Page 10 - The 1923 Strike in Steel and the Miners' Sympathy Strike

ISSUE : Issue 22

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1979/6/1

ONE HUNDRED PER CENT STRIKE IS EFFECTIVE, NO COAL BEING SHIPPED BESCO CAN GET COAL IF THEY REMOVE TROOPS THEY BROUGHT HERE Post; GREAT BANKHEAD AT NO, 2 WITH ITS THREE HUNDRED TONS OF COAL IS ON FIRE AND THE REQUEST OF VICE PRESIDENT MCDOUGALL FOR MEN TO FIGHT THE BLAZE WAS CURTLY RE? FUSED BY J,B, MCLACHLAN, WHO WOULD WILLING? LY SEE THE WHOLE BANKHEAD GO UP IN SMOKE The strike is to be one hundred per cent effective, which means that all mainte? nance men will be withdrawn. Company of? ficials will take over the maintenance work and attempt to keep the pumps, fans and powerhouses in operation to save the mines. Bands of miners as pickets mounted guard around the collieries at midnight. (J,B. McLachlan issued this Official Let? ter, District 26, United Mine Workers of America, Glace Bay, July 6, 1923;) This office has been informed that all the Waterford, Sydney Mines and Glace Bay sub- districts are out on strike this morning as a protest against the importation of Provincial Police and federal troops into Sydney to intimidate the steelworkers into continuing work at 32 cents per hour. On Sunday night last these provincial po? lice, in the most brutal manner, rode down the people at Whitney Pier, who were on the street, most of whom.were coming from church. Neither age, sex nor physical dis? abilities were proof against these brutes. One old woman over 70 years of age was beaten into insensibility and may die, A boy nine years old was trampled under the horses' feet and had his breastbone crushed in. One woman, beaten over the head with a police club, gave premature birth to a child. The child is dead and the woman's life despaired of. Men and wo? men were beaten up inside their own homes. Against these brutes the miners are on strike. The government of Nova Scotia is the guilty and responsible party for this crime. No miner or mine worker can remain at work while this government turns Sydney into a jungle: to do so is to sink your manhood and allow Armstrong and his miser? able bunch of grafting politicians to trample your last shred of freedom on the sand. Call a meeting of your local at once and decide to spread the fight against Armstrong to every mine in Nova Scotia. Act at once • 'tomorrow may be too late. Post (Regarding McLachlan's letter); Many of the men who obeyed the call of the ex? ecutive of the United Mine Workers to strike in sympathy with the steelworkers of Sydney are beginning to realize their emotions were played upon by the circula? tion of false statements regarding the ac? tions of the provincial police in Sydney. It has not been proved that any of the in? cidents recorded above actually took place. And, furthermore, it is not sur? prising that men should strike when such an appeal to passion is made, and a tre? mendous revulsion of feeling may be ex? pected when the miners find how low their best and manliest sentiments have been ap- CONTINUED NEXT PAGE' Known for Quality Products and Careftjl Service - Jewelery and Gifts MacDonald Jewelery Limited 357 Charlotte St., Sydn' ?? 864-8318 'mu Home of Gaelic College Summer School 2,3 & 5 Week Courses in Scottish Highland Dancing Bagpipe Music Gaelic Language The Annual Gaelic Mod Held During the First Full Week in August The Gaelic College, st. Ann's, n. s. P.O.Box 9t Baddeck, N.S?

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