Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1902-06-27

7 .
ri bald for his labor be is required
to produce and load from 274O to 27so
.podnds for a ton against which fla
grant injustice the anthracite mine
workers so vigorously and justly pro-
test
The companies assert that the ex-
cess weight is required to compensate
them for impurities and refuse matter
that is loaded with the coal and can
not be marketed.
IF their statement be true" says
the statement, why is it necessary to
continue system Of docking by which
at times they arbitrarily deduct from
miners earnings from 10 to Is per
cent of the total as penalty for load.
ing impurities for which they have
already penalized him in excess
weight?
1T must be obvious to every intelli-
gent observer that the coal companies
derive considerable income from the
continuance of this system of measur-
ing the earnings of their employees, as
they thus receive a large amount of
marketable coal for which they return
no compensation to the miners The
miners have asked that the coal they
produce shall be honestly weighed and
correctly recorded.
This recital Of facts disposes of the
operators claims that they can not
afford to pay living wages for faithful
service and increasing toll amid sur
roundings constantly fraught with the
gravest danger
| The statement tells of the fatalities
among the miners and says:
Eight times as many men and boys
are killed and injured annually in the
anthracite coal mines of Pennsylvania
as were killed and wounded in the
American ranks in the Spanish Ameri-
can war in Cuba"
The statement says that according
to reports of various chiefs of police
there have been less infraction of laws
and fewer arrests during the time the
strike has been in progress than for a
like period preceding it.
| Concluding, the statement says: 1T
Is now apparent that the real purpose
of the coal operators is to destroy or.
ganization among their workmen. II
by any chance they should succeed in
their design-which is not at all likely
another labor organization will
spring from the ruins of the United
Mine Workers of America, and the
4 contest for living wages, for humane
! conditions of employment, for better
| education, for higher citizenship, will
go on until the men who produce coal
the originating power which drives the
wheels of commerce and industry, the
| product that is so essential to the vel
fare of society, the mineral which is
the very foundation of our national
prosperity, shall receive for their la
Dor sufficient compensation to relieve
them of the necessity of sending theil
boys and girls, of tender years and
frail physique, to the mines and mills
there to destroy their youthful vigol
in an effort to assist their underpaic
parents to maintain their families.
Conscious of the great responsible
ity resting upon us, apprehensive o.
the danger threatening our commercial
supremacy should the coal miners o.
the entire United States become par
Elephants in this struggle, we repea
our proposal to arbitrate all questions
in dispute, and If our premises arr
wrong, if our position is untenable, i
our demands can not be sustained b.
facts and figures, we will again return
to the mines, take UP our tools o
industry and await the day when W,
shall have a more righteous cause tt
claim the approval of the American
people.
JOHN MITCHELL,
President U. M. w. A.