The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-02-14
OPEN HEARINGS
 HAVE NOW CLOSED Coal Strike Commission in Ses-
 sion Three Months SHORT CONFERENCE HELD Question of Violence Taken Up In the Afternoon By Clarence s. Darrow.
 Demand of Right of an ln-
 dividuaI Argued.
SHORT CONFERENCE HELD

Philadelphia, February 13.-The anthra- cite coal strike commission, after being in continuous session for more than three months closed it's open hearings today with all day argument by Clarence s. Darrow in behalf of the miners. The commission will meet in secret in Wash ington next Thursday and begin the con sideration of It's award It is expected by the end of this month the arbitrators will be ready to make their announce ment. If an increase in wages Is deter mined upon, the increase is to date from the frat of last November, the commis- sion having decided upon that date on October 31
 After the session today the commission held short conference with the lawers for the several interests and asked them to hold themselves in readiness in case they are called upon by the commission
 In his speech today MT, Darrow touch ed upon almost every phase of the strike and when he closed Ee was greeted with long applause, which Chairman Gray did not suppress. President Mitchell was in court all day, but did not have any thing to say to the commission in part ing.
 At the afternoon session Mir Darrow again took up the question of violence. You can never have a great strike ex- cepting here and there violence Is done" he said and so it was in the coal fields, where 750,000 persons are living very close to life." He said 1t was a wonder; after the operators had insolently and cruelty rejected the requests of the men, l that there was no more violence among this populati which was reduced to ion bordering on starvation He paid a tribute to the foreigners in the coal regions whom he said were warm hearted. sympathetic, emotional relig- ious people. Conflicts between capital and labor would continue, he said until these captains of industry respected their fel- low men. It was idle, futile and useless to talk of curing 1t in any other way.
 Talks of Sick Wife.
 Mir Darrow then took up the thirteen evictions on the Markle property and pictured the eviction of a sick wife and l of a blind woman 100 years old. You may roll together all the cruelty and vio- l lence committed in the anthracite region,' he exclaimed. "and you cannot equal the fiendish cruelty of John Markle when he turned these helpless peopie into the l street simply to satisfy his hellish hate, l
 ed one brigade of the state troops in the field during the strike, came in for ad- verse criticism from the miners counsel. ! Turning to the boycott sDarrow said 1 there was one illustrious example, at least, in the United States of the boy colt and that was in the American revo- lution. Let me say" he continued,
 there is the legal and moral side. The boycott is an ancient weapon; 1t is re- l spectable when the operators use 1t but not respectable when we use it."
 He told of the distinction between the | boycott that was criminal and the boy colt that was within the law, and then spoke of the non-union men. whom he termed "scabs," although he remarked he did not like the word but used 1t be- cause it was commonly used. These men, he said, had always been hated. Some times they were good men, often they acted from necessity; but they were traitors to their class. As a rule the "scab is a man who has no abiding rlace on the face of the earth. He is the pliant tool of the men who in this great struggle wisely or unwisely are against the laboring man.
 Eight-Hour Demand.
 Regarding the demand for eight hours a day, MT Darorw said:s
 This Is not demand to shirk work, as Is often said to be the case. It is a demand for the right of the individual to have a better life, a fuller life, a com pleter life, and this, like everything else. depends on your point of view. There is only one standpoint from which you have a right to approach this question, and that is, what will make the best man, the best American to build up a nation where there will be no more strikes and no more violence Other men may meas ure it in dollars and cents. 1 shall not" | After making a plea for the weighing of coal wherever it was possible, Mir. Darrow discussed the merits of the union Of the question of the incorporation of labor unions he said:
 q am not willing to admit for single moment that anything can be gained for manhood, for righteousness. for the good of all by going into some petty legis- | lature and asking to merge the individual 1 flesh and blood man into a corporation | created by the state.
 | Darrow paid tribute to the organiza- | ton which had welded 15O, GOO men who speak twenty different languages. of all degrees of intelligence, of all degrees of ! moral character into one homogeneous
 mass. and he also paid high tribute to | President Mitchell and his officers for the
 manner in which they had led this great
 army of working men throughout the