Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-03-18
Relates to Room Turning
Price Same as Last Year
With Concessions.
A BANQUET LAST NIGHT
Miners n Operators Meet on Com
mon Ground and Listen to Address
es - Progress of the Convention
to Settle Wage Scale.

Des Moines, March 14.-(Special)-
The scale committee occupied the en-
tire morning today with the question
of room turning in the second district
which was settled by agreeing on the
same price as that paid last year with
a small concession from the operators
regarding conditions.
The Banquet.
One of the most enjoyable events
in the history of mining in the state
of Iowa was the banquet at the Kirk
wood hotel in this city last evening,
when the United Mine Workers of
District 13 entertained the Iowa Coal
Operators association, President John
Mitchell of the national miners union,
and other distinguished guests. Fully
$50 people were seated in the large.
dining room, and every n of the
number enjoyed himself to the fullest
sense of the term.
Ha AhSiS was llIIlC VI III SiOuDllS at
the tables, this being one of the Incl
dents that rendered the occasion the
more delightful. Nearly all the ban
queters We're seated when President
John P. Reese Of District No. 10, ac-
companied by President John Mitchell,
the president of the national miners
union entered the room. They were
greeted with loud applause. from both
miners and operators, and from that
moment everyone, from the wealthiest
capitalist to the lowest paid worker,
felt a feeling of brotherhood, Of friend
ship at least, and throughout the ev-
ening, unless the question was brought
up by some of the speakers, little or
no thought was given to the question
of the difference between the men
seated at the tables.
The was an excellent one, and
when everyone had been satisfied, Rob
ert Cowan of Des Moines, the toast
master for the evening, took charge o.
the affair and formally welcomed mi
ners n operators to the city. After
a short speech he introduced Johr
Mitchell, the distinguished guest O.
the evening, and announced as hi.
toast, "The Joint Movement"
Mitcheli's Speech.
Mr.. Mitchell began by telling a few
witty stories regarding his experien
ces, and later gave a few minutes t.
the discussion of the joint movement
the question which is SO. near to tn
heart of everyone interested in mimi,
in the state, in fact in the whole coun
try. Mr.. Mitchell spoke in a broad
minded manner. He said that the OF
orator, the capitalist, has many right
which cannot be denied him, and ar
not denied him by the laborer. Il
turn, he said the laborer has man
rights which cannot be denied him b
the capitalist. He cited the join
movement, the system of bringing tn
operators and the miners together, t
look into each others faces and to tel
each other the truth, as the great Sc
luton for the labor problem. He re
iterated what he has said on former OF
casions, that there has never been
labor strife, a fight between capital an
labor, that could not have been aver
ed had the employers and the emplo!
es %resorted to the joint movement bt
fore the strike was declared.
Mr.. Mitchell, in speaking of strike!
said that in his opinion the strike
not the relic of barbarism, and cited /
support of his position the fact that i
barbarie countries strikes are III
heard of. Strikes" he said, ARE tn
outgrowth of the highest forms of ci'
ilization. There are more strikes i
America than in any other country o
the globe today, and there is more il
telligence. But while | recognize tn
right of the laboring man to strike
conditions are such that he cannon ell
dure them, / say that a strike shout
never be %resorted to until every othe
has been exhausted. The