St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-01-25
NEARLY ALI FOREIGNERS.
Unfavorable Report by an Export
on PENNSYLVANIA Mines

on PennSyly Mines.
New YORK, Jan. 24.-United States
Contract Labor Inspector Conkling,
who was sent last month on tour of
Investigation through the mining dis
tricts of Pennsylvania. returned to
New York yesterday and made long
report to his chief, John Milholland.
The text of this report was not given
out. but enough was revealed to show
that the majority of the miners are for
eigners of the most lawIess kind, and
that many of them came here under
contract. Especially did Inspector
Conkling find this to be so in
the neighborhood of Scranton.
One man in New Y ork, he is quoted as
declaring, has made 100000 by sending
men to the mines. whether the men
were engaged in Europe | was not able
to ascertain" The inspector said he had
unearthed numerous fragrant violations
Of the contract law. The major
lty of the miners near Scrau-
ton,. Inspector Conkling says. are
neither citizens nor taxpayers. The
American and English miners have
been driven out, and ID their places are
Austrians, Hungarians. Slovaks and
Italians of the most vicious character.
The same price-50 to 60 cents per ton
is paid for mining, but the COM
panies control all the tools, sup
plies, even the houses the miners
live in, and charge them eXorbitant
prices for everything. The result is
that no miner can make more than S1.25
per day, the rest of his wages going
back into his employers pocket. In
one camp of 700 miners the inspector
found 6S citizens. The miners live i'll
the utmost squalor. The inspector rec
Ommends more rigid examination at
the landing bureau on Ellis Island.
PHILADELPHIA. Jan. 24.-Special dis
patches from various points in the coal
regions say that the report of Contract
Labor Inspectors Conkling and Osborne
has created indignation in those Sec
tions. as it is claimed it is false and mis-
leading. Capt. w. A. May. superintend-
ent of all the collieries of the Hillside
Coal and Ironcompany,s says that there is
scarcely grain of truth in the report.
He denies that there have been any
but very brief and easily adjusted
strikes in that region since the great
strike of 1877. He also SAYS that the
Hillside company has never imported a
single contract laborer. Wages have not
been reduced for twelve years, and no
discrimination in that particular is made
against Huns and Poles. John Jermyn,
ton; Reese G. Brooks, superintendent
of the coal department of the Lacka-
wanna Iron and Steel company; A.
II. Vandling, general superintend-
ent of the Delaware & Hud-
son Canal company's coal depart
menr; Benjamin Hughes, general mine
superintendent of the Delaware, Lacka-
wanna & Western company; L. Fl.
Watkins, of the firm of Simpson & Wat
kins, and Supt. Lowall, of the Lehigh
q Wilkesbsrre Coal company, all look
upon the report in substantially the
same manner as Capt. May, and give,
the same testimony in regard to con-
tract labor. strikes and wages. The
general opinion among the operatives
is that the inspectors, instead of thor
toughly investigating the state of affairs
in the coal regions, have taken the indica-
lions in one place as sample of the
rest.