The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-09-29
DIR. w. B. CALDWELL.


agree to having the wage-schedule re-
vised. They all declared that they pre-
ferred to have the matter remain as it
was. 1t is necessary for the company
to regulate the price of powder, owing
to the fact that it is an exceedingly dan
gerous article to handle
The miners demand a revision of the
methods of weighing and measuring the
coal. They claim that they are COM
PEELED to send up from 2,700 to 1900
pounds of coal in order to get payment
for 2,240 pounds. This is the system of
docking" by which the foremen make
deductions for slack, slate, rock, and
other Impurities, in order to simmer
down the miners work to a pure coal
basis.'
The miners further demand that they
shall have their own ''check weighman
at the head of the breaker, who, with
the company weighman, shall agree on
the amount of dockage." A law of
Pennsylvania, enacted in 1875, provides
for such a check Weighman, but since
the time when the law was enacted the
operators have required the miners to
sign away their right. In Kansas a SIM
liar law cannot be waived by contract.
No answer from the operators
The miners claim that where they are
paid by the car, instead of being re-
quired to furnish a well-rounded heap
on the car at the breakers. as was orig
inally agreed to, they have gradually
been compelled to increase the amount
of coal in each car by building the same
perpendicularly from six to eighteen
inches above the edge. No answer.
The miners demand a practical reco2-
milton of their union-the United Mine
Workers of America''-by means of ar
bitration and contract regarding
wages and conditions.
The operators answer that they will
deal with their own employees, but not
with outsiders. That the trouble has
been fomented by the bituminous I'M
ions
THE REAL ISSUE.
The recognition of the union is the
crisis of the situation. The union does
not go so far as to demand that only
union men be employed, but, plainly
enough, they insist on a collective bar
gain in place of the individual bargains
of the past % years Until this coHec-
tive bargaining is admitted it is useless
to- hope for peace in the coal fields The
men may be defeated, as they have so
often been, but their first condition of
security is joint action. and until that is
granted they will doubtless court new
defeats. The operators act together, the
railroads have a VIGOROUSLY solid agree
ment, and the miners now also ask the
right to speak through a business agent.
Naturally the operators recall the per-
iod of the Molly Maguires, and they re-
sponSibIe laborerS If this were the only
alternative their position would be
sound. But there is another a1terna-
tive permanent board of arbitration
representing equally the miners and the
operators.
But arbitration is not ALL Arbitration
secures peace, but not always justice
The roots of the trouble lie deeper. Sup
pose you go down one of these mines 500
feet-then follow the declining seam for
a half mile laterally where the miners
are at work. Here is miner working
on a sort of contract at 30 cents ton.
He pays his helper 20 cents for loading
the car and has 30 cents for his own
work. Six hundred feet overhead is a |
landlord, a half mile distant from the |
shaft, VINO receives SO cents royalty |
as much for doing nothing as two |
miners for working It is generally |
agreed in the region that only those OPP
orators have been able to make money |
who have been shrewd in bargaining on
these royalties. When the operator |
brings his coal to the surface it is worth |
2.30 per ton; when it sells at tide wa |
ter the price is 81; when it is unloaded |
in your cellar the price is IS. Between |
the landlord and the railroad the indie |
pendent operator is squeezed, and he in I
turn conveys the pressure to the mine |
The constitution of Pennsyl- I
vania prohibits railroad from mining /
coal, but makes an exception for the ex-
listing anthracite roads. In the early /
seventies the roads doubled and trebled |
their freight rates and organized them
selves into coal-mining companies They
lose money in the coal business on ac-
count of high freights, but make money
in the railroad business for the same
reason What becomes of the 'sindepend-
snt'' is plain. About 20 per cent of the
territory is now operated by the roads.
Their employees are better treated than
those of the independents. This ac-
counts for a singular weakness on the
part of the miners union. The railroad
miners who consent to strike are really
engaging in a sympathetic strike for the
benefit of the 20 per cent employed by
he Independents. If they win, then the
operators will sink under
he joint pressure of landlord, railroad
and labor union. Here is the problem |
If justice. It lies in the failure of the
state to control its highways.