The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-06-24
And that No Leader Will BE Able to
Keep Them Together When They
Have Had Enough.
VIEWS OF A SUPERINTENDENT
WHO SAID MIR. MITCHELL IGNORED
THREE DEMANDS OF MINERS.
His Figures Also Observation-Disclosures
in West Virginia-End of the To-
rOnto Street-RaiIway Strike.

NEW YORK, June 2S-President H NJ.
Oliphant, of the Delaware & Hudson Com
pany, to-day made the following comment
on the statement of President Mitchell, of
the United Mine Workers of America, in re-
ply to that OF the operators in which the
correspondence leading up to the strike was
made public: "Mitchelrs statement is mis-
leading and unreliable as to facts and fig
ures. If Mitchell proposes to call out the
bituminous miners and paralyze the entire
industries of the country he will find that
he has taken upon his shoulders a job
bigger than he is able to cope with. There
will be arbitration-that is certain. We
will operate our mines again with the men
that are on strike now. They will be only
too glad to come back, and no strike leader
will be able to keep them out" Mr.. Oil
phant declined to enter into any detailed
denial of the assertions made by President
Mitchell.
Thomas p. Fowler, of the New York, On
taro g. Western, said: II have not had
time to read Mitchelrs statement. There
fore, of course, 1 have no comment to Of
fer When 1 have read it I may have
something to say.
WILKESBARRE, Pa, June 23.-Inde-
pendent operators and superintendents were
interviewed to-day on President Mitch
ellis address to the public. None of the
officials seen would permit his name to be
used, and there is no one in the region
who is authorized to make a statement or
give an opinion for the big coal companies.
Such official statements or interviews can
come only from the presidents of the big
companies in New York or Philadelphia.
In the opinion of most of the officials
here the address is "cleverly written" and
will appeal to those persons who are not
familiar with the conditions in the mining
regions. One superintendent, whose views
were similar to the others, said: "Presi-
dent Mitchell touched on only one of four
demands made by his union, and that one
was on the question of wages He did not
say anything on the uniform wage scale,
| the Weighing of coal at all mines or the
recognition of the union. These are vital
points, on which the companies are MAX
ing a strong stand. Regarding his claim
that the productive capacity of the mine
workers is increasing rather than dimin-
| ishing we do not know where he gets his
| figures The statistics for last year have
not yet been completed, and the companies
have thus far been unable to determine
| lHdH QuSSllOl LII SpSdhiiS OF the alleged
exorbitant freight rates on hard coal, Mr.
| Mitchell failed TO state that the cost OF
! loading anthracite coal is much greater
than the handling of soft coal. There is
| only one kind of soft coal. but nearly a
dozen sizes of hard product. 1t takes a
| great deal of work and time to sort the
sizes and get them on the cars"
| The superintendent went on to saw 1.-THE
assertion that the miner does not get paid
| for all the coal he mines is not true The
miner is paid for a 2.24O-pound ton, and he
has to send to the surface an average
/ of 200 to 5000 pounds of coal, slate and
| other impurities to get the ton of pure
coal. Only about 10 per cent. of the Goa
| produced is paid for by weight, the other
| 80 per cent. being paid by measure At
tention should be called to the fact that
prosperity in coal mining, quoted only the
! Delaware, Lackawanna & Western an.
nual report. That company only had ar
| exceptionally good year. because of ne.
! culiar conditions about its mines The re.
| ports of other companies tell on entirely
different story, to which Mr. Mitchell
makes no reference"
The superintendent added that Mr. Mitch.
ellis statement that the mine workers re.
| day is not fair one. In finding this aver.
| age, he said, the wages of the bows who
| make up between 80 and 40 per cent of the
| l4I,5CO persons spoken of in the statement
! are included"
| secret meeting of engineers. f1remer
and pump runners was held at Nanticok,
to-day, and the engineers, according TO re
| Susquehanna Coal Company's collIeries to
morrow. 1t is stated 10 per cent. of tn,
| firemen and 10 per cent. of the .pIImn ri5er
! Will go back in the morning.