The age-herald., 1900-09-15
Mine Owners Reject Arbitration.

Anthracite coal is confined to a small l district in northeastern Pennsylvania If
 such coal lands were consolidated into
 square it would form a district of only
 thirty miles each way, and there would not be pound of good hard coal elsewhere l in the country. But it lies in detached bod 1 ies, covering rather extending into five or six counties. These hard coal mines are | near large cities and less than two hum dred miles from the coast, and they are tensively worked. The number of organ 1 ized union men in them is said to be 142,- l GOO, and on Monday next these men will 1 begin a determined strike
 Their grievance in brief is that they do
 not receive fair wage for a fair days | work. The mines are owned in great part by five or six big railroad corporations. and these corporations have cut down wages until the miners stand at about the bottom of the wage list. If they have rival in this respect 1t must be sought In the Southern cotton mills. Wages in the hard coal mines have long been so low
 that the operators have been compelled to
 import Huns, Poles and the like in order
 to get enough men to accept them. Against
 this intolerable condition of semi-starva-
 tion the men have struck, and the value of organization on the part of the labor will soon be tried. The strike will be con-
 ducted by union officials sitting at Hazle-
 ton. in the heart of the heaviest mining district of the anthracite coal industry.
 The miners endeavored to avoid strike in every possible way. They asked the operators to arbitrate the questions at is- | sue, but the operators avoided answer,
 knowing as they did that capital was on l their side-that there is no hunger suf fering in store for them-that they can ask an enhanced price for their stocks of mined coal. thus recoupng their losses in other directions. The operators even refused to meet the miners and discuss the situation and the Iatter's grievances. They have their millions, and they propose to teach labor a lesson.
 All agree in Pennsylvania. that the mine owners are at fault. They are at fault in llol pdyiliS d Adii WoSS ioi o A1iA oos
 work, and they are at fault in refusing to
 discuss or arbitrate the grievances of the
 miners. The miners precipitate a strike because they have no other remedy "A few of the operators, mostly small ones," says the Philadelphia North American, "have announced that they would rather have arbitration than a strike. But no such disposition is manifested by the large mine owners Indeed, these latter do noth- ing but hide, and in hiding remain silent, while the miners, the press and the clergy of the coal region and every friend of hu- mane and civilized methods have pleaded for arbitration. The men who could on a moments notice substitute arbitration for
 strike conceal themselves behind the large names of railroad corporations. That, however, does not relieve them in the slightest from the moral responsibility which will be theirs should likeness, want
 and disorder fall like a plague upon the
 anthracite coal region." This is the con ceded situation, and when the big opera
 tors resort to the United States court,
 which has become subservient to them, their course previous to the strike should
 be kept in mind.