mE Ss o Se =P LB ON PCT Recognized and Endors- ed by More Than Fifty Local Uniens and Cen- tral Bodies Over Cam- bria County and Ad- jacent Mining Areas. Union Press, Established May, 1935. VOL. 45. NO. 27. A GENERAL NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF ORGANIZED LABOR IN CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA. UNION Pi 7 f CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA AREA. THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1939 Patton Courier, Established 723 South Fifth se PATTON AN ATTAINMENT OF THE LARGEST GENERAL WEEKLY NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION IN CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA. Our Shop Is Equipped to Do Job Printing of All Kinds. Nothing Too Large or Too Small We Cater Especially to Local Union, Printing, Oct., 1893. SUBSCRIPTION, $2.00 PER YEAR Gloomy Picture In Mine Situation Is Developing C10 CHARGE IS MADE OF LABOR ACT SABOTAGE Charge Green, Manufacturers’ Accociation and Chamber of | Commerce in ‘Conspiracy.’ Washington.—The CIO charged on Monday night that AFL President Wil- liam Green, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States are | “engaged in a definite conspiracy” to | break down the Wagner Labor Rela- | tions Act. Green said the a was untrue. The CIO sent to all senators and | congressmen a compared comparison | of the AFL, NAM, and Chamber of Commerce amendments to the act as the senate education and labor com- | mittee prepared to begin the public | hearings which started Tuesday. “If these amendments are passed they will disturb existing collective | bargaining relations in many indus- | tries, create disorder and confusion in the whole matter of labor relations and promote industrial strife in place of the industrial peace which has progres. NON-UNION COAL DUMPED IN THE DYSART ister MINING SCHOOL | Approximately 50 tons of coal were | DINNER FETE T0 dumped near the highway in the Dy sart district, miles north of Altoona last Friday John Conzo of Dysart, district. Marcellus Wharton, president of the | Dysart Local, called a meeting for 8| a. m. Saturday of all union miners | Has y Po s NE - and Twin | about Cresson and Dysart to organize | Hastings, Patton, Nanty-Glo a win ments. CIO AND AFL INDEFINITELY |W ednesday Night of Last Week Saw Hopes for Flicker Out. Hope for early peace between the A. F. of L. and the C. 1. O. flickered sively followed upon acceptance of the | and went out last Wednesday. ‘Wagner act by employers,” clared. Scheduling of the hearings alfendy | has caused the indefinite postponement of the AFL-CIO peace talks sponsored by President Roosevelt and many be- lieve that the show down on this is- sue will block hope for reunion of the | between the A. F. of L. and the C. I The CIO statement said that the’ campaign to amend the act revealed a | controverted Wagner anti-union | warring labor factions. “strange line-up between manufacturers and certain leaders” of the AFL. the CIO de- | Unity negotiations between the two labor groups were postponed indefin- itely, and some persons close to the conferees doubted that the two peace committees, set up at President Roo- sevelt’s personal request, ever would meet again. A bitter and long-standing dispute C. over proposed amendments to the Labor Relations Act was the cause of the conference's postponement. C. 1. O. President John L. Lewis, It declared that neither the NAM, | announced the postponement and said Chamber of Commerce nor Green “tru- + 1y represent the interests of those for whom they claim to speak. “It said that many AFL organizations are on record against all amendments to the Wagner act and a number of them have made various specific object- ions to the Walsh amendment. “The membership of the AFL in gen- eral has benefitted greatly from the Wagner act and wants to see it pre- served,” the statement continued. “That is why the AFL leaders who ad- vocate amendments pretend that it is for the purpose of strengthening the act, whereas the facts will show that all proposed amendments would ac- tvally cripple and destroy the act in | date.” He stressed the word performing the purposes for which it was created. Comparison of the National Asso- ciation of Manufacturers, Chamber of Commerce and (Senator David I.) Walsh-Green amendments shows that they represent in fact a conspiracy on the part of selfish minority interests against fair employers, against labor, and against the welfare of the general puklic.” NI1CKTOWN REORGANIZES ITS BASEBALL CLUB The Nicktown Independent Baseball Club held a reorganization meeting in St. Nicholas Hall, last Sunday after- : noon last, in which the following offi- cers were elected for the ensuing sea- son: Irvin Hoppel, Chief Coach; Fred R. Pfiester, Business Manager; G. R. Lovette, Secretary. Abe Peters, treas- urer of