Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-02-17
Special to the Register.

CHARLESTON, w. Va, FEBRUARY
16.-The coal operators and miners in
West Virginia are anticipating a clash
about the first of April, and possibly
the Inauguration of a general strike
on the part of the miners in all Sec
lions Of District No. II, of the United
Mine Workers, which includes all the
West Virginia mines except those in
Ohio county. Secretary George Scott,
of the same organization, and Henry
Stephenson, a member of the national
board of the United Mine Workers of
America, have been in consultation in
this city for the last three days, map
ping out a line of policy to be pursued
in the effort to force the operators to
give the advance in the scale agreed
OF for this State at the recent meet
ing in Indianapolis. which is fourteen
cents on the ton, or one-half a cent per
bushel. The mines owners of the
Kanawha and New River valleys are
willing to make an advance of from
five to seven cents on the ton, or one
quarter of a cent on the bushel, but
this is just about one-half of what the
miners think they are entitled to in
the way of a raise and one-half of
what they will demand.
The Kanawha operators will meet
here tomorrow to discuss and agree
on an advance. They are now paying
two and a half cents per bushel. They
will raise it to two and three-fourthS
cents. This is for screened coal over
bars with two and two and a half
inches openings. The leaders of the
United Mine Workers are of the opin-
ion that the operators propose to give
this advance without having been ask
eG to do SO in order to forestall the
demand to be made by the Mine Work
ers a month hence. They will prob
ably agree that this advance of a
quarter of a cent shall go into effect
Iat once or not later than the first Of
March, SO that their men will be
Drawing Increased Pay
and will be measurably satisfied before
the first of April arrives, when the
Mine Workers will demand a raise of
fourteen cents a ton all over the
A littleraise now will make it
difficur for the Mine Workers to in
augurate a strike a month later.
George Scott, of Macdonald, Fayette
county. secretary of the State organ
ization of mine workers, said to the
Register this evening:
Great dissatisfaction prevails in all
the coal fields of West Virginia. The
miners of this State have always been
way down below what they consider
is just as a relative basis. Take Loup
creek mines, in Fayette county, for an
illustration. Prices in that field have
never been higher than thirty cents
per long ton until within the last six
months. Six months ago they receiv-
ed an advance of five cents, making
thirty-fiye cents. Now in the State Of
Ohio, for instance, last year the min
ers were getting sixty-six cents for
screened coal, or it's equivalent, forty
seven cents run of mine, a differen-
tial of nineteen cents. Seeing that
such a d~iferential exists the miners of
West Virginia will waive all claims at
this time for a modification of the
difference and will content themselves
with a corresponding raise in prices.
The demand of the West Virginia min
ers is fourteen cents a ton, and a call
for a joint conference between the
operators and miners will be issued
shortly, and a vigorous campaign will
be made in the meantime to organize