The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-11-20


large as on any Of the preceding days
and the proportion of ladies in attend
ance larger.
The day opened with Mr.. Mitchell on
the stand, under cross-examination by
Mir. Ross, general counsel OF the Del
aware, Lackawanna and Western com
pany. Simon p. Woverton. counsel for
the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and
Iron company and James II. Torrey,
Of counsel for the Delaware and Hud-
son company, and I. II. Burns, for the
Independent operators. followed Mr..
Ross as cross-examiners, and when Mr..
Mitchell was turned over for redirect
examination by Mr. Darrow. The
morning session was about concluded
when Rev. DR.. Roberts took the stand.
Recognition Incident.
The recognition" incident was in
sected by Mr.. Burns just before Mr..
Mitchell was turned over to Mr.. barrow
for redirect examination. The discus
sion was Is follows:
Mr.. Burns: If the court please, I do
not desire to interrogate the witness to
any extent, but l should like to know
from the commission as to whether they
intend in their hnding to make one gen.
eral sweeping finding In regard to all
classes of operators or whether they
take notice of the distinctions between
the individual operators and what we
call the big company.
or course. ] think the commission UNI
derstand. in general way. that the in
dividual operators ARE under somewhat
different conditions from the railroad
companies. The cream OF the coal lands
of the whole valley and the whole an
ooit 10rr o1,pnp pNo1
by the large corporations. The few ndi-
vidual operators that are left are mining
poor territory, and, in some cases. are
taking mines that have been virtually
mined out by the large companies and
are stripping them. OF course they have
a certain line Of fixed charges. and they
have no means to reimburse themselves
by profits on railroads or other enter
prises. They depend solely and entirely
on what they get from their particular
mines. and. of course, as a general thing.
they do not own the land. They pay
royalty for the coal that they get out.
Now, suppose an individual operator has
hundred acres of land where the veins
are thin, because the thick veins were
long ago absorbed and the thin veins are
more difficult to mine. He has really to
pay more for getting out a ton Of coal
than the other companies. Now. he has
certain fixed charges. He has his royal
invested. which amounts to large sum.
and he has to build breaker before
he can do anything at all. Then the
pumping and ventilation of the mines.
the feeding Of the mules. the runners of
machinery, the depreciation of the
breaker-all these are fixed charges
which run along continuously, whether he
works or not Therefore. 1t can be easily
seen that a strike lasting long enough
could completely do up an individual
operator. He has no railroad by which
he can pay his running expenses. Also,
! would say, that they employ or have
employed a greater or less number of
non-union miners.
About Non-union Men.
Now, I do not understand. and l have
lot been informed from any Of the ques-
tions that have been asked the witness
before the court, as to whether, If any
contract Is made. or IL this commission
should. find it proper to suggest or recon-
mend or find that contracts should be
made with the United Mine Workers OF
America, whether they would insist. as it
seems they do in Illinois, that no non
union men should he employed or
whether they propose to make contracts
with us simply for the union men that
we employ, and leave us free as hereto
fore to employ non-union men.
do not know whether the commission
understand these questions or not. and
we certainly are not informed as to the
extent that the commission would go if it
had the power. 1t seems to us that in
this hearing there really ought to be
some rule in regard to 1t. Here the big,
corporations have had four or five days,
and the commission Is tired. We can see
at once that its members have been
wearied: and, although we might ask
Mr.. Mitchell some questions peculiarly
no nrf lfS,S,, ia nyiv inrc ar
when they evidently do not want to.
but it does seem 10 us that as to any
future witnesses that are called We ought
to have some privilege. some designated
time or opportunity afforded us to exam
inc them when questions are arising
which are different with us than they
are with the others. 1t may be that
there Will be very few 1t may he that
the counsel representing the corpora tions
will draw out the very things that we
would like to have asked: but we would
like to have it understood. and would
like to have the commission make some
sort of arrangement whereby we can be
heard, to some slight extent in the ex-
animation of the future witnesses We
will be very brief: but it seems to us that
there are some things that ought 10 be
said in respect to our matters that the
other gentlemen will probably not draw
out. or course, we leave it entirely to
the commission. Those are suggestions
that we make at the present time.
The Chairman: ] think | can say that