Many tens of thousands of young people, often starting in their pre-teens, labored in the filth, danger, and depredations of the pit. From a special edition of the Young Worker, a series of article by and for young coal miners on life in the mines and mining camps, struggle in the union, and life in the Young Workers League.

‘Young Miners and the Young Workers League’ from Young Worker. Vol. 3 No. 11. June 1, 1924.

The Y.W.L. and the Young Miners by Barney Mass.

THE fierce shriek of whistles pierces the air. The town is jerked awake. Pandemonium reigns. People hurry to and fro. Again dreaded expectation has become reality. A mine has exploited, many men are entombed. Mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts rush with throbbing hearts to the scene of the disaster, hoping, praying their dear ones are safe.

Miners Lead Dangerous Life.

The following day tolls in the tragic mass funeral. The town is in mourning. Mothers are shaken with grief; hearts of loved ones are broken; the miners who succeeded in escaping are demoralized, dreading to think of the morrow, not knowing whether to remain or leave for other parts and secure different employment. But alas, the octopus grips them–there is no money for railroad fare and debts, incurred while on strike or during periodic sieges of unemployment, children of miners are reared. Later, we hear whispered about, incidents of the explosion,–how sons died in the arms of their fathers, tragic last words, heroic acts of those now dead. JOHNSON CITY, where the most recent disaster occurred, yet remains fresh in memory.

Explosion Due to Boss

Numberless rumors spread concerning possible causes of the mine explosion. But the miners are fully agreed and know that neglect on the part of the bosses was responsible for the catastrophe. It is the same old story, retold in the same tragic terms, of failure to water the dust, fan belt in poor condition preventing systematic circulation of air–thus, on and on, excuses and reasons pile up their pitiless mountain. The impotence of the rank and file miners to remedy this aggravating situation (due to the utter indifference of the pie-card U.M.W.A. officials, lack of state protection, mine owners more interested in saving their mules to pile up greater profits for bigger dividends to stockholders) enrages the men and immediately sentiment for direct action to abolish everything responsible for their suffering, becomes manifest.

The Tasks of the Mining Youth

What is the young miner to do? Being born a child of the worker, he is doomed to a life of suffering, a living purgatory! SURE! That was his crime! Hence his fate is only to labor, exposed to the most dangerous accidents, to continue the supply of more coal, so the mine owners can make more money. This is what the mine owners plan and execute, deliberately, cold bloodedly.

Can you remain satisfied with your position? Are you willing to have such predatory interests crush your manhood, arrest your development and destroy your sisters’ womanhood? If not, what are you going to do about it?

Join the Young Workers League

JOIN THE YOUNG WORKERS’ LEAGUE OF AMERICA! In practically every mining camp of Southern Illinois, we have organized branches.

The young miners see in this organization their only hope for emancipation. Only thru organization of the young workers on the political field, based on the theory that as long as there continues to be boss and worker, the latter producing all wealth, and the former appropriating all wealth, so long will we have mine explosions. Oil Scandals in our Government, our sisters forced to prostitute their bodies for a living, and other manifestations of degeneracy leaking down thru countless strata of the rotten capitalists system, to suffocate, bind, entomb the workers.

Are For Workers’ Republic

We the members of the Young Workers’ League, want to abolish such a system and establish a Workers’ and Farmers’ Government to be composed of workers and farmers, serving the needs of the working-class to the exclusion of all other classes. “HE THAT DOES NOT WORK, NEITHER SHALL HE EAT.” How about it? RIGHT! Then JOIN us.

League Grows In Mining Fields

That the Young Workers’ League is becoming an influence in the mining camps of Illinois, is demonstrated by the increase of members. New branches have been organized in Dowell, Benton and Buckner. To see the “Young Worker,” official organ of the Y.W.L., being read by many young miners while going to and coming from work, is becoming a common sight in Southern Illinois. Besides, it is not only limited to the boys, but the girls have found in the Young Worker a paper devoted to their interests as well.

Why the Bosses Are Scared

Many of the so-called “respectable” citizens are becoming alarmed at the sudden increase of Communist propaganda among the young. (Mine owners, local Chambers of Commerce, Elks and the other cohorts of this class, which are and will be the enemies of the workers). Yet, what is good for the boss is bad for the worker, and vice versa. No longer will the young miner be misled by the Red Bogery. He is beginning to think and remembers, yes, remembers those responsible for the death of his father, brother and friends, (victims of mine explosions, enforced strikes, lockouts, wage cuts and all other ills of that ilk) and will not allow himself to be influenced to condemn his own organization, the YOUNG WORKERS’ LEAGUE OF AMERICA. The bosses haye reason to be alarmed, because, within a few more months there will be branches of the Y.W.L. in every mining camp of Illinois.

