The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-08-07
HANNA TIRES
OF HIS JOB
Would Rather Be a Strike
Preventer.
HE SPEAKS AT URBANA
Tells of Work of the Civic
Federation.
In Only the Recent Anthracite
Trouble Has Its Influence Been
Too Weak to Prevent
Threatened Strike.

Urbana, O., Aug. Ex-senator NJ. A
Hanna addressed the Urbana Chautau
qua today on the topic Labor and 1t!
Relation to Capital The audience mum
bered 5000.
I'VE are now witnessing an object les
son which tells us that something mus
be DONE" said Mr.. Hanna. My friend
Judge Warnock, has told you that in my
business life I have been connected witt
industries employing a large number OF
men. That is true. With the miner UNI
der the ground and the men who work ir
nearly every vocation in life in our in
dustries, I have had to do. About thirty
years ago / was witness and partici-
pated In one of the most serious strikes
that ever occurred in Ohio. 1t was the
miners strike of the Tuscarawas Valley
After 1t had been settled. after property
had been destroyed and blood shed. there
came time to think 1t over and l made
MP my mind that there was a better way
to settle such disputes than that. And
from that hour until this it has been the
thought and theme uppermost in my
mind.
TT Is not a political question. but an
economic one. 1t Is that and more. II
is a moral one, The best way to reach
mems minds and mems hearts Is to ap-
peal to the heart and then reason with
the mind. Who knows better the great
good that can be accomplished through
education? And 1t Is true of the work
which l am devoted to personally.
He Seeks Recruits.
And 1t Is to this work that want to
erlist the interest OF all the people before
me. II l can enlist sympathy and CO.
operation of the good women and men
who unite for weeks in every year in a
combined effort, first to learn how to do
II. and then to do 1t, every day md in
every action of your lives, then will
feel that the work so begun will never be
abandoned until the millennium comes
The Senator then spoke of the National
Civic Federation of it's origin and it's
work. He said the object of the organi-
zation is to bettert THE conditions of la
Dor. to bring them u closer contact with
capital and If possible, by effort and edu-
cation, to make 1t impossible to have
strikes"
Continuing, he said in every instance
but one in a ten months life it had set
tied every labor difficulty that has come
up. This one instance where the organi-
cation failed was the anthracite coal
strike.
'I admit that the Civic Federation has
failed in it's efforts there" said the
speaker. at is hard to conciliate; 1t is
hard to arbitrate a question when only
enc side will consider 1t. But in that
connection / want to call your attention
to another incident. to my effort in that
strike and others.
when appealing to the employers to
consider some things in connection with
the situation that 1 did not think they
fully appreciated or understood, l told of
the experience of myself and associates
recently in connection with the coal min
ing Of Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and
Indiana and Illinois. 1 have said that
thought that there Is a better way to
settle difficulties and after twenty years
of experience, the operators controlling
the mines of the States mentioned have
found better way. Four years ago we
organized what was termed the Inter
state Association composed of the oper-
atives and operators of the coal mines of
these States. We agreed upon a scale of
wages, flexible enough to adapt itself to
different physical conditions. That scale,
once agreed upon, all that became neces-
sary was to fix the basic price. That
was four years ago. The contract was
made. The operators went into the mar
kets and sold their coal and the coal
miners ablded by their contracts and de-
livered 1t, The next year 1t was renewed
by horizontal advance of prices, the
next year it was renewed and then last
year II was renewed. Peace and har-
mony. good and successful business oper-
atoms have succeeded that policy.
The Honor of Labor.
''In using that argument with others 1t
was asked me:
What is your contract worth with a
lebor organization? If it don't want to
keep 1t. 1t won't. and you can't make it.
That is true, but when that remark car
ried with 1t the insinuatlon that men Of
that class had no honor in carrying out
a contract. 1 want to say that / deny it,
and now have the proof. The profong-
ed strike IN the anthracite country has
brought about condition that is alarm
Ing not only to the peace of society, but
TO the material interests of our people.
There Is in the constitution of the U. M
W. Of America a provision that il five
divisions of the organization make an ap-
plication to the President he shall call
together In convention delegates of the
and settle that question.
w NJ,
when men become desperate from their
situation, when they saw hunger and
starvation before them. was it not ma
tural that they would be desperate? They
then called that national convention. The
object was to decide whether the blum
nous men belonging to that organization
would go out and strike in sympathy.
Those of you who may be familiar with
The great railroad and industrial inter-
ests of this country can appreciate what
hat means.
John Mitchell the President of the or
yanization, had expressed himself publicly
rs adverse to that expedient. And. know
ng what / knew of his influence with his
men. and believing. as did that the men
who had entered into a solemn compact
With the employers which had been in
'orce for four years. bound only by their
honor would defend that honor, and they
lid by voaing unanimously against the
strike. Now there is one of the best
essons that has ever been presented to
The American people. There is one of the
strongest arguments that can be urged