The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-13
Lewis Questions.

without regard to height or wash in seams.
 Lewis Questions.
 Questioned by Mr. Lewis MT. McQueen said:
 l stated that a negro had to dig three tons at S71s cents to get dollar and only l two tons at 55 cents When he gets a dol- lar the rest of his money accumulates. J don't think you or Judge Gray under stands the Southern negro. The negro is 1 thriftless and if he can get a dollar he 1 don't won't to work for more. 1 In answer to MT. Flynn, MT. McQueen l said:
 l There has been no large per cent of in- 1 crease of negro labor in our mines The negroes are kept at Adger and Johns be- cause they have bought their homes there
 You state that wages should not be advanced because the negro is thriftIess Is that any reason that the white mans wages must be curtailed?
 Answer by MT. McQueen--I think so to l a certain degree.
 MT. Fairley-Then that Is the white mans burden.
 MT. McQueen-Let that go as your an- 1 swer.
 MT. Mcqueen resumes his testimony- l think there are a larger number of men who are now working less time now than l formerly. The Sloss-Sheffield company complained that they did not get suffi- cient cars last winter. There was a car panic. That reduced the working of the mines during the winter months.
 Sugar Leader.
 l 1 said the tea stores sold sugar as l leader. l did not say we had no leaders and that other stores had leaders That Is no evidence as to the general sale of | goods. We sometimes sell out our goods I nf khA aud months at cut price to get rid of old stock. We have little old stock on hand. l l think that every steady thrifty miner has an opportunity to do his trading with out getting time checks. They shop on trading day because they want to. Every thrifty man can get credit.
 We constantly carry about SS0.OO0 of l miners accounts. We have an idle day on trading day but l don't think we should have that idle day I don't know | that any guarantee has been made that | that would stop if there was a sem- monthly pay day. You leaders have not l shown such control over the men that you l can give us A valuable guarantee. We had a stoppage last year at Blossburg. We have never imposed any penalty for the men lying idle on trading day. We have complained to the district officials.
 Drivers and Day Hands. | small mine as at a large mine. The drivers of blaeksmiths at small mines have much idle time and their work could be interchangeable but you object to it. driver don't work so hard in a small mine. As output increases more drivers and teams are employed. Under present uniform day wage-scale the oper- ator has no way of rewarding merit. The | union has never prevented owners for | giving more than the scale rate. You knew 1t was large enough already. 1 l suggested that we have a maximum and | minimum day wage-scale with the stipu- | lation that never more than one-thrd of | the men should be drawing the lowest | and always at least one-thrd getting the | top wage. l don't know what the hls- tory of the Sloss company was when we had sliding scale. l said that 1 thought the least possible cost of production be- | tween now and the first of next July | would be $.50 a ton, and I think 1t will cost $S .5O even taking into consideration | that I hope for reduction in wages. 1 said that in June and July of last year, the market quotations for iron was $16 | a ton and there was an enormous demand for 1t. The operators stated at that time that they had many of them sold their iron for future delivery at twelve dol I lars. I don't state what understandings there were between the operators as to keeping down the price of iron The pres ent asking price of iron Is SIS. The Sloss company did not jump the track and advance iron $4 In one day. Iron has fallen since February or March S5 a ton The maximum wage of 55 cents Is based on eleven dollar iron. and l think No. 8 foundry is about the average of all grades. As price decreases the grades are brought closer together. If the maxi | mum price of 55 cents a ton is based on S11 iron the surplus between that and SIS | is represented by the Iron stacked on the | yard. There was over 10000 tons stack ed on the yards January 1, 1903. You have proved by your own witnesses that our average price of iron sold last year was about SIP. We have sold as high as SIS and down to $9. We did not get ad- vantage of the higher prices because we had sold our product in advance. If iron Is sold by us for future delivery you get the benefit of the price. As soon as prices sell below $11 the miners wages fall 2h cents theoretically, but not prac- tically. We have paid for our coal based on $11 iron. We may have to sell our Iron for much less than $11. but you got the benefit of the maximum price when you got paid for the coal mined. The argument was used last year that the companies could not give miners any ad- vance because the operators had sold their iron ahead for six months 1 think the pig iron production this year will be 20, 100000 tons. l don't know what the consumption will be.
 The rate of consumption has not been equal to the rate of production. The Iron Age Bradstreet and Dun are about as good as any printed authorities but I would not give that (snaps his fingers) for their statements as to future markets If the Iron age said that the rate of | -. :.