The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-10-08
REAL CAUSE OF STRIKE.
Scranton, Pa, Editor Says II Was
Precipitnted by Miners 20 Prevent
LabOrers Revolving.
From the New York Times.

LnbOrers Revolving.
From the New York Times.
Boston, oct 5.-A Boston business
man last week wrote to the editor OF
the Scranton Tribune, the leading pa
ing him for some light on the con-
ditions of the work of the coal miners.
The following is the reply:
Replying to your inquiry of the LIST
inst, l will try to explain mining con-
ditions to you as briefly as possible.
The miner drills the hole in the coal
seam, inserts the powder, fires the
blast which knocks the coal down,
and then takes a rest, while his help
er pulls the coal out and loads 1t into
the mine car A miner In four to six
hours with easy work, can ordinarily
knock down enough coal to keep his
helper busy for eight to ten hours or
, longer. The miner is paid by the car
in this region, averaging a bout dol
lar car. and the usual days work Is
six cars, holding about 5000 pounds Of
lump coal. rock 'bony," and slate.
"Of this Sc gross earnings the miner
pays 81 TO the lahorer and keeps 81 for
himself, out OF which he must pay for
the powder he uses, oil, wicks, fuses,
and the sharpening OF his picks. In
some places the unit of pay is the
square yard OF coal in the seam and
in others a weight unit of 2, $50 pounds,
1t being claimed by the operators that
on an average II Will take from 2,750 to
5000 pounds Of gross coal chat is, coal
as 1t comes from the seam) to net one
ton of 1850 pounds Of coal as prepared
at the breaker for market.
THE miners claim that where the
unit of payment is the mine car the
car of to-day is bigger than in years
gone by, and continually growing.
One of their jokes is that the mine
car is made Of live oak.
However this may be. (and my per-
sonal belief is that there is just about
the other) 1t is a fact that the in
dustrious miner averages, net, per
month. for about twenty days work
of from four to SIX hours a day, all
the way from $50 to 500 a month, and
could make twice as much IL he would
blow enough coal to keep two labor
ers employed instead of one. To-day
miners who are 'scabbing', work as
high as ten chambers apiece and earn,
In some cases. 500 a day. But it is a
peculiar fact that under normal con-
ditions the miner does not seem to be
ambitious to do more than one cham
Der at a time or to work beyond Ave
or six hours a day.
1.-THE real cause Of this strike was
that the miners helpers, who are most
ly foreigners, had got il into their
heads that the miners were not maxi
Ing a fair divide. They were organic
ing a mine laborers movement to
force the miner to divide even. The
operators have nothing to do with hir-
Ing the helpers. They are hired by the
miners themselves. To avert a SUBJ
strike among their 'butties, as the
laborers are called, the miners swung
the general strike ostensibly for the
points set forth in their published de-
mands, but in reality to enable the
union to control discipline and thus
put it beyond the power of the labor
err to revolt
In the mines also are many COM
pany hands men paid by the month
to run engines, act as firemen, attend
to the pumps, etc The unioh's de-
mand for an Sight-hour day was to
enlist them in the strike. They are
getting good wages-engineers, $50 to
$50 a month for long hours but light
work, and others in proportion. Nine
tenths of these men were entirely sat
ished and many Of them refused to
go out.
when the coal in big Jumps comes
from the mine or pit 1t Is passed
through a high structure called the
breaker, where IL is broken by steam
machinery into the various sizes and
the impurities picked out. Much 'of
the labor in the breaker is done by
boys, who average rs cents day. They
have no complaint, for their pay is
better than that of the average lad in
city office. But they belong to the
union and have votes in the calling Of
strikes, and the idea of striking has
developed among them rapidly. Last
year in this end of the coal fields there
were hundred-odd local strikes, most
ly of the pettiest conceivable things.
and the breaker boy and barroom loaf
er element had a good deal to do with
declaring them.
Il have lived in the anthracite re-
gion fourteen years and know that in
the year 1901 the miners earned more
money than ever before during my
time. Our banks are full of their saw
ings, very little of which has yet been
drawn out, in spite of their FIVE
months idleness. There is no similar
grade of labor in the country which
is better paid than the anthracite coal
miner, and no workman more indie
pendent. because the law of the state
practically gives him monopoly of the
labor Of mining by forbidding any but
a licensed miner to work at mining
in the mines. To get a license, or GER
tificate, as it is called, he must first
have worked at least two years in the
mines as a laborer and then pass an
examination to show that he knows
enough about the peculiar requirements
Of mining TO be safe man to admit
to chamber"