The daily Republican., 1902-10-28
ARBITRATION BOARD
WILL VISIT REGION
OF THE COAL MINES!

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2S.-The an
| thracite coal strike commission in tn
hearing room Of the interstate com
merce commission held its first confer
ence with the parties to the controvers,
in the anthracite regions. There was :
full representation of both operator.
and miners, and members of the press
and number OF other Interested par
ties were present.
The commission occupied the cle
vated seats generally filled by members
of the interstate commerce commission
Judge Gray, as president, occupying
the center seat and Messrs. Wright
Watkins and Clark the seats to the
right of him i'll the order named, while
General Wilson. Bishop Spalding and
Mr.. Parker sat On the left in the order
of their names. The proceedings coy
cred about two hours time and We're
given up entirely to Il discussion of the
time and method of proceeding with
the proposed investigation.
The commission decided to begin its
work next Thursday morning at 8
o'clock, the first days of the investga-
tion to be devoted to a physical eXAmi.
nation OF the mines and the homes Of
the miners, starting in the vicinity of
Scranton. The entire anthracite field
will be covered. There was considcra-
Bile discussion over proposition made
by the commission to have expert ac
countants appointed to audit state
ments Of wages ard classificatio of
miners to be mad" by the operators for
the use Of the commission, but no re-
suit was reached on this point beyond
the announcement by the chairman of
the commissions intention TO appoint
such an accountant in case his services
should be found necessary.
During the progress Of the meeting
Mr.. Mitchell, as the representative of
the miners, presented a copy of the
original declaration Of the miners as
formulated by the Shamokin conven-
tion as the basis Of the demands of the
miners. This demand is, first, for an in
crease of 20 per cent in wages of those
not engaged by the day: second, a re
duction Of 20 per cent in working hours
of those engaged by the day; third, the
payment for coal mined by weight at
a minimum rate Of 60 cents per ton of
2,24O pounds: fourth, Il wage agreement
between the operators and the miners
fpr n oIjuctnnpt ff rnc.n
Mr.. Baer, on the part Of the coal op
orators, took exception to MIR. Mitchelrs
appearance before the commission as a
representative of the mine workers
union, but said that he had 10 objection
to his presence as ii representative of
the strikers as such in their individual !
The commission made no at |
tempt to settle the controversy, but it |
was apparent that the recognition OF |
the miners union will he an important |
and knotty problem for the arhtrators.
Preceding the discussion over open !
ing the books to the experts, Mr.. Bacr
said the operators wuuld be prepared /
to meet the miners in the region and |
to assist in giving all information.
Many of the individual operators are
not represented, and they were not
and were not compromised
by the letter he had written.
Judge Gray suggested that they
could be represented. At the meeting
next Monday they would determine
which Of the companies could be taken
up first, and the place of meeting could
be determined by the location Of the
coal company taken up.
Mr.. Bucr made Il point Of saying that
the case of each coal Company would
be dealt with separately. lie would
contend for the sliding scale in the
regulation Of wages.
-~'' "n-~n ~" - ~ Of that