The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-09-27
JOHN MITCHELL
CENSURES BAER
Says He is Partly Responsible
for the Disorders !.
CRIMINALS USED AS POLICE
lie Hharnaa RsfIroad prAeidan$ With
CRIMINALS USED AS POLICE
He Charges Railroad President With
Selecting "Coal and Iron" Police
From LawIess Glasses of Phil
elphia-Discusses Earnings

Philadelphia, September 26.-President
John Mitchell of the United Mine Work
ers took up at length the charges of law
lessness on the part of the miners in a
speech at the Third regiment armory to-
night under the auspices of the South
Philadelphia Business Mems league. He
made the counter charge that the oper-
ators are guilty of lawlessness in the
employment of professional criminals as
coal and iron" policemen. Mr.. Mitchell
came here at the invitation of the league
to address its meeting. He received about
500, which had been contributed by va
rious organizations for the benefit of the
miners. Mr.. Mitchell in his address said
in part:
"I have some doubt in my mind whether
the residents of Philadelphia have cause
to feel aggrieved at Mr.. Baer, or to feel
grateful to him. 1t is true that the trust
he represents is extorting from you fabu-
lous prices for coal, but as a compensat-
ing feature he has taken from Philadel-
phia the largest portion of the criminal
class that formerly resided here, and now
has them commissioned by the governor
of Pennsylvania as coal and IRON po-
lice. Philadelphia criminals are now pre-
serving the law in the coal fields
Not the Miners Fault.
"But did not come here for the pur-
pose of discussing that phase of the
question. 1 came here to tell you some
thing about the coal strike It is not
the miners fault that the residents Of
Philadelphia are paying SIS ton for coal.
'In this strike the people have passed
judgment. 1 am willing to say If 80 per
cent of the American people would not
cast their votes in favor of the miners
if 1t were left to them, l would order the
strike off.
Recently the papers, or that small
number of them friendly to the coal trust
have been printing stories of lawlessness
and they say the miners want to go back
to work Let me say to you that for
more than eight weeks the militia of
Pennsylvania have surrounded the mines
and not one single striker has returned
to work Yet it is true that my people
are suffering for the necessaries of life.
1t is true that their children are going
about barefooted. But the Pennsylvania
coal miners have for years lived on lit
tie, and little less is no uncomfortable
hardship.
Statement of Earnings.
Some of the papers have printed tab
ulated statements of the earnings of
anthracite workers Let me call your at
tention to one authority upon the earn
ings of miners, and no one will COM
plain that that authority is either friend
ly or fair to the miners am sure. Mr..
Baer himself In a public statement re-
Gently issued he says that the average
earnings of men under his company was
$1.9S a day. The largest number of days
the anthracite miners have worked was
1874, which means that under his COM
pany and according to his figures the
miners earned the grand total in a year
of $685. 1t is $705 a week, or $101 a day"
Mr.. Mitchell left late tonight for Pitts
burg. where he will meet w. B. Wilson.
of the Miners Union for the purpose of
transacting business connected with the
organization.