The San Francisco call., 1897-08-08
AID FOR THE
EASTERN MINERS
Method Of Speedy Relief
Outlined by the Labor
Council.
Mayor Phelan Will Probably Be
Asked to Act as Local
Treasurer.
Andrew Furuseth Explains the Situa-
ton and What the Final Out
come May Mean.

The San Francisco Labor Council has
taken keen interest in the strike OF the
Eastern miners, and without regard to
geographical isolation will put its shoul-
der 10 the wheel and render all the assist
ance it can, and that as soon as possible.
Expedition, in fact, is now their chief
thought, for they believe the situation to
be most critical.
The trades unions have been already
appealed to, and special com mittees are to
visit them at as convenient date as pos
sible. As fast as the financial donations
reach an appreciabie amount they will
be wired on to w. C. Pearce, the secretary
of the United Nine workers, at Colum bus,
Ohio.
With regard to the public in general, the
council has decided to request the news
papers and churches TO open subscription
lists and act as collectors. Churches will
be asked to take part in the move ment by
the council, for the reason that IN their
eyes, it is distinctly hum anitarian in char
acter. Some prominent citizen will prob
ably be asked to act as treasurer for the
donations made by the public at large, to
hold the coEtri buttons until they attain a
magnitude sufficient to warrant them
being wired East. Mayor Phelan's name
has already been suggested for this honor
able position.
Ed Rosen berg, secretary of the San
Francisco Labor Council, is now actively
engaged arousing the individual unions
to the point of enthusiasm by communl-
cations and personal conferences with
their executive officers. Andrew Fursueth,
secretary of the Sailors Union of the Pa
cific and president OF the National Sea-
mems Union, may properly be regarded as
the head OF this movement on account
of his intimate acquaintance with the
la Dor question and the interest he has al
ways taken in the workings of the various
uniona
In speaking OF the Eastern strike situa-
ton as it exists at present Fursueth makes
the following statement:
From all the Information we are able
TO gather the miners there have TO live IN
the eomranies' houses and trade in their
stores. Most OF them are always kept in
debt. Some of them do not see money
they can call their own from years end to
years end.
"The average earnings of miners in
some districts run as low as 20 cents day.
Under such conditions and al such wages
it can easily be seen why the strike en-
braces 170, 900 men ana extends through
Illinois, ONO Indiana, Pennsylvania and,
| believe, through some parts of Kansas.
women who have been interviewed
about the strike said they would take tin
cans and drum their husbands out of the
community if they went to work, and
where men have been refused permission
10 see their fellow miners, these same
women ave oftentmes done SO FOR them.
The churches and newspapers of the
East are collecting funds for the main
tenance of the miners and their families
on large scale, and organized labor
throughout the country is doing all 1t can
afford, but the destitution is still fearful.
Some of the employers, it is stated,
have tried to have liquor supplied the
men, in the hope that they would be
driven to acts of frenzy through drink
and give the militia grounds for inter
ference; but these dastardly methods
have signaly failed so far.
This struggle. in my opinion, is to
determine whether we are to have a free
government or the despotic methods OF
the Old World prevail SO far as labor is
concerned. Is it to be land of liberty or
a New World Russia ?'