the club, acted as chairman of the meeting. Last season Nicktown had the stron- gest independent baseball nine in Northern Cambria, playing 35 games and winning 29. The team is sponsored by the Nicktown Civic Club. All candidates for the team this season are requested to attend the next regular meeting which will be held in St. Nicholas Hall, Nicktown on Sunday, April 16, at 1:00 P. M. NANTY-GLO BURGESS DIES IN HARRISBURG |U. M. W. A. TO FIGHT T. P. Burns, aged 63 years, burgess of Nanty-Glo, and well known all over Cambria county, died on Monday mor- ning in a Harrisburg hospital. He had been stricken with a heart attack on Seturday after arriving in Harrisburg to spend Easter with his only sister, Miss Sue Burns. He was taken to the hospital and was placed in an oxygen tent. He rallied on Sunday but re- lapsed Monday morning and died aj short time later. In addition to serving as burgess Mr. Burns served as justice of the peace in Nanty-Glo for the last seven years. Prior to entering politics he was | be amended to encompass U. M. W. A. engaged in business. He operated a meat market in Nanty-Glo for a num- ber of years. Mr. Burns was a mem- ber of St. Mary's Catholic church in Nanty-Glo. Board. informed the A. F. of L. that he could he had telephoned A. F. L. Vice Presi- dent Matthew Woll and that they had “easily agreed” to defer further meet- ings until a “mutually satisfactory “easily.” The committees had been scheduled to meet at 8:30 p. m. Lewis gave these two reasons for the postponement: 1—Hearings on Wagner Act amend- ment proposals which start before the Senate education and labor committee in Washington April 11. Both A. F. of L. and the C. I. O. leaders will appear before this committee. 2—Collective bargaining negotia- tions now in progress between the Lewis’ United Mine Workers of Amer- ica Union and Appalacian bituminous producers. Approximately 338,000 soft coal miners have been idle since their contract expired on April 1. In addition Lewis begins contract April 30. If the peace picture actually is as black as it appeared last Wednesday, there was a hint that Mr. Roosevelt may take additional steps to force a settlement. A the first meeting of the peace committees he said that “direct rniegotiations without outside interposi- tion is always best if possible.” The Wagner Act issue is one of the most important between the two groups. The A. F. of L. is backing several major changes to correct what it charges is bias in favor of the C. IL O. by the National Labor Relations The C. I O. opposes all changes in the act. Lewis is understood to have not cooperate in the search for peace with one hand, and fight their Wagner Act amendmenets with the other. C. I. O. Vice President Philip Murray tele- graphed the Senate education and labor committee before the hearing date was set that he believed hearings woula himper any prospects for peace. The A. F. of L. contends, however, that the hearings should aid rather than injure peace negotiations. COMPENSATION ACT'S PROPOSED REVISION Harrisburg — The United Mine Workers of America will ‘undoubted- ly” oppose the Wilson House bills sca- ling down the workmen's compensa- tion benefits and repealing the occu- pational desease supplement to the compensation law, Former Assembly- man John Yourishin, a U. M. W. A. district official said last Thursday. The Dent workmen's compensation kill in the Senate, covering Supreme Court objections to the 1937 liberali- zation of the 24-year old statute, will recommendations, Yourishin said, which will be drafted by the union of- picket lines and halt any further ship- | DELAY TALKS : Early Peace | negotiations \ April 10 with Pennsylvania Anthracite | operators, whose agreement expires on | Git tid BE OBSERVED secretary- | treasurer of the United Mine Workers, | yx: Lccal 6530, said the coal, had come | Will Be Held at at the Brandon Ho. from non-union mines which were | operating in the Blantbury Clearsiend tel in Spangler on Saturday Night of This Week. Sponsored by the students of mi- ning classes in Carrolltown, Bakerton, | Rocks, the fifth annual banquet of the | mining school group will be held Sat- | urday, April 15, at 7:00 p. m. at Hotel . Brandon. There are more than eighty studens | enrolled in the mining schools in the { five towns mentioned. Instructors are Jumes Logan and his son, Lawrence ! Logan, both of Spangler, the formen nn instructor of miners preparing for first grade foreman certificates and the | latter in charge of the class studies | for fire boss certificates. The mining students recently completed their six- month instruction period. Classes will resume in October. | It is expected that the attendance | al the banquet will reach the 125 mark, invitations having been extended to a number of guests to attend the affair. Musical selections will comprise part