Kicking Isn’t Enough–Act!

LET’S ALL JOIN THE YOUNG WORKER’S LEAGUE OF AMERICA AND FREE OURSELVES FROM OUR PRESENT CONDITIONS OF MISERY!

The Young Worker is the organ of the fighting young workers of this country. Read it and pass it on your friends.

339 DEAD IS TOLL PAID BY MINERS IN MARCH; 750 DEAD IN 3 MONTHS By CHARLES WITTER

WASHINGTON. Deaths, caused by accidents largely preventable, laid low 339 coal miners in the month of March, according to the monthly report of the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The amount of dead for the first quarter of the year amounts to 750. The number of miners killed by gas and coal dust explosions per million tons nearly doubled, rising from 924 in 1923 to 17786 in 1924. This is the toll of the miners to capitalist industry.

YOUNG MINERS!

The Young Workers League Calls On Young Miners of America To Join and Fight Their Rotten Conditions Of Life and False Leaders!

THIS is a special issue of The Young Worker and a large part of it is given over to the problems of the young miners of this country and what our program for these problems is, what the program of the Young Workers League of America presents to the young miner.

First of all, what are your conditions, what wages do you make, what hours do you work, how do you live?

You are living under a capitalist system of society where a few people own all the means of producing and distributing what is needed to live. These few hand out the jobs to the millions who are workers. It is these workers that produce the necessary things of life, it is these workers who produce the profits of the boss who most probably never saw a mine in his life, it is these workers who do not get all the things that they produce but re forced to give a rake-off to the boss for the job.

What does this lead to? The American miner who can produce about two and three-quarters times as much coal in a certain amount of time than the British miner can, is paid more miserable wages, lives under more miserable conditions, and has less freedom than has the coal-digger of England or any other country. While the coal operators of this country make millions of dollars in profit every year, while they live in luxury, in Palm Beach, at Monte Carlo, in their palaces and yachts, the mine workers get about $430 a year less than the minimum standard of living as compiled by government experts. While the wives and daughters of the coal owners give parties to their pet poodles, the miner lives in a tumbledown hovel of a shack.

Is it any wonder that as soon as the son of a miner is old enough to be a breaker boy or trapper, the father of the family is forced to take his son into mine work in order that the few extra dollars in wages may make easier the hardships of the family? Is it any wonder, therefore, that there are thousands and thousands of young workers under the age of 16 who are slaving away in the mines for the profit of their fat bosses–in order to help along in the house with his pitiful wages?

This is only part of the picture of the life of the young miner under the present system of capitalism.

This system is based on profit for the boss. That’s why he doesn’t give a damn about the lives of his workers. He can always get others to fill the places of those who are gone. That is why the mines are not safe for the workers to toil in. That is why the bosses buy up the corrupt mine inspectors. That is why they don’t give a rap if hundreds of miners are blown sky high in some explosion.

In the period of less than six months to date we can mark with the ink of the workers” blood the following disasters, the following sacrifices made by the working class on the altar of capitalist profit:

Pekin, Ill.  40 dead
Johnston City, III.  38 dead
Shanktown, Pa. 49 dead
Crosby, Minn.  43 dead
Castle Gate, Utah. 165 dead
Charlestown, W. Va. 26 dead
Benwood, W. Va. 125 dead

Is this what men live for? Is this why you go into the mine? Your boss thinks so. If you are killed in a mine explosion which is due to the boss’ negligence in keeping the mine up to standard, the boss doesn’t shed a tear: there are hundreds of other workers he can get for the mine. He is interested only in profit and not in life and happiness for the workers.

When these conditions become intolerable and you go out on strike, what do you find? Immediately the boss gets the soldiers and militia of the United States government and the state government. These armed workers, who are misguided into fighting against their own class, are ordered to see to it that you are driven back to work, that you do not win your demands for better conditions of work and life.

You know this to be the case. It was the case in the great strike of 1922; it is the same thing in every strike that the workers carry on. The government is simply a tool in the hands of the bosses of this country. Your union couldn’t get the U.S. soldiers to come out and protect their rights when the boss declares a lockout or shuts down his mine. But the minute you endanger the profits of the coal operator you have a gun shoved right under your nose.

THE CAPITALISTS OF THIS COUNTRY OWN THE GOVERNMENT!

