New-York tribune., 1900-10-02
MLTOHELES LABOR Trust.

MITCHELLS LABOR TRUST.
The employees Of Markle & Co. who have
yielded TO the solicitations of the coal strike
agitators and repudiated their agreement to
arbitrate all differences with the mine owners
have done more to weaken whatever moral force
this strike may have had and to discourage
operators from treating their men fairly than
any open enemy Of organized labor could have
done. Acting under the influence Of Mr.
Mitchell, the president of the United Mine
Workers, they have formally announced to mine
owners that it is not worth their while to keep
faith with their laborers or treat them fairly.
1t is no capitalist who has declared that the
word of the miner is no good but Mitchell, who
has forced the Markle employees TO break their
contract and refuse to live up to the arbitration
agreement which they entered into for just such
occasions as the present. Organized labor is
always calling for arbitration and asking politi-
cal parties to commit themselves in favor of so
ending labor disputes. But what treaty of arbi-
tratiOn will any employer make, how can any
political party demand that he should make one.
in view of the fact that it will bind him but
will not secure him against strikes, no mat
ter how generously and honorably he may act,
If any agitator or demagogue in the name of
organized labor wishes to stop his business?
The conduct OF President Mitchell in forcing
the Markle workers to break their word
strengthens the hitherto widely held suspicion
that his object is not the welfare of the anthra-
cite miners, but the promotion of his personal
ambition to lead a labor trust made supreme
by means no matter how dishonorable This
suspicion is further strengthened by Mr. Henry
Loomis Nelson's long and careful report on the
strike situation published in '"The New-York
Evening Post yesterday. Mr. Nelson is
Uho
entered upon his task without prejudice, and
his conclusion is that the strike 'was ordered
'by an organization consisting of a very small
minority Of the workers in the anthracite
"collieries, and differed and dominated by men
who do not understand the business of
anthracite mining, but who are engaged and
interested in competing business" He says:
It's main feature is the attempt OF outsiders
to manage the affairs of the anthracite coal
companies. Taking shrewd advantage of
Presidential campaign for his purpose. Mitchell
has undertaken to bring the coal business
Of America under the control of his organi-
cation. In order to accomplish his object
he has tried to dictate the relations that shall
exist between employers and employed in a busi-
ness of which he is ignorant With the aid Of
foreigners few of whom speak our language, he
has driven tens of thousands of miners from
their daily employment and denied them the
right to earn living. He has threaten the
country with high prices for fuel and in con-
sequence the poor with misery and suffering.
driven
and others out of this region to the soft coal
fields of the West.
Mr.. Nelson describes the tyrannical labor
trust which Mitchell has succeeded in building
up among the bituminous miners, under which
no man not a member of his organization can
work in any mine. He interferes in every detail
of operation, assumes to decide disputes, exacts
implicit obedience from the miners, and even
dares to levy on their wages.
The local president, for example, may say to
the company that he desires it on the coming
payday to withhold from each miner a certain
sum which is to be applied to the expenses of
the local. If the operator objects he has trouble;
pulsion from the order, and this is a menace
which he cannot face It means, If carried out,
that he will not only lose his immediate employ
ment but that he will become an outcast in the
bituminous region.
According to Mr.. Nelson Mitchell started out
to extend his sway over the anthracite region
by deliberate agitation having no reference to
any grievances. Last February he issued de
mand on the anthracite mine owners to recog-
nize his organization and discuss issues. They,
however had heard of no issues knew nothing
OF this organization of bituminous workers, and
paid no attention to him. Then he and his fol-
lowers began a campaign to stimulate complaint,
and finally, by August l, he had about twelve
thousand men, mostly Italians and Slavs, en-
anthracite miners. Mr. Nelson does not say the
miners have no just ground for complaints. He
thinks they have, but he says that Mitchell and
the bituminous agitators show the greatest ig
norance of them in making foolish demands
which lf granted would close large number OF
anthracite mines by actually reducing the in
come of the workers in difficult veins, would
lessen the demand for labor and put up the
price of coal, and he notes the possible relation
between the benefit which would thus accrue
"to the bituminous regions and the fact that the
United Miners are under the control of
"bituminous men,"
This strike, inspired from the outside, has
been adopted by the anthracite miners in gen
eral, but Mr.. Nelson reports that this has been
done only under compulsiOn. The better work
ers were all prosperous, Notwithstanding the
flake" pictures which have been circulated for
political effect here and elsewhere. The con-
servative miners have stopped work for fear of
violence and still more for fear of being called
'scabs" and subjecting their families to insult
and disgrace. Among the majority there is
absolutely no heart in the strike, and almost all
of the English speaking men but Mitchell and
his personal followers, intent on the aggrandize-
ment OF his organization. are willing TO accept
concessions from the mine owners without