The age-herald., 1900-06-20
THERE ARE FEARS OF ASTRIKE
Though Both Sides Desire Amicable Settlement of the Wage Scale Men Imported to Take Besse-
 mer Strikers Places.

The labor situation in the Birmingham | district is at a high tension. There are I serious fears of a disagreement between | operators and operatives which may lead | to a general strike.
 The strike of the stock house men and helpers about the Tennessee Company's furnaces at Bessemer is still on. The
 company, determined not to give in to the
 demands, has imported men from Tennes-
 see and Georgia. An hundred or more reached Bessemer last night prepared to go to work today when an effort will be made l to start one or more of the furnaces now 1 banked. Some trouble is feared, but extra | officers have been sworn in to protect the l imported laborers and the property. To- 1 day and tomorrow will tell the story. Miners Meet Today In face of this situation at Bessemer the | ''United Mine Workers" meet in convention
 in Birmingham today to discuss and agree l upon a scale of wages the organization | shall ask of the mine and furnace opera | tors of the Birmingham district for the next twelve months beginning the first of | July. Current rumor is to the effect that | shorter hours and higher wages per ton | will be asked.
 | The operators likewise. meet today and | they have practically agreeded to act in l concert. The operators meet at 10 o'clock | in Fox's Hall corner Fourth avenue and | Nineteenth street. The mine workers meet | at o'clock at Seals Hall The operatives | will probably appoint a committee to con | fer with the operators on the subject of a | scale of wages before any formal demands are made The operators are 10th to agree | to any increase in wages in view of the
 rapidly declining iron market in which l there has been a slump of s a ton within three weeks
 The furnace men and coal mine owners | have decided to act as one concern and deal through committee with the commit
 tee to be appointed by the miners conven- tion.
 Both operators and operatives in dis cussng the situation with Age Herald re- porters last night, expressed the hope that all matters would be amicably adjusted, but none could tell what questions might De ra1Sed today and tomorrow Todays Convention It is probable that all of today's session
 of the United Mine Workers will
 be consumed in organizing and in ap-
 will be consumed in organizing and in ap-
 pointing committees to investigate the diff
 ferent questions likely to be discussed be-
 tween the operators and the miners, and
 also a committee to confer with the op-
 orators.
 Representatives will be present from
 every mine in the Birmingham district,
 which includes the counties of Jefferson,
 Walker Bibb and Tuscaloosa. The rail-
 roads granted the miners a rate of one
 fare for the round trip on account of the
 meeting today.
 It has been rumored for several days
 past that the miners would demand an
 increase of ten cents per ton on the pres
 ent scale of wages and an eight-hour day
 after the expiration of the contract now
 in force. These rumors were discredted d
 few days ago by union miners, and for
 time it was believed the wage scale after July l would be practically the same as
 the one now in force. This contradiction
 served for time to allay all apprehen-
 sion, but on the eve or the assembling Of the miners in annual convention, the old rumor was again given currency, and with apparently the best authority. Interviews with representative miners last
 night failed to confirm the rumor A large
 number of the delegates to the convention
 came to town yesterday and last night, and
 those seen by reporters for The Age-Herald
 conversed freely on the subect of the con-
 tract to be made between now and July 1.
 The statement was made by some of the
 miners that practically the eight-hour rule
 prevails now in some portions of the dis
 trict, notably at Blocton, and a few other
 places. Some of the Blocton delegates stated that they were now some times
 pushed to get in eight hours work a day. As to the rumored demand for 1O-cent advance on the present wage scale, they denied any knowledge of an authoritative notice. Several delegates, in discussing this feature of the contract to be acted upon, said they had heard on the outside that such demand would be made, but so far as they knew there was no truth in it. They said some miners scattered over the district may want such an increase, and doubtless they do, but the question had not yet been discussed by the miners as body
 The convention today is for the purpose of taking up this very question.