The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1892-03-16


Weapon at Hand. Strike - The
Eight-Hour Question - Arbitration
Reiected-A Water Famine Ex-
pected-MiIiions of People Affected
-FOundries and Mills Will Shut
Down.
LONDON, March 12.-The great coal
miners strike was inaugurated today in
accordance with the plan of the miners
federation, which in its manifesto issued
few days ago declared that the holiday
the men proposed to take was for the pur-
pose of clearing the markets of the surface
coal and for restricting the out
put in order to prevent the mas
tiers from using low prices as an
excuse for lower wages. At this after
noon the men employed in the mines in
Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire dis
trict stopped work and the ponies were
removed from the pit. The only men now
at work are the surfacemen, bumpers,
ventilator attendants etc, who the feder-
alton has not called out. In Dur
ham mining work has also COM
pletely stopped. 1t was hoped until
today that some sort of q compromise
would be arrived at, but no agreement
could be reached and the strange specta-
Gle presents itself of the employees quitting
work in the masters interest, for it cannot
be denied that if any advantage is to be
derived from higher prices the mine own
ers rs compared with the min
ers will reap the greater portion.
Belgian shippers are sending coal to the
Tyne and the Thames, but they refuse 10
give any. information as to the quantity
they have shipped. The collieries carry
ing the consignment are expected to ar
rive on Monday. The coal porters will
attempt to prevent the discharge of these
cargoes. aud it is feared this will lead to a
renewal of the dock troubles.
Twenty Thousand Out.
Twenty thousand miners in Nottingham
quit work at noon today. When they
came out OF the pits they brought their
tools with them. The coal stocks in the
Bristol district are already nearly ex-
hausted. The miners there have also
stopped work, and as a result
the price of coal has gone up four
shillings ton Many manu-
facturers refuse to pay the price de-
manded and have closed their factories.
In this respect the action of the miners
is working greatly to the harm OF the Op-
eratives employed in other industries.
One of the results of the split that has oc-
Cured in North Wales miners is that the
mine working in Flintshire will not so on
a strike, but will not work more than five
days a week.
Wooden barricades are being built around
the mouths of the various pits in Durham
and none OF the miners will be allowed
inside theseIinclosures. Il is believed that
at the conference to be held on Wednesday
next by the miners federation it will be
decided to limit the holiday to week and
to restrict the output during the summer.
Damped the Fires.
Many of the large industrial establish
ments in Leeds and Manchester and on
the Tee side and Tyne side and other
places in the vicinity of the -collieries
damped their fires when the operatives
left their work this afternoon. This means
that work will not be resumed on Monday,
the manufacturers refusing to pay the ex-
traordinary prices now demanded for coal.
The miners federation will pay the men
strike wages during the period of idleness
The only exception to this, so far as at
present known, is the Durham miners,
who will not receive pay. 1t will require
a very large sum of monev to pay the
100000 men who, it is said, have quit
work, even though they receive strike
wages. To recoup the drain the treas
ury of the federation will be subjected to
levy which will be made upon the
men as soon as they return to
work. The weather today is stormy,
and the snow lies several inches
deep in the villages about the collieries.
This afternoon delegates from the collier
les in the county of Durham, met in the
town of Durham and decided that they
would submit to no reduction in wages.
The Durham and Northumberland miners
are not members OF the Miners federation,
but have an organization of their own-the
National union. This union and the Miners
federation of Great Britain and Ireland
are entirely distinct. There is some con-
siderable divergence of opinion between
them on essential and leading questions.
For example. the miners of the federation
are practically unanimous in support of
the legislative enactment of an eight-hour
prefer to let the labor day settle or
"evolve" it's own duration.
A Protractsd Strike.
The action o. the Durham miners prom
ises to cause protracted strike in that
county, as the mine owners there de-
clared that if the men stopped
work at their own convenience
they would not be employed again
except at reduction of 12l
per cent. To put the matter of the So
called strike briefly, the question at issue
between the owners and the miners is one
and the same, but there are several solu-
tions to it. The question was reduction
of wages. In some cases the owners
proposal of reduction was met by fiat
refusal on the part of the men, in others
it was met by counter pro-
posal to reduce temporarily
the number of weekly working days "a