The herald., 1897-07-05
MINERS OF
SOFT COAL
Comply With Orders Given
to Strike.
FIVE STATES ARE INVOLVED
AND fully HALF A MILLION
WORKERS
FIVE STATES ARE INVOLVED
There Is No Money in the Miners
Treasury and Much Suffering
Seems Certain
Associated Press Special Wire.

Associated Press Special Wire.
COLUMBUS, O., Jply 4.-Telegrams A.
received by President Ratchford of the
United Mine Workers today indicate
that the order for general strike of the
miners has been complied with gener-
ally throughout the mining districts of
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Pennsylvania
and in sections of West Virginia and
Kentucky. 1t will take several days to
determine with any degree of accuracy
the number of men involved. President
Ratchford roughly estimates the num-
Der at 100000 but this is regarded as
very liberal. He is pleased with the
unanimity shown by the miners and
says he has the greatest faith in the
successful outcome of the strike. He
thinks the prospects are better than in
1894 when a strike was inaugurated. At
that time a scale of prices was being
made in many mining localities, notably
West Virginia where a majority of the
miners continued at work and greatly
weakened the strike. He has hopes that
West Virginia miners may now be
brought into line, as they are receiving
wages far below the scale and their con-
dition is not any worse than that of
miners in other states. The coal produc-
tion of West Virginia has increased so
rapidly in the last few years that the
output of that state now exceeds that of
Ohio During the strike of 1894 trouble
was caused by the shipment of West
Virginia coal through Ohio, the Ohio
miners endeavoring to stop this traffic.
The railroad companies promptly ap-
pealed to the state for protection and
almost the entire Ohio National Guard
was placed in the field.
President Blatchford does not believe
there will be any repetition of these
troubles in this strike. Special efforts
are to be made to enlist the sympathy
of West Virginia miners. President
Ratchford is encouraged to believe that
this may be accomplished by the fact
that the miners have signified their in
tention to strike in many places where
efforts to enlist their cooperation have
failed on previous occasions.
President Ratchford has received tel
egrams from a number of Pittsburg op-
orators asking permission to operate
their mines a scale prices. These re-
quests are all emphatically refused as it
would work an injustice not only to
other operators, but to their miners as
well.
AS to the duration of the strike, Pres
ident Ratchford says that he will be
governed entirely by circumstances. 1t
will last several weeks at least. The
miners are in better position to with
stand long strike at this time, as a
great many of them have garden pro-
ducts on which to subsist and there will
be no great hardship entailed such as
would follow strike in the winter. The
fact that there is a fair supply of
coal in stock and the demand for domes :
tic consumption is small will have ten
dency to prolong the suspension. The
contracts for coal for lake shipments
will cause the greatest trouble. The
bulk of these contracts are held by
Pittsburg operators, but the Ohio ope-
ratorS have fair share. The Ohio ope-
rators have not yet held a conference
to consider the matter, but are consid-
erably worried. While they say the
strike is ill-timed and likely to fizzle out,
they will close down their mines for a
short time at least until they can deter
mine how general the suspension is. A
partial suspension only in the Pittsburg
district would be ruinous to their busi-
ness should the Ohio miners refuse to
work.
FIVE STATES INVOLVED
PITTSBURG, Pa, July 4.-The coal
miners strike will be on tomorrow. The
success of the struggles for higher wages
in five states depends largely on the
miners in the Pittsburg district. If they
| ,,1r;., ~
ment will be a failure.
Fully 100 mines We're represented at
the miners convention on Saturday by
fifty-five delegates. This is larger at
tendance than there has been at any
convention since the great strike of
1894 Many more miners came but hav-
ing no credentials they could not gain
admittance to the convention. The res
olution adopted was strong enough fol-
the emergency A resolution was alsa
adopted requesting Governor Hastings
to sign the Weighing and coal commits
sion bills passed by the legislature and
now before him. One of the significant
points about the convention Saturday
was the fact that no representatives
were present from the mines where iron
clad contracts and signed agreements
| eX1St. ne mines lIlcluue the HrSI poo
of F. T. Robbins & Co., Borland mine OF
the Pan Handle Coal company, Snow
don and Gastonville mines of the Pitts
burg and Chicago Coal company and the
; Oak HILL Plum Creek and Sandy Greek
mines of the New York and Cleveland
Gas Coal company. These employ al
most 5000 men and the indications ars
that if the men at one of these mines re-
.1 4 H. i !, -,
will act accordingly A strong effort is
being made to get the cooperation oil
the river miners in the coming fight. II
they work they can cut quite figure ir
,suppiying coal as the fuel for loca
points can all be shipped by water
routes
The operators are making no effort tc
conciliate the miners. Not an operator
can be found who will say that miners
are entitled to what they demands 81