The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-09-29
Issues Statement to the Public Showing Attitude of Miners and Their Grievances During the Present Strike.
Presents Figures to Show That
 Average Wages Paid Anthra- cite Miners is S7.5O Per Week-Discusses Child Labor

Philadelphia, September 2s.-President Mitchell of the United Mine Workers tonight gave out the following statement:
 The recent utterance of MT. Baer, spokesman of the anthracite coal trust, MT. Hewitt and other interested persons, disclose well defined purpose to confuse and cloud the real causes which resulted in the coal strike and an attempt to di- vert attention from the actual issues in- volved, however misleading as are their utterances, it is relief to know that they now admit that the public has rights and interests which cannot be ignored with impuntty; and inasmuch as the public must be the final arbiter of the coal strike, it Is imperative that it shall not be deceived by statements which are at va riance with the facts. With the purpose of correcting some of the false impress sions and misrepresentation contained in the statements of the gentlemen referred to, I issue this letter:
 MT. Baer states that the wages paid in the anthracite coal regions are, com pared with the wages paid in like em-
 
 ployment' MT. Baer must refer to bitumi- nous coal mine mining. l am willing and prepared to demonstrate that wages in the bituminous coal fields are from 20 to 10 per cent higher than those paid for similar 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 mines Is 26i4 cents per hour, while the minimum wage paid to boys is 125z cents per hour; in the anthracite coal mines men performing I precisely the same labor receive from l3 | 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 l eight hours per day. which is two hours less than men in the anthracite field are required to work; moreover, the anthra- l cite mine worker labors under the fur
 ther disadvantage of being more liable
 to be killed- or injured. the casualties be-
 ing 50 per cent greater in the anthracite
 than in the bituminous mines.
 Other incorrect Statements.
 "There are other statements of MT. | Baer which are equally incorrect; among these Is his assertion that the miners only worked from four to six hours per l day, and his further assertion that the | | boy slate pickers. If MT. Baer desires shall gladly furnish him with the names and addresses of thousands of slate pick CTS. each of whom received much less than S5 cents per day, and shall be will ing to have the returns verified by the companies' payrolls.
 The next reinstatement of Baer to which I shall give notice is that which | claims that for some mysterious reason | the miners restricted the output of the mines. MT. Baer claims that in this man. ner the product of the collieries has been reduced about 121a per cent, and that in case of the Reading company 1t amounted to more than one million tons. This Is vitally important, if true; but 1t Is not true. The fact is that instead of a loss of 1 1,000, 900 tons there was an increase in the year 1901 from the mines operated by the Reading company of S3S,243 tons; and total increase from all the anthracite mines of 100000 tons (see the report of Pennsylvania state bureau of mines). The output of coal in 1901 was far in excess of that of any year in the history of coal mining and even a paper so avowedly and bitterly hostile to the United Mine Workers union as the Engineering and Mining Journal admits that virtually ths only restriction in output was shortage of cars This shortage the Journal con- tinues. soon became marked, and by the | end of November the Reading collieses and those of some other companies were mining on short time
 As to the Per Capita. Although this statement does not ad- | init of any such construction 1t is still possible that MT. Bear refers to the per capita output. but even here he errs. A careful calculation of per capita out put from the Pennsylvania bureau of mines shows that despite MT. Saers as- hal he mir Wo rod np1 four to six hours per day. despite the assertion that the men restricted the out put the per capita production in 1901, the year complained of, was greater than the per capita output for any single one of the thirity-one years of which we have record, from 1870 to 1900 In at- tempting to account for the increased tonnage the operators point to the install lation of labor saving machinery which reduces the proportion of men and boys employed by the day If we disregard all mine workers whose labor must be saved by such appliances and take simp- ly the output per certifcated and em- ployed miner, we find that the produc- ton per miner was 121 tone in 1897; 1293 tons in 1898; 1883 tons in 1899 1891 tons in 1900. while in the year 1901 it was 1885 tons. I refer MT. Baer to the annual reports of the Pennsylvania state bu- reau of mines and ask if these figures do not refute the statement that organi- zation in the coal mines Is inimical to good workmanship.
 Since the very inception of this strike the aims objects and ideals of the United Mine Workers of America have been wilfully distorted by a small army of critics. We have been unjusty maligned and our motives and purposes malicious ly impunged. We therefore take this opportunity to repeat specifically that we do not seek to interfere with the manage ment of the coal properties or with the proper discipline of the working force; but do demand:
 q. An increase in wages for men em- ployed on piece work.
 "2. A reduction in the hours of labor for men employed by the day.
 "3. Payment for a legal ton of coal.
 "A. That the coal we mine shall be honestly weighed and correctly recorded, and
 "5 We favor incorporating in the form of an agreement the wages that shall be paid and the conditions of employment that shall obtain for specified period.
 "As to the reasonableness of these de- mands we have proposed to submit to and abide by the award of an impartial board of arbitration.
 Perversion to Truth.
 "There could be no crosses perversion of truth than the assertion of the opera