The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-22
II the Railway Owners, "Our Real
Enemies" VIII Meet Their EN-
pIoyes and Reach Agreement.
STATEMENTS OF OPERATORS
INTERVIEWS WITH MESSRS. OH.
PHANT, THORNE AND OTHERS.
First Named willing to Meet Arch.
bishop Ryan as an Individual
Arbitration Talk.
HAzLEToN. Pa, Sept. H.-President
Mitchell tonight issued the following:

HAzLEToN. Pa. Sept 21.-President
Mitchell tonight issued the following:
OPEN LETTER TO THE PUBLIC.
'Hazeton. Pa. Sept. n.-Fully conscious
of the vast public interests involved by the
great contest now being waged between or
ganized capital and underpaid labor, and
as much has been said and written upon
the subject of arbitration in the present
anthracite coal strike, president of the
United Mine Workers of America / am i'm
PEELED to define my own attitude and the
attitude of my official colleagues and the
striking mine workers towards the coal
operators In a way so clear and definite
as to leave no further misunderstanding.
The striking miners recognize as their
real opponents in this struggle for a slight
amelioration of the hard. grinding condi-
tions of the miners life nine railroads,
which, with their presidents, are: The
Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Alexan-
der ]. Cassatt. president; the Lehigh VAL
ley Railway system. Fred Walter, presi-
dent; the Delaware & Hudson Railroad, r.
M. Oliphant. president: the Delaware.
pany, w. III. Truesdale. president; the Gen.
tral Railroad Company of New Jersey, j.
K Maxwell: president; the philadelphia d
ris, president; the Erie Railroad and the
New York. Susquehanna & Western Rail-
road. T.. b. Thomas, president; the Della
ware, Susquehanna & Schuylkill Company.
Irving A Stearns, president; the New
York, Ontario & Western Railway, Thomas
Is. toWler, president
These nine railroad corporations. besides
producing approximately 72 per cent. of the
hard coal, are the sole carriers to tide
water OF all coal mined in the anthracite
field of Pennsylvania, and for this service
or carriage a charge from 40 to 6S per cent.
per ton, according TO the size of the coal, is
made Incredible IL may appear, they
charge three times as much to carry ton
or anthracite coal one hundred miles as Is
charged to carry ton of bituminous coal
the same distance. So exorbitant are the
rates that the legitimate profits which
should be credited 10 the mining depart
ments of these railroads are absorbed by
freight rates. and as a consequence their
coal properties are made to show very
small profit on sheir capitalization.
OUR REAL ENEMIES"
'If this is the state of affairs with the
railroad mining departments. what is the
condition of the independent operators? Is
it not a matter of reason that he can do
nothing which his railroad master will not
commend? Is 1t not a matter of public no.
toriety that he does do nothing that rail-
roads do not sanction? Therefore. whether
or not Individual operators see in the rail-
road monopolies their great enemies.
whether or not the individual operators feel
themselves free to make common cause
against these railroad systems, /, speaking
for the 10000 mine workers this day on
enemies, and name their presidents as the
men responsible for refusal to arbitrate or
even confer upon the differences which
have grown up, not between them and the
organization / represent but between them
and their own employees, who through dele
gates selected by themselves met in conven-
tion in the city OF Hazleton on Aug. lS and
framed a list of grievances, which were
mailed to the general superintendents Of
the mining departments of these railroads,
accompanied by an invitation to meet in
r.fw- %s<r. Arrcr for he
pose of discussing and If possible agreeing
upon such changes In the scale of mining
and conditions of employment were war
ranted by the conditions OF the coal indus
try. But. to our cnagrin and disappoint-
ment, the cordial invitation extended was
not even acknowledged by those in charge
OF the coal departments.
These grievances, which the miners
cited in their circular, formed the ground
for the present strike, and because the
railroads are the real masters, against
whom we are making this peaceful, passive
struggle, we can only regard such inde-
pendent operators as @. =. Markle & Co.
in the light of fellow-victims with ourselves,
suffering under excessive freight rates, as
suffer from low wages and inhuman
conditions of employment and we should
regard arbitration with any or all of such
individual operators as absolutely calcu-
lated to advance the cause of the great
body of anthracite workers, but on the
contrary to bring their certain defeat for
even were the board of arbitration in. say,
the Markle case, 10 award all that the
men desired, that award could be lived up
to by Markle only long as the strike
continued elsewhere. Every pound of coal
that Markle would be permitted to mine
and ship. would Invariably be appropriated
by the Lehigh Valley Railway Company
thus placing in their own hands the
weapons which would defeat the very OBJ
ject for which their own employees are on
strike. and because of the mine workers
OF the anthracite field having their wages
based upon sliding scale. the earnings of
the Markle men would necessarily be re-
duced were the strike to prove failure
in other points In the anthracite region.
NO PARTIAL SETTLEMENT.
Wages fixed on a sliding scale basis
would only remain high while there was a
scarcity of coal on the New York and
Eastern seaboard markets and would i'm
mediately fall when more coal was being
transported to these markets than could
be consumed. 1t is absurd, from a busi-
ness point OF view, to even assume that
Marlxle or any other individual operator
could continue to pay a higher rate of
wages than his competitors. the railroad
companies for any considerable length OF
time. and. in fact. IL Is we'll known within
the mining regions that the individual Oper-
ators. including Markle, impose conditions
OF employment on their men which, IN
some instances. Objectionable
than those imposed even by the large
corporations. For these reasons L hold
that Ii would be fatal mistake for us TO
consent 10 any partial settlement OF this
strike. or 10 agree 10 other than general
resumption of work.
This is fight Of all for each and each
for all and TO be successful there must be
no break I'm our line OF action. II ought
10 20 without saying at this late date that
| am a stanch advocate of the principle
OF arbitration, and did l not personally
favor these principles the laws of the or
d i ms
arbitration one of It's cardinal tenets /
will go further and say that arbitration I'm
a civilized land would be unnecessary IL
miners and mine owners were 10 adopt the