Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-09-29
DEFENDS 1H[ Miners
President Mitchell Gives Out a
Statement Regarding the
Anthracite Strike
BAERs uTTERANcEs REFuTED
BAER's urrERANcEs REFuTED

Facts and Figures Relative TO MlnerS'
Wages and the Hours Of Work-De-
msnds Of the Miners Made Plain
Some Of the Principles contended
for by the Miners.
Philadelphia, Sept. 20 President
Mitchell, Of the United Mine Workers.
last Saturday night gave out a state
ment in which he says:
1.-The recent utterances of Mr.. Baer
spokesman of the anthracite coal trust
Mr.. Hewitt and other interested per-
sons, disclose a wel-detined purpose to
confuse and cloud the real causes which
resulted in the coal strike and attempt
to divert attention from the actual is
sues involved. However, misleading as
ere their utteranc.as it is a relief to
know that they now admit that the
public has rights which can not be ig-
nored with impunity.
1T is not my intention to point out
the innumerable instances in which Mr..
Baer has erred in the statement. Mr..
anthracite coal regions are, compared
with the wages paid in like employ
ment, fair and just BY like employ
ment' Mr.. Baer must refer to bitumi-
| nous coal mining. am willing and
prepared to demonstrate that wages III
the bituminous coal fields are from 70
to 40 per cent higher than paid for SIM
liar classes of work in the anthracite
fields. The fact is that the minimum
wage received by any class OF adult
mine workers in the soft coal fields is
26A cents per hour, while the mini-
mum wage paid to boys is 121a cents
per hour. in the anthracite coal mines
men performing precisely the same Ia
Dor received Is to 20 cents per hour,
while boys are paid as low as cents
per hour and rarely receive to exceed
cents per hour. The bituminous miner
works a maximum of eight hours per
day, which is two hours less than men
in the anthracite field are required to
work; moreover, the anthracite work.
crs labor under the disadvantages OF
being liable to be killed or injured, the
casualties being so per cent greater in
the anthracite than in the bituminous
mines.
"There are other statements of Mr..
Baer which are equally incorrect;
among these is his assertion that the
miners only worked from four to six
hours per day. and his further asser-
81, 1NSs- Sc
was SIS cents for boy slate pickers. II
Mr.. Baer desires shall gladly furnish
him with the names and addresses of
thousands of slate pickers. each OF
whom received much less than 50 cents
per day, and shall be willing to have
the returns verified by the companies
pay rolls.
"The next missta tement of Mr.. Baer
to which I shall give notice is that
which claims that TOR some mysterious
reason the miners restricted the out
put OF the mines. Mr.. Baer claims that
in this manner the product OF the coll
lieries has been reduced about l2aa
per cent and that in the case of the
Reading Company it amounted to more
than 100000 tons This is vitality inn
portant, If true; but it is not true. The
fact is that instead of loss OF a mill
lion tons there was an increase IN the
year 1901 from the mines operated by
the Reading company Of SSS,243 tons:
and total increase from all the an
thracite mines Of nine million tons. The
output of coal in 1901 was far in eX-
cess of that of any year In the history
Of coal mining, and even paper SO
avowedly and bitterly hostile to the
mine workers union as the Engineer
ing and Mining Journal. admits that
Virtually the only restriction on OUT
put was shortage of cars
att is still possible that Mr.. Baer re-
fers to the per capita output, but even
here he errs, according to a careful call
culatiOn from the Pennsylvania state
bureau of mines. This shows that the
per capita production in 1901, the year
complained of, was greater than the
per capita output for any single one of
sthirty.one years of which we have rec
ord, from 1870 to 1900. Attempting to
account for the increased tonnage the
operators point to the installation of
labor-saving machinery which reduces
the proportion of men and boys en-
sployed by the day. If we disregard all
mine workers whose labor might be
saved by such appliances and take SIM
ply the output per certificated and en-
ployed miners, we find that the produce
ton per miner was 1,271 tons in 1897;
1928 tons in 1898; 1883 tons in11S99;
1891 tons in 1900. while in the year 1901
it was 1855 tons.
"since the very inception of this
strike the aims, objects and ideals of
the United Mine Workers of America
have been awfully distorted by. a small
army of critics. We, therefore, take
this opportunity to repeat specifically
that we do not seek to interfere with
the management Of the coal properties
or with the proper discipline Of the
working force; but we do demand:
Miners Demands.
'First-An increase in wages for
men employed on piece work.
"Second-A reduction in the hours of
labor for men employed by the day.
acknowledgement for legal ton Of
coal.
"Fourth-That the coal we mine shall
be honestly weighed and correctly re-
corded; and
"Fifth-we favor incorporating in
the form of an agreement the wages
that shall be paid and the conditions of
employment that shall obtain fer a spe-
cific period.
.As to the reasonableness Of these de-.
mands we have proposed to submit to