. W. of A.
But, President Lewis, with malice aforethought, waited until the miners’ leaders were practically isolated from the world-put there by Governor Allen and his infamous misfit legislation-and when 100 per cent of the rank and file of District 14 laid down their tools and resolved to dig no more coal until President Howat and Vice President Dorchy are released from jail, Lewis demands that ALL miners return to work if they want to remain in good grace with HIM. They are to forget all about their noble, self-sacrificing officials, who are cooped up in cold, damp cheerless cells in the Cherokee county jail. They are ALL TO RENIG the positive policy, unanimously declared, of their District Convention in Kansas City, March, 1920. They MUST give up all their personal honor manhood and self-respect, and return to work just because John L. Lewis-backed by a handful of paid stoolpigeons-demands it! Their published howls about, “contract” is rankest camouflage. The miners and officials here have violated no contract in the DEAN and RELIANCE shut-downs. The operators of those two small pits are the only ones violating the contract. And so Lewis himself says, “no condition enters into the expulsion of the officers and members of District 14 except that of the Dean and Reliance controversy.” However he wants not only the employees of those two strip mines to return to work, (in spite of the fact that the operators will not let them return under conditions required, not only by President Howat, but by the National Convention-and the almighty John L., himself) but all miners who are standing pat with the dictates of their District Convention must give up their only efficient weapon against the industrial court law by returning to work and let their leaders rot in jail (for all Snake Lewis cares) while HE fights the law in the courts. He knows, and the miners know, that Labor stands as much chance there as Christ did before Pontius Pilate. So, all his efforts in his publicity campaign in that direction is “grandstand,” pure and simple.
As proof that Lewis is a crook, when the lockout first occurred at the Dean strip pit, he sent two bitter personal enemies of Howat here to make a pseudo investigation. These misfit representatives of Labor, after two or three days’ of association with officials of the company, ordered President Howat to put the men back to work, and Howat answered their letter, stating that he and all board members had been willing at all times to put the men back, but that the new conditions, instituted by the company, must first be settled through the proper channels, the men to continue working under old conditions until the grievance was settled.
Then when he suspended the district he appointed as “provisional president,” a man friendly to the industrial court law and also a bitter enemy to Howat though he owes his election as national board member from District 14 to Howat alone.
Then to assist this moral renegade who is “acting provisional president,” Lewis sends in one of the most corrupt curs in the labor movement, to tell the loyal miners of this district what to do a man so crooked that his home district will not recognize him.
That this program of John L. Lewis will fail is positive. Nothing so corrupt and slimy can stand the light of day, and the miners of District 14, with the help of all true men in the labor movement of the country will stand firm against the wrecking of the U. M. W. of A., by the rotten crowd now in charge.
United Mine Workers Journal, Volume 32 (Indianapolis, Indiana) -Jan 1-Dec 15, 1921 Official Publication of the United Mine Workers of America (search: “December 1, 1921” & scroll down to page 3: “Rebellious Miners of Kansas Are Expelled Through Revocation of Charters of Their Local Unions”) https://books.google.com/books?id=oHItAQAAMAAJ
Alexander Howat Miners’ Memorial at Immigrant Park Pittsburg in Crawford County, Kansas The American Midwest (Upper Plains) https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=35668
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Workers Song – Dropkick Murphys Lyrics by Ed Pikford
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