New-York tribune., 1902-05-24
SMALL MINES CAN'T OPEN.
STRIKERS REFUSE OFFER TO PAY UNION
SCALE-MINERS TO HAVE
LABOR BUREAU
IBY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE-l

United Mine Workers, held to-day. the com
mittee refused to allow several small individual
operators to work their collieries. even though
they were ready to pay the union scale and com
ply with all demands of the union. These were
the Gibbons Coal Company. the Peoples Coal
Company and several others. President Nichols
would not give the reason for refusal. The COM
mittee also agreed to petition all who need men
TO employ striking miners, not only here. but
also in the soft coal region. and in the labor
centres of the country.
Scranton, which has work on sewers and
streets to cost S750.000. was asked 10 give to
the miners employment. and the strikers them
selves were advised to find work where they
can. The committee will open employment
bureau at once. The streetcar men of Scranton
to-day decided TO give one days work month
to the strikers. This will amount to about $40.
That the operators expect a long strike and
which will end they desire is evident by
the words of one of them in this city this even
ing. He said
The operators have no statement to give out
to-day but YOU may say this: Some time late
next fall. when John Mitchell leaves Wflkesbarre.
there Will be no brass band for him. no parade
of miners and no applause he'll never come
back.
The Haddock Coal Company to-day agreed
To- grant TO the engineers, firemen and pump
runners eight hour day at the present rate
of wages. The company operates the Dodson
colliery. at Plymouth. and the Black Dia-
mond. at Luzerne Borough. 1t recently went
into the hands Of a receiver and this afternoon
the attorneys for the receiver directed Supern-
tendent J. d. Davies to post the order. II is
pected that other individual operators. not wish
ing TO fight the union and desiring 10 take
any risk of having their mines flooded. will also
grant the demand, although the majority. il is
understood, will be governed by the decision of
the big operators.
The strikers now preparing to take poll
of the fremen. engineers and pumpmen to ascer-
tain how many viii strike on June = II the
operators shall not yield. The operators are
doing much the same thing 10 find out how many
places they will have 10 nh \ rumor was cir
culated to-day that the places would be offered
- nremen and switchmen and other rafroaders
suspended during the strike. hut they could not
take them and retain their membership In the
union. Raroaders say none Of their men will
accept such offer
There is anthracite mine working. It is
the Bernce conery of the State Line and Sulli-
van County Company. quite away from the gem
eraI anthracite field and containing coal not so
good rs that I'm this region. President Mitchell
admitted that IL is working and with non union
men. The union men there have been on strike
for fourteen months. and the union is aiding
them with contributions. About three hundred
non-union men are employed. and they mine
about three thousand tons week. This is find
ing "a ready sale now.
To-day Sheriff Jacobs defined his position He
said:
Had l been called on to protect the Butler
washery on Wednesday night after the trouble
or at any time subsequent 10 that il would
have been my duty tn do il. 1t was not my duty.
1stvs-.
bic. That is what the coal and iron police are
organized for Under the law deputies sworn in
10y the sheriff must be paid out of the county
funds AT the rate OF S3 day and expenses
There are three hundred collIeries in the county,
and II even ten men were sent 10 each col
lery il would mean an expense Of nearly SI5tsD
day, and ten men at one point would be "a
ridiculously small number to send out To pre-
serve the peace.
The carpenters at many of the Collieries quit
work to-day, understanding that the eight hour
order applied TO them also. Only one or two are
engaged at each colliery, but there are thirty at
a Delaware and Hudson breaker and when
they notified the foreman they were going TO
quit they were discharged
A second fire within few days at the Empire
colliery makes the officials suspect that incen-
diaries responsible few nights ago the
fan house burned, early this morning a
shanty close to the breaker was fired. and for a
time the breaker was in danger.
The effort Of number of railroaders to have
all the brotherhoods in the anthracite region
pass resolutions refusing TO handle soft coal
sent to the region is not meeting with the favor
of the conservative brotherhoods. Several of the
leading among the engineers, conductors
and trainmen said to-day that If soft coal is
to this region the railroaders will handle il
They will fight the efforts of the Central Labor
Union of this city and the members of the
Switchmen's Brotherhood, who are causing the
present agitation and will refuse to agree in the
resolution it is proposed to offer A leading Of
fcer said this afternoon
We will pull soft coal sent to this region be
cause the present strike is none of our concern
So long as union mined soft coal comes here we
as union men, cannot refuse to handle a union
product. If, however, on-uniOn soft coal or
nom union anthracite comes. then we will refuse
to handle II. If however. much soft coal ia
sent here that manufactures change their era teS
to 1t, and thus endanger the anthracite
trade, it will be our duty TO the business inter-
ests of the region to make determined protest
against it.
l.. NJ Beatty, OF Barnhill. Ohio, a miner en-
poyed by the Midvale and Goshen Coal Com
pany, arrived here to-day to hire about one-hun-
drcd and fifty miners experienced in bituminous
mining. Soft coal miners are scarce in Ohio. he
said. and this was good opportunity for some
of the strikers. President Mitchell referred him
to District President Nichols, at Scranton
President Mitchell will start for the West to
morrow afternoon at 4:3J o'clock. and will he
gone about four days Instead OF going IN bis
home at Spring Valley, Ill., he will meet bis
stopping for day at national headauarters in
Indianapolis. "
FOUNDRY WORKERS WALK OUT