The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-06-30
CONTRACT EXPIRES TO-DAY
Conferenc 5 gan Yesterday Af
ters7 at 2 O'clock.
= 3
P0iNTSe S ken UP SEPARATELY
CO
Oper q Contend That Miners De.
main. Are So Unreasonable That
IfGranted All Profit Will Be
Knocked Off of Coal.

| Yesterday was the tenth day of ire mi
ners' convention, and reports of what was
| transacted during the day are rather con.
htcting The miners claim that they have
gotten almost all they asked for, namely,
the So cents maximum, the 45 cent minimum
and an increase of rs per cent. for the day
men. The operators on the other hand,
claim that nothing was agreed upon yes
| terday and that a settlement of the DIFF
ferences between the operators and tina
miners is not yet in sight
In response to an invitation, the opera
| tors met with the miners at o'clock yes-
terday afternoon, all of the company's rep
resentatives being present except Col r. H.
Pearson, of the Warrior mines, and Mr.
Thomas, of the Hargrove mines The plan
adopted for the discussion was to take each
point one at a time and argue 1t until il
was disposed of in some manner Accord.
Ing to President Young, of District 90
United Mine Workers, who was the pre-
siding officer at the convention, only four
questions were disposed of yesterday after
noon, and there are six more to be dis
cussed this morning at II o'clock when the
operators Will again meet in Joint session.
The convention itself will meet at o'clock.
The Miners Side of 1T
The operators have practically granted
our three most important demands" said
Mr. Young in speaking of the meeting after
1t mad adjourned. I'm the first place, they
nave agreed to give us As cent minimum
with iron at IS and under, and have agreed
to raise the maximum to IS cents, as we
requested. They also conceded our request
for a Is per cent. increase in the wages of
all day laborers around the mines That is,
Is per cent. increase over the scale of
wages paid when iron was selling for 10
cents ton. Since that time several classes
of the mine laborers have gotten increases
OF 10 per cent, and some few of them over
Is per cent. These latter will be cut down
to the Is per cent. limit while those who
have received partial increase and those
who have received no advance at all will
be increased to 25 per cent. There are q
few of the classes that the operators ask
shall be left off of the list of those who are
to receive the advance, and we shall very
day labor will apply to the laborers at
Pratt, Blue Creek and at the Sloss mines
Those at Biocton are already on sliding
scale of wages.
There was one thing which we asked for
the eight hour work law-which the oper-
ators said they could not grant, and we
gave in on this point. They said that it
would be absolutely impossible to reduce
har Of
paid by the day, from ten to eight hours.
and continue paying them the same wages.
These were the only points we discussed
yesterday. There are about six more left.
among them being the question of wages
at Blue Creek, and these we will take up
this morning at IL o'clock
Ahe Operator s Version
The operators side of yesterdays confer
ence differs very materially from the above.
I'VE discussed a number Of matters this
afternoon" said prominent operator rep
resenting one of the large companies of the
district, after the meeting, but nothing
was agreed on. The situation looks to me
just as 1t always has and we still maintain
that the miners demands are entirely un-
reasonable, and that we cannot meet them
The miners themselves have received a rs
per cent increase in wages during the past
year, and number of the mine laborers
have also received big advances
Il think the operators are entitled to a
little profit on COAL especially in good times
such as these are, but 25 per cent increase
in the cost of production is enough to
knock all the profit out of the business IL
Is argued that when coal contracts ara
made this summer, that We can incxs44A
the price. but this argument won't hold.
for If we put prices too high other sections
OF the country can come in and underbid
US. This applies especially to the railroads.
who can buy their fuel at distance If
necessary. Pittsburg is already giving Bir-
mingham the keenest sort of competition
all along the Mississippi river"
Contratt Expires Today
The present contract between the opera-
tors and the miners expires tonight, the
last day of June, and 1t seems to be doubt
ed whether any scale will be agreed on by
tomorrow, the beginning of the new mining
year. However. there will be another con-
ference this morning, and another effort
made TO come to terms