THAT IS WHY WE SAY TO THE YOUNG WORKERS OF THIS COUNTRY TO UNITE WITH THE OLDER WORKERS AND RUN THE GOVERNMENT THEMSELVES FOR THE WORKERS, OF THE WORKERS, AND BY THE WORKERS!

There is one more enemy that the workers, young and old, must unite to fight against. That enemy is the false leader of the workers. That enemy is the leader who says he is with the workers but is always working on the side of the boss and against the workers’ interests. That is the type of leader typified by John Lewis, Phil Murray, Wm. Green, Fagan, Feeney, Hall, Farrington, Fishwick, Bitner and their supporters and tools. These are the “leaders” that try to make eyes at the operators when they should be lining up the membership of the United Mine Workers of America for a strong, united, solidified, militant and uncompromising fight for their elementary rights. What they do instead is show by their having bamboozled the membership into voting for the Jacksonville agreement which ties the miner to the bosses for three years, which gives him practically no advantages but which locks him up tight and hands over the key to Lewis and the operators.

And when the rank and file revolt against such traitorous and reactionary leadership, the most shameful methods are used to stifle their voices. You know what happened to the Kansas district, to the Nova Scotia district, the Fayette County mine workers. They are too progressive for Lewis and his henchmen and they were kicked out or “reorganized.”

The young workers have got to line up in the fight! To the young miners of America, the Young Workers League says:

You are living under the most awful system of society known to history, a society of war, misery, poverty, unemployment, murder. You are lied to in the school when you are a child, when you are taught that everything is lovely in this world and that if you work like a mule you’ll become the president of the country or a millionaire like Morgan. You are dragged into the mine when you are only a kid and you work there under the most hazardous conditions, breathing in coal dust, in danger of being blown to shreds at any moment. When you try to fight against your masters, you are lied to by your false leaders.

YOU’VE GOT TO FIGHT THEM ALL!

The Young Workers League of America calls upon the young miners of America to line up with their older brothers in a fight against the reactionary leaders of their union, to line up with the International Progressive Miners’ Committee.

Stick in the union! Don’t leave it! Stay inside and fight your false leaders in their home territory!

We call upon the young miners to join our organization and help us carry on the struggle, the fight for the young workers of this country, the fight which is THEIR fight!

We ask that the young miners rally around our program for the youth in the mining industry!

1. No young workers to work down in the mines under 16 years of age.

2. A guaranteed minimum scale on the basis of equal pay for equal work for old and young workers.

3. A six-hour day and a five-day week for all workers under 21 years of age.

4. A two weeks’ holiday per year with full pay to be paid. by the boss.

These are our immediate demands. These are the demands which we want the young miners to rally around, for which we want them to get the support of their unions, on the basis of which we make our appeal to them to join the League and fight side by side with us.

Those are the demands of the Young Workers League of America for the young miners of America.

YOUNG MINERS! JOIN THE YOUNG WORKERS LEAGUE!

JOIN HE BATTLE FOR THE FIGHTING, REBEL YOUTH AGAINST THE BOSS CLASS OF AMERICA!

COAL CO. FIRES DOWELL MEMBERS FOR ACTIVITIES By PETER ALLARD

DOWELL, ILL. Because of the working class activity that is being carried on by members of the newly organized branch of the Young Workers League in the schools and coal mines, the officials of the coal company are planning on the discharge of all league members working there, one by one.

Louis Joich Already Canned

The first comrade to be fired from the mine is comrade Louis Joich, Germinal Allard having been expelled from school here a short time previously for having distributed The Young Worker, and the anti-militarist leaflet of the league.

All this is being done in an effort on the part of the bosses of the town to intimidate the young communists and get them to leave the organization. The young workers, however, are sticking better than was expected and the branch is keeping together in spite of all the obstacles.

Another View of the District Five Miners Confab by Charles O’Neill

PITTSBURGH, Pa. The Lewis tools, reinforced by their army of “blue sky” delegates at the recent district 5 convention, succeeded in defeating every progressive measure which came before the convention. Altho the progressive element was in the majority of the delegates representing bona fide locals, the machine had payrollers from all over the organization there voting in the aye and nay vote.

Leaguer Makes Fight.

