The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-01-31
CLOSING OF STRIKE INQUIRY
COAL OPERATORS EVIDENCE
 NEARLY ALI IN.

Only Statistics Now to be Presented by Thenl-Miners WtH Probably Begin to Gail Witnesses in RebuttaI Monday -Continuation of Reading Company's Testinony-490 Witnesses Examined
 so Far.
 Philadelphia, Jan.30.-With the excep- tion of the presentation of statistics the coal operators closed their case before the coal strike commission to-day, and it is expected the striking miners will begin calling witnesses in rebuttal on Monday. No session will be held to- morrow. The miners will take up three or four days in rebuttalnext week. af- ter which the commission will adjourn to the following Monday. The argu- ments will consume the greater part of to date the commission has heard four hundred and ninety witnesses.
 The Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company occupied all of to- days sessions. In the forenoon session counsel for the miners and the paymas- ter of the Reading company differed in their views as to the reliability of av- erages shown in the wages statement handed to the commission blythe com pany. It developed during the session that a miner who testified before the commission at Scranton had lost his place because he was in Scranton and the commission eXacted promise from the superintendent of the company that he would reinstate him.
 At the afternoon session Patrick Brennan, of Shamokin, g. division su- perintendent of the Reading company, testified to the violence committed dur ing the strike at the Henry Clay col- fiery, near Shamokin, Prior to the strike of 1900 he said the market regu- lated the output of coal Since then, however, the men have been regulating the production. When the late strike began, the wit ness continued, there were one hundred feet of water in the Henry Clay mine. 1 This was due to an accident. The men | struck and as result five hundred | feet of water accumulated in the mine. It will take several months to get some of the levels in condition to work, he said, and six to eight months before the lower level is cleared of water.
 I The engineers at the Henry Clay col- 1 fiery were working eight hours day when the strike began and the firernen were on duty longer. The firemen quit and the engineers refused to ham, dle so-called "Scab" steam and also stopped work.
 Edward Morgan, engineer, Irwin Ed wards, watchman, and John Colson, employed at the Henry Clay colliery, corroborated portions of the testimony given by MT. Brennan.
 l Baird Halberstadt Of Pottsville, an engineer and geologist, explained to the commission the formation of the coal beds in the anthracite regions, and presented to the. commission maps bearing on this subject. The witness had several years experience in the bi- luminous fields, He said the anthra- cite miners are better off socially and that soft coal mining is more laborious. The remainder of the afternoon ses- sion was taken up in the examination of witnesses to show the wages paid 1 laborers and other workmen who are employed in thecoal regions at occupa- tions other than mining coal The wages were generally lower than those paid to mine workers. D. s. Brown, su- perintendent of the Beech Creek Coal & Coke Company, testified that the soft coal miners earn an average of from $500 to $60O year.
 Counsel for the Reading company an-
 nounced that the company had num-
 Der of district superintendents and
 other bosses ready to testify. but as the
 company did not wish to pile up cum.
 ulative evidence 1t would there rest its case, with the exception that it would
 call one more witness, who would pre-
 sent figures on sociological and other
 features of the anthracite region. The
 commission then adjourned until ter
 o'clock Monday morning.