coal trade bulletin - Clpdigital.org

agreement, so far as I know, were ratified by the
various districts. The rank and file approved
of those settlements in the manner and way they
were submitted to them.
Referred to Scale Committee, as was resolution
98 in reference to placing cars and props.
Resolution 107 relative to a national old age
pension law was adopted.
Resolution No. 119 demanding that Congress
appropriate the amount asked for by the Secretary
of the Interior for the Bureau of Mines, was
adopted by the convention.
The resolution presented by the High Bridge,
la., local relative to political action, was reported
favorably by the committee.
SOME DISCUSSION
was had and then the committee read the following
substitute, which was adopted just previous
to adjournment for the day:
"In view of the present economic conditions
surrounding our own and other industries, and
especially the machinations of the judicial and
political powers that have been employed against
us in Alabama, West Virginia, Colorado, the Irwin
field, on Vancouver Island and elsewhere, we believe
that the time has arrived when it is just as
necessary for the workers of this country and
Canada to unite into a working class organization
on the political field as on the industrial field."
President White on opening the sessions of
Jan. 23 read several telegrams relative to tbe
Colorado strike question.
Resolution No. 151 had a non-concurrence recommendation
from the commitree. ft read:
"Whereas, our officers not having worked in the
mine for a few years, do not know the working
conditions like the men at the face of the coal;
therefore, be it
"Resolved, that we, the members of Local Union
2571, District 5, Pennsylvania, demand that hereafter
the majority of men on our scale committee
be made up of men who are working in the mine,
and shall be elected from the floor of the convention."
Delegate Helm, District 25—I move as a substitute
for the w*hole that hereafter the delegates
of each district meet in caucus and elect its own
member of the Scale Committee. (Seconded).
Carried.
A resolution requiring all locals to establish
co-operative stores and a substitute that the question
be discussed by the locals were sent back to
the committee.
A resolution from Superior, Wyo., directing the
International Executive Board to endeavor to obtain
additional foreign-speaking organizers was
adopted.
The Credentials Committee made its final re­
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 53
port, in the contested seats and recommended the
seating of Delegates Martine, District 29; Briggs,
District 12; Cooper, District 23; John Williams,
District 5; D. V. Sims and Ritchie, District 11;
Coleman, District 13; and that Steve Williams,
District 5, be awarded the entire
VOTE OF HIS LOCAL.
While this report was being discussed, Delegate
McGuire, Local 2810, stated that he was positive
one of the locals reported fiom West Virginia was
not composed of mine workeis, but of Baldwin employes.
Delegate Donaldson, of the committee, stated
that the Committee on Credentials had been suspicious
of the local for the last three years; that
in the previous convention they had made careful
inquiry as to the local, but could obtain no information
upon which to refuse a seat to the delegate.
Delegate Watkins, District 6, International
Board Member, stated that the local was in Poca
hontas and that the delegate who represented it
in the last convention was a Baldwin guard. He
urged that the delegate be not seated and that the
charter be taken from the local. He stated that
it was in an isolated place in the mountains and
no one connected with the organization could go
there with safety to investigate the matter.
Delegate Smith (H.E.), District 6, moved, as
an amendment to the motion, to adopt tbe report
of the committee, that the delegate from Local 979,
District 17, be not seated, and that the international
officials be instructed to take the charter
away. (Seconded and carried).
The motion to adopt the final repo."t of the committee
was adopted as amended.
The convention adopted a resolution calling for
the formation of a national labor party and for
the International Executive Board to endorse such
a movement.
A resolution from Illinois demanding a subdistrict
joint conference was sent to the Scale
Committee.
A resolution pledging the organizaticn to an
extension of organization work on Coal river.
West Virginia, was affirmatively recommended and
adopted.
Resolution No. 209 from Charleroi, Pa., protested
against the use of electricity in mines. The committee
offered this substitute, which was adopted:
Whereas, many lives are sacrificed because of
the indiscriminate and careless
USE OF ELECTRICITY
in coal mines and the neglect to provide safeguards
for naked cables; therefore, be it
Resolved, that we instruct our officials, national
and district, to use every power to have legislation
enacted that will prohibit the use of electricity in
mines wherever its use menaces the lives of men,