W.A. Guiler, chairman Progressive International Committee, “Jimmy” Oates and Fat H. Toohey, were the spokesmen for the rank and file. Much credit is due these men, one a mere boy, for the brilliant fight they made. Delegate Toohey, when the committee on officers reports were reporting, insisted on an explanation of the revocation of the charter of Local 1446. The machine shouted him down but under “Outlaw Strikes” he made the same demand. The official gang, to hide their misdeeds, lied gloriously and took the occasion to vilify Myerscough, Ray and others. It was at this local that Myerscough held membership at the time the district vice-president told the men to strike and when they did strike the charter was revoked in order to weed out the forty-three militants.

Honest Delegates Disgusted.

By this time the honest delegates were plainly disgusted with the steamrollering tactics used by the gang and held a delegate mass meeting that evening. Myerscough, Guiler, Oates and Toohey spoke at the meeting.

When the committee on resolutions reported, the gang had every progressive measure painted red. On amalgamation, Bradjich and Toohey fought for the adoption of the original resolution, but the tools described how the Western Federation of Miners had been disrupted by the wobblies trying the plan; and non-concurred in the resolution. (Such brains–)

The progressive element were astounded when the committee concurred in a resolution demanding the repeal of the state sedition law and the release of Jacob Dolla. Ten Communists are indicted in this state under the sedition law. On the Dolla case, International Organizer Feeney (expense account artist extraordinary) made a grandstand speech on Dolla’s important part in the steel strike, but the next minute a labor party resolution was steam-rollered, Fagan refusing the floor to several supporters of the resolution.

Toohey for Soviet Recognition.

The committee substitute for the resolution calling for the recognition of Soviet Russia was fought by Comrade Toohey, who in a spirited address from the floor urged the defeat of the committee substitute. “The substitute states,” he said, “that if Russia pays her honorable obligations, and if the Communists and amalgamators let the U.M.W. of A. alone they will then concede the principle of self-determination. Fellow Mine Workers: I can take the substitute to Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce and have it unanimously adopted. To whom does Russia owe honorable obligations? Wall Street or J.P. Morgan? If so, since, when did the U.M.W. of A. become the debt collector of Wall Street? No one opposes recognition but the capitalists and labor fakers and if the substitute is adopted it will be a disgrace to the organization.” But the substitute carried after a scurrilous attack on Toohey by John Lewis’ man Friday, Van A. Bittner.

Demands Lewis’ Impeachment.

A resolution presented by John Gresko, president, and Pat Toohey, secretary, of local 1724, calling for a special international convention to reinstate Howat and impeach Lewis, brought forth such a torrent of vile language from Murray and Bittner that their speeches were ordered printed in pamphlet form! Much amusement was afforded the progressives when Murray sternly pointed to

Toohey and dramatically exclaimed: “Oh, ye of so little faith, with your slimy mind and pernicious philosophy!”

Summarized, it can be truthfully said that it was one of the most reactionary conventions ever held in the history of the labor movement. Oates, Guiler and Toohey are facing expulsion for the horrible crime of criticizing their officials. Merrick, Hamilton, The Daily Worker, Myerscough, Ray and others got their share of poison from the officials. Murray said that the Communist hid behind the skirts of girls.

The Young Workers League had six members present as delegates, and it was this small group who fought the machine on all issues. Sluggers and strong arm men were in prominence at all times, attempting to intimidate the delegates in voting for the machine.

At this writing, the various delegates are reporting to their constituents and the hardest job of the radical element is convincing the locals to pay their regular tax and keep in good standing. Many locals are refusing to pay their tax, as a result of the disruptive proceedings of the convention.

Loudly the Whistle on the Old Tipple Blows by Thomas Myerscough (Secretary, Progressive Miners Committee)

C’mon Johnny, you better be gettin up, it’s a quarter past five and if you don’t hurry you’ll miss the man-trip!” These are the familiar first words that come to the ears of the son of the average miner, tho only when the “Whistle” or whatever other signal the company may have at the mine, to announce to the men who comprise its army of slaves, that the mine is going to work today. When the whistle has announced that the mine will be idle, and that therefore the slaves will not be needed, Johnny gets to sleep and in this manner, usually, a meal is saved. It is more than an event in the average mining town, this blowing of the whistle is! It has become an institution! The very misery of the life is increased or lessened, as the case may be, according to the number of shrills emanating from the noise-producing nozzle, for according to the number of times the whistle blows, is determined whether or not you go to dig black diamonds or whether you sleep or go fishing, usually at eight o’clock, the men and boys can be found grouped at the pool room, waiting to hear what the whistle holds in store for them, while just as regularly their wives, mothers and sisters congregate on the porches for the same purposes.

