Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1885-11-22
COAL MINER. /"
He Gives Some Points on the Miners
Trouble Well Worth ReadieRs
WHEELING, November l9.


WHEELING, November l9.
To the Editor Of the Reoi'ter:
SIR-If you viii allow me space in youl
valuable paper, would like to reply to al
article that appeared in Tuesdays issue
entitled The Miners Trouble" it being
an interview a reporter had with a would
be "Old Miner in which he goes on to ex
plain the causes which led to the present
misunderstanding between the operators
and the miners. Now just why this opera,
tor should wish to conceal his identity and
make himself appear as miner ID some
thing which We fail TO comprehend, and "a
for there being any Misunderstanding De.
tween the operators and the miners We iail
to see it. The operators understand that
they want to retain the system Of weighing
coal after it has been run over q tSo-inch
screen, a system that gives them the power
to steal two-thnds of the miners hard
earned labor without giving the public any
benefit whatever, and the miners are deter
mined to abolish this screen stealing syt-
ten and therefore the trouble. He said 1t
would take book to hold sll he knew
about the present trouble and
what led TO it, and then
Door old deluded miner brsnched ont to
explain how coal was mined away back In
the ffies. Before there we're any such
things Sd chutes, screens, scales, iron
track or mule power, and we think that
Old Miners recollection must date back Q
lolg time to be able to remember the time
when mule power was not invented; Old
Miner SAYS in these good old days when
powder wRs scarce, and hard to get and
cost heap OF money, mules were cheaper
and then miners used wedges and crow
bars; and he also tells you that the miners
in those days had to even resort to elbow
gresse, asG occasionally they had to use
picks; now if our experienced Old Miner
will be SO kind IS to inform us how We can
mine coal at the present time without the
aid of elbow gresse and picks, we will
make him a present of our kit, and be
might give them to some poor unfortunate
black sheep and induce him TO go to work
for him BIZ the screen robbipg system;
and we have q Set Of drill tools that We
could afford to let Old Miner have to make
screen bars of, TO screen his scab coal
over. He Esys there was no talk OF crush.
ed coal then, and for his knowledge
in this We will have to
give him credit, there wss no
talk Of crushed coal simply because there
was no such thing there. The mines at
that time only extended into the hills one,
two and three hundred yards, and the pill
lars were net all taken out as they are at
the present time, and therefore the weight
of the hills did not settle down on little
small pillars and consequently there was
no such thingss crushed coal. In those
good old days he tells you that the miners
put the harness on themselves and hauled
their own coal out Of the bank, and the
wagons being small and the miners know.
ing Jest how much they held it prevented
the operator from cheating them out Of q
part OF what they made. Old miner saysihe
price OF mining ranged from Is cents TO
81 % per hundred bushels, and il this old
miners memory dates back as f,r as he
would have you believe, be can most PROB
ably remember everything else was on an
equality with mining, You could at that
time buy -four for three dollars per barrel,
aud house that you would have 10 pay
eight dollars mouth rent for to-day you
coQld have rented ST that time for two or
three, and everything else wasiu proportion.
Old Miner says finally there came
cbsnge. The chutes and screens be tells
you were invented TO do away with the
rake. Just here is where the operators
sympathy for the miners comes ie, by this
system Of chutes and screens; and the mule
power was invented about this time; and
i gave the operator the privilege Of put
ting wagons into the bank that wou4d hold
80 bushels of coal while be ouly paid the
miners for twenty, and il he was not salts
fed with this, which he was not in some
instances, he could make them larger
which he did also, as it made no difference
how large be made the wagons as the mule
had just been invented and was new and
strong and he conld haul out almost any
kind OF @ wagon. We do feel glad 10
know that the mule wac invented for those
poor abused operators. We are sorry for
the operators that some enterprisiDg
Yankee had not conceived the idea Of in.
venting the mule loGg $50. Old Miner
says about the year 1868 another radical
change wss brought stout By the city Gu
thorities passing an ordinance COM
polling al coal sold in the city TO be
weighed and cold at so pounds per brshel
And we DC not think strange when We hear
those operators cay it was radical cha, ge
thoS al
change that prohibited them from selling
a load Of coal to the consumer for thirty
Bushels when they had paved the miner
for only twenty. Old Mi0er says again
that the operators have bore he ills of the
chutes and screens all themselves rather
than ask the miners 10 share with them.
Nov, il Old Miner was as well acquainted
with the operators as We are, be would not
be surprised OF this one great act OF kind.
ness, as We sTe very well swsre that those
operators are liable to extend their BY mpa
thy TO the miners ina great many ways
One instance where they shoEed their
sympathy for the miners vas few years
ago when they had those wagons measured
and branded by the city guager, by which
op ration the miners price was raised 81
most 100 per cent; and they did all this
for us after We came ont on q six weeks
strike and forced them TO do it. Old
Miner says We have asked for the scales
and got them, and We intend TO
use them Notwithstanding the strike
against them. Now We would Ike to
know who they have asked. They have
not certainly asked the miners, fer the
miners have already notified them that
they can not keep them, or if they do they
can mine their oxn coal, and so far as say,
ing thst they intend 10 use them, tina. de
ponds on circumstances. Old Miner says
that Noundsville, Shortcreek, Welisburg
and the miners on the Mhealinr Piitshnroh