The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-23

other words. MT Chairman. at that rate of profits the Tennessee company will have earned at the end of this fiscal year $S,26771S. But assuming for the sake of argument and which I am not admitting, the first quarter of over $6O0, OO0O will be an average for the other three quarters, they are going to earn over two million and a half this year on their investment.
 Now, MT Chairman, if those are the facts and they are, because I presume the man who said that the Tennessee com pany was going to earn a million dollars this quarter knew what he was talking about. l anticipate it was some of them- selves However. it is public information; It was in the newspapers, and there has been no denial by the Tennessee com pany, and therefore l take it as a fact that 1t is true.
 l noticed that Colonel Bush kept off the selling price of coal and I thought he acted very wisely. I said enough on the selling price of coal when on the floor be- fore to be sufficient on this occasion. Colonel Bush said-if l quote him cor rectly-that eight hours a day was about l want to say to the operators that 1t will be one of the ten commandments until 1t Is got. The operators will rest neither night nor day until the Alabama miner has the blessings of eight hours a day, just the same as other mines in the north, and there Is no good reason why the eight hours day cannot be granted In Alabama, when those enormous prices are being made from their investments. (Applause)
 This is a cold-blooded business, and it is not time to cheer and stamp your feet and clap your hands
 Il want to say that two weeks or a semi-monthly pay day Is another of the ten commandments that will be insisted on until obtained However, getting back to the eight hours a day proposition There Is no use in the operators getting up and stating that the eight hours day will reduce production, because sta tistics prove that since the eight hours a day system went into effect in the north ern states that the increase in production per man has been Az per cent Take the first four years of It's operation and the record proves that there was A. per cent more coal dug by the miners per man than there was under the long hour sys- tenn.
 Getting back now again to the semi monthly pay day. There can be but one reason assigned for this why the oper- ators object to granting it. and the reas- on is that 1t means the death-blow to the commissary. MT. Howell Davis gentle man whom l have the highest respect for and who is authority in the coal business in the south, wrote a letter three or four weeks ago to Coal and Coke, a publication entirely controlled by the operators of the United States. and for truthfulness so far as Howell Davis Is concerned. I would venture my head I have done bus
 mess with him myself for four or five years and know his worth both in ability and in honor. and he made this statement, that the companys stores yieleded 10 cents a ton and rents yielded cents, and 15 cents on the coal made 30 cents a ton that was got from those three sources. If there is an operator here who cares to dispute that statement then he can go get Coal and Coke and he vii find the statement TOT nlIuSen. lneTeiOfe gen clement I say, that the only reason In the world why the operators object to the sem-monthly pay day is because 1t will cut in two, perhaps, the profits from the commissaries.
 "Cross-cuts are in it and at ar-course l prices. do not see any unreasonable de- l mand about that. It Is worth as much l to cut between room as 1t is to drive an air-course. and in fact. if anything | 1t is worth a litle more so far as the la | bor is concerned. by the month. The Reasons.
 l Now gentlemen, those are the reasons why I maintain that the miners are en- titled to the advance that they have pro- | posed I have anticipated but l don't l know whether we will get it or not. that some of the commercial operators would | tell us they could not live. that they have not been able to live for the last three or l four years but I notice they are living. | However. there is one thing to which l wish to call to the attention of this con vention Last year Colonel Pearson made