The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-01
EXECUTIVE BOARD
 HAS LONG SESSION United Mine Workers of This
 District DeIiberating MR. FAIRLEYS SECOND CARD Only Miners Out Are Those at Ten. nessee Co.'s No. Pratt Slope
 and Its West Pratt Mines.
 sloss-sheffleld Men.
MIR. FAlRLEYS SECOND CARD

SoSteiudy morning In the ChalifouX building and was in session all day When night came its business was not finished and 1t adjourned until g. o'clock this morning.
 President Flynn declined to disclose any of the proceedings of the executive board but 1t was surmised that the principal business was devising means to induce objecting mine workers to sign warrants on the employing operators to deduct $1 week from their wages for the relief of the anthracite strikers,
 During the afternoon a committee paid two visits to the offices of the Tennessee Coal Iron and Railroad company in the Woodward building for the purpose of having a conference with President Don IL Bacon or Vice President Charles Mc- Crery, but as both of these officials were absent from the city they could not be seen. Mir Bacon and MT. McCrery re- turned about 6:S0 o'clock. Neither of them had any statement to make concerning the situation at No. Pratt slope and West Pratt mines where the men have quit work because of the company's re- fusal to forcibly collect the assessment for the anthracite miners from those un- willing to pay.
 All other miners in the district except those employed by the Tennessee com pany at the mines named are still at work.
 There will be meeting of the United Mine Workers of the Sloss- Sheffield section Thursday at Tunnel to consider the question of their attitude toward the Sloss-ShefAeld company. which, like the Tennessee takes the poe sition that it cannot legally deduct with out warrants. The mines that will be represented at Tunnel include those at Brookside, Cardiff and Blossburg Pres ident Maben of the Sloss- Sheffield com pany has received in conference several times National Commit eeman William R. Farley, President Flynn and other officers of the United Mine Workers and has, he says, strongly maintained his position touching the issue. He said last night that he met MT. Fairley on the street yesterday and went over all the ground again and concluded by reiterat- ing his position. He told Mir. Farley that the Sloss-Shefiield would have no right to withhold wages due when an order, properly signed and attested, was presented and that neither had 1t lhe right to pay out wage money with out such an order.
 Mir. FairIey's Statement. In printing MT. Fairley's statement given out Monday the Age-Herald inad- vertantly omitted the introductory para graph, which read as follows:
 "On September 26 a statement appear ed in The Age-Herald from President Bacon of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company, on the cause of No. 3 mine at Pratt City and West Pratt being idle, and stating the position of the Tennessee company on the question. We have hesitated to make answer to this statement from the fact that when 1t was published negotiations were on between the officers of the United Mine Workers of America and the Tennessee company. While it is true that these men are idle at No. mine at Pratt City and West Pratt for the reason stated by Presi- dent Bacon, take issue with the grounds that he bases his objections to collecting the assessment for the reason that a na- tional convention was held in Indianapolis on July 1T, 1902 and did by unanimous vote make thois assessment on all of it's members
 When the copy was prepared for the printer it embraced MT Fairley's paper In its entirety, but by some accident the introduction became detached from the body of it.
 The following statement was dictated by MT. Farley yesterday:
 Another Card.
 Birmingham. Ala, Septe mber 30, 1902.
 My attention has been called to what seems to be a considerable misunder- standing amongst the colored miners of Alabama in relaton to the assessment of s1 per week for the anthracite miners now on a strike. report has been in- dustriously circulated by some person or persons unknown that colored miners can obtain employment in the anthracite coal mines, and that Is the reason as- signed by many colored miners why they object to paying the assessment desire to inform and assure the colored miners that the statement IS absolutely untrue. Any man a member of the United Mine Workers of America, who is in good standing with his local union, whether colored or white, can obtain employment in any mine in the United States where the United Mine Workers of America are in control
 For the further information of the col ored miners I deem it necessary to give the following information: No man. whether colored white. however prac- tical he may be in the bitumnous or soft coal mines, can secure employment in the anthracite field in consequence of law on the statute books of tne state of pennsylvania unless he has secured certihcate of two years service in the anthracite mines issued by the legal au- thorites of the state of Pennsylvania. Notwithstanding the fact that I have been miner for over forty years, I could not secure employment In that field as a practical miner. for the reason that I have not worked two years in an anthracite mine.
 To obtain employment I would be com pelled to work two years as a mine la borer, when at the expiration of that period a certificate of competency will be issued to me. The reason for this law Is in consequence of the excessive danger encountered In mining coal in the anthracite field. The government reports show that fatal accidents in the anthra- cite mines are double the number per ton of coal mined in the anthracite as compared with btuminous coal mines. The percentage of other accidents are equally as large, hence the reason for this law in Pennsylvania.
 l hope after this explanation of the causes why both colored and white miners cannot work in Pennsylvania has been made that both colored and white miners will not further object to paying the anthracite assessment. but that they will cheerfuliy begin at once and help those men to win the greatest conflict ever entered into for the rights of labor.
 w. R. FARLEY, Member of National Executive Board,
 United Mine Workers of America