of the dinner program, Joseph Hayes of Nanty-Glo to entertain with vocal selections, and Clayton Reffner to fea- ture with piano numbers. Invited guests of the mining students | are: Thomas Aiken of Ebensburg, gen- cra. manager of the Ebensburg Coal Company; Daniel Sullivan, mine fore- man of the Ebensburg Coal Company; John Foreman of Bakerton, general manager of the Sterling Coal Company; Charles Hannigan of Bakerton, super- pany; David Davidson of St. Benedict, general manager of the Peale, Pea- cock & Kerr Coal Company; J. G Nicholson of [Barnesboro, sperinten- dent of the Pennsylvania Coal and Coke Company; William Filer of Eb- ensburg, mine inspector of the 10th district; W. B. Wardrop of Indiana, mine inspector of the 30th districts Thomas Lawther of Indiana, retired mine inspector; Rop Joseph of Johns- town, inspector of the 6th district; John Burlas of Latrobe, inspector of the 19th district; P. F. Nairn of Carroll. town, mine inspector; William Lamont of Ebensburg; Dennis Keenan of Bar- nesboro, state mine inspector; George Steinheiser of Indiana, inspector of the 25th district; Joseph Hayes of Nan- ty Glo, vocalist,’ and Clayton Reffner, of Spangler, pianist. LOVER’S QU ARREL ENDS IN DEATH OF COUPLE | Climaxing a lover's quarrel, John | Smith, 21, of Creslo, an unemployed | miner, on Monday afternoon shot and | killed Agnes Kolendra, 16 ,of Coral, Indiana county, and then committed suicide in the home of Stanley Me- Closkey at Onnalinda, a mining com- munity near Beaverdale. The tragedy occurred about 3:30 o’cicok. The murdered girl had been a do- pany with the girl for some time but they had quarrelled recently. Friends said Smith warned the girl, “You can’t make a monkey out of me!” Shortly before the shooting Smith took another girl, Mary Zolar, to the home of an uncle, and according to the girl he remarked, “You won't see Agnes any more!’ Smith drove to the McCloskey home and parked his car in front. He went to the rear of the house ,passing Me- Closkey on the way, and entered the home. Smith asked the girl to come outside to talk, and when she refused he showed her a .22 caliber hunting revolver. As the girl walked out onto an enclosed porch in the rear of the McCloskey home, Smith opened fire, sending one bullet through the grils right lung and then fired two shots into himself. The girl died almost in- stantly. COALMEN INVITED TO HEARING BY HALUSKA Senator John J. Haluska (D.-Cam- bria) last Wednesday invited soft coal operators and miners to a hearing be- fore the Bituminous Coal Study Com- intendent of the Sterling Coal Com- | | structing 273 miles of firebreaks, cut- mestic in Johnstown. She went to On- | quarts of milk and 25,600,000 sounds | nalinda for a visit over the Easter | holidays. Smith had been keeping com- | ing 15,121 persons to read and write IC. 1. 0 OPPOSES ANY | waanour avs Complete Shutdown is | Washington — — "The ¢ Congress of tl | dustrial Organizations, in letters to the | Senate and House labor committees, | sxressed oppisition last week to the | | amendments to the Wage-Hour Law. i Lee Pressman, general council of the C. I. O,, wrote the virtually every | one of a series of amendments pro- | | | posed recently would “benefit” the em- | | ployers” and do nothing to strength- | | en the act for the benefit of the work- | | ers. { Pressman said no attempt to amend | the law should be made without hold- | | ing hearings on the proposals. THREE YEARS’ WORK LISTED BY STATE WPA Accomplishments Include 635 Buildings and Seven Thousand Miles of Highways. Harrisburg — A long list of ac- complishments of the Works Progress | Administration during its first three yous of operation in Pennsylvania was made public last Saturday by E. C. Smith, Jr., acting state administrator. The listed accomplishments range from the building or repairing of 7000 miles of roads to the unearthing of 11,158 archaeological pieces. The bulk of the work was, of course, in the construction fields. Some 635 public buildings were con- ernized or repaired. In addition to the 7000 miles of roads, 10,706 new culverts were built and @42 new bridges erected. New drainage ditch and pipe were pro- vided to the extent of 6,300,000 lin- ear feet. New water mains and distribution lines totaled 167 miles, and new storm and sanitary sewers 488 miles. More than 30,000 sanitary toilets were in- stalled in rural areas. The WPA expanded the State's re- creational facilities by constructing 118 athletic fields and improving 157 others; building 94 new playgrounds and improving 512; building 24 swim- ming and wading pools and improving 70; providing 243 tennis courts and five golM courses and improving 236 parks. Land improvements included plant- ing more than a million trees, con- structed, and 3888 others were mod- | WAGNER DEFENDS LABOR ACT WHEN HEARINGS START] Challenges Foes To Prove That Suggestions Would Help, and | Not Destroy Function, | Washington.