The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1902-10-10
CONFERENCE ON COAL STRIKE
ALL PARTIES AGREE TO DIS
AGREE AND FIGHT.
President RooseveIt's Call For a Com
ference Was Fulfilled by all Concern
p1oyers and Employees as Far Part
as Ever-Fight Will Continue.


as Ever-Fight Will Continue.
Washington, Oct. 6.-The great coaI
conference between the president and
representatives of the operators and
miners came to an end at the temper
airy White House with a failure to
reach an agreement, and apparently
the rock upon which the conference
split was the recognition of the miners
nniOn.
The president had urged the con-
tending parties to cease strife in the
interests of public welfare; the miners,
through the president of their union,
had expressed a willingness to submit
the differences to an arbitration trib-
unal to be named by the president and
to enter in to an agreement to abide by
the terms fixed by arbitration for
period of from one to five years, and
the employers, through the presidents
of the railroads and prominent indie
pendent mine operators, had squarely
refused arbitration, had denounced the
miners labor organization as lawless,
anarchistic body, with which they
could and would have no dealing; had
demanded federal troops to ensure COM
plete protection to workers and their
families in the mining regions and
court proceedings against the miners
union, and had offered, if the men re-
turned TO work, to submit grievances
at individual collieries to the court of
common pleas for the district of Penn
sylvaDia, in which the collieries were
located.
President Roosevelt had interviewed
directly between the forces of capital
and labor in an effort to avert what he
himself regarded as a great national
calamity. The result was to bring the
principals in the great calamity face to
face with the whole country eagerly
intent and watchful of their doings.
Technically the issues between the
great forces stand as they did before
the president summoned the representa-
tives of the contending forces to the
national capital, and, forgetting his
own acute suffering, besought them for
love of the great country wherein they
dwelt, and out of pity for the countless
throng of suffering poor, to adjust the
differences and work together in peace
for the common wealth. What, il
anything, will result from the con.
ference, is for the indefinite future tC
decide. Today the views of the con.
tending forces in the great industrial
struggle were so extreme and wide
apart that there was no middle ground
possible, and so the conference came
to an end without any agreement fol
its continuation. The conference haC
lasted six hours, including a rescess
of three hours between the morning
and afternoon sessions, taken to enable
the miners and operators to prepare
written responses to the president
appeal. The immediate parties t.
the struggle say they will continue a
heretofore. What course the admins
tration will take next no one is prepar
ed to say. One of the operators, as h,
left the White House, was asked re
garding this, and replied: eff any on,
J knows what the president will do next
that is more than l know. Fourteen
men, including the president, were il
the second story front room at the tenn
porary White House during the momen
tous conference. President Mitchell
and three of his district leaders repre-
sented the miners, and five railroad
men and one independent mine operate
the Employers. With the president wer
; Attorney General Knox, COMMISSIONS
of Labor Wright and Secretary Cortel
, you. All the cabinet save the attorne
general keptaloof during the conferenc
between the two meetings and after
. ward several of the presidents ad
visors called upon him to tall
over the situation. During the con
ference the president listened to bot
sides with greateagerness. Imme diate
ly after its ajour nment his physicians
insisted on making an examination
of his wound and redressing il
Apparently no i'll effects had resulte
from the excitement of the day.
And after a later call, DIR. Lun
announcedd that the presidents con
D dition was satisfactory.
After the conference the operator
came down stairs, held a brief confer
ence and then left for their hotel
where they met a number of newspape
men, to whom they furnished copie
e of the statements they had made to tn
l. president.
: Stipulating that they should not bt
: quoted, they talked quite freely of tn
conference. Several of them declare
the interference of the president ha
: resulted in retarding rather than fol
warding the settlement. They assert
ed that no nrnprass cnnld he made