New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-06-10
s-+- NEW ORLEANS SATURDAY, JUNE 49, 1871.
Ingersoll; bronze statuette of Minerva, John
K. Brady.
THE GREAT COAL DIFFICULTY.

THE GREAT COAL DIFFICULTY.
Hon. Hendrick B. Wright, the owner of
three cellieries in Pennsy lvania has writ
ten a four hundred page book on the coal
question, STRIKES 'basis," arbitration"
etc. The proof sheets are now in the
hands of the writer for revision, and |
give you digest of Mr.. Wright's ideas be-
fore they are published by Carleton.
TRADES UNIONS.
The miners for several years past have
had union called the "Workingmens
Benevolent Association" Most of them,
without reference to nationality, are mem
bers of this union. They have their con-
stitution and laws; and the object of this
combination is not only benevolent in its
character, but the association is designed to
make uniform standard OF wages. 1t is
incumbent also upon the persons who hold
the funds of this association, made up by
monthly contributions of all the members,
to give relief to any of their order who
may be out of employment caused by
strikes or casualties.
The laws and regulations of this associa-
ton operate only upon its members; with
those outside of it they have nothing to do,
and therefore the allegation is gratuitous
and unfounded, that the association at
tempts to control the action of any working
men who are not members. ..
l. therefore as one entirely independent
of and in every way disconnected from the
origin or causes of the present contest,
deem it my duty to disabuse the public
mind of the wrong impression attempted to
be made, that the members OF this association
interfere in any way with other occupations
or with other miners not members of the
organization. In fact, it has been rather a
matter of surprise that so large body of
men out of employment for so long time,
many of them, as well as their families, en-
during want and privation, should have be-
haved so well, and conducted themselves in
SO orderly a manner.
THE CAUSE OF THE DIFFICULTY.
In the month of November. 1870, when
all the mines were in state of quiet. and
everything was supposed to be in pros
porous and satisfactory condition from the
one extreme of the three coal fields to the
other, small cloud, at first no bigger than
mans hand, appeared in the mining hor-
izOn. 1t was in the shape of a decree
emanating from the office Of the Delaware
and Hudson Canal Company, located in the
city of New York, and directed to their
employees, that from and after the first of
December next following, the miners should
be paid eighty-six cents per diamond car in
place of one dollar and thirty-one cents, the
price under which labor had been for a long
time regulated and paid.
Here was clap of thunder in a clear
sky! At a single dash of the pen an order
is made reducing the pay of mine labor
thirty-three per cent. Onethird off
The entire production of coal for 1870
was Is. .36S. .437 tons.
OF this these companies mined and trans
ferred over their own routes of cOmmuni-
cation, the following quantities, viz:
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western rail
Della %are and Hudson Canal Company. 1854 6S5
Pennsylvania Coal Company 1895, ,78l
Total. 699, SIS
They thus shipped to market over one
third of the total production of the coal
mines during the last year.
DIAMOND CAR"
- Diamond Car has a local significance
in the mining districts as important as that
terrible word, basis" The miner cuts the
coal, or more properly blasts it OFF from the
seam with powder To do this requires skill,
practical knowledge and judgment. He en-
plOvs a man as an assistant, called his
laboreI. This man separates the coal and
slate. cleans it from such impurities as it
may come in contact with in the process of
detaching, puts it into the mine car, at
taches ticket with the miners name, and
off it goes to the head of the " beaker"
Here it is examined, and if IL is not prop
erly prepared the miner is ''docked.' If it
passes inspection the miner is credited with
the cargo. and the car emptied and returned
to the chamber where it started.
The Diamond Car" gets its name from
the Diamond Mine; its capacity is a ton and
a half. and hence Diamond Car is a term
to designate measurement. The miner, then,
when he contracts to mine per Diamond
Car" contracts to mine ton and half of
coal and put it in the car at his chamber.
For this labor in November, 1870, if in the
employ of any one of the three large cor
poratiOns named, he was paid 81 81. And
what produced the strike by the men in the
employment of these three companies on
the first of December, 1870, was the reduc-
ton of this sum to eighty-six cents per car.
These companies had paid 81 81 per car
since the strike of 1869; and while it would
seem that their men received larger pay
than the men engaged in the other fields
it will be found upon examination that the
difference is trifing. The pay of the miners
in the Lackawanna region and in the employ
ment of the three companies had no con-
tingent interest dependent upon the market
value of coal. His pay was uniform, with
out regard to the market value of the article.
HIS was nOU UU0 case III Uue Olner COL
lieries, and which combined produce two
thirds of the annual consumption. In these
collieries the operators were governed by
the 'basis" Ii. e., giving the miner con-
tingent interest of twelve per cent on the
price of coal above $5). To this the large
would not yield. They did not
and probably never will assent to the regu-
iation. And in this difference of opinion,
combined more probably with other con-
cealed reasons, there is not that state of
mutual good feeling between them and the
operators in the other fields which is health
full to the trade.
We find, then that the operators who an
nually mine two-thirds of the coal adopt
"basis" as the measure of compensation for
labor, and this takes in all of the three coal
fields except the Lackawanna portion of the
Northern and part of the Wyoming.
AND WHAT is THE "BAsIs?"
If the ton of coal brings at Elizabethport,
New Jersey, five dollars, the miner gets
about sixty-tive cents a ton for his labor. If
the price advances over five dollars he re-
ceives twelve and half per ceut of such
advance. His pay is therefore contingent
upon the sale of the article. To their rule
two thirds of the coal producers assented;
the other one-third, comprised in three cor
porations, declined for the reason that they
will not tolerate the idea of partnership
with their men,"
If coal averages Sc 25 at Elizabeth then
the "basis" miner receives about the same
as the Lackawanna miner at
81 II for the Diamond Car" If that is
reduced to eighty-six cents, then the Lack
awanna miner will get some six cents a ton
less than the "basis" miner, when coal sells
for five dollars at Elizabeth. Ii the coal sells
in excess OF this sum, his wages viii increase
ut the rate of per cent above named.