The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-11-18
MITCHELL AND MACVEAGH
CONTINUE THEIR DUEL
Famous Attorney and Leader of Miners Match Wits
+ in Searching Cross Examination as
to Anthracite Strike.

Scranton, Pa, Nov. lin the presence
of as many persons as could be damned
into the Superior Court room today,
Wayne Macveagh. for the Erie Com
pany. and John Mitchell, for the miners,
continued their brilliant battle of cross
examination before the anthracite coal
commission.
The two men. the one. In his thirties
and the other in his seventies. were fol-
lowed with interest ~ bofh the commits
sioners and the crowd throughout the
day and the contest with be resumed in
the morning. * $50
The fourth demand of the union, which
calls for yearly trade agreement, and
which means straight out recognition
of the union, was the bone of conten-
ton. and although four hours were taken
up In a discussion, Of the question. not
much material progress was made.
Wayne Macveagh, skilled In the art of
cross examination attempted to show the
utter iTresponsibility of the union and its
| unfitness TO make contracts which 1t could
| not live up to.
Compliments Mr.. Mitchell.
| His principal argument was the alleged
| boycott and he often pressed the miners
president for an answer. The latter.
however, slowly and deliberately. gave
| some reply. but he did not always satisfy
the inquisitor. Mr.. MacVeagh. in the
presence of the assemblage. and on one
occasion, when Mr.. Mitchell parted
question regarding the boycotting Of
coal and iron policeman by hotel keep
er, the distinguished attorney threw up
his hands, laughed and said:
Mr.. Mitchell, you are the best witness
for yourself that ever confronted"
Mr.. Macveagh weighed heavily on what
he said was a reign of terror In the an
thracite region during the strike. He
read list Of fourteen names OF men VINO
were killed during that time. and also
submitted in evidence about seventy-five
printed pages of alleged facts of violence.
boycott and intimidation and with the
assistance of stacks of other documents,
maintained that 1t would be utterly i'm
practicable for the'coal companies he rep
resented to enter into arrangements with
an organisation that could not control Its
own men.
Thinks Discipline Good.
, Mr. Mitchell stoutly maintained that
discipline in the Organization Is as good
as ii possibly could be where $4,000 men
were Involved He asserted that the
strikers were not entirely responsible for
the acts of lawlessness that were com
mitted. He regretted that members OF
the union had. in some instances. violated
the law. even after they had been warned
to refrain from doing so, but made the
excuse that in times of great excitement
there was always more or less disorder.
In answer to question, he said that
where there was a reign Of terror land he
had no information that such was the
case during the late strike). conditions
arise that are 'intolerable'' or "unfortun-
ate." Replying to specific instances
pointed out to him by Mr.. MacVeagh,
where men had been hindered from going
to work through fear of personal harm
or social ostracism for themselves and
families, Mr. Mitchell said that in some
cases men may have been deferred but
denied the assertion that such alleged
acts prevented the mines from being ope-
rated.
He said that when the strike was de-
cIared every mine worker In the region
quit work and remained out even after
the entire National Guard of the State had
been thrown into the coal fields In
short, he said that the men would not
have gone to work under any condition.
Mitchell is Evasive.
The miners president no matter how
skllfully he was questioned. could not
be dragged into a nat admission, that
he as President of the union, approved
of the boycotts complained of by the
companies. He had his personal opinions
of some phases of the boycott, but would
not express them as being the sentiment
or policy of his organization.
During the cross examination, the COM
missoners often interrupted with ques-
items in order to stop a long colloquy
over some disputed point.
While the examination was at times
quite spirited. the best of good feeling
prevailed. Only once Mr. Mitchell showed
signs of irritability. This was when Mr..
reading the long list Of acts
of violence, would take Mr.. Mitchell to
task for some particularly vicious act
AMI say sharply, You could have pre-
vented this"
The Eight-Hour Demand.
In the course of the forenoon session, |
Mr.. Macveagh examined Mr.. Mitchell re-
the eightshour demand, and re-
ferred TO the fact that Abraham Lin |
coin, James A. Garfield and William Nc
Kiniey worked more than eight hours a
day and was thus enabled to climb the
ladder to the Presidency. Mr.. MacVeagh