‘Woke’ coal miners refuse to be called ‘Dagos’ any longer.

‘Miners Told of Harm Done by Calling Foreigners Derisive Names’ by George Eisler from the Chicago Daily Socialist. Vol. 3 No. 224. July 21, 1909.

Denver, Colo., July 18. Yance Terzich, member of the executive board from the Alaska and Yukon districts, called the attention of the delegates of the seventeenth annual convention of the Western Federation of Miners to a subject which appears to me, as an immigrated foreigner, to be one of very serious importance. This is a practice which is very common among the English speaking men in the ranks of organized labor, and also is quite common to any of those patriotic Americans who are not affiliated with organized labor. It is the habit of referring to men of foreign birth with terms of contempt and derision, designating such men “Round Heads,” “Dagos,” “Guineas,” “Dog-Eaters,” “Sheenies,” or by other vile nomenclature.

There is no justifiable excuse for the use of such epithets and the man who resorts to them not only makes a display of his own pitiable ignorance, but at the same time is planting the seeds of hatred and contention and erecting barriers in the way of successful organization and fraternity that is, in many instances, impossible to over-come.

Arrogant and Inhospitable

All men who have had experience in the labor movement organizing among the men of foreign birth will bear me out in this assertion. A good portion of the membership of the W.F. of M., of the United Mine Workers of America, and the American Federation of Labor are composed of men who are thus very frequently stigmatized and insulted. Especially is this habit prevalent among a class of men who are pleased to style themselves as “native sons of the golden west,” but it is not confined to them; many others are equally as guilty. Right here let me say to all such men that it will be necessary to search long and carefully among all the poor wage slaves of foreign birth who have been enticed into the hell of American industry by the cunning allurements of American exploiters, to discover any race more arrogant or more de-humanized and inhospitable than the men who wantonly revile the unfortunate stranger.

A Pernicious Practice

“I myself,” says Terzich, “am of foreign birth, being born in Austria, in the state of Dalmacia, in Jarsignovie. I have suffered from this same cause not infrequently, but I have at all times considered that I am endowed with as full a measure of true manhood as though I had first seen the light under either English or American skies. I have no complaint to make on the treatment I have received from my associates. My only purpose in referring to the evil that I have stated is to the end that it may receive full and thoughtful consideration by each and every member of organized labor and that all men may use their influence in their respective locals toward eradicating such a pernicious practice among the men of organized labor.”

The Chicago Socialist, sometimes daily sometimes weekly, was published from 1902 until 1912 as the paper of the Chicago Socialist Party. The roots of the paper lie with Workers Call, published from 1899 as a Socialist Labor Party publication, becoming a voice of the Springfield Social Democratic Party after splitting with De Leon in July, 1901. It became the Chicago Socialist Party paper with the SDP’s adherence and changed its name to the Chicago Socialist in March, 1902. In 1906 it became a daily and published until 1912 by Local Cook County of the Socialist Party and was edited by A.M. Simons if the International Socialist Review. A cornucopia of historical information on the Chicago workers movements lies within its pages.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/chicago-daily-socialist/1909/090721-chicagodailysocialist-v03n224.pdf