The evening times., 1900-09-21

ulation of affairs of the company in its
! methods OF work about the mines"
Attitude of the Operators.
The attitude OF the owners of the mines
is shown in the position OF the operators
| and coal companies of the shamokin dis
trict. In a recent statement they said
Out OF twenty-seyen coal operators in
this district. the Pennsylvania Lehigh,
and Philadelphia and Reading Railway
companies own the majority II the Upper
region people have grievances the COM
panies Will treat them individually, but
will not tolerate Western labor leaders
10 come to this country and dictate terms.
II is surmised that the bituminous coal
operators of the West are at the back of
the present movement to plunge the en-
tire anthrs cite region, from Treverton,
! Northumberland county. to CarbOndaIe.
| Carbon county. into a general strike.
needless Of disastrous consequences alike
to employees as we'll as employers. Such
q tie-Up would open a boundIess field for
the sale Of bituminous coal, which al ev-
cry opportunity encroRches on the hard
coal domain aud once the consumer be-
comes attached to bituminous coal he
maintains it. f.t.HrE -.t..s
1t is claimed by the United Mine Work
crs that all the bituminoUs mines Of the
West will be closed down to aid the pro
posed strike If tho upper region hard
coal men in the past refused TO join in a
sympathy strike with the men of Shamo-
kin district how can hard coal min
ers expect men unknown 10 them
and separated by hundreds of miles TO
strike out of sympathy? The present agi-
teton for conference viii be of no avail
Ehe operators will not meet the United
r-t-a h-E ct Lsa
must come, the quicker ii is fought out
the better it will be for all concerned,
and realizing that the mass of our men
do not want to cease work, it would mean
that the strike onee called viii. if it ma
terializes, be of an abortIve nature
One of the most serious grievances OF
the miners is the company store. Three
years ago q serious but UnoTganiZed strike
occurred, principally owing TO the COM
pany store system which eliminated in
the terrible shooting affray at Lattimer
and in the troops being ordered out. Lat=4
4 State law forbidding corporations to .If2
stores was passed. but the private company
stores. the cause OF all the trouble were
entirely disregarded
The company doctor is another complaint
hat the miners bring forward Many OF
the smaller companies tax their men 80 or
70 cents a month for the services of the
company doctor. whether they use him or
not
The company butcher is on a par with
the doctor He charges what he likes, de-
livers his meat when he likes. travelling
around his district in a wagon, and often
serving what he likes whether families
want il or not. and the money is stopped
cut of the miners pay. The company
butchers exist ROW only in the remote dis
tricts. but there are still many of them.
The Powder Question.
The powder question is the most serious
one. The men are charged s2.75 keg for
powder that costs 90 cents That powde.
may mine them twenty-five tons of coal
or 1t may mine them less than enough TO
pay for itself. That all depends upon the
mine boss. The men are allowed to work
one. two. three or four days week. and
half a day or all day, or not at all as
the operators may decide. But they must
report for duty every day. The operators
admit that they sell powder for much more
than 1t costs them, and explain it by say
ing that more than ten years ago the en-
ployers and their men agreed upon GER
tain scales of wages to be paid in each
vein, the miners wage scale containing all
understanding that powder was to be pur-
chased from the company at 275 keg.
At that time the price meant a small
profit. This scale has remained in force
ever since. The selling price of coal has
varied in the meantime from that current
in 1888 to the figures of 1885. The cost of
mining il is claimed has largely increased
through the exhaustion of upper veins and
the expense of opening, hoisting and
pumping from deep veins, as we'll as the
greater cost of machinery suitable for their
ventilation. heavier props, waste in larger
pillars. and numerous other causes The
operators say they are willing to lower the
price of powder, but if they do so they
must. IN order 10 maintain their margin
OF profit. lower the wages The union has
demanded the reduction of powder to S1.50
a keg and an increase of 20 per cent in the
wages. z
Shortage of anthracite coal in the
great cities of the East is the hope of
the miners. They belive that if the tie
up can be made general for few weeks
commercial interests in the great cities
viii force arbitration or some other set |
tlement of the trouble. Efforts are be-
ing made to persuade the railroaders' |
unions not to handle a pound of non |
union coal, SO that the strike of the mine |
workers will probably be only the be-
ginning Of a general strike which will |
tie up the entire East. The bringing |
in OF bituminous coal will be resisted, |
and if the soft coal men seek a market |
here TO the prejudice of the anthracite |
miner strike in the bituminous re- |
gions will be ordered.
The average weekly output of the an |
thracite mines is more than million |
tons. so a two months strike which tied |
I'D the entire anthracite field would |
mean shortage of more than 100000 |