Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-03

The cokers' strike in the Connellsville
region presented little change yesterday.
The early reports from Connellsville, Scott
dale and Uniontown to the operators all
stated that the men at Frick & Co. works
were still out, and that while the X. of L.
made considerable efforts to induce the men
at the other works to stop work, they were
not successful.
Master Workman Rae, of National Dis
triet Assembly No. 135, X. of L., Miners
and Mine Laborers, returned yesterday from
the Conneilsville region. A DISPATCH re-
porter met him afterward, and Mr.. Rae said:
Ny investigations among the men in the re-
gion corroOorated my first impression, that the
men are in the right, and their demands must
be complied with The average price a man
gets now for digging and flling coal in the re-
gion amounts TO Is cents per ton. less than is
paid anywhere else in the world. Now the men
demand cent per bushel, and they will get it.
This movement has been gong on among the
men for long time, and they felt that the cli-
max had TO come soon. They have made prep
arauons for it, and are in financial condition
TO fight.
A STRONG PREDICTION.
feel sure that within three days the entire
Connellsville region wil0be idle, and remain SO
until the operators agree to hold a conference
with the men and establish scale giving them
fair wages. The price of iron has advanced,
and the general condition OF the coke trade
warrants better pay for the men.
AT the offices of the different operators in
town very little information could be OBJ
tanned. Colonel Schoonmaker remarked
that all their men were at work,
and made no complaint. He said
this strike had been gotten up by the
labor agitators, and the men were
not in harmony with them According to
his belief the strike will soon be ended.
The Mcclure Company's works are all
running, and not a man was out yesterday.
The j. c. Moore Company reported the
same. One of the gentlemen of this con-
Germ remarked:
This is the most unjust strike have ever
heard of, and l must say it is a very severe
blow at organized labor. If the men had
struck at any works except Frick's they might
be justified, because nobody else signed scale
with the workers. But Frick made an agree
ment with his men and signed a scale which
insured them higher wages than the other
companies paid, and for men who are getting
the best wages to strike is something very
peculiar. However, think the men will soon
come TO their senses, and the strike will not
amount to much. Our men are at work, and
we have not received even the slightest intima-
ton that they will not continue.
THE FRICK SCALE.
At the office of the H. c. Frick Coke
Company a reporter obtained a copy of the
scale which had been made with the men on
February 8, last. In this scale the men
were promised from 6% to II per cent better
wages than any other company then paid.
There was a proviso in this scale, which
stipulated that the other companies would
adJp. the same scale by April 1. Another
rule was that, in case the agreement were to
be discontinued, the party desiring the dis
continuance would have to give a notice of
six days. The scale was signed by COM
mittee of workers composed of Edward
Rooney, Hugh. Gallagher, Thomas Boyle,
Martin King, George Wylie, Lawrence
Meegan and james Hart, and on the part OF
the Frick Coke Company by Thomas Lynch,
General Superintendent. The Frick people
say the men violated that agreement in
every way. Three more of their works, the
Trotter the Frick Works and the Fair
Works, OF the Southwest Coke Company,
went out yesterday.
THE FRICK CO. IS SIDE.
A member of the Frick Company stated
the company's side as follows to a reporter
yesterday:
The strike in the coke region. so far as it is
directed against the H. e. Frick Coke Com
pany, deserves censure because it is unjust,
and signed by the men. The last strike was
ended so far as the ii. c. Frick Coke Company
was concerned by the men submitting and
agreeing TO a scale of wages which was l2h per
cent of an increase over what was then paid.
The other operators held out and their men
gave up the strike and went back to work at
the old wages. This was the big strike of 1887.
Ever since then Mr.. Frick has given his men
more steady employment and one-eghth more
wages than any other operator in the region.
Up until April, 1881 at which time Mr..
Fricks men, recognizing the injustice of
his paying the excess of wages as he
had paid for almost two years before, agreed
then had should be the average price which
other operators were paying in the region at
that time. At the time of making this con-
tract in April, 1882 the selling price of coke was
81 Is Most of the time since then coke has
sold in the vicinity of 81 per ton, and yet Mr..
Frick has paid the same wages as were agreed
upon when it sold at 81 25 which is as much as
any operator has done and more than most of
them have DONE The scale contract Mr. Frick
has with his employees requires that before he
shall close down any of his works. the men
shall quit work. each shall give the other six
days notice. This compact he has kept, while
the men have gone out without giving any
notice, in direct violation of their agreement
and abandoned the ovens full of coke to be con-
sumed and wasted, in order to injure their en-
ployer and to compel him by loss to submit to a
demand made in violation of their contract.
NOT RosEATE AT CoNEELLsvILLE.
The following special telegram from Con-
nellsville last evening gives the situation as
viewed from that standpoint:
The efforts to make the coke strike general
have thus far met with small success The day
has passed, and the list of idle works has been
increased by the addition of only three. AS was
expected, the meeting at Trotter last night had
the effect of changing the decision of the men,
They joined the strikers forces this morning
AT the meeting there last night a vote resulted
in l5O In taVor of coming out against IS in favor
of remaining at work On the strength of this
the men refused TO 60 to work this morning.
the Davidson works. asked the strikers TO meet
him at store. The men first held meeting
themselves, at which they decided not to accept
the invitation, fearing that they would be asked |
to draw the ovens, or would be told that they |
could consider themselves discharged.
Meetings were held in the northern end of |
the region tonight, to bring the men at the |
works in that section, particularly the en-
ployes OF Mcclure Coke Company. into line. I
The leaders think they Will be successful in |
this, and that in the morning the works which |
We're expected to come out this morning but |
did not, with the exception of Frick and South |
west No. l, VIII Join in the strike.
Word has reached knights of Labor head
quarters here that Richard Davis, President of |
the National Progressive Union has Joined |
with Robert WatchOrn, Secretary of National |
Trades Assembly l35, Knights of Labor, and |
that the Two will work together in the interest |
tion of jealousy between the two organiza- |
tions.
The men at the Dexter Works of ]. r.
Stauffer Co. drew the coke from the ovens
this morning, but no coke was mined.
Italian Strikers Quietly PeId or
Captain Irwin, of the Lake Erie Railroad.
took out the pay car yesterday afternoon,
and the Italian strikers between Beaver |