The age-herald., 1898-08-20
MINERS AGAINST
 THE LABOR AGENTS
They Are Getting LaborerS to
 Fill Strikers Places.
WORKING FOR LABOR AGENCY
Which Secures Workmen for Any Con- eern the Employees of Which Are eng Strike-Trouble at
 Blocton Mines.

The miners of the Birmingham district are rising up in arms, so to speak, against the labor agents of the Illinois Steel com pany, who are now working in and around this city to induce negro laborers to gt north to work the mines of that company at Pana, III.
 There are two of these agents, said to be Lewis Overholt and Julius Brooke, and they are working industriousy to accom- plish their purpose As has been stated, they have secured special rates by a certain route from here to Pana, and are dis trib- uting their circulars widely among the ne- gro population of the country and in other ways are evidencing hard work in their efforts to take labor out of this district. If the reports claimed of them are true. MT Overholt and MT. Brooke are the repre- sentatives of a labor agency in Chicago, whose business it is to supply men to any corporation whose laborers are out on a strike.
 Fred Dilcher, member of the national ex ecutive board of the United Mine Workers of America, and William Fairley, president of the Alabama district No. 20, of the same body, were in the city yesterday and both heartily condemned the WnOfe movement. They set forth the following facts:
 In the first place, they say there are plenty of miners in the Pana, Ill.,, district to operate all the mines there. According to agreement entered into at conven- ton held in Chicago last January, the price fixed for the run of the mine coal, which at Pana is mined by machine, and not by picks, as in the Birmingham district, was 30la cents a ton. The price in Birmingham is 40 cents
 Now the mine owners have gone back on their agreement and on April 1, last, they cut the rate from 30A cents to 9 cents per ton. All of the miners went on a strike and the mines have been prac- tically idle ever since. The owners are therefore making every effort to get la- borers. and Birmingham Is being called on to furnish large part of the demand
 The labor agents do not tell the negroes the conditions that actually exist up there; that they are to work at reduced wages and that personal conflict may arise between the strikers and the imported laborers. The strike at Pana is a national one, and every member of the United Mine Workers is discouraging by every means in his power ,any attempt to break the strike by such means as are now being tried in Birming- ham and this district.
 Trouble at Blocton
 There has been some trouble at Blocton during the past few days over the proposed introduction by a numbsr of miners of the so-caled ''laborer system of mining. That is, instead of the miners working in pairs as they do now, they want each miner to hire for himself, at dny rate he can make, 1aborer to assist him.
 Of course there was a great deal of kick ing against any such arrangement by many of the miners and in consequence the mines at Blocton were idle Thursday and big mass meeting was held to set tie the question. It was wisely decided to submit the whole matter to the district executive committee of the United Mine Workers and it's decision will be final. President Fairley stated yesterday that he had no doubt but that the whole mat ter would be amicably settled.
 Will Address Miners
 MT. Dilcher and MT. Fairley addressed the miners at Cardiff last night, and will address those at Belle Ellen tonight. Next week they will visit and speak at the Sloss mines and at number of the mines in Walker county. Week after next, they will visit Warrior New Castle and other mines up the Louisville and Nashville road
 Both MT. Dilcher and MT. Fairley have 1 been invited by the committee of the Trades Council in charge of the Labor Day celebration, to be present at East Lake and address the people on that oc- casion. Both of them have accepted the invitation.