Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-24
RIVER OPERATORS OUT OF 1T.


Why They Don't Worry About the Eight
Hour Agitation - Most of Their Men
Not Now Working Any Longer-will-
ing to Pay by the Hour.
River operators are not perturbed regard
ing the forthcoming strike By miners for
eight hours. They don't expect that their
men will join in the cry; and the reasons
they advance for this belief are based on strong
grounds. In the first place, river miners are
not now working any more than eight hours.
and. in the next, the proportion of the
mining population which is paid by
the day is only 10 per cent of
the whole. Operators are not inclined to
think that 80 per cent of the workers Will quit
work to enable the other 10 per cent to gain its
point. Again, river miners receive more for
their work than the railroad men do since
they receive 81 cents per bushel or W cents per
ton in the first three pools, and cents or 78
cents per ton IN the fourth against rates vary
ing from 65 to 70 paid elsewhere.
Fourth miners are able to earn more
in the other pools can at 81 cents because the
veins are higher and more easily worked. An
other point which operators calculate on as
being factor of consideration with the river
miners in relation to the eight-hour strike, is
that the diggers must recognize that if they
adopt an eight-hour day they must tie them
selves to work certain hours The practice of
the diggers to-day is to begin work at uncer-
tain hours, labor as long or as short tire as
they please and then knock off.
Credit for Being Consistent.
Operators give the men credit for being, at
the least, consistent, and they expect that IL
they adopt an eight-hour day that they will
work for that period, and within stated hours.
SO as to facilitate the employment Of the day
labor. If the men adopt hours they must
limit themselves to time, and operators are not
inclined to believe they will give up their free
dom and make slaves of themselves.
The chief reason advanced by river as well as
railroad operators against the short hour day is
that 1t will reduce their output by 70 per cent,
and this they say they cannot afford. The out
side workers labor for ten hours day. and 1t Is
necessary the operators say, they should so as
to handle the coal mined in eight hours, be-
cause of the irregular time worked by the dig
gers. If they were to reduce the days work of
the day labOrers to eight hours, it would mean
reduction of just SO much in the output, or 20
per cent. This is reduction in their earnings
which the diggers would most strenuously kick
against and it would follow, necessarily, for
although they might work as hard as they do
now. they could not send out any more coal
than could be handled within eight hours.
Respecting the railroad mine operators, while
they hold similar News with their river
brethren the conditions are somewhat differ
ent. In this district they are not few mines
which are operated on special scales. as, for in
stance, the New York and Cleveland Gas Coal
Company's mines. which pay from " to "a cents
per ton. against 79 cents, ruling generally in
the districts. 1t is very possible that no strike
will occur in these mines and other operators
will hardly stand by and see their neighbors get
their trade without seeking some means OF
compromising the difficulty.
Willing to Pay by the Hour.
Both river and rail operators are willing to
pay their outside help by the hour instead of
by the day. and at rates proportionate to what
is now being paid for ten hours work. This
plan would enable both diggers and laborers to
work as long or as short time as they wished,
their earnings being in direct ratio with their
hours of toll. When the matter comes to
settling point it is likely that the dihoulty will
be compromised on this basis.
Local manufacturers will be very little more
than inconvenienced by a strike or the railroad
miners. Coal can be shipped from river points
and unloaded at places adjacent to mills on
either river. No effort has been made here TO
stock up against a possible famine in May.
chiefly owing to lack of room in the mills, but,
provided the river miners do not strickland It
is not believed they will-manufacturers Will
have plenty of coal. The few railroad operat-
ors who ship East expect a larger trade after
May2, as the supplies from the Clearfeld and
Maryland districts will have been shut OIL.
When May has come and gone there will be
found many more men at work in these re-
gions than the labor officials declare shall not.