The age-herald., 1900-09-22
FIRST CLASH BETWEEN THE CIVIL
 OFFICERS AND STRIKING MINERS
Sheriff's Posse Fired on Mob at Shenandoah, KiII-
 ing Two Persons and Wounding Several.

coal operators in a way so clear and def
 mite as to leave further misunderstood
 ing.
 "The striking miners recognize as their
 real opponents in this struggle for slight
 amehoration of the hard grinding condi-
 tons of miners life nine railroads, which,
 with their presidents, are
 "Pennsylyania Railroad Company, Alex
 J. Cassatt, president; Lehigh Valley Rail
 road System, Fred Walter, president; Dela-
 ware and Hudson Railroad, R. B. Oliphant,
 president; Delaware, Lackawanna and
 Western Railroad Company, w. H. Trues-
 dale, president; Central Railroad Company
 of New Jersey, J. R. Maxwell, president;
 Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Com
 pany, Joseph H. Harris. president Erie
 Railroad, and New York, Susquehanna and
 Western Railroad, E. B. Thomas, president;
 Delaware, Susquehanna and Schuylkill
 Company, Irving A. Stearns, president;
 New York, Ontario and Western Railroad,
 T. B. Fowler president
 "These nine railroad corporations, besides
 producing approximately 72 per cent of the
 hard coal, are the sole carriers to tide wa
 ter of all coal mines in the anthracite field
 of Pennsylvania, and for this service of car
 riage charge from 40 to 6S per cent per
 ton. Incredible it may appear, they
 charge three times as much to carry a ton
 of anthracite coal one hundred miles as is
 charged to carry a ton of bituminous coal . the same distance. So exorbitant are the rates that the legitimate profits which
 should be credited to the mining depart
 ments of these railroads are absorbed by
 freight rates, and as consequence their
 coal properties are made to show a very ! small profit on their capitaliza ton. 'If this Is the state of affairs with the railroad mining departments, what is the condition of the Independent operators? Is
 1t not matter of reason that he can do
 nothing which his railroad master will not
 commend? Is 1t not matter of public mo-
 torety that he does do nothing which the
 railroads do not sanction? Therefore wheth- CT or not individual operators see in the
 railroad monopolies their great enemies,
 whether or not the individual operators feel themselves free to make >common cause against these railroad systems,I speaking
 for the 130,000 mine workers, this day on strike, recognize these railroads as our real enemies and name their presidents as the
 men responsible for refusal to arbitrate or even confer upon the differences that have grown up, not between them and the or. ganization I represent, but between them and their own employees.
 We can only regard such independent | operators as G. B. Markle and Company | in the light of fellow victims, suffering l under excessive freight rates we suffer | from low wages and inhuman conditions | of employment. Even were the board of | arbitration in the Markle case to award all that the men desired, that award could l be lived up to by Markle only so long as l the strike continued elsewhere. Wages 1 fixed on a sliding scale would only remain l high while there was scarcity of coal on l the New York and Eastern seaboard mar 1 kets, and. would immediately fall when l more coal was being transported to these markets than could be consumed. Tt ought to go without saying at this late day that am a staunch advocate of | the principle of arbitration, and did I not personally favor these principles the laws | of the organization of which am president make arbitration one of its cardinal tenets.
 q will go further and say that arbitra- l tion in civilized lands would be unnec- essary ii miners and mine owners were l to adopt the same system of adjusting wage disputes as is in force in the bitumi- nous coal districts. In Indianapolis last 1 January 25 operators and 750 miners, dele i gates representing an annual output of TO- l 0O0OO0 tons of btuminous coal in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, met in conference and mutually agreed 1 that the miners earnings should advance l 22 20-100 per cent. As result of this con- 1 ference and other similar ones in the States 1 west of the Mississippi river and south or the Ohio river 12O 900 mine workers received l an advance in their earnings aggregating 1 $12, 900, 900 in one year, thus precluding even
 the possibility of a strike for one full year, | at the end of which they will again meet l in joint conference to renew the contract l and make such changes in the wages paid as are justified and warranted by the cost l of production and the value of coal in the markets. This in my opinion, Is the ideal
 method of averting strikes and turmoils l and securing for labor and capital that l share of the profits of their joint industry l to which each Is properly entitled. 1 But because I am aware that there Is l serious if misguided repugnance on the ! part of the railroad carriers in the anthra- 1 cite field to recognizing our organization 1 or it's officers, the mine workers organiza | ton, whose chief officer I have the honor l to be, believe in yielding all natural pride 1 of having it treated with in this difficulty,
 repeat what I have publicly and privately
 stated before, that I and my official col l leagues will not ask to be recognized or l consulted by the mine owners if the off, | cers or representatives of these great rail- l road companies will do what they have many times said they would do-meet com l mittees of their own employees and come l to a peaceful settlement.
 "These are my sincere expressions, ana l I appeal to an impartial and just public to i judge between us and these nine railroad 1 presidents if they shall refuse to meet in 1 a spirit of fairness this proposal of man 1 whose chief object Is to help. tighten the weary burden of a struggling and earnest l mass of humanity.
 l fSigned) JOHN M MITCHELL,
 "President United Mine Workers of Amer ica."