Imperial Valley Press

MINERS PLAN MASS SUICIDE

Nearly 2,000 Hungarian Workers Ready To Meet Death If Wages Not Raised

FUNFKIRCHEN, Hungary, Oct. 15. (U.P.)-Twelve hundred hunger-striking miners, bent on mass suicide, held themselves in the depths of the Pecz mine today while their women pleaded with troops at the pithead to be allowed to descend and die with them.

Soldiers with bayonets and machine guns held back the wives, mothers, sisters and sweethearts of the miners, who struggled futilely, shouting:

"Let us go down into the pit to die with our men."

The miners demanding higher wages threatened to cut off the ventilating fans and asphyxiate themselves to stop the pumps and drown. Fifty of them were reported seriously ill in the depths. Forty-five had been brought up ill from gas fumes.

"Raise our pay or send us 1,200 red coffins," the miners demanded.

Thirty-two hundred miners on the surface went on sympathy strike but were restrained from going into the pit to join their comrades.

Five emissaries of the social Democrat party descended to try to persuade strikers to compromise. They were held prisoners for several hours. Representatives of 20,000 to 30,000 miners of the Salgotarjan district voted for a sympathy strike in two days if the Funfkirchen dispute is not settled.

Send Message By mid-afternoon the situation looked desperate. The miners, who had been communicating with the surface by telephone and signal, announced they would answer no further messages until informed their wages have been increased.

The message said:

"We will not leave the shafts or answer further messages until informed we have been given an eight per cent increase in wages. We have decided to die if it is not done. It means suicide but we would rather die here of gas and lack of food than to face a slow death above, because our wages are not enough to buy bread."

Fifteen miners who entered the shaft to extinguish a supposed fire were reported to have been held prisoners, or to have joined the strikers voluntarily.

VIENNA, Oct. 15. (U.P.)-The Neus Wiener Tagblatt reported from Budapest today that a large additional group of miners had entered the shaft at Funfkirchen, making the total of strikers 1,850, after which elevator service was halted.