—Senator Wagner, Dem- ocrat, New York, challenged advocates of a revised labor relations act Tues- day to prove that their suggestions would help the operation of the law and not destroy it. “Any diminution of its effectiveness would be a national evil,” the Senate Labor Committee. “It's mu- tilation would be a national calamity.” As the committee took up the con- troversial question of modifying the aci, Wagner agreed that if the need for alterations were shown, he would introduce amendments or support those of other senators. He said re- peatedly, however, that the basic prin- ciples of the act were sound. He said he would support proposals to let employers petition for elections {0 ascertain which bargaining agency should represent their workers, but contended that & ruling of the board and not the act itself prevented such petitions. | Wagner said that the labor law which bears his name has proved an “effective instrument for economic peace and industrial justice.” “It has vastly benefitted workers employers and the public at large. No one challenges it: objectives; no re- sponsible party openly advocates its repeal.” He declared that “reckless tamper- ing with the act” would “substitute un- certainty for certainty in the law” and would start a long string of law suits. INJURY IS FATAL TO EBENSBURG MINER | Complications, superinduced by in- juries he suffered in a mine accident in December, last Thursday morning resulted in the death of Jerry Hull Johnson, 38, of 719 West, High Street, Ebensburg. Johnson was injured while | working at the mines of of the Mon- roe Coal Company at Revloc and had ting 1099 miles of fire and forest trails, and establishing 16 bird sanctuaries. Four airports and 500 air markers | were created. Physical accomplishments other than | construction projects included renova- | tion of 1,600,000 library and public | school books, cataloging 4,200,000 li- | brary volumes, serving 1,600,000 hot lunches to undernourished school children, production of 10,700,000 gar- ments for the needy and public insti- tutions, and distribution of 174,000 of foodstuffs to needy families. Art projects turned out 2962 draw- ings, murals, statues, and the like. The museum extension projects made about a half million museum pieces for use in the schools. The educational section was teach- in typical month, and had 10,214 vo- cational students. For the blind, 66,947 pages of Braille were transcribed. “The facts and figures in this re- port show that WPA is, as its name implies, a work program,” Mr. Smith commended. “It must be remembered that the purpose of WPA has not been merely to give jobs to the unemployed — itself an invaluable contribution to the morale and general welfare of the Commonwealth — but to employ them on useful public work.” The report coves the period from the beginning of the WPA program in Pennsylvania to June 30, 1938, and does not include work which was not | completed on that date. MEETING IS CALLED TO REORGANIZE OLD BASEBALL LEAGUE A meeting of the original Northern Cambria Industrial Baseball League since been a patient at his home. The deceased was a son of Mr. and | Mrs. Jeremiah Johnson of Ebensburg and was born in Clearfield on Oct- | ober 26, 1900. He came to this section | with his parents a number of years ago. Surviving are his parents, who re- side in Ebensburg; his widow, Mrs. | Catheryn (Hofman) Johnson, two! children, Gerald and Donald Johnson, both at home, and these brothers and sisters; John Milliam, Norman, Ray- | mond and Carrie Johnson, Mrs. William Rorabaugh and Mrs. Leroy Wiseman, all of Ebensburg; Sanor Johnson, Ak- ron, O.; Mrs. Gilbert Burgess, Mrs. | John Morgan and Mrs. Thomas Mor- gan, all of Nanty Glo. Two sisters, Nora and Dora Johnson, preceded him in death. Funeral services were conducted at the Johnson home at 2:30 o’clock last Saturday afternoon by Rev. Ralph Ro- Wagner told | labor | Threatened by Lewis egatistions Reach Apparant Deadlock and Miners Insist on Concession Granis, FOR PROTECTION OF UNION HE pictire Presa presented by the | status in negotiations between | miners and operators in New | York City, at our press time, on | Wednesday afternoon, is not a particularly pleasant portrait. {Indications are that unless sat- isfactory and signed contracts are forthcoming in short order the United Mine Workers will jutilize all their economic means to force their demands. On Tuesday night, John L. Lewis, President of the U. M. W. of A, made a threat to halt work in the entire soft coal industry unless an agreement is reached seon between the union and the mine operators in the Appalachian region. In statements issued simultaneouly, the UMWA president and Charles O’- Neill, spokesman for the operators, disclosed that