The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-07-20
MINERS ASK
 PUBLIC AID BituminOuS Workers VIII
 Not Strike. MONEY FOR ANTHRAClTERS Contributions Will Augment
 the Assessments. Officers and Organizers Will Give Up 25 Per Cent of Their Salaries to Assist the Pennysl- -. vania Strikers.
MONEY FOR ANTHRAClTERS

Indianapolis, Ind, July 1s.-At o'clock this afternoon the. convention of United Mine Workers adjourned after declaring against a general strike, providing for the raising of a fund with which to aid the striking anthracite miners and issuing an appeal to the American people for support The recommendations brought in by the special committee appointed in the executive session of yesterday and which are practically identical with those suggested by President Mitchell in his ad- dress on the first day of the. convention and unanimously adopted by the conVen- ton are as follows: Ftrst.-That the National Treasurer be authorized and directed to immediately appropriate $5o,o0o from the funds of the national treasury and place 1t at the dis posal of the officers of districts No: 1, and 8 (the anthracite districts). Second.-That all districts. sub-districts and local unions be appealed to. to do- nate from the surplus fin their treasury as large an amount as they can afford.
 10 Per Cent Assessment.
 Third.-That an assessment of 10 per cent. be levied on the gross earnings Of all members of local unions in districts No. G. 8, 12, 19. B and 25 and an assess nent of $1 per week upon all members of local unions in districts No. 2. 5, Il. IS. I4. Is. 16 20 and 21. The members of dis tricts now on strike which may resume work before this assessment has been re- moved shall be assessed either 10 per cent. of their gross earnings or sl per week whichever their district may decide from the time work is resumed.
 c Fourth.-That assssment shall be paid direct from the local unions to the Ma tional Secretary and the local unions will be held responsible for the payment of the same. q Fifth.-An assessment of .25 per cent will be levied upon the wages, salary or percentage received from the organization of all national district and sub-district officers and organizers.
 Sixth.-rhe assessment shall begin with thA 18th of July. 1902. O.. seventh.--An contributions made from the national officers to the anthracite re- zion win be divided pro rata to each an- thracite district in accordance with the number of miners and mine laberers in each of them as shown by the most re- cent coal reports t--'. -' EiRhth.-That circular be issued to the American people.
 Work for the Strikers. . The following amendment submitted by President Nicholas of anthracite district 1 was included: .....,. .-...
 That each local union in the regions that are at work select a committee which shall secure work for Gs many of the men on strike as possible in the locality where the local union Is situated and that the local union inform secretaries of the strike districts of the number of men needed, the kind of work, wages and ar engagements for transportation That the same proposition be submitted to all local
 
 bor.'
 Ninth-That the circular to our local unions shall include a recommendation that committees be appointed to canvass the business men and other citizens of their localities for 'subscnptions.' The address of the convention to the public is in chief as follows
 As miners of coal we view with the exalted pride the wonderful industrial de- velopment of the past fifteen decades, with all the attending influences upon the prsent civilization which it has produced. But when we, look upon the enormous fortunes that our labor has made possible with the innumerable comforts and lux uries that 1t brings to the people at large and then examine the paltry pfttance we receive as wages for the lsIpor we have to perform, the dangers we undergo, the dampness we must endure, the foul air we must breathe and the peculiar rheu- natic and lung troubles, superinduced by these conditions which we must bear we naturally feel that we are being un- justly dealt with in the small amount of this worlds goods which we receive in return for so much labor and so many sacrifices
 Organized Effort Necessary.
 The great combinations of capital which control the coal industry have be- coma now rfII that miner can hope, through his individual efforts, to secure a just share of the wealth which his labor has produced. The history Of industrial development in the past has shown that when capital combines tfe workers must associate. else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice ir the struggle for existence.
 The extremely low wages paid to an thracite miners; the refusal of the coa companies to have the coal properly weighed, or permit the miners to employ man at their own expense to sec thu coal they have mined weigh sd, measure e or credited; the great number of houri the miners must work each day iu thu most unsanttary conditions; the cruel an' unjust manner in which they have beel treated by petty bosses clothed with little brief authority; the arbitrary as sumption by the employers that neithe the miners nor the public have an! rights that are enutleu to consideration by them. have forced us to organize no for the purpose of taking from the opera tors that which belongs to thsm. hu for the purpose of securing by bushes methods, better treatment than We hay received in the past and fair rcooBlpens for our labor.
 we have sought to accomplish tti end bv conciliatory methods. by submit ling disputed points to arbitration an' bv refusal to work upon the terms of fered us. commonly spoken of as strikes when all other means of adjusting tk grievances complained of have failed. A rroof of our sincerity we point to tn Joint convention system of adjusting tn wages and conditions of smpl oymen from year to year which we have by ou 6srsistent efforts introduced and 'ml'