Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-11-30
INDIANA MINERS.
Their Strike Develops Into 9
National Affair
BY the Recent Action of the
United Mine Workers.

they Indorse the Strike of the Indiana
Miners, and Tender Tn cir Aid and Sym.
pathy to the National Organization.
Result of tho Operators DESERVING the
Interstate Movement.
TERRE HtUTE. Ind, Nov. 30.-The
following is the address to the country,
issued By the national officers of the
United Mine Workers, indorsing the
strike of the Indiana miners:
TERRE HAUTE, Ind,
Nov. 26, 1891.
! The miners strike in Indiana can only
now be said to have commenced in earn
est. Until now the Indiana miners have
been fighting alone, but today the ma
tional executive board of the United Mine
/ Workers have indorsed said strike, and
/ from now till the end will assist TO its ut
most ability, financially and otherwise,
/ in carrying it to successful determine
| tion. The board feels in doing this that
! it is carrying out the interests and pur-
! poses of national organization, the OBJ
| ject of which is to equalize conditions as
/ far as possible for all its members by
methods of arbitration, Cancellation or
/ strikes.
AS a national organization we know
| nothing of contracts existing between the
! Indiana operators and miners. We did
/ not take any part in making any con
| tracts, and can not reasonably be asked
| to enforce any that may have been made
| without our knowledge or consent. We
| have not taken any part in the violation
of the alleged existing agreements in the
state, but coming here as we did and
| finding the men involved in trouble as a
| result of repudiating what they are
| pleased to term an unfair contract, we
felt compelled to cast our lot with theirs
I and help in throwing off the yoke For
years the Indiana miners have been work
ing for less mining rate than that agreed
on by the miners and operators in Joint
convention, and recognized to be fair In
1856, 1887 and 1888 the recognized differ
entail between the Hooking valley (OD
and the Brazil block coal was twenty
cents per ton; now it is only five cents.
In national convention the Hooking val
ley was always taken as the basis. The
Indiana block coal operators not being
able to influence the convention to reduce
the diilerential above named by force of
argument, withdrew from the convention,
and accomplished by force in the long
strike of two years ago what they failed to
do by reason, and thus repudiated an
agreement which they had repeatedly said
was just. The Indiana bituminous coal
was always placed five cents per ton above
Hooking valley prices, and always concod-
ed to be fair by Indiana bituminous Opcr-
ators. But whom the block operators left
the convention the bituminous operators
left also, and demanded and obtained u
reduction in mining rates of five cents per
ton, thus placing shem below what they
had previously recognized as just,
The only reason that the bituminOus
mining rates have not been further re-
duced is that the bituminous miners are
thoroughly organized, and each year have
met the operators demands for further
reductions with firm refusal. The In
diana operators withdrew from the inter
state movement in the spring of 1889, in
the hope of being able to cheaper the
miners labor in the state conventions
mere easily than in any interstate conven-
tion, and have thus secured at the
miners expense, five cents per ton for
nearly three years During all this time
the miners have cherished the fond hope
of being able some time to resent the IN
suit thus offered and demand restora-
tion of the prices thus tilched from them,
and believing this the oppOrtune time
have made their demand, and propose to
stay with it,
This fight is the result of the operators
deserving the interstate movement, Their
avarice led them them to do so, and hence
to that avarice must be attributed this
whole trouble 1t will thus be seen that
the present complicated state of affairs in
Indiana is only the logical and inevitable
outcome of the operators action in, first,
refusing to make a scale of prices in an
interstate conventions second, in reducing
unduly the mining rates, and, third, in
last spring refusing to make a scale in a
state convention, preferring TO make local
agreements. The miners have never set
aside, or attempted to set aside, an agree
ment entered into by the national or state
organization, and if operators prefer local
agreements or individual contracts to
state or interstate agreements, they must
be prepared to accept all the response
bility resulting from the uncertainty Of.
such a system.
Another reason why the national eXeCu-
tive board indorse this strike is the loyal
ty of the bituminous miners to the organ
ization, They have always been true, and
to desert them now would not only be un-
kind, but in view Of the justice of their de
mands would lie criminal, Weregret that
this mode of warfare is longer necessary,
but since the necessity exists we consider
the above as sufficient reason why we
should participate in this fight and help
the miners to win, if possible
TnuN u pAT Draaidap4
p, II. PENNA. Vice President
JOHN II. NuGENT, Executive Officer.