Evening star., 1899-04-12
Edward Mckay Before the Industrial
Commission.
MEN go OUT" ONLY WHEN FORCED
Favors Friendly Relations Through
the Trade Unions.
CUTTING PRICE OF COAL


fore the industrial commission, and for sew.
eral hours talked of the condition of miners
| in this country. Mr.. Mckay is practical
miner, and for several years has been prom
inent in his trade organization. He was
| one of the executive committee Of that or
ganization during the great strike of 1897
when Mr.. Ratchford, now a member Of the
commission, was it's president.
Mr.. Mckay said that the United Mine
Workers of America had grown from
10000 members in 1877 to 5000 or so, 900 in
1899, and had obtained reduction in hours
from 10 to and an increase in wages
amounting to 90 per cent.
MIR. Ratchford led the examination Of the
witness. He said he had thorough
knowledge of the causes that led to the
past four or five years, and he believed it
would be traced to one corporation there.
lie asked the witness to tell what he knew
of these troubles.
was the New York and Cleveland Gas Coal
Company, of which w. P. De Armit is the
general manager and president and that it
mad positively refused to treat with the
organization and made mining rate of it's
own regardless of the district price this
rate at the present time being II cents a
ton They say that as their company paid
cash and had no company store they are
justified in paying less. They employ only
non-union miners and do everything in
their power, the witness said to prevent
the union men from coming in contact with
their employees. During the strike of 1897
they opposed the distribution of newspapers
among the miners in order to prevent com
munication through that source of the atti-
tude of the union.
Friendly Relations Through Unions.
He explained how the company referred
to mad reduced the price of all coal mined
by 4o,eoO men, although it employed only
1000 men, and this had resulted In a re-
duction of the wages of all the miners. A
single operator offering the product of his
mine at price lower than the one prevail
ing could bring the price of all of them
down. He believed the best interests of the
coai trade would be best served by close
and friendly relation between the onerators
and miners through the unions
Men VIII only strike when they are forced
INTO it, and that was the case in 1897 At
the mining rate then prevailing the men
could not live. That condition forced the
STRIKE The miners are no more ready to
strike than other tradesmen. Mining strikes
occur as often as they do on account of the
Pecuilar pee LL condition of the trade. They have
mad more strikes where they are unorgan-
lZed than when they are organized
How Strikes Are Precipitated.
The strike is generally precipitated nv an
operator desiring to make some change in
the conditions affecting his men. the men
always being suspicious that such changes
were to their disadvantage Strikes are
frequently brought on by the character of
llle screens Tor coal and the weighing of
coal. The wages of the miner depended to
s0mG extent on the size of the screen and
the fair weighing of coal The miners fre-
quently say they are not getting the wages
they really earn, but they can't locate the
trouble The scales were very intricate
things, and miners looked upon them with
suspicion.
Strikes. he said, had been a blessing 10
the community at large, as we'll as to the
miners, because their result had irpnrovad
conditions of society
The miners Were satisfied that blacklists
Were used against them, but 1t was hard
TO trace 1t. A man would simply find that
after going from mine to mine, he could
elther get no employment when he gave
ms name, or, If employed, he would be Dis
charged in day or two. The United Mine
workers. had never attempted to use the
blacklist in any of their opera atoms
He thought the law forbidding contract
laborers being brought to this country from
abroad should be strictly enforced and if
1T was an evil to bring such laborers from
abroad, 1t was an evil to carry such labor
ers from one state to another, where they
were to disDlace local labor.
Inc ln1unctions, as they have been dealt
out to US IN Allegheny county, Pa" said
Mckay, have shaken the faith of the
laboring people there in the law and the
courts
He had been served two or three times
with injunctions forbidding him from going
near the mines of the New York and
Cleveland Gas Coal Company in 1897. Dur
ing the strike of that year he was in
charge Of the camps at Turtle Creek Pa
and while in that capacity a barrel of
liquor had been sent there by some un-
known person, and all charges on it were
prepaid He had ordered that it be re-
turned to wherever II had come from, real
izng that if the men should get the whisky
q TO natr nFl
ness, and men coming into the camp could
easily pick a quarrel with them. This bar
rel of liquor was then a mystery.
In 1897 most of the company stores in
the mining camps of the Pittsburg district
were done away with, but they had sprung
up again and are today quite general. Sew
era1 years ago he had been interested In
the establishment of a cooperative store
which sold goods from 15 to 20 per cent
less than the company stores The man.
ager of the company store warned the
manager of the cooperative store that he
should put up the prices he would take
means to drive him out of business but the
strike of 81 then came on and the COM
pany's store went out of existence for q
time. The company stores and company
tenement houses were not necessary for
the company to carry on It's mining busi-
ness, they could get all the miners they
wanted without them.
Relative Condition Better.
The relative condition of workingmen to-
day is better than 1t was fifty years ago
A shorter workday had done more than
anything else to bring about this condi-
| ton, because 1t gave the men time to be-
come more intelligent and permitted them
| to improve their condition. He began as
a miner in the Pfttsburg district seven
teen years ago, and since that time wages
| had come down. Then they got s1.O5 pei
| ton while now they get 60 cents per ton
All their advances In wages previous to
| the trades union had been secured through
| strikes and the trades unions had been the
| agents of advancement in the condition OF
| the miner and yet had avoided strikes. To
| day there is a very fair demand for labor
! in the mines and men there are nearly all
| employed.
| Mr.. Mckay approved profit sharing be.
| o,,I 70