Mrs. Grundy. (Tracy City, Tenn.) 1903-1930, 1904-09-29

selling at 80 a ton less than il
was selling for at the time of the
negotiations. If it could be
done then could it not be done
now? Have the furnace compa-
MES not progressed in the art of
making iron? Given the same
materials and wages can not they
now make iron cheaper than
they did five or ten years ago?
Their competitors can, and we do
not believe the Birmingham
operator has stood still. Have
they not spent millions Of dollars
out of their earnings to further
and cheaper the cost of coal, ore,
coke and iron? Those millions
have, no doubt been wisely spent
and the result should be much
cheaper product, Their publish
ed reports show immense earn
ings, and expenditures for inn
provement, and it is but fair to
assume that they have progress
ed in every branch of mining and
manufacturing.
"But after all the arguments
made to show the miner that he
should have his rate of mining
reduced to forty cents a ton, or
see the whole coal and iron in
industry 60 to pieces, what did
the operator do? He at once
opened his mines to work and
offered, not the forty cents which
he said was all he could pay, but
forty-tive cents, and he offered
that to any and all kinds of
miners and laborers without re-
gard to their ability to mine
clean coal or to keep the work
places in shape. Is not an old
and experienced miners work
worth more to the operator than
the work of man just from the
farm or from other fields of la
Dor? In all other trades the ex-
perienced man is accounted of
more worth than the inexperi-
enced, but in this instance, it
seems that practical miner,
one who owns his own home, who
pays his taxes, who pays his
debts and who schools his chill
dren, is of less worth than the
man who comes to the district
with nothing but his hat on his
head and his shirt on his back,
and who will, in most cases, new
er become q citizen of value &c
the community. All of us have
had much to say about the pour
ing loose on this community o.
hordes of ex-convicts- Are We
not importing into the communi
ty many men no better?
THE NEW MEN,
Honestly, now, does the great
public think highly of the class
of men who are coming in tc
take the places of the citizens
who are already here? If the
operators could afford to pay Al
cents, why did not they say so to
old employees? If they can afford
to pay it to the class of miners
they are now working, with all
the added expense in the way OF
taking care of the unframed men,
could they not have paid it te
the citizens and taxpayers OF
the county, Are the new men
better than the old in any single
particular? And one operator
has offered and is paying AZ!
cents ton, and another offers il
since September !, Why did
they not give that to their OLD
men and have no strike? That
was all they asked. 1t is fair tt
their old employees to treat then
in this manner? What have
they done to deserve it? II
surely cannot be because they
have an organization through
which they make their wage
scales, for the operators have hat
that, and this year the furnace
operators have one as close bound
as any miners organization, anC
it deals through committees an(
spokesman. Why may not the
miners have the same right? II
surely cannot be that the strike
is the result of the inability oI
the operators to pay the scale OF
wages, for they are paying moro
than the miners asked, all things
, considered, and it cannot be be