The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-10
Hundreds of People Reduced to
Destitute circumstances.
APPLICATIONS FOR AID
The County Will Have to Support Many
People in Belt - Miners Are
Bitter Against the
Strikers


the people of the camp. 1t is under
stood that already more than 40 fami-
lies have made application to the
county for assistance. With the pow
erty that was known to exist at the
time the strike was ordered, 1t is only
| reasonable to expect that within a very
short time, unless work is resumed,
| there will be more than one hundred
! families in the town in destitute cir
| cumstances. Business is practically at
| a standstill and the feeling that pre-
walls among the people is full of dis
| couragement. The present condition of
| affairs falls upon them the heavier per-
| haps, because many of them during
the past year have been barely able
to make a living. They have watched
with no little impotence the progress
of the work in connection with the con-
struction of the new coal washer and
the announcement of it's completion
was most welcome to them because it
promised a season of busy prosperity
to the whole camp. Before the new
mill got fairly started the trouble arose
which eliminated in the strike, and in
stead of the prosperous times hoped for
has come a serious and lamentable
misfortune. Outside the few who were
directly responsible for the strike the
feeling is general that the men acted
hastily and that they pursued the worst
course possible.
1t is a fact well known to every one
who is at all familiar with the workings
of the mine, that the machine men, the
men who brought about the trouble,
were the best paid men in the employ
of the company. They were receiving
more pay and working fewer hours
than any other class of employees in
the mine. The pay rolls of the COM
pany will show that these men receiv-
ed from $3.50 TO Sc per day and their
shift would not average seven hours.
The officials of the company claim the
additional amount of labor asked of
them could have been performed in
less than the regular 10 hour working
shift and their pay would have been
the same. However that may be and
whether or not the men had just
grievance, the strike and the manner
in which it was brought about was
i'll advised and unfair to very large
majority of the men employed by the
company at this place. The hundred
or two men who were working on the
outside and were in no wise interested
and We're not allowed to attend the
mass meeting of the miners, but who
have been laid off as a result of the
shutdown, naturally feel that they are
getting much the worst of it.
The action of the local Miners union
in taking up the grievances of the
discharged machine men is criticised
severely. More than rs per cent. of
the men were non-union men when the
trouble first came up. Many of them
were old union men who had allowed
their dues to become far in arrears
and who had been suspended. They
did not attend the union meetings and
We're in fact entitled to less recognl-
ton at the hands of the union than
were those who's names had never been
on the union books. When they de-
clined to do the work asked of them
by the company and were discharged
they rushed to the union with their
grievances and applications for admis-
sion and reinstatement. The union, it
is said held special meetings at which
to initiate the men. For a long time
Belt Creek Miners union has been in
a bad way The membership had fallen
| off until 1t represented but a very
small percentage of the miners work
| ing here. 1t is quite probable that had
| the vote upon the proposition of
| strike been taken by the old and leg
| itin,ate members Of the union the re-
| suit would have been entirely different
and the mines have been working
steadily. The feeling that the unions
action was not in line with union prin-
ciples is not confined to the business
men and outsiders, but is shared by
many of the best union men in the
camp. On the morning after the strike
was declared hundreds of men started
to the mine prepared to go to work.
At every turn they We're met by COM
| mittees of strikers who told them if
they did go to work they would be
branded as "blacklegs' and "scabs."
The average coal miner has a horror
of those two names, and the men turn
ed back, many of them not knowing
what the real trouble was. 1t devel-
opes day by day that these men, the
men with large families, the men with
no grievances, and the men who We're
thrown out of employment as a result
of the shutdown. are the ones who will
be called upon bear the burden of the
strike. Men are leaving the camp every
day. and of those in whose behalf the
strike was ordered there are perhaps
less than one-half still remaining in
the town. The men who were least
able to stand the enforced idleness the
men who We're perfectly well satisfied
with existing conditions and who saw
no reason or wisdom in strike, and
the business men generally, are the
ones who will suffer most. The men
who were most active in bringing about
the regretable climax to the trouble
are men who are financially able to
get out and seek other fields or are
men who were not in the employ of the
company and were not affected one
way or the other.
The present indications are that the
shutdown will be one of long duration.
1t is said President Boyce of the west
ern Federation of Miners will reach
here to-day to investigate the causes
of the trouble. 1t is possible that he
may be able to effect settlement of
the difficulties. A report which appear
ed in the Great Falls papers to the eff
feet that men We're coming here from
Iowa and Illinois to work in the mines
is not credited. Last Monday about