negotiations for a new labor contract virtually had reached a | stalemate. Meanwhile all union miners in the ! Appalachian region, with the excep- tion of skeleton maintenance crews, have ceased work. Operations in out- | 1g districts have continued under special agreements, which Lewis threatened Tuesday night to cancel. The Appalachian region produces 70 per cent of the Nation's soft coal and its labor contract terms traditionally | have been the basis for the rest of the | industry. “It is a bad time for the operators to undertake to destroy the United Mine Workers in 1939 to please the la- bor-baiting interests who are opposed to collective bargaining,” Lewis said. “We assert that this cannot be done and assert that the coal industry | should not permit itself to be used as a cat’s paw in this situation. If this at- titude continues on the part of the op- | erators nothing will satisfy them but | the blood of the union. “The United Mine Workers of Am- | erica would be compelled to consider ! broadening the base of this struggle | and ‘to call for cancellation by fifteen days’ notice of all agreements outly- that’s all ing the Appalachain region- the coal fields.” { In their statements, Lewis and O’- | Neill, speaking for a sub-committee of | four miners and four operators, which | is charged with negotiations, said that the operators had agreed to renew the | existing contract, which expired Mar. | 3 31, but had refused consistently to | grant either one of the two UMWA de- | mands. These proposals were for a closed | shop or elimination of enforcement | provisions in district contracts which | provide penalties for strikes. “Our stand,” said Lewis, “is that the miners have made 26 concessions and one is due from the operators.” He referred to the fact that the UMWA made 26 proposals upon opening ne- binson, pastor of the Ebensburg Meth- | gotiations‘and yielded on all of them. odist Church, assisted by Rev. Cecil The union demands are simply for Kelly of Wilkinsburg, formerly of Eb- | their own protection. Any let down on ensburg. Interment was in Lloyd’s| one or the other of the demands would Cemetery under the direction of Duke | throw them open to exploitation by J. Rosensteel, Ebensburg mortician. outside labor-baiting interests. “Don’t —m try to tell the public the the issue BOYS WIN HALUSKA which caused this break down was the , | union shop,” Lewis warned the opera- COLLEGE AWARDS tors. “We'll accept two: year extension of the old contract, plus the abolition of the penalty clauses.” In the absence of the union shop, he continued, the UMWA is unwilling to be penalized for idleness due to the activities of dual unions whieh might enter “foul conspiracies” to destroy the UMWA. | Coal supplies over the nation are now reported as becoming meagre, following two weeks in which the ma- jor mining aetivities have ceased. A conilinuation of the present situation The John J. Haluska senatorial sch- larships awarded by Johnstown Post 204, American Legion, and the 20th District Committee, American Legion were won by Calvin Charles Rush of Southmont and Donald Schissler of Spangler, it was announced. Rush will enroll at the University of Pittsburgh next fall as a pre-medical student. Schissler will enroll in Penn- sylvania State College. . shortly cannot help but be felt. and LEGION WILL BUILD unless an early agreement is reached PORTAGE PLAYSPOT | the mine situation will become one in ——— which all people will feel the effects will be held in the American Legion mission. Chairman Haluska said the com-| mittee had visited several mines to | study the problem of mine car push- ing. He said after the hearing, the| commission would make its recommen ficials at a conference next week with Senator John H. Dent, Democrat, of! Westmoreland County, sponsor. dations to the Legislature. The hearing will be held in the Senate caucus room at 2 p. m. | Spangler, Colver, Barnesboro, Emeigh, | Twin Rocks, Moss Creek, Revloc, St. | Home at Carrolltown on Monday, April 17, at 7:30 o'clock P. M. The following towns are cordially invited | to send delegates: Patton, Bakerton, | Benedict, Hastings, Allport, and Nanty- | Glo. Portage — Members of the John R.| The United Mine Workers of Ar-arica Moyer Post, American Legion of Por- | after building up the excellent orsan- tage, have launched a program for the | ization they now have, cannot jr ns=A construction of a playground here. A | ize their position by making pnssible committee of Legion members is now | any avenue for inroads by thos ‘ho {engaged in clearing brush from the | in the final analysis. have noth ground. Sand bins, slides, swings, and | hatred for all gnions—and won!? nee other playground equipment will be) any pretext to make their ine! installed in the near future. fact.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers