The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-18
Great Crowd Stands Patiently Waiting for 2 Chance to
 Hear Proceedings
HONORS ARE EASY IN
 CROSS FIRE OF QUESTIONS
Mitchell Says He Believes if a Miner Is a Member of Military Com pany He Should Attempt
 to Escape Service.

Scranton, Pa. November 17.-In the presence of as mary persons as could be damned Into the superior court room today. Vain Mcveagh, for the Erie com pany, and John Mitchell, for the miners, continued their brilliant battle of cross examination before the anthracite coal commission. The two men. the one in his thir-ties and the other in his seventies. were followed with interest by both the commissioners and the crowd through out the day, and the contest will be re- stunned in the morning. The fourth demand of the union, which calls for yearly trade agreement. and which means a straightout recognition of the union, was the bone of contention. and although four hours were taken up in a discussion of the question. not much material progress was made.
 waine Mcveagh skilled in the art of cross examination, attempted to show the utter Responsibility of the union and its unfitness to make contracts, which 1t could not live up to. His principal argu- ment was the alleged boycott and he of ten pressed the miners president for an answer. The latter, however, slowly and deliberately gave some reply, but he did not always satisfy the inquisitor. MT. Mcveagh, in the presence of the assem- blaze, and on one occasion when MT. Mitchell parried a qt. stion regarding the boycotting of coal and iron policeman by a hotel keeper, the distinguished at torney threw up his hand, laughed and said:
 A Capital Witness.
 'sMr. Mitchell, you are the best witness for yourself that ever confronted"
 MT. McVeagh weighed heavily on what he said was reign of terror to the an- thracite region during the strike. He read a list of fourteen names of men who were killed during the time. and also sub- mitted in evidence about seventy-five printed pages of alleged acts of violence, boycott and intimidation, and with the as- sistance of stacks of other documents, maintained that 1t would be utterly im- practicable for the coal companies he represented to enter into arrangements with an organization that could not con- trol it's own men.
 MT. Mitchell stoutly maintained that discipline in the organization Is as good as 1t possibly could be with its 147 coo men, He asserted that the strikers were not entirely responsible for the acts of lawlessness that were committed He re- gretted that members of the union had, In some instances, violated the law, even after they had been warned to refrain from doing so, but made the excuse that in times of great excitement there was almost more or less disorder.
 In answer to questions he said that where there was reign of terror (and he had no information that such was the case during the late strike), conditions arise that are "intolerable" or ''unfor- tunate." Replying to specific instances pointed out to him by MT. McVeagh, where men had been hindered from going to work through fear of personal harm or social ostracism for themselves and families, MT. Mitchell said that in some cases men may have been deterred, but denined the assertion that such alleged acts prevented the mines from being op- erated He said that when the strike was declared, every mine worker in the region quit work and remained out even after the entire national guard Of the state had been thrown Into the coal fields. In short, he said that tho men would not have gone to work under any
 
 ter how skllfully he was questioned, could not be dragged into a flat admis- sion, that he president of the union. ap- proved of the boycotts complained of by the companies He had his personal opin- Ions of some phases of the boycott, but would not express them as being the sen- timent or policy of his organization.
 Commissioners Interrupted.
 During the cross-examination the com nYissioners often interrupted with ques- lions. in order to stop a long colloquy over some disputed point. While the ex- animation was at times quite spirited, the best of good feeling prevailed. Only once MT Mitchell showed signs of irritability. This was when MT. McVeagh, reading the long list of acts of violence, would take MT. Mitchell to task for some particular vicious act, and say sharply: You could have prevented this"
 In the course of the forenoon session Mr. McVeagh examined MT. Mitchell re- garding the eight-hour demand, and re- ferred to the fact that Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield and William Mckinley worked more than eight hours a day, and were thus enabled to climb the ladder to the presidency. MT. McVeagh grew elo- quent in the course of putting one of his questions to MT Mitchell regarding the martyred presidents and said:
 q only mention these because they are three victims of the spirit of anarchy, which is the curse of this country today. and the only serious curse affiicting it.
 The miners president, quick as flash. came back with the inquiry:
 .sTrade unions are not held responsible for it. are theyT'
 To which Mir. Mcveagh quickly resond- ed that they were not and supplemented this with the remark that labor unions are most admirable The bringing of the word anarchy into the examination caused an exclamation of disapproval from many of the mine workers in the room. While the discussion of what eff feet a yearly agreement would have on the coal situation in the anthracite re- zion was in progress, frequent reference