Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-02-26
MINERS co INTO
AN EXECUTIVE
SESSION TODAY
Convention is Considering Report
of the Scale Committee.
ALL But MEMBERS ARE EXCLUDED
Resolutions Adopted Concerning Pol
tics in Matters of the Union and
Concerning the Exclusion From the
Country of Chinese.

From Mondays Daily.
The miners convention went into
executive session shortly after 10
O'Clock this morning for the purpose
of passing upon the report of the scale
committee, and all those not delegates
or officers We're excluded from the
hall. The scale is the one thing the
miner does not wish made public, not
because it touches upon the unlawful,
as some of those not acquainted with
unionism might think, but because the
miners wish to prepare their scale
and their demands to be made upon
their employers, the operators, in Sc
cret, so that the operators will have
no advantage in knowing what they
will ask or how they will do it. The
scale of wages is the most important
thing to the miner. 1t is what decides
how we'll he can live and what liber-
ties he can allow himself and his fami-
ly, and therefore the scale, more than
any other thing concerning the miner,
is jealousy guarded by him until the
proper time comes for it's divulgence.
The latter part of Saturday after
noon and the fore part of this morn
ing were spent in the discussion and
adoption of the new constitution as
reported by the committee on consti-
tuition. AS matter of fact not many
changes of Importance to the public
We're made in the constitution, and the
ones which We're made refer to the
working of the union and the working
in the mines. This morning few res
olutions which had been referred by
the resolution committee and the CON
vention to the constitution committee
were acted upon
Salaries Raised.
The salary of the president and sec
retary-treasurer We're raised to SIS
per month and all legitimate expenses.
The convention SO decided to buy a
typewriter and empowered the secre-
tary-treasurer to hire an operator
therefor when necessity demands.
Politics Excluded,
The sense of the convention seems
to be in every way to exclude politics
from the affairs of the district. This
is prompted, it seems, by the desire
to let every man vote according to his
best judgment and also with view
to letting no political party obtain
even partial control of the organiza-
ton. This is cited as one of the most
progressive moves of the miners I'M
ion, and could, it is said, be initiated
by other unions with good results.
In this connection it is noticeable that
a resolution was passed by the con-
vention this morning to the effect that
hereafter, at miners celebrations and
meetings no politician or professional
man shall be hired to deliver an adj
dress. The resolution also states that
it will be better for the miners and
for the organization to have speeches
/ made by union laborers, and to thus
give the laboring men chance to in
crease their education and their abil.
ity to speak publicly on matter which
concerns the public. This is regard.
! ed as one of the most important acts
| of the present convention, for it is
another instance of the upward trend
of the union laboring men, and their
desire to take their places among the
best and most highly educated people
of the country.
On Chinese Exclusion.