The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-08-30
A REVOLUTION IS BREWING
MINE OWNER M'INTOSH DISCUSSED
 THE BIC MINE STRIKE.

mand-Debs and His Coterie Aim to
 Strike at the Government-Confere in
 St. Louis May Prove Abortive-The Only
 Remedy Is to Start Up the Factories.
 MT. Isaac Mcintosh, one of the larg- est mine owners of Indiana, was in the city yesterday to visit his brother, Will liam C. Mcintosh of 19 Sylvan avenue. Besides his mining interests near Bra gil, Indiana, MT. Mcintosh conducts a big department store in that city, and quite apart from his mine, and his trip to the east is to buy tip a stock of dry goods, boots and shoes, etc, for the fall and winter trade. He has never been to New Haven before, and merely came now to spend Sunday with his brother
 To reporter for this paper, who call ed last evening" MT. Mcintosh spoke very Interestingly of the situation In the coal districts of Indiana and the other states that are now in the throes of great industrial revolution. All though he is mine operator, he dellV- cred no tirade against the dictation Of labor, nor in any way eyinced ausht but the kindliest feeling and sympathy for the strikers. His firm employs about three hundred men in their mines about eleven miles from Brazil. 1he men went out on a strike on July 5.
 In answer to query as to the extent of the strike in the state Of Indiana, Mir. Mcintosh said Tt has gone way beyond my expectation in our state and now extends over the whole mining re- zion, and 1t is hard to make out what it will bring about. But I don't blame the men, for they do not demand any thing unreasona ble. The contracts that we have with them are based on the Pennsylvania rate, and when that changes why, we change ours with it. They started in last May on the sixty cent basis and now they want sixty nine cents. If they should get that our men in the block region would get sev- enty cents, as we have always paid a little more than they do in Pennsylva- mia. Our coal, which is, of course. bi- luminous, is lower down and somewhat harder to mine."
 Have you had any instances of vio- lent measures on the part of the min- CTS in your region, MT. McIntosh?''
 Mot a bit. It's the most peaceable affair of that sort that I have ever seen. Tn reality it is only a sympathetic strike in Indiana, you know; in fact, they are not striking at all, but have merely suspended operations. just as they have a right to. That is a privilege they have in common with us, and when we want to shut down we are at liberty so to do The miners are all waiting now to see what will develop out of the meeting in St. Louis tomorrow. They are trying to get the railroad men to stop hauling coal from West Virginia. and if they succeed in inducing them to do that the strike is almost won, in my opinion. In case they fail the miners will go back at their old prices and be anxious to get work at that wage"
 "Is Debs and his type of the labor ing mans friend much of a factor in this movement?''
 That question aroused Mir. Mcintosh.
 "Debs'' he said, "is using this upris- ing to make endless trouble. He has now succeeded in gaining control of the officials of the miners organizations. and If they induce the railway men to go into the strike with them Dehs will bring about a. heap of trouble, perhaps even a disastrous revolution. By that I mean he will urge them on to violent measures The storm center would in such an event lie over in West Virginia. where they are mining coal night and day; they are not doing much in Penn io 1yt p11f rx-,,o Ttnh and his crowd are after now is not to aid the miners and to better their con- dition-no, sir; it is to strike blow at our government That is the real mo- tive of Debs' interest, and he Is using the miner as his catspaw i'll the pre- liminary skirmish."
 "As you came east through the region what did you think of the condition of things in Pennsylvania and West Vir- ginia?''
 "Well, DeArmitt is working one mine in West Virginia occasionally, but TO- body is doing very much. There was more coal along the road than there was any need of-in fact, enough for six weeks ahead. As to the miners suf- firing, have no doubt there are many families where they have not a thing to eat, and all that keeps them from ab- soluteiy starving is the liberalty of other miners and donations on the part Of generous mrchants."
 But do they claim that they were working for less than living wage?"
 ''Yes, they were; they have not made anything for long time, and might as well not have worked at all DeArmitt's men had steady work simply because they worked for six cents less than anywhere else. But in other places the men have been very kind to one another, dividing up what little work there was so as to go around. For in- stance, where 100 men could have been employed fairly steadily and there were 200 men they would agree to work half time all of them. And all the work had to be done at very low rates be- cause there was so light a demand for coal. The manufactories have not started up and they are the ones that eat up the coal, and hence the demand has been slight. No doubt if the strike were declared off tomorrow thre would be work the first of Sep tember for a couple of weeks, but then it would slacken up as all orders from the whole country could be filled in that length of time"