The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-09-15
|STORYOFTHE
Big STRIKE.
What Brought on Walk Out
of Coal Miners.
Have Long List of Grievances
Against Coal Barons.
THE COMPANY" STORE.
How it Has Played Havoc
With Miners Wages.
Money Spent For Food Be-
fore It Is Earned.
THEIR CRIES UNHEEDED.
THEIR CRIES UNHEEDED.
Mine Owners Turned Deaf
Ear to All Entreaties.
Graphic Sketch of Situation
by Julian Hawthorne
Visited Men in Homes and
Saw the Suffering.

What Will probably be one of the most
serious of modern strikes is now on in
the anthracite coal regions of PennsyI-
vania- The strike Affects about Loo. 90
people.
a writer in the Philadelphia Record
gives the following causes of the strike,
under a WIlkeSbarre date:
Three grievances actuate the anthra-
cite coal miners in their present conflict
Better wages the high price OF powder
form the basis Of the trouble Everything
hinges on these points The demand for
slderatfons-
a few years ago the chief one would
have been the company store. but tnat
blight Is gradually disappearing None Of
the big companies conaucts them but
these stores exist in the less populouS dis
trtcts, and this existence Is embodied IN
the unions official statement OF gr1ev-
anees. The mine owner says trading at
the store is not compulsory This is true
does not He would lose his place in the
mine if he did: and again. he has not the
desired. and at the end of a month oe-
ducts the bill from the employees wages.
more pressing but his house rent and his
store Dill come out OF his wages first
PRICES ALL TOO HIGH
Then the company store prices are ex-
brilliant On staple articles, sugar, lard.
-four, salt etc. from one to three cents
Clothing, bedding. etc. from 70 10 - per
cent higher, and on fancy articles not IN
frequently 50 70 100 per cent higher
.-1.he company doctor is another grew
auce which stlIl exists in some districts
He charges each workman IS cents q
month-sTopped out of the miners pay by
the company-and answers calls Wnen he
likes
the doctor. he charges what ne nkess
delivers his meat when he likes, travelling
sem NJ Ma ae uIzes- whst1er FAMILIES
want il or not-and the money Is stopped
MUST PAY HIGH FOR POWDER
The greatest OF all the grievances is
ers have 20 buy from the companies
which employ them II costs the opera
tors 50 cents . key, and in most parts Of
the anthracite region they sell 1t for SET
a key at some places for 81 Sd. and in a
small district for 49, The miners have
in price. or the privilege OF buying where
they pleased. but they have failed
powder for much more than it costs them,
and explained It by saying that more tnsAn
ten years ago the employees and their men
agreed upon certain scales of wages to
be paid in each ve11s the miners wage
scale Containing an understanding that
powder was to be purchased from the
Company at $50 a key At that time the
price meant a small profit This scale
The operators say they are willing to
lower the price OF powder, but II they
their margin of profit. lower the wages
the union has demanded the reduction
powder
of 20 per cent in the wages
DOCKAGE AND WEIGHING.
''The dockzge grievance is next TO the
powder question in Importance The meu
claim that they are locked from and
to L per cent on every car, and that dock
age has reached as high as 3 per cent in
bosses at the head OF the shafts WIN
mark on the car the amount Of dockage
pearancse Of eiirt and slate in the coal The
companies also require the cars 10 have a
certain amount o. aoppages use@.1s :
reaches the breaker This means top
page Of ten or twsiEs lnensS 7,o, wR zen ~ 4
coal settling and for some being shaken
on the car This the miners say. mater
tally increases the amount which would
be q. fair carful-
The remedy is not clear, SO comph-
Gated are the conditions. but the best So
luton vet f0und is a xaIe requiring mod
crate topping, and the presence OF a min
ers cockIng boss as vel As a company Ks
on each car. and the man acting for the
miners to be paid by them
The men complain that in the districts
where coal Is paid for by weight and not
constitute a ton This sometimes reaches
orators explain this BY saying that the
price paid IS based on the ton OF prepared
eqal I1er y mas ztne Is sa Re go
pounds OF ropgh-miued coal to make a
Ton Of zzso pounds. after it IS cleansdz
The men claim that legal ton is z.z40
pounds. and that is all that should be re-
quired- They say that the rate Per legal
ton. which Is about z cents when com
pared with the rate paid for bftumin0us
coal. which Is 50 cents and upward, shows
the injustice OF the price paid for anthra-
cite, which sells for SO much more than
soft coal
a Widespread grievance is that in adj
joining cOllierfeS. where the same veins
are worked. the cars are much as .
per cent larger IN one c0lIfery than an
other and yet the price paid Per car IS the
same
The uen also complain that those en-
ployed IN and around the breaker are
locked for any time the breaker loses
through accident to machinery and lack