The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-06
STRIKING WITH ONE AIM
THE OBJECTS OF THE MINERS AND
RAILROADERS THE SAME.


The Principle of Organized Labor to
be Defended Against the Opposing
Corporation-Nearly Every Colliery
of the Reading Company Idle-A New
Danger.
PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 5--Some of the
Reading railroad firemen, who are members
of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen,
are also Knights of Labor, and this has
brought about official notice from +. s.
Sargent, Grand Master of the Brotherhood
of Firemen, that members of the
Brotherhood should not allow them
selves to become involved in any way
in the strike of the Knights of Labor Mr..
Sargent's letter to the Master of local
lodge says: 81 will reclaim the charter il
any member of the lodge is allowed to be
an agent for involving our brotherhood in
strike that we have nothing to do with"
All the individual collieries in the neigh
borhood of Shenandoah, Pa, are at work,
some of them very large ones making
heavy shipments This leaves the Reading
company alone in the fight in that section,
and with only four individual allies in the
whole lower anthracite coal field.
POSSIBLE HITCH.
The only hitch now feared in the case of
the individual mines is the possible refusal
of the miners to mine coal to be handled by
non-union railroaders. Such complication
is deprecated by public sentiment as unwise
in any event, but especially so as directed
against individual operators, who have no
| option as to roads for shipment.
Some defections have occurred In
the ranks of the non-union railroaders in
| the mining regions, owing to the ostracism
| and inconvenience they meet, no boarding
accommodations being obtainable. The
company has been compelled to transform
several freight cars at Mahanoy Plane into
eating and sleeping rooms, while its offices
and machine shops are likewise adapted.
! Heavy shipments of coke are arriving at
Reading and other iron manufacturing
centres from Western Pennsylvania.
| This will be substituted for coal wherever
| possible and the alarm lest the iron workers
may shut down is subsiding. Another
temporary relief is found in the immense
stock of fine COAL called buckwheat coal,
] which the railroad company has accumu-
| lated for it's own use as steam fuel. This is
now being sold to outside dealers.
ATTITUDE OF THE MINERS.
The striking miners are taking pains to
make it clear that their strike is not one of
sympathy with the railroad mems quarrel but
| Is LOT continuance Oh UDe per CbllU. III
crease above the SO so basis which the
Reading Coal and Iron Company discon-
tinued Jan. /. The miners hold aloof from
| the railroaders in public at least, fearing
that they may prejudice their own case.
MORE COMPLETE THAN EVER.
A special to the Press from Pottsville
says; 1.-The miners strike is more complete
| than ever. Heretofore the number of idle
and working collieries has been willingly
stated at the Office of the Coal and Iron
| Company. To-day the officials there said
| that they had been instructed not to give
out these figures. The miners say
that the reason is that there are no
Reading collieries working at all. The
best information, however, is that the
Suffolk colliery, near Mahanoy City, and
the Brookside, at Tower City, are still
working but with crippled forces. The
Henry Clay Reading colliery, near Shame
kin, was compelled to shut down to-day
because of breakage in the machinery
Two Reading cOllieries, the Richardson and
Glen Carbon, and the North Franklin, near
| Trevorton, were working yesterday, but
| are closed to-day on account of the strike.
THE WILLIAM PENN IDLE.
Zone of the individual collieries, the
| William Penn, near Shenandoah, which has
been working under an agreement to CON
tinue to pay on the advanced basis pending
| q S0UUlelnenC, SDuD OOWn uO-udy. Inc
reason is that the miners refused to cut
coal to be loaded on cars handled by non
union men. This is the first instance of the
| kind, and it goes to show clearly
that the strike of the miners is not alone on
account of the question of wages, but that
it is also intended to help their striking
brethren Of the railroad. The fact that the
managers of the miners strike are ir thor
ough sympathy with the railroaders is also
shown by the following kilograms between
John II. Davis, chief manager of the miners
strike, and the editor of BTddStreetS:
NEW YORK Jan. 5, 1885
| To John II. Dduis, Chairman of the Joint Com
! niftee of the Miners Organization, POttsva{e:
| Will you kindly wire what is the total number
| Of Reading coal miners on strike; also the mum
| ber of Reading train employees who have struck?
| The understanding here is that the miners
! promised to give up the per cent advance on
| Jan. ] unless miners wages elsewhere had been
advanced. Is this SO? Please telegraph MS
| briefly your position in this matter. We desire
| TO publish the facts, ALBERT c. STEVENS,
| Editor Brodstreets.
THE REPLY.
| PoTTsvTILE, Pa, Jan. 5, 1888.
| To Albert c. Stevens, Editor BradstreefS:
Twenty thousand Reading mine workers;
| about 1900 railroad men. The miners did not
| promise by act or implication to give up the 8
| per cent. advance on Jan. I. Our position is,
| railroaders and miners in common cause Of
| right and justice. JOHN III. DAVIS.
|
Davis has explicitly admitted that the
Miners were not striking for themselves
| alone, but also in aid of the railroaders
What he means by common cause of right
| and justice is recognition of organized
labor The miners committee, since the
! discharge of a miner for attending the
! Reading Convention as a delegate,
reached the conclusion that President Corbin
has determined to fight the labor organiza-
tions in detail. They say that he means TO
stamp out the Knights of Labor on their
railroad system first, and when he has done
that, will adopt more aggressive measures
against the Knights and Amalgamated As
sociation among the miners. The William
| Penn colliery, as mentioned above is the
only one of the individual colleres working
since the strike thathas stopped"
NO COAL TRAINS MOVING.
READING, PA, Jan. 5.--The interruption
| of the coal output has had at least one COM
| pensating effect upon the business of the
Reading Company. 1t has greatly simpli-
! fed the problem of securing men to fill the
| places of the refractory railroaders. On
| the Trackville branch, where ordinarily
1000 cars of coal are handled daily, now
!, there is none coming down, and,
of course, there is no use for
comparatively few of the railroaders on
the Lebanon and fremont and Schuylkill
and Susquehanna branches some fifteen
| apffta craxvs f,oif1nrigino gpVautV-fyo man