The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-06-13
GAR CONDUCTOR IS
 SHOT BY A NEGRO
J. W. ABERcRoMBlE IS SERIOUSLY WOUNDED IN THE ARM-JAcK JOHNSON, A NEGRO, RECEIVES A SHOT IN THE HAND.

J. W. Abercrombe a conductor on the South Bessemer car line, was shot by an unknown negro on the car near schil- finger station near Powderly last night at S:30 o'clock.
 The pistol ball entered the arm below the elbow, inhicting a serious wound. Am putation may be necessary.
 Jack Johnson, a negro who was on the car was shot in the hand at the same time, it is supposed. by stray shot.
 After the shotting the assailant leaped from the car and escaped.
 According to statements by those who were on the car. Abercrombie had some words with the negro about his fare and without warning the negro whipped out pistol and began shooting. He was un- known to the injured men and others who were on the car at the time.
 A descriptio has been furnished the police and they are on the lookout for him.
 Abercrombie and Johnson were brought to the city on the car and transferred to St Vincents hospital in Shaw & Sons ambulance where they were reported to be resting reasonably well at a late hour last night.
 
 mands of the miners and resumed opera tions, namely, the Alabama Consolidated company and the Alabama Steel and Nlre company and are still at work.
 "The commercial operators have since signed temporary contracts until all eom- mercial operators are now at work.
 a hf1f true how ever the furnace operators whose mines were on strike for some reason discovered that they could pay more than they had previously proposed. And finally on- Au- gust put out notices that their mines would be ready for operation on August 10. 1904. under what was prepared to be an open shop.
 q now desire to call special attention to the fact that no two contracts even at varioHs divisions operated by the same company are arranged to expire at the same time, to wit:
 "The Tennessee Coal and Iron Railroad companys Pratt division contract will ex- pire on June 30, 1906 Blue Creek division of same companys will expire on March 3i, 19O6 The Sloss-S Sheffield Steel and Iron company's contract will expire on Jan uary 31 1910.
 Tt therefore does appear very forcibly to my mind, by reason of the fact that the above arranged contracts are to ex- plre at such widely separated periods there can be but one object to be gained, namely. To render 1t impossible for all places to contest at one and the same time the rights or privileges the operators may in their judgment see fit to 1eprive the miners of when the time does arrive to arrange new contracts.
 Open Shop Plan.
 aAf41~ ,7aoIa,ino fhafr tl1inpa oneu for operation on the non-union, or, as the furnace operators choose to term 1t, Tne open shop, plan, the above named oper- ators were taken by surprise when they found that no miners reported for duty, and every possible effort was put forth and all kinds of inducements were offered our men if they would abandon the union and return to work but l am pleased to state that after all efforts were put 1orth and tempting Inducements offered them, our men stoutly refused to accept same, and continued to strike and to espouse the cause of unionism, which they well knew for years had been and in the fu- ture would be their only protection and salvation.
 sThe operators then decided to employ labor agents, whom they sent into other states to secure laborers, and who by false, deceptive and fiattering induce mentS have been aDle lo bilH5 iHio eiu state of Alabama many hundreds or men to work in the coal mines. In some in- stances they were able to secure men who had previously dug or mined coal; especially does this apply to the state of West Virginia, where the miners work for a lower rate of wages than in any other state in this union. But an over whelming majority of those who have been induced to come into this district were men who had never even seen a coal mine. The latter were secured from the mill districts of New York New Jer- sey, Pennsylvania and Baltimore, and many were immigrants who had just been liberated from Ellis island.
 owing to the great influx of men into our districts, notwithstanding the fact that so many of them did not know how to dig coal. we realized that even they would in time learn to mine coal and would eventually increase the output of coal to such an extent that 1t might eventually become possible for all the furnaces in the Birmingham district to be put in blast again, which would nec- essariy render our case hopeless in tlhe extreme. We therefore resolved that il was imperative that some steps should ho talxan immediately fo onset the da m