i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org

32 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
the thirteenth convention in which it was urged
that the foreigner was readily susceptible to education
in the principles of unionism and that properly
informed and fraternally treated he became
a useful and desirable member of the organization.
Continuing on this line the report says:
Since presenting the foregoing to you in a former
convention, a wider acquaintance with the
conditions existing in every mining district has
more and more
CONCLUSIVELY DRIVEN HOME
to my mind the necessity and importance of doing
what was briefly outlined on this subject in my
previous reports.
Aside from those financially interested, not many
seem to realize the import of this question and its
bearing on all our industrial conditions, especially
that of coal mining.
Of the nearly six hundred thousand mine workers
in this country, it is safe to say that at least
one-third of them do not speak the English language.
This vast army of foreign-speaking men
are wage-earners and struggle side by side with
us for the necessaries of life.
It is assumed by many when mentioning the non-
English speaking people, that they are illiterate
in the extreme and not capable of understanding
American ideas, American institutions and particularly
the object of the American labor unions.
The report of the commissioner of immigration
shows that from 53 per cent, in the most illiterate
countries, to 97 per cent, in the most enlightened
countries, of the immigrants who landed in this
country in 1903 can read and write in their own
language, and probably this proportion of that
class of people will hold good in mining communities.
If those who work in the mines cannot read the
English language, then so long as they can read
their own language, it is our business as a matter
of protection; it is our duty as American citizens
and wage-earners to furnish them with the literature
which they can understand and in which they
are most interested. Is it not
PLAIN TO EVERY THINKING MAN
that we must be vitally interested in making this
great army of laboring men understand what is
to their interests as well as ours?
Can we make it clear to them in the English
language, which they do not understand?
Is not the application of the old saying, "That
a stitch in time saves nine," of special force in
this instance?
It is known in many instances, foreign-speaking
mine workers have been imposed upon outrageously
by operators who have failed to pay ihem
for their labor, even after contracts were made
with the United Mine Workers. But this was no
doubt the intention when they were employed.
It is a notorious fact that this class of people
have been deceived, through the employment
agencies and the agents of corporations who
bring them into mining districts to displace laboring
men who were resisting the unreasonable demands
of employers.
It will be news, perhaps, to many of the United
Mine Workers that men have been kept by force in
the communities into which they were deceived
into going.
It is time to act and I shall offer in this convention
resolutions asking the co-operation of the
United Mine Workers in carrying out these suggestions.
BUDGET OF CONVENTION PROCEEDINGS.
After the reports of the officers had been referred
to the proper committees and the work of
the committee on credentials had been ratified the
committee on resolutions filed its report. The
first resolution, providing that the anthracite companies,
in view of dockage in the past for culm
which is now salable, pay to the miners' union a
royalty of ten cents on the dollar made from said
culm banks, or a greater or less per cent, as the
union thinks proper, and that the unions themselves
put up washeries and get the money out
of it for the purpose of increasing the funds of
ithe organization, and to provide a fund for
disabled and aged miners, and for orphans and
widows was lost.
The second resolution, providing that the organization
favor the election of mine inspectors
liy the citizens of the counties or districts in
which they are to serve was referred to the special
committee on skilled mining, appointed to consider
that feature of President Mitchell's report.
A similar disposition was made of the third
resolution providing that the members of the
examining board in the anthracite region be selected
from among the miners or mine workers
of the district or county, and that instead of issuing
certificates to men after working two years
in the mines they should be issued only after five
years' work, and after careful examination.
The fourth resolution, urging the delegates of
Tennessee and Kentucky to form separate state
organizations, the latter to be known as District
23, was referred to the districts involved and
the national executive board.
The fifth resolution, asking the assistance of
the national organization for the striking employes
of operators in Utah was referred to the
national executive board.
The sixth resolution, requiring that no articles
be suppressed by the editors or insulting personal
letters written by the editors to any local unions'
correspondents, and that so long as the postal
laws are not violated, such articles shall be published,
was lost.
The seventh resolution provided that in view