The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1902-08-30
The Demands Of the Mi
= ,7ers-Their Loads of
Grievances, Increasing
Size of Coal Cars.
Uages Not the Real Issue
Something of John
Mitchell, the Miners
Great Leader.

make a thorough investigation OF the
situation, and the: causes OF the strike,
and to make a complete and unbiased
report The following is the report:
Before going to Wilkesbarre to learn
for The Outlook what the .combatants
said about the present struggle, called
upon Mr.. Oscar Straus, the president of
the Civic Federation Conference on Ar
bitra ton, to get an impartial view as to
what the real question at issue had
been. What especially wished to learn
was whether the recognition Of the
union was the point upon which the
negotiations had split. This Mr.. Straus
answered with a clear and emphatic
negative. Mr.. Mitchell, he told me, put
the question of recognition distinctly
to one side. The union would be glad
to be recognized, he had said, but in
asmuch as it had enrolled over ninety
five per cent Of the anthracite mine
workers, formal recognition made little
Difference. What the union asked was
that certain definite grievances be
remedied, and if these were remedied
the union could be ignored. President
Mitchell, said Mr.. Straus, handled the
case for his union splendidly, and made
an unusual impression upon all the
members Of the conference who came
in touch with him. He is a conservative
courteous in his bearing, and careful
to take strong positions. It is great
good fortune to the miners that they
have such a man as their leader at the
present time."
The demands Of the miners, said Mr..
Straus, were: twenty per cent in
crease in wages or a twenty per cent
reduction Of hours, and the weighing Of
coal at the. pits mouth The demands
in regard to hours and wages affected
entirely different sets Of employees. For
milne workers paid by the day they
asked twenty per cent reduction Of
time, so that eight hours should con-
stitute days work. For the mine
workers who worked ON contract they
asked a twenty per cent increase in
wages. The Civic Federat1on's COM
mittee was not ready to:pass upon any
Of the questions submitted. It war.
however, convinced OF the righteous
ness Of Mr.. Mitchells demand that the
employing railroads should be willing
to submit these questions to arbitration.
It was not question of arbitration by
our board; we recommended arbitration
In which one party selected one arbi-
traitor, the other party another, and
these two select a third; but the rail-
road companies fatty rejected IT,. The
fact that these companies are chartered
by the state and given State powers Of
eminent domain makes their refusual
the more indefensible.''
headquarters OF the mine workers dur
ing the present struggle, went direct
ly to the little hotel at which Mr.. Nit
che1l was stopping. I was shown at
once to Mr.. Mitchells room, and had
an hours talk with him-minus num-
erous Notwithstanding the
whole situation. In some Of the fields,
he said, the grievance most keenly felt
by the workers was the increasing size
of the car they were asked to load or
the excessive weight Of the ton upon
witch their pay was based. This was the
grievance for which the miners from
the northern district" had wished to
proclaim strike at the time Of the
Shamokin convention, nearly two
months ago. At that convention the
mayor Of the city, in his speech Of well
come to the delegates, had put the
miners point In the miners own
language when he said that the coal
| cars were evidently made of live oak,
since they had been constantly growing
| for the past thirty years. Where the
| coal was mined by the ton, the size of
the ton was usually twenty-eight hun
dred pounds, and in Erie mines it was
! thirty-one hunderd pounds. The excess
Of this weight over two thousand two
hundred and forty pounds was suppos-
| ed to represent the waste that could
not be sold to the wholesale dealers.
This estimate, said Mr. Mitchell, "is
absurd. In one set of mines, where the
men are being paid seventy-four cents
a ton, present measurement, they are
striking for sixty cents ton, actual
measurement. If they get it, their earn
ing Will increase twenty per cent. They
are willing to be locked for the actual
amount Of waste in their cars, and are
even willing to be locked for more
than this amount as a penalty for care
less loading. But they are certain that
the only rightful way to measure the
payment is by the actual amount OF
good coal that the cars contain
| What Mr.. Mitchell says about wages
added little to what Mr.. Straus had
previously told me, and his attitude
made 1t very clear that a moderate con-
cession would be acceptable. What he
said about hours, however, threw new
light on the situation. In all Of the
soft-coal Districts, from Kansas to
western Pennsylvania, the miners
union had won from all the operatives
the eight-hour day. The only import
ant soft-coal district in which they had
failed to secure this demand. was in
central Pennsylvania, in the mines
owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company. This company had siren
uously resisted the entrance Of the
union into the field, and was not repres'
ented in the yearly conferences Of the
soft-coal operators and miners. In the
hard-coal mines the responsible. miner
who does the blasting does not today