The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-13
DARROW AND
 BAER HEARD Closing Arguments in Coal
 Inquiry. LATTER OFFERS INCREASE Proposes to Pay Contract Min-
 ers' Sliding Scale. Mr. Darrow, in His Speech, DsolaSeo That Recognition of the Union X. Will Avert Trouble in
 the Future.
LATTER OFFERS INCREASE

Philadelphia. Feb. n.-Befors an sudi- ence that filled every inch of space In the United States Circuit Court room President George F. Baer. of the Read- ing Company, today made the closing arr gument for the coal operators before tho strike commission and Clarence s. DAr- row. chief counsel for the miners. began the summing up for the strikers. The principal speakers held the attention of the auditors throughout the session.
 Great interest was manifested in Mir. Baer's appearance before the commission to plead the cause of the mine ownerG MT. Baar concluded his address by mRk- ing proposition to pay the contract min- CT on a sliding wage scale the wages to fall or rise with the market price of coal at New York. but in no case to fan be- low the present basis for three years.
 MT. Darrow Speaks.
 Attorney Darrow spoke at the afternoon session for two hours and half and will take up all of tomorrow in closing the miners case. His remarks today were directed principally at the wage statements presented to the commission which he said could not be relied upon.
 Mir. Darrow. in opening. made a corn- plimentary reference to the patience e the commission, reviewed the strike and all the sufferings 1t entailed and said:
 T shall apologize for none of the mis- takes of the men, but do say that it does not become their accusers to call them criminals"
 He went on to tell of the operators re- fusal to give the men more money and said: 'As a result of this act lA7.0o0 men laid down their tools of trade and we have seen 750.00o men, women and chii- dren reduced to want and starvation for six long months. We have seen the Pres ident of the United States appoint this commission to settle this difficulty and this afternoon, in the last hour of this proceeding, the man more responsible than any other comes before this commis- sion and says he will do exactly that which these men demanded nine months before and which they in their blindness. their ignorance and their stupidity re- fused. Why did not Mir. Baer go to John Mitchell nine months ago as he came to this commission today?'
 Recognition of Union.
 IOu can uO Just AS you pledSe dDOuk recognizing the union. If you do not recognize 1t 1t is because you are blind and you want to bump up against it some more; that Is all. It Is here to stay, and the burden is on you and not upon us."
 Passing to the wage statements handed to the commission, MT. Darrow said the operators had been. deceived by their own accountants and that when Mr.. Baer informed tho Senators of this state, the President of the United States and the commission of how much wages his men was getting, he gave them informa- tion at least 30 or 70 or 50 per cent beyond any facts that really existed.
 If, at the end of all this time and labor he is willing to give us or 10 per cent upon the figures ihat he says cor rectly represent our earnings" Mir Dar- row said, i've will be glad indeed to take it. From the beginning of this strike until the end. whatever you may say about whether the miners knew what they were getting or rot, these operators have never given out a correct figure or made a statement that would stand the , light of day for a single moment when they talked to the public.
 'I have had a computation made cov- ering every company that has filed schedules with his commission, and in Mir. Baer's company only about a third of them got over $4OO in the year 190i."
 Miners Pay Small.
 Only 2.1 per cent of the Readings skilled workmen, he said, got 800 a year. 3 per cent got $500 and 800 and per cent of all the men who appeared on the pay rolls as contract miners got less than $500 a year. Of this per cent a large numbeg worked only small fraction of the year.
 Mir. DaFrow said the average earnings of the miners of the Reading Company who earned between S400 and $500 in 1oM was S52S He said the miners expenses for supplies averaged &40 a year, which would once leave the average uinaE s4SS. The figures, he said, were based on the 1901 averages. which was 10 to n per cent above the average of other years.
 MT. Darrow then analized the state- ments of the other companies and said that as near as he could make it out the figures were at least 10 to 15 per cent too high and that the wages paid by the Reading was the lowest in the region.
 Turning to the mine laborers he said that more than five out of every one thousand were killed every year, to say nothing of the maimed and the crippled and the blind. The laborers last year got $2Ss.
 In discussing the child labor question MT. Darrow said;
 "If the work of this commission does not result in getting rid of this abomlna- ble, dlsgraceful evil of child labor In then I think the people may well say that 1t has been a failure
 Children's Hard Work.
 '~rhe evidence in this case shows %hak In the vicinity of Scranton there are a4 least twenty mills where little girls from l2 to IA years of age are working ten and twelve hours a day. and twelve hours 1t night as well.
 When these railroad presidents were hnai4y called to book before the Presi- aent of the United States one of them shed tears because the United Mine Workers allowed these boys to join their because they taught these poor babies doctrines of anarchlsm and to law. This railroad prasi- aant shed tears because tho United AEna
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