Whistle Is Slave Call

The tenseness of their every nerve can be discerned as the “zero” hour approaches, their conversations abruptly end and with the beginning of the coal company pronouncement of “What is what” for the next day, grim tragedy is writ on every face. As soon as this daily ordeal is ended, the conversations are again started but not always on the subject that preceded the blowing of the whistle, for it usually has broken the line of thought. If “work” has been the verdict, it usually follows that the crowds begin to disperse, each wending his or her way to their respective home so to prepare for the morrow, while if “no work” has been announced, the cursed ills of the mining industry are dragged on the carpet for discussion. The many needs and the innumerable desires are talked over, and tho there is seldom any hope of any of them being acquired, they content themselves with whatever kick or additional misery they get out of such discussion. That much for the mining communities that are thus able to get a day of work once in a while.

Small Towns Are Worse

Let us see what the less serene circumstances are in the isolated towns where nothing but one or two idle mines are located. After dragging along for months, in most cases, on a hand to mouth existence, the word is suddenly passed around that the mine is going to shut down. Sometimes it is for a few weeks, the boss taking advantage of the shortage of orders to do some necessary repair work, sometimes for an indefinite period, which makes the uncertainty harder to bear, for it involves a risk in moving elsewhere, while in some cases it has been known for the mine to be sealed up, never to reopen. As one goes thru such towns, he can see the wan faces of the inhabitants, wondering, it seems what they are going to do next. The men usually having returned from a fruitless search for a new job and trying to figure out where to go next, while the women folks, poor souls, are forced to employ the cunning of a professional beggar, as they approach the store-keeper and ask to be trusted with some more groceries.

Hard To Change Jobs

True! There are some who are fortunate enough to get work in some other line, but when one has given a whole life to mining, it is not an easy matter to adapt himself to any other occupation. There is the different atmosphere, the different terminology, with which he is not familiar as to that applying to coal mines, the different hours in many instances and the, all-too many different things with which he is forced to contend: and because he is not an expert at the work he takes up, the pay is often much less than that prevailing in the mines. One can also, on the occasion of such visits, see a moving truck backed up at a house and hear such remarks as “Going over to Mine Six, not working steady but it’s better than none,” or “I can get my boy in with me there and that will help some.” It is often the case, that the boy referred to is not old enough to work in the mines, according to the LAW, but the parent needs his help and the company needs the profit, so the parent will say that the kid is sixteen and he begins his “career”.

From Youth to Old Age

With the rest of them, he begins to take an interest in the blowing of the whistle and unless “chance” takes him out of the mines, he starts his day with the early ringing of the alarm clock, every time the boss says he needs him, until old age overtakes him and says “no more, you’re too old,” or until the too frequent negligence of the boss results in an explosion, and, along with the rest of those in the bowels of the earth, he is gathered in by the grim reaper.

It is getting now that the toilers of today are all possessed of either a “Work Whistle” or “Time Clock” psychology, they fit quite snugly into the scheme of things as arranged by the boss and it is time to change this order. Human energy and emotions in many instances are being replaced by beings of mechanical action, because of the sordid conditions that prevail and you might just as well realize now as later, that they will change just as soon as you determine they will, not before.

Present System Outworn

To the members of the Y.W.L. who read this, let me say, it is your movement that the moulders of the future social order will be made. To the reader who is not already a member of the Young Workers League or of the Workers Party, I say, prepare to join, for we can never hope to get anywhere with the present system. To all workers, into whose hands this paper get, I say that the sooner we rid ourselves of the system that produces parasites, crooks, grafters and every kind of human leeches, the better will be the lot of the ones who toil. The system that follows these things, either legal or illegal, does not deserve to go on any longer and it is up to us to make the change. Let us resolve then that we will do all in our power to build up the Communist movement in these United States, let us say that we will do all that is possible to bring about the complete emancipation of the working class. Until this is done, the miner will continue to wait for the boss to blow the whistle and the workers in other industries will continue to “punch the clock.” How much longer then, will you be satisfied with hunger? Change the system from one of exploitation, to one in which only those who work will benefit and enjoy life!

The Young Worker was produced by the Young Workers League of America beginning in 1922. The name of the Workers Party youth league followed the name of the adult party, changing to the Young Workers (Communist) League when the Workers Party became the Workers (Communist) Party in 1926. The journal was published monthly in Chicago and continued until 1927. Editors included Oliver Carlson, Martin Abern, Max Schachtman, Nat Kaplan, and Harry Gannes.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/youngworker/v03n11-jun-01-1924-yw.pdf