Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1871-05-10
The Coal Trouble.


The coal trouble within the past week
has awakened into life a new issue Up
to a recent date the trouble was confined
to the miner, the operator, and railroad
companies a new character Is intro
duced, one that heretofore took no part
further than to encourage the miners
This character is the laborer The word
laborer is a name given to class of men
who enter the mines and load cars for
the miner as he digs or cnts the coal -
A correspondent of the Philadelphia In
ouiyrr, under date Of May 5th, writes
from Scranton. Of this new term Of af-
fairs. as follows:
A very important and significant move
ment is now well on foot by the inside
mine laborers, which threatens to give
the miners considerable trouble-fully
equal to their difficulties with the compa-
nics. To those not conversant with the
contract system of mining coal, a word
of explanation is necessary. When opera
tors mine coal by the car they pay the
miner a certain sum therefore, based on
the Dimond car (about l.! tons), and the
miner merely cuts the coal, while laborer
loads it into the cars. for which the miner
paws him one-ihird of the gross amount
earned, while he (the miner pays for the
the powder, oil, &c. and retains the bal
ance
! For instance, when the companies pay
ST 81 per dimond car, the gross amount
earned is S6.l7 for days work of seven
car loads, which is the most the W. B.
A. will allow any one of their number to
take from the mines iu any one day
Of this sum the laborer received s302i
while the miner had s5,293 aftel paying
the necessary expenses for oil, powder,
&c. The miners usually work only
from four to six hours day. while the
laborer cannot get through with bis work
in less than from nine to eleven hours
thus being compelled to work twice the
number of hours that the miner does
He is exposed to more and greae er dan
gers, and receives less than half the
pay.
To this inequality, not to say injustice
the laborers do not propose to submit in
the future, as it is perfectly right and
Just that they should not. 1t costs a
laborer just as much 10 live as it does
miner. and it is really surprising that they
have not protested against the injustice
loug ago.
A brief comparison will show that, at
eighty-six cents per dimond car, the mi
ner would earn S3,265 per day, but they
protest that it is starvation wages
Now if during 1870, when the compa-
nes paid Sl,3l per car, laborers coulu
live on what the miners paid them (S3,-
O2I)' why would the miners starve in
1871 if they received S3,265 per day ;
Heretofore the laborers have been little !
less than the miners slaves. and they |
think it is right that they should throw
off the yoke Their necessities are the |
same as the miners they want to eda-
cate their children the same cloth and feed |
their wives and little one just as well they |
in reality, earn more than the miners, and
it is not right that they should receive
only half as much pay. If the compa-
MES have oppressed the miners, they, in
turn, have still more griveonsly oppressed
and tyrannzed over the inside laborers
At a meeting of three thousand miners
and laborers, held at Scranton. on last
Saturday. the following resolutions were
passed
Resoired, That the miner pay the la
borer one-third of the whole amount re-
ceived by him every month, together
with price of any cars lost during said
month through the negligence or incom- !
petence of the miner, and through the
bad or broken roads that in case the
miner is not capable of cutting his coal
he laborer will not be bound to assist |
lim, and also that the miner will not be +
allowed to discharge said laborer on that
account.
ReSolred, That any and every laborer
working in the mines shall be entitled to |
| chamber in his turn if he be capable of
working said chamber that work shall
,e equally divided among all nationalities
n the future as it has not been in the ,
,ast. We lay these terms before you so !;
hat by your adopting them you shal!
lose the breach that has been opened in 0
'our ranks. Signed by the committee of Il
aborers. a
SDeech 0f Governor Geary