The age-herald., 1900-06-29
MEETING HARMONIOUS Question as to the Miners Con
 tinuing to Work UNTIL NEW SCALE IS ADJUSTED Unless the Convention Directs That Work Continue General Suspen-
 sion of Coal Mining Will Oc-
 cur Monday MorLing
UNTIL NEW SCALE IS ADJUSTED

The miners and operators met again in joint session yesterday and rejected the scale contract presented by each. This was followed by the appointment of joint com mittee of nine from each side to prepare a scale to be presented to the convention.
 The joint scale committee will meet in Fox's Hall at 10 o'clock this morning to begin work. It is probable they will not be ready to report before tomorrow, and perhaps not until next week.
 It is also probable that when the report is submitted to the convention the miners will adjourn for few days in order to get expressions from the different locals over the district as to it's acceptance
 This probable action brings up the ques- tion of continuance of work under the present scale after its expiration tomorrow An effort was made by Herald re- porters yesterday to get expressions from the miners on this question, but none of them were willing to give out any state ment on the subject.
 Should the joint committee fail to come to an agreement today it is more than likely the question of continuing work under the present contract until an agreement is eff fected will come before the miners con- vention tomorrow morning. What the miners will do will then be determined. Unless the convention directs that work continue general suspension of coal min ing will occur Monday morning and will not be resumed until the new contract goes into effect.
 As on the previous day, the speeches yes- acter as to indicate the friendliest feeling between operators and miners. There was no attempt to arouse passion and no ap- peals to prejudice. Unless the temper of the convention was misjudged, there will be no strike in the Birmingham district this year. disposition towards fair dealing seemed to pervade the atmosphere of the convention hall.
 Proceedings in Detail
 The joint convention reassembled shortly after 10 o'clock yesterday morning, and MT Barbour of Pratt City took the floor in advocacy of the adoption of the first sec tion of the scale presented by the miners, and which had been discussed by MT Fair ley and President Baxter of the Tennes- see Coal Iron and Railroad Company, the day before. He referred to the highest price of iron at which the miners scale ceased to advance, and said that iron had gone S5 above that figure. He read the iron mar ket report of Matthey, Addy & Co.,, of June 16 in substantiation of his assertion that the demand for iron had not entirely ceased. He was followed by MT. Cooper of Lockhart, who said:
 'I am not familiar with the price of iron, but am familiar with the price of domes- tic coal. I do not know what object John w. Gates had in making the statement that prices would fall. It might have been be- cause he knew the Amalgamated Iron and Steel Workers would soon go in conven- tion and appoint a committee to fix the scale for another year. The metropolitan press tells us that an English syndicate has come into Alabama and contracted for a million and half tons of coal. Who knows but what it will go to 5,OO0,0O0 tons? The operators here shared in the profits on high priced iron and why should not the coal diggers? think the operators in do- mestic coal can well afford to give ten cents more per ton for digging"
 President Bush Explains
 President Bush of the Alabama Consol- idated Coal and Iron Company:
 q would not say anything further to pro- long this discussion, but cannot afford to let it go to this convention that I or any other operator had made statement solely for the purpose of influencing cap ital to invest in the district. That is for eign to my character.
 There has been much msapprehension of the iron situation developed here. The gentleman quoted from Matthew, Addy & Co.,. but he would be surprised to see let ter I opened from them this morning. I did not imagine that there would be such a drop, and l was amazed to find that we would have to make such low price as they quoted to sell in the west. Malleable iron was quoted at $7 per ton.
 It has been stated that the demand was far in excess of the supply and such was the case sometime ago, but the high price of iron caused many furnaces to go in blast until now the demand has been sup piled.
 .As to the statement that coal had been sold to England and doubtless if transpor-