Posters have been circulated this week calling for representative men employed by the lead companies in each town in this district, to meet at the K. of P. Hall in Taylortown, Saturday night, July 28, for the purpose of organizing a Lead Belt Union. The posters emphasize the fact that this is to be purely a Lead Belt organization and will not be affiliated with the Western Federation of Miners nor any other militant organization.
The object of this organization will be to promote the best interests of the thousands of men employed in this district. It will be officered by conservative and representative men and will be conducted in such a manner as to prevent a recurrence of the drastic methods employed in driving the foreigners from the district.
Mob action is always to be deplored. When such methods are adopted, lawlessness and vandalism invariably result, no matter what the original intentions of the men participating in such a movement may have been. Once a movement gets a fair start, it soon gets beyond the control of the leaders. This was certainly demonstrated in the recent riot here. Two wrongs never make a right. This has been true since the beginning of time and will continue to be true until time shall be no more.
One of the great drawbacks towards maintaining an organization among the miners of the Lead Belt during the past ten years and more has been the radical policies advocated by the men selected to lead the organization. These leaders have usually been men from without the district who were not familiar with the people here or their methods of doing business. The conservative men in the district soon became so disgusted with the actions of the radicals from the West that they turned the organization over to them and ceased to attend the meetings.
We believe that the men are now on the right track so far as organization is concerned and that much good can be accomplished by this movement. The labor situation here where so many men are employed is a big one and very hard to handle satisfactorily. If there had been an organization here two weeks ago it [is] a safe bet that the situation which burst into a riotous flame could have been amicably adjusted.
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