Birmingham state herald., 1897-03-05
THE COAL MARKETS.

s'T1he,re will be strike of the miners Of the Pittsburg district unless something is dons, very soon to alleviate the ols- tress that now exists. said Natlonal ce-President John Kane this morn ing.
 MT. Kane this morning arrived in Pittsburg from his home in Columbus O.. and will devote his attention to the troubles of this district the next lew weeks or months, as ths case may be- He will be reinforced in a few days by National President M. D. Ratchford, and the national officers will cooperate With the district officers to secure for the miners a higher rats of wages. It will De remembered that at the national conVen- tion in January at Columbus 1t was de- cided that the miners should demand a wage rate of 69 cents in the Pfttsburg district, with the usual differentials in other fields. as the wages paid in the other bituminous districts ars always based on the mining rate of PfttsbuTg. The matter of deciding when the rate should go into effect was referred to the executive committee which delayed mak- ing the advance on account Of the time being considered unpropitious. The oper- ators are now making preparations TOT the lake tr9de which will open about the middle of April when all the rail- road mines will have nearly all the work that they can do. It has been agreed that whatever action is taken by the
  and in case the district price is not ad- vanced the workers will go out on a strike that will rival the national strike of five years ago.
 At present the Pittsburg wage rat9 is from 54 to GO cents, the greater number of the miners receiving 54 cents per ton for work that lasts only portion of the week. They are destitute and deSper- ate and are willing to engage in strug- gle at any time. knowing that they can
 .-xntj, ,i.anrr to gain. The non-unton as well as the organized men ara desperate.
 whether a conference between the Pittsburg operators and the miners offi- eials is to be held could not be learned this morning and the outlook is uncer- tain MT Kane said he would favor the holding of a delegate convention that would take the bull by the horns at once If the miners strike and lose, they will be scarcely worse off than they are now and they can strike again. If they win it will mean that the wages Of min CTS will advance all over the nation as the wage pace set by Pittsburg will be followed by all miners of the country Pittsburg Leader
 Recently the State Herald reprinted matter from another Pittsburg newspa- per describing the destitution prevailing for want of work among the coal miners in the Pittsburg district, alleged to be due largely to want of employment some of which was said to be due to Alabama coal supplanting that of Pitts burg in the lower Mississippi river mar kets, and partially to West Virginia coal crowding out Pittsburg coal in Cincin- natl. The State Herald trusts that our miners and operators will see to it that they gain complete control of the markets of the lower Mississippi, and retain same to enable them to continue the operation of the coal mines of Alabama. Pfttsburg operators in the face of an immense over- supply of their coal in Cincinnati, Vicks- burg, New Orleans, etc. have started within the past four or five days another large shipment of their coal to the lower Mississippi which means further de- pression in prices.