The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-01-11
Convention to Meet in Wash
 ington With Hope of Relief
FACTORIES ARE SHUT DOWN
Prominent Men From the Leading Cities In the. Lake Region Are Exerting Every Effort to
 Solve the Problem.

Chicago, January 1O.-A national con vention at Washington for the purpose
 of impressing on President Roosevelt the
 urgent need for immediate relief from | the stringency of the coal situation, was decided on today at a conference in the
 Grand Pacific hotel. The call for the gathering probably will be issued Mon
 day by Mayor Maybury of Detroit, act | ing as chairman of the permanent com | mittee of the Detroit coal convention. It | was this committee which today agreed on the necessity for national meeting
 at the capital.
 The conference opened at 10 o'clock this
 morning, and at an adjourned session it
 was voted to reconvene the Detroit con- vention at Washington at the earliest practicable date. This decision followed a series of speeches in which Attorney
 General Knox was censured, 1t being al-
 legged in the meeting that he had not en-
 forced the laws by which, it was urged,
 redress could be secured.
 Divergence of Opinion.
 There was a considerable divergence of
 opinion at first as to the most effective
 method to be pursued to obtain relief
 from the present prices of coal. Sugges-
 tions were made that an open letter be
 addressed to President Roosevelt, that q l COT .s~tion be called at Detroit or Chi ,orgo or that congress be appealed to for 1 action. The proposal to 'move on" was
 unanimously adopted 1t being agreed
 that the enforcement of existing laws
 offered adequate means of relief. The permanent committee of the De- l troit coal convention consists of W. c. 1 Maybury, mayor of Detroit; the Rev. R.
 A. White. Chicago; D. M. Lahiff. Chicago;
 Senator Mason, Judge Edward F. Dunne, Chicago; Father R. B. Condon, Reeds 1 burg, Wis; T. E. Tarsney, corporation
 counsel of Detroit; w. c. P. Breckin-
 ridge of Kentucky; George Alexander of
 Providence, R. l., and Judge w. A. Bab-
 cock of Cleveland.
 l All were present except Messrs Breck- 1 inridge, Babcock and Alexander. 1 Following an executive session, Mayor 1 Maybury explained the action of the con-
 ference in a formal statement. Statement Issued.
 "It was the order of the convention at 1 Detroit,'' he said, that this committee 1 was deemed necessary. The decision of
 the committee was that the convention be l reconvened The question of place was
 discussed and it was decided to select ! Washington, the gathering to assemble ], at the earliest practicable date. | "The convention will not be confined to l the delegates who attended the Detroit session, though the men accredited to | that meeting will be members of the convention at Washington by virtue of their credentials to the first convention. In addition, it is the purpose of the com-
 mittee to ask the chambers of commerce. 1 the boards of trade and other civic or ganizations of the country to send dele gates in such numbers as they see fit. In addition the governors of all the states and the mayors of all the larger cities
 will be asked to designate representa- lives to attend the convention, 1t being the desire to make the personnel of the gathering as widely representative as possible.
 Date Not Fixed.
 In conclusion Mayor Maybury explain ed that the date of the gathering at the national capital would be fixed according to the developments that telegraphic cor respondence would evoke with relation to the convenience of those expected to take prompt part in the convention. The speeches made by Senator Mason. Mir. Tarsney, the Rev. A. White and