Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1900-10-05
REVIEW | ! | ! o. Hl STRIKE
Henry LOOMS Nelson Reviews the
Great Labor Struggle For the
Ri Associated Press
q Editor Of Harper's Weekly and.
Has Made q Study Of the
Strike
He Says the Great Contest is Not
Of the Miners Own
Making.


Wilkesbarre, Pa. Oct s.. Henry
Loomis Nelson, late editor of Harper's
Weekly, has written for the Associated.
Press the following review Of the coal.
strike in the anthracite region:
The labor contest which has been
carried on in this valley has been be-
tween operators and the organization
known as the United Mine Workers. So.
far, the operators have not said that
they would not treat With organized la
Dor. They hold that this issue was not
fairly presented by the mine workers
This is not an organization of anthra-
cite employees. 1t originated in the BIZ
luminous mines, Mitchell himself being
a worker in the soft coal mines. The
complaints CT grievances also have not
been presented in the manner usual
With labor organizations. They have
been brought in from without, and have
not proceeded directly from the miners;
Immediately concerned. Not colliery
has heard a word of complaint from it's
own men directly. nor indirectly, for
that matter, when the strike was or
pened during the past year that the
strike sprang from NIitchelEs ambition
to obtain full control of the coal bust
ness of America. To this end he has
been working for 4 long time. He sue
ceeded last year in instigaIing a strike;
at the Susquehanna ConlpanS's mines.
at Nanticoke. The intention was that
the strike should be general. The eff
;nll fail iI,i,t9
ticoke miners going out, and the organ
ization was not recognized in the agree
ment of settlement. Other efforts have,
been made during the year butt was
not until last month that Mitchell Sc
cured a sufficient number of members
for the United Mine Workers8in the an-.
tllracite region to make a general strike
possible,
One reason for the success of the
strike was the general prosperity of the
men. For the last two or three months
their daily earnings have ranged from
$3.50 to 81. and in some instances they
were S. In most of the collieries the
miners have beer making evidently
over a dollar a day for every week day
of the month over and above their
house rent and coal. They We're feel
ing prosperous when the te1npter came
to them with the promise of double pay
for that is about what Mitchell's
proposition really amounts to-and
some of the men were induced to take
the chances of gaining it a theaco of
a strike. But the main reason for the
general tie-up is Intimidation. The or
ganized and radical minority have
driven the unorganized and conserya-
tive majority away from the mines.
There has. been peace in most of the an
tflracite region, but nevertheless there
has been a reign of terror, completely
effective, notwithstanding the absence
of outward signs. The men who We're
willing and anxious to work have
yielded without a struggle. Perhaps If
their material needs had been more
pressing it would have been necessary
to send troops to other places than
Shenandoah.
In this condition Of affairs. with all
the best miners of the region in favor of
continuing work, it seems strange that
the great companies did not follow the
example of G. B. Markle & Co. The
settlement between that firm and its
men would probably have been more
easily accomplished if the operators
had backed one another, despite theeef-
forts Of Mitchell, who has all along IN
sisted that there should be no separate
settlements; that there should be no
settlement at all until all the operators
should agree to a general settlement.
Mitchell has not intended to give up
control of the settlement for the region.
and he knew that such breach in'5his
plans as that of the MaTkle settlement
would have been fatal tn him. The
Markle men wished to pay no attention
\ 20 him, however, and really tried to#en-
ter into an arbitration agreement With
their employees on the propositions
to which they could not agree other-
wise. In formulating their Own com
plants they paid no heed whatever to
the grievances set forth by the United
Z. Mine Workers. They had their own
grievances arising out of the conditions
8 prevailing at their own mines and they
intended to settle them and not those
which had been set forth by the btu
4 ninous miners. Who are at the head of
& the organization, and who evidently
know very little about the anthracite
business. Talk With many miners in the
Wyoming valley sconVinces me that the
miners generally have not regarded the
grievances formulated by the organiza-
ton as serious. They could not have 50
considered them. for many of them are
4 the result of ignorance. To state the
4 case broadly, the unions proposed scale
OF pay would about double the cost Of
anthracite mimi. would close VI
many mines, workable under the pres
ent scale; would throw thousands oil
miners out of employment and Woulc
greatly increase the cost of coal to the
consumer. What grievances any par
ticular miner has arose chiefly from The
character Of his own employnenti in his
own mine. They can not, therefore. be
intelligently settled except by the oper-
ators and men who understand loca
* conditions. When these facts and cir
icumstances are taken into account, anG
when it is further considered that n,
IYniner has talked about the unior
lcharges at all, it will be easily seen thaj
1.-THE operators might have settled this
difficulty by taking the Initiative at thu
outset, as the Markles took it,, and pro.
posing arbitration. The men opposed Il
3 the strike have been very anxious fol
an approach that would have enabled
them to unite with the operators. If {
settlement results in strengthening the
organization 1t is mainly the conse
quence of delay in pending arbitrati
BLAMEs THE ORGANIZATION.
33SS The men We're out on strike because
e.. -.